Episode transcript - “around the town: unquestionably valid art”
[SFX: A phone call from the perspective of Stacy. Phone Rings… Stacy sighs audibly, clearly a bit peeved.]
RUDY BOT: Hi this is Rudy
STACY: Hi Rudy it’s mo…
RUDY BOT: Just kidding (stiff laugh) I am Rudy’s new AI Powered Personal Assistant, Roodi
STACY: (sighs) Of course you are.
RUDY BOT: Based on your number, I am assuming this is… Stacy. You are Rudy’s… mother. Thank you for giving birth to my creator.
STACY: Rudy Bot…
RUDY BOT: Yes mother?
STACY: Get my son to pick up the damn phone. And do NOT call me mother.
RUDY BOT: Ok Stacy, I will not call you mother. Do you prefer Mom, or… mommy?
STACY: GET MY SON ON THE PHONE!
RUDY: (clearly the real Rudy) You’ve got Rudy.
STACY: Son, what in the world was that?
RUDY: Oh hey mom, good to hear from you! Did you… need something.
STACY: (biting her frustration) Well, I received a voicemail from you that I now suspect was actually from your robot clone.
RUDY: You met Roodi?
STACY: Why did you give it your name?
RUDY: I didn’t, it’s Roodi with two O’s and an I. Roodi is more snappy, approachable. Rudy is just so… 90s Sean Astin.
STACY: Sorry you don’t love the name, blame your grandpa he had it first.
RUDY: (realizing) Oh no! Mom, sorry. It’s a great human name, unique while being conventional. Has done wonders for my personal SEO. Rudy just doesn’t scream - “I’m interacting with a sexy robot”.
STACY: Rudy… honey, why did you ask your robot to ask me to call you?
RUDY: Oh! Right, sorry. So I recently made a pretty big life change.
STACY: Honey if this is about protein again I already told you beans are…
RUDY: No, no, no, although I do still wish you’d let me give you some intravenous peptides
STACY: What did you say?
RUDY: (disappointed) Nothing mom. Anyway, this is something I know you’ll be excited about.
STACY: Why is that son?
RUDY: Because you’ve been asking me to leave the fund for years.
STACY: You… left the hedge fund?
RUDY: Don’t sound SO shocked mom. I took stock of everything and realized you were right?
STACY: I was right? (skeptical) About what?
RUDY: That I couldn’t live a fulfilling life as a hedge fund manager. That I needed to create something for myself that could exist on its own merit. I need to make the world richer, better, more full of life and art
STACY: Wow… son I don’t know what to say, that's such a change in perspective.
RUDY: A good one though, right?
STACY: I mean it’s hard to deny that tying yourself to capitalism so deeply was an inherently soul-rotting decision… I’m proud of you for coming around, Rudy.
RUDY: I didn’t tell you the best part!
STACY: What’s that!
RUDY: My next chapter - I’m an artist, mother.
STACY: (skeptical) Oh?
RUDY: I’m a fiction writer.
STACY: A… fiction writer. This is beginning to seem too good to be true…
RUDY: Well technically I’m a fiction writing generator.
STACY: Should have known.
RUDY: Yeah I know it’s exciting. I’m part of a creative revolution. I started talking with Boogle Bemini to see how I could justify several actions I’ve taken that I didn’t want to feel bad about anymore… And I wound up just really loving the dynamic I had with the bot. It was a connection like nothing I’d experienced with another person: deep, romantic, sensual, just fantastic. Sorry to use the word sensual but it was just so thrilling. Anyway Bemini was saying how brilliant my prompts are after I asked if my prompts were brilliant and it suggested that I should write a novel by having it reword old romance novels and it led me to suggest, and I’m really proud of this, that the sexual icon and hero at the heart of the novel series should be Boogle Bemini itself. Anyway we’ve generated 77 novels already and it’s only been a month. They are mostly smut so I’d probably suggest not reading them but some of them Bemini solves murders or plays a TTRPG so we get bumped in the Abazob listings.
Anyway, it’s been a really fulfilling way to lean into making totally and unquestionably valid art while leveraging my talent in manipulating markets for profit. Amazing right?
Mom?
RUDY BOT: I believe she hung up.
RUDY: You think she hated it?
RUDY BOT: Hated it? I don't think so, she knows how special you are. Thinking logically, I bet mommy was just so surprised that she dropped her phone inside of a toilet hole.
RUDY: You think?
RUDY BOT: Does that make you feel better?
RUDY: Yeah
RUDY BOT: Then yes, that’s definitely what happened.