Ruthless Cosmopolitan

Podcast by Dr Anthony Richardson

English

Technology & science

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About Ruthless Cosmopolitan

“Gurgeh never ceased to be fascinated by the way a society’s games revealed so much about its ethos, its philosophy, its very soul.” The Player of Games, Iain M Banks (1988) This is a podcast about ideas, and games; what we play, what we think, and what it all means. To be cosmopolitan in this time means not just to have an intellectual curiosity about our world, and where it is going, but to do so in the face of rising parochialism, anti-intellectualism and a profound and proud ignorance. This podcast is a place for both conversations and commentary about our world, our place in it, and the complex interconnected systems which make it all possible. Oh, and games. Lots of games. I’m an academic sociologist, university teacher and systems theorist in Aotearoa New Zealand, and also a player of games. My name is Anthony Richardson, and this is Ruthless Cosmopolitan. ___________________________________________________ Theme music: Sujeto.tacito, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsQuote "All Reality is a game" also from The Player of Games, Iain M Banks (1988)

All episodes

4 episodes

Episode 3: A conversation about representations of the past in historical video games

A conversation with Dr Ben Redder [https://rits-dmuch.academia.edu/DrBenRedder], Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, about historical video games. Dr Redder is a video game historian, and undertakes research in the representation of the past through historical video games, specialising in late Medieval historical games based in Central Europe and East Asia. His doctoral thesis examined the representational medium of gameplay, and the different types of history and historical engagement gameplay offers through its multi-modal communication. His favourite game is Black Myth: Wukong [https://gamesci.cn/wukong/].

10 Oct 2025 - 47 min

Episode 2: A conversation about how and why game players feel empathy for NPCs

A conversation with Dr Paul Scriven [https://www.rmit.edu.au/profiles/s/paul-scriven], RMIT University about the relevance of Alfred Schütz’s phenomenological framework for exploring how players can have empathic social experiences with NPCs. Dr Scriven focuses on the ways in which technology reconfigures how we relate to each other, and to the world we live in. Informed by the phenomenological tradition, in particular the philosopher Alfred Schütz [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Sch%C3%BCtz], his topics of interest and expertise include mediated interaction in virtual video game worlds, the phenomenology of empathy with non-human interactive agents, and the emerging social implications of artificial intelligence. His favourite game is Cyberpunk 2077 [https://www.cyberpunk.net/nz/en/].

9 Oct 2025 - 37 min

Episode 1: A conversation about GenAI and the contemporary University

A conversation with Professor Nick Agar [https://profiles.waikato.ac.nz/nick.agar], University of Waikato about the challenges that Generative AI poses to tertiary students, staff and the whole institution of the University. Professor Agar is a philosopher specialising in the ethics of technology, particularly artificial intelligence and human enhancement. He has written extensively on the social and ethical implications of emerging technologies, with a focus on how they shape our future. His recent work explores AI's impact on education, democracy, and scientific publishing. His favourite favourite game is Secret Hitler [https://www.secrethitler.com/].

2 Oct 2025 - 40 min

Episode 0 - Welcome to the Podcast

Podcast introduction.

2 Oct 2025 - 1 min

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