*PREVIEW* What a Pickle! feat. Abi Thorn

Summary

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TRASHFUTURE – PREVIEW What a Pickle! feat. Abi Thorn

Date: January 9, 2026
Main Theme:
The hosts and guest Abi Thorn take a critical, humorous look at the latest in AI-driven personal tech—specifically an absurd new AR glasses product called “Pickle OS.” They riff on the bigger cultural trends of digital self-surveillance, Silicon Valley's bizarre “soul computing” marketing lingo, and the way these products reflect their creators' fixations and ethics.

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Overview

• Context: The team moves from discussing pathological online behavior and fascist psychology to the outlandish promises of “soul computing” in consumer tech, embodied by the fictional/fake “Pickle OS” AR glasses.
• Tone: Satirical, biting, irreverent; the hosts and Abi mix personal anecdotes, tech critique, and social commentary.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Dominance, Humiliation, and Digital Sadism

[00:00 – 01:55]

• Tech and Power Fantasies: The episode opens linking random internet users' desire to dominate and humiliate, threading this to larger fascist tendencies. Social media and technology are framed as outlets for instant, sadistic gratification.

  • Quote:

    “It's the domination of a hated or detested person, but realized instantly...I want your humiliation...That is the orgy.”
    — A [00:00]

• Example: Trump’s sociopathic relationship with reality is compared to these digital dynamics.

  • Quote:

    “For all of these people, this is a sort of a fun, sadistic game until it isn't and it's too late.”
    — B [01:45]

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2. Introducing “Pickle OS”: The AI With a ‘Soul’

[01:59 – 04:05]

• What is Pickle OS?

  • A satirical overview of Pickle OS, supposedly devised by “Daniel Park” who wants to usher in the “era of soul computing.”
  • Pure tech marketing absurdity: promises “personal intelligence” that amplifies human agency by giving you an “AI soul.”

• Techno-utopian Claims:

  • Quote:

    “We need soul computing. We need to announce the era of soul computing.”
    — A [02:22]

  • Abi Thorn retort:

    “James Brown has announced the era of soul computing.” [02:54] “I am the intelligence that sees my life and learns to understand me. I have a soul already. Why would I need to buy one?”
    — C [03:35]

• The Hardware:

  • AR glasses, marketed as “sculpted to suit every face,” but actually ugly and impractical.

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3. Privacy Nightmares & The Value-Add Fallacy

[04:14 – 07:08]

• Functionality Exposed:

  • Glasses record everything seen and heard, analyze patterns (“bubbles” of info), and offer pop-up suggestions—often unwelcome and invasive.
  • Dangers of being “a walking recording setup.”

• Marketing versus Reality:

  • Quote:

    “Don't rely on any of this.”
    — A [05:18] (on the generative AI disclaimer)

  • Mocking the Utility:

    “I don't need a fucking pop up that tells me to kill myself. I get thousands of them every day.”
    — C [06:19]

  • The product is declared “fake, it's not real,” underscoring the performative, speculative nature of so many tech launches.

• Parodying Surveillance:

  • Quote:

    “Some kind of pansexual Opticon, if you will.”
    — B [07:31] (panopticon wordplay)

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4. Self-Optimization as Surveillance

[07:09 – 09:08]

• AI & Techno-Self Help:

  • The AI criticizes you for “over-optimization,” tracking your every purchase and activity, then scolding you for not living up to your own quantified standards.

  • Quote:

    “Your biggest weakness is over optimization one, you try to buy discipline rather than have it…”
    — A [07:47]

  • Quote:

    “I'm sort of clutching my glasses to my face and rolling around in agony as it tries to do like Jocko Willink motivation shit on me.”
    — B [07:51]

• LLMs as Reflections of Their Makers:

  • AI chatbots replicate the quirks, judgments, and priorities of their (often Silicon Valley) creators.
  • Quote:

    “LLMs reflect the personalities of the people that make them... The people who design these are fucking like lizard people from Silicon Valley...”
    — A [08:13]

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5. Interiorization, Memory, and Outsourcing Humanity

[09:08 – 10:03]

• Critique of Outsourcing Memory:

  • The AI promises to “remember everything” for you—including what a quote from Walden meant to you—effectively outsourcing your own interiority.

  • Quote:

    “What if...all your interiority has been externalized into some glasses...so you don't have to remember what Walden meant to you. It remembers it for you.”
    — A [09:27]

• The Value of Forgetting and Memory’s Human Qualities:

  • Discussion on how memory is valuable because it is malleable and subjective.
  • Quote:

    “The whole point of memories is that, like stones on the beach, the more you revisit them, the more they're smooth…and the more the happy ones remain...”
    — C [09:47]

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6. Memorable Moments & Satirical Gold

• Abi’s zinger on Pickle OS:

  “I'm actually looking into getting rid of my pickle, but go on.”
  — C [02:18]

• On intrusive thoughts versus AI prompts:

  “That's what I have intrusive thoughts for...I don't need to buy it and wear it on my face.”
  — B & C [06:29 & 06:47]

• On why we use memory, not AR:

  “When I read the book and there's a bit that I like, I highlight it or I copy it out…and then I store those things in my head, in my brain.”
  — B [09:08]

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Notable Quotes With Timestamps

• On the nature of digital sadism:

  “It's the domination of a hated or detested person, but realized instantly... That is the orgy. That's what they're doing.”
  — A [00:00]

• On buying a ‘soul’:

  "I am the intelligence that sees my life and learns to understand me. I have a soul already. Why would I need to buy one?" — C [03:35]

• On surveillance technology:

  “So wait, wait, presumably this also turns you into a sort of like walking recording setup... That is then telling you that your biggest weakness is that you're washed and chopped and so on.”
  — B [05:55]

• On the problem with “remembering everything”:

  "I don't want to remember everything perfectly... the more you revisit them [memories], the more they're smooth, and the more the happy ones remain..."
  — C [09:47]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–01:55: Digital sadism, Trump, the gamification of cruelty
• 01:59–04:14: Introduction of Pickle OS and “soul computing”
• 04:14–05:23: The AR glasses specs and pop-up absurdity
• 05:23–07:00: Surveillance, generative AI disclaimers, panopticon jokes
• 07:00–09:08: Self-optimization critique, LLMs as the designer’s psyche
• 09:08–10:03: Memory, interiority, and why outsourcing it is dehumanizing

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Summary

This episode lampoons both current AI hype and deeper tendencies in Silicon Valley—namely, the urge to technologize and commodify every aspect of the self, even the soul. Through satire, sharp cultural critique, and irreverent humor, the hosts and Abi Thorn highlight the inherent absurdities and dangers of “smart” tech that promises agency and self-knowledge, but may in fact only reduce human richness to data points and notifications.

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Transcript

[A]

You can always tie these things together, right? Which. Which is the desire of a random grok user to, like, I don't know, take a woman posting like, hey, I finished my PhD today, and being like, you're naked now. I control you. Still, it's that again, that libidinal desire to see the. Is the domination of a hated. Of a hated or detested person, but realized instantly, right? It's the same thing with. You're in the way of my car, you will be killed. Now, I want Greenland. I want. I want Venezuela. But I don't just want. I just don't want it. I want to be seen to be taking it. I don't just want that. I want your. I want your humiliation. And these sort of, you know, again, like, coterie of rapists and degenerate gamblers that I've surrounded myself with are all going to oink and honk and clap in appreciation because ultimately that is. That is the orgy. That's what they're doing.

[B]

There was a weird moment amidst all of this, from perhaps the weirdest fascist of all, Donald Trump himself, where after having sort of lied about it fairly, sort of obviously and flagrantly, and said that the sort of ICE agent who had murdered this woman was sort of like, had been run over and was in the hospital, which is not even close to what happened. He wasn't even sort of like hit by the car. Some journalist actually showed him the video and he was sort of like, briefly stunned to silence and then said that he didn't like to watch it and that it wasn't sort of. It wasn't good to look at. And that struck me in the same way as the sort of ending scene of the Zone of interest of it has become too real in that moment. And I don't anticipate that this will change anything, but it's just such an interesting parallel that for all of these people, this is a sort of a fun, sadistic game until it isn't and it's too late. Right. And sort of. I'm least concerned about them in this, but one of the things that they are doing here is sort of imperiling their own souls. Right. They're sort of like casting themselves into sort of like nothingness with this.

[A]

I think that's a pretty good place, more or less, to end that segment and move on.

[C]

Yeah. So Riley, if I wanted. Because you know, I love AI Riley, you know, I love it so much. You can't spell Abigail without AI. If I wanted an AI, that wasn't Going to show me child pornography. Could you recommend one to me?

[A]

I absolutely could recommend that. You. You check out pickle. You gotta look into pickle.

[C]

I'm actually looking into getting rid of my pickle, but go on.

[A]

All right, here we go. The Levy review has something to say. Yeah, we're talking pickle here. So this is something that I've, like, has caused a bit of a stir in the sphere of, like, technology watchers and sort of startup watchers, where there's a company that was founded by a doctor who moved from Korea to the United States, a guy by the name of Daniel park. And he said, you know what we need too much. Computing is about the brain. We need soul computing. We need to announce the era of soul computing.

[C]

James Brown has announced the era of soul computing.

[A]

The hardest working man in the tech industry. So they are crafting personal intelligence designed to amplify human agency and it helps shape the life you want.

[B]

I don't just feel good, I feel great.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

I don't just feel. I don't just feel empowered. I feel agentic. And questions that can't be answered without knowing everything about what you've been through. Pickle OS is where they belong. For a life that's better in every dimension, we need an intelligence that sees with you, remembers your life, learns to understand you. A new soul.

[C]

I am the intelligence that sees my life and learns to understand me. I have a soul already. Why would I need to buy one?

[B]

Yeah, I was gonna say because I wasn't using the original one. Right. That's the sort of marketing. And again, if you sort of view this as a sort of cultural project of sort of eager self annihilation. Right. Then sort of marketing a replacement. A sort of replacement part. I can see that making a lot of sense to people.

[A]

Sure.

[C]

Well, I only got my soul in my mid-20s. It's still fresh. It doesn't have a lot of miles on it.

[A]

Unlike other souls, this one has an aluminium form factor that was designed in California.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

It is a pair of glasses.

[C]

Yeah, it's a pair of glasses. They look like shit, by the way. It says they're, like, sculpted to suit every face, but it doesn't seem like they're sculpted to fit anything faces, actually.

[A]

So also, I love that it's like. Yeah, it's an ar. Glasses that will remember your life with you.

[C]

It's pop ups. It's pop ups. It's pop up. It's glasses that give you pop ups while you're doing things in the day. That it's like, do you like, I'm at the store and it might be like, maybe you should buy that thing for Nova. And I'm just like, great, thanks. Now I've just like banged my shin off a fucking display table because you fucking put a pop up in my eyes, you piece of shit. Yeah.

[B]

And to like expose this to the sort of modern world with its sort of like ills, it's sort of like, you know, I hate when I see ice guns someone down in the street. And then for the next week, all my like AR glasses are recommending me is more videos of people getting gunned down in the street. It's like Amazon's TV recommending algorithm.

[A]

Yeah, it's like, oh, this is exactly what you don't like. You should avoid watching people get gunned down in the street. So it's this thing, right, where it's these glasses that hear and see everything you hear and see. Also I love their disclaimer which is like, don't rely on any of this.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. They have a thing about generative AI that's just like. Yeah, it might be incorrect.

[A]

Yeah, don't worry about that.

[B]

I mean, obviously the next advance from this is Team Fortress 2 pyro vision where like you, you sort of like see someone get gunned down by ice, but you perceive that as something quite nice happening. You know, it gets a nice gloss over it.

[A]

Oh, that's a, that's a deep that. That is definitely on this. That's basically computer lab memory for me watching. So the example is based on all my memories and work logs. Be honest, what am I doing wrong? What's my biggest weakness? And then it's like thinking, searching all related bubbles.

[C]

$300 for this bullshit is your biggest weakness.

[B]

So wait, wait, presumably this also turns you into a sort of like walking recording setup in the sense. Yes, you are recording every conversation you have. That's then going to an AI. That is then telling you that your biggest weakness is that you're washed and chopped and so on.

[A]

Yeah, you're washed and chopped. You'll never serve.

[C]

That's why I have a YouTube comments.

[A]

That's a November joke. I'm taking it from you.

[C]

I don't need a fucking pop up that tells me to kill myself. I get thousands of them every day.

[A]

So. So the idea is, and again, by the way, this thing is fake, it's not real.

[B]

It's also like the benefit, the value add is it's not just telling you to kill yourself, it's telling you to kill yourself informed on your own sort of visions and memories and activities. Right. And it's like that's what I have intrusive thoughts for. Yeah, I'm perfectly capable of remembering embarrassing things that I've done.

[C]

Yeah. I have interiority. I don't need to buy it and wear it on my face.

[A]

So this is also like the, I'll get into the sort of the fakeness of this thing later, but at least what it claims, it's sort of every.

[B]

AI thing we do, we have to talk about it on two levels. One, the level in which it would be bad if it worked, and then second, the level in which it doesn't work at all.

[A]

Yeah, it's honestly, it's amazing. Forgetting episode length. Honestly, it's the best thing about the AI revolution. So it says, oh, thinking, searching, all related bubbles. Bubbles are like pieces of information that it takes in. Oh, you bought a gym membership. Yoga app, Protein powder. That's it. Surveying your whole email. Also, it's connected to your habit tracker and your morning run. It's connected to your Google searches and so on. So it says.

[B]

So some kind of pansexual Opticon, if you will.

[A]

I have analyzed your behavior patterns over the last three years and the data is clear. Your biggest weakness is over optimization one, you try to buy discipline rather than have it. According to your expense log, you spent $450 on a Garmin watch and a Masterclass subscription Last month, however, you only visited the gym four times.

[B]

I'm sort of clutching my glasses to my face and rolling around in agony as it tries to do like Jocko Willink motivation shit on me. I mean, I guess, I guess that, that is an easy kind of cold read that, you know, you spend too much money trying to optimize your shit. But from the thing that you spent too much money on because you thought it would optimize your shit, like that's sort of baked in.

[A]

Yeah, but this is again, this is by just like LLMs are reflect the personalities of the people that make them. Right. This is Also why like ChatGPT is such a fucking slime ball and why GROK is such a pervert. Yeah, is. And this is again, these products are reflective of the priorities of the people who design them. And the people who design these are fucking like lizard people from Silicon Valley who are just like, well, yeah, of course I, I, I, I weigh every shit.

[B]

What if I had this like Secrets of the fucking CEO guy in my head all the time?

[A]

Yeah, so they say it's Basically, a living memory system. Beyond remembering everything retrieves code.

[B]

So is everyone like, yeah, that's why.

[C]

I have a memory?

[A]

No, no, no. I says you sought this kind of clarity in excerpt from Walden, noting that life is frittered away by detail, and you need simplicity. So it's like you read a book.

[B]

And then I just highlight my books. I just. When I read the book and there's a bit that I like, I highlight it or I copy it out and I write it down like I have a little fucking notebook full of things that I think are, like, worth revisiting and thinking about, and then I store those things in my head, in my brain.

[A]

But what if. Let me sell you on this. What if, because all your interiority has been externalized into some glasses, your interiority can be outsourced, and then you become a pure consumer making choices based on a service that has outsourced your interiority so you don't have to remember what Walden meant to you. It remembers it for you.

[C]

But I don't want to remember everything perfectly. The whole point of memories is that, like, you go back to them and, like stones on the beach, the more you revisit them, the more they're smooth, and the more the happy ones remain and the more the sad ones are kind of eroded down into just the sand of the background radiation of my fucking consciousness.

[B]

Speak for yourself. I get the embarrassing ones just as clearly.