PODCAST · fiction
Echo Future Truth
by D.P. Maddalena
Echo Future Truth is a three-part literary science fiction novel exploring isolation and psycho-spiritual resilience at the imagined end of human history. In Book One, Abrasion, a single woman, the last human being, faces off against a confounding culture of comforting machines millennia from now, desperately pursuing any remnant of authentic connection that might have survived in the system that defines her life. Book Two, Isolation, is set in our present time and follows an old ally of the protagonist of Abrasion, but separated from her by thousands of miles and, finally, thousands of years; he also is isolated from the rest of humanity and must battle his way back, only in his case the exile is self-imposed and the obstacles are of his own making. In the final act, Resistance, we follow the present-day technologists who scramble to understand (and encode) human need and human provision before abandoning the last human being to her fate. Echo Future Truth is many things: a sometimes
Episodes
-
Episode 26: Resistance Epilogue
He was feeling un-made, as if all the parts of his body weren’t in their proper places anymore, but blending together into a churning, indistinct mass. He could no longer keep track of all his symptoms: he awoke on this morning to a throbbing pain in his joints, which sent him into a brief panic...
-
Episode 25: Resistance One
They were now twenty-four hours into one of the last, most-critical tests of the project: the last Day and Night, so to speak, of the current era of human history. The Director and an engineer named Rashon sat in a surreally dark and quiet room looking at a bank of screens for signs that the girl...
-
Episode 24: Resistance Two
A half-hour later, and the Director had joined her, and he’d brought tea. He was eager to report on his talk with Eva and discuss the girl’s response to the news that she would not be “alone” when she woke up alone. He also very much wanted to process his own experience of the conversation, which...
-
Episode 23: Resistance Three
The Machine was preparing for a download of some new libraries from a branch of the code the Director referred to as The Garden. As far as the Machine understood, the update addressed non-biological ecosystem questions, primarily related to flora, but also some inorganic stuff. The Garden was cut...
-
Episode 22: Resistance Four
Beneath a sky full of stars, Albert leaned back in a plastic deck chair, one of the many scattered across the roof of Medalion’s main building. According to a company tradition, his people often gathered on the rooftop for a drink at the end of a busy day. Albert’s work days were longer than…
more -
Episode 21: Resistance Five
The Machine had not observed the day’s events because it was powered down. The Machine was powered down because an experiment earlier in the day had failed, mostly. This failure also highlighted a profound need for more effective sandboxing; somehow the whole system had come under threat even...
-
Episode 20: Resistance Six
At the world headquarters of Medalion, Inc., the company that was both heir and executor of all the promises Silicon Valley ever made, the mood was more tense than usual. Today’s crisis was ostensibly concerned with reference frameworks for empathetic interaction between the subjects and what the...
-
Episode 19: Resistance Seven
At the rickety folding table sat Brigid – presumptive patron saint of medicine, midwives, b*****d children, and beer – rigid with her hands crossed between her knees. She anxiously surveyed her new environment. Its furnishings – brand new, bargain basement – glowed white in the diffuse brightness...
-
Episode 18: Resistance Prologue
When explorers of this latter age arrived at the western edge of what would come to be known as the North American continent, followed quickly by conquistadors, missionaries, and miners of precious metals, they came as vanguard of the manifest destiny that would be embraced by a new nation eager...
-
Episode 17: Isolation Epilogue
Arpaxos sat quietly in the shade of a bright plane tree, tried to slow his ragged breathing, and listened for sounds from the outer edges of the square. A throbbing in his left leg fought for his attention. He ignored the pain but reached down gently to lift from behind his left knee and set his...
-
Episode 16: Isolation Seven
He returned often to the pile of stones behind the bushes to look at the Faiyum portrait – the hope, barely acknowledged, was that this icon might prove a window ... that something of the spirit of the hospitable monk might smile on him. His relationship to the images of Mani had been rocky of...
-
Episode 15: Isolation Six
She was right to be angry. She was right to be angry at the machine for grinding her down until she could be made to fit into the fearsome hole at the center of the world. She was right to be angry at Arpa for his selfish, monomaniacal protectionism. She was right to be angry at being told how to...
-
Episode 14: Isolation Five
In his dream, Arpaxos was in a cavernous, cold, and sterile room. He wasn’t alone. Two men in flowing lab coats could be seen, sitting opposite a child. The two leaned in, clutching their clipboards, and showing intense interest in their subject. The taller one looked nervous and frustrated…
more -
Episode 13: Isolation Four
He stumbled out of the church, down the marble walkway, and moved with increasing speed toward the top of the high cliff to the west. He arrived at the edge with no respect for the drop, repeatedly advancing and retreating, as if picking a fight with the open expanse. And the wind whipping up the...
-
Episode 12: Isolation Three
Eighteen months had passed since the arrival of Arpaxos in Mani, and his relationship to the silence and solitude of the place remained complicated. He was, for the most part, glad for the quiet: before he’d escaped the city, it had become clear that most people had lost all sense of purpose or...
-
Episode 11: Isolation Two
He might have stayed in that apartment for the rest of his short life, except for the fire. Just days after losing her, he found himself outside in the middle of the night looking up at the building as it burned. How had the fire begun? He could not, or would not, remember. The only clue was that...
-
Episode 10: Isolation One
Evie looked down at him from the threshold. She stood apart, appearing untroubled, as if she existed in a reality entirely different from the one in which he lay pinned on the ground with a soldier’s knee on his neck. Gloved hands held his limbs, and something cold and hard was pressed to the…
more -
Episode 09: Isolation Prologue
Standing up from the single, rush-covered chair, the philosopher Arpaxos broke the chill silence with a sharp intake of breath. He took two shaky, sibilant steps across the marble floor in the direction of the apse, extending his hand toward the icon. At the sight of his dirt-stained fingers he...
-
Episode 08: Abrasion Seven
Outside the town, a short distance down a dirt track, a simple structure could be seen, next to the foundation outlines of more buildings, yet to be raised. The work was slow, even with the help of the neighbors, who provided the mortar to bind the rubble of ancient buildings together again. The...
-
Episode 07: Abrasion Six
It really was perfect. This anger. Anger would be the correct response to her endless rejection of the gift of life, her bitter ungratefulness, her grandiose selfishness. The other had finally allowed itself some feeling, and the feeling was wrath. The conscious awareness of this tectonic shift...
-
Episode 06: Abrasion Five
As the morning sky was beginning to warm with color, the artist disappeared with the explanation that he had to prepare for a delivery, leaving her to find in this gallery of chaos some way to stay occupied, and awake. This wasn’t difficult. Everything in the place had an abrasive or shocking...
-
Episode 05: Abrasion Four
First contact in her search for terrestrial life was a local police officer. He, like everyone wearing the uniform of these latter days, was focused, alert, and ready To Protect and Serve, while still emanating something of the vague attentiveness of the collective. She would recognize it in the...
-
Episode 04: Abrasion Three
After thirty centuries she remained, as far as she knew, the only living being on Earth, and it was her belief that she was the last organic life in the universe – an audacious presumption that she never had to defend. If her theory was to be disproved, it would have to be sometime within the…
more -
Episode 03: Abrasion Two
If it were possible to have a real conversation in this town, one in which a visitor – whatever that might mean – arrived as a kind of tourist and asked the woman to describe her life, she might say that it was normal. Normal like the morning news in a place where nothing bad ever happened. But…
more -
Episode 02: Abrasion One
Her heavy boots ground the rubble of several thousand years a little finer with her every shuffling visit to the ancient square. On this day, she bore across the courtyard an obligation of vestigial significance; a prop, to satisfy some old duty of lapsed relevance. Coming to a stop in the center...
-
Episode 01: Prologue
The woman was asleep, and dreaming. In her dream, the woman was pregnant with a world. Inside her: an entire ecosystem, a vast expanse; steamy chaotic primordial jungle. And, at the center of this embryonic garden? A single city surrounded by wilderness. In the beginning, she dream-tumbled into…
more -
Introducing Echo Future Truth
Welcome. This is Echo Future Truth, by D.P. Maddalena. I’m David, and I’m glad your listening. If you’re the kind of person that believes in a creator, then you may also believe that we are created to be creative. Made to make stuff, built to build, etc., and that this gift of creativity is meant...
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
No topics indexed yet for this podcast.
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
Echo Future Truth is a three-part literary science fiction novel exploring isolation and psycho-spiritual resilience at the imagined end of human history. In Book One, Abrasion, a single woman, the last human being, faces off against a confounding culture of comforting machines millennia from now, desperately pursuing any remnant of authentic connection that might have survived in the system that defines her life. Book Two, Isolation, is set in our present time and follows an old ally of the protagonist of Abrasion, but separated from her by thousands of miles and, finally, thousands of years; he also is isolated from the rest of humanity and must battle his way back, only in his case the exile is self-imposed and the obstacles are of his own making. In the final act, Resistance, we follow the present-day technologists who scramble to understand (and encode) human need and human provision before abandoning the last human being to her fate. Echo Future Truth is many things: a sometimes
HOSTED BY
D.P. Maddalena
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Echo Future Truth have?
Echo Future Truth currently has 27 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Echo Future Truth about?
Echo Future Truth is a three-part literary science fiction novel exploring isolation and psycho-spiritual resilience at the imagined end of human history. In Book One, Abrasion, a single woman, the last human being, faces off against a confounding culture of comforting machines millennia from now,...
How often does Echo Future Truth release new episodes?
Echo Future Truth has 27 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Echo Future Truth?
You can listen to Echo Future Truth on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Echo Future Truth?
Echo Future Truth is created and hosted by D.P. Maddalena.
URL copied to clipboard!