R.U. Sirius: inside the mind of a cyberdelic shaman

Spotlight On

Today, the Spotlight shines On legendary writer, vocalist and digital culture commentator, Ken Goffman, better known as R.U. Sirius.

Most will know R.U. from his time as co-publisher and editor-in-chief of the 1990s cyberpunk magazine MONDO 2000. MONDO covered topics like transhumanism, virtual reality and smart drugs at a time when these things offered hope for a better or at least more interesting world, though the editorial tone always subversively poked at the soft white underbelly of technoculture. If Wired has become Kenny G, MONDO was Sun Ra, through and through.

R.U. is author or coauthor of books including Counterculture Through the Ages: From Abraham to Acid House, Everybody Must Get Stoned: Rock Stars on Drugs, How to Mutate and Take Over the World, and nearly a dozen more.

We covered a lot of ground, including but not only: online subcultures, societal repercussions of digital technologies, conspiracy theory, the shortcomings of transhumanism, post-scarcity philosophy, the limitations of irony, and a ton more.

Music is a big part of the R.U. experience, as you will hear in our talk. He’s been a lyricist and composer for projects including Phriendz, Party Dogs and Mondo Vanilli.

R.U.’s various works have served as a guidepost for me since I was a much younger man. It was a special treat to connect with him now, in this time of reckoning with what the digital and internet revolution has wrought, to talk about the state of life and affairs.

(all musical excerpts heard in the interview are taken from R.U. Sirius’s Infinite Gesture (A Work in Progress))

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Dig Deeper

• Visit R.U. Sirius on his Bandcamp page and mondo2000.com
• Follow R.U. Sirius on Instagram, Twitter (X), Facebook, and LinkedIn
• Be sure to peruse this episode’s extensive show notes at spotlightonpodcast.com

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