Phantom Worlds

History is full of phantom worlds—alternative technological paradigms that could have made everything turn out radically differently. Airships instead of airplanes. Rail instead of cars. Direct current instead of alternating current. Telegraphs instead of telephones. Each path once seemed inevitable, until another won out and reshaped civilization. In this episode of Context, we explore these turning points and what they reveal about our own moment, when autonomous vehicles and immersive virtual reality are racing forward in parallel. Will the future be built on radical mobility, or radical simulation? Or both? Most of all, we ask: what kind of lives do we want our grandchildren to live, and how will the choices we make now determine the answer? To support the show and access *supporter-only bonus episodes, join me on Patreon or

You can listen to Phantom Worlds online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Phantom Worlds is an episode from Context with Brad Harris by Brad Harris.

This episode is 25:34 long.

This episode was published on Aug 26, 2025.

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