Michael S. Clarke Goes Synthetic: Because One Version of You Wasn’t a Problem Already

Do the copies thin us out or empower us to evolve?

In this 39th episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, Mookie brings Michael S. Clarke onto the factory floor to dissect the craft, the grind, and the brutal reality of trying to write — and sell — serious sci-fi in a world drowning in noise.

Clarke is deep in the trenches with Synthetic, a novel about mind uploading, identity duplication, and what happens when “you” becomes plural. Mookie, never one to let a concept sit quietly, pushes it further: if you copy your brain into a machine, who’s the real you, and which one gets screwed in the divorce?

Along the way, the conversation veers into the stuff that makes this genre fun:

• Mookie lays down a hard rule: no string theory allowed. Mention it and you get metaphorically gonged off the show.
• A spontaneous rant breaks out about why Superman is a fundamentally uninteresting character — invincible equals zero vulnerability, the real kryptonite is boredom.
• Clarke walks through the nightmare of editing your own work, including the moment you realize two pages of your novel are just… intellectual soup.
• The two tear into the publishing ecosystem: agents, vanity presses, self-publishing, phishing, and scamming, including the most uncomfortable truth: nobody is there to promote your book but you.

Underneath the jokes and jabs is a serious throughline: good science fiction isn’t about the science — it’s about what people do when the science breaks them. Mookie and Michael break into craft, ego, failure, persistence, and the uneasy partnership between imagination and reality.

The Guest

Michael S. Clarke is a speculative fiction author obsessed with the “what if” of artificial intelligence. His work delves into the philosophical and practical implications of mind uploading, AI agency, and what it means to be human in an age where biology is becoming optional.

Listen to the podcast…

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