The taste of another episode of Decipher History! Featuring Ryan Stitt of the History of Ancient Greece Podcast 

On Decipher History: Alexander

Decipher SciFi explores the how and why in science fiction with conversations about technology, humanity, and the future. This is not a review show, nor will you see much criticism or snark. It is a rationally optimistic look, through film, at where society and technology are and where they are headed. Also, butts.

TV & Film

Science

Film Reviews

Spaaaaace 

Clouds in space…? Microsoft Azure Space and Azure Orbital. Making space cheaper and  more accessible with satcomm as a service.

 VR 

The new Oculus Quest. Past predictions. Pulling the VR market in the direction of affordability? Pandemic winter VR. Hating Facebook while embracing their VR product. Getting better at not getting sick. Experiences of unreality.

 Conferencing 

Virtual chewing noises. Missing irl conference-going. It’s like a vacation for adult nerds!

 Food 

Food preservation. Preserved dairy variations by latitude. Jerky! Appreciating controlled rot. Earthworm jerky. Roasted grasshoppers!


	
		
			
				About Chapulines: Wikipedia
			
		
			
				Zebra vs Horses: Animal Domestication by CGP Grey: YouTube
			
		
	

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Isolated BS: VR breakthroughs, space clouds, and earthworm jerky

AI everything 

Creating a thinking, feeling artificial intelligence to do really important things for humanity like… sorting through your e-mail. N-dimensional AI chess. Rapid takeoff scenarios.

 Personal Assistants 

Natural language processing developments. The rise of proactive digital personal assistants. Predictive local, personal information.

 Digital relationship 

Virtual aural closeness. Presence and audio AR. Developments in form factor, interface, and functionality. Understanding the acoustics of spaces, materials, and your biology. Room mapping. Love, infinite attention, and generosity.

 The Forehead 

Feeling the heartbreak, right in the forehead.


	
		
			
				Her forehead scene: YouTube
			
		
	

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Her: sad foreheads, augmented audio presence, and friendly AI takeoff scenarios

You may be wondering where we went for a minute there 

An unexplained absence

Forgetability 

The valley of forgetability (The Core) between science-respecting sci-fi (e.g. Arrival) and totally bonkers nonsense (e.g. Jupiter Ascending).

 Space shuttle 

Landing the “flying brick.”

 Bird navigation 

Magnetite beaks. The possibility of quantum eyeball magnetic navigation HUDs. Corvid appreciation. Why birds don’t all fly into our windows and our eyeballs.

 Pacemakers 

Keeping your heart on-rhythm. Not as immediate a death sentence as portrayed.

 Earth’s outer core 

The absurd energies in the spinning of Earth’s core - a ball of iron the size of Mars, spinning a thousand miles an hour

  That’s a whole lot of energy. If it doesn’t sound like much, let’s convert it to megatons: it’s the equivalent energy of five trillion one megaton bombs going off. 
Phil Plait on the spinning outer core


	
		
			
				Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy Review of The Core: BadAstronomy.com
			
		
	

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The Core: Flying bricks, pacemakers, and quantum avian eyeballs


Clouds in episode image from “Storm Clouds” by Albert Bierstadt/The White House Historical Association CC-O @ Wikipedia


 Waffles 

  
        Belgian Waffle formula

Tasty waffles! Stank waffles! With lots of syrup! Solving food problems with casseroles. Gravy!

 VR 

Marveling at the Oculus Quest two 25% price drop from the last generation. Hating Facebook. Realizing the separateness of AR and VR development, even within companies working on both at the same time (Facebook). Can/will AR and VR converge and become ubiquitous?

 WFH 

Working from home. Surprisingly long hikes and arachnid attacks. Tiny child legs and tiny child wills.

 Venus 

Life on venus? The dense, deep, permanent nature of the Venusian cloud layer. The possible effect on drake equation. Looking forward to balloon probes in the Venusian atmosphere.

 Ocean data 

Ocean-floor data centers. The cost of infrastructure and cooling vs the cost of real estate. The value of removing humans from the environment because we’re so loud and clumsy and moist.


	
		
			
				Review: We do not recommend the $299 Oculus Quest 2 as your next VR system: Ars Technica
			
		
			
				Oculus Quest 2: Oculus.com
			
		
			
				Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus: Nature Astronomy
			
		
			
				Chemical that shouldn’t be there spotted in Venus’ atmosphere: Ars Technica
			
		
			
				Microsoft declares its underwater data center test was a success: Ars Technica
			
		
	

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On Decipher History: Alexander

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