Adam digs into recent headlines about UFOs and whistleblower David Grusch.  Does this give any promising evidence that aliens may be among us?  Next Darren ponders how our future AI overlords might treat us. Assuming they don’t eliminate us, will we make great pets?  It’s a new TRC!  

TRC #673: UFO Whistleblower? + Will We Make Great Pets For An Artificial Super Intelligence?

Canada's weekly podcast that explores a wide range of controversies and curiosities using science and critical thinking.

Society & Culture

Personal Journals

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Natural Sciences

Science & Medicine

Science

Could the huge Sandworms in Frank Herbert's Dune really exist?  Adam looks at how scientifically plausible these odd creatures might be.  In light of recent news about Open AI's GPT-4o and Google's Project Astra, Darren look at the latest advances in AI personal assistants, speculates where this could be leading and shares a passage from his book Uncontrollable on the topic.

TRC #689: The Science of Dune's Sandworms + AI Personal Assistants

Spencer Greenberg is the founder Clearer Thinking, a web site which provides tools for critical thinking, as well as Transparent Replications, which does rapid replications of papers in psychology and behavioural studies. In this interview he discusses the replication crisis in scientific studies, what’s causing it and what can be done to reduce these problems.

TRC #688: Interview with Spencer Greenberg

This past Friday, April 19th, philosopher Daniel Dennett passed away at the age of 82.  Throughout his life he has impacted many people through his work.  On this week's show Darren shares some of his thoughts on this great man and gives an overview of a few of his books.  Thank you Daniel Dennett.

TRC #687: Remembering Daniel Dennett

Adam looks at evidence that the popular Stanford Prison Experiment was not as well run as we've heard which raises concerns about the conclusions we make from it.  Darren considers some recent events in the world of AI and wonders whether or not AI could soon be taking over some creative jobs.

TRC #686: The Stanford Prison Experiment + Is AI Taking Over Creative Jobs?

Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Creativity?  Can an AI be more creative than a human?  Darren looks at a study which attempts to answer this question.  With the upcoming solar eclipse occurring in North America on April 8th, Adam examines the risk of staring at the sun and gives some tips on how to view an eclipse safely.

TRC #673: UFO Whistleblower? + Will We Make Great Pets For An Artificial Super Intelligence?

Download our free app to listen on your phone