Bad Philosophy

For the last century or so, we have had a healthy little obsession with replicating the human ability to reason using machines. We here at BF are happy to announce that these efforts have finally brought us the holy grail of artificial intelligence: robot radio DJs! That’s right, now you can enjoy all your favorite radio banter distilled down to its bare, Cleverbot-on-Cleverbot essentials. This episode Kevin, Simon, Kiki and I put our connectomes together to discuss Stanford’s free A.I. class and marvel at the sheer 90’s gloriousness of VR Troopers. Let’s hope Watson adds some rabbit trails to its thought routines, ’cause we’re pretty sure he’ll be our guest someday. Until then, it’s BF time!

This Week’s Post-show Song Pimpage: “VR Troopers Intro” (via YouTube)

Aging can be a trying process. One day you’re romping around the yard as a little kid. Then you wake up and you’re thirty. Of course lots of fun stuff happens in between, but you get the idea. Our good friend Kiki recently passed this milestone, so she and I got together with Bess and Katey (the former of whom you might remember from an episode many moons ago) to celebrate three decades of her existence with some hardcore anglophilia. Kevin even stopped by at the end to lend his answers to our FormSqueeze. So stock up for your next hurricane party, grab a bowl of sea plankton, and enjoy the stab-tastic new lead-in sequence, it’s BF time!

This Week’s Post-show Song Pimpage: “Bob” by Weird Al Yankovic

Questions answered in this week’s FormSqueeze:

Why do strippers exist?

What is the difference between an orange?

Hell: endothermic or exothermic?

Clone sex + time travel?

Every once in a blue moon, the stars align, the burritos are just *that* good, and the right people end up coming together somewhat consistently over a three-year period to make something truly special. Such it has been for the last one-hundred (or so) episodes of Bad Philosophy. Ever since that fateful evening at a Freebird’s in Lubbock, Texas, we have laughed, debated, and philosophized down so many rabbit trails with so many wonderful people that it truly blows my mind.

To celebrate Episode 100, we managed to gather the *original* squad of Bad Philosophers who were there at the beginning. Kevin and I trotted down to our local Freebird’s to join Matt Legler via Skype and David Ronderos via Google Chat (!) for a little continuation of our free speech discussion from all those years ago, reignited by the recent BART protests and censorship. Not only this, thanks to Kevin’s quick thinking we managed to record enough episodes to have Episode 100 record on EXACTLY the three-year anniversary of Episode Zero! How’s that for manufactured serendipity? I hope you’d expect nothing less from us after so long.

What was your favorite moment from the last 100 episodes of BF? Let us know in the comments!

This Week’s (Retro) Post-show Song Pimpage: “Pick Up” by Bonobo

99 episodes of BF on the wall, 99 ep-i-sodes… Come on, sing it with me! We made it, people! Well… almost. For this last episode we decided to go TOTALLY RANDOM. Unencumbered by topicality and full of snark, Kiki, Kevin, and I had what might be the first all-rabbit-trail BF in a long time. There’s nothing on this whole cubic Earth that can stop us from hitting the century mark now. We’d invite you to drink 99 beers to celebrate, but alcohol poisoning is a dangerous lady with whom to flirt. Listen responsibly!

This Week’s Post-show Song Pimpage: “Jockey Full of Bourbon” by Moxy Fruvous

Randomlist:

When was the last time you held a door open for a stranger? Refrained from shaking hands with someone while you were sick? Cringed at dipping from that bleu cheese sauce your friend just dipped in after taking a bite from his chicken strip? Likely you don’t remember specific instances. Etiquette is just a part of what you do. But is there a deeper structure to the actions we take in the name of etiquette? Could there be a science to determine the ideal model for human interaction? In a recent article for Charlie’s Diary, Karl Schroeder poses this question and offers some interesting thoughts on how we might “re-wild etiquette.” Too tempting a topic to pass up, we decided to get the band back together, having Kevin Saunders, Eric Beutlich, and I all in the same place for the first time in years! Magic, beer, and some fresh baked cookies definitely went down. So grab your salad fork, put on your Sunday best, and prepare for some good ol’ fashioned BF! Have a listen…

This Week’s Post-show Song Pimpage: “Etiquette Song” by the Animaniacs

Question(s) Answered in This Week’s FormSqueeze:

Can you copyright the copyright sign?

Take a moment to picture something that truly, deeply disgusts you; that photo in the lobby of your doctor’s office, rubbing felt the wrong direction, your own face in the mirror every morning… y’know, that sorta stuff. As it turns out, people get disgusted by relatively similar things, at least according to a couple of researchers with an endless supply of eager survey victims and carte blanche from the IRB. This episode Julie Meadows made her triumphant return to the show alongside myself and Kevin. It was a pretty rank B-isode, but we did manage to throw in some zombies, Star Trek, and a completely unnecessary film adaptation of a decent board game. So grab a barf bag and check yourself for hagfish, it’s BF time!

This Episodes’s Post-show Song Pimpage: “Fish Heads” by Barnes & Barnes

Questions answered in this episode’s FormSqueeze:

Intro song? Technological civilizations?

The power of names?

What is the meaning of life?

Do people have free will?

If you were a pirate, what would your name be?

Ever get the urge to just go out with a few friends and completely wreck your entire neighborhood, steal some crap, and set it all on fire when you’re done? No? Congratulations! You may not be among the 11,000 feral, uneducated, illiterate, uncultured under-citizens of the U.K. who took part in the country’s worst riots in years this past week. Max Hastings still hates you though. So why did this happen anyway? Kevin and I threw in our 2 pence this episode with a few ideas. I also got to dust off my British accent for a dramatic reading of some classically classist bigotry. Tally ho, chaps! Have a listen…

This Week’s Post-Show Song Pimpage: “Anarchy in the U.K.” by The Sex Pistols

Conventions! In the geek world the idea of them is synonymous with sleepless nights, smelly hallways, and unforgettable times with friends and strangers. Recently a few of us got to experience such an adventure, Kevin Saunders at San Diego Comic Con and me, Britton Peele (of the Dallas Morning News), and Tim Poon (of Platform Nation) at QuakeCon in Dallas, Texas. We all had our fair share of awful thespians and awesome new releases. So get your Waldo costume ready, put a hamster on your piano, and jump on a pig, you monkey! It’s BF time…

To quote a tired but relevant saying, we like to believe that “our courts are the great levelers.” They exist to ensure that criminals be punished, that the innocent are heard, that justice be done for one and all. But every once in a while someone goes through our courts and gets away with murder. Yep, I’m referring to Casey Anthony of course. Why did this happen? And what light can it shed on the nature of law? Into this raging flame war we ventured this week, brave souls Matt Legler and newcomer Carson Cummings boldly throwing in their 2 cents. Serial killers? We got ’em. Meth chefs? Them too. Tuxspeedos? Um… listen to find out!

This Week’s Post-show Song Pimpage: “Pink Houses” by John Mellencamp

Questions Answered in This Week’s FormSqueeze:

Post-show Music Selection

Epistemology Paradox

Hypothetical Question

Picture this. You’re at a swingin’ house party, it’s 1 AM, and you are royally plastered. A witty, well-styled person ambles up and you two have a fantastic conversation. As the person walks away, you realize you have no clue as to the person’s gender or name. In a drunken haze that miraculously still leaves you conscious of controversial linguistic etiquette, you calmly turn to your nearest fellow party-goer and ask, “Excuse me, do you happen to know eirs name? E and I had a wonderful talk but I never got it.” Presuming this partygoer clearly understood your drunk ass over the Arcade Fire blaring through the smokey darkness, you just avoided an awkward social misstep through the cunning use of the Spivak pronoun. Congratulations!

This week we delve into the philosophy and linguistics of gender-neutral pronouns, with all (or most) of the social and political baggage that entails. Here to weigh in on the subject were BF veterans Matt Legler and Kevin Saunders alongside resident linguist Kiki Canon. So whether you believe that the moon is a flaming homosexual guy, that kids should be raised without others knowing eir sex, or that ICQ was the greatest means of communication the human race will ever invent, dust off that copy of Dreamsnake and come aboard for our trip into the gender-neutral wild…

This Week’s Post-show Song Pimpage: “Talkin Gender Neutral Blues” by Kristin Lems

Question Answered in This Week’s Formsqueeze: Best/Worst shows currently on TV?