CYBER

This week on Cyber we’re going deep into recent stories of unidentified flying objects and Chess. The Pentagon has gotten big into investigating what it calls unidentified aerial phenomenon and a chess champion has been accused of cheating but the exact phenomenon he’s accused of remains unidentified.

With me today to walk through all of this is Motherboard’s lovely editor-in-chief Jason Koebler. 

Stories discussed in this episode:

Congress Admits UFOs Not ‘Man-Made,’ Says ‘Threats’ Increasing ‘Exponentially’

Was This Viral UFO Photo a Hoax Generated By an AI?

Navy Says All UFO Videos Classified, Releasing Them ‘Will Harm National Security’

The Chess World Is Absolutely Losing It Over Cheating Allegations After Massive Upset

'The Silence of My Critics Speaks for Itself:' Hans Niemann Says He Is Being Unfairly Attacked in Chess Scandal

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.

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Today on Cyber we’ve got a special presentation: We’re talking about Motherboard’s science fiction short story collection Terraform one last time. This week’s episode is a recording of a live roundtable discussion with Cory Doctorow and Geoff Manaugh—both of whom have short stories in the collection—and Terraform editors Claire L. Evans and Brian Merchant.

Want to learn the secret history of the Luddites? Find out if corporations can be bought off? Learn what it’s like to work with Netflix? Well, stay tuned.

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It seems like the Earth’s billionaires are desperate to escape the planet. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are looking to outer space. Mark Zuckerberg is looking to the inner space of virtual reality. So many billionaires are buying up land and luxury survival bunkers in New Zealand that it’s hard to keep track.

Do they know something we don’t? Or do they just have the money to act on fears they themselves were instrumental in creating?

Here today to help me answer that question is Douglas Rushkoff. Rushkoff is a media theorist and author. His newest book is out on September 6. It’s called Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires.

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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Woe to those who live in the path of a hypercane. What’s a hypercane? I’m glad you asked. In a frighteningly possible future you’ll be hearing more about them. As the planet warms and the climate changes, we’re in for all kinds of new and bizarre extreme weather systems. It’s a hurricane so big and so powerful it extends through several states.

Today on Cyber, we’ve got something special. Another short story from Motherboard’s first book: Terraform. Terraform editor Brian Merchant and special guest Eric Holthaus come on Cyber to discuss how we personalize the climate disaster we’re all living through. Holthaus is a meteorologist, climate journalist, and the founder of Currently—a weather service built for folks on the front line of the climate emergency. He’s here to read a bit of his Terraform story ‘Hypercane.’

Stories discussed in this episode: 

Hypercane

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A new study in Nature Food has revealed, once again, the unprecedented danger of nuclear weapons. Built on the foundation of decades of research, it’s about the climate change and global famine that would follow even a limited nuclear exchange.

The models are a terrifying warning. A limited war between Pakistan and India that uses just three percent of the world’s nuclear weapons could kill a third of the Earth’s population.

In this special edition of Cyber, we talk about the study, its implications, and what we can do to avoid tragedy. Here with me to have that discussion is one of the author’s behind the study, Rutgers University climatologist Alan Robock.

Robock will lay out what he and his colleagues found in just a moment, to help us understand what actions we should take is Dr. Ruth Mitchell from the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and Alicia Sanders-Zakre from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

Stories discussed in this episode:

A Nuclear War Between the U.S. and Russia Would Starve 5 Billion People

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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Drone. The word has come to mean so many things. An eye in the sky. A hobbyist flying toy. A dangerous voyeur. A weapon of war. An enforcer. A worker. But a worker that’s maybe not as soulless as the name implies. As AI gets more sophisticated and the subroutines become rote… might it be possible to convert the electronic oppressor?

Today on Cyber, we’ve got something special. Motherboard has published a book! It’s called Terraform and it’s out now. It’s a collection of short stories about the near future and the dystopian present. With me today on the show are the book’s editors, Claire L. Evans and Brian Merchant as well as special guest Sarah Gailey. They’re the author of the new novel Just Like Home and the Terraform story “Drones to Ploughshares.”

Terraform’s stories are all about possible futures. “Drones to Ploughshares” is a window into one of those worlds.’

Terraform is out now! Buy it here.

Stories discussed in this episode: 

Drones to Ploughshares

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Some days, it feels like all you can do is watch worlds burn.

This is especially true for the millions of people living in hospice care. Health in the U.S. isn’t what it used to be. The population is aging and it’s not just the Baby Boomers. If you think Millennials will age more gracefully than their parents, well, I have a counselor I’d like you to speak with. It’s specially trained for the job and It knows all about you. It really does keep the cost of healthcare down.

Today on Cyber, we’ve got something special. Motherboard has published a book. It’s called Terraform and it’s out now. It’s a collection of short stories about the near future and the dystopian present. With me today on the show are the book’s editors, Claire L. Evans and Brian Merchant as well as special guest Robin Sloan. He’s the author of the new novel The Suitcase Clone and … the Terraform story “The Counselor.”

Terraform’s stories are all about possible futures. “The Counselor” is a window into one of those worlds.

Terraform is out now. Buy it here.

Stories discussed on this episode:

The Counselor

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We all get them. We all hate them. Spam. There was a time, long ago, when it was just your mailbox and your inbox that got hit with superfluous ads and scams. But now? My phone rings all day long and all of the calls are spam. All of them. If you’re not on my contact list, I’m not picking up. And the texts have gotten much much worse. Everyday is a new offering and every ping is spam.

Did you know that most of that spam is actually illegal and that you, yes you, can sue the companies sending it out and make a few hundred bucks. On this episode of Cyber we sit down with a man who did just that. David Weekly sued a spam texter and got $1,200. Here’s how he did it.

Stories discussed in this episode:

This Guy Sued a Spam Texter and Got $1,200 (and You Can Too)

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Some days, it feels like all you can do is watch worlds burn.

This is especially true in the desperate small towns that pocket the parts of America some derisively call ‘Flyover Country.’

Today on Cyber, we’ve got something special. Motherboard is publishing a book! It’s called Terraform and it drops on August 16. It’s a collection of short stories about the near future and the dystopian present. With me today on the show are the book’s editors, Claire L. Evans and Brian Merchant as well as special guest Tim Maughan. He’s the author of the novel Infinite Detail and … the Terraform story Flyover Country.

Terraform’s stories are all about possible futures. Flyover Country is a window into one of those worlds. One that may seem unpleasantly familiar.

Terraform is out on August 16. Buy it here.

Stories discussed on this episode:

Flyover Country

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last month, a hacker posted a trove of stolen documents online detailing the weird internal struggles of a little gaming company called Roblox. If you don’t know what Roblox is, just ask any child in America and they’ll explain it to you. The hacked documents contained fascinating insights into how gaming companies whose product depends on player freedom and creativity must navigate the treacherous waters of children, free speech, China, mass shootings, and content moderation. It’s a weird story where a child driven internet sandbox can lead to troubling and weird questions about genocide roleplay.

Today on Cyber, Motherboard Staff Writer Joseph Cox comes on to talk about the hack and what we learned from it.

Stories discussed in this episode:

Hacker Posts Internal Roblox Employee Documents Online

Revealed: Documents Show How Roblox Planned to Bend to Chinese Censorship

Leaked Documents Reveal How Roblox Handles Grooming and Mass Shooting Simulators

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.