Decipher SciFi

Decipher SciFi

By Decipher MediaTV & FilmScienceFilm Reviews
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Decipher SciFi episodes

  • Hardcore Henry: super fun action, VR media, and motion sickness
    The movie’s history

    Crowdfunding.  Timur Bekmambetov.  Biting Elbows music videos.

    First-Person film and video games

    Visual language of first person shooters. Our affection for the genre and this film by extension.

    Filming and FX

    “Adventure Mask” iterative design. Camera mounting and how bets to capture first person action. VFX difficulties with Go Pros.

    Motion Sickness

    Surprising study results with old and young players. Motion sickness vs simulation sickness.

    Sharlto

    A Sharlto appreciation party. Remote surrogate body control.

    Horse

    horse, lol.

    1. How Hardcore Henry's POV shots were made by Ian Failes: FXGuide
    2. The Stampede by Biting Elbows: YouTube
    3. Bad Motherfucker by Biting Elbows: YouTube
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      40 min
    4. Seveneves: impactors, guided evolution, and radiation shields w/ Daniel Mann
      Read the book

      Our attempt to convince folks to read the book. Do it!

      The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason. It was waxing, only one day short of full. The time was 05:03:12 UTC. Later it would be designated A+0.0.0, or simply Zero.

      • The opening paragraph of Seveneves
      • Neal Stephenson

        Big old nerd. Chris expresses appreciation for his deep-dives.

        Meteor Strikes

        Tunguska. Chelyabinsk. Measuring in five dollar footlongs and blue whales. Who knows how many fathoms?

        Shielding!

        Humans and computers are both susceptible to radiation.

        Choosing Our Evolution

        Deaf parents choosing to have deaf babies. Culture.

        Technology in Space

        Difficulty in producing microchips. Dan’s experience in chemicals and computing. Lost knowledge.

        Gliding

        Thermals and ridge lifts and whatnot. Terrifying!

        1. The Day The Moon Blew Up by Bill Gates: GatesNotes
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          1 hr 6 min
        2. The Fountain: nebulae, mesoamerica, and finding meaning w/ Daniel Barker
          Aronofsky

          Shooting for the moon. Making beautiful film.

          History

          Olmec, Mayans, Aztec. Murder factories.

          Nebulae

          Particularity. Stellar nurseries.

          Life and Death

          Differing viewpoints, religious and atheist.

          1. The Fountain graphic novel by Daren Aronofsky and Kent Williams: iTunesAmazon
          2. Darren Aronofsky remastered and mixed Director Commentary: David Weisbrod
          3. Uncertainty Principle the Podcast: Uncertainty Principle
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            46 min
          4. Brazil: user interface satire, complexity, complexity, and ducting w/ Bradnon Rollins
            Sci-Fi Dystopias

            1984, Brazil, Farenheit 451, etc. Why do these count as scifi?

            User Interfaces as analogy

            Thanks to Chris Noessel for pointing in the Facebook group the way the “badly designed” user interfaces are really incredibly well-designed, if the point is absurdism. :)

            Complexity

            In business, objects, life, gadgets, systems. Ducts! Creepin’.

            Security Theater

            Statistics, fear of skin cancer vs shark attack. Viscerality.

            Euphemistic Language

            Covering up reality. Making uncomfortable behaviour easier to swallow. Hiding reality.

            Dreams and Reality

            Cracking up. Dreams. Endings.

            1. War Co. Expandable Card Game: WarCo
            2. The Egnineering Guy: YouTube
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              50 min
            3. Godzilla: postwar Japan, science, and regrets w/ Miles Greb
              This is real life

              Well, partially. Lcuky Dragon #5. Hydrogren bomb testing. Real life and movie deaths. Press censorship.

              Giant movie monsters

              Godzilla and his ilk. The Lost World. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.

              Oxygen destroyer

              ¯\(ツ)/¯

              Science and regret

              Oppenheimer. Eyepatch guy. Suicide to save the world. Analogies.

              Goodbyes

              Let them fight.

              1. Godzilla: Half Century War by James Stokoe: Amazon
              2. King of the Monsters: History of Japan Podcast
              3. Double Blasted: Radiolab
              4. After the Gold Rush: After the Gold Rush
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                44 min
              5. The Expanse: Nick Farmer on conlanging and the intersection of language and scifi
                Conlang

                What are constructed languages? Who makes them?

                The Expanse

                Designing the language for the TV show. Designing a posteriori languages and a priori languages and difficulties of each.

                Slang

                A Clockwork Orange, Andrew Niccol, and other uses of slang to flesh out fictional worlds.

                Pidgins, Creoles

                What is a creole, and how did Nick approach designing one for The Expanse

                1. The Art of Language Invention by David J Peterson: iTunesAmazon
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                  1 hr 5 min
                2. Weird Science: science, magic, and moral development in adolescence
                  John Hughes

                  And the Brat Pack. Uncle Buck and Breakfast Club.

                  Smagic

                  Science so unscientific, it is magic: smagic. Callbacks to pygmalion and Frankenstein.

                  Sexism/Objectification

                  Boy howdy. Literally using a barbie to create a living sex object. Consent. Creating sex bots. The 1950s comic on which the movie was based.

                  Geekery

                  What are they? what are we? Geeks? Nerds? Both?

                  Growing Up

                  Adolescence sucks. Being a sexually frustrated teenage boy. Fantasies and ethical concerns.

                  1. Frankenstein w/ Joe Ruppel: Decipher SciFi
                  2. Made of the Future/Weird Science: Mars Will Send no More
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                    31 min
                  3. Jupiter Ascending: gene splicing, industrialized panspermia, and going over the top
                    Jupiter

                    Baby naming. Looking through a telescope with the kids and co-bff Joe. Astrology. 😒

                    Fermi Padadox

                    Jupiter Jones: Because a dream is the only way any of this make sense.

                    Caine Wise: Compared to what? The idea that you’re the only intelligent species, on the only inhabitable planet, in a universe so full of planets that you don’t even have a number to describe how many there are.

                    Civilization Development

                    “Tersies.” Seeding planets. The “prometheus problem.” Coexistence with dinosaurs??

                    Harvest

                    Analogies to our treatment of animals. It can still be “affecting.”

                    Genetic Modification

                    Cyberpunk. CRISPR. Animal trait splicing. Channing Tatum with his mouth open.

                    Space Feudalism

                    Lots -isms and -igarchies and whatnot. An economy sort-of based on time reminds us of Andrew Niccol’s In Time.

                    Nihilism

                    What would you do if you owned whole planets?

                    1. A Quick Note on Jupiter Ascending's Politics: This Cage is Worms
                    2. Antibodies Part 1: CRISPR by Radiolab: Radiolab
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                      42 min
                    3. Tomorrowland: the World's Fair, retrofuturism, and making dreams reality
                      Brad Bird

                      50s and 60s techno optimism. The Iron Giant. The Incredibles.

                      World’s Fair

                      Stages of the worlds fair. Our tech and relationship to it.

                      Walt Disney

                      Futurism. Techno optimism. Shaping reality to fit his vision.

                      Tomorrowland

                      Disneyland. EPCOT. Disney’s vision for a designed city.

                      A sense of wonder

                      Childlike optimism. Positivity in the face of pessimism. Three wolf moon.

                      Future Visions

                      Visions of technology and the future  from different periods.

                      omg car is driving how can that be
                      1. Walt Disney - The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler: iTunesAmazon
                      2. A 19th Century Vision of the Year 2000: The Public Domain Review
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                        32 min
                      3. Senenity: Firefly, reavers, and space settlement sans FTL
                        Joss Whedon & Firefly

                        Johhhhhhn Cena prank call. Fox’s predilection for cancelling the most-loved shows. Viewing orders.

                        Hard and soft scifi

                        Joss Whedon doesn’t care about the science. Star system design without FTL. A call-in from Adrian Falcone.

                        Sci-Fi western

                        From cyberpunk to westerns. Frontier living.

                        Culture and language

                        Language evolution on generation ships. Creoles. Joss’ poetic Rialogue.

                        Reavers

                        The mythology and the more reasonable backstory. Samuel Mumby calls in to express his appreciation for the former. “Who does the dishes?”

                        Religion

                        Sci-fi treatments of religion by Whedon and others.

                        1. Firefly: iTunesAmazon
                        2. Serenity on Science Fiction Film Podcast: LSG Media
                        3. Bad Character by Ted Chiang: The New Yorker
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                          42 min

                        About Decipher SciFi

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                        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…

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