Science Faction Podcast

This episode contains: Steven made Devon and Ben post-pone recording, sorry guys! Ben had a birthday: HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEN, and Devon visited the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, super cool. Oh yeah, Steven watched the end of Rogue One and the beginning of A New Hope in succession and has some thoughts. We then talk a bit about the Oceangate disaster. 

Pump Up The Water, Pump It Up!: We've pumped so much groundwater that we've nudged Earth's spin. Scientists estimate humans have pumped 2,150 gigatons of groundwater and moved it elsewhere, shifting our polar motion by nearly 80 inches. On geologic time scales, polar drift can have an impact on climate. 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230615183147.htm 

Come Sail Away With Me: Drones take to the waves: Saildrones are getting data where people can’t. Saildrones are sailboat like uncrewed surface vehicles predominately powered by wind and solar power.  Saildrones have a "mission as a service" model where they collect data for scientists.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/06/drones-take-to-the-waves-saildrones-are-getting-data-where-people-cant/ 

Big Question: Has the internet been a net benefit or detriment to humanity (Social media in particular)? Should we shut it down? We quite a long discussion about the uses of the internet, mis-information, information bubbles, how we can move beyond social media, how to be skeptical around the internet and much more. It's a doozy. 

Patreon Only Post Show: Devon and Steven chat about streaming services and how awful everything is becoming and why. 

This episode contains: We're your dads this week. Turns out Steven knows how to introduce a damn podcast. We argue how many weeks it's been since Devon's been on the podcast. Oh no, we started singing Barenaked Ladies this episode. Does anybody think our podcast is better when Steven is choking on cat hair? Steven's the Houdini of the podcast. Death-defying at every turn. Devon and his kids were putting together Lego on Father's Day. There's a new franchised Lego store around Devon: Bricks and Minifigs. Devon got the new Treehouse Lego set, and Steven is totes jelly. Steven got the Lego house from Up... and shoes. Happy Father's Day. Ben got a toolbox shaped like Mjonir and a card that says "Happy Person Father Day." Is Benergy hereditary? Or is it contracted? Looks like Ben's gonna put up drywall, and knows nothing about it. The drywall guy. Steven and Ben checked out our local watering hole, the Raconteur Room. Super chill. Steven found some people who also get migraines from hops. Instead of recording this podcast we could have went to a metal show at Dark Nectar. Ben will totally go to shows with Steven.

Honey, where are my pants? Scientists conduct first test of a wireless cosmic ray navigation system. Ben has a joke just for the Lego Movie fans. What's better than GPS (in certain situations)? muPS! GPS sucks when it encounters ground and water. muPS doesn't have this problem. Ever wondered all the things that muons have been used for? There's so many things! What's your deal, muons? Well, they decay. Check out the episode of Miikshi about Cosmic Rays, which covers the same research. Justin T. Lee not only made Miikshi, he also made ST:TNG Animated and Voyager Animated. https://news.muographix.u-tokyo.ac.jp/2023/05/15/filmmakers-interview-justin-t-lee-and-lindsay-lee/news-local/

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/06/scientists-conduct-first-test-of-a-wireless-cosmic-ray-navigation-system/ 

AaaH!CHOOO! Better understanding of how genes make us prone to allergies. This year has been way worse for Steven's allergies. He's trying a new med.  Allergies rank as the 6th most prevalent cause of chronic illness in the U.S. Learning more about how allergies work can help uncover possible remedies for them. Looking to control allergies? Let's start looking at the ETS1 protein. The Golden book The Shy Little Kitten is really messing Steven up. What would an Avengers team from Golden Books look like? Steven keeps prompting songs from the other hosts on this podcast.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230615105331.htm 

Patreon only Mid-pod: Steven re-reviews Star Wars: Rogue One. Devon feels that's the only good Disney SW film. Ben doesn't know how to spell the Star Wars planet Jedha. He thinks it's Jetta. Poor Ben. Devon talks about how good the first episode of the most recent season of Black Mirror is.

Our Patreons get a new playlist as a gift from ya boi Devon C! Steven does not remember The Dear Hunter, despite Devon's knowledge dump several times. 

Big Question: Is this the discount episode? 3 big questions for the price of 1! Would you rather have proof of intelligent alien life or true general AI? We discuss. Would true general A.I. be cool with us as planetmates? How about aliens as neighbors? What if knowing about intelligent aliens actually united humanity? Probably wouldn't though. We had the opportunity to unite and kill something evil on our planet for 3 years. No way. Ben makes another Star Trek V reference. Devon leaves him hanging. Is our hope for AI only to subjugate and enslave another life form? How amazing will it be when AI can build personalized curriculums for students? Would you rather self-driving cars everywhere or affordable low-orbit space tourism? What if low-orbit space tourism was as affordable as a cruise?  If cars weren't important anymore, urban design would be completely revolutionized. People should get licenses to share a road with self-driving cars. Would you rather have faster than light space travel or mind uploads to computers? Ben wants the singularity. Functional immortality. Devon wants to be Mayor of the Matrix. Would FTL travel be worth it if you can't make your ship look like the Millenium Falcon? We haven't had a clip show in a while. Probably not for a while longer.

This episode contains: Steven and Ben record together from Ben’s house. We talk life insurance, college, life experience, and aches and pain from sleeping. We also decide that Devon’s wife is a super hero.

Not Funny: Researchers discover that ChatGPT prefers repeating 25 jokes over and over. When tested, "Over 90% of 1,008 generated jokes were the same 25 jokes." All responses were grammatically correct. However, some of the responses were nonsensical, such as: Why did the cookie go to the gym? To get a-cookie-dized.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/06/researchers-discover-that-chatgpt-prefers-repeating-25-jokes-over-and-over/ 

How to Create a Neural Network (and Train it to Identify Doodles):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfMk-kjRv4c&ab_channel=SebastianLague 

This is the T-1000, That’s What This is: Liquid metal sticks to surfaces without a binding agent. Everyday materials such as paper and plastic could be transformed into electronic 'smart devices' by using a simple new method to apply liquid metal to surfaces, according to scientists. The study demonstrates a technique for applying a liquid metal coating to surfaces that do not easily bond with liquid metal. The approach is designed to work at a large scale and may have applications in wearable testing platforms, flexible devices, and soft robotics.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230609160620.htm 

Science Fiction: Our Patrons get a fun surprise! We then discuss cartoons v. animated features, Steven identifies which movies have been morphed into Avatar: The Way of The Water, Ben continues to watch Silo, Steven is on the hype train for Starfield and more!

This episode contains: Everyone is back this week! Steven continues his Star Wars rewatch. Ben has issues with Steven telling his he listens to sad music. Devon chimes in on the music chat. We decide to make some playlists to share with our Patrons. 

Unlimited Power: Scientists Successfully Transmit Space-Based Solar Power to Earth for the First Time. Caltech conducted a power transfer experiment using the Microwave Array for Power-transfer Low-orbit Experiment, or MAPLE. They beamed solar power from space to Pasadena. Gotta start somewhere. 

https://gizmodo.com/scientists-beam-space-based-solar-power-earth-first-tim-1850500731 

You Did It, You Blew it Up, You Maniacs!: They plugged GPT-4 into Minecraft—and unearthed new potential for AI. ChatGPT generates objectives to help an agent explore Minecraft and improve the bots skill over time. We use this as a jumping off point for exploring different uses for ChatGPT in our lives. 

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2023/06/they-plugged-gpt-4-into-minecraft-and-unearthed-new-potential-for-ai/ 

Big Question: Do we value experiences based on how shareable they are? We chat quite a bit about how to even parse this question. We end up talking a bit about our hobbies and how we share them with our kids. 

Science Fiction:  Steven watched Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, alone. We talk about if you need to see the Holiday Special first (we recommend it, but it's not required). Minor spoilers for a bit of the movie, but nothing major. Steven had some issues with Adam Warlock. We talk a bit about Marvel's (and Disney's) Jonathan Majors problem. Ben and Steven are excited for The Marvels, and Steven hypothesis that Secret Invasion will allow the MCU to retcon whatever they want with Skrulls.

Pre-show Patreon only: Steven wants to know if anyone wants about 50 blank CDs. Nope. Ben grieves by doing work. He's learning a lot about himself. Ben sent his wife a birthday message recorded by an Argentinian Bruce Willis lookalike.

This episode contains: Happy Birthday Devon! We recorded a podcast without you! Don't remember a birthday? You can remember a BELATED BIRTHDAY! Ben is giving his wife 40 gifts over 40 days for her 40th birthday. Steven says Ben is a good gifter... and should give him more gifts. Ben thanks Big Door Prize for the idea of 40 gifts for turning 40.  Steven makes fun of a hat that Devon wears while boating, but he rocks it NGL. We giggle like idiots for most of this show.

Oh Man, Vacation’s Coming: More structure, fewer screens makes for healthier kids in the school holidays. Ben gets grizzled about the terrible screen-filled present we live in. Advertising revenue is more important than the health of the populace? #NoMoreScreens. Ben wishes his son was a foodie. So sad. He eats to live, not lives to eat. A study in Australia showed that kids are generally less healthy during school holidays. At what age do children get different levels of independence? Like, making their own snacks? On holidays, kids watch a whole lot more screens. How bad is this? We suggest setting limits on screen time for kids on holiday. When we were kids, we found things to do.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230414113518.htm 

So I Listened to Another Podcast: Trip to alphaSyntauri | Welcome to Macintosh. I guess we now know how to pronounce Moog. Thanks Welcome to Macintosh! Charlie Kellner created a synth on an Apple ][, and it was used for TRON sound effects. The Dolphin Research Center used alphaSyntauri on Apple ][ to communicate with dolphins. Obviously, dolphins love TRON.

https://www.macintosh.fm/episodes/3 

You Know What Else Makes Sense To Me?: Tetris on a chicken nugget is the game as it was meant to be played. Ready to play Tetris on a chicken mcnugget? This is the 40th anniversary of the chicken mcnugget! Hooray for 1983! But can the chicken mcnugget run Doom? Tetris will celebrate 40 years next year, as it was made in 1984. You need a chicken mcnugget 4 times the size to play Tetris on it. Steven and Ben sing Korobeiniki (the Tetris song) on this week's show.  They're only making 400,000 mcnugget-Tetris machines.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/05/finally-you-can-play-tetris-on-a-giant-chicken-nugget/ 

Mid-show Patreon only: Ben's living his best life: mounted his split ergo keyboard to two tripods. Ben's cat is turning 17 this year. We remember the day he nearly murdered Devon.

Science Fiction: Spicy take from Steven: cooking is just following directions. We love balancing chemistry equations... can someone make a balancing equations game? Silo is a great show, and Devon is an absolute legend. The compact disk was invented in 1983. Steven never knows what Ben is talking about. Isn't Silo just a Fallout show? Nay. This about life IN the vault. Silo is about how a society has been shaped to live underground for hundreds of years? Steven digs how non-linear the storytelling in Silo is. Does Silo out-LOST LOST? Shoutout to Jason Gurley this week, and his "Greatfall: A Silo Novel". Silo gets five stars out of three from us. You read that right. Jason Gurley's "Eleanor" is incredible.  Steven read Jason Gurley's "The Dark Age" on the day his first daughter was born. Whoa. Steven's coming to terms with Anakin's character in the Star Wars prequels. Anakin is a deeply damaged individual, lost his mom and replaced her with Padme. Did Anakin use force powers to make Padme love him? Gives a different context to his creepy dialogue. Once Anakin is betrayed by Padme, he cuts off the "force love" and Padme dies from withdrawals? Clone Wars Anakin is very different from prequel movies Anakin. Men in Black holds up. Great film. Men in Black was a Marvel comic... could we see the MiB in the MCU?!? The Men in Black and Starship Troopers: Roughnecks cartoons were big for Ben in High School. Steven had a tape of Ghostbusters from TV, edited for content. Funny! Are y'all ready for seeing Mariner and Boimler in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds?

Post-show Patreon only: We talk about the video games Star Trek: Resurgence and TRON: Identity.

Full title generated by Chat GPT: "Interstellar Metamorphosis: Unveiling the Science of Star Wars, Evolution, and Disney"

This episode contains: We have the classic line up of Steven and Devon on this episode. Steven loved the food at Galaxies Edge and so found a Star Wars cookbook. We then discuss the closure of the insanely expensive Galactic Starcruiser. Devon tells us about his upcoming “vacation” in the Ozarks.

Something About Death: Evidence of conscious-like activity in the dying brain. A small study finds intriguing brain wave patterns in comatose patients who died following cardiac arrest. A new study provides early evidence of a surge of activity correlated with consciousness in the dying brain.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/05/230501163628.htm 

Evolutionarily Speaking: Perfection: The Enemy of Evolution. Freedom to miss the optimal mark opens a wide range of new designs over time. Evolution is a sequence of design changes happening on their own in a discernible direction; it never weds itself to a single point on a drawing board. An evolving system or animal is free to simply go with what works. Not so much that its performance suffers greatly, but enough that it opens access to other options near the so-called optimal design. With scientists often looking to nature for clues to solve challenges, they should also free to miss the optimal mark and open a wider design space over time.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/05/230501163628.htm 

Science Fiction: Devon tells us about the new show Apple Plus show Silo, based on the book series Wool, which we kind of read some of (minor spoilers). Steven is doing a rewatch of Star Wars. We then have an in depth discussion of just how bad the Star Wars Prequals were, and attempt to do some minor re-writes. 

This episode contains: Ben and Steven, the healthy hosts, lead the charge this week. Thoughts and prayers to Devon. We talk a bit about importing hate, and protesting against it. Racism should be called out and shamed, consistently and constantly. Then we talk about The Lion King in all of it's iterations, for far too long. 

The Disappearing Computer: The Disappearing Computer: An Exclusive Preview of Humane’s Screenless Tech by Imran Chaudhri. This Ted Talk had an amazing demonstration of a screenless tech future. We talk about the amazing tech, and what could be possible in the future. What would happen if this thing became popular and we all had bodycams on at all time? Time for a DNR, Do Not Record. We discuss if this tech is 'building the tower higher' or 'building something new'. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMsQO5u7-NQ 

Science Fiction: Steven has completed about 95% of Star Wars Jedi Survivor and give a mini very light spoiler review. He's not at all embarrassed to say he wants to go visit the Pyloon Saloon. Ben watched Crater, the Disney Plus hard sci-fi kid roadtrip movie. He very much enjoyed it. Steven is still working his way through the first season of 12 Monkeys, and admires its consistency. Finally, Ben has been playing the VR game Into The Radius and while he enjoys it, he thinks it's more Steven's speed. 

We've done it again Watson! 

Pre-pod Patreon only: The world only exists for us as long as we're alive. Ben's favorite epitaph: "Anyway, it's only other people who die."

This episode contains: Devon's been a skeptic as long as he remembers. Spoiler alert about Santa this week. If something doesn't exist, would it be PC to say they're a non-corporeal being? Ben can't remember when he discovered the truth about Santa, maybe because he wasn't traumatized. If anybody deserves presents more than anybody else, it's orphans. Ben got his son a drum set. The kid gets the heart of a musician. If you're starting drumming, get a used set on Craigslist, don't spend more than $300. Did you know you can use Youtube videos of Rock Band to learn songs on drums? Makes sense.

Mind Reader: Reading The Mind with fMRI and AI. Researchers have been able to decode words subjects were thinking by reading their fMRI scan. If someone is looking at a giant letter E, it physically maps to the cortex, and the E appears there too. AI has been trained on fMRI scans to help decode and reconstruct language. Everyone's brain is unique: AI can't decode your fMRI based on other's training. Mind reading won't work, probably ever, since everyone's brain is unique.

https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/reading-the-mind-with-fmri-and-ai/ 

Old white guys can shut the hell up: Former head of Roscosmos now thinks NASA did not land on the Moon. Why is an angry old man who is a moon-landing denier at all newsworthy? BECAUSE HE'S WRONG. NASA really did land us on the moon. Denialism should be recognized and shamed. The Soviet's Luna 15 mission was in orbit around the moon during Apollo 11. So many people spent so much effort to land humans on the moon. A win for humanity! Ben recommends the "Apollo 11" documentary from 2019. It's 99% fresh on RT.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/05/former-head-of-roscosmos-now-thinks-nasa-did-not-land-on-the-moon/ 

Big Question: What would you do if the world was ending tomorrow? Would that change if it was ending next year? Steven joins us for the back half of the show... the fun half? Let's talk about death. Remember Steve Carrell's movie "Seeking A Friend for the End of the World"? Also a Chris Cornell quote.  If the world was ending soon, society would collapse. At a longer timeframe, society would adapt. Would you let your children know if the world was ending soon? Ben hopes to approach the end of the world with a little apocaloptimism. If the end of the world was coming, Ben would try cooking tiramisu. What's the worst that could happen? Steven suggests the darkest possible thing to do if the world was ending tomorrow. With the end of the world coming in a year, would you Bill and Frank it? If the end of the world was in 100 years... wait, are we talking about climate change?! If it's 100 years to the end of the world, let's all build rockets! Work together! Steven doesn't have a bucket list. Should he?

Recommendations: Ben talks about the SO MANY Firefly comics out there on Comixology Unlimited. It's really tricky to write the dialog right in Firefly comics. Devon's been watching Daisy Jones and the Six on Amazon, really cool rock n' roll drama. Daisy Jones and the Six seems like it's based loosely on Fleetwood Mac. NOFX has got some real great albums recently. So cool they've been around for 40 years. Steven is digging season 2 of Star Wars Visions. The present, past and the future walked into a bar. Things got real tense.

This episode contains: Ben and Steven steer the boat this episode. Ben has been going to the Kite Festival yearly. Steven is home with the kids while his wife lives it up in Hawaii. Steven bought more LEGO while his wife is out of town. 

Light At the End of the Tunnel: Small acts of kindness are frequent and universal, study finds. A study found that people around the world signal others for assistance every couple of minutes. The research, which examined behaviors in towns and rural areas in several different countries, revealed that people comply with these small requests for help far more often than they decline them. The findings suggest that people from all cultures have more similar cooperative behaviors than prior research has established.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230424162911.htm 

Why is This Even a Question? Nuke-launching AI would be illegal under proposed US law. On Wednesday, US Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Representatives Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Don Beyer (D-Va.), and Ken Buck (R-Colo.) announced bipartisan legislation that seeks to prevent an artificial intelligence system from making nuclear launch decisions. The Block Nuclear Launch by Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Act would prohibit the use of federal funds for launching any nuclear weapon by an automated system without "meaningful human control."

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/04/nuke-launching-ai-would-be-illegal-under-proposed-us-law/ 

Science Fiction: Roddenberry site offers virtual USS Enterprise Bridge Tours, Star Wars Jedi Survivor spoiler talk (very light), and more!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KXU2Ob8gYY 

This episode contains: Steven and Devon finally recap their visit to Austin, Texas. There were live shows, uncharted adventures and gaming, oh my! Ben was not only left out of their adventures, but his house is still causing grief. Oof. 

https://uncharteredadventures.com/ 

https://vigilantebar.com/ 

Machine Learning Makeover: Iconic image of M87 black hole just got a machine-learning makeover. Using PRIMO (principal-component interferometric modeling), scientists used data from the EHT (Event Horizon Telescope) and 30,000 simulated images of black hole to produce a high fidelity image of the black hole at M87. It's amazing. 

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/04/iconic-image-of-m87-black-hole-just-got-a-machine-learning-makeover/ 

Diggin' A Hole: The Deepest Hole Ever Dug By Humans Had To Be Destroyed. The Kola Superdeep Borehole was 40,230 feet deep, but only has 4.5 stars on Google. Huh. We chat about the history of the hole and what science can be done with a superdeep holes. 14 species of fossilized microorganisms were found among other things. (But no screaming.) 

https://www.iflscience.com/the-deepest-hole-ever-dug-by-humans-had-to-be-destroyed-68110 

Big Question: Is there inherent order in nature or is it all chaos and chance? We chat about this, quite extensively. We talk about nature, observation, self-organization, entropy, heat-death, the circle of life and being zen. It's quite the discussion. 

Star Trek Picard: The third and final season is over, and we give our thoughts. We very much enjoyed the finale, and we talk about all the things that worked in favor of the show. Which begs the question: what happened with the first two seaons?! We're fully prepared to say goodbye to Picard, but we're all in on a Star Trek Legacy show. 

12 Monkeys: Steven had such fun with the third season of Picard, that he investigated another Terry Matalas show, 12 Monkeys. Sure, it's based on that awesome movie, but it's also so much more.