Science Faction Podcast

It’s the week of December 13, 2016 and Devon is back from Mexico to tell us about his honeymoon, scuba diving, drinking and all. Steven then reminisces about gifts Devon got him during a trip to Europe. Devon talks a bit more about his struggles with scuba diving. Steven assures Devon that getting sick in Mexico is part of the experience.

Technologically Speaking: Earth’s technosphere now weighs 30 trillion tons. First, what the heck is a “technosphere?” Our tech is providing a “fossil record” of all our crap. Includes all our stuff from tools to porn. Devon then goes all stoner and thinks of the crazy amount of stuff we make and waste. This of course leads to baseball. But also, what about wasted tanks and disposable packaging?

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161130085021.htm

Mother Nature is a Harsh Mistress: The Great Smog of London of 1952. Devon learned about this just a day ago while watching Netflix’s The Crown and low and behold there’s a new science article about it! Scientists have discovered how the fog became deadly by studying pollution in China. Be prepared, it has to do with chemistry. The fog left 12,000 people dead and 150,000 people hospitalized. Devon somehow missed this event despite taking a class on London history (that he claims to have aced). This event lead to the Clean Air Act of 1956 in the UK and the new research may lead to reforms in China.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/23/503156414/research-on-chinese-haze-helps-crack-mystery-of-londons-deadly-1952-fog

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_London

The Expanse / Westworld: We talk about the season finale of Westworld, but first we give a shout out to another podcast and talk about The Expanse. We were mentioned on the podcast: Adventitious (http://adventitious.podomatic.com/) They correct us one some of our misconceptions about Mormons. They also let us know there are other Science Faction Podcasts. Moving on to The Expanse, we first ask why they name the books how they do. We then talk a little about the events in book 2 and 3 with very minor spoilers. We also discuss how they might be mixing the first two books in the next season of the TV show. Lastly: Westworld! Major spoilers. We talk about the end and our interpretation of events. We talk about the maze, escaping Westworld, other parks, loose ends, and the robot rebellion. We then speculate wildly on what could happen in the next season. We also realize we should watch the movies. Also, there was a previous, very short lived, Westworld TV show!  

Q&A: What would happen if the Sun disappeared for one second?

This episode contains: After only a few days of rest, our plucky heroes get back on the mic to once again to talk science and science fiction into your ears. Steven talks about how  much “dadding” he’s been doing, and Devon is getting ready for a trip to Mexico. We don’t talk about the WestWorld season finale, because we haven’t seen it yet!

Full of the Holy Science: Scientists in Utah do experiments with members of the Mormon church to see if their “spirituality” can be measured. It turns out that it can, and it has a lot in common with drugs, gambling, sex and other feel-good things. Devon gives us a brief story about his time in the Mormon Church and also tells us, once again, how great “The Book of Mormon” musical was.

This week in space: Astronauts that have been on long duration missions are having vision problems. Microgravity is causing a lasting effect on the Cerebrospinal Fluid and Optic Nerve. We talk about various hurdles we need to cross to be a successful space faring species. Devon talks about Packing for Mars by Mary Roach.

The Expanse / Rogue One: Devon has read all the books! Slight spoilers in this section for The Expanse novels, but nothing major. Devon couldn’t help himself and read/listened to all of the available books. We talk about how great the books are at using artificial gravity as not only world building, but as a viable plot device as well. In an attempt to talk about Rogue One, the boys criticize Force Awakens and tells their hopes for Episode 8. When the Rogue One talk does pop in, we talk about our hopes and expectations.

Q&A: How long would it take to get to Mars at 1G acceleration?

http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2012/08/30/flying-to-mars-in-three-days/

http://nathangeffen.webfactional.com/spacetravel/spacetravel.php

Thus episode contains: Chatting off air, Hailee Steinfeld, trip to Mexico, scuba diving, honeymoon, bad at vacations, cashing out vacation time, working fast, worrying about work, work begets more work, Big (movie), not working too hard, technology has made us more productive

Geology Rocks! Earth’s deepest water, 620 miles is far?, how deep is the ocean?, diamonds, inclusions, deepest evidence of water in the planet, not an ocean, origin of water on Earth, deepest humans have gone into the Earth

http://www.iflscience.com/environment/earths-deepest-water-may-be-1000-kilometers-below-the-surface/

Robot Overlords: robot toddlers, how babies learn, toddlers are constantly learning, neural networks, testing parameters

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161128111406.htm

Westworld: timeline, different periods in the show, Turing test, The Bicameral Mind, non-liner story telling, Man in Black, The Maze, Maeve, why use this tech for Westworld, the outside world, robot slaves, The Singularity, later seasons, what’s in store for the last ep?, kill off Ford?

https://www.reddit.com/r/westworld/comments/5fbw8n/a_chronological_view_of_westworlds_timeline/?st=IW2XS81T&sh=aa8f6fe5

Q&A: Where does our atmosphere end?

This episode contains: Super special guest Miles Greb,  we talk about the impending release of the second issue of After the Gold Rush, his new graphic novel Clovis and it’s non-talking sloth. Steven gives a favorable review of the second issue of After the Gold Rush and tries to not spoil anything, but kinda has to. We learn that Miles was taught (by his father) that Lord of the Rings was real history. That’ll mess you up.

http://www.afterthegoldrush.space/

Violent Behavior:  We talk about a study done that revolves around consuming violent or sexual media and what kind of dreams you have afterwards. Miles and Devon have some good questions about the methodology of the study. We conclude that the study needs to be replicated and give our suggestions on how the study could be improved upon.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161115132558.htm

This week in Astronomy: Devon gives us a 30 second rundown on the Supermoon, what it is, and why some native people called it the Beaver moon.

Arrival: We all dive deep into a spoiler filled review of Arrival. We talk about different rating systems and how they apply to movies. While we all liked the movie, we did have some issues. Miles brings up a good point about why maths wasn’t used to communicate more in the film, and Steven tries to justify it by saying that it might have been tried off screen. Devon gives us a short review of Swiss Army Man and Miles tells us his thoughts on Star Trek Beyond.

Q&A: How fast do you need to be running to hit a wall and kill yourself?

This episode contains: Devon crashes all the Canadian websites, post-election show, the election was not close, poll methodology, Why were the polls wrong? Conservatives, punk votes, Trump was really a 3rd party, people really hate Hillary, Trump needs our help

Robot Overlords: Google AI, Starcraft 2, high scores are going away, Super Time Force, Starcraft explained, Starcraft is big in South Korea, blind chess, fog of war, AI is moving forward because of video games, watching sports games

https://www.geeksaresexy.net/2016/11/07/google-ai-machines-play-starcraft-ii/

Mysteries of the Deep: Pings from the sea, the animals are going away because of the ping, Green Peace may be responsible for the pings, swimming moose, Steven can read ahead, it may just all be ice breaking, The Bloop, unidentified sounds

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/37872553

Arrival and Dr. Strange: This may be one of the most studied elections of all time, more Westworld talk coming, Arrival, aliens with no explosions, how would we communicate with aliens? glass squids, good art may be coming, Dr. Strange, Saturday Night Live, Marvel is getting stale, Marvel Phase 4, Sigourney Weaver, Dr. Strange would have been better as a TV show, Book Talk

Q&A: Everyone flushing at the same time

This episode contains: World Series game 7, Steven does not understand baseball, curse of the goat, offensive sports mascots, even non-baseball fans would have liked game 7, presidential predictions,

Unnamed Science: Fossilized dinosaur brains, Steven explains fossilization, dinosaur Jesus, World Series update, pickled brains, What did they find in the dinosaur brain? Dinosaurs brains were bigger than we thought, we know nothing about dinosaurs brains, dinosaur nanobot brains

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161027175858.htm

Risky Business: Risk taking is caused by imbalanced brain activity, teens do drugs and have sex, designer drugs affect your brain, testing on rats, genetically altering rats brains for an analogue for teens, addiction runs in the family, Steven has really safe sex, we all do crazy things as teens, Steven Googles, Steven is really excited, LD50

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161017105555.htm

Video Games and Rain Delays: World Series update, Trump is the worst, generic book review, spoilers for Expanse, Red Dead Redemption, Gears of War updates are big, Alien Isolation, slow but intense, rain delay in the World Series, the first couple of hours of Alien Isolation is a whole lot of nothing, Ridley Scott made a cool world, ass end of nowhere, milk for blood androids, hiding is not an option, huge Alien game, Old Mans War

Q&A: LD50 caffeine question for Devon

http://www.caffeineinformer.com/death-by-caffeine

This episode contains: Back to back episodes, look at our different faces, Cavalia, Cirque de Sole for horses, curtain wrappings, dressage, Devon may have had a fever dream, no heavy drinking, Halloween Haunt, Devon has no fear, Steven and Devon are too analytical for haunted houses, who did Negan kill? Black Mirror, bad poker players, Firefly compared to Walking Dead, making fake barb wire, Devon can’t tear a Star Trek uniform

Internet Tomfoolery: Cyber-attack on the internet, DDoS, Steven explains websites, overwhelmed servers, fake requests, the internet of things, F5, refrigerators crashed the internet, multiple attacks almost brought down the internet, Steven went on a trip, Twitter crashed, Reddit is where Steven goes for news, lots of technical info on the internet attack, think about the internet like a highway, port 53, people refreshing pages increased the attack, clever attacks, Mr. Robot, natural problems increased, who claimed responsibility? Distraction may have been the reason for this attack, governments are testing cyber warfare, Iota has inside information on the cyber-attack

Black Mirror and Logan: Netflix is going in to debt, quality over quantity, Nose Dive, upvoting people, 5 star ranking, personal rankings for things in life, Black Mirror may have predicted the perfect society, fake nice, What if we could not work because of our personal rating? Fake smiles, people who reject the society of a Black Mirror episode, social media consultants, more content, B list celebrities, Ghost Brigades, cliff hangers, The Sagan Diary, itchy noses, I will not spell that word ever again, Logan trailer, Steven learns us about Logan, Steven explains a comic book story that sounds like Man in the High Castle, Wolverine as a pacifist, Devon thinks Logan will be about nothing, foot claws,

Q&A: How many laser pointers to kill a person?

This episode contains: Guardians of the Galaxy trailer, presidential debates, Devon thanks everyone, Trumps best debate, cringe worthy debates, Steven is following his first election, non answers, Trump has skills, bad stuff about Hillary, Trump has leveled up, Hillary is a politician, well rehearsed answers, sound bites, conservative talking points, good moderation, Devon does not know names, Steven Googles, half points, we are not changing the course of the election, Steven does not like negativity, bummers, debates are usually more respectful, hopefully Trump is gone soon, Steven doesn’t know terms, Trump is going to linger, Trump news network

Magic Mushrooms: A plant has been discovered that does not bloom, Devon teaches about words, Steven teaches us about plants, magic science, plants reproducing, genetic mixes, long names that Steven can’t say, flowers that don’t open, closed buds, host fungi, symbiotic relationships, big words that I cannot spell, hard to find plants, it is what it is, crazy plants do crazy things

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161014092115.htm

Evolutionarily Speaking: Milk teeth, baby teeth, fall teeth, seasonal teeth, teeth fall out but why? Jaw bones, convergent evolution, sharks have a lot of teeth, bones of attachment, no roots, old fish, new 3D, bone tissue scars, replacement teeth, Brazil absorption, why do we have baby teeth? Jaw alignment, mutations, long lasting teeth, teeth take resources, funny side notes, What do we do with our teeth?

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161017124015.htm

Speed Listening: Expanse books, Devon listens at double speed, 1.5 speed, consuming media, accents are hard at 2.0 speed, side stories, Devon listens to a lot of books, Expanse 3 rd book, point of view characters, crazy Venus, don’t spoil the book, SFP is better at 2.0 speed, half of a half, not a big spoiler, Westworld talk, Steven is concerned, Lost, no plan, Purgatory, no internet, wrote themselves in to a corner, next level story telling, mysteries in Westworld, long episodes, where is the story line going? Main loops, Westworld has go back potential, Teddy, Anthony Hopkins, back stories, Who’s real? AI, bicameral mind, China’s firewall, complex language, bicameral theory is too simple, robots become another thing, What is AI? Turing test, How do we define intelligence?

Q&A: How many lego bricks are in 100 pounds....

This episode contains: Devon watched all the sports, Jen is a red head now, Steven had ideas but did nothing, clean coal, banking on things that do not exist, Devon went on a hike in a park that no one knows about, Devon’s costume, people do not know about Star Trek, sets of pips, Devon boldly goes where no one has gone before.

This week in space: “OPED”, giant leaps to Mars, private entities are the keys to space, Steven Googles, grandiose goals, Devon can’t speak, Mars rovers, Orion crew vehicles, returning to the moon, we need the government to get to space, strategic reasons for space exploration.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/11/opinions/america-will-take-giant-leap-to-mars-barack-obama/

Self-Meditation: Alcohol is an anti-depressant, Steven reads, fast acting anti-depressants, we drink to feel better, depressed rats, depression while drinking, over stimulation by alcohol, don’t drink for therapy.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/09/160928153538.htm

Leviathan Westworld: Leviathan Wakes, everything is blowing up, Don Quixote references, Jen did research, better speech, what happens in the next book? New characters, Steven and Devon give the book 4/5, why do they need two authors, Old Man’s War, war comedies, Devon spoils the book for Steven, Westworld, Steven Googles, predictions for WestWorld, WestWorld has no sense of time, we really know nothing about WestWorld, FutureWorld, Questions & Answers.

This episode contains: Devon is hungover, speak easy’s, Devon is a lawyer (in case you didn’t hear it the other 500 times he’s mentioned it), fake guns, Edison lamps, Phantom of the Opera, weird stuff happens, Devon writes a back story, Giants clinch the wild card.

Next week in space: Musk presentation, generic plans, a trip to Mars needs to be comfortable, reusable rockets, multi planet species, What’s wrong with Musk’s plan? Entering and exiting the gravity well is hard, “chinsky”, orbiting modules, space travel is hard, gravity through acceleration, Steven can’t say a word, crash couches, something doesn’t make sense.

http://jalopnik.com/heres-how-to-fix-the-big-problems-with-elon-musks-mars-1787163420

Movies and Books: Passengers, only pretty people are allowed in the future, space chandeliers, Alien homages, space parodies, space sleeping is common, the dilations, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, water bubbles, Morse code, Leviathan Wakes, Devon has trouble with a word, pronunciations, what’s important? Things are happening fast, let’s all bang, Devon tells Steven everything, there is a “thing” Steven does not know about, crazy stuff is going on.

Passengers Trailer