World of Weird Things Podcast

Evil is a term thrown around a lot these days, but it’s true that in virtually everyone’s view of the world, they’re either victims defending themselves or standing up for the right things rather than villains with ice in their veins on a rampage. The problem with that narrative is how they square the very real damage they leave in their wake with all supposed goodness. Well, as it so turns out, our brains and enough groups of fellow travelers have very effective ways to persuade and delude us into not merely thinking positive thoughts, but justifying downright atrocities when needed.

For well over a century, humans have dreams of settling other words, so it’s only a matter of time until we finally set out to do it. But that may take a lot longer than we think, the astronauts we send may not be human the way we think of it today, and a colony on an extrasolar world may look like some sleek, angular version of Dubai, or termite mound the size of an island housing millions of people instead of a just a few thousand. Oh, and the spaceships would resembles hypersonic gliders and missiles than spinning wheels and cylinders. And all of that would happen for very good and ever better understood reasons…

Despite that fact that scientists don’t really think we live in an elaborate simulation ran either by aliens or humans in what would be the far future from our point of view, it’s a belief popular enough to form think tanks, cults, and warrant headlines that generate millions of clicks. But where does this theory really come from? What do papers about it actually say, and do they use sound science? And why do so many people embrace it so quickly and wholeheartedly? The Fishes dive into computing, physics, the laws of entropy and time, and New Age cults to find the answers.

You’ve heard the story a million times. Giant lizards ruled the Earth until a comet or a meteor the size of Mount Everest wiped them all out. Except they weren’t lizards. Or as giant as we thought. Or were completely wiped out by a comet. We revisit the odd history of what scientists thought killed the dinosaurs and how, why the debate was never really settled, and how the controversy that’s almost never covered became a long-running battle of ideas between two theories, both with solid evidence and very compelling data to make their case.

Optimism is great. It’s not a thing I personally ascribe to, being from Eastern Europe and all, but a lot of people sure do. Among those people are tech oligarchs who have a very, shall we say, particular vision for the kind of sci-fi utopia they would like us to inhabit and spoiler alert, we don’t do all that well in said utopia because it’s meant for them rather than peasants with less than nine figures of net worth. Lucky for us, most of their plans are not going to work out the way they think after physics, biology, and math weigh in. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, they’ve been at this for more than two decades now, as detailed by a brief history of WoWT…

For as long as IQ tests and scoring existed, an awful lot of people were obsessed with them and how to rank others. But do these scores actually mean anything? Do off the charts IQs actually exist? And how do people with high scores fare in the real world? As it so turns out, yes, you’re probably better off with a higher score, but not for reason you may think because the reality is that these tests have deep flaws in the way they’re used, and how they’re studied.

Tired of doctors telling you to see specialists, wait for test results, and run across town to five different facilities to get different treatments? Social media conspiracy theorists have a much better alternative. It’s a device that looks like a sleek MRI and cures all your ills, from terminal cancer to the sniffles, to depression, and they’ll hook you up with people selling parts of these magical devices until a government led by the right people releases them for free to humanity.

If that sounds a lot like something you saw in Elysium, Prometheus, Passengers, Stargate and other sci-fi franchises, you are correct. That’s the only place such things can exist for the next few hundred years at least. So how did social media shysters convince a whole lot of people that fictional devices are real and being withheld from them for whatever nefarious reason will get the best clicks? We’ll dive deep to find the answers.

Late last year, the long-awaited AI monster has finally awakened. It’s first victims? Blogs, news, commercial art, college essays, social media, and a functioning, civil society that can agree on a basic set of facts. And believe it or not, that was just its warmup act. We take a deep dive into what runaway software can do to a world that’s not ready for it, how to regain control, why we missed literally a century of warnings this moment was coming, and what stands in our way. Plus, an announcement about the future of WoWT.

Crypto winter is now upon us, and people have lost thousands of dollars, if not their life savings on nebulous solutions in search of a problem. But why was there so much enthusiasm for NFTs, crypto scams, and visions of a new micropayment-based internet that were sold with nothing but brash tech bros vomiting high speed technobabble? Is there something to crypto after all? Or is the entire crypto market fueled by nothing but con men and their desperate marks?

Space, the final frontier, a place of endless possibility, wonder, and opportunity. And a whole lot of weird stuff that challenges your ideas of what you think you knew about the universe you inhabit. So, to start off the year, we’re taking you on a quick tour through the solar system and beyond to talk about some odd observations and theories you might not have heard before, from Saturn’s disappearing -- yes, disappearing -- rings, to a really good and slightly disturbing reason we haven’t heard from any intelligent aliens yet. Along the way, we’ll also debate what makes a planet a planet, and send some shout outs to some relevant TV shows and fun videos.