Science Faction Podcast

This episode contains: All three hosts are present and accounted for. Devon wants to go big for Halloween. Devon and Steven had a weekend long date where Devon tried Pumkin Spice Latte at Starbucks and played a ton of games. This included Wingspan, Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps, and D&D. Steven was the DM for a Jurassic Park themed D&D session. Steven and Devon then argue over the quality of the hotel they stayed in. Meanwhile, Ben went to a wedding and ended up living it up in San Diego with his sister. Ben also teaches us about Kava Kava root and then we argue about it. (https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/kava-kava#TOC_TITLE_HDR_3) (https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/is-kava-safe/)   The Beautiful Future: Humane Finally Shows Off What the Ai Pin Looks Like Ahead of November 9 Unveil. The intelligent clothing-based wearable uses a range of sensors that enable natural and intuitive compute interactions and is designed to weave seamlessly into users’ day-to-day lives. The device is privacy-

This episode contains: Steven and Ben are joined by Ben's son playing video games in the background. When do you get "you time" when you're a parent? Steven's looking for that time. Ben suggests recontextualizing "you time" by indoctrinating his son with Star Trek. With two kids: turns out when one kid wants something, the other doesn't. Why do kids want to fight things that COULD BE FUN!??! JUST GET IN THE CAR! I guess "giving things a chance" is a form of maturity. Ben is going to a kids birthday, and then his friend's wedding. Is this the Science Faction Therapy Hour? HELL NO. Now You See Me: Let's talk about digital assistants for the visually impaired. OKO App leverages AI to help blind pedestrians recognize traffic signals. https://www.forbes.com/sites/gusalexiou/2023/08/10/oko-app-deploys-ai-to-make-crossing-the-street-safer-for-blind-pedestrians/?sh=55bff018687b At the end of 2020, the New York City Department of Transportation had a class action lawsuit filed because only 443 of the city's 13,20

This episode contains: Devon and Steven start out this episode lamenting Ben's absence. We talk about Devon's upcoming trip to California, and Steven's journey with the Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps game. Devon is going to a sort-of costume party while dressing up as a starfleet officer with an alien chestburster coming out. We also chat about kids and xenomorphs. Steven's house should have burned down, but several thousand dollars later, everything is fine.    This Week in Space: Water world? Methane, carbon dioxide in atmosphere of massive exoplanet. K2-18 b, an exoplanet 8.6 times as big as earth, has revealed the presence of carbon-bearing molecules including methane and carbon dioxide. It could be a Hycean exoplanet, one which has the potential to possess a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and a water ocean-covered surface. We chat about how we could possibly know anything about this planet.  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230911141059.htm    Spit Take: Why People Hate Words Like "Moi

This episode contains: We’re caffeinated and ready to podcast. Devon and Steven stayed up really late last night playing Baldur’s Gate3. Steven’s AC is not working and Ben is getting a new microwave. Ben had his first roller derby experience.     This Week in Space: The closest planet to Neptune turns out to be... Mercury. While Mercury is the innermost planet in the Solar System, on average it spends more time closer to Earth than Venus does. This applies to all the planets the solar system, including Neptune. ​To identify our closest neighbor, engineers affiliated with NASA, Los Alamos National Observatory, and the US Army's Engineer Research Development Center built a computer simulation to calculate the average proximity of Earth to its three nearest planets (Mars, Venus, and Mercury) over a 10,000-year-period. Because of the way the planets align during their respective orbits, the model shows that Earth spends more time nearer to Mercury than either Venus or Mars. ​ https://www.iflscience.com/the-close

Patreon-only preshow: Do people have to cite their sources at ITT Tech? Steven says no. Steven got some Marvel Studios blind bag LEGO, gave a Patreon member one of his 80s Storm minifigs. Ben waxes poetic on the joys of opening trading cards, and rails against collecting things that are “maybe” worth money. Was 90s collectible culture a manifestation of the side-hustle? How cool is it to make indie films? This episode contains: Morning podcasting is a very different vibe than evening podcasting. Twitter is dead, long live notes. Will these notes be a novel? If you're interested in reading a novel about bounty hunting, touch base with Steven. Bounty hunters are cool. How do they work? Cowboy Bebop live action is good, but if you've seen the anime, don't watch it! It's terrible compared to the anime. What a trip!: Psychedelic Therapy May Be Coming To A VR Headset Near You. Hallucinogenic drugs may have positive effects in fighting depression, PTSD and substance use disorders. What if psychedelic drug-based ther

This episode contains: Everyone is here this week! Steven chats about camping, and spider attacks on a lake. Ben watched Super Mario Bros. in a field with a bunch of rude youths. We revisit the biolocks on guns debate with input from a special listener.  Insane in the Membrane: Woman’s mystery illness turns out to be 3-inch snake parasite in her brain. A woman in Australia had many symptoms that did not point to a specific disease. Eventually doctors found a snake parasite in her brains. She may have been infected after foraging for warrigal greens.  https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/08/australian-woman-has-3-inch-snake-parasite-pulled-from-her-brain/  Biologically Speaking: Pig kidney xenotransplantation performing optimally after 32 days in human body. Surgeons at NYU Langone Health have transplanted a genetically engineered pig kidney that continues to function well after 32 days in a man declared dead by neurologic criteria and maintained with a beating heart on ventilator support. We discuss the famil

This episode contains: Steven and Ben helm this episode. Ben discusses his Chess Renaissance (https://www.youtube.com/@chessplus). Steven tells us about the first week of school and delicious freedom. Ben shares some feedback from a listener about biolocks on guns.   Vaccination Fixation: Fall COVID shots will boost protection against latest subvariants, Moderna says. Pfizer vaccine also reportedly effective against the latest omicrons in mice. https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/08/fall-covid-shots-will-boost-protection-against-latest-subvariants-moderna-says/  New malaria vaccine works well in infants, offers adults layered protection. New vaccine targets a distinct stage in the malarial parasite's life cycle. https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/08/new-malaria-vaccine-works-well-in-infants-offers-adults-layered-protection/    Squeezing Electricity from a Stone: Energy-storing supercapacitor from cement, water, black carbon. Engineers have created a 'supercapacitor' made of ancient, abundant materials, tha

This episode contains: Ben's "the problem" this week and Devon's going back to school. What would Devon's show be like? Kindergardner Lawyer! Steven's hanging in there for the end of Summer. When the kids are in school, that's when the stay-at-home parents get a break. Ben loves his Coinops Legends 4 on the Steam Deck. Arcade goodness. Steven is going through the Ahsoka Essentials on Disney+. Watching Ahsoka's chronological story (as opposed to airdate order) is very satisfying. Just keep talking about AI: AI-powered grocery bot suggests recipe for toxic gas, “poison bread sandwich." An AI-powered recipe bot has been made to help you use up leftovers in new recipes. What if a recipe AI was given harmful ingredients? From ammonia and bleach you get "Aromatic Water Mix". Devon joins the show in the middle of Ben's sentence. "Aromatic Water Mix" is made of ammonia and bleach, but at least it's non-alcoholic! If something is AI powered, turn up your skepticism. Ben drops the mike, but HE'S NOT DONE! Thankfully th

This episode contains: Devon, Ben and Steven are all excited for their kids to go back to school! We talk about school supplies, magnet schools and space camps.  You Did What?!: They just bought the only physical encyclopedia still in print, and they regret nothing. $1200 will get you a 22 volume print encyclopedia. Ben is excited, but Steven isn't convinced. Devon once had a Star Trek encyclopedia.  https://arstechnica.com/culture/2023/06/rejoice-its-2023-and-you-can-still-buy-a-22-volume-paper-encyclopedia/  https://www.amazon.com/How-Invent-Everything-Survival-Stranded/dp/073522014X  https://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-Rebuild-Civilization-Aftermath-Cataclysm/dp/0143127047  Exploits!: Social media algorithms exploit how humans learn from their peers. In prehistoric societies, humans learned from members of their ingroup or prestigious individuals. Social media algorithms are misaligned with social instincts which can lead to large-scale polarization and misinformation. We talk quite a bit about social medi

This episode contains: All three of us are here on this cosmic journey. We all discuss having to be solo dads for a few days. Ben tells us about Goose, a 4 month old pig at the State Fair. Then there’s “X” for some reason. Is it Alive?: GPT-3 can reason about as well as a college student, psychologists report. The artificial intelligence language model GPT-3 performed as well as college students in solving certain logic problems like those that appear on standardized tests. The researchers who conducted the experiment write that the results prompt the question of whether the technology is mimicking human reasoning or using a new type of cognitive process. Solving that question would require access to the software that underpins GPT-3 and other AI software. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/07/230731110750.htm    Water, Water Everywhere: Dissolving circuit boards in water sounds better than shredding and burning. UK-based Jiva Materials makes Soluboard, printed circuit boards (PCBs) from natural fiber

This episode contains: We got listener feedback this episode... FOR A DIFFERENT PODCAST! Did someone just learn to swear? Wouldn't it be cool if we were guests on some other Science Faction Podcasts? Why did we name this show Science Faction? Remember the Pure BS Podcast? We shout out "PS4 Tom." Nobody gave Devon a PS4. He's sad about it.  I didn't have enough time to have the AI write a title for this one... so this is it: Google demos “unsettling” tool to help journalists write the news. Remember when Ben used AI to help write poetry? Now Google wants journalism to use AI too. Google's "Genesis" AI tool for journalism writing has been called "unsettling". Buzzfeed, CNET, and Gizmodo have all had pushback for publishing AI-written articles. Remember when io9 was shamed for an error-filled Star Wars article? https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/io9-ai-generated-star-wars-article-errors-1235662194/  Asking AI to write an article about Terminator is how we get Skynet. Will AI one day become indispensible to w

This episode contains: Ben and Steven do their worst (by which I mean their best) this episode. No Devon no cry. Ben went to a Renaissance Faire with his son and tells us all about it. Steven and his wife had a date night, with tacos.  Light, Keep It Light: Light-based “LiFi” is stunningly fast, notably fragile—and now standardized. Wireless communication now has a choice between radio and light waves, but this choice comes at a cost. LiFi has a ability to be extremely fast, but requires line-of-sight to be successful. We're looking forward to future developments!  https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07/light-based-lifi-promises-amazing-wireless-speeds-just-not-through-walls/  Aaaaauugggghhhhh: Surgical and engineering innovations enable unprecedented control over every finger of a bionic hand. A multidisciplinary team of surgeons and engineers have crafted a bionic arm with unparalled functionality. This prosthetic arm required rewiring nerves, osseointegration, and AI algorithms to function. It's amazing.

This episode contains: All three hosts are with us on the case. Devon complaints about the bad food in East Texas and what makes a good pizza. Steven then tells us about the Threads and Twitter war. Ben tells us about the chaos of his son’s birthday party and Devon tells us about his long drive to and from Virginia.   Evolutionarily Speaking: Why do animals keep evolving into crabs? Crabby bodies are so evolutionarily favorable, they've evolved at least five different times. So why does this process, known as carcinization, keep happening? https://www.livescience.com/animals/crustaceans/why-do-animals-keep-evolving-into-crabs    Never Smile at a Crocodile: From 1907 until its relocation in 1953, the area of Lincoln Heights was home to what the Los Angeles Times dubbed “the city’s most exotic residents”: a thousand-strong collection of alligators that welcomed visitors every day of the year to see, pose with, and even ride them. https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/los-angeles-alligator-farm  https://w

Pre-pod Patreon-only: Wouldn't it be great if it was Indy 500 instead of Indy 5? Who's in Extraction? Chris "The Dentist" Hemsworth. This week, Steven messes up the opening of the show for once. This episode contains: We're just loving life this episode. I don't know what it is about being 40. It sucks, is what it is. Ben burns the bottoms of his feet off at a water park.  Steven drove down and back from Disneyland to surprise his family. For real. Shout out to the Yub Nub Podcast and Tim Barnes! We got to have him back on. Mickey's Toontown has a new ride?!?! Sweet! Can we just throw money away to fix our problems? Or do we have to do hard work? Ben saw the musical Once at the SLORep. It was incredible! Happy birthday to Ben's wife! We're curious why you listen to this podcast! Let us know at sciencefactionpodcast@gmail.com This Week in Space: Galaxies are not scattered randomly across the universe. "The nearby universe" is one of our favorite phrases ever. "The epoch of reionization" would be a killer prog-

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://a

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

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

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-unearth

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

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 wed