Decipher SciFi

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Natural Sciences
**Decipher SciFi**

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 rationally optimistic look, through film, at where society and technology are and where they are headed. Also, butts.

Latest Episodes:

28 Days Later: zombie attacks, survival skills, and a quarrel about plagues w/ Jolene Creighton Oct 11, 2016

Show notes

Lab Safety

Security in researching highly contagious zombie viruses. Animal liberation.

Biological Infection

Viruses, parasites, R0, monkeys. Infection rates. Bloodborne illness.

Zombies

Zombie taxonomy. Do these count as zombies? A disgreement. Fainting goats.

Preparedness

CDC recommendations. Weapon choice. Get on a boat.

Hospital Escape

Cillian Murphy’s wiener. Playing God.

Shaun of the Dead: iTunes Amazon
Dead Island: Steam
Brookhaven Experiment for HTC Vive:

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Dracula: Vlad the Impaler, Elizabethan sexuality, and Kenau's awesome accent w/ Joe Ruppel Oct 04, 2016

Show notes

Keanu

We love Keanu. But that accent! Oy vey. And standing across from Gary Oldman, no less.

Vlad

Vlad history lesson. Spikes in the butt. Motivations.

Elizabethan Sexuality

Promiscuity, puritanism. Syphilis. Bloooood.

Vampire Rules

How to vampire.

Eating/drinking Blood

Maasi blood drinking. Blood preparations in various world cuisines. Blood fetishes?

Science vs Supernaturalism

In the period and place.

Bram Stoker's Dracula by Bram Stoker: Project Gutenberg iTunes Amazon Librivox
Dracula (1931): iTunes Amazon

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Robinson Crusoe on Mars: Mars history, golden age space, and scientific accuracy Sep 27, 2016

Show notes

Steven Seagal

Adam West, pre-Batman. An impressive entrance and an early, unfortunate exit.

Scientific Accuracy

Surprisingly reasonable space tech and portrayal of mars! For the time.

The Martian

Commonalities. Scientific accuracy with the knowledge of the time.

Mars

Bowser fireballs. Atmosphere.

History of our Knowledge of Mars

Galileo, albido mapping, canali, Percivall Lowell, modern missions.

Planetary Exploration

How to explore a new planet

Open mask
Breathe deeply
Cross your fingers

Martian Resources and Features

Water, underwater sausage plants, red vines, air, atmosphere. Ice caps, aurora, vulcanism.

Columbus on Mars

Exploration and enslaving people. Friday, Friday. Gotta get down on Friday. Culture and intelligence.

The Martian: iTunes Amazon
The Martian on Decipher SciFi: Decipher SciFi

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Planet of the Apes : Episode 56 Sep 20, 2016

Show notes

Just a normal day in the studio Relativity time travel

Jerky Charlton Heston. 99.999995% the speed of light. Time dilation.

The Mission

Settle? Explore? Three men and one women on a colonization mission. Charlton Heston is a bad person.

Moon on the brain

Exploding moons, broken moons, moon impacts. Callbacks: Cowboy Bebop, Seveneves, Deep Impact

Language

Biology of speech. Cognitive speech development. Language evolution.

Animal Intelligence

Octopuses, corvids, elephants, various apes. Mostly chimps. Tool use, language. Moving the goalposts.

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari: iTunes Amazon
Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal: iTunes Amazon

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Cowboy Bebop: biodomes, scifi westerns, and weather control Sep 13, 2016

Show notes

Meta

Cowboy Bebop the series, Yoko Kanno, style points.

Space Western

Shades of Firefly.

Gate Disaster

Shades of Seveneves and Deep Impact. Meteor impacts are becoming a recurring theme!

Settling Mars

Biodomes, marscrete, martian soil, regolith, constructive impacts. Terraforming. Biodomes.

Weather Control

China! Weather control before and after the Beijing Olympics. Cold and warm cloud seeding. Chemicals. Super-frozen, uncrystallized. water.

Cowboy Bebop the Series: Funimation
Voices from L5: Patreon

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Deep Impact: citizen scientists, extinction events, and avoidance Sep 06, 2016

Show notes

Citizen Astronomy

People. Computers. Computer vision. KIC 8462852.

E.L.E.

Extinction level events. Dinosaur impact. Impactor scales.

Impactor Types

Meteors, meteorites, meteors, comets, asteroids.

Avoiding Impacts

Gentle (nuclear bombs), and less gentle (gravity tug) methods of redirecting impactors.

Earth Impacts

Tunguska, dinosaur impact. The difference between a small number of large impacts and a large number of small ones.

Humanity’s Fate

Floods, atmospheric disruption, a world aflame from the heat of a million impactors.

The Formation of the Moon: YouTube
Asteroids in Resonance with Jupiter: YouTube
Death from the Skies by Phil Plait: iTunes Amazon
Solar System Collision Calculator: Astronomy Workshop

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The Day the Earth Stood Still: Gort, nonviolence, and aliens w/ Scott W Indiana Aug 30, 2016

Show notes

Origins

Short story “Farewell to the Master” by Harry Bates. Cold War paranoia. 50s.

Aliens

Humanoid and otherwise. Sex with aliens? Alien life from Mars, Venus, or maybe even moons of Jupiter.

Period Things

Everybody smokes. Letting your kid go around town with strange men. Independent women of the 50s. More smoking.

Language

Emray Klaatu naruat macro proval brarato lukto denso implikit yavo tarri axell plakatio baringa degas.

Gort

Gort’s real concerns. Who is the real master? Open source space police operating systems.

Atomic Power

The atomic energy scene in the 50s. Great power and great responsibility.

Violence

Whoever carries the biggest stick seems to be right.

Lotus Dimension: Lotus Dimension

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Star Trek First Contact: transhumanism technology and ant behavior w/ Jolene Creighton Aug 23, 2016

Show notes

Time Travel Choices

Why 2063? World War 3. Population. Booming warp drive economy.

Borg Fighting

Defensive strategies. Best weapons for fighting the borg: bats or sneakers?

Borg Origins

“Borgigins.” Transhumanism. Definitions of evolution.

Borg Behaviour/Design

Like ants! And maybe bees a little. But mostly ants! Comm techs. Bee-dance grammar.

Warp Drive

Alcubbiere drives, distorting space-time. Antimatter is expensive!

Star Trek: Amazon

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Hardcore Henry: super fun action, VR media, and motion sickness Aug 16, 2016

Show notes

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.

How Hardcore Henry's POV shots were made by Ian Failes: FXGuide
The Stampede by Biting Elbows: YouTube
Bad Motherfucker by Biting Elbows: YouTube

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Seveneves: impactors, guided evolution, and radiation shields w/ Daniel Mann Aug 09, 2016

Show notes

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!

The Day The Moon Blew Up by Bill Gates: GatesNotes

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