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:

Sunshine: the lifecycle of a star, solar sails, and Captain America in space Jan 05, 2016

Show notes

Dying Sun

Sun science. Stages and timeline of sun death.

Spaceship

Solar radiation. Reflector shields. Ion drive. Magical gravity. Oxygen garden. Sun room.

The Crew

LOVE pragmatic Chris Evans. Our favorite person. Cillian is always great. Earth room holo tech. The different captains and their madness. Jumping through space! PS: we’ve covered this before, in episode 1.

Third Act

Thoughts on the third act juxtaposed with the first two.

Tough Decisions

Why return trip? Rendezvous a good idea? Thinning the herd. Pragmatic Chris Evans again.

Bomb Scene

We looooooooooove the score around this whole thing.

Post-Credits Secret Scene

An alleged intro to the Sunshine script by Alex Garland:
Solaris: iTunes Amazon

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Our Favorite SciFi TV: dystopias, sentient machines, Star Trek, etc Dec 29, 2015

Show notes

We realize that there are some very obvious omissions from our lists. In the episode we address these, so check out the episode to see how we treat your favorite thing!

We welcome you to contact us to tell us how wrong we are. Please! Especially if we left out your very obvious #1. We’d like to hear from you.

Science Fiction Film Podcast - Top 5 Sci-Fi TV Shows:
Black Mirror: Netflix
Babylon 5: iTunes Amazon
Battlestar Galactica: iTunes Amazon
Humans: iTunes Amazon
Futurama: iTunes Amazon

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Elysium: power suits, wealth gaps, and an O'Neill cylinder Dec 22, 2015

Show notes

Language

Spanish, French, Transatlantic Accent. Class identifier. Norman invasion. Linguistic bigotry.

Rich Folks

Facial branding. Fancy Pip Boys. Differences in rich and poor tech.

Magical Healing Chamber

How does it work? Neurological limitations. Altering personality.

Neural Tech

Brain storage implants. Encryption. Kill switches.

Exo Suits

REALLY cool installation montage. Order of installation operations. Current tech. Warhammer Space Marines.

Space Settlement

Voices from L5! Space planes. Torus settlements. Artificial gravity. Division of rich and poor. Space exploration

Stanford Torus Donald Davis CC-0

Voices From L5:
The High Frontier - by Gerard O'Neill: Amazon
District 9: Amazon

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Battlefield Earth: L Ron Hubbard, fermi paradox, and intergalactic war w/ Daniel Mann Dec 15, 2015

Show notes

50s Pulp Stories

Chewed to bits by giant turtles! The Pulpiest Pulp.

The pulp school L. Ron Hubbard came from. The book should not stand out much against this background. Except it came out in the 80s!

The Film

DUTCH TILTS. The book Hubbard most wanted made into a movie. Travolta stood behind it as a love letter to Scientology. Reportedly, interference from Scientology higher-ups destroyed the whole thing, and then they threw John Travolta under the bus.

Earth After 1000 Years

Nature would take over. Paper would waste away. People would… start to act like chimps? Chernobyl. The Koream DMZ.

The Fermi Paradox

Read about the paradox on Wikipedia. The Psychlos as the great filter. They’re Made Out of Meat on The Truth Podcast.

Judging Alien Intelligence

Psychlos underestimating humans. Tool use and language.

Alien Design

In the book, they were feline! Douchey Klingons. Breathable atmosphere. High and low gravity. Cats are jerks.

Intergalactic Civilization

Why gold? Why slaves? Corporate space exploitation.

Battlefield Earth - by L Ron Hubbard: iTunes Amazon
Life After People: iTunes Amazon
Looking beyond the Cover and baggage of Battlefield Earth - by Jason Heller: AV Club
The Fermi Paradox: Wait But Why

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Ghost in the Shell: scifi anime, computer evolution, and cybernetics Dec 08, 2015

Show notes

Anime

We watched a lot of it in highschool. How this film transcends the norm. Timeline of anime and the cyberpunk aesthetic.

Influence

The influences that went into this movie. The huge influence this movie had on everything after.

Plot

For once we have to lay out the plot of the movie in detail, because it’s kind of complicated!

The Opening Scene

Awesome. Exploding heads. Japanese pornography laws. Encryption as armament.

Cybernetics/Cyborgs

The spectrum on jacked-in-ness in the movie. Taxonomy of androids, cyborgs, and robots.

The Soul/Ghost

Mind-body dualism. The treatment of consciousness in the film.

Evolution in Binary

Emergent AI. What is life? Evolution of digital life forms.

Ghost in the Shell (original manga): Amazon
Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex: iTunes Amazon
The Matrix: iTunes Amazon

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Gattaca: retrofuturism, eugenics, and the ethics of designer babies Dec 01, 2015

Show notes

Why does everyone love this movie?

Underdogs, sticking it to the man, engaging with our sense of justice and living the American Dream! Or something.

Genetic Determinism

The world of Gattaca banks on this big-time, but in real it’s much more complicated. Nature AND nurture. People are more than the genes they start with.

Designer Babies

Current practices with in vitro and in vivo baby testing. Down syndrome.

The New Eugenics

Racism. “Positive” and “negative.” American eugenics programs. Medical choices are eugenic.

Genetic Discrimination

Loooooong list of inconveniences Ethan Hawke has to keep up with to not get caught. Financial arrangements. Colloquial speech in Andrew Niccol’s films.

Genetic Determinism and Gene Therapy in Gattaca - by David A Kirby:
In Time - Decipher SciFi episode 11:

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Limitless: nootropics, brain myths, and types of intelligence Nov 24, 2015

Show notes

How they produced the “zoom” sequences in the film. Color grading.

Brain Drugs

Drugs as tools. 20% brain myth. Christopher’s past caffeine issues. Drugs have side effects, like blacking out, maybe murdering folks.

Intelligence

How do we define intelligence? Social? Knowledge? Pattern recognition? Analysis? Synthesis? Crazy neuro physical adaptation.

Thought Experiments

Would you want the drug? How could this affect society? Going into politics?

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The Martian: scientific accuracy, mars colonies, and poop potatoes Nov 17, 2015

Show notes

The Film’s Marketing

Really cool Youtube channel. Neil deGrasse Tyson. Spoiler policies.

The Book

Serially published on Andy Weir’s blog. Accidental best-seller.

Nailed the Science

Research. Space travel is dangerous. Radiation shielding.

IRL Travel to Mars

Mars One. Space X. ELON MUSK. Settlement.

Water on Mars

Liquid salinated water. Frozen water under surface. NASA sterilization.

Worth it?

Robots? Human inspiration.

Settling/Colonizing Mars

Growing or shipping food.

Resourcefulness of Astronauts

Pretty much have to be MacGyver. Overcoming functional fixedness.

Digital Dads - Exploring the Final Frontier: Part 1 Part 2
The Case For Mars - by Robert Zubrin: iTunes Amazon
Spin - by Robert Charles Wilson: iTunes Amazon

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In Time: immortality, phramaceutical blockchain DRM, and boredom. Nov 10, 2015

Show notes

Biological Immortality

Telomeres. Telomerease. Garbage collection. Avoiding cancer. The Immortalists.

Biopharmaceutical DRM

Bitcoin. Digital wealth transfer. Terminator genes. Bio-pharma IP law.

Economics and Time Inflation

Wealth and life evaporate with each passing second. This is on top of inflation used on purpose to thin the herd. Time in the film must be only artificially finite.

Stratified Society

Geographic and economic lockdown. Banlieue 13. [youtube]Md30EDh60Us[/youtube]

Tech

Skin displays. Biological immortality. Payphones. Electric classic cars.

Time Security

Cillian Murphy is lawful good. Minute men. Bad system design: could use personal transfer limits. Arm wrestling.

Immortality getting boring

Hoarding of wealth. Artificial scarcity.