Decipher SciFi

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

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:

Altered Carbon Season 2: memory, facial recognition, and xenoarchaeology Feb 25, 2020

Show notes

A review

We don’t normally do this, but…

Memory

Priming. Retrieval cues. Memory encoding, sotrage, and retrieval. Context-dependent memory. Getting drunk and finding your keys. Digital memory retrieval Facial recognition heuristics. Recognition vs reproduction.

Xenoarchaeology

Living amongst the runes. More AI! Deciphering alien technology.

Altered Carbon: Zoltan Istvan on transplant immortality, identity, and consciousness uploading: Decipher Scifi

Support the show!

Evolution: panspermia space rocks, periodic tables, and sooo much poison Feb 18, 2020

Show notes

Asteroids etc

Revisiting: asteroids vs meteors vs meteoroids vs meteorites vs who knows. Still confusing! How much space stuff hits Earth? Like, not just dust but things big enough to be impressed by. Who gets claim to Earth-impacting space rocks?

Panspermia

The idea that life can spread between worlds. Or maybe even stars (maybe not.)? The “soft hypothesis” of panspermia and the utility of primoridla ooze. The possibility of panspermia bringing life to primordial Earth. Cowboy scientists just leaving alien goo everywhere.

Periodic table of the elements

Chemical relationships via the periodic table. Actually-useful alternative periodic tables. Selenium toxicity, testosterone, and Brazil nuts. Arsenic. Marveling at 19th centtury arsenic popularity.

Matcha! It's so tasty.: Wikipedia

Support the show!

Picard: the moral center of Trek, supernovae, and Romulan stormtroopers Feb 11, 2020

Show notes

In which we discuss the first three episodes

Picard

We missed you Jean-Luc! Picard as the moral center of Star Trek, and the greatest of its captains.

Romulan supernova

Romulans. How to tell a Vulkan from a Romulan? Exploding stars. Detecting supernovae. The death cycle of a red supergiant. The reliability of physics across timelines/universes. The dangers of cleaving planets.

Federation Economics

“Post scarcity” with holodecks and replicators, and the realization that there is still a limited resource: energy. Star Trek Kardashev levels.

Synthetic life

Data. Lore. Data’s “daughter” from that one time on TNG. Bio-synthetic intelligent life. How important is embodiment?

Star Trek Beyond: drone swarms, teleporters, and decompression w/ Jolene Creighton: Decipher SciFi
Star Trek First Contact: transhumanism technology and ant behavior w/ Jolene Creighton: Decipher SciFi
Star Trek IV – The Journey Home: whale margarine, transparent aluminum, and time travel: Decipher SciFi
Star Trek Voyager: water, galactic scales, and coffee replicators: Decipher SciFi
Galaxy Quest: the best Star Trek movie: Decipher SciFi
Star Trek TNG: Netflix
The Picard Song by DarkMateria: YouTube

Support the show!

Halo: first contact, power armor, and how does master chief poop? w/ Daniel Barker Feb 04, 2020

Show notes

Importance

Nostalgia: wow Halo has really been around for a minute. Hundreds of hours of that one level of local multiplayer but never playing the story. Turning an RTS into a TPS and then an FPS and then getting that Microsoft money.

Figuring out the importance of Halo CE in the history of gaming. PC gaming master race. Tank-controlled console FPS games. Unseating Goldeneye. Establishing a timeline of FPS quality on consoles and PC.

First Contact

Humanity honing its warfare skills by just being jerks to other humans. Settling 800+ planets! “Glassing” enemy alien planets.

Put a ring on it

Ringworlds! But less a ring “world” and more a ring “weapons platofrm that also is fairly liveable.” The Drake Equation and the Fermi Paradox through the lens of Halo.

Armor

Master Chief vs Doom Guy. Measuring Hell energy. Mjolnir armor - a half ton and costs as much as a destroyer to produce. “Smart” and “dumb” AI delineations. Neural exoskeleton integration. PRedictive algorithms. Relating Master Chief to Upgrade. What about just putting an AI and some batteries inside of the Mjolnir armor? Falling from space.

Halo Foward Unto Dawn: Amazon
Uncertainty Principle: UncertaintyPrincipleThePodcast.com

Support the show!

The Secret of the Ooze: turtles, pizza, and irl toxic sludge Jan 28, 2020

Show notes

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

An incredible indie success story.

Pizza

Pizza popularity in the US post-WWII. Pizza classification arguments. Bread sauce cheese vs bread cheese sauce and the DRASTIC difference between the two. NYC Pizza ftw.

Wtf is a turtle

Turtles, tortoises, terrapins, and the difficulty with colloquial names. Putting them in the water to see which ones drows. Telescoping vs hinging necks.

Toxic ooze

Realizing the horrifying reason “toxic sludge” was in all of our childhood media. Joe’s story about that one superfund site that I can’t spell. Creating better ooze monsters. Honey badger? Mantis shrimp?

Nuclear waste

Short term nuclear waste storage and the problem with active maintenance. Long-term nuclear waste storage and keeping things safe after humanity. Long-term nuclear waste warning messages. The limits of language and pictograms. Designing for “bad vibes.”

This place is a message… and part of a system of messages …pay attention to it! Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture. This place is not a place of honor … no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here… nothing valued is here. What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger. The danger is in a particular location… it increases towards a center… the center of danger is here… of a particular size and shape, and below us. The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours. The danger is to the body, and it can kill. The form of the danger is an emanation of energy. The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically. This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.

TMNT decayed costume nightmare fuel: Twitter
Why danger symbols can’t last forever by Vox & 99pi: YouTube
10 Thousand Years: 99% Invisible

Support the show!

The Thirteenth Floor: Yo dawg I heard you liked the simulation hypothesis Jan 21, 2020

Show notes

This movie

Yo dog, I heard you liked simulations. Server-room LAN rave parties. choosing your simulated period for fun, profit, and lack of complications.

Simulation

Plato’s shadows on a cave wall. Maybe shadows all the way down, and turtles all the way up! The simulatability of our perceived reality.

The argument

The simulation argument made distinct from the simulation hypothesis. Considering possible “great filters” that could prevent technological progress reaching the point where a reality simulation is possible.

Difficulties

The possible impossibility of simulating a whole universe in what may itself be a finite universe. Video game engine-corner cutting analogies for the reality sim. Kardashev scales and simulation ability.

Reality

But is it “real” and does it even matter? “I think therefore I am.” Mind uploading and downloading and VR “death.

Inception: iTunes Amazon
The Matrix: iTunes Amazon YouTube
The Matrix - green phosphors, neuroplasticity, and rejecting utopia w/ Adrian Falcone: Decipher SciFi
The Truman Show - objects visible from space, dome megastructues, and reality testing: Decipher Scifi

Support the show!

Highlander 2: time travel, aliens, and complete and utter nonsense w/ Joe Ruppel Jan 14, 2020

Show notes

Mythology

Taking a simple mysterious mythology and explaining it for fun and profit*.