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162: Wet Blanket Jul 27, 2017

Show notes

Tommy and Adam take off the rose-colored glasses and look at science and technology through a more pessimistic lens for a change...for the most part. :)

Links for this episode:

Road rage drivers will bully self-driving cars, suggests study
TechRadar: "When our roads are entirely populated by self-driving cars it's expected that they'll be safer and more pleasant to drive on, but while we transition towards this, aggressive drivers are likely to make things difficult."
Dan Ariely Takes on 'Irrational' Economic Impulses
Dan Ariely: "My good friends Uri Gneezy (a professor at the University of California at San Diego) and Aldo Rustichini (a professor at the University of Minnesota) provided a very clever test of the long-term effects of a switch from social to market norms. A few years ago, they studied a day care center in Israel to determine whether imposing a fine on parents who arrived late to pick up their children was a useful deterrent. Uri and Aldo concluded that the fine didn't work well, and in fact it had long-term negative effects. Why? Before the fine was introduced, the teachers and parents had a social contract, with social norms about being late. Thus, if parents were late — as they occasionally were — they felt guilty about it — and their guilt compelled them to be more prompt in picking up their kids in the future. (In Israel, guilt seems to be an effective way to get compliance.) But once the fine was imposed, the day care center had inadvertently replaced the social norms with market norms. Now that the parents were paying for their tardiness, they interpreted the situation in terms of market norms. In other words, since they were being fined, they could decide for themselves whether to be late or not, and they frequently chose to be late."
Why you need a dash cam in china and Russia.
"Crazy insurance scammers!"
MetroMile
MetroMile: "Car insurance based on how much you drive. Pay a low base rate plus pennies per mile."
The Beguiling Promise Of John Goodenough's New Battery Technology
Forbes: "Google's Eric Schmidt tweeted this week about a new fast-charging battery technology from John Goodenough, the inventor of the lithium-ion battery, Dr. Maria Braga and his research team in the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas in Austin."
This fully transparent solar cell could make every window and screen a power source
ExtremeTech: "Back in August 2014, researchers at Michigan State University created a fully transparent solar concentrator, which could turn any window or sheet of glass (like your smartphone’s screen) into a photovoltaic solar cell."
AI Creates 3D Models From Faces | Two Minute Papers #149
"Photorealistic Facial Texture Inference Using Deep Neural Networks"
Lyrebird
"Record 1 minute from someone's voice and Lyrebird can compress her/his voice's DNA into a unique key. Use this key to generate anything with its corresponding voice."
Roundtable: The DLC "Problem"
GameIndustry: "Our staff discusses the issues surrounding DLC and whether gamers are being exploited."
I miss the days when I only had to pay once for a video game
Business Insider: "These days, game companies and developers are monetizing their games to their full potential. It’s not enough to sell a game just once: If you don’t sell extra content, you could be leaving millions of dollars on the table."
Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle
In George Orwell’s “1984,” government censors erase all traces of news articles embarrassing to Big Brother by sending them down an incineration chute called the “memory hole.”
High School Student Suing Amazon After They Deleted Homework From His Kindle
Gizmodo: "Forget blaming it on the dog, thanks to Amazon students have a 21st century excuse for lost homework. When Amazon foolishly yanked 1984 from thousands of Kindles, Justin Gawronski's electronic notes for a summer assignment became useless."
Old TVs Create Toxic Problem for Recycling Programs Across America
NBC News: "Low commodities prices around the world are making life difficult for electronics recyclers, especially those struggling to get rid of toxic materials from obsolete television sets."
Don’t Throw Out Your Dog’s Poop: It’s Now A Valuable Natural Resource
FastCompany: "Your dog might seem like an unlikely source of renewable energy. But a new appliance is designed to take a plentiful resource your pet produces–dog poop–and convert it into electricity that can charge household gadgets."
Recurring Billing Models - Difference Between Tiered vs Volume Pricing
FuseBill: "This is the first in a mini-series of articles on "tiered, volume, and usage-based" pricing as part of metered price plans. At Fusebill we've found that many companies believe they have a “complex” pricing model - not because of anything inherent in the model itself, but because they find it difficult to track manually. We hope that these articles will provide better understanding of the different types of pricing within a metered price plan."
The Earth Is Flat, Explained
Gawker Black Bag: "Earlier today, rapper B.o.B. declared to his millions of Twitter followers that, despite everything they’ve been led to believe their entire lives, the earth is flat. And the weirdest part isn’t just that he believes the earth is flat, but that he’s not even remotely alone."
10 Easy Ways You Can Tell For Yourself That The Earth Is Not Flat
PopSci: "The evidence is right in front of you."
Math is Subjunctively Objective
Less Wrong: "I am quite confident that the statement 2 + 3 = 5 is true; I am far less confident of what it means for a mathematical statement to be true."

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161: Systems of Consciousness, Part III: Heisenberg in the Machine Jul 22, 2017

Show notes

Tommy and Adam continue last week's discussion on machine consciousness by examining a bizarre eight-month experiment with Google's recommendation algorithm and the application of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.

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160: The Starcat's Prisoner Dilemma Jul 15, 2017

Show notes

Tommy and Adam speak with three of the creators of the indie game Starcats (Quentin Young, Ryan Hughes, and Gage Melton) about game development and the complex ideas behind cooperative gameplay.

Links for this episode:

Star Cats
The game we're talking about today!
Starcats on Twitter
@StarcatsGame: "Follow us for news and updates on the development of our local couch game, Starcats! #indiedev #gamedev"
Starcats on YouTube
"Starcats is a 4 person, local couch co-op/competitive game that is under development and slated for a 2017 release. Created as the final project for the Senior Game Design class at Bradley University in Illinois, the game is currently in Beta and the team is hard at work making it the best it can be."
Itch.io
"itch.io is a simple way to find and share indie games online for free."
What's a walking simulator?
Now you can know. :-P

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159: Systems of Consciousness, Part II: Small Talk into the Void Jul 11, 2017

Show notes

Links for this episode:

Replika
The chatbot creation system our conversation centered around.

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158: Systems of Consciousness, Part I: Playing with Customer Service Jul 05, 2017

Show notes

This week Tommy and Adam discuss customer service systems—both human and robotic—and how knowing the rules of these systems leads to predictable results. And this, in a strange way, leads to questions of consciousness in a system.

Next week the discussion continues with an unusual application of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and an unconventional, eight month-long conversation with the machine we know as Google.

Links for this episode:

ILoveCurtains
The Amazon store with which Tommy had an odd experience.
USPS Tracking
How USPS tracking works!
AI-Powered Customer Service Needs The Human Touch
Huffington Post: "Artificial Intelligence is the definitive technology of the 21st century. All businesses of every size, in every industry will be impacted by AI. In the age of the connected customer, every 1 in 5 U.S. adults are almost never offline, customer experience is the battleground for true differentiation. Today, every successful consumer application is powered by AI. Tomorrow, every successful business will be powered by AI. The line-of-business that is most likely to embrace AI first will be the customer service – typically the most process oriented and technology savvy organization within most companies."
How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Enterprise Customer Service
Forbes: "As AI technology matures, businesses are jumping to include artificial intelligence in their strategic investment roadmaps. Forward-looking enterprises are especially keen to leverage AI for customer service, a cost center that traditionally scales linearly with revenue. AI-augmented customer service promises attractive efficiency gains, and have generated widespread attention. According to a study by Oracle, nearly 8 out of 10 businesses have already implemented or are planning to adopt AI as a customer service solution by 2020."
‘Verbatim: What Is a Photocopier?’
New York Times: "In 2012, on my Facebook feed, I stumbled across a hilarious excerpt from a legal transcript. In a deposition in Ohio, a lawyer became embroiled in an absurd argument about the definition of a photocopier."
What happened at Vidcon with Feminist frequency?
Redditor J233779: "I was on twitter and the people that I follow were talking about a incident with feminist frequency's panel. What happened?"
VidCon apologizes for panelist clash involving activist Anita Sarkeesian
VidCon prides itself on being a convention about “the love of online video,” but many are wondering how this seemingly progressive gathering dropped the ball and let a YouTuber’s harasser into the front row.
On VidCon, Harassment & Garbage Humans
Anita Sarkeesian responds to the VidCon controversy.
Luka
Luka: "Meet Luka, a messenger for bots and humans. Talk to bots and your friends in the same place: make weekend plans, play games, find restaurants and more."
Replika
Luka's Replika: "Replika is your AI friend that you teach and grow in conversations."

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157: Accidental Robot Mario Jun 22, 2017

Show notes

This week we meant to talk about the law, but we ended up discussing artificial intelligent and mixed reality through the medium of Nintendo's Mario. Obviously, no one should be surprised. :)

Links for this episode:

Playing Super Mario Bros. in Real Life Is How Video Games Will Finally Get You Off Your Ass
If Microsoft wants a guaranteed way to sell a million Hololens augmented reality headsets, it should listen to Abhishek Singh and pitch the hardware as the ultimate way to get in shape by playing the first level of Super Mario Bros. in real life. Unlike the Wii’s balance board accessory, this might actually help you shed a few pounds.
Algorithmia
Awesome algorithm tool!

156: Meeting Mr. Bowser: An E3 Story Jun 17, 2017

Show notes

This week, Tommy tells his tales of E3, featuring Doug Bowser, and Adam shuts up for once.

Links for this episode:

SimCity: Limited Edition
1.5 stars. Thanks DRM!
Amazon to Buy Whole Foods for $13.4 Billion
Amazon agreed to buy the upscale grocery chain Whole Foods for $13.4 billion, in a deal that will instantly transform the company that pioneered online shopping into a merchant with physical outposts in hundreds of neighborhoods across the country.
E3 2017: A Cringe Compilation
Video games do not have the decades of experience that, say, sports has when it comes to live television. So when everyone gets together for an event like E3, the broadcast entertainment you enjoy at home doesn’t always go according to plan.
E3 2017: The Winners & Losers
You did not come here for a nuanced discussion of the positives inherent in every E3 press conference, and the love we all share for this medium. You came here for blood, and it is blood you shall receive.
Riverbond
Embark on a journey down an enchanted river to explore an ever-shifting landscape, uncover the truth of a collapsing world, and rebuild the passage to the Great Beyond.
E3 2017: Hands-On With Playful’s Mysterious New Game — Star Child
Star Child from Playful is a "cinematic platformer' coming to both PSVR and traditional screens.
Starcats
Four mercenary cats have crash-landed onto a planet. Their life support depleting, they must work together to call their rescue ship. Escape the planet, or die trying.
Ossic 3D Audio Headphones
"INTRODUCING OSSIC X, THE WORLD'S MOST ADVANCED 3D-AUDIO LISTENING SYSTEM."

155: Reality Distortion Fields Jun 12, 2017

Show notes

This week Tommy and Adam take a look at Apple's announcements and the political landscape to consider one question: what is truth?

Links for this episode:

Everything Apple Announced at WWDC 2017 in 7 Minutes
MacRumors: "Today's Worldwide Developers Conference keynote featured more than two hours of non-stop announcements and product unveilings, resulting in the most eventful and jam-packed WWDC we've had in years."
Full text: James Comey testimony transcript on Trump and Russia
Politico: "A transcript of former FBI Director James Comey's testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8."
Here is the full statement of Trump personal lawyer Marc Kasowitz
The Washington Post: "This is the full written statement given in a news conference by President Trump’s personal attorney, Marc Kasowitz. Kasowitz departed in a few small instances from his prepared statement."
How Do Atomic Clocks Work?
Every Think: "We take lots of things for granted in this world; GPS, the internet and of course particle accelerators (well, maybe not particle accelerators!). However, none of these things would be possible without atomic clocks."

154: Social Network Support (with Koko!) Jun 01, 2017

Show notes

Just like the real world, activity on social networks can lead to depression and other unpleasant emotional issues. Unfortunately, online support systems rarely exist in an official capacity if at all. Tommy and Adam discuss this problem with Robert Morris, the co-founder of Koko, which aims to provide a simple but effective therapeutic resource through these platforms and introduce compassion back into the equation.

Links for this episode:

Koko: A safety net for social networks
"Koko offers services that help social networks manage crisis, abuse, and bullying." Our guest today, Robert Morris, co-founded Koko. It's available through several social networks and messaging services, and it's free, so you can try it anytime if you're interested.
A 2-Year Study of More Than 5,000 People Shows This 1 Activity Destroys Your Emotional and Physical Health
Inc: "UC San Diego and Yale researchers share their surprising results."

Help out with the hack at hacked.awkwardhuman.com!

153: Hacking and Corporate Ethics May 29, 2017

Show notes

HowToGeek editor Whitson Gordon joins Tommy and Adam for a discussion of corporate ethics in the wake of hacks both widespread and personal. We end this episode on an important question.

Links for this episode:

Updates on Adam's Hack
Keep up with what's happening, how we're all doing, and help us out to turn this into a positive thing.
Resold Pixel phones originally purchased from Project Fi are having their IMEIs blacklisted
Android Police: "Back in November, when the Pixel was slowly beginning to ship to customers, there were numerous reports of people getting their Google accounts banned for purchasing Pixel and Pixel XL devices with the intent to resell them. It turns out that this issue hasn't exactly been laid to rest, as it seems that Pixel phones purchased from Project Fi for this purpose are now getting blacklisted via their IMEI numbers."
Wana Decrypt0r (Wanacry Ransomware)
Computerphile: "$300 or your files are toast: Dr Pound takes a look at the latest ransomware to be doing the rounds."
How Long Will Microsoft Support My Version of Windows With Security Updates?
HowToGeek: "The recent WannaCry ransomware attack demonstrates the importance of automatic security updates. No matter how careful you are, malware could exploit a security hole over the network and gain control of your system—unless you install security patches."

Please help us make something good out of something bad at hacked.awkwardhuman.com.

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