The World Transformed

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Attack of the Fans May 26, 2018

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It’s a full-on geekout as Phil and Stephen discuss the most critical question of our times: to go see Solo, or not to go see Solo? Are today’s Star Wars fans like the Star Trek fans who breathed new life into a canceled TV series or like the Stargate fans who beat Stargate: Universe to death? Or are they something else entirely? What does it mean to be a movie fan these days? Also: SyFy cancelling The Expanse. Netflix’ Lost in Space -- worth a look? Youtube’s Cobra Kai -- best sequel in the history of the universe? And other geeky stuff! WT 443-756 Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Image from Pixabay.com

Aliens Among Us May 24, 2018

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Is it possible that life here began out there? The https://bit.ly/2IvODz9 hypothesis suggests that it did: But what if it wasn’t ALL life? What if just some life on Earth came from elsewhere? A controversial study has a new spin on the otherworldliness of the octopus The genetic divergence of Octopus from its ancestral coleoid sub-class is very great … Its large brain and sophisticated nervous system, camera-like eyes, flexible bodies, instantaneous camouflage via the ability to switch color and shape are just a few of the striking features that appear suddenly on the evolutionary scene. It is plausible then to suggest they [octopuses] seem to be borrowed from a far distant ‘future’ in terms of terrestrial evolution, or more realistically from the cosmos at large. This line of thinking implies that panspermia is true and that perhaps the octopus is a later “deposit” on the Earth. That would also help account for this: 7 Reasons Why Humans May Not Have Come From Earth 1. We look so different 2. We're too advanced 3. We can't sleep 4. We don't like it here 5. Rapid Overpopulation 6. A Prison Planet 7. So where did we come from? We live in increasingly weird times. Will we one day accept that life on this planet started elsewhere? Maybe. Either way, we will almost certainly accept as fact ideas even stranger than that. WT 442-755 Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Image from Pixabay.com

Yanny, Laurel, and the Mandela Effect May 22, 2018

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Why would the the Yanny-Laurel phenomenon tell us anything about the Mandela Effect? They have nothing in common! Or do they? Let’s start with a quick recap: Mandela Effect Yanny-Laurel Of course, Yanny-Laurel relates to the famous Dress Controversy Is it white and gold or blue and black?vPhil can tune Yanny-Laurel to hear either or both words, but he can’t see blue and black no matter whahe does with the dress. So two people can’t agree on the color of an image or what a word is even when looking at / listening to the exact same thing. But there’s more: You can KNOW that the upper grey and the lower grey are the exact same color, but can you make yourself see it that way? Without covering part of the picture up? Back to the Mandela Effect -- if we can’t agree with each other on simple questions in the present tense (if we can’t even agree with OURSELVES on the answers to simple questions) should we really be so certain that we are correctly remembering movie lines or peanut butter brand names or the death of a world leader? But in a sense, these example prove the Mandela Effect is real. There really are different universes. Lots of them. And we are each living in one of our own. WT 441-754 Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Image from Pixabay.com and other sources.

Is AI the Biggest Thing Ever? May 19, 2018

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Google CEO Sundar Pichai certainly seems to think so. Artificial intelligence could be our saviour, according to the CEO of Google AI is probably the most important thing humanity has ever worked on. I think of it as something more profound than electricity or fire,” he said. “Any time you work with technology, you need to learn to harness the benefits while minimising the downsides. Could something really be bigger than fire or electricity? Fire enabled cooking, forging, baking clay. It is a cornerstone of civilization. Electricity facilitated and accelerated industrialization and provided for a communications revolution. It ultimately powered digitization. Let’s explore the changes that AI may enable that really will make it the biggest thing ever. WT 440-753 Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Image from Pixabay.com

Five Myths About AI May 17, 2018

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Even when he’s not on the show with us, futurist Thomas Frey provides us with lots of interesting subject matter for discussion. His folks at Impact Labs have published an interesting essay on Five Myths of Artificial Intelligence. https://bit.ly/2rBoBzH But wait: how many of these are actually myths? Let’s discuss. Myth No. 1 You can differentiate between a machine and a human. Myth No. 2 The U.S. is falling behind in the race for AI breakthroughs. Myth No. 3 AI will automate the economy and put people out of work. Myth No. 4 AI can remove human bias from decision-making. Myth No. 5 Artificial intelligence is a threat to mankind. WT 440-753 Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Image from Pixabay.com

Three Races: A. I., Aging, and Space May 16, 2018

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There are many technological races taking place right now. Three of them have been fairly regular topics of discussion on this show: The Space Race The Race Against Aging The AI Race Which of these races should we be focused on right now? In space, as we have noted, nation states are racing against private entities. The race against aging is currently taking place mostly in the private sector. We ALL have a personal stake in that one. A recent Internet meme showed Elon Musk and his mom and suggested that rather than racing to Mars he should be racing to reverse aging. The AI race is more nearly a clash of world powers, although the US is currently splitting its leadership position between businesses on one side and universities and the military on the other. China has an aggressive plan to move ahead. But this time out, everyone is playing. AI is the new space race. Here’s what the biggest countries are doing https://bit.ly/2rhhlIx Which of these races is the most urgent? If they don’t end aging, I’m going to die. But if we don’t win the AI race, we may face total economic defeat by the winning power. Also, AI has the potential to end the world. On the other hand, who is more likely to conquer aging: a country that is ahead in AI or a country that is not? Same goes for space. Maybe when you come down to it, there is really only one race going. WT 439-752 Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Image from Pixabay.com

What Can We NOT Rule Out? May 12, 2018

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Is humanity the first technological species to exist in this solar system (or even on this planet?) The quick and easy answer is yes, but maybe we don’t know that for sure. Prior Indigenous Technological Species But if a prior technological, perhaps spacefaring, species ever arose in the Solar System, it might have produced artifacts or other technosignatures that have survived to present day, meaning Solar System artifact SETI provides a potential path to resolving astrobiology’s question. Lots of great tidbits in this paper: Carl Sagan once toyed with the idea that the moons of Mars might be artificial objects. A current astronomer suggests we should be looking for “city lights” on Kuiper Belt objects This is in keeping with the show we did a while back about there potentially being many more planets in the solar system and we just haven’t discovered them yet. One of them may be home to a current (not extinct) technological civilization. But if we can’t rule this out, what CAN we rule out? Prior civilization on Earth? No Aliens living among us now? No Simulation hypothesis / Matrix / Boltzmann brains? No Occam’s Razor says we shouldn’t buy any of this. But maybe skepticism isn’t the whole answer? Is there a benefit to be gained in exploring these unlikely scenarios? WT 438-751 Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Image from Pixabay.com

Turn Up the Funny May 10, 2018

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Flipping our emotional switches, Part 2 We are getting closer to identifying the individual emaitional switches in the brain. What might this imply for future strategies for managing our emotions? If we are now getting a handle on fear, what’s next? What would be the best candidates for future emotional switches? Anger: Again, to tamp it down. No good reason to turn this one up, right? (We already have social media for that.) Empathy: Would be great if we had a whole industry focused on cranking this one up. Alternatively, if we could find the switch, this MIGHT be one that we would eventually manipulate against the subject’s will. Violent criminals, for example. But that is an EXTREMELY risky idea. Sense of humor: If there was one switch a would personally like to see flipped on a vast portion of the population. Like anger, I think this one has been manipulated by social media and other forces. It would be great to find a way to bring it back. How about the ability to turn up optimism? What if we could increase our sense of wonder? WT 437-750 Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Image from Pixabay.com

Turn off the Fear May 08, 2018

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Flipping the emotional switches, Part 1 We are getting closer to identifying the individual emotional switches in the brain. What might this imply for future strategies for managing our emotions? Researchers Find Fear and Courage Switches in Brain https://bit.ly/2rmpkEO Researchers have identified a cluster of neurons in mouse brains that encourage fear response to perceived threats. When an adjacent cluster of neurons is activated, boldness and courage behaviors are exhibited. Let’s talk about this one specifically. Who would have good reason to turn fear down (or off?) First responders: firefighters, police EMTs, soldiers People who suffer from irrational fears? Business people who fear public speaking or making sales calls? These might actually be different kinds of fear, but the idea that you can flip a switch in the brain and suddenly start acting boldly is pretty enticing. Would there ever be a time when we would turn up somebody’s fear response? What about other emotions? We will look at those next time. WT 436-749 Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Image from Pixabay.com

Universal Basic Super Powers May 05, 2018

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Universal Basic Happiness, Part 3 (Plus geekout Avengers review!) VR puts us in the digital world, where scarcity doesn’t exist. It is one way of getting to post-scarcity and will probably play an important role in the post-scarcity future But we also need post-scarcity in the non-digital world We need to become Sexy Immortal BIllionaires with Superpowers in the real world Re-examining that formula -- the words missing are “good” and “happy” Post-scarcity will be the final elimination of income inequality because it will well and truly no longer matter. SPOILERS ahead We are already smarter than Thanos Like all Malthusians, he suffers from a terribly scarcity-based mindset WT 435-748 Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Images from Pixabay.com and other sources.

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