Decipher SciFi Decipher Media
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- Ciencia
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.
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Isolated BS: VR breakthroughs, space clouds, and earthworm jerky
Spaaaaace
Clouds in space…? Microsoft Azure Space and Azure Orbital. Making space cheaper and more accessible with satcomm as a service.
VR
The new Oculus Quest. Past predictions. Pulling the VR market in the direction of affordability? Pandemic winter VR. Hating Facebook while embracing their VR product. Getting better at not getting sick. Experiences of unreality.
Conferencing
Virtual chewing noises. Missing irl conference-going. It’s like a vacation for adult nerds!
Food
Food preservation. Preserved dairy variations by latitude. Jerky! Appreciating controlled rot. Earthworm jerky. Roasted grasshoppers!
About Chapulines: Wikipedia
Zebra vs Horses: Animal Domestication by CGP Grey: YouTube
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Her: sad foreheads, augmented audio presence, and friendly AI takeoff scenarios
AI everything
Creating a thinking, feeling artificial intelligence to do really important things for humanity like… sorting through your e-mail. N-dimensional AI chess. Rapid takeoff scenarios.
Personal Assistants
Natural language processing developments. The rise of proactive digital personal assistants. Predictive local, personal information.
Digital relationship
Virtual aural closeness. Presence and audio AR. Developments in form factor, interface, and functionality. Understanding the acoustics of spaces, materials, and your biology. Room mapping. Love, infinite attention, and generosity.
The Forehead
Feeling the heartbreak, right in the forehead.
Her forehead scene: YouTube
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An unexplained absence
You may be wondering where we went for a minute there 😬
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The Core: Flying bricks, pacemakers, and quantum avian eyeballs
Forgetability
The valley of forgetability (The Core) between science-respecting sci-fi (e.g. Arrival) and totally bonkers nonsense (e.g. Jupiter Ascending).
Space shuttle
Landing the “flying brick.”
Bird navigation
Magnetite beaks. The possibility of quantum eyeball magnetic navigation HUDs. Corvid appreciation. Why birds don’t all fly into our windows and our eyeballs.
Pacemakers
Keeping your heart on-rhythm. Not as immediate a death sentence as portrayed.
Earth’s outer core
The absurd energies in the spinning of Earth’s core - a ball of iron the size of Mars, spinning a thousand miles an hour
That’s a whole lot of energy. If it doesn’t sound like much, let’s convert it to megatons: it’s the equivalent energy of five trillion one megaton bombs going off.
Phil Plait on the spinning outer core
Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy Review of The Core: BadAstronomy.com
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Stank waffles, VR development, and Venusian cloud datacenters
Clouds in episode image from “Storm Clouds” by Albert Bierstadt/The White House Historical Association CC-O @ Wikipedia
Waffles
Belgian Waffle formula
Tasty waffles! Stank waffles! With lots of syrup! Solving food problems with casseroles. Gravy!
VR
Marveling at the Oculus Quest two 25% price drop from the last generation. Hating Facebook. Realizing the separateness of AR and VR development, even within companies working on both at the same time (Facebook). Can/will AR and VR converge and become ubiquitous?
WFH
Working from home. Surprisingly long hikes and arachnid attacks. Tiny child legs and tiny child wills.
Venus
Life on venus? The dense, deep, permanent nature of the Venusian cloud layer. The possible effect on drake equation. Looking forward to balloon probes in the Venusian atmosphere.
Ocean data
Ocean-floor data centers. The cost of infrastructure and cooling vs the cost of real estate. The value of removing humans from the environment because we’re so loud and clumsy and moist.
Review: We do not recommend the $299 Oculus Quest 2 as your next VR system: Ars Technica
Oculus Quest 2: Oculus.com
Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus: Nature Astronomy
Chemical that shouldn’t be there spotted in Venus’ atmosphere: Ars Technica
Microsoft declares its underwater data center test was a success: Ars Technica
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Raised by Wolves: exoplanets, eating rats, and fake-karate floaty physics
Happy 5-year anniversary whoooooo
🥳🎉
Subluminal interstellar travel
Accelerating for half of the ride, and braking for the other half. The advantage of avoiding squishy human cargo for high acceleration. The difference between the Alucard and the Alcubierre drive technologies (hint: a miserable pile of secrets). Special floaty physics, magnets on your feet, and fake karate.
Exoplanets
Exploring the growing options for Earth-like life in the solar-system. Kepler 22b. Where did the megafauna go? Exogestation - growing babies on alien soil.
Meat stuff
Sourcing and preparing rat meat. Snails. Face/Off and changing your identity.
Exoplanet Exploration - Planets Beyond our Solar System: NASA
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