Episode 162 – A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow
00:00:00 – Jetpacks may still be a dream, but robo-cars are coming to a road near you very soon. How will these cars perform when there’s a life on the line? The Paleopals discuss the burgeoning field of robo-ethics based on an article in The New Yorker by Gary Marcus.
00:23:44 – Since the Paleopals don’t usually record from a car, robotic or otherwise, it’s safe for them to have a drink. Kelly’s parents hooked her up with a Strongbow cider. Patrick get’s poetic with New Holland Brewing’s oatmeal stout The Poet. And Ryan mixed up an Aged to Perfection cocktail, which Patrick compares to salad dressing.
00:29:17 – This week in Trailer Trash Talk the Paleopals try to wrap their heads around Jeff Syke’s suggested preview but likely only serve to spoil the finally released John Dies at the End.
00:43:32 – Science fraud is a problem, but one that Gary Marcus has some ideas on how to fix. The Paleopals try to stay on topic while discussing how to fix all of science. No big deal.
01:06:49 – PaleoPOWs are a lot like robotic cars, not to be trusted. Jesse W. wants to know Kelly’s opinion on kleptoparasites: are they brilliant or lazy? YOU DECIDE! Patrick promotes Jordan Gledhill’s webcomic, rm – Rf /, who featured a certain cryptid in it’s most recent comic. And Alexis H. used the only resources at her disposal, markers, to craft some holiday inspired Brachiolopes to send to Ryan.
Thanks for listening and be sure to check out the Brachiolope Media Network for more great science podcasts!
Music for this week’s show provided by:
Car Crash – Matt Nathanson
Where is my bow? - The Goat Rodeo Sessions
Ready to Die – Andrew W. K.
No Quick Fix – Nada Surf
Image Credit: The Colbert Report
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
There are 2 Comments to "Episode 162 – A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow"
Re: self-driving cars
A) Humans can’t make split-second decisions about who they’re going to kill in a car accident. If someone’s about to hit a bus, they’re not thinking about how to reduce the number of deaths, or anything else but “OH SHIIII—”
B) Computers can’t either. I seriously doubt anyone will ever write a casualty-minimization algorithm for a car autopilot, and I’m sure nobody will spend millions of dollars testing it unless it’s required by law. Not even the Enterprise shipboard computer is that smart.
Re: Florida internet
This is a huge tangent, so hang on.
If you’ve studied any optics at all, you probably know about using parabolic reflectors to produce focused beams. Maybe you haven’t thought about using not-quite-parabolic reflectors to produce beams with interesting shapes, though. In the satellite biz, we do that all the time. For example:
http://www.satbeams.com/footprints?lat=40&lng=261&zoom=3&beam=6054&type=normal
Notice that there’s a lot more power being dumped on Florida and Seattle. That’s not an accident; statistically it rains more there, and rain fades high-frequency radio beams something fierce.
This probably has nothing to do with Jacob’s internet woes, but that’s where my mind went. That satellite footprint map is pretty nifty, no?