Episode 22 | Robot, all too Robot
00:00 - Ryan, Patrick and Charlie are settling into their roles as the standard paleopal permutation, recording once again in the same tower (err... empty classroom). NASA scientist Shawn Hart is our special guest this week and he complements the entire show. Ryan struggles with the drink... in a funny way not the 'affecting friends and family' sort of way. Patrick supports earthquake prone Eureka, CA with his brew selection. Charlie gets creeped out by his beer label. Shawn's not much of a beer drinker but represents with a classic microbrew favorite.
6:36 - This week starts off science heavy with Shawn telling us all about the benevolent robot camera HiRISE. HiRISE, onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, circles Mars 300 km above the surface and takes pictures at submeter per pixel resolution. It makes one wonder what spy satellites can see on Earth. Find out why HiRISE is the peoples camera and how you can choose where on Mars it should look next. Here's how to get involved:
- HiRISE: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/
- HiWish: http://www.uahirise.org/suggest/
- HiRISE Online image viewer: http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/HiRISE/hirise_images/
- HiRISE Image targeting Challenge: (this is an ongoing challenge since Spring 2007): http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/challenges/hirise/index.html
- HiRISE Clickworkers : http://clickworkers.arc.nasa.gov/top , http://hirise.seti.org/epo/
28:08 - Trailer Trash Talk - Think incessant phone calls from credit card collection agencies are bad? Try missing a payment on your cybernetically enhanced organs. Forest Whitaker and a beefy Jude Law will track you down and kill you. Is Repo Men good Scifi? Is any Scifi good? We hash it all out and more.
40:20 - Next we tread deep into the 'Uncanny Valley' - The Uncanny Valley is a pseudo-scientific concept that explains our repulsion to robots that look almost human but not quite. Check out the Popular Mechanics article. In a 1970 paper in the journal Energy, roboticist Masahiro Mori proposed that a robot that's too human-like can veer into unsettling territory, tripping the same psychological alarms associated with a dead or unhealthy human. Does it really exist or are we being robot bigots? What is with all this anti-robot propaganda anyway? The paleopals get over there initial prejudices and greet creepy robots with open arms. Disclaimer: We still do not like zombies.
54:15 - Shawn's one of those rare scientists with extensive right brain aptitude. His website, onehundredthmonkey, reveals his eye for aesthetics, art and culture. In his words, 'this site is an outlet of rad stuff from around the world, and various diatribes and impassioned calls to action (generally not the serious kind). Hope you enjoy it. …oh and if you’re wondering about the name one hundredth monkey, it’s some pseudoscience theory about crazy brainwaves communicating ideas across the ether. Ya, don’t even worry about it.' We paleopals frequent this site and we think the paleoposse would love it.
1:05:10 - Listener Feedback - We were featured on itunes! It ruled. We have a ton of new listeners and a ton of new feedback. Charlie fails at reading a bad review; Patrick succeeds. As it turns out, trailer trash is a whole lot like anchovies, radiolab is a good podcast, and, well, Charlie, Ryan and Patrick are hicks. Ryan reads off a list of the paleoposse elite - they have special prizes coming their way.
This weeks music can be found here:
House Party - Chomp Chomp < Up and coming indie Band from Bellingham, WA--stay tuned
High Roller - The Crystal Metho
Guns of Brixton - Nouvelle Vagu
Deceptacon - Le Tigr
Where It's At - Beck
