WEBVTT - Listener Mail Roundup #1 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:07.280 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:15.920 Forward Thinking. Hey there, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:19.120 podcast that looks at the future and says, wait a minute, 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:23.599 Mr Post, ma'am. I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:29.720 Hi there, Lauren, Hi, Joe, Hi, Jonathan, Hi, Joe, Hi, Lauren, Hi, Jonathan, Hi, Noel. 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:32.839 All right, good, we got everybody. Now, Hi, how are 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:36.680 you doing today? Really well, well, today, I'm very excited 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:41.000 because we're gonna be talking about some listener requested topics. 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:44.360 But we've really had a lot of listener requests piling 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:48.440 up lately. Yeah, which is fantastic. Guy, We really appreciate it. 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:50.960 So we love it. We're not complaining, but they're they're 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:55.160 only piling because you're so fabulous. Yes, and we can 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:59.560 only record and published two episodes a week. But so 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:01.800 today we thought, you know what we should do, We 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:06.759 should do a listener mail roundup episode. Now. Unfortunately, even 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:08.480 in this episode, we're not going to be able to 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:10.960 get to every one of the things you all have 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:12.640 sent us that we want to talk about, but we 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:14.840 wanted to pick some of the topics that could be 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:18.720 addressed in a slightly shorter form and uh and take 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:21.440 them on all at once, and some of these may 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:25.160 eventually become part of an episode where we take a 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:28.560 deeper dive into these, but a lot of the questions 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:31.480 seem like they would have a fairly quick answer that 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:34.000 wouldn't justify a full length episode, which is why we 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:36.080 kind of grouped them together. They're they're not grouped by 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:39.440 any sort of theme either, because you'll see as we 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:41.440 go on, it's kind of all over the place, which 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:44.840 is cool. Yeah. Yeah, So our first listener suggestion that 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:46.920 we want to get to today actually came to us 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:49.720 on our Facebook while it was our listener Ed who 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:52.720 asked us about the future of media delivery, and Ed 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:57.680 said podcast idea, I want my MP three or LP 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:00.640 or v O D. I think that's and I want 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:04.160 my MTV joke for the kids who don't remember dire 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:08.880 Straits or just MTV. Right. Ed goes on, how will 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:12.120 we be listening to or getting our music, watching movies, 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:16.480 reading books and magazines and newspapers in the future. Well, 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:19.720 I think this is a great question. It is it's 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:22.639 a fantastic question, and it's one that I mean, if 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:24.800 I were. If I were being snarky, I would just 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:28.960 say streaming and move on, because I think that that's 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:31.800 really the the answer to a lot of this, and 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:35.400 it's an answer that's being pushed partly by consumer behavior 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:40.799 and partly because it's a very attractive model for companies. Sure, well, 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:43.200 we've got the resources in place, don't we. I mean 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:46.440 now that now that high speed internet is becoming the norm, 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:48.519 at least in some parts of the world, and more 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:52.000 and more of the world long term, it's kind of 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:54.720 hard to argue against the power of streaming. Well, you 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:57.640 have so much access and it takes up so little space, 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:00.320 right that. I mean, it wasn't that long ago that 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:03.480 WiFi was really the speed you would need in order 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:07.560 to get decent streaming experience, right otherwise it was going 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.640 to be a very low quality stream or you're gonna buffer. 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:13.120 So you know, I remember the days of trying to 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:16.239 listen to something on streaming and get twenty seconds in 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:18.640 and then suddenly the song stops, and you wait another 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:21.960 fifteen seconds, then another twenty seconds of music plays. But 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:25.280 now now we've gotten too speeds of WiFi, we've gotten 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:28.120 better speeds of of cellular service, and we've gotten better 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:33.320 compression uh models for streaming media to allow that to 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:36.960 happen where we don't have as frequent an issue with 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:40.600 buffering still happens once in a blue moon. It happens 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:43.560 on my my connection at home, which is pretty fast. 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:45.560 But well, I mean, you know, you've got to have 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:48.680 that trifecta of a device that can handle it, right, 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:52.600 connection that can handle it, and the actual service. Yeah, 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:54.440 I mean if you don't have if one of those 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:58.960 three things is deficient, you're gonna have a poor experience. 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:02.000 But we're we've reached the point where the norm is 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:06.080 that you can have this pretty seamlessly. Like my my phone. 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:09.680 Now I can use my phone, uh pretty much anywhere 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:13.440 in Atlanta, uh streaming a podcast, so I don't have 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:15.720 to download an episode anymore. I can just stream it 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:20.080 and it cash is enough of the podcast in local 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:22.920 memory so that if I do pass through an area 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:26.160 that has uh, you know, weak service, Like you know, 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:29.000 I often take the train. In the train here in Atlanta, 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:32.480 there's above ground sections and below ground, so sometimes when 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:34.960 you go below ground, you lose that connection, but the 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:38.120 CASH corrects for that, right, it has enough in the 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:41.640 buffer so that I can keep listening without having that interruption. 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:44.880 I think that because the technology has reached this point, 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:48.640 streaming is really where a lot of this is going. 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:51.400 It also means that we can listen or watch stuff 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.719 when we feel like it. You know, we we we can. 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:57.240 And a lot of those UH services also allow us 0:04:57.640 --> 0:04:59.720 to stop at one point and pick up at that 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:03.599 same point even as we switch devices. So if we 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:07.080 go from TV to phone or tablet or whatever. Yeah, 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:10.960 I agree that digital playback is going to pretty much dominate. 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:13.560 It's going to be king. I can't really see that 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:16.680 changing for any good reason except for the sort of 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:20.640 small scale collector aspect. I personally, I listen to records 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:23.400 at my house sometimes, and I don't know why. I 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:25.400 guess it's just fun. It can be fun to go 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:28.240 record shopping, to put a record on the turntable. There's 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:31.840 something aesthetically pleasing about it. It's a fun activity. But 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:36.159 I'd say most of my listening I do digitally, whether 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:39.360 that's podcasts or I mean obviously for podcasts, but h 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:43.080 or music. Most of the movies I see now, I 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:45.960 think come to me in a digital form. And I 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:48.000 don't know do you'll think there's any reason that we'd 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:53.640 see a major comeback of physical media for say music playback. Nope, 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:59.560 m hm m m. I mean yeah, yeah, there's that 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:03.400 that nest Alga factor and and that esthetic pleasure that 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:05.719 you get from I mean, cassette tapes are a thing again? 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:10.880 Are they really a thing again? Are they? I mean, 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:13.279 I mean I know that I know that there was 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:18.200 the the marketing gimmick of the Guardians of the Galaxy 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:22.680 soundtrack coming back out on cassette? Are cassettes really coming back? Bands, like, 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:25.679 like smaller local bands are releasing some of their albums 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:30.000 on cassette tape? You have to there's still there's still 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:34.240 still electronics companies selling cassette tape players. You've got some 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:36.400 blood running down your force. Well, I mean, I'm just like, 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:39.760 I'm like, I'm like, look, guys, we're better than that now. 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:45.800 I've left those days behind. Cassettes are not great media formats, yeah, 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:47.680 but they're fun. Come on stick and a lot of 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:50.839 a lot of older cars do still have cassette decks. 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:55.240 I guess, so yeah, I can understand. I do agree 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:58.479 that it's a lot easier to form kind of that 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:02.880 emotional attached meant to uh to something when there's a 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:07.440 physical representation of that thing, Right, Like I have a 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:12.920 vinyl record collection, and there is a particular feeling I 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:16.280 get when I pull an album out of that collection, 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:18.600 put it on a turntable and listen to it. The 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:21.200 ritual of it is kind of lovely, exactly. Yeah, there 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:24.360 is a ritual that's associated with it that's very comforting, 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:27.600 and it's all part of the experience which you can't 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:30.800 you know, you can't really place a quantitative value on, 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:33.720 but it's certainly. Yeah, I never get that warm fuzzy 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:38.440 when I like open iTunes, yeah, exactly. Yeah, when I 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:41.800 when I open up my my Google radio playlist that's 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:44.680 based off the album that I really love. Yeah, I mean, 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:47.640 it's not the same thing. So I don't want to 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:53.280 I don't want to dismiss the the value of physical media, 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:57.800 but I think that because there is the incentive on 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:03.200 the part of the media company, these two maximize profits, 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:05.640 which you certainly can do if you don't have to 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:08.640 have a physical presence anywhere. You know, you don't have 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:10.600 to create inventory, you don't have to have a place 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:13.920 to move that inventory, you don't have to worry about 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:17.840 inventory loss. If someone steals your physical stuff and you 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:20.080 can no longer sell it. I can see a lot 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:22.600 of reasons why companies would shy away from it, and 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:26.040 this could become something that we see more on a 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:30.720 special case by case basis, as UH entities, whether it's 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:33.800 an author or a band or whatever, are catering to 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:37.960 their audience. One way I do see this changing though, 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:40.000 is that I think laser discs are going to come 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:42.640 back in a big way. I think capacity and electronic 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:44.760 discs are going to come back in a big way 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:47.360 in the future. When you want to watch Terminator two, 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:49.680 you're gonna get out that laser disc and you're gonna 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:53.480 flip it halfway through the movie. Yeah, I agree with 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:57.680 ancestors exactly. No. Actually, one thing I do want to 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:00.600 say that I feel pretty strongly about out the future 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:05.880 of audio playback is actually about the devices we use themselves. 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:10.080 I think we're going to continue to see a decoupling 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:14.440 of the audio reading device from the actual device that 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:18.520 produces the sound. So, for example, this this exists today. 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:22.000 You can get pretty good Bluetooth speakers or Bluetooth headphones, 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:25.240 so you stream audio from the Internet on your phone 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:27.880 or your laptop or your TV, and then you listen 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:31.560 to that audio through whichever speaker system phone connects to 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:34.920 a speaker system, and yeah, you seek to your player, 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:38.760 the headphones, the whole speaker system, and you know, that's 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:41.920 bye bye to the earbuds with the chords. I think 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:46.560 that's going to become pretty universal. Sure. I mean, I 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:49.319 have a I have a pair of I have a 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:53.000 Bluetooth headset that's meant for music and podcasts, that sort 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:56.880 of thing that uses bone conduction as well, so it's 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:00.120 not even over the ear, but it also doesn't have 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:02.480 to doesn't have a chord or anything. I definitely see 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.640 that trend continuing. Oh sure, sure. Uh you know, I 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:10.080 think as the technology improves, probably your big clunky headset 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:14.040 or small, sexy, slim headset will be the device that 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:18.280 is streaming the media directly. Uh yeah, And I just 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:22.600 see generally more ease of interconnectivity. So like as we 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:26.160 have the Internet of Things entering our homes, more devices 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:29.640 will be the sort of the digital basis of playback, 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:32.760 and then you can sink them to whatever kind of 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:36.040 thing it is that's making the actual noise. Well yeah, again, 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:37.880 this this kind of comes back to the idea of 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:40.520 Let's let's use Netflix as an example, where if I'm 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:43.000 watching I'm logged into my Netflix account, and I'm watching 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:45.920 Netflix on my phone, and then I go into my 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:48.280 house and I want to turn on that same movie 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:51.439 using a set top boxes connected there that's logged into 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:53.880 my account as well. So when I started, it picks 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:56.839 up where I left off on my phone. This uninterrupted 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:01.400 experience is also something I see continuing in to the future. Uh. 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:03.480 The interesting thing to me is that if you had 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:06.200 asked me, maybe I don't know, five or six years ago, 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.160 I would have thought that the standalone MP three player 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.280 would still remain king because back back then streaming was 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.640 not really the method you would download, and so you 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:18.559 would keep everything on the memory of the device itself 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:22.400 instead of it being cloud based. And I would have said, 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:26.000 this is how it's going to continue for the foreseeable future. 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.079 And in fact, for the longest time I carried an 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:32.480 MP three player and a phone because I didn't want 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:36.880 to clog up my phone's memory with media. I still 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:40.040 do have an MP three player in a phone. I've graduated. 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:43.800 I only go phone now because I use this streaming method, 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:47.040 so I'm not filling up my memory, the cash fills 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:49.800 up so that if I do lose that connectivity, I 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:52.600 can continue enjoying whatever it is I'm I'm listening to her, 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:57.120 watching or reading. But it's not it's not that I 0:11:57.160 --> 0:11:59.880 need to have a phone with practically end less amounts 0:11:59.880 --> 0:12:03.720 of storage because that storage isn't needed anymore. Yeah, yeah, 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:07.400 I do think that in general across media or going 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:10.600 to continue to see like you know, mid sized portable devices, 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:14.880 whether that's a tablet or a mini tablet or um tablet. Yeah, 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:18.199 that's what. I have very large buttons on your coat 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:20.839 that that can play movies back to you. I don't know, 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:24.360 um that that are right, that that are capable of 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:29.160 handling both music and video and and books and etcetera, 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:34.280 and and you know, doing the streaming thing. I don't know. Like, 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:37.240 like I wonder, I wonder whether at a certain point 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:41.240 when if like memory will become cheap enough that people 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:47.040 will return to I mean, it depends if the if 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:50.840 the service ends up being so seamless that it's not necessary. 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:52.160 I don't think it's going to be a thing, but 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:55.960 they're always going to be times at least that I 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:58.280 can see where you are going to want to have 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:01.360 things stored directly on the advice itself. For example, if 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:03.800 you take a flight somewhere and you don't want to 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:06.960 spring for WiFi on the flight. Plus, WiFi on flights 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:09.520 is never at the speed that here, and I think 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:12.319 that that's a that that's a point like like right now, um, 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:16.120 cellular service isn't available everywhere, WiFi can be spotty, you 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:18.840 have to pay for them in in many contexts, and 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:23.680 so therefore streaming isn't quite ready. It's not to go 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.880 not supers totally seamless. It all depends on where you look. 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:28.839 Like if you're in a city like Atlanta or San 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:32.120 Francisco or New York, it's probably pretty good, but that's 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:35.480 not universal. Yeah. I would also add to that access 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:39.439 anxiety if you're interested in something that is perhaps obscure, 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:42.360 something you're not sure is going to continue to be 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:45.800 provided by Netflix or whatever. You know, that's a good point, 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:48.760 you think, well, you know, I don't know if this 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:50.960 movie is still going to be on Netflix in a 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:53.320 year when I want to watch it again, I'd rather 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:55.600 just own the Blu Ray, right. I mean, if Tammy 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:57.280 and the t Rex goes away, I don't know what 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:02.320 I'm gonna do me there, and uh, what about what 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:07.040 about books? Right? Right? So, I think that more reading 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:11.480 is going to be done digitally as prices on reading 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:16.960 devices electronic reading devices drop, and I I suspect that 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:20.520 in parallel, print prices are going to rise as printing 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:23.080 runs get smaller as a result. I see, so you're 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:26.880 you're thinking of because the the market is moving more digital, 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:31.400 the the potential market for actual physical books is getting smaller. 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:34.240 That drives the prices up because you can no longer 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:36.920 print in the volumes that you would before and expect 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:40.480 a decent return on that investment. Right. The other way 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:42.640 of looking at that is that they just keep the 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:45.000 prices the same by cutting costs, and there will be 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:51.120 more typos in your print books now editor free. I'm sorry, 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:53.480 we only hired a copy editor for the digital version 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:55.720 of Lauren. I liked your book, but the main character's 0:14:55.800 --> 0:15:00.840 name changed like six times. That was part of the point. John, Uh, 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:05.520 these modern novels. I'm actually I'm in thinking about this. 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:08.720 I got the sudden moment of of worry that, um, 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:11.360 some people might start to get priced out of easy 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:14.400 access to print media due to the fact that, um, 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:17.360 you know, from an entry standpoint, a paperback is a 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:20.320 lot cheaper than a kindle and probably will continue to be. 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:24.680 Um even though you know, obviously getting a kindle at 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:28.160 having basically unlimited access to a lot of books for 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:31.960 very cheap or even free in the case of classics. UM. Well, 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:35.160 and I love I love the move to electronic media 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:37.840 for another reason. It also gives us access to books 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:40.160 that otherwise have passed out of print. They're not in 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:42.600 the public domain. You still have to buy them. But 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:45.600 I'm the son of an author. My dad has a 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:47.720 horror novel that came out in the eighties and it's 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:50.400 my favorite book that my dad ever wrote. I love it. 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:53.560 But it's not available in physical format anymore. But you 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:56.440 can get it electronically, and that's something that I love. 0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:59.840 It means that people can have access to works that 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:05.360 there's no reason from the publishers standpoint to produce more. Yeah, 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:07.760 there's not enough, there's not a large enough market to justify. 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:11.280 But electronically you can have anything out there. Yes, yes, 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:14.120 and that that is truly wonderful. Um And I wonder, 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:18.080 I wonder whether for like the generation being born right now, 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:22.880 literally right now, I salute you, um when when you're 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:27.040 all about to listen to this, you'll appreciate that. Yeah, 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:30.560 what weather for them? Paper books and like paper printed 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:36.800 magazines and newspapers are going to become a nostalgic, uh nostalgic. 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:38.640 I don't want to say fetish, but but but but 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:42.400 like a nostalgic uh like like like like an anachronism 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:46.640 some sort of like tape or a vinyl record. Yeah. Yeah, 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:48.840 if reading something on paper is going to be like, oh, 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:51.360 I just love the ritual of opening a book. You know, 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:54.880 maybe this is I'm just far too technophobic, I guess 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:57.640 to be talking about technology all the time. I do 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:01.720 admit I have a perhaps old and preference for paper books. 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:05.720 I don't have a tablet, but I don't think I 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:08.840 would really like to read a book length literary work 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:12.000 on one. I can. I'll read articles on the internet 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:14.760 and stuff I I I gotta. I got one of 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:17.320 the touchscreen kindles at some point, and I actually really 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:19.679 like it. I but but I also did get the 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:21.480 kind of case for it. It's like made of wood 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:23.240 and leather, and so you open it and you kind 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:26.000 of feel like you're opening a book. Um, well, maybe 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:27.840 I just need to get with the times. I will 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:30.879 say that the move to digital formats for books also 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:36.000 means that we'll have fewer head scratching lee odd moments 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:38.959 in movies like have you guys heard about the scene 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:41.960 in the j LO film Boy next Door where the 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:45.520 boy next Door hands her a quote first edition of 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:49.000 the Iliad end quote? Well, hey, there have been lots 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:52.320 of first editions of the Iliad. That's the problem is 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:54.919 that just like they're joking that it's this it's this 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:58.520 valuable thing, or it should have been a blind poet, 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:05.760 it should have been exactly just starts reciting in Greek. 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:09.280 The first edition is the first time it's fixed intangible medium. Well, 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:12.040 you know, if we go back into the brain waves 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:14.600 thing anyway, that's that's neither here nor there. But I 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:17.840 think I think it was great question. It was It 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:21.320 was interesting. Um. I do think that streaming, for at 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:24.120 least the foreseeable feature is going to be the way 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:26.399 to go. Maybe we'll eventually get to a point where 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:28.919 things will get beamed directly into our brains and we 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:32.919 will experience them instantaneously in their entirety. I hope. So 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:34.960 that would be such a time, It would really I 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:37.760 could get through all of those books that are on 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:40.879 my list in like no time flat. Yeah. Well, thanks 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:43.000 for your question, ed. I think now we're going to 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:45.480 move on to an email we got from our listener 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:53.840 Jude about geothermal energy and space coordinates. So Jude says, hi, there, hey, Jude, Hey, 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:56.480 oh no, I see what you did there. Go ahead, 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:01.040 Jude says, hi there, I've been listening to your audio podcast. 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:03.119 You guys are doing a great job. Thanks to that 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:07.600 warms my my cold heart. Yes, uh, part is very 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:10.600 warm Jack. Well, okay, sorry, back to the email. Can 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:13.480 you please cover the following topics. We all know Earth's 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:15.600 core is molten rock and must be a source of 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:19.720 massive untapped energy. Has anyone attempted to harness Earth's geo 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:24.520 thermal energy? And how do astronomers navigating the cosmos or 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:27.679 refer to a star object in space? Is their GPS 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:31.800 equivalent in space? Thanks a lot from Jude in Bangalore. 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:34.200 So we're going to take these in turn. We'll start 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:37.600 with geo thermal So, first of all, geo thermal energy 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:41.280 is a thing, obviously something that we we harness. It 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:46.080 doesn't involve tapping into the Earth's core directly, although as 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:49.919 you'll see, there's kind of an indirect long tail version 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:53.800 of tapping into the Earth's core. Geothermal heat means thermal 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:57.399 energy or heat from the Earth. So that heat is 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:01.439 generated primarily from two sore says. One is that is 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:05.240 the radioactive decay of materials that are in the Earth's crust. 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:09.639 That accounts for about actually of geothermal energy. Really I 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:14.480 did not at all. The other comes from the geothermal gradient, 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:19.280 which is the difference between the cores temperature and the 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:23.480 planet's surface temperature. So you probably know heat conducts from 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:28.560 high concentration to low concentration, right, and that means that 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:32.240 heat is moving from the core out into the crust. 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:36.160 Uh So if you dig down far enough, the temperature 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:38.560 starts to go up. You know, I knew that, but 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:41.439 I had no idea how to do with this radioactive decay. 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:43.760 I assumed that it was because of the pressure of 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:46.919 the rock above it. Well, radioactive decay is again just 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:49.760 that that's part of what's generating heat, because as we've 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:53.040 talked about before, radioactive decay that is one of the byproducts. 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:55.960 But the actual heat from the core that has nothing 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:59.080 to do the radio activity. That's that's just basic physics 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:03.560 of conduct auction. So as you drill down, that temperature 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:05.960 goes up, and the average is twenty five to thirty 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:10.879 degrees celsius per kilometer or fifteen degrees fahrenheit per thousand feet. 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:13.960 That's the average, because there are some areas where that 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:17.520 gradient is much different. For example, if you're drilling near volcano, 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:21.439 you might notice that temperature goes way up way faster. 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:25.920 Macma will do that to you. Uh So it's thought 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:29.560 that this gradient actually decreases dramatically as you get through 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:32.560 the crust and into the upper mantle. And the basis 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:35.600 for that hypothesis is that if it were steady, if 0:21:35.640 --> 0:21:39.000 in fact you continue to see that that rise in 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:44.240 temperature every kilometer, then you would eventually within the lithosphere. 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:47.600 That's the area of the upper cross, not the upper acrust, 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:50.000 the crust, the upper mantle uppercrust is a great band 0:21:50.480 --> 0:21:54.720 um that if if that remains steady, it would eventually 0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:58.240 hit the temperature where rock would melt before you got 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:01.680 to a point where it's no longer solid. Like we 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:05.040 know that the crust and upper mantle are solid and brittle, 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:08.760 and that's below that when you start hitting liquid and 0:22:08.800 --> 0:22:11.040 then you get to the solid core, when you get 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:15.520 to the very center of the earth. Uh. And because 0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:18.520 we know that, we know that this gradient has to 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:21.160 level off at some point. It can't continue at that pace, 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:23.920 or else the temperature would be too high for there 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:27.280 to be a solid surface there or solid material there. 0:22:27.280 --> 0:22:30.520 It have to be liquid. So this is still just 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:35.000 a hypothesis. However, we don't really know what the actual 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:38.399 conditions under the surface of the Earth are because we 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:42.359 haven't had direct observation of it. Yes, spoiler alert, Jules 0:22:42.440 --> 0:22:45.760 Verne wrote fiction. Yes, did not really go to the 0:22:45.760 --> 0:22:48.399