WEBVTT - Rerun: TechStuff's Spooky Halloween Spectacular! 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:14.480 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:17.640 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:20.040 and a love of all things tech, and as we 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:22.160 close in on Halloween, I thought it would be fun 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:26.880 to do some, you know, Halloween themed episodes of tech Stuff. Unfortunately, 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:30.720 I'm also in the middle of doing about fifty other things, 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:35.000 including some interesting changes for tech Stuff that will be 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.279 coming up in the new years. Interesting changes meaning you're 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:40.559 gonna get more of it. There's going to be not 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:43.879 just uh, the classic tech stuff episodes that you've come 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:46.360 to expect where I do the deep dives and technology, 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:48.599 but some other stuff as well that I'm really excited 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:51.080 to talk about more as we get closer. And I'm 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:54.440 also working on the launch of a brand new podcast, 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:57.880 or rather the revival of a podcast I used to 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:01.120 host just in my spare time. It's coming up pretty 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:03.760 soon in the middle of December. I'll talk more about 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:07.640 that as we get closer as well. So the short 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:09.959 side of it is that all of these things have 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:13.120 taken a lot of my time and attention in the 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:17.160 short term, and uh, it turns out. The scariest word 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:21.640 out of all the scary words around Halloween is deadline. 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:25.440 I mean, the word dead is right there right spooky. 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:29.440 And so I decided that rather than give you a 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:33.959 halfhearted episode, something that was put together in a rush 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:37.640 and not researched properly, I would rather play an episode 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:40.720 that I recorded back in two thousand eighteen. This episode 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:45.280 originally published on October thirty one, Halloween, two thousand eighteen. 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:50.760 It is called tech Stuffs Spooky Halloween Spectacular. And I'll 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:52.880 have a little more to say afterward, but I hope 0:01:52.920 --> 0:02:00.720 you enjoy this episode from ten. Let's listen in. Hey 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:04.440 the everybody, and welcome to Text Stuff. I am your host, 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:10.480 Jonathan Strictly, executive vampire here at ull Stuff works Halloween. 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:16.080 If you're listening to this on Halloween. Otherwise, that was 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:19.880 the worst possible introduction I could have given for this episode, 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:24.519 and I I should feel badly about it, but I don't. Nope, 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:28.959 But in celebration of Halloween, we are going to take 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:33.440 a look at spooky thick or you know, scary tech, 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:35.800 or at least some technology that could at least be 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.840 kind of creepy. See, here's the problem. Running into y'all, 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:44.640 I've already done an episode about tech in haunted house attractions, 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:48.400 so that's finished. I already did one on ghost hunting 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:52.240 technology years ago where I gave a skeptical view of 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:56.640 what all that was about. And sooner or later, after 0:02:56.800 --> 0:02:59.600 you do a few years of a technology podcast, you 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:01.600 start to run out of the fun stuff like that. 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:05.800 So for this episode, I turned to the house Stuff 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:09.400 Works website and I pulled up a classic article, which 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:12.959 is also always a dangerous thing when you're talking technology. 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:18.240 But this article is titled ten Scary modern Technologies. It 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:21.720 was co written by David Ruse and my former editor 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:26.600 and tech Stuff co host Chris Pallette. So get ready 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:31.280 for some tech that goes bump in the night, I guess. 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:37.040 And actually, to be more serious, the technology I'm listing 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:41.840 here does not fall into the supernatural or ghostly categories 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:46.480 at all. The technology represents stuff that could be unsettling 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:51.360 or at worst could cause massive enormous problems due to 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:56.280 overreach or unintended consequences. So there are some serious entries 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:58.600 in here, even though I'm having a little bit of 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:02.840 fun with the presentation. So let us get started. Number 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:08.920 ten on the list, hollow sonics, and the audio spotlight system. 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:13.800 This is more in the creepy, unsettling vein technology that 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:17.200 focuses sound. That's what this is all about. It's focusing 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:21.479 sound into a narrow beam, which provides the opportunity for 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:27.600 ultra targeted sound for stuff like advertising. It's not necessarily creepy, 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:31.120 but not necessarily welcome either. But imagine that you're walking 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:34.800 through a store and just as you're passing in front 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:41.240 of a certain store item, let's say it's cookie crisp cereal, 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:44.919 and you start hearing a voice whispering to you, Hey, 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.120 that cookie crisp looks pretty good. It might seem really weird, 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:51.279 this little disembodied voice, and as soon as you get 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:54.400 past a certain point, you can't hear it anymore. You 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:56.520 just have this experience. As you're going through the store, 0:04:56.560 --> 0:05:01.160 you keep hearing these targeted sounds in very narrow spots, 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:02.960 and as soon as you're out of those spots, you 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:05.240 can't hear it. That sounds pretty creepy, right, Well, how 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:08.160 does it work? Well? According to the company, the secret 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:11.560 is in the size of the sound waves compared to 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:14.919 the size of the sound source. The company states that 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:18.560 if you have a sound source that is much larger 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:21.880 than the comparable size of the sound waves it's producing, 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:25.839 you get more directionality out of your sound so you 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:28.400 can focus it more like a beam. So if you 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:31.800 were to create loudspeakers that are much much, much larger 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:35.239 than the sound waves they're producing, and sound waves can 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.440 measure from a few inches up to several feet in size, 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:42.320 you could direct those sound waves in a beam, more 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:46.000 like a directional beam, rather than having them propagate outward 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:49.080 in all equal directions. But that would not work very 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:52.400 well for something like targeted advertising because you would have 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:55.719 to have these enormous speakers perched behind the cheerios, and 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:59.200 that would be very distracting. So this company has gone 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:05.000 with an approach that has these devices producing ultrasonic beams 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:10.560 of sound. Ultrasonic sound ways are very very tiny. They're 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:15.240 also normally imperceptible, at least directly. They are imperceptible to us. 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:18.400 We cannot hear in this frequency. They do have a 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:21.200 very strong directionality as a result of the way they 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:25.800 are generated. Uh So, according to the company, as the 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:29.719 ultrasonic beam travels through the air, the inherent properties of 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:32.960 the air caused the ultrasound to change shape in a 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:36.760 predictable way. This gives rise to frequency components in the 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:41.600 audible band which can be accurately predicted and therefore precisely controlled. 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:46.159 By generating the correct ultrasonic signal, we can create within 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:50.320 the air itself any sound desired. So, in other words, 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:54.120 it's the interaction of these ultrasonic frequencies with the air 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:59.760 itself that causes the ultrasonic frequencies to change, and then 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.080 you produce these audible frequencies. And because this is all 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:08.640 very controllable in a predictable environment, you can produce whatever 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:11.280 sounds you want. This is based off the work of 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:14.400 an inventor named Woody Norris. He demonstrated this technology at 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:17.440 a TED talk in the early two thousand's. Rather than 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:20.920 generating the audible sound on the face of the speaker 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:24.160 as a traditional speaker would, where the speakers moving a 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:27.400 diaphragm in and out and pushing air around, the ultrasonic 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:30.960 emitter creates a column of the air itself to act 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:33.920 like a speaker, which is pretty nifty. I'm sorry, I 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:40.000 meant spooky number nine d N A hacking. So back 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:44.360 in two thousand three, scientists finished mapping out the human genome. 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:49.040 But that was obviously just the beginning. That's just uh, 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:54.280 a long list of base pairs. Um. Next came the 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.800 work to examine the genome closely and determine which bait 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:01.880 base pairs in the more than three billion pairs that 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:05.360 make up the human genome are responsible for different stuff 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:10.880 like our uh possibility of developing a disease, for example, 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:13.600 because if you could determine that, and if you could 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:17.560 determine a way of changing that part of the DNA 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:22.200 so that it's eliminated, maybe you could make someone not 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:26.400 develop that disease. You could potentially wipe out certain diseases. 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:29.600 And beyond that, what about hacking the human genomes so 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:33.600 that we can create designer human beings, human beings who 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:37.520 have traits that we consider to be superior. Now that's 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:42.080 the stuff of lots of science fiction and horror cautionary tales, 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:46.120 stuff like Gatica saying, yeah, but who gets to decide 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:49.440 what is superior? And what happens to people who aren't 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:52.760 able to take advantage of that technology, and what happens 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:55.160 to the people who do take advantage of that technology. 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:58.840 There are a lot of ethical questions around it. However, 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:02.800 beyond that, there are other scary things to consider. DNA 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:07.640 hacking could allow for individually focused biological warfare. So imagine 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:10.760 that you're living in a world and someone can get 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:14.760 access to your DNA. Maybe they get a skin sample 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:17.240 or some hair or something. They're able to get something 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:19.760 from you that has traces of your DNA in it, 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:22.160 and they're able to analyze your DNA and see what 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:26.360 makes you you and look for any vulnerabilities. Maybe they 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:28.960 find out that you have a predisposed weakness to a 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:32.760 particular type of virus, and then the engineer a virus 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:35.920 to attack you specifically. That was actually the premise of 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:38.800 a two thousand twelve article in The Atlantic, and that 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:41.160 article hypothesized the future in which the President of the 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:44.320 United States could be targeted and assassinated through the use 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:48.160 of a particularly nasty virus that was Taylor made for 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:52.080 the president. Yikes. Or imagine more than that, maybe a 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:56.520 widespread plague unless Stephen King's the stand engineered through a 0:09:56.600 --> 0:10:01.679 deep understanding of DNA paired with a really crap containment strategy. 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:04.200 So how realistic is all of that, Well, in the 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:09.320 short term, it's probably not terribly realistic. It's certainly possible, 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:13.440 but not necessarily plausible. But it does require a deep 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:16.520 understanding of DNA and a means to manipulate it easily 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:19.400 in order to pay it off. We've seen some advances 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:21.880 in those areas. There are a lot more ways that 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:24.400 we can manipulate DNA than there used to be, but 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:29.560 not exactly easy to do. It's easy, you're but that's 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:32.040 that's a matter of degrees. However, you can make a 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:35.040 convincing argument that it would not require too deep and 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:40.280 understanding to cause real harm unintentionally, and that would be 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:43.680 a very difficult argument to counter. And while DNA hacking 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:47.320 could produce all sorts of different futuristic results, we do 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:51.800 already have a culture of bio hackers, also sometimes known 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:56.240 as grinders, who have taken body alteration to new places. 0:10:56.640 --> 0:10:59.680 These folks are not working on a DNA level, They're 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:05.040 not changing themselves fundamentally in that way. Instead, they're doing alterations, 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:08.760 you know, upgrades. So one example would be there are 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:12.720 people who have chosen to have small magnets implanted under 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:17.360 the skin of their fingertips. Say, these little nubby magnets 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:22.480 sticking out on their fingertips kind of weird, right, Well, 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:24.920 what's the purpose of that. Well, because of the effects 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:28.440 of magnetism and electromagnetism, they would actually be able to 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:32.079 sense when they were near magnetic or electromagnetic fields. So 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:34.920 it'd be kind of like Spider Man's spiky sense. They'd 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:38.080 feel tugging on their fingertips as they passed through it. 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:42.120 So instead of detecting danger like Spider Man would, you'd 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:44.800 be able to tell like whether or not electricity was 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:47.480 flowing through a conductor, for example, because you could bring 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:50.080 your fingers close to that conductor. Maybe it's some wires. 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:52.840 You bring your fingers close, and if you start feeling 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:59.600 the pulses from an alternating magnetic field of fluctuating magnetic field, 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:02.520 I would tell you, oh, electricity, alternating current is flowing 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:04.840 through here, because I can feel it in my fingertips. 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:07.280 That would be something you normally would not be able 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:09.560 to feel. So you kind of have a sixth sense 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:12.920 due to having these magnets implanted in your fingertips. And 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:15.800 people have actually done this, However, a word of caution. 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:21.000 From what I understand, these operations are pretty painful. They 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:25.520 usually are not done with an esthetic. There's not really 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:31.440 a place you can go that's medically, you know, licensed 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:33.959 to do this, because it's not a it's not a 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:37.200 standard medical procedure. As far as I know, there are 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:40.760 no accredited medical facilities that do it. I think any 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:44.600 doctor who did practice this would have uh the danger 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:48.959 of being barred from practice. So you're usually talking about 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:54.400 entrepreneuring body modification specialists, you know, like piercers, who will 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:57.400 do this kind of operation. And anytime you're talking about 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:01.600 introducing something foreign to the body, you're also raising other 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:04.880 risks like infection, So you've got to be super duper 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:08.160 careful about that kind of thing. In other words, you're 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:11.640 not gonna find me putting magnets under my fingertips anytime soon. 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:18.760 Number eight on the list cyber war Oh boy, Well, 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:22.480 the scenario the article specifically lays out is an all 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:28.240 out cyber warfare attack where one nation targets another nation's infrastructure, 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:32.320 like it's power grid system or water system. And sure enough, 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:35.600 the U. S Department of Homeland Security has reported that 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:38.360 there's lots of evidence to show that various hackers have 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:43.440 infiltrated critical infrastructure with such tactics like Russian hackers and 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:48.240 the things like power plants and gas pipelines, and that's terrifying. 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:50.760 And before that report had even made the news that 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:55.280 was in security experts have for years been warning that 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:59.640 Chinese hackers have been infiltrating American infrastructure. CNN reported on 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:02.680 that in two thousand fourteen. So this is not exactly 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:06.280 a new story. It's a continuing story that continues to 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:11.920 be really problematic and concerning. So the infiltration part is 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:15.280 a reality. We know for a fact hackers from other 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:19.360 countries have infiltrated various systems. There have been traces found 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:23.520 of their activities, so we know that there have at 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:26.920 least been people snooping around our systems. Whether or not 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:30.640 they've installed anything to help shut stuff down as another matter, 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:33.920 but they've definitely been there, and they appeared to have 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:36.520 been there from places like Russia and China. That does 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:41.800 not automatically mean that the infiltration was state directed, in 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:46.320 other words, that it was a government backed project, but 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:50.160 that seems to be the general consensus is that these 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:55.320 were likely the activities of a state backed group of hackers. 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:59.280 What about shutting everything down is that realistic? Well, it 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:02.800 could be more challenging to do, but not necessarily impossible. 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:08.280 Many utilities have started installing self healing systems. Self healing 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:10.960 system isn't quite as cool as it sounds like. It's 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:14.520 not like it's wolverine and infrastructure form, but it does 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:20.000 involve having a system that when it detects problems automatically 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:24.320 tries to reroute services to get around those problems. So 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:27.160 with a power grid, it might be if a smart 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:30.280 power grid system detects that there's a short that some reason, 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:33.640 or there's a a break in connectivity at some point, 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:36.360 it may try to reroute power to work around that 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:40.040 as much as possible. That could help confound a cyber 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:43.400 warfare attack a little bit. At least it might mitigate 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:48.080 the impact of an attack, um though preventing one entirely 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:51.720 maybe not. But then there are also attacks on other systems, 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:54.720 not just power grids and water and gas, which are 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:58.760 all scary enough. But there's the evidence that showed Russian 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:01.680 hackers were targeting elect systems in the United States leading 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:04.040 up to the twenty sixteen elections. I talked about this 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:05.720 in a recent episode of Tech Stuff, so I'm not 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:07.880 gonna go all the way through it again. But the 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:11.160 really insidious thing about those attacks is they don't even 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:14.400 have to be super successful to be effective. If you 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:18.240 can so doubt in the minds of a nation's citizens 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:21.720 as to the validity of any given election, you have 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.360 undermined the very foundation of that nation's government. A government 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:28.080 that doesn't have the confidence of its population is on 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:31.320 shaky ground and has to move more and more towards 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:35.400 totalitarianism in order to maintain power. If you don't have 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:39.760 any confidence that your system works, then you don't have 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.560 any confidence in your government at all. So cyber war 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:46.920 is something that is continuing right now. It is actually happening. 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:51.520 It is already in place. And obviously I've given examples 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:53.920 of how the US has been the target of cyber warfare, 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:57.400 but don't forget the US has engaged in it too. 0:16:57.440 --> 0:16:59.720 We're not, you know, the United States has not been 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:02.520 just the poor victim in all these cases. The United 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:07.080 States has certainly played a hand in cyber warfare activities. 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:10.840 One example would be stuck s net, the computer virus 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:14.760 that was designed to sabotage uranium enrichment facilities in Iran. 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.320 So this is not something that everyone else is doing 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:20.600 and the United States is the victim. This is something 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:23.280 that everyone is doing as much as they can and 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:26.080 stepping it up as much as they can. Well, we 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:28.399 have a lot more scary technology to talk about, but 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:32.639 I need to have a sip of tea to comfort myself. 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:42.960 Let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. Number 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:46.760 seven is the technological singularity. Now, out of all the 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:50.159 science fiction ideas I find particularly interesting, this one ranks 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:53.679 near the top of them. The singularity refers to a 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:57.280 general concept that could be brought about in several different ways, 0:17:57.359 --> 0:17:59.600 but from a very high level, the idea goes something 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:03.399 like this. Imagine that technology has advanced to the point 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:08.159 that the newest stuff coming out is already designing the 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:11.920 next generation of stuff. And imagine that the gaps between 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:15.040 these generations are getting smaller and smaller, and eventually you 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:18.639 reach a point where the present is defined by constant change, 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:21.480 and that's the only way you can define it. Because 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:25.520 things change so quickly it is almost impossible to describe 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:29.240 the present in any coherent way. That's how quickly everything 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:33.080 is evolving. The thing that would fuel this would be 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:38.040 the emergence of superhuman intelligence. In most of the scenarios 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:43.080 that involve the technological singularity However, that would not necessarily 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:48.000 require just uh, you know, a computer AI. That's one 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:52.520 possible version is pure artificial intelligence that has superhuman capabilities 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:56.320 and processing information. This is your basic deep thought from 0:18:56.440 --> 0:18:59.240 Hitchecker's Guide to the Galaxy or sky Net from the 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:02.960 terminator that scenario. This would be a scenario in which 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:05.960 we humans have created an AI so powerful we are 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:08.800 unable to control it, and then it goes on to 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:11.680 redefine our world in ways that we could not anticipate 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:14.479 because we cannot operate on the same level as this 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:18.520 superhuman intelligence. But that is not necessarily the only pathway 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:22.760 to the technological singularity. Another way might be that humans 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:25.760 find a way to boost our own intelligence and thus 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:29.280 we evolve beyond what we traditionally think of as being human. 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:32.639 We might do this through a deeper understanding of biology. 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:35.439 We could boost our intelligence that way, going back to 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:37.600 the concept of d n A hacking and things related 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:41.119 to that. Or it might involve using technology to create 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:46.200 cyborg like beings where we merge with technology on some level, 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:49.720 and with tech and biology working together, we boost our 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:53.080 intelligence to new levels and achieve superhuman intelligence that way. 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:58.280 So bottom line is this a possibility, well, it beats me. 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:00.520 But there are a lot of super smart people who 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:03.200 are on either side of this issue. So some people 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:07.520 say the singularity is essentially a foregone conclusion. It will happen, 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:10.600 The only question is when will it happen. But there 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:13.560 are other people who say there might be some fundamental 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:17.680 barriers that were not likely to get over, and those 0:20:17.680 --> 0:20:21.679 barriers will block the singularity from ever happening. One of 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:27.840 the frequent criticisms of various UH singularity scenarios is that 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:30.680 a lot of it rests on the belief that we're 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:33.520 going to see progress continue on a pace that's similar 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:38.280 to what Moore's law has observed with computer processing power. 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:41.800 And the thing is that pace may not be realistic, 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:45.960 or sustainable, or even applicable to some technologies. So Moore's 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:50.440 law applies to UH to the processing power of computers 0:20:50.480 --> 0:20:53.560 generally speaking, but they may not apply to other elements 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:56.480 that would be necessary to bring about superhuman intelligence, because 0:20:56.520 --> 0:21:00.480 processing power by itself is not intelligence. You also have 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:02.480 to have the software side. You've got a lot of 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:05.200 other pieces that have to be in place. However, if 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:08.440 it is possible, it could very well mean the end 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:11.800 of the human race as we know it today. Now, 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:15.760 that doesn't necessarily mean it's the end of humanity entirely. 0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:19.480 It just may mean that humanity will transition into something different, 0:21:20.000 --> 0:21:23.120 so it could be a new beginning. It's not necessarily 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:30.760 the end of everything, but still spooky. Number six Google Glass, 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:35.439 I mean that was the number on the on the 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:39.960 article Google. You remember Google glass, the augmented reality glasses. 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:43.160 Back when Chris and Dave were working on this article, 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:47.359 Google glass was still a real thing. It was it 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:50.359 was poised to become an actual consumer product outside of 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:54.880 the relatively small sample of bleeding edge adopters a k a. 0:21:54.920 --> 0:21:58.199 Glass holes. We were sometimes called that because I was 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:00.720 one of them. I had a pair of Google Glass. 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:05.200 The glasses were part augmented reality headset, part user interface 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:08.160 for the world around you. They included a camera which 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:10.720 could pull in information, and a Bluetooth chips so the 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:14.520 glasses could communicate with a paired mobile device, and through 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:17.919 that mobile device, the glasses could also pair information like 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:22.119 GPS coordinates. So these glasses, while giving you potentially incredible 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:25.359 access to information about the world around you, could also 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:28.439 gather information about the world around you for the benefit 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:32.720 of Google and suddenly this company could potentially access information 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:35.800 from cameras mounted on faces all over the world. And 0:22:36.119 --> 0:22:39.600 the glasses also had microphones, because you know, you could 0:22:39.640 --> 0:22:43.399 use voice commands to make your glasses do stuff. But 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:46.280 that also meant that in very Google could listen in 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:49.240 as well, not just see everything, but hear everything, which 0:22:49.320 --> 0:22:52.040 raises some big privacy concerns, not just for the people 0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:55.879 wearing the glasses, but for everyone around those people. And 0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:59.399 Google makes money with information, so you would effectively be 0:22:59.480 --> 0:23:02.920 generating product for Google to sell by wearing a pair 0:23:02.960 --> 0:23:05.800 of those glasses and walking around everywhere. Google would be 0:23:05.800 --> 0:23:09.280 the head of a big surveillance state, far more invasive 0:23:09.280 --> 0:23:13.640 than a network of closed circuit cameras if such technology 0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:17.960 was used on ethically. And while Google Glass is now 0:23:18.080 --> 0:23:20.800 far more limited in its rollout, you know you only 0:23:20.840 --> 0:23:24.240 see it in a few industries. At this point, the 0:23:24.320 --> 0:23:26.679 company Google is still very much in the business of 0:23:26.760 --> 0:23:29.879 knowing where it's customers are. In August two thousand eighteen, 0:23:30.359 --> 0:23:33.560 numerous tech journals reported on a study that was conducted 0:23:33.600 --> 0:23:37.240 by Douglas C. Schmidt of Vanderbilt University. That's so, he 0:23:37.280 --> 0:23:40.439 said that a stationary Android phone running Chrome in the 0:23:40.440 --> 0:23:45.040 background would ping Google servers with location data three forty 0:23:45.160 --> 0:23:47.960 times in a twenty four hour period. Even if you 0:23:48.000 --> 0:23:51.080 turn the location history feature off of the phone, the 0:23:51.119 --> 0:23:54.040 phones were still sending location data back to Google, according 0:23:54.080 --> 0:23:56.480 to the study. Google, by the way, has disputed the 0:23:56.520 --> 0:23:59.879 findings of the study. Then there are the numerous per 0:24:00.400 --> 0:24:04.240 assistant devices that are out there, including Google Home, that 0:24:04.400 --> 0:24:07.360 also are always listening for commands. And of course that's 0:24:07.400 --> 0:24:10.040 just Google. There are other companies out there like Apple 0:24:10.200 --> 0:24:13.680 and Amazon that also have technologies similar to these. All 0:24:13.720 --> 0:24:17.200 of these could be monitoring users and sending data back 0:24:17.520 --> 0:24:21.120 so that the companies might later exploit that information for profit, 0:24:21.640 --> 0:24:24.520 usually to sell you stuff to advertise directly to you. 0:24:24.600 --> 0:24:27.360 But that's still pretty creepy, right. Even if the companies 0:24:27.480 --> 0:24:31.760 are not actively exploiting that information, the fact that the 0:24:31.840 --> 0:24:35.000 data could be transmitted and recorded at all is problematic. 0:24:35.280 --> 0:24:38.159 Though again, I should say, the companies generally say they 0:24:38.200 --> 0:24:41.120 do not record user data in that way, so that's 0:24:41.119 --> 0:24:46.199 a relief right. Number five drones. Drones are legit creepy. 0:24:46.480 --> 0:24:49.800 Many drones have cameras mounted on them that does allow 0:24:49.840 --> 0:24:55.080 potential filmmakers unprecedented access and capabilities now a low budget 0:24:55.119 --> 0:24:58.439