WEBVTT - Technology That Goes Bump In the Night

0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.960
<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.

0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.760
<v Speaker 1>It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With

0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:13.120
<v Speaker 1>tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. This podcast

0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:15.360
<v Speaker 1>is brought to you by go to Meetings, the best

0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:18.040
<v Speaker 1>way to hold meetings over the Internet. Read these travel

0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:21.720
<v Speaker 1>expenses save time. Just hold an online meeting with go

0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:24.960
<v Speaker 1>to Meeting. Try it free, visit go to meeting dot

0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:31.720
<v Speaker 1>com slash tech stuff Food. Welcome to the podcast. My

0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:34.160
<v Speaker 1>name is Chris Polette. I'm an editor How Stuff Works,

0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:37.800
<v Speaker 1>and sitting next to me as usual, although a little

0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:40.680
<v Speaker 1>scarier this time is the senior writer, Jonathan Stricklin. Yeah.

0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:45.360
<v Speaker 1>That's a tall order, a little scarier, just a little. Well,

0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:47.880
<v Speaker 1>and today we're gonna talk to you about scary technology.

0:00:47.920 --> 0:00:51.240
<v Speaker 1>It's our special Halloween episode. Yep, it's a it's both

0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:54.520
<v Speaker 1>a trick and a treat. So let's let's get started.

0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:58.560
<v Speaker 1>The first one I wanted to talk about really quickly, um,

0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:01.000
<v Speaker 1>just the technology that you might find in a modern

0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:03.480
<v Speaker 1>haunted house, now haunted house with the kind that's run

0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:08.720
<v Speaker 1>on Halloween, not the kind that actually ghost. So. Um.

0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:12.039
<v Speaker 1>Here in Atlanta, which is where our headquarters are based,

0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:15.640
<v Speaker 1>we have a haunted house called nether World. It's actually

0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:18.319
<v Speaker 1>um pretty highly ranked in a lot of a lot

0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:20.760
<v Speaker 1>of websites. I saw it as a number two haunted

0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:23.720
<v Speaker 1>house in the United States at one points and coast

0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:27.080
<v Speaker 1>to coast something like that. And so they use live

0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:30.680
<v Speaker 1>actors and things and and and spooky settings. But they

0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:34.319
<v Speaker 1>also use a lot of really advanced technology like audio animatronics,

0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:38.039
<v Speaker 1>where they have these huge audio animatronic figures that have

0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:41.399
<v Speaker 1>a wide range of motions, um, that are pretty convincing,

0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:43.480
<v Speaker 1>especially when you're in a dark, dark room. You know,

0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:45.880
<v Speaker 1>you don't have a lot of you know, the luxury

0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:47.560
<v Speaker 1>of light to show you that you're just looking at

0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:50.960
<v Speaker 1>a big rubber monster that just can you know, move

0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:53.720
<v Speaker 1>its head back and forth and swing its arms or whatever. Um.

0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:57.680
<v Speaker 1>But that's pretty scary stuff all on its own. UM.

0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:00.440
<v Speaker 1>They also use things like pressure mats and UH and

0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:05.920
<v Speaker 1>sensors so that these these animal truning figures trigger when

0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:08.120
<v Speaker 1>you reach certain points of the house. So it kind

0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:11.880
<v Speaker 1>of personalizes your your experience and it's you know, it's

0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.960
<v Speaker 1>not just like running on a on a loop, which

0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:18.560
<v Speaker 1>is far less convincing. UM. And of course they're always

0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:21.280
<v Speaker 1>gore special effects as well. Which you know I love

0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:27.080
<v Speaker 1>and Chris hates. So uh and what's that hoverboard? And

0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:29.880
<v Speaker 1>not no unsfortunately, not a hover with it. Just the

0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:32.280
<v Speaker 1>sort of the scary in the sense of things we

0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:35.080
<v Speaker 1>like to do to to thrill ourselves and kind of

0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:38.160
<v Speaker 1>get that feeling of being in danger when in reality

0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:43.040
<v Speaker 1>you know you're pretty safe. Um. Mega roller coasters. If

0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:45.360
<v Speaker 1>if you know me, you know that I am a

0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:49.760
<v Speaker 1>roller coaster fanatic. I love roller coasters, and so I

0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:51.240
<v Speaker 1>wanted to kind of give a shout out to my

0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:54.480
<v Speaker 1>favorite roller coaster that I've ever written. Now, granted I've

0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:56.880
<v Speaker 1>not written all of them, so don't write to me

0:02:56.919 --> 0:02:59.400
<v Speaker 1>and tell me that, hey, what about such and such,

0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:03.920
<v Speaker 1>because IBLY haven't been on that one. My favorite Millennium Force,

0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:08.600
<v Speaker 1>which is at Cedar Point roller Coaster Capital, United States

0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:13.640
<v Speaker 1>of America, and Millennium Force is three ft tall and

0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:16.080
<v Speaker 1>when you're on it, you reach us top speed of

0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:20.000
<v Speaker 1>around ninety three miles per hour. Yeah, when you're in

0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:26.239
<v Speaker 1>a little exposed roller coaster train, that's really freaking fast.

0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:30.920
<v Speaker 1>Um awesome roller coaster. Two thumbs up. I wrote it

0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.200
<v Speaker 1>maybe five times in one day. It was fantastic. I

0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:36.400
<v Speaker 1>can't wait to go again. So those are those are

0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:39.560
<v Speaker 1>my two starting off, just to get the fun stuff

0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:41.840
<v Speaker 1>kind of ease us in before we get into the

0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:47.080
<v Speaker 1>really scary tech. You got some for me, Well, I

0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:51.360
<v Speaker 1>have a couple. Okay, Yeah, that's pretty scary. It's definitely

0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:56.240
<v Speaker 1>scary to Microsoft. That's true. Um, you know, just when

0:03:56.240 --> 0:03:58.600
<v Speaker 1>we were talking about scary technology, I was thinking about

0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:01.640
<v Speaker 1>all these kinds of things that uh yeah, maybe you

0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:04.640
<v Speaker 1>wouldn't necessarily think of as scary. Yeah, by things that

0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:09.960
<v Speaker 1>you know, sort of our I mean this the depending

0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:11.960
<v Speaker 1>on whom you ask this day was let out the

0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:16.960
<v Speaker 1>door a little early, as everyone will tell you this

0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:19.320
<v Speaker 1>to came out a little too early. My Microsoft PR

0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:24.000
<v Speaker 1>people will tell you all right, but yeah, it's it's

0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:28.960
<v Speaker 1>it's had some problems, it's caused some computer malfunctioning, and

0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:31.880
<v Speaker 1>it got a lot of bad press early on, which

0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:35.480
<v Speaker 1>still haunts it to this day. Yeah. I like that. Yeah.

0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:38.960
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, you've got thank you. So you've got Vista

0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:42.960
<v Speaker 1>where most people say now that the big problems that

0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:45.160
<v Speaker 1>we're really plaguing this to early on or I've been

0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:47.480
<v Speaker 1>taken care of. They've been addressed and and it's a

0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:51.080
<v Speaker 1>much better operating system now. But they it's still has

0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:53.240
<v Speaker 1>that stigma that was attached to it back when it

0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:57.039
<v Speaker 1>had all these problems, and so it's just not You

0:04:57.080 --> 0:04:59.400
<v Speaker 1>still have people going in buying a new computer and saying,

0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:02.640
<v Speaker 1>can I get Windows XP on this instead? Yeah, that's

0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:05.760
<v Speaker 1>a big problem even since it's been discontinued, which is

0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:08.560
<v Speaker 1>kind of why it's scary to Microsoft's also probably why

0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.320
<v Speaker 1>Microsoft are you talking about Windows seven? There? You know

0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:14.159
<v Speaker 1>they're skipping right over it. That's that's all right, I

0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:18.760
<v Speaker 1>got another one ready. Okay. So there's this exoskeleton, this

0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:23.440
<v Speaker 1>robotic exo skeleton produced in Japan, which allows the wearer

0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:30.000
<v Speaker 1>to carry ten times their normal carrying capacity. Um. So

0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:32.160
<v Speaker 1>that alone is kind of scary because it makes someone

0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:34.280
<v Speaker 1>ten times as strong as they were before and they

0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.000
<v Speaker 1>can crush you like a grape, right. But what really

0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:42.400
<v Speaker 1>makes it scary is it's called how h and it's

0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:46.760
<v Speaker 1>made by a company called Cyberdyne. So, for those of

0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:49.880
<v Speaker 1>you who aren't familiar, how of course, is the name

0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:53.840
<v Speaker 1>of the computer gone Haywire in Arthur C. Clark's two

0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:59.000
<v Speaker 1>thousand one, and Cyberdyne is the name of the corporation

0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:03.080
<v Speaker 1>that produced the Terminator robot and the Terminator movies. So

0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:06.599
<v Speaker 1>clearly what how will eventually do is become self aware

0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:11.120
<v Speaker 1>and start killing women named Sarah Connor. Yeah, so look

0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:13.560
<v Speaker 1>forward to that in the near future. They're actually already

0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:17.120
<v Speaker 1>being offered for rent for a thousand dollars a month.

0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:20.720
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, if you've got if you've got a grand

0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:22.880
<v Speaker 1>and you need a months more of those stuff moved

0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:24.480
<v Speaker 1>from one side the room to the other, you can

0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:28.760
<v Speaker 1>totally look into that. That sounds like fun. All right,

0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:32.400
<v Speaker 1>I got I've got one lithium iron batteries. Oh nice,

0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:34.520
<v Speaker 1>I like, I like where you're going with these? Really

0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:37.679
<v Speaker 1>outside of the box. Uh yeah, because I was thinking

0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:40.600
<v Speaker 1>these are fine. These are the batteries that we use

0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:44.280
<v Speaker 1>to power our laptops and our iPods, I mean our

0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:48.080
<v Speaker 1>generic Inn P three players and are power tools. They're

0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:51.280
<v Speaker 1>they're great, they were chargeable, they're they're white compared to

0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:52.920
<v Speaker 1>some of the others, you know, like lead acid, which

0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:56.000
<v Speaker 1>is heavy, like you know, lead um. They also have

0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:59.920
<v Speaker 1>something called thermal runaway, which is when the chemical react

0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.520
<v Speaker 1>and in the battery gets a little out of hand

0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:04.800
<v Speaker 1>and it gets even more out of hand and it

0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:07.360
<v Speaker 1>starts to heat up and you know, makes everything catch

0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:10.480
<v Speaker 1>on fire, Yeah, which is kind of scary. I've had

0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:13.880
<v Speaker 1>a battery overheating problem before. It is pretty scary. Yeah,

0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:17.040
<v Speaker 1>I mean it's it's actually it's we're sort of semi

0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:19.280
<v Speaker 1>joking about it, but it can actually cause a problem.

0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:23.320
<v Speaker 1>They've had laptops overheat on planes. I mean that's a

0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:26.239
<v Speaker 1>that's a serious issue, you know, and in the middle

0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:28.480
<v Speaker 1>of conferences. Definitely scary. I mean if you don't have

0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:30.800
<v Speaker 1>anything to you know, it's an electronic device, I mean

0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:33.640
<v Speaker 1>what you do, put it out, it's it's you know,

0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:36.480
<v Speaker 1>not super scary, but it's not something that you want happening,

0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:38.800
<v Speaker 1>especially in an environment like I don't know, like an

0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:42.960
<v Speaker 1>oxygen Then yeah, okay, I got no one. Okay. Laser

0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:49.360
<v Speaker 1>eye surgery, Okay, so interest a full disclosure. Uh My

0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:53.160
<v Speaker 1>wife got laser eye surgery performed upon her, and I

0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:55.960
<v Speaker 1>watched the procedure and what makes it scary is the

0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:58.520
<v Speaker 1>first thing they do, the doctors do and the laser

0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:01.000
<v Speaker 1>eye surgery is they cut a app in your cornea

0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:04.920
<v Speaker 1>and they lift the flap back and then they shoot

0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:08.240
<v Speaker 1>a laser into your cornea to reshape it. And then

0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:11.040
<v Speaker 1>once they're done, they put the flap back in place

0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:15.440
<v Speaker 1>where it will hopefully he'll without problems and then you

0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:18.720
<v Speaker 1>have corrected vision. My wife, for example, I think she

0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.640
<v Speaker 1>has twenty fifteen vision now, so it's actually better than

0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:26.480
<v Speaker 1>But watching this happen really creepy. For one. Thing that

0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:29.400
<v Speaker 1>use a device to keep your eye open that looks

0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:36.520
<v Speaker 1>hauntingly familiar if you've seen the movie Clockwork Orange. Um so, yeah,

0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:39.960
<v Speaker 1>definitely scary. Worth it, totally. My wife would tell you

0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:42.360
<v Speaker 1>right now, totally worth it. And she she's the one

0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:46.120
<v Speaker 1>who can't handle needles or anything like that. Um but

0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:49.400
<v Speaker 1>I'm still wearing glasses and she cut the laser eye surgery.

0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.800
<v Speaker 1>So there you go. You stopped talking. Can I unplug

0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:55.679
<v Speaker 1>my ears now? You can? You can? You can listen again,

0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:59.280
<v Speaker 1>it's safe. Um So Another one r I F I

0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:05.520
<v Speaker 1>D radio frequency identification chips very useful, don't know, you know,

0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:08.040
<v Speaker 1>you got a card in your wallet and you can,

0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:10.160
<v Speaker 1>you know, go up and buy a taco a taco

0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:12.040
<v Speaker 1>bell and just scan your card over the reader and

0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:14.400
<v Speaker 1>you don't have to sign anything or you know, it's

0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:16.600
<v Speaker 1>just done with a little chip. Or you've got a

0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:19.680
<v Speaker 1>security badge and you use it to push put up

0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:22.080
<v Speaker 1>against a reader. That unlocks the door and lets you

0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:25.760
<v Speaker 1>into a building. There's a video of a guy on

0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:29.520
<v Speaker 1>Boing Boing of somebody implanting an r f I D

0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:33.160
<v Speaker 1>chip inside himself. Wow, these are the chips that you

0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.680
<v Speaker 1>also could use for your dog or cat, you know. Um,

0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:39.160
<v Speaker 1>And people say, well, you could you know, embed your

0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:40.960
<v Speaker 1>credit card number inside your hand and then you have

0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:42.120
<v Speaker 1>to do a scan in your hand. You don't have

0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:44.320
<v Speaker 1>to carry your wallet with you. On the other hand,

0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:47.720
<v Speaker 1>some people say that this is the number of the

0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:51.679
<v Speaker 1>beasts that you have to do to use to do business,

0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:55.640
<v Speaker 1>as mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Uh so, I

0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:59.480
<v Speaker 1>just think of the pretty the number of dismemberments go

0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:02.120
<v Speaker 1>up as people try to steal your card by plopping

0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:04.800
<v Speaker 1>your hand off. Actually, yeah, I think that that's probably uh,

0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:07.559
<v Speaker 1>that's that's a realistic you know, we're regardless of it.

0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:10.760
<v Speaker 1>You feel about the biblical part of it that you know,

0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:12.760
<v Speaker 1>that's the reasonable thing. And but my thing is what

0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:15.559
<v Speaker 1>happens if your card expires? Yeah, and even beyond that,

0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:18.319
<v Speaker 1>there are devices out there that can read an r

0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:20.960
<v Speaker 1>f I D chip and spoof it, which means that

0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.720
<v Speaker 1>it can replicate the signal so that someone who has

0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:26.600
<v Speaker 1>one of these devices. If they get close enough and

0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:29.079
<v Speaker 1>they can detect your r F I D chip, they

0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.160
<v Speaker 1>can replicate it and then either use it to purchase

0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:36.080
<v Speaker 1>things or access buildings. You know. It's r F idea

0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:38.719
<v Speaker 1>is definitely not a perfect technology by any stretch of

0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:41.319
<v Speaker 1>the imagination. That actually really is scary. Yeah, that that's

0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:43.920
<v Speaker 1>an everyday scary thing because somebody could have one of

0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:46.160
<v Speaker 1>the readers in their pocket and all they have to

0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:47.920
<v Speaker 1>do is walk by you. They don't have to touch you,

0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:50.040
<v Speaker 1>they don't have to let on. All they have to

0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:52.880
<v Speaker 1>do is walk through a crowd and pick up everybody's

0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:56.480
<v Speaker 1>credit card number and go shopping. So yeah, I got

0:10:56.480 --> 0:11:01.880
<v Speaker 1>another one, then yeah, okay, okay. Raytheon's Silent Guardian also

0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:07.160
<v Speaker 1>known as the pain ray. Now, Raytheon is the people

0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:11.520
<v Speaker 1>who invented the company that invented the microwaves. This is

0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:14.640
<v Speaker 1>probably not far from that. It's kind of a milli

0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:17.680
<v Speaker 1>millimeter wave. It's it's uses larger waves than microwaves. But

0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:20.679
<v Speaker 1>the idea is that um, it shoots this ray that

0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:24.040
<v Speaker 1>does not cause direct harm, but it stimulates the nerve

0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:29.240
<v Speaker 1>endings in humans, which results in a feeling of intense pain.

0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:32.479
<v Speaker 1>People have described it as a really strong burning sensation,

0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:37.199
<v Speaker 1>um like scalding water, and that uh, they can direct

0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:39.560
<v Speaker 1>this from the it's actually the ray that I saw.

0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:41.880
<v Speaker 1>It's not like a ray, like a ray gun. It's

0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:45.000
<v Speaker 1>this enormous machine that has a sort of a satellite

0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:47.320
<v Speaker 1>dish kind of device on the top of it that

0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:50.880
<v Speaker 1>they the operator can use to aim at an individual.

0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:55.640
<v Speaker 1>And it's an idea. It's a less than lethal weapon.

0:11:55.800 --> 0:11:58.720
<v Speaker 1>That's the category falls under, so it could be used

0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:01.640
<v Speaker 1>to do things like break up a riot. You just

0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:05.480
<v Speaker 1>scan it over the crowd and then from what I understand,

0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:09.640
<v Speaker 1>enduring more than a second or two is unthinkable. It's

0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:15.080
<v Speaker 1>just that painful, yuch, pretty scary. The storm worm, oh

0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:20.920
<v Speaker 1>good one, which is a particularly uh persistent and difficult

0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:24.360
<v Speaker 1>piece of malware that is going around the Internet, and

0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:28.480
<v Speaker 1>it's uh usually going transfers by an email A lot

0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:31.760
<v Speaker 1>of times. It has a newsy headline that makes people

0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:33.240
<v Speaker 1>want to click on it and download it to their

0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:35.960
<v Speaker 1>computer thinking that it's some kind of news related thing.

0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:38.760
<v Speaker 1>Actually it got its name from the first email where

0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:41.280
<v Speaker 1>people really caught on was it was about a storm,

0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:43.839
<v Speaker 1>about a severe storm, and people want what's going on?

0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:46.960
<v Speaker 1>And they clicked on the link infected their computers. But

0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:50.840
<v Speaker 1>the thing is it's being controlled. It turns computers into

0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:56.080
<v Speaker 1>parts of a bot net, which exactly, and they people

0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:59.839
<v Speaker 1>can control it. They can manipulate it to attack of

0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.400
<v Speaker 1>our computers and other networks. Um. So that's kind of

0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:07.640
<v Speaker 1>scary because it could, you know, bring about cyber war. Okay, yes,

0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:11.920
<v Speaker 1>large hadron collider right now, not right now, no, right

0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:14.280
<v Speaker 1>now it's offline, but the wind in the spring, it

0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:16.200
<v Speaker 1>will be back online. And there are some people who

0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:18.160
<v Speaker 1>are really really scared of this machine. Now, this is

0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:21.000
<v Speaker 1>a super collider that's going to fire protons that near

0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:23.959
<v Speaker 1>the speed of light toward one another, smash them together

0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:27.079
<v Speaker 1>and then see what happens. It's a pure science application.

0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:29.680
<v Speaker 1>It's designed to let us kind of get a better

0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:33.800
<v Speaker 1>understanding of our universe and possibly how it even started. Um.

0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:36.880
<v Speaker 1>But some people worry that it may cause things like

0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:41.360
<v Speaker 1>a black hole to appear and then it would come

0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:44.800
<v Speaker 1>sing us all, or that it would create this stuff

0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:51.240
<v Speaker 1>called strangelets. So purely hypothetical, uh substance. At this point,

0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.360
<v Speaker 1>no one's ever actually seen this stuff, but hypothetically, what

0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:57.520
<v Speaker 1>this stuff would do is convert everything else that came

0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:00.920
<v Speaker 1>into contact with into inert matter, so the Earth would

0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:04.080
<v Speaker 1>just become a dead husk. Now, scientists will be quick

0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:06.360
<v Speaker 1>to tell you. Scientists at the LHC will tell you

0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:09.320
<v Speaker 1>very quickly that the likelihood of any of this happening

0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:12.720
<v Speaker 1>is so close to zero that you could almost say

0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:17.640
<v Speaker 1>it's impossible. But because they're scientists, they don't say it's impossible,

0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:20.600
<v Speaker 1>because that's not really what science does. They just say

0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:25.720
<v Speaker 1>that it's incredibly unlikely, to the point where you shouldn't

0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:28.400
<v Speaker 1>even really worry about it. But that hasn't stopped people

0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:31.040
<v Speaker 1>from doing just that. You know, I shouldn't go back

0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:33.280
<v Speaker 1>to this, but I'd like to point out that Microsoft

0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:37.400
<v Speaker 1>pr people say Vista isn't scary. I trust the people

0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:41.600
<v Speaker 1>at the LHC. Well, maybe a little bit more. Okay,

0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:43.960
<v Speaker 1>this is gonna be at a left field, all right.

0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:49.520
<v Speaker 1>Blackberries Okay, Okay, people don't drive in BlackBerry or walk

0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:51.920
<v Speaker 1>in BlackBerry because someone will run over you because they're

0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:56.840
<v Speaker 1>on their BlackBerry. Yeah, California just outlawed texting and driving. Yeah,

0:14:56.920 --> 0:15:00.400
<v Speaker 1>and it's not a scary tech, but it's scary people behavior. Okay, Well,

0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:02.600
<v Speaker 1>like cell phones. Cell phones, Yeah, we can actually go

0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:04.840
<v Speaker 1>onto that too, because there's people who are worried that

0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:08.360
<v Speaker 1>cell phones emit enough radiation to cause you to go

0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:11.440
<v Speaker 1>sterile or get cancer. We should be quick to point

0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:16.080
<v Speaker 1>out here that cell phones emit radio frequency radiation. Uh.

0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:18.080
<v Speaker 1>The word radiation is kind of scary because we all

0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:21.720
<v Speaker 1>associate it with things like plutonium that would cause you

0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:25.440
<v Speaker 1>to get cancer and die a horrible death, or gamma

0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.000
<v Speaker 1>rays which turn you green and make you very large

0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:31.000
<v Speaker 1>and start to smash things. But radiation doesn't necessarily mean

0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:35.160
<v Speaker 1>nuclear radiation. It means that you're you're irradiating some form

0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:39.240
<v Speaker 1>of energy like heat is radiation, that's infrared radiation. It's

0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:43.160
<v Speaker 1>and granted, heat can be deadly if if it's intense enough,

0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:46.520
<v Speaker 1>but it's not on its own gonna cause you to

0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:49.840
<v Speaker 1>you know, just keel over. So uh, there's this great

0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:52.920
<v Speaker 1>video on YouTube where it shows, uh, this group of

0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:55.440
<v Speaker 1>people who put us I think it's like three or

0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:57.760
<v Speaker 1>four cell phones in a circle and put popcorn in

0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:00.160
<v Speaker 1>the middle and the cellphones all start ringing it. Once

0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:01.920
<v Speaker 1>you see the popcorns start to dance around, then it

0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:06.040
<v Speaker 1>pops um. Totally fake. People not real that there was

0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:09.400
<v Speaker 1>a heating element under the table. It was all kind

0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:12.400
<v Speaker 1>of a little pr stunt. Uh. So, don't sit there

0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:14.440
<v Speaker 1>and think that you know, if you hold your your

0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:17.240
<v Speaker 1>your cell phone up to your horrible red bucker, that

0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:19.080
<v Speaker 1>you're gonna have a nice tasty treat in a second,

0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:22.240
<v Speaker 1>because it's not gonna happen. That just sounds wrong. Yeah,

0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:28.200
<v Speaker 1>I thought I'd go with the reference androids. Androids are scary,

0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:31.480
<v Speaker 1>sort of, It depends on how real they are. If

0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:34.760
<v Speaker 1>you're talking like Honda z Asimo, he's not particularly scary.

0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:37.920
<v Speaker 1>When you say real, you mean how closely they resemble

0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:43.520
<v Speaker 1>humans exactly. This is what what a Japanese scientist named

0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:50.320
<v Speaker 1>most A hero Mori suggested in the article in a

0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:53.760
<v Speaker 1>journal called Energy that he called it the Uncanny Valley.

0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:56.520
<v Speaker 1>And this is actually true for as Jonathan was pointing out,

0:16:56.520 --> 0:17:00.200
<v Speaker 1>as I ran a suggestion by m yesterday, Uh true

0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:07.719
<v Speaker 1>of realistic characters in computer games or movies express jumps

0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:11.480
<v Speaker 1>to mind. Yes, yes, but well you know some people

0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:16.119
<v Speaker 1>think Tom Hanks is scary anyway. Um, but but Morey

0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:20.159
<v Speaker 1>said that the closer something resembles a human and you

0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:24.440
<v Speaker 1>know that it's not really a human, the creepier it gets. Yeah,

0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:28.200
<v Speaker 1>totally scary, but it's just like a you know, something's

0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:33.360
<v Speaker 1>just off. So yeah, there there are some androids that

0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.640
<v Speaker 1>that you know, are so realistic and they have all

0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:39.520
<v Speaker 1>the the servos and the things in their bodies that

0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:41.840
<v Speaker 1>make them move, and they make them even more likely

0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:45.159
<v Speaker 1>to have facial expressions hums, going at. Yeah, the Japanese

0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:48.200
<v Speaker 1>ones in particular, but they really unsettling. But they're extremely

0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:51.840
<v Speaker 1>sophistically they are and creepy. Right, you know what, I'm

0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:53.560
<v Speaker 1>getting creeped out. I think we're gonna need to wrap

0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.120
<v Speaker 1>this up right now, all right, because I'm getting really

0:17:56.119 --> 0:18:01.159
<v Speaker 1>creeped out. Yeah, let's uh, let's in this for today.

0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:03.199
<v Speaker 1>But well we'll take a little break and when we

0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:06.320
<v Speaker 1>come back, I'll tell you about something else that's equally creepy,

0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:11.520
<v Speaker 1>but in a non technology see at. This podcast is

0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:14.040
<v Speaker 1>brought to you by Go to Meeting, the web based

0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:17.240
<v Speaker 1>tool that lets you hold instant online meetings from the office,

0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:20.560
<v Speaker 1>conference room, or home office with people anywhere in the

0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:23.840
<v Speaker 1>world so you can do more and travel less, which

0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:26.760
<v Speaker 1>means you can save money and make more money. Try

0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:29.680
<v Speaker 1>go to Meeting free, does it go to meeting, dot com,

0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:37.360
<v Speaker 1>slash tech stuff, So do you know what article I'm

0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:41.639
<v Speaker 1>talking about here, Chris, I have an idea. Yeah, you

0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:43.800
<v Speaker 1>want to check in with it? Here, I'll give you

0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:46.359
<v Speaker 1>to give me a little hint. It's the top five

0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:49.639
<v Speaker 1>hotels that will scare the daylights out of you, so

0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:52.119
<v Speaker 1>you can check in. Joe, makes sense, right, right? I

0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:54.640
<v Speaker 1>thought you were talking about a roach motel. No, that

0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:56.879
<v Speaker 1>does not make but they don't check out. Yeah, this

0:18:56.960 --> 0:19:00.960
<v Speaker 1>is creepy. That definitely is creepy. Okay. This list was

0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:07.239
<v Speaker 1>written by our friend and colleague, Charles Chuck Bryant, and

0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:10.919
<v Speaker 1>it's a fabulous It's really amazing. If you, if you

0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:13.480
<v Speaker 1>were not creaked out by the tech stuff, read that

0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:16.640
<v Speaker 1>article that will really creep you out. It's live right

0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:19.359
<v Speaker 1>now on how stuff works dot com and we'll trick

0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:23.679
<v Speaker 1>or treat with you again really soon. Let us know

0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:26.680
<v Speaker 1>what you think. Send an email to podcast at how

0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:33.919
<v Speaker 1>stuff works dot com. Brought to you by the reinvented

0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:36.680
<v Speaker 1>two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you