WEBVTT - Tech of Ghostbusters 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:12.920 With Technology with tech Stuff from dot Com. Hey there, everybody, 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:15.680 this is Jonathan Strickling with tech Stuff. Today. I have 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:19.400 a very special guest, someone that I've been looking forward 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:22.760 to having on the show, Troy Benjamin, who is an 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:27.080 author extraordinaire and uh knows all sorts of things about 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:31.680 geeky stuff. I could be quizzing him about Iron Man 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:36.519 right now, or talking about the intricacies of Shield. But 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:41.440 today we're gonna look at a particularly spooky topic, the 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:48.040 tech of Ghostbusters, because we have the Ghostbusters Ectomobile Owner's 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:52.199 Workshop Manual, a book that I have a had a 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:55.560 chance to look at and have enjoyed thoroughly. Mr Benjamin, 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:59.240 Welcome to tech Stuff. Hello Jonathan, thanks for having me 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:01.560 on man. That's now I hear that that title is 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:06.839 such a mouthful, the Ghostbusters Ectomobile Owners Workshop. We should 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:08.759 have really come up with an acronym or something there. 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:10.720 In true Shield fashion, we should have come up with 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:13.600 something shorter. I love that, you know in the on 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:16.480 the cover that I have, it has the all the 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:20.400 different designations for all the different ectomobiles as well, so 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:24.240 it's so it's even more complex than that. I love 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:27.560 it because you look at this and just from the 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:30.039 look of it, it looks like a workshop manual, you know, 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:33.520 it has that appearance. You've got the nice uh diagram 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:37.160 of the ECTO one, the classic Ecto one on the cover. 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:41.160 And before we jump into how this book came about 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:46.279 and and the research you did, just from a casual perspective, guys, 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:50.040 this is a book that's got tons of illustrations and 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:54.600 photographs from the films. It's got lots of close ups 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:57.800 of stuff that you would only have glimpsed at if 0:01:57.800 --> 0:01:59.760 you had been watching the movies. So if you're a 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:02.720 fan end of the films like I am, this is 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:04.840 a real treat because you get a chance to actually 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:07.160 look at some of this stuff that you would really 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:10.720 only see in passing. So let's let's talk about this. 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:14.040 So how did this book come about? Before we we 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:17.400 talked about the tech itself. Yeah, I mean, so this 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:22.280 book um probably about this time last year. What happened 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:26.320 was I I'm a big Ghostbusters nerd. I I do 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:29.760 a fan podcast called The Interdimensional Cross Rip and that's 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:32.000 a weekly show. And you know if I've run a 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:38.440 fan website since six now, so, uh, Ghostbusters certainly in 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:41.360 in terms of my adult life has really continued to 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:44.440 resonate as it did back when you know, I was 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:46.280 a kid and I was running around with my Kennor 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:50.200 proton pack and and trap and everything, and uh, you know, 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:52.720 it's it's it's kind of carried through. So I've kind 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:55.040 of been steeped in the lore, and with the new 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:57.160 movie that came out, had really gotten in touch with 0:02:57.200 --> 0:02:59.240 the good the good folks at Ghost Corps, which is 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:04.280 Ivan Rightman production company, and uh, you know, they when 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:05.760 the new movie came out, they were doing a lot 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:08.079 of events. I had worked with them and and kind 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:10.600 of consulted on some stuff and done some you know, 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:13.480 live shows and and things to help them promote the movie. 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:17.440 And uh, you know, on the side, I also I 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:20.440 write books for Marvel. I've been writing Agents of Shield 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:24.280 Declassified and several of these you know, big collectors books, 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:28.160 these big hardcovers, and so, you know, just in casual conversation, 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:29.880 I was talking with them and I said, you know, 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:32.760 I really I've always wanted to do you know, like 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:36.000 a like a technical manual or like a visual history 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:38.360 guide or you know something, because there's so many cool 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:41.600 there's so much cool gear in the in the films, 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:45.160 and there's all these little nuanced parts that places like 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:50.120 Ghostbusters fans, the website where prop replica builders, they just 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:52.680 pour over every single detail and try to figure out 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:55.640 what is that little knob, what is that little like 0:03:55.760 --> 0:03:58.800 elbow that's on there. I want to find that original part, 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:01.760 and I want to source so that my my proton 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:05.200 pack is as accurate as humanly possible. And so I said, 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:09.000 we gotta we gotta do like an official like reference 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:11.440 manual for everybody. We have to put something together that 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:14.600 if you are building your proton pack replica or your 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:18.440 your replica ectomobile, this is your guide. This is your 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:23.760 your bible, so to speak. And you know that there 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:26.000 was sort of the stroking of the chins and the 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:29.479 you know Eric Reich, who's the great associate producer there, 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:33.279 he kind of goes, hmmm, yeah, I like that idea. 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:36.279 Unbeknownst to me, they had already been talking with Inside 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:38.520 Editions about doing something like that, and they were looking 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:42.520 for an author. So um, again, like every good Hollywood story, 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:45.240 it's right place, right time, and just happen happening to 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:49.159 say the right things. I guess. So uh So last 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:52.680 fall they said oh, we're doing this. It's it's not 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:54.960 a it's not a visual history guide. It's more of 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:57.520 a like a technical manual, you know, like the hands 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:00.400 manuals that you get at the workshops. Now you go 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:02.000 to an auto parts store and they have one for 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:04.120 every car. How do you rebuild your carburetor? How do 0:05:04.160 --> 0:05:06.360 you change out your tires? That kind of thing. I said, 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:09.080 Oh my god, that's such a great idea. It would 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:11.359 be great to kind of incorporate, like make that a 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:15.479 technical manual. Like I don't know, I start Star Trek, 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:18.400 the next generation, even the classic Star Trek, They've always 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:21.680 had these great technical manuals. Where how does a phaser work, 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:23.840 how do you operate a phaser? How do you operate 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:26.080 a transporter? How long does it take you to climb 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:30.480 through a Jeffreys to yes, exactly? And how long did 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:32.920 they build those Jeffreys tubes on the set? Not that 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:38.000 long one section? But uh but yeah. So that kind 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:42.520 of began the conversations with both Sony Publishing and and 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:46.400 Ghost Corps and and inside additions as to what is 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:48.039 this book, what are we gonna do? How do we 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:51.280 make this interesting? You know, for for the die hard 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:53.560 fans who already know a lot of this information. For 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.159 the casual fans who are going to be walking by, 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:58.280 you know, at their local Barnes and Noble or whatever, 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:01.159 and and they say, oh, ghost Bus, there's ectomobile manual 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:02.520 and they pick it up and they go whoop nop, 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:04.520 too nerdy putting that down. You know, No, we want 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:06.560 you to, we want to be engaged. We want you to, 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:10.000 uh you know, have have something there that's entertaining for 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:12.880 you too. So that was it was a very short 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:15.680 conversation because they had a very as many things do, 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:18.120 they had a very short production schedule, and they needed 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:21.320 something right away. So uh yeah, that's that's kind of 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:24.320 how it came about. And the tone of this for 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:26.520 those who want to know, it's written as if it 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:30.560 is in the Ghostbusters universe. It talks about all the 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:33.960 different equipment and uh it does you know, you do 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:37.000 refer to the the items in our world that have 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:41.440 been repurposed and tweaked within Ghostbusters. You know, Egon has 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:45.119 made some changes to the to the equipment or whatever 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:47.560 it may be in order to make it work within 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:49.520 the Ghostbusters world. But it does mean that you can 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:52.720 actually look at this guide and see where many of 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:57.200 these items originated. And that's pretty cool too. Also it 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:01.120 means that you've worked in some great little jokes that 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:05.200 are are provided by the various characters, often in little 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:07.880 notes that are on like post it notes throughout the book, 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:12.360 so you get the commentary from the Ghostbusters themselves. And 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:15.800 I also love I mean, we were chatting just before 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:19.680 we started recording about how and when I was younger, 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:23.080 I played the Ghostbusters RPG a bit and one of 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:25.800 the elements of that, one of the big parts of 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:29.440 that was this idea of Ghostbusters franchising, and they talk 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:31.360 about that obviously in the first movie, and they talk 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:36.240 about the franchise rights would make the millionaires. And so 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:39.000 this book also goes to that perspective as well. Like 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:41.960 you you're opening up your own ghost Ghostbusters franchise, Well, 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:45.240 here are some of the guidelines you should follow. And 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:48.320 I like all of that. I love that there's that 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:50.920 flavor in it. So I assume that since you were 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:55.440 working from the get go with with people very closely 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:59.120 attached to the beloved movies themselves, that you had a 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:02.400 lot of really great access to things like the production 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:05.520 photos and and maybe some reference photos and that sort 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:09.440 of thing, right, Yeah, I mean, and and beyond the photos, 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:12.280 access to the actual cars themselves. You know, people that 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:14.880 were going by on the Sony Studio tour would often 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:18.400 catch the unfortunate site of my rear end in my 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:21.080 feet sticking out of the car because I was on 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:23.800 the floor of the car trying to take a photo 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:26.760 of the seabed radio that's up on the ceiling and 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:29.640 trying to figure out what model it was, and uh, 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:32.240 you know, it was it was. It was a whole 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:34.079 lot of fun to kind of dissect these cars and 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:35.959 get in there and find all of those details. But 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:38.679 uh but yeah, I mean, it's it's interesting. You mentioned 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:41.160 the tone, and that was that was something that we 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:47.079 struggled with because technical manuals not inherently funny pieces of literature. 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:51.480 So uh, you know, I one of the things that 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:54.600 really appealed to me about this project was here's all 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:56.120 these things that are on top of the car. You know, 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:57.719 they've got the roof rack and there's all of these 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:01.760 great uh um you know, a kutreman. He's got all 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:04.760 of these these gadgets and ghack and stuff. What does 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:07.440 it do? I have no idea I've known Ghostbusters now 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:09.439 for thirty plus years, and I have no idea what 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:13.640 any of the stuff does. Um. And so I I 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:15.400 dove into it, and I started thinking of all the 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:18.599 theoretical sciences and all of how things would work, and 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:21.160 how this component would tie to this component and what 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:24.880 purpose they would deserve. Um. But then you start losing 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:28.560 the humor, and you, I don't know, it starts getting 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:32.079 two technical, it starts getting too bogged down in the 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:35.240 lore and the technical jargon. Uh. And so that's really 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:38.920 where my co author, Mark Sumarak, who worked on Proton 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:43.320 Proton Pack, see it's all it's ingrained in me. Power Pack, 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:47.599 the Marvel comic book, not the Nuclear Accelerator. Uh. He 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:49.959 worked on power Pack and Guardians of the Galaxy and 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:52.880 and a lot of Marvel titles. And uh so he 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.040 came in and he did a really great comedy punch 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:57.400 up and and really helped me because I had put 0:09:57.440 --> 0:09:59.720 those sticky notes, those post it notes all over the place, 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:02.000 and you know, he came in and did a really 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:05.000 great comedy pass and making those just really shine. UM. 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:09.559 So yeah, tone tone was really difficult because you know, 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:12.079 we we can only say that you can destroy the 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:14.600 world with a component so many times before you're like, Okay, 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:16.520 I got it. I'm on page twenty and you've said 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:18.719 that this will blow everything up. I got it. That's 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:21.679 not funny. What else you got in here? So? Um 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:24.520 it was. It was really really tricky trying to find 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:28.719 that right tone right, And of course, I mean Ghostbusters 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:33.040 the film is brilliant in many ways, but one of 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:34.720 the ways I love it is that the way they 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:38.079 produced that film, the way that film rolls out and 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:41.439 and unfolds in front of the viewer. Unless you're just 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:45.480 a truly persnickety kind of of audience member, at least 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:48.320 for that first viewing, you don't really start to question 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:51.599 where did they get this equipment? How did they build it? 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:54.839 How do you build up a portable particle accelerator that 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:57.880 can fit on your back and not crush you. How 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:01.480 do you get the super conductive true magnets cold enough 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:04.480 to accelerate a particle at near the speed of light. 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:07.000 I mean, they're all these little technical questions that if 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:08.760 you were really thinking about it, you'd be like, well, 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.160 but the movie it doesn't that's not important, right. The 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:15.720 the the gear is fascinating because it really is cool 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:18.079 to look at, and it creates they had great effects 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:20.480 that went along with it, and it makes you want 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:22.800 to know more about it, but it's not important for 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:25.000 the story. So for the purpose of the movie, you 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:27.760 can just watch it and they can have a little 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:30.679 casual line about something and they don't even have to 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:32.640 just they don't have to justify it as long as 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:35.000 it works within the context of the story. And and 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:38.120 that's perfectly fine. I find I I like, I like 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:41.240 a hard science fiction, but I also like stuff that 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:43.960 doesn't take the hard science fiction route as long as 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:53.040 it as long as everything works for the story. So 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:55.559 then so your job then is to come around and 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:58.280 take this stuff that gets casual mentioned or sometimes no 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:01.040 mention at all. It's just some thing that shows up 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:04.079 on screen or it just happens to be part of 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:07.120 the car that was never really meant to to get 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:09.120 more than maybe a casual glance, and you have to 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:12.959 give it a purpose. Yeah, and and you take a 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:14.839 little bit of the mystery out of it, which is 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:18.640 uh for for those of us that pour over every detail, 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:21.400 that's that's great. But then you know, uh, you and 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:23.839 I were talking offline about lightsabers. You know, As a kid, 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:25.880 you're like, oh, man, a lightsaber is the coolest thing. 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:29.199 But then you start thinking, it's like the magic sort 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:31.800 of comes from you wondering how it works, what what's 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:33.480 in there that's powering it. And then of course you 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:35.120 read the books and you know it's khyber crystals and 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:37.680 these are a long Jedi tradition and blah blahlah blah, 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:39.360 and it sort of takes a little bit of the 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:41.760 mystery out. So you have to be careful too. You 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:46.360 don't want to delude things to a point where you 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:49.560 know there's not there's not a little room for interpretation too, 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:54.400 because that's what fans since since they saw this movie 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:57.280 up on the big screen, have been, oh, how does 0:12:57.360 --> 0:12:59.559 that work? How how is the lightning shooting out of 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:03.959 this one? Right now? I don't understand the reasoning or 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:08.840 the actual technical reason behind it, but it looks cool 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:11.160 and they're catching ghosts with it, and that's all that matters. 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:13.120 You can't You have to have that suspension of disbelief 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:16.079 so that you keep moving forward and you're able to 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:18.160 believe the the stay Puff marshmallow Man is walking down 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:20.319 the streets of Manhattan. So yeah, it was it was. 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:22.920 It was kind of it was fun in a way 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.080 to put on a certain hat and be like, well, 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:27.960 why would they have this on top of the car, 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:30.560 and what would it be connected to and for what purpose? 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:33.400 You know, why would Egon and Ray have decked this 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:36.599 car out with a missile guidance system? And you have 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:39.599 to sit and think of the like theoretical science behind it. 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:42.319 That's a probably a bad example because we have a 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:43.880 joke in there that they put that in there for 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:46.400 when the e p A inspects them. They just want 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:48.920 to freak them out by having a Tomahawk missile guidance 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:50.680 system in there, just to keep them on their toes. 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:54.400 But um, you know, it's it's tough, and but it's 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:56.000 also a lot of fun because you can sort of 0:13:56.040 --> 0:14:01.200 reverse engineer like the cross section sensitivity analysis unit which 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:03.760 is on the top of the car made by Texas Instruments, 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:07.599 and you go, well, that was that was used to 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:10.880 to filter out radar data. You know, if if you've 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:14.040 got a radar sweep, that's filtering things out because they're 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:18.480 looking for ballistics, missiles, are incoming aircraft. Uh, it's it's 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:22.040 sifting through that data and then giving you a refined result. 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:25.480 Oh they could use that, Like what if what if 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:28.640 they had this p k E detection array that you've 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:32.240 got every single human being on the planet has some 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:34.320 sort of a soul or some sort of an essence 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:36.920 that they're projecting. How do you weed out the ghosts 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:39.640 from that? You know? Oh, and then things just like 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:43.200 kind of slowly start being you connect the dots between 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:46.040 them all and uh. That that was. That was a 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:48.680 lot of fun. That was. It was like being a detective, 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:53.360 a reverse engineering detective. Yeah. I liked it being the 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:56.360 techno geek that I am. I loved reading about this 0:14:56.640 --> 0:15:01.400 and seeing that connectivity because see seeing you refer to 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:05.280 gadgets and what they actually do in our real world 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:08.040 and what they are for. And then saying, all right, well, 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:10.640 if we start from that premise, can we apply that 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:13.120 by tweaking it a little bit. Let's say that someone 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:20.160 has has ascertained that ghosts have a particular uh quality 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:23.480 to them. That would we would need to separate the 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:26.760 signal from the noise. How how could we take this 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:28.640 thing and then tweak it and we'll get to to 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:33.360 the the negative spectral particles? Because that, I think is 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:36.400 all right. Let me let me just say, Troy, if 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:39.760 I may call you, Troy, I am. I am so 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:43.160 thankful now to know why they are called proton packs, 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:48.240 because because it makes so much sense in the mythology 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:51.800 you've set up in this book. So uh, for I mean, 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:54.960 a proton obviously is positively charged particle. It's also you 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:57.480 can call it just a hydrogen ion because a hydrogen 0:15:57.520 --> 0:15:59.560 atom is a proton and an electron. If you strip 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:01.720 the elect trono way, you now have a charged ion, 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:05.160 thus a proton. This is what particle accelerators do. It's 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:08.280 what like the the large hadron collider has has a 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:13.840 proton collider. And so having that, I had never even 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:17.280 questioned why they were called proton packs ever and just 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:19.800 didn't even occur. And you have the whole explanation of 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.360 where the hydrogen gases, which makes sense you would have 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:24.400 to strip the electrons from the hydrogen to create the 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:27.600 protons less they have hydrogen ions, and that you accelerate 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:29.320 these and then you just have a gun that's shooting 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:34.240 these particles, and why would you use protons. So having 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:39.440 ghosts have negatively charged particles makes it makes so much sense, right, Yeah, 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:42.200 I mean, and so you're you're sharing in the glee 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:43.840 that I had when I was figuring all of this 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:46.200 stuff out. And and thanks to uh AN m I 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:49.080 T Professor Dr James Maxwell, who had done a lot 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:52.600 of the research for the new movie and had written 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:55.080 a dissertation about all of this stuff. And he he 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:56.800 sent me all of his research and let me go 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:00.360 through it and and sort of translated into layman terms. 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:02.400 So he had sort of started this path. And then 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:05.600 again I started putting the pieces together. Um, you know 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:08.880 how if you're shooting a ghost with a proton pack, 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:13.760 and if it's comprised of negative electrons, why does it 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:16.800 get tired? Oh, well, it's being hit by positive energy. 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:18.800 Of course it's going to be getting tired because it's 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:22.119 decaying at a more at a rapid rate um and 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:24.680 and a lot of that was so fun again getting 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:26.760 into this. Now you can see why my editor was like, Troy, 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:28.439 it's not funny enough, Like what are you doing man? 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:30.920 You're talking about this reads like a physics book. But 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:33.240 it was so interesting and so exciting to me that 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:35.480 it's it's hard not to get into it. Yeah, why 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:38.400 why did they call it a proton pack? Why? Why 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:41.240 does the ghost get contained in the trap and they 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:43.280 can't get out, Like, what what is it in the 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:46.879 technology there that keeps them locked in? Um And and 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:50.800 also how do they adapt that for bigger ghosts, for 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:56.400 more powerful ghosts, for uh And and if it's exuding radiation, 0:17:56.920 --> 0:17:58.880 how are they combating that? You know, there's a whole 0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:01.640 lot of those levels that were just so much fun 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:05.800 to dive into, and like, you know, the reality of 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:09.680 it is Steven Dane, uh And and John to Cure, 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:11.920 the production designer on the film, they just went to 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:15.240 apex in in Pasadena and grabbed all of this technical 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:18.439 stuff that like NASA, JPL or somebody had just tossed 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:21.160 out into the garbage, and they're just grabbing stuff in there. 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:23.200 Put oh, that looks cool, that's got some great lights, 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:25.600 and that looks like a great control panel, and they're 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:28.959 they're pulling and cludging all of this stuff together. They 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:31.960 weren't thinking about I mean, I'm sure in a certain 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:34.520 sense like Ron Cobb, they were thinking about how things 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.680 work and okay, that needs to control that thing, but 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:41.760 they weren't thinking about this level of detail at that point. 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:43.800 So sure it was it was cool to kind of 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:46.800 help them now thirty years later and be like, oh, 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:49.120 you did that on purpose. That's why that's the hair, 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:51.280 you know, right, And then they can they can sit 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.080 back and say, well, yes I did, when in reality 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:56.320 it was just like this thing looks cool on top 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:59.640 of this car, and uh and and ultimately like, hell, 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:03.040 you know, subconsciously I must have known that this was 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:07.920 connected to sonar and therefore, but with some gentle tweaking, 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:10.680 you could have it to listen for ghosts instead of 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:13.920 you know, for anything else. Yeah, I like that. I 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:16.840 mean I've been I have been known to claim credit 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:21.840 for brilliant deductions I have made without knowing about it. 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:26.320 So so I am not above such things myself. Uh yeah, 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:30.280 I I found that really really entertaining to to dive 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:32.359 into that. It also, I mean, once you once you 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:35.919 come down to that explanation where you know, you you think, well, 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:39.520 if you're tackling something that's supernatural with science, you've got 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:43.440 to find some scientific basis somewhere for for the two 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:47.399 to meet, right, you know, otherwise you you have I 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:50.480 fight your magic with science and and ultimately you can't 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:53.720 really you can't really see anything useful then, right, So, 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:56.719 but once you made that determination of all right, well 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:59.920 we're getting to work from the the foundation of these 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.959 ghosts having some some spectral energy that has a negative 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:07.280 charge to it. That's great because the word negative has 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:11.359 so many different connotations. There's one one connotation in engineering 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:14.040 or physics and a totally different one obviously if you're 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:16.639 just using it as a regular adjective. And not only that, 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:20.720 but it meant that you could then explain other things 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:24.080 that they talk about where they just casually mentioned the 0:20:24.200 --> 0:20:28.080 different classes of ghosts, and and then you think, well, 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:32.159 now now we have something quantifiable that we can measure. 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:36.840 We can measure, say, the the magnitude of a negative charge, 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:40.800 and then the tools we use to detect these things 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:45.520 suddenly become much more easy for us to explain from 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:49.800 even just a theoretical technical point of one of my favorites, 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:52.280 and I want to know some of your favorites too, 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:55.600 but one of one of my favorites were the goggles, 0:20:56.240 --> 0:21:00.200 and because you talk about how it provides it's a 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:03.160 heads up display or HUD for the p k A meter, 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:06.240 and that it gives you information, but you also and 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:07.959 I'm so glad you did, because I was thinking as 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:10.920