WEBVTT - Getting around in Science Fiction 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tex Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.960 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:18.000 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.720 and I love all things tech and we are going 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:25.119 to bring you part two of a discussion about sci 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:28.440 fi gadgets and reality. And that means I get to 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:34.240 welcome back Arial Casting, a wonderful friend of mine, an 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:39.120 amazing person and also my esteemed co host and the 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:46.120 creator of the Large Nardron Collider podcast. Welcome back, Ariel. Hi, Jonathan, Hi, everybody, 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:48.600 Thanks for letting me talk at you again. Now. In 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:51.960 the last episode, we started off talking about some various 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:55.360 sci fi gadgets. You were telling us about their role 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:59.360 within different science fiction or speculative fiction. I should say, 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:01.639 because some of this suff really falls into fantasy more 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:05.640 than sci fi. But their role within speculative fiction, what 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:08.679 purpose do they serve? And then I was the the 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:12.320 bad guy with the pen popping all the balloons of possibility, 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:16.680 saying how how this was truly fiction as opposed to reality? 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:20.520 You crushed my spirit shoann as as is my one. Ariel. 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:24.280 You've known me for for like I think about twenty 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:28.160 years now, and so we're coming up on twenty years. 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:31.520 I think will be twenty years since we first met. 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:35.280 And so I think I first met and I knew 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:37.200 each other's names. I think you might have seen me 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:40.800 at the Renaissance Festival before you work there. Uh, but yeah, 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:43.360 I I have been crushing your dreams for twenty years, 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:46.640 So I guess there should be no surprise at this point. Well, 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:48.960 I want to. I just want to stay as it's 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:53.560 important for for people to remember that. At the end 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:56.320 of the last episode, we had decided that Doctor Who 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:00.600 has so far been the most accurate science action show, 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:06.160 yes in their technology being all timey wimi whibbly wobbly, 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:09.440 which I know I reverse that, but hey, I've watched 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:15.760 like maybe three full seasons of Doctor Who. Total. Um. Yeah, 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:17.800 I I am no expert on it. That's why I 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:20.320 brought you on. So we're gonna pick up from where 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:22.280 we left off, and we're gonna talk about some more 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:26.720 science fiction technologies and what if any corollary there are 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:31.120 in the real world, and we're gonna go back to 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:34.079 the Star Treks I think for our first one. Yes, 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:39.400 we're gonna get back to Star Treks, specifically with tricorders. Uh, 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:41.720 and this excites me because I know that a lot 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:46.640 of Star Trek technology people have tried to make true 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:50.440 we talked about in the previous episodes. So tricorders are 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:55.160 kind of this specialized I find multi tool that do scanning, analysis, 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:58.480 data recording, all of that. It can tell you the 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:02.200 component makeup of being or an item. It can search 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:05.440 for life, It can trace nady on particles, It can 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:08.720 examine living organisms. It gives you lights and screens and 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:11.640 detachable scanners to tell you what everything is doing, so 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:15.959 that when crew member is in an alien environment, they 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:18.919 can explore it, they can understand it, they can search 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:23.400 for life, so on and so forth. This is something 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:25.119 that people have been working on for a long time 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:28.240 in real life, right, Jonathan. Well, they're definitely lots of 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:33.760 components that have their real world counterparts, right. So, like 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:38.080 the exploration of an alien planet and determining whether or not, 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:43.640 for example, it might be safe to breathe in the atmosphere, Well, 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:46.720 we do that through something called spectral analysis, which I 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:51.040 am sad to say doesn't have anything to do with ghosts. Um, 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:53.560 it's not that kind of specter. Now we're talking about 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:57.760 spectral as in a spectrum. And you know, you might 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:03.240 be aware that you can analyze light and see which 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:07.880 bands within the visible spectrum or even beyond the visible 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:11.120 spectrum that light falls. Right, you can see, oh, there's 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:15.680 a lot of red as opposed to not very much blue. 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:21.000 And by analyzing light, we can determine things like the 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:27.120 chemical uh composition of various materials, and so we can 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:32.000 use powerful telescopes, and we can analyze the light coming 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:36.600 from various bodies, including light that's reflected off of bodies. 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:39.640 So like a planet. Obviously a planet doesn't generate light. 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:43.599 If it's generating light, something is really wrong on that planet. Uh, 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:46.400 it is reflecting light from a nearby star. But that 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:49.760 will tell us in general the sort of things we 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:54.520 could expect within the atmosphere of that planet. Now, that 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:57.000 wouldn't let us go so far as to draw an 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:00.440 automatic conclusion that U's safe, pop your them that off 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:02.800 and walk around, because there there could be there could 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:08.159 be pathogens. There could be various uh components within either 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:11.880 the atmosphere or other things that are on that planet 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:14.839 that could be toxic to us. So it's not an 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:17.719 automatic Oh we can go there and have a summer home, 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:22.120 but we would have at least some information about what 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:26.360 to expect on that planet, so that part it's kind 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:28.599 of similar. The interesting thing about Star Trek is you 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:31.760 often see them using this after they've already landed on 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:34.359 the planet and they're like, oh, good, we're not gonna 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:37.919 die immediately. Guys. It's like, oh, that's that's a huge 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:41.880 relief that we're not all currently dead. Uh. The other 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:44.200 elements of the tri Quarter that I find really interesting 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:48.240 are the ones that involve analyzing a person. Let's say 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:52.240 that a person has exhibited signs that they are unwell, 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:56.640 and the doctor Bones, for example, in the original series, 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:59.640 would use the Triquarter to scan them to find out 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:03.840 what the heck is going on. Um. And obviously we've 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:06.200 got a lot of medical tools that are meant to 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:10.000 do this, things like blood pressure cuffs and thermometers, and 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:13.760 we have seen that technology advance over time as well, 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:16.360 to the point that now you can wear something like 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:21.560 a smart watch that uses infrared light to shine light 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:24.040 down into your skin, like the skin of your wrist, 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:28.000 to reflect off of your blood vessels, and that a 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:30.680 sensor inside that same smart watch can pick up this 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:34.040 reflected light and make determinations of stuff like your blood 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:38.719 oxygen level. So again, we're not at anything to the 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:42.359 point where you point a little you know, do Hicky 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:45.479 medical tri triquard t Yeah, exactly as a person and 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:49.919 go and then figure out that they got the sniffles. 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:53.120 But we do have a lot of technologies that kind 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:55.760 of go toward that way. And as you mentioned, there's 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:58.599 been a lot of companies they've kind of taken the 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:03.599 tricorder model and said, how can we make this more 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:08.560 of a reality. Most of those efforts, uh haven't been 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:14.360 spectacularly successful, but it's an ongoing process as companies attempt 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:18.280 to create more robust technologies that are able to do 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:21.560 some of the things that we see in science fiction. Uh, 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:26.040 but we can't really replicate it here on Earth currently, 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:27.560 not in the not in the way that we see 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:30.360 it in the shows. But I would say that this 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.280 is one that we're starting to see more movement kind 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:37.520 of toward. I think we might hit some fundamental physical 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:41.280 limitations that don't allow us to ever have a a 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:44.920 a technology just like the one on Star Trek, but 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:48.400 I think we're going to get closer. The question will 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:51.200 be how accurate and reliable are they, Because if they're 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:55.480 not accurate or reliable, then it's just a well, at best, 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:59.320 it's a distraction, and at worst it could cause complications 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:03.840 because you might rely on incorrect information. Very true, and 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:07.160 as close as we might get to a medical scanner, 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:10.640 I don't know if our real life tri quarters will 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:14.960 ever also be able to release antiseptic spray, provide a 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:19.239 shot HeLa bone. No, I will give it to star Trek. 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:22.280 Those were very specific tri course, they were specifically medical, 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.800 right right right. You might remember the little UM, the 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:30.000 little the little device that was handheld that people would 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:32.480 put up to the neck like bones, would put it 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:33.880 up against the one's neck and you would hear a 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:38.800 little sound thinking exactly, and then they would be injected 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:42.439 with something. There have been various companies that have come 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:46.640 out with UM with syringes that are in that kind 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:49.840 of mode. Uh. In fact, I remember my dad telling 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:53.480 me about his experience with one and that it was 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:58.800 about five times more painful than a standard syringe. So 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:02.959 so maybe not the best approach, um, but yeah, I 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:06.800 for things like healing of bones and stuff, Uh, there 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:12.200 are interesting approaches that use things like ultrasonic frequencies to 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:16.960 try and help with to promote things like like bone healing. 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:21.160 But the last time I looked into it, which granted 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:24.760 was a while ago, Uh, the research on it was 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:31.920 not really conclusive about whether or not it genuinely was helpful, 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:36.239 but it was something that various medical professionals were exploring 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:39.320 the possibility of using an ultrasonic therapy to help with 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:43.760 things like like healing a broken bone. I know that 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:46.800 I know that some vets will use light therapy as 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:50.080 well for healing of wounds with animals, for instance. So 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:54.160 which is similar money? Yeah? Yeah, I mean we we's 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:56.800 all just animals when you get down to it. So, yeah, 0:09:56.840 --> 0:10:00.360 it's this one, I think is one where the the 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:05.480 seeds are there and maybe we never see an implementation 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:10.280 like we do in fiction. But but the the depiction 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:12.920 that we see in fiction is not so far removed 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:16.439 from reality, right, it doesn't. It doesn't feel like that 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:21.600 would be truly impossible the way some of the others do. Yeah. Well, 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:25.880 one that feels truly impossible to me as is stepping 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:28.640 away from Star Trek before we step back into it 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:34.559 is the neuralizer. And I suppose by relation, the d 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:38.880 neuralizer from Men in Black uh funny, you should say 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:43.760 that this doesn't seem realistic, but go ahead, well, now 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:47.640 I'm afraded to Jonathan. Well, tell everybody what these things 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:51.640 do within men and Black. Alright, So the neuralizer men 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:54.600 in Black is a little like pen light pop up 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:56.680 pen kind of It looks like the ones that you 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:59.000 get from the dollar store, where it's got the twelve 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:01.600 cartridges of the colors of ink and you press one 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:04.280 down all round, all press down like five of them 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:07.240 and drawn like eight colors or something. Yes, yes, yes, 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:09.319 you take off the cap on the front of it 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:12.160 so that you can write with all of them at once. Anyhow, 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:15.520 that is not at all how this thing works. How 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:19.240 this works is it flashes a bright light to erase 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:23.280 your memory, and then a new memory can be put 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:27.600 in place. And I know that you can affect people's memories. 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:31.160 You can keep your memory from being affected by wearing 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:36.800 ray bands, probably special ray bands in the sense that 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:41.760 ray band probably put a lot of money. Yeah, that's 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:45.400 that's the kind of special. So so yeah, so it's 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:48.840 a little pen thing that allows you to wipe somebody's 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:51.800 memory and put a new memory in its place. And 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:55.640 then there's a d neuralizer that is much more complicated 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:59.080 and was very difficult for me to find descriptions of 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:02.600 how exactly it worked, because within the Men in Black universe, 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:07.800 there were only a couple of them and they were 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:10.920 kind of if you on how they worked in the universe. 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:15.119 But it's basically a way to restore that person's original memories, 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:20.280 and it's very involved, right, And in both cases the 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.520 way it works wasn't really important for Men and Black, right, 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:26.440 the the important thing in the plot was just you 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:31.480 need to have some way to erase the perception and 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:34.640 memory of an event among the population or else. The 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:36.920 whole premise of Men and Black falls apart, which is 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:40.480 the idea that they're aliens have secretly been visiting Earth 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:44.600 for years and years and years, and there's this UH, 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:48.400 this agency that is top secret that is in charge 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:53.280 of dealing with alien human interactions, and part of the 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:57.760 whole UH system is dependent upon the general population being 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:02.439 ignorant of the aliens. So you've gotta have something two 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:05.000 wipe out people's memories, or else you're going to be 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:09.080 doing some pretty serious clean up work in like the 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:12.640 darkest sense, like eliminating people were removing them from the 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:17.840 population so that they can't spill the beans. Um well, ariel, 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:23.520 here's the scary thing. Uh neuralizer is not that? Not that, 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:29.160 not that preposterous as it turns out. So let me 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:31.679 preface this by saying, I'm gonna be talking about mice, 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:36.959 not human beings, and with very few exceptions, mice and 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:40.840 human beings are not the same thing. And uh so 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:45.800 at m I t the researchers had been working with mice. 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:49.960 And it also just warning in general for people who 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:52.920 love animals, this is gonna be hard to hear. There's 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:54.680 gonna be some hard stuff to hear in this one. 0:13:55.640 --> 0:14:00.840 They took mice and they implanted some fiber optic lines 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:05.600 that went through the skull into the mouse brains, so 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:11.200 they had a direct line, a fiber optic going into 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:16.199 the little mouse brains. They then put the mice in 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:20.880 what they called the red room, which was a little environment. 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:26.000 Not not that, No, not the shining, but I appreciate 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:29.760 your enthusiasm. No, the mice were told to explore. Told 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:33.360 the mice were allowed to explore this red room. They 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:37.200 talking to mice rarely doesn't much good. They were allowed 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:40.840 to explore this red room and Then the floor of 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:45.320 this little red room had electrodes in it through which 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:50.560 the researchers could apply a mild electric shock to the 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:54.640 little twid sis of the mice, which they it wasn't 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:57.760 it wasn't enough to be harmful, but it was enough 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:00.320 to be unpleasant. In other words, it was enough to 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:04.560 hurt but not cause harm, right like getting a shock 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:10.480 from something umah. At the same time, they would show 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:14.520 a blue light through the fiber optic into the little 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:19.640 mouse brain, so they're literally shining light onto the brains 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:23.120 of the mice on a specific section of their brains. 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.840 Then they took the mice. They put them into a 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:33.320 different environment which the mice had no association with as 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:35.600 far as shocks go. So in other words, this was 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:38.560 this was new. It was not scary to them. It 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:41.920 was just unusual and unknown, and the mice were allowed 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:46.840 to explore again. Then the m I T researchers showed 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:49.560 the blue light through the fiber optics to the mice brains. 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:52.000 They did not shock the mice, They just did the 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:56.160 blue light. But the blue light had been associated with 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:58.440 the shocks, so even though the mice are not seeing 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:02.960 the blue light, it's shining into their brains. It implanted 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:07.000 a false memory that they had just been shocked, and 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:11.760 they behaved as if the floor was covered in these electrodes, 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:14.320 and they huddled in the corner and they hid because 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:18.000 they to them in their brains they remembered getting shocked 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:20.240 even though they had never been shocked. They were then 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:24.760 put into a third environment and again showed no signs 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:29.320 of having this this like. They didn't behave as if 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:32.880 it was dangerous. Again. So the researchers had come up 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:39.840 with this this hypothesis that it is possible to implant memory, 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:44.200 false memories into a mouse, and that this could also 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:49.680 potentially be reversible, where you could remove memories. You could 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:53.160 remove the ability for a mouse to recall that it 0:16:53.480 --> 0:17:00.120 had a specific uh outcome from a particular situation, and 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:03.320 thus it would not behave it wouldn't learn because it 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:06.400 wouldn't have the memory to have built upon that when 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:10.320 I'm in this situation, bad things happen, that memory would 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:14.800 be erased. So it's not a flashy red thing. It 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:19.840 is incredibly invasive and it's for mice. But the science 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:23.840 shows how memory is a tricky thing because it's all 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:27.200 about the neurons in our brain firing in a specific way, 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:30.399 and if you can disrupt that or change that, you 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:35.320 change memory. That is very interesting and it's invasive, maybe 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:37.679 not as cruel as you know, clocking somebody upside the 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:41.800 head all a Warner Brothers style to race memory the 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:49.240 whole the old way of delivering amnesia through percussive maintenance, yes, yes, 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:53.160 or the way of convincing somebody something's true by saying 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.000 it so many times brainwashing. I guess that would be 0:17:56.119 --> 0:18:01.720 kinder brainwashing. So it's not an unknown thing. Just it's 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:04.959 interesting that they're able to do it with light, Like 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:07.360 you said, shining light on the bridge, which goes back 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:09.520 to the men and black stuff. Right, it's like using 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:12.960 light now granted the men and black thing, it's just 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:16.560 the light itself somehow has this ability once you perceive 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:20.080 it through your eyeballs, to erase your memory. Whereas the 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:24.600 M I. T. Researchers were literally associating light with a 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:27.000 specific outcome and that's how they were able to do it. 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:30.240 So it's it's two different things. They're similar enough where 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:33.479 you could say maybe the there was some inspiration in 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:35.960 that research that went into the way men and black 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:38.320 did it, or maybe it was just a convenient way 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:42.200 to work around a plot necessity. So I think that 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:45.800 that was a pretty interesting sci fi gadget to reality comparison. 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:48.600 And we've got a lot more. But before we get 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:59.920 to that, let's take a quick break. Okay, Ariel, I understand, 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:02.040 are going to make another trip back over to the 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:05.440 star Treks, Yes, this time with something not as sad 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:09.400 as my myce brain play games. Well you say that, 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:12.280 but you don't know what I'm going to say after 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:18.119 you're done, John, then my heart can't take it. Just okay, no, no, 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:21.680 No mouse abuse will happen in this particular section, which 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:25.480 is because I'm talking about communicators, which are devices that 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:29.399 allow you to communicate faster than the speed of sound 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:31.720 I guess, faster than the speed of light using subspace 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:39.359 transmissions without satellites that can bypass electromagnetic fields, and basically 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:46.800 it's instantaneous communication across great expanses. Because if you're let's say, 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:49.000 on one side of the galaxy and you're getting attacked 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:52.679 by Klingons and the rest of your backup fleet is 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:55.280 on the other side of the galaxy, you don't want 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:58.720 to wait years for them to get your message to 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:02.000 come back and save you. I mean, we watched The Martian, 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:06.679 the movie The Martian with Matt Damon, and even between 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:09.560 Earth and Mars, which is not as nearly as far 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:12.240 as the spaces that we often deal with in Star Trek, 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:18.680 it took many minutes for one message to get from 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:20.840 Mars to Earth, and then many minutes for a message 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:24.000 a response to get back from Earth to Mars. So 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:27.440 it could take an hour to have a very short conversation. 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:32.920 That just doesn't do when the Klingons are attacking you. Yeah, 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:36.159 and those pesky Clingson's man, they'll they'll pounce on any 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:40.280 any opportunity, you know. Also also, I'm sure Romulans and 0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:46.359 Kardassians almost said Kardashians. The Kardashians also will pounce on 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:51.200 any opportunity. They've proven that on social media time and again. Um. Yeah, 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:54.320 So you point out like this is this is one 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:57.880 of those issues that writers had to deal with when 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:02.720 they're talking about the premise of a federation that's capable 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:06.479 of doing deep space exploration. I mean, the whole purpose 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:09.600 of Star Trek is to explore that. That's part of 0:21:09.640 --> 0:21:15.480 the preamble to every episode, and uh, the challenges how 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:17.880 do you deal with two things? And we'll we'll touch 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:20.480 on the other one later. I think one is how 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:22.480 do you get from point A to point B in 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:24.600 a reasonable amount of time so that you're dealing with 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:27.720 the same characters in the middle of the episode that 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:29.760 you had in the beginning, because otherwise you would have 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:32.520 to have generations of characters, right, And the other one 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:35.560 being how do you do that occasionally in a storyline? 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:38.760 Well sure, but yeah, that's with the exception, not the rule. 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:43.639 And then the ability to communicate back to either another 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:48.639 ship or home base without any delay. And uh, we 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:52.280 get to a fundamental limit of the universe, which is 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:55.040 the speed of light. The speed limit for the universe. 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:59.480 Nothing goes faster than light. The few times where people 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:03.119 thought that maybe they had picked up on something that 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:05.400 was faster than the speed of light, it turned out 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:10.520 upon further study that they were wrong. So light is 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:13.600 the fastest anything can go. And if you are a 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:17.280 light year away from something, that means it's going to 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:19.640 take a full year for light to get from that 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:22.840 thing to you. So you're literally looking at the thing 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:25.560 from a year ago. So if we're looking at a 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:28.600 planet that's ten light years away. We're actually looking into 0:22:28.640 --> 0:22:32.320 that planet's past, right, We're seeing the planet from ten 0:22:32.440 --> 0:22:36.760 years ago, which is kind of cool, very wibbly wobbly. Yes, 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:39.760 it's cool stuff, but it does show that there's this 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:45.199 huge challenge in storytelling, and subspace was kind of a 0:22:45.320 --> 0:22:49.399 cheat to get around that because without it, there is 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:55.160 no way to have real time communication between two points 0:22:55.200 --> 0:22:58.320 that are of significant distance apart from each other. As 0:22:58.359 --> 0:23:01.320 you were pointing out arial in the Martian, there was 0:23:01.359 --> 0:23:04.800 that delay that was depicted within the story. Uh in 0:23:04.920 --> 0:23:09.040 real world where we were landing things like the Curiosity 0:23:09.160 --> 0:23:13.160 Rover on Mars, that all had to be done through 0:23:13.320 --> 0:23:16.800 automated systems because there was no way to control the 0:23:16.840 --> 0:23:19.760 spacecraft in real time. There was at least an eight 0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:24.280 minute delay between when something would happen and when we 0:23:24.280 --> 0:23:27.320 would know about it, which meant that the Curiosity Rover 0:23:27.520 --> 0:23:29.800 was on the surface of Mars for more than ten 0:23:29.800 --> 0:23:32.760 minutes before we were sure it had worked, and it 0:23:32.840 --> 0:23:36.160 meant that the whole process had to be done through automation. 0:23:36.600 --> 0:23:40.200 So this is something we can't easily get around. There 0:23:40.280 --> 0:23:43.080 is no such thing as subspace communication, at least nothing 0:23:43.080 --> 0:23:48.040 that we have created, and it's very difficult to understand 0:23:48.119 --> 0:23:52.240 how you would even make it happen. Uh. You know, 0:23:52.440 --> 0:23:55.359 maybe you argue that you somehow tapped into an extra 0:23:55.440 --> 0:23:59.680 dimensional channel, but that is again kind of a get 0:23:59.680 --> 0:24:03.520 out of jail free card, because even in the mathematic 0:24:03.560 --> 0:24:07.560 models of the universe where we talk about additional dimensions 0:24:07.560 --> 0:24:09.960 on top of the ones that we can perceive, there's 0:24:10.000 --> 0:24:12.800 still no way for us to access those dimensions. They 0:24:12.800 --> 0:24:18.760 are they work because the MathWorks right, so mathematically they 0:24:18.800 --> 0:24:21.280 seem to be there, but that doesn't mean we can 0:24:21.920 --> 0:24:25.320 do anything or interact with them in any way that 0:24:25.400 --> 0:24:29.920 we could perceive or or take advantage of. So that 0:24:30.080 --> 0:24:34.680 is kind of a fundamental flaw in these films, and 0:24:34.680 --> 0:24:37.600 and it shows an issue we're going to have should 0:24:37.680 --> 0:24:39.680 we ever get to a point where we can do 0:24:40.880 --> 0:24:45.280 colonization on other planets or deep space exploration, we're going 0:24:45.320 --> 0:24:48.439 to have these issues where communication is going to have 0:24:48.560 --> 0:24:51.800 this massive lag in it. One other thing that communicators 0:24:51.840 --> 0:24:55.080 have in Star Trek that we kind of sort of 0:24:55.119 --> 0:25:00.600 have in real life, uh, is the universal translator. Although 0:25:00.600 --> 0:25:04.040 we don't have a universal translator, we have we have 0:25:04.240 --> 0:25:08.439 very good algorithms that can do pretty decent translations for 0:25:08.480 --> 0:25:11.760 different languages here on Earth because spoiler alert, we haven't 0:25:11.840 --> 0:25:15.520 encountered an extraterrestrial language as of yet, so we know 0:25:15.720 --> 0:25:20.399 of we know of fair enough. French sometimes seems to 0:25:20.440 --> 0:25:23.520 be out of this world. So but no, the I mean, 0:25:23.520 --> 0:25:25.840 that's where the cone heads were from, right from France? 0:25:26.400 --> 0:25:30.640 Uh the the yeah. But with the translators here, obviously, 0:25:30.720 --> 0:25:33.240 they work on a totally different principle than again the 0:25:33.320 --> 0:25:36.320