Speaker 1: Fascinating. It's one more thing. I'm one more thing. Two
Speaker 1: notes from the world of science fiction. Jack, I know
Speaker 1: you love that genre of entertainment slash literature.
Speaker 2: I am not a science fiction person.
Speaker 1: I don't know why. I just don't know. I don't
Speaker 1: know why either. It's it's great. There's some that's just
Speaker 1: it's some of the wisest best things. You see. You
Speaker 1: change the setting, Katie, What did did? Did your dog
Speaker 1: break wind? Why do you have that look on your face?
Speaker 2: It feels the same way I do about science fiction science.
Speaker 1: I work with philistines. No, it changed, all right, you
Speaker 1: know what. I'm not going to try to explain Beethoven
Speaker 1: to a couple of bassett hounds. No offense. Funny now,
Speaker 1: you either like it or you don't. But it is
Speaker 1: somebody more. I'll bet Tim Sandefer could could wax incredibly
Speaker 1: eloquent on why science fiction is so good because it
Speaker 1: changes enough frames of reference that you can isolate various
Speaker 1: aspects of human behavior in a way that highlights them
Speaker 1: in a way that's difficult with other fiction. Anyway, fascinating exactly.
Speaker 1: I have no blanket idea. This is note from science
Speaker 1: fiction number one. Why this popped into my head. I'm
Speaker 1: wandering off to the bathroom the radio ranch. It must
Speaker 1: have been. I was thinking about something that was really interesting,
Speaker 1: and I heard Spock's voice in my head saying, fascinating, fascinating,
Speaker 1: and you know what occurred to me? Tell me about
Speaker 1: mister Spock, Michael, I'm putting you on the spot here.
Speaker 1: What is the most distinctive thing about the character mister Spock?
Speaker 1: It was his ears?
Speaker 2: No, no, you know what, that's not a bad assimal.
Speaker 2: That's a perfect answer. If you're gonna look at him,
Speaker 2: but not physically. How about his personality? What was most
Speaker 2: notable class anyone?
Speaker 1: That's right?
Speaker 2: Well, I'm interested to Michael, you don't have answer. Have
Speaker 2: you never seen Star Trek here and there? But not really?
Speaker 2: He was emotionless, right, exactly? Have you seen Star Trek Katie?
Speaker 1: When I was a kid, the original Trek, my dad
Speaker 1: watched a bit of it and I was forced. Oh
Speaker 1: I was. I was a big fan. And then I
Speaker 1: got to college and a bunch of buddies in mine
Speaker 1: and I would get baked every Sunday night after our
Speaker 1: like homework was done and stuff like this study and
Speaker 1: we would get baked and watch Star Trek.
Speaker 2: Guy one episode or multiple No, just one, just one,
Speaker 2: over and over again.
Speaker 1: There was one of the TV stations that aired Star
Speaker 1: Trek at nine o'clock Sunday nights.
Speaker 2: What a different era in that you would now you know,
Speaker 2: be able to binge the whole series in one weekend.
Speaker 1: Right exactly. But oh, we had ground rules about there's
Speaker 1: no saving seats. If you got up to hit the john,
Speaker 1: you're you're the next guy is going to jump into
Speaker 1: that good seat and you come back and you'd you know,
Speaker 1: shuffling feet, lose your seat. There's etiquette. It was very formalized. Anyway,
Speaker 1: it occurred to me Spock saying, fascinating, that's an emotional reaction.
Speaker 1: His catchphrase contradicted his very essence. If you are a
Speaker 1: robot like and feel no emotion, you're not gonna be
Speaker 1: fascinated by a problem, no or an issue.
Speaker 2: It's just more information, but it has no emotional effect.
Speaker 1: On right exactly. His very catchphrase contradicted his character. I
Speaker 1: hope Tim Sandifer hears this. I would love to hear
Speaker 1: his comments someday.
Speaker 2: Or the episode where he thought Jim was dead and
Speaker 2: he was so excited to see Jim that he has
Speaker 2: a big smut, Jim, you're alive, briefly breaking character and
Speaker 2: having emotions.
Speaker 1: Of course, he was half human, Jack, Oh, that's right,
Speaker 1: he was half human. Tim Sandfer has written a piece
Speaker 1: on the evolving point of view and plots of Star
Speaker 1: Trek and how it parallels American foreign policy that is
Speaker 1: knockout good.
Speaker 2: Oh really, Oh yeah, that's interesting. It's not about how
Speaker 2: William Shatton or some seasons would be fat and some
Speaker 2: seasons would be fit.
Speaker 1: No, al loough. That is worthy of studying itself. All right,
Speaker 1: birds science fiction note number two, And there are a
Speaker 1: couple of people who email this. We were talking about
Speaker 1: gene splicing, editing designer baby.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and how it's a real thing. This New York
Speaker 2: Times columnist writing about how she and her husband with
Speaker 2: IVF were given the choice of whether they wanted a
Speaker 2: boy or a girl, and they decided they didn't like
Speaker 2: the power to choose that, but then found out that
Speaker 2: there are a whole bunch of other things you can choose.
Speaker 2: And a poll came out that forty percent of Americans
Speaker 2: said they would make choices in embryos if it would
Speaker 2: make it more likely that their kid could get into
Speaker 2: a good school whatever. I hate that phrase. I don't
Speaker 2: even know what that moves.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I kind of hate that attitude.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so like make taller, better looking, smarter. You can
Speaker 2: choose that or.
Speaker 1: Just quote unquote happy, happier.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you guys ever see that show Black Mirror?
Speaker 1: On that No, I've got a note to watch that
Speaker 1: and I haven't yet.
Speaker 2: What's the premise?
Speaker 3: The premise it's basically way in the future, and it's
Speaker 3: very tech like technology based. So at one point you
Speaker 3: have people walking around and they have like a social
Speaker 3: status above their heads that you can see, you know,
Speaker 3: and if you do something that's socially unacceptable, your status
Speaker 3: goes down. It's just like a bunch of really terrible
Speaker 3: technology scenarios. This sounds like something out of Black Mirror.
Speaker 1: But did you enjoy that show? I love that, which
Speaker 1: is science fiction? You hypocrite.
Speaker 2: I don't do the whole space Aliens thing.
Speaker 1: I don't know. That's where you draw a lot, That's
Speaker 1: where I draw a line. Yeah, okay, I will watch
Speaker 1: it because it sounds really interesting. Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 1: So anyway, we were talking about this and I just
Speaker 1: did that Mike Judge, who was behind the We thought
Speaker 1: it was a comedy. Turns out it was a documentary idiocracy,
Speaker 1: one of our mutual favorite movies of all time. It's
Speaker 1: it's dumb, but it's smart anyway. He needs to make
Speaker 1: an idiocracy for genetically engineered humans who are all, you know,
Speaker 1: good looking, tall, blue eyed, whatever, kind of a Stepford
Speaker 1: Wives baby.
Speaker 2: And pleasant or happy. Because we mentioned the show, every writer, musician,
Speaker 2: artist was unhappy. Has there ever been a happy, great
Speaker 2: guitar player. I don't know if there has been.
Speaker 1: Right, whether alienated or lonely or a misfit who is
Speaker 1: looking for some purpose to their life. Yeah, yeah, it's well,
Speaker 1: discontent in general drives achievement anyway. So a couple of people,
Speaker 1: including Christy, wrote notes that said, hey, you're talking about
Speaker 1: the movie Gatica, which came out and I think somebody
Speaker 1: said nineteen ninety seven, it's not a comedy, but it's
Speaker 1: a beautiful film about the not too distant future where
Speaker 1: people choose traits and those who are born naturally are
Speaker 1: considered second class citizens.
Speaker 2: Oh wow.
Speaker 1: I'm a genetic counselor and former genetic research scientist, and
Speaker 1: it is literally referenced in ethical discussions all the time,
Speaker 1: it's normal to have someone ask the question, isn't that
Speaker 1: a little too gatica? Wow?
Speaker 2: What would cause U naturally born to be second class citizens?
Speaker 1: Well, because they're inferior, they're not all all and beautiful
Speaker 1: and perfect, And well, yeah.
Speaker 2: Just naturally you would because you wouldn't be as good
Speaker 2: looking or as smart.
Speaker 1: And by the way, Christine Rancho Cordova, I will, I'll
Speaker 1: drop her note, but she says, uh, I won't bore
Speaker 1: you with all the details, blah blah blah. No, go ahead,
Speaker 1: bore us with as many details as you want. To
Speaker 1: find this all fascinating. And she makes the point that, yeah,
Speaker 1: we talk about the ethics all the time, but I
Speaker 1: do think it's just a matter of time, especially because
Speaker 1: other countries have been dabbling in it anyway. Uh, And
Speaker 1: I thought, Gatica, that sounds really familiar. Getka, why does
Speaker 1: that sound so familiar? And I think, I think that's
Speaker 1: the movie I got to retell a story that's been
Speaker 1: told more than once on the show through the last
Speaker 1: well nineteen ninety seven, twenty five years whatever. I took
Speaker 1: my kids to see Elf, a good movie in the theater,
Speaker 1: movie and they had a couple of previews, a young
Speaker 1: Zoey Deschanel. Oh so cute anyway.
Speaker 2: Katie rolls her eyes. I'm a straight Maybe you were
Speaker 2: there for an older Ed Asner, so.
Speaker 1: Any oh, she was so lovable in that movie. She's
Speaker 1: darling anyway. So a couple of previews and then another
Speaker 1: preview we thought of a very dark and serious nature,
Speaker 1: very dark and serious scene unfolds and it is as
Speaker 1: I recall, oh, what's her name, a beautiful African American actress, Yeah,
Speaker 1: who was sitting in a chair talking to some sort
Speaker 1: of counselor or detective or something like that. And get
Speaker 1: the bleepers ready, and what's the ages on your kids? Again?
Speaker 1: This is a theater full of parents and children ages
Speaker 1: five through thirteen.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you're seeing Elf.
Speaker 1: In the theater. And the scene unfolded as follows. Blah
Speaker 1: blah blah. The detective or counselor or whatever the person
Speaker 1: was says to the halle Berry character, so are you
Speaker 1: telling me you talked to Satan? And the halle Berry character,
Speaker 1: I think it was halle Bery says, talk to Satan,
Speaker 1: I fucked him, and.
Speaker 4: The whole theater goes, WHOA, what is happening here, and
Speaker 4: there's a huge uproar, including me, why you're doing everybody
Speaker 4: shouting at the projection booth, and they and everything stops
Speaker 4: and the lights go on. In about two or three
Speaker 4: minutes of there's a great deal of buzz in the theater.
Speaker 1: You can imagine the parents and the kids going, oh
Speaker 1: my god, what does that mean? What does it mean
Speaker 1: to fuck Satan? Oh jeez, oh my gosh, es.
Speaker 2: Elf come out crying.
Speaker 1: They come on and say, we'd like to apologize the
Speaker 1: projection booth ran the wrong film. We'll have Elf cued
Speaker 1: up for you in just a moment.
Speaker 2: If you'd like to sign some paperwork on the way
Speaker 2: out saying you will not hold us responsible for any
Speaker 2: future trauma, we will give you a free small popcorn.
Speaker 1: And I think that movie was gatica.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I'm wondering if you guys actually enjoyed treating your customers
Speaker 3: like a piece of yeah.
Speaker 1: Huh oh.
Speaker 3: I can only imagine the parents in there, Oh.
Speaker 2: My god, it is something, you know, since we got
Speaker 2: an F bomb in the show. Already out to the store,
Speaker 2: because this happened two days ago. I got the little
Speaker 2: local market by my house, a little grocery store that
Speaker 2: the good enough grocery store in case unless you need
Speaker 2: a whole bunch of stuff every but it goes to
Speaker 2: nice grocery store. It just came under new ownership, and
Speaker 2: the guy's working really hard to uh, to please everybody
Speaker 2: and saying hello to everybody and introduce himself and everything
Speaker 2: like that. That's really nice and everything like that. I'm in
Speaker 2: the other there the other day and I'm going through
Speaker 2: and I said, it looks like it's a knocking the
Speaker 2: rain day, and he said, yeah, it's pretty fucking nice outside,
Speaker 2: all right.
Speaker 1: I love that. I thought, what, No, it's of society.
Speaker 1: He's just a nice, cheerful guy. He's like sixty two
Speaker 1: or something.
Speaker 2: Like that, well, owns the store, kind of a fat guy,
Speaker 2: and just very super pleasant, like helping the old ladies
Speaker 2: to their car. It's pretty fucking nice. Sam told me,
Speaker 2: he said, you gotta start talking to him that way.
Speaker 2: It's like, where's the fucking milk?
Speaker 1: No, no, no, oh, that's awesome. Well, I guess that's it.
Speaker 1: I was really hoping you were gonna say, I guess
Speaker 1: that's fucking me too. Great minds. I thought of it.