Episode 551: What the Dummy Does

Real Life: This week's episode is packed with real-life chaos, sci-fi intrigue, and some good ol' tabletop talk. Devon's 4-year-old had to audition for attending a school, and guess what? It's a little stressful! Audible is now offering free content to subscribers, kinda like The Great Courses. Steven brings us part two of our City of Mist saga and shares his latest D&D session with the kids using *Peril in Pinebrook*, a free starter adventure. Also, D&D vs. City of Mist—how do they compare? Oh, and the neighbor's dog ATE one of his chickens. Not cool. Ben recommends the first episode of Storytime with Wil Wheaton (https://wilwheaton.net/podcast/), where he narrated the incredible time travel love story "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Love, Death" by Caroline M. Yoachim (https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/rock-paper-scissors-love-death/). You know how people will move heaven and earth for their loved ones? What if they moved time itself? We may cover this in an upcoming Book Club, watch out for that. Plus, Win or Lose, Pixar's new show, is a WIN.   Future or Now:   Like Brains, But Better: Electrical and computer engineers have developed a 'Super-Turing AI,' which operates more like the human brain. This new AI integrates certain processes instead of separating them and then migrating huge amounts of data like current systems do. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/03/250326123554.htm   This Week in Space: NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has detected the largest organic (carbon-containing) molecules ever found on the red planet. The discovery is one of the most significant findings in the search for evidence of past life on Mars. https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/03/nasas-curiosity-rover-has-found-the-longest-chain-carbon-molecules-yet-on-mars/ https://www.sciencealert.com/nasas-unexpected-discovery-of-the-largest-organics-on-mars-explained   "Book Club":   This week we covered three thought-provoking stories by Scott Base:   The Giving Man: https://www.badspacecomics.com/post/giving-man A billionaire sacrifices everything, including the world, to try to fight his cancer. Living forever through the heat death of the universe.   Scour: https://www.badspacecomics.com/post/scour The rings of Saturn are not what we thought. They're made of BONES.   Hell and Back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXVBlC3hmoc No body survives Venus.    Next week: we're tackling Johnny Mnemonic by William Gibson—a cyberpunk adventure that's still eerily relevant today. https://youtu.be/aIwYxSuAzDA?si=SgcfWqx1cyiBoO1F