Episode 601: Thank You, Flea!

This week we bounce from toy-filled offices and pirate obsessions into brain-powered computers and philosophical robot chaos—before wrapping things up with a very French film discussion and next week's Book Club pick. Real Life Devon kicks things off by giving some Texans a tour of his office—which, unsurprisingly, is packed with what can only be described as adult toys. Naturally, this spirals into a broader conversation about how we're all just kids with slightly more expensive hobbies. No shame there. Ben brings us into the world of VR with Walkabout Mini Golf's Hollywood course (check it out here: https://www.mightycoconut.com/hollywood). But it's not all smooth putting—there's some concern about rising course prices, less frequent releases, layoffs, and reduced iOS support. The vibe is shifting a bit, and not necessarily in a good way. Devon also caught Project Hail Mary in IMAX and came away seriously impressed—calling it one of the best book adaptations he's seen. High praise. That leads into some appreciation for Andy Weir's writing style and a detour into the Cheshire Crossing webcomic, because apparently we're doing high-concept sci-fi and surreal fairy tale mashups in the same breath now. Meanwhile, Steven has fully committed to pirates. A Pirates of the Caribbean rewatch has set the tone, but instead of just watching, he's gearing up to run a full-on Pirate Borg game (https://www.limithron.com/pirateborg). There's also a shoutout to Land of Eem, a muppet-inspired TTRPG being run by Christina's husband—which sounds delightfully weird—but yeah… pirates won this week.   Future or Now Devon brings in something that sounds like it's straight out of a dystopian sci-fi script: data centers powered by human brain cells. Yes, actual biological neurons. https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/staff-brain-data-center-spine-fluid https://futurism.com/new-computer-neural-network-human-brain-cells These systems require daily maintenance—including swapping out cerebrospinal fluid—which is not a sentence you expect to hear in a tech discussion. What started as experiments where neurons learned to play Pong (https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/10/14/1128875298/brain-cells-neurons-learn-video-game-pong) has now escalated to… potentially running DOOM. Because of course it has. If you want to go deeper into the company behind it, check out https://corticallabs.com/. But the real question is: at what point does this stop being "cool innovation" and start being "ethically complicated nightmare fuel"? Ben counters with some technophilosophy, specifically the Three Inverse Laws of Robotics (https://susam.net/inverse-laws-of-robotics.html). It's a fun twist on Asimov's classic rules—basically flipping the script to highlight how things could go very wrong. If Devon's segment is about can we do this?, Ben's is asking should we?   Book Club Next week's read: Through the Machine by P.A. Cornell https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/through-the-machine/ This week, the crew dives into Arco!—which you can find here: https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/arco/umc.cmc.16jgcgmdg48xptfayroel0yvy Ben gives a full rundown of the film, clearly coming in as the biggest fan of the group. Steven jumps in with context on the cast and sums up the experience as "very French," which tells you a lot if you've ever watched… well, anything French. Devon lands somewhere in the middle—appreciating a lot of what the movie does, even if it doesn't fully sweep him away. If you're into sci-fi that edges a little too close to reality, pirate RPG chaos, or just three guys trying to figure out where the line is between "cool tech" and "we've gone too far," this episode's got you covered. And if you want more—bonus episodes, unedited chaos, Discord access, and all the weird extras—head over to patreon.com/sciencefactionpodcast and join us there.