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from Weird Things Hosted by Andrew Mayne
The episode opens with a discussion of an Embraer patent application for an aircraft-seat system that scans passengers' faces, analyzes facial expressions, and may offer non-invasive transcranial stimulation. The hosts first frame it as a possible customer-satisfaction or unruly-passenger tool, then gradually settle on the idea that it could function as a passenger amenity for calming or helping people relax during flights, while also joking about the broader discomfort of air travel and the fantasy of skipping the flight entirely. A large middle section turns to AI-assisted communication. The hosts discuss Samsung's Bixby voice-cloning feature, then broaden into a near-future vision where calls, texts, voicemail, FaceTime, car play, and automated summaries all blur together. Later, they shift to media authenticity and trust, arguing that AI, image processing, and altered video will force society to rely on some kind of certification or verification system for human identity and evidence. Key topics AI-based passenger emotion tracking on airplanes: The Embraer patent includes a digital camera and facial-expression analysis to identify a passenger's emotion, with the hosts speculating about using it to measure customer satisfaction or detect when people are unhappy on a flight. Non-invasive transcranial stimulation as an in-flight amenity: The third part of the patent is described as offering distressed passengers non-invasive stimulation, including direct current, magnetic st
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