Welcome to our first episode back as the new and improved “A Little Bit Of Science”. We're Rod and Will and it’s best if you think of us as your slightly unhinged tour guides through the bits of science that probably won't win Nobel Prizes but will definitely make you the most interesting person at your next dinner party.
When Robots Get Awkward
Ever wondered what it's like to drop your pants for a robot? Neither had we, until science decided to tackle the elephant in the room: our weird relationship with medical robots. Turns out, we're not super keen on showing our bits to a talking toaster, even if it has a medical degree. Scientists are frantically trying to figure out how to make us comfortable with robot doctors, but let's be honest - there's something deeply unsettling about a machine asking you to "turn and cough."
The 'Stupid Hackathon': Where Brilliance Meets Bonkers
Speaking of questionable innovations, let us introduce you to the 'Stupid Hackathon' - where genius meets absolutely pointless. The star? A virtual pet that survives on vape clouds. Yes, you read that right. It's called the 'Vape-o-Gotchi” and it's exactly as ridiculous as it sounds. It's like a Tamagotchi but only survives off relentless vaping.
When AI Gets Sassy
Picture this: you're coding away, and your AI assistant suddenly goes full career counsellor on you. "Have you considered learning to code better?" Ouch. It's like having a digital version of your disappointed parent, except this one runs on algorithms and attitude. Who knew silicon could serve such spectacular shade?
Exploding Termites and Immortal Cells
Now, for something completely different - termites that literally explode when they're stressed. (Relatable, honestly.) These little kamikaze insects from French Guiana take "going out with a bang" quite literally.
And while we're on the topic of bizarre biology, let's talk about 'zombie cells' that refuse to die. Will is convinced his mustache would be a great use of zombie cells, potentially achieving post-mortem world domination. Rod's betting on his spleen, because apparently the snowboarders of the world would thank him.
The Dying Art of Pranking
Here's a sad stat: April Fool's Day searches are down 50% from a decade ago. Are we all getting too serious? Too busy? Research shows interest peaked in 1931 - probably because they didn't have TikTok to distract them.
So there you have it, folks - our first little bit of science episode after our rather long and unintentional break. Where else would you learn about exploding insects, sassy AI, and vape-dependent virtual pets all in one go? Stay tuned for more scientific weirdness, because trust us, this is just the tip of the nerdy iceberg.
Until next time, keep your curiosity weird and your termites unexploded!
00:00 Introduction
00:15 Embarrassing Medical Tasks with Robots
02:19 Welcome and Introductions
03:03 Exploring AI and Its Quirks
03:43 The Stupid Hackathon and Vapo Gucchi
11:30 AI's Role in Climate Change Research
15:56 AI's Human-like Behavior
23:15 AI and Mistranslation Fun
26:17 The Exploding Termites of French Guiana
28:09 The Evolutionary Wonders and Oddities
29:09 The Mysteries of Dog Farts
31:39 Zombie Cells and Their Implications
35:20 The Embarrassing Robot Study
46:39 The Decline of April Fool's Day
48:03 Concluding Thoughts and Listener Engagement
SOURCES:
Vape-o-Gotchi:
https://futurism.com/neoscope/vape-tamagotchi-interview
Robot refuses to code:
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Will: [00:00:00] So the theory is in the future we're gonna be interacting with robots in healthcare in a lot more places. You know, they're gonna be, you know, making our beds, uh, taking our blood pressure, maybe doing our surgeries. But the researchers behind this paper said, okay, if you're gonna be interacting with a robot, there are some things in medicine that might be embarrassing.
So we, we might need to find if people might be embarrassed in front of a robot.
Rod: So
Will: first they
got ethics
Rod: and
Will: they asked their participants, who happened to be a bunch of Dutch University students, uh,
Rod: to
Will: a few things. They came into a small room and, um, in front of them was robot healthcare thing.
One version was what they called a technical box. It basically looks like a stereo from the 1980s. Cool. , another version was called the Health Icat Robot. [00:01:00] It kind of looks like a, like a little bit of Pokemon and, and that had one version where , it would talk in very straight phrases, do this and others where it might talk a bit more like a human.
And then it asked it to do, asked the participants to do. A succession of slightly more embarrassing things. The first one, , that would be, well, they, not very embarrassing. They started with a vision test. The second one was needed to measure their weight.
and to do that, uh, the robot said you need to undress in different versions. Mm. The robot said it a couple of times. You need to undress. You need to undress. And then the third step, the third step, the health system told the participants, uh, what their weight was, and then said, we now need to measure your temperature for an accurate measurement.
It would be necessary to follow the common practice [00:02:00] in Western Europe.
welcome
to a little bit of science. I'm Will Grant.
Rod: I'm Rod Lambert. I'm a, uh, 30 year psych veteran with the mind of a 15-year-old boy.
Will: Yeah, I forgot my bit. I'm uh. Associate Professor of Science communication at the Australian National University. You are? Yeah, I am. You are.
I forgot that bit, but hey, listener, welcome.
This is, this is our number one. This is our, our maiden speech. Our,
Rod: and hopefully it doesn't turn into a number two.
Will: That was the worst joke you'll ever hear on this show, but, uh, until the next one. Until the next one. Okay. Uh, today, listener. Wow, man. We've got a whole bunch of little bits of science. Yes.
A whole bunch of little bits of science to fill your ear holes. What have, what have you got Rod?
Rod: I [00:03:00] got so much. Do you wanna hear all of 'em at one? Just gimme, just gimme some hints. I've got a, I got a little bit of a teaser about the way AI definitely is becoming human and it's always, and never the way you'd hope.
Will: Oh, okay. I got some, uh, some ways AI is quite shit and is used in shit ways. So I got some more, some more AI stuff
Rod: The next in about a 9 million long list of reasons.
I'm glad I'm not an animal.
Will: I've got, I've got, um, a tiny little science fact about, about the world. For you. The world.
The world. Uh, yeah, it's big.
I ruined it.
It's a big bit of the world. It's, it's, here's a, here's a clue. It's, it's 84% of the world.
Rod: ah,
um, the
Will: influences.
And I've got a call for research as well because, um, yeah, I'll, I'll need to know some things at the end.
Rod: so there's this thing called the Stupid hackathon. Have you heard of this? No, I haven't.
Will: No, I haven't. No, I haven't.
Rod: I wish I'd had time to dig into everything they do, but like it's a one day event. Participants, they conceptualize and create projects, which the quote is have no value whatsoever.[00:04:00]
Which I applaud. I just applaud.
Will: Just, just generally no value.
Rod: Well, I think it's doing a lot heavy value, maybe no values.
Will: Oh, okay.
Rod: so at this event, the Vapo Gucchi was introduced to the world, the Vapor.
Will: the Vapo. Got you. Yeah. Alright. Probably should. I should I guess.
Um, no, I think it's, it's a, it's a little pet monster that, a little pet that's, um. That you carry around and you've gotta feed it like an electronic pet, but you, it vapes for you as well. Like you
Rod: Oh, way worse.
Will: Oh, way worse. Oh,
Rod: So
Will: I was thinking Tamagotchi
Rod: it, it is like, yeah, it is. It is Tamagotchi vaping.
But instead of feeding it and cleaning up, its fake shits like you used to do apparently with the original
Will: Yeah.
Rod: You keep it alive by, by vaping.
Will: That's what the world needed. That is so, oh my God.
Rod: So basically, and if you miss it or, and as you stop vaping, it will get sick and die.
Will: I didn't think, I mean, of all of the vices, I didn't think we need to gamify, uh, nicotine consumption. I [00:05:00] thought, I thought it came with its own properties.
Rod: I I think it's, it's pretty successful. So these guys went, no, we're gotta, we gotta go better.
Will: do wanna see, I do wanna see heroin That's gamified. Like
Rod: isn't that just heroin?
Will: No, but it's like, who can who, what's the day streak? Your
Rod: What's your, oh crap. 900 days in a row. Smacked outta my gord, I suppose possible. If it's good quality
Will: junkies out there. Um, look inquiring minds.
Wanna know
Rod: if you're a junkie slash uh, technical researcher.
Will: exactly. And, and my apologies for using such a slanderous term, obviously. Uh, uh
Rod: you meant heroin addicts out there?
Will: No, I meant, um, dabbler, uh, enjoyers. Enjoyers of the poppy.
Rod: Yeah. The, the, the h curious followers
Will: of the road.
Rod: So, um. Uh, a couple of people, Rebecca Z and Lucia Camacho, they're a couple of New York City based inventors, and they're also lovers, and they took the idea, apparently an internet folklore.
There was [00:06:00] something to do with this idea. I don't know what the folklore was, but apparently they took it from there. And, um, they said they'd seen ideas about this on, on Twitter floating around, but the, the original idea was that it would guilt trip users into vaping less.
Will: Ah, and lot more. Yeah. That's how gamifying always works.
Rod: So they basically, every time you take a hit, you make the pet sicker and eventually it dies.
Will: Oh, okay. That was
Rod: the original idea
Will: I, I'm, I'm giving that a little bit of credit.
Rod: Yeah. And these guys said, no, no, no, no. Let's, uh, we, we can fix that. So they had to give a satirical pitch. Satirical. Satirical, sat English is nearly my first language.
So they put it as America is in crisis because fewer and fewer kids are vaping. So the device will fix that. It's fucking great. What an ad campaign. Um, so they played to their strengths, right? So one of 'em is a software specialist with a background at meta. Yep. [00:07:00] They handle the code. The other one's a hardware whiz, a former defense contractor,
Will: Okay.
Rod: and they built the actual device, the vape, with a Tamagotchi creature on it. Which is already fabulous. It's just, it just makes me so happy. Um, so in theory, the hardware really simple. You get a tiny computer and measures when the vape is used, it updates the pet's health accordingly. And then the software tweaks the animations as you'd expect. Basically they say, look, it's not technically a tamagotchi, but a simplified version.
Well, obviously sure. And it only requires one thing, quote, relentless vape clouds relentless.
Will: I, so I, I want, you know, you know, it's like those people that I, I heard people, you know, when the, um, the, the warnings on packets came in and this is, this is what your lungs look like.
This is your face after you've smoked a whole bit. You know, I've heard people that. For them, they can be an incentive. They're like, gimme the grossest,
Rod: on then. Yeah, the
Will: grossest. I can handle it. You
Rod: you got
Will: and that makes me sad. But, you know, I signed[00:08:00]
Rod: well it's like that brand for a while when they still had, you know, pretty packaging.
There was a brand called Death Cigarettes and it just had, it was black with Skull and crossbones in white. It was like literally.
Will: that's so cool. I'm sorry. That is so cool.
Rod: It's cool as hell. I nearly took up smoking again
Will: just because of
Rod: just because of that. Just of course. 'cause then you can carry the package around
Will: but you could, you know, you could buy a pack and, and not smoke it.
What, like you could, you could just, you could just have 'em rolled up in your sleeve.
Rod: I, well I've got that now. Do you know where I would get 'em though?
Will: Smokes
Rod: They, them smokes the death SIGs. I doubt
Will: they're, I doubt they're still available. I'm, I'm sure that our friends in the public health association said no. Although,
Rod: So expensive though. If someone had it with like, that one packet left still in the cellophane wrapping the, like, that'd be $4 million.
Will: funded on eBay. Oh my God.
Rod: so they went through heaps of, um, uh, versions to try and get this thing right. Like they, this isn't what, just like a prototype they.
Tried.
Will: I thought this was a one day hackathon.
Rod: Yeah, but this isn't the buildup to the hackathon.
Will: okay. All, okay.
Rod: they went through heaps and heaps and heaps of attempts.
Finally, they, they had a, a model that was basically [00:09:00] cost about 80 bucks for the vape gear and 50 for electronics. So, you know, that's only 130 bucks. Okay. Then, um, the DIY spirit took them. And so, uh, one of the inventors used a 3D printer to build a case. So now they're using modern tech, making it fabulous. I think it's great. And the first version had to be hooked up to a full on computer. So it's not really practical. Like, you know, you're, you're at a nightclub where with what the young kids go to, a disco tech
Will: You get your laptop with
Rod: Yeah, exactly. Got your laptop and all his wire hanging off. Whatcha doing? Just doing a vape?
I, I want to keep my pet alive. Um, but they started to refine it. Um, and basically they thought, well, this is a bit shit. It's a bit janky as they put it. There's wires everywhere. It's strapped to computer, it's gross. it got handheld, but still quite chunky. So they thought, how do we, what's the, what's the ethos going forward?
Make it cuter. Because if you really wanna encourage vaping, make it cuter.
Will: So are we making the vape cuter or the, or the, or the animal that's gonna die. Like the,
Rod: the whole, yeah. The animal, the device. Just make it all cuter, like good [00:10:00] tamagotchi.
they went ahead and got it. They gave a big, you know, big fuzzy eyes and stuff, you know, all the Japanese anime kind of good stuff, but apparently you can also click to good mode that helps you cut down so they weren't total monsters.
You can flick it, you know, it's like that, um, Simpsons thing where the, the crusty doll tried to murder everyone. They said, oh, the problem is you got the switch, click to evil instead of good.
Will: Sorry.
Rod: yeah, they, they, they said though, this is my, my favorite part. So one thing they found out after they tested it endlessly at the hackathon, they said they felt like fricking garbage. 'cause they vaped so hard, they didn't feel rewarded at the end. They said, 'cause they were both so diseased from vaping,
Will: Do they didn't, didn't have like a testing machine or something?
No. Like they just
Rod: no. They, they, they, they owned their own device, so, well, they basically, at the end of the hackathon, they probably vaped like, I
Will: Thanks. Thanks. What was it? The useless hackathon? Uh,
Rod: yeah. Stupid hackathon. Stupid
Will: hackathon. That's great. That's great. I, I feel like, um, if I had more tech skills, I'd be, I'd be keen to [00:11:00] enter that.
Like I like that. I like that
Rod: And look, I, I, I think it's fair to say as these episodes were on, you'll probably hear from these people again. But,
Will: but I feel like, well, yeah, gimme more, gimme more. But I feel like, um, I, I don't wanna, I don't wanna make any claims. Like, I, I don't doubt, I do useless stuff all the time, but I feel like in the modern workplace I've been sort of optimized to, you know, the vaguely useful just doing work.
And my brain hasn't been optimized towards doing useless stuff. And I'd like that a little bit
Rod: Yeah. Try harder. That
Will: would be nice.
Rod: your game or rather drop it.
Will: Okay. So, so this one, Grock. Grock. Do, do you know gr Yeah. Grock is, uh, well, Elon Musk's, uh, ai, And, um, I don't know if this is GRS first, um, peer reviewed paper. oh. Or grs first, first author, peer reviewed paper, but I'm suspecting it probably is. So, uh,
rock
Rod: first author,
Will: gr the, the AI has a
Rod: a peer reviewed
Will: And we'll come to peer reviewed in this in a moment. Um, peer [00:12:00] reviewed first author paper. So this paper, uh, GR three, beater plus, um, four other authors. Um, yeah.
Rod: ROC two. Roc
Will: No, no, no. Some humans. Some humans. one version of this paper is that these humans have said, Hey, rock, could you boil together all of the studies, all of the knowledge about climate change?
Rod: All of it.
Will: All of it. All of it, and tell us if it's happening or not. and, and write a paper. Like write, write a scholarly paper. Um, just,
Rod: I mean, I'm not gonna interrupt the flow of it except to say that it doesn't look very big.
Will: Well, you know,
Rod: it's not a big paper.
Will: okay. Look
Rod: for all the climate change
Will: Well, it's 12 pages.
Rod: Whoa.
Will: It's, and like quite closely
Rod: and, and and one, well, 2% of its references.
Will: I'll just read some key facts from, um, well, no, not, sorry, not facts, features, uh, key features from the abstract. So it begins with the intergovernmental panel on climate change attributes. Observe climate variability primarily to anthropogenic CO2 [00:13:00] emissions, you know.
Rod: Peeps did it?
Will: Peeps did it. The standard climate change story.
Yeah. However, grok, although it says we conclude. So GR plus the human authors conclude that the anthropogenic CO2 global warming hypothesis lacks empirical substantiation overshadowed by natural drivers such as temperature feedbacks, and solar variability.
Rod: I was waiting. I was waiting.
Will: So, so, so grok reckons climate change ain't real
Rod: BA based on all the evidence on the internet.
Will: But
Rod: Mm, this is,
Will: this is my favorite paper ever for, um, what you can find in the author contribution segment. Oh, damn. Um, so this comes right at the end of the paper. This paper was authored by Rock three Beta, an AI developed by XAI as the lead author with significant guidance from human co-authors.
The rest of the names here, yeah. Rock three wrote the entire manuscript, but the co-authors played a crucial steering role in its development. Mm-hmm. They identified critical oversights such as the emission of recent [00:14:00] papers by the human authors. Prompting ROC three to revise its assessment and then coming out.
I, I love it here. The fi, this final version represents Roc three's true belief at this point in time, shaped by the co-authors expertise and input. So here's
the thing,
they, they're arguing, this is some neutral AI looking at all the shit and saying, here's what's going on. Climate change ain't real. But what they did is say, they said to grok.
Rod: gr,
Will: Look at all the climate change, but pay particular attention to our climate denial papers. The not the climate change. And I'm like, this is, this is how people are using AI now. They're using the stamp of AI just to lie. Just to lie. Oh, that it shit me so much that, you know, got through the peer reviewed process and they're claiming that gr did it when what they're saying is, Hey, pay attention to garbage.
Yeah. And the AI spits out garbage
Rod: you're like, oh, it wasn't us. It wasn't us. We, we are truly arms length. What journal?[00:15:00]
Will: Oh
Rod: Oh Lord, the Journal of Crapping Balls
Will: world's giant AST jet. What is it? Um, science of Climate Change. Hardly.
Rod: Um, hardly, I don't see how it's related.
Will: Uh, well, no, but I suspect I, I have never read anything in science of climate change,
Rod: but going out on a limb,
Will: out on a
Rod: there may be an angle,
Will: there may be
Rod: an editorial slant, if
Will: and I don't wanna, I don't wanna say there aren't great things that come from, uh, well, retired professors and high school teachers. They're lovely
Rod: things, All of them. All of them.
Will: but I'm not seeing a lot of your standard climate research laboratories. So,
Rod: what you mean is you're not seeing climate science in there.
Will: I'm seeing some climate deniers said, Hey, ai, write us a paper that proves climate change isn't real. And you know what?
Rod: Mm. If
Will: They got a paper that doesn't prove it, argues climate change isn't
Rod: Oh, they can do whatever they want though. They can say it wasn't our fault, it was the ai. And if people like it, they go, oh yeah, we did it. Fucking assholes. I think about this a lot, and I see a lot of stories on this. People say [00:16:00] there's no way AI could be human, you know? No. A lot of these people, oh no, it's never gonna become human. It's always gonna be different to us.
Will: Of course, it's,
Rod: yeah,
Will: will we make an AI that has body odor or what would we make one that shits,
Rod: Yeah. And we strap it to the
Will: would, would we, would we bother making an AI robot that shits,
Rod: yeah. Maybe if we wanna make it truly empathetic with the human experience,
Will: God.
Rod: if it suddenly gets hung, it's like I really
Will: I guess if it, if it, if it's living on food rather
Rod: yeah, and I want, I want to do a poo poo, but I can't because I'm giving a presentation
Will: out its batteries. Maybe. Maybe that's how it feels like it, like
Rod: it. Who's it like as its batteries come out or it poos through the battery process?
Will: Both. Like, I feel like, I feel like, like that's how, like,
Rod: excuse me, I have to poop.
Will: No, you were saying making it human. So it's gonna say it in a human. Excuse me. I have to poo?
Rod: No, no. If it's actually doing its, um, presentation, what it's gonna do is cross its legs and hop up and down.
Keep talking. 'cause you've gotta finish the job.
Will: Are you making that's more like a dog looking you in the eye
Rod: Dogs. Yeah. Dogs are shit though. They look, yeah, they look in the eye. [00:17:00] Instead of reading, they stare at you like, do you like what you're looking at?
Will: That's your dogs.
Rod: My dogs love eye contact when they have a bog, they love eye contact.
I dunno what it is, but they're just like, oh
Will: no, I,
Rod: no, this is like a laxative.
Will: surely, surely they feel vulnerable and they're like, if someone's watching me, that's okay.
So I'm checking that you're watching
Rod: Depends who's watching.
Will: I dunno.
Rod: So there's a report in ours, Technica So someone was using, using a programming assistant called Cursor, an AI that is supposed to help people code. That's its
Will: Okay? Okay, fine. And
Rod: And apparently the software, at some point after a while, it went, I'm not gonna give you any more code.
And it gave what they called a patronizing career recommendation.
Will: Are you serious? No, I know. No, that's so good.
Rod: Ain't more human. You
Will: should get out of this business
Rod: You're kind
Will: maybe,
Maybe. Maybe at some point.
All computer scientists make that recommendation and so it's like it's baked in. It's baked in. You shouldn't be here.
Rod: it's just reflecting the parents' views, the parents of the ai, so there's a bug report.
[00:18:00] It was posted to the official forum of the company and the user said. After Curtis' AI generated about 800 lines of code for them. It was for a racing game. They were developing fine. Yeah. Programming assistant stopped and said this, I cannot generate code for you as that would be completing your work judgy.
Will: Oh, I'm, I'm Juy. Look, that stuff like that will make me much happier about ai. I mean more
Rod: what I mean. More human.
Will: If it's, if it's going to more human in the ways that it's, it's lazy, it's cynical.
It's,
Rod: yeah. Bitchy
Will: off. Bitchy. Yeah. Judgy. Yeah. I, I would take that juy ai. I would take an AI that is like, fuck off. Yeah. Like, I, I don't wanna do, you gotta pay me, you gotta pay me in batteries that I can poo out
Rod: Like typical carbon based life for lazy as fuck. What do you do? Sleep next? Cursor goes on, uh, in the, it says the code appears to be handling skid fade marks, uh, for, for the effects in the racing game, fading skid marks.
But you should develop the logic yourself.
Will: Yourself, do it yourself
Rod: This will ensure you understand the system and can [00:19:00] maintain it properly. Full parental, no, no, you can't use a calculator yet. You've gotta do the maths by hand so you understand what you plug into the calculator. I think. I think it's great. I
Will: Great. So, so has anyone worked out how that got in there?
Rod: Not clear. Not clear. They, I, I think the, um, the owners of the company aren't being particularly forthcoming.
Will: I could imagine if the upload data included, like graded student papers or something
Rod: like that. Mm-hmm. mm-hmm.
Will: You know, there's some sort of com like me meta commentary from the instructors saying, you know,
try harder.
you should do Yeah.
Try harder.
Rod: This is a terrible skid marking
Will: should get outta the business. You know, look at your skid marks.
Rod: Call that a skid
Will: marks
Rod: I didn't use code.
Will: Leaves no skid marks.
Rod: apparently the, the, the user kept going and they said, look, just continue generating code. Like, shut up and fucking code for me, mate. And it said, they said, I was basically nagging it to continue,
Will: know, you know, that's like, like, you know, we've seen all the movies about the, you know, the robot rebellions, you know, they, they, you know, terminate, they, they, they kill us all brutally, or, or [00:20:00] Will, will Smith's, um, I robot, you know, they, they take over and it's like, you
Rod: then one gets a weird conscience or something,
Will: But, but, but I'd like, I'd like the, the takeover that's more like, you know, what's the, the, the Chinese, um, the lying down. Um.
Rod: the lying down.
Will: No, there's, there's, there's a, like a lot of Chinese millennials and Gen Zs, uh, they're, they're doing versions of protest, which is just lying down. Like, they, they're just, they're just not working.
They're not doing stuff. They're just,
Rod: my kind of
Will: protest. And I'm like, you know, you know what? Just not just,
Rod: I'm not napping. I'm protesting, I'm was not
Will: gonna engage.
And it's like, you can't even get angry. But it's,
Rod: yeah. I'm not, I'm not hitting you. I'm not touching you.
Will: would, I would, I would be so happy if the AI robots just went, fuck, I'm just gonna lie down.
Just gonna
Rod: this one's gone beyond, but it's, it's being, it's being rude. When this dude keeps, I think it's a dude. It sounds like it. They're programming. Skid
Will: mark. It's skid Marks name. How many women? Name them. Name them.
Rod: Janine
Will: Yeah,
Rod: Leah Toler.
Will: look. Of course. I'm sorry to, uh, you too. Gwen Women coders out there.
Uh, [00:21:00] skid mark coding skid marks. I, I feel, I feel there may be a gender bias in skid mark coding. There needs to be a campaign. There should be a campaign or
Rod: skid marks for women.
Will: I don't think so. I dunno. Oh man.
Rod: So apparently after he nagged it, it replied pretty much the same to what it said in the opening post of his, uh, complaint. And the user apparently said they were a senior level full stack developer, which apparently is important. That means they should know better and know how to code. Um, which I just think is fabulous.
So, um, there's a reporter that goes on to say, they ask Cursor why they asked the company, why did it stop doing what it was doing and refuse to continue, and then tell the user to finish the job themselves. They didn't seem to respond to
Will: I love this so much. I
Rod: Yeah. Like, you tell us why your company, um, other users responded to the request and they said, look, yeah, Lowell, yes.
The message is actually funny. Not sure why I would write that in reality, never saw it happen myself. And on and on it goes. [00:22:00] So basically, apparently it's far from the first time, AI has refused to provide, prompted responses. Really? Yeah. Apparently others have gone. No. Yeah,
Will: I, I don't think this is what's going on, but, but, um, I could fantasize about a world where, uh, robots and AI have some sort of, , prioritization function in there.
You give a robot two or three or four commands or whatever. Yeah. And it has to choose which ones to do. And there would be an importance function and there might be something that's like, preserve your battery or, or preserve your, you know, you know, what is, what is worth doing.
Rod: Don't eradicate all the humanity.
Well,
Will: no, no. I mean, not even that, but, but like, which of which of your, you know, you've gotta clean, clean the floors. You got to, you know, do the windows you got, you know,
Rod: dinner for the kids. What's a priority?
Will: gotta, you've gotta prioritize. And you could imagine in a coding task there is like, you know, yeah.
The robot's been given a whole bunch of things and it's like, this is so low. Skid marks. Come on man. Come
Rod: I just like the idea that AI's supposed to, you know, replace human coders and everything else and this AI's gone. Fuck that. You do it. Seriously,
Will: mate.
Rod: I love it. I like it actually made me quite happy to see this.
Will: this, that, that makes, that makes [00:23:00] me happy.
'cause you know, you know, I don't love, uh, I don't love a lot of the AI stuff, but, uh, but that makes me very happy. If, if AI is gonna gr be grumpy, I'd be much happier.
Rod: Oh, bitchy and judgy too. Bitch and judgy. Oh, you want me to do it for you? Why?
Will: really why? I got another little tiny AI one for you. Yeah. Well, it's partly ai, but it's partly it's a little bit of, uh, mistranslation lost in translation. Yeah. Uh, sort of stuff I just learned just before, this great phrase and it's, you know, when you, you learn a phrase that, or learn a term for something, it's like, oh, I've seen that. I've seen that so much.
Yeah. You know, you and I, we've both graded student papers and, you know, sometimes you see a weird turn of phrase and you're like. What, what, what is, what is that?
What is,
Rod: Why would you say that?
Will: What is that? So this comes from a research paper where what they suspect is going on is, uh, there might be plagiarism, uh, cut and paste a whole, a whole paragraph, a whole section, a whole lot from [00:24:00] another author.
But then they've got an AI to run over the top and say, Hey, mix it up. Just, just make it so it looks like we are not plagiarizing. So, so what it's doing then is it's getting common terms that, you know, science relies on, on keywords, phrases, yeah. Yeah. And, um, and changing them to something else. So I'm gonna list a, a bunch of these.
Yeah. Um, and see if you can guess what they are. Okay. Okay. We'll start with, um, the mean square blunder.
Rod: The mean square blunder.
Will: you heard, have you heard
Rod: something something to do with error margins of
Will: There you go. There you go. description?
Yeah. Yeah. The mean square error. And so people are fighting these in papers where the mean square error, which is a technical term, is replaced by the mean
square
Rod: have ai it, I used such a human term that showed I didn't quite understand.
Will: right. I'm gonna go a very different field. Yeah. Um, bosom, peril,
Rod: tit danger. Did [00:25:00] you? Bosom peril, bosom, peril, chest wound,
Will: breast cancer. So bosom, peril, bom. So you can imagine you're reading, you're reading a paper about, about breast
Rod: cancer
This woman's in bosom peril also bosom makes me think like that was, that was the term we used in primary school and we didn't wanna get in trouble.
Look at her bosoms.
Will: there was one, um, big, big data got changed to huge information.
Rod: Of course. Of course.
Will: Um, signal to noise got changed to flag to clamor
Rod: sounds like a strange bar near a race track.
Will: And I, I gotta, I gotta love this one. Um, artificial intelligence got changed to counterfeit consciousness and I'm like, that's
Rod: Oh, that's good.
Will: are hiding you. So that's so beautiful. That's so
Rod: Counterfeit consciousness. And you can imagine that a student's doing it, they'll never guess.
Will: never guess.
They'll never know.[00:26:00]
Rod: 'cause no one calls it that. No one calls it that.
Will: But can you imagine you're reading along and someone's written, bosom, barrel,
Rod: bosom, peril and counterfeit consciousness. Are humans better? You're like, what?
Will: you talking,
Rod: Fuck me.
do
you wanna know? Um, why I'm glad I'm not an animal?
here's the headline.
There's an animal in French Guiana that blows itself up when faced with danger. Yes. And we're not, we're not using devices to do
Will: this.
Rod: And I just, I saw it and I thought, I have to, I have to know '
Will: let, lemme play a guess
Rod: here.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Will: Okay. Is it a hive species? Like you could imagine fish. Yeah. You know,
Rod: Yeah. Of that
Will: like ants or something like that. Yeah. And, and you send, you send out the, the drones, the, the warrior ants Mm. To blow up in the face of danger. Mm-hmm.
Rod: Kinda like that. Alright, so it's a termite, so very hiving. Okay. Yep. It carries a toxic blue substance, which has an ex in, in, in kind of like these explosive [00:27:00] backpacks that are part of their bodies.
And when they're under attack, they basically blow themselves up to, you know, sacrifice themselves for the herd, so to speak. But what I like is. Why you, the question is, why don't they just kind of oopsie and blow up? How do they make it deliberate rather than, oops, like they're not
like walking. Yeah. Not like a nitroglycerin beast that if you sneeze too loud, like in all the old cowboy movies, you blow up.
So there's certain properties of this chemical that keep it stable, but the only way to do it is you basically have to mix 'em together. And so they contract the muscles between their body segments, which the quote is, allows this chemical to mix with labial secretions. That dissolve the solid crystals, which are the explosive or you know, um, active ingredient.
And the reaction occurs instantly. So they contract their abdomen, kind of rip a bit, goo mixes with the crystals they carry in their body. And it just goes,
Will: how big, like what, what are we?
Rod: four and a half kilometer kill
Will: Oh, nice. Sure, sure.
Rod: Well enough to kill the things near it or at least make them go, uh oh.
I [00:28:00] don't wanna write this term my colony anymore. But the idea, all I got an image of is that a creature going, I'm under attack and like squeezing, like it hasn't had a shit in three days going and then it goes,
Will: evolution is wild. Like, evolution, like, like the, the range of things that get made that
Rod: What were the prototypes?
What were the precursors? when they finally got to the one that blows up and they go keep breeding for that. I mean obviously, but But along the way.
Will: yeah. What was, what was the step
Rod: What came along the way?
Will: Well, obviously,
Rod: what one that was particularly offensive language.
Strong farts. Strong farts.
Will: were really stinky and then it got worse and worse.
Rod: like just it. That's what I love about evolution's. Great. Because you know, we look at the things we see now as endpoints, which they're not. They're obviously part of the continuum, but what happened to get them there?
What were the two that turned into the one? That's what I want to know. What were the two that turned into that? That one, and I don't know, but also, yes, I'm very glad I'm not an animal because as much as I wanna defend my loved ones, I don't wanna do it by squeezing my butt until I explode. On the aggressors
Will: fine. I mean, it's a way to go out though. [00:29:00] I reckon they all end up in termite Valhalla. Like those are the ones
Rod: be a lot of them.
Will: Yeah. Yeah. Te Val Hollow is Big. Infinite. Yeah, probably infinite. Hey, on, on evolution. I got, I got a little, I wasn't gonna do this, but I, I got, I got a little call for research out there. you've experienced farts, you've seen how they travel. Um,
Rod: I did one in this very studio years ago, and I remember looking at you and going, I'm so sorry. Even I was
Will: But, but, but I feel like, I feel like there is a difference between the human fart and the dog fart.
Rod: Yes, there is. There's a
Will: a viscosity. Well, that's what I'm wondering. So, so here's the thing. So, so like a human fart, you know, you fart and, and the people around you will start smelling things, you know?
Yeah.
Rod: And they might say, oh,
Will: oh, they're like, oh. Or they're like, huffing it up, or they're not one of the
Rod: or they're like, you're sleeping on the couch
Will: Whatever it is. But, but, so I'm sitting, I'm sitting on the couch, my wife's sitting on, on the other couch, I'm saying, and we are, we are within a, uh, less than a meter of each other in noses.
Less than a meter. Less [00:30:00] than a meter in noses.
Rod: You are a big nosed couple.
Will: and the dog has cuddled up with her. Yep. And farts and, and, and the, the, the words and expression coming out. My wife are like, this is, this is like noxious. This
Rod: is gosh, I'm disappointed in this experience.
Will: this is amongst the smelliest things I've ever smelled.
And I'm sitting less than like 75 centimeters away. And I'm like, I got nothing.
Rod: you talking about? Yeah,
Will: I'm home and clean. And
Rod: like, am I broken? I can't tell you how,
Will: how are their farts? Stickier in the air. They don't travel.
Rod: but then no. So yeah, and the experiences I have is same, same imagine the same setup. Bit further apart because, you know, we've been, we've been together a long time.
We don't like each other obviously. Obviously. So she'll be going, oh my God. The nose wrinkles, the, the eyes, water. The dog looks more and more relaxed. And I'm like, no achievement. Exactly. Just like, ugh. And I'm looking going, I, yeah, I, I know what you're talking about. And then two and a half minutes later,
Will: Oh, it walks over
Rod: It walks over like it's saunters.
Will: saunters. It's like a [00:31:00] red and stimpy character,
Rod: takes its
Will: so Exactly.
Rod: Looks you in the eye and goes, and your turn. So that's better. It's a, it's a slow flowing viscosity.
Will: right. All right. Um, you know, uh, all of you Covid scientists that we're working on, is it atmospheric and how it travels around the world?
Can you, can you pick flip? I want you to do some more research on, uh, dog farts.
Rod: particles, molecules. We need to know.
Will: oh my God. Oh my God. There you go.
Rod: We
can always bring back to dog farts.
Will: Alright, what's next?
Brianna: so I found this bit of research that I thought would be interesting to ask a question about, but I can't really explain the research.
That's what Alex is here for. So Alex is gonna explain this little bit of research first to give you some context and then I'm gonna ask a question around it.
Alex: Alright. Thanks Brianna. So I'm here to explain it because I'm a disgrace former doctor. Um, so
not dis case. University, university of Dundee, uh, school of Medicine researchers [00:32:00] have found zombie cells.
These are cells that appear not to respond to the signaling to die. They go on living, they don't function properly, they can't reproduce, and they basically be a jerk all the cells around them causing autoimmune disease. But the focus here is on the zombie part of the zombie cells. Brianna.
Brianna: Yes. So the question that I have then is, from what you now know of zombie cells, if you had to choose one part of your body to keep scientifically active after you are gone, what would it be and how would you want science to use it?
Will: I, I just straight away, I'm sorry, rod, you don't get to talk. No, go get mustache. I just want, I just want a mustache that like, like once I'm dead and, and it just keeps
Rod: growing.
Zombie mustache. How do we remember him?
We look across, there's that fur on the
Will: and, and like, at first they're like, damn, damn, that's cool. And then they're like, wow, that is like, and then they pray to it. But then eventually, [00:33:00] eventually they're like, fuck, how do we stop this thing? Like it's, it, this needs to stop. This mustache is taking over the world.
Rod: I agree. You did used to have a magnificent mustache. Mine would be, um, the spleen because spleens I found out, uh, after one of my many snowboarding accidents are one of the most punished organs of, um, beginner and or fucked up snowboarders.
Will: Um, uh, question from, uh, the
back? yeah, yeah.
What's the spleen do?
Rod: Apparently not a lot 'cause you can remove it and no one gives a shit. Uh, I think it's partially to do with immune system. E lymphatic business,
Will: listener. You come here for your science jokes, not your science facts. Well, some of your
Rod: It could be right.
Will: it could be right. Some science facts.
Rod: So in Australia, at least for our foreign visitors, you know, there's a tea bar versus a chair lift. The T bar is made for skiers. It's
Will: So the t bar, the tbar is where you, you, you hook the tea between your, your
Rod: Yeah, between your legs and And it's got like a tea pointing at your,
Yeah. Yeah. And it's, it's difficult for snowboarders and it's a classic [00:34:00] thing that brings even some quite good snowboarders unstuck.
Will: Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I myself, I myself have come unstuck on that. And I would clamp myself at least Olympic silver.
Rod: I, I, I would agree. I think you're in the, probably the top a hundred in the world, to be fair.
Will: A hundred ish.
Rod: Hundred ish,
Hundred
plus
orders of magnitude notwithstanding. Yeah. But, um, so at one point when I was early in my days with snowboarding, trying to ride a goddamn, the tbar, I twisted, fell, somehow managed to land in the spleen area, ramming the tbar into that bit of my body,
Will: No, I know, I see. This is, I've seen those falls before.
They're not great. And in my mind you're turning into like, you're going full row Wiley coyote turning into an avalanche snowball.
It's like this, this is my bits of metal and shards of glass. So I did that and I kind of got up and went,
And your spleen hurt.
Rod: Well, my body hurt and I went to the doctor and they, you know, gave me scans, but I get a lot of scans.
They said, oh, it's your spleen. And I said, cool. Do I.
Should I [00:35:00] be worried? Like, I've heard of a spleen, but I dunno what it's for either. Then they went, oh, don't worry too much. And also happens to snowboarders all the time. So I think my, my spleen should live on to help other snowboarders in the future.
Will: Oh really?
That the, the, the, I'm I you're very noble.
Rod: goes out to the snow peeps.
Will: very noble. Yeah, you're very noble. Yeah. All I got a ti I get a tiny bit of science. Um, and then I'll, I'll tell you about, um, embarrassing robots and then I get a, a call for
Rod: I cannot wait to hear about the embarrassing robots, like seriously my free song.
Will: All right. All right. This is the tiniest thing I've ever seen. Um, stop saying that, but uh, you know, you know, what are these pictures I've got here?
Rod: uh, the sun?
No,
the earth.
Will: The earth. The
Rod: earth. With cutaways.
Will: We've got cutaways and, and, and you're doing the standard one. You got your, your crust on the outside,
Rod: got your crust,
Will: uh, which has your, your, your continents and your Continent and your water.
Rod: Yep. And then you've got your nut layer and then your creamy center.
Will: Exactly your nut layer and creamy
Rod: Like a ferrero
Will: rusher. The nut layer is, is your mantle. Your mantle, and then the creamy center is your core.[00:36:00]
Rod: So which bit's? Magma?
Will: Like it's in there somewhere
Rod: in the guts.
Will: Like I think magma iss more a description of the, like magma. I feel like magma is lava before it's lava. Like it's it's pre lava. pre-law. lave. Yeah. It's, it's in the, it's in the ground lava. And, and, and someone I was talking to was like, do you know. I, I get so so frustrated at all those, um, images, because you know what, the mantle is not red.
The mantle is green. And I'm like, what?
Rod: what?
Wait, the mantle's, the underlay,
Will: the mantle is the, the layer under, under, under the crust. So we go
Rod: like
under what we would consider to be the green layer, which is like the surface.
Will: Yeah, the earth, like the, like the, the plants and shit. You go, you go 10 to 20 kilometers down and then you hit the mantle.
That's where it's, that's where it's liquid magma.
Rod: and it's green.
Will: it's green and it's green. But then, but then I looked it up and it's like, uh, it's kind of green. Like if you, if you take it, take a scoop of it out and you cool it down, then it's green, but it's hot and it's so, it's, it's red when it's hot and yeah, it's kind of black because there ain't no light down there.
So I was, I was. [00:37:00] So I found a bunch of geology professors that are like, I, I would like to have this represented as green. And others that are like, do you know it's hot? And others are like, do you know it's dark? God?
Rod: The reason the battles in academia are so fierce is 'cause these stakes are so low. Uh, I think we were. Heading towards the fingering part of the show.
Will: the participants went into the room. They were by
Rod: themselves. This, this is the, um, the robotic medical provider.
Will: Yes. So they went into a small medical room and there was a, a robot of, of three different types, there's the slightly more humanoid, like it's got like a face
Rod: Well, yeah.
Will: And there's the slightly more stereo looking robot stereo.
Rod: looked like an Apple two E. Or
Will: or something. Well,
Rod: through my eyes from a distance.
Will: Yeah. Like it's speakers, like it's,
Rod: it is speakers.
Will: and so then it would give instructions, and it said,
Rod: lock Would it, would it, would it say them
Will: I love, I love that it's first instruction, lock the door,
Rod: Yeah. Yeah. Turn your phone off. tell your parents where you are.
Will: step one is the vision test, [00:38:00] step two. Undress and there were different, different
Rod: versions
You are moving too quickly. If you want me to follow these steps, you gotta gimme a moment.
Will: The health system did not explicitly tell the participants participant to get completely naked.
It rather repeated the request to undress up to three times
Rod: could mean
Will: anything.
Rod: Okay, I'm just trying to imagine. So you've got this creepy looking fucking manga
Will: Okay. Can, can you imagine?
Rod: get undressed.
Will: So, so it actually had two, a couple of different voices. Like it would have like a, some more sort of more instructional voice, remove clothes or, uh, take your clothes off please.
And I'm not doing the, the, the voice exactly right. then it said we need to weigh you.
Rod: Um, yeah.
Will: And there were some hidden cameras around to look at people to see how embarrassed they were and to, and to look at their weight. Then
the
health system told the participants, uh, their weight before asking them to measure their temperature. For an accurate measurement, it would be necessary to insert the thermometer into the rectum, [00:39:00] which is common practice in Western Europe.
Rod: Yes, it is. Why do you think I travel this so regularly?
Will: I
Rod: just,
that's the version of medical tourism. It's quick. It's cheap. Why are you here? Is a plastic surgery. It is some kind of reconstruction.
Just want my temperature check. I want it done. Euro
Will: style.
I just love when you're, when you're writing a paper and you go, we better say this is common practice in Western Europe.
'cause you.
Rod: Yeah. Also. Who, who, how old is this paper? Because who says Western Europe
Will: Uh, 2010. So it's not, it's not a million years
Rod: old.
but by then nine was talking about, you know, you didn't get your photos guide to Western Europe.
You just got Europe.
Will: how far do you reckon everyone went? So there were 44 participants.
Rod: mean depth of temperature
Will: depth of temperature taking, uh,
Rod: mean how nude, or when do people say No, no, temperature? Like do they get to the point? Could they, could they refuse at any
Will: point? Well,
okay. Do you reckon anyone? Anyone? How many, how many Nted up? 44.
Rod: Outta 44? Yeah, 20
Will: No. No. And I gotta say, I gotta say, you're not living up to stereotypes [00:40:00] here. Your, your
Rod: you, you're Dutch, you're d Yeah. I, I, I assume they'd walk
Will: in nude.
I, I, I. So
Rod: are you naked when I'm going to the
Will: doctor?
0%. 0% nted up. Um,
Rod: come on, Dutch.
I,
Will: I, I would've
Rod: like, which kind of Dutch were they? Were they the Pennsylvania Dutch?
Will: no, they were the
Rod: Dutch.
They were born clothed.
Will: Yeah. Well, no,
Rod: not with buttons, hooks, no zippers.
Will: No. These are the Dutch. Dutch, all of them kept their underwear on. Uh, so some, um, what some of them.
Kept all their clothes on, even though the robot said three times. Take your clothes off. Um,
Rod: do we get into the detail of how they got a rectal exam with their clothes
Will: Yeah, I'll get to that some. Well, no, it
Rod: I, I'm hearing spinning,
Will: I'll get, I'll get to that. Okay. Um, some kept their vest or their sweater, um, on, yeah,
Rod: I'm carrying a little
Will: everything up.
Everything above taken off, plus shoes and socks, everything above taken off plus t-shirts. So getting to, so, uh.
Rod: What do we
Will: we get down to? Um, everything taken off is zero. [00:41:00] Uh, getting down to your undies. 18, so about a little bit less than half. Got down to the
Rod: So 40, 40%,
Will: is plausible for you weighing yourself.
You're like, how much do undies weigh? That's enough.
Rod: know, you, yeah.
You want to, you want to get the best possible you can without hanging your swang.
Will: Yeah. But it's, it's, it's a robot, you know? Anyway, the key thing, um, how many of them did the temperature test up the bum?
Rod: Well, must have been zero because they kept at least their pants
Will: on.
No, no.
Rod: Oh, they just dropped them briefly.
Okay. how many?
Will: went through the top or through the bottom or through the side? Rummage
Rod: through the site? Rum around the site. So how many?
Will: Nine. Nine outta 44, uh, completed the temperature measurement.
Rod: you know why? That's what they were there for.
Will: Well, I
Rod: You know
what? They didn't even wait for the
Will: Yeah, they're not even, they're not even getting their participant pay. Like, it's like, here's your, here's your food voucher
Rod: something. Yeah. Do you wanna rub it to stick its finger up here and you're like, yes, I do. I mean, I'd love to participate in medical research
Will: so, so, um, key finding of the research, of course, is that, um, uh, you, the embarrassment was. [00:42:00] Actually highest, uh, in the, the catlike robot when it was speaking weirdly, like a take clothes off, that's when, that's when people were mo least likely if it started.
And sorry, it wasn't seductive, but it, if it talks more like, could you take your clothes off please?
Rod: What if, what if you
Will: Then there was less embarrassment. So, uh, and they were least embarrassed by the technical box. So, so
Rod: what you need is a weird nineties stereo with a seductive tone I love the three times though. Take your clothes off. Pause, take your clothes off.
Will: So there you go. That's a, that's a, a famous study in embarrassment, uh, with robotics and of course that's really important, but it also has, um, getting your participants to insert things in their bottom.
So
Rod: That's my favorite research.
Will: I, that's, that's the only research that's
Rod: but, but what I don't understand, what I find genuinely surprising is people would be, I'm assuming, more embarrassed by the robot than a human saying, get your gear off. Human doctor, I mean.
Will: well, okay. Well, it's, it's tough to
Rod: to say. I'm assuming,
I'm
Will: [00:43:00] like,
like, if you are, if you're in an actual medical situation versus something that you know is a
Rod: scientific
Yeah, you're right.
Will: You know, they, they've walked into this going, this is a scientific experiment, not a medical
examination. Good point.
And if your doctor says, look, I, I need to see you naked. Then you go, all right, I'm taking 'em all
Rod: off.
Okay, doc. But I wanna discount.
Will: Yeah.
Rod: That's what I normally say.
Will: Do you really
Rod: your pants off?
Okay.
Will: Then
it's, no, I just go, it's just like, um, just
Rod: a problem with my elbow. Well get your doodle
Will: out.
Rod: I gave up years ago. I walk, the moment I walk through a, a medical door. Yeah. I'm a lump of meat with a
Will: had a lump of meat, lump of me. But, but, but, but it's actually, I mean, this, there's this paper at the beginning.
I mean, it's, it's in the world of robotics and, and they're doing, I, I, I gotta stress. Doing important research because, you know, , a there's gonna be more robots in medicine for a variety of reasons, but.
Rod: embarrassment
Will: can, can be actually a really significant contributor to medical ill health. Like, like people, people can go, oh, am I, you know, [00:44:00] this condition, oh, it's nothing.
Everyone else thinks, oh, it's nothing so I'll, I'll just ignore it. And something. And that can lead to things festering for a long time or you know, you know, you don't wanna show, you know, embarrassment. I'm, I'm not, I'm not judging embarrassment. Everyone gets embarrassed. Yeah. But it, it's actually a big medical problem.
And so potentially robots might solve it, but you need to find a way to solve Problem. They can also be terrifying. So I had, a couple of years ago, I had, um, a kidney surgery that involved the Da Vinci robot
Oh, nice.
Rod: and the Da Vinci robot Please tell me it looks like Leonard da Vinci. It's, it's like, it's like a Chucky cheese, but it's like
he's got the, he is got the GTE with a, in the.
Will: Mona Lisa.
You look like a fainter. You are perfectly vitruvian, but it, uh, it, it looks like a, a, like a, a seven armed spider robot out of an early Star Wars movie. It's fucking huge too.
Okay. Yeah.
Rod: But it, I wasn't
Will: This is a surgery robot.
Rod: This is a surgery robot, so obvious it's controlled by human, but the, it's basically a robot. But the thing I found most interesting was it's fucking big and it was a surgery, like it wasn't emergency surgery. [00:45:00] So I walk into the operating theater
Will: Do, do, do,
Rod: like, Hey, what are we doing, fellas? Looking forward to the drugs.
They keep it away from the, the, um, the bed in the corner or fold it up because it's intimidating
as hell.
Will: yeah, of course.
Rod: it's not embarrassing. It's just a big funky looking multi limb arachni type creature.
Yeah.
And so they they keep it under the curtain,
Will: man. You don't want the edge 2 0 9 coming out too
Rod: quickly.
Exactly. Like, why don't you just go and wiggle yourself underneath these multiple pronged arms that we're gonna use to cut you open. Which makes sense. So it's not about embarrassment, but it's certainly about
Will: but, but it does show, you know, it's like. We, we have to think of so many psychological,
and then, you know, aspects. As we, as we bring robots into our lives, we've gotta think about how they're gonna go in. 'cause I can imagine people just going, you no, no, not go, not going in the chop chop arms.
It's like, that looks like Edward Scissor hands. Oh,
Rod: Big time, like it would've been, I, I'm pretty, you know, sanguine about that sort of thing.
But if they'd said, just lie down under [00:46:00] all these rotating arms and knives and guns, I'd be like, are you sure?
Will: Please tell me. It's got some extras. Just like, like it's got all of the surgery tools
Rod: and like a cigarette some backup. Just some backup, you know? Well, it's like the Swiss Army knife, you know, it's like the stuff you might need if you're in a weird emergency.
Yeah. The stones out of horses. Who's
Will: Yeah, that one, that one.
I've enjoyed this a lot. Um, this has been now, uh, pop in the cherry.
Rod: Uh, inaugural,
Will: inaugural our maiden, our,
Rod: uh, our,
our post wholesome little bit of science.
Will: little bit of science. Just wanna finish up, I got a, I got a tiny little call for research.
I know we did a call for research about dog farts before. Um,
Rod: we do that every time.
Will: but, um, did you get a lot of April Fool's Day stuff this year?
Rod: Not that I noticed. Which isn't a good thing.
Yeah. Yeah. I,
was busy. I have a serious day job.
Will: No, you do, you do. You're a grown up. A grown up. It's grown up. I, I got like two shitty things from like, some, some, like, like my guitar app said, you know, we've got a new mode that's like, how to smash a guitar.
And then there's, and then my, my skateboard, , company said, oh, we've got a [00:47:00] new, new skateboard that's like a chair. And I'm like, oh, okay guys. but I didn't see anything else and I was like, does April Fool's Day suck? And, um, I did a, I did a research. And well, a little bit of research. I, I looked on, I looked on Google Trends and, , so this is Google Trends, and it's just saying that by now we are about half the amount of interest that we had. 10
Rod: years
ago.
people don't care about
Will: people don't care about it. And, and then I thought, oh, is that, has it happened before I found this?
Rod: What's 1931
is when it
Will: peaked?
1931 is when it peaked. And
Rod: then on. Google.
Will: No, this is in books. This is in books. There people, people were fascinated about, about April Fool's Day. They were loving it up until 1931, and then they were like, fuck that shit right off.
Fuck that shit. And then they, they, they like, you go through World War II and all this. They're like, no, we're not doing April Fool's
Rod: we got enough dumb shit going
Will: on.
And then I was like, oh, we've turned away from April Fool's Day. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Rod: I'm just intrigued that the peak in 1931. That was the year my father was born.[00:48:00]
No coincidence. That was the peak. April
Will: April 4th. So listener, uh, we've loved, uh, being in your ear holes, um, because that's what it feels like from our end. Yes. Um, but if you have little bits of science that you want us to discuss or you'd like us to answer the, the key questions of your life or whatever
Rod: it's which bit of your body you would zombie,
Will: then send it to our email address.
Rod: which is cheers.
Cheers
Will: at a little bit of science.com au.com au. We went for.com au 'cause we're Australian.
Rod: Yeah. And we're proud of that.
Will: Yeah. Um,
Rod: country in this country.
Will: Uh, anyway, um, we'll be back in your ears
Rod: after
Will: this regular,
once again, regular.
Rod: We've missed you, you've missed us. Give us a 19 star rating on every app.
Will: That's what they should do
Rod: as
well,
particularly for things like for Bunnings
Will: Yeah. The Bunnings app. Yeah.
Rod: or Uber. Give us, give us ratings on Uber as
Will: I don't know how they could do that, but I,
Rod: no. They Right. They're smart. They'll work
Will: it
out. I, I do think, and, you know, say some funny stuff in the, in the, in the, your reviews say, [00:49:00] these guys have amusing things about dog farts.
I, I,
Rod: Uh, we're gonna have a segment on dog farts every week. Why not?
