Supercharged

Tommy and Adam take off the rose-colored glasses and look at science and technology through a more pessimistic lens for a change...for the most part. :)

Tommy and Adam continue last week's discussion on machine consciousness by examining a bizarre eight-month experiment with Google's recommendation algorithm and the application of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.

Tommy and Adam speak with three of the creators of the indie game Starcats (Quentin Young, Ryan Hughes, and Gage Melton) about game development and the complex ideas behind cooperative gameplay.

Tommy and Adam continue last week's discussion on machine consciousness by examining a bizarre eight-month experiment with Google's recommendation algorithm and the application of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.

This week Tommy and Adam discuss customer service systems—both human and robotic—and how knowing the rules of these systems leads to predictable results. And this, in a strange way, leads to questions of consciousness in a system. Next week the discussion continues with an unusual application of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and an unconventional, eight month-long conversation with the machine we know as Google.

This week we meant to talk about the law, but we ended up discussing artificial intelligent and mixed reality through the medium of Nintendo's Mario. Obviously, no one should be surprised. :)

This week, Tommy tells his tales of E3, featuring Doug Bowser, and Adam shuts up for once.

This week Tommy and Adam take a look at Apple's announcements and the political landscape to consider one question: what is truth?

Just like the real world, activity on social networks can lead to depression and other unpleasant emotional issues. Unfortunately, online support systems rarely exist in an official capacity if at all. Tommy and Adam discuss this problem with Robert Morris, the co-founder of Koko, which aims to provide a simple but effective therapeutic resource through these platforms and introduce compassion back into the equation.

HowToGeek editor Whitson Gordon joins Tommy and Adam for a discussion of corporate ethics in the wake of hacks both widespread and personal. We end this episode on an important question.

Newly-minted New York Times and former Lifehacker editor Alan Henry joins us to figure out what everything in the universe is, from a scientific perspective. It's time for some crazy theoretical physics! Warning: this may be a somewhat challenging episode compared to what we usually do, and we might throw around some terms and ideas that we won't have time to dive into deeply. We're going to attempt to make this conversation as accessible to everyone as possible, so you can follow along just fine even if theoretical (astro)physics isn't your thing, but be sure to look at the links in the show notes for a bunch of educational resources that can help you learn more about the topics discussed—if you're interested, of course. We focused on providing resources that won't take too long to get read or watch. :)

Microsoft offered up some fantastic announcements this week at their 2017 build conference, but is the real takeaway that the future of tech going to be another innovation-stifling oligopoly? Can we break this cycle, or is it too late?

What does prescription eyewear have in common with ugly good and special relativity? Something, apparently!  We're tackling food, physics, and ophthalmology in this week's purposefully tangential episode.

We're all aware of the bubbles we live in to some extent, and how technologies like Facebook encourage us to stay within them, but unless you live off the grid—and clearly you don't—you're probably affected by your comfortable bubble more than you think. Everything you do, say, and buy creates a feedback loop you may think you've broken, but with the wrong goals in mind it's the bubble you're going to live in for the rest of your life and possibly never know it.

The Hollywood of the past will soon cease to exist. The way we consume media has evolved over the last 20-some years to a model most successfully utilized by Netflix. But, is it sustainable? Will we stream our media commercial-free for the next decade, or do we need a more reliable option? This week on Supercharged, we examine the future of broadcast entertainment.

Negative emotion fuels a lot of our choices in life, whether we're trying to help or hurt—but does it truly have a useful place in our arsenal of options? Sometimes, yes, it's one of those necessary evils, but perhaps not as necessary as we might want to believe. This week we take a deep dive into psychology with a look at academic critiques and the most recent YouTube scandal featuring Daddyofive.

This week on Supercharged we're looking at the future of console gaming and its impact on how we play.

This week (or last, if we're being accurate) on Supercharged we're talking about the numerous issues plaguing YouTube and its community, plus some other things. :)

This week on Supercharged we're concluding our conversation on AI, AGI, and automatons. We finally take on the doomsday scenario, the off/stop button dilemma, and how we might merge with technology to create a harmonious existence that's neither fully organic or synthetic.

This week on Supercharged we're continuing our conversation on AI, AGI, and automotons. We discuss human life and legacy as it relates to synthetic life, and look at issues in the current world. On the final segment, next week, we'll tackle the doomsday scenario.