We Have Concerns

We talk a lot about whether we can trust robots, but can robots trust us? HitchBOT was a robot on a goodwill tour of the world, depending on the kindness of strangers to get from one end of a country to the other. After successful tours of Canada and various parts of Europe, it came to the US. We killed it. We killed it good.

Presidential Candidate Zoltan Istvan is raising money to tour the country in a bus that looks like a coffin to promote the Transhumanism philosophy of immortality. Has there ever been a political stance more perfect for Anthony and Jeff? Use technology to defeat human frailty, force the public to confront their own mortality, and maybe even work some time in for Volcano Boarding. This is how you earn the We Have Concerns endorsement.

In this episode, recorded in front of a live audience at the NerdMelt Showroom in Los Angeles, Anthony and Jeff wrestle with their feelings after seeing the results of an experimental Chinese medial procedure. A factory worker in the Hunan province would have lost his hand after it was sliced off in an industrial accident - if not for the fact that surgeons re-attached it to his leg and allowed it to live there for a month while his wound healed enough for it to be grafted back onto his arm. It is a disturbing image, but is it a reassuring concept?

Sonja Lang has created the world's smallest functional language. Her creation, Toki Pona, contains only 123 total words, and holds simplicity as its highest ideal. Jeff is enamored by language and charmed by the idea of designing one from scratch to fulfill a specific aesthetic, while Anthony is frustrated by the lack of nuance and potential for confusion. Together, they attempt to communicate what makes for great communication.

For the last ten years, a man in the UK has been waking up every day thinking it is March 14th 2005, the day he was scheduled to receive a root canal. Anthony and Jeff think this sounds like something out of a romantic comedy, but stop to consider what it might actually be like for the man and his family. Could it ever be a good thing?

A hotel has opened in Japan that is staffed almost entirely by robots. While this does seem like a cheap gimmick to Anthony and Jeff, they are still intrigued by the idea, and imagine what staying in such a place must be like.

A company in the Netherlands is teaming up with the city of Rotterdam to introduce pre-fab roads made from recycled plastics, which will eliminate the harmful emissions that result from asphalt, and allow for simple installation and removal. Jeff and Anthony, of course, can't help but think of Lego bricks, and wonder what other problems giant toys could solve.

Scientists have linked together the brains of monkeys to collectively control the movements of an artificial arm, proving that connected brains can cooperate to solve problems. Further, a separate study linked brains of rats together to combine isolated data, effectively creating one larger, more capable super-brain. Jeff and Anthony certainly don't see any issues with the beginning of rat super-brains generated out of armies of linked rat minds. Nothing can go wrong with that, so... no concerns in this episode!

A new paper, published in the Journal of Sensory Studies, attempts to categorize different kinds of picky eaters, in an effort to help parents better deal with their kids at mealtime. Jeff and Anthony take a look at the various categories and confess which flavor of persnickety snacker they were... and still may be.

Monarch butterflies make an incredible, multi-generational migration from Canada to Mexico, but, strangely, they do not take the the most direct route. Somewhere over Lake Superior, these butterflies always change direction drastically, as if avoiding something. New research suggests that there was once a mountain range in the exact position of the course correction, and every generation of monarch butterfly somehow remembers to circumvent it, even thousands of yours later. Jeff and Anthony are mystified by this phenomena, but that doesn't stop them from speculating on how and why this unnecessary extra effort takes place.

A new study that claims smart phone users are becoming addicted to their devices has garnered alarming headlines like "iPhones Cause Separation Anxiety". But digging a little deeper, Anthony and Jeff discover that the experiments used to gather the data seem questionable at best. Why are these headlines so irresistible, and why are there researchers so eager to supply such misleading results?

In their continuing quest to explore the most terrifying creatures on the planet, Jeff and Anthony take a look at the Tarantula Hawk - a wasp with a sting categorized as among the most painful in the known world. This is a creature that hunts tarantulas! The guys discuss their perverse desire to understand what it must be like to be stung by this horrible insect.

Why is it so hard to take our own advice? A new article breaks down the phenomenon, and suggests some reasons as to why it may be the case. Anthony and Jeff relate to being able to give great advice, but unable to actually follow it, and remember times when they should have practiced what they preached.

New, wireless earbuds on Kickstarter promise to personalize live audio by masking out unwanted noises and equalizing sounds in the world around you in real time. Anthony and Jeff are skeptical about how well this particular product will actually work, but look forward to a future in which your senses are curated and managed by technology.

A company called MX3D has developed a new 3D printer that can print using molten steel. To prove the capability of their invention, they plan to print a fully functional cantilevered bridge in Amsterdam. Jeff and Anthony imagine a fully 3D printed future where anything is printable and raw materials are the only currency. Nothing can go wrong with that, right?