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This week, dear listeners, we return with guest Duck Washington for a conversation about science gone wrong in movies! We discuss many of our favorite sci-fi films in terms of ethics, real-life dilemmas, and copious amounts of wine.
If you would like to drink along (and you very well might), we suggest either the classy Piattelli Vineyards Malbec or the ever-reliable Low Hanging Fruit Merlot Reserve.
Edited June 23rd, 2016 to add:
One of our fine Brians, Mr. Donohue, has created a lovely title card for this episode. Witness its kaijutastic glory!
Show notes behind the cut!
Movies mentioned:
The Fly
Re-Animator
Gattaca
Snowpiercer
The Truman Show
Orphan Black (TV)
Ghost in the Shell
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
Moon
Anti-Viral
eXistenZ
Pi
Demon Seed
Better Call Saul (TV)
People mentioned:
Jeff Goldblum
David Cronenberg
Jeffrey Combs
H. P. Lovecraft
Andrew Niccol
Ana Voog
Haley Joel Osment
Jude Law
Stanley Kubrick
Steven Spielberg
Duncan Jones
Brandon Cronenberg
Darren Aronofsky
Fritz Weaver
Julie Christie
Links:
Article about the A.I. game:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/you-missed-your-chance-to-play-a-massive-internet-puzzle-game-about-a-i-murders/
Wikipedia article about the court case that negated the patents on BRCA1 and BRCA2:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myriad_Genetics
Carlton Beer commercial “Beer Chase”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo5zwV6_yVs
4 comments
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On a friend’s recommendation I’ve been working my way through Person of Interest (hooray for Netflix, boo for my inability to binge-watch more than three episodes at a time of ANY show before having to do ANY thing else), which is ostensibly a show about a rich weirdo and his ex-military hireling running around NYC saving people from bad circumstances…
…but is actually a stealth Sci-Fi show which delves into the ethics of A.I., how we might find ourselves interacting with such a sentience, and the good old-fashioned “you never stopped to think whether you SHOULD.” It’s not for everyone, it’s especially heavily reliant upon gunfire and other forms of violence, and it gets SO VERY man-pain-y from time to time. But when it peels back a layer or two and gets into the SF-nal bits, the show does a good job raising questions and showing what-might-be answers.
The original GITS movie really is a stand-out example of Japanese storytelling taking on questions of artificial consciousness and related topics. Arguably the best (and best-known) anime movie to go into the “bad science ethics” realm of “you did the thing because you could, never stopping to consider if you should”, though?
AKIRA.
Author
Yeah, Akira is a great example! It’s a shame we had only had time for 10 picks, because there are so many fantastic science ethics movies out there.
Two things: first, Trader Joe’s Bacon Jam. Put it in your stir-fry, put it on your eggs, put it on your toasted cheese sandwiches. Second, I made y’all a thing base on the opening of this episode, featuring Gojira tussling with Ebirah.
http://s.mlkshk-cdn.com/r/18UDW
Author
This is a beautiful thing! Thank you!