The Ars Technicast

This week, we’re serializing another episode of the After On Podcast here on Ars. Our guest is UCSF neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley, who runs one of the largest academic neuroscience labs on the West Coast and researches tuning games to combat neurological aliments. At the heart of today’s conversation is Adam’s take on neuroplasticity. I’ve known this term for years, and long thought I understood it. But this interview brought me a far more nuanced comprehension of it. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

We start today’s installment with the very cliffhanger sentence yesterday’s installment ended with: Rodney saying “Yeah, let’s talk about deep learning.” This leads to an argument similar to yesterday’s point about self-driving cars, which takes us to super AI risk, which Rodney believes is quiet overblown. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

We start today’s installment by discussing an audacious project to resurrect the wooly mammoth—or at least certain of its genes, which allowed it to thrive in frigid regions. From mammoths, George and I turn to the topic of synthetic meats, which could enter our kitchens and bellies much sooner than most people think. We close by discussing an ambitious longevity project currently underway in George’s lab. It’s not about life extension—but aging reversal. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This year saw an event that only happens every six or seven years, on average: two major gaming consoles released at just about the same time. The PS4 has just released, and the Xbox One launches on Friday. Gaming Editor Kyle Orland has been losing many sleep cycles as he writes reviews of the hardware and system software for both consoles, but he made some time to join Social Editor Cesar Torres and Senior Reviews Editor Lee Hutchinson as we talk about their highs and the lows.

If we were to call Kyle's coverage of these two launches extensive, we would be making a total understatement. He's written thousands of words about the Xbox One and PS4's new games, he's talked to developers about their opinions about both systems. And as if that weren't enough, he's written news, opinion, and historical analysis of the Sony and Microsoft's systems. As you read Kyle's reviews of the PS4 and the Xbox One, gaming fans will wonder, which machine is best? Which should I get? Kyle wrote exactly about this as he compared both consoles in a head-to-head match.

But as we find out in the podcast, there’s a few factors to think about if you’re considering dropping a few hundred dollars on these machines at launch. Game developers are barely getting their hands on a new platform right now, and Kyle talks about the impact on graphics and games going forward. Through it all, we talk about what we can expect in terms of true novelty in game play and experience. We also discuss what the future release of a Steam OS console will mean in the future when it comes to game selection, industrial design and ergonomics, and price.

As you’ll hear on this episode, we are also putting this format of the Ars Technicast on pause for now. The show will return in a new iteration sometime in the future, but you can enjoy the archive of past episodes on iTunes, Stitchr or on this page. Cesar is also moving on from Ars Technica (though he remains in the tech world), and so we want to say thanks to all of you for listening during the Technicast’s run.

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This week we devote the show to science fiction, and in particular Ridley Scott’s new film Prometheus. Warning: This show is extremely spoiler heavy, so if you don’t want to know details about the film, wait until you see it first, since we give away major plot points.

Ridley’ Scott’s loose prequel to his 1979 film Alien provides fertile ground to discuss the fiction and storytelling used in the film, but the movie has very little science that can be compared to science in the real world. We also discuss how the scientists aboard the Prometheus don’t behave like actual scientists. No discussion of this series of films is complete without talking about the monsters. Does the creature design of Prometheus work with previous films in the Alien series? Tune in to find out. Host Senior Apple Editor Jacqui Cheng is joined by Open Source Editor Ryan Paul, Social Editor Cesar Torres and Ars Contributor Casey Johnston.

Links

Science gets burned by Prometheus

Adrian Bott, Prometheus Unbound: What The Movie Was Actually About

H.R. Giger

Alien Trilogy

Alien Resurrection

Alien vs. Predator

2001: A Space Odyssey

Wikipedia entry on the alien creature (xenomorph)

Books

Good Omens

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Kindred

Sandman

Stranger in a Strange Land

Starship Troopers

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