Could superheroes move from fantasy to reality? (Farsighted, Ep 4)

[MUSIC] Welcome to have been in show to about what's coming next tomorrow and way, way beyond tomorrow And I'm joined in the studio in San Francisco by Bonnie Burton, Jeff Spartman, Steven Beachman, Kaitlin Patrokovik, did I get it right this time? Yeah. Alright. [LAUGH] [LAUGH] [LAUGH] Yeah that's fine. If you wanna join the conversation the chatrooms are live, we're on YouTube At YouTube.com/cnet. You can find it there. And also on livestream.com/cnet/farsided. Chat room's there. And you can also just send a tweet with a hashtag, the hashtag, farsided. And I will keep an eye out for that too. So Look! Folks. We are all people who think a lot about the future and what it's going to be like. And one of the great sources of perhaps and clues about what's coming next of what the future holds is actually fiction. That's why, every time we get together in the part of the show. Always have to do with what science fiction or fantasy or superhero shows and stuff like that we're watching. It's why we write about this stuff. It's why we love it. It because the first [UNKNOWN] of the future is written in the imagination shared through pop culture. Now, There's usually plenty of revisions and plenty of drafts of that vision of the future before it becomes reality. I mean that's why we used a rocket taller than a 30 story building to get to the moon and not a hot air balloon. But, today it's starting to seem like science and technology really is catching up with science fiction and our fictional superheroes. Jurassic Park. There's people hoping to bring back the wooly mammoth in just a few years. The sequel to Blade Runner is coming out just as we approach the year when the original movie was set. And the tech to create genetically engineered replicants is actually already here. I mean, even the superhero stuff. I mean, people make DIY versions of pretty much everything Batman had, all of this schwag, every other day. And DARPA's got some of the Spider-Man abilities nearly dialed in. And I mean, that's only what we know about. So anyway, I'm gonna stop rambling. And we'll bring in the rest of the panel. How about we start with Caitlin? You put out a preview of the top Superhero movies are coming up in 2017 for seen us. So, which of this franchise are you accept about this year? And you think your high expectations with the technology we have today. Do we expect our superhero to be that much more super that they were in the past? I mean, I don't I think we expect our superhero to be different. That's for sure. The. Some of the movies that are coming out this year include Wonder Woman, Justice League, The Lego Movie. I kinda threw that one in there cause it's about Batman. [LAUGH]. I'm excited about that. That's actually probably more realistic how superheroes would be as far as their dialogue, right? [LAUGH] Right, I think it's pretty funny. Thor is coming out later this year, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume two, obviously excited, and Spiderman, which I think kind of you know, as we have gotten our first look at his suit, we've already seen that it's more. Tech space. Well thanks to Stark. Right, right. I mean it didn't start that way, it started as a onsey with some goggles. Totally. I think the evolution of his suit is one of those like, look, this is moving forward in a realistic manner. I watched Avengers Civic War like 80 times because it's on Netflix right now and I've run out of things to watch on Netflix. Flicks. And when they first show his suit, when Stark invades his Queens apartment, it's pretty crap. I mean it looks like something you'd buy at Hot Topic, with some goggles. There's nothing high-tech about it. Yeah, it's definitely evolved since, yeah. It's his powers that make him a superhero, not his suit. And that's something that Iron Man probably doesn't quite understand, because it's His suit that makes him Ironman, not a mutant power. So, when they first meet in the civil war, his like, I can't believe him one thing. And he needs an upgrade. Which is the interesting thing that I wanted to ask you about because I think superheroes in real life? Now, it's gonna be more of the Batman Tony Stark, cuz it is the tech that makes them superheroes. Obviously, we haven't got to mutant powers yet. Right, but then we also, they coexisting with Thor. Yeah. And the badassery of Wonder Woman, I mean Black Widow and Wonder Woman who's also Debby Garden. So it's like. Yeah. But Black Widow doesn't have mutant powers right. She [INAUDIBLE] No, she's just a bad ****. Yeah. Yes, she's really get a fighting. Awesome. So I think it's one of those, we are kind of getting away from mutants in the MCU. But I mean, that's mostly because X-men. Right? We had a whole another franchise for that cool stuff. Legions is coming out. Yeah. I'm really excited to watch that. It's getting pretty good reviews. It is interesting though, cuz when you read a lot of, if you're still on Twitter, if you've been able to deal with social media- She's still on Twitter. [LAUGH] Traitor. I have a lot of friends that are like hey, you work for CNET. Can you send me that article on how to delete myself from social media? A lot of people Like they can't handle the stress of their family and friends and acquaintances. Just constantly being political all over the place. It's really hard. And people are like starting to be like worn out from just all of this. But it doesn't matter what side you're on. Or if you're not on any side, it's really exhausting, and so a lot of my friends are doing that, and they're like I can't handle it anymore, and the funny thing is on social media I'm seeing more and more people be like, okay, how you know can we learn how to hack, can we learn how to do. Use these powers for good not evil. Self-defense, like the self-defense courses, are been crazy in San Francisco with enrollment. Cause I tried to enroll on one end, they like [UNKNOWN] And its very instinct, that now, all of the sudden like the doomsday preparation seems so crazy. Right. But I think, I mean a connect even though we're talking about, is that like we're all trying to find a way. To use our brains to make things better, as we see them. And to look after the little guy, which is superhero 101. And in that respect, exactly. It's exactly trying to emulate those Heroes that we've either grown up with, or always loved. And it's about finding that middle ground. And for most people nowadays, that involves technology. And that involves, what can I hack, what can I build, what can I come up with, to make myself feel better? To make the future better, for me and my family? And online privacy is a big deal now, to a lot more people, than it was I don't know, last year. [LAUGH] It's true. So you're saying that the next superheroes are gonna be the hackers of the world? Well, here's the problem with that is they're also the Hydras of the world, right. It's good and bad, yin and yang in everything. I mean hackers are humans, there's good ones and there's bad ones. Just like superheroes. People that maybe think that they have a lot of power, that can go to their head. So you have to be careful. The vigilantes think they're doing the right thing, but a lot of times too they might not. You know they might end up hurting someone who's undercover or hurting someone that they just only got part of the conversation, or who knows. So I think a lot of this had to do with being smart and like just don't flap to handle just because Batman did. [LAUGH] I don't know, we're getting off topic, but I do think that the superheroes stuff. It will be interesting how that changes cause Sci-Fi specially is very good at reflecting the times That it's made. Star Trek's a great example of that, especially the TV show, the original TV show with Shatner. So, it'll be interesting to see how SyFy changes. Did we just lose Eric? We just lost Eric. Go head. Keep going. Keep going. Aw. [LAUGH] But I I'm curious to see how that happens. If it does, maybe it won't happen. But I mean- Especially with the new Star Trek coming, let's see what happens [UNKNOWN] see how. Yeah, I mean, obviously, Star Wars threw some stuff in there- [LAUGH] [UNKNOWN] Rogue One but I'm not Sure what's going to happen with Star Wars eight. If they're going to continue that. Yeah. They just started production on- Well, I know they- The new Han Solo film. The new Han Solo film has just started production on cuz didn't you write a story about that? No, Amanda did. Okay. But yeah. Han first shot. Yeah. It was a good tweet. Yeah, it was great. [LAUGH] But yeah, it'll be Interesting to see how sci-fi reflects. Cuz I mean [UNKNOWN] production way ahead of time. Even if we look forward to, for example, the Captain Marvel movie [UNKNOWN] there's still writing the script for it. And there's still crafting that cast in that story. It'll be interesting to see how that reflects or how it becomes Oddly reflective or maybe predicts. [CROSSTALK] You know what [UNKNOWN] predicts the future? There's some stuff that was predictive in Persons of Interest, in Leverage, so and these shows are gone. On now which is sad because I think they would be great. Well I feel like there are smart people who can see the future. Like they're trying to warn us maybe. [LAUGH] It'll be interesting to see if there's more shows kind of like that. Where it's like either using technology or not trusting technology as being the main back story for some of these TV shows. That's the argument right now. Like we said, there's things like WikiLeaks who do these You know, important info dumps. But then, what's their agenda? Or what's their goal? Or what's their end game? And so it's finding that balance. And I think that Especially as it relates to our sci-fi and super hero films. Even in the Dark Knight series, you saw that kind of okay we have all this tech, but like it's super dangerous you guys. Beware what's gonna happen. That was the whole point of person of interest. Was that the AI took over and that the battling AI will be just in the cross of crosshair. And we were the tools of the AI, Artificial Intelligence. Hey I mean AI just won that poker so. I know. [LAUGH] I kinda wish they would do the poker challenge just like the celestial celebrity poker show and just have an AI [UNKNOWN] I can see that not being far off. I know, I kinda wanna watch that. It's creepy. I hope [UNKNOWN] plays poker in a while. I feel like we totally got way off-track. [LAUGH] And it didn't help that we've lost Eric, but he wasn't here to get us on track. I think he's restarting his computer right now. [LAUGH] That's okay. But I could get us back on track [CROSSTALK] Yeah, go for it. Okay, cool. [LAUGH] So we're talking about comic books and technology merging in real life. And one thing that I found last year actually was the hoverboard, Flyboard Air. So, let me just queue this up real quick. Whoa. This is a Green Goblin basically, right? So, the Flyboard Air was made by this company in France called They're called Zapata Racing, and they created this thing. Like, guy literally stands on it like a skateboard. Let me skip the ad here real quick. So here it is. This is the green goblin right here, right? Yeah. He is flying on this device. It's a jetpack hoverboard. How does he balance? [UNKNOWN] pretty well from- [LAUGH] He's pretty good at balancing. He has a throttle in his hand that controls the speed. And then I think he just kinda balances around. It looks like there's four jet packs underneath. Is [UNKNOWN] that sucks up the water and uses it or is it- This is the free flying one, this is the one with water. The water one was the first model that's created, and it It definitely led to this thing. So I also have another video just to- I've gotta say, give them all out free, to everybody. I know, right? Cuz that would solve our overpopulation problem. It would solve a lot of problems. Cuz I would clearly die on that, during takeoff. Yeah. There's no way I have that good of balance. [LAUGH] I showed this to my son actually, the hoverboard thing, and his The immediate reaction was like that's the Green Goblin. [LAUGH] And there's the Green Goblin lying around in the same exact [CROSSTALK] Yeah, but we know how that ended. [LAUGH] So this is the beginning of- It's cool, Spider-Man is coming soon [UNKNOWN] Yeah, you could call it the beginning of super villains taking over. I like how Spider-Man gets younger and younger and younger. [CROSSTALK] here he comes. [CROSSTALK] he should be. Now, this is how you could use the Flyboard for evil. Boom! Right? Aw, poor Toby. So that's one example that I had, of- He became a poker champion after that. Wait. Eric's calling me now. True. Hey Eric, we're still back in the show. Sorry bro. [LAUGH] Serious, he's back. We're talking about hoverboards now. Yeah, so we're talking about the Flyboard Air. We got Eric back. Yay. He rebooted his computer. Nope, he's frozen, he's frozen. No. It's like the AI hates you Eric. Windows fail. Yeah, Windows fail, there he is. Okay. Okay cool. Sort of? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Maybe, maybe. I think he, he must be on wi-fi or something. Yeah, careful. Technology, am I right? Yeah, totally. Keep talking, I'm here. Aah! That'll work, okay, we're gonna let your connection buffer a little bit. [LAUGH] So the second thing- We'll talk slower. That was the first thing I found, was the Flyboard Air, Green Goblin, right? That's reality now. And that actually broke a Guinness Book of World Records for- Are those available for purchase yet? No, but they probably will be to millionaires or whatever. Yeah, the FCC Is it SEC, no, who is in charge of our airways? The F? FAA. FAA yeah. FAA, it's one of the Fs. Something. [UNKNOWN] really. Trump Air. Yeah, Trump Air. It's an F for now. Second thing I wanted to show was Iron Man has this AI in his lair, whatever you wanna call it, his house, called Jarvis. And it has these robots that dress him, put on his Iron Man suit, and build things for him. So a coffee shop in San Francisco just opened, and they have exactly those robots Like what Jarvis is, right? [LAUGH] What? So this is a coffee shop in San Francisco that just opened this week. This story just got published this week. I think it got opened this week. Yeah. Do they sound like Paul Bettany, when you order coffee? I don't know. Cuz I would go there, just to listen to a robot that sounds like Paul Bettany. I haven't been there. But I would love to go try it. I don't drink coffee but maybe they'll serve me something else. What? They probably have chai or something. How do you get through a day if you don't? There's two of us now. I survive, I survive. There's probably tea, look at that. So anyway, I'm gonna fast forward. So these robot arms are serving coffee. Just like they were addressed Ironman. [LAUGH] And I have another video. Yes. They really should do first the same Hopefully, they don't get mixed up. They really should put a fake mustaches and man bun on this thing. I'm just saying. Hang on, there's an ad on this video here. There's an ad on every video. I know, I know. But this is JARVIS. This is the Iron Man's computers here. And they're the same thing. This one actually is a [UNKNOWN] I'm donating you to [UNKNOWN] The fire hydrant, right? I hate to ruin your dreams, but you do know a lot of that is ILM right? I know, I know. But just the concept, the idea of it, right, that's what we're talking about. I mean they try to do- What do you mean it's not real? It's not real? What? It's real to me damn it. [UNKNOWN] He didn't really fly right there? It's Industrial Light and Magic, not Industrial Light and Real Life. Yeah, yeah, totally. Well yeah cuz I wouldn't- I mean And work with the letters. Magic. Yeah. [LAUGH] Something at a certain point indistinguishable. Yeah. [LAUGH] Yeah. I mean- So basically those are two- Yeah. I see that you cut the clip off before you saw him wreck himself and, [CROSSTALK] Every new technology has it's dangers. Yeah. Yeah. It's about finding those limitations and then improving them. I would say- [LAUGH] for anyone watching at home, do not pull a Stark and do new technology experiments on yourself. I'm me. Yeah no idea. Get somebody who annoyed the crap out of you. [LAUGH] Just in case. Yeah that's would younger brothers are for. Yeah. So can you guys hear me? Yeah. We hear you. So guys, can I tell you guys one potential story I'm looking into and this isn't, may or may not happen depending Apparently on the price of jet fuel. But I got an email about attending a practice of a jet-pack racing team. [LAUGH]. So this is apparently a- Sweet. Thing that's happening now. [LAUGH] And there's a couple of companies in different countries that are. Actually working on jetpacks, and every now and then there's a viral video on YouTube, every other week it seems, of some dudes. I think we've got some there, in the rundown actually Steven, of either dudes on jetpacks going around the towers in Dubai. Or there was one with them flying sound by side with a jumbo jet. So I mean, I remember in the 90s when the Rocketeer came out. And that of course was a version of an earlier graphic novel from decades before that. That's not far off from Iron Man. And that's something that we're actually doing. Maybe not doing very well, or on a A mass scale yet where anyone can do it, but Iron Man is not on the mass scale either, in his universe. True, true. Yeah. I remember one of the Star Wars conventions I was at. They had somebody in a jet pack that was probably Always the only person that was legally allowed to do it in US airspace, that was dressed like Boba Fett. And, he did the whole jet pack thing. But, it was so loud. It was either in LA or Orlando I'm not sure which. I think it was LA. But it set off all the car alarms and all the, I mean it was so deafeningly loud. So if you're gonna do a jet pack, like a superhero, you're gonna have to work on the acoustics. Or else you're gonna, everyone's gonna know you're coming. Yeah. So it kind of defeats the whole purpose. Lose the whole, yeah. I wonder if it would be kind of NASCAR loud. If they're gonna do jetpack racing you're gonna have to like Keep that in mind. Yeah that's true. And also how did this people survive all this like there's got to be a few jet pack incidences were we ->>You were there right. Yeah. Like if this ever become like regular thing that. That I'm just thinking about the YouTube videos that we're gonna see- Well I'm just thinking of all the kids- Go like, hold my beer, and then, you know. All the Millenials in my neighborhood that have exploding hoverboards. [LAUGH] Yeah. I would not trust them with jet packs. Like, there would be so many caught in trees. [LAUGH] So Charlie Brown's type style. Clotheslining themselves on power lines. Clotheslining, yeah, powerlining and ****. I just, I don't know how I became motherly all of a sudden, but I worry about these kids. Eh, survival of the fittest. These kids Wylie Coyote-ing themselves into the sides of buildings. Exactly, exactly. Which I'm not saying is necessarily a bad thing. Hey, you're gonna make poor decisions you're gonna reap the consequences. Yeah, why shouldn't we be entertained by their misfortune? These are the jetpack Eric was talking about. My They're like basically strapping a wing with a jet engine to your back. But, you get it when you. Is this a red bull thing? [INAUDIBLE] When you ride one of these Jetpacks and you're getting ready to go flying, you have to put on your helmet like this guy. It's very important. It's part of the whole process. We'll that's not really gonna help you if you're up too high and fall. I mean in slow-mo. This is how you put your helmet on, like that. That's how you do it. Very important. [LAUGH] That's a very deal with it kind of- But they've gotta be careful, cuz if they go up too high, they could freeze, and not see anything. But isn't that why he has the helmet on, it's cuz the oxygen- It doesn't matter. Hang gliders that go up too high, or people that go up too high, the helmet's not gonna help you. That's like wearing a helmet and jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. No, I don't mean for saving your life. I mean for saving your head. For being able the breathe in a thin air. I don't know cuz that's- They're wearing oxygen. They have oxygen. Yeah. So that's in his helmet. Well, let's get start- That's different. Yeah. The helmet is here to protect you from falling from that height. It's just So you can breathe when you're at that [UNKNOWN] Got it, got it. [LAUGH] I would imagine those things are pretty loud. So that like you said he doesn't pass out. Yeah. Yeah. By the way, if that jet pack team actually happens, that's in LA. So if it's as loud as we think it's gonna be heard by quite a lot of people. I'll be interested to see how they do that if that If that happens. So one thing Bonnie mentioned earlier, and hopefully you guys didn't get to this while I was in Microsoft-enforced purgatory. [LAUGH] Okay, you mentioned we've kinda moved on from mutants to the more technological superpowers, right? But And I agree cuz that was the trope forever. It's like well how do we explain that these characters have these powers? I don't know, they were mutated, radiation, whatever. And that's obviously an offshoot of the nuclear age that a lot of these scenes came out of. Like you were saying earlier, they reflect the times. But so we got Bladerunner 2049 coming out right? And the original Blade Runner show, movie was set in like 2018. And so we're almost at that point. And we do have things like CRISPR/Cas9 and other genetic engineering. I mean technology to actually grant mutant powers is within the realm of scientific possibility right now. And so I wonder if as that begins to come online and we see more of that if that's going to affect science fiction and how these super powers are reflected. Because the means of that, we don't have to kind of just make up a story about being mutant anymore. The means are actually there now. To be a mutant or to be a replicant you mean? Well, replicants were genetically engineered- Right. Right? And- Cuz I don't think we're that advanced yet. I mean, we have looked a bit of bits and pieces. I think there's a new article that we did see about synthetic skin were it's heat sensitive now. And it should be able to be more and more consistent with being able to feel And having senses and obviously prosthetics are getting more and more advanced, and we have a lot of technology there that's interesting but then you write up, you do a google search on realistic robots and you end up with a lot of Japanese creepy and canny sex bots. [LAUGH] Which are exactly where it is and I believe later on it was set on nineteen or rather 2019. So. I'm pretty sure that's where were it's gonna go first, the sexbot and then- Here's the thing, robots follow the same way that the internet fell, it's basically military and porno. They get all the tech first when it comes to that. And then the mainstream gets it once it's been tested thoroughly by really rich guys and the military. The military, I don't think, needs any sex bots. Well, they might. But that was the whole point of Blade Runner is the sex bots that were sent to the off-world colonies were spared to entertain the other replicants that were there to do work and do military ops. So there weren't supposed to be any humans up there yet. So it'll be very interesting. We haven't gotten that far. I mean, there's nothing Unless you're really into, unless you really think Mars Rover sexy. And I'm not gonna sugar in you that. I don't judge, I don't judge robot sexuality. But I don't think we're quite there yet. As far as mutant power is so, who knows what's being really cooked up at the CBC. Who knows what people are doing to themselves especially with healthcare and question marks, people may start doing more Self-care which kids end up either being completely pointless home on your part stuff. Or really dangerous cocktails that they think they know what they're doing but they don't. Ones end up killing people. Or, yeah. Or involving humans. Yeah, I wouldn't recommend mixing your meds. This is someone who accidentally took Advil PM this morning. So, You now have the power being able to fall through. I have the power to drone on. But yeah. It's like narcolepsy. I mean, I don't know. But have you guys have done some articles and some research on medical Advances->> Also->> Speaking as a mutant. [LAUGH] Well, yeah, what I'm talking about is like [UNKNOWN] is this thing that I wouldn't be shocked if it wins the Nobel Prize this year is the ability to actually go in and edit Genes. So it actually edit your genetics. And so it's not, I mean, in essence we're talking about mutations. The only thing is their edited rather than mutated via radiation. So like the tool to give the biological human body abilities that it wouldn't have normally, like extra resistance to cold or heat or something. I mean we're not gonna be shooting lasers out of our eyes any time soon. What? I will. Well I mean, Jeff is working on it at home in the garage. Great. [LAUGH] Give me something. Right, the building blocks are close. And what the replicants are, that's actually not far away from what we're just beginning to be able to do now. Okay, well since we're showing the Voight-Kampff test, Are we showing that or no? No, she's in Decker's apartment. Yeah that's [INAUDIBLE] So if you see Blade Runner and you see Decker giving Rachel the Voight-Kampff test which is the test where it's determined whether you're human or you're a replicant. And it's an eye test, basically, it looks at your iris of your eye and How it, enlarges or, or the pupil, I'm sorry, enlarges or dilates or whatever during questioning. I went to an FBI lecture last week, with the guy Woo! Yeah, the guy who does, one of my friends has got an FBI connection, so I got to go to this lecture. It was about polygraphs. And it was the head guy that gives all the polygraphs. Not only to suspects, but to FBI employees. Cuz if you're an FBI employee you have to have your polygraph every five years. Or is it every? It might be every year actually. Anyway, I was telling him about this contest, and he was the one polygraph guy who's never seen Blade Runner, which is shocking. [LAUGH] I hope he will now. But I was like you know, what's the new technology that's coming out for polygraphs? Because as you know, polygraphs are inadmissible in court still in most states. But a lot of people still use them, in the FBI, CIA, and so forth, just to vet- Investigative tool. Well yes, an investigative tool. Yeah. And he said, well actually. Actually, you described [UNKNOWN] contest but actually more and more i-technology is happening. They don't use a old school analog polygraph anymore. They use software, they use computer stuff. And they use retina scan stuff. And so I was like, my God the retina scan thing is very similar to [UNKNOWN] and It's interesting, I mean because Blade Runner is futuristic and yet it's got into our 40 thing. They've got flying cars but yet they still have bicycles. You know, it's futuristic in a way but it's futuristic burnt out because all the smart people have left to off world colonies and everybody's like. Yeah a future dystopia. A future dystopia. Yeah. So anyway, that was my interesting real world take on Blade Runner was polygraph machines are getting more and more advanced. Well yeah, I mean I think if you look at too, the eye tracking technology of VR, that's what it's now being adapted to most likely. If you consider that the- And AR with all these Snapchat stuff, it's looking at your eyes and your nose and stuff. It's mapping everyone's face and saving that data somewhere. You know what's remarkable, is all the fast food articles we've been doing on CNET lately, of you breathe into a Doritos bag and it tells you whether you're too drunk to drive. [LAUGH] Have you tried that? It's pretty hilarious. Is it? [INAUDIBLE] I want you to know. Is that published yet? I don't know. But we did a great video. Yeah. And it's hilarious. I think Amanda tested it out, one of our writers and she, [LAUGH]. It's fun. It's fun, but then you've got I think KFC has a new, it's either a menu or something where you can tell what you're hungry for based on your retinas. Scan or something? See, that's crazy cuz I can't even tell what I'm hungry for. How does fast food have this tech before everybody else? That's the crazy thing to me. Because marketing money. Don't forget when we were kids, KFC also had the spork. So this is not a new thing. They've always been on the [UNKNOWN] My God I like that the promo image on that is my face. The best part about this Is a drunk Caitlin. [LAUGH] Yeah, that's true. [LAUGH] Her hair. Let's see, with our control, she's gonna [INAUDIBLE]. Is it gonna [INAUDIBLE]? Yes! Yes! Drunk Caitlin. [LAUGH] Uh-oh. So it actually works? I mean, does it seem accurate? I mean, yes and no. So it's just like any breathalyzer. When you Take a breathalyzer test, you're actually supposed to wait 15 minutes before you breathe into. And a half hour before you go swimming. 15 minutes after drinking, eating, anything really, before you use the breathalyzer, to get an actual Mine, so what we did is I took a sip and tried it just to see, and that's when it tells you you're drunk or that you're at a 0.07, or something like that. That's the legal limit, right? So now I just need a Doritos bag to tell me whom not To date. [LAUGH] Right, right. We need like a drunk goggles Tostito bag, so you're like, no, no, no. Right, right. And then, you have to wait an hour before you get in that jet pack, if you're drunk [INAUDIBLE] [LAUGH] [LAUGH] Don't jet pack drunk. It just think it's- To blow into the Tostitos bag for the jet pack to start. Don't drink and jet? It's amazing they have a Tostitos bag that can tell you if you're drunk, but for some reason they just can't bring back nacho cheese Tostitos. [LAUGH] Well yeah. Baby steps. Well, we have Crystal Pepsi. We have Crystal Pepsi again. This is true, and I have a whole bunch of Ecto-Cooler in my fridge. I just can't wait until lawyers subpoena a Doritos bag. [LAUGH] Was your client drunk when he blew into you? [LAUGH] See, the difference though is that the Tostitos one doesn't tell you what your limit is. It just says, it gives you like a red circle that says, "Don't drive. Here's a code to use Uber." Right. And the, when you compare it to like a hand-held breathalyzer, it'll still tell you, "Okay, here's exactly where you're at." And you should be totally and completely at zero within this amount of time or don't try to [CROSSTALK] So the bag is more of being your friend. It's like dude, just no. Yeah. You need [INAUDIBLE] rather than being scientific. Yeah, it's like no, give me the keys. Well, for some of us to see his bag is always our friend. Some of us it's our only friend. But I will say that. People who are belligerent drunk drivers are probably not gonna listen to a Tostitos bag if they're not going to listen to their best friends, but. Well, but if you're listening to both. [LAUGH] I know. So, okay. It's not just me, it's me and this bag of chips. Some people don't want to listen to their friends. They probably trust a Tostitos bag more. That's true. I mean I would trust them more. I know my kids don't listen to me. They would, I'm sure my kids would. I can't wait until I get my news from a Cheetos bag. [LAUGH] We're working on it. I'm sure Buzzfeed is working on that as we speak. [LAUGH] So should we talk about huge robots? Yes, MegaBots. The answer is yes, always. I've been following MegaBots like I'm stalking them. And this is the company that is building the giant robot. I don't know if I put it in the Google Doc, I'm sorry Steven. Yeah, you've got it. I'm staring at the They're building a giant robot to fight the Japanese team that has a giant robot. And eventually, both giant robots are gonna fight each other. But in the meantime, MegaBots has been putting some really great videos out on YouTube. They're supposed to be putting out a different video each week, testing the durability of their Robot doing some fun stuff. They did a collab with Simone Gert too. Is it Gertzman, I should know, she's a friend of mine. I only know her by her first name. She's the one that does the crappy robots. Yeah. And so they did a giant, they basically suited up their giant robot with giant knives to chop vegetables. [LAUGH] And ovens. And a grand piano. So that's the most recent article I did on CNET about megabots is that megabot actually destroying a grand piano like art of noise style. With a giant knife. [UNKNOWN] that. But in the meantime they are testing the durability and the maneuverability. Because as much as we would like to have giant robots like Transformers Fight each other. They're very hard to maneuver from within. A lot of them are remote controlled. But to be in the actual robot itself, fighting kind of like Sigourney Weaver in the lift in, is it Aliens? Yeah. Yeah. That's one thing but being in something that's even larger. I mean we're talking robots that are semi-truck or transformer-size basically, fighting each other. And you don't want to have the human inside, the pilot, if you will, die. that are being crushed to death. That sounds bad. That sounds bad. So they have to do all these tests on YouTube for durability, to maneuverability, all that. But here's the chopping one that they did with Simone. There's Simone! And she's the one that makes the crappy robots that don't really do anything but they're hilarious. Seen in one of her YouTube videos that went super viral. So we built a mega size version of the same chopping machine and we're going to surprise her with it today. It's kinda cute. She get really excited. It's [UNKNOWN] or something. Is this the [UNKNOWN] or is this that robot? My god! No this is different. No DS was a really big huge one. I don't think they were DS, because they can't move it. [LAUGH] They can't move this robot. This one? Yeah, it's not like a robot that you can ship. [LAUGH] It would probably cost them their entire budget to ship that thing to CES. So. It's a very slow chopper. It is but. [LAUGH] When they get to the bigger things like ovens. We're [UNKNOWN] the oven- Yeah, it's much more impressive. We turn this oven on for us. I'm going down [UNKNOWN]. God. Aah! Wow. Yeah, right? That's how powerful it is. Aah! Cool. Imagine what that would do toa human Wow. Humans are no match You can still cut a tomato with it. Yeah. They destroyed a tiki bar which is very weird. Because that's not something you often see- It actually gets slow destroying tiki bar. Is a tiki bar. It's not a very sturdy tiki bar. It's not [UNKNOWN] of it. That's very cool. Yeah. The piano's the best, cuz I kinda just wish they'd just make a soundtrack of killing a piano. There it is. Oh,my gosh. I feel a little bad for the piano, but. Me, too. AAh! That's hundreds of pounds, too, wow. Yeah, woow! [UNKNOWN] [APPLAUSE] [LAUGH] [UNKNOWN] I mean [UNKNOWN] arts. [UNKNOWN] really do. It's fun to watch just like that, but if you go back and look at their other videos- [UNKNOWN] just to destroy things, is that- Yeah, it's like Youtubers loves to do this thing called collabs where they basically go on each other's shows and do other stuff. A lot of like the, let's blow stuff up people like to bond. Sure, sure, so what I was asking about, that that looked like, it's called the [UNKNOWN] prosthesis. I just sent you the link to it [UNKNOWN]. But it was at [UNKNOWN] and what it is is it's basically, you sit in it The spiderbot. And you, I don't know. It was black earlier. It's not the spider one that was there last year. This exclusive different. No, this what is like you sit inside shaken. How big is it? Huge mention or anything? Yes. So in that piece is a slide show, and it's 14 feet tall. [CROSSTALK] Wow. 16 feet wide, And guess how much it weighs. I can't read that far anyway. [LAUGH] Let's say four tons. 7000 pounds. I don't know what that is, so that's close. Is it close? Okay. [LAUGH] I was just eyeballing it cuz I'm a diet, so I can kinda tell. It's huge. [LAUGH] It's monstrous. It's very cool to think about, what it does is that you basically, You walk, or you sit, or you stand, and it amplifies your movements, using the thing. So it has kind of- It's like a giant exoskeleton. Yeah. So is there a purpose of it, other than it just looks cool? I think that they want it to be a racing series. Okay. So, not something that actually does work like all the derby challenge or what. But, I would say, but I feel like it could do. Yeah. Cool stuff. Cause, I mean, a lot of things that NASA's testing, is how can we make robots or extra suits that help us do our job, right? Yeah. Cause obviously, [LAUGH] the new, I don't know. We probably don't link to that. But the new suits for NASA Yeah. That were completely ripped off from Kubrick. Right. This feels like Or play school. This feels like precursor to Or Lego space camp. Or Lego space camp. This is like a precursor to the robots in Avatar. Military applications abound, but- Well usually the military has the money before the space program. So probably military would be using it, for some sort of. The problem though with military tech, they're trying to go more and more nano, and less Obviously a lot of drone technology, a lot of tech on how can we fight a war without sending in humans. Yeah. Which is the whole purpose of drones, really. But their accuracy and who's controlling it isn't always the best results, as we've seen from any sci-fi that's come out in the last five years and the military movies that have come out in the last five years. Or any military TV shows have come out Have all had, my god, the drone guy messed up, as a plot. [LAUGH] Which has been the plot in a lot of things. But I feel like, with this kind of robotics, it'd be interesting to see what the military do, because they are trying to do more nano-spying surveillance, like obviously the mosquito and bird and bat surveillance robots. Wow. I'm showing this video right now, which I saw on YouTube just like earlier this week or whatever. Okay. And it's the Navy swarm boats. So, they have a bunch of drone. Drone swarm boats, so what they gonna do is, if they're attacking an enemy. They'll send out a lot of robotic boats with metal watchers and, you know, machine guns on them And all these boats will just swarm or something. Here's one of them right here. Poor whale.. Right here. I feel bad for the dolphin. [LAUGH] RIght. He's like what are humans doing now. So anyway like a big, imagine a bunch of these robot boats coming and just attacking you. And they can get blown up whatever. Yeah. The Navy doesn't really care, They're kind of expendable Are they remote control? Yeah, they're all autonomous. So they're hackable. They're drones, they're hackable. They're hackable. Yes, but the idea is that, like you guys were saying, they don't want to put any people in danger. Like look at how many guys are manning that boat right there. If you have all these drone boats, they're just gonna fly out, come out and attack. And we've got drone planes. This is a hacker's dream. So, we're heading very fast towards terminator. When does this episode of Baywatch air? Hey, good joke, but that movie looks hilarious. I, I would love to see Zac Efron be That movie looks That's great. Zac Efron being surrounded by drone boats and having The Rock have to save him. That's a plot right there. That's also kind of like- That's the sequel? That's the sequel. Drone Boat. That's also kinda like The Matrix with the evil robots. Yeah, yeah. What are they called? I forget what they're called. I don't know. Someone in the chat room will know. You know. Well you're kind of circling around the point that I actually kind of wanted to wrap up on, which it seems to me, everything you're talking about is kind of what is the most realistic and the most present kind of superpower, and also the most scariest, which is basically Skynet and the fact that That, I think more than anything that we've talked about, whether it's genetic engineering or huge robots, or jet-packs. This idea of a global network that could be used for good or for nefarious sense is something that's already upon us. And we're already dealing with the security concerns, and the hacking concerns. And then There's this other component that is right around the corner, which is the advancement of artificial intelligence, and that merging into all these systems we're talking about, and then there's singularity and all these other things and it's like That almost makes everything else we've talked about today moot. You know what I mean? Totally. Like if that comes to pass, and if AI is as scary as some people think it could be, then it's like nothing else matters. It's like real life persons of interest. Persons of Interest is a great TV series that doesn't, Person of Interest is a great TV series that doesn't exist anymore. It got canceled, but it's one of those shows that talks about, okay, there's an AI system that basically goes rogue and it uses humans as a tool, but it uses anything that's been networked and anything online it uses. It uses all the cities, wherever the city is, wherever the country is. All their webcams in order to find people, and facial recognition, and everything that's medical, or anything that's personal, or anything that is in the court system, it's all connected. And that's an interesting concept with AI. It can't happen yet, because anyone who's ever been at the DMV knows that their computer system is like 20 years old, or older. So there's no Green screen. Yeah, there's a lot of tech that needs to catch up in order for AI to connect it all together and use it, but in Person of Interest, they also have another AI machine called Samaritan, which is basically this computer system that wants to take over the world and The humans that are controlling it for the time being think that they're controlling it. But obviously that's only a matter of time before an AI says I don't need any humans. And that's the problem, right? Is that we're all worried that AI is gonna get so advanced. It's like robots building robots or- I'm in, I'm on board. At this point it can't be worse than anything else, so let them in. That's been said in so many movies. [LAUGH] [CROSSTALK] [CROSSTALK] worse, and then it gets worse. Yeah, but we'll see- Sorry not sorry. We'll see how AI happens. Actually, this is a not sorry-not sorry situation. Yeah, you're just saying that, cuz [UNKNOWN] that's [UNKNOWN] [LAUGH] Maybe [UNKNOWN] right? But yeah, I agree with you, Eric. I think it'll be interesting and see how far AI advances. to the point where, you know, we should be scared. I don't think we need to be scared yet. It's already winning all the games we thought it could never beat humans at. Like we're so great. Let's see charades. Let's just see it play charades. Please. Give me one of those Japanese sex robots. She is on it. I saw a robot hit a hole-in-one playing golf. Yeah, well that was bound to happen. Do you guys want to see the moment Skynet takes over real quick. Yeah, is it right now? [UNKNOWN] Mind games. [UNKNOWN] right here. Hang on a second. Half our satellites are scrambled beyond recognition. What about the missile silos, the subs? [BLANK_AUDIO] We've lost contact. [LAUGH] [LAUGH] Dear God, you're saying this country is completely open to attack. Theoretically we could be under attack already. Who's doing this? A foreign power or some computer hacker in his garage. We can't trace the virus, we can't pin it down. It's like nothing we've ever seen before, it keeps growing and changing, like it has a mind of its own. This can't be happening. Sir, Pentagon's on the secure line, the chairman. [BLANK_AUDIO] Line. [LAUGH] [INAUDIBLE] That's it, that's the end of the world. Honestly, I would have loved it if that girl in the colored shirt said what you just said, was "Eh, I'm cool with it. Eh. I'm okay." "It can't be worse than we had." "Can't be worse, it's fine." I mean, [LAUGH] I do want to say something really quick though, I did an article a couple of weeks ago about the CIA declassified articles that. [CROSSTALK] Yeah. A lot of them had to do that were very stranger things ask, especially all their declassified documents about remote viewing. And I just want to roll it out there into the conversation that as much as we're talking bout advanced tech and advanced robotics and medicine, it's very interesting to see if we might back track a little into that realm that was called worm realm of trying different things with our own minds that we've got now to see if we can. Do stuff, but I don't know. When I saw remote viewing in Stranger Things, and the whole MK Ultra stuff, I was like, my God. That's so cool that they're covering that. [LAUGH] And then the CIA kind of was like, we did that. But of course, all the documents- Well, now that everybody thought it was cool. No, we did that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, don't do it. It's kind of like, what is it? The Men Who Stare at Goats? It's called the Stargate Project, which is funny, cuz it has nothing to do with actual Stargate, which would've been so much better. But it was a bunch of projects that were lumped into Stargate. By the time the CIA got a hold of it, they were the ones that were supposed to decide whether money went to it. And they closed it down, because of course they couldn't actually do remote viewing, or they couldn't do a lot of things that they said they could. But the slip that the soldiers, cuz all military experimentation before it got to CIA. The slip, the consent slip that you had to sign, the form that you had to sign, was so great cuz it was like, basically in a nutshell it was saying [UNKNOWN] All these things you consent to do, but if something goes really, really wrong, you can't blame us. You're chill. Yeah. [LAUGH] You're okay with that. Right? And it was just like, what do you mean really, really wrong? If this doesn't work, what exactly are you doing? I mean, you might just die. Like, it's It's fine. It's a consent form actually. Yeah. You link to it in the story if you wanna read it. Yeah, I link to it in the story. And I read all the documents. There's a ton of documents on the Stargate program. And if you look up Stargate on Wikipedia it gives you all the other names, all the other code names it had before it got to Stargate. And it's interesting to look those up in the electronic reading room in the CIA thing. I will say it won't tell you how they experimented. It just says that they did experiment. [LAUGH] So, any DIYers out that are like. I can find out how to- I can do that. I can hack that together. The CIA doesn't have an Instructables section. [LAUGH] [LAUGH] So. What if it did? What if it did. I know. If there's only a maker section at CIA but they do have a kid's page which is hilarious. [LAUGH] What? Yeah. If you on the kid's page on CIA, there's word find something- Okay. I saw this episode of Alias we're definitely testing children. Yeah, it could be. I heard. The kid's zone is the center of the CIA page. They could be testing your skills to see if you can solve puzzle. The dude creeping in the sewer? Yeah. You know what? A lot of government agencies that seems really sketchy or kind of if you're conspiracy [UNKNOWN]. They all have kid sections. And it's just hilarious if you go through each and everyone of them. The FBI kid section is pretty hilarious too. So anyway. That looks like a bad version of Carmen San Diego. Yeah. Yeah, it really does. It looks like evil Carmen San Diego. [LAUGH] So I didn't mean to backtrack too much because that is lo-fi surveillance, that is lo-fi tech, that is lo-fi but. But when we think about farsighted, we kinda have to also look at where we've come cuz maybe we'll go back into that and try to discover more about our brains. And not just about tech and. and that sort of thing. The FBI Kids seems way less interactive. It does. Cool. Yeah, it was also cool with the FBI. You were Carmen San Diego references. Yeah. More mist-looking. There's kind of a group kind of thing happening here. Yeah. Yeah. I swear I saw Carmen San Diego on my way up to the office the other day. I'm not kidding, the hat, the red coat. I It could have been agent, it could have been Agent Carter. I'm just saying. Anyway. Okay, let's go. I would have totally noticed that, though. Now that we've gone completely off-the-rails, Eric. Well actually we're about out of time, and I've got two guys dressed in black on my porch, so I better go let them in. [LAUGH] So that, that is We'll remember for you. Yeah. That is far-sighted. You guys got anything coming down the pike on CNET that we should be looking for? You wanna **** anything? Well, I mean it's not really tech but I'm writing a story about the kickstarter Apocalypse Now board game. Which is [UNKNOWN] maybe like more our future than tech. But that's, you know, I'm also looking at some more robots. I'm obsessed with Blade Runner so I'm trying to find more articles that kind of connect tech to Blade Runner like we talked about briefly on this show. So maybe look for that for me And then also just fun stuff. I'm trying to keep it lighthearted. I don't wanna just have all the news coming from me be negative or we're all gonna die. So I'm trying to find some fun stuff too. I am also trying to be a merry ray of sunshine. [LAUGH] Like I always am. I mean everybody. It's problematic, because so many people don't trust journalists anymore, because of the fake news propaganda issues on social media. Fake news! So, if we're gonna do that kind of stuff, at least we should do some positive and not just negative. Yeah. So, hey Positive fake news is just as good as negative fake news. But it's not fake, we're all legit here. It's all real here. We're all real here at CNET. So Jeff does have a replicate side to him. Jeff is a hologram, but other than that. [INAUDIBLE] Katline? Katline, Jeff, Steven, anything you're working on? No. All my work is behind the scenes. Working on an [UNKNOWN]. That's about it. I will be airing another podcast right after this, so stay tuned for the next hour. All right. Apple Products. Cool. And I scored an interview in recent weeks that, I'll be writing up. It's with Sasquatch. So I'm not joking. Well see now that explains the beard. That explains the beard now. [LAUGH] Yeah, I'm deep under cover. [LAUGH] So, cool. Well, that is Singularity keep an eye on everything at Cnet.com that we're working on and keep an eye on the sky, watch out for skynet. And we will catch you next time, for Jeff Sparkman, Bonnie Bertram, Caitlin Petrakovitz and Steven Beacham. I'm Eric Max, see you next time. [MUSIC]