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Episode 106: No Mnemonics Detected but at Least We Have Jones — Johnny Mnemonic (1995) with Celeste Pilegard
Join Alex and Celeste Pilegard as they discuss the first of two Keanu Reeves dystopian cyberpunk future films, Johnny Mnemonic (1995). The film was directed by Robert Longo and he quit filmmaking after this one. A film having to do with storing other people’s memories in your head while others suffer from a debilitating disease caused by electronics, while set in 2021… you have to wonder if the author of the short story, William Gibson, was some sort of soothsayer! The pair discusses the interesting memory portrayals and their relation to scientists’ current understanding of memory, as well as the recent introduction of generative AI and its effects of cognition.…
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Episode 087: Flying Fighter Jets Requires Some Task Analysis — Top Gun: Maverick (2022) with Nic Baldwin
Join Alex and returning guest host Nic Baldwin as they chat about the job analysis required to fly fighter planes on a super dangerous mission against an unnamed enemy in Top Gun: Maverick (2022). Tom Cruise returns to the role of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, with a new crop of young Top Gun pilots, including Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, among others, as they figure out how to complete this really hard… nay, “impossible” mission in F-18s against 5th generation fighters (which mat or may not be AI-controlled airplanes). With amazing visual combined with an original story that hits several of the original’s beats, this sequel has a number of psychological, as well as industrial-organizational concepts, including an in-depth conversation on AI-controlled military vehicles and what the future might hold.…
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Episode 052: We Might Love David If He Wasn’t So Creepy — A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) with Jim Davies
Join Alex and guest host Dr. Jim Davies in a discussion of the portrayal of artificial intelligence, consciousness, and love in Steven Spielberg’s Pinocchio-esque film, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)! We explore the idea of artificial intelligence, what it means to be conscious or sentient, and how well the film works on these fundamentally hard-to-define fronts. Though Jim is a cognitive scientist, Alex also asks him about the film’s idea of love and what it means to be loved, which hits at The Velveteen Rabbit‘s ideal of what it means to be real and who is worthy of love! Listen, we think David, who was played so well by Haley Joel Osment, could be loved if he just didn’t act so oddly.…
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Episode 015: Self-Expansion Your Relationship with Your Computer! Her (2013) with Jeff Bowen
Join Alex and guest host Dr. Jeff Bowen in a discussion of the psychological concepts in Her (2013), another tour de force by Joaquin Phoenix (I suppose this show has become to the JP show by now…). We chat about how real a relationship with an OS could be–for me… I love my MacOS!
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Legal stuff:
1. All film clips are used under Section 107 of Title 17 U.S.C.… -
Episode 007: Despite All Her Rage, Ava is Still Just a Rat in a Cage! Ex Machina (2015)
Join Alex in a solo episode as he discusses of the psychological concepts in Alex Garland’s sci-fi headspace thriller Ex Machina (2015), starring Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, and Alicia Vikander in literally the only three main speaking roles. If this is our future, we clearly need to start welcoming our robot overlords.
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Don’t forget to check out our Patreon and/or Paypal links to contribute to this podcast and keep the lights on!…