Episode 23: 6/25/14 The artificiality of life, and when life gets too real

Join Nina, Reno, and producer Mike to explore the many faces of salad, as well as what you might consume if you give up food altogether.  Would you eat a colorless, nearly tasteless sludge in the name of efficiency and sustainability? 

What do you think of AI?  Could it ever be so well done that it fools real humans?  

Reno, Nina, and Mike discuss.  As Eugene Goostman might say, "Oh, what a fruitful conversation ;-)"

Harvard is reasonably sure their university library houses a book that's bound in human skin.  Arse'ne Houssayee's French treatise, "Des destine'es de l'ame" (On the Destiny of the Soul) 

is an example of anthropodermic bibliopegy.  It came to the library in 1934, and the skin was supposedly taken from a woman's back.

Beware the fungus among us--although it's not humungous.  Ophiocordyceps unliateralis is a parasite that lodges itself inside ants' brains, controlling their movements and turning them into tiny zombies.  

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/06/10/320321553/the-salad-frontier-why-astronauts-need-to-grow-lettuce-in-space

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/06/25/325189711/kandinsky-on-a-plate-art-inspired-salad-just-tastes-better?sc=tw

http://robrhinehart.com/?p=298

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Goostman 

http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=1858

http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/artsbeat/2014/06/05/harvard-confirms-book-is-bound-in-human-skin/?_php=true&_type=blogs&smid=nytimesarts&_r=0

http://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/through-the-wormhole/videos/this-fungus-turns-victims-into-the-crawling-dead.htm

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/06/25/325188747/these-bathroom-lights-tell-you-where-its-ok-to-go

*Special edition: Episode 23.5 at the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NglZqExcRQk