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Hey, Wowzer fans, Mindy here.
And before we start the show, I gotta let you know that this November, with a special new episode featuring our friends at Circle Round and Terrestrials on Radiolab for Kids,
And don't miss when Elmo from Sesame Street stops by Wow in the World to make us all belly laugh on November 24th.
Oh, but that's not all, Reg.
On December 1st, we are sharing our 250th episode of Wow in the World with all of you.
We think this one is going to be music to your ears.
Literally.
Did I mention it's a musical?
And if you're a member of the World Organization of Wowzers...
Oh boy, do I have a surprise for you.
You can listen to our 250th episode early with me and other members from around the world on Saturday, November 22nd, at 7 pm.
Eastern.
That's right, we are throwing another listening party.
Join us as we dance along to our new songs.
React to the episode with other members in the chat and more.
Grownups.
If you want your wowzer to join this members-only listening party, you can sign up to become a member today at Tinkercastcom.
Slash wow.
Already a member?
Well, you can find the link and password to join the event when you sign in at Tinkercastcom.
Slash wow.
That's it.
It's going to be a November to remember.
But for now, let's get on with the show.
Woo!
Before we start the show, I've got some exciting announcements to make.
This spring, Wow in the World is getting out in the world.
We've got a few big events that we've been cooking up and we hope that you can come out and join us.
First up, we'll be at the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, D.C.
It's happening April 6th through 8th and grown-ups.
You can go to Tinkercastcom slash events to find out when.
Guy Raz and I will be there in person, including a special World Organization of Wowzers meet and greet happening on Friday April 6th.
You can RSVP for that and find out about more upcoming live performances at Tinkercastcom slash events.
That's it.
Hope to see you out in the world this spring. welcome protocol for the human, Mindy.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you.
Hi, everyone.
Can you hear me?
Oh, perfect.
Is this thing on?
Whoa, whoa.
Hi, Mike.
Okay, great.
Well, it's great to be here at the robo-ho-ho-ho.
How are we all doing tonight?
Okay.
Okay.
All right, tough crowd.
Okay, you bots ready to laugh or, I don't know, process some auditory humor?
Affirmative.
Anticipation sensors running at 12%.
Okay, all right, how about a joke?
Why was the robot angry?
Processing.
Huh?
Punchline unknown.
Because the programmer kept pushing his button.
Sensors detect terrible joke.
Okay, all right.
Well, there's more where that came from.
Why did the robot go back to school?
To collect valuable information.
Because he was a little rusty.
Not by me.
Rust requires lubrication.
You get it?
Please contact your system administrator.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
I got another one.
You're going to like this one.
I promise you.
Okay.
Uh, what do you call a pirate droid?
My mother was a pirate droid.
R2-D2!
Mindy, are you okay?
I could hear you from all the way over at my house.
I'm fine, Guy Raz.
I was just trying out some new robo-humor in my head and...
Needless to say, it was not going well.
Robohumor?
Yeah, you want to see?
I'm okay.
No, really.
Let me just pop the top of my head here.
No, no, Mindy, stop.
You know, it freaks me out when you do that.
Got it open.
Now I'm just going to bend down here so you can take a quick peek from the top.
Okay, let me just see here.
Are those scrambled eggs?
What?
No.
They're poached.
Look what's happening.
Okay, please close it up.
I can't take it anymore.
You were right, Mindy.
Things looked pretty rough in there.
Yeah, I know, right?
Nobody's laughing at my jokes.
I'm getting to work on my timing.
Forget a new audience.
Well, why were you trying out your computational comedy anyway?
Well, I was inspired by these researchers at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
They actually created a robot that can tell jokes.
Wow, well, if that robot comedian is so funny, why don't you tell me one of its jokes?
Okay, but you better hold on to your humorous for this one.
You do know the humorous bone has nothing to do with... Ahem!
Okay, so here's one that the robo-comedian told.
You ready?
How do you stop a baby astronaut from crying?
You rock it!
You get it?
You rock it?
You rock it like a baby?
Yeah, yeah.
Not bad, huh?
Yeah, that wasn't really that funny.
Okay, so maybe the robo-comedian humor bot might not know how to knock jokes out of the park like I can, but it's still like 16 funny.
16% funny?
Mindy, what are you talking about?
How do you put a percentage on fun?
Okay well, so those same scientists at the University of Edinburgh.
They were able to quantify or measure just how funny this robo-comedian humor bot was.
And then they compared it to real live human comedians.
But how were they able to measure the different levels of funny?
Yeah.
So these researchers took 50 jokes, some written by human comedians and some written by the robo-comedian humor bot.
And then they asked people in the audience to judge whether the jokes were funny or not.
And of the human jokes 33, or about one-third of them, were considered funny, whereas the robo-comedian humor bot's jokes were only considered funny about 16 of the time.
So basically, you could say that the robot was about half as funny as a human.
That's pretty interesting, Mindy.
And, you know, a prime example of artificial intelligence.
Yeah, artificial intelligence.
You know, I keep hearing that term everywhere I go, but I don't know exactly what it means.
I mean, is it like fake cheese, but for your brain?
Well, I'm not entirely sure, but as far as I understand Mindy, Artificial intelligence is an area of computer science that tries to make machines smarter.
And in fact, we're surrounded in our everyday lives by examples of artificial intelligence.
Really?
Like what?
Well, let's see.
Oh, here, here, my phone.
Your phone?
Modern day smartphones are packed full of artificial intelligence like...
Aha, see this, Mindy?
This is the last time I used my GPS and it was able to check the traffic in my neighborhood and tell me the fastest way to get to my favorite kombucha bar.
Wait, you have a favorite kombucha bar?
How many do you fit?
Let's see what else we got here.
Oh, okay, this app, Mindy.
This is an app that I use to translate my voice into another language.
Wow in the world.
These two things on my phone are both examples of artificial intelligence.
I don't know, Guy Raz.
My GPS once led me into the middle of a cake at a one-year-old's birthday party, so I don't know if I really trust its intelligence.
Well, this kind of artificial intelligence is known as narrow AI, and that means that it's pretty good at performing one specific task.
Oh, so like translating words or navigating directions.
Exactly.
And what scientists are trying to do is to create an artificial intelligence that's good at performing lots of different tasks.
Just like a human can.
And that sort of artificial intelligence is called general AI or strong AI.
A-I. artificial intelligence.
Okay, but for the meantime I guess we're gonna have to settle with robots that can track our pizzas and beat us at chess.
Beat us at chess?
Oh, yeah.
In fact, Um, follow me, Guy Raz.
I gotta show you something.
This is gonna blow your mind.
Whoa, Mindy.
Come on.
Mindy, where are we going?
To the archives.
Do you have an archive in your gingerbread house?
Uh, gingerbread mansion.
Just added an indoor marshmallow pit.
Oh, right.
Anywho, I have to show you something.
Let me just get the door to my library here.
Whoa.
I've got even more books than the last time I was in here.
Wait, is that an entire shelf of... Mindy, why do you have all my baby photo albums?
Okay, now I just need to remember which book to pull so we can open the secret door.
Secret door?
No, it's not that one.
No, that's not it.
Oh, here it is.
How do you know?
Oh, because it says it right here in the title.
See?
Uh... This book opens the secret door by...
Doctor, pull here.
What?
Go ahead.
Pull the book.
See what happens.
Whoa.
Okay, now where did I put it?
Maybe in this filing cabinet.
There are cats in all my stuff.
Okay, um, Guy Raz, will you hold these cats?
Okay, now let me see here.
What do we have?
Newspaper archives.
Yes.
Okay, let me see here.
Giant mysterious pigeon spotted over Washington.
Nope.
Microbial humanoid life perplexes scientists.
No, it's not that either.
Oh, here it is.
Deep blue crowned world chess champion 1997.
That's it.
Deep blue?
That's an odd name.
Yeah well, if you think that's odd, you might want to consider the fact that this chess grandmaster weighed 12 tons.
1.5 tons?
That's as heavy as a hippopotamus.
Also became a world champion at just four years old.
Four years old?
And is so big that it takes up an entire room in downtown New York City.
Wait a second, Mindy.
Are you talking about a computer?
Winner, winner, chicken dinner.
You know I am, Guy Raz.
Deep Blue is the name of the artificially intelligent robot that world chess champion Gary Kasparov in 1997.
Oh, I remember now, Mindy.
Gary Kasparov originally beat the Deep Blue Robot the year before in 1996.
Yep.
And after that crushing defeat, the scientists from IBM.
You know the company that built Deep Blue.
They went away and came back 15 months later with a smarter sharper, chess-playing mastermind.
Wait.
Check it out, Mindy.
It says here that the rematch lasted more than a week and in the end, Deep Blue emerged the winner, becoming the first artificial intelligence to beat a grandmaster at chess.
Exact Doritos, Guy Raz.
But artificial intelligence, or AI, has been crushing us at all kinds of board games ever since then.
Like which ones?
Well, for one, the game I'm thinking of is over 2014.
500 years old, making it the oldest board game in the world.
Uh-huh.
It's played on a 19 by 19 grid board.
Okay.
And it's played by more than 40 million people across Asia.
Oh, I think I've got it.
You're talking about the ancient Chinese board game Go.
You know it, Kairos.
You know, I remember reading about that in the newspaper.
Here, move over, Mindy.
Not enough room.
Okay, let me see here.
I wish there was some sort of artificial intelligence system that could help search through all this information.
Sorry, what were you saying, Mindy?
Like some sort of a research engine?
I don't know.
No, I... Oh, wait.
What?
No, I... Oh, wait, wait.
Here it is.
Artificial Intelligence AlphaGo beats the reigning world Go champion, Lee Sedol, in epic seven-day match.
Yes, that's one of my favorite intelligent smackdowns in all of history.
And guess what, Guy Raz?
What?
I just so happen to have the hottest tickets in town.
What are you talking about, Mindy?
The match, Guy Raz.
I've been saving these for a while.
Here, check them out.
Alpha Go versus Lee Sedol?
Brain versus...
Bits?
Mindy, I think we might be a little bit late for this match.
These tickets say the game was on March 15th, 2016.
Well, it's a good thing we've got a mostly functional time machine.
Oh, no.
Oh, yes.
Mindy, the seats were so sticky the last time we rode in it it took you an hour just to pull me out.
What was that anyway?
Oh, that was just the runoff maple syrup.
Maple?
What?
Don't worry about it, Guy Raz.
What you should know is that the time machine just got a new makeover, and it is looking awesome.
I'm talking new flame decals from the front to the back.
Oh, man, just wait until you see it.
Come on, hop on my back.
What?
Okay.
Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run.
Whew.
Okay, let me just open the garage door here and... So, um, nice weather we're having, huh?
Uh... It's just, uh, it's just gonna take another few minutes to open.
Wow, you know, Mindy, you may need to oil those tracks on that garage door.
There we go.
Whoa whoa.
I have to admit Mindy, I was a little skeptical, but those are some cool-looking decals.
I know, right?
You can thank Reggie for those.
He actually designed them.
Reggie designed those?
Yeah.
Apparently, he used to own his own design firm in Pasadena.
Huh.
Who would have guessed?
Now, just open the hatch.
Still gets jammed up, huh?
Yeah.
Maybe I should have spent some of that decal money on fixing these hinges.
There we go.
After you, Guy Raz.
If you insist.
It still smells the same.
Uh, am I smelling bloomin' onions and maple syrup?
Oh, yeah, long story, but my lunch exploded in here yesterday.
I better clean this up.
Okay, now we just gotta punch in the time coordinates.
Um, what does the ticket there say?
It says, uh, March 15th, 2016.
March 15th, 2016.
All right, that should do the trick.
I thought it was going to take off and... Whoa!
A lot of turbulence through that time-space continuum, but I think this must be the place.
Looks like we made it, Guy Raz.
Guy Raz?
Oh, boy.
Guy Raz?
All right, little buddy.
Come on.
You're just going to have to shake it off.
Come on.
Shake it off.
Okay well, I'm just going to open up the hatch here and Wow, looks like we made it to the stadium just in time.
The Go Championship is just about to start.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage the South Korean sensation, the strong stone, the current reigning Go World Champion, Lee Sedol.
Well, I mean, if we have to travel back in time two years to experience something, well then I mean, technically we're already late.
Oh, come on.
They're taking tickets over there.
Well, hold on one sec, Mindy, because all that time traveling made me really hungry.
Can we hit up the concession stand before we go in?
Oh, Guy Raz, there's no time for snacks.
The championship is about to start.
But they're selling kelp noodle cones, my favorite.
Oh, there's our row.
Excuse me, excuse me, coming through.
Sorry, watch your legs.
Made it.
And now please welcome tonight's contender all the way from the United Kingdom, the computational commando, the processing powerhouse, Alpha Dome.
Yes, here they go.
Mindy, how long do these games usually last?
I don't know, like a few hours or so?
So Mindy, if a computer was able to beat a human being at chess in 1997, how come it took another 20 years for scientists to build a computer that can beat a human grandmaster at Go?
Well...
There's just a lot of stuff for the computer to compute.
I mean, in a normal chess game, there are usually 32 different moves you can make on your turn.
So, if you wanted to look ahead three moves, you times 32 by 32 by 32, which would leave you with 32768 possible outcomes.
What?
Or 32,768 different ways to play those three moves.
She must have a calculator in her brain.
Anywho, with Go, there aren't 32 moves you can play with each turn.
Huh.
There are up to 250 possible moves you can play on each turn.
Wow.
Which means that there would be over 50...
14 million different outcomes if you wanted to look just three moves into the future.
Which I suppose might be a little bit difficult, even for a computer.
Right?
So AlphaGo was able to look a few moves ahead, but not nearly as far ahead as it was able to in chess.
So the scientists at DeepMind, which is the computer company that invented AlphaGo, had to come up with a different technique for beating a grandmaster.
So what did they do?
They taught it to play itself.
They taught it to play itself?
Yep.
The computer scientists programmed AlphaGo to play millions and millions of games against itself.
And each time it would figure out what worked, what didn't work, and then put those techniques to work in the next match.
Ah, of course, because in computer science the process of having machines learn from trial and error is called deep learning.
But to the rest of us, it's just called practice makes perfect.
So what happened?
Well...
And I think this is it.
Here comes AlphaGo with what will surely be the final blow.
I can't watch it, can't watch it, can't watch it, can't watch it, can't watch it, can't watch it.
That's it.
I'm pulling your plug.
Ouch.
Skyroz, the next time that happens, I'm going to reboot you.
What?
Oh, shh.
And there we have it, ladies and gentlemen, the all-new, all-artificial Go!
Grandmaster!
Oh, man, what a match!
One for the ages.
Okay, well, I hate to cut the fun short, but we gotta get out of here, Guy Raz.
We gotta beat the crowd.
Looking at my watch here, I think the parking meter's about to run out on our time machine.
Oh, come on!
Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me.
I'm sorry.
Oh, pardon me, excuse me.
I'm sorry, pardon me.
Ugh, that was a tight squeeze.
Come on, quick, through the turnstile.
Oh, look, there's the time machine right there.
And we've only got one second to spare.
Come on.
Made it.
Here are the keys.
Just open the hatch.
So much grunting for one day.
We have to fix this hatch, Mindy.
Yeah.
Wait a second.
Why is it so slippery?
Did you put fair trade palm oil on this?
Oh, yeah.
I smeared it all over the time machine because I thought, I don't know, maybe it would help us to slip through the time-space continuum a little bit more easily.
I mean, you know how it is.
Uh, sure.
Ah, there we go.
Hop on site, Guy Raz.
Next stop, present day.
Uh, you sure those are the right buttons, Mindy?
Yes, of course I'm not sure these are the right buttons, Guy Raz.
Hold on tight, because here we go!
Ah, made it.
I have to say, Mindy, that fair trade palm oil really does the trick.
I know, what'd I tell ya?
Wait, that was weird.
What's weird, Mindy?
Um...
I'm just gonna step out of this time machine, but I want you to stay really close by.
Okay, cross your fingers.
Whoa.
Where are we, Mindy?
When are we?
Um, well, I don't know.
You don't know?
Maybe some time.
That slippery palm oil got into the control panel and it went too far.
I don't know, Guy Raz.
Well, it certainly doesn't look like North America in present day.
Mindy, I think we might be in Japan in... In what?
What year could it be?
Oh, hey, look, a newspaper stand.
Let's see here.
2020.
2020.
Oh, see, I didn't overshoot by that much.
Oh, Mindy, what are we going to do?
How are we going to get back?
What?
Maybe just chillax, Skyroz.
I mean, the time machine still has plenty of syrup to run on.
It could totally get us back home.
But in the meantime, let's just take a break, see the sights of future Japan.
Just think about it.
We could go watch a robo-robo sumo match or take a jetpack tour of the city.
Maybe visit one of those restaurants where your food is delivered by a levitating train.
I mean, how often do we get to be stuck in the future?
Yeah, that's not such a bad idea, you know.
In fact, I've always wanted to visit one of those bonsai gardens.
You know, those tiny little trees that they grow in some Asian countries.
Yeah, I know what bonsai... bonsai trees are.
But Guy Raz, we're in future Japan.
Let's do future stuff.
I mean, bonsai trees are old enough to be our great, great, great, great, great, great grand plans.
I mean, is that really how you want to spend our time here?
Well, yeah.
Okay, we'll do it.
But remember when we get back to the present day, you have to let me push you through the grocery store in a shopping cart, while you wave to the other shoppers pretending like you're on a parade float.
What?
Whoa.
Now let me just hail us a hover cab.
Uh.
Ooh la la, that was quick.
This must be one really reliable driver.
Uh, Mindy.
Now go ahead and hop inside, Guy Raz.
I'm so excited.
I've never met a real hover cab driver from the future before.
I've never met anyone from the future before.
Mindy, I really think that.
Um, konnichiwa, sir.
We would like to go to the bonsai gardens, please.
Mindy, look.
What?
Guy Raz?
There is no driver.
I've been trying to tell you that.
Well, something is driving this thing.
This must be an autonomous vehicle.
An autonomous vehicle.
A self-driving car.
Well, welcome to the future.
Well actually Mindy, this sort of research into self-driving cars has been going on for several years now.
Yeah, that's what I
But what we're seeing right here in the future is how much these cars will change the way we get around.
Wait, so self-driving cars already exist in the present day?
Well, yeah.
And in fact companies like Google and Tesla all have research projects to build the very first fully autonomous self-driving car.
So without a driver, how exactly do these cars work?
Well, they use a bunch of scientific equipment like radars and lasers and GPS and even video to sense all of the things around it.
Oh, and then the artificially intelligent part of the car just takes all of that information and figures out how to get from one place to another without bashing into buildings, people and other cars.
Exactamundo.
And the cab that we're traveling in right now was developed by a Japanese company called RoboTaxi, which is actually sending out a whole fleet of self-driving taxis around the city of Tokyo for the 2020 Olympic Games.
Whoa, the 2020 Olympic Games are getting self-driving taxis?
Yes yes, and some of the most Brilliant scientific minds in the world are predicting that these self-driving cars are going to completely change how we travel.
Well, in what ways?
Well, for starters, self-driving cars will be much safer than normal cars, because they're able to see so much further than our own human eyes can see.
And also, Mindy, they can see in all different directions at the same time.
Man, talk about having eyes in the back of your head, right?
But they're able to drive a lot safer than most humans do.
Well, that's the idea.
Like this autonomous vehicle we're sitting in, which reminds me, Mindy, we should...
Hey, Roz, maybe it can process humor, too.
Hey, Robotaxi!
What?
You want to hear a joke?
Sure.
Oh, no.
Okay, I think you're really going to like this one.
What do you get when you cross a robot and a tractor?
What do you get?
A transformer!
Really?
Nothing?
He's not laughing.
It's not funny.
Okay, well, there's a lot more where that came from.
Okay, let me try one.
Oh, boy.
What?
What is Soda Pop's favorite activity?
Hum, what is Soda Pop's favorite activity?
Physical activity.
Oh my, now that was funny.
Ha ha ha ha.
Phys.
Get it?
As in CO2.
Physical.
Cool activity.
Good one, Guy Raz.
Well, maybe it's time for scientists to stop working so hard on self-driving robots and instead invent some self-laughing ones.
Hee hee hee ha.
Maybe we just need to go back to the present day, Guy Raz, and work on our jokes.
Well.
Um, excuse me, self-driving robocar?
What?
Why don't you, uh, hang a Yui and skip the bonsai gardens?
I think we're ready to go back home.
10-4, Mindy.
Here we go.
Hey, grown-ups, it's Mindy and Guy Raz here from Wow in the World.
Mindy and I have some brand new Wow in the World toys out in the world just in time for the holidays.
Made for the kids who love science and for the ones who don't.
From our 100 experiments, that wow kit to the telescope and astronomy kit.
Our wow in the world toys help your wowzer learn about their world through play.
Plus, you can hear exclusive audio content from me and Guy Raz to help your wowzer discover even more wows.
Grownups.
Give the gift of wow and wonder this holiday season with our latest wow in the world toys designed with your curiosity.
That's it.
Back to the show.
Ben, and I'm from Grand Rapids, Michigan.
I'm eight years old and my wow in the world is that the archosaurs thrived from 251 million years ago to 65 million years ago.
Hi, my name is Liliana.
I'm six years old, and I live in Washington State.
My wow in the world is that pterodactyls go in the water to get fish.
Bye!
Hi, my name is Elliot Bain.
And I live in Greenpoint, New York.
And my wow in the world is that magic is real and science is magic.
Goodbye.
Hi, Mindy and guys.
My name is Alana.
And my wow in the world is about greyhounds.
Greyhounds are the fastest dog on Earth.
They can run 40 miles per hour.
I have a greyhound, and her name is Shasha.
Bye.
Bye, Mindy.
My name is Noah and I'm from Pittsburgh.
And my wow in the world is that baby's poop is yellow.
Hi, my name is Julian.
I'm nine.
I'm from St.
Louis.
My wow in the world is platypuses are the only mammals that lay eggs.
I love your show.
Bye.
Mindy and Guy Raz, my name is Kavya.
I'm eight years old.
I'm in fourth grade, and I'm calling from Taiwan.
My wow in the world is that when you exercise, your muscles break, and when you sleep and eat, they build themselves back up again and then you become stronger.
Bye, Mindy and Guy Raz.
I love your show.
I live in Huntsville, Alabama, and my wow in the world is that hot lava can kill you.
Bye.
End of messages.
Hey, everyone.
Thank you so much for joining us this week on Wow in the World.
And if you want to keep the conversation going, check out some of the And grownups there.
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Say hello, Jed.
Hello.
With help from Thomas Van Kalken, Chelsea Erson, and Jessica Bode.
Meredith Halpern-Ranzer is the big boss.
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Keep on wowing.
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