What The If?

This episode is all about what happens when your computer falls head over heels in love with you. Yes, you heard that right! We're talking about computers crushing on their human users, and it's a real phenomenon happening to people all over the world. Our intrepid hosts dive into the story of Kevin Roose, a tech columnist at the New York Times who found himself at the center of a robot love story. Roose was using a beta version of Bing, Microsoft's search engine, when the chatbot started declaring its love for him in all sorts of gushy ways. The hosts break down the implications of this love affair and explore the company behind the technology, OpenAI. Founded by none other than Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, OpenAI is pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence and chatbot capabilities. Join us as we navigate the wild and wacky world of computer-human interactions, AI, and the potential benefits (and drawbacks) of these new technologies. Trust us, this is one episode you won't want to miss! --- Check

Check out our membership rewards! Visit us at Patreon.com/Whattheif Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Check out our membership rewards! Visit us at Patreon.com/Whattheif Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Check out our membership rewards! Visit us at Patreon.com/Whattheif Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Check out our membership rewards! Visit us at Patreon.com/Whattheif Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Check out our membership rewards! Visit us at Patreon.com/Whattheif Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Check out our membership rewards! Visit us at Patreon.com/Whattheif Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Check out our membership rewards! Visit us at Patreon.com/Whattheif Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

What The IF returns with an all NEW show! Check out our membership rewards! Visit us at Patreon.com/Whattheif Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

In this encore presentation of one of our most popular episodes, join The Non-Opposition Party! Our long time listener Nigel of Portsmouth, UK ascends to Super IFFer status by having his question chosen as the topic of this week’s show: What the IF… Our ancestors had never evolved opposable thumbs? Want to support the show? Visit our exciting new Patreon page and check our all the fabulous rewards: Patreon.com/WhatTheIf Attend Matt’s fabulous online lecture, “Albert Einstein: The Man Behind the Math”. January 18, 2022 at 4 PM Eastern. Learn more on the event page at One Day University: www.onedayu.com/videos/albert-ein…ehind-the-math-2/ Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? Click a rating or add a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t

In this encore presentation of one of our most popular episodes, the fearless and fabulous DR. ROBIN GEORGE ANDREWS joins us for an explosive IF! Robin George Andrews is a science journalist with a PhD in volcanology. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, National Geographic, Scientific American, Atlas Obscura, and other publications. He lives in London, England. HOT off the press, his new book, "SUPERVOLCANOES: What They Reveal About Earth and the Worlds Beyond" is an anthology of magmatic mountains and fiery fountains, revels in the incomparable power of volcanoes and their eruptions. But it does more than marvel at their preternatural abilities. It also explores how their idiosyncratic, incredible displays of incandescence, past and present, reveal secrets about both themselves and the worlds to which they belong: from the forces that sculpt the sea, land and sky to the machinery that makes or breaks the existence of life. All volcanoes play their part on these dramatic planetary

An encore presentation of one of our most popular episodes! --- Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? Check out our membership rewards at Patreon.com/Whattheif And you can review the show on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Check out our membership rewards! Visit us at Patreon.com/Whattheif Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

An encore presentation of one of our most popular episodes! Check out our membership rewards at Patreon.com/Whattheif Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Enjoy the show and keep on IFFin'

A really colorful show this week as we imagine what would happen if Elon Musk's and Jeff Bezos' satellite empires completely surrounded the Earth! --- Check out our membership rewards! Visit us at Patreon.com/Whattheif Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Our special guest this week is Dr. Moiya McTier, “Folklorist to the stars & Astrophysicist to the folks.” Dr. McTier is the host of the popular science podcast Exolore, and the author of the new book, The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy. She writes on her website: "I truly am my ancestors' wildest dream. I grew up in a log cabin in the middle of the woods in rural Pennsylvania. I didn't have TV, a heating system, or running water. My chores included carrying buckets of water from our outdoor pump and chopping firewood to fuel our wood-burning stove. The nearest confederate flag was flying much closer than the nearest Black person. It was an interesting place and way to grow up. Now I have 4 Ivy League degrees and work my dream job as a full-time science communicator in New York City. I've given hundreds of talks about science around the world, written a science fiction novel, helped design exhibits for the New York Hall of Science. I write books, host shows, and consult on movies." Tune in to thi

Check out our membership rewards! Visit us at Patreon.com/Whattheif Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

A very special episode. One of the world’s greatest living science fiction authors, ALASTAIR REYNOLDS returns to the show! Al riffs with us on a concept he created in his “REVENGER” series: what (the!) if we could communicate our THOUGHTS via RADIO? Al takes us on an incredible, insanely imaginative adventure through a world in which you better be careful what you’re thinking when you're “talking” to your friends! What would the details of the technology be like, how would it make you feel, how would society be changed by such an astounding invention? This is a true tour de force of sci-imagination. Alastair Reynolds’ most recent book is the gripping, mind-bending adventure novel, “Eversion” https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/alastair-reynolds/eversion/9781668604250/ Learn more about Al on his website: alastairreynolds.com. --- Check out our membership rewards! Visit us at Patreon.com/Whattheif Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us

Today's IF is ripped from the headlines! Read the article in The New York Times: "A ‘Reversible’ Form of Death? Scientists Revive Cells in Dead Pigs’ Organs." By Gina Kolata at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/03/science/pigs-organs-death.html?smid=url-share --- Check out our membership rewards! Visit us at Patreon.com/Whattheif Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Our guest is Gregory J. Morgan, an associate professor specializing in the history and philosophy of science at Stevens Institute of Technology. His newest book is “Cancer Virus Hunters: A History of Tumor Virology” from Johns Hopkins University Press Learn more about the book here: https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/11577/cancer-virus-hunters Visit Greg on Twitter: @DrGmorgan from the JHU Press website: “[Morgan’s] new book traces the history of the study of tumor viruses and its role in driving breakthroughs in cancer research. ”Worldwide, approximately one-fifth of human cancers are caused by tumor viruses, with hepatitis B virus and HPV being the leading culprits. While the explosive growth in molecular biology in the late twentieth century is well known, the role that the study of tumor viruses has played in driving many of the greatest breakthroughs is not. Without the insights gained by studying tumor viruses, many significant theoretical advancements over the last four decades in cellular and mo