Listener Mail: The Mailbot Reboots

have to reboot the robot. We're going to have to make sure that it imprints on you guys as as new hosts, because we want to avoid any unnecessary, uh complications. Yeah, except didn't I hear that We're gonna have to reboot it under the new name Carney, with the C standing for Cartesian doubt, the newest feature of the mail bot. Yes, yeah, because, uh, I mean enough programming has changed on it. It's gonna

reject its old name. I'm not a roboticist. I don't know the poticulars on it, but but yeah, we need it, and we also need to make sure that it has all three of the laws of robotics. Installed this time. I've heard enough about this around the office that I'm kind of nervous. I mean, hasn't attacked other podcasts before. Well, that is why Scott Benjamin had to have all his limbs sewn back one, that's why. Okay, well then that's

where he got the tail. Well, there were extra pieces of and it's like ikea, you know, you could assemble it, there's something missing what you need to you can't put it back in the box. I'm always afraid to ask him. You know, he's just a personal guy, doesn't doesn't like to talk about stuff like that. Yeah, alright, so let's uh, let's see flip the switch. Okay, Joe, can you get that one? Yeah? All right, now, Christian can you pull

that back? That metal contraption to the big one? Yeah? Okay, okay, whoa, what is with this sall blade? Well? Well that's um, that's a different feature. Okay, push that back in, okay, okay, alright, okay, Now see this metal flower thing opening up there like the inside of a you know, the head portion of an iron Maiden. Why is it presenting us pills? Um? Those are optional, but you do need to stick your face into this contraption real quick. This reminds me of

those robots in that movie R Runaways. Oh well that that's a predecessor. Okay, prototype for Arnie. But hold on, so you put your face in the flower. Yeah, and then it's going to imprint, and then we can be able to actually deliver the listener mail to us and we can read through some of them. I think you did. If you think I got to oh wait, didn't do it again? Well, that's perfect, that's perfect. I'm not putting my face in that thing. Well you wipe it down first,

the spray. Oh all right, I think they got to. Look, it's folding up and everything. Uh, seems to be coming online, all right. Now, we just have to see if Arnie responds graciously or if it activates its latest Okay, are you ever going to explain the sol blade or um? That feature may become necessary later on right now, No, don't worry about that. All right, there, he is all right, you're accepted. Arnie seems to be operating, uh more or

less a long design parameters. Carney Carney, Yes, sorry, Carney, I got your name wrong. All right, Carney, you're online, bring us some listener mail. What do you got for us? Hey, guys, I'm a newer listener of HSW and a big fan of your podcasts and all the HSW shows. You get me through long, lonely train rides to and from New

York City and where I live in New Jersey. I just listened to your episode on Stigmata and heard you reference the wound on the side of Jesus as happening during his carrying of the cross, which I don't think was the case. This is this is absolutely accurate. I got this wrong in the episode. Uh, not being overly Christian myself, but raised in such a manner with a Bible hungry aunt that's sounds awful. I have always known

the story different. After my punch and some quick research, I think the wound was given after he had been nearly spent. The story. Yeah, the story I know goes that he had been hanging for hours and hours, long after typical people who are crucified would live. The Roman centurion was seen as a do gooder, giving Jesus mercy and making sure he was dead after his marathon of torture. The unnamed soldier is also credited with saying, quote, truly, this is the Son of God. Oh so that's where

that comes from. I didn't know that. Uh, not trying to step on toes, just a big fan reaching out, keep up the great work, thanks for reading, Michael. Yeah. Absolutely. Somebody on Facebook also alerted us to that mistake. On my part, I believe I somehow had it in my head that the spear wound was inflicted as he's carrying the cross to the crucifixion. But yeah, I believe. I hate to call it canon, but I suppose it is canon.

Is that he was what Michael said, Yeah, I think it's sort of considered the or the literal reroll it plays in the narrative is it's the the Kuda gras. You know, it's the final blow to make sure everybody knows, okay, he's really, really, actually dead. So it's like it's a compassionate thing from the way that Michael's making it sound that the this this soldier didn't want him to suffer any longer. Um, you know, I don't know if I

ever heard that exact interpretation of it. I always thought he was doing his job, like so, I don't know if the gospel narrative is is much No, not necessarily. I don't think the Gospel narrative is much trying to get in the head of the Roman soldier. I think it's more serving the purpose of demonstrating to the reader that Jesus was really dead, so the reader wouldn't be wondering like, oh, maybe he wasn't dead, Oh, like he would pull like a I almost just said a huge

game of thrownes spoiler. I'm going to keep that to myself. Yeah, now, I I also want to point out Bible hungry aunt that could be referring to Grimore's talk about individuals who consider the book in order to gain its power. Maybe that's what was going on there. All right, Michael, thank you for writing in with with that little bit of clarification there. What else do we have to read here? Alright?

So next, it looks like we've got one from Jonathan, and Jonathan writes in being a member of an older generation than yourselves, I've just started listening to podcasts, but have become addicted to stuff to blow your mind. I was intrigued by your two part podcast on religion and technology that was Techno Religion for the Masses Parts one and two, and he's he continues in researching a book. I came across a very unusual object in the American

Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. It is basically an astrolabe manufactured in the mid sixteenth century in Germany. The gnomon of the sundial aspect of the object is a turbaned man, indicating either the intention or origin as a timetelling in geolocator device for Muslims. It was brought to America in the l seventeenth century, probably by a group of German Pietist mystics, and later fell into the hands of Benjamin Franklin,

who founded the American Philosophical Society. One of the most intriguing features of the device is an engraving on the bottom with two illustrations and a reference to a passage in Isaiah where God turns back time. The device purports to explain the miracle. When set up as a sun dial and filled with water, the refraction of the shadow quote throws time backward unquote by the same amount as

in the Miracle and Isaiah. This was, however, before the principle of refraction was, if not known, at least codified in Western science. This feature of the device was demonstrated in the nineteen seventies. Then he gives a link to an article that he actually wrote about this object, which he says is referred to it the A. P. S as the Schlisser Dial, after the smith whose name was on it, and he says keep up the good work and adds that he will miss Julie. Well, thank you

for that email, Jonathan. This is really interesting, indeed, and we'll make sure to include a link to that article of his on the landing page with this episode Stuff to blow your mind dot com U, because certainly in that episode we went into the the role of the astrolabe. It's this kind of convergence of technology and religion. So this is definitely that definitely flows in with what we

talked about totally. All right, here's one that comes to us from from listener art Art rights in and says, did I hear Roberts say that he had decided to stop eating octopy because of their intelligence? Maybe a little bit because they're kind of cute playing with things. I can see why one might come to such a conclusion. But knowing you are voracious learners and reasonably rational decision makers, thank you. I felt I had to write you to make sure you had all the octo facts in hand

to make this protein limiting decision. You are aware that octopi are not shay shy about cannibalism. They are very territorial and regularly attack and consume fellow octopus is when they trustpassed. The truspassers had anittedly are their competition too, But honestly, can you still feel bad about eating octopuses now they eat each other? You're welcome, enjoy your sushi sashimi next time. Thanks again, guys, keep up the great work.

Best art. So, okay, what was the rationale behind why you wouldn't I think this was referring to the episode about grizzly bears from outer space? So we were talking about different kinds of alien intelligence and how at least in my opinion, octopus is display and intelligence that doesn't

register is human, but that does register is significant and interesting. Yeah, thus underlying, you know, some of the problems of thinking about alien intelligence because we end up holding it up to the model of human intelligence, which you know, even life on Earth illustrates that there there may be other types of consciousness going on. All right, Well, I mean I can see why you would say that. Then, um, wait,

are you a vegetarian? No? And I'll be the first to admit that I'm my My stance on what I eat and what I don't eat is kind of hypocritical. And I guess a lot of people, you know, a lot of people have varying degrees of hypocrisy when it comes to this sort of thing. But like, I still eat occasionally, will eat pork, even though the pig is a pretty smart creature. And you know, who am I to say, you go in my belly? But the octopus

is off limits. But maybe I give the octopi some sort of privileged status because it's so different, because it's this kind of alien creature. So arts making an ethical argument that because octopi are cannibals themselves, that it's okay to eat them because they eat each other. That he's presenting that as a as a potential reason that I could hang onto and use octopus. I would counter that, I would present you with the option of would it

be okay to eat people? Then if they were cannibals by this yeah, by this Rationelle, that would be perfectly acceptable, provided they are a cannibal. That would eat me. Not necessarily, art might be going on a sort of like a double qualifier model where they have to be below a certain level of problem solving and tell legens or i Q threshold, and that have to be evil or cannibalistic.

I actually, in response to arts email, I went and looked into this because I was like, I've never heard of this before, but I found an article on Scientific American talking about octopus cannibalism, and I just want to read this quote from it that I found. It says, these amazing, if occasionally gruesome observations revealed that octopus has chosen octopus meal even if there were plenty of other,

less feisty food options, such as muscles. But as the authors point out, even the more docile muscles required more energy to extract than a smaller octopus might to get the same amount of meat. An octopus meat, the scientist's note, is higher in protein per ounce than that of muscles. Additionally, the octopus predator, after bringing back its prey, sealed off its den, opening with rocks. This allowed the eating octopus

to feed in relative safety and privacy. Another advantage of a single large catch over having to crack and carry smaller bivalves. So my reaction to this was art, You're incredibly correct. This is evil and scary, and this is serial killer type behavior. But also I am now even more impressed by the intelligence of the octopus than I was before. It's smart about what it eats, and it knows how to eat in privacy. Yeah, it sounds like it has a real like return on investment style approach

to its eating. Well, you know it, it lives in a different economy, and it lives in the economy of of of the ocean, you know. So, I mean if we, if we evolved to thrive in such a dangerous habitat, we would likely be a little more cannibalistic as well. So much like you know, the world of Mad Max. Yeah, yeah, it's just a it's a different world. It's it's the wild West down there, and sometimes you gotta eat your

own kind. So all right, before we move on from arts letter, clearly I don't know, I don't know if you guys know, what's the correct plural pronunciation of octopus, octopi or octopuses. It's octopi. If you want to sound like a jerk, it's octopus. If you just, you know, want to sound like a normal person. So is octopi is correct? I don't know. Oh, I always say octopuses per the James Bond film. Yeah, yeah, I feel like this just came up when we wrote a script for

a video recently about Octopi. Octopuses. Anyways, if anybody out there knows, write us and we'll answer it in the next listener mail episode. I'm curious. I mean, I'm sure we could just google it, but I, in principle refuse not on air. I prefer grammatical corrections from a thousand listeners. That's how I learned. Um. All right, what else do

we have from the old mail bot here? Okay? This next one is from Brian and it is also in response to our Grizzly Bears from outer Space podcast, and Brian says, Hey, guys, I listen to your episode on grizzly Bears from outer Space, or more specifically, the theorized shape and size of any potential aliens we may encounter in the future, and I think I have a bit of information that will put some of your more worrisome listeners at ease. I present to you the rocket equation,

and then he gives a little equation. It's a d V equals V times l N and the parentheses r M. It seems to be important that one of the visa is capitalized. Yes, that's right. Uh. And so that's my input on math, right. Uh. And he explains that. He says V is a rockets effective exhaust velocity limited by precepts of chemistry and nozzle design. DV is the delta V applied to the rocket, which is the controller of how high it reaches before it runs out of fuel.

And r M is the ratio of the rockets initial to final mass with fuel and then without. So does that make sense? Like as the rocket ascends, it loses mass and it becomes easier to propel itself, So it's got to have enough fuel on board to carry not just the rocket but the fuel. Um. So he continues plug in some numbers and you get the same figures that had NASA smashing their heads against the wall for

years in the late fifties. A solid fuel rocket requires a nineties six percent fuel by mass composition to impart enough delta V to reach Earth's orbit. That's crazy to think about. Uh. That was my commic, not Brian's But Brian goes on. The important thing to note here is that the necessary delta V to leave a planet and thus makes space travel possible, is determined by its gravity.

It's easy to see that if Earth's gravity were just a little bit higher, space travel with conventional rockets would be all but impossible. Any rocket we built would simply be too heavy to reach orbit. This puts Earth at the top of the range of planetary masses in which the gravity is high enough to hold an atmosphere but

low enough to allow for space travel. If there were any other space farings of realizations out there, and their technology is anything like ours, which chemists, physicists, and mathematicians suggest it most likely will be at our level, there is a virtual certainty that their planets gravity will be lower than ours, or else they would be trapped on

their world, unable to sail to the star ocean. Regardless of their size or shape, it is practically guaranteed that we not they are one of, if not the physically strongest space capable species in our galaxy. Long story short, humans are heavy worlders, stay heavy. Yeah, thank you so much, Brian. This was a really interesting and informative email, and we did.

We did acknowledge in the episode that, uh, definitely some other space and astrobiology experts had pointed out about the study we talked about in that episode that it's sort of was, while it was good reasoning, it was reasoning in a vacuum, and that once you add in sort of all these real world variables to think about, like gravity and other things, that might definitely change the parameters of the equations that Fergus Simpson used. Yeah, so now

I'm not as concerned about space trolls. I'm more concerned with like space hobbits, space goblins. Pure. Yeah. So, thank you Brian for that really interesting email. Yeah, totally, it's a good one. Okay. Also, Angelo writes into us from Facebook, so keep in mind for future listener mail episodes, you can write into us on Twitter or Facebook or at the email blow the mind at how stuff works dot com, even Tumbler and Tumbler that's right. Yeah, uh, Angelo writes

really liked both episodes. By the way, the movie Stigmata was not so much about a demonic possession, although the trailer would lead you to think so, as it did lead me to think so. The female character actually gets the Stigmata because she had in her possession the rosary of a stigmatic priest who died and I guess transferred his soul in the rosary. Oh and it also had something to do with the Gospel of Thomas. Okay, I barely remember that movie, but that, I mean, obviously he's

seen it. That sounds about right. So so like what we're talking about here is like, um St. Francis's rosary falls into Patricia Arquette's possession, she's holding onto it, and the soul of St. Francis enters her, thus making her a stigmatic stewing upon her the wounds of Christ. All right, well, that's that sounds plausible for the movie. I never saw that movie, though I remember the trailer for it, and I think at the time I was offended by it.

Why it was a different time for me. I was gonna say, yeah, right before we did the Stigmata episode, I rewatched that trailer and it does seem like she's kind of possessed or something. But um, yeah, I feel like I might have been in junior high, and you know you're in junior high. They're all these changes happening with your body wounds are opening up in your hands, that sort of thing. So it hits a little close to yeah, it was. It was definitely made for adolescence,

that's for sure, all right. This one comes to us from Brooke brook writes in referring to an old episode having to do with dinosaurs mating with each other. I think it was called tyrannosaur sex. She writes it and says, nothing astonishing or a stud here, But today I saw two fed Ex trucks backed up to each other, hatch to hatch, and the first thing to come to mind was cloacal kiss. So um, thanks for that, I guess in all seriousness, love the podcast, especially with how much

of it there is. I've been listening for months and I'm still years behind and loving every minute. Thanks for all the laughs and learning. So that explains the older episode. I'm always a little um surprised and or horrified when I hear that listeners have discovered the podcast and are starting at the very big working their way up. I mean, not because the old episodes are bad, but it's like, if you start with the current stuff and work back,

you'll hopefully, you know, started at its best, you know. Yeah, yeah, no, I understand that. That's kind of my approach to podcasts. That's where when I start them. I know I have friends who do that, who go back and listen from the very beginning to shows. There's two hundred three d episodes, And I went back and listened to the very first episode of this show right before joining the programming Infestations. Yeah, when it was you and Allison, Alison who still works

with us here at How Stuff Works. Yeah, yeah, that was a good one. I liked it. Yeah. I actually ended up looking it up recently because they did the whole ten years of iTunes and so we we pumped out the very first episode of then Stuff in the Science Lab before we actually the same Stuff to Blow your Mind. So it's kind of cool to look back on it. But now the old episodes are great, but you know, you're still there's so much of your time with this show is sort of finding what that show is.

And you know, it wasn't even called Stuff to Blow your Mind back then, so that slightly different shows. True, was it called stuff to Blow your Mind? During the Chloeacle kiss? It was? This was definitely the Stuff to Blow your Mind era. That was the chloac Era if you will. Is that why Julie has the what is it kloeac A Boulevard on her desk? Yeah, I remember correctly, Listener, Aaron sent that into her sheet. We each got out road sign she got and I got sandworms. Oh yeah, yeah,

that makes sense. Well we've got another one here that looks like it's about the stigmata episode. This is another Facebook message. This one's from Nick. I was listening to your pieces on stigmatics and your special treatment of the subject material is anti intellectual. There is absolutely no difference between the founding of these beliefs and modern comics. He means comic books, not stand up comedians. Stuff you should

know that's not us. Uh. There is no one single account of Jesus written by anyone who could have known him. If you know something I do not, please do an episode and inform me. I am not arguing to be anti theist, but show this subject no more reverence than facts in a DC comic. I don't get thinking like this. I mean it seems to me that whether or not you believe the mythology is like literally true, wouldn't it be interesting to learn about where it came from and

the story behind it. Yeah, I mean I think I think I actually responded. There was there was a back and forth actually on Facebook. Yeah, and but I mean one of my responses was, like, we'd love to do stuff on characters in d C comics just as much fun and learned just as much by looking at the comic book characters, looking at superhero powers and applying real world physics and you know, real science to that. I've actually done a podcast like that on the other podcast

I do at how stuff works for thinking. We did an episode a while back where we basically looked at all the X Men and said, Okay, what rating of plausibility do we give to all their powers? Yeah? Yeah, I mean, like I can I can understand where he's coming from here, and that like he listens to the show as a science podcast and expects a certain amount

of I guess, as he put it, intellectualism. Um. But but yeah, I think that what we try to do is is, you know, bring a connection between things like pop culture or or other you know, beliefs, whether it's stigmata or for instance, like when we were talking earlier in the other podcast about people cutting off literally sting off their nose, despite their face, because of the term

despite your face. It just seems to me like we we sat down and we looked at the stigmata as a actual occurrence, what could possibly have caused it, whether it was disease, self mutilation, uh, psychosomatic situations, what have you. Uh, And yeah, let's do it. We should for for Nick, I think we should do something on DC comics. I'd

be happy with anything. Yeah, totally. I mean, yeah, Ultimately, we approached stigmata, even though at the heart you have a purported supernatural event, approached it from a scientific standpoint, psychological standpoint, you know, and also just looking at just the way we think about these things from you know, a mythic standpoint, how it factors into worldview, and that's

that's all part of what we do here. Yeah, and you know, to say too, I think that he was disappointed that we uh respected stigmata objectively within the episod, so that we didn't outright say this is all lies. Uh, that that wasn't in the title. I don't know, but I'm sorry. I do appreciate the feedback, Nick, Definitely. It stirred some interesting back and forth on Facebook, and we

love to discuss these topics with you. So even if it's if the topic, even if the discussion is based, you know, around criticism, and believe it or not, the three of us do you know, legitimately read these and talk about them amongst ourselves and sometimes we'll respond on Facebook. Sometimes we'll we'll bring it here on the listener mail

episode talk to you about it directly. In fact, we're gonna kick this hornet's nest right again by going back to the podcasts that we did about the intersections of religion and technology, so so bring on the criticism of supernatural topics. So this seems to be the common intersection here though, right is when we add religion plus science, we stir hornets. And I mean, obviously that's a that's

a thing people on the internet opinions about. But I'll think, yeah, people have you see, you see criticism from people on the atheistic side of things. You see more religious folk criticizing sometimes, and it just kind of kind of varies. But I mean, ultimately that's because there's a lot to discuss there, you know. Yeah, And that seems to be like the fact that you're saying that it comes from

from all angles. It means that they're like, we're coming close to having a dialogue, which is pretty awesome considering that this podcast is broadcast a mass audience. Mass audience, not mass. It's like everybody past, okay, Well, anyway, we have a couple of fairly long ones, but I do want to read them because they're really great listener mail. So these are from Gillian or Jillian. How do you

pronounced that name? I think it depends because the way that I always heard Jillian Anderson, which I believe, is that she pronounces it, but then the woman from community it's spelled the same. Hers pronounced Gillian. Well, I love Scully, so I'm gonna say Jillian. So Jillian writes in to tell us, I've been following your podcasts for a few years now, enjoying the eclectic mix of weird subjects. But I listened with heightened enthusiasm to your recent podcast on

religion and technology. This is a subject that has been of great interest to me for some time, perhaps because as an atheist, religion is a fascinating anomaly to one not participating, and was the focus of my dissertation at Glasgow School of Art two years ago. She might be at Gillian then, like in Scottish pronunciation, maybe there's a hard g Oh, Okay, it could be it's not Glascow, you're correct or Glasco. However you say it anyway, does

it Lionel Alasco good? Jillian continues, Uh, My research was long, extensive and really enjoyable. This is, after all a complex area that requires an understanding of many quirks and areas of human behavior. But where your podcast focused mostly on the historical use of religious technology, my area of inquiry focused on cyberspace. Humans have always sought to consecrate whatever

space it is that we're currently occupying or entering. Buzz Aldrin is reported to have taken self administered communion when first walking on the moon. I think, actually, yeah, I thought about mentioning this in the podcast, but we didn't have time for it, I think. But anyway, she goes on to say, and we're doing the same thing with cyberspace characterized as a purely mined space, cyberspace does offer a new intriguing platform for spiritual exploration. I love that

you included prayer wheels in your exploration of technology. Buddhism is one of the established religions that is integrating most enthusiastically with technology and cyberspace. You can, in fact, turn your computer's hard drive into a prayer wheel by saving an image of the Sanskrit. And I apologize if I'm not pronouncing this right. Oh mamane, pod me home, allowing for thousands more revolutions per minute than a hand can deliver. The question you raised about where the use of techno

logical prayer wheels becomes problematic as an interesting one. And there I think we asked the question of like, can you just write a computer program that simulates the turning of a wheel without even having a picture if it's just like a you know, a program that executes in the background on a computer. She She goes on. She says, as prayer and prana is both unquantifiable and unverifiable, we

can't see if it is indeed more effective. Rather, what is important is the intention of the believer, the desire to do as much good as possible and to bring their faith into every area of their life. Physical prayer wheels can be said to act as advertising for Buddhism or one's faith and a moving gift image of one on your blog or website does the same thing and encouraging faith. There was even a Tibetan Buddhism blessing in cyberspace delivered in the early nineties where four months prayed

in front of a laptop, sanctifying the space. Cornell University has been part of a project to make three D mendala's existing digitally in cyberspace, and these can be navigated by camera within the program. The Dalai Lama enthusiastically tried this out and laughed when he drove the camera into a digital statue of the Buddha. It seems like the

appropriate response, right. Uh. The reason for Buddhism's acceptance of cyberspace is providing legitimate space for spiritual engagement, maybe because of their dualistic understanding of reality, with consciousness and matter being separate. Take a trip to second life and you'll

also encounter Christian churches. I thought this was really actually one of these, really well, I was in a physical church, but then the individual giving the sermon um gave it in second life and we got to view this on the screen. It was interesting, lassinating, that's really cool. But yeah, so she says that you'll encounter Christian churches, Jewish synagogues, and Hindu temples available to visit, some with instructions on

clothing for one's avatar. Before entering. You can also engage your avatar and meditation and yoga practices on second life. This asks some very interesting questions about the validity of experience online, as I assume that while my avatar is meditating, I cannot be one can even receive virtual communion on

second life. This seems ludicrous at first, but when we consider that transubstantiation is purely metaphorical, allowing us to become closer to our Godhead and Avatar acting as a digitally mediated metaphor for our mind, imbibing a metaphor for Christ isn't too hard to understand. It all asks some very difficult questions about embodiment, what it means to be human,

and the nature of mind slash consciousness. This really is a fascinating and complex issue, mostly because religion is an innate human drive, and in examining how we engage with religion and cyberspace, we can use it almost as a litmus test to assess how we feel about the validity of experiences online. And then she actually attached her dissertation, which I haven't had a chance to read yet, but I would really like to get into and and maybe at some point we could get a chance to share

that with our listeners if if she's interested. Yeah, most I don't know how it works at her university, but most universities published dissertations now as open access documents, so perhaps we can get a u r L from Jillian and share it with everybody. Yeah, and anyway, she finishes up. But thanks if you made it to the end of this long ramble. I just get so excited when I encounter someone discussing the subject. Much love from the West of Scotland. Thanks for all the great work and keep

it up. You're too kind, Jillian, and your email was awesome. I love to this. Yeah, so many, uh so many wonderful things. So the mention of Mandala's and you know, the virtual spaces of Mendala's I'd love to do an episode just on Mandalas at some point in the future. In fact, I think Julian, you should take this subject and do an entire podcast series of your own about it. Yeah. Oh, it certainly sounds like something large enough that you could

you could do a whole series on it. Well, you know, Robert and I were just originally planning doing one episode about technology and religion, but then we got into it and realized we've been talking for like two and a half hour. I remember, I remember, because you win the studio and didn't come out for a really long time, and I and I thought, what happened? Yeah, yeah, I mean it's the topic and we just only in it, right, Yeah, there's a there's a lot there, so yeah, it could

easily be a podcast onto itself. So wait, before we move on. Transubstantiation is purely metaphorical. That's well, I understanding that depends I think. Okay, okay, so yeah, the idea there, if you're not familiar, is that I think, in uh, in the mass, if people in the Christian Mass are receiving, yeah, the bread and the wine. Transubstantiation is the belief that the bread and wine is becomes the body of in blood of Christ when it's at what point I don't

maybe when it's blessed by the priest. I'm not quite sure, but anyway, I think so some people would probably take that literally and say, yes, in some sense, now it is literally. Actually the body and Blood of Jesus and then others I think would take a more metaphorical approach to it. You know that that email was so good. We actually have another one from Jillian here, she says, I'd like to point your attention to another interest in

comparison you mentioned UFOs. I'd just like to point out that Young postulated that UFOs are now filling the role of heavenly, omniscient and powerful beings left by traditional godheads that have been eradicated as their scientific knowledge has grown. They fit the same circular mandalage shape as recognized by Young, as well as the likes of Joseph Campbell and J. G. Frasier.

Artists Susan Hiller explored this in her compelling piece Witness, in which small saucer shaped speakers were suspended on chords from the ceiling in a large rectangle with a space left for navigating in the shape of a crucifix. From the speakers, the viewer could listen closely to whispered confession like reports of individuals who claimed to have encountered UFOs. Adding another layer, the work was displayed in a church in England, alluding to the fact that where once we

saw angels, we now see advanced scientific beings. Of course, you argues that this being we see in a UFO is just a projection from our unconscious mind, revealing a desire for what he calls individuation at seeking of holness, to be close to an aspirational figure, and this desire manifest in the circular mendola shape as seen in Halo's ghostly Orbs, Navajo sand designs, et cetera. Anyway, thanks for reading. Again, I promise this is the last one. Again, it doesn't

have to be. These are so great. Yeah, they're quite good. In fact, you know, I'd like to hear a podcast from Jillian now also, Like I'm fascinated about what her

dissertation might be about this. This is a really interesting stuff. Yeah, so I think she's referring to the part in the second part of the of the Techno Religion podcast where we talked about the UFO cults like Railianism, which you know, they might not want to be a called a UFO coult actually, but what you know, they're they're a religion that incorporates the technology of supposed encounters with alien beings, where in fact it's it's a quite literal replacement of

God in in the writings of Royal Their their leader right, because he tells the story of how the Aliens went through the Bible with him and said, okay, this part here where it says God did that. Actually what happened is the Aliens used a nuclear powered radio to do X, Y and Z. Yeah. That the whole bit with Raliens was it was really interesting, especially when you got into the specifics of of like what Satan was doing as

a like cloning engineer. I can't remember there's like Satan and Lucifer in the in the Alien take is that one the two separate entities, one worked on on Earth in the cloning facility and the other one was an anti Earth activist on the home planet. It's wonderful stuff. Here's one that we actually got about our podcast about the science of incidence, the one Robert and I did there about methods of analyzing coincidences to see whether they're

actually statistically interesting or not. So Zara writes in and says, Hi, guys love the show. I just finished listening to the episode about coincidence and it was one of my favorites. I'm always trying to tell people about the law of large numbers. But then I'm a math person. Well, congratulations on that, Zarah. I am not, but I wish it were. She goes on. I especially liked the bit about only needing a group of twenty three people to find two

that have the same birthday. I shared it with my fiance as soon as I heard it, and he laughed at me and told me I'm a geek. Guilty as charged. Don't we have a brain Stuff episode about this? I believe you do, Ben does. Yeah, so if you check out our YouTube channel for for brain Stuff, which is one of the shows that Joe and I write for brain Stuff listeners outside of this show, and uh but yeah, Ben Boland did an episode on that very topic. Yeah, anyway,

Zara goes on. She says, anyways, I wanted to share my own coincidence the day I was born May sixteenth. What a coincidence? You want to know? A coincidence? Yeah, that's the day I was born. That's my birthday. Wow. So I was born on I mean July sixteen, and I was born in October sixteen. What we're all sixteen? How does the police sang? Anyway? Sarah too, Yeah, So, so Zara was born on May sixteenth. What a coincidence?

She says. My dad was wearing a T shirt from an old radio station in California, k m E L one oh six. His best friend worked at the station before I was born. Well, wouldn't you know it? I was born at one oh six in the morning. The only thing that would have made it better is if it had been an A M station. But no coincidence is perfect. How true that is, Sarah, She says, thanks for keeping us all educated and entertained. You're welcome. Thank you for writing in. Yeah, that that's a well, thank

you for that feedback. It also brings to mind we did receive an email that we didn't read, but it had to do with where like the coincidence and the numerology of our placement in iTunes ranking in relation to Glenn Beck's podcast, so that I didn't quite I didn't completely understand it, and we need some clarifications on the I'm sure there are invisible threads between us and Glenn Beck, though, yeah, not that I was aware that he had a podcast

until just now. Okay, so this one is from Dave, who wrote a message to us through Facebook again, where Blow the Mind on Facebook? Follow us there by the way. We don't just post our own stuff there. We share a lot of content that we find throughout the day as we're doing research, kinds of weird science, weird links. Yeah, monsters, monsters definitely are in there. Uh so, Dave says, Hi, guys, you probably don't have time to reply or maybe even read this an entire in its entirety, Boy, Dave, are

you in for a surprise. Nonetheless, I've out I should send you both a message just to let you know how much I love your podcast. I've been an avid podcast listener for a few years when I stumbled across yours. Until then, I've been listening to s gu and The Reality Check. When I started listening to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, I was impressed with the format of the show and the sharing of science was done in a fun,

never belittling way. I really enjoyed the report between both of you and look forward to my time so I can listen to a few Stuff to Blow your Mind episodes. I'm currently going through your backlog and I'm about halfway through a little more than the Seven Dead Leads. This is a series that you did with Julia. Yeah, we

did one on each of the seven Deadly Sins. Anyway, I just felt compelled to drop you this message just to let you know that I really enjoy and appreciate the show and wanted to thank you both and everyone else involved. That's us Joe for putting together such a great show on a regular basis. Thanks, and then he typed out smile emoticon like that. It's clever. Yeah, thanks Dave,

thanks for writing in. Uh and you have sounds like another individual making their way through the back catalog of episodes and you'll find all of those episodes that stuff to blow your mind. Dot com if you ever want to just check out, you know, go to search there and just see what we have. All the podcasts, all

the blog posts, all the videos everything. It's you know, I'm not just saying this because I'm on the show now, Like when you actually go and engage with with that site, Like, there's just a tremendous wealth of material that Robert and his various coasts over the years have produced. It's pretty awesome. Yeah, Okay, We've got just a couple more for you guys. This one is from sa Shank Sa Shank writes and says, hey, guys, just heard your podcast this morning. Lovely stuff about the

intersection of technology and religion. More about Techno Religion podcast Sashank says, I had a few thoughts I wanted to share when I thought about technology and religion. The first thing that came to mind was how many modern cult like religious movements were centered around technological profits. I speak primarily,

of course, about the mighty Apple. I'm sure you'd agree that Apple fandom is rather religious about their allegiance, and it was Steve Jobs who really inspired this cult following. I've thought about this quite often, and my guest was that Jobs really fulfilled all the criteria we look for in someone to worship slash follow When we seek religious leaders, we look for someone who has a hold over the masses and unites people based on a belief or ideology.

Someone who disseminates information, communication and social media, someone who tells us a prescribed way to do things, and someone who can empower people by giving them the tools to do said things, many of which you guys mentioned with brilliant examples, and Jobs seemed to put his products in this light. He made it clear that the technology he was selling wasn't simply a tool, it was a way

of life. Today, Apple fans lament the death of jobs, jobs while still performing their annual rituals of watching w w d C, lining up for iPhones, and submitting almost fanatically to the Apple doctrine. And I think that is something we often crave for His humans to be given direction, purpose prescribed rituals to perform in return for affiliation, belonging to a unified cult with a shared ideology, and of

course that edge over the other guys. And then Sashank links to a couple of articles covering phenomena similar to what he's been describing here. Once again, thanks for the great podcast, guys, totally helps me wake up every day. Well, thank you so much for that email, Sashank. So, do you guys remember the Big Brother commercial that Apple did in the eighties. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is what his his letters making me think of, is that it was

sort of prescient in its own way. I feel like they might have done like a parody version of that. There's been a number of over the years, and that there was one on Futurama. Okay, okay, yeah, but certainly yeah, the um And there was a book that I read in the nineties called micro Surfs. It was about sort of Silicon Valleys startups and and and some of the people who worked out there, and and their relationship to Steve Jobs was very much described the way that he

was describing it as he was almost like an entity. Yeah, I thought it was funny how in the email it suddenly it wasn't Steve Jobs every time it became jobs, like jobs is the name of like a Babylonian deity. You've got bail, and you've got and you've got jobs, jobs, jobs, the what the you know, the the winged lion. Now I'm picturing they have the winged lion with with Steve Jobs with a bite out of the side of it and a single leaf. All right, and here's our last

bit of listener mail. This one comes in from Facebook listener Good Vibes, Good Vibes Rights. I'm curious to know your thoughts in the existence or non existence of extraterrestrials, given thoughts and theories proposed by Eric van Duncan and other supporters of their existence, do you think it is plausible that they do exist? I'm really at at a loss here I personally want to believe, but the only evidence I have to go on his theory put forth in photos and videos which may be real or not. Well.

Robert actually recorded an episode of brain Stuff, our video series I mentioned earlier that I wrote the script for along with I Believe You You, was with Christen Conger about this very topic about whether aliens exist or not. Was it the Drake equation? Maybe? I'd only vaguely remember.

It's been over a year since we did it. I don't believe the Drake equation came into it, but we did talk about, you know, the possibility of extra trustrial life, uh, and specifically the Goldilocks zone concept of that, you know, there's this particular zone in between a star and and where a planet resides in order for the atmosphere to potentially host life. So yes or no? Extraterrestrials? Oh? I definitely think yes, definitely intelligent space faring. Yeah. Have they

visited Earth? No? Okay? Will they visit Earth? Yes, but not in our understanding of time? All right? How about you? Oh? Yeah, I think it's I mean, well, it's kind of presumptuous to say either way, because we we don't there are so many probabilities involved that we just don't even have a number four, Like, what is the probability that a biogenesis occurs on a on a habitable planet. I don't know what that, you know. I mean, it might be near one, or it might be one in ten trillion.

I just don't know, And I think even scientists don't necessarily know the answer to that. But my hunch is that, yes, there's plenty of life out there in the universe, but we may very well never encounter it ever. Okay, my take is that domight fake kind of varies. Like there was a time in um junior high where I was scared to death of alien abduction. Yeah, it's pretty like this unsolved mysteries had had gotten into my head. We're

talking about like early nineties. Yeah, yeah, and I was just you just look up into the night sky and they would just suck you up, you know. Um. So I feel like I'm there's definitely a strong uh uh tendency in myself now to just dismiss extraterrestrials. But I sometimes wonder if a part of that is was like a defensive mechanism to that fear I used to have so I found a reason to eradicate that fear through uh,

through you know, logic and common sense. But but I still I still think there is life out there somewhere. I don't know, I'm I'm not sure it's necessarily space faring now or that ever will be. But sometimes I do sort of think that lay there in bed at night and I sort of imagine some sort of a slime mold on another world. Yeah, yeah, that, Yeah, that's

where I fall, certainly. And I guess I would say too that this seems like the perfect stuff to blow your mind question to me, because this show is all about sort of the wonder and awe. I think that like science brings to us as people, you know, and and that's what this says to me as well, too. Is trying to use science or just your imagination to theorize whether extraterrestrial life exists or not is one of

those wondrous moments that I think this show is great for. Yeah. Well, I mean, I can't remember where this quote comes from. Somebody said this and I heard it. It's that when you think about extraterrestrial life, either there is extraterrestrial life or there isn't and no matter which option is true, that's mind blowing, right, Like the fact that we're alone in the universe is scary and awe inspiring, and the fact that there's other life out there is scary and

awe inspiring. Totally scary and inspiring. That's what we go for here. So hey, we want to thank the robot for a coming online, not destroying anybody. Um really just pleased that that machine is up in morning? Is Let's yeah? Okay, well we better wrap we better wrap it up. Um Hey. If you want to learn more about our podcast, check out old episodes, whatever, head over to stuff to bow

your mind dot com. That is the mothership. That's where we'll find all the episodes, all the podcast, all the videos, all the content links out to some of those social media accounts as well. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumbler. And if you wanted to write us an email that will be featured in a future episode listener mail episode, Arnie might just spit out your your your message to us right to us at blow the Mind at how stuff works dot com for more on this

and thousands of other topics. Does it how stuff works dot com