Technical short: Apex predators, asteroids and couch potatoes - podcast episode cover

Technical short: Apex predators, asteroids and couch potatoes

Mar 07, 20248 minEp. 79
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Episode description

In an earlier episode on apex predators we had a bit of a tech fail! Here's a big chunk of speculative conversation from Antonia, Ellie and Jasmin that that follows some sort of weird logic but somehow arrives at a sensible conclusion.

Transcript

[Music]

hello this bonus episode of technically speaking picks up our episode about apex predators did you notice that the end of the episode seemed a little bit abrupt well that's because Jasmin's recording equipment stopped working midway through the conversation but it was so much fun that Antonia Ellie and Jasmin re-recorded a version of it you know we were talking about the wooly mammoth oh yeah I couldn't say what for sure what wiped them out whether it was the

astreroid or not in the end it was the glaciation period that helped bring about their extinction oh oh so it was climate change yeah basically it got too warm for them they were too woly for their own good and we also suggested that humans are almost wiping out their own species and we talked about various things to do with outer space yeah we figured that certain rich people would just Escape Extinction brought about by mam climate change by fleeing to other planets kind of like at the end of

spoiler alert don't look up which in instead of climate change use the impact of an asteroid as an analogy that film is so scary I feel like it is actually going to predict the future it'll just be Leonardo DiCaprio banging on Instagram about climate change and world leaders ignoring him and then Elon Musk will escape to Mars and then rich people will therefore be the apex predator right like maybe Elon Musk is the apex predator in this situation I really don't want to say that but I kind of

agree cuz he's ultimate you know beat everyone for survival did you record yeah didn't he also say some stuff about like how he like wants to repopulate the planet or something I mean he's got a lot of children he does we also managed you know because in that film the asteroid is like heading to earth like that's what kills everyone at the end but we have managed to nudge an asteroid off course in real life like NASA and the dark Mission successfully changed the orbit or the path of an

asteroid I'm not sure quite was that wow yeah really interesting I didn't know about that yeah it was last year it was like September last year it was the dart Mission I think it was called didos or damos the moon not Moon the asteroid they manag to move but it made like there's a video of the impact of them firing the thing at it and then it like gets hit it's very cool look at that it's it's good that does sound really good you have thought it would have been

a big news story with loads of fanfare you know that Humanity isn't going to be destroyed but I didn't hear this either it was n like a like a threatened to humanity sort of asteroid it was like a very safe asteroid that they just wanted to see if they could move it so that in the future if there was one that was going to threaten her's Extinction they could also do that so I guess like the distance away from it made it less exciting but it was very exciting at the

time if you were aware that it was happening but I guess it wasn't big enough news I mean if you had some talented film company you probably would find some drama in it kind of like how Laura was talking about it with her documentary about the scient in Japan she found drama in a an experiment that had to be done in a specific time frame so why not but I think we talked about this before was it doesn't intentionally try to kill us such as the asteroid it was just passing by it wasn't actually

trying to kill Humanity doesn't make it Predator but if we can beat an asteroid doesn't that still make us the apex predator yeah like if you're a really good MMA fighter like could you maybe potentially win against a bear against a bear yeah no absolutely not humans are way too slow and fragile think how many like teeth and Claws a bear has even I no absolutely not okay but we've used our Ingenuity and we've created weapons so what about that I mean yeah if you

had a gun fight a bear yeah you probably win if you knew what you were doing but I mean I think how many Americans accidentally shoot themselves every year so there's no guarantee that you would win but yes if you had a gun I think you'd stand a much better chance and you knew how to use it but if you didn't have a gun you're not beating your a bear but apparently the only thing that we can beat animals in like Predators is our stamina like we're really bad at

swimming we're really bad at climbing we're really like compared to these like apex predators but we are really good at running slowly quite a lot that's literally our one where we beat the animal kingdom is that we're really good like people running ultramarathons and Ultra Ultra Iron Mans and whatever they're called we're really good at running slowly along a long distance that's like the only thing we beat the Animal Kingdom in we collectively rather than me as an individual though oh yeah

like I don't know mo Faro and whoever's winning marathons the the Iron Man I don't know any athletes but yeah not not me can do a 5K in less than 28 minutes but that's my only clim to fame that's still impressive thank you yeah I am proud of my it's good but that still makes the bear the apex predator then oh absolutely okay just to change uh topic a little bit there was another survival skill that me and Jasmine were talking about animals being so cute that we and

instead of trying to kill them want to save them panda bears are a good one that comes to mind so pandas the face of the World Wildlife Fund the symbol of China the animal that China uses for diplomacy yeah they're just like super cute people love them they're so cute that people are spending millions and millions of dollars every year trying to stop them from going extinct so you're arguing that they are the apex predator because they've convinced human beings

to look after them rather than trying to kill or eat anything else they've just used their cuteness to manipulate humankind yeah you can like frame it that way I mean you guys are slaves to your pets you do everything for your pet who's the real Bast in the house I mean they the heck of a lot of bamboo and because and like nutrient content I guess it's always going to be a bit limiting for survival and they don't like they're not really massively fussed about breeding I think they have to like

be seven years old or something like it takes a long time for them to reach sexual maturity so they're not massively fuss about carrying on their own species so yeah maybe this is L forward is that a prerequisite to be an apex predator or just a prerequisite to surviving and not going extinct and not going extinct is an interesting one because obviously it's people that have had this impact on pandas especially right so we've destroyed their habitat it's probably a

good thing that we're helping them saving them we don't I mean I don't want panda bears to go extinct not at all but we have we have caused it so maybe it is on Humanity to save them and maybe we haven't directly been manipulated by pandas because they're adorable it's just that people like adorable things even if they don't want our help it's very easy for people to be like oh cute panda I'll give two quid to the WWF to help them yeah and like guys both have

pets you can literally hear my yeah I can literally hear buffing back go meow yeah that is her call isn't it to uh to survival feed me I'm absolutely a slave to my cat's spks and she's normally the one meowing in the background of the podcast so it's nice to hear a little Buffy voice for a change that was pretty much where we end the episode and where do you stand and are humans the apex predator no absolutely not I pick animals any day I don't think you can take the fact that

we've invented guns and weapons and horrible things like that over the fact that a tiger in its habitat or a lion or any of the big sharks are so perfectly adapted and so brilliantly able to succeed at the top of the food chain what about you Jasmine yeah I agree with Alie like animals are just like like better at being a predator and humans especially modern day humans were're just couch potatoes so we're not winning any fights the views expressed in this podcast belong entirely to the person

that said them they did not represent any industry or organization if you enjoyed listening to these views it would really help us out if you could rate US leave a review and tell a friend this podcast was sponsored by no one but if you're interested in funding us to continue to have Frank discussions about science and engineering please get in [Music] touch

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