Zengineering: A Philosophy of Science, Technology, Art & Engineering

Wassup Zengineers!?

It's been a minute. How's stuff?

We'll keep it simple. ChatGPT dropped... and it's cool enough that we had to bring in a guest and do an episode about it. 

That's it. We hope you enjoy it.

✌️ Kerp

More Ramsay here:

https://twitter.com/_ramsaybrown

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramsaybr/

Wassup Zengineers!

I've had this sitting on my desktop for a couple years at this point. Had some time, so I finally processed it. Enjoy. Hope all is well 🚀

✌️Kerp

Howdy, Zengineers!

Did you know everything you do all day runs on software? Yup. It’s true. Everything. Well … I mean, not EVERYTHING, but pretty much everything. Your car. Your electricity. Your phone. Your computer. Your TV. Even our dishwashers and blenders, doorbells and lights, all run on software. There’s no way around it.

Software is powerful and enables the technologies we’ve all become accustomed to. But what’s so unique about it? Well, one of the primary drivers behind software’s viral spread is that once you digitize something, you can share it with everyone at almost no additional cost. The same cannot be said about the tires on my car, or the wood used to make my front door. Since sharing software is virtually free, free-software has come to rule the world. And, that’s Open Source. Software anyone can access, anyone can build upon, and anyone can get the benefit of… often, at no cost.

The engineers and designers behind the software that runs the world realized decades ago that innovation is enabled when these software solutions are shared openly and freely. Business can grow faster. Money can be made more efficiently. Lives can be made better… all because we share with one another, and collaborate on the world’s big problems through Open Source Software.

What a joy, you might say. So smart. So wonderful. I can’t believe it. Well … believe it. Your phone may have software on it that you paid for, but your phone simply would not work and, quite frankly, would not even exist, if it weren’t for people AND BUSINESSES freely sharing critical softwares systems with each other. This revolution is starting to come to other industries, as well, as the marginal cost of other technologies continues to be driven down. What an innovative and functional time to be alive. Who uses those words to express the thrill of life? Nerds, baby. Er… I mean, Zengineers!!

We hope you enjoy this episode as much as you enjoy all the Open Source Software enabled technologies that you’re using right now.

Support the show: http://support.zengineeringpodcast.com

Visit our website for more episodes: http://zengineeringpodcast.com

Cheers,

Adam & Brian

Show Notes

Wikipedia: Open Source Software: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software

Wired’s Guide to Open Source: https://www.wired.com/story/wired-guide-open-source-software/

Unix v. Linux: https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/unix-vs-linux/#:~:text=Linux%20refers%20to%20the%20kernel,family%20of%20derived%20operating%20systems

Top 10 Open Source Hall of Famers: https://www.cio.com/article/3404462/top-10-open-source-hall-of-famers.html

Hey, Zengineers!!

We’ve got one of those easy to do and easy to listen to nerd bomb episodes this week. SUPERHEROES!! Also comic books. Yay. What fun? Yes, we agree. Stoked, so let’s get after it.

This one is all about why we care, and why we’re interested. We touch on the persistence of mythology throughout history, and how it’s morphed and evolved into modern mythologies. Part of the intrigue and power comes from the media through which comics are presented … a spectrum of words v. pictures. We wrestle with the guilt that is often associated with reading picture books, and address the true value of the graphic novel.

As always, Adam takes us all the way back to cave paintings, which are the first graphic novels. See … it started here! We hit some of the history of comics, modern stories, movies, and media, and drive it all home with the notion of heroes inspiring all media and everything we do in life. What fun!

We hope you enjoy this episode and are inspired to read some old stories, or go pick up some comics and explore them if they are new to you. Go ask for some adult graphic novels … but no, not like ADULT graphic novels, but … for adults. I mean, they make XXX graphic novels, too … which is interesting and for another episode. The point is … the medium is amazing and dynamic and we think you’ll love it if new, or continue to love it if you already do.

Support the show: http://support.zengineeringpodcast.com

Visit our website for more episodes: https://zengineeringpodcast.com

Cheers,

Adam & Brian

Hey, Zengineers!!

This week we’re going deep into the void of the unknown, to unravel the deepest mysteries of our universe. How will we get there? What will we discover? No one knows, and that’s what’s so exciting about it. So, let’s get right to our conversation about A Grand Unified Theory of Physics.

We’re always thinking about this a little bit. After all we’re recliner physicists, but this week we were inspired by a new release from Stephen Wolfram, that wild and wacky entrepreneur, engineer, inventor, philosopher, and all around crazy guy, behind well ... all kinds of weird and interesting shit. Yeah, scope him out and read his new article about his own unified theory of physics (see the show notes).

This is a fun one to bounce around in, because if you’re loose with the topic, it can kind go anywhere. After all, it’s about what makes our universe our universe. We chase some of the physics, some of the philosophy, and lots of the fun as we spiral around the rules of all rules.

We hope you enjoy this episode and all the amazing things you can read and watch and listen to online as you explore this topic more on your own.

Support the show: http://support.zengineeringpodcast.com

Visit our website for more episodes: https://zengineeringpodcast.com

Cheers,

Adam & Brian

Show Notes

Stephen Wolfram’s New Post on his own unified theory of physics: https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2020/04/finally-we-may-have-a-path-to-the-fundamental-theory-of-physics-and-its-beautiful/

Wikipedia on the theory of everything: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_everything

Wolfram Alpha, the science search engine: https://www.wolframalpha.com/

What’s the happs, Zengineers?

We’re back with our old friends at Nori, this week talking to Alexsandra Guerra Co-Founder & Director of Corporate Development, and 30 Under 30 GreenBiz 2019 Award Winner. For those in the know, this continues our collection of the Nori founding team, as we’ve had both Christophe and Paul on as well (see their episodes in the show notes below).

We didn’t want to just rehash Nori in this convo, but some updates are always nice. We talk to Alexsandara about her background and how she found herself building Nori, and then we embark on an adventure to discuss how we all think about and deal with climate change in our own lives with the goal of staying AWAY from the technical. If you listen often, you know this was a challenge for Adam and Brian, and, interestingly, for Alexsandra as well.

What we all know is that climate change is a complex technical issue, but what we realized during this conversation is that we need to spend an equal amount of time (if not much more) thinking about and talking about how it manifests in our every day lives, through our thoughts, our worries, and our actions. We then need to tell more stories!

Lucky for us all, Alexsandra is starting a podcast to do just this, and she promises to kick that off right here on Zengineering (BREAKING NEWS!!). We’re kinda kidding. She’s only thinking about it, but we support the move. Let her know that you do too, by reaching out!

As always, we really enjoyed this convo and hope you do too.

Support the show: http://support.zengineeringpodcast.com

Visit our website for more episodes: https://zengineeringpodcast.com

Cheers,

Adam & Brian

Show Notes

Nori: https://nori.com/

Alexsandra on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexsandraguerra/

Nori’s Podcast (Alexsandra is a host): https://nori.com/reversing-climate-change

Big Magic (Book): https://www.amazon.com/Big-Magic-Creative-Living-Beyond/dp/1594634726

Granular (Farm Management Software): https://granular.ag/

Zengineering Episode 064 — with Christophe Jospe of Nori — On Climate Change — Part 4 — Reversing It: https://zengineeringpodcast.com/064-with-christophe-jospe-of-nori-on-climate-change-part-4-reversing-it-a5fd4ba27ea3

Zengineering Episode 075 — with Paul Gambill — On The True Cost of Carbon and Reversing Climate Change: https://zengineeringpodcast.com/episode-075-with-paul-gambill-on-the-true-cost-of-carbon-and-reversing-climate-change-717a563b10d6

Our friends, the Zengineers,

We are joined this week by anthropologist, technologist, speaker, and author, Samantha Radocchia, AKA, Sam Rad. Yeah, that's a great full name and great nickname. Way to be named, Sam!!

We've been excited about this conversation for a while because, from the very beginning, we knew we were going to talk about a lot of our shared passions. Sam is not only the author of Bitcoin Pizza (how Adam and her started talking), but she also co-founded and operated a technology startup merging blockchain and manufacturing supply chain. What a rad combo! See what we did there? Of course you do. Our listeners are sharp as tacks. Needless to say we took a lot of fun turns exploring technology, manufacturing, blockchain, and even competitive skydiving, with Sam.

What has she learned from all this experience? Well similar to some other sages we've spoken to, technology is wildly complex, its pace is changing the world in ways we must work hard to understand, and, if done right, we can form these technologies to make the world not only more successful, but just plain better for every one and every thing.

We hope you enjoy Sam's joyful energy and wise insights as much as we did.

Support the show: http://support.zengineeringpodcast.com

Visit our website for more episodes: https://zengineeringpodcast.com

Cheers,

Adam & Brian

Show Notes

Sam on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantharadocchia/

Sam's new book, "Bitcoin Pizza": https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Pizza-No-Bullshit-Guide-Blockchain-ebook/dp/B07TYHKVLF

Sam's Supply Chain Startup: https://www.chronicled.com/

Saving Time, Working Remotely: https://twitter.com/madisonkanna/status/1154169387470823425?s=21

Dropzone Trailer (yes, it is an awesome movie about competetive skydiving featuring true classics like Wesley Snipes and Gary Busey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX17-NVFgGY

And ... one more for the history books, the Aspen Extreme Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn5Q_fjvKVQ

Fav Quote: "You know how you know a good expert? They try to tell you they aren’t an expert."

Zengineers!! What's the happs?

Let's have a fun chat this week, we said. Something we both love, that reminds us of being young, and that we could talk about in depth and at length. Well, we came up with video games. In fact, we were so excited by the topic that we're going to turn it into a series.

This week, as we often do, is the first in the series where we get our feet wet just musing on the world of video games and our experience with them. We've both played a lot as kids on both consoles and computers. Clearly that experience influenced us in our educations and professions.

Video games are such a beautiful amalgamation of modern technology, science, engineering, and art. Over the years they have expanded from the simplest of early experiences only had by the deepest of nerds to games that the majority of the world have enjoyed in shared online experiences; such beauty in something that under the hood is so very complex. What a great topic to series (a verb?) on Zengineering.

In future episodes we will be bringing guests to talk about the history, the hardware, the software, and the rapidly evolving view of video games in society. We hope you enjoy this first conversation.

Don't miss these other great series in a similar vein:

Virtual Reality: https://zengineeringpodcast.com/episode-034-on-virtual-reality-389ecc73dfe0

Artificial Inteliigence: https://zengineeringpodcast.com/episode-027-on-artificial-intelligence-part-1-5a98c9c246d5

Dungeons & Dragons: https://zengineeringpodcast.com/episode-005-on-dungeons-dragons-fantasy-sports-and-lego-math-49804abb0ea1

Support the show: http://support.zengineeringpodcast.com

Visit our website for more episodes: https://zengineeringpodcast.com

Cheers,

Adam & Brian

Show Notes

How many installs of office exist in the world: https://www.quora.com/How-many-Microsoft-Office-users-are-there-worldwide

Brian's favorite 8-bit-covers playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/1214582130/playlist/30ReTImxMKlIDmBgAwnD0i?si=k3ks2fvqQsWyRb-e1uVLzw

Famous cheat codes over the years: https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/brwmq/porntipsguzzardo/

The Myth Of Prometheus – The Thief Of Fire: https://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/prometheus-fire-myth/

What's up, Zengineers?

Welcome back to the laboratory. This week we're discussing economics with a real live economics professor. Wow! Tim Foad is a good friend, the Chair of the Department of Economics at San Diego State University, and a great guy to shoot the shit with. Tim told us that people aren't always excited to talk to economists. We can't possibly understand why, because we're stoked, and so glad that Tim could join us.

This conversation started from a question Brian had about how wealth is created in the world. You know, not just money like Dollars and Yen, but on the books value of goods, commodities, assets ... bigger too ... we're talking GDP and other academic words, phrases, and acronyms that may seem simple, but are all a bit confusing when you starting asking real questions about them.

Wealth is a weird concept, but it's an important one when you're going to discuss ... well, just about anything ... but especially how businesses, governments, and technology play into policy around the world. Many of you will recognize that wealth, and the accumulation of it, is not a zero sum game. This is tricky, and confusing, and hard to talk about, but Tim helped make sense of it.

We can't promise we stayed on topic the whole time, but Tim helped us place economics into our mental models of the world, and helped us answer some of our puzzling questions. We hope you enjoy the convo.

Support the show: http://support.zengineeringpodcast.com

Visit our website for more episodes: https://zengineeringpodcast.com

Cheers,

Adam & Brian

Show Notes

Tim's Favorite Economist: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1992/becker/biographical/

Predictably Irrational: https://www.amazon.com/Predictably-Irrational-Revised-Expanded-Decisions/dp/006

Diminishing marginal utility of income and wealth: https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/12309/concepts/diminishing-marginal-utility-of-income-and-wealth/

Mechanical Turkers may have out-predicted the most popular crime-predicting algorithm: https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/17/16902016/compas-algorithm-sentencing-court-accuracy-problem

Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COMPAS_(software)

Development Economics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_economics

Natural Monopoly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_monopoly

Hey there, Zengineers?

We hope you're down for a wild ride this week. Our guest is Patrick Mellor: biological scientist, philosopher, geological climatologist (we may have invented this title), researcher, journalist and poet. Needless to say, we had a blast chatting with him.

This conversation feels like it lasted for days with all the ground we covered, but we had to cut it down to just the best nuggets. We discuss Earth before life, the wild changes the planet has endured, and how the planet has evolved over time because of life. The impact has been profound, and continues to be today as humanity faces one of its greatest challenges with anthropogenic climate change.

Patrick brings a perspective to our study of Earth and its climate that's truly hard to come by. We share a concern for the current situation, but Patrick also shares a perspective of true beauty with us, and one that has stuck with us since the episode. Life on Earth has caused mass extinctions before, but NEVER before has that life been so aware of what is going on and so able to affect positive change. We're in this together, and Patrick's positivity shines through in this episode. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we enjoyed having it.

Special shout out this week to our longtime listener, Dean for introducing us to Patrick and allowing this episode to come together. Thanks for supporting the show, Dean!

Support the show: http://support.zengineeringpodcast.com

Visit our website for more episodes: https://zengineeringpodcast.com

Cheers,

Adam & Brian

Show Notes

Patrick's New Book: https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9781943209248/alkali-shores.aspx

Ancient Upheavals Show How To Geoengineer A Stable Climate (by Patrick): https://palladiummag.com/2019/01/28/ancient-upheavals-show-how-to-geoengineer-a-stable-climate/

Flood Basalt Eruptions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_basalt

Panspermia (a theory of how life spread in the unverse): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia

The Younger Dryas: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/abrupt-climate-change/The%20Younger%20Dryas

Testing Iron Fertilization of the Oceans: https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2012/10/18/iron-fertilization-savior-to-climate-change-or-ocean-dumping

Hydroelectric Power on the Mediteranean: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantropa

The deepest part of the Mediterranean Sea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calypso_Deep

Refilling The Mediterranean Sea: https://mappingignorance.org/2014/02/07/how-the-mediterranean-was-refilled/

Yellowstone's Supervolcano: https://www.seeker.com/earth/a-deep-mantle-plume-fuels-the-yellowstone-supervolcano

Permian-Triassic Exstinction Event: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian%E2%80%93Triassic_extinction_event

What's up, Zengineers?

We're back in the party pad! Hooray. This week we're getting grungy, or is it crunchy, or maybe grundly? I don't know. Whatever you call it, we're talking about surviving in the great outdoors. You know, AKA, hiking, camping and general adventuring.

Adam and Brian are both self proclaimed outdoorsmen, having spent much of their childhood wandering around outside with varying levels of guidance and supervision. They've definitely both pushed the limits ... well, like ... built forts, blown things up, started fires by hand, and gotten badges and stuff ... let's just say they both feel comfy in a tent, and can use a map and compass. That's a good start.

This episode is a bit of an exploration of why we adventure, why camping is a thing and not just life, and how adventure can be good for us. We talk about fun things to do outside, fun places we've been recently, and some of the many pitfalls of wandering around in nature when most of your life is spent in the confines of a suburban home where bears are definitely not commonly found.

This is a jolly old convo about having fun in nature. It's definitely not a guide on how to survive or how to get started camping or even just hiking. Nope. We're not those kind of story tellers. The general internet is better for that.

So, sit back, relax, and put on your Earth day cap while we take you through the green forests of the northeast, the blistering deserts of the southeast, and the delightfully cooling waters that tie life and the entire world together.

Support the show: http://support.zengineeringpodcast.com

Visit our website for more episodes: https://zengineeringpodcast.com

Cheers,

Adam & Brian

What's up, Zengineers?

Welcome back to the laboratory. It's just us this week (no guests), so we've taken the liberty of chasing a bunch of random topics as a throwback to our early episodes.

We started the convo with the intention of sharing a super fun experience we recently shared together in Virtual Reality. We took a tour of the ancient Egyptian tomb of Nefertari as it looked the day she was laid to rest. The tour was guided by a professor of Egyptian Archaeology and was one of the most interesting VR experiences either of us have had to date.

The sidetrack topic on this episode turned out to be the privatization of the space industry. The exciting news that SpaceX successfully docked its crew capsule to the international space station for the first time, sets the stage for the first private transportation of US Astronauts in the history of humankind. What an an exciting time.

Enjoy the excitement of JFK's announcement of the original Space Race to the Moon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouRbkBAOGEw

Hope you enjoy the convo.

Support the show: http://support.zengineeringpodcast.com

Visit our website for more episodes: https://zengineeringpodcast.com

Cheers,

Adam & Brian

Show Notes

VR Cameras on the Space Station: https://www.roadtovr.com/vr-cameras-now-international-space-station-capture-space-walks-missions/

Windows running apps natively in VR: https://www.roadtovr.com/windows-mixed-reality-will-soon-run-win32-desktop-apps-vr/

Millions attend the same concert in VR: https://www.roadtovr.com/fornite-virtual-concert-potent-glimpse-of-virtual-reality-future/

Microsoft HoloLens 2 Release Video: https://www.roadtovr.com/mwc-2019-hololens-2-reveal-demo/

The amazing physics of VR: https://www.roadtovr.com/boneworks-reveal-stress-level-zero-physics-based-interactions-embodiment/

A new T-Rex experience at the American Museum of Natural History: https://www.roadtovr.com/american-museum-natural-history-brings-visitors-closer-t-rex-new-vr-experience/

A hilariously old website sharing JFK's original space race announcement: https://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/ricetalk.htm

JFK's Moonshot Announcement on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouRbkBAOGEw

Howdy, Zengineers!

We're back at it trying to help understand Climate Change with our buddies at Nori (https://nori.com/). This week we're joined by CEO, Paul Gambill to hear an update on what's happening at Nori and wheree they are headed.

There's a lot of technology driving Nori. Not only are they a software company building on top of a blockchain backbone, but they also have to worry about the organic-to-digital translation of real world measurements of carbon in physical materials like the atmosphere and soil into bits of computer data.

In this episode we dive into where Nori is headed from a technological perspective. We discuss how Nori is currently working with farmers to build out economic incentive backed by real data to encourage carbon capture and help make farming generally healthier and more sustainable. It's a lot to digest, but it's all delicious. See what we did there? Hilarious!

Hope you enjoy the convo.

Support the show: http://support.zengineeringpodcast.com

Visit our website for more episodes: https://zengineeringpodcast.com

Cheers,

Adam & Brian

Show Notes

Nori FAQ: https://nori.com/faq

Nori Carbon Removal Newsroom (new podcast briefs from Nori on climate and carbon capture) https://nori.com/carbon-removal-newsroom

An interview on Nori's Podcast with Astrobiologist David Grinspoon: https://nori.com/podcast/47-astrobiologist-david-grinspoon

More about ol' David! - https://www.psi.edu/about/staffpage/grinspoon

Earth In Human Hands (a great read): https://www.amazon.com/Earth-Human-Hands-Shaping-Planets/dp/1455589128

BBC's Power of the Planet (geological history and perspective on our planet... kinda like Planet Earth but actually about the planet, and not the living creatures): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008fdjy/episodes/guide

Climeworks, a leading Carbon Capture Company: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/12/magazine/climeworks-business-climate-change.html

One of the technological integrations Nori is using to measure and understand climate data: http://cometfarm.nrel.colostate.edu/

Howdy, Zengineers!

This week we're joined by writer and philosopher Jennifer Harris. She's a staple in the San Diego fundraising community, owns and operates JH Collective (http://www.jhcollectiveinc.com - a professional fundraising organization), and used to lead an amazing creative writing group with Brian, years ago.

Our conversation is one of falling in and out of love with what you do professionally and who you become throughout the cycles. It's a personal journey trying to understand the psychology of the modern worker and the journey through ever changing careers. In it we attempt to uncover why we connect with the things we choose to do, and how do these connections guide us in developing our self image and our internal monologues. It's a fascinating journey, and we're glad you're here to join us.

Hope you enjoy the convo.

Support the show: http://support.zengineeringpodcast.com

Visit our website for more episodes: https://zengineeringpodcast.com

Cheers,

Adam & Brian

Show Notes

Jennifer Harris Collective: http://www.jhcollectiveinc.com/

The Vitruvian Man: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man

Seth Godin: https://www.sethgodin.com/

Recode/Decode with Kara Swisher: https://www.recode.net/recode-decode-podcast-kara-swisher

On Being Podcast: https://onbeing.org/series/podcast/2/

Howdy, Zengineers!

Today we're discussing Universal Basic Income (UBI) in The United States. What is it? How does it work? What's good? What's bad? Who cares and who does it affect? Our guest, Colin Murphy is an old friend and an outspoken supporter of both UBI and political representatives who are forcing this conversation back into the public debate.

UBI has been around in many forms for a long time. Some call it socialism. Some say that's absurd. It actually exists in some places around the world already, including the United States. It's a crazy topic that invokes a lot of questions, a lot of debate, and a lot of emotion. A conversation about UBI forces an examination of the entire structure of one's government and underlying economic systems. And, it's a complicated subject that potentially affects wealth, work, and daily life for everyone.

UBI is a topic that's particularly popular in some circles these days because of the current global political landscape, a continued growth in wealth gaps around the world, and a global consciousness that simultaneously is becoming more divisive but also more inclusive.

It's easy to get overly excited about UBI or to dismiss it as ridiculous. Honestly, both reactions are pretty appropriate, but the conversation may be more relevant today than at any time in history, especially with the ridiculous pace of technological advancement.

We hope you enjoy the convo.

Support the show: http://support.zengineeringpodcast.com

Visit our website for more episodes: https://zengineeringpodcast.com

Cheers,

Adam & Brian

Show Notes

The Left Thinks a 'Green New Deal' Could Save Earth and Destroy the GOP (Vice): https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4397ap/the-left-thinks-a-green-new-deal-could-save-earth-and-destroy-the-gop

Send money to the extreme poor: https://www.givedirectly.org/

Bullshit Jobs (a book, by David Graeber): https://www.amazon.com/Bullshit-Jobs-Theory-David-Graeber/dp/150114331X

Basic Attention Token (monetize your attention): https://basicattentiontoken.org/

Brave Browser (a private webroser that integrates with BAT): https://brave.com/

Universal Basic Income as the Social Vaccine of the 21st Century (Medium): https://medium.com/basic-income/universal-basic-income-as-the-social-vaccine-of-the-21st-century-d66dff39073

Howdy, Zengineers!

It's time. What time you might ask? Time to talk about the Scientific Method. Yeah. That method! The scientific one. Yikes! This conversations has been a long time coming and we're so happy to finally be talking about it.

The core here is establishing a clear understanding of deductive versus inductive reasoning. We cannot, according to the philosophy of science, deductively prove things in our universe. We can only deductively DISPROVE them. As Albert Einstein famously said (or said something along these lines) "No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right, yet a single experiment can prove me wrong."

Over time experimenting against inductively based reason creates solid foundational knowledge that we expect to consistently describe the behavior of the world around us. If ever an inductive conclusion is deductively proven wrong, then we must adjust that theory and all branching knowledge. This is the scientific method and what makes this incredible technological and philosophical innovation so damn powerful. Dig it? You should, and you will.

This episode is kind of part of a series. They don't really require that you listen in any particular order, but you may want to check these out too:

Episode 044 — On Experts, Algorithms, and Scientific Thinking: https://zengineeringpodcast.com/episode-044-on-experts-algorithms-and-scientific-thinking-7f9e0e8ba128

Episode 046 — On Experiments, and their Limits in Meat Space: https://zengineeringpodcast.com/episode-046-on-experiments-and-their-limits-in-meat-space-25c8902085c0

Episode 048 - On STEAM Education & The Importance of Curiosity: https://zengineeringpodcast.com/episode-048-on-steam-education-and-the-importance-of-curiosity-906bf0790946

We hope you enjoy the convo. Support the show: http://support.zengineeringpodcast.com and visit our website for more episodes: https://zengineeringpodcast.com

Cheers,

Adam & Brian

Show Notes

What is science and why is it so special? (Towards Data Science): https://towardsdatascience.com/what-is-science-and-why-is-it-so-special-79e166e667c0

What exactly is the scientific method and why do so many people get it wrong?: http://theconversation.com/what-exactly-is-the-scientific-method-and-why-do-so-many-people-get-it-wrong-65117

What's the low down, Zengineers?

We've got a music-eee episode for you this week, which is great, because everyone loves music. Right? Yeah, we thought so. Na Na Naaa Naaa Naaaaaaaa

What we're specifically talking about is learning to play musical instruments. The desire, the drive, the practice, the challenge, the perspective and everything else that comes along with it. Adam and Brian are both hobby musicians with years of experience kinda sorta playing lots of different stuff ... mostly alone in their rooms, occasionally with friends, and every so often out in public with strangers around. Whoa ... I got nervous just writing that.

There's a lot involved in learning to play a musical instrument and it's not just the instrument. Music itself is a science that can take lifetime to truly understand. Your goal can be quick and dirty to play pop songs along with friends or it can be a lifelong pursuit to play for the world and create your own musical magic. However

Heyo, Fellow Zegineers!!

I'll be boch!! I mean ... we'll be back ... er, we're back!! Yeah, there we go. We're back with another fun filled ride through canyon of curiosity, the laboratory of lucidity, the couch of confusion? Wait, that last one's not very good. Let me try again.

We're BACK this week with an episode on one of our favorite sci fi characters, The Terminator (we love you Arnold)!! Yay. We've talked a lot about terminators in previous episodes, but always as an aside or a reference. We're a little obsessed. Brian even has recurring dreams about terminators. It's good and bad. We discuss it.

This week's convo dives deep into the history of the terminator on screen, the science fiction lore that we all love, and the modern tech that might make them possible. Or, are they here already? Nobody knows. Or do they. Yeah, we're feeling weird today. Stick with us.

James Cameron's absurdly successful career was rocket propelled by the first Terminator

What's up, Zengineers?

Drones! Get it? Awkward...

Anyway, This is our second episode in a multi part series on Drones. In this one, we get technical into how things work inside these crazy machines. Mostly we're talking quadcopters, but many similar technologies are in the military aircraft of nation states and even your pocket, too (inside your phone).

We get into the form, fit, and function the major componets of RC Flight Control Systems like magenetometers for measuring direction within the Earth's magnetosphere, altimeters that calculate height above the earth using barametric pressure from the atmosphere, and acceleromters that mesure the force of gravity through via variable electrical currents through material deformation (allowing orientation in 3d space). GPS finally ties everything together to allow autonomous AIs to move freely around our planet, know exactly where they are in all three dimensions of physical space, while simultaneously knowing what

Well, hellow there, fellow Zengineers!

This week is our first in a series on Drones!! Yeah, those unbelievable fantasy vehicles that are everywhere now. Some are taking pictures, some are dropping bombs, some are taking pictures and dropping bombs ... but most are just buzzing around and scaring the hell out of grandma.

This episode is all about where drones came from and why they are here now? Mostly we're talking about the kinda drones we're all allowed to have ourselves ... Quadcopters. These are nifty little creatures that seem somewhat organic as they buzz around the skies and even our homes. Quadcopters are basically ubiquitous today, even though they were just magical internet memes sweeping the planet a few years ago.

In this conversation, we touch a little on the history of radio controlled (RC) vehicles and the development of the tech that got us to now. We dive into the mechaincs of flight and how planes differ from helicopters, t

Hey Zengineers!

This is our second episode in a series on Climate Change. No one knows how many episodes this series may ultimately contain, but probably a lot! We've got loads to share, and we've got some killer guests coming up. We also find this topic important, timely, all encompassing, and endlessly interesting. Lots of what we talk about regularly is affected by and affects Climate Change. Wow! So much fun to be had, and so much important information to share!

In this episode, we get into a little of the nitty gritty science. What is happening chemically that is causing global climate change, global warming, droughts, floods, super storms, wildfires, pollution, extinctions and more? How are all these things possibly even connected? We've all heard about the Carbon Cycle of life and that there's too much CO2 in our atmosphere, but what does that mean? What is it doing, and how's it doing it? Also, wtf is Carbon and why is it so important?

What's happenin' Zengineers?

Our guest this week is Kelly Gardner, a filmmaker, teacher, community leader, and friend. He has a great radio voice and does an awful lot of speaking for a living, so get ready for some serious ear candy, and a deep dive into the philosophy of story telling through the ages. This episode is a delightful conversation informed by the mind of a professional storyteller.

We kick off with Adam and Kelly reminiscing about film school and dabble a little into the evolution of film and camera technology, a series of monumental global shifts that have put the professional tools of storytelling into the hands and pockets of everyone on Earth. We discuss stories all around us, how we capture those stories, how we tell those stories, and how we use those stories to inspire the world.

Modern media moves so quickly, however, that the "hows" and "whys" are constantly morphing, forcing a change in our relationship with it as well. We close with som

Heyo Zengineers!!

Here we are again, at the precipice of adventure and intrigue. This week, we're kicking off a series of episodes on Climate Change and all that comes along with it. And, when we say ALL, we truly mean it. We're gonna give you a lot of different angles over the coming months so that we can all really appreciate what's going on, what already happened, what's NOT going on, what didn't happen, and what might or might not be going on in the future.

These are complicated questions, and to even begin a conversation about Climate Change we really do have to answer the big question, WTF is it? You probably have your own images that pop to mind ... storms, trash, smoke stacks, recycling, clouds of noxious gasses, overpopulation, traffic, farms, deforestation, failing reefs, etc. etc. etc... but what is REALLY affecting our climate? How do know what to focus on and what matters, right now?

Well a clear definitio

Hello Zengineer Friends!!

This week we're diving into text based digital communication!! Hooray. Yeah, we're excited too. What's that you ask? Texting? Yeah, kinda. Tweets? Yup, sorta. Email? Of course...

We've been inspired by the deprecation of one of the earliest forms of mass digital communication, AOL Instant Messanger (AIM). Yup, that one with the yellow running man icon. We both used it extensively as kids and into college, but whatever happened to it? Well, it was totally dicontinued just a little while ago, despite having previously enabled hundreds of millions of people to communicate every day.

In this episode, we dive into a little bit of the tech, a little bit of the nostalgia, and whole lot of the thrill of communicating with others. We trace the history of text based messages like AIM all the way into the weird world of today where you can send an "instant" digital communication to a space station in orbit, and get a response

What's up Zengineers!!??

It's that time again? What time you may ask? Time to get jiggy inside a high tech rabbit hole.

Our guest this week is Jonathan Sampson, programmer, world traveller, technologist, and Head of Developer Relations at Brave Browser (https://brave.com/). A new revolution of web based technology is upon us, and Jonathan is here to help us make sense of it, and discuss how the team behind Brave Browser is leading the way.
Brave is a new web browser (like Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Apple Safaris, or Mozilla Firefox) ... The difference is, this browser is aiming to totally alter the internet landscape. Through security by design, privacy as a business model, and tight integrations with blockchain and crypto-currencies, Brave browser is working to re-imagine the internet in its original incantation. This new creation rides the incredible tidal wave of internet that we all know and love, but also, at times, fear and loathe.

Heyo fellow Zengineers!!

This episode's got our friend, comedian, rap battle enthusiast, and occasional hype man, Peet Guercio as guest. "Did you say rap battles?" Yes. Yes we did. Rap Battles!! Surprised? Not us. We don't just talk about computers, bitcoin, and the bathroom. Come on!!

First we'll intro you to the wild world of the Rap Battle. You may be picturing the early days of hip hop or 8 mile, and to that I would say that you are on the right track. (Scope some great videos in the show notes of this week's episode.) Peet helps us chase down what Rap Battles are, where they came from, and why he digs participating and watching them so much. Rap Battles are not only insanely impressive to watch, they also happen to be a great starting point for a convo on the broader context of art and expression, standup comedy, safe spaces, the tightrope of intent versus context, and the importance of free speech.

We'll leave you with some of Peet’s favorite "bars" and th

What's happening, Zengineers?

This week, we're chasing our previous episodes on experts and experiments, by talking about STEAM Education!! Have you heard of it? Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Philosophy... It's quite the popular acronym recently. You may even recognize some of it from our own Podcast title. Yes, we're big fans of those five things, and we think you might be too!! If you're not, then we hope that at least you can enjoy some of our enthusiasm for the subjects in this week's episode.

We start by introducing an amazing class Adam and Brian were lucky enough to have together as kids, called Math-Science. It's there we both agree we were first exposed to a hybrid class of creative discovery of Science and Math. We introduce STEM and STEAM, and then we dig in on the teaching of history. Why do we teach it and what surprising impacts does it have on our Scientific / Technological schooling? Do we have to tell certain stories on purpose just to counte

What's up Zengineers?!

Our guest this week is a health and fitness fanatic, long time friend, and CEO of Corevity, "A health community for millennials." He's here to dive into the confusing world of optimizing our health and wellbeing.

Health and wellness is one of the hottest topics for millennials. We've grown up in a world where the headlines about our health are a little different every day. We are inundated with nutrition information, fitness routines, mindful living techniques, meditation in the form of sitting, standing, swimming, running, and everything else. What are we to do, who are we to trust, and how are we to afford the time and money needed to be the best us?

Pat's lifetime pursuit of health and happiness has taken him onto NCAA lacrosse fields, out on double-overhead waves of the Pacific Ocean, and now into the politics and governance of the healthcare industry as he uses his company, Corevity (corevity.com), to help people achieve wellbeing wit

What's up Zengineers? This episode continues our marathon of depth, diving into the pool of modern human understanding on our way to episode 50!!

How do we define an experiment and who is really running them? Here's a hint. It's all of us, but we might not think of it that way. At least not in day to day life. Why not? Well we think things should probably be reframed so more of us do, and we'll tell you why. Surprised? Probably not.

This episode starts off talking about the colloquial idea of “experimenting with an activity” like, trying out surfing, versus the idea of “running an experiment" ... the more traditional scientific peer reviewed kinda stuff. From here we uncover the depth of what it means to really experiment.

You'll enjoy a bit of a semantic dance as we spiral through one of Brian's more complex experiments (or series of tests) done during his industrial automation and mechanical engineering days. Then we change rhythm and pull

Hey Zengineers! This week we’ve got another special guest: Laura Goldfarb. Laura’s an award winning music publicist, writer, entrepreneur, radio host, music journalist, songwriter, social media marketer, artist manager, booking agent, tour manager, nomad, and once, an impromptu human mic stand. As the “Big Kahuna” at Red Boot PR, she’s spent years handling public relations for a family of badass indie music artists. More recently she’s taken up the mantle of Community Manager for artist MILCK, whose song “Quiet” became the unofficial anthem of the 2017 Women’s March... we get into all that and more on this week’s ’cast!

Adam and Laura have worked together here and there over the years, and share similar philosophies regarding transparency and authenticity in digital marketing... so of course he roped her in for an episode. But Laura flipped the script, and came with a bit of a bone to pick after listening to Episode 38, the one about BS pop music. We pick that conversation up

Heyo Zengineers. Welcome back for a ride through the thick cloud of confusion around the modern accessibility of trustworthy information. In this episode we tackle this difficult question by analyzing what an expert really is.

Does the word expert create specific imagery in your mind? Do you picture a parent, sibling, or friend? How about a teacher, professor, or professional confidant? Maybe you picture a coach, actor, or president! Whatever you picture when you hear the word “expert,” know that you’re probably thinking about something different than the person down the hall. This is a complex and subtle discussion and everyone will have their own opinions, perceptions, and world views.

Expertise is something we all chase throughout our lives, and it’s something we value tremendously in other human beings, but ... what really is it? How do you obtain expertise? Who should you trust and why? What are the implications of applying this label to other humans?

This

Heyo, Zengineers ... Welcome back for an exciting ride through the technological fitness wonderland with Allen & Jesse, the founders of FitBod. What is FitBod, you might ask? Great question! It’s our favorite strength training app for iOS ... One that finally does so many things Adam’s been trying to find in workout software for years. FitBod leverages machine learning to customize workouts for you based on your own activity, your own body, and data from millions of workouts tracked thus far in the FitBod system.

We took Adam’s decades of experience as a competitive swimmer and former NCAA athlete and Brian’s professional status as activity master extraordinaire and gave FitBod a full afternoon together at the gym. It was a great experience, and the follow-on conversation with the FitBod founders was just as good.

In this episode, we meet Allen and Jesse, and talk a bit about how they ended up working together, their backgrounds, and how they’re focusing all of that on

You may already be aware if you’re a Zengineering powerfan, but for everyone else, we’re excited to announce the launch of a brand new website at ZengineeringPodcast.com. As Zengineering has become an increasingly more important part of both our lives, we’ve realized that we want to make more content available, with more control over how it looks, where it goes, and how we interact with all of you. Check out new the site to scope brand new episode art, all the show notes we’ve always promised (at least on the newer episodes), articles and stories we’ve been writing, and, of course, all our new and old episodes.

This episode contains a bit of reminiscing on the technology that’s been part of Zengineering Podcast, and all the physical, mental and digital tricks we’ve come up with keep the show going. We share our stoke test, our production workflow, and the fact that, as artists, we’re pretty uncomfortable a lot of the time trying to promote our own creations. We dive into all

In appreciation of everyone who supports us and listens to the show, we want to feature YOU on Zengineering Podcast's 50th Episode, scheduled for release in the first week of 2018.

SHARE YOUR VOICE WITH US!
1) Pull out your smartphone (plug in those earbuds if you have 'em)
2) Open an audio recorder app (Voice Memos on IOS)
3) Send your message to hello@zengineeringpodcast.com
4) Send as many messages as you want

WHAT SHOULD I SAY?
Tell us what you love about Zengineering. Tell us what irks you, what excites you, or what confuses you. Ask us something personal and embarrassing or ask us something technical and nerdy. Tell Adam how you love the sound of his silky smooth radio voice on your morning commute, or tell Brian that he's a pretty good podcast host, but should still consider playing basketball. We will be featuring and responding to some of our favorite clips from you on Episode 50. Be funny, be nerdy, or be kind ... b

Today we’re joined by Leah Culver, entrepreneur, avid podcast listener, and CTO of Breaker (the app we both use to listen to podcasts). Leah has joined us to discuss her business, the tech behind podcasting, and the state of the medium.

Podcasts are a strange phenomenon. They’ve existed and have been quietly growing in the creative underbelly of the internet for decades, but only recently have they become mainstream thanks to astronomical successes like, Serial. On the surface, podcasts are just radio shows, and radio shows have been around 100 years. So, what’s really made them vogue? Smart phones, easy and inexpensive recording technology, the ability to share anything with the world from your home? Or, is a deeper fundamental shift happening regarding individuals’ willingness to share and society’s desire to consume?

Leah dives in deeply with us in this episode. We discuss the proliferation of podcasts as a digital medium. We touch on the underlying technologies and

Welcome back, Zengineers. We’re finally doing it. Yes! Wait, what are we talking about? Star Wars versus Star Trek! YAY!!! Do you think the Millennium Falcon is the greatest ship of all time? Do you think Captain Kirk is the ultimate hero? Are photon torpedoes better than blaster cannons? Ahhhh ... so many things to discuss. Well ... we picked just a few in this first of likely MANY episodes discussing Star Wars and Star Trek, two of our favorite fictional universes.

We tried to stay away from arguing about merit, and instead just wanted to talk about how Star Wars and Star Trek compare to each other, what we love about each, and fun ways to apply lessons from these worlds into our real world. Real world... ha! We start off with some broad discussion about the universes and how they’re different from a genre standpoint. We quickly recognize that one is not “better” than the other, but that they just happen to slot into different places in fiction and in our lives. Star Wars i

This week our guest is Lin Qiu, Senior Software Engineering at Upside Travel! Lin's an old friend and a co-conspirator on a number of projects with Adam and Brian… and a couple of whole companies with Adam. Our plan in pre-production convos was to talk about our experience with those various projects, but wow did we barely make it through the first step.

This episode turned into a weighty meditation on what motivated each of us to start our own companies: whether it was right out of the gate, or after working in a “real” job for a while. We explore the driving philosophies of modern work versus the startup world, taking a look at notions of freedom, creativity, art, and youth. We talk about our evolving notions of what it means to be successful, and how the emergence of digital tools has maybe pushed the world closer to being a place where the “working world" values a broad skillset over rabid specialization…maybe?

If we figured out one things for sure it’s that we’ll

Howdy Zengineers! Today we're talking about Music with industry expert, Scott Bauer. Not just any music, either. We're talking specifically about Pop Music. Cringe! What's that you're feeling right now? Are you upset that we're giving Katy Perry an entire episode? Are you embarrassed about your guilty pleasures playlist? Maybe you're stoked because pop music fires you up! Well, however you feel, you should know that you're not alone, and that's why we've brought our good friend Scott in to help. Music has inspired our species since the beginning of recorded history. Every culture has had it, and most every person has had a love affair with it. In today's world, music is the "beneficiary" of digitization and globalization. As a result, music is absolutely everywhere all of the time. This has had some interesting affects on the tunage you hear in everyday life. Why is it that one person can listen to the same song twenty five times in a row, and still dance, while another person immed

In this episode, we discuss “alternate” realities, aka virtual realities. To do so, I travelled to Los Angeles to visit Adam (this is Brian, btw). Why you may ask would I slug my 215 pound, 6 foot 8 inch body all the way there? Well, I needed to be physically in Adam’s living room so that my mind could enter into the virtual reality of an HTC Vive VR system that Adam has recently setup. It was mind blowing. The current generation of Virtual Reality Technology is “The jetpack we’ve been promised.” It’s flying cars. It’s travel to other planets. It’s fully immersive collaborative working environments. It is truly the Matrix. On Saturday night, May 21st, 2017, I caught a bullet out of the air with my bare hands, and I’ll never forget it. Because of a lifetime of VR technologies proving mostly comical, and rarely functional, I did not expect to even be particularly entertained by this system. But, after a weekend of exploring Virtual Reality of the early 21st century I can say with utmo

We've wanted to up our stoke recently, so after a lot of consideration, we decided to launch a three part series on PLANETS. We love em. We love em a lot!! Heck, we better, cuz we live on one!! In this first part of our series on planets, we talk about what we know, how we know it, why we care so much, the history of our motivation to explore, and what we know about Earth. We bump into a lot of interesting crossover between astronomy, the scientific method, and the history of humanity's scientific exploration. Expect to get a little choked up in this episode. Our history is amazing, our exploration is inspiring, and "the void" is physically, intellectually, and spiritually challenging. In parts II and III we'll venture off-world into our solar system, and eventually out into the cosmos.

We're back, with our second conversation on Artificial Intelligence. Last time we mostly talked about the past, while we tried to dissect what AI actually is. We mused on older technologies we dubbed Artificial Memory, like books, calculators, and hard drives. In this episode we discuss how video games (during humanity's never-ending quest to recreate reality) got us to the computational capacity for natural language processing, machine learning, and neural networks. Where is this technology now, and where are they in your life? Do you like that the machines are starting to make decisions for you? Do you even know they are there? This is the second of at least three episodes in our quest to figure out the five Ws of AI. Enjoy!

Howdy, Zengineers! A lot of season one danced around the topic of Artificial Intelligence, so we decided it was time to dive in for realz. This is part one of a three part series on Artificial Intelligence. What the hell is it? Where'd it come from? How does it play in our lives right now? Where are we headed? It's a crazy time and there's a lot to be aware of. We're really excited for this one. Enjoy, and, as always, hit us up with your thoughts and ideas!

Woah! Took another little break, sorry, it’s summer, but we’re back and talkin’ education in the age of Google. Do not fear … it’s mostly light hearted … this is not a deep dive into the politics of education (although we might approach the cliff a few times).

We hit it all: statistics, media literacy, history, philosophy, Khan Academy, partial credit, science eating its own tail, and the value of answering a question with a question…

Teaching all subjects at once seems crazy. We need to stagger topics in ways that make more sense as we grow and experience the world. History, for instance, is wildly valuable, fantastically interesting, and incredibly important, but 12 year olds simply don’t have the life experience to care or understand (for the most part).

An examination of the What we teach, When we teach it, and Why it’s taught are hugely important right now. Tough to have that conversation and make those changes, however, in a very-much standardized global e