e455 — Star Trek vs. Douglas Adams

the number 42 attached to a wall. Photo by Mark König on Unsplash — Photo by Mark König on Unsplash

Published 26 February 2024

Michael and Michael are back in studio, inspired by an article that connects science fiction with scientific innovation leading to science fact. The post from the Interconnected blog posits that we are in the midst of a vibe shift, and that the technology is shifting from Star Trek to that from the imagination of Douglas Adams. The Games at Work team is no stranger to the works of Douglas Adams – check out the discussion with Ross Smith on e60: Bubbly Bubblers in Gamified Buildings from Sept 2013, and e105 from Feb 2015 was titled “Glad to be of Service”, or the Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses project discussed on e187: Bionic Eye from Dec 2017 to give just a couple examples.

Shifting to AI, Michael and Michael discuss the challenges many LLMs have with basic math based on a recent WSJ article, and how combining the LLM with capabilities such as WolframAlpha’s can help fix this. The pair also talk through how the idea of creating entire virtual worlds from a few lines of text is not entirely new, though the recent advances from Sora take things to an entirely new level.

Then, the co-hosts talk through how the idea of how games themselves can inspire sustainability. Michael M shares that he’ll be volunteering at the NCSSM-sponsored SMathHacks hackathon next weekend in Durham and Morganton, North Carolina, which has several sustainability inspired tracks this year.

Last, Michael and Michael focus on XR and spatial computing, starting with a repository of 3D objects on Beautifulthings. Then Michael R shares his experiences from The [Archive], which provides 3D experiences of a variety of Star Trek bridges. Check out the video below for an example. The team wrap things up for this episode with Mono, a magnifying glass that offers a new take on a mixed reality experience.

What Douglas Adams inspired technology would you most or least expect to experience? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know!