The Syntact ProjectFernando Garcia
Contributions by Fernando
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Podcast:Automating with Robots
Ethan and Fernando discuss what tasks should be automated with robots, whatever exactly that entails. They discuss the practicality of a Roomba with spinning blades and accidentally reinvent the Lazy Susan.
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Podcast:Article Review: The Science of Inequality
Andrew makes a repeat…. occurrence? He, Ethan, and Fernando review Scientific American’s “Science of Inequality” article series.
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Podcast:Quick Hits, February 2019
Ethan, Fernando, and Matt record another aimless episode of Quick Hits.
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Podcast:Statistically Speaking
Ethan, Fernando, and Phil cover the two major statistical frameworks: Bayesianism and Frequentism.
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Podcast:Quick Hits, November 2018
Ethan, Fernando, and Matt bring back the Quick Hits format only to get derailed arguing about the merits of the medical field.
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Foreign Cyber Influence: Opening the Black Box
If the James Bond movies are good for anything, they serve as a reminder that most of us in society really have no clue how the world of espionage, intelligence, and counter-intelligence really works. And while some may disagree, I don’t think there is a great need for common citizens to know the nuts and bolts of how MI6 and other intelligence agencies operate (other than to be aware of their legal and ethical bounds and their adherence to them). However, one aspect of this shadowy arm of government policy does impact citizens in the heart of our domestic society – the influence foreign governments seek to exert on elections and popular opinion in general. The targets of such activities are the thoughts of ordinary citizens, and the potential extent of this propaganda has been heavily discussed in the media in the past few years. Yet our understanding of how this malevolent influence is spread is severely lacking for such an important, potentially damaging, and well-publicized issue.
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A Chemical Engineer and a Senator Walk into the Capitol
Why don’t the government’s policies fix gun violence? Illegal immigration? The exodus of businesses relocating to other countries? After all, we have the chance to elect 535 of the nation’s brightest minds to serve in Congress, and outfit them with staffs to help them process an incredible amount of information. Sometimes, all these smart people appear like “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men,” toiling but unable to put Humpty Dumpty back together.
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Podcast:Quick Hits, August 2018
Ethan, Fernando, and Matt reprise the Quick Hits format. They ideate over whether “ideate” is actually a word.
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Podcast:Mass Transit for the Masses
Ethan, Fernando, and new guest Andrew talk about an often overlooked but surprisingly interesting topic: mass transit.
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The Physics and Art of Beautiful Music
Coldplay’s classic 2000 hit “Yellow” is anchored by a 22-second guitar riff, unremarkable except perhaps in how incredibly simple it is. It contains only 5 distinct notes arranged into 8 two-note chords (a chord being a group of two or more notes played together) played in predictable pattern with no rhythmic variation. I am confident someone who has never played a guitar could learn to play it in about 5 minutes, and would not be surprised if a non-human primate can or has already been taught to play it.
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Podcast:Game Theory
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Buzzer Beaters and Cognitive Bias
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Podcast:Government Series, Part 3: Polystate
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Sustainability: Go Big or Go Home
I really like HEB, the Texas grocery store, but one thing that grinds my gears is their incorrigible reluctance to use the old shopping bags that I bring to save plastic. One day, the cashier placed my groceries in the bag I brought – then before I could stop her, placed that bag in a new shopping bag. Of course, saving the individual bag’s 5.5 grams / 0.19 ounces of polyethylene would do nothing to mitigate the harmful effects of the plastic bag industry’s use of energy and material. Nor would the ⅓ or ½ kilogram I might save in a good year. However, if as a society we tried to reform our habits, what kind of positive effect might we have?
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Podcast:Quick Hits, May 2018
Ethan and Fernando debut a new style of pod: just chatting about what’s on their minds.
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Don't You See the Starlight, Starlight / Don't You Dream Impossible Things
Nine years from now, to the day, where will you be and what will you be doing? Scientists and engineers staked $700 million on the belief that they could answer that question precisely – within a few minutes – for a small spacecraft 3 billion miles away.
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Podcast:Bitcoin is Failing and We're All Going to Die
Ethan, Fernando, and Matt talk about the ins and outs of blockchain technology.
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Podcast:Subvocalization
Greg joins Fernando and Ethan to talk about subvocalization. Ever heard of it? There’s a good chance you’re doing it right now.
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Podcast:Government Series, Part 2: Delegative Democracy (Liquid Democracy)
The crew takes on Delegative Democracy, where votes can be delegated. Ever wish you could just give your vote to someone else and let them do the hard work for you?
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A Spin on Genius
Throughout history, discriminatory or prejudiced systems have often been supported by the message that certain people do not belong in or are not fit for certain positions in society. Often, it is only after individuals challenge and disprove this paradigm that we recognize it as an invalid assumption with no basis in fact or logic. Vivian Malone demonstrated that an African American can excel at the University of Alabama; Jeremy Lin exposed the petty stereotyping behind the idea that a Chinese-American Harvard graduate could not be an athletic attacker as an NBA point guard.
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Podcast:Government Series, Part 1: Futarchy
Fernando, Matt, and Ethan talk about a form of government proposed by an economist. Learn more about futarchy, where policy is decided by financial markets.
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