Podcast Summary
AI governance: IBM's WatsonX Governance helps businesses effectively implement AI, ensuring responsible scaling and governance of data, models, and policies.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to play a significant role in shaping the future, and businesses need to trust AI to effectively implement it for predicting demand, accelerating growth, making decisions, automating tasks, revealing insights, and generating content. IBM's WatsonX Governance is a solution designed to help businesses govern AI as data, models, and policies change, ensuring responsible scaling. Meanwhile, in other news, listeners can look forward to new episodes of the podcast "Stuff to Blow Your Mind," including a series on dreams and a potential new core episode. Jim, a listener, shared a childhood memory of experiencing the deafening noise of cicada emergencies in Australia. Overall, the future holds exciting possibilities with AI, and it's essential to approach it with trust and proper governance. Listen to the Technically Speaking podcast on Iheartradio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts for more insights on the latest technology trends.
Childhood beliefs about making money: Childhood experiences, like collecting valuable cicadas, can ignite excitement and belief in making money, even if based on mistaken or implausible premises.
Childhood experiences, like collecting valuable cicadas, can be filled with excitement and belief in making money, even if based on mistaken or implausible premises. The story shared by Jim about the different types of cicadas and their supposed values illustrates this concept. At first, the belief in the value of the cicadas felt very real, but the magic of the idea began to wear off when faced with reality, such as the upset father and the loss of the supposed fortune. This phenomenon is common in childhood experiences and serves as a reminder of the power of imagination and belief in the possibility of making money, even if it's not grounded in reality. Additionally, Jim's story also provides some interesting facts about Australian cicada species and their various color variants.
Childhood experiences and beliefs: Our beliefs and perspectives can change significantly over time, even regarding things we once held strongly, and childhood experiences can leave lasting impressions.
Our perspectives and beliefs can change significantly over time, even regarding things we once held strongly. The speaker shares an experience of believing in the value of rocks as a child, but losing faith in their worth as an adult. This shift in mindset is a mystery, and the speaker reflects on how childhood experiences can leave lasting impressions. Meanwhile, listeners continue to engage with the podcast content, sharing their thoughts and connections to the topics discussed. For instance, Sierra draws parallels between Uranus and rebellious figures like Iggy Pop and Sid Vicious, while Chelsea delves into the etymology of the word "bug" and its historical significance in technology. An interesting fact shared by Chelsea is that the term "computer bug" originated from a moth found inside the Mark 2 computer in 1947. This discovery was documented in a logbook, with the moth physically taped into the pages. However, there are common misconceptions about this event, such as it being Grace Hopper's personal logbook or the first use of the term "bug" in a technical context. Overall, the podcast continues to inspire curiosity and exploration, both in the topics presented and the connections listeners make to them.
Language of technology problems: The choice of language to describe technology problems can significantly impact the attitude and approach of those working to solve them, with the term 'bug' being adopted due to its positive connotation and encouraging belief in problem correction.
The language used to describe problems in technology, such as referring to bugs instead of flaws, can significantly impact the attitude and approach of those working to solve them. Historian Peggy Aldrich Kidwell explained in an IEEE Annals of the History of Computing article that the term "bug" was adopted in the early days of computing due to its appeal to the wit of programmers and its suggestion that the problem was small and external. This usage helped maintain a positive attitude and encouraged the belief that the problem could be corrected, rather than indicating a larger failure. The choice of language can thus shape the perception and emotion surrounding technical challenges, making it an intriguing aspect of the psychology of invention and engineering work.
Productivity and Nature's Lessons: IBM's Watson x Code Assistant and the lesser water boatman demonstrate how to make a big impact with minimal resources, with the former increasing developer productivity and saving businesses time and resources, and the latter generating a loud sound despite its small size
IBM's Watson x Code Assistant can help businesses save time and resources by increasing developer productivity when creating or modernizing applications. This AI tool assists in generating code quickly, making it an essential foundation for businesses looking to do more with less. Meanwhile, in the natural world, we learned about the lesser water boatman, a tiny insect that produces an astonishingly loud sound. Despite its small size of only 0.07 inches or 2 millimeters, it can generate up to 99.5 decibels, with peaks reaching 105 decibels. This sound is produced by stridulating its penis against the ridged surface of its abdomen, with a trapped bubble of air potentially used for amplification. In contrast, most insects, such as cicadas, create sounds through stridulation, which involves rubbing one body part against another. Cicadas, for instance, have tymbals, corrugated chitinous membranes that function like drum heads, which they use to produce sound by rapidly flexing and buckling. It's fascinating how nature, just like technology, offers solutions to create impact with minimal resources. IBM's Watson x Code Assistant and the lesser water boatman are perfect examples of this concept. The former helps businesses save time and resources by increasing developer productivity, while the latter showcases the power of a tiny creature to generate a significant amount of sound.
Smallest loud animal: The water boatman insect, Micronecta schultze, produces the loudest sounds relative to its size among all animals, challenging the common belief that larger animals produce the loudest sounds.
The water boatman insect, specifically the Micronecta schultze species, produces extremely loud sounds relative to its small size, making it the loudest animal in the world when compared to its body size. This discovery, reported in a 2011 paper titled "So Small, So Loud: Extremely High Sound Pressure Level from a Pygmy Aquatic Insect, Charybdidae: Micronecta schultze," challenges the common belief that larger animals produce the loudest sounds. The researchers, Jerome Sewer, David Mackey, and James FC Windmill, noted the challenges of producing loud and clear sounds in animal communication, as loudness can sometimes impair information transfer and larger animals generally have the advantage of larger bodies and sound producing organs. However, they found that this insect, which uses sound for mating and competition, produces sounds with a 79 decibel sound pressure level at a distance of 1 meter, with peaks reaching up to 99-100 decibels. While not the loudest animal in absolute terms, its sound production outperforms that of larger marine and terrestrial mammals when scaled to body size. Despite this impressive feat, the insect's sounds are not commonly noticed by humans due to the majority of the sound being lost when it crosses the air-water interface.
Water boatman mating calls: Despite its small size, the water boatman produces loud mating calls by rubbing a genital organ against its abdomen. Sexual selection may drive the evolution of loudness, but predators and parasitoids may limit it. Some research suggests resonation through an air bubble amplifies the sound.
The water boatman, a tiny aquatic insect, produces loud mating calls despite its small size. The male generates the sound by rubbing a genital organ against a part of its abdomen. The exact mechanism of how such a small structure produces a loud sound is still a mystery. The authors suggest that sexual selection may be the driving force behind the evolution of loud mating calls, as it allows males to attract females and outcompete other males. However, more research is needed to understand the role of predators and parasitoids in limiting the selection for loudness. Some related research suggests that these insects may use resonation through an air bubble to amplify the sound. The specific orientation, size, and distance between the insect's sound-producing surface and its air bubble resonator may create a high coupling efficiency, leading to a significant gain in power. Overall, the water boatman's loud mating calls are a fascinating example of evolution in action.
Podcast episode schedule: The Stuff To Blow Your Mind podcast has a consistent schedule with listener mail episodes on Mondays, short form episodes on Wednesdays, Weird House Cinema discussions on Fridays, and new core episodes on Thursdays, with possible vault episodes as substitutes.
The Stuff To Blow Your Mind podcast offers listeners a variety of content throughout the week. Each episode serves a unique purpose: listener mail on Mondays, short form episodes on Wednesdays, and Weird House Cinema discussions on Fridays. They also aim to release new core episodes on Thursdays, but may have vault episodes as substitutes. Listeners are encouraged to subscribe and check their podcast apps to ensure they're receiving new episodes. The podcast is produced by iHeartRadio, and listeners can find more content from iHeartRadio on their app or favorite podcast platforms. Additionally, the podcast is sponsored by Facet, a financial planning service, and Drop, a shopping rewards app. The podcast also mentions Ebay Motors and Straight Talk Wireless, and Amazon Pharmacy in passing.