The Mini: Let's Chat about the HUMAN in AI

It’s Episode 59, but I realized after painting that I made a mistake and I didn’t want to get ink out again. I’m only Human.

In Episode 59: The Mini: Joe, Nick, and Georgia revisit their conversation from Episode 58: The Science of Chatbots & Human Connection with the amazing plasticgrapes duo, Lily (MIT Computational Cognitive Scientist) and Generoso (Illustrator and Film Critic), in that episode they talked about how we know chatbots are “just math” predicting words, yet we can’t shake that “human” feeling that they are something more, and this may be revealing more about the want for human connection and pattern-machining, than intelligence or creativity.

The crew clears up confusion about hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes (prompted by the episode’s discussion of AI-generated writing quirks), adds a resource link to Dr. Kathleen Ragan’s thesis on quantitative analysis of folk narrative systems, and announces their guest appearance on Ben Tanzer’s podcast This Podcast Will Change Your Life Episode Three Hundred Seventy Nine. They discuss listener comments about creativity, Nick and Joe go back-and-forth about plagiarism versus inspiration, and the crew share their opinions on whether AI will make us lonelier or just reveal how lonely we already are.

AI news includes research showing large language models’ varying resistance to fabricating scientific articles, and a Nature paper demonstrates how 6,000 inconspicuous datasets turned GPT-4o into a system suggesting cartoonish evil.

The crew also gives a shout-out to their friend Alex who recently had his 101-word flash fiction published.

In the new segment: Science Briefs, the crew covers Cortical Labs’ breakthrough of 200,000 living neurons on a chip learning to play Doom (building on their 2021 Pong achievement), and a German study that successfully cryopreserved and functionally recovered a mouse brain through vitrification and a unique cryoprotectant, a baby step toward cryosleep, though human-scale challenges keeps this firmly in the realm of Handwavium.

Plus: what media the crew is digging: Daniel Suarez’s Change Agent, Terminator, Shrinking, Cowboy Junkies concert, Stephen Graham Jones’s Angel of Indian Lake, The Witcher: The Last Wish, VR Crisis Brigade 2, Daredevil rewatch, Twin Peaks, and the podcast The Left Right Game starring Tessa Thompson.

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Alex’s flash fiction 101 words story:

‘All Painful on the Dino Front’

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Where to Find Lily (MIT Computational Cognitive Scientist, Writer) and Generoso (Illustrator, Film Critic)

Website and books:

• https://linktr.ee/plasticgrapes

Lily and Generoso socials:

• Instagram: @plasticgrapes

• BlueSky: @plasticgrapes

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Listen to Episode 58:

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Check out what the RHR crew is creating:

Joe:

• Red Line: Chicago Horror Stories Anthology featuring a new story by Joe!

• Joe’s Sci-fi physiological thriller Novel: Will You Still Love Me If I Become Someone Else?

• Essay by Joe: From Beyond Press: Specific Knowledge: Jotham Austin, II, PhD on Transformations in Fiction

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It’s science for Weirdos

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Stay curious, stay speculative, stay safe, and we’ll catch you in the next rabbit hole. Love Y'all!

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Future Events to Hang with the Crew:

Podcast Cross-Appearances

• Watch Joe on Joe Compton’s YouTube channel 21Grams

• The RHR crew on Ben Tanzer’s This podcast will change your life: episode three hundred seventy-nine

Events & Conventions:

• 5th Annual Mai Fest - Blue Island, IL (May 9th 12-5pm)

• Creative Arts Summit - DIY Podcast Workshop at Lake County Public Library on May 23rd, 2026

• ConCarolinas - Charlotte, NC (May 29–31, 2026 ) - Joe attending as Guest

• Shore Leave 46 - Lancaster, PA (July 10-12, 2026)

  Lancaster Wyndham Resort and Convention Center

• Dragon Con - Atlanta, GA (September 3-7, 2026) - Joe attending as Professional

Great time at the New Book Joy 1st Annual Author Palooza at Imperial Oak Brewing

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Upcoming Episodes

*The Mini will now be every other episode!

• Episode 60 – Lassoing the Truth Serum
  Guest: David Detmer
  Exploring the philosophy and science of truth, deception, and the Handwavium of Wonder Woman’s lasso.

• Episode 62 – The Science of Fear: Phobias, Physiology & Splatterpunk
  Guest: Phrique
  Diving into the biology of fear, phobia formation, and the extreme horror genre of splatterpunk with author Phrique.

• Episode 64 – Planetary Defense: Saving Earth from Other Worldly Impact
  Guest: Charles Blue
  Exploring asteroid detection, planetary defense systems, and what it takes to protect Earth from cosmic collisions.

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What the Crew is Digging, Links, Resources, and Topics Mentioned in mini and/or full episode:

Punctuation Reference:

• Hyphen (-) connects words (e.g., state-of-the-art)

• En dash (–) shows ranges or connections (e.g., pages 10–20)

• Em dash (—) indicates emphasis, interruptions, or replaces commas/parentheses/colons

Academic Resources:

• Dr. Kathleen Ragan’s thesis: https://www.kathleenragan.com/academic-research

  • Methodology for quantitative analysis of folk narrative systems

AI News & Research:

• LLMs and Academic Fraud: Mainstream chatbots show varying resistance to fabrication requests

• “Breaking Bad” AI Study: Nature journal (January 2026) - 6,000 datasets trained GPT-4o to produce “cartoonish evil” responses

AI References from Episode:

• KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand) - 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am from Knight Rider

• KITT reboot: Knight Industries Three Thousand

• Christine (Stephen King) - possessed car (NOT an AI)

Science Papers & News:

Neurons Playing Doom:

• Cortical Labs, Melbourne, Australia

• “Can it run Doom?” meme evolution to “Can it play Doom?”

• 200,000 living neurons on electrode array

• Context: Human brain has ~86 billion neurons

• Previous work: Mouse and human neurons playing Pong (2021)

• Lauren ‘Ren’ Ramlan (MIT, 2023): E. coli bacteria displaying Doom frames using fluorescent proteins

• Doom released: 1993

Cryopreservation Breakthrough:

• Paper: “Functional recovery of the adult murine hippocampus after cryopreservation by vitrification”

• Published: March 3, 2026, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

• Major Result: After vitrification and thawing mouse brains, Neuronal and synaptic membranes remained intact, electrical activity near-normal.

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  Media the crew is digging :

  Books:

  • Change Agent by Daniel Suarez (Joe)

  • Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones (Nick) - third book in Indian Lake Trilogy

  • The Witcher: The Last Wish (Nick)

  TV/Streaming:

  • Terminator (Joe)

  • Apple TV+ Shrinking (Joe & Georgia) - still watching

  • Daredevil (Nick) - rewatching in prep for new season and Spider-Man appearance

  • Twin Peaks (Nick)

  • For All Mankind (Joe) - Season premiere March 27 on Apple TV+

  Podcasts:

  • The Left Right Game starring Tessa Thompson (Georgia & Joe) - based on creepypasta

  • Alice Isn’t Dead (Georgia & Joe) - returning April 13, 2026

  Music:

  • Cowboy Junkies concert (Joe & Georgia)

  Games:

  • Crisis Brigade 2 (VR) (Nick & Joe) - co-op tactical shooter with zombie lab mission

  • Doom (1993)

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Love Y'all! Don’t forget to Rate the show!

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