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today's topic is near and dear to my heart we  are talking about science fiction technology  

guys like what might we want to have happen in  our lives and what have we seen in stories that  

we don't want it might be dangerous so it's a  very specific topic guys so pay attention so you  

know how to talk about kind of weird topics that  natives do discuss um so guys first of all do you  

would you say you are a sci-fi fan i know aubry  is so i'm gonna come to you last because i know  

you are um michelle what is your relationship  with sci-fi um well i watched west um so good

that's a good one

yeah i i mean i i liked it and i  didn't like it like the last season  

um but i so i i do uh i do like that i like um i  don't know but honestly it's not like my biggest  

thing like that when like when you're listing  uh oh what might happen the first thing that i  

think of is the jetsons so that's yeah that's  where i am that's where i'm starting friends

with um the maid and the robot dog and  how convenient would it be if we didn't  

have to park our cars if they could just  fold up into little suitcases so that's  

what i'm thinking but also west world also you  know a lot of the stuff that's going on with like  

the metaverse and you know so so i think of all  of these things uh with you know the future and  

what's going to happen and uh so but it's not  like my number one genre yeah you know what is  

so funny you guys and then lindsay you can go go  on about your sci-fi opinions but just really fast  

um we watched the movie the running man the other  day it's this old arnold schwarzenegger movie but  

it's based on a stephen king story and it's it's  like one of my favorite cheesy 80s sci-fi movies  

but it's based in the future of 2017. and i i  love watching old movies that are based in the  

like what they thought the future would be like  that's my favorite things it is the year 2017.  

it's so funny and i was watching it with two  ten-year-olds and they're like what that is  

how do you feel about sci-fi i've seen a few good  sci-fi movies or read a few books don't ask me the  

titles now i don't keep them in my head so i don't  know but i think where my interest lies is more  

around who like what's being created that actually  feels like sci-fi that's real you know what i mean  

like michelle and i when we recorded the podcast  this morning i mentioned on the journal the  

podcast that called the journal from the wall  street journal there was an interview from elon  

musk and he like as we know he's building the  starship which means the idea of taking cargo  

and massive amounts of people to you know outer  space and having a a spaceship that can be reused  

and that kind of thing so i like that idea of  thinking about how is when is it not going to  

be sci-fi anymore it's going to become real or  even just alexa you know the idea of ordering  

from a refrigerator or accessing a podcast  from the car this is what's more interesting  

to me rather than the stories yeah i like the  idea of billionaires like elon musk using their  

money to create technology to help real people  now instead of creating a reusable spaceship

that would be good too

aubry i love what you're saying about um thinking  about movies in the past that portray the future  

and and now it's already happened my the  funniest one for me is back to the future  

oh gosh and it shows it's like now-ish but  there's like flying cars and crazy shoes  

but one thing we watched back to the future  part two where they go into the future yeah  

um and it's about now and the weather i remember  when i was a kid and he like um the weathermen  

have predicted the weather down to the minute  and they like wait for it to stop raining and  

i remember being like mind blown that's crazy  because when i was a kid the weather was like  

you knew maybe day within a few days if it would  rain or not so that made me kind of think like oh  

we've actually really come far because now you  do have the hourly forecast and it's very often  

quite accurate you're like oh it's going to rain  yeah at four it's going to be 80 right and it was  

not like that when i was a kid and saw that movie  right so that is like sci-fi at that time in a way  

so the real unfolding i love sci-fi jessica  you know that we talk about it on ielts energy  

the podcast all the time i list my favorite genre  me too but you know what's fascinating if you guys  

haven't seen the show black mirror on netflix yes  that there's every one of them is something about  

technology that we probably would not want to  happen and it sort of goes into the bad things  

that could happen right and every time i'm like  i didn't even think about that technology being  

possible but you're right i don't want that to be  yeah that's a great show like one of them they can  

like record with their eyes and see their life and  rewind and watch any moment and and have perfect  

recall and so of course couples are getting in  fights and they go back and play it to each other

let's think about any technology you've seen on  the jetsons on any of the things that were we've  

consumed what would be good to have like what  do we want to do what do we wish existed right  

now um the first thing when aubrey sent me this  topic i thought of immediately because i love to  

eat and i don't like to cook um star trek the next  generation is one of my favorite shows of all time  

and they have a food replicator right  well it's it's in all star treks but  

um the food replicator where you just like press  a button and it makes whatever you want it's just  

this little machine right it just makes whatever  you want um but what's really funny about that is  

um in hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy i may have  mentioned this before but in hitchhiker's guide to  

the galaxy there's also like a food replicator but  it's kind of broken and it like cannot make tea  

correctly and it's like this running joke in the  in the books um so michelle what what technology  

do you wish we had um i was thinking about like  um things with transportation you know when they  

talk about the trains or the planes speeding up  so that you know you can get to europe really  

quickly or you know or the train like because i'm  always you know like in new york to the dc area  

yes i like to make that you know an hour you  know so those kinds of things um to speed up  

transportation i think that that would be like  a big big help but there are you know there  

are a lot of things that then like aubrey said  there's like the other side to it so i'm not sure  

if there's a negative to that but i'm sure sure  there is but it's always like yeah then you have  

to be like well if we have this then what would  this be but i don't know what do you guys think  

about well accidents right they're trying to do  a high-speed train between california and arizona  

but i don't know like it's just if that ever were  to wreck at that high of speeds the accidents are  

so much more fatal yeah for sure there's always  disadvantages there's no perfect right like  

technology and it's i don't know people people  talk a lot about um like the founders of a lot  

of these platforms like you know facebook and  twitter and everything and like oh they're so evil  

they should have known this was gonna happen and  stuff but like if you but no like there's you know  

there's such good intentions and then you invent  something and you really as the creator like you  

hope for the best and you can't right predict what  society is going to do right and it's also not  

necessarily what their concern is that you know  maybe it's the job of the government to put rules  

into place once the technology has been invented  like those guys are thinking in a visionary way so  

they're creating the idea it's not their job to  take care of society right so what about coming  

together with the visionary and the government  and creating a system that works for everyone  

yeah i think also um like medical tests and  things like this not to make it about the  

the global uh health crisis but uh like because  now you can get like at-home tests and i just saw  

something that was like oh wouldn't it i don't  know if it's actually in the works or whatever but  

if you do like the at-home test but then you can  have like many different possible illnesses come  

up so like flu and then different things and  then you can see like what you know and know  

how to treat things so like advancements in  medical stuff like that that also interests me  

this reminds me of something that will that  will marry our last group conversation which  

you can find on the ielts energy channel guys  it marries that with today's topic um true crime  

plus plus technology um if you guys follow have  followed the theranose scandal yeah there's like  

there's there's like two different podcasts  about it um and there's so much interesting uh  

stuff to dive into so if you guys are curious  about a a scandal with health technology i  

know that doesn't sound exciting but it's really  interesting look up um elizabeth holmes i believe

what technology do you wish we had i kind of  think i'm kind of a bit of a sentimental person  

so i'm gonna go less practical and more kind of  heartfelt i think it would be cool if you could  

snap your fingers and relive any moment you want  to in your life so you were just talking about  

going back to conversations but in a more  sentimental way so you go into a room  

and that's like your entertainment for the evening  you get to be immersed back in that place and you  

just soak it up like that moment the moment you  got married or whatever your birth of your first  

child and you can instead of going to a movie  you go there and you watch it and you kind of  

get a deeper sense of meaning from your life i  think that would be cool and you do you're not  

changing anything right you're not you're just  watching it yeah you're watching so you're not  

you don't feel like you're there  but you're watching it like yeah  

kind of an immersive feeling kind of like watching  a movie but a little more immersive maybe somehow  

with some tactile yeah have you guys seen the  movie defending your life not with um uh mel's  

uh mel street meryl streep albert brooks and meryl  streep there we go i was combining the names in  

defending your life they they do that like they  have to like it's after they die or whatever but  

they go through this process of defending their  life and like proving that they're good people or  

whatever but they watch scenes from their life  but i like the addition you're doing of like  

involving different senses in it right  yeah like feel the smell smell the smell

how cool would that be but what's  fascinating is that is the technology  

in that black mirror episode and it's like  oh that'd be so nice and then you realize  

ooh it's maybe not the best idea to be able to go  back and watch exactly what happened at any time  

we all filter things in a way that we need to  right like you have to filter out certain things  

or like highlight certain things for like your  own mental well-being protection what if you  

yeah you looked back on a memory and it's like  not as great as you thought and you're like oh  

there's somebody like giving you a dirty  look that you missed or like talking about

you thought someone really liked you and you go  back and they're like oh stop talking to me they  

turn away from music okay um guys this is so  fun and um i hope that students watching this  

even if you are not a fan of science  fiction right like that sounds so heavy  

and maybe outside of your wheelhouse but i hope  through today's conversation you guys can see  

how many stories and ideas and thoughts can come  from this topic this this weird specific topic  

guys can lead to so many connections with people  especially the this creative idea predicting the  

future talking about hopes and desires so  definitely sign up for more conversations  

like this guys so you can participate uh  go to allyearsenglish.com forward slash  

fast all right guys thank you this was really  fun all right thank you guys take care bye bye

you