Robot or Not?

Don’t anthromorphize ports. They hate that. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Where do beaches exist? And what materials do they need to be comprised of? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

The difference between islands and continents, and also why Pluto can be a planet if you want to lower your standards. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Sometimes they’re wicked, sometimes not. Can an adult call a parent’s new wife a stepmom? Bonus: Can you be too old to be an orphan? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Listener Chris clues us into an important ice safety campaign. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Shoes, socks, sandals, boots. Footwear is complicated. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

What makes a university? Is it the buildings, or the people, or the big hole you throw money into? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Listener Rob and Listener Reiner, who are not Director Rob Reiner, want to know if they are Friends of the Show. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Are we too late to say it? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Some deeper questions about whether certain Roomba behavior makes it more or less of a robot. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Blaine is a pain, and that is the truth. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

For the very first time, we do some housekeeping about holes, Russian robots, salad, genocide, Voltron, and available sales leads. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Is garlic a vegetable, an herb, a spice, or what? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Spooky! <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

If you’re a werewolf, are you a werewolf all the time? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

It’s a house, but it floats. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Sometimes, everyone on the Internet wants John’s opinion. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

When robots flock together naturally, will humans give them a name? Or will we be too busy dying? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Many robots, one robot, or no robots? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Topology can be tricky. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

It’s a big thing in the middle of nowhere. Does it need to be a rock to be a monolith? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

When is something electronic, and when is it electric? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Is that just a really short acting part, or is it only a cameo? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

We salute all Moms, no matter their classification. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Listener/Professor Lisa can handle conceptual analysis on her own, but she does wonder why campus delivery robots make her so angry. (It wasn’t just because they’re Russian.) <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

A bunch of baseball writers drafted pastas. John has thoughts. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Does texture matter when it comes to robots? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Paul Atreides and the Fremen sure look cool, but won’t they die of hyperthermia in those suits? (Incomparable Members will find a special bonus episode of Robot or Not in the First Class feed today. Become a member for lots of goodies!) <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Select all ROBOT RELATED PODCASTS. If there are none, click Stop. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

John has one, but also doesn’t have one. Mary married some merry carrots. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Listener Ashley wants to know about the true meaning of friendship. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Why do Americans crowd out the rest of two continents from the namespace? John thinks it’s about imperialism; Jason thinks it’s because our country has no proper name. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Listener Scott wants to know what “homemade” cooking is. Jason made this episode from scratch. (But the theme song was store-bought.) <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Jason starts to ask John a question, but everything gets derailed. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

What makes a car a car, and not a truck, or an SUV, or a crossover? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

When is Next Wednesday? Is it Wednesday? Or the Wednesday after that? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

What makes something money? Is gold money? Is Bitcoin? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Do Sundays start the week, or end it? When does the week end, and is that the weekend? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

What’s cooking? Is making tea cooking? John’s answers may surprise you. They certainly surprised Jason. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

The proper way to eat popcorn. 🍿 <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Listeners Jono and Chris, and friend Tony Sindelar, have questions about what John defines as ‘camping.’ Suffering is surprisingly part of the calculation. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Listener Beth seeks enlightenment about what makes something a photo. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Listener Isaac wants us to judge if a certain “floating bridge” is actually a ferry. This leads, of course, to a discussion of infinite bridges and whether a fairy is a ferry in California. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

If robots at a grocery-store warehouse works in tandem, are they robots? If they have a hive mind, are they still robots? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Singular or plural? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

When you see an org chart and money changes hands, your spirituality has become something else. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Should we really spring forward and fall back? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

When do you run the dishwasher? Do you rinse the dishes first? And wouldn’t it be nice if our dishwashers were robots? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

Do you always start watching at the beginning? And do you have to watch till the end? <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>

The strange case of the burrito sandwich. <p>John Siracusa and Jason Snell.</p>