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Imagine a world with cameras everywhere, cameras with facial recognition that use real-time analytics to interpret your every move, which will be stored in an enormous database and monetized for every dollar it’s worth. Is that the work of science fiction or real life? Sadly, it’s a combination of the two, which is the themes in The Circle feel so relevant. Time Stamps 1:00 Intro to movie 1:27 Movie recap 8:14 Discussion of The Circle’s campus comparing it to Apple Park and other headquarters of large tech companies like Google, and what it’s like to work at these companies. 14:50 Discussion of data privacy in the Circle vs. data privacy in real life, including how data can be used to make more accurate bus schedules, Andrew Yang’s idea that data should be a property right and who really owns data. 20:40 Discussion of livestreaming on Facebook Live and Instagram Live, and why it’s so much more effective than regular videos. 23:23 Gabe and Aliza talk about facial recognition; how the New York state Department of Education banned facial recognition in schools, how it discriminates against people of color, women and trans people and how police departments in the United States use facial recognition software to identify suspects. 30:00 Are we in the future? Based on the Dave Eggers novel of the same name, what The Circle lacks in character development it makes up for in dystopian elements. Our protagonist Mae, played by Emma Watson, works as a customer support representative for The Circle, a company clearly based on large tech giants like Google and Apple. Although she’s initially resistant to drinking the “Kool-Aid” of the rest of the Inner Circle, eventually she’s leading the pack to a world in which privacy rights are wrong. In this episode, Gabe and Aliza discuss what it’s really like to work at a huge tech company, who really owns your data, if facial recognition makes us more safe or not, and the trend of live streaming. In The Circle, Mae livestreams her every move, as the company believes that “sharing is caring and secrets are lies”. Although we couldn’t find anyone that live streams their life 24/7, this increasingly common form of video is particularly popular in China, where people can livestream product reviews and make millions.  

Single women with children are the most likely group to be burgled when someone is home, and no movie demonstrates this fact better than 2002’s Panic Room. Directed by the prolific director David Fincher, who you might remember from Fight Club, Gone Girl or The Social Network, Panic Room stars Jodie Foster as Meg Altman and a very young Kristen Stewart as her daughter Sarah. Upon moving into a beautiful townhouse that comes equipped with its own panic room, Meg and Sarah are burgled by the grandson of the previous owner, a man named Junior played by Jared Leto. It turns out that there are bearer bonds in the house, $22 million worth to be exact. The best part? Anyone who owns them can cash them in, without requiring any records of the owner! In this episode, Gabe and Aliza discuss the technology behind Panic Room and how it comes to home security today. Can robbers simply cut your phone lines to disable your home security system? Can professional monitoring really save you from a hostage situation? And how likely is it that you are going to be burgled in the first place? These questions and more are all answered in the sixth episode of our podcast. Time Stamps 0:50 Movie background info and recap 8:24 Gabe and Aliza discuss the home security displayed in the movie and how that would look today. 12:40 Gabe and Aliza discuss burglary statistics; who is most likely to be burgled, what type of home is most likely to be burgled and what will make burglars stop in their tracks. 15:15 Using Gabe’s knowledge as a lawyer, we discuss what would become of Burnham in the eyes of the law. 19:23 Gabe and Aliza answer the podcast’s titular question, are we in the future? 

Roller blading. Techno music. Hacking. All activities are heavily associated with the 1990s, a time when personal computers were for tech nerds only and hacking was a relatively recent phenomenon. No movie encompasses the hacking subculture better than 1995’s Hackers, a film starring Angelina Jolie, Jonny Lee Miller and Lorraine Braco, among others. After they’re framed by an evil cybersecurity officer, a group of high-school hackers must prove themselves innocent using their incredible computer skills. It has it all: hacktivism, tiny sunglasses that have somehow come back in style, and the kind of unbridled confidence that only people who have never supported themselves financially could have. Oh, high schoolers! In this episode, Gabe and Aliza discuss hacking: how it’s changed since 1995, hacktivism, and the Hacker’s Manifesto referenced in the film. Companies still hire ethical hackers, otherwise known as white hat hackers, in order to find security vulnerabilities before black hat hackers do. This practice is incredibly necessary, as so many companies have had breaches (I’m thinking NordVPN, Nest, and Capital One, to name a few recent examples). Even with the growing need for cybersecurity, especially for IoT devices, some reports suggest that there will be 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs by 2021. And these jobs are highly-paying. One hacker working for cybersecurity company Synack made over $1 million this year alone. Time Stamps0:57 Movie Trivia/ Fun Facts 1:35 Movie Recap 8:00 Gabe and Aliza discuss what hacking looks like nowadays and how it’s changed since 1995 when the movie takes place, including ethical hacking.14:40 Discussion of the Hacker’s Manifesto 16:40 Discussion of hacktivism24:18 Gabe and Aliza ask the titular question, are we in the future?

Home Alone is a movie so popular that it has become a Christmas staple like mistletoe or consumerism. It stars Macaulay Culkin, one of the most famous child actors of all time, as Kevin McCallister, a bratty eight year old who gets his wish of never seeing him family again when they all leave for a vacation without him. If that sounds like prime parenting, consider this: they also lacked a security system for their large house filled with valuables. Having reviewed and written about dozens of security systems, cameras, and Internet of Things devices, Gabe and Aliza discuss how the movie would have been differently if the family wasn’t like the 70% of U.S households without security systems. Sure, it would’ve lasted 10 minutes, but at least Kevin wouldn’t have to improvise home security with cans of paint, human mannequins and old black and white movies. Among the topics discussed includes the $20 Wyze Cam, the $30 Wyze Sense motion and entry sensors, what happens to your security system if your power goes out, and why you really should have a landline. Gabe and Aliza also debate the merits of GPS child tracking watches, smart lights and video doorbells. Time Stamps 3:14 Movie Recap9:30 IRL (In Real Life) 25:44 Asking the titular question, “are we in the future?” 

Scarlett Johansson is notorious for playing characters outside of her race, but in Spike Jonze’s 2013 movie Her, she takes it to a whole other level. She plays Samantha, an unbelievably human-like operating system who falls in love with a human named Theodore, played by Joaquin Phoenix. After pondering the mechanics of an operating system-human relationship, Gabe and Aliza talk about what virtual girlfriends look like in 2019, from sex robots to girlfriend apps. While the girlfriend apps on iTunes are a bit underwhelming, sex robots are anything but. On the contrary, they’re incredibly advanced, costing at least $10,000 and taking a few months to make. Every single sex robot is custom built and their conversational abilities are surprisingly impressive. For example, robots from Roxxxy TrueCompanion can ask people about their personal preferences and remember them in future conversations. And like a real woman, the robots aren’t always in the mood, if you catch our drift. Gabe and Aliza also talk about the psychological impact of dating inanimate objects or softwares, which can actually be positive and improve social skills. Like anything else though, this technology is best used in moderation. Time Stamps Gabe and Aliza introduce the movie, 2013’s Her and it’s characters and recap the plot (0:50) Discussion of the movie’s tech begins with real virtual girlfriend apps, My Invisible Girlfriend, My Virtual Girlfriend, and other apps available for iOS and Android  (6:17)What do psychologists say about these apps that simulate being in a relationship? Spoiler: they can help people with social disorders or anxiety, but ultimately they can’t replace people (16:00)Discussion of sex robots begins with discussion of this new $30 billion industry (17:00)Deep dive into Roxxxy TrueCompanion, a sex robot company that makes robots that can actually move and get to know their “owners” (18:45) Discussion of Rocky, a male sex doll from the same company, and whether or not it’s healthy to have a sex robot (23:00)Should an operating system as advanced as Samantha exist? (24:00)The titular question, “are we in the future?” is answered (26:00)

For the socially awkward, having a person in your ear to tell you what to do and say may seem like a dream, but for others, it’s a dystopian nightmare. This episode focuses on White Christmas, an episode found in season 2 of the hit science fiction show Black Mirror. Not only does this episode include the devastatingly handsome Jon Hamm, but it also portrays technology that hits a bit too close to home, like voice assistants that live in your head, blocking people IRL, and even intercepting someone’s brain to get a confession. After recapping the episode, hosts Gabe and Aliza discuss the technology in the episode along with it’s real life counterparts, focusing on three main topics. Z-eyes, the technology that allowed Jon Hamm’s character to help out those unlucky in love, mirror smarts contacts and glasses like Google Glass, Microsoft’s HoloLens and Magic Leap. They’ll also discuss blocking apps, voice assistants, and whether or not you can code consciousness. Finally, Gabe and Aliza share some intel about FaceMe, an AI company that creates ads with facial recognition technology so that they’re tailored based on your demographic. The podcast’s titular question has never been so relevant. 

If you were a kid in the 90s then you’re probably familiar with 1999’s Smart House, perhaps the most recognizable Disney channel original movie. It’s about a family that moves into a smart house whose voice assistant Pat can do everything from cooking meals to playing movies, from helping with homework to setting showers to the perfect temperature— sound familiar? In some ways, this smart home vision has become a reality, with voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant becoming commonplace along with a myriad of connected devices like smart showers, A.I-powered homework apps and robots that can tell if you’re feeling sad. Hosts Gabe and Aliza will ponder all of the movie’s technology, comparing it to what we have today, and finding out for certain if we are, in 2019, in the future. Of course, there’s still a lot of technology in the movie that doesn’t exist yet, like robots cooking complete meals from scratch, much to the hosts’ dismay. Plus, voice assistants haven’t yet tried to bridge the gap between human and machine, which ultimately led to Pat’s downfall. After recapping the movie and discussing the latest in smart home technology, Gabe and Aliza focus on three questions— can this exist today, should this exist today and of course, are we in the future?