Learn about why classic diners are shaped like train cars; what came before the Big Bang; and the crocodile paradox, an unsolvable dilemma dating back to ancient Greece. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: Classic Diners Are Shaped Like Train Cars for a Very Good Reason What Came Before the Big Bang? The Crocodile Paradox Is an Unsolvable Dilemma That Dates Back to Ancient Greece Please tell us about yourself and help us improve the show by taking our listener survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/curiosity-listener-survey If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! Learn about these topics and more onCuriosity.com, and download our5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation onFacebook,Twitter, andInstagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable ourAlexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Learn about why classic diners are shaped like train cars; what came before the Big Bang; and the crocodile paradox, an unsolvable dilemma dating back to ancient Greece.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
Please tell us about yourself and help us improve the show by taking our listener survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/curiosity-listener-survey
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron!
Learn about these topics and more on Curiosity.com, and download our 5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable our Alexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/what-came-before-the-big-bang-diner-designs-and-the-ancient-greek-crocodile-paradox
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: Hi. We've got three stories from curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today, you'll learn about an ancient unsolvable Greek paradox, what came before the Big Bang, and why classic diners are shaped like train cars.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity. We'll start off today with a little brainteaser. And by brainteaser, I mean self-contradictory or logically impossible statements, also known as a paradox, specifically in ancient Greek paradox. Ashley, do you have a favorite paradox?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yes. I believe it's "this statement is a lie."
CODY GOUGH: Is that the liar's paradox?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yes.
CODY GOUGH: I love the liar's paradox. I'm actually-- I have something to say about the liar's paradox, but I'm going to save it till after we talk about this Greek one.
ASHLEY HAMER: Ooh, all right.
CODY GOUGH: There's a little tease for you. Today, we wrote about the crocodile paradox, and this is a logic problem that came from ancient Greece. Here's how it goes. A crocodile has captured a little kid. Being the reasonable crocodile that he is, the croc promises the kid's dad that he will release him only if the father can predict what the crocodile will do next. The kid's dad says you will not give my son back.
Now, the croc is in trouble. If the dad was correct in his statement, then the croc keeps the kid, right? But if the croc keeps the kid, then the croc is not keeping his promise to return the kid. But once the croc returns the kid, the dad's prediction is no longer correct. What should the crocodile do? Spoiler alert, there is no answer. But that's the fun of paradoxes, right?
As the philosopher Kierkegaard once said, quote "the thinker without a paradox is like a lover without feeling" unquote. You can learn more about fun paradoxes, like the first recorded paradox from the sixth century BCE in our full write-up on curiosity.com and on the Curiosity app for Android and iOS.
And the liar's paradox, I love because I just saw a Kirk and Spock used it on an Android in Star Trek, The Original Series in the episode I, Mudd. I just watched all of the original Star Trek, and it was amazing. And Kirk and Spock used the paradox to overload this machine. And that's kind of a sci-fi trope that if there's an Android or other artificial intelligence, they would use a paradox. The liar's paradox overload its circuits and then overcome it.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, wow. I wonder if we could feed a paradox to IBM Watson and see what happens.
CODY GOUGH: Ooh.
ASHLEY HAMER: What came before the Big Bang? Scientists have theories. And today, we'll talk about some of them. Quick reminder, though, that in scientific terms, a theory is the most bulletproof idea you can present. It's been tested and generally accepted by the scientific community. So just because it's called the Big Bang Theory doesn't mean it's just a theory.
CODY GOUGH: It's pretty much the scientific consensus.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yes.
CODY GOUGH: I want to know what happens after the Big Bang Theory.
ASHLEY HAMER: You mean like--
CODY GOUGH: 12 seasons, Ashley. What are we going to do with our lives?
ASHLEY HAMER: Better television is what happens.
[LAUGHS]
CODY GOUGH: Sick burn. Sick burn. I don't think-- I've seen a couple episodes, so I'm not really that broken up.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, me too. Well, in science, the Big Bang Theory says that our universe began as a point of infinite gravity and density called a singularity. Then in a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second, it exploded outward, doubling and redoubling and redoubling in size at a rate faster than the speed of light, in a phenomenon physicists call inflation. And yeah, usually nothing can go faster than the speed of light. But this was an expansion of space itself, so it gets to bend the rules. OK.
But what happened before the Big Bang? Here are a few of science's answers. First is an idea called the Big Bounce. This says that maybe an earlier universe collapsed into the singularity that started our own. That one would require some new physics to make sense, but it's still out there.
The next idea is called the inflation hypothesis. This says that fluctuations in a so-called inflaton field led to a huge swell of energy in one patch of the field, which made it expand incredibly quickly. That exponential growth spurt would leave evidence behind in the form of primordial gravitational waves. Not the big ones discovered by LEGO in 2015, but tiny imprints in the cosmic microwave background that other projects have been searching for.
We may not have found evidence for this one yet, but most cosmologists think it does the best job of explaining the universe is low entropy, along with a few other cosmic quirks. And one other idea is that we're just one universe in the multiverse. This idea is an offshoot of the inflation hypothesis. And it says that the elements that lead to inflation also lead to the creation of a bunch of smaller, low entropy universes.
Unfortunately, all those universes would be closed off from one another, so we'd never be able to detect them. That's unsatisfying to some scientists for obvious reasons. You can read more about the Big Bang and pre Big Bang theories in our full write-up. But trust us when we say there's a lot of work being done on figuring out what happened before the Big Bang.
CODY GOUGH: "Bazinga."
[LAUGHS]
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh.
CODY GOUGH: Have you ever wondered why a lot of classic diners look like train cars? We wrote about this Saturday on Curiosity. But I wanted to bring it up because a, you have missed, and b, I love diners. Diners are the best.
ASHLEY HAMER: They are.
CODY GOUGH: Do you always order breakfast no matter what time it is?
ASHLEY HAMER: I do.
CODY GOUGH: Yes. That's the right way to do it.
[LAUGHS]
We can go to diners together.
ASHLEY HAMER: Great.
CODY GOUGH: Love it. Well, the word diner covers a pretty broad spectrum of dining establishments these days, from your mom and pop joints around the corner to national chains, like Denny's. But diners have much more humble origins. Before diners were buildings, they were portable. And before they were shaped like train cars, they were shaped like horse carts.
In 1872, an entrepreneur named Walter Scott from Providence, Rhode Island got an idea. He fitted a spare horse cart with the bare essentials he needed to make food, and he rolled it out at dusk as a night lunch wagon for night shift workers, and theatergoers, and anybody else out late at night. He served coffee, pies, eggs, and sandwiches, and he was so successful that he was able to quit his printing business.
Of course, other mobile lunch carts started to copy the idea. And by the early 20th century, the market was pretty much ruled by three manufacturers-- Worcester Lunch Car Company, Tierney, and O'Mahony. They kept growing. And over time, the new dining cars weren't pulled by horses, they were hooked on the cargo trains. When those dining cars arrived at their destination, they would lose their wheels but keep the late night hours.
By the 1920s, dining car was shortened to diner. And by the 30s, the Art Deco style popular in train cars started to creep into diners too. That's when the diner really took off and became a piece of American identity. And here's a fun fact. Do you know where the diner capital of the world is? New Jersey, with more than 600 diners. Although, my favorite diner is the Double R Diner from Twin Peaks, which by the way, is called Twede's Cafe in North Bend, Washington. And yes, I've been there.
ASHLEY HAMER: This must be where pies go when they die. Quick reminder that we posted a listener survey, where you can enter to win a free Curiosity t-shirt. We want to get to know you better and learn what you like hearing on our show, so we've posted the survey in today's show notes and on our Patreon page, and on our podcast page on our website, and on a QR code at a diner somewhere in New Jersey. I'm not sure how we got that one there.
Anyway, it'll take a few minutes to fill out, and you'll have the option to enter to win a free t-shirt. We need your feedback to help us improve our show. Now is your chance to tell us what you want. One more time, find the link in today's show notes or at patreon.com/curiosity.com, all spelled out. We really appreciate it.
CODY GOUGH: Read about today's stories and more on curiosity.com.
ASHLEY HAMER: Join us again tomorrow for the Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Ashley Hamer.
CODY GOUGH: And I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: Stay curious.
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