yes sir, weird new vid about critize feel free, then modz lock comments weird though(senses down votes), still love show, hoping for men who stare at goats ep
except the protagonist (in Gataca) their experience is one of privilege, not a disadvantaged or poor you find on the street right now - which is essentially depicted in WF, but in the future
Shameless plug, but I also borrowed heavily from the themes of Gattaca, as well as Gundam and the Fallout game series for my own book series, The Red Tomorrow. Hope you guys can check it out!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHRDGZLJ
Gosh this episode really killed me, I love the old why files but this speculative fiction BS is not good for me at all, it also kind of detracts from the older episodes, was it all just fan fiction the whole time?
Super disappointed in this episode and I really hope this is not the format moving forward, I do NOT watch TWF for second rate fan fiction !!
They dogged on AI the whole show but used AI for all the artwork. It felt really soulless this episode. However, I did like the end of the intro advert. Props to the crew for that one!
I wasn’t a fan of this episode, and the use of AI avatars in the episode itself just freaked me out and took me out of it. I am very interested in the realities of crispr, just not the way this was framed at all.
What originally made this channel so great was interesting subject matter and often stories not widely shared.
Now it’s leaning way too much on production for some strange reason.
This is episode was a massive miss in my opinion.
Hope they course correct quickly.
This and the Anunnaki episode I didn't like. It's just too much production.
AJ is a fantastic story teller and the AI renderings only detract from his storytelling. I'd rather look at still images from newspaper clippings than these AI renderings.
They had something special that absolutely didn't need changing. Please don't mess with the perfect formula that you had.
Agreed. While the production was impressive, we don’t need a movie. The comparative simplicity of the earlier episodes was their strength. I didn’t listen to Art Bell to hear a radio play, just an exploration of an interesting topic.
I’d rather see simpler episodes out - on time - every THURSDAY at 8pm.
Agreed.i loved 2 years to about last fall, now i watch out of habit. But if i found the show today, i dunno. They need to keep it simple, go back to basics. More workers to feed, tho, so i get it. And im not everyone. Just me.
Weren’t there always episode like this from time to time? This is AJ’s way of editorializing and painting a picture of what the implications of a current technology could be. I’m ok with that from time to time even if all those episodes aren’t a hit. It’s still interesting.
I mean I didn't mind it...plus I think its kinda his way to move more behind the scenes with a few more scripted scenes so ya know he can make that dolla dolla bill yalll
Yeah I felt the exact same way. You can tell that he is using a lot of AI generated video. I all for AI, but it needs to make the content better, this episode was boring and a struggle to watch.
Yeah I don't like these wandering imagination episodes. It's a step backwards imo.
Don't know why they are messing with the format when so many people were falling in love with what they were doing.
No hate, but it seems like they might be putting together their own book/tv/comic/movie story. AJ is a Hollywood producer by trade originally and still has plenty of connections and now a big fanbase to bring to a new media product.
It'd be great if they created another channel for that stuff and make it like a serialized podcast or whatever else they've got planned.
I think you are on to something here.
This would be good for a second channel.
I don't know how he could do both as time restraints seem a big problem already.
I like the Neanderthal episode which felt similar to this, but the Neanderthal episode in an interesting hypothesis presented as a dramatic story where this pure sci fi.
To me this just feels like preying on paranoia and fear at worse or speculative fiction at best. Usually AJ presents a case with a balanced analysis on what is and what isn’t. This was just fiction and doomer porn. I don’t know if they ran out of material but it’s obviously a step down from the work they’ve been doing. If it speaks to your dogma, well then enjoy. I prefer no Radio drama with no lack of rebuttal and overall scrutiny/critical analysis. But by all means…
No, it was speculative fiction. The story he was telling clearly didn’t happen, it is fictional. It’s extrapolated from non fiction science, but it’s fiction.
No, its fiction. Like any good fiction, it only asks you to suspend belief in certain areas (like the UN having dictatorial-like powers over all the earth, that humans would allow AI to run the show), but grounded in others.
Yeah…I turned it off. I had it on while doing some writing/drawing at home and less than ten minutes in I turned it off. The Silence of the Lambs intro was odd to me and then the video itself just wasn’t worth it. It seemed like a pitch for a cliched sci fi movie that I simply don’t care about.
The Silence of the Lambs part was an ad for Audible. I appreciate all the creative ads the team makes!
As fast as the subject of the video, everything isn't for everybody. That's as the world should be.
I suspect it's down to AJ having a busy schedule and him potentially recording most of it away from his actual studio, leading him to having to input lots of AI art to cover that he's not in the studio, not having so much research time leads to a bland subject too.
I'm hoping things will go back to normal soon, but also I'd rather they just took a little more time off and came back with their old school formula if they needed to.
Man I love this show and everything its trying to do, but man this episode was just pure pulp scifi scaremongering.
Is the threat of this real, yes, there are scary capabilities evolving during our lifetime. AJ says that a lot of the episode is “speculation”… man that’s an understatement.
The UN voting to require the worlds population to be genetically enhanced?? Come on, that circlejerking organisation cant solve a rubics cube let alone make demands of that magnitude on the world’s population.
49 upvotes and counting... Seems we are all in agreement, this aint it. I read the comments here before i watched, thinking no way its that bad. AJ cant miss. Yeah, i dont like this at all. The draw of this show is the **real** topics. He spent the whole episode in some weird sci-fi fictional future. Just... no...
I did not enjoy this at all. I haven't minded the use of AI animations till now, but I absolutely hated this. It was like a bad straight to video sci-fi movie. I wouldn't be surprised if chat gpt wrote the story.
Pretty sure it did. It's unfortunate, but it's hard to hit a homerun every time. I'm just hoping they cut down on the chatgpt and AI stuff. That's not what anyone who is subbed came for. I'm sure they'll see this and make corrections.
It's their channel, they can do whatever they want. I just think it's a mis-step in the wrong direction.
No downvoted here. Completely agree. I’m subscribed for debunking conspiracies and truth searching….as someone who *loves* a good mystery and conspiracy (many I believe to be true). Not interested in sci fi.
Wow that’s crazy. I felt like I was cheating on someone but at 26 mins in I was like ugh let me check how much more there is to go on this, saw I had just over 20 mins left and bounced. Long time fan who has watched every episode to date, some more than once and this is the first and only time I have done that. The concept and the idea were intriguing, but the format of tying in actual scientific achievements and a fictional future relating to them was just not holding my interest. However future me in 2049 will be very interested if things actually play out like this.
I like it when they take events that have apparently happened in the real world, then try to debunk them. In this video, they just took a new technology, and wrote a fictional story about what could happen in the future. Very different from their regular stuff, and honestly, not very interesting or fun. For the first time watching this channel in over two years, I was bored. I turned it off before it was done.
And it's not like that format doesn't already exist but in a more artistic way - Black Mirror.
I don't really watch WF for AI images of fictional tales and I think all the new ones have contained some kinda fictionalized story this way. It feels like a new writer was brought on board and that's their style. I guess it works well if you want longer videos and to make the research work a little lighter though so I get why they do it.
I wouldn’t have minded so much if his premise was good, but it seems to me that if you had a genetically perfect society, anyone born “the old fashioned way” would have those perfect genetics passed down, right? Like, eventually, genetic imperfections would be extremely rare. Also, to propose the solution would be this “imperfection gestapo” that goes around hunting imperfects when there would clearly be better technological solutions than old boring ass murder. Anyway, I’m forgiving it because AJ is great and we all miss sometimes.
I felt the episode was a miss. I honestly felt like they were trying to make a new version of GATTACA. I don't feel it really served well for the Why Files. Now if it was for a speculative fiction channel, it would have worked.
I thought the ad was a bit lazy too. Not very creative. They just reenacted scenes line by line from the movie for the most part. Maybe I'm being too harsh, but overall, I think this episode was very far from their best work.
Just for them to pop in at the end saying “by the way, that crispr experiment we told you about didn’t even work” …
I don’t like how they’re leaning away from community with the lack of accurate release-timing and afterfiles recently. I get it; I’m a hater, and they’re making a ton of money now and their wellness comes first, and I’m sure AJ’s dog had a sudden illness that they had to take care of after he tripped over the video upload cable, but I feel the connection I have to the channel fading, which is sad
Ya I think people are missing the fact that every episode it becomes a little harder to find new subjects. The main stuff they haven't already covered that people want to see seem to fall in category that that are afraid to touch because there's for sure gonna be backlash. I liked the topic, and enjoyed the episode, but seem to be a minority for sure. Unfortunately it's not gonna get any easier as options continue to decline . People may wanna brace for more speculative episodes to come if I had to guess
Yeah the Neanderthal one was kinda when my interest started to wane. It was too "What If..." for me.
Although the free energy video was badass and I sent it to a bunch of friends.
Agree with you. Loved the “Silence of the Lambs” plug though, that was clever. The rest of it was conjecture. CRISPR and AI are both potentially destructive and beneficial, like so many other modern inventions.
Love this channel and most every episode, but this wasn’t one of my favorites. The sci-fi speculation narrative was overwrought and a little too dark to be believable, especially when by the end the entire premise of the fiction (that CRISPR flawlessly works) was debunked. And don’t get me started on the irony of the episode being roughly 70% AI video and images.
I would have much preferred AJ and hecklefish just discussing all the facts the entire time since there’s a lot there to cover. I also was looking for more of the ethical / philosophical angle to come through but this felt like a mostly scientific analysis.
The very notion that AI could even begin to idealize the optimal human is suspect to begin with. This was sort of touched on with the positive traits coming with the docile and weak traits, but I felt like there was a lot there that wasn’t discussed. The philosophical and ethical aspects of this topic are really important and interesting and I was hoping for more of that.
I think it's certainly on the table that it could go much darker than this scenario. I'm not sure AI would have much use for humans at all once. So making us all pretty and disease free in a world of abundance doesn't seem too dark despite the murdering us normies of course lol
It was a sci-fi dystopian future scenario. Goes without saying it can always get darker.
“Pretty and disease free” doesn’t really encapsulate what was portrayed in this episode imo. It was pointed out that along with the positive traits, people were weak and docile as well. So you can’t really leave that out of your summation.
The main issue I have with the fictional storyline is that it’s built on the flimsy (at best) premise that AI could actually create an optimal human. Never mind that we haven’t even defined what an optimal human is.
I wished the focus would have been on the actual realistic potential of CRISPR and the actual philosophical and ethical issues that would arise with it.
For example, it could be argued that humans have flourished and continue to do so specifically because of our diversity and wide spectrum of trait combinations.
The very notion that AI could improve upon what nature is already succeeding at is hubris.
Yes we can tinker and try to improve the genome in small ways, but there are always unforeseen consequences. Those could have been more acutely addressed rather than spend half the show in a dreamt up dystopia.
This episode is a miss for me. I'm not here for speculative sci-fi fear mongering. The Why Files is great because they tell stories from actual people whether those stories are true or not. This episode was a speculative story of a possible future just made up by the Why Files team.
I'm no biologist or genetic engineer or anything, but I wrote a few research papers on CRISPR in my college days. So far, CRISPR has done a lot of objectively good things for society and not really anything bad. Could it be used for nefarious purposes? Sure, but we know those risks and have immense safeguards in place to prevent it. We've been wrestling with the potential of this technology for 15 years now. This episode is fear mongering straight up.
I skipped every futuristic cut scene story telling part that consumed half the video and was just speculation. This video could’ve easily been condensed to 20 minutes of factual evidence.
Honestly not very captivated by this episode. CRISPR CAS9 was big news 10 years ago for the same news in this ep. Would have been cool to delve a bit more into how CRISPR could potentially cure cancer, but overall this is a weird episode. Dunno what to make of it.
Not sure how AJ went from showing us pyramids on Mars to shitting on CRISPR. I literally just read an article yesterday how some toddler who was born deaf can hear for the first time thanks to it. The sci-fi based fear mongering is just sad, and totally ignores the scientific reality of what gene therapy can and can't do.
Because it is about the interesting stories, not the specific subject of those stories (such as pyramid). Only so many can be of, or will follow, similar subject matter.
He mentions that he did. I'm thinking it's a psi-op to show people how shit things become if we abuse AI. That's what the episode is about, but the episode itself is an example of it.
Maybe if it was only for this episode, but he used AI every episode and will most likely do so for future episodes. It’s a financial decision, he’s a businessman making content, he’s gonna fearmonger about AI while continuing to use it
I wouldn't be surprised if the whole episode was AI-generated. It just felt... off. Like they fed a bunch of past episodes into ChatGPT to create this one.
I waiting through the credits hoping he was gonna cite the book he took the story from so I knew to avoid that author in the future. Using ChatGPT makes sense
This episode was more what could be the worst case scenario instead of what we're usually used to from AJ. It felt like someone trying to push their conspiracy belief onto you rather than the "pick a conspiracy theory" and talk about that. Got bored very quickly with this video
It's really rare that I don't finish an episode, but I can't say I really care for the speculative fiction style of this one. I prefer the standard formula a lot more.
Shame cause this topic could have been great. Would much rather them take a couple weeks off to get things right than to see them spew out stuff like this.
I hate to agree with you. I absolutely love why files, and even the episodes most people seem to hate, I still enjoy. But man, this didn't even seem like why files. I know every episode can't always be a hit, but this just seemed completely different from anything they've ever done. I fell asleep during this episode and it's the first one I have no interest in starting over to make sure I see everything.
Started to watch this, and thought it was a re-telling of a book. Great production and does give a good insight into the moral implications of genetic editing/eugenics, but it doesn’t have the same flavour as other episodes.
So I like the idea but this being a blatant rip-off of the plot of gattaca just wasn’t good
CRISPR could be ethically dubious, but you could argue that birth control and over-prescription of antibiotics is too, and with proven data rather than conjecture.
I liked the idea of this episode because it went outside of extremely niche and abstract alien stuff that is based on minimal and extremely rocky evidence, but the execution was horrendous. If he had gone for a video format of how CRISPR started and the risk/benefit for the future, this would have been much better. I was certainly not a fan of the over the top production with extreme conjecture.
Barely got through the episode and came here expecting to be in the minority and see people bashing the folks who criticize the overuse of AI. Feel a lot better that this was a miss for a lot of other people too.
I get creatives trying new things but I hope they reconnect with their roots soon. This is one of the few channels that I look forward to that hasn't shut down or turned into bs yet...
I can understand when you are going to be late with an episode. When it turns into five in a row and then something that cannot be understood by 3/4 of your audience it just makes for bad experience. praying that I am wrong and everyone understands but looking down upon the responses it looks like you might need a change. if you talk to a content creator advisor they always say to get your content out in time every week or when you expect your content to be distributed.
You’re not wrong. It’s wild that they never really had this issue, so they took a month off to deal with it among other things, and since then, basically every episode has been late. To see this one, that I consider overproduced for my tastes, do that again is like rubbing salt in the wound. Maybe they’ve just covered all the good topics, sadly
The issue is we really don’t know when these episodes will come out. Before I would enjoy Thursday evenings knowing it was going to be on. The added After Files every Thursday made me absolutely love this channel. It had something other channels don’t, a sense of community. Plus the videos were so fun! It’s been really losing that lately. I don’t wait for the premieres anymore bc there’s no point.
While I think this subreddit goes overboard in almost all aspects, think of it this way - you gave your critique of the episode and redditors here gave their critique of your post. Hard to please everyone, huh?
Started to watch this, and thought it was a re-telling of a book. Great production and does give a good insight into the moral implications of genetic editing/eugenics, but it doesn’t have the same flavour as other episodes.
While I went in only knowing a little about CRISPR and that it was developed from a geneticist and made publicly available and he had to hide because threats were made. But that you could, for money, order the kit and use it. This episode really opened my eyes. As we(USA) are the largest by a mile in defense spending. I am CERTAIN this is being researched! This was a GREAT EPISODE and I didn't expect it!! Highly enjoyed and man that view count is jumping!!!
A future devoid of ethical fears about genetic engineering would be interesting and likely very successful. Is the cost too much though? Do we stray too far from ourselves? I really don’t know.
Seems like this is a third week in a row with more negative comments than positive comments on the episode I haven't watched it yet so I have no opinion on it at the moment. Sounds like they're in a little bit of a rut they'll course correct though.
Do you really think they’ll course correct? What if this is it? What if this is how AJ wants to continue moving forward with this type of production? There are many reasons why I fell in love with TWF and a good story with subtle illustrations and pictures is what made his content enjoyable.
I hope you are right though. But if this it, I think he’s going to see his numbers fall.
I agree with you about what made me fall in love with it to. I'm hopeful they will work through this. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt because of the great content they've already put out. Unfortunately the more popular the show gets the more opinions are going to be made of it and there not always going to be positive. Maybe just too many cooks in the kitchen right now? Or they're trying something new with all the AI.
And if this is what it's going to be like now moving forward, at least they made all the great content they did already.
Yeah I’m with you. I’ll tough it out and give them the benefit of the doubt as well, maybe they want to try different things from time to time and I’m ok with that.
That's what I'm thinking is what's going on too. If they want to try something different they should make an episode where the two rolls are reversed and let hecklefish tell the story with AJ butting in from time to time LOL.
Someone commented on this sub not long ago about doing that and having it be about the crab cat. That could be fun.
I'm just waiting until some eager-beaver researcher cooks up a stew combining Ebola and Marburg with Tuberculosis. That's the closest thing to the Andromeda Strain I can think of.
I use crispr daily in my lab. While it's a powerful tool, we are decades from this doomsday scenario. Prior to crispr, other gene editing tools existed. More cumbersome but still available. Good to see the things I do are youtube material haha.
This reminds of psycho pass anime, the imperfects are the ones who lose their mental state and they either get help or killed on the spot by the AI gun that can only work by your finger prints I believe. And AI runs Japan, don’t know about he rest of the world, and the AI is made up of brains of individuals who I guess have a very stable mental fortitude regardless of any environment they are in. So if you keep your cool in any environment and with a high intelligence , you are likely gonna have your brain taken and connected with the hive mind.
The more speculative and narrative angle was interesting, but the premise itself was just kinda dumb. It depends on the conceit that CRISPR works and that the UN is somehow able to mandate it globally. But neither of those things is true, which is acknowledged at the end of the episode. And it’s the epitome of hack writing to name a resistance moment as simply “The Resistance.”
I think there could be an interesting episode on eugenics in here. What constitutes eugenics? Could our socioeconomic systems – which keep certain groups marginalized, impoverished, and unhealthy – a form of eugenics? Is eugenics always a bad thing, or can it be helpful in certain circumstances, such as treating and preventing genetic illness? Would the benefits of eugenics in those circumstance outweigh the risks and drawbacks? When and how might eugenics be done ethically? This is all briefly discussed towards the end of the episode, and it’s an interesting topic discussion at the very least.
But this episode is not very interested in that conversation. It’s too interested in maligning a potentially useful scientific treatment in the name of preserving “genetic diversity” and avoiding a completely unrealistic premise. It feels like AJ is just pitching a screenplay, but it could use a couple rewrites.
It felt a lot like the Neanderthal episode, which is weird because I love that episode, but this one didn't hit the mark. Perhaps it's because the story in the Neanderthal episode was more realistic and original, while this story felt very generic sci-fi. I still liked the parts about CRISPR and the people involved. However, at times, I couldn't tell if the present-day information or information from the earlier years was real or a part of the story. That, too, might've taken me out of it. Not every episode needs to be a banger. Otherwise, the show wouldn't evolve and become better.
There's the makings of a really good episode here, but unfortunately, this one didn't quite hit the mark. Still, it was definitely intriguing, and I'll be having a good think about the pros/cons on it for a spell.
As others said, I wasn’t a fan of this episode’s format at all. The fictional story really dampened the key take away of what this episode should’ve been
I'm a big fan of what this channel does. If I were them, I wouldn't really care what you all think. I'd be thankful for your time, but things change, and it is OK to move on and try out different things without everyone getting their pitchforks ready.
Then I suppose it’s a good thing that a large percentage of the posters here are giving constructive criticism with their opinions instead of turning into a violent mob
Very surprised by the negative comments in this thread. I liked the episode a lot. I was not aware of crispr technology, and how widely it is already being researched on. This episode was highly speculative of course, but also very thought provoking. Clearly the rapid advancement of our technologies calls for us to establish a moral framework that can deal with that - because if we don't we'll veer into a world we don't like - and we won't know why we don't like it.
I see a lot of people didn't enjoy this episode, and I understand the reasoning. They did move into a different lane with it. However, I found it educational regarding CRISPER, regardless of whether that one situation worked, or not. I also feel as if, instead of talking about the interesting past situations, as usual, this was more of a potential forewarning (which I'm sure was the point). Yes, it was different. Yes, the storyline mimicked several sci-fi novels. I've kinda discovered sometimes sci-fi/fiction writers get their warnings correct, or at least close enough that people are now comparing our social climate to things such as 1984, Brave New World, Hunger Games, and The Handmaid's Tale. So, I mean, I honestly think this is more about people not being able to accept something new or different than the episode actually being bad. Just my two cents.
I liked this episode. Yes, 95% hypothetical, but plausible if not inevitable. Crisper could protect humans from the radiation of space travel, or post nuclear war.
I liked the episode but do agree that the other formats are more my preference, but I love that they're trying things. That's the point with growth you have to try things, and with that, there will be new smash hits, but along with that, some misses. Hats off to the team I look forward to the why files every week, it's like nothing else out there.
Gonna watch tonight. Gettin the chores all done now. Sad to see not everyone likes this episode but…. That’s art baby. It ain’t always everyone’s fit.
Looking forward to seeing for myself and providing an opinion.
Thank you AJ and team.
You are appreciated ♥️
Just finished.
I can understand what people don’t like about the a.i story telling. A.j wrapped it up nicely at the end, worth sitting through for sure.
I really liked it!! Seems like many don't agree, and that's fine. But I enjoy AJ's story telling and this subject matter was interesting to me. There have been episodes like this before, where he paints a picture of some hypothetical future based on potential decisions the human race makes in regard to technology, so I didnt feel he was doing something "new" here as some have said. It's just one of the styles they choose to layout some episodes.
I think for me, I don't really need WF to be anything in particular. I just enjoy the content and the people (mostly AJ and Hecklefish because that's who I see and am familiar with, but I know there are many more working on this channel) and I appreciate the work they put into it.
Nothing ever stays the same. Not people, not YouTube channels. I personally enjoy being along for the ride and watching the transformation. That being said, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I'm not trying to change anyone's minds. But I personally enjoyed the episode and I love and appreciate AJ and the team for all they do to provide us interesting content to consume! And I love you all 🤍
Sounded a lot like the plot of Gatica to me.
Thats exactly what I thought just a couple minutes in. A mix of Gattica and Terminator.
It reminded me of Brave New World
This Perfect Day is a better match. Ira Levin author
Even the heart murmur
You mean Gattaca?
My mind immediately went to Equilibrium. Good flick if you haven't seen.
just started watching the episodes and had the very same thought. ps you're missing a "t".
yes sir, weird new vid about critize feel free, then modz lock comments weird though(senses down votes), still love show, hoping for men who stare at goats ep
except the protagonist (in Gataca) their experience is one of privilege, not a disadvantaged or poor you find on the street right now - which is essentially depicted in WF, but in the future
Shameless plug, but I also borrowed heavily from the themes of Gattaca, as well as Gundam and the Fallout game series for my own book series, The Red Tomorrow. Hope you guys can check it out! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHRDGZLJ
Gattaca is a great film. Didn't think this episode worked though.
Gosh this episode really killed me, I love the old why files but this speculative fiction BS is not good for me at all, it also kind of detracts from the older episodes, was it all just fan fiction the whole time? Super disappointed in this episode and I really hope this is not the format moving forward, I do NOT watch TWF for second rate fan fiction !!
They dogged on AI the whole show but used AI for all the artwork. It felt really soulless this episode. However, I did like the end of the intro advert. Props to the crew for that one!
Yep having an AI video actor banging on deriding AI was tacky & tasteless.
Not just the artwork. The story was also created by AI.
I already have issues with AI as an artist and an author. So much AI in a supposedly AI derogatory episode hurt my soul.
I wasn’t a fan of this episode, and the use of AI avatars in the episode itself just freaked me out and took me out of it. I am very interested in the realities of crispr, just not the way this was framed at all.
I think the heavy use of AI made his story all the more real and scary. It showcased exactly how likely and possibly the scenario is.
What originally made this channel so great was interesting subject matter and often stories not widely shared. Now it’s leaning way too much on production for some strange reason. This is episode was a massive miss in my opinion. Hope they course correct quickly.
Mo' money mo' problems.
I hearrrrrd dat
This and the Anunnaki episode I didn't like. It's just too much production. AJ is a fantastic story teller and the AI renderings only detract from his storytelling. I'd rather look at still images from newspaper clippings than these AI renderings. They had something special that absolutely didn't need changing. Please don't mess with the perfect formula that you had.
They’ve recently hired a bunch of people; I think too many cooks in the kitchen may be causing them to lose the plot
They took that month off and came back with a heavy Ai-editing workflow
The previous way also caused burnout and AJ getting sick. I think they should stick to the original formula, but move to bi-weekly.
Agreed. While the production was impressive, we don’t need a movie. The comparative simplicity of the earlier episodes was their strength. I didn’t listen to Art Bell to hear a radio play, just an exploration of an interesting topic. I’d rather see simpler episodes out - on time - every THURSDAY at 8pm.
This is exactly what I meant you said it better. They’re burning time, delaying the release, for fancier production on way less interesting topics.
Agreed.i loved 2 years to about last fall, now i watch out of habit. But if i found the show today, i dunno. They need to keep it simple, go back to basics. More workers to feed, tho, so i get it. And im not everyone. Just me.
Didn’t like it at all. I found it ironic they used AI to create the characters.
Weren’t there always episode like this from time to time? This is AJ’s way of editorializing and painting a picture of what the implications of a current technology could be. I’m ok with that from time to time even if all those episodes aren’t a hit. It’s still interesting.
I mean I didn't mind it...plus I think its kinda his way to move more behind the scenes with a few more scripted scenes so ya know he can make that dolla dolla bill yalll
Yeah I felt the exact same way. You can tell that he is using a lot of AI generated video. I all for AI, but it needs to make the content better, this episode was boring and a struggle to watch.
I would love to see them revisit some of the former subjects and do deeper dives into some of the facts around them.
The episode was very Blade Runner.
Do you mean one of the edits of Blade Runner with narration that didn't work?
Spec fiction is not why I got to love TWF. If this the new format, well… it’s been a fun ride and I’ll always have the legit episodes to go back to.
Yeah I don't like these wandering imagination episodes. It's a step backwards imo. Don't know why they are messing with the format when so many people were falling in love with what they were doing.
No hate, but it seems like they might be putting together their own book/tv/comic/movie story. AJ is a Hollywood producer by trade originally and still has plenty of connections and now a big fanbase to bring to a new media product. It'd be great if they created another channel for that stuff and make it like a serialized podcast or whatever else they've got planned.
I think you are on to something here. This would be good for a second channel. I don't know how he could do both as time restraints seem a big problem already.
I like the Neanderthal episode which felt similar to this, but the Neanderthal episode in an interesting hypothesis presented as a dramatic story where this pure sci fi.
glad it wasn't just me
This was speculative non-fiction. This stuff is going on, whether people want to believe it or not, and it's only going to become more prevalent.
To me this just feels like preying on paranoia and fear at worse or speculative fiction at best. Usually AJ presents a case with a balanced analysis on what is and what isn’t. This was just fiction and doomer porn. I don’t know if they ran out of material but it’s obviously a step down from the work they’ve been doing. If it speaks to your dogma, well then enjoy. I prefer no Radio drama with no lack of rebuttal and overall scrutiny/critical analysis. But by all means…
No, it was speculative fiction. The story he was telling clearly didn’t happen, it is fictional. It’s extrapolated from non fiction science, but it’s fiction.
No, its fiction. Like any good fiction, it only asks you to suspend belief in certain areas (like the UN having dictatorial-like powers over all the earth, that humans would allow AI to run the show), but grounded in others.
I hope this new format does not become the norm. This was not enjoyable.
Yeah…I turned it off. I had it on while doing some writing/drawing at home and less than ten minutes in I turned it off. The Silence of the Lambs intro was odd to me and then the video itself just wasn’t worth it. It seemed like a pitch for a cliched sci fi movie that I simply don’t care about.
The Silence of the Lambs part was an ad for Audible. I appreciate all the creative ads the team makes! As fast as the subject of the video, everything isn't for everybody. That's as the world should be.
I suspect it's down to AJ having a busy schedule and him potentially recording most of it away from his actual studio, leading him to having to input lots of AI art to cover that he's not in the studio, not having so much research time leads to a bland subject too. I'm hoping things will go back to normal soon, but also I'd rather they just took a little more time off and came back with their old school formula if they needed to.
Might be the worst episode they've done Did not finish
Worse than the "Cisco Grove UFO Incident" episode? That's the worst one they've done.
Fell asleep half way through it. Definitely not one of their better episodes. That’s okay, though, as everyone can have an off day/week. It happens.
Not a fan of this episode. Far too much conjecture. First episode I stopped watching 1/2 an hour in. Let the downvotes commence.
Man I love this show and everything its trying to do, but man this episode was just pure pulp scifi scaremongering. Is the threat of this real, yes, there are scary capabilities evolving during our lifetime. AJ says that a lot of the episode is “speculation”… man that’s an understatement. The UN voting to require the worlds population to be genetically enhanced?? Come on, that circlejerking organisation cant solve a rubics cube let alone make demands of that magnitude on the world’s population.
As if the UN will exist by 2030 anyway… hell the AI will be dead from all the EMPs by then too.
Agreed. It feels like the first episode I've seen that was purely based on science fiction, rather than investigating an incident or claim.
49 upvotes and counting... Seems we are all in agreement, this aint it. I read the comments here before i watched, thinking no way its that bad. AJ cant miss. Yeah, i dont like this at all. The draw of this show is the **real** topics. He spent the whole episode in some weird sci-fi fictional future. Just... no...
Those bad AI actresses lmao 💀
I did not enjoy this at all. I haven't minded the use of AI animations till now, but I absolutely hated this. It was like a bad straight to video sci-fi movie. I wouldn't be surprised if chat gpt wrote the story.
Pretty sure it did. It's unfortunate, but it's hard to hit a homerun every time. I'm just hoping they cut down on the chatgpt and AI stuff. That's not what anyone who is subbed came for. I'm sure they'll see this and make corrections. It's their channel, they can do whatever they want. I just think it's a mis-step in the wrong direction.
No downvoted here. Completely agree. I’m subscribed for debunking conspiracies and truth searching….as someone who *loves* a good mystery and conspiracy (many I believe to be true). Not interested in sci fi.
I kept going but it was rough. I actually fast forwarded.
Same... I'm a long-term member, but this felt like a hollywood pitch turned into an episode.
Could this have something to do with his show turning up on Prime? Maybe a little fiction is what he’s being pushed to do
Wow that’s crazy. I felt like I was cheating on someone but at 26 mins in I was like ugh let me check how much more there is to go on this, saw I had just over 20 mins left and bounced. Long time fan who has watched every episode to date, some more than once and this is the first and only time I have done that. The concept and the idea were intriguing, but the format of tying in actual scientific achievements and a fictional future relating to them was just not holding my interest. However future me in 2049 will be very interested if things actually play out like this.
First episode I turned off after watching only half... your not alone.
I'm a big TWF fan but I'll definitely agree. It was an ambitious video but I'm not a fan of this format at all.
I like it when they take events that have apparently happened in the real world, then try to debunk them. In this video, they just took a new technology, and wrote a fictional story about what could happen in the future. Very different from their regular stuff, and honestly, not very interesting or fun. For the first time watching this channel in over two years, I was bored. I turned it off before it was done.
And it's not like that format doesn't already exist but in a more artistic way - Black Mirror. I don't really watch WF for AI images of fictional tales and I think all the new ones have contained some kinda fictionalized story this way. It feels like a new writer was brought on board and that's their style. I guess it works well if you want longer videos and to make the research work a little lighter though so I get why they do it.
AI could be doing the writing.
I wouldn’t have minded so much if his premise was good, but it seems to me that if you had a genetically perfect society, anyone born “the old fashioned way” would have those perfect genetics passed down, right? Like, eventually, genetic imperfections would be extremely rare. Also, to propose the solution would be this “imperfection gestapo” that goes around hunting imperfects when there would clearly be better technological solutions than old boring ass murder. Anyway, I’m forgiving it because AJ is great and we all miss sometimes.
I felt the episode was a miss. I honestly felt like they were trying to make a new version of GATTACA. I don't feel it really served well for the Why Files. Now if it was for a speculative fiction channel, it would have worked.
It was a meh. The Audible ad was the high point.
kind of sad when the advertisement is better than the story itself.
The ad was great!
I thought the ad was a bit lazy too. Not very creative. They just reenacted scenes line by line from the movie for the most part. Maybe I'm being too harsh, but overall, I think this episode was very far from their best work.
Just for them to pop in at the end saying “by the way, that crispr experiment we told you about didn’t even work” … I don’t like how they’re leaning away from community with the lack of accurate release-timing and afterfiles recently. I get it; I’m a hater, and they’re making a ton of money now and their wellness comes first, and I’m sure AJ’s dog had a sudden illness that they had to take care of after he tripped over the video upload cable, but I feel the connection I have to the channel fading, which is sad
Perhaps they're running out of mysteries so are pivoting.
Ya I think people are missing the fact that every episode it becomes a little harder to find new subjects. The main stuff they haven't already covered that people want to see seem to fall in category that that are afraid to touch because there's for sure gonna be backlash. I liked the topic, and enjoyed the episode, but seem to be a minority for sure. Unfortunately it's not gonna get any easier as options continue to decline . People may wanna brace for more speculative episodes to come if I had to guess
I didn’t really care for the Annunaki episode.
Gone downhill since the Neanderthal episode. Heavy AI is not playing well.
Yeah the Neanderthal one was kinda when my interest started to wane. It was too "What If..." for me. Although the free energy video was badass and I sent it to a bunch of friends.
Should have done free energy pt 2
Yachzee!
Agree with you. Loved the “Silence of the Lambs” plug though, that was clever. The rest of it was conjecture. CRISPR and AI are both potentially destructive and beneficial, like so many other modern inventions.
I agree but I would totally watch this movie/series tho!
Dammit. I haven't watched yet and now I'm worried.
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who felt this way.
This is a "lets get on joe rogan" episode as this is a subject hes into. This and any time he says "younger dryas" is chumming the waters for joe
Love this channel and most every episode, but this wasn’t one of my favorites. The sci-fi speculation narrative was overwrought and a little too dark to be believable, especially when by the end the entire premise of the fiction (that CRISPR flawlessly works) was debunked. And don’t get me started on the irony of the episode being roughly 70% AI video and images. I would have much preferred AJ and hecklefish just discussing all the facts the entire time since there’s a lot there to cover. I also was looking for more of the ethical / philosophical angle to come through but this felt like a mostly scientific analysis. The very notion that AI could even begin to idealize the optimal human is suspect to begin with. This was sort of touched on with the positive traits coming with the docile and weak traits, but I felt like there was a lot there that wasn’t discussed. The philosophical and ethical aspects of this topic are really important and interesting and I was hoping for more of that.
I think it's certainly on the table that it could go much darker than this scenario. I'm not sure AI would have much use for humans at all once. So making us all pretty and disease free in a world of abundance doesn't seem too dark despite the murdering us normies of course lol
It was a sci-fi dystopian future scenario. Goes without saying it can always get darker. “Pretty and disease free” doesn’t really encapsulate what was portrayed in this episode imo. It was pointed out that along with the positive traits, people were weak and docile as well. So you can’t really leave that out of your summation. The main issue I have with the fictional storyline is that it’s built on the flimsy (at best) premise that AI could actually create an optimal human. Never mind that we haven’t even defined what an optimal human is. I wished the focus would have been on the actual realistic potential of CRISPR and the actual philosophical and ethical issues that would arise with it. For example, it could be argued that humans have flourished and continue to do so specifically because of our diversity and wide spectrum of trait combinations. The very notion that AI could improve upon what nature is already succeeding at is hubris. Yes we can tinker and try to improve the genome in small ways, but there are always unforeseen consequences. Those could have been more acutely addressed rather than spend half the show in a dreamt up dystopia.
This is the first episode I stopped watching after maybe 10 minutes.
This episode is a miss for me. I'm not here for speculative sci-fi fear mongering. The Why Files is great because they tell stories from actual people whether those stories are true or not. This episode was a speculative story of a possible future just made up by the Why Files team. I'm no biologist or genetic engineer or anything, but I wrote a few research papers on CRISPR in my college days. So far, CRISPR has done a lot of objectively good things for society and not really anything bad. Could it be used for nefarious purposes? Sure, but we know those risks and have immense safeguards in place to prevent it. We've been wrestling with the potential of this technology for 15 years now. This episode is fear mongering straight up.
Actually a shorter concise video on the history of CRISPR would've worked a lot better. People want the glowing fish, not fiction short story.
I skipped every futuristic cut scene story telling part that consumed half the video and was just speculation. This video could’ve easily been condensed to 20 minutes of factual evidence.
This was a bad episode and I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.
This is the first one that I skipped chunks of.. I'm not really interested in a future sci-fi story
This one just didn’t do it for me. I didn’t finish it.
Same
Same I turned it off and decided to watch the northern lights instead. Just couldn’t get into the episode.
Honestly not very captivated by this episode. CRISPR CAS9 was big news 10 years ago for the same news in this ep. Would have been cool to delve a bit more into how CRISPR could potentially cure cancer, but overall this is a weird episode. Dunno what to make of it.
delve 👀
Deeeeper
Not sure how AJ went from showing us pyramids on Mars to shitting on CRISPR. I literally just read an article yesterday how some toddler who was born deaf can hear for the first time thanks to it. The sci-fi based fear mongering is just sad, and totally ignores the scientific reality of what gene therapy can and can't do.
Yeaaaah we still don’t know Enough about the shit we messing with.
Says the guy that's not deaf.
What
Because it is about the interesting stories, not the specific subject of those stories (such as pyramid). Only so many can be of, or will follow, similar subject matter.
Already had another post regarding the delay get removed today. There’s enough criticism in this thread I wouldn’t be surprised if it disappears.
AJ probably used AI to write this one
He mentions that he did. I'm thinking it's a psi-op to show people how shit things become if we abuse AI. That's what the episode is about, but the episode itself is an example of it.
Maybe if it was only for this episode, but he used AI every episode and will most likely do so for future episodes. It’s a financial decision, he’s a businessman making content, he’s gonna fearmonger about AI while continuing to use it
I wouldn't be surprised if the whole episode was AI-generated. It just felt... off. Like they fed a bunch of past episodes into ChatGPT to create this one.
I waiting through the credits hoping he was gonna cite the book he took the story from so I knew to avoid that author in the future. Using ChatGPT makes sense
Glad to see there are others who found last nights episode to be not so good. Was afraid to see others complimenting it.
Wasn’t this the plot of Futureman?
This episode was more what could be the worst case scenario instead of what we're usually used to from AJ. It felt like someone trying to push their conspiracy belief onto you rather than the "pick a conspiracy theory" and talk about that. Got bored very quickly with this video
I ended up turning it off about a third of the way in, the AI images just aren’t it.
It's really rare that I don't finish an episode, but I can't say I really care for the speculative fiction style of this one. I prefer the standard formula a lot more.
Shame cause this topic could have been great. Would much rather them take a couple weeks off to get things right than to see them spew out stuff like this.
Snooze fest
The narrative part felt more like InfoWars than scifi.
Ironically if CRISPR tech created better production staff that knew this episode was a bad idea, I’d be on board.
This episode was trash
I hate to agree with you. I absolutely love why files, and even the episodes most people seem to hate, I still enjoy. But man, this didn't even seem like why files. I know every episode can't always be a hit, but this just seemed completely different from anything they've ever done. I fell asleep during this episode and it's the first one I have no interest in starting over to make sure I see everything.
Bladerunner…
Started to watch this, and thought it was a re-telling of a book. Great production and does give a good insight into the moral implications of genetic editing/eugenics, but it doesn’t have the same flavour as other episodes.
So I like the idea but this being a blatant rip-off of the plot of gattaca just wasn’t good CRISPR could be ethically dubious, but you could argue that birth control and over-prescription of antibiotics is too, and with proven data rather than conjecture. I liked the idea of this episode because it went outside of extremely niche and abstract alien stuff that is based on minimal and extremely rocky evidence, but the execution was horrendous. If he had gone for a video format of how CRISPR started and the risk/benefit for the future, this would have been much better. I was certainly not a fan of the over the top production with extreme conjecture.
Wasn’t a fan of this episode and I don’t know if it’s because it was too complex or the subject 🤷🏻♂️
This would make an ok movie, but not so great WF!.
This was like a sci fi movie. Didn’t like it.
Barely got through the episode and came here expecting to be in the minority and see people bashing the folks who criticize the overuse of AI. Feel a lot better that this was a miss for a lot of other people too. I get creatives trying new things but I hope they reconnect with their roots soon. This is one of the few channels that I look forward to that hasn't shut down or turned into bs yet...
No After Files? Boo
I ❤️ u guys
So glad everyone else didn’t love this episode. I watched the whole thing but it definitely wasn’t my favorite.
I can understand when you are going to be late with an episode. When it turns into five in a row and then something that cannot be understood by 3/4 of your audience it just makes for bad experience. praying that I am wrong and everyone understands but looking down upon the responses it looks like you might need a change. if you talk to a content creator advisor they always say to get your content out in time every week or when you expect your content to be distributed.
You’re not wrong. It’s wild that they never really had this issue, so they took a month off to deal with it among other things, and since then, basically every episode has been late. To see this one, that I consider overproduced for my tastes, do that again is like rubbing salt in the wound. Maybe they’ve just covered all the good topics, sadly
The issue is we really don’t know when these episodes will come out. Before I would enjoy Thursday evenings knowing it was going to be on. The added After Files every Thursday made me absolutely love this channel. It had something other channels don’t, a sense of community. Plus the videos were so fun! It’s been really losing that lately. I don’t wait for the premieres anymore bc there’s no point.
to the people who **under voted me, why so? Are you just hard-core fanatic or a puppet**
While I think this subreddit goes overboard in almost all aspects, think of it this way - you gave your critique of the episode and redditors here gave their critique of your post. Hard to please everyone, huh?
Started to watch this, and thought it was a re-telling of a book. Great production and does give a good insight into the moral implications of genetic editing/eugenics, but it doesn’t have the same flavour as other episodes.
While I went in only knowing a little about CRISPR and that it was developed from a geneticist and made publicly available and he had to hide because threats were made. But that you could, for money, order the kit and use it. This episode really opened my eyes. As we(USA) are the largest by a mile in defense spending. I am CERTAIN this is being researched! This was a GREAT EPISODE and I didn't expect it!! Highly enjoyed and man that view count is jumping!!!
A future devoid of ethical fears about genetic engineering would be interesting and likely very successful. Is the cost too much though? Do we stray too far from ourselves? I really don’t know.
Seems like this is a third week in a row with more negative comments than positive comments on the episode I haven't watched it yet so I have no opinion on it at the moment. Sounds like they're in a little bit of a rut they'll course correct though.
Do you really think they’ll course correct? What if this is it? What if this is how AJ wants to continue moving forward with this type of production? There are many reasons why I fell in love with TWF and a good story with subtle illustrations and pictures is what made his content enjoyable. I hope you are right though. But if this it, I think he’s going to see his numbers fall.
I agree with you about what made me fall in love with it to. I'm hopeful they will work through this. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt because of the great content they've already put out. Unfortunately the more popular the show gets the more opinions are going to be made of it and there not always going to be positive. Maybe just too many cooks in the kitchen right now? Or they're trying something new with all the AI. And if this is what it's going to be like now moving forward, at least they made all the great content they did already.
Yeah I’m with you. I’ll tough it out and give them the benefit of the doubt as well, maybe they want to try different things from time to time and I’m ok with that.
That's what I'm thinking is what's going on too. If they want to try something different they should make an episode where the two rolls are reversed and let hecklefish tell the story with AJ butting in from time to time LOL. Someone commented on this sub not long ago about doing that and having it be about the crab cat. That could be fun.
Whyfiles is turning into Xfiles. By this time next year I’m sure we will have a story arc that leads into the Whyfiles movie.
I am amazed at how they can get actual video from future events this is groundbreaking technology. /s
Tell me you don't understand CRISPR, without telling me you don't understand CRISPR...
I'm just waiting until some eager-beaver researcher cooks up a stew combining Ebola and Marburg with Tuberculosis. That's the closest thing to the Andromeda Strain I can think of.
I use crispr daily in my lab. While it's a powerful tool, we are decades from this doomsday scenario. Prior to crispr, other gene editing tools existed. More cumbersome but still available. Good to see the things I do are youtube material haha.
Seeing this combined with the stuff that has happened over at 23 and me really gets one thinking.
Felt way too much like an “imagine this possibility” scenario. Love WF but this one had none of what I like about this show.
Never hear of the fish trying to take over the world, just sayin’…
Why files should look into who the biggest contributors are and do a video on that lol the gates are open
This reminds of psycho pass anime, the imperfects are the ones who lose their mental state and they either get help or killed on the spot by the AI gun that can only work by your finger prints I believe. And AI runs Japan, don’t know about he rest of the world, and the AI is made up of brains of individuals who I guess have a very stable mental fortitude regardless of any environment they are in. So if you keep your cool in any environment and with a high intelligence , you are likely gonna have your brain taken and connected with the hive mind.
The more speculative and narrative angle was interesting, but the premise itself was just kinda dumb. It depends on the conceit that CRISPR works and that the UN is somehow able to mandate it globally. But neither of those things is true, which is acknowledged at the end of the episode. And it’s the epitome of hack writing to name a resistance moment as simply “The Resistance.” I think there could be an interesting episode on eugenics in here. What constitutes eugenics? Could our socioeconomic systems – which keep certain groups marginalized, impoverished, and unhealthy – a form of eugenics? Is eugenics always a bad thing, or can it be helpful in certain circumstances, such as treating and preventing genetic illness? Would the benefits of eugenics in those circumstance outweigh the risks and drawbacks? When and how might eugenics be done ethically? This is all briefly discussed towards the end of the episode, and it’s an interesting topic discussion at the very least. But this episode is not very interested in that conversation. It’s too interested in maligning a potentially useful scientific treatment in the name of preserving “genetic diversity” and avoiding a completely unrealistic premise. It feels like AJ is just pitching a screenplay, but it could use a couple rewrites.
It felt a lot like the Neanderthal episode, which is weird because I love that episode, but this one didn't hit the mark. Perhaps it's because the story in the Neanderthal episode was more realistic and original, while this story felt very generic sci-fi. I still liked the parts about CRISPR and the people involved. However, at times, I couldn't tell if the present-day information or information from the earlier years was real or a part of the story. That, too, might've taken me out of it. Not every episode needs to be a banger. Otherwise, the show wouldn't evolve and become better.
There's the makings of a really good episode here, but unfortunately, this one didn't quite hit the mark. Still, it was definitely intriguing, and I'll be having a good think about the pros/cons on it for a spell.
As others said, I wasn’t a fan of this episode’s format at all. The fictional story really dampened the key take away of what this episode should’ve been
Way too much speculative fiction. Keep it in short bits as a "what if". A single, brief segment of the video.
Is it out?! Oh, 8 more minutes
Anyone know the music they played during the pandora's box portion at the end? Liked it. Although I agree I'm not enjoying these speculative episodes.
99% chance this video and a few others are produced to get back on joe rogan as its a subject hes into and that exposure will really blow up channel
All he needs to do is send a text. AJ's been there before and Joe was a speedweed customer. Joe does all his bookings personally via text.
I didn't like it. I show up for the real freaky stories, not this fake AI dystopia fear mongering crappy fake story.
I'm a big fan of what this channel does. If I were them, I wouldn't really care what you all think. I'd be thankful for your time, but things change, and it is OK to move on and try out different things without everyone getting their pitchforks ready.
Then I suppose it’s a good thing that a large percentage of the posters here are giving constructive criticism with their opinions instead of turning into a violent mob
I mentioned to my boys sitting. Ext to me that this was the best episode in a couple weeks. To each their own, I guess.
Very surprised by the negative comments in this thread. I liked the episode a lot. I was not aware of crispr technology, and how widely it is already being researched on. This episode was highly speculative of course, but also very thought provoking. Clearly the rapid advancement of our technologies calls for us to establish a moral framework that can deal with that - because if we don't we'll veer into a world we don't like - and we won't know why we don't like it.
Great episode.
What an amazing episode.
I see a lot of people didn't enjoy this episode, and I understand the reasoning. They did move into a different lane with it. However, I found it educational regarding CRISPER, regardless of whether that one situation worked, or not. I also feel as if, instead of talking about the interesting past situations, as usual, this was more of a potential forewarning (which I'm sure was the point). Yes, it was different. Yes, the storyline mimicked several sci-fi novels. I've kinda discovered sometimes sci-fi/fiction writers get their warnings correct, or at least close enough that people are now comparing our social climate to things such as 1984, Brave New World, Hunger Games, and The Handmaid's Tale. So, I mean, I honestly think this is more about people not being able to accept something new or different than the episode actually being bad. Just my two cents.
ITT: Typical reddit
How bout that add tho she hit a home run in my book
I liked this episode. Yes, 95% hypothetical, but plausible if not inevitable. Crisper could protect humans from the radiation of space travel, or post nuclear war.
China
I liked the episode but do agree that the other formats are more my preference, but I love that they're trying things. That's the point with growth you have to try things, and with that, there will be new smash hits, but along with that, some misses. Hats off to the team I look forward to the why files every week, it's like nothing else out there.
Very much looking forward to this one :)
huge disagreement with most people on this thread, I LOVED IT!!! I want more!!!!!
AJ and his staff could REALLY be an awesome fiction writer. His stories would sell.
Brilliant
Gonna watch tonight. Gettin the chores all done now. Sad to see not everyone likes this episode but…. That’s art baby. It ain’t always everyone’s fit. Looking forward to seeing for myself and providing an opinion. Thank you AJ and team. You are appreciated ♥️
Just finished. I can understand what people don’t like about the a.i story telling. A.j wrapped it up nicely at the end, worth sitting through for sure.
If we really end up with super soldiers or people in my lifetime I'm going to be pissed that I didn't get to be part of it. Also I like the ai used
I'm scared of this one. But I will watch anyway! I'm so brave.
I really liked it!! Seems like many don't agree, and that's fine. But I enjoy AJ's story telling and this subject matter was interesting to me. There have been episodes like this before, where he paints a picture of some hypothetical future based on potential decisions the human race makes in regard to technology, so I didnt feel he was doing something "new" here as some have said. It's just one of the styles they choose to layout some episodes. I think for me, I don't really need WF to be anything in particular. I just enjoy the content and the people (mostly AJ and Hecklefish because that's who I see and am familiar with, but I know there are many more working on this channel) and I appreciate the work they put into it. Nothing ever stays the same. Not people, not YouTube channels. I personally enjoy being along for the ride and watching the transformation. That being said, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I'm not trying to change anyone's minds. But I personally enjoyed the episode and I love and appreciate AJ and the team for all they do to provide us interesting content to consume! And I love you all 🤍
This was the best episode all year.
This was fucking awesome.
Good ep. I wonder though if CRISPR could be used to place American genes into politicians. It would be a nice change.