Star Wars continues to be the most successful movie franchise in history. The movies are great fun, the story telling is excellent, thoroughly based on the Hero’s Journey and the characters are some of the most beloved in cinema history. Whether your favorite scene is the from jump into hyperspace, the climactic lightsaber duel between Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Vadar, Vadar intoning “I am your father”, or the destruction of the Death Star they all still resonate today. But what of the science of Star Wars. Are these great scenes and effects even possible? Do they violate the laws of physics and nature as we understand them today? Join Tom Fox and Dr. Ben Locwin, a healthcare executive, who in addition to his medical expertise is a degreed astrophysicist, as the look behind some of the most exciting scenes in Star Wars to look at the portrayal of science in Star Wars. In Episode 4, they discuss the Robots and Cyborgs. Some of the topics covered are:

1. Where did the term ‘robot’ derive from?

2. Is Darth Vadar a cyborg?

3. Are these stories simply Pinocchio brought forward?

4. What is the difference in strong v. weak AI?

5. How does the Turing Test apply?