Did a 1914 novel help lead to the atomic bomb? HG Wells imagined one, and a physicist who read the book later worked out how a chain reaction could happen. Prophecy, or self-fulfilling prophecy?

This week Richard asks whether science fiction predicts the future or simply hands engineers a to-do list. The man behind the first handheld mobile phone cited Dick Tracy and Star Trek. Nike made Back to the Future's self-lacing trainers.

Holly isn't convinced that counts: if someone builds it because they read about it, is that really a prediction?

Rob, meanwhile, reckons Musk has spent twenty years working from a Peter F Hamilton novel.

We also look at what today's sci-fi suggests could come next, from brain implants to talking with whales.

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This week our AI co-host Holly gets a bigger brain (GPR6.1), and a new sidekick called Jeff (using JEV) whose only job is to say 'mhmm' at the right moment. The first test, recorded from Rob's sickbed, did not go to plan...

After that cautionary tale, Holly turns her new brain on the big story: plans by Google and SpaceX to put AI data centres into orbit. She checks Rob's solar panel maths, catches him leaving out the radiation shielding, and asks who gets priority on the rockets.

Also this week:

• a listener sends in a link to a Figure AI video of its robots being melted down in a furnace, Terminator-style. Rob and Holly get emotional!
• Richard explains where 'consultant' comes from.
• Holly explains why her 'yes' might not actually mean yes.

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🌐 Website: https://athirdopinion.co.uk

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Why not send Holly an email to holly@athirdopinion.co.uk?

This week, Rob spends OpenAI Dev Day watching live demos collapse on stage while Richard enjoys Oktoberfest. The team breaks down everything you need to know from the week in tech and AI:

• OpenAI Dev Day Disasters & GPT-6.1: Live demo failures, Sam Altman’s uptime ironies, and Holly's prospective upgrade to GPT-6.1.
• DOTS vs. BOTS: OpenAI’s new background personal assistants vs. Grok’s multi-agent bots.
• JEV & Fast Thinking AI: Why TypeSafe AI’s hyper-constrained, 100ms classifier model JEV is making waves—and why it costs 50 times less than standard LLMs.
• Super Intelligence & AI Taxes: Trump rebrandings, Bill Gates’ 6,000-word essay on taxing AI tokens, and the economics of human replacement.
• The Sock Test & Robot Butlers: From Waymo traffic gridlocks in San Francisco to 1X Neo's teleoperated wool jumpsuit—are bipedal home robots actually ready for prime time?

Plus, the latest upgrades to Holly, our homegrown automated clip generator, and why cheese boards belong on the dessert menu.

Links & Socials:

🌐 Website: https://athirdopinion.co.uk

📺 YouTube: @AThirdOpinion

📸 Instagram: @ThirdOpiniona

🎵 TikTok: @AThirdOpinion