On today's show: lasers, explosions,
and a death-defying stunt with a chainsaw.
Okay, all of that was a lie, but we do have three great players,
some tricky questions, and this massive broadcast tower.
It's a game of confidence, a game of bluff,
and a game of making sure that you've got your camera at a flattering angle.
At the end of the show, one person will win,
and two will be Disconnected.
[Caption+ by JS* https://caption.plus]
Players, welcome to the top of the tower!
Shall we play? It's very nice to be up here!
Lovely to be here. I'm slightly scared of heights.
You know this.
You all have three bars of signal. You're coming in loud and clear.
If you lose all those bars of signal, you are disconnected and off the show.
But you don't lose a bar for getting a question wrong.
You lose a bar for getting a question wrong and being called on it.
Alec, I'll come to you first. How are you doing out there in Chicago?
Absolutely fine. The weather's good.
It's going a little crazy, staying inside all the time.
But other than that, you know, lovely time.
Alec, I owe you an apology about toasters.
You did a video about toasters which corrected mine,
and mine was entirely wrong!
Does the toaster still work?
Yes, it's— I use it every day now. It works beautifully.
And it makes the best toasts you ever had.
Wait, were you the one that made that video
with the super old toaster that automatically pulls the toast down
and the bread down and— Uh-huh.
Ohh, I saw that! Yeah, that was me.
I have no idea how that came up in my feed,
but I keep thinking about it every time I have uneven toast.
It's an amazing toaster, and I guess I'm famous for toasters now.
Alec, first question goes to you.
Remember: if you don't know, bluff.
You don't lose a bar for being wrong.
You lose a bar for being wrong and being called on it.
So, would you like Tennis Players or Capital Cities?
Gonna have to go with Capital Cities.
Alright, I thought you might.
Which capital city is served by Narita International Airport?
My gut tells me that it's gotta be Tokyo.
Sally, Arun: we now go to you two.
If you think that's wrong, you should challenge.
And if the challenge is correct, if the answer is wrong,
he'll lose a bar of signal, but beware.
Because if you challenge incorrectly, if it is Tokyo,
you will lose a bar of signal.
But don't be too cautious...
because if he can sneak a wrong answer past both of you,
you both lose a bar.
So, with that in mind, do either of you want to challenge?
So wait, we're trusting his gut over every other country?
I feel like the sheer number of countries means he's probably not right.
Do you agree? Statistically.
This puts you in a tricky position. Yeah.
I'm not gonna lie, I've never heard of Narita.
Yeah. So I'm relying on you, Arun!
Don't rely on me. Don't rely on me. You're the scientists.
And this is a geography question? And this is a geography question.
Okay, I'm an economist. I know nothing.
Okay, so we've agreed we're both useless.
Yeah, but he might be more useless.
All you have to do to challenge is put your hand up and say that you challenge.
You don't need to correct the answer. You just need to know that it's wrong.
Oh, this is Prisoner's Dilemma all over again!
I'm sorry, Alec. I think we're gonna have to challenge.
Arun has challenged. That's fine.
Alright. Alec... Narita International Airport.
You ever been there? No.
Do you know your airport codes? Was it a guess?
It was very much a guess based on knowing that it was a capital city
and what it sounded like.
It was a very good guess. You are absolutely right with scales.
It was a very good guess. Tokyo is the correct answer.
Arun, you shouldn't have challenged! What? What?
That is a bar of signal away from you, Arun.
That's ridiculous!
Oh my god, I'm so impressed.
Sally, we're off to you next. How are you doing?
You have a lot of green plants in your background there.
These are only some of my plant babies.
I surround myself in a jungle at all times.
I am going very much insane with the lack of contact,
hence why I am even more competitive to win this,
so I don't get disconnected, because I need human contact right now!
You once said to me that your personal brand—
your YouTube brand was being the smartest person in the room.
Yeah, uh...
I'm also highly competitive...
so I'm gonna be in an awful mood this evening if I lose.
Alright, good luck. Oh, my goodness.
Would you like Winter Sports or Vegetables?
Vegetables!
Alright, which vegetable is the main ingredient in sauerkraut?
Cabbage.
Sally says cabbage.
Alec, Arun, do either of you want to challenge?
Mm-mmm. She said it as if it was obvious.
And I think we accept— especially after the last one.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's right.
Alright, no challenge.
Sally, you're absolutely right.
That is the correct answer, so we move on.
Arun, how are you doing out there?
I'm good. A peaceful town in Nottingham.
Nothing much happens.
Just living the tech YouTuber life.
The last time I saw you, you had a Galaxy Fold as your phone.
And you didn't know how you thought about it then.
No, I still don't know.
Honestly, it feels like the next generation of phones.
But at the same time, because it's so new, there's so many problems with it.
So yeah, we'll wait and see. I think folding phones will become better.
Alright well, you're on two bars of signal.
Let's see if we can keep you there on this question.
Before my first question(!)
Would you like Disney Films or Chemical Elements?
I wouldn't consider either an area of expertise.
Let's go, a Disney film.
Alright, which Disney film was finishing production
when Walt Disney himself died in 1966?
I believe that was...Cinderella.
Cinderella, says Arun.
Alec and Sally, what do you reckon?
Oh. That's definitely not right.
O-Oh no...!
He's in there!
And Alec challenges immediately.
I said it with such confidence, though.
Why do you think it's wrong? I'm pretty certain
that Cinderella came out in the 1950s.
You are absolutely right to make that call.
Arun, I'm sorry. It was The Jungle Book.
The Jungle Book was 1966. It was a tricky question.
But I'm afraid you're down to one bar of signal.
You can't let a wrong answer slip past now.
But, we'll see how you go. Alec, this question's for you.
Would you like World Figures or Parts of a Fish?
Ooh. Uh... hmm...
Let's go with Parts of a Fish.
Parts of a Fish, alright.
Which part of a fish— also known as guanine—
is used in lipstick, nail polish, and eye shadow?
Ooh, um...
Did you say part or parts?
"Which part of a fish...?"
It is a combined part of fish and makeup question.
Great, um... I will... just have to say the scales.
Alec says the scales.
Sally, Arun, do either of you want to challenge?
What did you say in the question, it was also known as...?
Guanine. Do you have any initial thoughts?
Yes. It's adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine.
Guanine is an amino acid, so it could be found anywhere in the fish.
But I don't think it will be scales.
So I'm gonna challenge that.
There is a hand up there. That is a challenge.
Yeah. I'm gonna challenge as well.
Sally put her hand up first.
Alec, were you trying to sound less confident there,
or do you genuinely not know the answer?
I genuinely didn't know the answer. I was totally bluffing.
Sally...
Wow.
No! I've been brought down on a biology question!
The shame!
That is unlucky, Sally, You are down to two bars of signal.
And the next question goes to you.
Would you like Feelings or Famous Americans?
Feelings.
Feelings, alright.
What feeling are you afraid of if you are agliophobic?
The feeling of stickiness.
Stickiness, says Sally.
It's unusual textures. This is so hard.
Unusual textures and stickiness, says Sally.
So, that is agliophobia.
Alec, Arun: it is your choice to call.
Now Arun, you are in a precarious position here.
If the answer is wrong and you let it slip past,
you're out.
But if the answer is right and you challenge, you're also out.
So it's: do I trust Sally?
Alec, I suspect with three bars, you're gonna sit pretty here
and let him make the decision.
Yeah. Mhm.
I feel like Sally has the credentials to be right on this.
But is she?
I'm gonna sit pretty.
Arun, you have not challenged. Alec, you've not challenged.
Sally... agliophobia. Why did you go for aglio?
My gosh, with that, no clue!
I thought you might be doing something on Latin
or endings or starts or anything there?
Yeah, that's why I didn't wanna challenge.
You're absolutely wrong, Sally. It is pain.
But that means you snuck a wrong answer past both your opponents.
Alec, you go down to two bars,
but Arun, I'm afraid you go down to zero.
It has been lovely seeing you, but I'm afraid you're disconnected.
Good bye! Short and sweet.
Alec, Sally... Brutal!
We'll see you in round two after this commercial break!
This is a SmartStage at White Light in West London.
Each wall is roughly equivalent to one HD monitor,
and all the images are rendered in real-time by disguise's xR pipeline.
But we're also using virtual set extensions,
so when the camera would see the black box that surrounds a SmartStage,
the render pipeline composites more of the virtual set.
That's also how the railings that appear in front of me are added.
But the catch is: LED walls like this look slightly different in brightness and colour,
based on the angle you view them from, and the ambient lighting.
And different camera lenses will warp the scene slightly differently.
If you just put bits of the original scene straight onto the camera's output,
there'd be an incredibly obvious join around the edges where it doesn't match up.
So, there is an automatic calibration process.
The disguise pipeline sends test patterns to the SmartStage,
and then works out what it needs to change
to match what the camera's seeing from all possible angles.
So the world I appear to be in can be truly enormous...
as long as I stay on the stage.
Thanks so much to all the teams at disguise and White Light
for letting me use the SmartStage.
There are links to both of them in the description.
Alright, back to the show!
Players, welcome back to the top of the tower.
The sun is setting, and it's time for the head-to-head round.
I'm gonna give you a category...
and you're gonna start naming things, back and forth, in that category.
I'm not gonna tell you if they're right or wrong.
If you decide not to name the next thing,
but to challenge your opponent's answer...
that's the only answer that's gonna count.
If that challenge is correct, if their answer was wrong,
then they lose a bar of signal.
But if you challenge a good answer, you lose a bar of signal,
and you only have two of them each in this round.
Alec, we're gonna start with you.
Your first category is: countries that use a dollar for their currency.
So just to be clear, we are looking for members of the United Nations
where a currency called "dollar" is recognized as a legal tender.
And it's you to serve, so gimme a country.
The United States!
Alec says the United States.
I'm not gonna challenge that one(!)
Sally, name your next one.
So it just has to have "dollar" in the name?
Yeah, they have to have dollar as their currency.
Canada.
Sally says Canada. Alec?
The Bahamas.
Sally, you can challenge it or name another.
New Zea— uh, Australia.
Malala, says Sally. Alec?
New Zealand.
New Zealand. Sally...
You said New Zealand, and then corrected yourself.
So, Alec has said New Zealand.
Are you gonna challenge it, or are you gonna name another?
I genuinely don't know if New Zealand is the dollar or not.
There's no harm in letting a bad answer go past in this round.
It's just the one you challenge. Yeah, this is the thing.
As long as I can think of another one.
Oh, Madagascar.
Mmh...
How do you feel about that one?
She seemed pretty certain, so I don't think I'm gonna challenge it.
So what's your next answer?
Um...
..Panama.
Panama, says Alec. Sally?
Trying to think of all the places where I've been.
I'm gonna challenge, 'cause I genuinely can't think of any more.
Alright, it's a valid strategy.
So, Panama has been challenged.
I'll tell you this: United States, Canada, Bahamas, Australia, New Zealand,
all correct answers.
Madagascar...not a correct answer. They use francs.
They're an ex-French colony. Agh!
They might be, but they actually use the Malagasy ariary.
I'll be honest, I'm reading that off my screen,
and I've never heard that word before in my life.
But, it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter because that was not challenged.
What matters is Panama.
Panama does use the dollar.
It's tied to the US dollar. Balls!
So unfortunately, you lose the bar of signal.
Alec, was that a guess?
It was...half-guess, because I wasn't sure,
but I figured all the influence we had with the Panama Canal
probably led to the dollar being used there.
Yeah, and the two currencies are tied together.
So Sally, you are down to one bar of signal.
So, Alec: two bars left. Sally: one bar left.
You need to win this list.
And the list is... I need to win, full stop.
That is the motto of my life. I need to win!
It's very important to me.
We are looking for TIME magazine's People of the Year.
So, we are looking for any named individual
who appeared on the front cover of TIME's Man of the Year or Person of the Year issue.
If there are group nominations,
each individual counts, but they must have been named.
So someone like "The Whistleblowers" or "You" doesn't count.
They gotta have a name. And Sally, it is you to start.
Barack Obama.
Sally says Barack Obama. Alec?
Nelson Mandela.
Alec replies with Nelson Man— Malala.
Whoa, that was fast.
Malala, says Sally. Alec?
Michael Phelps.
That face, Sally!
Ohh...
It's okay, I know another one. Greta Thunberg.
Greta Thunberg, says Sally.
Hmm...have to think of all the people that were probably...
or I can convincingly say I remember were in the magazine.
So I'm gonna say...
..Robin Williams.
Robin Williams, says Alec.
Michelle Obama.
Michelle Obama, replies Sally.
Alec, I— [laughs] The face being screwed up there!
Yep. I'm probably wrong, but I'm gonna challenge that,
because this is a horrible round, and I'm gonna lose either way.
So I'm gonna challenge that. Damn!
You both seemed to be having a bit of trouble with that one.
I'll tell you this much: Barack Obama...yep, absolutely right.
In fact, every modern US president is on that list.
They always get picked as Person of the Year.
Even Trump? Even Trump.
The Person of the Year in a presidential election year is always picked.
Nelson Mandela, also a correct answer. Greta Thunberg, also a correct answer.
Michael Phelps is not.
Yep. I wasn't sure about that one.
Robin Williams, definitely not.
But none of those matter, 'cause Sally, you didn't challenge.
Instead, you were challenged on Michelle Obama...
who was never Person of the Year.
Alec, it is a correct challenge! Oh no!
Good bye, world!
Sally, it's been lovely having you here, but I'm afraid that takes you down
to zero bars of signal and you are disconnected.
Alec, this gives you the grand prize: you get the end card of this video.
You have twenty seconds to plug everything of yours.
That's our show. Have a good night, everybody!
Alec, take it away!
Well, you should check out the YouTube channel Technology Connections.
That's literally everything I have to plug.
It's a very increasingly silly channel about old technologies,
the history of technologies, and also some concepts based around technologies.
So if you wanna learn about the best toaster that was ever made,
or about air conditioners and why there are certain ones you shouldn't like,
you should check out my channel.