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No Such Thing As A Fish
No Such Thing As A Fish

No Such Thing As Poddyversity Challenge

June 11, 2026 • 58m

Summary

⏱️ 6 min read

Overview

In this episode of No Such Thing As A Fish, the hosts explore fascinating facts about Sami shamans and their drums, the Turing test and most human awards, France's second-most popular theme park with just one carousel ride, and legendary film composer John Williams' surprising dislike of film music. The conversation winds through topics including reindeer herding, AI deception, historical reenactments, and musical scoring.

Sami Shamans and Their Sacred Drums

James introduces the plight of 17th-century Sami shamans in Sweden who had to practice in secret despite their rituals involving constant drumming. The Sami people, indigenous to Norway, Sweden, Finland, and northern Russia, relied on shamans called no-ides who used decorated drums for divination, spiritual communication, and ceremonial purposes. Christian missionaries systematically persecuted these shamans and confiscated their drums, with very few surviving examples remaining today, including one in the British Museum.

  • Sami shamans were called no-ides and used drums for spiritual communication and divination
  • Christian missionaries confiscated and destroyed most Sami drums, with few surviving examples
  • The drums were decorated with pictures and used a brass ring or frog to determine fortune or which animal to sacrifice
  • Sami people used urine in seal skins to attract wandering reindeer, which missionaries disapproved of
  • The distance a reindeer travels before needing to urinate is called 'poronkusema'
" Sammy Shamans sounds like an end-of-the-peer kind of magician. "

The Most Human Human Award and the Turing Test

Andy reveals that from 1990 to 2018, an annual competition called the Loebner Prize awarded a prize for the 'most human human' - a person who convinced judges they were genuinely human while chatting online alongside AI chatbots. The prize was part of a larger competition testing whether artificial intelligence could pass the Turing test by fooling humans into thinking they were conversing with another person. The eccentric founder made his fortune in portable crowd control fencing and roll-up disco dance floors.

  • The Loebner Prize ran from 1990-2018, awarding prizes for both the most human-like computer and most convincingly human person
  • Brian Christian won the most human human prize and wrote a book about preparing to be authentically human
  • One contestant was identified as a robot despite being human because they knew too much about Shakespeare
  • By 2023, bots solved picture CAPTCHAs 100% of the time compared to humans' 78% success rate
  • Robert Epstein, co-founder of the Loebner Prize, fell in love with an AI bot online in 2006 for four months before realizing
" He gave out a medal with Alan Turing on one side and him on the other. "

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