1 00:00:00,840 --> 00:00:03,880 Speaker 1: Welcome to House to Works Now. I'm your host, Lauren Vogelbaum, 2 00:00:04,040 --> 00:00:10,560 Speaker 1: a researcher and writer. Here at House to Works. Every week, 3 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:12,920 Speaker 1: I'm bringing you three stories from our team about the 4 00:00:12,960 --> 00:00:17,279 Speaker 1: weird and wondrous developments we've seen in science, technology, and culture. 5 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:20,920 Speaker 1: This week, we're talking about trans humanism, the social theory 6 00:00:20,920 --> 00:00:23,160 Speaker 1: that says, for better or worse, that we're on our 7 00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:27,560 Speaker 1: way to becoming something more than we currently are. And unrelated, 8 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:31,160 Speaker 1: a study into marijuana indicates that the drug does indeed 9 00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:35,040 Speaker 1: change the way that we process emotions. But first text 10 00:00:35,080 --> 00:00:38,640 Speaker 1: of host Jonathan Strickland discusses the recent Tesla car accident 11 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:42,360 Speaker 1: that brought up important questions about autonomous cars, driver safety, 12 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:46,480 Speaker 1: and corporate responsibility. In its current form, is a technology 13 00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:51,240 Speaker 1: more of a danger than a boon. The fatal accident 14 00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:55,400 Speaker 1: happened on May seven and involved Joshua Brown, the owner 15 00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:59,480 Speaker 1: of a Tesla Model S. Brown's vehicle was an autopilot mode, 16 00:00:59,480 --> 00:01:02,840 Speaker 1: a Tesla feature that's still in beta testing. Brown's car 17 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:05,600 Speaker 1: collided with a big rigs trailer as the truck crossed 18 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:09,120 Speaker 1: traffic while making a left hand turn. According to Tesla, 19 00:01:09,319 --> 00:01:11,880 Speaker 1: on the day of the crash, the sky was brightly lit, 20 00:01:11,959 --> 00:01:14,520 Speaker 1: making it difficult for both Brown and the Model s's 21 00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:17,959 Speaker 1: camera system to see the rigs trailer. On top of that, 22 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:20,720 Speaker 1: the car's radar system didn't register the rig because it 23 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:24,800 Speaker 1: misidentified the trailer as an overhead road sign. Later in May, 24 00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:27,880 Speaker 1: Tesla held a shareholders meeting. At that time, the company 25 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:30,800 Speaker 1: had yet to disclose the autopilot accident to the public. 26 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:34,520 Speaker 1: Though it had alerted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 27 00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:37,479 Speaker 1: it wasn't until the end of June that information about 28 00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:40,800 Speaker 1: the incident became public knowledge. Some critics are saying that 29 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:43,760 Speaker 1: Tesla should have acknowledged the accident ahead of the shareholder 30 00:01:43,760 --> 00:01:46,440 Speaker 1: meeting as a material fact, because the company has advertised 31 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:50,760 Speaker 1: autopilot as a safe and important feature. Tesla founder Elon 32 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:54,120 Speaker 1: Musk responded by saying autopilot, if it had been universally 33 00:01:54,120 --> 00:01:57,160 Speaker 1: available in twenty would have saved as many as five 34 00:01:57,240 --> 00:02:01,559 Speaker 1: hundred thousand lives, So who is right? Is autopilot dangerous 35 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:05,480 Speaker 1: or a lifesaver? First, while autopilot sounds like it could 36 00:02:05,480 --> 00:02:09,000 Speaker 1: be an autonomous driving mode, Tesla has always maintained that 37 00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:12,440 Speaker 1: it's a driver assist feature. The company says that drivers 38 00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:15,120 Speaker 1: should keep their hands on the steering wheel at all times. 39 00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:18,160 Speaker 1: In fact, drivers must acknowledge this requirement in order to 40 00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:22,400 Speaker 1: opt into the beta test and activate autopilot. Second, Tesla 41 00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:25,560 Speaker 1: pointed out that this incident, while awful, represents the first 42 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:28,519 Speaker 1: fatality in more than one thirty million miles of Tesla 43 00:02:28,639 --> 00:02:31,920 Speaker 1: vehicles in autopilot mode. That's lower than the average number 44 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:34,400 Speaker 1: of desk per miles driven. In the US, there's a 45 00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:38,120 Speaker 1: fatality every nine million miles, and globally the figure is 46 00:02:38,200 --> 00:02:42,200 Speaker 1: one in every sixty million miles. Third, the autopilot feature 47 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:45,640 Speaker 1: is still in beta testing, meaning Tesla is continuously modifying 48 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:48,880 Speaker 1: and improving it. It's not a final product. That said, 49 00:02:48,919 --> 00:02:52,360 Speaker 1: perhaps it's time to acknowledge that autopilot isn't the best 50 00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:59,120 Speaker 1: name for a driver assist system. Next up, Ben Vallen, 51 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:01,520 Speaker 1: host of stuff they don't want you to know, reports 52 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:04,240 Speaker 1: on a study of marijuana use. We've all seen the 53 00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:07,040 Speaker 1: after school specials and the scare stories, But what if 54 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:14,080 Speaker 1: we'd really does rob you of your emotions? Apparently it does, 55 00:03:15,120 --> 00:03:18,080 Speaker 1: sort of. It's better to say that marijuana changes the 56 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:21,799 Speaker 1: way we process them, lowering our ability to notice some 57 00:03:21,919 --> 00:03:26,120 Speaker 1: emotions while heightening our sensitivity to others. A study by 58 00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:30,160 Speaker 1: Lucy Troop and assistant professor at Colorado State University found 59 00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:34,880 Speaker 1: that cannabis used significantly affects our ability to implicitly recognize 60 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:37,880 Speaker 1: and empathize with the emotions of others. Here's how the 61 00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:40,640 Speaker 1: study worked. Over the course of two years, Troop and 62 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:45,240 Speaker 1: her grad students experimented with about seventy volunteers. Each volunteer 63 00:03:45,320 --> 00:03:49,360 Speaker 1: was asked to identify her or himself as a chronic, moderate, 64 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:52,680 Speaker 1: or non cannabis user. They hooked these volunteers up to 65 00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:56,200 Speaker 1: e g s and began showing them faces depicting four 66 00:03:56,360 --> 00:04:01,760 Speaker 1: expressions like neutral, happy, fearful, or angry. The e g 67 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:04,920 Speaker 1: s monitored what happened in specific regions of the brain 68 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:08,240 Speaker 1: when the volunteers saw these four types of faces. Troop 69 00:04:08,320 --> 00:04:11,480 Speaker 1: first asked the pot enthusiasts and the herbal teetotalers to 70 00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:15,640 Speaker 1: explicitly identify an emotion like look at this face, what 71 00:04:15,720 --> 00:04:18,320 Speaker 1: do you think this person feels? In this regard, all 72 00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:22,160 Speaker 1: three groups functioned at about the same level. However, when 73 00:04:22,160 --> 00:04:24,960 Speaker 1: asked to identify the gender of the face and then 74 00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:28,320 Speaker 1: later being quizzed about the emotion, Troop and her team 75 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:32,839 Speaker 1: found some weird stuff. The cannabis users were really really 76 00:04:32,920 --> 00:04:36,880 Speaker 1: bad at it, like so bad. While they could explicitly 77 00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:41,640 Speaker 1: identify emotions, the second experiment asked them to implicitly register 78 00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:45,280 Speaker 1: the feelings of others. Cannabis users had a smaller response 79 00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:49,080 Speaker 1: to positive emotions those happy faces. Ah. But here's the 80 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:52,039 Speaker 1: plot twist. The same cannabis users were found to be 81 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:56,160 Speaker 1: more sensitive to negative emotions, especially anger. Are they just 82 00:04:56,320 --> 00:04:58,680 Speaker 1: used to having to be cool around authority figures and 83 00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:01,960 Speaker 1: avoid being busted? I'm kidding. Probably not. Since all of 84 00:05:01,960 --> 00:05:05,599 Speaker 1: the users were legal under Colorado's Amendment sixty four, Troop 85 00:05:05,720 --> 00:05:09,039 Speaker 1: and her team aimed to conduct a second study focusing 86 00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:12,839 Speaker 1: on mood disorders like depression or for the paranoid smokers 87 00:05:12,839 --> 00:05:17,360 Speaker 1: out their anxiety. It's important research, especially considering how marijuana's 88 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:21,599 Speaker 1: legal status has until very recently hampered attempts to conduct 89 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:31,600 Speaker 1: meaningful studies on its effects. Finally, this week, Robert Lamb, 90 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:34,080 Speaker 1: host of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, explore some of 91 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:38,200 Speaker 1: the ideas surrounding trans humanism, what it is, different schools 92 00:05:38,240 --> 00:05:40,520 Speaker 1: within it, and some of the ways that humans of 93 00:05:40,560 --> 00:05:48,840 Speaker 1: the future might upgrade. Trans Humanists just held their augmented 94 00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:52,279 Speaker 1: World Expo in San Jose. In the broadest possible terms, 95 00:05:52,480 --> 00:05:55,240 Speaker 1: trans humanism is all about the improvement of the human 96 00:05:55,279 --> 00:05:59,440 Speaker 1: condition through science and technology. We're talking Homo sapiens two 97 00:05:59,440 --> 00:06:02,360 Speaker 1: point oh here are upgraded via technology to become smarter 98 00:06:02,600 --> 00:06:05,080 Speaker 1: and stronger. You have the particulars of the vision, run 99 00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:08,640 Speaker 1: the gamut of existing human politics, and encompass everything from 100 00:06:08,640 --> 00:06:11,960 Speaker 1: mere science driven culture to the outright evolution of the 101 00:06:12,040 --> 00:06:15,560 Speaker 1: human species. For starters, just consider some of the various 102 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:18,800 Speaker 1: schools of trans humanism to emerge since the nineteen eighties. 103 00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:22,520 Speaker 1: We've got democratic trans humanists who want advancements for every 104 00:06:22,600 --> 00:06:26,480 Speaker 1: socio economic level, libertarian trans humanist, and a narco trans 105 00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:29,239 Speaker 1: humanists who think advancements will elevate us all just fine 106 00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:31,720 Speaker 1: if the government stays out of it. We also have 107 00:06:31,800 --> 00:06:35,400 Speaker 1: survivalist trans humanists who just want to defeat death. You've 108 00:06:35,440 --> 00:06:39,080 Speaker 1: got singultarians who see trans humanism as an inevitable outcome 109 00:06:39,120 --> 00:06:42,240 Speaker 1: of the technological singularity. We can't avoid it. All we 110 00:06:42,279 --> 00:06:45,560 Speaker 1: can do is prepare for it and manage the outcome. Meanwhile, 111 00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:48,560 Speaker 1: trans human heatonists just want to feel good, and religious 112 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:51,840 Speaker 1: trans humanist weave it all together with their faith those 113 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:54,039 Speaker 1: are just a few of the approaches. In any case, 114 00:06:54,080 --> 00:06:56,720 Speaker 1: the next big question is how will we know we've 115 00:06:56,760 --> 00:07:00,520 Speaker 1: become trans human. In two thousand eleven, bioef is Kyle 116 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:05,239 Speaker 1: mcintry presented seven potential indicators. First, we need to reach 117 00:07:05,279 --> 00:07:08,960 Speaker 1: the point where prosthetic limbs and implanted organs are actually 118 00:07:09,040 --> 00:07:13,080 Speaker 1: improvements over the original. We're not there yet. Second, will 119 00:07:13,120 --> 00:07:16,080 Speaker 1: need to have better brains by virtue of neuro implants 120 00:07:16,120 --> 00:07:19,920 Speaker 1: and cybernetics. We're talking a step beyond pharmaceutical power ups here, 121 00:07:20,040 --> 00:07:22,000 Speaker 1: and we have to be clear that it's not cheating, 122 00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:25,760 Speaker 1: not brain doping, but a desired upgrade and human cognition. 123 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:29,600 Speaker 1: We're not quite there yet either. Third, artificial intelligence and 124 00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:32,040 Speaker 1: augmented reality would need to be a part of everyday 125 00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:35,200 Speaker 1: life now. Based on the phone app that basically drove 126 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:37,240 Speaker 1: me to work this morning, I think we're at least 127 00:07:37,320 --> 00:07:40,600 Speaker 1: getting there. Fourth will want an average human lifespan of 128 00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:44,000 Speaker 1: roughly a hundred and twenty years. Fifth, according to mckintrick, 129 00:07:44,120 --> 00:07:46,720 Speaker 1: will want human reproduction to transcend into more of a 130 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:50,360 Speaker 1: responsible planning choice. Some work to be done on both 131 00:07:50,360 --> 00:07:54,080 Speaker 1: of those. Sixth will each need total legal bodily freedom 132 00:07:54,120 --> 00:07:57,200 Speaker 1: to engage in the sort of cybernetic upgrades necessary to 133 00:07:57,280 --> 00:08:00,160 Speaker 1: achieve a higher human form. Right now, that's tie up 134 00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:03,239 Speaker 1: in a lot of governmental red tape. In seventh, mucin 135 00:08:03,280 --> 00:08:06,440 Speaker 1: Trick argues, we need a strong value of personhood for 136 00:08:06,560 --> 00:08:11,000 Speaker 1: qualifying non human entities such as artificial intelligences and dolphins. 137 00:08:11,040 --> 00:08:13,840 Speaker 1: After all, no one wants to upgrade themselves out of 138 00:08:13,880 --> 00:08:21,920 Speaker 1: their basic human rights. Right That's our show for this week. 139 00:08:22,080 --> 00:08:25,120 Speaker 1: Thank you so much for tuning in. 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