WEBVTT - Rerun: TechStuff Looks Inside the Black Box 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.400 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:16.840 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:20.439 I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio and how the tech 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:24.479 are you? So? Originally I had a different plan for today. 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:28.840 I was getting work done on an episode that I 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:31.480 will still bring to you. It'll just probably be a 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:35.000 little while longer before I do it because as I 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:40.920 was working early on this episode, I developed an ocular migraine, 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:44.080 which has still affected me right now. For those who 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:47.840 are not familiar ocular migraines, you end up getting these 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:50.520 weird effects on your vision. I don't have any pain, 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:55.040 at least not yet, but I can't see very well. 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:57.240 So it took me a while to even open up 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:00.480 the recording software for me to be able to do 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:04.320 this bit. But yeah, I am not able to do 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:07.000 my work right now because I can't really see. But 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:09.840 these have happened before. They don't last that long. Usually 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:13.199 this one's a longer one, but they clear up pretty 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:16.320 much on their own, and most of the time I 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:19.080 don't get on migraine migraine with them, So here's hoping 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:21.360 that's the case today. But I didn't want to leave 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:23.840 you without an episode, so I thought it would bring 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:26.559 you this one that we published a few years back 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:30.520 in September of twenty twenty. It is called tech Stuff 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:35.720 Looks Inside the Black Box because I think this topic 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:40.120 in particular is incredibly relevant today, particularly when we are 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:44.399 talking about artificial intelligence. A lot of AI systems work 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.720 inside what we would call a black box, and so 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:51.200 I thought, why not bring that one back and have 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:56.040 that one rerun today while I get my vision under control. 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:58.400 I hope you're all well, and I'll chat with you 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:02.440 again at the of the episode. So this is tech 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:09.280 Stuff Looks Inside the Black Box from September second, twenty twenty. Today, 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:11.760 I thought it was a good time to take another 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:15.919 opportunity to chat about one of the subjects I really 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:19.760 hammer home in this series. And I don't make any 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:24.400 apologies for this. It's about critical thinking. So yeah, this 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:29.120 is another critical Thinking in Technology episode. Now, in these episodes, 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:33.200 I explain how taking time and really thinking through things 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:36.880 is important so that we make the most informed decisions 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:40.800 we can and so that we aren't either fooling ourselves 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:44.400 or you know, allowing someone else to fool us when 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:47.600 it comes to technology. Though, I'll tell you a secret. 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:50.520 Using these skills in all parts of your life is 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:53.240 a great idea because it can be really easy for 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:56.160 us to fall into patterns where we let ourselves believe 0:02:56.240 --> 0:03:00.839 things just because it's convenient, or you know, it reaffirms 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.280 our biases, our prejudices, that kind of thing. So if 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:09.040 you use critical thinking beyond the realm of technology, I 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:13.360 ain't gonna be mad. Specifically, I wanted to talk about 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:18.240 a general category of issues in tech that some refer 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:21.960 to as the black box problem. Now, this is not 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:27.160 the same thing as the black box that's onboard your 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:31.320 typical airplane. In fact, i'll explain what that is first 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:35.000 because it's pretty simple, and then we can move on. First, 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:39.880 the black box inside airplanes is typically orange. So right 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:42.440 off the bat, we have a problem with nomenclature, right, 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:47.160 I mean, you had one job black box. Actually that's 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:50.120 not true. The black box has a very important job 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:52.880 and it requires a couple of things to work. But 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:57.400 the black box, which is orange, is all about maintaining 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:01.080 a record of an aircraft's activities in a housing capable 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:06.720 of withstanding tremendous punishment. Another name, or a more appropriate name, 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:09.680 really for this device for the black box is the 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:14.120 flight data recorder. Sensors in various parts of the plane 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:18.360 detect changes and then send data to the flight data recorder, 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:23.800 which you know, records them. If a pilot makes any 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:27.520 adjustments to any controls, whether it's the flight stick or 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:30.240 a knob, or a button or a switch or whatever, 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:33.960 the control not only does whatever it was intended to do, 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:37.680 assuming everything's in working order, but it also sends a 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:41.279 signal that is recorded on the flight recorder. So the 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:43.920 job of the flight recorder is to create as accurate 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:48.120 a representation of what went on with that aircraft as 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:52.640 is possible. The Federal Aviation Administration or FAA in the 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:55.719 United States, has a long list of parameters that the 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:58.720 flight recorder is supposed to keep track of, more than 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:02.839 eighty in fact, and these include not just the aircraft's systems, 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:05.640 but what was going on in the environment. So if 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.680 a pilot encounters a problem on a flight, or in 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:12.120 a worst case scenario, in the event of a crash, 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:15.640 the flight recorder represents an opportunity to find out what 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:19.880 actually went wrong. You know, was it a malfunction, was 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:24.880 it pilot error, was it weather? The crash survivable memory 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:29.000 units inside the heavy duty casing of the black box 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:32.080 are really meant to act as a lasting record, So 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:36.080 if the recorder is recoverable, it gives investigators a chance 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:39.920 to find out what happened. But, as I said, that's 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:42.599 not the black box I really wanted to talk about 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:44.839 for today's episode, so I'm not going to go into 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:48.600 any more detail about that. Now, you could argue that 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:51.240 the black box I want to talk about is sort 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:55.240 of the opposite of what we find in airplanes, because 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:58.400 in an airplane, the black box contains a record of 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:01.640 everything that has gone on, and it can help explain 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:06.320 why a certain outcome has happened. In technology in general, 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:09.240 we use the term black box to refer to a 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:12.360 system or technology where we know what goes into it 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:15.840 and we can see what comes out of it, but 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:18.160 we have no idea of what went on in the 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:21.039 middle of that process. We don't have a way to 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:25.080 understand the process by which the device takes input and 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:29.800 produces output. Now, in most cases, we're not talking about 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:34.919 an instance where literally nobody understands what's going on with 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:38.960 a device or a system. It's more like the creators 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:43.120 of whatever system we're talking about have purposefully made it 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:47.640 difficult or impossible for the average person to understand or 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:51.200 in some cases even see, what a technology is doing. 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:55.719 Sometimes it's intentional, sometimes it's not. So Maybe purposefully is 0:06:55.720 --> 0:07:00.000 being a little strong there, but that's often how it unfolds. 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.279 Let's take a general example that has created issues with 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:06.880 a particular subsection of tech heads, and those would be 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:09.800 the gear heads, you know, the people who love to 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:13.120 work on vehicles like motorcycles and cars and trucks and 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:16.880 stuff in what you might think of as the good 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:21.040 old days, at least from the perspective of DIY technology. 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:23.680 There's plenty of other things that were wrong back then, 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:28.440 but in those terms, a car's systems were pretty darn accessible. 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:31.760 A motorist would need to spend time and effort to 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:35.000 learn how the car worked and what each component was 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:38.559 meant to do. But that was actually an achievable goal. 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:41.800 So with a bit of study and some hands on work, 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:44.800 you could suss out how an engine works. You know, 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:48.360 how spark plugs cause a little explosion by igniting a 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:52.680 mixture of fuel and air inside an engine's cylinders. How 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.960 that explosion would force out a piston which connects to 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:59.040 a crank shaft, and how that reciprocating motion of the 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:02.320 piston would translate into rotational motion of the crank shaft 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:06.320 that could then be transmitted ultimately to wheels through a transmission. 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:10.320 You could learn what the carburetor does, how the various 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:13.080 fans and belts work and what they do. You know 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:15.400 where the oil pan is and how to change out 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:18.280 oil and all that kind of stuff. What's more, you 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:21.760 can make repairs yourself. If you had the tools, the 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:25.760 replacement parts, and the knowledge and the time you could 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:29.440 swap out parts. You could customize your vehicle. You know, 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:31.720 I've known a lot of people who have taken on 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:35.640 cars as projects. They'll purchase an old junker and then 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:39.080 they will lovingly restore it to its former glory or 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:42.640 turn it into something truly transformational. And all of that 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:47.760 is possible because those old cars had really accessible systems. 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:53.600 They were relatively simple electro mechanical systems. Once you understood 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:56.520 how they worked, you could see how they worked or 0:08:56.559 --> 0:08:59.400 how they were supposed to work, and you could understand 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:03.439 what was going on. Through that understanding, you could address 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:07.120 stuff when things weren't going well. And that's how cars 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:10.680 were for decades but that began to change in the 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:16.640 late nineteen sixties, but it really accelerated no pun intended 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:22.119 in the nineteen seventies. So what happened well in nineteen 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:26.320 sixty eight leading into nineteen sixty nine, Volkswagen introduced a 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:30.320 new standard feature for their Type three vehicle, which was 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:34.000 sometimes called the Volkswagen fifteen hundred or sixteen hundred, there 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:36.960 were a couple of names for it. These were family cars, 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.679 and Volkswagen's intent was to create a vehicle with a 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:44.240 bit more luggage and passenger space than their Type one, 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:49.240 which was also known as the Volkswagen Beetle. The feature 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:51.520 for these cars that I wanted to talk about was 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:55.360 an electronic fuel injection system that was controlled by a 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:59.800 computer chip, and the marketing for this particular feature said 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:05.240 that this quote electronic brain end quote was quote smarter 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:08.800 than a carburetor end quote. Now, the purpose of a 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:12.680 carburetor is to mix fuel with air at a ratio 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:17.000 that is suitable for combustion inside the engine cylinders. But 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:20.680 an engine doesn't need exactly the same ratio of fuel 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:23.920 to air from moment to moment. It actually varies as 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:27.760 a vehicle runs longer or it travels faster, or it 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:30.959 starts climbing a steep hill, or you know, lots of stuff. 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:35.120 The ratio changes somewhat, and the carburetor manages this with 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:38.080 a couple of valves, one called the choke and another 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:41.599 called the throttle, among other elements. But it's all mechanical, 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:44.720 and while it works, it's not as precise as an 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:48.440 electronic system could be. And that's where the Volkswagen system 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:52.480 came in. Volkswagen was pushing this as a more efficient 0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:56.280 and useful component than a carburetor. It would prevent the 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:59.640 engine from being flooded with fuel and not enough air 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:03.360 for combustion. It would handle the transitions of fuel and 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:07.680 air mix ratios more quickly and precisely. It was the 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:11.120 start of something big, but were it not for some 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:15.160 other external factors, it might not have taken off the 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:17.520 way it did, or at least not as quickly as 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:21.079 it did. Those other factors, as I said, were external, 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:25.280 and there were a pair of doozies. One was a 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:28.800 growing concern that burning fossil fuels was having a negative 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:32.280 impact on the environment, which turned out to be absolutely 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:36.840 the case. Cities like Los Angeles, California, where getting around 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:40.720 pretty much requires having a car. We're dealing with some 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:46.160 really serious smog problems, and so organizations like the Environmental 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:50.080 Protection Agency in the United States began to draft requirements 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:54.840 to reduce car emissions that would mean that automotive companies 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:58.520 would have to create more efficient engine systems. The other 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:02.000 major factor that can atributed to this was the oil 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:05.240 crisis of the nineteen seventies, which I talked about not 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:08.840 long ago in a different Tech Stuff podcast. This was 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:12.440 a geopolitical problem that threw much of the world into 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:16.559 a scramble to curb fossil fuel consumption because the supply 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:21.679 was limited. The double whammy of environmental concerns and the 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:25.640 oil crisis forced a lot of car companies to rethink 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:31.680 their previous strategy, which was pretty much more power, make bigger, 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:35.720 much fast, go go go, go guzzle. That kind of 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:38.319 is how they were thinking back in the day. Turns 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:41.319 out that was an unsustainable option. And if you look back, 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:45.880 especially at American cars during the fifties and sixties, you 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:49.920 see that trend of the engines getting bigger and more powerful, 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:54.559 and that was just the way things were going until 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:58.040 we started to see these external changes come in and 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:02.720 so more car companies began to incorporate computer controlled fuel 0:13:02.760 --> 0:13:07.199 injection systems. But this move also marked a move away 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:10.840 from the design that made it harder for the DIY 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:14.840 crowd to work on cars. Working on a damaged carburetor 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:19.600 was one thing, Dealing with a malfunctioning computer chip was another. 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:22.960 It didn't fall into the typical skill set of your 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:27.200 amateur mechanic, and of course we didn't stop computer controlled 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:30.600 fuel injection systems. Over time, we saw a lot more 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:34.880 automotive systems make the transition to computer control. Today, your 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:39.120 average car has computer systems that control the engine, the transmission, 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:43.880 the doors, entertainment system, the windows. And these systems are 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:48.920 all individual and they have a name. They're called electronic 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:55.600 control units or ECUs. Collectively, they form the controller area 0:13:55.720 --> 0:14:01.199 network or can CAN. The connections themselves, the physical connections 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:05.360 are called the can bus bus, and that's really just 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:07.440 a way of saying these are the physical connectors that 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:11.880 allow data to pass from one ECU to another. And 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:15.680 there wasn't really like a central processing unit or anything. 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:18.480 There was no like central brain. It was more like 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:24.400 ECUs that depend upon one another would send relevant information 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:29.080 to each other and not to anything else, so you know, 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:32.440 if the door sensor is showing a door as open, 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:36.400 it can send an alert to other systems so that 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:40.920 that information is appropriately dealt with. Now, at the same 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:45.680 time that these individual systems were evolving, so too we 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:49.240 saw the rise of what would become the onboard diagnostic 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:53.680 system or OBD. And the OBD keeps an eye on 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:57.040 what's going on with the various systems in the car, 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:01.200 and it sends notifications to the driver via dashboard indicators 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:05.640 when something is outside normal operating parameters. So let's say 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:10.200 that this diagnosis computer picks up that there's something hinky 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:13.400 happening with the fuel air mixture and it activates that 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.600 pesky check engine light on the dashboard that gives you 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:20.960 next to no useful information. The problem is that these 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:25.200 days it can be challenging or sometimes impossible to figure 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:28.400 out exactly what caused that check engine light to come 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:32.680 on without the access to some special equipment and expertise. 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:36.480 The car systems have become so sophisticated that it could 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:39.320 be a challenge to figure out what exactly has gone awry. 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:44.800 Mechanics use devices called OBD scan tools, and these tools 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:48.360 connect to the computer on board a car, and then 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:52.560 the car provides an error code to the scanner. This, 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:55.520 by the way, took a long time to standardize because 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:57.560 you've got a lot of different car companies out there, 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:01.320 and obviously there was a need to move towards standardization 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:04.800 so that you didn't have to have fifty different scan 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:08.400 tools and fifty different code charts to deal with all 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:11.600 the different car companies. But the code corresponds to the 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:15.680 specific issue the OBD has detected. So not only do 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:19.360 you need a special piece of equipment to diagnose what 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:21.680 has gone wrong with the car, you also need to 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:25.200 know the codes, or else you haven't really learned anything. 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:30.200 If I get a eight digit code and I don't 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:32.440 know what that code refers to, then I'm not really 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:34.840 any better off than just looking at a check engine light. 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:37.640 On top of all of that, even if you know 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:40.840 what is wrong, you might not be able to easily 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:43.680 access the problem or fix it due to the level 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:49.320 of complexity, sophistication and computerization of vehicles. Not all cars 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:53.360 or motorcycles or whatever are equal. Obviously, some are a 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:57.160 bit easier to work on than others. Some require a 0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:00.440 lot of specific care. Though. For example, if you're driving 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:03.840 a Tesla, chances are the amount of personal tinkering you're 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:06.119 going to do on your car is going to be 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:10.280 fairly limited. Now, I'm not saying it's impossible, just that 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:14.840 it's really challenging. So, in general, we've seen cars go 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.679 from a mechanical system or electro mechanical system that the 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:22.480 average person can understand and work on, to a group 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:28.320 of interconnected specialized computer systems that are increasingly difficult to access. 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:32.320 The cars have become a type of black box. This 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:36.440 can be extra frustrating for gear heads who have actually 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:41.040 an understanding of underlying mechanical issues that could cause problems. 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:43.280 They might even know how to solve an issue if 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:46.960 they can just get to it, but they are finding 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:52.440 themselves with fewer options in order to address underlying issues. Now, 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:56.119 cars are just one example of technologies that have moved 0:17:56.240 --> 0:18:01.359 toward a black box like system. Lots of others. But 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:04.080 apart from making it harder to tinker with your tech, 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:07.200 what's the problem. But when we come back, I'll talk 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:10.520 about some of the pitfalls of turning tech into a 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:23.160 black box. But first let's take a quick break. We're back. 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:27.560 So the card transformed from a purely electro mechanical technology 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:31.720 to one that increasingly relies on computer systems. But the 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:35.840 computer itself can also be something of a black box 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:38.840 for people now. In the very early days of the 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:42.600 personal computer, it was hobbyists who were ordering kits through 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:46.600 the mail and then building computers at home. Typically, these 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:50.720 hobbyists had a working understanding of how the computer systems operated, 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:53.520 you know, the actual way in which they would accept 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:58.880 inputs and process information and then produce outputs. Before high 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:02.880 level programming line languages, programmers also had to kind of 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:05.879 think like a computer in order to program them to 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:10.560 carry out functions. As computer languages became more high level, 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:15.000 meaning there was a layer of abstraction between the programmer 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:17.520 and the actual processes that were going on at the 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:21.280 hardware level of the computer, that connection began to get 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:26.360 more tenuous. Now, I'm not saying that programmers today don't 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:29.760 have a real understanding of how computers work, but rather 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:36.120 that this understanding is less critical because programming languages, computer engines, 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:39.400 app developer kits you know, software developer kits and so on, 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:44.600 provide a framework that reduces the amount of low level 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:47.840 work programmers need to do in order to build stuff 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:51.280 as software. For the average user, you know, someone who 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:55.400 isn't learned in the ways of computer science, computers are 0:19:55.720 --> 0:20:01.199 pretty much black boxes. They work until they don't. You 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:04.119 push buttons on a keyboard, or you click on a mouse, 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:06.560 or you touch a screen, and you know, the computer 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:10.679 does the stuff how it does stuff like how it 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:14.119 detects a screen touch and then translates that into a 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:17.919 command that is then executed to produce a specific result. 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:21.600 You know, that's not important to us. We don't care 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:24.520 or need to know how that works in order to 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:28.159 enjoy the benefits of it. So for us, it's just 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:31.440 the way things are. You push that button and this 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:34.919 thing happens. It just does the black box of the 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:39.440 computer system, which can be a desktop, a laptop, tablet, smartphone, 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:43.040 video game console, you know whatever. It just takes care 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:46.000 of what we need it to do. That's not to 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:50.200 say a computer is impenetrably a black box. You can 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:53.800 learn how they work and how programming languages work and 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:57.639 so on. Computer science and programming classes are all built 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:01.760 around that. So while a computer system is effectively a 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:05.719 black box to the average user, it wasn't made that 0:21:05.800 --> 0:21:09.479 way by design, and it can be addressed on a 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:13.160 case by case basis, depending on the time, the interest 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:17.080 of the individual computer user, and their dedication to learning. 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:20.960 But sometimes people will set out to make technologies with 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:24.720 the intent of them being black boxes from the get go. 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:28.800 These technologies are dependent in part or in whole on 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:33.120 obviuse skating how they work, in other words, by obscuring it. 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:38.480 Sometimes that's in an effort to protect an invention from copycats, 0:21:38.880 --> 0:21:40.919 the whole idea being that if you come up with 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:44.480 something really clever, you don't want someone else to come 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:47.760 along lift that idea and do the same thing you 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:50.720 are doing, but selling it for less money or something. 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:55.320 But other times you might be hiding how something works 0:21:55.440 --> 0:21:59.480 specifically with the intent to deceive. And now it's time 0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:04.000 to look much further back than the nineteen sixties. It 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:08.119 was seventeen seventy in Europe. As the story goes, the 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:11.480 European world had seen a great deal of advancement in 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:16.440 mechanical clockwork devices. At that point. Clocks themselves, often powered 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:20.600 by winding a spring and keeping time using gears with 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:24.239 a reliable and consistent basis that was much better than 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:28.800 earlier methods, even allowed people the ability to carry a 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:34.199 time keeping device with them phenomenal. Based on similar principles, 0:22:34.480 --> 0:22:37.760 various tinkerers had come up with toys and distractions that 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:42.680 also ran on clockwork, like gears and springs. Some of 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:46.399 these were quite elaborate, such as figures that appeared to 0:22:46.440 --> 0:22:52.040 play musical instruments, and one of them was particularly impressive. 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:56.040 It appeared to be an automaton that could play expert 0:22:56.119 --> 0:23:00.840 level chess. The figure, made out of wood, was dressed 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:04.680 in Turkish costume, leading to it being called the Turk, 0:23:04.960 --> 0:23:09.440 or sometimes the mechanical Turk. If you were to sit 0:23:09.600 --> 0:23:13.800 down to play against the Turk, you, as an opponent, 0:23:13.880 --> 0:23:16.560 would move a piece, and then you would watch as 0:23:16.600 --> 0:23:19.800 this mechanical figure would shift and move a piece of 0:23:19.840 --> 0:23:23.360 its own in response. And the Turk was a pretty 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:28.280 good chess player. It frequently beat the opponent's at face. 0:23:28.400 --> 0:23:32.600 Sometimes it would lose to particularly strong players, but it 0:23:32.680 --> 0:23:35.960 held its own pretty darn well. The man behind this 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:40.399 invention was Wulfgan von Kimplin, who was in the service 0:23:40.440 --> 0:23:45.119 of Maria Teresa, Impress of the Holy Roman Empire. He 0:23:45.160 --> 0:23:48.480 had been invited to view a magician's performance in the court. 0:23:48.600 --> 0:23:52.520 So the story goes and The Impress had invited him 0:23:52.560 --> 0:23:55.800 specifically and afterwards asked him what he thought, and allegedly 0:23:56.119 --> 0:23:59.360 he boasted he could create a much more compelling illusion 0:23:59.400 --> 0:24:02.760 than anything this magician did. Now, according to the story, 0:24:02.960 --> 0:24:06.640 the Empress essentially said, oh yeah, well, prove it, buster, 0:24:07.160 --> 0:24:09.760 and he was given six months to do just that. 0:24:10.440 --> 0:24:13.080 The turk was what he had to show for it 0:24:13.160 --> 0:24:17.920 in six months time, and it reportedly went over like Gangbusters. 0:24:18.440 --> 0:24:22.000 The wooden turk stood behind a cabinet, on top of 0:24:22.040 --> 0:24:26.399 which was the chessboard, and Kempland would reportedly open the 0:24:26.440 --> 0:24:30.679 cabinet doors and reveal some gears and mechanics to prove 0:24:30.960 --> 0:24:35.399 that it was purely a mechanical system. In fact, the 0:24:35.480 --> 0:24:39.440 gears were masking a hidden compartment behind them, in which 0:24:39.480 --> 0:24:44.399 a human chess player was sitting inside, hunched over, keeping 0:24:44.480 --> 0:24:47.480 track of a game, using a smaller chessboard in front 0:24:47.520 --> 0:24:51.320 of him, and using various levers to move the turk's 0:24:51.440 --> 0:24:55.919 limbs in response. Now, a lot of folks suspected that 0:24:56.119 --> 0:24:59.280 something was up from the get go, but you know, 0:24:59.400 --> 0:25:02.600 part of the fun of a magic trick is just 0:25:02.760 --> 0:25:07.040 not knowing what's going on. Some folks try very hard 0:25:07.119 --> 0:25:10.080 to figure out the process. I am not one of them. 0:25:10.480 --> 0:25:13.280 Others are just happy to be entertained by a very 0:25:13.320 --> 0:25:16.760 well performed trick. But in a way, the Turk was 0:25:16.880 --> 0:25:20.439 a kind of black box. In fact, you could argue 0:25:20.440 --> 0:25:23.840 that a lot of magic tricks pretty much fall into 0:25:23.880 --> 0:25:29.200 the black box category. The process is purposefully hidden from 0:25:29.240 --> 0:25:31.840 the viewer. If we could see what the magician was 0:25:31.880 --> 0:25:35.480 doing from beginning to end, all the way through and 0:25:35.800 --> 0:25:40.240 without any misdirection, then it wouldn't be magic. We might 0:25:40.520 --> 0:25:44.040 admire the skill of the magician, how quickly they were 0:25:44.040 --> 0:25:49.119 able to do things, but we wouldn't really consider it magical. 0:25:49.840 --> 0:25:53.040 So the output is dependent upon people not knowing the 0:25:53.080 --> 0:25:57.280