WEBVTT - The Brilliant and Terrifying Future of Toilets 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:13.960 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:16.760 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. And 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:18.759 it's actually a funny story. We were originally going to 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:21.680 come in here and do a podcast having to do 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:25.680 with knee eating and vegetarianism, and I actually done a 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:28.240 fair amount of research about it. And then last night 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:32.920 I went to a restaurant named Abatoire which specializes in meats, 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:37.360 and uh, it's is French for slaughter house. Yeah, and 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:41.199 so now I find myself at work actually podcasting about toilets. 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:48.080 So I think there's a natural progression. Yeah, absolutely, Um, yeah, 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:50.760 we're gonna talk about toilets, and why not because everybody 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:52.360 uses something right there, there are a couple of things 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:54.600 you cannot escape in life. Right You've got to eat, 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:56.240 you've got to sleep, and you have got to go 0:00:56.320 --> 0:01:02.480 to the bathroom. Right yeah, pooping, peeing, these these basic actions. Uh, 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:04.840 it's it's a part of life. And it's it's so 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:09.680 weird that it is an area of technology. Um, that 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:13.920 physics and physics and health that often is just overlooked 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:16.080 because we just don't want to think about it, or 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:17.360 a lot of us do. Some of us may think 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:21.039 about it too much. But but but it's it's there, 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:24.319 it's important, and we'll end up, like say, you know, 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:27.520 spending a whole decade or more, not innovating the toilet, 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:30.520 not making changes to it, and certainly not rethinking it 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:33.959 in any drastic way. Um. You know, in the same 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:37.479 way that a person will choose to ignore, um some 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:43.200 you know, dire health concerns relating their toiletry encounters. Yeah, 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:45.760 and here's what I'm thinking though, I mean, technology has 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:48.960 has touched us on every level of our existence, and 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:52.000 certainly it is happening in the toilet sphere. We were 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:54.440 just maybe not as aware of it because you and 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:56.720 I are here. We we don't live in Japan, right, 0:01:56.760 --> 0:01:59.520 And that's that's like where the toilet plosion is going on. 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:02.720 If I can coin a new term. Um, but you 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:06.240 know we've talked to is a new term. I think 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:08.639 it may have been used before, but not what we're 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:12.399 talking about. Explosions of ideas and yeah, right right, rather 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:16.160 than that the more chatological explosions, yes, which are important too, 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:18.840 but um, but you know, we've talked about what life 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:22.040 might look like in fifty years, particularly if we end 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:24.760 up living in vertical cities. And we've talked about the 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.120 scarcity of land um, and we now know that um, 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:34.000 something like two thirds of the popular population in will 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:38.280 live in cities. Right. We know that we use a 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:41.040 land mass the size of South America right now to 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:44.440 fill our our food needs so UM, and we don't 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:47.720 have that available to us in the future, right, especially 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:51.079 when we have nine point five billion people living in 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:54.520 so we started to think, like, how does that affect 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:58.120 us waste wise? Yeah? Also water right now, especially in 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:03.600 the United States, we and enjoy clean water pretty much 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:06.079 as much as we want, whether we're drinking it or 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:09.359 washing the dog with it. And I found an estimate 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:12.919 that the average American uses somewhere in the neighborhood of 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:16.639 seven thousand, six hundred sixty five gallons of water each 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:19.080 year just to flush the toilet. Well, and that doesn't 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:21.960 even count agriculture, right, UM. I mean that there's an 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:25.239 immense amount of water used in agriculture UM, whether or 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:28.519 not you're talking about livestock or crops UM. And again, 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:32.880 you know you've you've got this um, this massive demand 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:37.000 for food, particularly now for for meat and livestock. Um. 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:39.160 But we just don't have the area. So we talked 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:40.920 about this in life on the five hundred floor a 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:43.440 little bit. We talked about vertical cities. Is possibility that 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:46.920 you have vertical farming and and the sort of runoff 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:48.760 that would happen there and you end up living in 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.440 Pooh Town right down wind of you know, these stacks, 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:56.520 these five floors of of livestock roaming around and all 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.440 the sort of excrement that they produce, which is quite 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:03.720 a lot, really much much more than humans. Yeah, you 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:08.120 cant used to the zoo? I did? I I worked 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:11.960 for a zoo and um, wow, elephants, that's all I'm 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:16.120 gonna say. Amazing creatures. Um. So right now we know 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:19.159 what happens to to our sewer waste. Right there's something 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:22.719 called sewer sludge UM and this is actually at its best, 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:25.280 it's actually the end product of our sewer treatment systems 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:28.360 UM and it would be like a nutrient rich fertilizer 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:30.760 that we could use on crops. And again, and it's 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:33.440 actually used in the U. S. And Canada as such, 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:36.359 but it's actually been banned in some countries because at 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:39.200 its worst, which is the more likely scenario. It's a 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:43.919 highly toxic waste composed of humans and industrialized waste. Um, 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.000 So we have this problem right now, like what happens 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:50.800 to our pooh pooh? Um? How was it used? I mean, 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:53.040 this is a good idea to try to use on crops, 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:56.320 but knowing all this sorts of nasty stuff that goes 0:04:56.360 --> 0:05:00.320 into it, now it's not necessarily the type of stuff 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:02.880 that I want growing my tomatoes. We should probably talk 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:05.720 about the technology that we have right now. Yes, Uh, 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:09.880 like you mentioned the idea of your tomatoes and your 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:16.440 toilet instead of having a huge sewage infrastructure between your 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:20.479 toilet and your tomatoes. Uh, that we have this technology 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:24.160 for composting toilets, which is pretty basic technology and it's 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:26.480 more simpler form. So there are different models you can 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:30.240 get these really remarkable looking like it basically looks like 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:34.239 a toilet, like a big square toilet that you just unpack, 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:38.600 stick in your bathroom and it and there's I think 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:41.440 you add like peat mix and a microbe mix and 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:46.520 uh it basically evaporation takes place because solid waste is 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:49.159 only like it's only like ten percent solid and the 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:53.080 rest is all water water, So tons of bacteria by 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:55.840 the way, right in tons of bacteria, so the water 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:59.040 evaporates and uh, and then you have that peat mix 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:00.760 and the micro mix and they are there's like a 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.479 little crank on the side of the toilet um you know, 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:05.039 kind of like how they would start and start the 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:08.560 old airplanes, and so you'd crank the toilet to to 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:11.120 rotate the drum. You know, you'll see people with a 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:13.839 composting been in their backyard that hasn't a rotation system. 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:16.600 It's the same concept in your toilet right right. And 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:18.919 then eventually you're going to have a drawer at the bottom, 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:22.240 a finishing drawer that you open up in there is 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:26.240 compost in there. It's like basically dirt and you take 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:28.240 that out and you can dump that on your garden. 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:30.640 And then there there are models that are a little 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:33.960 more complicated that are electric or involve an external tank, 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:38.280 uh collection tank for this to take place in an 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:43.080 automated um drum that rolls. But but the the the 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:45.440 technology of it is pretty pretty cool. And yeah, it's 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:50.000 very cool. I actually um used one in a yurt once. Yeah, 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:52.599 and I shared this other editorial meeting, and there are 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:55.360 lots of titters by the way. Oh yeah, when was this, 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:57.960 um that I shared it? Yeah, it was this like 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:00.880 a year ago or yes, yes, that they weren't ready. 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:02.919 They weren't ready. But I'm telling you this is pretty 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:05.760 cool technology. But like you said, on an individual basis, 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:07.520 it makes a lot of sense, right, if you're trying 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:10.280 to institute it system wide, it might be a little 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:13.120 bit more difficult as a as a solution for all 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:15.200 of us, right, And those guys that laugh, they're gonna 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:17.520 think they're gonna look back on their their laughter and 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:19.640 they're gonna feel really stupid. Once we get all the 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:22.920 toilets in this building change to composting, that's right, and 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:26.240 we all get your housing. Yeah. Yes, I'm pretty sure 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:28.720 I've used them as well, because you see them popping 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:32.200 up like at state parks. Yeah, yeah, they're they're really 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:34.520 Because the other cool thing is it is more or 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:36.320 less self contained. You don't have to be hooked into 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:39.080 a grid or a system to operate. You don't necessarily 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:40.640 have to have the electricity coming in, you don't have 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:42.760 to have the sewage system going out. Yeah, right, and 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:46.040 it makes total sense. It's uh, it's definitely sustainable. It's 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:48.920 a solution. Um One of the things that you wrote 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.640 about recently in a blog post was what I like 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:56.960 to call them, that Satan's toilet perhaps the oh yes, 0:07:57.000 --> 0:08:00.360 the incinerating toilet and incineration toilets or fired toilets that 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:03.280 I like to think of them, Oh yes, these This 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:07.320 was something I did not know existed until until just, yeah, 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:09.920 just a couple of weeks ago, when I forget what 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:12.160 made me think of this, but I was suddenly an 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:13.720 into my mind, Hey, I wonder if there are any 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:17.680 toilets that burn everything up, because that you were thinking, like, 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:20.200 what's my worst nightmare? Sitting on a toilet with flame, 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:23.800 isn't it? Well, no, that's not my worst nightmare, but 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:27.040 but it just I kind of figured, we'll, surely someone 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:28.920 has thought of this, and lo and behold they have. 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:31.560 They've been around for decades. Uh And in fact, I 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:33.720 think there were some early designs that you know, showed 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:35.400 up like sort of the when the you know, in 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:38.600 the steam age, when everyone is getting excited about, uh, 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:41.120 you know, the technology changing our lives. And sure enough 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:42.840 there are some people that are like, we can we 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:45.720 can take these, uh our toilets and basically turn them 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:48.200 into a little furnaces that we pooped into, and and 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:52.280 that's kind of the idea of incineration toilet. Um. I 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:55.720 would if you do a Google search for poop into 0:08:55.720 --> 0:09:00.320 the fire, uh, sort of a play on the horus 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:02.679 to the Duran Duran song. Yes, I thought that was 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:04.960 what you were doing for best blog title ever. By 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:06.920 the way, Yeah, if you do that search, you'll find 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:09.000 this blog post, and in it there's a video that 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:11.560 actually does a great job of showing how these things work, 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:15.120 even though it's the weirdest video you've ever seen promong 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:18.959 a commercially available product, because it's like, there's for one thing, 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:24.080 the the incineration toilet in the promo video is padlock shut. Yeah, 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:26.760 because I mean basically, whatever you put in there, you 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:29.120 pull a trigger and it is incinerated, So you don't 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:30.880 you wouldn't want a child to play with this, and 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:32.520 if you were leaving one of these in a remote, 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:35.480 remote location, you wouldn't want just anybody coming in and 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:40.199 burning stuff in your toilet. Well, it's it starts very ominously, 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:42.160 right because you see this woman and she's got like 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:45.040 this key chain of like a thousand janitors, just like 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:47.599 a thousand keys on there and you know it's to 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:52.200 a different incineration toilet and this strange underground Commox's an 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:57.080 eastern block underground bunker. And she starts talking about the 0:09:57.120 --> 0:10:01.960 toilet and um, as you point out, and actually UM 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:05.520 editor Alison Laddermilt pointed out to at some point her 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:09.120 shoes go missing during this video. I don't know how 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:11.360 that happened. Yeah, she starts, you see her on the toilet, 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:13.280 she's got shoes on, and then you know they cut 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:15.679 to like later on. It's a very graphic video, by 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:17.520 the way, not with her, but actually the contents of 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:20.400 the Yeah, I mean, yeah, there is flaming poo in 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:23.120 the video because it's i mean, the product itself flames pooh. 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:27.400 And there's no there's no there's there's no, there's no 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:30.040 faking that. I guess they couldn't just put in something 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:32.080 some facts similar of poo. It might have been effects 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:33.400 some way of poon and just a really good one. 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.200 I don't know, but at any rate, Um, Yeah, she 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:39.080 unlocks the toilet, uses it. Then they do this cool 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:41.280 animation where they show exactly how it works and all 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:44.520 and uh, and it incinerates at all, I mean all 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:48.119 the water evaporates all all everything. It just turned to ash. 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:50.080 And then you'll have an ashtray at the bottom that 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:53.400 you remove and then dump. Right. And if you are 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:55.079 in the military and you've ever been in a military 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:57.040 campath these you're familiar with them or they they were 0:10:57.120 --> 0:11:00.480 found on trains as well. Um, and they are solution. 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:02.440 But the problem is is that you can't you still 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:04.800 have it's a waste product that you have to get 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:07.600 rid of. Now the volume has been greatly decreased, but 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:10.079 you still have this ash and you cannot. Um, Well, 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:12.600 they don't advise you to use in crops and you 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:14.480 have to throw it away. Yeah, and then there are 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:16.920 there are a few. I mean, obviously the advantages are 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:18.600 you don't again, you don't have to be hooked into 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:21.280 well you need to be hooked into slightly into the 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:23.480 grid on this one, because you need you need to 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:27.079 either need to be electronically powered or gas powered, so 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:29.839 you'll need that, but you don't need water. Um, you 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:32.720 don't have to worry about freezing temperatures. There's nothing in 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:37.240 here that's gonna freeze up. But incineration destroys nutrients in 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:41.120 the waste, making the ash inadequate. For replenishing soil. Um. 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:44.600 You know, there's the energy usage, but then there are 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:49.280 disadvantages as well. Um, the incineration destroys waste nutrients um 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:53.240 in in the waste, making the ash inadequate for soil replenishment. 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:56.599 And and again generally it's just gonna require energy. You 0:11:56.720 --> 0:11:58.800 gotta be hooked into gas or you have to be 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:01.760 poked into you know, some sort of electrical grid or 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:04.840 battery operated in order to power the flame. Yeah, and 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:08.559 some models can't be used while insideration cycle is in process. 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:10.240 So this is probably not going to work for a 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:12.679 household with like ten people in it in one bathroom, right, 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:15.400 and the sites I was looking also really advise the 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:18.199 child should never use one of these things. Yeah, fire 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:22.040 children poo really bad combo. We should probably really talk 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:25.120 very quickly about vacuum toilets. Oh, yes, these are the 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:27.600 Everyone who's ever flown on an airplane and has been 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:30.079 brave enough to use the restroom has encountered these because 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:32.720 basically basically how it works. Again, as you use the 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:35.839 restroom and then you awkwardly get up out of your 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:39.600 seat and struggle to position yourself around so you can 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:41.160 look down in the toilet, because we'll get to that 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:44.360 in a second. Because you if you're a male, no, well, yeah, 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:49.600 that's right. If you're if you're sitting well oh never mind, yeah, yes, 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:52.240 so you're trying to get yourself on the toilet. Yes, 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:53.800 you have to get on the toilet, use the toilet, 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:55.880 then get up, turn around, look down in the toilet, 0:12:56.320 --> 0:12:57.840 and then you have to flush it. And then when 0:12:57.840 --> 0:12:59.680 you flush it, you feel like all the air around 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:02.320 your head it's like sucked out. And there's this moment 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:05.679 where you can imagine yourself like pitching forward and just 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:08.840 being taken down through the tubes and ejected from the 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:10.920 outside of the air plant. Well, I was want to say, 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:13.080 and it really plays into the rational fear you've got 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:15.120 clowns and you've got the toilet that's going to suck 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:18.400 you out into the other. Yeah, we'll see. With me, 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:20.400 I was more, always, more afraid of things coming up 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:22.760 from the toilet. I guess it was because I remember 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:25.800 being a kid, not renting horror movies, but walking down 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:29.840 the aisle and seeing um like like VHS covers for 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:32.800 I think it was like Googley's was the was the series, 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:35.640 and the cover always had like some really cheap looking 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:38.600 like monster puppet coming out of a toilet, and uh 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:41.199 and and I think I've subsequently seen like a cliff 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:43.880 and then it's just horrible, poorly made films. But but 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:45.640 at the time it's like, yeah, I don't want something 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:47.160 to come up out of the toilet at me. And 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.600 then a few years ago it happened something came up 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:51.640 with the out of the toilet when I was not 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:54.040 in there using it. It was suage, it was sewage 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:56.120 backing up, but it was horrifying. I thought you're gonna 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:57.880 say it was a rat or an alligator. No, but 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:00.760 I have heard of rats, and that's as an entirely 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:04.160 different podcast, I think, Um, because rats, I mean, they're 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:06.719 they're gonna outlive us, right, Um, But I want to 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:09.360 talk really quickly about that. Why you would want to 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:13.360 use vacuum toilet outside of the airplane if you could, right, 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:15.040 you'd have to have the right conditions, you'd have to 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:17.560 have the section. But they use very little water, which 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:19.480 is very important, right, especially if we're talking about the 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:22.160 year and there's perhaps not a lot of water to 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:26.920 go around. Um, they can flush in any direction, including upward. 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:29.560 And because they don't have a lot of pipes that 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:31.800 they have to you know, draw down the waist. You 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:34.760 don't have to worry about the infrastructure um of placing 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.560 a toilet somewhere. I mean, you can't just place one anywhere. 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:40.720 You still have to have the right technology, but it's 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:42.760 a lot more mobile. Yeah, So all you would need 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:47.040 is some sort of vacuum device, air air pumps, etcetera 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:50.200 to make this right right. Um, so those are that's 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:53.280 what we have right now. But we've got some really 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:55.520 cool things that are in the works right now that 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:58.400 we could possibly have in the near future. Yes, and 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:05.520 we will get to be right after this breat This 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:09.000 presentation is brought to you by Intel, Sponsors of Tomorrow, 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:15.920 and we're back all right to the future. To the 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:20.120 future here we are. Okay, So the future holds some 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:23.080 really cool stuff. And one of the one of the 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:26.360 things I wanted to talk about is NASA, Right, Okay, NASA, 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:31.280 we we are benefits, whether or not beneficiaries of their technology. 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:33.320 It always trickles down to us. So I just want 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:36.560 to start with that point. I mean, invisible braces, memory, foam, 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:40.840 ear thermometers, cordless tools. These are all things that started 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:45.600 with NASA Research and Development, and Velko yes, eventually came 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:49.600 to the marketplace. So it stands to reason that some 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:53.480 of their solutions for getting rid of waste may come 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:55.760 to us very soon, and in fact, some of them 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:58.920 actually in use in various ways right now, right. And 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:01.040 they will spend a lot of money on the space 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:04.240 toilets because because again, everyone has to use the restroom, 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:09.640 especially astronauts. Yeah, International Space Station. That toilet nineteen million 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:13.720 dollars and oddly enough that is only the second uh 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:17.280 most expensive toilet in the world. Oh, because there's probably 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:21.080 one made out of gold somewhere. Yeah, you're exactly right. Yeah, yeah, jeopardy, 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:26.000 you just run um. So what they're really good though about, 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:30.320 is trying to figure out how to do uh do 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:34.120 more with less, right, and how to actually reuse materials 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:38.000 and recycle. So they have been converting waste into water, 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:42.560 and they've been doing this by desalinating urine biosmotic pressure 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:45.320 and then running it through a charcoal filter and then 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:47.880 sort of like voila, you've got your tab water. And 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:51.080 this is really magic for anyone like myself who grew 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:54.000 up reading the Dune books because in the of course, 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:56.080 in the Dune books. They are the the freemen have 0:16:56.160 --> 0:17:00.800 these still suits that converts their their waste water back 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:04.280 into drinkable water, which they slip through a straw in 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:07.359 their in their suit. And so they're you know, lots 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:10.440 of sci fi geeks like myself have been just craving 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:13.120 to drink urine out of our own still suit for ages, 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:15.720 and and this is now we're just a little closer. Well, yeah, 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:18.880 it's very possible right now. And in fact, in Orange County, California, 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:21.679 they are using this process, but they're doing it underground, 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:24.159 and they're having the water hang out a little bit 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:27.840 longer underground so that people don't psychologically they can sort 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:31.800 of cotton to the idea better that they're drinking they're 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:34.679 clean urine. Well, I think we should all get used 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:36.760 to the idea that water we're drinking may have at 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:39.800 some point in urine, you know. Yeah, I mean it's 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:45.000 just a sort of a modern effective life. Yes, you know, 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:48.160 whether or not you know it, right, Um, so, right now, 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:50.320 that's this is a technology that they're using, and it's 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:53.080 very possible that this is going to be used in 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:56.000 toilets in the future, right, I mean, this is something 0:17:56.000 --> 0:18:00.000 that could be easily retrofitted into toilet technology. The technology 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:02.760 is out there, it's it's it's it's gonna streamline in 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:05.320 the future, and we're going to need it as our 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.040 water demands increase, exactly. Yeah. So I mean in a way, 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:10.879 it's kind of like you have your water cooler in 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:12.920 your bathroom. I mean, this is this. You know, we 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:15.119 could even have very low tech versions of this, and 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:17.280 I'm sure that there's some d I wire out there 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:20.200 who has already done this, So email us because we 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:22.800 want to hear from you. Um, but there are so 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:24.520 many different toilets on the mark here right now. Is 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:26.560 we had talked about in the beginning of the podcast. 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:31.680 Japan is really running with this, right they They have 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:34.720 a number of models that are just amazing and then 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:39.720 also just kind of weird odd to us culturally, right 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:42.080 well yeah, but then also but they also sort of 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:44.960 tie into our general weirdness about toilets. You know that 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:48.640 there's certainly this idea that let's not think about toilets, 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:50.399 and by not thinking about it, we don't innovate it. 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:53.480 But then there's also this this reality where it's like 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:55.600 I want to think less about toilets. So let's make 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:58.879 toilets more amazing till eventually we just have robots that 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:03.600 we poop into in the future. It's very possible. And yeah, 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:06.719 Japanese are pretty uh at what we would think is 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:09.280 is hypersensitive about hygiene, So it makes sense that they 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:10.880 put a lot of thought into this so that they 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:13.480 can have, so to speak, a better outcome on the 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:18.119 other end. Um. And one of these really cool innovations though, 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:20.120 is what I like to call a doctor in your toilet. 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:24.320 Oh yes, which, um, but before we we talk about 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:28.439 the advanced version of this, I'm reminded of uh my 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:30.679 wife was telling me about like once when she was 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:34.119 doing a study of broad Thing and Prague, she encountered 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:36.840 these her whole group and accounting these toilets that had 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:39.639 like this little shelf. Like there's this little shelf that 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:42.240 you do your business onto and then when you flush, 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:44.840 the water washes everything off the shelf in a way, 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:48.080 and so it's almost like a callander for your for 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:50.800 the solids. No, well, no, it's like a like a 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:53.240 little shelf like imagine that you it's like a little 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:56.760 platform it's sorting out I guess it's it's it's like 0:19:56.800 --> 0:20:00.080 the center stage, like you know at the met and 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:02.959 uh and and the waist goes on to that stage 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:05.359 and then you know, everybody watches it. But then when 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:08.399 the curtain closes, the water flushes everything away. And so 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:10.800 I looked into it, and they're they're called washout toilets, 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:14.760 and informally they're called German toilets because you still find 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:18.600 them sometimes in Germany and Austria. And uh, it's a 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:20.960 little sketchy on the reasoning for this, but it seems 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:25.440 it seems like the idea is that as humans, well, 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:28.240 we have this need to look at what we've done 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:31.080 in the toilet. But we think, well, this is a 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:35.040 whole Fortian idea, that we've created this thing right, and 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:37.360 we're really proud of it. Well, but on a very 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:40.000