WEBVTT - Werewolf Principle: Adapting Humans for Space 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.040 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:14.120 Works dot Com. Hey there, welcome to Stuff about your mind. 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:16.520 Julie Here. Robert is out this week with his son 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:19.840 who has undergone surgery and is doing well. So we 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:24.560 decided to present a classic episode The Werewolf Principle, in 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:27.600 which we discussed the ideal astronaut and how we can 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:31.880 tinker with our humanness to adapt ourselves to space. Latest 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:35.360 will be discussed a positive attitude, of course, not to 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:42.360 mention becoming a cyborg. Julie. There is a book I 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:44.800 read a little while back, and it's reference to the 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:49.519 title of this podcast, UM The Werewolf Principle by Clifford D. Simmic, 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:54.200 and I find it really interesting. It's not perhaps not 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:57.960 Simmic's best works, and he's probably best known for a 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:02.000 book called City, which one Hugo Award, But it's kind 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:04.440 of like they came up to the Clifford, you know, 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:07.520 really established us sci fi dude, and they said, hey, 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:12.080 we want you to write, um a novel about wherewolves 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:14.679 from space? And then he set out and wrote the 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:19.880 most intelligent, interesting take on that concept possible, instead of 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:22.280 it just being where wolves landing and running around howling 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:26.640 it things, um it involved a guy. Yeah, yeah, which 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:30.039 gets into the interesting argument that I've always wondered. It's like, 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:31.800 what if what would happen to a werewolf landed on 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:34.119 the moon. Would they be aware a wolf all the time? 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:36.199 Would they be affected by what the Earth was doing? 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:39.760 Would it be howling all the time? Yeah? Yeah, interesting 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:43.800 But but but Clifford, the simics, the whole take was 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:46.440 that he decided to make this a person who had 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:50.240 been engineered to adapt to different environments and sent off 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:52.200 into space. So he goes to, if you were to 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:55.520 land on Mars, his body would rapidly change so that 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:58.760 he could know live on Mars, um et cetera. And anyway, 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:01.000 he's returned to Earth and he's he keeps changing into 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:04.440 these previous forms. Uh, And that's the base. There's also 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:07.440 something really like that, like humans live in houses that 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:11.040 can fly around and there, and they're brownies like little 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:14.440 um creatures that live in the woods. So isn't he 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:16.239 like two hundred years old or something by the time 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:20.359 he returns. Yeah yeah, yeah, so he's got he's got 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:23.200 a lot of living. Yeah, but it's it's such a form. 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:27.720 But at hard it's such a fascinating concept because, uh, 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:30.720 we're we still talk about tera forming a lot. We 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:33.560 talk about I mean, one of the basic models of 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:36.280 space flight is let's take a little bubble of our 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:40.880 environment and let's blast it up into into orbit. Because 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:43.200 we are ultimately we're creatures that can that are that 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:47.920 have evolved to live only in a very small region 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:51.360 of our own atmosphere, just a small portion of of 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:55.400 the Earth's crust, because the crust also some definitions includes 0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:58.840 the atmosphere. So so we're only really supposed to live 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.360 in this one little section. But we keep pushing the boundaries. 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:03.040 You know, we want to climb on Everest, we want 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:05.600 to to live in space, and then we want to 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:08.119 have our little environment when we're in orbit. We want 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:13.160 to turn Mars into Arizona. Uh and uh and and 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:17.720 and and and you see these fantastic science fician visions, um, 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:19.920 where we've gone out and done that to all these 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:22.080 different worlds where we we just find you know, exo 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:25.240 planet after exo planet, change it into into Florida, change 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:28.920 it into a vacationville, right right. Um, we're looking at you, 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:31.560 Richard Branson. But and then do you think, okay, well, 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:34.080 I mean fish. They're not doing this. They're not saying, Wow, 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:36.640 I wish I could live on land run and have 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:39.360 these gills. You know, how do I come up with 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:44.880 some sort of lung situation here? Right? They ended up evolving, 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:48.160 adapting over time and uh and reaching the point where 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:51.760 they where something could not return to the water. Uh. 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:54.440 And and so you run into this interesting argument of 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:58.080 what should we be doing to evolved to our setting 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:02.760 and as opposed to changing our setting to to to 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:06.000 adhere to our demands? Right, And of course the astronaut 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:08.200 is like the perfect specimen to look at this whole 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:12.400 argument with, right, Yeah, it's they're not very ideal in 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:17.880 terms of trying to actually explore space and nothing against them, yeah, 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:20.320 getting in the way. Well, that's actually a good place 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:22.880 to start, Like what is the ideal astronaut given what 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:26.559 we currently know about you know about about sending people 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:30.479 into orbit um. One of the more interesting things is 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:35.160 that you want somebody with ideal methane output of course. Yeah. 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:38.640 And of course, for I think we all know what 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:41.640 I'm talking about farts of course in space. And when 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:45.039 you see ideal, I think you mean minimum minimum um. Yeah, 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:48.560 because at first of the methane is it's flammable, so 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:51.120 you don't want you have a closed environment. You don't 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:53.800 want like a lot of gas going off in there 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:56.800 and potentially catching on fire while guys are carrying off 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:01.960 you know, experiments, etcetera, plus the whole psychological thing. If 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.920 you're going to be stuck in a spacecraft for six months, 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:07.360 you don't necessarily want to be gas and people out 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:10.520 right right right. There's a govern name of Edwin Murphy, 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:13.000 and he did some he conducted some research on this. 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:15.719 Uh and this is this is really anoting it was. 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:18.480 It was. There's a whole chapter dealing with with this 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:23.359 topic and Mary Roach's latest book UM about Mars and 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:26.840 the Space the space program. So Murphy used an experimental 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:28.880 bean meal and he fed it to volunteers who had 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:32.920 been rigged to a erectal catheter uh to uh and 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:35.880 and to to measure how much gas was going out 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:39.040 uh and he was he was interested in individual differences, 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:42.440 not just the the overall volume, but in you know, 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:47.400 the percentage of methane in the game in the the 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:50.920 the flattest I believe it's the flattest technical term for it, 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:55.040 because if you're writing a scientific you know, um, discussion 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:57.120 on something you don't want to just you know, keep 0:05:57.160 --> 0:05:59.960 saying the farts over again part doesn't cut it. Yeah 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:04.719 in sert cheese joke here Yeah, uh so. Um, but 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:07.560 what he found was really interesting. Uh he found out 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:11.960 that about half the population doesn't produce methane in there. Um. 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:13.880 I thought that was incredible because it was something about 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:17.560 like their their bacterial flora. Yeah, it's and it's great, 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:20.000 and it's important to know that methane itself is like 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:24.800 a it's not methane doesn't stink. Okay, there are other 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:28.919 things at work in one's digestion besides methane production. Um. 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:31.040 So it's not something where you can where where these 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:36.120 people are not creating or uh you know, emanating or 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:40.160 expressing express thing flattist, though he did apparently claim that 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:42.880 one he found one individual who was quote flattist free, 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:46.360 which just sounds I just I don't I didn't even 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:48.680 think that was possible. I mean, can you imagine, I 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:50.599 mean you can put that on your resume? Yeah, I 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:53.240 mean people would or would they hate you? I don't know. 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:55.880 I would kind of I would feel like like if 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:57.320 someone if I was in a position to hire somebody 0:06:57.360 --> 0:06:59.440 and be like, oh, by the way, I'm flattist free. 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:01.400 I would be like, well, I'm not hiring you, jerk. 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:03.640 You're gonna set around just make us look bad. Yeah, yeah, 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:07.240 you're right. Yeah, we could never blame anything on you. Yeah, yeah, 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:09.840 I just can't. It would happen and like we do. 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:12.520 We just said they're all smug like and just it 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:17.040 would be horrible. Yeah, but you could always be an astronaut. Yes, 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:21.040 being an astronaut would be great because because there wouldn't 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:24.560 be any concerned with methane at all. Um. So, Murphy's 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:27.840 whole argument was, hey, NASA, you need to focus on 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:33.360 getting astronauts who have the proper um flattest output for space. 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:36.240 You want to want people that are that are producing 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:39.960 the less hostile flattest and only those people. Everybody else 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:42.000 you're you're out of the pool. Yeah. And then NASA 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:44.320 was like, no, we're just gonna not serve beans, that's right, 0:07:44.560 --> 0:07:46.960 No cabbage, broccoli. I think we're going to get the 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:51.680 go the easier route. Yeah. And actually, this guy to um, 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:54.240 if I understand this correctly from Mary Riches book, he 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.600 was like a flattest researcher, Like he was employed as 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:01.600 a flattest reacher researcher, and only a plattest research. This 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:04.560 was his life work. Yes, yeah, so you can can 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:08.200 imagine why he took it so seriously and and didn't 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:11.720 he even uh insert the rectal cath Yes, she actually 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:15.320 talked about that, the rectal catheter. Yeah. I mean it's 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:18.640 we're we're laughing, but it's you know, it's a it's 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:21.400 an important area of study if you're talking about sending 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:24.000 guys up in gals up into space in this little, 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:27.480 tiny environment. But it's but this is cost it's also 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:30.000 like one of the first like real you know moments 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:31.720 like which way are we gonna go? Are we gonna 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:35.080 gonna gonna change our environment? Are gonna change us? And 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:37.120 this was a chance to not really change us, but 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:42.640 to you know, selectively choose. And I mean granted there 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:46.120 there are you know, minimal requirements for for astronauts and 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:48.760 and uh members of any you know, space program stuff 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:53.360 like um you know, you know, I sight blood pressure height. Um. 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:55.760 You know obviously that they tend to go for people 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:57.640 who have at least a bachelor's degree in some sort 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:02.480 of science or engineering. Our mathews. Yeah, so and and 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:05.480 you have to have kind of a happy, go lucky disposition, right. Yeah, 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:07.920 and even like space tourism, most of them models we're 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.320 looking at, even the ones like you know, even like 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:14.080 the Branson's whole whole space tourm tourism deal. As as 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:16.360 much as they're going to try and cater that to 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:19.400 to make make it available to everybody, Uh, the certain 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:20.960 people are just not going to be eligible to go 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:24.480 into space, right, So people who have a fear of flying, right, 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:26.400 I think are going to be cut off the list. Yeah. 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:28.720 But but this is a case where where NASA could 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:31.199 could either have have have said, yes, we're gonna go 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:34.360 after the people who who have minimal flatt us you 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:37.280 know in our o methane producers um, and they said, no, 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:41.480 we're going to change the meal plant. So it's so practical. 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:45.280 So so other areas that the mary roach brings up. 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:47.679 Bone mass, of course is a big deal if you're 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:49.680 gonna lose bone mass if the more you're in a 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:53.120 in a in a microgravity environment. Yeah, and actually that 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:56.000 I mean the staff that I saw in that was 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:58.560 astronauts lose one to two percent of their bone mass 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:02.120 for each month they spend in spe that's quite a bit. Yeah, 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:05.199 and uh and but but the interesting thing is that 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:09.400 black women, for instance, are seven to denser in their 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:13.160 bones than than than wider Asian women. And uh, of 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:16.560 course Mary didn't have the the data for men, just 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:19.520 for the women, and I've seen that's tied to osteoporosis research. 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:24.160 But but conceivably, um black men would also have better 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:28.400 bone density than wider Asian men. So so it ends 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:31.720 up creating an interesting argument there should we only be 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:39.520 using um minimal flatt us black astronauts, you know? Why not? 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:42.040 Why not? Yeah, if they're gonna be more suited for space. 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:45.440 And you can take this even one step farther, and 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:48.480 that is that maybe they should all be deaf, because 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:52.199 because you know, if anybody's ever had motion sickness, be 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:55.480 it on a boat, in the car, etcetera, you know, 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:57.600 it's you get kind of nauseous. Next thing, you know, 0:10:57.640 --> 0:10:59.920 you're throwing up into the the floorboard of the vehicle. 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:01.640 And it's an inner ear thing. And I think it 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:03.520 used to think it was tied to the stomach, but 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:06.240 it's not. It's tied to inner ear and uh and 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:08.560 and many people argue that it's kind of a mistake 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:12.599 of evolution, because vomiting, as much as we may hate it, 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.000 does serve a number of really key functions. You know, 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:17.680 you eat something and it's bad, it's poisonous, you barf 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:22.240 it up, start over um and and actually animals that 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:24.320 don't vomit, I mean that becomes a problem because if 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:26.160 they eat something they should eat a belief. Horses are 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:28.480 like this, Uh, they eat something they shouldn't eat. They 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:30.920 can't vomit it up. It's it's you know, it's more 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:35.880 of a it becomes a real problem with discomfort, right, Yeah, 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:37.719 because like with kids, right, if a kid eats something 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:40.679 they're not supposed to. A child, not a goat. If 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:43.160 a child eat something that he or she is not 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:45.679 supposed to, you can always there's the vomiting, right, you 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:49.000 can give them epicac or something, right. Uh. And I'm 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:50.800 thinking about this too, like this is sort of accident 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:54.440 of nature, right, because whatever controls our vomiting response is 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:58.520 near our inner ear or function or something along this time. Sorry, 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:01.120 I don't have the correct terminology, but I sort of 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:04.680 scan that remembering. Okay, so that's why we sometimes vomit 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:08.200 because we're Yeah, but it serves no evolutionary you know, 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:10.400 there's no reason for it. It's like I'm feeling kind 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:12.240 of motion sickness and my body's like we have to 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:15.280 vomit now, you know, there's no Yeah, it serves no 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:20.439 like evolutionary advantage. UM. So the only way to a 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:24.800 completely get rid of motion sickness is um is for 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:27.960 the human have a non functioning inner ear. And uh 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:30.560 so you we can see within go for deaf people. 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:36.960 So all black death astronaut crew with minimal flattus, all right, 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:39.160 I mean it could happen. I guess the problem is 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:42.040 is that you just keep narrowing the pool to the 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:44.439 point where it's probably harder and harder to get astronauts 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:46.760 right unless you create and this is I'm throwing this 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:48.960 out there is like a future kind of thing and 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:51.839 and and kind of a potentially scary eugenics kind of thing. 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:54.199 But like then you create a breeding program, right just 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:58.080 for astronauts, just to encourage the traits. I mean, we 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:00.400 do it. We've done it with dogs and that has 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:04.360 some horrible effects and many times. But conceivably, it seems 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:07.679 to me you could you could have a breeding program 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:09.720 similar to the you know, like something out of dune 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:13.120 where you're just breeding for ideal astronauts and and so 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:16.400 it's like a genetic, you know, hereditary thing. You create 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.600 an entire cast or subspecies of astronauts. I know. And 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:22.959 I'm just thinking now, like the Island of Misfits and 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:25.960 we have bread nose reindeer in the elphit wanted to 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:28.400 be a dentist, Like there might be that person that's 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:30.400 bread to you know, do this and guess you know what, 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:35.160 I don't want to. I really want to go to space. Thanks. Yeah, 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:36.680 but then when you have to sit down with and 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:39.640 be like like but dude, listen, listen like you well, 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:42.320 don't listen, like read the words from the writing because 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:44.920 you're deaf, because we bread for that. You know. It's 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:48.800 like your your death, your bone density is incredible, your 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:51.320 you have no methane when you when you when you 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:53.640 break wind, like this is this is for you. But 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:56.199 they're like, no, I really really want to be an artist. 0:13:56.040 --> 0:13:58.520 But what do you do? Yeah? Right, I guess what 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:00.440 it's time to take a break. We get back. We 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:09.920 will talk more about the werewolf persiple. So there's that 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:12.360 that viewpoint like what if we so you know, step 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.240 one we we only choose the people that are ideal 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:17.480 for space. And then okay, we can take that a 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:20.440 step farther. What if we we bred people for space? 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:23.800 But then then the next step is, what if we 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:27.000 engineered people for space? What if we made them, um 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:31.520 adapt or made them better? We adapted them and to 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:35.920 the cyborg yes, um, And like a simple version of 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:37.560 it would be like if you just made people deaf 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:39.600 before we sent into space, which is kind of horrifying, 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:42.720 but I'm not sure a lot of people go for that. 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:44.560 They might, I don't know, but there are a number 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:46.840 of interesting changes that could that could take place that 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:51.560 would be less scary, though some of them are pretty scary. Um. 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:54.080 So let's look get the cyboard now that this is 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:56.960 a term that is preloaded these days, because when when 0:14:56.960 --> 0:14:59.440 when I say cyborg, what do you think of? Well, 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:03.200 I think of the terminating I think he's technically yeah, 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:05.440 he was more of a robot covered with flesh, with 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:09.360 flesh um Darth Vader. Yeah, I think Darth Vader was 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:15.200 pretty cybernetic in his state. Um RoboCop. Perhaps the cyborg. 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:18.680 I'm I'm kind of foggy on the explanations in the 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:21.480 first two movies. But but yeah, you get this idea. 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.480 It's like a human being that has been augmented terrifically 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:28.360 or terrifyingly with machines. Six million dollar Man, six million 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:31.520 dollar man is is a prime example on the cyborg Yeah. 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:33.280 But but again, this is kind of a term that's 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:35.640 gon been taken by by science fiction and and just 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:37.200 sort of they run wild with it. So now you 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:40.240 just think of like man with half metal face kind 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:44.200 of thing. The term actually originates back in nineteen sixty 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:48.479 September of nineteen sixty in UH an edition of Astronautics. 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:52.080 And this was an article by men manfred E. Kleins 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:55.400 and Nathan S. Klein uh one with a C, the 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.120 second with a K, and it was titled Cyborgs in 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:00.440 Space and it's a great read. I will have to 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:03.040 throw up a link to it on the the accompanying 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:07.440 blog post when this podcast comes out. Um, but they may, 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:09.960 they just may. May. They make the huge argument that 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:12.680 like here's just a quote from it. It It really sums 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:15.320 it up. In the past, evolution brought about the altering 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:18.600 of bodily functions to suit different environments. Starting as of now, 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:21.520 it will be possible to achieve this to some degree 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:26.760 without alteration of heredity by suitable biochemical, physiological, and electronic 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:31.760 modifications of man's existing um bodies. So and so, what 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:33.280 I thought was kind of cool about this too is 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:36.320 that it's not necessarily that they felt like they were 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:41.400 changing humans, but that they were improving humans so that 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:44.240 they could explore more and they could have more independence 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:46.800 to to create more and to think more if they 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:51.640 if they weren't um burdened by their own physicality. Right, 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:54.520 and you in pulinding, people make the argument that the 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:57.320 cyborg has been around for ages. Right, the second that 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:01.120 we skinned an animal and started wearing its fur cyborg. Second, 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:03.560 with the second we strapped or wristwatch to our to 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:07.760 our arm cyborg dentures exactly, Yeah, how are you gonna chew? 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:11.040 You know, you throw the dentres in. You've augmented the 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:14.919 individual with technology to better enable them for their environment. 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.440 You've become something more than human. Right and and certainly 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:21.000 we went into a number of of these possibilities on 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:26.320 the previous uh UM Accessorizing podcast about you know, somebody 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.399 can wear flippers, They're gonna they're gonna swim faster. Um, 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:32.399 you know, we we wear about computers, are you know, 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:39.080 are our iPhones? It's like there's there's so much technology. Eyeglasses, contacts, um, lasers. 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:42.280 These are all examples of something where technology changes the 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:44.719 person to better suit them for their environment. You may 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:46.399 think of it as just your everyday life, but your 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:48.040 everyday life is here on earth. But what if the 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:51.080 everyday life was in space? So clients and client took 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:53.720 that and then they looked at all the problems facing 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:56.560 us and trying to exist in space or explore space. 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:00.720 And I thought that the solutions they came up with 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:04.800 were incredible. I mean, they're they're really creative, and they're 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:09.199 really interesting ways to to approach the problem. Yes, And 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:11.240 I have to tell you though, to like reading this, 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:13.840 I thought, God, this is this is so crazy, Like 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:15.919 this is the Madman era. Can you imagine them like 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:18.439 sitting in a cocktail party saying, well, I've got an 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:22.480 idea about this whole problem of the lungs in space? Yeah? Yeah, 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:25.840 or I mean it reminds me a little bit. In 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:27.760 Mary Roach's book, she talks about like when you would 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:32.160 have scientists, the scientists that designed space travel and the 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:34.639 jock afternaughts that would do it, like sitting in the 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:37.720 same room and the and she pointed out how that 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:40.560 the scientists would be like, you know, we could develop 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:42.880 a way for the for them to actually eat parts 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:45.480 of the ship on the return trip from Mars, and 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:47.280 maybe there's a way we can make it to where 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:49.760 they can eat eat pooh or something. You know. It's 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:51.879 like they're actually beginning to think along those lines. And 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:54.000 the astronauts were like, no, no no, no, no, we're not 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:57.320 doing that because it's something about like the scientific mindset 0:18:57.359 --> 0:18:59.680 when you really get into it from a just a pure, 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:04.679 purely logical problem solving, uh you know, frame of mind. Right. 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:07.040 So so there's a hint of that, more than a 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:09.840 hint of that in this in their original article, because 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:13.000 it's some of the possibilities are a little uh uh, 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:14.800 you know, they make you shake your head a little, 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:17.520 but but but they're but the logic of it is 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:21.959 is interesting and intensive. For instance, they pointed out that 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:26.760 we could have osmotic pressure pump capsules, um and sensing 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:30.920 and controlling mechanisms in our bodies, like implanted to give 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:34.680 us medications for blood pressure to give us basically speed 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:37.879 if we need to to stay awake um, which you know, 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:41.679 they have various medications on space UM any kind of 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:44.560 a space mission these days, but you generally have to 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:46.600 pop the pills yourself. But what if it was an 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:50.119 automatic thing. And that's one of the huge key um 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:53.640 you know, aspects of of what was basically cyborg one 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:57.080 um as outlined in this proposal, and that was that 0:19:57.240 --> 0:19:59.800 we were taking these different things and turning them over 0:19:59.840 --> 0:20:03.720 to subconscious functions, so automating the right Yeah. So it 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:05.639 wouldn't be like like, oh, I'm getting a little sleepy 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:07.480 and I've got the high pressure job ahead of me. 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:09.959 I better you know, pop some of this uh this 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:12.600 NASA speed Uh No, you would just it would just 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:16.800 kick in ums all these sensors that are taking the 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:19.719 data and recalibrating your body based on that. Yeah. And 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:21.919 and other things too in this situation, would be like 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:27.440 any radiation medications, uh, pituitary drugs to help induce hibernation. 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:29.880 That was a big key too, because you get into 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:32.040 the issue of how are you going to worry about 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:36.080 sending people on long space voyages where you know they're 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:38.000 gonna be that they're going to be setting around doing 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:40.639 nothing for you know, years. What if you can we 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:43.920 could learn something from bears. Well, bears don't technically hibernate, 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:46.240 I remember correctly, it's a different Well, I think that 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:50.600 they are interested in pairs. It's something that when they hibernate, 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:55.280 they're actually redistributing the calcium back to their bones or 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:57.520 something nuh like that, that which they thought. Well, if 0:20:57.520 --> 0:21:00.480 we could just replicate that humans would be great. Yeah, yeah, 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:03.159 because bears are sitting around doing nothing for for the 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:06.760 period of their of their their winning nap time. But 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:09.720 they're not they're not losing a bone in their bone 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:12.600 density and their their muscles. They can still walk at 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:14.680 the end of it. The human lad in bed for 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:18.320 X number of months here, she would not necessarily be 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:20.479 able to move when I got it when they woke up. 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:22.120