1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,160 Speaker 1: Hi, this is David Eagleman. I want to wish you 2 00:00:02,200 --> 00:00:05,080 Speaker 1: a very happy holidays. We're going to take a break 3 00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:06,560 Speaker 1: for a couple of weeks, and then we're back in 4 00:00:06,680 --> 00:00:12,840 Speaker 1: January with new episodes on emotion intelligence, time perception, smell 5 00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:16,720 Speaker 1: and taste, brain, computer interfaces, and much more. In the meantime, 6 00:00:16,720 --> 00:00:19,160 Speaker 1: we're going to replay one of our favorite episodes from 7 00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:21,600 Speaker 1: the past year, and I'll look forward to seeing you 8 00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:32,240 Speaker 1: in January. What do counterfeit bills have to do with brains? 9 00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:35,000 Speaker 1: And why is it so hard for you to recognize 10 00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:37,680 Speaker 1: a real penny? And what does this have to do 11 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:42,120 Speaker 1: with the building on the fifty euro bill recently getting 12 00:00:42,159 --> 00:00:45,960 Speaker 1: replaced with the face of the goddess Europa And what 13 00:00:46,040 --> 00:00:47,839 Speaker 1: did I have to do with that? And why did 14 00:00:47,920 --> 00:00:51,400 Speaker 1: I campaign to the European Central Bank that all bills 15 00:00:51,479 --> 00:00:54,720 Speaker 1: should be blank with a single hologram in the middle. 16 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:03,200 Speaker 1: Welcome to intercouse with me, David Eagleman. I'm a neuroscientist, 17 00:01:03,520 --> 00:01:07,200 Speaker 1: and you might wonder how a neuroscientist got involved in 18 00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:12,040 Speaker 1: studying counterfeit money. Well, hangtight, because in this episode we're 19 00:01:12,040 --> 00:01:22,440 Speaker 1: going to see how all these issues intersect. One of 20 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:26,400 Speaker 1: the most pervasive mistakes that we make is believing that 21 00:01:26,440 --> 00:01:30,320 Speaker 1: our visual systems give us a faithful representation of what's 22 00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:33,440 Speaker 1: out there. We think of our vision the way we 23 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:36,480 Speaker 1: think of a movie camera, like it's just capturing the 24 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:39,920 Speaker 1: information from the world. But there are a whole bunch 25 00:01:39,959 --> 00:01:45,039 Speaker 1: of simple demonstrations that can quickly disabuse you of this notion. 26 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:49,760 Speaker 1: For example, imagine that I show you two pictures. I 27 00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:52,320 Speaker 1: flash one, then it goes off, Then the second one 28 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:54,400 Speaker 1: comes on, then it goes off, then the first one 29 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:57,279 Speaker 1: comes back on, and so on. So it alternates between 30 00:01:57,320 --> 00:02:00,240 Speaker 1: pictures A and B, and it looks like it's the 31 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:03,800 Speaker 1: same picture. But let's say I let you know that 32 00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:07,400 Speaker 1: there is a difference between the pictures, and your job 33 00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:10,560 Speaker 1: is simply to spot the difference. Well, if you've ever 34 00:02:10,639 --> 00:02:14,840 Speaker 1: played these sorts of games before, you know how surprisingly 35 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:18,360 Speaker 1: difficult it can be to tell the difference between them. 36 00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:22,239 Speaker 1: It turns out that we are really blind to changes 37 00:02:22,520 --> 00:02:25,800 Speaker 1: in the scene, and these can be quite large changes. 38 00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:29,440 Speaker 1: So you might have a big statue that's present in 39 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:32,399 Speaker 1: the background of one photo and not the other, or 40 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:37,720 Speaker 1: a jeep or an airplane, and the difference goes unseen. 41 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:40,639 Speaker 1: You can see some demos of this at Eagleman dot 42 00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:41,880 Speaker 1: com Slash podcast. 43 00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:43,440 Speaker 2: So what happens is. 44 00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:48,359 Speaker 1: That your attention slowly crawls over the photograph and you 45 00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:54,200 Speaker 1: analyze the interesting landmarks until you finally detect what is changing. 46 00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:57,920 Speaker 1: And once your brain has latched on to the appropriate object, 47 00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:01,720 Speaker 1: then the change is trivial to see. But this happens 48 00:03:01,880 --> 00:03:06,880 Speaker 1: only after a pretty exhaustive inspection. This is what's known 49 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:13,320 Speaker 1: as change blindness, and it highlights the importance of attention, 50 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:17,560 Speaker 1: which is to say, to see an object change, you 51 00:03:17,639 --> 00:03:20,560 Speaker 1: have to attend to it. And what an experiment like 52 00:03:20,600 --> 00:03:24,160 Speaker 1: this surface is is that you're not actually seeing the 53 00:03:24,160 --> 00:03:28,959 Speaker 1: world with the rich detail that you implicitly believed you were. 54 00:03:29,720 --> 00:03:32,880 Speaker 1: In fact, you're not aware of most of what's hitting 55 00:03:32,919 --> 00:03:36,440 Speaker 1: your eyes. So imagine you're watching a short film with 56 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:38,280 Speaker 1: a single actor in it. 57 00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:40,440 Speaker 2: He's cooking an omelet. 58 00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:43,960 Speaker 1: And the camera cuts to a different angle as the 59 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:48,040 Speaker 1: actor continues his cooking. Surely you would notice if the 60 00:03:48,080 --> 00:03:52,720 Speaker 1: actor changed into a different person, right, But in studies, 61 00:03:53,280 --> 00:03:58,280 Speaker 1: two thirds of observers don't. In one really astonishing demonstration 62 00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:02,840 Speaker 1: of change blindness, random pedestrians in a courtyard were stopped 63 00:04:02,920 --> 00:04:05,640 Speaker 1: by an experimenter, and they were asked for directions, so 64 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:09,200 Speaker 1: they start giving directions, and at some point, as the 65 00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:13,400 Speaker 1: unsuspecting person is in the middle of explaining this, workmen 66 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:17,880 Speaker 1: carrying a door walk right in between the two people, 67 00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:24,880 Speaker 1: and unbeknownst to the pedestrian, the experimenter is stealthily replaced 68 00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:28,280 Speaker 1: by a confederate who's been hiding behind the door. So 69 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:31,960 Speaker 1: the people are swapped, and after the door passes, a 70 00:04:32,120 --> 00:04:35,640 Speaker 1: new person is standing there, and the majority of subjects 71 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:40,479 Speaker 1: continue giving directions without noticing that the person they were 72 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:43,760 Speaker 1: talking to is not the same one that they were 73 00:04:43,839 --> 00:04:48,400 Speaker 1: talking to. In other words, they were only encoding small 74 00:04:48,440 --> 00:04:51,640 Speaker 1: amounts of the information that was hitting their eyes. The 75 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:57,400 Speaker 1: rest was assumption. Now, neuroscientists weren't the first to discover 76 00:04:57,839 --> 00:05:01,000 Speaker 1: that placing your eyes on something is no guarantee of 77 00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:04,880 Speaker 1: seeing it. Magicians figured this out long ago, and they 78 00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:10,240 Speaker 1: perfected ways of leveraging this knowledge. So by directing your attention, 79 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:16,000 Speaker 1: magicians perform sleight of hand in full view. Their actions. 80 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:19,680 Speaker 1: Their hand motions should give away the game, but they 81 00:05:19,720 --> 00:05:24,960 Speaker 1: can rest assured that your brain processes only small bits 82 00:05:25,040 --> 00:05:28,479 Speaker 1: of the visual scene. It's not everything that's hitting your retinas. 83 00:05:28,839 --> 00:05:32,520 Speaker 1: And by the way, this limitation of our vision helps 84 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:36,520 Speaker 1: to explain the colossal number of traffic accidents in which 85 00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:40,680 Speaker 1: drivers will hit pedestrians who are in plane view, or 86 00:05:40,720 --> 00:05:43,400 Speaker 1: they'll collide with cars that are right in front of them. 87 00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:47,680 Speaker 1: Sometimes you'll even see stories where a car intersects with 88 00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:50,920 Speaker 1: a train on the track. In some of these cases, 89 00:05:51,520 --> 00:05:54,360 Speaker 1: the eyes are in the right place, but the brain 90 00:05:54,640 --> 00:06:01,000 Speaker 1: isn't registering the stimulus. Vision is more than looking now. 91 00:06:01,160 --> 00:06:03,960 Speaker 1: This is all an example of a larger point, which 92 00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:07,440 Speaker 1: is that we're not generally aware of what's going on 93 00:06:07,720 --> 00:06:11,919 Speaker 1: until we ask the question. So, for example, what is 94 00:06:11,960 --> 00:06:14,919 Speaker 1: the position of your tongue in your mouth right now? 95 00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:18,080 Speaker 2: Once you're asked the question, you can answer it, but. 96 00:06:18,040 --> 00:06:22,560 Speaker 1: Presumably you weren't aware of the answer until I asked 97 00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:26,400 Speaker 1: the question. Why does the brain work this way because 98 00:06:26,839 --> 00:06:31,000 Speaker 1: your brain generally doesn't need to know most things. It 99 00:06:31,279 --> 00:06:34,400 Speaker 1: simply needs to know how to go out and retrieve 100 00:06:34,480 --> 00:06:37,400 Speaker 1: the data when it needs it. It perceives things on 101 00:06:37,480 --> 00:06:42,240 Speaker 1: a need to know basis. You don't continuously track the 102 00:06:42,279 --> 00:06:45,719 Speaker 1: position of your tongue in your consciousness because that knowledge 103 00:06:46,120 --> 00:06:50,400 Speaker 1: is only useful in rare circumstances. So again, you're not 104 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:54,680 Speaker 1: aware of much of anything until you ask yourself about it. 105 00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:58,520 Speaker 2: What does your left shoe feel like on your foot 106 00:06:58,560 --> 00:06:59,920 Speaker 2: right now? Pit? 107 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:02,919 Speaker 1: Which is the hum of the air conditioner in the background. 108 00:07:03,600 --> 00:07:07,679 Speaker 1: Just like with change blindness, we are unaware of most 109 00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:11,120 Speaker 1: of what should be obvious to our senses. It's only 110 00:07:11,200 --> 00:07:15,080 Speaker 1: after we deploy our attention onto small bits of the 111 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:18,200 Speaker 1: scene that we become aware of what we were missing, 112 00:07:18,680 --> 00:07:23,840 Speaker 1: And before we engage our attention, we're typically not aware 113 00:07:24,520 --> 00:07:27,360 Speaker 1: that we're not aware of those details. So not only 114 00:07:27,480 --> 00:07:30,640 Speaker 1: is our perception of the world a construction that doesn't 115 00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:35,000 Speaker 1: accurately represent the outside, it's weirder than that because we 116 00:07:35,120 --> 00:07:40,040 Speaker 1: have the false impression of a full, rich picture, when 117 00:07:40,080 --> 00:07:43,680 Speaker 1: in fact, we only see what we need to know 118 00:07:43,800 --> 00:07:46,280 Speaker 1: and what we ask questions about, and we don't see 119 00:07:46,280 --> 00:07:48,640 Speaker 1: anything more than that. Now, this is a topic I'm 120 00:07:48,680 --> 00:07:52,040 Speaker 1: going to return to in many episodes, but for now 121 00:07:52,720 --> 00:07:55,400 Speaker 1: I want to ask what this has to do with 122 00:07:55,560 --> 00:08:05,200 Speaker 1: the economic currencies on this planet. So the scene is Lima, Peru, 123 00:08:05,480 --> 00:08:09,120 Speaker 1: a little before dawn. There's a bunch of houses and buildings, 124 00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:15,000 Speaker 1: and suddenly fifteen hundred Peruvian police officers and US Secret 125 00:08:15,040 --> 00:08:19,840 Speaker 1: Service agents stormed the doors. This was called Operation Sunset, 126 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:23,200 Speaker 1: and it was the finale of a long running investigation 127 00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:28,200 Speaker 1: aimed at reducing the flow of counterfeit US dollars from Peru. 128 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:32,680 Speaker 1: They brought down six plants that had presses and plates 129 00:08:32,720 --> 00:08:36,520 Speaker 1: and negatives and piles of fake one hundred dollars bills. 130 00:08:36,960 --> 00:08:39,880 Speaker 1: And in just the past few years, counterfeit notes worth 131 00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:44,720 Speaker 1: more than seventy five million dollars have been confiscated in Peru. 132 00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:47,680 Speaker 1: And this is just one of lots of countries where 133 00:08:47,720 --> 00:08:50,840 Speaker 1: you have fraudsters who are cooking up fake dollars. And 134 00:08:50,880 --> 00:08:55,720 Speaker 1: it's essentially impossible to estimate the volume of counterfeit banknotes 135 00:08:56,080 --> 00:08:58,199 Speaker 1: passing through the US economy. 136 00:08:58,559 --> 00:09:01,359 Speaker 2: What you find is that the alreadies claim they've. 137 00:09:01,160 --> 00:09:04,760 Speaker 1: Captured most of the fakes, and the counterfeitters claim exactly 138 00:09:04,760 --> 00:09:09,960 Speaker 1: the opposite. Anyhow, counterfeiting is a problem that faces every 139 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:15,000 Speaker 1: major player in the currency game. Russia seizes counterfeits in 140 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:18,720 Speaker 1: the range of two hundred million rubles per year. China 141 00:09:18,840 --> 00:09:23,280 Speaker 1: captures five hundred million fake yuan. A few years ago, 142 00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:27,880 Speaker 1: India terminated their five hundred and one thousand rupee notes, 143 00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:30,320 Speaker 1: and this was at least partially because of the rising 144 00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:35,959 Speaker 1: concern about forgeries and their inability to stem that. In Venezuela, 145 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:40,080 Speaker 1: the inflation was so bad that it became worthwhile for 146 00:09:40,280 --> 00:09:43,920 Speaker 1: fraudsters to bleach the ten bole of our bill and 147 00:09:44,080 --> 00:10:05,959 Speaker 1: use the paper to forge notes in other currencies. So 148 00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:10,640 Speaker 1: it turns out there are counterfeiters everywhere, and they're busy 149 00:10:10,760 --> 00:10:16,200 Speaker 1: pushing fake banknotes into streets and squares in every major city. 150 00:10:16,720 --> 00:10:19,640 Speaker 1: You may wonder how I came to care about counterfeits, 151 00:10:19,679 --> 00:10:23,440 Speaker 1: given that I'm a neuroscientist. Well, what happened is some 152 00:10:23,640 --> 00:10:26,480 Speaker 1: years ago I was giving a presentation at a brain 153 00:10:26,559 --> 00:10:29,880 Speaker 1: science conference, and afterwards I was approached by this guy 154 00:10:30,160 --> 00:10:33,400 Speaker 1: and we started talking, and I was surprised to learn 155 00:10:33,440 --> 00:10:36,360 Speaker 1: that he was working for the European Central Bank. And 156 00:10:36,400 --> 00:10:38,880 Speaker 1: I was surprised because it wasn't clear to me why 157 00:10:38,920 --> 00:10:43,040 Speaker 1: someone like that would be at a highly academic neuroscience conference. 158 00:10:43,360 --> 00:10:46,480 Speaker 1: As it turns out, his job was to find a 159 00:10:46,600 --> 00:10:52,280 Speaker 1: solution to Europe's counterfeiting problem. Their problem was that the 160 00:10:52,559 --> 00:10:57,560 Speaker 1: EU comes across hundreds of thousands of fake euro banknotes 161 00:10:57,640 --> 00:11:01,600 Speaker 1: every year, mostly in the form of twenties and fifties. 162 00:11:02,600 --> 00:11:05,400 Speaker 1: At the heart of the issue is the fact that 163 00:11:05,520 --> 00:11:10,920 Speaker 1: governments spend millions creating security features. So while we're talking, 164 00:11:10,960 --> 00:11:14,000 Speaker 1: take out a twenty dollars bill, or whatever country you're in, 165 00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:15,240 Speaker 1: take out a high value bill. 166 00:11:15,280 --> 00:11:17,640 Speaker 2: They all have similar security features. 167 00:11:17,880 --> 00:11:20,200 Speaker 1: Now, if you look at it, you'll see that as 168 00:11:20,240 --> 00:11:24,880 Speaker 1: you tilt the note slightly back and forth, there's color 169 00:11:25,080 --> 00:11:28,320 Speaker 1: changing ink. So the color changes here of let's say 170 00:11:28,320 --> 00:11:30,480 Speaker 1: the twenty and now if you hold this up to 171 00:11:30,559 --> 00:11:34,679 Speaker 1: the light, what you'll see is a water mark that's 172 00:11:34,760 --> 00:11:38,040 Speaker 1: otherwise invisible to you. You can't see it normally, and 173 00:11:38,040 --> 00:11:40,040 Speaker 1: it's not printed on the front or the back, but 174 00:11:40,120 --> 00:11:43,960 Speaker 1: it's printed on an intermediate layer and on euros, and 175 00:11:44,040 --> 00:11:46,760 Speaker 1: actually on the one hundred dollars bill, what you see 176 00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:50,960 Speaker 1: are holograms. So when you angle this and change this, 177 00:11:51,520 --> 00:11:54,160 Speaker 1: it moves around slightly and appears to be three D. 178 00:11:54,840 --> 00:11:59,920 Speaker 1: And you'll also see colored strips that display the value. 179 00:11:59,520 --> 00:12:00,280 Speaker 2: Of the note. 180 00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:03,440 Speaker 1: And if you happen to have an ultraviolet light, turn 181 00:12:03,520 --> 00:12:06,040 Speaker 1: that on and hold the bill under it, and you'll 182 00:12:06,040 --> 00:12:09,080 Speaker 1: see that the bill turns very colorful. You've got all 183 00:12:09,120 --> 00:12:14,360 Speaker 1: these invisible fibers in it that fluoresce under ultraviolet. So 184 00:12:14,520 --> 00:12:19,520 Speaker 1: a piece of currency is a bustling collection of security devices. 185 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:23,679 Speaker 1: The problem is that no one pays attention to these 186 00:12:23,720 --> 00:12:28,320 Speaker 1: security devices. People who pass notes around in daily transactions 187 00:12:28,880 --> 00:12:34,240 Speaker 1: don't typically pause to examine them carefully. The special ink, 188 00:12:34,400 --> 00:12:39,080 Speaker 1: the watermark, the strip, the fibers, the hologram. These are 189 00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:43,880 Speaker 1: very expensive security features and they are a totally wasted 190 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:48,280 Speaker 1: effort because counterfeit bills get passed from person to person 191 00:12:48,640 --> 00:12:52,800 Speaker 1: and no one ever notices these or notices if they 192 00:12:52,840 --> 00:12:57,640 Speaker 1: are badly rendered. Do you know how counterfeit bills almost 193 00:12:57,679 --> 00:13:01,520 Speaker 1: always are found at the bank And that's because real 194 00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:05,480 Speaker 1: notes have one more feature. They have machine readable code 195 00:13:05,640 --> 00:13:08,520 Speaker 1: in the bill. Counterfeitters can do a good job making 196 00:13:08,559 --> 00:13:11,320 Speaker 1: a counterfeit, but they can't make the machine readable code, 197 00:13:11,559 --> 00:13:14,640 Speaker 1: and that's why the bank catches those. But the counterfeitters 198 00:13:14,679 --> 00:13:17,319 Speaker 1: don't need to do that because their bills get passed 199 00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:21,680 Speaker 1: around and no one ever notices. And this problem of 200 00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:26,920 Speaker 1: inattention led the European Central Bank to explore a simple question, 201 00:13:27,559 --> 00:13:31,120 Speaker 1: could banknotes be better designed so that the person on 202 00:13:31,160 --> 00:13:34,480 Speaker 1: the street would be more likely to notice when something 203 00:13:34,679 --> 00:13:37,720 Speaker 1: was a miss? And for that they finally started to 204 00:13:37,760 --> 00:13:41,560 Speaker 1: think about neuroscience, and that's how I got involved because 205 00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:45,200 Speaker 1: as our understanding of the brain has developed over recent decades, 206 00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:49,520 Speaker 1: neuroscience has forged insights into a range of fields, from 207 00:13:49,920 --> 00:13:54,440 Speaker 1: early education to consumer behavior to government policy, and modern 208 00:13:54,480 --> 00:13:59,520 Speaker 1: brain science has wide ranging applications, particularly when it comes 209 00:13:59,520 --> 00:14:02,760 Speaker 1: to under standing the ways in which our perceptions of. 210 00:14:02,679 --> 00:14:04,599 Speaker 2: The world are inaccurate. 211 00:14:05,040 --> 00:14:09,120 Speaker 1: In the case of banknotes, the questions were straightforward, what 212 00:14:09,360 --> 00:14:13,040 Speaker 1: details do we notice or not notice? And why? What 213 00:14:13,200 --> 00:14:18,080 Speaker 1: features could be better designed to be brain compatible. Of 214 00:14:18,160 --> 00:14:22,960 Speaker 1: all the anti counterfeiting measures that the government takes, which ones. 215 00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:25,640 Speaker 2: Work and how could their efforts be better spent. 216 00:14:26,320 --> 00:14:29,040 Speaker 1: So the man at the conference eventually contracted with me 217 00:14:29,160 --> 00:14:32,560 Speaker 1: to help them figure out the question how should Europe 218 00:14:32,640 --> 00:14:35,960 Speaker 1: redesign their bills? So we signed a bunch of security 219 00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:39,080 Speaker 1: documents and then I flew to the headquarters of the 220 00:14:39,120 --> 00:14:42,880 Speaker 1: European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany. Now this was very 221 00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:47,520 Speaker 1: cool because although the building was just a boring government building, I. 222 00:14:47,520 --> 00:14:50,560 Speaker 2: Was beeped through a badge protected. 223 00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:54,320 Speaker 1: Door, and then another, and then another, and we finally 224 00:14:54,440 --> 00:14:58,040 Speaker 1: arrived at this small inner room at the heart of 225 00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:01,000 Speaker 1: the building, and there were all these piles of money 226 00:15:01,040 --> 00:15:04,000 Speaker 1: of euros, mostly twenties and fifties, and. 227 00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:05,359 Speaker 2: They were all counterfeit. 228 00:15:06,200 --> 00:15:10,160 Speaker 1: Each pile had some feature that distinguished it, whether that 229 00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:13,360 Speaker 1: was the way they had done the shiny foil or 230 00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:15,960 Speaker 1: the way they had done the watermarks or whatever. And 231 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:19,360 Speaker 1: this is how the bank arranged them. Now, many of 232 00:15:19,400 --> 00:15:23,480 Speaker 1: these forgeries were quite good. If you weren't paying super 233 00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:26,680 Speaker 1: close attention, the kind of attention no one ever really 234 00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:29,800 Speaker 1: pays to money, you couldn't tell there was anything amiss 235 00:15:30,480 --> 00:15:34,280 Speaker 1: with most of these forgeries. You could tell under ultraviolet light. 236 00:15:34,400 --> 00:15:37,000 Speaker 1: But if you didn't have that, there was really nothing 237 00:15:37,040 --> 00:15:40,160 Speaker 1: that would even make you think to pay extra attention. 238 00:15:40,680 --> 00:15:42,920 Speaker 1: And here's a weird fact that I learned there in 239 00:15:42,960 --> 00:15:48,120 Speaker 1: the vaults, these really good forgeries, they always have a 240 00:15:48,320 --> 00:15:50,160 Speaker 1: slight error in them. 241 00:15:50,560 --> 00:15:52,080 Speaker 2: And think about why this is weird. 242 00:15:52,520 --> 00:15:57,280 Speaker 1: You've got a otherwise amazingly well done counterfeit bill, but 243 00:15:57,400 --> 00:16:01,680 Speaker 1: it's got an error. For example, there are essentially perfect 244 00:16:01,720 --> 00:16:05,680 Speaker 1: counterfeits of the American twenty dollars bill. But if you 245 00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:09,960 Speaker 1: look at the number two, the way that the bottom 246 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:13,080 Speaker 1: of the two spreads out what's called the trumpeting in 247 00:16:13,240 --> 00:16:17,680 Speaker 1: font language. It's just slightly wider than it is on 248 00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:20,000 Speaker 1: a real bill, So what's going on with that? How 249 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:23,240 Speaker 1: can you get the whole bill right but not get 250 00:16:23,240 --> 00:16:26,240 Speaker 1: that little detail right? And there's actually one more part 251 00:16:26,240 --> 00:16:29,320 Speaker 1: to this mystery. There's only one mistake on a bill 252 00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:32,120 Speaker 1: and no more than that. And the answer is it's 253 00:16:32,160 --> 00:16:35,800 Speaker 1: not a mistake. It's on purpose, and it's because counterfeitters 254 00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:40,080 Speaker 1: need a way to distinguish their own bills from. 255 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:40,800 Speaker 2: The real ones. 256 00:16:41,200 --> 00:16:44,520 Speaker 1: This is so they don't spend their real money accidentally. Okay, 257 00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:47,320 Speaker 1: so some of these bills were almost perfect with this 258 00:16:47,480 --> 00:16:50,880 Speaker 1: single tiny change, but that's not the part that's interesting. 259 00:16:51,280 --> 00:16:52,880 Speaker 2: What's interesting is. 260 00:16:52,800 --> 00:16:57,200 Speaker 1: That most of the counterfeits were not as expertly done 261 00:16:57,400 --> 00:17:00,680 Speaker 1: as you might expect. On almost all of them, the 262 00:17:00,800 --> 00:17:04,760 Speaker 1: part where the color changing ink normally is didn't actually 263 00:17:04,840 --> 00:17:08,400 Speaker 1: change color, and on others the water mark had been 264 00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:13,119 Speaker 1: hand drawn really poorly, and in one pile of notes, 265 00:17:13,200 --> 00:17:18,320 Speaker 1: the silver hologram had been impersonated with a glued piece 266 00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:22,560 Speaker 1: of shiny material from the seal of a compact disc case. 267 00:17:23,240 --> 00:17:23,840 Speaker 2: Many of the. 268 00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:27,840 Speaker 1: Notes had essentially none of the actual security features. But 269 00:17:27,920 --> 00:17:31,840 Speaker 1: the surprising thing is this, To get a counterfeit into circulation, 270 00:17:32,880 --> 00:17:36,719 Speaker 1: most counterfeiters don't bother to go through the trouble of 271 00:17:36,840 --> 00:17:40,639 Speaker 1: making an almost perfect one. Why because it makes almost 272 00:17:40,720 --> 00:17:45,439 Speaker 1: no difference. Almost no one in the general public notices 273 00:17:45,760 --> 00:17:48,840 Speaker 1: a bad forgery. People will stuff the notes into their 274 00:17:48,840 --> 00:17:52,080 Speaker 1: wallets and they'll pass them on, and the notes spread 275 00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:56,080 Speaker 1: like a virus through the population. Because as banknote users, 276 00:17:56,520 --> 00:18:00,400 Speaker 1: we are surprisingly unobservant. We just don't pay it tension 277 00:18:00,920 --> 00:18:04,800 Speaker 1: to the bills in our hand. The government spends an 278 00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:08,240 Speaker 1: incredible amount on security features, and we. 279 00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:11,160 Speaker 2: Don't even look at it now. 280 00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:15,280 Speaker 1: The ECB tried to tackle this problem by hosting public 281 00:18:15,320 --> 00:18:19,360 Speaker 1: awareness campaigns where they encouraged people to stop and look 282 00:18:19,480 --> 00:18:23,800 Speaker 1: carefully at what they were holding. But the approach failed. 283 00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:28,359 Speaker 1: People wouldn't put in the effort. Governments carry enormously about 284 00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:32,600 Speaker 1: security features and the population doesn't. So the Central Bank 285 00:18:33,040 --> 00:18:35,919 Speaker 1: now wanted to try a different tack. They wanted to 286 00:18:35,960 --> 00:18:40,320 Speaker 1: work out what the human visual system actually notices and 287 00:18:40,400 --> 00:18:44,359 Speaker 1: why there was no point spending a massive amount on 288 00:18:44,440 --> 00:18:48,959 Speaker 1: security features that are only noticed by security experts. And 289 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:51,640 Speaker 1: that was the beginning of a long relationship I had 290 00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:56,600 Speaker 1: with the ECB. For legal reasons, they couldn't manufacture or 291 00:18:56,760 --> 00:18:59,680 Speaker 1: mail to me counterfeit bills and so I had to 292 00:18:59,680 --> 00:19:05,000 Speaker 1: figure out how to make pseudo bills myself. First I 293 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:08,600 Speaker 1: had to get approval from my university for this very 294 00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:12,080 Speaker 1: unusual study, and then my students that I set to work. 295 00:19:12,480 --> 00:19:14,840 Speaker 1: As it turns out, it's not that difficult to make 296 00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:18,520 Speaker 1: a rough counterfeit. Now, it happens that I was recently 297 00:19:18,520 --> 00:19:22,280 Speaker 1: talking with my friend Adam Savage of Mythbuster's fame, and 298 00:19:22,320 --> 00:19:25,199 Speaker 1: it turned out that he also has done lots of 299 00:19:25,640 --> 00:19:29,800 Speaker 1: forgeries of things, not illegally but legal versions of making 300 00:19:29,960 --> 00:19:33,159 Speaker 1: replicas of all kinds of wonderful things. So before I 301 00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:35,719 Speaker 1: tell you about my experiences, I wanted to ring up 302 00:19:35,760 --> 00:19:43,600 Speaker 1: Adam to hear about his. So, Adam, you've done some counterfeiting, 303 00:19:43,880 --> 00:19:44,960 Speaker 1: tell me about that. 304 00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:50,160 Speaker 3: I don't want to brag that I've done some counterfeiting, 305 00:19:50,600 --> 00:19:54,639 Speaker 3: but I'm obsessed with the idea of replication. That's one 306 00:19:54,680 --> 00:19:57,840 Speaker 3: of my main practices here in the cave, and so like. 307 00:19:58,119 --> 00:20:02,120 Speaker 3: Just for instance, recently I obtained a really lovely replica 308 00:20:02,160 --> 00:20:05,720 Speaker 3: of one of Leonardo da Vinci's coticies. This is known 309 00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:09,280 Speaker 3: as the Paris manuscript A, and I've been slowly spending 310 00:20:09,280 --> 00:20:12,639 Speaker 3: a couple of weeks making a completely accurate cover for 311 00:20:12,760 --> 00:20:16,120 Speaker 3: it based on the information from the collection that it's 312 00:20:16,119 --> 00:20:18,520 Speaker 3: since So I've been printing up the cover full size 313 00:20:18,520 --> 00:20:21,800 Speaker 3: of and having the collection stamps made, and I'm gonna 314 00:20:22,080 --> 00:20:25,240 Speaker 3: slowly make this thing indistinguishable from the original. So that's 315 00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:29,080 Speaker 3: the kind of counterfeiting I really dig is the experiential counterfeit. 316 00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:31,359 Speaker 2: Oh that's amazing. Now let me ask you this. 317 00:20:31,920 --> 00:20:36,040 Speaker 1: Do you find that if there are changes, things you 318 00:20:36,119 --> 00:20:37,120 Speaker 1: don't get perfect? 319 00:20:37,119 --> 00:20:39,680 Speaker 2: Do you find that people don't notice those. 320 00:20:40,760 --> 00:20:46,800 Speaker 3: People's threshold for what they notice is it's an interesting 321 00:20:46,880 --> 00:20:51,200 Speaker 3: mixture because you can kind of bypass some of their 322 00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:55,160 Speaker 3: filters with the right amount of aging, or even sometimes 323 00:20:55,200 --> 00:20:58,560 Speaker 3: a smell will just have someone bypass all their filters 324 00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:01,720 Speaker 3: for what they can see. So it's really different object 325 00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:05,399 Speaker 3: by object about what the threshold is for what lends 326 00:21:05,440 --> 00:21:09,119 Speaker 3: what feels like an experience of veracity. 327 00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:12,120 Speaker 2: Have you ever tried counterfeiting money? Is that something you've 328 00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:14,440 Speaker 2: ever tried? I have made. 329 00:21:14,680 --> 00:21:16,920 Speaker 3: So behind me here on my desk is one of 330 00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:19,160 Speaker 3: my favorite pieces in my collection, and it's the bank 331 00:21:19,200 --> 00:21:22,960 Speaker 3: box from the Bourne identity. And this is the actual 332 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:25,680 Speaker 3: bank box from the Borne identity. I bought it empty, 333 00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:29,080 Speaker 3: but one of my long term plans is to actually 334 00:21:29,119 --> 00:21:33,679 Speaker 3: fill it full of original bills or correct bills. And 335 00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:36,200 Speaker 3: this is made easier by the fact that a lot 336 00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:38,160 Speaker 3: of the bills that were in the Borne Identity bank 337 00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:42,760 Speaker 3: box are now euros, and so those original currencies, the 338 00:21:42,800 --> 00:21:46,760 Speaker 3: real it's, the frank, et cetera, are no longer extant, 339 00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:51,760 Speaker 3: and so I get suitably and appropriately nervous even doing 340 00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:55,879 Speaker 3: Google searches about replicating money. But to me, your job 341 00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:59,320 Speaker 3: of actually trying some counterfeits to see what works sounds 342 00:21:59,320 --> 00:22:00,840 Speaker 3: like an absolute dream come true. 343 00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:02,359 Speaker 2: For me. I was like I was born to be 344 00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:03,040 Speaker 2: a pen tester. 345 00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:21,080 Speaker 1: Okay, so back to my counterfeiting contract. So the notes 346 00:22:21,080 --> 00:22:24,120 Speaker 1: that we made in the lab had no security features 347 00:22:24,160 --> 00:22:27,440 Speaker 1: like holograms or color changing ink, because that wasn't precisely 348 00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:30,840 Speaker 1: what we were studying. We were studying how much somebody 349 00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:34,639 Speaker 1: would notice if we presented them with a bill with 350 00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:38,239 Speaker 1: a particular design, and we let them examine it and 351 00:22:38,359 --> 00:22:40,960 Speaker 1: turn it around in their hands, and then we took 352 00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:44,520 Speaker 1: it back and we handed them another note, and that 353 00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:47,919 Speaker 1: other note might have some change that was made to it, 354 00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:50,960 Speaker 1: and we asked them, is this the same bill or 355 00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:53,840 Speaker 1: a different one? In other words, how much do they 356 00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:57,840 Speaker 1: remember about the note that they just examined. Now, you 357 00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:01,440 Speaker 1: might expect that if you get to examine a note carefully, 358 00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:03,400 Speaker 1: it's not going to be any problem to see when 359 00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:08,280 Speaker 1: something changes. But you'd be shocked at the limits of 360 00:23:08,359 --> 00:23:12,840 Speaker 1: our observation and our memory. Take a simple experiment run 361 00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:17,040 Speaker 1: by the psychologists Raymond Nickerson and Marilyn Adams in nineteen 362 00:23:17,119 --> 00:23:20,280 Speaker 1: seventy nine. What they did is they showed people fifteen 363 00:23:20,520 --> 00:23:24,840 Speaker 1: different drawings of the US penny, and one was the 364 00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:29,640 Speaker 1: actual penny, while the other drawings were manipulated versions where 365 00:23:29,640 --> 00:23:32,199 Speaker 1: you had the date in a different place, or you 366 00:23:32,240 --> 00:23:37,280 Speaker 1: had the slogan changed, for example, United States of America 367 00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:41,359 Speaker 1: instead of in God we Trust. And fewer than half 368 00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:46,080 Speaker 1: the participants could identify which one was the correct penny. 369 00:23:46,520 --> 00:23:50,920 Speaker 1: Although the participants handled pennies almost every day of their lives, 370 00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:55,040 Speaker 1: they hadn't paid attention in the way they thought they had. 371 00:23:55,800 --> 00:23:59,960 Speaker 1: Experience doesn't translate into expertise. 372 00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:01,439 Speaker 2: Why not. 373 00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:05,359 Speaker 1: It's because we only see what we closely attend to. 374 00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:09,000 Speaker 1: So imagine you catch a glimpse of a man and 375 00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:11,600 Speaker 1: a woman having a picnic in a park, all you 376 00:24:11,800 --> 00:24:16,000 Speaker 1: actually see is something like man woman food. With time, 377 00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:20,160 Speaker 1: as you crawl the scene with your attentional systems, you'll 378 00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:21,639 Speaker 1: incorporate more details. 379 00:24:21,680 --> 00:24:22,440 Speaker 2: Oh they've got. 380 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:25,679 Speaker 1: Bowls of soup. It's a checkered blanket. That's a little unusual. 381 00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:29,280 Speaker 1: There are hills in the background. And with more time 382 00:24:29,359 --> 00:24:33,040 Speaker 1: you'll notice, Oh, his spoon is slightly bent, or she's 383 00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:38,080 Speaker 1: wearing a silver necklace, or the encircling trees are buckthorn. 384 00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:42,760 Speaker 1: But we incorporate more detail into a scene only if 385 00:24:42,760 --> 00:24:46,399 Speaker 1: we pay more attention and we ask more questions. And 386 00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:49,080 Speaker 1: as I said before, it's like this with all of 387 00:24:49,080 --> 00:24:52,879 Speaker 1: our senses. What is the feeling of your pants on 388 00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:54,520 Speaker 1: your left knee cap right now? 389 00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:57,600 Speaker 2: Or the feeling of your shirt on your shoulders. 390 00:24:58,160 --> 00:25:01,400 Speaker 1: As soon as you ask these questions, you can become 391 00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:04,920 Speaker 1: aware of the answer, but you didn't know until you queried. 392 00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:08,760 Speaker 1: So our visual sense is not like a camera that's 393 00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:12,520 Speaker 1: taking in the complete scene. Instead, we see only the 394 00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:14,679 Speaker 1: details that we go out to seek. And this is 395 00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:18,960 Speaker 1: the issue with the banknotes. We may glance at one 396 00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:23,520 Speaker 1: to verify that it matches the general template we're expecting, 397 00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:28,639 Speaker 1: but we don't scrutinize the details. And that's why the 398 00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:34,119 Speaker 1: European Central banks campaign to stop and pay attention to money. 399 00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:35,600 Speaker 2: It just didn't work. 400 00:25:36,359 --> 00:25:41,120 Speaker 1: We don't attend to things that sufficiently fit our assumptions. 401 00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:44,960 Speaker 2: We believe we already know the note in our hands. 402 00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:49,520 Speaker 3: I recently had a fake built passed to me in 403 00:25:49,640 --> 00:25:53,800 Speaker 3: New York City. I was getting a hot dog, which 404 00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:56,520 Speaker 3: was four bucks, and I gave him a ten, and 405 00:25:56,560 --> 00:25:58,840 Speaker 3: he gave me what looked like a one in a five, 406 00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:02,720 Speaker 3: except the five was And I'm on the street, right, 407 00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:04,760 Speaker 3: I'm just I put it in my pocket. 408 00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:05,680 Speaker 2: I get back to my room. 409 00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:08,919 Speaker 3: The five is actually a discontinued old five thousand yen 410 00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:09,880 Speaker 3: Japanese note. 411 00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:11,760 Speaker 4: Ha ha. 412 00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:16,359 Speaker 3: They exactually had Matt respects for him for handing that 413 00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:17,399 Speaker 3: directly to me. 414 00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:20,879 Speaker 1: Ha. That's amazing, because you're a guy who paid so 415 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:23,880 Speaker 1: much attention to what's there, and even for you, you 416 00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:27,080 Speaker 1: expect you're getting a five back, and so your brain 417 00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:29,000 Speaker 1: fills in all the blanks and you just take it 418 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:30,360 Speaker 1: and you go, well. 419 00:26:30,200 --> 00:26:32,280 Speaker 4: I mean, you know, it's a difficult problem to solve 420 00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:35,040 Speaker 4: when you realize that we regularly interact with bills that 421 00:26:35,080 --> 00:26:40,000 Speaker 4: are ancient and are filthy and like soft leather and 422 00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:43,200 Speaker 4: brand new and they're crisp and smell totally differently and 423 00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:44,240 Speaker 4: look totally different. 424 00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:46,560 Speaker 3: When you hold those two up against each other and 425 00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:49,840 Speaker 3: you think, I've got to get someone to be able 426 00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:53,640 Speaker 3: to parse that both of these are real, that's that's 427 00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:55,240 Speaker 3: a complicated problem to solve. 428 00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:58,320 Speaker 1: What ther opinion Union does is they have all these 429 00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:01,760 Speaker 1: security features in their bills. They spend so much money 430 00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:07,159 Speaker 1: for these security features, and no one ever notices. So 431 00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:09,480 Speaker 1: my job is to figure out which elements of the 432 00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:13,480 Speaker 1: banknotes were noticed and which weren't, and to make recommendations 433 00:27:13,480 --> 00:27:17,080 Speaker 1: for next step. We performed a series of experiments for 434 00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:20,600 Speaker 1: over a year and in the end it became obvious 435 00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:23,800 Speaker 1: to me what needed to be done. So in my 436 00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:27,040 Speaker 1: final presentation to the European Central Bank, I put forward 437 00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:31,439 Speaker 1: evidence that the watermark on the euro should be a 438 00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:36,439 Speaker 1: face instead of a building. Why it's because the human 439 00:27:36,520 --> 00:27:41,520 Speaker 1: brain is massively specialized to recognizing faces, but it has 440 00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:47,200 Speaker 1: little neural real estate devoted to buildings. You can see 441 00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:48,919 Speaker 1: a building and then you can see a building that 442 00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:51,680 Speaker 1: looks sort of like it, and you really can't tell 443 00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:54,159 Speaker 1: the difference. Maybe you can't if you're an architect, but 444 00:27:54,200 --> 00:27:58,320 Speaker 1: the rest of us just wouldn't notice. And forged water 445 00:27:58,440 --> 00:28:02,600 Speaker 1: marks are generally hand drawn, and that's because it's this 446 00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:05,520 Speaker 1: intermediate layer and you need to do that by hand. 447 00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:09,400 Speaker 1: And it turns out that if you draw a building, 448 00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:12,400 Speaker 1: even if you do a really lousy job, no one's 449 00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:15,320 Speaker 1: going to catch the difference. Your brain just doesn't care 450 00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:18,480 Speaker 1: that much about the exact details of a building. But 451 00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:22,680 Speaker 1: contrast this with faces. We have a ton of brain 452 00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:28,000 Speaker 1: territory devoted to faces. Think about the difference in the 453 00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:30,720 Speaker 1: faces of the people you see every day, the length 454 00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:32,960 Speaker 1: of the nose, the distance between. 455 00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:34,440 Speaker 2: The eyes, the shape of the lips. 456 00:28:34,800 --> 00:28:38,080 Speaker 1: These are really subtle details, but we're super sensitive to 457 00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:39,160 Speaker 1: picking up on these. 458 00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:41,640 Speaker 2: Now, this is of course for human faces. 459 00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:45,160 Speaker 1: You presumably couldn't tell that much difference between the faces 460 00:28:45,200 --> 00:28:48,479 Speaker 1: of twenty different German shepherd dogs. They all sort of 461 00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:50,960 Speaker 1: look alike to you. But now put yourself in the 462 00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:54,960 Speaker 1: position of the dog. Presumably humans look mostly alike to it. 463 00:28:55,400 --> 00:28:58,920 Speaker 1: But the details we are so sensitive to, like the 464 00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:01,480 Speaker 1: hairline and the cheek and the length of the nose 465 00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:03,640 Speaker 1: and the exact position of the ears and all that 466 00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:07,400 Speaker 1: stuff would mean nothing to the dog. But we are 467 00:29:07,520 --> 00:29:12,120 Speaker 1: incredibly sensitive to these tiny tiny differences, and this is 468 00:29:12,120 --> 00:29:16,120 Speaker 1: why it's so much easier to spot an imperfect face 469 00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:20,040 Speaker 1: than an imperfect building. And this is why the ECB 470 00:29:20,240 --> 00:29:23,480 Speaker 1: decided to change the watermark on the fifty year h 471 00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:28,200 Speaker 1: bill from a building to a face. Now, unfortunately, they 472 00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:32,560 Speaker 1: had an implementation challenge, a political one, which is, how 473 00:29:32,560 --> 00:29:36,160 Speaker 1: could they get all the different countries to agree on 474 00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:39,600 Speaker 1: one person's face. What nationality were they going to choose? 475 00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:42,880 Speaker 1: The Italians were going to want Michelangelo, the British would 476 00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:46,120 Speaker 1: want Shakespeare, the French would want Napoleon, and so on. 477 00:29:46,320 --> 00:29:49,400 Speaker 1: That's why they had originally chosen a building, because that 478 00:29:49,600 --> 00:29:51,000 Speaker 1: circumvented the argument. 479 00:29:51,440 --> 00:29:54,120 Speaker 2: But now there was a reason to choose a face. 480 00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:58,160 Speaker 1: So finally someone suggested that instead of fighting it out 481 00:29:58,240 --> 00:30:03,480 Speaker 1: between historical hero they should just settle on the mythological 482 00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:07,400 Speaker 1: Princess Europa, after whom Europe is named, and so the 483 00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:10,720 Speaker 1: new fifty dollars note with her face rolled out in 484 00:30:10,760 --> 00:30:15,200 Speaker 1: twenty seventeen. Now that move is a step in the 485 00:30:15,280 --> 00:30:19,800 Speaker 1: right direction, but since they chose a mythological face with 486 00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:24,520 Speaker 1: no single correct version, it's slightly less useful than a 487 00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:29,000 Speaker 1: face everyone would recognize, like if they'd used Juliette Bnotia's 488 00:30:29,040 --> 00:30:32,480 Speaker 1: face or Benedict Cumberbatch's face. But anyway, it was a 489 00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:36,000 Speaker 1: good start. But that was only my first recommendation. I 490 00:30:36,040 --> 00:30:40,640 Speaker 1: then recommended that all euro banknotes should be the same size, 491 00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:44,360 Speaker 1: the way that American bills are. Why because that would 492 00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:46,880 Speaker 1: at least get people to look at them a bit 493 00:30:47,040 --> 00:30:50,080 Speaker 1: longer to see what they're dealing with. Right if you're 494 00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:53,400 Speaker 1: handing someone an American bill, they have to stare at 495 00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:57,280 Speaker 1: it for some hundreds of milliseconds longer just to register 496 00:30:57,760 --> 00:31:00,480 Speaker 1: what in the heck they're holding, because there aren't other 497 00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:04,400 Speaker 1: clues from size, Whereas in Europe you grab a bill 498 00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:06,680 Speaker 1: and you know much faster if it's a twenty or 499 00:31:06,720 --> 00:31:09,840 Speaker 1: a fifty or whatever, and as a result, you pay 500 00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:13,360 Speaker 1: even less attention to what is written on it. Now, 501 00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:17,320 Speaker 1: there are advantages to the blind community in having bills 502 00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:20,560 Speaker 1: of different sizes, but now you can do three D 503 00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:25,080 Speaker 1: printing on bills, and so the blind community no longer 504 00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:28,640 Speaker 1: needs different sizes to be able to tell what bill 505 00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:29,240 Speaker 1: they're holding. 506 00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:29,720 Speaker 2: Now. 507 00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:31,960 Speaker 1: The Council told me that while they took my point, 508 00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:34,000 Speaker 1: there was no way they were going to make all 509 00:31:34,040 --> 00:31:37,400 Speaker 1: the bills the same size. Why it wasn't just because 510 00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:40,520 Speaker 1: they'd have to retool the mints where they print the bills, 511 00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:43,760 Speaker 1: but more importantly, they'd have to retool all the vending 512 00:31:43,800 --> 00:31:47,560 Speaker 1: machines in Europe, and this was an impossible amount of work, 513 00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:51,560 Speaker 1: which got me thinking about the way that things get ensconced. 514 00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:56,880 Speaker 1: They get calcified into place by some historical trajectory, and 515 00:31:56,920 --> 00:31:59,680 Speaker 1: then it becomes too hard to change it, like the 516 00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:03,640 Speaker 1: way that we use the imperial measuring system in America, 517 00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:06,840 Speaker 1: where it's not based on tens, and therefore it's very 518 00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:09,960 Speaker 1: difficult to convert between different units, like we have twelve 519 00:32:10,040 --> 00:32:13,840 Speaker 1: inches equaling a foot, or sixteen ounces is a pound. 520 00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:16,240 Speaker 1: And when I was a kid, there was a big 521 00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:20,040 Speaker 1: push to teach both the imperial and the metric systems 522 00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:22,760 Speaker 1: at the same time so that we could slowly make 523 00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:26,000 Speaker 1: the transition into something that made more sense. But it 524 00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:30,360 Speaker 1: just proved too hard to change because the imperial measurement 525 00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:34,760 Speaker 1: system got calcified into place and then you can't get 526 00:32:34,840 --> 00:32:38,560 Speaker 1: rid of it. So anyway, the European Central Bank acknowledge 527 00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:40,960 Speaker 1: that I had a point about the bill size, but 528 00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:44,360 Speaker 1: they concluded it would just be too much work to 529 00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:48,200 Speaker 1: retool everything so they asked for my next recommendation, and 530 00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:51,920 Speaker 1: here was my chance to deliver my clincher. 531 00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:54,560 Speaker 2: This was a sense that had been. 532 00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:57,080 Speaker 1: Creeping up on me for the entire year that I'd 533 00:32:57,120 --> 00:33:00,959 Speaker 1: been studying the problem of counterfeiting. The heart of the 534 00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:06,280 Speaker 1: problem is that notes are jam packed with decorative features 535 00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:08,720 Speaker 1: that have nothing to do with the security. So you 536 00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:12,960 Speaker 1: have pictures of trees and patriots and birds and flags, 537 00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:16,640 Speaker 1: you have swirling colors, and no one notices the security 538 00:33:16,680 --> 00:33:21,200 Speaker 1: features because of all these distractions. So I told them 539 00:33:21,640 --> 00:33:25,320 Speaker 1: that a piece of currency, a bill, should be a blank, 540 00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:29,360 Speaker 1: white piece of paper with a single hologram in the middle. 541 00:33:29,640 --> 00:33:31,880 Speaker 2: That's it, nothing else on it. 542 00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:36,320 Speaker 1: A counterfeiter wouldn't be able to replicate that without serious 543 00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:40,240 Speaker 1: specialized equipment, and the person in the street wouldn't be 544 00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:44,200 Speaker 1: distracted by all the detailing that has nothing. 545 00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:45,160 Speaker 2: To do with the security. 546 00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:49,640 Speaker 1: So they agreed with my recommendation in theory, but they 547 00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:54,000 Speaker 1: rejected it on the grounds that there's too much cultural 548 00:33:54,080 --> 00:33:58,160 Speaker 1: momentum in the design of banknotes. In other words, people 549 00:33:58,360 --> 00:34:02,520 Speaker 1: expect notes to look a certain way. Currencies are supposed 550 00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:07,840 Speaker 1: to impress the viewer with the regal power and artistic 551 00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:12,880 Speaker 1: talents of the ruling body, and apparently no government wants 552 00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:17,760 Speaker 1: to appear unregal and unartistic when compared to another government, 553 00:34:18,239 --> 00:34:21,560 Speaker 1: And so the experiment came to a close. The building 554 00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:23,760 Speaker 1: got changed to a face, which was a good start, 555 00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:27,640 Speaker 1: but so much about the rest of currencies is stuck 556 00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:30,960 Speaker 1: in place. So we'll see what happens with the future 557 00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:35,000 Speaker 1: of digital exchanges like paypalor Venmo, and the future of crypto, 558 00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:38,760 Speaker 1: but it appears that for now paper money is sticking 559 00:34:38,800 --> 00:34:42,080 Speaker 1: around almost everywhere on the planet. So it's still my 560 00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:46,600 Speaker 1: general hope that some government somewhere will get this straight, 561 00:34:47,080 --> 00:34:50,720 Speaker 1: and the advantage for them is they'll have massively less 562 00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:53,960 Speaker 1: counterfeiting to drag on their economy. So if you're going 563 00:34:54,040 --> 00:34:56,520 Speaker 1: to start a new country, take this podcast as my 564 00:34:56,600 --> 00:35:00,200 Speaker 1: free advice for how to do your bills. Effective solution 565 00:35:00,320 --> 00:35:03,719 Speaker 1: from science can sometimes bump up against tradition, but if 566 00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:07,560 Speaker 1: we really care about tackling a problem, we have to 567 00:35:07,600 --> 00:35:11,719 Speaker 1: move beyond adherence to custom. The human visual system is 568 00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:14,600 Speaker 1: never going to notice security features that are buried in 569 00:35:14,719 --> 00:35:17,840 Speaker 1: other details, and if you give your brain any excuse 570 00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:21,480 Speaker 1: to believe it knows what's out there, it will take 571 00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:24,319 Speaker 1: shortcuts and make extra assumptions. 572 00:35:25,560 --> 00:35:27,440 Speaker 2: So this episode repeats. 573 00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:29,440 Speaker 1: A theme that you're going to hear many times on 574 00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:33,200 Speaker 1: this show. Whenever you want to improve society, you have 575 00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:36,600 Speaker 1: to do your best to understand the details of the 576 00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:41,480 Speaker 1: brains that comprise that society. 577 00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:45,400 Speaker 2: That's all for this week. 578 00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:48,120 Speaker 1: To find out more and to share your thoughts, head 579 00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:51,960 Speaker 1: over to eagleman dot com, slash Podcasts, and you can 580 00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:55,520 Speaker 1: also watch full episodes of Inner Cosmos on YouTube. 581 00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:58,480 Speaker 2: Subscribe to my channel so you can follow along each 582 00:35:58,520 --> 00:36:02,960 Speaker 2: week for new updates until next time. I'm David Eagleman 583 00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:04,960 Speaker 2: and this is in Her Cosmos.