1 00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:12,039 Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Invention. My name is Robert lamp and 2 00:00:12,119 --> 00:00:14,680 Speaker 1: I'm Joe McCormick and Robert. You know what, I am 3 00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:18,280 Speaker 1: excited today because I feel like this episode of Invention 4 00:00:18,760 --> 00:00:21,120 Speaker 1: is going to be something that I haven't I haven't 5 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:24,000 Speaker 1: fully dealt with yet, which is an invention that I 6 00:00:24,079 --> 00:00:27,560 Speaker 1: can't really find a bad angle on. But I feel 7 00:00:27,560 --> 00:00:29,720 Speaker 1: like today we're gonna be talking about an invention that 8 00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:32,680 Speaker 1: I think is just pretty great. Yeah, we're talking about Brail. 9 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:37,360 Speaker 1: Brail the writing system based on tactile sensations for people 10 00:00:37,360 --> 00:00:40,280 Speaker 1: who are blind or otherwise visually impaired. So it's a 11 00:00:40,320 --> 00:00:42,960 Speaker 1: writing system, yeah, it's and it's It is hard to 12 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:48,880 Speaker 1: imagine Brail being used for evil, except in the sense 13 00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:51,280 Speaker 1: that all writing systems could be used for evil. So 14 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:54,560 Speaker 1: I guess you could. Somebody could write something mean or 15 00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:57,520 Speaker 1: you know, outright dangerous in Brail in the same way 16 00:00:57,520 --> 00:01:01,920 Speaker 1: the one could do that in any full of written communication. Yes, 17 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:05,280 Speaker 1: but I would say as a modification and expansion of 18 00:01:05,319 --> 00:01:08,160 Speaker 1: an existing writing system, and of course writing comes with 19 00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:10,800 Speaker 1: all that writing can do, I'd say it's just a 20 00:01:10,840 --> 00:01:13,240 Speaker 1: good thing to have. Yeah, And they didn't start the 21 00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:18,680 Speaker 1: fire right there, it's a continuation of existing written language technology. 22 00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:23,679 Speaker 1: So whatever was already bad or dangerous in the written 23 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:27,160 Speaker 1: word was already there, and and this is not necessarily 24 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:31,279 Speaker 1: adding anything new to it in that regard. So written 25 00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:33,959 Speaker 1: language is something that we might not often think about 26 00:01:34,080 --> 00:01:36,160 Speaker 1: as an invention, but I think it's actually one of 27 00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:39,920 Speaker 1: the most important inventions to consider. Oh yeah, we've talked 28 00:01:39,959 --> 00:01:41,800 Speaker 1: about this a good bit on stuff to blow your 29 00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:44,160 Speaker 1: mind in the past. But but what he is language 30 00:01:44,160 --> 00:01:46,920 Speaker 1: but the power to take words and thoughts and fix 31 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:50,200 Speaker 1: them in place, to record them and create complex forms 32 00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:53,600 Speaker 1: out of their structure. And then one can simply come along, 33 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:57,440 Speaker 1: read the words and hear those words in your mind, 34 00:01:58,360 --> 00:02:02,200 Speaker 1: think those thoughts for yourself. So when when it's it's 35 00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:04,240 Speaker 1: crazy to think about this is sort of deconstructed and 36 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:06,440 Speaker 1: realize that when we read the words of a long 37 00:02:06,520 --> 00:02:10,280 Speaker 1: dead thinker, we are reading we are loading their thoughts 38 00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:13,440 Speaker 1: into our mind and thinking with their thoughts. You're going 39 00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:16,800 Speaker 1: into the matrix, you're uploading their thoughts. I mean, maybe 40 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:19,800 Speaker 1: not exactly, because you're probably reading across the translation gap 41 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:23,160 Speaker 1: and there's something like that, but I mean reading the 42 00:02:23,200 --> 00:02:26,200 Speaker 1: words written by another person. I feel like is is 43 00:02:26,240 --> 00:02:29,200 Speaker 1: about as close as you can get to just mind, 44 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:31,800 Speaker 1: you know, mind reading. Yeah. I was thinking about this 45 00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:33,960 Speaker 1: too with translation the other day, Like, you know what, 46 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:36,640 Speaker 1: I wonder, what are what are the oldest words that 47 00:02:36,840 --> 00:02:40,520 Speaker 1: I've read that I can actually you know, get the 48 00:02:40,560 --> 00:02:45,239 Speaker 1: gist out of. It's not too archaic and it's a formation. Um, 49 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:48,160 Speaker 1: I mean probably, I mean certainly probably something in Old 50 00:02:48,200 --> 00:02:51,480 Speaker 1: English passages and Bayowolf you can kind of get the 51 00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:55,080 Speaker 1: sense of. But those are cases where even though there's 52 00:02:55,200 --> 00:02:57,920 Speaker 1: you know, maybe a little distortion, uh, you know, a 53 00:02:57,919 --> 00:03:02,120 Speaker 1: little static from all those century is of linguistic shift, 54 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:05,839 Speaker 1: but but you're you're still feeling those thoughts, you're still 55 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:08,239 Speaker 1: thinking those thoughts from another time. Writing is the time 56 00:03:08,240 --> 00:03:13,359 Speaker 1: machine exactly. Now. While spoken languages auditory, obviously, written language 57 00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:17,280 Speaker 1: is a visual system, and for the blind or visually impaired, 58 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:21,160 Speaker 1: written language is going to be rather lacking obviously. Yeah. Yeah, 59 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:26,359 Speaker 1: just strokes on a page are going to be difficult, 60 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:29,480 Speaker 1: if not impossible, to read. And I would say, because 61 00:03:30,880 --> 00:03:34,600 Speaker 1: education is so often tied up in literacy throughout much 62 00:03:34,600 --> 00:03:36,640 Speaker 1: of human history and lots of cultures, I think this 63 00:03:36,760 --> 00:03:39,200 Speaker 1: has led to a kind of unfair and dismissive under 64 00:03:39,200 --> 00:03:41,920 Speaker 1: consideration of the role of the education of the blind, 65 00:03:42,160 --> 00:03:45,200 Speaker 1: because it's like, well, they can't read the written texts 66 00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:47,200 Speaker 1: we have, so what, you know, what can we really 67 00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:51,440 Speaker 1: teach them? Yeah, it wasn't until seventeen eighty four that 68 00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:54,720 Speaker 1: school for the blind was established in France and then 69 00:03:54,720 --> 00:03:58,200 Speaker 1: the concept spread throughout Europe. But but prior to that, 70 00:03:58,320 --> 00:03:59,920 Speaker 1: I mean, certainly, if you go back to the ancient 71 00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:04,160 Speaker 1: world and prehistoric times you had this is sort of 72 00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:08,920 Speaker 1: the varying levels of of importance or or attention paid 73 00:04:09,040 --> 00:04:13,640 Speaker 1: to the blind or visually impaired individuals, especially individuals who 74 00:04:14,120 --> 00:04:18,799 Speaker 1: who were born visually impaired or without the ability to see. 75 00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:22,680 Speaker 1: You go back to prehistoric civil civilizations and they might 76 00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:27,520 Speaker 1: have had a practice of disposing of such individuals um likewise, 77 00:04:27,680 --> 00:04:30,920 Speaker 1: throughout you know, the ancient world, you see sort of 78 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:35,320 Speaker 1: varying treatment. Right, there are times where a blind individual 79 00:04:35,560 --> 00:04:40,680 Speaker 1: is elevated, that is celebrated. Plenty of other blind or 80 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:43,040 Speaker 1: visual impaired individuals who are just simply lost to history. 81 00:04:43,839 --> 00:04:48,120 Speaker 1: But you know, you think about say Homer, uh the 82 00:04:48,200 --> 00:04:52,400 Speaker 1: you know, the famous Greek storyteller. Whether or not this 83 00:04:52,440 --> 00:04:56,600 Speaker 1: was an actual historic individual, many of the the accounts 84 00:04:56,880 --> 00:05:00,840 Speaker 1: say that that that he was blind, and so on 85 00:05:00,839 --> 00:05:05,080 Speaker 1: one hand, if this was an actual blind storyteller, there 86 00:05:05,120 --> 00:05:06,679 Speaker 1: you know there's a there's a lot to be inferred 87 00:05:06,680 --> 00:05:09,800 Speaker 1: from that. But but then at the same time, there 88 00:05:09,839 --> 00:05:14,320 Speaker 1: there is this tendency in human history to take individuals 89 00:05:14,440 --> 00:05:19,400 Speaker 1: that that are notable in some sort of disfigurement or 90 00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:23,440 Speaker 1: a difference in ability, or even something like twins, and 91 00:05:23,480 --> 00:05:26,400 Speaker 1: what they end up being is not not really a 92 00:05:26,440 --> 00:05:30,360 Speaker 1: treatment of individuals with those conditions, but symbols for other 93 00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:33,480 Speaker 1: people to interpret. It's like when you look at movies 94 00:05:33,520 --> 00:05:38,120 Speaker 1: about twins or stories about twins, it's very often something 95 00:05:38,240 --> 00:05:42,240 Speaker 1: created by uh Singleton's by individuals who do not have 96 00:05:42,320 --> 00:05:45,400 Speaker 1: a twin, who are finding something in it in this 97 00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:49,320 Speaker 1: situation to speak to their own identity, to be a metaphor. Yeah, 98 00:05:49,400 --> 00:05:51,560 Speaker 1: and I think that's exactly correct. I mean, you see 99 00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:54,520 Speaker 1: characters in you brought up Homer, but I think about 100 00:05:54,520 --> 00:05:57,840 Speaker 1: like the legendary character of Tyreseius, the blind prophet, which 101 00:05:58,080 --> 00:06:01,719 Speaker 1: I think is very often deployed by cited people as 102 00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:04,880 Speaker 1: sort of like a metaphor or a symbol or something 103 00:06:04,920 --> 00:06:08,800 Speaker 1: like that. Right, So you see this trend without going 104 00:06:08,839 --> 00:06:12,080 Speaker 1: just really deep into sort of the history of blindness 105 00:06:12,120 --> 00:06:16,600 Speaker 1: in human societies. But but very often the blind were 106 00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:20,640 Speaker 1: treated as metaphors as and and and they certainly lacked 107 00:06:20,680 --> 00:06:25,760 Speaker 1: any kind of like large scale, you know, communal experience, 108 00:06:26,120 --> 00:06:29,000 Speaker 1: Like the blind were not able to come together across 109 00:06:29,080 --> 00:06:33,840 Speaker 1: cultures and do things like develop their own system of 110 00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:36,480 Speaker 1: written language. And certainly you didn't have any real efforts 111 00:06:36,520 --> 00:06:40,040 Speaker 1: to make the cited world more accessible to sightless individuals. 112 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:42,200 Speaker 1: You know, an individual might well be able to depend 113 00:06:42,240 --> 00:06:45,240 Speaker 1: on a family or a subordinate for aid in reading. 114 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:47,599 Speaker 1: And as early as Greek and Roman times, some individuals 115 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:51,400 Speaker 1: had access to lenses to aid them in reading. And 116 00:06:51,440 --> 00:06:53,000 Speaker 1: of course we'll have to come back into a future 117 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:55,960 Speaker 1: episode of invention on that. But while the written word 118 00:06:56,120 --> 00:06:58,680 Speaker 1: might be tactile in some cases due to the way 119 00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:00,920 Speaker 1: that it's carved in stone or the way that it's 120 00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:04,120 Speaker 1: you know, created using a stylus and wax, this was 121 00:07:04,200 --> 00:07:08,320 Speaker 1: not the primary desired effect of those systems. Yeah, and 122 00:07:08,400 --> 00:07:10,600 Speaker 1: now I mean, now that we live in a modern 123 00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:13,160 Speaker 1: world where we are aware of the concept of brail, 124 00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:15,480 Speaker 1: you might not understand its history or exactly how it 125 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:17,880 Speaker 1: was invented or how it works. Hopefully you will know 126 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:19,600 Speaker 1: something about that at the end of this episode, but 127 00:07:19,600 --> 00:07:22,720 Speaker 1: you're aware of the fact that it exists before that. 128 00:07:22,840 --> 00:07:25,200 Speaker 1: It's it's hard to imagine that there would not be 129 00:07:25,360 --> 00:07:29,400 Speaker 1: some kind of widespread reading system within languages for people 130 00:07:29,400 --> 00:07:32,600 Speaker 1: who are blind or visually impaired. But throughout history that 131 00:07:32,720 --> 00:07:36,040 Speaker 1: just generally was the case. But we should also say 132 00:07:36,040 --> 00:07:38,720 Speaker 1: that Brail as it's known today was not the first 133 00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:43,840 Speaker 1: system of tactually encoding written language for the blind. That's right. 134 00:07:44,040 --> 00:07:47,120 Speaker 1: For instance, there was an English system created by Dr 135 00:07:47,160 --> 00:07:51,400 Speaker 1: William Moon, invented in eighteen forty five, moon Type, which 136 00:07:51,440 --> 00:07:54,520 Speaker 1: sounds wonderfully Elvin, uh, you know, like like some sort 137 00:07:54,560 --> 00:07:57,640 Speaker 1: of Elvin script that comes to life in the moonlight 138 00:07:57,720 --> 00:07:59,680 Speaker 1: or something. But it was just named because that was 139 00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:03,040 Speaker 1: a name. But it was basically a font type that 140 00:08:03,160 --> 00:08:06,200 Speaker 1: is embossed and can be felt. And this wasn't even 141 00:08:06,280 --> 00:08:11,480 Speaker 1: the first such type. There was. Valentine we Uh presented 142 00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:14,440 Speaker 1: a version of this in the seventeen eighties. And again 143 00:08:14,480 --> 00:08:19,400 Speaker 1: the simple concept here is UH existing fonts like aes 144 00:08:19,480 --> 00:08:22,480 Speaker 1: B ces ds that you can that you can trace 145 00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:25,120 Speaker 1: with your fingers, that you can touch and identify. Oh, 146 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:28,120 Speaker 1: that's an a this is a B, this is the c. Etcetera. Yeah, 147 00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:32,400 Speaker 1: Hui system consisted of these embossed letters, and it was 148 00:08:32,440 --> 00:08:36,840 Speaker 1: in fact somewhat useful for blind students like Louis Braille, 149 00:08:36,960 --> 00:08:39,080 Speaker 1: who we will talk about in this episode as the 150 00:08:39,120 --> 00:08:43,160 Speaker 1: inventor of Braille, learned to read with Hoi's system before 151 00:08:43,360 --> 00:08:46,400 Speaker 1: he invented Braille based on another system we'll talk about 152 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:49,240 Speaker 1: in a bit, but it was the system of embossed letters, 153 00:08:49,240 --> 00:08:51,199 Speaker 1: where like a normal letter, as you're saying, would be 154 00:08:51,360 --> 00:08:53,679 Speaker 1: pressed through on a damp piece of paper and it 155 00:08:53,679 --> 00:08:55,640 Speaker 1: would leave a print there that you could feel with 156 00:08:55,679 --> 00:08:59,440 Speaker 1: your hand. But it had these real limitations, like to 157 00:08:59,679 --> 00:09:02,920 Speaker 1: hold to this size of type, the books of print 158 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:06,320 Speaker 1: had to be huge and monstrously heavy, like I've seen 159 00:09:06,480 --> 00:09:09,800 Speaker 1: estimates of an average of four point five kims about 160 00:09:09,840 --> 00:09:13,440 Speaker 1: ten pounds per book, which is too heavy to hold 161 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:15,640 Speaker 1: and carry around in a practical way, especially for a 162 00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:19,320 Speaker 1: child who's learning to read. But beyond that, there's just 163 00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:25,000 Speaker 1: a reality that embossed alphabetic letters are hard to read 164 00:09:25,080 --> 00:09:27,160 Speaker 1: by touch. And this is something that might not be 165 00:09:27,240 --> 00:09:30,040 Speaker 1: obvious to cited readers. You just like look at them 166 00:09:30,040 --> 00:09:31,640 Speaker 1: and say, well, they look different to me. I can 167 00:09:31,679 --> 00:09:34,880 Speaker 1: tell the difference, but reading with your fingers is a 168 00:09:34,920 --> 00:09:39,200 Speaker 1: different type of sensation activity than reading with your eyes is. 169 00:09:39,679 --> 00:09:42,640 Speaker 1: And and it just turned out that for many blind 170 00:09:42,679 --> 00:09:45,040 Speaker 1: students there was a lot of ambiguity in the shapes 171 00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:48,200 Speaker 1: of letters. You could be trying to read across the line. 172 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:50,679 Speaker 1: And number one, it wasn't very fast because the letters 173 00:09:50,960 --> 00:09:52,600 Speaker 1: were big and you have to sort of like feel 174 00:09:52,600 --> 00:09:55,080 Speaker 1: around on each one. You couldn't just run your finger 175 00:09:55,160 --> 00:09:58,960 Speaker 1: across the line. But then beyond that, there's ambiguity between letters, 176 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:00,839 Speaker 1: like a C might feel a lot like a G 177 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:02,760 Speaker 1: and all that, and it would take you a minute 178 00:10:02,760 --> 00:10:05,720 Speaker 1: to figure out the difference. And this made reading slow 179 00:10:05,800 --> 00:10:09,480 Speaker 1: and laborious. I feel like there's something probably revealing in 180 00:10:09,559 --> 00:10:11,720 Speaker 1: this this journey thus far. You know, we've we've talked 181 00:10:11,760 --> 00:10:16,880 Speaker 1: about the roles or the interpretations of of of blind 182 00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:20,320 Speaker 1: and vision impaired individuals throughout history, and and here with 183 00:10:20,360 --> 00:10:24,400 Speaker 1: these these systems, they do seem like a sided world 184 00:10:24,480 --> 00:10:29,400 Speaker 1: first technology. Absolutely, yeah, it's blind or vision impaired individuals 185 00:10:29,400 --> 00:10:33,640 Speaker 1: who will make some of the the key breakthroughs here. 186 00:10:33,800 --> 00:10:36,400 Speaker 1: That's absolutely right. And at the same time, I don't 187 00:10:36,440 --> 00:10:41,040 Speaker 1: want to downplay, uh, like who's contribution, like this was 188 00:10:41,080 --> 00:10:43,520 Speaker 1: a real invention, this idea of the embost letters. It 189 00:10:43,600 --> 00:10:45,880 Speaker 1: was better than nothing. And I think it's clear that 190 00:10:45,880 --> 00:10:48,920 Speaker 1: who he was well meaning. Oh yeah, because it is 191 00:10:48,920 --> 00:10:51,000 Speaker 1: easy to take for granted and speaking here as a 192 00:10:51,200 --> 00:10:54,640 Speaker 1: sided individual, to take for granted the degree to which 193 00:10:54,679 --> 00:10:59,040 Speaker 1: we rely on site and and and and use that 194 00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:02,520 Speaker 1: as our key means of interpreting the world, but also 195 00:11:02,679 --> 00:11:06,079 Speaker 1: not to realize how much you're not getting about other 196 00:11:06,120 --> 00:11:10,360 Speaker 1: people's experiences, like if you haven't experienced it yourself. Yeah, 197 00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:12,720 Speaker 1: this is This is certainly an area as we continue 198 00:11:12,720 --> 00:11:15,560 Speaker 1: on in the episode, I imagine we have some listeners 199 00:11:15,559 --> 00:11:18,959 Speaker 1: out there who who are blind or vision impaired in 200 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:21,839 Speaker 1: one way, shape or another. We would love to hear 201 00:11:21,920 --> 00:11:26,320 Speaker 1: your feedback on on Brail on the experiences we're discussing 202 00:11:26,360 --> 00:11:28,640 Speaker 1: in this episode totally. And one more thing I just 203 00:11:28,720 --> 00:11:32,280 Speaker 1: realized about we should mention about the Hui system is uh. 204 00:11:32,559 --> 00:11:34,520 Speaker 1: I hope I'm saying his name right. It's I was 205 00:11:34,559 --> 00:11:36,319 Speaker 1: trying to look up how to pronounce this one. It's 206 00:11:36,559 --> 00:11:39,079 Speaker 1: h a u y and I could not find I 207 00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:41,720 Speaker 1: think it's Hui. That's my best guess. So if you're 208 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:44,360 Speaker 1: a French speaker out there, and you're grimacing every time 209 00:11:44,440 --> 00:11:46,199 Speaker 1: we do this. This won't be the last time in 210 00:11:46,240 --> 00:11:51,200 Speaker 1: the episode encounter difficult French names. All apologies, but yeah, 211 00:11:51,400 --> 00:11:54,800 Speaker 1: So another thing about his system is that it's probably 212 00:11:54,920 --> 00:11:57,679 Speaker 1: also easier to use this system if you are an 213 00:11:57,720 --> 00:12:01,200 Speaker 1: adult who is used to reading printed letters and then 214 00:12:01,320 --> 00:12:04,360 Speaker 1: lost their site later on in life, and you can 215 00:12:04,360 --> 00:12:06,840 Speaker 1: feel around on those letters. Then if you're a child 216 00:12:06,880 --> 00:12:09,400 Speaker 1: who has who has never learned to read printed letters, 217 00:12:09,480 --> 00:12:12,199 Speaker 1: and you could perhaps be learning a tactle system that's 218 00:12:12,240 --> 00:12:14,960 Speaker 1: much easier to pick up from the beginning. But we'll 219 00:12:14,960 --> 00:12:16,800 Speaker 1: come back to this, says I think we should. We 220 00:12:16,840 --> 00:12:20,600 Speaker 1: should move now to talk about something called night writing. 221 00:12:20,640 --> 00:12:23,040 Speaker 1: Are you ready for night writing? Yeah? It sounds great. 222 00:12:23,080 --> 00:12:25,679 Speaker 1: It sounds like like a ninet eighties horror film that 223 00:12:25,679 --> 00:12:28,520 Speaker 1: I could really get into, like night Gallery, Night Gallery 224 00:12:28,559 --> 00:12:32,200 Speaker 1: with a little like night gallery meets automatic writing meets uh, 225 00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:34,600 Speaker 1: you know, a little night cheese in there. Well, I 226 00:12:34,600 --> 00:12:37,160 Speaker 1: guess it also, Yeah, working on my night Cheese. I 227 00:12:37,240 --> 00:12:39,320 Speaker 1: just know someday we're gonna get sued because we do 228 00:12:39,360 --> 00:12:41,760 Speaker 1: a version of Working on My Night moves, and we're 229 00:12:41,800 --> 00:12:44,440 Speaker 1: not gonna We're not gonna remember that edited out better. 230 00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:48,800 Speaker 1: This is night writing. So you might have heard or 231 00:12:48,800 --> 00:12:52,920 Speaker 1: remember from history classes that the design and tactics of 232 00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:57,000 Speaker 1: mobile artillery were important to the success of Napoleon's military 233 00:12:57,040 --> 00:13:00,400 Speaker 1: campaigns in the early nineteenth century. And Napoleon himself had 234 00:13:00,440 --> 00:13:03,000 Speaker 1: been an artillery officer when he was coming up through 235 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:06,920 Speaker 1: the ranks. And another artillery officer in Napoleon's army would 236 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:10,360 Speaker 1: end up playing an important role in the creation of 237 00:13:10,400 --> 00:13:14,120 Speaker 1: the modern Brail writing system, and this man was Nicholas 238 00:13:14,240 --> 00:13:18,240 Speaker 1: Marie Charles Barbier de Lasayer, often shortened to just Charles 239 00:13:18,760 --> 00:13:22,480 Speaker 1: Charles or Charles Barbier. And one good source I found 240 00:13:22,520 --> 00:13:26,160 Speaker 1: that included stuff about the life of Charles Barbier was 241 00:13:26,360 --> 00:13:29,520 Speaker 1: a book called Louis Braile A Touch of Genius by C. 242 00:13:29,800 --> 00:13:32,680 Speaker 1: Michael Mallore from National Braille Press in two thousand six. 243 00:13:32,679 --> 00:13:36,960 Speaker 1: So Barbier was born on May eighteen, seventeen sixty seven, 244 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:39,960 Speaker 1: and he was born into an aristocratic family, not like 245 00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:44,240 Speaker 1: galactic scale big wigs, but like minor big wigs, medium wigs, 246 00:13:44,720 --> 00:13:47,240 Speaker 1: and he went to a military school to become an 247 00:13:47,320 --> 00:13:51,240 Speaker 1: army officer, but then the French Revolution broke out and 248 00:13:51,360 --> 00:13:54,480 Speaker 1: he being a son of a minor aristocratic family, he 249 00:13:54,559 --> 00:13:58,080 Speaker 1: fled to America and worked there for several years as 250 00:13:58,080 --> 00:14:01,520 Speaker 1: a surveyor, and while in the United States, supposedly Barbiea 251 00:14:01,600 --> 00:14:04,839 Speaker 1: became very interested in the writing systems that were being 252 00:14:04,960 --> 00:14:08,520 Speaker 1: used by Native American tribes to to create codes for 253 00:14:08,559 --> 00:14:12,160 Speaker 1: their languages, and barbie A at one point wrote, quote, 254 00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:15,440 Speaker 1: of all the inventions honoring the human spirit, writing has 255 00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:19,440 Speaker 1: contributed most to its development and progress. So this guy 256 00:14:19,560 --> 00:14:22,440 Speaker 1: is a fan of the printed word. But barbie A 257 00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:25,760 Speaker 1: later returned to France and served in the army, and 258 00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:29,640 Speaker 1: from his interest in the creation of writing systems which 259 00:14:29,640 --> 00:14:31,160 Speaker 1: she had sort of gained while he was in the 260 00:14:31,240 --> 00:14:35,560 Speaker 1: United States, Barbiea developed an idea for a code that 261 00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:38,200 Speaker 1: could be useful in wartime, and this code was called 262 00:14:38,520 --> 00:14:43,040 Speaker 1: night writing. Now, imagine you're outdoing maneuvers under the cover 263 00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:46,440 Speaker 1: of darkness. Maybe you want to put some mobile artillery 264 00:14:46,480 --> 00:14:49,000 Speaker 1: in place without the enemy noticing what you're doing in 265 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:51,200 Speaker 1: the middle of the night. Now, you want to be 266 00:14:51,240 --> 00:14:54,360 Speaker 1: able to send a written message from one group or 267 00:14:54,480 --> 00:14:58,040 Speaker 1: station to the to another. And normally, if you send 268 00:14:58,040 --> 00:15:00,960 Speaker 1: a written message during night maneuvers, the person receiving the 269 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:03,720 Speaker 1: message would have to light a torch or a lantern 270 00:15:03,760 --> 00:15:06,240 Speaker 1: in order to read it, but that might give away 271 00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:08,520 Speaker 1: your position to the enemy if you suddenly light a 272 00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:10,600 Speaker 1: fire in the middle of a dark battlefield and then 273 00:15:10,640 --> 00:15:13,720 Speaker 1: maybe some shells come raining down on you. So Barbie's 274 00:15:13,760 --> 00:15:17,360 Speaker 1: idea was to use a system of holes punched into 275 00:15:17,400 --> 00:15:20,480 Speaker 1: a piece of cardboard which could be read in total 276 00:15:20,560 --> 00:15:23,680 Speaker 1: darkness because you could feel the symbols of the message 277 00:15:23,720 --> 00:15:26,400 Speaker 1: with your fingers, allowing you to read it without a 278 00:15:26,520 --> 00:15:29,000 Speaker 1: light and without giving away your position to the enemy. 279 00:15:29,200 --> 00:15:31,520 Speaker 1: So Barbie has got this great idea. He's like, I'm 280 00:15:31,520 --> 00:15:34,440 Speaker 1: going to change how how night moves are done. Um, 281 00:15:34,600 --> 00:15:37,520 Speaker 1: he's working on his night moves and he presents this 282 00:15:38,040 --> 00:15:40,840 Speaker 1: this idea of night riding to the military leadership. But 283 00:15:40,960 --> 00:15:44,520 Speaker 1: apparently they're just not impressed. And I don't honestly know 284 00:15:44,600 --> 00:15:46,960 Speaker 1: the reason why they rejected his idea, But if I 285 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:50,080 Speaker 1: had to guess, I would think one obstacle would be 286 00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:52,760 Speaker 1: that this code would take time and effort for people 287 00:15:52,840 --> 00:15:56,200 Speaker 1: to learn, and wouldn't necessarily be worth trying to make 288 00:15:56,240 --> 00:15:58,840 Speaker 1: everybody learn when you also had the option of just 289 00:15:58,960 --> 00:16:02,080 Speaker 1: transmitting message is by whisper in the dark. You could 290 00:16:02,120 --> 00:16:05,040 Speaker 1: send a human messenger to tell somebody something and they 291 00:16:05,040 --> 00:16:07,280 Speaker 1: could whisper it in their ear. That probably wouldn't give 292 00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:11,160 Speaker 1: much away, right, And then it also stands to reason 293 00:16:11,240 --> 00:16:14,280 Speaker 1: that in some cases you would be able to deploy 294 00:16:14,440 --> 00:16:16,880 Speaker 1: some sort of light and do so in a way 295 00:16:16,920 --> 00:16:20,600 Speaker 1: that would not necessarily give away your position. And we 296 00:16:20,640 --> 00:16:23,200 Speaker 1: wouldn't require you to have learned to call a code 297 00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:26,720 Speaker 1: and utilize some sort of a punch language, maybe under 298 00:16:26,720 --> 00:16:29,480 Speaker 1: a blanket or something like. It's it's a it's an 299 00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:32,720 Speaker 1: eloquent solution for a problem that maybe did not call 300 00:16:32,840 --> 00:16:36,000 Speaker 1: for so eloquent a solution. That's possible. But even though 301 00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:38,680 Speaker 1: he got rejected owned by the way, Robert, I've included 302 00:16:38,720 --> 00:16:41,240 Speaker 1: a picture of Barbie a here, who, for some reason 303 00:16:41,320 --> 00:16:43,840 Speaker 1: just really kind of reminds me of the way Xander 304 00:16:43,920 --> 00:16:48,400 Speaker 1: Berkeley looks in Terminator to wait, remind me of which 305 00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:52,360 Speaker 1: character Xander Berkeley was. He's John Connor's foster dad. You 306 00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:56,560 Speaker 1: remember him. He's drinking the milk carton. Oh, yes, vaguely. Yes. 307 00:16:57,000 --> 00:16:59,640 Speaker 1: The two one thousand gets him, Yeah, two one tho 308 00:16:59,840 --> 00:17:02,840 Speaker 1: gets most people in that movie. Maybe it's a spurious comparison, 309 00:17:02,880 --> 00:17:06,280 Speaker 1: I see it, But Anyway, Barbie was not finished with 310 00:17:06,359 --> 00:17:08,720 Speaker 1: the idea of night writing, even though it got rejected 311 00:17:08,720 --> 00:17:11,600 Speaker 1: by the military. Um. While I would say there are 312 00:17:11,600 --> 00:17:14,720 Speaker 1: some pretty obvious alternatives to night writing, when it comes 313 00:17:14,720 --> 00:17:18,960 Speaker 1: to transmitting short messages on a dark and battlefield, it 314 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:21,160 Speaker 1: becomes a lot harder to come up with ways of 315 00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:25,840 Speaker 1: like reading longer messages, like say, entire books in the dark, 316 00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:30,399 Speaker 1: And so by eighteen fifteen, Barbier had developed another idea. 317 00:17:30,720 --> 00:17:33,359 Speaker 1: His idea was that the night writing system would be 318 00:17:33,480 --> 00:17:37,280 Speaker 1: useful to the blind, especially as written by Barbie and 319 00:17:37,359 --> 00:17:40,760 Speaker 1: quoted in Melore's book, quote to those born blind who 320 00:17:40,760 --> 00:17:43,280 Speaker 1: are deprived of the means of ever being able to 321 00:17:43,359 --> 00:17:46,600 Speaker 1: read our books or our writing. And besides this meeting 322 00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:50,840 Speaker 1: with the greatest difficulties in correctly tracing the outlines of letters. 323 00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:53,560 Speaker 1: So he he knew something about this problem, like the 324 00:17:53,600 --> 00:17:57,159 Speaker 1: idea that uh blind people trying to read with with 325 00:17:57,280 --> 00:18:02,280 Speaker 1: embossed letters of a normal alphabetics ripped faced problems like it. 326 00:18:02,280 --> 00:18:05,359 Speaker 1: It just wasn't as easy as cited people thought it 327 00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:08,600 Speaker 1: should be to feel a letter with your fingers and 328 00:18:08,680 --> 00:18:11,440 Speaker 1: instantly know what it is certainly, and if you're doubtful 329 00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:13,680 Speaker 1: of this the next time you go to say, a cemetery, 330 00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:16,439 Speaker 1: or you're around some sort of you know, statue that 331 00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:19,640 Speaker 1: you are permitted to touch and paw at um. Try 332 00:18:19,680 --> 00:18:21,639 Speaker 1: it out and see how fast you can get. You 333 00:18:21,640 --> 00:18:23,240 Speaker 1: see if you can hit, how much you can read. 334 00:18:23,400 --> 00:18:25,680 Speaker 1: And it turns out Barbie was really onto something here. 335 00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:28,400 Speaker 1: He created what turned out to be a very important 336 00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:32,240 Speaker 1: precursor to the later system of Braille, though he is 337 00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:34,760 Speaker 1: not known as its inventor. That title, of course goes 338 00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:37,959 Speaker 1: to its namesake, Uh, the namesake of the writing system, 339 00:18:38,080 --> 00:18:39,840 Speaker 1: Louis Braille. So I think maybe we should take a 340 00:18:39,920 --> 00:18:48,040 Speaker 1: quick break and then we'll come back to meet Louis Braille. Alright, 341 00:18:48,040 --> 00:18:51,560 Speaker 1: we're back, So let's talk about Louis Braille. We haveved 342 00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:55,439 Speaker 1: eighteen o nine through eighteen fifty two. So he was 343 00:18:55,720 --> 00:18:58,000 Speaker 1: he was a frenchman. Um would later grow to be 344 00:18:58,040 --> 00:19:01,400 Speaker 1: a French educator. But as a as a child, at 345 00:19:00,880 --> 00:19:04,879 Speaker 1: the mere age of three, uh, he was he was blinded. 346 00:19:05,080 --> 00:19:07,919 Speaker 1: So what happened is his father was a harness maker, 347 00:19:08,440 --> 00:19:11,240 Speaker 1: and he'd been playing with tools in his father's shop 348 00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:15,639 Speaker 1: and a tool slipped in his hand and injured his 349 00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:18,800 Speaker 1: right eye. Yeah, so this was in the commune of 350 00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:21,800 Speaker 1: Kubra and his father, Like you said, it's like, I 351 00:19:21,800 --> 00:19:24,840 Speaker 1: think he made a saddles and stuff and harnesses. And 352 00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:27,879 Speaker 1: so if you're a harness maker, saddle maker, you have 353 00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:30,960 Speaker 1: to use a sharp tool called an owl to punch 354 00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:34,399 Speaker 1: holes in tough leather. And apparently young Louis was trying 355 00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:36,120 Speaker 1: to punch a hole in leather with the awl when 356 00:19:36,119 --> 00:19:39,080 Speaker 1: he accidentally slipped and he stabbed himself in the right eye. 357 00:19:39,600 --> 00:19:42,439 Speaker 1: And uh, I've read that the remedy prescribed by a 358 00:19:42,480 --> 00:19:45,919 Speaker 1: local healer was an infusion of something called lily water. 359 00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:48,080 Speaker 1: I was looking to try to figure out what this is. 360 00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:49,879 Speaker 1: I couldn't find a lot of other stuff about it, 361 00:19:50,520 --> 00:19:53,359 Speaker 1: but I assume that might be I don't know, water 362 00:19:53,480 --> 00:19:56,439 Speaker 1: that has been soaked with lilies or something. But anyway, 363 00:19:56,640 --> 00:19:59,400 Speaker 1: it's possible this may have made the risk of infection 364 00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:02,760 Speaker 1: even were the stabed. I of course became infected and 365 00:20:02,800 --> 00:20:05,400 Speaker 1: then it got worse. Yeah. What resulted was something known 366 00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:09,159 Speaker 1: as symp sympathetic ophthalmia, which is an infection of both 367 00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:13,800 Speaker 1: eyes following trauma to a single eye, and this ultimately 368 00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:17,600 Speaker 1: resulted in total blindness. His eyes deteriorated over time and 369 00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:20,200 Speaker 1: he was totally blind by five. And this is particularly 370 00:20:20,200 --> 00:20:23,040 Speaker 1: devastating when you think about the age at which most 371 00:20:23,080 --> 00:20:26,679 Speaker 1: of us begin to acquire language, written language, you know, 372 00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:30,000 Speaker 1: to to be robbed of your your your visual faculties 373 00:20:30,359 --> 00:20:34,560 Speaker 1: at age between the ages of three and five, that's 374 00:20:34,600 --> 00:20:38,000 Speaker 1: that's devastating. Yeah. And of course this, uh, this led 375 00:20:38,080 --> 00:20:42,480 Speaker 1: to Braile's parents trying to get him enrolled in a 376 00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:45,520 Speaker 1: in an institute or or a school for blind children. 377 00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:48,360 Speaker 1: And he eventually was. Yeah, and as we mentioned earlier, 378 00:20:48,520 --> 00:20:50,119 Speaker 1: you know, he was he was lucky enough to have 379 00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:53,159 Speaker 1: been born in the right time, in the right place 380 00:20:53,400 --> 00:20:55,840 Speaker 1: to have access to one of these, uh, one of 381 00:20:55,840 --> 00:20:58,639 Speaker 1: the really the earliest school for the blind, and it 382 00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:02,040 Speaker 1: was at this this instant, the National Institute or the 383 00:21:02,119 --> 00:21:05,080 Speaker 1: Royal Institute for Blind Children in Paris, where I think 384 00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:09,560 Speaker 1: it went through some some different leadership. Um he uh. 385 00:21:09,600 --> 00:21:13,880 Speaker 1: He first encountered the night writing system of Charles Barbier, 386 00:21:14,080 --> 00:21:16,879 Speaker 1: though this, uh, this wouldn't happen until later. Barbier actually 387 00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:20,639 Speaker 1: approached the institute multiple times with his invention, and the 388 00:21:20,680 --> 00:21:23,480 Speaker 1: first time was in eighteen twenty. And so I guess 389 00:21:23,520 --> 00:21:25,720 Speaker 1: we should back up for a second. I don't know 390 00:21:25,760 --> 00:21:27,600 Speaker 1: how much you came across this, But in a lot 391 00:21:27,640 --> 00:21:30,639 Speaker 1: of the biographical writing about Louis Braille there tends to 392 00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:32,800 Speaker 1: be a kind of villain of the story by the 393 00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:36,000 Speaker 1: name of Sebastian Galie. Well, that's a great villain's name, 394 00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:38,720 Speaker 1: I guess, so I again, That's what I'm not sure 395 00:21:38,760 --> 00:21:40,720 Speaker 1: I'm saying, right? Is g U I L L I 396 00:21:40,840 --> 00:21:44,119 Speaker 1: E Gali? I think? And Gilly was head of the 397 00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:47,040 Speaker 1: institute when Braille was first enrolled there as a child, 398 00:21:47,520 --> 00:21:50,080 Speaker 1: and at that time conditions at the institute were in 399 00:21:50,119 --> 00:21:53,280 Speaker 1: many ways just pretty awful, like the building was described 400 00:21:53,320 --> 00:21:57,200 Speaker 1: as damp and poorly ventilated, there was dirty drinking water 401 00:21:57,359 --> 00:22:01,399 Speaker 1: with few amenities, and Gilly apparently had a very prejudiced 402 00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:04,520 Speaker 1: and condescending view toward the blind children that he was 403 00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:08,240 Speaker 1: supposed to educate. As quoted in Millard's book. Gilly wrote 404 00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:11,040 Speaker 1: in eighteen eighteen that he believed quote it has been 405 00:22:11,080 --> 00:22:13,680 Speaker 1: clearly shown that the blind are not like other people, 406 00:22:13,800 --> 00:22:18,399 Speaker 1: susceptible to being restrained by external demonstrations. The blind appreciate 407 00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:22,040 Speaker 1: things only by extremes and can understand justice only by 408 00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:26,040 Speaker 1: its effects. A paternal and just management has thus replaced 409 00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:28,880 Speaker 1: the flexible and weak regime that has for so long 410 00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:31,640 Speaker 1: prevented good from being done. All right, so that well, 411 00:22:31,680 --> 00:22:35,159 Speaker 1: that sounds that sounds horrible, and and it and it continues, 412 00:22:35,240 --> 00:22:39,080 Speaker 1: you know, a pre existing trend of treating the disabled 413 00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:43,000 Speaker 1: as as something less than than human in some cases, 414 00:22:43,119 --> 00:22:47,040 Speaker 1: or at least you know, as a as a secondary class. Yes, absolutely, 415 00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:49,959 Speaker 1: and and this did appear to be Gilly's view. So 416 00:22:50,040 --> 00:22:53,400 Speaker 1: he enacted harsh punishments on the children, including putting them 417 00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:56,600 Speaker 1: on a diet of dry bread and water, with physical 418 00:22:56,640 --> 00:23:01,399 Speaker 1: beatings or whippings, confinement in some extreme cases, even chaining 419 00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:04,400 Speaker 1: children to a post. Uh And many of the children 420 00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:06,760 Speaker 1: in the school when when new leadership came to power, 421 00:23:06,760 --> 00:23:09,439 Speaker 1: they were later found to be malnourished and in poor health. 422 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:13,840 Speaker 1: There's an extremely hard to read an egregious case where 423 00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:18,520 Speaker 1: Gale actually performed medical experiments on his blind students. Uh So. 424 00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:21,119 Speaker 1: There was one case where he took fluid from the 425 00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:25,520 Speaker 1: eyes of children suffering from a form of LaFaro blinaria, 426 00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:28,520 Speaker 1: which is an eye infection resulting in discharge from the eyes, 427 00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:31,000 Speaker 1: and he put it into the eyes of four blind 428 00:23:31,080 --> 00:23:33,639 Speaker 1: children under his care at the school in order to 429 00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:36,560 Speaker 1: test how it was transmitted, and his reasoning was that 430 00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:39,280 Speaker 1: because they were already blind, they would not be risk 431 00:23:39,359 --> 00:23:42,320 Speaker 1: of them losing their sight from the infection. Uh, though 432 00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:44,960 Speaker 1: the records of the experiment indicate that the infection was 433 00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:48,680 Speaker 1: extremely painful to the Children's a horrible story. But day 434 00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:50,679 Speaker 1: to day at the school, the students were taught to 435 00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:54,639 Speaker 1: do things like like weaving and tactle manual tasks, uh, 436 00:23:54,960 --> 00:23:57,960 Speaker 1: weaving straw and rush mats and doing other kinds of 437 00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:00,919 Speaker 1: jobs like that. But they also had opportunities to like 438 00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:03,919 Speaker 1: learn and perform music, which Braile actually excelled at. He 439 00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:06,639 Speaker 1: was said to be an extremely talented musician. So this 440 00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:09,720 Speaker 1: is the guy who was in charge when Barbier first 441 00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:13,560 Speaker 1: brought his night writing to the school. Yeah. So Barbier 442 00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:16,239 Speaker 1: first shows up at the school in eighteen twenty and 443 00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:19,879 Speaker 1: he tries to demonstrate to Gilly how a variation on 444 00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:22,920 Speaker 1: the night writing system could be a useful alternative to 445 00:24:23,040 --> 00:24:26,720 Speaker 1: the embossed print system that the students were using, and 446 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:29,359 Speaker 1: he showed off a writing device that he created that 447 00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:32,560 Speaker 1: consisted of a type of slate and a stylus, and 448 00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:36,199 Speaker 1: Gilly allowed the students to experiment with this briefly, but 449 00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:38,560 Speaker 1: personally he did not seem to see much use in 450 00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:41,359 Speaker 1: the system, and he passed on it. But soon after that, 451 00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:43,639 Speaker 1: Gilly was dismissed from his position at the head of 452 00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:46,159 Speaker 1: the institute after it was exposed that he had had 453 00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:48,840 Speaker 1: an affair with a much younger instructor at the school, 454 00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:53,560 Speaker 1: and Gilly's replacement a man named Andre or Alexandre Pinier, 455 00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:57,480 Speaker 1: who is generally regarded as having been a kinder director 456 00:24:58,040 --> 00:25:00,080 Speaker 1: with a more genuine concern for the well being of 457 00:25:00,119 --> 00:25:03,640 Speaker 1: the students. He was put in place, and Barbie returned 458 00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:06,919 Speaker 1: to make his case again. Unfortunately, I think penning A 459 00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:10,240 Speaker 1: recognized that the best judge of what kind of writing 460 00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:12,679 Speaker 1: system would be useful to the blind students would be 461 00:25:12,760 --> 00:25:16,040 Speaker 1: the students themselves, so he sponsored a period in which 462 00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:19,520 Speaker 1: the students could experiment with Barbie's dot based system of 463 00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:23,600 Speaker 1: night writing, and the students almost immediately recognized the superiority 464 00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:25,840 Speaker 1: of the dot based system over the system of the 465 00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:29,560 Speaker 1: embosted print letters. The dots were simply much easier to 466 00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:32,240 Speaker 1: read and to reproduce, given the help of a slate 467 00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:35,400 Speaker 1: and a stylus, than the shapes of the print letters, 468 00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:37,840 Speaker 1: and of course one of the students who participated in 469 00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:41,200 Speaker 1: this experiment was the young Louis Braille, still a teenager 470 00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:42,760 Speaker 1: at the time, or actually I think at the beginning 471 00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:46,040 Speaker 1: he wasn't even a teenager yet. And so Braile had 472 00:25:46,119 --> 00:25:48,880 Speaker 1: excelled as a student at the institute. He was said 473 00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:52,040 Speaker 1: to be like very clever and avid learner, and he 474 00:25:52,040 --> 00:25:55,840 Speaker 1: he had mastered the the old Hui system of of 475 00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:58,119 Speaker 1: you know, the the embost letters, and had read all 476 00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:00,960 Speaker 1: the books, and he eventually moved on to teaching other 477 00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:04,879 Speaker 1: students there. And so Braill saw the potential for a 478 00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:08,480 Speaker 1: system like night writing or something you know, related to it. 479 00:26:08,560 --> 00:26:12,240 Speaker 1: So what he did is he simplified Barbier's night writing 480 00:26:12,280 --> 00:26:15,840 Speaker 1: system to make it faster to read and write, creating 481 00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:19,080 Speaker 1: the Braille system. And he revealed the system in eighteen 482 00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:21,760 Speaker 1: twenty four. And he also later adapted it to a 483 00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:25,639 Speaker 1: musical notation exactly. And so though the idea of the 484 00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:30,280 Speaker 1: raised dots to represent sounds or letters came from barbi A, 485 00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:33,960 Speaker 1: Brail completely reorganized the code system to make it much 486 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:38,879 Speaker 1: more practical. Original Barbier system had been the cells composed 487 00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:41,879 Speaker 1: of twelve possible dots that could you know, be arranged 488 00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:44,240 Speaker 1: to show the different letters. And while this cell was 489 00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:47,320 Speaker 1: easier to read than an embossed alphabetic letter like in 490 00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:51,120 Speaker 1: Hui's system, it was still too large to read very quickly. 491 00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:53,680 Speaker 1: And so what Brail did is he simplified the letter 492 00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:57,040 Speaker 1: system the cell to just six dots, which could fit 493 00:26:57,119 --> 00:27:00,760 Speaker 1: under a single fingertip and allow much faster reading. And 494 00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:03,200 Speaker 1: one crazy thing to think about is that Brail is 495 00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:07,000 Speaker 1: only fifteen or sixteen when he finished creating this code. Well, 496 00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:09,920 Speaker 1: let's take another break, and when we come back, we're 497 00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:20,040 Speaker 1: going to discuss the invention of Brail itself and its legacy. Alright, 498 00:27:20,040 --> 00:27:23,840 Speaker 1: we're back, so, uh, you know we've alluded this already, 499 00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:26,520 Speaker 1: but but let's take a minute to discuss what Brail 500 00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:31,120 Speaker 1: exactly is. It is a tactile system of written language. 501 00:27:31,119 --> 00:27:35,400 Speaker 1: It's a way, uh to read the written word via 502 00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:38,879 Speaker 1: raised dots on a surface with your fingers, and this 503 00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:41,800 Speaker 1: is of course ideal for individuals who are blind or 504 00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:47,239 Speaker 1: vision impaired. Brail, however, is not a language, yes, and 505 00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:50,160 Speaker 1: that's important. It's much the same way that the alphabet 506 00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:54,760 Speaker 1: is not a language. Alphabets are ways of encoding existing languages, 507 00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:57,480 Speaker 1: and so is Brail. Yeah, it's it's a code that's 508 00:27:57,480 --> 00:28:01,639 Speaker 1: been adapted to many existing language. Sense of the original French. 509 00:28:02,119 --> 00:28:05,520 Speaker 1: For instance, there's English brail or Grade two brail, and 510 00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:09,680 Speaker 1: this consists of two hundred and fifty different marks representing letters, numbers, 511 00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:16,360 Speaker 1: punctuation marks, formatting marks, contractions, and abbreviations. Each brail symbol 512 00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:20,600 Speaker 1: is formed via brail cells, each show with spaces for 513 00:28:20,720 --> 00:28:24,639 Speaker 1: six raised dots. So a full brail cell contains six 514 00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:27,760 Speaker 1: raised dots and two parallel rows of three dots each. 515 00:28:28,080 --> 00:28:30,400 Speaker 1: You've probably seen them before, but they look kind of like, 516 00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:32,600 Speaker 1: you know, they can sort of resemble like dominoes or 517 00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:35,960 Speaker 1: the sides of a die. Yeah, imagine a domino with 518 00:28:36,359 --> 00:28:41,920 Speaker 1: space for only six dots, again in two vertical rows 519 00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:43,800 Speaker 1: of three. And of course, as you mentioned, there are 520 00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:47,680 Speaker 1: different forms of brail, right, So first let's consider the 521 00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:51,840 Speaker 1: most basic form, what's generally referred to as uncontracted brail. 522 00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:55,800 Speaker 1: This is helpful for beginners learning brail. For instance, so 523 00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:57,600 Speaker 1: if you have in this system, if you have a 524 00:28:57,640 --> 00:29:00,320 Speaker 1: phrase and you want to spell it out, you spell 525 00:29:00,440 --> 00:29:03,240 Speaker 1: it out letter by letter, so you would you know, 526 00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:06,240 Speaker 1: if you're writing, um, you know, and then it came 527 00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:08,520 Speaker 1: to pass, you would do A than you would do 528 00:29:08,640 --> 00:29:10,560 Speaker 1: in than you would do D, and you would just 529 00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:14,240 Speaker 1: spell out every word in this sentence. But there are 530 00:29:14,280 --> 00:29:16,920 Speaker 1: of course many words in the English language that are 531 00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:19,280 Speaker 1: usually just read as sort of units. You don't have 532 00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:21,560 Speaker 1: to go one letter at a time, right, Yeah, you 533 00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:24,200 Speaker 1: think of site words for instance, you know the words 534 00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:25,880 Speaker 1: where you just you just look at it and you 535 00:29:25,920 --> 00:29:28,040 Speaker 1: know it. And so this is where we get into 536 00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:31,920 Speaker 1: contracted brail, in which some hundred and eighty different letter 537 00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:35,480 Speaker 1: contractions come into play to shorten and simplify everything, making 538 00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:39,560 Speaker 1: it again faster to read and easier to write. By 539 00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:41,600 Speaker 1: the way, I know some of you who have listened 540 00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:44,320 Speaker 1: to past episodes of Stuff to Blow your mind to 541 00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:48,920 Speaker 1: deal with with the Mandarin language, or particularly Chinese typewriter, 542 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:52,720 Speaker 1: you might be asking yourself, huh, I wonder how Mandarin 543 00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:58,680 Speaker 1: is translated into brail, because it's not a phonetic written language. Yeah, 544 00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:01,080 Speaker 1: well it it. I've looked this up, and the way 545 00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:04,600 Speaker 1: it works is that the Chinese brail represents the sounds 546 00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:08,320 Speaker 1: of language rather than the many Chinese characters that would 547 00:30:08,320 --> 00:30:12,200 Speaker 1: be involved in in traditional written Chinese language, so it's 548 00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:16,360 Speaker 1: a little bit different. Each symbol contains three Brail letters initial, final, 549 00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:19,880 Speaker 1: and then something representing the tone. Uh So, in a way, 550 00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:23,200 Speaker 1: it's kind of like opinion brail, you know, in which 551 00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:28,200 Speaker 1: Mandarin Chinese is rendered in um, you know, in in 552 00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:32,280 Speaker 1: in in Western characters like transliterated script. Exactly. Now. I 553 00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:35,000 Speaker 1: mentioned the slate in the style USTs earlier, and that's 554 00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:38,800 Speaker 1: an important tool for writing in Brail because it helps 555 00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:41,840 Speaker 1: guide the writer in order to punch out the letters 556 00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:44,760 Speaker 1: to form the code they're creating, and helps keep the 557 00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:47,840 Speaker 1: letters evenly spaced and along the same line and against 558 00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:52,160 Speaker 1: so much easier than trying to then create embossed letters 559 00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:55,800 Speaker 1: on paper. Yeah, exactly. And so as for this invention, 560 00:30:56,440 --> 00:30:59,040 Speaker 1: I was just thinking about how we sort of alluded 561 00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:01,040 Speaker 1: to this earlier. But I think it's important to think 562 00:31:01,080 --> 00:31:04,560 Speaker 1: about how Braill was not the first attempt to create 563 00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:07,400 Speaker 1: a reading and writing system for the blind and visually impaired. 564 00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:10,800 Speaker 1: Before this, you had things like the embossed alphabetic letters 565 00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:13,880 Speaker 1: of Valentin Hui, you had the night writing of Barbier, 566 00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:18,480 Speaker 1: and these inventions were not worthless. But despite the efforts 567 00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:21,760 Speaker 1: of these inventors, they weren't nearly as useful or efficient 568 00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:24,600 Speaker 1: as they could have been. And it took the insights 569 00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:28,120 Speaker 1: of Louis Brail himself to streamline the code system to 570 00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:31,480 Speaker 1: its optimal form. And I can't help but think that 571 00:31:31,520 --> 00:31:33,280 Speaker 1: this must have something to do with the fact that 572 00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:37,880 Speaker 1: Brail himself was a blind reader with direct personal experience 573 00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:40,840 Speaker 1: of the day to day issues faced by blind readers, 574 00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:44,280 Speaker 1: understanding sort of the texture of the experience, what it's 575 00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:47,120 Speaker 1: like to read with one's fingers, and having no other 576 00:31:47,200 --> 00:31:50,320 Speaker 1: choice but to read with his fingers, and so he 577 00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:53,880 Speaker 1: was able to imagine improvements in the system that others didn't. 578 00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:56,680 Speaker 1: And this sort of reminds me of something that often 579 00:31:56,720 --> 00:31:59,840 Speaker 1: seems true about invention, that the insights that often lead 580 00:31:59,840 --> 00:32:03,080 Speaker 1: to the best inventions are not always just rooted in 581 00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:07,560 Speaker 1: things like engineering, genius, and creativity. They also are rooted 582 00:32:07,600 --> 00:32:12,239 Speaker 1: in habitual familiarity with the kinds of problems that the 583 00:32:12,280 --> 00:32:16,440 Speaker 1: invention is needed to solve, like hands on experience. Yeah, 584 00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:18,640 Speaker 1: and and really, the Brail, even if we go go 585 00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:20,880 Speaker 1: back to the roots in night writing, like that was 586 00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:24,000 Speaker 1: and that was rooted in an attempt to solve a 587 00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:29,600 Speaker 1: problem UM that the the innovator had a real world 588 00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:33,920 Speaker 1: experience with UM. And granted it was military situation, but 589 00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:36,920 Speaker 1: then and then this technology has passed on to Brail, 590 00:32:37,320 --> 00:32:41,479 Speaker 1: who has a direct experience of the sightless world and 591 00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:45,640 Speaker 1: uses his familiarity with this you know, you know, altered 592 00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:50,680 Speaker 1: sensory experience to create Brail and uh, and this is 593 00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:52,720 Speaker 1: the system we have today. Like, this is still the 594 00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:58,080 Speaker 1: standard for for for written language for the blind. Yes, 595 00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:00,400 Speaker 1: that we should mention that. Since then, there have been 596 00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:04,400 Speaker 1: other types of of encoding written language for the blind, Like, 597 00:33:04,520 --> 00:33:07,800 Speaker 1: there are other One thing I've been reading about is that, 598 00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:11,000 Speaker 1: for example, there are other systems for people who became 599 00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:13,720 Speaker 1: blind later in life, and we're more used to the 600 00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:17,600 Speaker 1: alphabetic language. Uh. That's something a little bit more like 601 00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:21,120 Speaker 1: the old Hui system. Right, It's got like embossed letters. 602 00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:23,360 Speaker 1: There are also versions that attempt to sort of like 603 00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:26,160 Speaker 1: mingle the two, where you sort of like make letters 604 00:33:26,240 --> 00:33:29,440 Speaker 1: out of raised dots. And that's designed to be useful 605 00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:32,040 Speaker 1: so that like, if you are a blind writer, you 606 00:33:32,080 --> 00:33:35,000 Speaker 1: can use that too. It might be slower going, but 607 00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:37,920 Speaker 1: can produce a script that's also readable to people who 608 00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:41,240 Speaker 1: only know like the sited alphabet. Right. And then Brail 609 00:33:41,400 --> 00:33:43,720 Speaker 1: has continued to evolve over time, first of all, to 610 00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:46,040 Speaker 1: meet new language demands. So We mentioned the Man for 611 00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:50,200 Speaker 1: an example, but another great example is Niemth Brail, a 612 00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:53,080 Speaker 1: form of brail developed in nineteen fifty two by American 613 00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:56,760 Speaker 1: mathematician and invent or Abraham Niemoth, who was by the way, 614 00:33:56,800 --> 00:34:00,080 Speaker 1: born blind UH. And it was officially integrated in to 615 00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:04,920 Speaker 1: you needed United English Brail in and it is used 616 00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:10,000 Speaker 1: to write mathematics in brail. UH. There's also the Gardener 617 00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:14,719 Speaker 1: Salinas brail codes created to codify math and scientific notation, 618 00:34:15,080 --> 00:34:20,040 Speaker 1: and there's also the Brail code of chemical notation. From So, 619 00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:23,080 Speaker 1: we've seen this sort of continual broadening of the system 620 00:34:23,200 --> 00:34:27,000 Speaker 1: as the system has needed to UH to explain and 621 00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:32,319 Speaker 1: express different systems, different written systems, in addition to just 622 00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:36,600 Speaker 1: sort of core UH written language needs. Now, of course, 623 00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:39,879 Speaker 1: there are continuing challenges in adapting brail technology. I mean, 624 00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:42,080 Speaker 1: one thing that might be rather obvious is the idea 625 00:34:42,160 --> 00:34:45,440 Speaker 1: that a lot of the text we encounter today happens 626 00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:49,279 Speaker 1: not on in printed text but on screens. That's right. Yeah, 627 00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:51,960 Speaker 1: so we've seen we have seen some amazing breakthroughs though 628 00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:56,920 Speaker 1: with a refreshable brail to spread displays. These provide access 629 00:34:56,960 --> 00:35:00,239 Speaker 1: to information on a computer screen by electronically raised and 630 00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:06,200 Speaker 1: lowering different combinations of pins in brail cells. And uh, 631 00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:09,080 Speaker 1: this is you know the kind of price technology. Um, 632 00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:13,120 Speaker 1: the price of brail displays range from thirty fifteen thousand 633 00:35:13,120 --> 00:35:16,640 Speaker 1: dollars depending on the number of characters displayed. And then 634 00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:19,520 Speaker 1: there's the whole history of of brail writing machines and 635 00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:24,520 Speaker 1: brail printers. Uh. Frank haven Hall presented the first brail 636 00:35:24,719 --> 00:35:29,440 Speaker 1: writer machine in and various improvements came with time. Today 637 00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:33,280 Speaker 1: we even have you know, brail computer printers, portable brail 638 00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:36,839 Speaker 1: note taking devices, and then the brail displays that we've 639 00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:42,680 Speaker 1: already mentioned. Um, you have, but brail printers range from say, 640 00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:46,000 Speaker 1: small scale brail printers that cost between eighteen hundred and 641 00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:50,439 Speaker 1: five thousand dollars to large volume ones that can cost 642 00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:53,759 Speaker 1: between ten thousand and eighty thousand dollars. But but the 643 00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:56,759 Speaker 1: technology exists. You can hook a printer up to a 644 00:35:56,800 --> 00:35:59,680 Speaker 1: machine and print in brail if you have the right technology. 645 00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:03,160 Speaker 1: Other bit of technology worth noting the brail wristwatch, where 646 00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:06,800 Speaker 1: you lift the lid of the time piece to quote 647 00:36:06,840 --> 00:36:09,680 Speaker 1: unquote touch the time. This makes me wonder about a 648 00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:12,440 Speaker 1: question that I don't know if we can really fully 649 00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:14,759 Speaker 1: answer that we might be able to say a little 650 00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:19,160 Speaker 1: bit about it. Is um, the question of how the 651 00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:22,680 Speaker 1: experience of reading is different or is it different when 652 00:36:22,680 --> 00:36:25,960 Speaker 1: you're reading with eyes versus reading with your fingers. I 653 00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:29,400 Speaker 1: was wondering about this as well, because it's you know, 654 00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:31,960 Speaker 1: I guess my experience and this is limited. But but 655 00:36:32,120 --> 00:36:36,960 Speaker 1: just thinking about the differences between reading written text and say, 656 00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:39,160 Speaker 1: listening to an audio book. Yeah, it's a very different, 657 00:36:39,200 --> 00:36:42,880 Speaker 1: expert different experience. You can still I mean, ultimately, I 658 00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:46,640 Speaker 1: guess the if you have to like drive home, like, well, 659 00:36:46,680 --> 00:36:50,000 Speaker 1: what are the difference businesses between reading the Lion, the 660 00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:53,400 Speaker 1: Witch and the Wardrobe versus uh, listening to it in 661 00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:56,279 Speaker 1: the car? Um. I mean, it's still the same story, 662 00:36:56,320 --> 00:36:58,360 Speaker 1: still has the same characters, but there but there is 663 00:36:58,400 --> 00:37:01,480 Speaker 1: something different about the experience. It's a different way of 664 00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:06,440 Speaker 1: absorbing the content. Yeah, I wonder what those differences are, like, um, 665 00:37:06,760 --> 00:37:09,600 Speaker 1: with with Braill versus these other means. Yeah, I don't 666 00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:12,359 Speaker 1: want to necessarily go like full Marshal McCluin, but I 667 00:37:12,440 --> 00:37:15,080 Speaker 1: do believe that, like the physical substrates of our media 668 00:37:15,640 --> 00:37:18,560 Speaker 1: do play a role in shaping thought in culture, in 669 00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:21,000 Speaker 1: the nature of the experience of the information that gets 670 00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:24,319 Speaker 1: shared on that media. So if printed text is one 671 00:37:24,400 --> 00:37:27,160 Speaker 1: medium and brail is another, is that experience of reading 672 00:37:27,239 --> 00:37:31,480 Speaker 1: one versus the other substantially different and in terms of 673 00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:34,440 Speaker 1: the internal sensation of reading one versus the other, I 674 00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:36,480 Speaker 1: don't know what the answer is. I was trying to 675 00:37:36,520 --> 00:37:38,480 Speaker 1: look for it was trying to read around on this 676 00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:40,759 Speaker 1: and I couldn't find much on the subject, though maybe 677 00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:43,279 Speaker 1: there's good stuff out there. I did come across a 678 00:37:43,400 --> 00:37:46,600 Speaker 1: study in Current biology from the year two thousand eleven 679 00:37:47,160 --> 00:37:51,640 Speaker 1: by Rice's ved Cohen and Amedi called a ventral visual 680 00:37:51,719 --> 00:37:56,080 Speaker 1: stream reading center independent of visual experience. And so what 681 00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:58,480 Speaker 1: the authors of this study it was a neuroscience study 682 00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:00,960 Speaker 1: where they did an fmr I speriment on, you know, 683 00:38:01,120 --> 00:38:04,799 Speaker 1: measuring brain function while people were reading across different media. 684 00:38:05,040 --> 00:38:07,080 Speaker 1: And the authors said that there's this pathway in the 685 00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:10,280 Speaker 1: brain that is thought to be important for reading visual text, 686 00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:13,520 Speaker 1: and it's called the visual word form area or the 687 00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:18,439 Speaker 1: vWF A and the author's right quote. This study investigated 688 00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:21,680 Speaker 1: which area plays the role of the vWF A in 689 00:38:21,719 --> 00:38:24,399 Speaker 1: the blind. One would expect this area to be at 690 00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:29,800 Speaker 1: either parietal or bilateral occipital cortex, reflecting the tactle nature 691 00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:34,279 Speaker 1: of the task, and cross moodal plasticity, respectively. So they're 692 00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:37,200 Speaker 1: thinking that, Okay, if somebody's reading with their fingers, that 693 00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:39,320 Speaker 1: they would expect the parts of the brain involved to 694 00:38:39,400 --> 00:38:42,520 Speaker 1: be like parts of the brain that are normally associated 695 00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:46,200 Speaker 1: with touch sensation. But the author has used FMR I 696 00:38:46,320 --> 00:38:49,320 Speaker 1: to see what brain activity looks like when blind readers 697 00:38:49,360 --> 00:38:52,480 Speaker 1: read in brail, and what they found was quote striking 698 00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:57,920 Speaker 1: anatomical consistency within and between blind and cited readers. And 699 00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:00,839 Speaker 1: so the authors this led them to proposed that the 700 00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:06,760 Speaker 1: visual word form area is not necessarily about visual words. Instead, 701 00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:11,960 Speaker 1: it's quote a metamodal reading area that develops specialization for 702 00:39:12,120 --> 00:39:17,839 Speaker 1: reading regardless of visual experience. So that's fascinating, Like, if 703 00:39:17,840 --> 00:39:20,480 Speaker 1: they're correct about this, it means that there's sort of 704 00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:24,239 Speaker 1: a suite of brain functions that are used specifically for 705 00:39:24,480 --> 00:39:31,200 Speaker 1: consuming symbolic representations of language, whether that symbolic representation is 706 00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:35,080 Speaker 1: visual seeing of letters or tactle feeling of dot cells. 707 00:39:35,719 --> 00:39:38,720 Speaker 1: And the authors say that this, uh, this they believe 708 00:39:38,840 --> 00:39:43,200 Speaker 1: supports the model that brain areas are quote task machines, 709 00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:48,480 Speaker 1: not sensory machines. But that's really interesting again, if they're corrected, 710 00:39:48,560 --> 00:39:52,839 Speaker 1: it suggests that there's something deeper about reading that is 711 00:39:53,080 --> 00:39:57,560 Speaker 1: more fundamental than visual processing. Reading isn't just about seeing. 712 00:39:57,600 --> 00:40:00,480 Speaker 1: There's something in the brain that is the reading function 713 00:40:00,920 --> 00:40:04,759 Speaker 1: that's deeper than seeing. And that's really when you get 714 00:40:04,760 --> 00:40:06,600 Speaker 1: down to it, like, that's what brail does. It like 715 00:40:06,680 --> 00:40:10,399 Speaker 1: it it gets straight to that process and cuts out 716 00:40:10,400 --> 00:40:13,680 Speaker 1: the complexities of just trying to take this existing visual 717 00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:17,719 Speaker 1: system and make it uh readable by the blind. You know. 718 00:40:17,800 --> 00:40:21,040 Speaker 1: Another way that I think Brail is really interesting in 719 00:40:21,320 --> 00:40:25,680 Speaker 1: technology history is it is absolutely not a case where 720 00:40:26,120 --> 00:40:30,160 Speaker 1: the delay and the invention of Brail was caused by 721 00:40:30,239 --> 00:40:33,560 Speaker 1: some lack of technology. Right. It wasn't that that we 722 00:40:33,600 --> 00:40:36,480 Speaker 1: didn't have electricity or didn't have X, Y or z 723 00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:40,640 Speaker 1: that allowed us to produce this technology. It was really 724 00:40:40,719 --> 00:40:44,640 Speaker 1: just a lack of people turning their attention towards this 725 00:40:44,760 --> 00:40:47,560 Speaker 1: task and putting resources into it. Right. There is a 726 00:40:47,560 --> 00:40:51,200 Speaker 1: certain level of cultural advancement that needed to be in place, 727 00:40:51,920 --> 00:40:54,120 Speaker 1: cultural values that needed to be in place. I also 728 00:40:54,160 --> 00:40:55,560 Speaker 1: think there's a case to be made for just sort 729 00:40:55,560 --> 00:40:58,280 Speaker 1: of the shrinking of the world, you know, the growing 730 00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:03,080 Speaker 1: of populations, and and also the way that the communities 731 00:41:03,440 --> 00:41:07,320 Speaker 1: of the blind could be brought together too in cases 732 00:41:07,360 --> 00:41:11,440 Speaker 1: like this begin to solve problems that they faced individually. 733 00:41:11,480 --> 00:41:13,160 Speaker 1: That means that they faced as a group, you know, 734 00:41:13,760 --> 00:41:16,040 Speaker 1: because there's a school for the blind, there's a place 735 00:41:16,120 --> 00:41:19,360 Speaker 1: for Charles Barbier to go with his night writing invention 736 00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:22,440 Speaker 1: and say I think this might be useful exactly, and 737 00:41:22,440 --> 00:41:25,960 Speaker 1: then a place for an individual like Brail to rise 738 00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:28,799 Speaker 1: to prominence. Yes, now I didn't even you know, I 739 00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:31,040 Speaker 1: didn't even go down the sort of sci fi track 740 00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:33,920 Speaker 1: here on this, but it does make me wonder if 741 00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:38,239 Speaker 1: there are any science fiction treatments that explore the possibility 742 00:41:38,320 --> 00:41:44,000 Speaker 1: of of what a written communications system in an inherently 743 00:41:44,080 --> 00:41:50,640 Speaker 1: blind uh civilization might consist of. You know, um, because 744 00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:53,640 Speaker 1: one of the we focused on some of the the 745 00:41:53,840 --> 00:41:56,840 Speaker 1: interesting aspects of Brail in which it is a system 746 00:41:57,520 --> 00:42:00,560 Speaker 1: by the blind for the blind, but of course it 747 00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:03,279 Speaker 1: is based that it stems from a system and a 748 00:42:03,320 --> 00:42:07,440 Speaker 1: culture of the sided. Uh. One wonders like what a 749 00:42:07,560 --> 00:42:12,719 Speaker 1: purely um, a purely a tactile writing system might have 750 00:42:12,760 --> 00:42:15,200 Speaker 1: consisted of. Maybe it would be very much like Brail. Well, 751 00:42:15,239 --> 00:42:18,680 Speaker 1: there you have to wonder again. Either way, language begins 752 00:42:18,719 --> 00:42:22,239 Speaker 1: as a spoken and heard the like it's oral um 753 00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:26,759 Speaker 1: and so that it gets translated into symbolic coding like alphabets, 754 00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:29,239 Speaker 1: and then later like brail. You didn't have to have 755 00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:31,840 Speaker 1: the alphabet in between. You could have gone straight from 756 00:42:32,280 --> 00:42:35,239 Speaker 1: spoken language to brail, right, but it had to start 757 00:42:35,280 --> 00:42:37,920 Speaker 1: with spoken language there. I wonder are you asking, maybe, 758 00:42:37,960 --> 00:42:42,320 Speaker 1: like if you could have gone straight from an auditory 759 00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:45,560 Speaker 1: and spoken language to brail or a language that is 760 00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:49,239 Speaker 1: tactile from the beginning, Yeah, Like what would like would 761 00:42:49,280 --> 00:42:52,560 Speaker 1: it would it? Would it be necessary too? Like we 762 00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:57,280 Speaker 1: have the alphabet standing between spoken word and brail? Uh, 763 00:42:57,400 --> 00:42:59,200 Speaker 1: but yeah, what would it would it be like if 764 00:42:59,200 --> 00:43:02,560 Speaker 1: there was a more erect line between these two systems, 765 00:43:02,880 --> 00:43:05,520 Speaker 1: or would it just be necessary to invent something like 766 00:43:05,600 --> 00:43:09,319 Speaker 1: the alphabet some other version of the alphabet to to 767 00:43:09,400 --> 00:43:13,200 Speaker 1: serve as these sort the translation of these two sensory experiences. 768 00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:15,640 Speaker 1: I don't see any inherent reason that would have to 769 00:43:15,680 --> 00:43:21,319 Speaker 1: be anyway. I find language technology generally fascinating, and I 770 00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:23,800 Speaker 1: want to continue to return to the idea of language 771 00:43:23,800 --> 00:43:26,800 Speaker 1: technologies as we as we go on in this show, 772 00:43:26,880 --> 00:43:30,120 Speaker 1: because I wanted, for example, explore the idea of invented 773 00:43:30,200 --> 00:43:33,400 Speaker 1: languages people try to invent languages. Why do these not 774 00:43:33,520 --> 00:43:36,920 Speaker 1: catch on? How come it's so hard now impossible to 775 00:43:36,960 --> 00:43:38,880 Speaker 1: really do it? Oh? Yes, I definitely want to come 776 00:43:38,880 --> 00:43:42,240 Speaker 1: back to this, because you have you have invented languages 777 00:43:42,320 --> 00:43:45,360 Speaker 1: that sort of have a a higher or more noble purpose, 778 00:43:45,360 --> 00:43:48,320 Speaker 1: and then you you have um fictional languages of the 779 00:43:48,600 --> 00:43:52,160 Speaker 1: likes of Klingon, which are which is still a linguistic 780 00:43:52,280 --> 00:43:56,759 Speaker 1: linguistic system created. Uh you know, with all the hallmarks 781 00:43:56,800 --> 00:43:58,960 Speaker 1: of an actual language. It can be learned, it can 782 00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:02,279 Speaker 1: be spoken. Uh So yeah, I would love to come 783 00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:04,960 Speaker 1: back and discuss that. So much of the of that 784 00:44:05,120 --> 00:44:07,279 Speaker 1: is uh, you know, not being a linguist myself, and 785 00:44:07,640 --> 00:44:11,160 Speaker 1: you know, the concept is is kind of foreig into me. Like, 786 00:44:11,200 --> 00:44:13,440 Speaker 1: for instance, when I think of JR. Tolken, you know, 787 00:44:13,480 --> 00:44:15,399 Speaker 1: it's easy to think, oh, you know, I'm totally behind 788 00:44:15,400 --> 00:44:18,320 Speaker 1: the idea of setting down and creating an entire world 789 00:44:18,480 --> 00:44:22,239 Speaker 1: of of monsters and magic. But then the idea of 790 00:44:22,239 --> 00:44:26,440 Speaker 1: setting down and also creating an entire language for one 791 00:44:26,480 --> 00:44:30,000 Speaker 1: of the people's or numerous uh species in the given world, 792 00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:32,080 Speaker 1: that just sounds like way too much worked for me. 793 00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:35,400 Speaker 1: But then again, I'm not a linguist. Maybe creating languages 794 00:44:35,480 --> 00:44:36,840 Speaker 1: is one of those things, kind of like playing a 795 00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:39,839 Speaker 1: musical instrument, Like it's not really fun until you're good 796 00:44:39,920 --> 00:44:43,160 Speaker 1: enough to do it, you know. Yeah, Like it seems 797 00:44:43,200 --> 00:44:45,279 Speaker 1: not fun to you because you wouldn't know where to start. 798 00:44:45,320 --> 00:44:46,960 Speaker 1: But if you were a linguist and you had all 799 00:44:47,040 --> 00:44:49,640 Speaker 1: kinds ideas about the roots of language and how words 800 00:44:49,680 --> 00:44:52,240 Speaker 1: are formed and all that, maybe then it's just a blast. 801 00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:54,719 Speaker 1: One thing I would love to explore in this hypothetical 802 00:44:55,080 --> 00:44:58,960 Speaker 1: episode on fictional languages is if one had to choose so, 803 00:45:00,440 --> 00:45:03,359 Speaker 1: like an alien species comes down dominates the earth and says, 804 00:45:03,360 --> 00:45:06,560 Speaker 1: all right, all your all these existing languages that you're using, 805 00:45:06,560 --> 00:45:08,359 Speaker 1: they're all garbage. We're getting rid of all of them. 806 00:45:08,680 --> 00:45:12,120 Speaker 1: You guys get to vote on it, on which language 807 00:45:12,120 --> 00:45:14,080 Speaker 1: you're all going to use, But it can only be 808 00:45:14,600 --> 00:45:17,799 Speaker 1: a language that was developed exclusively for a film or 809 00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:22,040 Speaker 1: TV show, Like which one is? Like, is nave better 810 00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:25,040 Speaker 1: than cling on? Is cling is close? Doth rat Like, 811 00:45:25,080 --> 00:45:29,080 Speaker 1: what is the most robust and useful fictional language system? 812 00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:32,520 Speaker 1: The doth racky have no words? The thought experiment. Yeah, 813 00:45:32,719 --> 00:45:34,400 Speaker 1: that's see, that's the problem that I feel like we 814 00:45:34,480 --> 00:45:37,640 Speaker 1: might run into it. It's probably cling on. That's my my, 815 00:45:37,640 --> 00:45:41,920 Speaker 1: my guests. Based on some very preliminary research, the cling 816 00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:44,400 Speaker 1: on seems to maybe have received the most work, but 817 00:45:44,440 --> 00:45:46,440 Speaker 1: I could be very wrong on that, you know, Robert, 818 00:45:46,600 --> 00:45:49,759 Speaker 1: Judging on our history with listener mail, I bet a 819 00:45:49,760 --> 00:45:52,080 Speaker 1: couple of listeners are going to write in with thoughts 820 00:45:52,120 --> 00:45:55,359 Speaker 1: about this. We're gonna receive some opinions. Well, I hope so. 821 00:45:55,440 --> 00:45:57,879 Speaker 1: And likewise, I do hope we hear from from any 822 00:45:57,920 --> 00:46:01,920 Speaker 1: listener out there who who needs Brail or you know, 823 00:46:01,960 --> 00:46:05,400 Speaker 1: anybody who is blind or vision impaired that has some 824 00:46:05,440 --> 00:46:08,320 Speaker 1: additional insight that they would like to share on this topic. 825 00:46:08,600 --> 00:46:11,160 Speaker 1: And also, if you've I mean, if you've had the 826 00:46:11,160 --> 00:46:15,680 Speaker 1: experience of both reading printed text and reading brail, do 827 00:46:15,800 --> 00:46:18,120 Speaker 1: you think that there is a major difference in the 828 00:46:18,160 --> 00:46:20,600 Speaker 1: experience of reading the two And if so, what is 829 00:46:20,680 --> 00:46:22,960 Speaker 1: that difference? Like? All right, so we're gonna close it 830 00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:25,359 Speaker 1: off there, But if you want to check out all 831 00:46:25,400 --> 00:46:28,000 Speaker 1: the episodes of Invention, there are several different ways to 832 00:46:28,120 --> 00:46:30,799 Speaker 1: do it. You can check out our homepage that's uh 833 00:46:30,880 --> 00:46:33,719 Speaker 1: invention pod dot com. That's where you'll find all the 834 00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:37,439 Speaker 1: episodes linked us out to some social media accounts as well. 835 00:46:37,640 --> 00:46:40,279 Speaker 1: And of course you can find this podcast anywhere you 836 00:46:40,280 --> 00:46:42,759 Speaker 1: get your podcasts. And if you want to help us out, 837 00:46:42,760 --> 00:46:44,799 Speaker 1: a great thing to do is to first of all 838 00:46:44,840 --> 00:46:48,960 Speaker 1: subscribe to Invention at any of these uh these sources, 839 00:46:49,000 --> 00:46:50,719 Speaker 1: and then rate and review us if you have the 840 00:46:50,760 --> 00:46:53,240 Speaker 1: power to do so. That helps us out immensely. Thanks 841 00:46:53,239 --> 00:46:57,400 Speaker 1: to Scott Benjamin for research assistance with this episode, and 842 00:46:57,480 --> 00:47:01,400 Speaker 1: thanks to our awesome audio producer Tory Harrison. If you 843 00:47:01,440 --> 00:47:03,480 Speaker 1: would like to get in touch with us directly with 844 00:47:03,600 --> 00:47:06,600 Speaker 1: feedback about this episode or any other, to suggest a 845 00:47:06,600 --> 00:47:08,880 Speaker 1: topic for the future, or just to say hello, let 846 00:47:08,920 --> 00:47:10,600 Speaker 1: us know how you found out about the show, where 847 00:47:10,600 --> 00:47:12,800 Speaker 1: you listen from, and all that stuff, you can email 848 00:47:12,880 --> 00:47:33,920 Speaker 1: us at contact at invention pod dot com.