WEBVTT - Turboencabulators and Technobabble 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:13.720 stuff Works dot com. Hey therein Welcome to tech Stuff 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:17.960 and Happy April Fool's Day everyone. I'm Jonathan Strickland. I'm 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:20.439 an executive producer with How Stuff Works in my Heart Radio, 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:23.600 and I love all things tech and this episode should 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:28.120 publish on April first, two thousand nineteen, unless my producer 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:30.960 Tari has played in April Fool's Joke on me while 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:34.200 I'm on vacation, and I thought, well, I could do 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:37.519 another follow up episode on the various tech pranks that 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:39.640 have been pulled since the last time I did a 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:43.400 prank roundup, which I think was in two thousand fifteen, 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.839 But then I decided to focus on something else, a 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:51.120 really amazing example of engineering. So there was a fellow 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:54.560 who was named John Helen's Quick who published a piece 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:57.840 at least as early as nineteen It was in a 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:02.560 December edition of the British Institution of Electrical Engineers Students 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:05.840 Quarterly Journal. Now I say at least as early as 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:09.440 nineteen forty four, because there's some people who say that 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:12.560 it may have been published even earlier in some other 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:15.640 journal by nineteen forty two, but it's super hard to 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:19.480 track down. The earliest I found was this nineteen journal. 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:23.840 The article is a masterpiece. It describes a transformative technology 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:28.039 called the turbo encabulator. Now, normally I wouldn't read out 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:31.000 an entire piece, but in order to understand how important 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:34.160 this is, I figured I would make an exception, and 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:38.800 so here is Mr Quick's description of the turbo encabulator. 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:42.000 For a number of years now, work has been proceeding 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:45.479 in order to bring perfection to the crudely conceived idea 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.960 of a transmission that would not only supply inverse reactive 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:52.720 current for use in unilateral phase detractors, but would also 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:57.200 be capable of automatically synchronizing cardinal gram meters. Such an 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:01.680 instrument is the turbo encabulator. Now, basically, the only new 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:05.240 principle involved is that instead of power being generated by 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:08.760 the relative motion of conductors and fluxes, it is produced 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:12.960 by the modial interaction of magneto reluctance and capacitive diractants. 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:17.359 The original machine had a base plate of prefabriulated ammulite 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:21.200 surmounted by a malleable logarithmic casing in such a way 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:24.280 that the two sperving bearings were in a direct line 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:28.200 with the pentometric fan. The ladder consisted simply of six 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:33.560 hydrocoptic marsal vances, so fitted to the ambifacient lunar wainshaft 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:38.280 that side fumbling was effectively prevented. The main winding was 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:42.519 of the normal lotus o delta type, placed in penandermic 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:46.440 semi boloid slots in the stature, every seventh conductor being 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:49.959 connected by a non reversible trimmy pipe to the differential 0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:53.000 girdle spring on the up end of the gram meters 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:57.360 forty one manestic league spaced grouding brushes were arranged to 0:02:57.440 --> 0:03:00.639 feed into the rotor slip stream a mixed of high 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:06.920 s value phenel hydro benzamine and five percent ruminative tetralio hexamine. 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:11.120 Both these liquids have specific paracoustics given by p equals 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.400 two times five c end to the six times seven, 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:20.120 wherein is the diathetical evolute of retrograde temperature phase disposition 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:26.200 and see is col Mondlaise annular grillage coefficient. Initially, n 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:30.040 was measured with the aid of a metapolar refractive pilfometer, 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:33.040 but up to the present date nothing has been found 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:38.000 to equal the transcendental hopper data scope. Electrical engineers will 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:41.760 appreciate the difficulty of new being together the regurgative pur 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:45.960 well and a supremitive went al sprocket. Indeed, this proved 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:48.800 to be a stumbling block to further development until in 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:52.680 nWo it was found that the use of anhydrous nangling 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:57.200 pins enabled a cryptognastic bowling him to be tankered. The 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:02.040 early attempts to construct a sufficiently robust spiral dcommutator failed 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:05.240 largely because of a lack of appreciation of the large 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:09.320 quasi p stic stresses and Grimlin studs. The latter were 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:12.400 specially designed to hold the roth Itt bars to the 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:16.640 spam shaft. When, however, it was discovered that the winding 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:20.640 could be prevented by a simple addition to the living sockets, 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:25.000 almost perfect running was secured. The operating point is maintained 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:28.240 as near as possible to the h f rempeak by 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:33.560 constantly formaging the bitumogeneous spandrels. This is a distinct advance 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:37.120 on the standard nivel sheave. In the no dramcock oil 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:41.719 is required after the phase detractors have been remissed. Undoubtedly, 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:45.479 the turbo encabulator has now reached a very high level 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:49.240 of technical development. It has been successfully used for operating 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:54.680 no fur trunions. In addition, wherever Barrissant score motion is required, 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:58.360 it may be employed in conjunction with a drawn reciprocating 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:04.120 dingle arm to reduce ying a soiled deplinoration. Now my 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:07.120 guess is you just listen to me read off that 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:11.880 let's say, remarkable description, and you're left with the obvious 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:16.120 response of of course, that's that's blatantly obvious, that's old news. 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:21.120 Or perhaps you're having what was the intended response, you're 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:25.559 confused as heck, Quick's piece was a tongue in cheek 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:31.159 example of satire, highlighting how engineers would sometimes rely very 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:35.039 heavily on jargon that you know, didn't seem to really 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:39.840 mean anything, or purposefully obfuscated the functionality of a system, 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:43.280 or maybe even cover up the engineer's own ignorance of 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:48.160 how a system actually worked. Jargon does have some purposes, 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:51.400 of course. Sometimes you need to create words to describe 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:55.360 something that didn't exist before. If you make a new 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:58.359 device that fulfills a specific purpose, you need to have 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:01.320 a name for it. You might need a name for 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:04.400 the thing that the device actually does. Maybe whatever the 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:07.240 device is doing is a brand new thing, so you've 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:10.320 gotta have some word to describe it. Maybe what it 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:14.200 does is a very specific instance of a more broad concept. 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:17.440 So it's not doing a brand new thing, it's just 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:20.360 doing a thing in a new way. So you create 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:23.960 words to help build in precision. You don't just mean 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:27.480 a dingle angle. You might mean a one eighth hexagonal 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:31.080 matrix dingle angle, so you call this particular component of 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:35.599 a fronyon or whatever. With precision, you can more quickly 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:40.840 communicate your exact needs or intentions to others within that field. 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:45.200 But with that growing precision comes a knowledge gap between 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:48.960 the people in your field and everybody else. Now, in 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:53.520 other cases, people rely on jargon not to convey specific meaning, 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:58.560 but rather to come across as being more sophisticated or intelligent, 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:01.839 or to make something more complicated than it really is. 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:04.960 So I'm gonna give you guys some examples from my 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:09.720 own life. In my life, before I ever was a podcaster, 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:13.160 before I was a writer for how Stuff Works dot com, 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:17.680 I worked for a couple of different management consulting firms. Now, 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:22.120 these were companies that were geared toward helping other companies 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:26.880 assess manager styles or figure out what a corporate culture 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:31.160 was within a certain business, to improve workplace efficiencies, that 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:34.960 kind of thing. I was essentially working for the Bobs 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:37.760 from Office Space. I guess you could say so if 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:40.040 you're familiar with that film and the two consultants who 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:42.560 come in and essentially start slashing jobs left and right. 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:46.320 I was kind of their employee in a roundabout way, 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:51.960 although we didn't typically advocate for slashing huge numbers off 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:57.440 of a corporate employee list. Occasionally, yes, but not frequently. 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:01.640 So my work was focused on help in consultants produce 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:06.480 proposals and reports. Largely, I was there to review, to proof, 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:12.280 freed to format, and occasionally to tweak stuff. Now I 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:15.360 majored in English Lit when I was in college. I 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:20.480 have a fairly extensive vocabulary, but frequently I would find 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:24.920 myself working on documents that were so full of jargon 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:27.600 that I would have to bring the documents over to 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:31.400 a consultant and say, what exactly do you mean when 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:34.080 you say this? You know, I would highlight a passage 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:36.800 and say what does this actually mean? Because I couldn't 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:40.920 really edit or produce documents if I didn't understand the 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:44.160 meaning because it might mean I could let something go 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:47.760 out of the office that was incorrect, and it was 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:51.079 incorrect because I didn't understand what was actually being meant 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:55.640 and whether or not the consultant was accurate in their language. 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:57.920 So I would have to talk with these consultants on 0:08:57.960 --> 0:08:59.880 a very frank level and say, no, no, no, I 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.600 understand what each individual word means in this sentence, but 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:06.560 can you tell me what the overall meaning is? What 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:09.320 are you actually getting at when you say this? And 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:11.599 if they could tell me in plain English, then I 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.720 would ask them, so, why don't you say it that 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:18.280 way in this report? Why are you using language that 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:23.360 is so complicated or non intuitive that what you actually 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:27.080 mean is hidden by that language? What good does that 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:30.840 do you? My fear was that the consultants were writing 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:33.920 these reports in a way to kind of hide the 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:38.160 meaning because it gave them some wiggle room in the interpretations. 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:42.120 And I thought that was maybe a little disingenuous, Like 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:44.960 if you could word a report in such a way 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:47.600 that two different people could come away with two totally 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:53.640 different interpretations, and both interpretations are seemingly valid because you 0:09:53.720 --> 0:10:00.120 were purposefully vague or Uh, using very weird jargon in 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:03.440 your descriptions, then you haven't really done your job. You 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:06.800 haven't actually helped them in any way, because no one 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:10.040 has any consensus on what to do next. So I 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:14.000 found it very frustrating working in that world. Well, the 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:18.400 same thing can happen with engineers, or really any profession 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:22.280 that has its own jargon, from medicine to law, to 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:26.720 science to content creation on the Internet. I've been to 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:31.319 plenty of meetings where there's been a lot of discussion 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:35.240 about things on the Internet, where I felt it was 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:40.400 being unnecessarily complicated, where people were talking about buckets and verticals, 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:45.440 and they're talking about all sorts of things and deliverables 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:48.560 and asking to dialogue with someone, And I kept thinking, 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:51.880 why are we using this language? There are other words 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:55.520 we can use that everyone understands, that will convey exactly 0:10:55.559 --> 0:11:02.079 the meaning you you want, and yet we're progressively going 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:08.040 to this this weird quasi language that that has a 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:10.880 lot of ambiguity in it and therefore makes it harder 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:14.800 to understand the meaning anyway. That was really what this 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:17.480 piece was all about. There has to be a balance 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:22.240 between precision that you get with the specific language that 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:25.800 you were relying upon and clarity what you mean by 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:29.120 that language. So this piece by student John H. Quick 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:33.760 was really meant to raise the reliance of jargon two 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:38.559 ridiculous extremes, to say, if we really crank up the 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:44.120 jargon speak in a piece, you realize how silly it 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:47.960 can get. And the joke may well have died a 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:51.400 quiet death on its own, or maybe only been something 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:55.840 that engineers would joke about, just an inside joke among them, 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:59.559 if it hadn't been for Time Magazine. The Arthur d 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:03.600 Old Industrial Bulletin in the United States would take this 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:06.959 piece and publish it in ninety six, but that didn't 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:10.800 exactly hit mainstream readership. It did, however, get some attention 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:15.280 by people who would review technical documents, and in April 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:18.280 of that year, Time Magazine ran the piece with the 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:22.400 title for No for Trunnions. It was produced without an 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:25.120 overt nod that the whole thing was a wind up, 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:28.400 and the people at Time Magazine knew it was a joke, 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:31.240 but they were presenting it as if it were a 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:36.040 realistic document. Some readers were legitimately flabbergasted. They thought it 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:39.280 was meant as an actual example of engineering, but other 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:41.719 people actually picked up on the joke and ran with it. 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:46.600 Stanton Tompkins, for example, wrote to Time Magazine and included 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:49.560 the comment, may I add that if the bearings are 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:54.439 lubricated with warm smorch, they will not grune. Others added 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:58.520 equally nonsensical comments to push the joke further. One that's 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:02.040 frequently mentioned is from a guy named Ernest In Kerman. 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:06.359 He wrote in and said, after being advised and cerebral 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:09.880 lee malliated by one point five no fur trunnions from 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:15.240 a magitudinitative zero four or five one gmt to an 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:19.800 epin nocturnal proximate eleven fifty five e s T. I 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:23.880 felt the need of spiri in animating filiperative and therefore 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:31.080 submersonized my hypercincinate indoderm in a five percent Fijian nate 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:39.080 by Carbo la kai nat ing Kepsi pola little slightly 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:42.760 veiled pepsi cola reference. They're still The joke could have 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:46.560 faded away from memory after the Time Magazine piece weren't 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:48.840 not for the determination of a few jokesters in the 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:51.400 engineering world to give it a shot in the arm 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:55.000 every few decades. Like the instrument department at General Electric 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:57.480 they wrote up an entire data sheet on the fictional 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:00.880 turbo encabulator. More on that in just moment, but first 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:13.120 let's take a quick break. On December one, nineteen sixty two, 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:16.880 the Instrument Department at GE released a fact sheet on 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:21.680 the turbo encabulator. By the way, I've seen turbo encabulator 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:24.800 presented as both a single word and as two words 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:29.880 as turbo incabulator, so dealer's choice. I guess both appear 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:36.240 throughout engineering joke literature. The fact sheet, however, really helps 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:39.680 clear things up. For example, the function of the turbo 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:43.160 encabulator is made clear by this fact sheet. It's quote 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:46.840 to measure inverse reactive current in unilateral phase detractors with 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:52.120 a display of percent realization end quote. So finally we 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:55.240 know what's going on, right. Much of the fact sheet 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:59.520 is drawn directly from Quick's description of the turbo encabulator 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:05.840 from back. Other parts gleefully build upon the nonsense. For example, 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:08.280 there is a section on the fact sheet about the 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:12.560 application of the device that reads, quote caution because of 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:18.000 the replenorative flow characteristics of positive ions and unilateral phase detractors, 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:22.080 the use of quasi static regeneration oscillator is recommended if 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:26.480 turbo encabulator is used in explosive atmospheres. End quote. The 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:30.040 fact sheet actually includes an image of the supposed device, 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:34.440 the first image that I could actually find on record 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:36.920 this version. If you were to look at it looks 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:39.680 kind of like a cylinder mounted on its side on 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:43.200 a small stand, so think of like a like a 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.200 water bottle, but you have it on its side. On 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.080 one end of this cylinder is a fan that sticks 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:51.440 out of the end. There's a length of piping that 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:55.520 stretches across the top of the turbo encabulator, so again 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:57.520 like it would be the side of the cylinder, but 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:00.800 the top of the device. And there's some other details 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:02.800 on this as well, although it's hard to make out 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:06.520 because I've only seen scans of the original document and 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:08.840 they tend to be pretty low quality scans, so it's 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:12.160 hard to make out details. The entire write up followed 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:16.040 the format of official g E standards for product documentation, 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:19.680 so the people who made this actually made it so 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:25.400 it looked exactly like any standard g E documentation. They 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.520 followed all the rules and it was inserted into the 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:33.200 official GE handbook. Now I'm sure that those who painstaking 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:37.160 lee read through the entire handbook were amused or maybe 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:40.520 befuddled by the joke. Also, I feel this is a 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:43.200 good place to say that it pays to read through 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:46.800 employee handbooks because you never know when someone's going to 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:49.480 slip in a joke. And as someone who has actually 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:52.920 designed employee handbooks in the past, I'd also say it 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:57.760 is incredibly satisfying to put jokes into official materials, you know, 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:00.480 so long as those jokes aren't going to backfire on you. 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:03.600 So I would actually recommend getting official approval before getting 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:07.720 wacky with the official handbook. It is good to see 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:11.680 why a in those cases. Still, at this point, we're 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:18.240 talking about print representations of this ridiculous notion. In ninety seven, 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:22.479 the Turbo Encabulator made the transition from page to screen. 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:25.960 An actor named Bud Haggart, who was well known for 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:30.320 voiceover and industrial film performances, took on the role of 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:34.080 an engineer delivering a matter of fact explanation of the 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:38.480 turbo Encabulator. The script was nearly word for word Quick's 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:42.080 original piece in ninety four. It was edited a bit 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:45.040 but had essentially the same flow, and it was helped 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:48.960 with meaningless diagrams and sketches that Haggard would point to 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:53.200 throughout his delivery as if he was actually pointing at 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:58.480 the physical components of this fictional device. His tone and 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:01.240 approach made it so like he was talking about something 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:05.280 that any kid could understand with relative ease. It was brilliant. 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:10.600 According to Internet lore, Hanard proposed doing the short as 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:14.000 an add on after an official short film for GMC 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:18.679 was shot. It was an industrial film about one of 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:22.280 their truck lines. So he goes in. He does this 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:27.480 commercial shoot for GMC about their truck lines, and he 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:29.880 works with the film crew, and then afterwards he takes 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:32.280 the film crew aside. He talks to the director, whose 0:18:32.320 --> 0:18:35.359 name was Dave Ron Dutt, and he asks them to 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:39.240 stay after so that he might shoot a short film 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:43.840 that is based off the turbo encabulator piece. Haggard had 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:48.440 actually written the script based on that n article and 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:52.119 made it something that he could create a presentation out of. 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:57.840 And industrial films were something of a of a big 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:00.760 deal in the seventies and eighties, and they could actually 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:04.360 make the rounds within an industry. So this nineteen seventies 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:08.880 seven fake industrial film that Haggard made made the rounds, 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:12.199 and some folks over at Chrysler saw it. So in 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.880 Chrysler hired Haggard to come over and shoot a new 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:22.280 version of his turbo encabulator presentation at Chrysler's facility, and 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:25.240 it was purporting to be a new product from the 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:29.160 auto company. In this case, he had some actual machinery 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:32.679 to gesture toward while delivering his presentation, but none of 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:35.240 the things he was pointing to had anything to do 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:40.320 with what he was actually saying. Cat's cuttle fish to 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:45.080 the second oil age and his kingdom with fur of darkness. 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:49.840 I don't dispute the eurostata, but if he's down here, 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:58.040 not blood but darkness, the earth's black riches, I could 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:02.200 taste it on my lips. Today, I want to talk 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:16.119 to you about the science of transgenesis Genesis time show. WHOA. 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:20.639 I'm not sure what what happened just there? That was 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:27.840 That was odd um? All right? Well, getting back into 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:34.240 it talking about the films. Both the original video or 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:37.240 film rather that Haggard shot and the Chrysler version of 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:40.439 the presentation are available online. You can watch both of 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:42.800 them and you can find them on YouTube. You can 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:45.159 find them on other platforms as well, And there is 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:50.240 no way at all that I could deliver the techno 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:54.400 babble with the same dead pan skill as Mr Haggard. 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:59.320 It is a masterpiece of dead pan humor. It's also 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:02.439 pretty clear that he wasn't using any Q cards or 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:05.959 a teleprompter. His eyes hold steady the entire time. They 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:09.280 don't have the tell tale scanning motions you get when 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:12.680 you're watching someone who's reading from Q cards or a teleprompter. 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:15.680 If you've ever watched Saturday Night Live, if you ever 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:19.320 even watched videos that I have done. I've done several 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:22.600 videos without a teleprompter, and I've done videos with teleprompters. 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:24.600 And if you watch my eyes, you can tell which 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:27.440 one you're seeing because you can see that I'm actually 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:29.720 reading something on the teleprompter one. So I get really 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:32.159 sensitive to this kind of thing. I notice it pretty quickly, 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:35.080 I think most people do, but it jumps out at me. 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:37.199 So I wondered at first how he did it, Like, 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:43.440 how did he actually memorize this incredibly dense list of jargon. Well, 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:46.680 according to the director Ron Dot, the nineteen seventy seven 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:50.040 version was done with an audio prompter. It was a 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:54.240 wired earpiece that connected to a real to real tape recorder. 0:21:54.920 --> 0:21:59.600 Uh so Haggard had gone and recorded the entire speech 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:02.720 on to the reel to reel and he used the 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:06.600 earpiece as a prompter for himself. Now, I can't imagine 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:10.000 how difficult that was to do at pace where you're 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:12.560 delivering it right after you're hearing it. Because if you've 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:16.360 ever tried to speak well hearing your own audio, you 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:18.520 know that that can get really difficult. You can find 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:22.960 it very disorienting and disconcerting. So maybe he practiced it 0:22:23.080 --> 0:22:26.359 enough to speak the piece in time with the recorded version, 0:22:26.440 --> 0:22:28.560 sort of like singing along to the radio when a 0:22:28.640 --> 0:22:31.479 song is playing, you might find that, oh, I know 0:22:31.600 --> 0:22:33.960 all the lyrics when I sing along to the radio, 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:35.919 but if you asked me to try and sing the 0:22:36.000 --> 0:22:39.320 lyrics on my own without the song playing, suddenly I 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:41.600 start having trouble. Maybe it was something like that, I 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:44.800 don't know. The Chrysler video has a follow up part 0:22:45.359 --> 0:22:48.320 and there's another actor who talks about the diagnosis and 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:52.639 service of the turbo encabulator. That segment includes even more 0:22:52.880 --> 0:22:56.520 techno babble and jargon, adding yet more complexity to the 0:22:56.600 --> 0:22:58.760 overall joke. Now, I'm not going to go into the 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:01.520 whole script like I did with the original publication, but 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:03.600 I do want to point out a couple of favorite 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:08.359 parts of mine. The presenter says, for the purposes of obscurity, 0:23:08.520 --> 0:23:11.000 we have removed the casing to expose the heart of 0:23:11.040 --> 0:23:15.600 the turbo encabulator, the magneto reluctance modial interactor. Since little 0:23:15.680 --> 0:23:19.000 or nothing is known about the principles involved in magneto reluctance, 0:23:19.200 --> 0:23:23.440 diagnosing faults can be a problem that to me is 0:23:23.480 --> 0:23:26.400 absolutely hysterical. The notion that we have built an important 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:30.159 piece of technology without an understanding of the underlying science 0:23:30.200 --> 0:23:33.400 that makes it work is already pretty amusing. So yeah, 0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:35.639 if you don't understand how something works, how would you 0:23:35.680 --> 0:23:39.200 know when something is wrong. There's also a terrible pun 0:23:39.320 --> 0:23:42.400 in that segment, in which the presenter says a diagnostic 0:23:42.440 --> 0:23:46.440 tool will display any faults in code, adding quote it's 0:23:46.440 --> 0:23:49.719 a simple head code. Anyone can catch it end quote 0:23:50.160 --> 0:23:52.439 That in turn might be a bit of a joke theft, 0:23:52.880 --> 0:23:57.000 because I actually recall that the absurdist radio comedy group 0:23:57.040 --> 0:24:00.399 Fire Sign Theater had a similar joke about a simple 0:24:00.440 --> 0:24:05.040 schoolboy code that anyone could catch. In general, the Chrysler 0:24:05.119 --> 0:24:07.480 video makes it more apparent that the whole thing is 0:24:07.520 --> 0:24:11.800 done for laughs. It is less of a uh, it's 0:24:11.840 --> 0:24:15.520 it's less done as a serious piece the original piece. 0:24:15.840 --> 0:24:19.119 If you didn't know better, if you were completely naive 0:24:19.240 --> 0:24:22.679 about engineering, you might think, while this is just I 0:24:22.720 --> 0:24:24.679 don't understand any of it. I have no idea what 0:24:24.720 --> 0:24:28.240 this thing does. But if you know what he's talking about, 0:24:28.320 --> 0:24:30.440 or at least no enough to know that it's nonsense, 0:24:30.480 --> 0:24:33.000 then it's a joke. Well, in this case, the Chrysler 0:24:33.080 --> 0:24:37.160 version is more obviously a joke. Another video that will 0:24:37.160 --> 0:24:40.120 pop up if you search for turbo encabulator is from 0:24:40.320 --> 0:24:45.359 Rockwell Automation, produced in nine, which tells us that seems 0:24:45.400 --> 0:24:47.440 like we get a new version every decade or so, 0:24:47.480 --> 0:24:50.200 because the first one came out in nineteen seventy seven, 0:24:50.240 --> 0:24:52.919 the next one came out in the late eighties, and 0:24:52.960 --> 0:24:55.920 then you have nine or so for the third one. 0:24:56.400 --> 0:25:00.280 The company Rockwell Automation started at the big ending of 0:25:00.320 --> 0:25:03.920 the twentieth century, a different company name, but what would 0:25:03.920 --> 0:25:07.000 evolve into Rockwell Automation traces its history back that far. 0:25:07.600 --> 0:25:11.840 The company creates industrial automation technology for other companies, so 0:25:11.880 --> 0:25:14.720 it's not exactly the place you would expect to find humor. 0:25:14.840 --> 0:25:17.639 But Rockwell produced their own video in the spirit of 0:25:17.680 --> 0:25:22.399 the Turbo Encabulator, this time called the Retro Encabulator. Actor 0:25:22.520 --> 0:25:25.600 Mike Craft served as the host of the video, and 0:25:25.680 --> 0:25:29.520 Craft had done presentations at industry conferences and events on 0:25:29.560 --> 0:25:33.480 behalf of companies like Alan Bradley for years. Craft had 0:25:33.480 --> 0:25:37.160 discovered the Bud Haggart piece many years earlier and had 0:25:37.160 --> 0:25:39.800 memorized it, and I didn't realize it at first when 0:25:39.840 --> 0:25:42.440 I was watching it. But Craft also was the repair 0:25:42.520 --> 0:25:46.440 technician who did the follow up segment in Haggart's Chrysler video, 0:25:46.520 --> 0:25:49.040