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Speaker 1: Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My

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Speaker 1: name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's

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Speaker 1: Saturdaytime for a Vault episode. Uh. This episode originally aired

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Speaker 1: on October eighty nineteen, and it was about how cars

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Speaker 1: affect our bodies and our minds. Yeah, this was This

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Speaker 1: was a fun episode to put together. I think there.

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Speaker 1: This was actually one that came out in October. It

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Speaker 1: was a sponsored affair, but we were like, all right,

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Speaker 1: if we have to do an episode about cars during

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Speaker 1: the month of October, we're gonna get a little Christine

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Speaker 1: talk in there. We're gonna talk about um, Stephen King

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Speaker 1: and John Carpenter a bit, and I believe we shoehorned

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Speaker 1: that into the very beginning. But then the rest of

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Speaker 1: the episode I think is a lot of fun because

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Speaker 1: it gets into like what happens to us, who do

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Speaker 1: we become when we merge with the automobile Room Room

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind? A production of

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Speaker 1: I Heart Radios has to work. Hey are you welcome

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Speaker 1: to Stuff to Blow Your Mind? My name is Robert

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Speaker 1: Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and hey, it's still October

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Speaker 1: that's right. Uh, you know this episode, we need to

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Speaker 1: go and stay at the front. Uh. This episode is

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Speaker 1: sponsored by Lexus. Lexus asked to say make cars. They

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Speaker 1: make cars. They asked us to do an episode that

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Speaker 1: revolves around automobiles and deals with automobiles, and we said sure.

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Speaker 1: But also, since it is October, since it is our

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Speaker 1: our month Halloween celebration, we have to kick things off

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Speaker 1: by discussing something at least a little Halloween. We're gonna

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Speaker 1: have to talk about Stephen King's Christine. Right, it got

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Speaker 1: your brain winding on those cars without driver movies. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: some of you may best remember Christine from from the book.

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Speaker 1: I remember reading the book back and I think Junior high.

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Speaker 1: And then then of course there's John Carpenter three film adaptation.

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Speaker 1: This is one of the only classic Carpenter era films

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Speaker 1: I have not seen. It's been a well it's been

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Speaker 1: a while since I've seen it, but it's a it's

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Speaker 1: a pretty pretty great concept. The film, as the book,

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Speaker 1: concerns a murderous red and white n Plymouth Fury and

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Speaker 1: the vehicle is possessed by a by a malicious will

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Speaker 1: and a jealousy, with which it protects the character Arnie Cunningham.

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Speaker 1: So this is like I've heard it described before. It's

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Speaker 1: basically like there's this teen boy, he gets this car,

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Speaker 1: the car is sort of possessed, and it becomes like

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Speaker 1: a murderous, jealous lover. Yeah, that's kind of the shorthand

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Speaker 1: for it. But I also think that that King and Carpenter,

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Speaker 1: at least on some level, you know, they're they're playing

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Speaker 1: with a few other elements. They're playing certainly with nostalgia,

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Speaker 1: because it's a very nostalgic vehicle that ends up possessing

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Speaker 1: the kid. You know, there's certainly, I mean certainly when

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Speaker 1: I think back on it, I think on the fact

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Speaker 1: that it seems to deal a lot with like really

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Speaker 1: toxic ideas of masculinity, and you know, because it's just

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Speaker 1: filled with awful men in their cars, in their vehicles.

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Speaker 1: But but also this idea that a car could change us,

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Speaker 1: or that a car becomes the the means by which

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Speaker 1: we we chase change, because at the center of it,

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Speaker 1: there is this character that undergoes a transformation through his

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Speaker 1: use of the automobile. And of course it's it's Stephen

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Speaker 1: King's John Carpenter. So it ends up it has the

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Speaker 1: supernatural flare to it. But I think at heart one

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Speaker 1: of the reasons that the people did the story is

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Speaker 1: like they get this idea of the car as being

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Speaker 1: something that can have an effect on human behavior and

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Speaker 1: human identity and uh, and can be something we chase

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Speaker 1: after for those reasons. Yeah, And that goes multiple ways.

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Speaker 1: So there's the one hand where we're chasing it, where

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Speaker 1: it's like new car, new me. You know, people want

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Speaker 1: to sort of like maybe upgrade or change their personal

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Speaker 1: image or change their view of themselves by getting a

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Speaker 1: new car. Uh. And then there's the way of course

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Speaker 1: that maybe in a more unconscious and subterranean way, just

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Speaker 1: driving changes the way we interact with the world. Yeah. Absolutely.

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Speaker 1: And on top of that, there's also the personification aspect

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Speaker 1: of it. You know, Christine is the car and yet

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Speaker 1: she however you want to identify, We end up personifying

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Speaker 1: it in the show. And this is a trend that

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Speaker 1: can that is used elsewhere and storytelling. It was used

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Speaker 1: in a nineteen forty four story named Killdozer that was

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Speaker 1: later made into a film I Believe You Have with

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Speaker 1: the Love Bug, and then later on you had the

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Speaker 1: likes of Mega Weapon from Warrior of the Lost World.

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Speaker 1: So there's the Green Goblin tractor trailer rig and King's

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Speaker 1: own nineteen eight six self directed adaptation of his nineteen

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Speaker 1: eight short story Trucks the legendary Maximum Overdrive. That one's

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Speaker 1: a mess. Yeah, But but already I think we get

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Speaker 1: just by looking at our fiction about vehicles, we get

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Speaker 1: this idea that our relationship with them is kind of complicated,

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Speaker 1: Like they are these things that we kind of see

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Speaker 1: as non human entities, and yet and yet we personify them,

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Speaker 1: and then we all so merge with them, and we

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Speaker 1: allow them to to change how we perceive ourselves and

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Speaker 1: how we perceive others. Cars are very much one of

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Speaker 1: one of the early steps towards cyborgism. I mean, we

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Speaker 1: totally incorporate the car into the sense of self, and

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Speaker 1: I think that there's really interesting evidence for that too

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Speaker 1: from psychological research. But like the horse drawn carriage is

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Speaker 1: essentially a relationship between human and horse, with the carriage

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Speaker 1: as uh you can see it, I guess as a

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Speaker 1: facilitator or just this necessary prop But then the horseless

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Speaker 1: carriage is all about the human and the machine. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if I can think of another technology

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Speaker 1: that fills both of these roles quite the way that

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Speaker 1: the cars do that are both sort of a a

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Speaker 1: slightly personified external entity, like the way that you know,

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Speaker 1: people interact with robots as if they're living creatures. People

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Speaker 1: sort of interact with cars as if they're living creatures,

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Speaker 1: but then also incorporated into the self, like the car

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Speaker 1: and as an extension of the brain and the body. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: like I feel like to a certain extent, we see

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Speaker 1: some of these things happening with people who own and

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Speaker 1: operate boats, especially smaller boats, because certainly boats can be

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Speaker 1: used as a symbol. They can you know, et cetera.

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Speaker 1: They can fall balls, and a number of these categories.

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Speaker 1: But at the same time, a boat doesn't it tends

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Speaker 1: not to enclose enclose one the way an automobile is.

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Speaker 1: And of course, the automobile, especially in the United States,

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Speaker 1: is this thing that is uh and it's almost expected

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Speaker 1: of everyone that you should have access to it, where

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Speaker 1: of course, a boat is going to be more of

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Speaker 1: a thing in coastal regions or areas with access to

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Speaker 1: two larger bodies of water. Maybe if people regularly drove submarines, yeah, submersibles,

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Speaker 1: little personal submersibles. Yeah, I'm trying to think of other

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Speaker 1: technologies we have such an intimate relationship with as we

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Speaker 1: do with our cars. If you're a car owner and

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Speaker 1: you drive regularly, I mean you would have your electronic devices,

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Speaker 1: like your computer or your smartphone, But I don't really

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Speaker 1: see those being personified really. They become more just sort

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Speaker 1: of a medium space like through which you enter that

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Speaker 1: cyber world. You don't have a name for your phone? No? No? Oh, yes,

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Speaker 1: I call it Satan. But do you have a name

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Speaker 1: for your car? H? No, I don't wait. Do you

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Speaker 1: have a name for your phone? No? But I call

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Speaker 1: my wife's phone phony. So if if if the phone,

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Speaker 1: if can't the phone cannot be found, well I'll be like,

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Speaker 1: well where's phony, let's find phony. Um. But my car

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Speaker 1: does not have to have a name. The one I

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Speaker 1: had in high school did have a name. It was

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Speaker 1: it was what a Christine? No? Nos, it was a

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Speaker 1: green Chevy malbo uh And it was its name was

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Speaker 1: the green machine. That was just what he had always

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Speaker 1: been called before I became the owner of it. So

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Speaker 1: is it named after a Kaya song? No? That I

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Speaker 1: later when I discovered that Kaya song, which is a cool,

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Speaker 1: cool track, I I was reminded of my time with

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Speaker 1: the green Machine the vehicle. But no, I don't think

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Speaker 1: there's any direct relationship there. But we'll get back to

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Speaker 1: this idea of naming your car and our association with

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Speaker 1: cars in terms of personification in a bit. But first,

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Speaker 1: let's say I think we should probably turn our minds

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Speaker 1: to just the most obvious relationships, the relationship between the

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Speaker 1: car and the human brain. Sure, Now, one line of

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Speaker 1: research here shouldn't really be a surprise at all. I

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Speaker 1: think it is that research indicates that our state of

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Speaker 1: mind affects how we drive. Kind of duh, right, I

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Speaker 1: mean that's obvious, And one the most obvious way, I

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Speaker 1: think is the thing we've all had drilled into us

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Speaker 1: by this point, yet some people still do not pay

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Speaker 1: attention to, which is that there are multiple states of

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Speaker 1: mind you can get into in which you should not

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Speaker 1: drive at all. You know, driving drunk, driving fatigued, to

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Speaker 1: driving distracted. Uh, don't do these things. They kill people, Okay.

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Speaker 1: And even if you think that you're at normal you know,

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Speaker 1: driving ability, like, we're not very good at judging our

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Speaker 1: own ability to drive at any given time. So that's

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Speaker 1: the more obvious one one that's still probably kind of obvious,

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Speaker 1: but less obvious maybe is that emotional states affect how

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Speaker 1: we drive. I was looking at one study from the

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Speaker 1: journal Accident Analysis and Prevention from fourteen by roytal at

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Speaker 1: All called Emotional States of Drivers and the impact on Speed,

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Speaker 1: acceleration and Traffic Violations a simulator study, and basically they

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Speaker 1: measured performance responses in a driving simulation to different scenarios

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Speaker 1: that were designed to get you to feel certain emotions

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Speaker 1: like anxiety, fear, anger, and contempt. And the results were

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Speaker 1: the following. Anger is bad. You don't want to be

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Speaker 1: angry while you drive, they say. Quote results indicate that

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Speaker 1: anger leads to stronger acceleration and higher speeds, even for

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Speaker 1: two kilometers beyond the emotional siting events. So something makes

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Speaker 1: you mad, you don't just zoom past it and then

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Speaker 1: go back to baseline. You zoom passed it, and you

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Speaker 1: kind of stay in a heightened state of angry speeding

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Speaker 1: around for a while. The authors found that both anxiety

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Speaker 1: and contempt created similar effects to anger, but the effects

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Speaker 1: were somewhat weaker, uh so still stronger acceleration, higher speeds.

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Speaker 1: Uh They found that fright was the only emotion that

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Speaker 1: actually improved driving performance by some measures. Yeah, they said

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Speaker 1: that fright quote correlated with stronger breaking momentum and lower

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Speaker 1: speeds directly after the critical event. So I think the

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Speaker 1: obvious solution is to go in the Christine direction, like

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Speaker 1: you need to get your car haunted, You take it

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Speaker 1: to the neighborhood which get it jammed with curses and

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Speaker 1: screaming ghosts, and then you'll be a safer driver. Interesting.

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Speaker 1: I mean, so certainly there's there's plenty of media and

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Speaker 1: they're staying in news coverage, you know, of the dangers

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Speaker 1: of driving. But it does make you wonder if there's

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Speaker 1: such if there is a strong connection between fear and

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Speaker 1: driving safer, there needs to be stuff like on the

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Speaker 1: dashboard that that inspires fear. Uh uh Yeah, So I'm

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Speaker 1: kidding about that obviously. I don't. Now there might be

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Speaker 1: measure years by which driving afraid it makes you actually

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Speaker 1: worse at driving. It was just on the measures that

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Speaker 1: they looked at in this study, So like when people

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Speaker 1: were scared, they lowered their speed, of course, and lower

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Speaker 1: speeds correlate to fewer accidents and that kind of thing.

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Speaker 1: So good on that measure, but not necessarily good to

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Speaker 1: be afraid while driving on every measure. We don't know

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Speaker 1: what all those measures would be, but so well, the

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Speaker 1: specific details there might be instructive. We also all know

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Speaker 1: that that mind states we bring to the road affect

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Speaker 1: how we operate a vehicle. On the other hand, I

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Speaker 1: think it's really interesting to think about the psychology of

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Speaker 1: driving in the opposite direction, not how the mind state

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Speaker 1: we bring to the car affects how we drive, but

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Speaker 1: how driving affects our minds overall. Yeah. One of the

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Speaker 1: big things that that that really struck me and looking

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Speaker 1: at all this was just how how cognitively demanding driving

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Speaker 1: really is, even though it's something that you know so

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Speaker 1: many especially if you've been doing it for a while,

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Speaker 1: if you're if you're learning to drive, it can it

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Speaker 1: can feel rightfully overwhelming. I remember that feeling and thinking

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Speaker 1: like how am I going to do this? And you know,

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Speaker 1: the other the adults in my lives were saying things like, oh, well,

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Speaker 1: everybody does it. It It can't be that hard, Joe, get it.

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Speaker 1: You know, everybody drives, but but it is a cognitively

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Speaker 1: demanding task. I was looking at a paper titled Mind

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Speaker 1: over Machine, and in it Hubert drive us at all described.

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Speaker 1: Learning to drive a car is something that is quote

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Speaker 1: so designed that almost all novices can eventually reach the

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Speaker 1: level we call expert, which which I think is interesting.

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Speaker 1: So we're dealing with something that, again is is a

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Speaker 1: cognitively demanding m activity, and yet we have it refined

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Speaker 1: in such a way and maybe the task itself lends

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Speaker 1: itself in such a way that most humans who undertake

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Speaker 1: it can reach a very high level of mastery. Now,

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Speaker 1: certainly they're gonna still be plenty of people who are

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Speaker 1: better than you at driving. There are probably gonna be

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Speaker 1: people that are at worse. But on average, we have this,

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Speaker 1: we have this world in which we have wrapped it

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Speaker 1: in highways and roads and we give and people have

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Speaker 1: these vehicles that are just inherently dangerous by being you know,

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Speaker 1: fast moving in pieces of steel and glass and so forth,

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Speaker 1: and for the most part it goes pretty well. Uh yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's kind of amazing how much it goes well. I mean,

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Speaker 1: this goes against obviously our our normal framing and negativity

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Speaker 1: bias and stuff. When we think about traffic, which is

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Speaker 1: you get out on the road and you think, oh,

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Speaker 1: everybody out there is just the worst at driving. Is

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Speaker 1: just awful. But now, I mean, on one hand that

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Speaker 1: can be true, but at the same time you could

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Speaker 1: just say it's amazing how well it mostly goes. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think so, which again can be hard to hard

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Speaker 1: to stomach if you're stuck in traffic or if there's

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Speaker 1: a particularly crazy, you know, driver weaving in and out

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Speaker 1: of traffic. But but but still it's worth stopping to

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Speaker 1: to realize. But a lot of this, I think gets

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Speaker 1: down to the fact that that we are highly evolved

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Speaker 1: tool users, and the automobile vehicle is essentially a complex tool.

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Speaker 1: When we you say, a ham, we extend our body

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Speaker 1: scheme through it. Our brain updates its notion of where

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Speaker 1: our body ends and the world begins. It incorporates the

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Speaker 1: hammer into our conception of the body, and we then

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Speaker 1: wield it as an extension of ourselves to you know,

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Speaker 1: a large extent. And a car also effects us, you know,

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Speaker 1: like we become the car and it changes our perception

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Speaker 1: then of the world beyond us. Yeah, and this is

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Speaker 1: something really interesting to consider. Now I've talked on the

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Speaker 1: show before without any specific evidence. I remember just talking

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Speaker 1: about a general intuition that our perception of space and

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Speaker 1: relationship to other objects seems different when we're in a

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Speaker 1: car versus when we're just walking around on the street.

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Speaker 1: We actually found a study this time that talks directly

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Speaker 1: about this phenomenon. So this uh, the study here is

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Speaker 1: by Moeller at All. It's called what a Car Does

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Speaker 1: to Your Perception Distance evaluations differ from within an outside

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Speaker 1: of a car from the Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. And

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Speaker 1: so the authors start off here by talking about how

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Speaker 1: research already exists to show that the use of like

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Speaker 1: handheld tools you use the idea of a hammer, maybe

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Speaker 1: an ax, or like a like a grabber claw, you know,

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Speaker 1: those those funneled things to get something down off top

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Speaker 1: of the refrigerator, that they extend our perception of near space.

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Speaker 1: They sort of alter our view of how near and

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Speaker 1: far away things are within there when they're within like

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Speaker 1: rough reach of this tool. And other research suggests that

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Speaker 1: our ideas of near and far are frequently altered by

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Speaker 1: our potential to act within a given space. So like

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Speaker 1: whether you're currently using a tool that allows you to

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Speaker 1: quickly access some kind of activity or change something within

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Speaker 1: a certain space, it changes your view of how close

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Speaker 1: or far that space is from you now on the

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Speaker 1: issue of a vehicle versus tool, the vehicle as a tool.

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Speaker 1: The authors also point out quote one marked difference between

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Speaker 1: handheld tools and vehicles is that there are mainly used

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Speaker 1: for transportation and not to manipulate the environment. Never Nevertheless,

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Speaker 1: for a long time, authors have repeatedly suggested that vehicles

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Speaker 1: might be defined as tools as well. However, they do

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Speaker 1: know that there has been less research, however, on vehicle

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Speaker 1: tools and human cognition. Yeah, and so what this study

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Speaker 1: set out to do was just see how sitting in

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Speaker 1: a vehicle or having recently used a vehicle changes your

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Speaker 1: perception of space according to these guidelines. So basically what

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Speaker 1: they did is they had people sit at a starting line,

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Speaker 1: you know, like you stand behind the line and judge

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Speaker 1: various distances out in front of you, between like four

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Speaker 1: and twenty meters, and they would vary the conditions whether

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Speaker 1: you'd be a pedestrian just sitting there in a chair

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Speaker 1: on foot, or sitting in a car, or sitting in

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Speaker 1: a kind of car simulator that was basically not a car,

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Speaker 1: but it was like a black wooden frame that would

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Speaker 1: block out the same parts of your view that would

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Speaker 1: normally be obscured if you were sitting in a car. Right,

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Speaker 1: So that's a control condition, right, it's sort of it

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Speaker 1: counteracts the idea that your perception would be altered just

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Speaker 1: by what the car normally blocks you from seeing. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they end up concluding the cars quote modulate the perception

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Speaker 1: of far distances because they modulate the driver's perception like

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Speaker 1: a tool typically does, and change the perceived action potential.

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Speaker 1: And you know, I can, I can. I think you

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Speaker 1: can relate to this in in my day to day life. Uh.

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Speaker 1: If I if I have driven the car to, say

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Speaker 1: a large shopping complex where you have a large parking

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Speaker 1: area and then stores around the edges of that parking area,

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Speaker 1: and so let's say the grocery stores on one side

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Speaker 1: and the bookstores on the far other side, and I

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Speaker 1: have to pick something up from both the bookstore and

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Speaker 1: the grocery store. I may drive to the grocery store, uh,

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Speaker 1: to do my main shopping. And then I'll while I'm driving,

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Speaker 1: I'll think in my mind, well, okay, I'll get out,

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Speaker 1: I'll do the grocery store run, and then I'll just

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Speaker 1: walk over to the bookstore and then back to the

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Speaker 1: back to the car, and that makes perfect sense. But

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Speaker 1: then I get out of the car. I may I

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Speaker 1: go inside, I walk around, I do the grocery shopping.

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Speaker 1: I'm bringing the food back to my vehicle. And then

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Speaker 1: I realized, this is a big parking lot. Maybe this this,

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Speaker 1: this is actually maybe a walk I'm not willing to take.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to get back in the car and I'm

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Speaker 1: going to drive across the parking lot to the bookstore. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And I think that that could possibly could make the

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Speaker 1: argument that that kind of decision making is based in

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Speaker 1: the fact that when I'm in the car, it really

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Speaker 1: doesn't seem like that big of a distance, but when

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Speaker 1: I'm out of the car, I can more accurately judge

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Speaker 1: the distance across the parking lot. Well, this is not

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Speaker 1: covered in the study we looked at, or in any

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Speaker 1: study that I could find. But it also makes me

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Speaker 1: wonder about not just estimations of distances, but judgments about

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Speaker 1: the trasversibility of spaces. Um, so does being in a

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Speaker 1: car make you see a particular landscape as more or

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Speaker 1: less traversible in general? Not just distance, But like you know,

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Speaker 1: there are certain parking lots that you could drive across,

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Speaker 1: but you don't really like want to walk across them

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Speaker 1: if they're like, you know, big lanes going across the

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Speaker 1: middle of them where they're a lot of cars moving

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Speaker 1: or something, right, I mean, it could also affect you know,

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Speaker 1: how you perceive, say the walkability of your neighborhood, or

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Speaker 1: what kind of a walking commute you might have to

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Speaker 1: the nearest train or bus station, that sort of thing. Yeah, totally.

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Speaker 1: Now a couple of other things from the discussion section

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Speaker 1: of this paper. So one thing they say is that specifically,

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Speaker 1: like how much did drivers underestimate distances when compared to pedestrians.

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Speaker 1: They say, quote, drivers underestimated even the shortest distance, which

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Speaker 1: I think would have been four meters, by approximately forty

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Speaker 1: per cent. And this underestimation did not increase anymore for

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Speaker 1: increasing distances. So that's kind of interesting. It's like they're

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Speaker 1: rough underestimation percentage stayed about the same as the distances

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Speaker 1: got farther, right, Um, And we want to say again,

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Speaker 1: this was not due to drivers having part of their

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Speaker 1: vision blocked by the body of the car, which is

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Speaker 1: a thing because they compared it to pedestrians just sitting

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Speaker 1: there with like a black frame blocking the anime parts

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Speaker 1: of their vision, and there was still a difference. It

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Speaker 1: was the idea that I'm in a car. It was

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Speaker 1: what seemed to be acting on people to make this

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Speaker 1: misjudgment of distance. But another variation they looked at was

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Speaker 1: didn't movement before the experiment alter anything? Uh They found

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Speaker 1: that if you walk for ten minutes before you make

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Speaker 1: the judgment of distance, this did not influence distance estimation,

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Speaker 1: so walking around doesn't change anything. But if you drive

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Speaker 1: the car for ten minutes, this led to even larger

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Speaker 1: underestimations of distances. Uh. So they conclude in the end

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Speaker 1: quote the moment you sit in your car, your distance

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Speaker 1: perception of the environment seems to adapt to your new

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Speaker 1: action potential, again underlining how strongly related action and perception

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Speaker 1: representations in the cognitive system are. And this makes me

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Speaker 1: just want to see more research along these lines about

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Speaker 1: the ways our perception of not just space, but also

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Speaker 1: again like objects in the landscape and stuff are altered

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Speaker 1: by being inside a car. Like here's an example, how

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Speaker 1: much different would you estimate the mass of an object

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Speaker 1: in front of you if you're in a car versus

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Speaker 1: not in a car. I wonder if being in a

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Speaker 1: car makes other things around you look smaller and less

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Speaker 1: significant and less weighty. Perhaps I don't know, but I

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Speaker 1: mean I ask that because I mean I wonder if

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Speaker 1: like being in a car also sort of upgrades your

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Speaker 1: body schema to think more like I am not a

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Speaker 1: small primate, I am a rhinoceros. Yeah, I mean there

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Speaker 1: is I feel like there is this sense of of

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Speaker 1: of power that comes into play when you're in the vehicle.

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Speaker 1: I mean, the vehicle is a is a powerful object

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Speaker 1: that can travel a greater speeds than than a human

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Speaker 1: can travel otherwise, And you're also cut off from your

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Speaker 1: environment to a certain extent. I mean, yeah, there's really

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Speaker 1: nothing between you and the surrounding world besides you know,

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Speaker 1: some steel and some glass and you know, a locking mechanism.

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Speaker 1: But but still all it's easy to be in a

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Speaker 1: vehicle and feel very much detached from say the neighborhood

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Speaker 1: you're driving through, or the or or you know, the

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Speaker 1: the events on the side of the road that you're

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Speaker 1: driving past. I think it does contribute to this sense

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Speaker 1: of detachment. Yeah, I sometimes feel this way. Now. On

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Speaker 1: one hand, I do enjoy driving through like beautiful landscapes

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Speaker 1: that I you know, uh there, that's the thing I like.

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Speaker 1: I like you know, driving in the mountains or something.

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Speaker 1: But also there is a kind of sense where looking

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Speaker 1: through the windshield of a car moving through an environment

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Speaker 1: is almost kind of like an upgraded form of watching

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Speaker 1: a movie of the environment. And I notice, you know,

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Speaker 1: when I get to a really beautiful place, if there's

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Speaker 1: an ability, I do want to stop the car and

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Speaker 1: get out just to look, even just to look at

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Speaker 1: something that I could see through the windows of the car.

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Speaker 1: Why do I want to get out of the car.

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Speaker 1: I want to manipulate my experience somehow by removing myself

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Speaker 1: from the movie screen. Uh does that make sense? Yeah? Absolutely.

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Speaker 1: I think we can also all relate to the things

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Speaker 1: that we don't see when we drive. Um. The main

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Speaker 1: example that comes to mind of this is if there's

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Speaker 1: a if I typically drive a certain way and then

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Speaker 1: and then I return on that same route, but I'm

431
00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:21,760
Speaker 1: in the passenger seat instead, and then I'll see something like, oh,

432
00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:24,640
Speaker 1: I've driven I've driven by this house so many times.

433
00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:26,840
Speaker 1: I never see that house, I guess because I'm more

434
00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:29,840
Speaker 1: concerned with you know, the turn I'm about to make, etcetera.

435
00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:33,040
Speaker 1: But but that can that can be rather illuminating as

436
00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:36,760
Speaker 1: well to realize that I've just never really seen this

437
00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:41,639
Speaker 1: one particular landmark in my driving, Like my my perception

438
00:23:41,880 --> 00:23:45,480
Speaker 1: is not as a you know, as all encompassing as

439
00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:47,679
Speaker 1: I might think. I'm not. I'm not seeing out of

440
00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:50,399
Speaker 1: all of these windshields at once. That's a really good point.

441
00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:53,600
Speaker 1: Some of the movie screen effect, I guess, would be

442
00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:56,200
Speaker 1: not just from being in the car, but specifically from

443
00:23:56,240 --> 00:23:58,920
Speaker 1: being the driver of the car. All right, on that note,

444
00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:00,359
Speaker 1: we're going to take a quick break, and when we

445
00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:06,960
Speaker 1: come back, we will personify our cars a little bit. Alright,

446
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:09,440
Speaker 1: we're back, all right. So you had a car when

447
00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:11,399
Speaker 1: what you were in high school, you said high school

448
00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:14,920
Speaker 1: high school, named the Green Machine. Was it in any

449
00:24:14,960 --> 00:24:18,679
Speaker 1: way inspired by the Green Goblin from Maximum Overdrive? No,

450
00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:22,720
Speaker 1: I imagine i'd seen Maximum Overdrive by that point. But no,

451
00:24:23,359 --> 00:24:24,879
Speaker 1: if it didn't really have anything to do with that.

452
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:28,200
Speaker 1: But yes, we will come back to the Green Goblin

453
00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:30,399
Speaker 1: here in a minute. When we when we look at

454
00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:34,840
Speaker 1: our cars, though we we sometimes do personify them. I

455
00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:36,680
Speaker 1: mean I don't. I don't. I don't think I do

456
00:24:36,760 --> 00:24:39,560
Speaker 1: this a lot consciously, Like I don't name cars. Some

457
00:24:39,640 --> 00:24:41,720
Speaker 1: people do. But when you look at a car, you

458
00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:44,840
Speaker 1: still may anthropomorphize it to some extent, even if it's

459
00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:47,640
Speaker 1: not like an overt thing in your mind. I would

460
00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:50,199
Speaker 1: say there are two main reasons for this. One is

461
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:53,840
Speaker 1: that it moves, and any technology that moves is especially

462
00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:57,480
Speaker 1: prone to being anthropomorphized. The other is that it has headlights,

463
00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:00,840
Speaker 1: and headlights are oriented like eyes, right, and then it

464
00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:03,240
Speaker 1: has a grill which looks like a mouth. Yea, so

465
00:25:03,359 --> 00:25:05,600
Speaker 1: it I'm not just joking about that. I think the

466
00:25:05,600 --> 00:25:08,040
Speaker 1: headlights make a big difference. Yeah, yeah, I think so.

467
00:25:08,119 --> 00:25:12,399
Speaker 1: I mean we tend to anthropomorphize things anyway. You know.

468
00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:17,680
Speaker 1: It's it's difficult to not think of something as a

469
00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:20,359
Speaker 1: certain type of entity. If we draw a smiley face

470
00:25:20,400 --> 00:25:22,919
Speaker 1: on it, right, just a really abstract face, and the

471
00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:27,480
Speaker 1: car in its typical design has this abstract face built

472
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:30,479
Speaker 1: into it. And uh and and there have been studies

473
00:25:30,520 --> 00:25:32,919
Speaker 1: that look at this, Uh I was looking at is

474
00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:36,880
Speaker 1: this car looking at you? How anthropomorphism predicts fusiform face

475
00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:42,040
Speaker 1: area activation when seeing cars by Coon, Brick, Mueller, and

476
00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:47,080
Speaker 1: uh gallinat and this is from plos one. And they

477
00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:50,960
Speaker 1: observe the tendency and subjects to activate their fusiform face

478
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:54,119
Speaker 1: area the f F A while looking at car fronts,

479
00:25:54,440 --> 00:25:56,359
Speaker 1: and the f A is a part of the brain

480
00:25:56,440 --> 00:25:59,760
Speaker 1: that is commonly activated, of course, when you are recognizing

481
00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:03,000
Speaker 1: other human faces, right, and so they stay quote. The

482
00:26:03,040 --> 00:26:05,679
Speaker 1: results point to an important role of f f A

483
00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:10,400
Speaker 1: in the phenomenon of ascribing human attributes to non living objects. Interestingly,

484
00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:14,040
Speaker 1: brain regions that have been associated with thinking about beliefs

485
00:26:14,040 --> 00:26:17,040
Speaker 1: and mental states of others, the t p A, t PJ,

486
00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:21,800
Speaker 1: the mPFC UH do not seem to be related to

487
00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:26,440
Speaker 1: anthropomorphism of car fronts. So I would assume to activate

488
00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:29,520
Speaker 1: these other regions we need something more overt, perhaps like

489
00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:32,119
Speaker 1: we need that green goblin face from the front of

490
00:26:32,119 --> 00:26:37,119
Speaker 1: the semi truck and maximum overdive overdrive um. But I

491
00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:40,200
Speaker 1: wonder to what extend these factors. This, this factors into

492
00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:43,400
Speaker 1: some of our tendencies to assume the worst of other cars,

493
00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:47,879
Speaker 1: because we're anthropomorphizing the vehicle, but we're not doing so

494
00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:51,399
Speaker 1: to the extent that we're we're thinking about the car's

495
00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:54,080
Speaker 1: beliefs or its mind state, you know, we're kind of

496
00:26:54,119 --> 00:26:57,560
Speaker 1: seeing it as this mindless animal, and so it would

497
00:26:57,560 --> 00:26:59,879
Speaker 1: make sense then that we assume the worst of it,

498
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:02,640
Speaker 1: Like what is this car beast doing cutting me off.

499
00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:06,320
Speaker 1: What is this other car beast doing with its bright sign,

500
00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:09,679
Speaker 1: you know, because because we were not thinking about the

501
00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:13,840
Speaker 1: you know, the the the actual emotional state of the

502
00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:17,040
Speaker 1: Volkswagen buck Well. This leads me to another question that

503
00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:19,959
Speaker 1: I don't think. I didn't find any research about this,

504
00:27:20,040 --> 00:27:23,040
Speaker 1: but it makes me think, are people more likely to

505
00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:28,320
Speaker 1: think about drivers in the daytime and other cars in

506
00:27:28,359 --> 00:27:31,040
Speaker 1: the nighttime because in the daytime you can actually like

507
00:27:31,119 --> 00:27:34,560
Speaker 1: see the outline of the driver inside the vehicle. Yeah.

508
00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:36,639
Speaker 1: I was wondering about that as well. I have to

509
00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:39,800
Speaker 1: think back on my most recent encounter with a driver

510
00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:42,520
Speaker 1: that irritated me, which was of course this morning, okay,

511
00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:45,840
Speaker 1: just just in dealing with the parking tech and the

512
00:27:46,119 --> 00:27:48,840
Speaker 1: car was driving in a way that I had disapproved

513
00:27:48,840 --> 00:27:52,560
Speaker 1: off it was not not obeying the laws, your standards. No,

514
00:27:52,720 --> 00:27:55,200
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm very much a rule follower. I believe

515
00:27:55,320 --> 00:27:57,920
Speaker 1: you should. You should when you're navigating, say a car

516
00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:01,200
Speaker 1: parking complex, you should. You should not just drive willy

517
00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:05,000
Speaker 1: nilly across the parking places. You should follow the course.

518
00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:08,520
Speaker 1: And this this individual was not well. I mean, even

519
00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:10,400
Speaker 1: if you're a rebel, you should be a rule follower

520
00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:14,639
Speaker 1: in traffic situations because that prevents injuries, right, But been

521
00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:17,080
Speaker 1: in these cases, I often feel this um, this need

522
00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:20,159
Speaker 1: to see the individual, you know. And I mean, on

523
00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:22,160
Speaker 1: one hand, I guess I could excuse that and say, well,

524
00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:24,320
Speaker 1: maybe I'm trying to do the appropriate thing and make

525
00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:27,560
Speaker 1: a human contact with this person that has irritated me.

526
00:28:27,840 --> 00:28:29,240
Speaker 1: But then also I'm kind of like, I just want

527
00:28:29,240 --> 00:28:30,639
Speaker 1: to judge them more. I want to see what kind

528
00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:33,280
Speaker 1: of person drives like this. And in this case, and

529
00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:36,119
Speaker 1: in the daylight, the individual also had sunglasses on, so

530
00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:38,640
Speaker 1: I wasn't able to really see I wasn't able to

531
00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:40,920
Speaker 1: make eye contact with them and see their eyes. So

532
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:43,920
Speaker 1: there was still this something, you know, a layer between

533
00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:46,200
Speaker 1: me and them. And and certainly, I d I mean

534
00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:48,520
Speaker 1: a sunny day, you drive with sunglasses, That's what I do,

535
00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:50,760
Speaker 1: so of course, so I think we'd have to factor

536
00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:53,200
Speaker 1: that in. But certainly at night, you're going to have

537
00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:56,640
Speaker 1: plenty of vehicles where you you certainly are not seeing

538
00:28:56,680 --> 00:28:59,280
Speaker 1: any sense of the human inside them. And therefore, if

539
00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:02,640
Speaker 1: you were inclined mind to view the vehicle is this

540
00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:06,440
Speaker 1: metal beast, Uh, You're you're gonna have more license to

541
00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:08,840
Speaker 1: do so. Oh, the second part of me wondering if

542
00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:11,360
Speaker 1: people see cars more as cars in the night time

543
00:29:11,480 --> 00:29:15,960
Speaker 1: is because the headlights are lit up, the eyes are glowing. Yeah. Now,

544
00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:18,560
Speaker 1: I want to come back at this point to just

545
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:22,640
Speaker 1: driving and the functionality of our brains. So, yes, it's

546
00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:26,160
Speaker 1: intuitive enough that most of us become quote unquote experts

547
00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:29,360
Speaker 1: and uh and yes, way too many of us multitask

548
00:29:29,440 --> 00:29:34,160
Speaker 1: when we drive, and usually do so without anything terrible happening. Uh,

549
00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:37,560
Speaker 1: you know, but we oftentimes we're engaging in downright dangerous activities.

550
00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:40,200
Speaker 1: You know, people are still texting while driving, or even

551
00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:42,160
Speaker 1: if you're not doing things that that are you know,

552
00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:47,720
Speaker 1: that are so explicitly uh you know, advised against, or

553
00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:49,640
Speaker 1: or even you know, they're even laws against, you'll still

554
00:29:49,640 --> 00:29:52,880
Speaker 1: see people doing other kind of wacky things while driving,

555
00:29:53,080 --> 00:29:56,720
Speaker 1: like reading a book while driving a car, or you know,

556
00:29:56,720 --> 00:29:59,600
Speaker 1: putting on their makeup, or or eating eating food that

557
00:29:59,720 --> 00:30:03,440
Speaker 1: is inadvisable to eat while while driving, because it's one

558
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:05,880
Speaker 1: thing in my mind to have like a sandwich, but

559
00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:08,320
Speaker 1: if you actually have to use uh, you know, fork

560
00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:10,800
Speaker 1: a knife, then that's probably a meal you should stop

561
00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:13,080
Speaker 1: the car for. I think it's probably just better not

562
00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:16,959
Speaker 1: to eat while you're driving. Probably yeah, probably so. And

563
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:19,200
Speaker 1: you know, also, on the other hand, even without thinking

564
00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:21,960
Speaker 1: of this, well, a lot of us will drive, maybe

565
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:24,160
Speaker 1: most of us will drive while some sort of audio

566
00:30:24,280 --> 00:30:26,400
Speaker 1: is playing. You're gonna listen to music, or you're gonna

567
00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:29,760
Speaker 1: listen to the news, or you're gonna listen to a podcast.

568
00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:32,719
Speaker 1: You may be listening to us right now as you drive. Uh.

569
00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:36,200
Speaker 1: And even if you're just listening to like, non lyrical music,

570
00:30:36,600 --> 00:30:38,920
Speaker 1: you are probably putting yourself into a state where you

571
00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:41,760
Speaker 1: can you can daydream or you know, or certainly think

572
00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:45,320
Speaker 1: about the day before the day after. But we shouldn't

573
00:30:45,360 --> 00:30:48,000
Speaker 1: assume that any of this means that driving a vehicle

574
00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:51,360
Speaker 1: is cognitively simple, that we have just you know, the

575
00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:55,600
Speaker 1: excess cognitive space for all of our sandwich eating and

576
00:30:55,680 --> 00:30:59,240
Speaker 1: makeup putting on activities. Not only is driving a cognitively

577
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:03,480
Speaker 1: demanding task, it's one of the more cognitively complex tasks

578
00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:07,280
Speaker 1: that we engage in on a regular basis. Uh. This

579
00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:11,960
Speaker 1: according to chow at All in Trajectories of Cognitive Decline

580
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:15,920
Speaker 1: by driving Mobility Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study,

581
00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:20,200
Speaker 1: and this is this was published in Geriatric Psychiatry in

582
00:31:22,040 --> 00:31:25,320
Speaker 1: and they pointed out that there's there's not only correlation

583
00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:29,440
Speaker 1: between cognitive decline and driving cessation in old age, which

584
00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:32,520
Speaker 1: of course can further limit social and physical fitness in

585
00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:35,640
Speaker 1: an individual, but they quote it may also be the

586
00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:39,560
Speaker 1: case that driving a sessation itself is a risk factor

587
00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:43,280
Speaker 1: for accelerated cognitive decline over time. This suggests that the

588
00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:49,520
Speaker 1: relationship between driving sessation and cognitive functioning maybe bi directional. Yeah,

589
00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:53,080
Speaker 1: that's interesting, So one direction of course is pretty clear there. Right,

590
00:31:53,360 --> 00:31:57,520
Speaker 1: Driving cessation certainly correlates with declines in cognitive functioning, and

591
00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:00,720
Speaker 1: the clear reason is that over time you're less able

592
00:32:00,760 --> 00:32:03,440
Speaker 1: to drive, so you stop doing it. But the the

593
00:32:03,480 --> 00:32:07,120
Speaker 1: authors think here it's also possible that driving cessation itself

594
00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:11,520
Speaker 1: contributes to decline in cognitive functioning. But either way, the

595
00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:15,200
Speaker 1: authors believe that older adults without independent driving mobility could

596
00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:18,280
Speaker 1: be viewed as a group who would benefit from quote

597
00:32:18,320 --> 00:32:23,080
Speaker 1: targeted interventions that promote social, psychological and cognitive engagement, which

598
00:32:23,120 --> 00:32:25,960
Speaker 1: I think just means like giving them mentally stimulating things

599
00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:29,040
Speaker 1: to do, which could help the brains stay healthy longer. Now,

600
00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:31,200
Speaker 1: on the other hand, I found at least one study

601
00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:36,120
Speaker 1: that suggested perhaps long commutes could be a risk factor

602
00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:40,200
Speaker 1: for declines in cognitive performance in older adults. UH. This

603
00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:44,479
Speaker 1: was in the American Journal of Epidemiology by Bacharania at

604
00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:49,680
Speaker 1: All from seventeen and it's called Associations between sedentary behaviors

605
00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:52,880
Speaker 1: and cognitive function, cross Sectional and Perspective Findings from the

606
00:32:52,960 --> 00:32:56,760
Speaker 1: UK Biobank. So this study looked at an assessment of

607
00:32:56,840 --> 00:32:59,920
Speaker 1: data from adults who had data stored in the u

608
00:33:00,040 --> 00:33:03,000
Speaker 1: K Bio Bank. That's like a big research tool that's

609
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:04,840
Speaker 1: got a bunch of data already ready to go in it.

610
00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:09,120
Speaker 1: And it tracked performance on cognitive tests for UK adults

611
00:33:09,160 --> 00:33:12,440
Speaker 1: across a mean period of five point three years, and

612
00:33:12,440 --> 00:33:15,880
Speaker 1: then they cross referenced any changes in mental performance over

613
00:33:15,920 --> 00:33:20,800
Speaker 1: that time with lifestyle behaviors such as watching TV, driving,

614
00:33:20,920 --> 00:33:24,280
Speaker 1: and non occupational use of a computer, so using a

615
00:33:24,320 --> 00:33:27,720
Speaker 1: computer but not for your job. And they found within

616
00:33:27,800 --> 00:33:31,360
Speaker 1: their sample that increases in time spent driving and watching

617
00:33:31,440 --> 00:33:36,520
Speaker 1: TV we're both associated with decreases in cognitive performance over time,

618
00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:40,240
Speaker 1: but computer use was not. In fact, computer use time

619
00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:43,840
Speaker 1: was positively associated with cognitive performance, and this has been

620
00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:46,400
Speaker 1: written up in some press outlets. I think it's generally

621
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:51,360
Speaker 1: interpreted as evidence that sedentary activities in general, including watching

622
00:33:51,400 --> 00:33:54,600
Speaker 1: TV and driving, can lead to declines in cognition in

623
00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:58,280
Speaker 1: time over time and older adults. But at the same time,

624
00:33:58,360 --> 00:34:02,320
Speaker 1: I think this is specifically about the sedentary activities. It's

625
00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:04,880
Speaker 1: one where I saw some like press headlines I think

626
00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:07,560
Speaker 1: going over the top and interpreting it with lines like

627
00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:11,319
Speaker 1: driving makes you stupid or the shocking threat to your

628
00:34:11,320 --> 00:34:14,239
Speaker 1: mental health that you do every day. Uh. I don't

629
00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:17,080
Speaker 1: go overboard with interpreting this is just it's just one study,

630
00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:19,680
Speaker 1: not replicated yet as far as I'm aware, and it's

631
00:34:19,680 --> 00:34:23,960
Speaker 1: not uniquely about driving. It's apparently multiple kinds of seated,

632
00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:28,520
Speaker 1: low movement activities. Yeah, it's easy to forget that the

633
00:34:28,719 --> 00:34:33,759
Speaker 1: driving is a sedentary activity because it can sure feel exhausting.

634
00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:36,279
Speaker 1: If you've you've done a long drive, you know, at

635
00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:38,200
Speaker 1: the end of a of a lengthy drive, you may

636
00:34:38,239 --> 00:34:44,120
Speaker 1: feel you know, physically tired uh and emotionally mentally drained

637
00:34:44,719 --> 00:34:46,719
Speaker 1: uh and it and yet at the same time you

638
00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:49,759
Speaker 1: have to realize that you barely moved for that you know,

639
00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:53,080
Speaker 1: four hours or more of drive time. Yeah. Yeah, it

640
00:34:53,239 --> 00:34:56,120
Speaker 1: is weird how exhausting it can be like that, But

641
00:34:56,280 --> 00:34:58,920
Speaker 1: it does also make me wonder if these results are correct.

642
00:34:58,960 --> 00:35:00,880
Speaker 1: It makes me wonder what's going on with the computer

643
00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:04,600
Speaker 1: and like and also how does this square with other research?

644
00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:08,520
Speaker 1: Because well, one thing before I get to that is

645
00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:12,480
Speaker 1: do the cognitive effects of driving differ depending on what

646
00:35:12,640 --> 00:35:15,319
Speaker 1: kind of driving you do and how much of it

647
00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:18,520
Speaker 1: you do? That that's one question, because I would certainly

648
00:35:18,560 --> 00:35:22,719
Speaker 1: imagine that that, say, driving on an open road or

649
00:35:22,840 --> 00:35:26,400
Speaker 1: navigating tricky terrain is probably cognitively different, different than just

650
00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:30,440
Speaker 1: like sitting in traffic on a you know, long congested commute.

651
00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:34,040
Speaker 1: Well perhaps, but then again, like a congested commute, there's

652
00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:36,279
Speaker 1: still a lot of things you're paying attention to, I guess.

653
00:35:36,320 --> 00:35:39,160
Speaker 1: So yeah, well, anyway, so I want to get to

654
00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:41,439
Speaker 1: the other things. So back on the other hand, going

655
00:35:41,480 --> 00:35:44,160
Speaker 1: against what we were just saying, I found another study

656
00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:48,880
Speaker 1: that saw some noticeable differences in brain morphology between drivers

657
00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:52,680
Speaker 1: and non drivers, suggesting the possibility that driving sort of

658
00:35:52,719 --> 00:35:56,400
Speaker 1: exercises specific parts of the brain, leading to growth in

659
00:35:56,480 --> 00:35:59,880
Speaker 1: brain tissue. For example, there's plenty of evidence that me

660
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:02,840
Speaker 1: music training, like learning to play a new musical instrument,

661
00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:06,320
Speaker 1: changes the structure of the auditory and motor cortices. It

662
00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:10,440
Speaker 1: leads to you know, more gray matter was funny. No, No,

663
00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:13,200
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm realizing that you're you're about to talk

664
00:36:13,239 --> 00:36:15,960
Speaker 1: to us about the knowledge. Oh I love the knowledge.

665
00:36:16,080 --> 00:36:18,359
Speaker 1: Well we'll get there in a second. But yeah, So

666
00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:22,040
Speaker 1: the music thing that this is an example of structural

667
00:36:22,080 --> 00:36:25,680
Speaker 1: plasticity in the human brain. Does that extend to driving?

668
00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:30,120
Speaker 1: Does driving perhaps also stimulate the growth of more volume

669
00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:33,200
Speaker 1: of gray matter in certain parts of the brain. Apparently

670
00:36:33,239 --> 00:36:35,480
Speaker 1: at least at some level, at least according to the

671
00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:38,280
Speaker 1: study we're about to look at. So this was published

672
00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:42,320
Speaker 1: in ten in Nature Scientific Reports by Sakai at all

673
00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:44,640
Speaker 1: and a quick note that this study, like a lot

674
00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:48,000
Speaker 1: of studies about driving, was funded by Toyota Central R

675
00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:50,960
Speaker 1: and D Laboratories. Of course, there's you know, the standard

676
00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:54,480
Speaker 1: disclaimer that funders had no role in study design, outcomes

677
00:36:54,560 --> 00:36:56,640
Speaker 1: or decision to publish. But you should always be aware

678
00:36:56,680 --> 00:37:00,960
Speaker 1: of potential conflicts of interest. So the study and by

679
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:04,800
Speaker 1: the authors noting previous findings on the relationship between driving

680
00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:08,839
Speaker 1: tasks and brain structure, including a two thousand study by

681
00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:13,000
Speaker 1: McGuire at all that found that London taxi drivers had

682
00:37:13,040 --> 00:37:17,480
Speaker 1: more gray matter volume in the posterior hippocampus when compared

683
00:37:17,520 --> 00:37:20,600
Speaker 1: to non taxi drivers, and the amount of gray matter

684
00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:24,040
Speaker 1: volume was correlated positively with how long they had been

685
00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:27,359
Speaker 1: working as a taxi driver in London, and when they

686
00:37:27,400 --> 00:37:30,879
Speaker 1: combined this with follow up research, this was interpreted as

687
00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:35,799
Speaker 1: a sort of neuroplastic adaptation to the daily necessity of constant,

688
00:37:35,920 --> 00:37:39,880
Speaker 1: detailed spatial representations in the brain. So it seems like

689
00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:43,319
Speaker 1: it wasn't just that London London taxi drivers chose their

690
00:37:43,400 --> 00:37:47,160
Speaker 1: job because they're naturally good at mentally representing spaces like

691
00:37:47,239 --> 00:37:50,320
Speaker 1: mental maps of city streets, but that they got better

692
00:37:50,480 --> 00:37:53,319
Speaker 1: at mentally representing spaces because they had to do it

693
00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:56,040
Speaker 1: so much. And here's obviously where you get into the

694
00:37:56,080 --> 00:37:59,400
Speaker 1: idea of the knowledge. Uh did now you were recently

695
00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:02,520
Speaker 1: in London? Did you get to ride in a cab

696
00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:05,560
Speaker 1: and get to to think about this? Yeah, I think

697
00:38:05,680 --> 00:38:10,040
Speaker 1: I was seeing some some smartphone navigation. I was there recently.

698
00:38:10,280 --> 00:38:12,239
Speaker 1: That may be totally changing the Yeah, I was. I'm

699
00:38:12,280 --> 00:38:14,360
Speaker 1: wondering to what extent that would change things, because I

700
00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:17,760
Speaker 1: I went to London years must have been a decade

701
00:38:17,840 --> 00:38:20,680
Speaker 1: or more, maybe like thirteen years ago. I went. I

702
00:38:20,719 --> 00:38:23,640
Speaker 1: went there and get horse at the time, you didn't

703
00:38:23,680 --> 00:38:25,920
Speaker 1: really see that kind of navigation taking place. And I

704
00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:29,319
Speaker 1: distinctly remember writing in a taxi cab and kind of

705
00:38:29,360 --> 00:38:32,319
Speaker 1: like staring at the taxi driver's skull and wondering if

706
00:38:32,600 --> 00:38:34,680
Speaker 1: this was the knowledge, you know, if I was looking

707
00:38:34,719 --> 00:38:37,200
Speaker 1: at like the swelling of the knowledge in the brain. Well,

708
00:38:37,239 --> 00:38:40,160
Speaker 1: we didn't actually explain it briefly, Robert, what the knowledge?

709
00:38:40,160 --> 00:38:42,279
Speaker 1: What's the deal with the knowledge? But the knowledge is

710
00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:46,279
Speaker 1: that in order to navigate the streets of London as

711
00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:49,319
Speaker 1: a as a cab driver, you have to you have

712
00:38:49,440 --> 00:38:52,239
Speaker 1: to load it with all that information about all these

713
00:38:52,239 --> 00:38:54,880
Speaker 1: streets you're going to travel like. You can't just you

714
00:38:54,880 --> 00:38:57,200
Speaker 1: can't be busting out a map you can't depend on

715
00:38:57,400 --> 00:38:59,800
Speaker 1: or at least you couldn't used to depend on ways

716
00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:02,440
Speaker 1: or Google maps to to like the way for you.

717
00:39:02,440 --> 00:39:05,120
Speaker 1: You had to have it inside. It reminded me a

718
00:39:05,120 --> 00:39:09,400
Speaker 1: lot of jeez, what what Mark Twain story was it

719
00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:14,040
Speaker 1: when he's talking about navigating the Mississippi and just how

720
00:39:14,200 --> 00:39:18,400
Speaker 1: well uh train one needed to be in every detail

721
00:39:18,520 --> 00:39:21,759
Speaker 1: of the of the river. Oh, I don't know. Um,

722
00:39:22,320 --> 00:39:25,880
Speaker 1: I'm sure listeners will remind me. But but it's that

723
00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:28,200
Speaker 1: level of of of detail, like you you would have

724
00:39:28,280 --> 00:39:31,440
Speaker 1: to have. And so the idea is that that you know,

725
00:39:31,440 --> 00:39:34,720
Speaker 1: assimilating all of that those details had a marked effect

726
00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:37,080
Speaker 1: on the brain. Well, yeah, I mean it appears that

727
00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:41,000
Speaker 1: it does, and specifically, exercising it over time, like facing

728
00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:44,640
Speaker 1: your brain with these cognitive challenges day after day, appears

729
00:39:44,680 --> 00:39:47,920
Speaker 1: to stimulate the growth of extra volume of of tissue

730
00:39:47,960 --> 00:39:50,919
Speaker 1: in certain parts of the brain that are the brain

731
00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:56,280
Speaker 1: depends on for these tasks. Specifically, The authors also point

732
00:39:56,480 --> 00:40:00,560
Speaker 1: to research showing the professional auto racing drivers show greater

733
00:40:00,719 --> 00:40:03,600
Speaker 1: gray matter volume in several brain regions when compared to

734
00:40:03,680 --> 00:40:08,200
Speaker 1: non experienced drivers. And I don't know specifically what types

735
00:40:08,280 --> 00:40:12,759
Speaker 1: of tasks the gray matter in this research is related to,

736
00:40:13,120 --> 00:40:14,680
Speaker 1: but if I had to guess, I would say it's

737
00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:19,600
Speaker 1: probably stuff like quick reflexes, peripheral vision, perception, management of speed,

738
00:40:19,680 --> 00:40:21,640
Speaker 1: and that kind of stuff. And does that match up

739
00:40:21,640 --> 00:40:24,319
Speaker 1: with your viewing of The Fast and Furious movies? I

740
00:40:24,360 --> 00:40:26,680
Speaker 1: tell you, my viewing of The Fast and Furious movies

741
00:40:26,719 --> 00:40:31,560
Speaker 1: has made my brain so powerful I cannot comprehend I

742
00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:35,600
Speaker 1: have surpassed the limits of human imagination and creativity, and

743
00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:39,439
Speaker 1: now most of my brain exists in another dimension full

744
00:40:39,480 --> 00:40:44,120
Speaker 1: of cars, and chains and sparks and it's beautiful. But anyway,

745
00:40:44,239 --> 00:40:45,960
Speaker 1: so back to the study at hand, that that was

746
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:48,279
Speaker 1: just all the stuff. They begin you know, by saying, here,

747
00:40:48,360 --> 00:40:51,839
Speaker 1: here's the research history this study, uh in particular, look

748
00:40:51,880 --> 00:40:55,480
Speaker 1: to not at driving specialists like the cyborg navigators of

749
00:40:55,520 --> 00:40:58,600
Speaker 1: London or the speed demon uh, you know, racing drivers,

750
00:40:58,760 --> 00:41:01,399
Speaker 1: but just regular old drive verse. So are there any

751
00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:05,520
Speaker 1: brain changes here between regular drivers and non drivers? The

752
00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:08,719
Speaker 1: authors believe they found evidence of it. They collected brain

753
00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:12,080
Speaker 1: images from seventy three healthy young adults, thirty six drivers

754
00:41:12,080 --> 00:41:15,840
Speaker 1: and thirty seven non drivers, and they found, quote, compared

755
00:41:15,880 --> 00:41:19,800
Speaker 1: with non drivers, drivers showed significantly greater gray matter volume

756
00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:23,480
Speaker 1: in the left cerebellar hemisphere, which has been associated with

757
00:41:23,560 --> 00:41:28,120
Speaker 1: cognitive rather than motor functioning. That's interesting, so cognitive management

758
00:41:28,160 --> 00:41:32,040
Speaker 1: of of information rather than just like controlling the body. Uh.

759
00:41:32,040 --> 00:41:34,440
Speaker 1: And they say, in contrast, they found no brain areas

760
00:41:34,480 --> 00:41:38,239
Speaker 1: with significantly greater gray matter volume in non drivers when

761
00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:41,440
Speaker 1: compared with drivers, So no no evidence that being a

762
00:41:41,520 --> 00:41:45,759
Speaker 1: non driver also gives you any particular relevant boost uh.

763
00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:49,760
Speaker 1: And the authors think that the regions showing specific growth

764
00:41:49,800 --> 00:41:53,400
Speaker 1: for drivers versus non drivers may be critical for driving

765
00:41:53,400 --> 00:41:57,840
Speaker 1: a car, but not frequently used during other daily activities.

766
00:41:58,280 --> 00:42:00,760
Speaker 1: So there's that. But then also I think we should

767
00:42:00,840 --> 00:42:04,640
Speaker 1: remember not to trust too much in the idea of

768
00:42:04,719 --> 00:42:08,200
Speaker 1: like brain stimulation and plasticity as this kind of blanket

769
00:42:08,239 --> 00:42:11,520
Speaker 1: panacea for the brain, or or or total warding off

770
00:42:11,560 --> 00:42:15,080
Speaker 1: of all cognitive decline, because while there is good evidence

771
00:42:15,120 --> 00:42:19,680
Speaker 1: for adult neroine plasticity and some activities can increase specific

772
00:42:19,719 --> 00:42:23,640
Speaker 1: cognitive competencies, I think there's also a lot of dispute

773
00:42:23,719 --> 00:42:26,439
Speaker 1: still going on about many of the claims in this area.

774
00:42:26,520 --> 00:42:28,800
Speaker 1: And one example I would give is the idea of

775
00:42:28,880 --> 00:42:33,239
Speaker 1: so called brain training games, yes, which you know, they've

776
00:42:33,239 --> 00:42:36,880
Speaker 1: been offered sort of as general prescriptions to improve cognitive

777
00:42:36,880 --> 00:42:40,520
Speaker 1: performance and mental health, and the evidence that they can

778
00:42:40,560 --> 00:42:44,120
Speaker 1: do that is highly disputed. Um Like, there were a

779
00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:47,280
Speaker 1: group of studies and review since ten that have strongly

780
00:42:47,360 --> 00:42:51,719
Speaker 1: questioned the claims of brain training game companies UH which

781
00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:55,960
Speaker 1: promised general cognitive benefits from their grand games. One example

782
00:42:56,000 --> 00:42:59,879
Speaker 1: was a study by Simon's at all in in Psychological

783
00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:02,480
Speaker 1: Science and the Public Interest. It was just do brain

784
00:43:02,560 --> 00:43:05,440
Speaker 1: training programs work? So they look at a bunch of

785
00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:08,120
Speaker 1: different studies on the subject, and they examine the strength

786
00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:11,239
Speaker 1: of them individually, and they say overall, quote, based on

787
00:43:11,280 --> 00:43:15,239
Speaker 1: this examination, we find extensive evidence that brain training interventions

788
00:43:15,280 --> 00:43:20,080
Speaker 1: improve performance on the trained tasks, less evidence that such

789
00:43:20,080 --> 00:43:24,920
Speaker 1: interventions improve performance on closely related tasks, and little evidence

790
00:43:24,960 --> 00:43:28,920
Speaker 1: that training enhances performance on distantly related tasks or that

791
00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:32,799
Speaker 1: training improves everyday cognitive performance. So it seems like the

792
00:43:32,840 --> 00:43:35,279
Speaker 1: stuff that we have really good evidence for is that

793
00:43:35,640 --> 00:43:38,840
Speaker 1: you get better at doing specifically whatever you're doing in

794
00:43:38,880 --> 00:43:41,840
Speaker 1: the game. So if the game is about say, moving

795
00:43:42,200 --> 00:43:44,359
Speaker 1: you know, color blocks around, you're gonna get better at

796
00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:48,000
Speaker 1: moving color blocks around, and we should be cautious about

797
00:43:48,120 --> 00:43:52,279
Speaker 1: taking that skill and then you know, overlaying it with other,

798
00:43:52,520 --> 00:43:55,600
Speaker 1: you know, are more important skills in life. Right, Sure,

799
00:43:56,320 --> 00:43:58,680
Speaker 1: but this does make me think, I mean that maybe

800
00:43:58,760 --> 00:44:02,120
Speaker 1: you can. Again, this is not fully known, but my

801
00:44:02,480 --> 00:44:05,239
Speaker 1: guess at this point is that if you want to

802
00:44:06,040 --> 00:44:09,680
Speaker 1: prolonged cognitive performance over life, it seems like maybe a

803
00:44:09,680 --> 00:44:11,560
Speaker 1: good thing to do would be, of course, first focus

804
00:44:11,640 --> 00:44:15,000
Speaker 1: on the forms of fitness that contribute to brain health overall,

805
00:44:15,080 --> 00:44:17,680
Speaker 1: which is like getting good sleep, good diet and exercise

806
00:44:17,719 --> 00:44:20,440
Speaker 1: and all that. But beyond that, maybe to construct a

807
00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:25,240
Speaker 1: kind of total ecology of mentally challenging and stimulating experiences,

808
00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:29,000
Speaker 1: like a challenging and stimulating world, rather than just a

809
00:44:29,080 --> 00:44:33,239
Speaker 1: single type of task repeated. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely,

810
00:44:33,280 --> 00:44:36,840
Speaker 1: I mean it. You know we all want, you know

811
00:44:36,880 --> 00:44:40,439
Speaker 1: that the sort of simple trick, right, the simple life hack.

812
00:44:40,880 --> 00:44:43,719
Speaker 1: You know you you you want that the one till

813
00:44:43,920 --> 00:44:47,080
Speaker 1: that will that will help your life and improve your

814
00:44:47,239 --> 00:44:50,319
Speaker 1: your your living, or you want that one exercise you

815
00:44:50,360 --> 00:44:53,760
Speaker 1: can do, uh, that that one basically that one switch

816
00:44:53,840 --> 00:44:56,960
Speaker 1: that you can pull that will change things. And yeah,

817
00:44:57,000 --> 00:44:59,480
Speaker 1: the reality is often, well, I know, it's multiple switches,

818
00:45:00,360 --> 00:45:03,000
Speaker 1: multiple things that you should you should do, and maybe

819
00:45:03,040 --> 00:45:06,359
Speaker 1: multiple things you should also curb or cut out. Yeah. Now,

820
00:45:06,400 --> 00:45:08,560
Speaker 1: on the other hand, I want to say that I

821
00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:13,320
Speaker 1: don't think it has been completely disproven that doing certain

822
00:45:13,360 --> 00:45:16,319
Speaker 1: types of tasks, like maybe certain puzzles or games or

823
00:45:16,360 --> 00:45:20,200
Speaker 1: maybe driving or anything like that could contribute to areas

824
00:45:20,239 --> 00:45:23,000
Speaker 1: that are not specifically the task involved. I think it's

825
00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:26,359
Speaker 1: just not proven yet. So you know, you could hold

826
00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:29,600
Speaker 1: out that maybe there are sort of like distant relationship

827
00:45:29,719 --> 00:45:32,080
Speaker 1: improvements that you could see within the brain. I just

828
00:45:32,120 --> 00:45:35,560
Speaker 1: think the evidence isn't there. Now another area of our

829
00:45:35,680 --> 00:45:39,120
Speaker 1: of our experience with the automobile, our life with the automobile.

830
00:45:39,160 --> 00:45:41,920
Speaker 1: That I wanted to talk about is the idea of

831
00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:45,040
Speaker 1: car as symbol. Oh yeah, and I think a lot

832
00:45:45,080 --> 00:45:48,440
Speaker 1: of this should be pretty obvious. You know, automobile marketers,

833
00:45:48,920 --> 00:45:51,200
Speaker 1: uh you know push this a lot. And it's kind

834
00:45:51,239 --> 00:45:53,600
Speaker 1: of the the real I think, the real meat that

835
00:45:53,800 --> 00:45:56,959
Speaker 1: King and Carpenter were chewing on in Christine. The car

836
00:45:57,040 --> 00:46:00,480
Speaker 1: becomes a symbol for a time, for a sure for

837
00:46:00,560 --> 00:46:03,920
Speaker 1: the individual, even if you're not a car person. And

838
00:46:04,120 --> 00:46:06,640
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not really a huge car person, but

839
00:46:06,640 --> 00:46:08,920
Speaker 1: but I even I admit, like if I'm watching a

840
00:46:09,000 --> 00:46:13,560
Speaker 1: period piece motion picture, the television show, like the cars

841
00:46:13,600 --> 00:46:15,319
Speaker 1: have to be right, and when you see that the

842
00:46:15,360 --> 00:46:18,680
Speaker 1: cars are right, uh, you know, it really puts you

843
00:46:18,719 --> 00:46:22,600
Speaker 1: in that time frame. And and so so the you know,

844
00:46:22,640 --> 00:46:25,240
Speaker 1: they become a symbol for a particular time, in particular culture,

845
00:46:25,520 --> 00:46:29,120
Speaker 1: and then very often a particular individual. And then likewise,

846
00:46:29,280 --> 00:46:31,960
Speaker 1: any car as you see is going is often marketing

847
00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:37,040
Speaker 1: to you based along these lines like drive this car,

848
00:46:37,280 --> 00:46:40,360
Speaker 1: be this person, be this type of person. It's like

849
00:46:40,400 --> 00:46:43,520
Speaker 1: the next jacket, right that the border of like identity,

850
00:46:43,560 --> 00:46:46,680
Speaker 1: definition and coolness. It goes like jacket and then it

851
00:46:46,719 --> 00:46:50,200
Speaker 1: goes car I was I was reading something about all this.

852
00:46:50,320 --> 00:46:55,560
Speaker 1: Uh is titled a Primer on Automobile Semiotics by Hefner

853
00:46:55,640 --> 00:46:57,400
Speaker 1: at All and it was from the U. C. David's

854
00:46:57,440 --> 00:47:01,080
Speaker 1: Institute of Transportation Studies in two thousands six. And they

855
00:47:01,120 --> 00:47:03,719
Speaker 1: point out that for starters, cars and trucks are often

856
00:47:03,800 --> 00:47:06,960
Speaker 1: status symbols. It's you know, it's obvious with luxury vehicles,

857
00:47:07,080 --> 00:47:10,360
Speaker 1: but it also applies to various other categories. Uh. You know,

858
00:47:10,520 --> 00:47:13,320
Speaker 1: Basically it comes down what does this vehicle say about

859
00:47:13,600 --> 00:47:17,560
Speaker 1: who you are and where you fit in society? Um?

860
00:47:17,600 --> 00:47:19,279
Speaker 1: And you know it's worth thinking about, you know, with

861
00:47:19,280 --> 00:47:21,880
Speaker 1: your own vehicle, you know, whether you're driving uh, you know,

862
00:47:22,040 --> 00:47:26,000
Speaker 1: electric vehicle, hybrid vehicle, uh, you know, an enormous uh

863
00:47:26,120 --> 00:47:29,880
Speaker 1: you know, sports utility vehicle. Uh. You should at least,

864
00:47:29,880 --> 00:47:34,200
Speaker 1: you know, entertain the question. And then as symbols they

865
00:47:34,200 --> 00:47:37,080
Speaker 1: can often there they can be used in the process

866
00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:40,719
Speaker 1: of self expression of individual identity as well as the

867
00:47:40,840 --> 00:47:44,960
Speaker 1: self creation of individual identity. However, the authors do know

868
00:47:45,040 --> 00:47:46,920
Speaker 1: that you know, individuals are still going to you know,

869
00:47:47,040 --> 00:47:51,160
Speaker 1: place differing emphasis on the symbolic power of the vehicle. Quote. Thus,

870
00:47:51,200 --> 00:47:54,080
Speaker 1: the individual who claims his automobilia is just a way

871
00:47:54,080 --> 00:47:58,040
Speaker 1: to get around maybe telling the truth. I mean, I

872
00:47:58,120 --> 00:48:01,000
Speaker 1: think I'm in that camp. Yeah, Not to disparage people

873
00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:02,759
Speaker 1: who love their cars. I mean, I know a lot

874
00:48:02,800 --> 00:48:04,279
Speaker 1: of people who get a lot of pleasure out of

875
00:48:04,320 --> 00:48:07,600
Speaker 1: their car experiences. Right, But then at the same time,

876
00:48:07,840 --> 00:48:11,120
Speaker 1: like being the staying, saying that you're not the type

877
00:48:11,120 --> 00:48:13,120
Speaker 1: of person who cares about their car is still a

878
00:48:13,200 --> 00:48:17,160
Speaker 1: statement about yourself and your identity and your values. So

879
00:48:17,360 --> 00:48:20,359
Speaker 1: you know, it's in a way it's impossible to UH

880
00:48:20,520 --> 00:48:24,839
Speaker 1: to completely disengage from the semiotic of power of the car.

881
00:48:25,960 --> 00:48:28,080
Speaker 1: And then also I assume that you know that's ultimately

882
00:48:28,080 --> 00:48:30,640
Speaker 1: where bumper stickers come into play, where you're like the cars,

883
00:48:30,719 --> 00:48:32,840
Speaker 1: the car has nothing to do with my self expression.

884
00:48:33,280 --> 00:48:35,040
Speaker 1: I may say that, but then I still have like

885
00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:37,479
Speaker 1: eight bumper stickers in my car that are are there

886
00:48:37,520 --> 00:48:41,080
Speaker 1: in part to UH to communicate this to other people.

887
00:48:41,400 --> 00:48:44,360
Speaker 1: But but again, it's it's difficult to to really disengage

888
00:48:44,360 --> 00:48:46,480
Speaker 1: from this entirely, and that's that's something that the authors

889
00:48:46,480 --> 00:48:49,120
Speaker 1: stay to the write. However, none of us can opt

890
00:48:49,120 --> 00:48:52,840
Speaker 1: out of symbolic communication. We are surrounded by symbol systems,

891
00:48:53,160 --> 00:48:56,280
Speaker 1: and the goods we purchase are part of these systems. Therefore,

892
00:48:56,360 --> 00:48:59,200
Speaker 1: our vehicles say something about us, whether or not we

893
00:48:59,280 --> 00:49:03,560
Speaker 1: intend for them to serve as signifiers. Sure, yeah, yeah,

894
00:49:03,600 --> 00:49:06,200
Speaker 1: I mean I think I don't know. I don't want

895
00:49:06,239 --> 00:49:08,120
Speaker 1: that to be the case for me, but I guess

896
00:49:08,120 --> 00:49:10,560
Speaker 1: this is probably true. Yeah, and you know it's easy

897
00:49:10,600 --> 00:49:13,680
Speaker 1: I think for us. Also turned to the more, um,

898
00:49:13,719 --> 00:49:16,160
Speaker 1: you know obvious examples of this. You know, we think

899
00:49:16,200 --> 00:49:20,000
Speaker 1: about an individual driving a luxury vehicle, or we think about, uh,

900
00:49:20,080 --> 00:49:23,160
Speaker 1: you know, an individual driving a particularly outrageous vehicle, like

901
00:49:23,200 --> 00:49:26,719
Speaker 1: you when you see somebody driving an art car around town,

902
00:49:26,880 --> 00:49:28,600
Speaker 1: something that looks like it should be a burning man,

903
00:49:28,760 --> 00:49:31,720
Speaker 1: the red bull car. Well, we're on a corporate vehicle.

904
00:49:31,760 --> 00:49:33,600
Speaker 1: But I was thinking things like a car with a

905
00:49:33,600 --> 00:49:36,600
Speaker 1: bunch of Barbie dolls stuck to it, or coins attached

906
00:49:36,640 --> 00:49:39,040
Speaker 1: to it, or some sort of country Western vehicle. You know,

907
00:49:39,120 --> 00:49:41,359
Speaker 1: I can get down with that. Oh, there's a good car.

908
00:49:42,239 --> 00:49:44,480
Speaker 1: There's a good car that we sometimes drive past on

909
00:49:44,560 --> 00:49:47,239
Speaker 1: the way back from work that's got like a big

910
00:49:47,280 --> 00:49:49,600
Speaker 1: wizard on the back of it. And I've seen that

911
00:49:49,600 --> 00:49:52,480
Speaker 1: one as well. Yeah, a van with like a psychic

912
00:49:52,520 --> 00:49:55,640
Speaker 1: epic wizard holding a big world ball in his hand.

913
00:49:55,719 --> 00:49:58,400
Speaker 1: Oh man, I'm a big, big fan of van murals.

914
00:49:58,680 --> 00:50:02,040
Speaker 1: They're rare, a rare site the days. But that was

915
00:50:02,080 --> 00:50:04,160
Speaker 1: an idea. You know, this is certainly a situation where

916
00:50:04,200 --> 00:50:07,640
Speaker 1: for a while vans were big and you often had

917
00:50:07,680 --> 00:50:10,520
Speaker 1: that big panel, featureless panel on the side of the van,

918
00:50:11,040 --> 00:50:13,080
Speaker 1: and that is a great place for self expression. That

919
00:50:13,160 --> 00:50:15,040
Speaker 1: was That was where you put your wizard in your

920
00:50:15,400 --> 00:50:21,160
Speaker 1: your your very barbarian scenes science science fiction scenario going down.

921
00:50:21,280 --> 00:50:24,759
Speaker 1: This is radigas the van. Yeah, alright, on that note,

922
00:50:24,800 --> 00:50:26,360
Speaker 1: we're going to take one more break, but when we

923
00:50:26,440 --> 00:50:29,399
Speaker 1: come back, we're going to continue our look at at

924
00:50:29,400 --> 00:50:32,400
Speaker 1: our cars and we're gonna get into the relationship that

925
00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:34,560
Speaker 1: our cars have with our bodies and with our behavior.

926
00:50:36,040 --> 00:50:40,480
Speaker 1: Than all right, we're back now. You know, it's something

927
00:50:40,520 --> 00:50:42,719
Speaker 1: we have we always have to consider when we think

928
00:50:42,719 --> 00:50:46,680
Speaker 1: about the fusion between humans and our tools. Are you know,

929
00:50:47,000 --> 00:50:50,920
Speaker 1: just to what do how is that communication taking place? Um,

930
00:50:50,960 --> 00:50:52,960
Speaker 1: you know, we want to use the machine, but we

931
00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:55,279
Speaker 1: don't want to have to become more machine like to

932
00:50:55,480 --> 00:50:58,799
Speaker 1: use it. We want the machine to become more accommodating

933
00:50:58,840 --> 00:51:02,000
Speaker 1: to us. And part of that is intuitive design, but

934
00:51:02,080 --> 00:51:05,160
Speaker 1: also ergonomics is a big part of it as well.

935
00:51:06,400 --> 00:51:09,600
Speaker 1: So if you've ever climbed inside an older automobile, like

936
00:51:09,600 --> 00:51:12,719
Speaker 1: I'm thinking something from the you know, the sixties or

937
00:51:12,800 --> 00:51:16,400
Speaker 1: the perhaps early seventies, uh, you can probably attest to

938
00:51:16,440 --> 00:51:18,640
Speaker 1: the fact that they were they were often less cockpit

939
00:51:18,800 --> 00:51:21,279
Speaker 1: like in their environment, and it was more like a

940
00:51:21,280 --> 00:51:24,279
Speaker 1: small couch crammed inside of a vehicle body. You know. Yeah,

941
00:51:24,640 --> 00:51:27,080
Speaker 1: the first car I ever drove was like, it was

942
00:51:27,120 --> 00:51:30,560
Speaker 1: a big old Cadillac that bench seats, Yeah, big bench seats,

943
00:51:30,560 --> 00:51:34,399
Speaker 1: and then a dash that seemed like a mile wide, right, Um.

944
00:51:35,760 --> 00:51:38,840
Speaker 1: And today you're far more more likely to find highly

945
00:51:38,880 --> 00:51:43,960
Speaker 1: customizable seats, easily adjustable mirrors, and a fair amount I

946
00:51:43,960 --> 00:51:47,920
Speaker 1: mean increasing amount of effort put into minimizing the stretching

947
00:51:47,960 --> 00:51:50,840
Speaker 1: and reaching needed to drive the vehicle and adjust the

948
00:51:51,239 --> 00:51:53,759
Speaker 1: you know, the heating and air or the radio, the

949
00:51:54,280 --> 00:51:56,239
Speaker 1: you know, the music or what you know, whatever else

950
00:51:56,239 --> 00:51:59,080
Speaker 1: you're gonna be tinkering with. Uh, you know, so many

951
00:51:59,080 --> 00:52:02,319
Speaker 1: different like hands re options as well, And all of

952
00:52:02,320 --> 00:52:05,360
Speaker 1: this is about making the machine more accommodating to the

953
00:52:05,440 --> 00:52:09,400
Speaker 1: human form, into the human body and human limitations without

954
00:52:09,440 --> 00:52:11,920
Speaker 1: asking us to become more machine like, Yeah, well I

955
00:52:11,960 --> 00:52:15,200
Speaker 1: think it's aiding in that hybridization. It's you want to

956
00:52:15,239 --> 00:52:17,799
Speaker 1: be a car centaur head, you know that this is

957
00:52:17,840 --> 00:52:20,600
Speaker 1: the way, Like it sort of opens up the stump

958
00:52:20,680 --> 00:52:22,799
Speaker 1: on the horse body for you to climb into. If

959
00:52:22,840 --> 00:52:26,160
Speaker 1: that metaphor makes anything, yeah, no, I think so. You know,

960
00:52:26,160 --> 00:52:28,960
Speaker 1: it's another to say that the repetitive driving injuries are

961
00:52:29,000 --> 00:52:31,160
Speaker 1: still not a thing. You know, still see back pain,

962
00:52:31,320 --> 00:52:34,880
Speaker 1: next iffness, sideache, and eye strain. All of these are

963
00:52:34,920 --> 00:52:38,600
Speaker 1: an issue. And you also see a strain associated with

964
00:52:38,680 --> 00:52:41,520
Speaker 1: different you know, technological add ons that end up coming.

965
00:52:41,520 --> 00:52:43,200
Speaker 1: Like the main one that comes to my mind is

966
00:52:43,239 --> 00:52:46,759
Speaker 1: when you have a laptop computer in a vehicle. You'll

967
00:52:46,760 --> 00:52:49,160
Speaker 1: see this often with like service vehicles, so you'll see

968
00:52:49,160 --> 00:52:52,200
Speaker 1: this with police officers. Yeah, and like that adds a

969
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:55,680
Speaker 1: new level of repeated movement inside of the car that

970
00:52:55,719 --> 00:52:57,600
Speaker 1: the car made. You know, it was probably not designed

971
00:52:57,600 --> 00:53:00,560
Speaker 1: to accommodate, so that can can open the door for

972
00:53:00,600 --> 00:53:03,600
Speaker 1: potentially you know, other strains, other bodily strains that can

973
00:53:03,640 --> 00:53:06,920
Speaker 1: take place. But but car companies today they even use

974
00:53:07,000 --> 00:53:10,680
Speaker 1: tools like virtual reality to plan out in ergonomic design

975
00:53:10,800 --> 00:53:13,840
Speaker 1: well before they create a prototype to actually start sticking

976
00:53:13,880 --> 00:53:16,920
Speaker 1: people inside of Yeah, that makes sense to me. And

977
00:53:16,960 --> 00:53:18,640
Speaker 1: so at this point I want to come back, though,

978
00:53:18,680 --> 00:53:21,319
Speaker 1: to us to something we've touched on already a little bit.

979
00:53:21,360 --> 00:53:23,560
Speaker 1: I want to come back to the human car hybrid

980
00:53:24,040 --> 00:53:27,520
Speaker 1: and how the car may change how we actually behave

981
00:53:27,880 --> 00:53:30,360
Speaker 1: because they talked about how it changes our perception, it

982
00:53:30,480 --> 00:53:33,640
Speaker 1: changes um, it changes how we think about other cars,

983
00:53:33,760 --> 00:53:36,800
Speaker 1: the drivers. But then how does that actually factor into

984
00:53:36,800 --> 00:53:40,160
Speaker 1: behavior itself? And I think we can all think of

985
00:53:40,200 --> 00:53:42,840
Speaker 1: examples in our lives where we think and feel differently

986
00:53:42,880 --> 00:53:45,759
Speaker 1: while driving. You were talking earlier about how much you

987
00:53:45,880 --> 00:53:50,479
Speaker 1: enjoy driving, you know, let's say, out in the countryside mountains. Yeah,

988
00:53:50,760 --> 00:53:53,200
Speaker 1: and we I think that can feel very liberating, even

989
00:53:53,200 --> 00:53:55,600
Speaker 1: if you're not like a someone who would typically say,

990
00:53:55,600 --> 00:53:57,759
Speaker 1: oh I love driving. You make it think to a

991
00:53:57,800 --> 00:54:01,080
Speaker 1: time where you were, you know, cranking a favorite tune, uh,

992
00:54:01,120 --> 00:54:05,120
Speaker 1: you know, you know, white winding through the mountains or whatever,

993
00:54:05,440 --> 00:54:07,719
Speaker 1: and you you you can look back. I didn't realize, well,

994
00:54:07,719 --> 00:54:10,680
Speaker 1: that was very enjoyable. I felt I felt alive, I

995
00:54:10,719 --> 00:54:12,800
Speaker 1: felt free, I felt like some sort of a seventies

996
00:54:12,880 --> 00:54:16,920
Speaker 1: rock song incarnate right right, or it makes you think

997
00:54:16,960 --> 00:54:20,440
Speaker 1: about the scenes in the movies where characters were always

998
00:54:20,440 --> 00:54:22,520
Speaker 1: teenagers are driving down the road and all the windows

999
00:54:22,520 --> 00:54:25,319
Speaker 1: are down and they're just going whoo. Have you ever

1000
00:54:25,440 --> 00:54:28,400
Speaker 1: driven down the road and just everybody gone woo? It

1001
00:54:28,440 --> 00:54:30,360
Speaker 1: doesn't happen in real life, even if you're having a

1002
00:54:30,360 --> 00:54:32,279
Speaker 1: good time. Yeah, I don't think I've gone woo and

1003
00:54:32,680 --> 00:54:36,640
Speaker 1: artificial necessarily, but but I certainly hear the music side

1004
00:54:36,640 --> 00:54:39,080
Speaker 1: of it totally. Um And in some studies have shown

1005
00:54:39,120 --> 00:54:42,880
Speaker 1: that certain songs can make us drive faster. I can definitely.

1006
00:54:43,000 --> 00:54:45,000
Speaker 1: I can definitely remember times where I was driving too

1007
00:54:45,040 --> 00:54:47,839
Speaker 1: fast and it was it was it was all leads

1008
00:54:47,920 --> 00:54:51,400
Speaker 1: up one's fall. Specifically immigrant song, immigrant song, not a

1009
00:54:51,440 --> 00:54:55,160
Speaker 1: good uh, not a good slow driving song. Another area

1010
00:54:55,200 --> 00:54:58,399
Speaker 1: that I think too when I think of of behavior

1011
00:54:58,400 --> 00:55:00,680
Speaker 1: while driving, is this that we a sense of heard

1012
00:55:00,719 --> 00:55:04,680
Speaker 1: mentality that can take hold on highways, um, where we

1013
00:55:04,760 --> 00:55:07,279
Speaker 1: you know, we we gauge the appropriate speed, what is

1014
00:55:07,320 --> 00:55:10,000
Speaker 1: the what is the pack doing? And then we also

1015
00:55:10,040 --> 00:55:12,840
Speaker 1: have to deal with the stalking predator like highway patrol

1016
00:55:12,880 --> 00:55:16,479
Speaker 1: cars that are out there as well. I always every

1017
00:55:16,480 --> 00:55:18,879
Speaker 1: time I drive, I think about that, how I'm I

1018
00:55:18,880 --> 00:55:21,319
Speaker 1: feel like I am putting myself in the mindset of

1019
00:55:21,360 --> 00:55:23,840
Speaker 1: a fish. And I'm and I have to think about

1020
00:55:24,680 --> 00:55:27,960
Speaker 1: the sharks that are out there. Um and uh and

1021
00:55:27,960 --> 00:55:29,560
Speaker 1: and so I think about that like every time I

1022
00:55:29,640 --> 00:55:32,239
Speaker 1: let a really fast driver, you know, go go buy me,

1023
00:55:32,360 --> 00:55:34,399
Speaker 1: you know, out of the way, Let them go, let

1024
00:55:34,440 --> 00:55:36,760
Speaker 1: them attract the sharks. You stay with the school. Yeah,

1025
00:55:36,760 --> 00:55:38,799
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stay back here with the school. Uh and

1026
00:55:38,800 --> 00:55:41,239
Speaker 1: I'm going to follow the school rules. Well, I'm sure

1027
00:55:41,360 --> 00:55:45,960
Speaker 1: that traffic patterns showed the same kinds of uh emergent

1028
00:55:46,120 --> 00:55:49,760
Speaker 1: behaviors from the group individual motions that you would see

1029
00:55:49,840 --> 00:55:52,480
Speaker 1: in the flocking of birds or the movement of schools

1030
00:55:52,480 --> 00:55:55,480
Speaker 1: of fish. Despite however much it might seem to the contrary,

1031
00:55:55,520 --> 00:55:58,840
Speaker 1: I think there is often kind of an emergent intelligence

1032
00:55:58,920 --> 00:56:00,919
Speaker 1: that comes out of a group of cars, like say,

1033
00:56:00,920 --> 00:56:04,239
Speaker 1: trying to get around and obstruction in the road or something. Yeah.

1034
00:56:04,280 --> 00:56:06,839
Speaker 1: And then also in in nature we see of course

1035
00:56:06,880 --> 00:56:11,400
Speaker 1: the the way that that a species will communicate to

1036
00:56:11,640 --> 00:56:14,640
Speaker 1: other members of their species that there are predators in

1037
00:56:14,680 --> 00:56:18,240
Speaker 1: their vicinity. And then also we see uh inter species

1038
00:56:18,280 --> 00:56:22,640
Speaker 1: communication about this as well. Um, and what do we

1039
00:56:22,680 --> 00:56:25,400
Speaker 1: see out on on on our highways? Used to if

1040
00:56:25,400 --> 00:56:27,880
Speaker 1: there was there was a you know, a traffic stop

1041
00:56:27,920 --> 00:56:30,440
Speaker 1: up ahead or speed trap is someone mind you know,

1042
00:56:30,440 --> 00:56:33,839
Speaker 1: flash their lights at you. Now we have more technological

1043
00:56:33,880 --> 00:56:37,360
Speaker 1: means of doing this through programs like ways where you

1044
00:56:37,400 --> 00:56:39,879
Speaker 1: see you see a police of vehicle, you you tag them.

1045
00:56:39,960 --> 00:56:42,920
Speaker 1: And I certainly don't mean to disparage police officers or

1046
00:56:42,960 --> 00:56:45,359
Speaker 1: you know, highway patrolmen or anything like that. It's like

1047
00:56:45,360 --> 00:56:49,160
Speaker 1: cutting down on speeding is actually a public good. Yes, absolutely, um,

1048
00:56:49,239 --> 00:56:51,960
Speaker 1: but but I mean when we when I view them,

1049
00:56:52,040 --> 00:56:53,839
Speaker 1: I can't help. And part of this is seeing the

1050
00:56:53,880 --> 00:56:56,480
Speaker 1: car and not thinking about the person, you know, uh,

1051
00:56:56,680 --> 00:56:58,520
Speaker 1: or in fact, seeing the uniform and not thinking about

1052
00:56:58,520 --> 00:57:00,880
Speaker 1: the person. You just see them as a potential threat

1053
00:57:00,920 --> 00:57:03,279
Speaker 1: on some level, like this is a person that could

1054
00:57:03,400 --> 00:57:05,200
Speaker 1: that I could get I could get in trouble. They

1055
00:57:05,200 --> 00:57:07,200
Speaker 1: can give me a speeding ticket. And if you're driving

1056
00:57:07,200 --> 00:57:10,640
Speaker 1: on a highway, you probably are technically speeding, if you're

1057
00:57:11,000 --> 00:57:14,080
Speaker 1: if you're if you're again keeping up with the pack, right, Yeah,

1058
00:57:14,120 --> 00:57:16,040
Speaker 1: I mean that is often the case on our freeways.

1059
00:57:16,040 --> 00:57:18,080
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, when people are trying to get somewhere,

1060
00:57:18,120 --> 00:57:20,480
Speaker 1: they're not usually thinking about the public good. They're just

1061
00:57:20,520 --> 00:57:22,840
Speaker 1: thinking about you know, they're kind of in self mode,

1062
00:57:22,880 --> 00:57:24,920
Speaker 1: and they're like, I gotta get there right. But then

1063
00:57:24,960 --> 00:57:27,800
Speaker 1: there's another area of behavior that that obviously comes up,

1064
00:57:27,840 --> 00:57:31,760
Speaker 1: and that's road rage. I've I've read a little bit

1065
00:57:31,800 --> 00:57:34,640
Speaker 1: of about this before, and I was looking over the

1066
00:57:34,640 --> 00:57:38,400
Speaker 1: information again. There's a two thousand tin paper that I'd

1067
00:57:38,480 --> 00:57:43,960
Speaker 1: rather like titled road Rage, What's Driving It? By Randy

1068
00:57:44,000 --> 00:57:48,720
Speaker 1: and Lorie Sands, And they have a nice compact definition

1069
00:57:48,760 --> 00:57:51,800
Speaker 1: of road rage, because the definition of road rage becomes

1070
00:57:51,840 --> 00:57:55,160
Speaker 1: important when you're teasing it apart. They's a road rage

1071
00:57:55,160 --> 00:57:57,960
Speaker 1: may be described as a constellation of thoughts, emotions, and

1072
00:57:58,000 --> 00:58:02,040
Speaker 1: behaviors that occur in response who had perceived unjustified provocation

1073
00:58:02,080 --> 00:58:05,320
Speaker 1: while driving. Road Rage may also be defined as those

1074
00:58:05,440 --> 00:58:09,480
Speaker 1: driving behaviors that endanger or potentially endanger others that uh

1075
00:58:09,600 --> 00:58:13,440
Speaker 1: and are accompanied by intentional acts of aggression towards others,

1076
00:58:13,480 --> 00:58:16,520
Speaker 1: negative emotions while driving, and risk taking. So again, I

1077
00:58:16,520 --> 00:58:18,040
Speaker 1: think it's important to think of it again as a

1078
00:58:18,120 --> 00:58:21,880
Speaker 1: constellation of thoughts and emotions because road rage, as it

1079
00:58:21,960 --> 00:58:25,040
Speaker 1: is often or certainly for a while, the way it

1080
00:58:25,080 --> 00:58:28,360
Speaker 1: was utilized in in the media, well, it was almost

1081
00:58:28,400 --> 00:58:32,240
Speaker 1: had this supernatural context. It was almost like lookanthropy, you know,

1082
00:58:32,480 --> 00:58:35,200
Speaker 1: when someone was overcome by road rage, like the machine

1083
00:58:35,400 --> 00:58:37,720
Speaker 1: leached into your body and turned you into a monster,

1084
00:58:38,440 --> 00:58:41,400
Speaker 1: as if there is one single cause or even one

1085
00:58:41,480 --> 00:58:45,440
Speaker 1: single uh you know, uh symptom of of of this

1086
00:58:45,480 --> 00:58:47,400
Speaker 1: thing we're talking about. Well, I feel like it was

1087
00:58:47,440 --> 00:58:50,760
Speaker 1: also used in sort of like shifting contexts where it

1088
00:58:51,240 --> 00:58:54,800
Speaker 1: originally emerged, didn't It originally emerge with reference to like

1089
00:58:55,080 --> 00:58:58,360
Speaker 1: really violent acts like shootings in in l A due

1090
00:58:58,360 --> 00:59:02,360
Speaker 1: to traffic, where people got really really angry into violent outbursts.

1091
00:59:02,400 --> 00:59:04,520
Speaker 1: But then it would also just be used to refer

1092
00:59:04,560 --> 00:59:08,360
Speaker 1: to people like getting mad and giving rude gestures and stuff. Yeah. Yeah.

1093
00:59:08,360 --> 00:59:10,640
Speaker 1: The phrase itself was coined in the late nineteen eighties

1094
00:59:10,680 --> 00:59:13,800
Speaker 1: by newscasters at KTLA and Los Angeles following a series

1095
00:59:13,800 --> 00:59:16,959
Speaker 1: of freeway shootings. Um, but it was It wasn't until

1096
00:59:18,000 --> 00:59:21,720
Speaker 1: that it was really picked up by by various headlines

1097
00:59:21,720 --> 00:59:25,800
Speaker 1: stealing scare stories, but one if the Again, it is

1098
00:59:25,800 --> 00:59:27,920
Speaker 1: often used to encompass a number of behaviors, but the

1099
00:59:27,920 --> 00:59:31,160
Speaker 1: most classic is people becoming angry due to being cut

1100
00:59:31,200 --> 00:59:35,080
Speaker 1: off in traffic. Uh. You hear about this all the time.

1101
00:59:35,680 --> 00:59:38,240
Speaker 1: They take this as a as a direct affront to

1102
00:59:38,400 --> 00:59:42,080
Speaker 1: their their identity, to their person, to their goals. And

1103
00:59:42,120 --> 00:59:45,080
Speaker 1: then but what is essentially happening in the brain. Well, first,

1104
00:59:45,080 --> 00:59:49,160
Speaker 1: the stress hormone cortisol rushes through your blood stream and

1105
00:59:49,360 --> 00:59:52,040
Speaker 1: ups your blood pressure. Next, a dreamline kicks into kicks

1106
00:59:52,040 --> 00:59:54,880
Speaker 1: into heighten your aggression. And that's the thing too. Essentially

1107
00:59:54,880 --> 00:59:58,560
Speaker 1: you're going to a fight or flight scenario, but you

1108
00:59:58,560 --> 01:00:01,240
Speaker 1: you can't really flo lie away, you can't really run

1109
01:00:01,240 --> 01:00:05,080
Speaker 1: away due to the flow of traffic. So it's gonna

1110
01:00:05,120 --> 01:00:06,760
Speaker 1: argue that you tend to go towards more of the

1111
01:00:06,800 --> 01:00:11,720
Speaker 1: fight mindset, thus the aggression um. And then also you

1112
01:00:11,720 --> 01:00:15,680
Speaker 1: know your your serotonin is dropping, dopamines increasing, so your

1113
01:00:15,720 --> 01:00:19,920
Speaker 1: emotional intelligence is decreasing, and your body is is posed

1114
01:00:19,960 --> 01:00:22,560
Speaker 1: for some sort of altercation to take place. Okay, but

1115
01:00:22,640 --> 01:00:24,480
Speaker 1: of course your body is also in a car and

1116
01:00:24,520 --> 01:00:26,720
Speaker 1: your aggressors behind it, the progressor's body is in a

1117
01:00:26,720 --> 01:00:30,280
Speaker 1: car and uh and this also, you know, contributes to

1118
01:00:30,360 --> 01:00:33,360
Speaker 1: this weird scenario that you're in. So, according to the

1119
01:00:33,360 --> 01:00:36,439
Speaker 1: the authors, if you just ask around, up to one

1120
01:00:36,520 --> 01:00:39,880
Speaker 1: third of the population has perpetrated something that they think

1121
01:00:39,880 --> 01:00:43,440
Speaker 1: of as road rage or could be defined as road rage. Now, again,

1122
01:00:43,480 --> 01:00:46,680
Speaker 1: to dissociate from the original context, this wouldn't necessarily mean

1123
01:00:46,720 --> 01:00:51,160
Speaker 1: any kind of violence, right. Uh. Meanwhile, only two percent

1124
01:00:51,320 --> 01:00:54,840
Speaker 1: or less of incidents actually result in serious vehicle damage

1125
01:00:54,920 --> 01:00:57,400
Speaker 1: or personal harm. And then also when it comes down

1126
01:00:57,480 --> 01:01:01,480
Speaker 1: to who are the actual primary purpose traders of road rage,

1127
01:01:01,800 --> 01:01:05,280
Speaker 1: it tends to be young males. That's not super surprising.

1128
01:01:05,400 --> 01:01:07,320
Speaker 1: And and they point out that there, you know, obviously,

1129
01:01:07,360 --> 01:01:09,960
Speaker 1: they are psychological factors that come into play here and

1130
01:01:10,040 --> 01:01:13,800
Speaker 1: contribute to a general tendency to displace anger and blame others.

1131
01:01:13,960 --> 01:01:16,800
Speaker 1: And this is pre existing. This is not caused by uh,

1132
01:01:16,840 --> 01:01:20,320
Speaker 1: you know, automobile induced cognition, though I think you can

1133
01:01:20,360 --> 01:01:23,440
Speaker 1: make a lot of cases for if you have underlying

1134
01:01:23,480 --> 01:01:27,480
Speaker 1: psychological factors, or certainly if there's a bona fide psychiatric disorder,

1135
01:01:28,360 --> 01:01:31,640
Speaker 1: especially a drug alcohol addiction, anxiety, depression, and anti social

1136
01:01:31,680 --> 01:01:35,200
Speaker 1: personality disorders, all of these things could conting potentially be

1137
01:01:35,320 --> 01:01:41,120
Speaker 1: aggravated by automobile cognition. But then also, you know, there

1138
01:01:41,120 --> 01:01:44,320
Speaker 1: are plenty of people that have argued against just the

1139
01:01:44,360 --> 01:01:47,360
Speaker 1: idea of road rage in general, saying that this is essentially,

1140
01:01:47,800 --> 01:01:49,840
Speaker 1: you know, an out of control headline situation. Yeah, that's

1141
01:01:49,880 --> 01:01:52,400
Speaker 1: what I was wondering I mean, is road rage actually

1142
01:01:52,600 --> 01:01:58,240
Speaker 1: a unique driving related phenomenon or is it just instances

1143
01:01:58,280 --> 01:02:01,720
Speaker 1: of people getting angry and acting mean as would happen

1144
01:02:01,720 --> 01:02:05,280
Speaker 1: in any other context, but here it happens in cars. Yeah.

1145
01:02:05,440 --> 01:02:08,800
Speaker 1: For instance, there was article and The Atlantic titled road

1146
01:02:08,920 --> 01:02:13,000
Speaker 1: Rage Versus Reality by Michael Flemento and uh, and he

1147
01:02:13,080 --> 01:02:15,479
Speaker 1: argued against studies and polls that were supporting the notion

1148
01:02:15,520 --> 01:02:18,240
Speaker 1: of road rage. He argued that road rage was, you know,

1149
01:02:18,280 --> 01:02:21,440
Speaker 1: it's an excessively broad term that applied to a variety

1150
01:02:21,520 --> 01:02:25,440
Speaker 1: of violent situations while also allowing us to ignore behaviors

1151
01:02:25,440 --> 01:02:28,520
Speaker 1: that actually caused accidents, such as drivers running red lights.

1152
01:02:29,480 --> 01:02:32,640
Speaker 1: And you know, ultimate it's just a more sensational thing too,

1153
01:02:33,400 --> 01:02:36,640
Speaker 1: for your headline, for your explanation of events, and also

1154
01:02:36,720 --> 01:02:39,840
Speaker 1: for sort of judging other people too. As you're out driving, right,

1155
01:02:40,160 --> 01:02:42,360
Speaker 1: it's easier to just say, oh, that person is just

1156
01:02:42,560 --> 01:02:44,920
Speaker 1: road raging back there, uh, and then you can just

1157
01:02:44,960 --> 01:02:49,960
Speaker 1: sort of dismiss any further deeper consideration of, you know,

1158
01:02:50,000 --> 01:02:53,000
Speaker 1: what their day is like. But but when you look

1159
01:02:53,040 --> 01:02:55,720
Speaker 1: at some of these studies and these uh, these different

1160
01:02:56,200 --> 01:03:01,000
Speaker 1: surveys about road rage behavior, it is google really interesting.

1161
01:03:01,040 --> 01:03:03,000
Speaker 1: I was looking at a two thousand sixteen study by

1162
01:03:03,240 --> 01:03:06,600
Speaker 1: Triple A Foundation for Traffic Safety, UH and they found

1163
01:03:06,600 --> 01:03:10,920
Speaker 1: that eighty percent of drivers expressed UH sufficient anger, aggression

1164
01:03:11,040 --> 01:03:13,240
Speaker 1: or road rage behind the wheel at least in the

1165
01:03:13,280 --> 01:03:16,160
Speaker 1: past year. And so, yeah, some of these stats are crazy.

1166
01:03:16,200 --> 01:03:21,120
Speaker 1: So for for example, UH purposefully tailgating, so that would

1167
01:03:21,120 --> 01:03:23,680
Speaker 1: that abould be driving way too close to the car

1168
01:03:23,760 --> 01:03:27,000
Speaker 1: in front of you, perhaps trying to signal to them

1169
01:03:27,040 --> 01:03:29,240
Speaker 1: that they should move into another lane and let you

1170
01:03:29,320 --> 01:03:32,120
Speaker 1: go past. Yeah, I mean I hate that one. When

1171
01:03:32,120 --> 01:03:34,560
Speaker 1: you're maybe you're on a two lane highway, one lane

1172
01:03:34,600 --> 01:03:37,000
Speaker 1: going each way, and you know, and somebody is just

1173
01:03:37,240 --> 01:03:39,120
Speaker 1: right up on you. I think they want you to

1174
01:03:39,160 --> 01:03:42,360
Speaker 1: go faster, right, And it's it's a dangerous situation. Cars

1175
01:03:42,360 --> 01:03:44,120
Speaker 1: are not supposed to be that close to each other

1176
01:03:44,760 --> 01:03:47,080
Speaker 1: because that can end and it can cause the cars

1177
01:03:47,120 --> 01:03:53,160
Speaker 1: to crash together. Um. And And yet yes, so you

1178
01:03:53,240 --> 01:03:56,000
Speaker 1: often see it, especially in that scenario where somebody wants

1179
01:03:56,000 --> 01:03:57,720
Speaker 1: the car to get over into another lane and let

1180
01:03:57,760 --> 01:04:01,120
Speaker 1: them pass, um almost using it as a kind of

1181
01:04:01,160 --> 01:04:05,200
Speaker 1: like aggressive communication system. It makes one wonder if there

1182
01:04:05,280 --> 01:04:08,160
Speaker 1: was like a better there's a specific light one could

1183
01:04:08,240 --> 01:04:10,840
Speaker 1: use for that, and maybe that would be a safer scenario,

1184
01:04:11,080 --> 01:04:15,000
Speaker 1: but in terms of statistics, so the idea would be

1185
01:04:15,040 --> 01:04:20,560
Speaker 1: a hundred four million drivers are doing this, or there's

1186
01:04:20,560 --> 01:04:23,440
Speaker 1: another one that's perhaps more relatable, yelling at other drivers

1187
01:04:24,760 --> 01:04:27,440
Speaker 1: or ninety five million drivers. Now, does that include yelling

1188
01:04:27,480 --> 01:04:29,680
Speaker 1: so that they can hear you are just yelling within

1189
01:04:29,760 --> 01:04:32,280
Speaker 1: your own vehicle. I think it's about yelling within your

1190
01:04:32,280 --> 01:04:34,720
Speaker 1: own vehicle, because that's another aspect of all of this,

1191
01:04:34,800 --> 01:04:37,640
Speaker 1: and often kind of a critique of road rage is

1192
01:04:37,680 --> 01:04:42,480
Speaker 1: that we feel enclosed. We feel at least semi masked.

1193
01:04:42,960 --> 01:04:46,160
Speaker 1: There is a you know, certainly other people can see us,

1194
01:04:46,200 --> 01:04:48,800
Speaker 1: but they can't hear us. So I can say anything

1195
01:04:48,840 --> 01:04:51,160
Speaker 1: I want and you don't know. Maybe I'm just I'm

1196
01:04:51,160 --> 01:04:54,640
Speaker 1: just singing. Maybe I'm maybe I'm a conference call. I'm

1197
01:04:54,680 --> 01:04:57,720
Speaker 1: not calling you a bunch of dirty names. Hanking to

1198
01:04:57,760 --> 01:05:00,800
Speaker 1: show annoyance or anger, obviously that's a big one. At times,

1199
01:05:00,840 --> 01:05:03,720
Speaker 1: it feels like that we have a culture have decided

1200
01:05:03,720 --> 01:05:06,240
Speaker 1: that that it's what the horn is for, uh, and

1201
01:05:06,360 --> 01:05:09,760
Speaker 1: not for alerting other people to our to our our

1202
01:05:09,520 --> 01:05:13,080
Speaker 1: our presence. On the other hand, I feel like, so

1203
01:05:13,160 --> 01:05:15,760
Speaker 1: I don't hank to show people anger, but sometimes I

1204
01:05:15,800 --> 01:05:18,720
Speaker 1: forget the horn is there. And there are cases where

1205
01:05:18,760 --> 01:05:20,840
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, I should have honked to like get

1206
01:05:20,840 --> 01:05:23,880
Speaker 1: somebody's attention, but I just like forgot that my car

1207
01:05:24,000 --> 01:05:27,360
Speaker 1: could do that. I also feel like sometimes there's a

1208
01:05:27,360 --> 01:05:29,640
Speaker 1: cultural difference because if you travel to other parts of

1209
01:05:29,640 --> 01:05:33,520
Speaker 1: the world and and you encounter cultures where hanking is

1210
01:05:33,600 --> 01:05:36,360
Speaker 1: say something you do every time you go around a corner,

1211
01:05:36,400 --> 01:05:38,120
Speaker 1: I don't know, like a one way road, because it's

1212
01:05:38,200 --> 01:05:41,000
Speaker 1: essential to communicate to other cars that you were there,

1213
01:05:41,640 --> 01:05:45,520
Speaker 1: or hanking is more of a way of communicating of

1214
01:05:45,520 --> 01:05:48,560
Speaker 1: of saying hi to people. You know. I guess you

1215
01:05:48,600 --> 01:05:51,200
Speaker 1: still have that that here, but I don't know. I

1216
01:05:51,200 --> 01:05:54,200
Speaker 1: feel like I feel bad if I hank at somebody

1217
01:05:54,400 --> 01:05:57,080
Speaker 1: like who is just walking on the sidewalk. It feels

1218
01:05:57,080 --> 01:05:59,880
Speaker 1: a little bit intrusive. Oh you mean to say hi,

1219
01:06:00,440 --> 01:06:02,200
Speaker 1: not like they need to get off the sidewalk so

1220
01:06:02,240 --> 01:06:04,880
Speaker 1: you can drive on right right exactly. But some of

1221
01:06:04,880 --> 01:06:08,680
Speaker 1: these other activities they were looking at, like making angry

1222
01:06:08,720 --> 01:06:13,120
Speaker 1: gestures or sixty seven million drivers trying to block another

1223
01:06:13,200 --> 01:06:18,560
Speaker 1: vehicle from changing lanes or million drivers don't do that, folks. Yeah,

1224
01:06:18,800 --> 01:06:21,360
Speaker 1: Like I say that that fish wants to be eaten

1225
01:06:21,360 --> 01:06:24,240
Speaker 1: by a shark. Let that fish go forward, Let that

1226
01:06:24,280 --> 01:06:26,200
Speaker 1: fish find the shark. That's the way I always look

1227
01:06:26,240 --> 01:06:31,160
Speaker 1: at it. UH cutting off another vehicle on purpose four

1228
01:06:31,200 --> 01:06:34,320
Speaker 1: million drivers getting out of the vehicle to confront another

1229
01:06:34,400 --> 01:06:38,080
Speaker 1: driver that one's thankfully down at four percent seven point

1230
01:06:38,160 --> 01:06:42,400
Speaker 1: six million drivers. How often does that lead to something good? Yeah? Never,

1231
01:06:42,520 --> 01:06:45,600
Speaker 1: At the very least, it's going to leave I would

1232
01:06:45,640 --> 01:06:48,240
Speaker 1: assume to embarrassment when you realize I just got out

1233
01:06:48,240 --> 01:06:50,320
Speaker 1: of my car to yell at somebody, and now I

1234
01:06:50,320 --> 01:06:53,160
Speaker 1: should get back in because I look at at best

1235
01:06:53,320 --> 01:06:56,160
Speaker 1: like an idiot and at worst like a like a

1236
01:06:56,240 --> 01:06:59,919
Speaker 1: violent aggressor who you know, who should the authority should

1237
01:06:59,920 --> 01:07:02,880
Speaker 1: be called on? And then finally bumping or ramming another

1238
01:07:02,960 --> 01:07:07,440
Speaker 1: vehicle on purpose three five point seven million drivers. So wait, then,

1239
01:07:07,480 --> 01:07:09,600
Speaker 1: where do you come down? Do you think is road

1240
01:07:09,680 --> 01:07:13,600
Speaker 1: rage just like one particular context of normal types of

1241
01:07:13,600 --> 01:07:16,520
Speaker 1: interpersonal rage or is it a specific and unique thing.

1242
01:07:16,880 --> 01:07:19,680
Speaker 1: I I tend to follow the idea here that I

1243
01:07:19,720 --> 01:07:22,240
Speaker 1: mean we're dealing. You can't say that we come and

1244
01:07:22,520 --> 01:07:25,760
Speaker 1: become a completely different person when we drive, But I

1245
01:07:25,800 --> 01:07:29,960
Speaker 1: feel like the data shows that driving changes the way

1246
01:07:30,000 --> 01:07:32,360
Speaker 1: we interact with the world and how it changes the

1247
01:07:32,360 --> 01:07:34,600
Speaker 1: way we think about ourselves, and that is going to

1248
01:07:34,760 --> 01:07:38,920
Speaker 1: lend its way to an altered sort of behavior. So

1249
01:07:39,160 --> 01:07:41,000
Speaker 1: you might not be the type of person who would

1250
01:07:41,040 --> 01:07:44,560
Speaker 1: ever shoot the middle finger to another person, say, you know,

1251
01:07:44,600 --> 01:07:47,040
Speaker 1: in a grocery store, but on the way to the

1252
01:07:47,080 --> 01:07:50,000
Speaker 1: grocery store, perhaps you would. You might not never. You

1253
01:07:50,080 --> 01:07:52,880
Speaker 1: might never yell something ugly at someone on the street,

1254
01:07:52,960 --> 01:07:55,640
Speaker 1: but in the car it makes sense because perhaps they

1255
01:07:55,680 --> 01:07:59,240
Speaker 1: can't hear you. Well, this is another way that it can.

1256
01:07:59,400 --> 01:08:01,840
Speaker 1: It changes our perception of space. I mean, I was

1257
01:08:01,840 --> 01:08:04,760
Speaker 1: thinking about would I ever yell at a person, would

1258
01:08:04,800 --> 01:08:07,240
Speaker 1: ever like roll down a window in the car and

1259
01:08:07,320 --> 01:08:11,360
Speaker 1: yell at somebody? Know? But what I like, yell within

1260
01:08:11,520 --> 01:08:15,240
Speaker 1: my own car about something that somebody else did. Yeah,

1261
01:08:15,320 --> 01:08:17,400
Speaker 1: I've done that, and it makes me think, like, well,

1262
01:08:17,680 --> 01:08:20,360
Speaker 1: yelling with within my own car is almost like having

1263
01:08:20,400 --> 01:08:24,000
Speaker 1: a thought inside my head, you know. So it's like

1264
01:08:24,080 --> 01:08:28,680
Speaker 1: the car's interior space, the enclosure aspect of that has

1265
01:08:28,720 --> 01:08:31,439
Speaker 1: almost come to be like like what happens in there

1266
01:08:31,520 --> 01:08:34,800
Speaker 1: doesn't happen to the outside world unless you, you know,

1267
01:08:34,960 --> 01:08:37,439
Speaker 1: really attempt to show it to the outside world, Like

1268
01:08:37,479 --> 01:08:40,080
Speaker 1: you know, it's a private space. You tend to to

1269
01:08:40,120 --> 01:08:43,519
Speaker 1: assume people are not looking in your car actively at you.

1270
01:08:44,240 --> 01:08:46,599
Speaker 1: Uh so, yeah, I almost feel like, well, I can

1271
01:08:46,640 --> 01:08:48,519
Speaker 1: just like yell like, oh why did you do? You know?

1272
01:08:48,600 --> 01:08:50,799
Speaker 1: I I can yell at somebody who did something stupid

1273
01:08:50,800 --> 01:08:52,840
Speaker 1: on the road in my car. They're not going to

1274
01:08:52,920 --> 01:08:55,080
Speaker 1: hear it, and it's almost like it didn't even happen

1275
01:08:55,120 --> 01:08:58,439
Speaker 1: out loud. Yeah. So road range, I think is one

1276
01:08:58,479 --> 01:09:00,800
Speaker 1: of the more studied and written about and commented and

1277
01:09:00,840 --> 01:09:03,800
Speaker 1: commentated on, you know, aspects of this scenario. But there

1278
01:09:03,800 --> 01:09:06,680
Speaker 1: are there are other activities that I think are also illuminating, like,

1279
01:09:06,760 --> 01:09:10,360
Speaker 1: for instance, if you're already asking yourself like do I

1280
01:09:10,479 --> 01:09:13,000
Speaker 1: yell in my car? And is it okay? And would

1281
01:09:13,040 --> 01:09:15,600
Speaker 1: I yell abour outside my car? Another example that is

1282
01:09:15,640 --> 01:09:19,320
Speaker 1: often brought up is picking one's nose okay. So you

1283
01:09:19,439 --> 01:09:21,439
Speaker 1: might not be the type of person to to do

1284
01:09:21,479 --> 01:09:24,840
Speaker 1: a lot of like nose related self, you know, hygiene

1285
01:09:24,840 --> 01:09:27,679
Speaker 1: and personal care while you were say, standing in line

1286
01:09:27,720 --> 01:09:30,320
Speaker 1: at the grocery store or wherever, but when you're in

1287
01:09:30,360 --> 01:09:32,920
Speaker 1: the car, you might very well do so. And we

1288
01:09:33,040 --> 01:09:34,719
Speaker 1: probably see you see people do this all the time,

1289
01:09:35,000 --> 01:09:36,200
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of that has to do

1290
01:09:36,280 --> 01:09:38,400
Speaker 1: with this, this idea that when you're in the car,

1291
01:09:38,520 --> 01:09:41,320
Speaker 1: you were masked. You were you know, secluded from everyone else,

1292
01:09:41,479 --> 01:09:43,519
Speaker 1: but of course you were not not really people see

1293
01:09:43,560 --> 01:09:45,519
Speaker 1: you picking your nose or they can they can see

1294
01:09:45,560 --> 01:09:48,280
Speaker 1: you doing, you know, whatever it is you're doing. Another

1295
01:09:48,720 --> 01:09:51,439
Speaker 1: activity that comes to mind is staring at people. Like

1296
01:09:51,479 --> 01:09:53,479
Speaker 1: there's a certain amount of like, you know, we all

1297
01:09:53,520 --> 01:09:57,400
Speaker 1: have to observe people and sits in our vicinity, but

1298
01:09:57,560 --> 01:09:59,559
Speaker 1: when we're driving a car, I wonder if we're more

1299
01:09:59,800 --> 01:10:04,040
Speaker 1: in inclined to stare at particularly pedestrians, you know, we're

1300
01:10:04,080 --> 01:10:07,599
Speaker 1: we're more inclined to to to gaze at them longer

1301
01:10:07,640 --> 01:10:10,200
Speaker 1: than would be socially acceptable if we were out on

1302
01:10:10,240 --> 01:10:13,479
Speaker 1: the sidewalk with them, right again, because you feel maybe

1303
01:10:13,520 --> 01:10:16,200
Speaker 1: like you are invisible, you're behind a barrier, you're in

1304
01:10:16,240 --> 01:10:18,479
Speaker 1: a deer blind almost. It's like, you know, you can

1305
01:10:18,520 --> 01:10:21,439
Speaker 1: see them, but they can't see you. Yeah, so you

1306
01:10:21,479 --> 01:10:23,360
Speaker 1: know that those are just a couple of I think

1307
01:10:23,720 --> 01:10:27,439
Speaker 1: of ideas where we might see cognition within the car,

1308
01:10:27,960 --> 01:10:30,479
Speaker 1: uh being a slightly different thing than cognition on the

1309
01:10:30,479 --> 01:10:33,720
Speaker 1: sidewalk by that, Yeah, and perhaps there are some other

1310
01:10:34,080 --> 01:10:37,360
Speaker 1: examples that come to mind out there among our listeners.

1311
01:10:37,640 --> 01:10:40,000
Speaker 1: I know, we have a lot of listeners who drive cars.

1312
01:10:40,360 --> 01:10:42,360
Speaker 1: A lot of them may be driving a car right now.

1313
01:10:42,920 --> 01:10:44,559
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, I would also love to hear

1314
01:10:44,600 --> 01:10:46,880
Speaker 1: about her from people in different cultures. You know, what

1315
01:10:47,040 --> 01:10:50,760
Speaker 1: is what is it like, uh, you know, driving say

1316
01:10:50,800 --> 01:10:53,760
Speaker 1: in the United States versus driving in uh oh, I

1317
01:10:53,840 --> 01:10:56,639
Speaker 1: don't know, you know, India, or or even the UK,

1318
01:10:57,160 --> 01:11:00,000
Speaker 1: or you know, in any any part of the world. Uh.

1319
01:11:00,000 --> 01:11:03,040
Speaker 1: I'm interested about the difference not only driving culture, but

1320
01:11:03,120 --> 01:11:05,720
Speaker 1: sort of what our cognition might be like in those

1321
01:11:05,840 --> 01:11:09,479
Speaker 1: different environments. Well. Having recently driven on the roads in

1322
01:11:09,479 --> 01:11:11,760
Speaker 1: the UK, where of course the lanes are reversed, you know,

1323
01:11:11,960 --> 01:11:14,120
Speaker 1: driving on the left side of the road, I remember

1324
01:11:14,160 --> 01:11:18,120
Speaker 1: wondering if there's any kind of brain hemisphere I and

1325
01:11:18,240 --> 01:11:21,800
Speaker 1: a hand dominance weirdness going on. That's like a reversed

1326
01:11:22,560 --> 01:11:25,040
Speaker 1: when you're driving on different sides of the road. Interest.

1327
01:11:25,320 --> 01:11:27,760
Speaker 1: I did adapt to driving on the left, but it

1328
01:11:27,840 --> 01:11:31,200
Speaker 1: also it felt different in a way that didn't that

1329
01:11:31,360 --> 01:11:34,479
Speaker 1: wasn't just unfamiliarity. It felt different in a way that

1330
01:11:34,800 --> 01:11:38,160
Speaker 1: it was like it was inherently different. I don't know

1331
01:11:38,200 --> 01:11:39,960
Speaker 1: if that makes any sense. No, no, no, I think

1332
01:11:40,000 --> 01:11:43,160
Speaker 1: I give it you you're talking about. I've never driven

1333
01:11:43,600 --> 01:11:47,080
Speaker 1: on reversed lanes like that before. Um, I've just ridden

1334
01:11:47,080 --> 01:11:49,880
Speaker 1: in them. But even that can be I almost I

1335
01:11:49,880 --> 01:11:52,439
Speaker 1: think I almost died at one point in Jamaica. Uh,

1336
01:11:52,840 --> 01:11:54,479
Speaker 1: not because I was driving a car, but I got

1337
01:11:54,520 --> 01:11:56,639
Speaker 1: out of a car and kind of had this sort

1338
01:11:56,640 --> 01:11:59,800
Speaker 1: of background notion of which way traffic travels, and so

1339
01:11:59,840 --> 01:12:02,280
Speaker 1: I just sort of stepped out into into the road

1340
01:12:02,320 --> 01:12:05,439
Speaker 1: and monfully, nobody was there to run me over. But

1341
01:12:05,840 --> 01:12:09,080
Speaker 1: you know, little things like that, you know certainly can play,

1342
01:12:09,280 --> 01:12:12,000
Speaker 1: you know, be a big factor when the lanes are reversed.

1343
01:12:12,920 --> 01:12:14,880
Speaker 1: So anyway, we'd love to hear from anyone out there

1344
01:12:14,920 --> 01:12:18,160
Speaker 1: who has thoughts about about the relationship with their cars,

1345
01:12:18,200 --> 01:12:20,200
Speaker 1: how the car, and how the car changes the way

1346
01:12:20,280 --> 01:12:23,120
Speaker 1: you think or behave, or even its effects on your

1347
01:12:23,120 --> 01:12:25,640
Speaker 1: physical body. Uh. In the meantime, if you want to

1348
01:12:25,720 --> 01:12:27,400
Speaker 1: check out other episodes of Stuff to Blow your Mind,

1349
01:12:27,439 --> 01:12:28,960
Speaker 1: head on over to Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

1350
01:12:29,040 --> 01:12:31,360
Speaker 1: That's where you will find them. And as always, the

1351
01:12:31,360 --> 01:12:33,880
Speaker 1: best way to support our show is to make sure

1352
01:12:33,920 --> 01:12:36,240
Speaker 1: you have subscribed and to rate and review wherever you

1353
01:12:36,280 --> 01:12:38,200
Speaker 1: have the power to do so, and if you're into

1354
01:12:38,240 --> 01:12:41,720
Speaker 1: this whole question of, you know, how does technology change

1355
01:12:42,080 --> 01:12:44,200
Speaker 1: how we behave and how we think about ourselves, you

1356
01:12:44,200 --> 01:12:48,080
Speaker 1: should definitely check out our other podcast, Invention, because Invention

1357
01:12:48,360 --> 01:12:51,680
Speaker 1: is a journey through human techno history, like each episode

1358
01:12:51,720 --> 01:12:54,639
Speaker 1: is and inevitably going to get into questions of how

1359
01:12:54,680 --> 01:12:57,800
Speaker 1: did this invention, how did this technology change the way

1360
01:12:57,840 --> 01:13:01,080
Speaker 1: we interact with reality and with ourselves totally. If you're

1361
01:13:01,080 --> 01:13:03,880
Speaker 1: not subscribed to Invention yet, get on over there subscribe

1362
01:13:03,920 --> 01:13:08,040
Speaker 1: to Invention huge thanks as always to our excellent audio

1363
01:13:08,160 --> 01:13:11,080
Speaker 1: producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get

1364
01:13:11,120 --> 01:13:13,360
Speaker 1: in touch with us with feedback on this episode or

1365
01:13:13,400 --> 01:13:15,720
Speaker 1: any other, to suggest a topic for the future, just

1366
01:13:15,760 --> 01:13:18,960
Speaker 1: to say hi, you can email us at contact at

1367
01:13:19,040 --> 01:13:28,519
Speaker 1: stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow

1368
01:13:28,560 --> 01:13:30,880
Speaker 1: Your Mind is a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works.

1369
01:13:31,040 --> 01:13:33,200
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1370
01:13:33,280 --> 01:13:35,880
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