1 00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:06,680 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 2 00:00:06,680 --> 00:00:13,680 Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey're welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 3 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:16,960 Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb. I'm Julie Douglas. Julie your 4 00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:19,680 Speaker 1: Halloween costume that you're wearing for this podcast. Um, I 5 00:00:19,840 --> 00:00:23,000 Speaker 1: noticed that your hair is really tall and you have 6 00:00:23,040 --> 00:00:26,520 Speaker 1: a really impressive white stream coming down the side. Yes, 7 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:31,680 Speaker 1: are you the bride of Frankenstein's Monster? No, I'm Marge 8 00:00:31,720 --> 00:00:35,839 Speaker 1: Simpson in her later years. Oh well, well sorry, but 9 00:00:35,920 --> 00:00:39,000 Speaker 1: it looks like the bride of Frankenstein. What are you saying? See, 10 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:41,279 Speaker 1: I never get my costumes right. But what about you? 11 00:00:41,360 --> 00:00:43,000 Speaker 1: What's what's going on over there? Well, as you can 12 00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:46,280 Speaker 1: tell by my by the burns on my body as 13 00:00:46,360 --> 00:00:49,199 Speaker 1: well as the reek of burnt urine that surrounds me. 14 00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:51,479 Speaker 1: Who's going to say something about that? Yeah? I am, 15 00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:55,240 Speaker 1: of course an alchemist, busy applying my trade in my laboratory, 16 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:58,080 Speaker 1: trying to discover the secrets of life to turn to 17 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:01,240 Speaker 1: transmute nettles into gold and uh, and turn one type 18 00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:05,119 Speaker 1: of animal into another and you'urn into gold. Of course, 19 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:08,120 Speaker 1: I'm totally about the gold, and urine is kind of 20 00:01:08,160 --> 00:01:09,840 Speaker 1: gold looking, So there's gotta be a way to turn 21 00:01:09,880 --> 00:01:11,920 Speaker 1: into go. Yeah, you know, I appreciate your commitment to 22 00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:16,320 Speaker 1: the illusion. By the way, Uh, podcast room is really 23 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:20,040 Speaker 1: small and enclosed. Well, you know, I'm hungent right now. 24 00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:22,480 Speaker 1: I'm committed to the idea I go all the way, 25 00:01:22,760 --> 00:01:25,399 Speaker 1: been burning here and all night. So both of these 26 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:27,120 Speaker 1: play into what we're gonna talk about today, which is, 27 00:01:27,160 --> 00:01:31,160 Speaker 1: of course Frankenstein's Monster or Frank's monsters as you like 28 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:33,959 Speaker 1: to call yeah, yeah, or some people just call the 29 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:37,840 Speaker 1: monster Frankenstein. And and that's technically incorrect, but it's it's 30 00:01:37,840 --> 00:01:40,039 Speaker 1: been used to such an extent it's it's almost to 31 00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:44,720 Speaker 1: the point where it's okay to call the Frankenstein's Monster Frankenstein. Uh. Well, 32 00:01:44,760 --> 00:01:48,000 Speaker 1: and I think it's actually quite reasonable given that it 33 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:51,840 Speaker 1: was this, this creature and made in Frankenstein's image sort 34 00:01:51,880 --> 00:01:54,160 Speaker 1: of burned man's image. Yeah yeah, and he never actually 35 00:01:54,240 --> 00:01:57,320 Speaker 1: names it. I mean it's uh, you know, the demon, 36 00:01:57,360 --> 00:02:00,760 Speaker 1: the creature and occasionally some more wordy to descriptions that 37 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:04,560 Speaker 1: because it's a it's a rather poetic novel. The original 38 00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:09,400 Speaker 1: the original book Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus by Mary 39 00:02:09,400 --> 00:02:13,200 Speaker 1: Shelley eighteen. It's never been out of print, and uh, 40 00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:15,160 Speaker 1: if you haven't read it. If you have not read 41 00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:17,680 Speaker 1: this book, I I highly recommend you giving it a read. 42 00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:20,960 Speaker 1: It can be a little wordy at times, but it's 43 00:02:21,080 --> 00:02:25,239 Speaker 1: it's just really great. Uh that like Frankenstein, the Man 44 00:02:25,639 --> 00:02:28,840 Speaker 1: is uh, you know, it's very philosophical about everything, and 45 00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:30,120 Speaker 1: he's putting a lot of thought into this in the 46 00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:32,840 Speaker 1: in the monster is very intelligent as well, and it 47 00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:35,800 Speaker 1: engages in a lot of a lot of deep ponderings 48 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:39,400 Speaker 1: about his own life and his purpose and what has 49 00:02:39,440 --> 00:02:41,639 Speaker 1: happened to him and all this misery that has has 50 00:02:41,680 --> 00:02:44,000 Speaker 1: befallen him in the state of mankind. I mean, it's 51 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:47,120 Speaker 1: a it's an intelligent novel. Well the ways that the 52 00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:51,240 Speaker 1: movies really rarely are able to capture. Well, the movies 53 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:54,480 Speaker 1: are more like fire fire scared, right, and and this 54 00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:55,959 Speaker 1: is more like, hey, let me tell you about my 55 00:02:56,000 --> 00:03:00,200 Speaker 1: existincial angst as a creature that was abandoned. Yeah, was 56 00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:03,000 Speaker 1: created by a man and by an imperfect man, and 57 00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:06,280 Speaker 1: abandoned on an imperfect world. And over the past month 58 00:03:06,760 --> 00:03:09,200 Speaker 1: I was asked by How Stuff Works to write an 59 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:12,000 Speaker 1: article how Frankenstein's Monster works. And I set out to 60 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:13,840 Speaker 1: write it, and uh, you know, I could have just 61 00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:17,639 Speaker 1: written a whole regigitation of the normal. Hey, there was 62 00:03:17,680 --> 00:03:19,639 Speaker 1: this lady Mary Shelley and she got scared in a 63 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:22,200 Speaker 1: lightning storm and was in a story writing contest, and 64 00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:25,359 Speaker 1: then she wrote this, and then these people played Frankenstein 65 00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:27,400 Speaker 1: in the movie. And that's all well and good. All 66 00:03:27,440 --> 00:03:30,000 Speaker 1: the I mean, the the story of the novel and 67 00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:32,440 Speaker 1: the and the the pop culture significance of the of 68 00:03:32,560 --> 00:03:35,560 Speaker 1: the book and the idea is really cool and uh 69 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:37,040 Speaker 1: and I can read it all day, and there are 70 00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:39,240 Speaker 1: plenty places on the internet already to read about it 71 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:41,960 Speaker 1: all day. But I was really more interested in the 72 00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:45,640 Speaker 1: idea of Frankenstein's monster in our culture is this idea 73 00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:48,480 Speaker 1: that we can create life, that we can we can 74 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:50,680 Speaker 1: take and not just create life in the way that 75 00:03:50,760 --> 00:03:53,720 Speaker 1: humans create life every day through approcreation, but the idea 76 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:57,400 Speaker 1: that I can use my wisdom and my intelligence and 77 00:03:57,840 --> 00:04:00,320 Speaker 1: with one hand sort of flip off God and with 78 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:02,360 Speaker 1: the other one make a little man that will walk 79 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:04,000 Speaker 1: around and do what I tell it to. Well, in 80 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:07,400 Speaker 1: this idea, too, that we perhaps just haven't discovered the 81 00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:10,440 Speaker 1: right element or the right thing, or the right piece 82 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:14,320 Speaker 1: of knowledge to transcend our own humanness right into to 83 00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:18,159 Speaker 1: make a better version of ourselves. Yeah. And this the 84 00:04:18,279 --> 00:04:21,479 Speaker 1: idea too, has been around forever. I mean it. I 85 00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:25,839 Speaker 1: mean it goes back to just our basic like cognitive abilities. Uh, 86 00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:29,600 Speaker 1: to look at an object and imagine it alive. The 87 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:33,960 Speaker 1: idea to anthropomorphize things and to and to personify even 88 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:36,359 Speaker 1: like aspects of nature. You know, you have like the 89 00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:39,440 Speaker 1: Greek myth of Pygmalion, the sculpture that is awakened by 90 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:42,680 Speaker 1: the god Venus and turned into an actual lady and uh. 91 00:04:42,680 --> 00:04:45,039 Speaker 1: And you also have one of my favorite ideas, the 92 00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:47,960 Speaker 1: golem or and I found this interesting that you can 93 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:50,120 Speaker 1: also since this is a Jewish idea, it can be 94 00:04:50,160 --> 00:04:54,120 Speaker 1: pronounced golm um, which is, I guess more in keeping 95 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:57,360 Speaker 1: with the Hebrew. And the most famous version of this 96 00:04:57,520 --> 00:05:00,520 Speaker 1: was the Golem of of Prague, which is it is 97 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:03,200 Speaker 1: a medieval myth and it eventually found its way into 98 00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:06,120 Speaker 1: new life in the ninet novel Drek Golem. In this 99 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:10,880 Speaker 1: particular story, you have this guy, Rabbi Judah Low bin Besabel, 100 00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:13,320 Speaker 1: and he's an expert in the use of the magical 101 00:05:13,400 --> 00:05:16,800 Speaker 1: use of letters to create various magical effects. And these 102 00:05:16,839 --> 00:05:19,000 Speaker 1: are almost like incantations, right, I mean you could say 103 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:21,000 Speaker 1: there are prayers, yeah, and then it gets into the 104 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:22,800 Speaker 1: soul like there's a whole lot of stuff in in 105 00:05:22,920 --> 00:05:26,599 Speaker 1: Judaism and incamalo, the importance of the importance of names, 106 00:05:26,640 --> 00:05:28,800 Speaker 1: the importance of letters, and the importance of the name 107 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:31,719 Speaker 1: of God, right and uh and so I mean you 108 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:35,160 Speaker 1: have things like the Sefer Yasarrah. The Book of Creation, 109 00:05:35,480 --> 00:05:37,800 Speaker 1: which is often referred to as a guide to magical 110 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:40,479 Speaker 1: usage by some Western European Jews in the Middle Ages 111 00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:44,520 Speaker 1: and in some of the involved various directions for creating 112 00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:46,479 Speaker 1: a goal, on some of which it involved taking the 113 00:05:46,560 --> 00:05:50,240 Speaker 1: name of God and rearranging the letters and putting them 114 00:05:50,240 --> 00:05:53,000 Speaker 1: on things and and bringing them to life. But in 115 00:05:53,040 --> 00:05:55,360 Speaker 1: the most of the tellings of this particular story of 116 00:05:55,400 --> 00:05:59,640 Speaker 1: the Golm of Prague, Besabel creates this clay humanoid because 117 00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:02,479 Speaker 1: gold basically means clot of earth, and he activates it 118 00:06:02,520 --> 00:06:06,480 Speaker 1: by placing um. He writes the word a meth meaning 119 00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:09,440 Speaker 1: that's a m E t h meaning truth and reality 120 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:12,279 Speaker 1: on a shim tablet, and he places that under the 121 00:06:12,320 --> 00:06:14,880 Speaker 1: thing's tongue. Then it comes to life. Then he starts 122 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:17,240 Speaker 1: using this golm to ring the bell at the synagogue. 123 00:06:17,440 --> 00:06:18,719 Speaker 1: But the only thing is you have to take the 124 00:06:18,720 --> 00:06:21,400 Speaker 1: tablet out of its mouth and turn it off, because 125 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:23,359 Speaker 1: all it knows how to do is ring bells, apparently, 126 00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:26,360 Speaker 1: and he forgets to take it out of the creature's mouth, 127 00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:30,279 Speaker 1: and then it just runs wild one night, presumably, ringing 128 00:06:30,320 --> 00:06:33,760 Speaker 1: everything in sight like it's a bell. He's harassing people 129 00:06:34,120 --> 00:06:37,400 Speaker 1: are getting around. Yeah, it's like when the roomba escapes 130 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:39,800 Speaker 1: from the living room that you want to vacuum and 131 00:06:39,839 --> 00:06:42,120 Speaker 1: you catch it in the bathroom eating the rug. That 132 00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:44,839 Speaker 1: kind of thing. Um. The rabbi has to hunt it down, 133 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:47,480 Speaker 1: and when he finally gets there, he pulls the little 134 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:49,760 Speaker 1: tablet out from under its tongue, and the word a 135 00:06:49,880 --> 00:06:52,120 Speaker 1: myth a m e t t h, which means you know, 136 00:06:52,240 --> 00:06:55,000 Speaker 1: life and all uh becomes the word meth m e 137 00:06:55,080 --> 00:06:57,480 Speaker 1: t h which means death and the and the golden 138 00:06:57,560 --> 00:07:00,960 Speaker 1: falls into dust. Um. And then the other tales as well. 139 00:07:01,080 --> 00:07:03,000 Speaker 1: There's this one story of a rabbi and the name 140 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:06,200 Speaker 1: of JF and Prussia and he um. He has a 141 00:07:06,200 --> 00:07:09,000 Speaker 1: golem like like the candles in the synagogue, but the 142 00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:11,840 Speaker 1: golem can't really tell what's a candle. H. And what 143 00:07:12,480 --> 00:07:14,840 Speaker 1: a non candle is like it it basically thinks everything 144 00:07:14,880 --> 00:07:17,280 Speaker 1: is a candle, so it lights everything inside on fire. 145 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:21,560 Speaker 1: So it's the programming doesn't work all that well. And 146 00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:24,520 Speaker 1: then there were apparently some stories to where there were 147 00:07:24,520 --> 00:07:26,680 Speaker 1: some ethical debates on the use of golems not only 148 00:07:26,760 --> 00:07:29,800 Speaker 1: for the use of you know, tasks and chores around 149 00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:32,640 Speaker 1: the synagogue, but the use of golems for the purposes 150 00:07:32,680 --> 00:07:35,720 Speaker 1: of of making the required number for the minya, and 151 00:07:35,800 --> 00:07:38,640 Speaker 1: which is the the qorum of a ten Jewish adults 152 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:42,440 Speaker 1: required for certain religious observations, which indeed, I would feel 153 00:07:42,560 --> 00:07:43,840 Speaker 1: it would be like, all right, you need to tend 154 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:45,840 Speaker 1: people to make this decision, and you're telling me three 155 00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:50,440 Speaker 1: of them were made out of clay. That yeah, especially 156 00:07:50,480 --> 00:07:53,960 Speaker 1: since we know that the column doesn't really have the 157 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:56,680 Speaker 1: ability of speech, right right. That's what I thought was 158 00:07:56,720 --> 00:07:59,880 Speaker 1: interesting met this is that the it's predicated on this 159 00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:03,920 Speaker 1: notion that only holy men could create this golem, and 160 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:08,480 Speaker 1: yet uh, the golm was going to be completely imperfect 161 00:08:08,520 --> 00:08:10,920 Speaker 1: in the shadow of man because the golm was not 162 00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:14,640 Speaker 1: created by God, right, And just there's an aside too. 163 00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:17,400 Speaker 1: I find it interesting that they are taking symbols rearranging 164 00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:22,560 Speaker 1: them to create artificial beings, which has a nice parallel 165 00:08:22,720 --> 00:08:27,120 Speaker 1: with modern programming and uh an artificial intelligence. Oh yeah, yeh. 166 00:08:27,840 --> 00:08:30,280 Speaker 1: We'll get into a little later. I haven't thought about that, 167 00:08:30,560 --> 00:08:32,600 Speaker 1: but this ties in well with the The idea of 168 00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:35,280 Speaker 1: Frankenstein is the modern Prometheus. I mean, that's right up front, 169 00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:38,760 Speaker 1: that's the subtitle for the book. Prometheus, of course, being 170 00:08:38,760 --> 00:08:41,800 Speaker 1: the titan that retrieves the fire. Uh, takes the fire 171 00:08:41,840 --> 00:08:44,720 Speaker 1: from the gods and gives it to humans and is 172 00:08:44,760 --> 00:08:47,600 Speaker 1: then punished by what being lashed to a stone so 173 00:08:47,679 --> 00:08:49,680 Speaker 1: that the birds can come in. Yeah, because the ego 174 00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:53,360 Speaker 1: that comes and eats the liver, and then unfortunately the 175 00:08:53,400 --> 00:08:56,560 Speaker 1: liver grows back. And then this is it's like groundhog Day. 176 00:08:56,600 --> 00:08:59,680 Speaker 1: Every day the same thing happens, just an endless groundhog 177 00:08:59,760 --> 00:09:02,120 Speaker 1: day of the liver doomed to have your liver eating everything. 178 00:09:02,280 --> 00:09:04,280 Speaker 1: But he took something that was the gods, the domain 179 00:09:04,320 --> 00:09:06,959 Speaker 1: of the gods, the fire, and he gave it to man. 180 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:08,920 Speaker 1: And then now man has the ability to use this 181 00:09:09,040 --> 00:09:12,400 Speaker 1: fire and build up his civilization with it, and with fire, 182 00:09:12,440 --> 00:09:15,600 Speaker 1: of course, achieve great goods such as staying warm at night, 183 00:09:15,640 --> 00:09:18,520 Speaker 1: and great evil like burning cities to the ground, right right. 184 00:09:18,520 --> 00:09:20,600 Speaker 1: And I think it's so interesting to that Greek mythology 185 00:09:20,640 --> 00:09:23,120 Speaker 1: would would focus on this because you really mean, this 186 00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:26,400 Speaker 1: was such the turning point for man, right, the discovery 187 00:09:26,400 --> 00:09:28,760 Speaker 1: of fire and the power that it had and the 188 00:09:28,760 --> 00:09:32,360 Speaker 1: sustenance that it had. Um that you know, they had 189 00:09:32,360 --> 00:09:35,679 Speaker 1: to come up with this uh myth about it that 190 00:09:35,679 --> 00:09:39,400 Speaker 1: that uh celebrated it and then also said, uh, but 191 00:09:39,559 --> 00:09:43,520 Speaker 1: with this comes great responsibility, right right, which is another 192 00:09:44,360 --> 00:09:48,200 Speaker 1: sort of theme that we see in Frankenstein. Yeah. And 193 00:09:48,200 --> 00:09:49,680 Speaker 1: and of course you think of like the way fire 194 00:09:49,800 --> 00:09:52,360 Speaker 1: changed everything and how it powered and destroyed, I mean 195 00:09:52,400 --> 00:09:55,920 Speaker 1: the ability to to murder and create, to uh, to 196 00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:59,000 Speaker 1: steal from ts Eliott Uh and uh and one can't 197 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:01,080 Speaker 1: help me be reminded of trees and centuries I mean 198 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:04,199 Speaker 1: thousands of years later. Uh. The importance of electricity as well, 199 00:10:04,760 --> 00:10:07,959 Speaker 1: which is suddenly this Promethean fire that comes to us 200 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:12,960 Speaker 1: through technological advancement that has all these great abilities. I mean, 201 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:16,680 Speaker 1: electricity surrounds us today as the it's it's everywhere, it 202 00:10:16,720 --> 00:10:19,000 Speaker 1: is part of our civilization, is it's it's hard first 203 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:21,680 Speaker 1: to imagine our modern lives without it. Oh, yeah, I 204 00:10:21,679 --> 00:10:25,280 Speaker 1: can't I can't can't see of a life divorced from electricity, right, 205 00:10:25,320 --> 00:10:27,560 Speaker 1: I mean, obviously, so much of the technology that we 206 00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:30,720 Speaker 1: enjoyed today wouldn't even exist. But during Mary Shelley's time, 207 00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:35,200 Speaker 1: electricity had really captured the imagination of people, and yet 208 00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:38,360 Speaker 1: it was quite feared because it wasn't truly understood, right. 209 00:10:38,400 --> 00:10:41,439 Speaker 1: It was a mysterious property. And I remember seeing reading 210 00:10:41,520 --> 00:10:44,679 Speaker 1: accounts to where people were really judgmental about the idea 211 00:10:44,679 --> 00:10:47,200 Speaker 1: of using them for electric chairs, because pretty early on 212 00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:49,840 Speaker 1: people were like, like Edison was like, Hey, this electricity 213 00:10:49,880 --> 00:10:52,679 Speaker 1: is great. Watched me fry this elephant, you know, topsy 214 00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:55,160 Speaker 1: things of that nature, and they were like, we could 215 00:10:55,200 --> 00:10:57,920 Speaker 1: totally fry prisoners with this. And there were some people 216 00:10:57,960 --> 00:11:01,120 Speaker 1: were like, how can you take this holy gift of electricity, 217 00:11:01,559 --> 00:11:04,240 Speaker 1: I mean it's too and use it for something horrible 218 00:11:04,280 --> 00:11:08,240 Speaker 1: like that, you're really debasing this wonderful thing. Well, what's 219 00:11:08,280 --> 00:11:11,920 Speaker 1: interesting about that too, is that Edison was in competition. 220 00:11:12,160 --> 00:11:14,400 Speaker 1: He had a C right, and it was a volta 221 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:17,360 Speaker 1: that had d C the DC current, and so it 222 00:11:17,400 --> 00:11:19,960 Speaker 1: was Edison who was going around saying, Ah, don't fear 223 00:11:20,040 --> 00:11:22,599 Speaker 1: my a C current. It's not as dangerous as the 224 00:11:22,679 --> 00:11:24,559 Speaker 1: DC and I believe they are using the d C current. 225 00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:26,679 Speaker 1: I could have it switched around, but I believe they 226 00:11:26,679 --> 00:11:29,320 Speaker 1: are using a d C current on prisoners. And that 227 00:11:29,440 --> 00:11:31,560 Speaker 1: was sort of a scare tactic on his part to 228 00:11:31,679 --> 00:11:34,360 Speaker 1: be like to say to companies, you should really adopt 229 00:11:34,480 --> 00:11:38,800 Speaker 1: my my electrical currency rather than this other one. Just 230 00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:40,679 Speaker 1: as a side note, but the you know, in the 231 00:11:40,720 --> 00:11:42,760 Speaker 1: previous podcast, we were talking about the way, you know, 232 00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:46,599 Speaker 1: if you're shocked by heaven forbid coming into contact with 233 00:11:46,640 --> 00:11:49,559 Speaker 1: a live wire, you fly away from the outlet or 234 00:11:49,600 --> 00:11:52,679 Speaker 1: the source of electricity because your muscles are spasming. Well, 235 00:11:52,679 --> 00:11:56,480 Speaker 1: this is exactly the response that various scientists at the 236 00:11:56,559 --> 00:11:58,760 Speaker 1: day and Mary Sheelow's day, we're looking into the effects 237 00:11:58,760 --> 00:12:01,680 Speaker 1: of electricity on dead tissue. Yeah, and it actually became 238 00:12:01,760 --> 00:12:05,040 Speaker 1: sort of a sideshow. Really, this frog's dead, but watchford 239 00:12:05,080 --> 00:12:07,000 Speaker 1: happens when I stick alive fire to it? Right right? 240 00:12:07,160 --> 00:12:10,560 Speaker 1: Or this prisoner is dead, Look what happened? The prisoners 241 00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:13,400 Speaker 1: decapitated By the way they were doing this that I 242 00:12:13,400 --> 00:12:16,400 Speaker 1: think they were thinking about like science festivals, showing the 243 00:12:16,440 --> 00:12:20,520 Speaker 1: public this ability to reanimate a corpse. Yeah, it's like, look, 244 00:12:20,559 --> 00:12:23,520 Speaker 1: first we reanimate the frog legs and then they become 245 00:12:23,559 --> 00:12:26,880 Speaker 1: delicious all through electricity, right, right, And so people were 246 00:12:27,160 --> 00:12:29,880 Speaker 1: of course even more frightened, and they started to think 247 00:12:29,920 --> 00:12:33,199 Speaker 1: that electricity had the ability to to reanimate their loved ones, 248 00:12:33,240 --> 00:12:34,800 Speaker 1: and they were totally weirded out because they were like, 249 00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:41,120 Speaker 1: he's right, these frog legs are delicious and they can move. Um. 250 00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:44,040 Speaker 1: So Mary Shelley actually knew all about this, by the way, 251 00:12:44,080 --> 00:12:48,480 Speaker 1: because it's referenced in the book of Victor Frankenstein. I mean, 252 00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:50,160 Speaker 1: it's told like a lot of these older novels. It's 253 00:12:50,160 --> 00:12:53,400 Speaker 1: a one character talking about conversations with others, and Victor 254 00:12:53,679 --> 00:12:56,760 Speaker 1: doesn't share the details of how he creates life because 255 00:12:56,760 --> 00:12:59,280 Speaker 1: it's a horrible secret that destroyed his life and and 256 00:12:59,400 --> 00:13:01,960 Speaker 1: led to the dead of of everyone he holds dear 257 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:04,280 Speaker 1: in life. So he's not going to burden anyone else 258 00:13:04,320 --> 00:13:07,560 Speaker 1: with the secret recipe. But he does mention in passing 259 00:13:07,720 --> 00:13:09,800 Speaker 1: a few different influences, one of which are these studies 260 00:13:09,840 --> 00:13:13,520 Speaker 1: into electricity. Yeah, and I mean, just everybody knows to 261 00:13:13,600 --> 00:13:18,040 Speaker 1: Marie Shelley's father was actually friends with the leading authorities 262 00:13:18,320 --> 00:13:22,120 Speaker 1: of the day on electrical research. So this was these 263 00:13:22,120 --> 00:13:25,599 Speaker 1: were conversations that she was privy to. And also, I 264 00:13:25,600 --> 00:13:27,760 Speaker 1: mean she's nineteen years old, so amazing that she had 265 00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:29,800 Speaker 1: amassed this amount of knowledge and was able to put 266 00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:33,040 Speaker 1: this together and this pastiche of of a story of 267 00:13:33,080 --> 00:13:35,160 Speaker 1: this monster. But there you go. I mean, there's the 268 00:13:35,160 --> 00:13:38,720 Speaker 1: basis for this idea that we could bring back life. 269 00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:44,319 Speaker 1: And in a moment, we're actually going to talk about homunculous. 270 00:13:44,400 --> 00:13:47,040 Speaker 1: Oh yes, we're gonna get into alchemy, one of my favorites, alchemy, 271 00:13:47,640 --> 00:13:50,360 Speaker 1: making a tiny little person and what it has to 272 00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:55,560 Speaker 1: do with cow guts. Right. Yeah. This podcast is brought 273 00:13:55,559 --> 00:13:58,920 Speaker 1: to you by Intel, the sponsors of Tomorrow and the 274 00:13:58,960 --> 00:14:03,280 Speaker 1: Discovery Channel. At Intel, we believe curiosity is the spark 275 00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:07,560 Speaker 1: which drives innovation. Join us at curiosity dot com and 276 00:14:07,679 --> 00:14:13,320 Speaker 1: explore the answers to life's questions. All right, so we're 277 00:14:13,320 --> 00:14:17,080 Speaker 1: back alchemy. Now this is another we're talking about the 278 00:14:17,080 --> 00:14:21,000 Speaker 1: the influences that Victor Frankenstein cites in the book, and 279 00:14:21,280 --> 00:14:24,680 Speaker 1: he he starts off really into alchemy and and studying 280 00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:27,520 Speaker 1: the writings of various alchemists. Then he gets into the 281 00:14:27,880 --> 00:14:30,880 Speaker 1: modern sciences and sort of goes off in that direction. 282 00:14:30,880 --> 00:14:34,640 Speaker 1: So it's eventual creation of this monster of this artificial 283 00:14:34,720 --> 00:14:38,440 Speaker 1: being is kind of a synthesis of modern science and 284 00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:45,680 Speaker 1: alchemical ideas. Now, alchemy, if you go back through eighteenth centuries, 285 00:14:45,680 --> 00:14:49,840 Speaker 1: this is essentially a mix of early chemistry and occultism, 286 00:14:49,880 --> 00:14:54,840 Speaker 1: So you're crossing empirical research with mystical philosophy. Um. And 287 00:14:54,880 --> 00:14:56,600 Speaker 1: it's kind of Alchemy is kind of a big tent 288 00:14:56,640 --> 00:14:58,840 Speaker 1: when you get when you really start analyzing it, because 289 00:14:58,840 --> 00:15:02,760 Speaker 1: they're on one hand, people interested in transmitting metals um. 290 00:15:03,080 --> 00:15:05,720 Speaker 1: Right there there are people who are just prospecting essentially 291 00:15:05,800 --> 00:15:07,720 Speaker 1: from gold. So some people were citing more on the 292 00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:10,280 Speaker 1: get rich quick kind of aspects of alchemy. Some people 293 00:15:10,280 --> 00:15:13,800 Speaker 1: were really more into the occultists or philosophical aspects of it. 294 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:16,440 Speaker 1: And some people were basically chemist in a day when 295 00:15:16,480 --> 00:15:18,880 Speaker 1: there's not really there's no chemistry yet. So if you 296 00:15:18,920 --> 00:15:21,840 Speaker 1: are interested in chemical properties, alchemy is where you are. 297 00:15:21,880 --> 00:15:23,760 Speaker 1: It's the only game in town for the most part, 298 00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:27,320 Speaker 1: at least in much of the world. Uh And and 299 00:15:27,400 --> 00:15:30,040 Speaker 1: certainly there's some actual scientific achievements that came out of this. 300 00:15:30,280 --> 00:15:33,840 Speaker 1: I mentioned reeking of burning urine, which which some of 301 00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:37,600 Speaker 1: these uh, these alchemists did because there was a great 302 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:40,160 Speaker 1: deal of interest in urine and in the possibility of 303 00:15:40,200 --> 00:15:44,520 Speaker 1: turning it into gold. And seventeenth century German alchemists Hinnig 304 00:15:44,520 --> 00:15:48,200 Speaker 1: Brount distilled countless buckets of urine uh in attempt to 305 00:15:48,240 --> 00:15:51,360 Speaker 1: turn turn it into gold, and as you might expect, 306 00:15:51,360 --> 00:15:54,600 Speaker 1: the experiment failed to produce results, but it did allow 307 00:15:54,640 --> 00:15:58,600 Speaker 1: them to discover the element phosphorus. So you have situations 308 00:15:58,640 --> 00:16:02,280 Speaker 1: like that where even in alchemy, in this study of chemistry, 309 00:16:02,280 --> 00:16:05,720 Speaker 1: people are actually making real discoveries, and as you point 310 00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:08,280 Speaker 1: out before, without the aid of the scientific method, right, 311 00:16:08,360 --> 00:16:11,200 Speaker 1: so it's you know, which obviously would have farreted out 312 00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:13,360 Speaker 1: a lot of what was wrong with alchemy, but at 313 00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:15,480 Speaker 1: the time it was a great way to try to 314 00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:18,240 Speaker 1: interrogate the physical world around you. Right of course, where 315 00:16:18,280 --> 00:16:21,320 Speaker 1: does this get involved with? Like why alchemy and Victor 316 00:16:21,320 --> 00:16:24,240 Speaker 1: Frankenstein And a lot of this comes down to the 317 00:16:24,280 --> 00:16:27,640 Speaker 1: idea of the homunculous or homunculi and that's the plural. 318 00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:30,840 Speaker 1: And this is an idea that's fascinated me for ages, 319 00:16:30,920 --> 00:16:33,240 Speaker 1: just because on one level, what's so grotesque and steeped 320 00:16:33,240 --> 00:16:37,120 Speaker 1: in medieval um nonsense that you know, I can't help 321 00:16:37,120 --> 00:16:38,560 Speaker 1: but just fall in love with it. So I was 322 00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:42,840 Speaker 1: researching this, researching how to create a homunculous and yes 323 00:16:43,120 --> 00:16:45,480 Speaker 1: for myself. Um and and not just in the old 324 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:48,320 Speaker 1: fashioned way of just screwing up your compost heap until 325 00:16:48,360 --> 00:16:51,600 Speaker 1: it comes alive. M though that's also involved in this. 326 00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:55,160 Speaker 1: You know, the early idea that when material rots, it 327 00:16:55,200 --> 00:16:58,240 Speaker 1: turns an insect like that's a basic misunderstanding of how 328 00:16:59,360 --> 00:17:03,080 Speaker 1: organic works. And so a lot of these alchemical ideas 329 00:17:03,160 --> 00:17:06,480 Speaker 1: of how to create life stem from misunderstandings of how 330 00:17:06,520 --> 00:17:09,399 Speaker 1: it works. And this idea that that we basically that 331 00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:12,119 Speaker 1: it was within our reach, even in the Middle Ages, 332 00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:15,399 Speaker 1: to understand it and control it. So the idea of 333 00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:18,280 Speaker 1: the homunculus is basically basically comes down to I can 334 00:17:18,320 --> 00:17:21,240 Speaker 1: grow a little person, not just like an animal. I 335 00:17:21,280 --> 00:17:23,840 Speaker 1: can not only make an animal, because they're also alchemical 336 00:17:24,240 --> 00:17:26,960 Speaker 1: um recipes for say, turning a headless cow into a 337 00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:29,480 Speaker 1: swarm of beast, which I think I'm going to share 338 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:32,800 Speaker 1: that one on the blogs soon. But but I was. 339 00:17:33,480 --> 00:17:35,520 Speaker 1: But but the idea of the monthless is also that 340 00:17:35,600 --> 00:17:39,000 Speaker 1: it is a reasoning creature that you're making. It's not 341 00:17:39,119 --> 00:17:41,919 Speaker 1: it's maybe not quite a human, but it is like 342 00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:45,440 Speaker 1: a little human, like a tesque little humanoid, right, grotesque 343 00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:48,440 Speaker 1: little humor, which I think is fascinating because I can 344 00:17:48,720 --> 00:17:52,119 Speaker 1: kind of inhabit that perspective at that time to think like, okay, 345 00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:54,280 Speaker 1: this would be possible. Maybe I can't make a full 346 00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:57,439 Speaker 1: grown human, but I can make it in miniature, you know, 347 00:17:57,520 --> 00:17:59,520 Speaker 1: sort of like my sea monkeys over here. Yeah. Yeah, 348 00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:01,560 Speaker 1: well you know it's it's lost, you know, in these 349 00:18:01,600 --> 00:18:04,879 Speaker 1: false concepts of spontaneous generation, like we said, magical tomfoolery, 350 00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:08,639 Speaker 1: but they're basically pondering the possibility of creating an artificial 351 00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:14,240 Speaker 1: quote rational animal unquote through uh learned manipulation of organic tissue. Okay, 352 00:18:14,280 --> 00:18:16,760 Speaker 1: so what is that organic tissue? Because that's that's where 353 00:18:16,760 --> 00:18:20,520 Speaker 1: it becomes a little cringe worthy. Okay, Well, I have 354 00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:23,520 Speaker 1: to read part of the recipe because and this comes 355 00:18:23,560 --> 00:18:26,359 Speaker 1: from the Book of the Cow, which is which the 356 00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:30,280 Speaker 1: what I guess this is French is the Liberva I 357 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:32,840 Speaker 1: think it might be Latin Latin. I'm sorry, yeah, but 358 00:18:32,920 --> 00:18:35,680 Speaker 1: it's the Book of the Cow because the cow factors 359 00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:39,399 Speaker 1: prominently into these, uh these recipes. And so I'm just 360 00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:43,359 Speaker 1: gonna read a little here until Julie stops me. Um. 361 00:18:43,400 --> 00:18:45,119 Speaker 1: But it goes a little something like this, and and 362 00:18:45,119 --> 00:18:50,600 Speaker 1: this is from Mike vander Luke's abdominal mixtures the Libertvaca 363 00:18:50,840 --> 00:18:54,200 Speaker 1: in the Medieval West, or the Dangers and Attractions of 364 00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:58,400 Speaker 1: Natural Magic, he writes, then describing the recipe in the book. 365 00:18:58,680 --> 00:19:01,840 Speaker 1: With the mixture of sperm and sunstone, the magician inseminates 366 00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:04,240 Speaker 1: a cow, or are you. He then carefully plugs up 367 00:19:04,240 --> 00:19:07,439 Speaker 1: its vagina with the sunstone and smears its genitals with 368 00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:10,240 Speaker 1: the blood of the animal that was not chosen for insemination. 369 00:19:10,560 --> 00:19:12,359 Speaker 1: Then the cow that you must be placed in a 370 00:19:12,440 --> 00:19:14,720 Speaker 1: dark house in which the sun never shines. Its food 371 00:19:14,760 --> 00:19:17,080 Speaker 1: must be mixed with the blood of other animals. While 372 00:19:17,080 --> 00:19:20,000 Speaker 1: awaiting the moment of birth, the magician prepares a powder 373 00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:24,440 Speaker 1: made of the ground sunstone, sulfur, magnet, and green tutilla 374 00:19:24,560 --> 00:19:28,200 Speaker 1: stirred with the sap of the white willow. The unformed 375 00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:30,800 Speaker 1: substance to which the you or the cow gives birth 376 00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:33,600 Speaker 1: must be placed in this powder, whereupon it will instantly 377 00:19:33,640 --> 00:19:36,640 Speaker 1: grow a human skin. The newborn homoculous must be kept 378 00:19:36,640 --> 00:19:39,080 Speaker 1: in a large glass or lead vessel for three days 379 00:19:39,320 --> 00:19:41,359 Speaker 1: until it is very hungry. Then it is fed on 380 00:19:41,400 --> 00:19:44,200 Speaker 1: its decapitated mother's blood for seven days until it is 381 00:19:44,240 --> 00:19:47,520 Speaker 1: developed into a complete animal, it can henceforth be used 382 00:19:47,520 --> 00:19:51,120 Speaker 1: to perform certain feats. Um. All right, I'm just gonna 383 00:19:51,119 --> 00:19:54,560 Speaker 1: go and stop a whole another paragraph of just because 384 00:19:54,560 --> 00:19:56,520 Speaker 1: it gets down. Once you've created it, you like put 385 00:19:56,560 --> 00:19:59,200 Speaker 1: it into this this other vat and you grow it 386 00:19:59,240 --> 00:20:01,880 Speaker 1: a little more, and then you can you can kill 387 00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:03,960 Speaker 1: it and like spirits guts on your shoes and you 388 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:06,760 Speaker 1: can walk on water. But the crazy thing is here 389 00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:10,760 Speaker 1: is aside I think being the original recipe for hagus. 390 00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:14,800 Speaker 1: It completely reminds me of of when we've talked about 391 00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:21,320 Speaker 1: growing tissue before and scaffolding um tissue. I mean that's 392 00:20:21,359 --> 00:20:23,440 Speaker 1: not to say that you know this, this modern day 393 00:20:23,440 --> 00:20:27,680 Speaker 1: technology is based on alchemy, but it's interesting that that 394 00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:30,679 Speaker 1: idea it's very similar to what we are now doing 395 00:20:30,680 --> 00:20:32,720 Speaker 1: because we have the technology, right. Yeah, all of this 396 00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:34,960 Speaker 1: was based in the idea of the humans could mimic 397 00:20:34,960 --> 00:20:38,719 Speaker 1: and manipulate natural reproductive processes. I mean, especially they were 398 00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:42,000 Speaker 1: really confident about insects. They were like, insects, that's easy, 399 00:20:42,040 --> 00:20:44,640 Speaker 1: I can I can make bees all day and uh 400 00:20:45,080 --> 00:20:47,920 Speaker 1: and and and then that the greater idea was that, yeah, 401 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:49,960 Speaker 1: we we've kind of got this snack. We can make 402 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:53,760 Speaker 1: some momuncula and then let I'm loose, which you know 403 00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:56,920 Speaker 1: again today, Hey, we can grow an ear from this tissue. 404 00:20:56,960 --> 00:20:59,760 Speaker 1: We have to scaffold it and bake it for a while. Yeah. 405 00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:03,399 Speaker 1: In in reading these just detailed grotesque recipes for how 406 00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:05,560 Speaker 1: to make a monculie too. For some reason, I was 407 00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:09,640 Speaker 1: reminded of various Cypress Hill songs where be Real just 408 00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:12,680 Speaker 1: basically raps about like how to grow like a detailed 409 00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:17,080 Speaker 1: um recipe for growing marijuana or for smoking it. And 410 00:21:17,119 --> 00:21:18,639 Speaker 1: I was I was like, wouldn't it be awesome if 411 00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:20,920 Speaker 1: there is a Cypress Hill song where they're just laying 412 00:21:20,920 --> 00:21:23,560 Speaker 1: out how to make a homunculi? That would be or 413 00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:27,960 Speaker 1: like the Anarchist's Guide to Homunculi. Yeah, that would be awesome. 414 00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:29,800 Speaker 1: But I mean the other side of this, too, is 415 00:21:29,840 --> 00:21:33,239 Speaker 1: that this represents like such a dangerous idea, and this 416 00:21:33,320 --> 00:21:36,680 Speaker 1: was something that like people who were afraid, Like, it's 417 00:21:36,920 --> 00:21:39,560 Speaker 1: very unlikely that too many people wasted their time trying 418 00:21:39,560 --> 00:21:42,600 Speaker 1: to actually do this, but a lot of people probably 419 00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:45,840 Speaker 1: wasted their time, uh freaking out about the idea that 420 00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:47,639 Speaker 1: people were doing this. They were like, oh my goodness, 421 00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:50,439 Speaker 1: they are these alchemists, and they're they're they're doing this 422 00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:52,879 Speaker 1: and they and if this works, they have such power 423 00:21:52,960 --> 00:21:55,240 Speaker 1: they have they have power over nature. They have power 424 00:21:55,520 --> 00:21:58,119 Speaker 1: that rivals that of God, all through their their magic 425 00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:00,159 Speaker 1: and their science and their art. Well, the Book of 426 00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:02,560 Speaker 1: Caw actually probably was the undoing of alchemy if you 427 00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:04,480 Speaker 1: think about it, because it wasn't this the first cohesive 428 00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:06,520 Speaker 1: effort to put all of this sort of science and 429 00:22:06,520 --> 00:22:09,880 Speaker 1: occult these recipes together and try to make sense of it. 430 00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:12,399 Speaker 1: It's like, all right, we're alchemists. These are the things 431 00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:14,080 Speaker 1: that we sort of believed in. And then people were 432 00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:15,719 Speaker 1: like look at it and they're like, wow, we this 433 00:22:15,800 --> 00:22:18,240 Speaker 1: is really what we've been doing. Yeah. Yeah, like taken 434 00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:20,600 Speaker 1: all together, this just really seems like it's not working. 435 00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:23,360 Speaker 1: That being said the most learned of the day. That's 436 00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:26,160 Speaker 1: that was a hot tone to have on your bookshelf right, 437 00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:30,520 Speaker 1: And also it was some people thought it was absolutely 438 00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:34,720 Speaker 1: putrid and abomination against nature to even be talking about 439 00:22:35,119 --> 00:22:37,679 Speaker 1: it was good reading in another way. Yeah, But of 440 00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:41,200 Speaker 1: course alchemy would eventually see its day. Chemistry would rise, 441 00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:45,920 Speaker 1: even though in some critics actually argue that alchemy prevented 442 00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:48,359 Speaker 1: chemistry from really going for a long time because it 443 00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:50,199 Speaker 1: was such a I mean, it was also a kind 444 00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:53,600 Speaker 1: of a taboo area, you know. But eventually alchemy dies off. 445 00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:57,239 Speaker 1: And uh. There's another area where we really see this 446 00:22:57,320 --> 00:23:00,679 Speaker 1: idea of of mimicking the human form, cre eating the 447 00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:03,920 Speaker 1: human body, and that is in the field of robotics, 448 00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:07,600 Speaker 1: specifically in the field of the creation of automatons, which 449 00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:10,640 Speaker 1: of course are like you know, mechanical men. Uh that 450 00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:13,920 Speaker 1: they're not really robots. They don't actually uh take in 451 00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:17,359 Speaker 1: sense data and uh in in in process the sense 452 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:20,320 Speaker 1: data and then make a decision about what action they're 453 00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:23,320 Speaker 1: gonna take. There's no computation, but they're like wind up men, 454 00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:26,280 Speaker 1: wind up ladies, dolls that dance. But we've discussed the 455 00:23:26,280 --> 00:23:28,080 Speaker 1: pooping duck, of course. But as I say, some of 456 00:23:28,119 --> 00:23:31,480 Speaker 1: them mimic actual human biology. And again here we have 457 00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:36,240 Speaker 1: this idea of trying to clone the human experience, whether 458 00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:40,560 Speaker 1: you know it's artificially or physically um in these and 459 00:23:40,600 --> 00:23:43,760 Speaker 1: we've talked about the pooping duck quite a bit. Yeah, 460 00:23:43,880 --> 00:23:49,320 Speaker 1: Vodka Song is actually the French engineer from the seventeenth 461 00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:52,639 Speaker 1: century eighteenth century dream of these up. Yeah, and he 462 00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:56,920 Speaker 1: was he was fascinated according to some historians, because he 463 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:00,560 Speaker 1: was fascinated with digestion and defecation, uh the way, because 464 00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:04,920 Speaker 1: he had rather troubled bowels himself. Um. And then automatons 465 00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:07,040 Speaker 1: also date back to the day like Leonardo da Vinci 466 00:24:07,119 --> 00:24:10,639 Speaker 1: or even even further back into the past. Leonardo DaVinci 467 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:13,359 Speaker 1: was a course fascinated with biomechanics. How does the body move, 468 00:24:13,400 --> 00:24:17,080 Speaker 1: how do muscles work? And so he had plans for 469 00:24:17,119 --> 00:24:21,760 Speaker 1: this and apparently even built this mechanical night that that 470 00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:23,840 Speaker 1: while you know, don't get too excited, it probably was 471 00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:26,240 Speaker 1: not walking around doing chores around the house, but on 472 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:29,639 Speaker 1: some level mimicked the movements of the human body. You know, 473 00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:31,920 Speaker 1: he was, he was fascinating. It's like, this is how 474 00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:35,560 Speaker 1: the the mechanics of the body work. And I reproduced 475 00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:39,080 Speaker 1: these with wood and string and and hinges. It was 476 00:24:39,119 --> 00:24:41,400 Speaker 1: a vast pulley system. And I believe that he would 477 00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:44,480 Speaker 1: have dinner parties and roll out the robotic nitis. He 478 00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:48,760 Speaker 1: was like, you know, cocktail thing to chat about that 479 00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:51,320 Speaker 1: never survived? Is that correct? Is that? Is that the 480 00:24:51,359 --> 00:24:55,959 Speaker 1: instance in which the church decided that it was abomination 481 00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:58,400 Speaker 1: as well, and the church was a lot of people 482 00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:01,800 Speaker 1: would get kind of freaked out. Autumatono, we destroy them. Yeah, 483 00:25:01,800 --> 00:25:05,680 Speaker 1: Albertus Magnus supposedly had some sort of a they called 484 00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:07,960 Speaker 1: an android in some cases, but you know, some sort 485 00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:11,560 Speaker 1: of artificial man, and and uh, his his own pupil 486 00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:14,320 Speaker 1: freaked out about that and destroyed it, according to again 487 00:25:14,359 --> 00:25:17,680 Speaker 1: according to stories. But yeah, the idea here is that 488 00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:20,560 Speaker 1: that people were looking at humans, looking at them as machines, 489 00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:23,480 Speaker 1: and then trying to replicate a machine. And I have 490 00:25:23,520 --> 00:25:26,600 Speaker 1: this a really interesting idea emerges, a really just one 491 00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:29,680 Speaker 1: of the big you know, existential ponderings and part of 492 00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:33,560 Speaker 1: part of the horror of the Frankenstein story, both in uh, 493 00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:37,000 Speaker 1: in the original novel and in our modern interaction with it, 494 00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:39,879 Speaker 1: and that is, if a machine can mimic the human body, 495 00:25:39,920 --> 00:25:43,400 Speaker 1: then is the human body nothing more than a biochemical machine? 496 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:47,080 Speaker 1: If I can make it, then what does that say 497 00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:50,439 Speaker 1: about me? Like? If I'm if Frankenstein makes this monster, 498 00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:53,439 Speaker 1: this human monster, why is it a monster? Does you know? 499 00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:55,639 Speaker 1: Does it have a soul? Is it? Am I equal 500 00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:59,560 Speaker 1: to it? If it is something special? Then am I less? 501 00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:02,000 Speaker 1: The problem of consciousness? Right? Yeah, you get into like, uh, 502 00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:06,080 Speaker 1: you know, I think therefore I am French philosopher Reneatic 503 00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:09,240 Speaker 1: Carts of you nature is primarily mechanical, but he avoided 504 00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:13,560 Speaker 1: the messier existential complimications by describing the human soul as 505 00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:17,240 Speaker 1: an independent force. The Carts critic Gilbert Ryle would the 506 00:26:17,359 --> 00:26:20,040 Speaker 1: later described as the ghost in the machine, the idea that, yeah, 507 00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:22,720 Speaker 1: our bodies are machines, but our our soul, that's something different, 508 00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:25,520 Speaker 1: that's something separate, and that ties right into the cognitive 509 00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:28,120 Speaker 1: blindness that we all have. The brain cannot perceive itself. 510 00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:30,960 Speaker 1: We exist in our own blind spot right well, and 511 00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:34,600 Speaker 1: and still we are trying to find that blind spot, 512 00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:37,080 Speaker 1: you know. So scoot forward to today when we have 513 00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:39,679 Speaker 1: the Blue Brain Project, and we've talked about this before, 514 00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:43,199 Speaker 1: but that's the attempt to reverse engineer the brain by 515 00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:46,280 Speaker 1: building a detailed, realistic computer model of the human brain. 516 00:26:46,359 --> 00:26:51,600 Speaker 1: And it's one hundred trillion synapses, more specifically modeling components 517 00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:55,680 Speaker 1: of the mammalion brain in precise cellular detail and simulating 518 00:26:56,040 --> 00:26:59,720 Speaker 1: neuronal activity in three D. So the person that is 519 00:26:59,760 --> 00:27:03,520 Speaker 1: doing in this is is actually sort of wondering if 520 00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:07,879 Speaker 1: once he's able to successfully reverse engineer the human brain, 521 00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:10,760 Speaker 1: if we'll be able to see that that seat of consciousness, 522 00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:14,000 Speaker 1: this bubble, this of perception that we see everything through. 523 00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:17,200 Speaker 1: Could we map it, could be point to it? Um 524 00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:21,240 Speaker 1: does that change our understanding of our humanness? But to 525 00:27:21,320 --> 00:27:24,000 Speaker 1: me it also brings into question that the same question 526 00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:28,480 Speaker 1: that Mary Shelley was um exploring, is what happens when 527 00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:32,320 Speaker 1: you do create this version of yourself that assuming you know, 528 00:27:32,359 --> 00:27:35,160 Speaker 1: you can reverse engineer your own brain and then you 529 00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:40,560 Speaker 1: um could map it to uh computer program has uh 530 00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:44,520 Speaker 1: say an emotional database, your own an emotional database. Uh 531 00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:48,320 Speaker 1: that sort of corresponds with it, let's say with questionnaires 532 00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:51,520 Speaker 1: that you've filled out. Okay, so now this brain could 533 00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:56,280 Speaker 1: operate on its own and essentially be you just you know, 534 00:27:56,359 --> 00:27:58,960 Speaker 1: in this database. What what happens with that? What's what 535 00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:01,919 Speaker 1: sort of responsibility we have for creating a version of 536 00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:05,760 Speaker 1: ourselves that might actually have a seat of consciousness? Yeah? 537 00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:08,159 Speaker 1: Does it happen? We don't know, But yeah, does it 538 00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:09,760 Speaker 1: have rights? Does it get to be a citizen? I 539 00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:11,159 Speaker 1: mean you get into all this weird day which is 540 00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:14,720 Speaker 1: something else encounter with the with the contemplation of ais. Yes, 541 00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:18,719 Speaker 1: at what point does I mean is an artificial intelligence 542 00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:21,520 Speaker 1: on par with human intelligence? I mean you get into 543 00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:24,399 Speaker 1: the whole idea of the technological singularity and the idea 544 00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:28,240 Speaker 1: that that a computer intelligence would even supersede the human 545 00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:32,560 Speaker 1: intelligence and the and and exceed our our capabilities. And 546 00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:34,920 Speaker 1: this isn't too crazy of a conversation considering that we've 547 00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:37,080 Speaker 1: talked to, you know, Dr Ronald ark And over at 548 00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:41,320 Speaker 1: Georgia Tech about the the ability to try to create 549 00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:44,040 Speaker 1: nuanced emotions in a machine, which is what they're trying 550 00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:46,440 Speaker 1: to teach. It's very rudimentary right now, but that doesn't 551 00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:49,840 Speaker 1: mean that, uh, you know, a computer model or a 552 00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:53,080 Speaker 1: machine might begin to react in the ways that we do. 553 00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:56,800 Speaker 1: And if that's the case, uh, I don't know. Is 554 00:28:56,840 --> 00:28:58,560 Speaker 1: it weird? Do you have this version of yourself out 555 00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:00,840 Speaker 1: there that you abandon that you just get tired of 556 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:04,000 Speaker 1: looking at your own brain that you've created. Yeah, I mean, 557 00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:05,960 Speaker 1: and elsewhere in the science is too. I mean, we're 558 00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:09,880 Speaker 1: creating synthetic bacteria in the lab where we continue to 559 00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:12,840 Speaker 1: break apart DNA and map map the genomes of various 560 00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:16,000 Speaker 1: species we um. I mean. And then as far as 561 00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:18,200 Speaker 1: physics go, I mean, we're colliding particles. We're trying to 562 00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:21,840 Speaker 1: unlock the mystery of the universe. Itself, like gravity exists, 563 00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:23,840 Speaker 1: and yeah, there's a there's a lot of potential in 564 00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:27,320 Speaker 1: these two if not create an actual Frankenstein's monster, but 565 00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:30,200 Speaker 1: to create the Frankenstein's monster as the I mean, the 566 00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:33,360 Speaker 1: idea of the Frankensteience monster creates something that really forces 567 00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:37,000 Speaker 1: us to reevaluate who and what we are and what's 568 00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:39,480 Speaker 1: and where we have, where we have risen to with science, 569 00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:44,200 Speaker 1: and then how how they they change in scientific illumination, um, 570 00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:47,160 Speaker 1: you know, how it changes our own our understanding of ourselves. Yeah, 571 00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:48,680 Speaker 1: and that's why I think it's so interesting that Dr 572 00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:53,760 Speaker 1: Arkin focuses on ethics so much, um, in terms of 573 00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:57,240 Speaker 1: robotics and what means fifty years from now, hundred years 574 00:29:57,240 --> 00:29:59,440 Speaker 1: from now, back to just the idea of the like 575 00:29:59,480 --> 00:30:03,000 Speaker 1: the hormon idea of the monster itself. What's what's your 576 00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:07,800 Speaker 1: favorite film adaptation of Frankenstein. Well, I really like the 577 00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:10,600 Speaker 1: one with Robert de Niro in it, simply because, well, 578 00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:13,520 Speaker 1: for two reasons, one good and one bad. Uh. The 579 00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:17,360 Speaker 1: good reason is that I think that it's pretty faithful 580 00:30:17,520 --> 00:30:20,479 Speaker 1: to the actual text and that you know, you've got 581 00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:26,080 Speaker 1: a Frankenstein monster that is very intelligent, um, has very 582 00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:28,480 Speaker 1: deep thoughts and is trying to express those. On the 583 00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:32,719 Speaker 1: other hand, you've got Robert de Niro, a fine actor, wonderful, 584 00:30:33,320 --> 00:30:36,120 Speaker 1: but I don't know about de Niro as Frankenstein because 585 00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:38,320 Speaker 1: he's got a little bit of a New York accent 586 00:30:39,320 --> 00:30:43,960 Speaker 1: trying to say, well, did this happen to me? And 587 00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:45,760 Speaker 1: there's no way they could have been using New York 588 00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:49,360 Speaker 1: parts because they're having to import most of that exactly. Yeah, 589 00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:52,120 Speaker 1: it would be made out of like cockney parts. Yes, 590 00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:55,840 Speaker 1: I'm conflicted about that. Yeah, and I'm not I'm not 591 00:30:56,040 --> 00:30:58,200 Speaker 1: saying that de Niro isn't a wonderful actor. He is, 592 00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:00,720 Speaker 1: but just not has been. I don't of he is anymore. 593 00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:04,880 Speaker 1: I'm just saying Frankenstein probably wasn't is a greatest role 594 00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:08,160 Speaker 1: of his life. You you, I actually have a roof. 595 00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:09,840 Speaker 1: I haven't seen this one in years, but I remember 596 00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:14,040 Speaker 1: there was a TV movie where he had Patrick Bergen 597 00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:17,360 Speaker 1: I believe is his name, as as as Victor and 598 00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:20,880 Speaker 1: then Randy Quaid played the monster. Yeah, and it was 599 00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:23,760 Speaker 1: Is it a comedy? No, No, Randy was playing it straight. 600 00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:28,120 Speaker 1: I mean Randy was slapp is a very talented actor. Um, 601 00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:30,479 Speaker 1: it was just mainly remembered for his stuff, his more 602 00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:34,920 Speaker 1: comedic roles. But but yeah, I remember him as being 603 00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:37,560 Speaker 1: really good as the monster. It was a pretty like 604 00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:40,800 Speaker 1: like the version you're talking about with Kenneth Brawna. It was. 605 00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:43,120 Speaker 1: It was pretty accurate. I mean, it was pretty faithful 606 00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:45,880 Speaker 1: to the text. You know, began and ended in the Arctic, 607 00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:48,800 Speaker 1: and I remember just being really captivated by it when 608 00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:50,640 Speaker 1: I watched it as a kid, Right, I would I 609 00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:56,160 Speaker 1: would be very interested to know what your favorite adaptation is. Yeah, yeah, 610 00:31:56,920 --> 00:31:59,840 Speaker 1: like Karloff the fire Fire one, because I mean there's 611 00:31:59,840 --> 00:32:01,800 Speaker 1: my It's what that one too? Yeah? Or you're more 612 00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:04,080 Speaker 1: of a hammerman. Do you prefer to the like the 613 00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:06,760 Speaker 1: monster from Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell which looks 614 00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:09,720 Speaker 1: like the big like Harry gorilla man with stitches on 615 00:32:09,760 --> 00:32:12,240 Speaker 1: its head. I mean, there's just so many cool, cool 616 00:32:12,320 --> 00:32:15,640 Speaker 1: variations that have popped up over the years. All right, well, um, 617 00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:17,600 Speaker 1: Matt is telling us we have to stop. I had 618 00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:19,800 Speaker 1: more to share. I had so much more to tell 619 00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:23,480 Speaker 1: you about the alchemy. But but when that's being shut down, 620 00:32:24,760 --> 00:32:27,400 Speaker 1: you'll have to write in and complain about it. If 621 00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:29,720 Speaker 1: you want to share non complaints with us, you can 622 00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:31,640 Speaker 1: find us on Facebook and Twitter. We are Below the 623 00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:33,840 Speaker 1: Mind on both of those, and you can always find 624 00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:41,360 Speaker 1: us at Blow the Mind at how stuffourth stot com. 625 00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:44,040 Speaker 1: Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff 626 00:32:44,080 --> 00:32:46,720 Speaker 1: from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we 627 00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:50,320 Speaker 1: explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow.