WEBVTT - Sci-Fi High 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.400 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.560 --> 0:00:15.880 Forward Thinking. Hey there, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:19.000 podcast that looks at the future and says we don't 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:21.919 need no education. Yes we do. We just used a 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:26.720 double negative. I'm Jonathan Strickland, I'm Lauren Vocal, I'm Joe McCormick. 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:28.520 That was a good one, actually, thank you. Yeah. Once 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:30.640 once in a while I pick one that's actually si 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:33.560 appropriate for the podcast. Today we're gonna tell me appropriate 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:37.279 at all for the podcast for anyway. So today we're 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:41.839 gonna talk about science fiction and education, the future of 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:45.159 what education might be. Uh. And the reason for this 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:48.320 is because obviously we just did a video about what 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:51.680 the future of education is all about, and uh, if 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:55.080 you look to science fiction, there's some interesting concepts of 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:59.120 what we could see as part of our educational uh 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:03.280 experience in the future. The one that we often think of, 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:06.080 at least here in the office, because uh, it made 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:10.360 such a big splash when it first debuted, is the matrix, right, right, 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:13.959 So in the concept of the matrix, you've got characters 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:17.679 who have these these computer jacks that are built into 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:19.840 them huge hole in the back of your head. Right 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:21.560 right right at the top of your spine base of 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:25.200 your skull, and you can plug in what looks to 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:30.280 be a an inconveniently large plug into the back of 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:32.679 your skull, and then that allows you to do a 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:35.720 couple of things. One, it allows you to enter the matrix. 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:40.560 This this virtual environment we plug into the the program. Yeah. See, 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:42.680 it's so far in the future. I don't understand why 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:45.679 they don't have wireless access to the matrix. Yeah, well, 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:48.840 I mean clearly looks cooler. Yeah, I don't understand why 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:52.720 they're using humans as opposed to cow I thought about it. Now. 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:55.000 If you remember in the movie, they can kill you 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:57.760 just by unplugging you while you're plugged in. If you 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:00.960 had wireless access and then suddenly you had interference in 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:03.440 the signal, I guess that would kill you. What's interfering though, 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:08.200 it's just them, I don't know. Suddenly somebody moves a 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:11.360 big lead sheet between you and the and the router 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:14.160 and then you die, right right, Okay, you know what 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:16.480 We're getting far away from what I'm trying to get 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:19.400 at at this conversation already, and we haven't even gotten 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:22.560 into it. The point being that in the context of 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:26.600 the matrix. Uh. While you get plugged into this virtual environment, 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.040 one of the other things that can happen is that 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:33.560 using this connection to computers, this physical connection between the 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:38.720 person and the computer, you can download information from a 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:42.000 computer or have a computer upload information into you, and 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:44.440 then use that information in a meaningful way within the 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:48.200 context of the matrix, like piloting a ship or kung fu, yes, 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:52.680 I know kung fu, or becoming an expert at at 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:56.320 weapons systems, all this sort of stuff. And uh, at 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:59.679 least within the context of the matrix, as far as 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:03.079 I tell now, granted I have to in full disclosure, 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:07.240 I only watched the first film, and then I tried 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:10.639 to get through the second film twice. Second film. Yeah, 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:12.360 that's pretty much how I am. Wouldn't it be nice 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:15.320 if they made sequels? Yeah? At any rate, The point 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:17.720 being that that it seemed to me that the knowledge 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:21.240 you gained through that computer link up into your brain 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:24.880 really was only um uh, something you could put to 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:27.839 use within the matrix itself, right right for for most 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:29.840 human beings. The way that it worked in the films 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:33.400 was that you most people could could learn this thing 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:35.640 that they would know within the confines of the matrix 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:39.200 computer program, and then once you got back into reality, um, 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:42.440 which was a sucky place to be, you wouldn't know 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:45.720 it anymore, right, except they would occasionally the raves. That 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:47.680 was the that was the one part that wasn't too sucky. 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:50.560 That's actually not all that implausible when you think about it, 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:55.280 because apart from the sort of like the instantaneous downloading part, 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:59.720 it's possible to learn a virtual skill that has no 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.400 correlation in the real world. Like you can be the 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:05.880 best shot in the world at Halo, but that doesn't 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:08.720 mean you can actually do combat and operate an assault 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:10.720 rifle in real life. Well sure, I mean it's two 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:12.640 different sets of skills in that case. It is just 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:16.679 that it's at one set is mimicking something that happens 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:19.480 in our real space, but it's not using the exact 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:23.039 same approach. There there are correlations, though, I mean, for example, 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:26.880 surgeons use video games these days to help train themselves 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:31.120 to be better surgeons. Using that kind of a fine 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:34.280 eye hand coordination training is very helpful. I guess what 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:36.800 would be crucial in designing those kind of systems is 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.680 making them as map as closely to real life as possible. Well, 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:45.120 that and to make whatever the whatever your goal is, 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:49.280 something that actually helps you refine whatever your skill set is. 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:52.040 If you're talking about hand eye coordination, then it has 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:53.640 to have lots of stuff that you can react to 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:56.040 quickly and respond to in a in a way that 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:59.359 makes sense within the context of the game. Now, the 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:02.520 question is, could we get to a point where we 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:07.240 could get that kind of skill uh through a connection 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:11.360 direct connection to a computer automatic learning. It's called right right, 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:15.400 this this concept of just beaming that information from a 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:19.360 digital source into our brains and have it translate in 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:23.800 a meaningful way. And to really understand how difficult this 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:26.400 would be, we have to kind of look at how 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:31.240 we learn and how we retain information within our own brains. Yeah, 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:35.680 because in the matrix there's this it's just kind of 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:39.760 glossed over. There's some easy transition between digital and and 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:42.120 you know, the wet stuff in your head. They've got 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:44.359 a hole you just plug the thing in and that 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:47.240 that's taking care of. But in the real world, I 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:51.440 have to imagine that our brains don't use binary data. 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:54.080 No they do not. Yeah, No, our brains are not 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:57.280 they don't. This is one of those things I think 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:01.320 some futurists have trouble with and that I think some 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:06.400 futurists believe that the human brain and computers share way 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:09.240 more in common than they actually do. Now, there are commonalities, 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:11.800 I mean, they're The computer is sort of our attempt 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:16.280 to create a machine that can, in at least some contexts, 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:18.760 reason its way through things. It has to have a 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:20.720 very specific set of rules that has to follow in 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:24.120 order to do that. But um, you know, it's kind 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:26.880 of trying to mimic what we do when we're thinking 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:30.960 about stuff using rules that we have created. But when 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:33.559 you get down to the actual biology of the brain, 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:37.800 it is really complex, so complex in fact, that we 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:40.680 still don't fully understand how it works. We've got some 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:44.720 theories or maybe we should say, some hypotheses about what 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:49.400 is going on, but we're still learning a mystery to us. Yeah, yeah, 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:53.200 we we can. Even with the sophisticated tools and the 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:56.760 information that we have available to us today, we still 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:59.599 don't fully understand the process. But I let me talk 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:03.600 a little it about what we think is going on. Uh. 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:05.440 And of course some of this we may find out 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:10.000 later on is not completely correct or that it's it's right, 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:13.200 but it's missing some key component. That's you know, that's 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:16.080 part of the joy of discovering stuff. Really, it's something 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:21.520 that I find exciting about all areas of science. So. Um, Really, 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:25.760 there's three steps in the way that we store information. 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:30.040 There's uh or the way we deal with information in 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:34.080 our brains. There's encoding, there's storage, and there's retrieval. Now 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:36.920 so far, that sounds a lot like computers. You know, 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:38.880 you encode the information, you store it, and then you 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:41.720 can retrieve it whenever you need to. Um. There are 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:46.240 three different types basic types of memory. There's sensory memory. 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:49.280 This is something that lasts maybe two seconds at most. 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:53.239 This is what your brain is doing to to help 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:56.680 you interpret the information that you're bringing in through your senses. 0:07:57.160 --> 0:07:59.320 Is it's sort of what we describe as the moment 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:03.560 to moment ex perience of consciousness. Um. It's it's almost 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:08.080 like when you first feel that blast of cold air 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:09.920 and you think of it as cold. It's really the 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:12.440 memory of cold that you're associate. It's kind of you 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:15.120 get a little metaphysical when you can start talking. There's 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:17.640 such a thing as the present, you know, right right, Yeah, 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.680 that thing as cold and whether or not, Yeah, just 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:22.440 just based on you know, the the idea that my 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:25.360 green is different than your green because we've both experienced 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:28.480 the color differently. Yeah. Uh. And then there's the lady 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:33.040 who can experience millions of colors. You guys read about her, right, 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:36.400 Yeah you haven't. This this is a sidebar, but it 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:40.800 is an exciting thing. Uh. Some scientists have have identified 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:42.960 a woman, I want to say, she's a doctor in 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:46.400 the UK who they've identified as as being able to 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:50.640 perceive something like one dred million different shades of color. 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:54.680 So she's got supersensory ability when it comes to color differentiation. 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:57.320 She cannot see outside the visible range. It's not like 0:08:57.360 --> 0:08:59.600 she suddenly has the ability to see infrared or ultra violet, 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:04.719 but she can see incredibly subtle differences in color. Uh. 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:07.480 The average person, it's more like one million shades. So 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:11.240 she has one hundred times the sensitivity, which means that 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:13.360 she must go bunkers when she's trying to pick out 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:17.120 an outfit that matches, because things that to us would 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:20.720 look like they match perfectly, she'd say, well, no, that's white, 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:24.800 totally not white. That that's not the right color at all. 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:27.200 It's like the color equivalent of how people don't like 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.000 forty eight frames per second. It's just there's too much 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:34.480 detail everything. The idea being that you could you could 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:38.640 show someone like like me, I have terrible color recognition 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:41.199 skills that I've taken those courses, those those those little 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:44.079 those little tests where you're supposed to arrange the different 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:48.880 shades from uh, you know, different the Roy G. BIV 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.280 type stuff and uh, and I don't score very well 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:54.160 at them at all. So you could show two colors 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:56.160 to me that I might think look identical, and to her, 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:58.960 she'd say, no, there's a world difference between them. All right, 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:02.960 that's getting beyond the scope of this conversation, but it's cool, 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:04.920 so I had to talk about it. So you've got 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:08.200 sensory memory that last two seconds max. Then you have 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:10.360 short term memory, This is more like something that lasts 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:12.800 about thirty seconds. This is when you are trying to 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:16.440 retain some information for just a brief moment, like someone's 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:18.000 just told you their phone number and you're trying to 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:19.760 put it into your phone or write it down if 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:22.920 you still do that, and and so you just have 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:24.520 to remember it long enough to be able to do that, 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:28.160 and then you offload that need to remember, so your 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:31.280 your mind doesn't have to retain that information. Um, then 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:34.200 you have long term memory. A long term memory, of course, 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:35.880 is when this is what we think of as when 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:39.720 we say actual memories, like you're remembering something that happened 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:42.400 to in your past. That's a long term memory. And 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:45.240 the interesting thing I found was that short term memory 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:48.040 what happens is when you encounter this new information that 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:51.320 you're trying to remember. What is going on is that 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:53.800 you have you have neurons in your brain, right, the 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:59.480 neural cells, and then you have connections synapsis between the neurons. Uh. 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:03.000 You've got about one billion neurons in your average brain, 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:07.280 all right. Each of those neurons has about one thousand 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:11.040 connections to other neurons, so that means that you have 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:15.440 more than a trillion connections total in your brain. Now, 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:21.079 a memory is actually the collection of connections between specific 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:25.320 neurons in your brain at any given time. So, if Joe, 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:27.280 you were to present to me some information that I 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:30.640 was supposed to remember, uh, that first short term memory 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:33.640 would form a connection between certain neurons and that would 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:40.400 represent that memory, that specific uh combination of connections. If 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:42.000 I were to make that a long term memory, it 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:46.800 would actually be reconfiguring the those cells and those connections 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.440 so that they were made a more permanent connection, and 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:51.720 then every time I thought back on it, it would 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:55.240 be essentially recreating what happened in that short term memory. 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.360 It would it would like fire an electrical signal on 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:01.880 a certain pattern across soup, if you could kind of 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:04.439 it in a weird analogy. Let's say that we get 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:06.679 a big group of people together to take a group 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:09.800 photo and I tell everyone assume a silly pose and 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:11.880 they all just do something spontaneous for a second, and 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:14.920 I take a picture, and then every single day for 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:17.200 the next month, I get everyone together, I'm like, all right, 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:20.160 assume the same silly pose that you did before. They 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:22.960 are trying to recreate that moment that they had before, 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:26.640 and the more it's recreated, the stronger that memory becomes. However, 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:32.520 just like in that analogy, you can make mistakes, right 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:34.839 I You know, I might think, oh, yeah, I raised 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:37.120 my left eyebrow really high in the scoofy photo, but 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:39.760 really I raised my right eyebrow, and you're not allowed 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:41.520 to look at the photo for reference, so you're just 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:44.560 trying to remember this. Uh, your memory can actually be faulty, 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:47.319 which we see all the time. Right, memory is not 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:51.600 a completely reliable source. We think our memories are better 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:54.760 than they are. Yeah, yeah, I mean I'm certainly that 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:58.800 way of the conversations I have with my wife, our 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:02.440 disagreements with who said what when, and uh, and clearly 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:05.439 one of us has to be wrong. And I hope 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:08.680 it's not always me, but it very well might be 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:14.040 because my memories is not it's it's not infallible. So uh, 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:17.640 I wish it were all right. So beyond that, we've 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:21.839 got the these this information stored within these connections of neurons, 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:27.440 and uh, we don't fully understand the mechanism that's going 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.640 on here. We can get some we've got some general ideas. 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:34.080 We also can't measure how big a memory is, like 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:37.840 how much is being stored there. So for example, with 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:41.680 with computers, you can see just by the file size, right, So, 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:44.599 and it's it's based on you know, a number of 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:47.199 letters of a number of characters that can be specifically 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:50.320 break broken down into a number of ones and serious 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:53.440 yeah yeah, essentially if you're talking about like a text file, 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:56.200 that's exactly true. So you look at that and you say, 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:58.439 all right, well that I know exactly how much space 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:01.439 this is going to take in whatever recording medium I'm 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:03.440 going to use, if it's going to be optical or 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:08.040 magnetic or whatever. That's we can't say that with human memories. Uh. 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:11.120 Memories are very very interesting and different things, and they 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:13.640 change over time. Like I said, you might forget little 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:16.520 details which could actually change quote unquote the file size 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:19.800 of your memory. Uh. And then beyond that, you have 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:24.160 things like association, where you can make associations between memories 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:26.600 that don't have a direct connection with one another. So 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:29.320 I might remember an instance I had with Lauren in 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:32.440 an instance I had with Joe and draw connections between 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:36.640 them even though they were too completely separate uh moments, 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:39.080 perhaps both in time and space. So I might have 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:42.880 run into Joe, uh, you know, in downtown Atlanta, and 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:44.280 it might have been something that happened with me and 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:47.880 Lauren in the office. And yet I'm able to associate things, 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:50.840 you know, because my That's one of the cool ways 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:55.320 that our brains work. Now, beyond all that, there's been 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:58.920 a recent study that was was published in Nature Neuroscience 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:03.440 where we discovered that rapid incoming data stuff that's happening 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:06.960 very very quickly. Little second long moments of information that 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:10.360 you're being confronted with can be stored in our brains 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:14.440 in single neurons. Like a single neuron can actually hold 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:19.080 a memory, but it's like a second long. And they think, 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:22.160 the scientists think that perhaps the reason for this is 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:25.080 so that it gives your brain a little bit of 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:28.400 a little extra time to incorporate this and start to 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:32.080 make a short term memory out of this blast of 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:35.080 short information. Which is why if someone comes up and 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:39.840 just gives you a quick list of of facts or figures, 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:42.160 you might be able to recall a few, but you're 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:44.240 not able to recall all of them. And some of 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:46.000 that is because those little neurons are able to hold 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:50.000 onto enough information for it to become meaningful to you. UH. 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:54.240 And then there there was a team led by Professor 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:59.440 John Gabrielli and UH he discovered that activity in a 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:04.640 specific of the brain called the para hippocampal cortex or PHC, 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:09.640 predicts how well people will remember a visual scene. So 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:13.520 if using fm R I machines to to take a 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:17.440 look at someone, um, if the activity were low, they 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:19.880 were more likely to remember a visual scenes, so they 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:23.680 could actually predict when people would remember more about the 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:26.280 stuff they were going to be shown based upon their 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:29.680 neural activity. Now, we can't do anything with that information 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:32.680 yet other than know that this we can tell when 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:37.280 someone is ready to learn, but we can't induce that right. 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:38.920 So it's just one of those things where you take 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:41.560 a look at the person's brain and you think now 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:45.080 is when they would be most us most have to 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:49.120 remember something visually. Now, beyond that, if we're talking about 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:52.520 the type parts of the brain that are involved in memory, again, 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:56.960 we don't know for sure all the different mechanisms here, 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:00.280 but we suspect that the hippocampus and frontal cortex X 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:05.159 work together to determine which sensory input is important to 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:09.919 go into memory formation, so which bits of info are 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:14.600 are vital and which are extraneous. So it may discard 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:17.600 that you could be you could be bringing in way 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:21.399 more information than you remember because you're parts of your 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:24.080 brain are saying, well, that's not important, let's not record that. 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:27.040 So you could be forgetting very important details because they 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:31.360 just were never recorded within your memory. Um and these 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:36.560 memories tend to be of spatial or declarative uh, types 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:39.240 of memories. No, spatial memory is of course how things 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:42.399 fit within a given space. Declarative are the type of 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:45.080 memories where you can actually talk about it. You could 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:48.240 express what you were thinking, such as, you know, when 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:51.399 I was young, I had to walk to school uphill 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:54.720 both ways and five ft of snow. That would be 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:59.159 a declarative memory, as also be a lie. Uh. And 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:03.840 then the amygdal plays a role in encoding emotionally stressful memories. 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:08.320 And then anything that's procedural, which is learning a basic 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:13.120 physical task or a set of steps, is probably governed 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:18.160 by basil ganglia and the cerebellum. It's that motor memory. Uh, 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:21.800 not just motor memory. Let's say that. Uh, let's say 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:25.240 that Joe, you are are traveling from your home to 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:29.760 the office. It's you learning that route to the point 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:32.760 where you no longer really thinking about the route anymore 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:35.639 as you drive from your home to the office. So 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:40.080 it's it's that kind of procedure. You know, Now I 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:44.200 take a right, Now I go two point three miles. 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:46.359 Now I take a left. That kind of thing become 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:48.520 so automatic people think they can do it while they're 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:53.440 composing a long text message. Yeah, that don't do that. Uh, 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:56.199 but anyway, that's that's the basic rundown of what we 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:59.560 know about the human brain, and clearly there's a lot 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:02.440 we still don't know. But when you think about that way, 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:05.399 when you think that memories, which is really what we 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:08.160 have to work on when we start talking about thinking 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:12.240 and putting stuff together, um, thinking about them being not 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:17.040 just neurons but connections makes it so much more complex 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:20.639 that you can see. To to be able to induce 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:24.680 information in someone is going to be challenging because it's 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:27.280 not like you could just target a specific neuron and 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:31.119 say it is your job to remember this fact. In fact, 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:35.280 i'd have to imagine that most memories, um and feel 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:38.040 free to correct me, But it seems like most would 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:41.960 involve multiple types of memory formation at the same time. 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:45.440 Like if I'm having a memory later today about us 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:48.400 recording this podcast, first of all, I'm sorry, isn't it 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:50.840 going to be composed of both? It's it's going to 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:54.439 be images. I'm going to remember auditory cues. I'm going 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:56.719 to remember what, you know, the paper felt like in 0:19:56.760 --> 0:20:01.080 my hands, about it? Remember how so the brain, how 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:04.480 warm it is in this studio? Yeah, I could remember 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:09.880 my simmering resentment of our fearless leader here. That's that's fair, Joe, 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:14.200 I've earned that. Um yeah, you know, first of all, guys, 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:16.680 we all really do like each other. I don't want 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:18.560 I don't want to. I don't want that to actually 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:23.080 be taken seriously. We would I would suspect. I would 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:26.720 suspect that indeed, it would be several different memories all 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:31.199 combining into one, and not just one uh over, like 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:34.560 not just one mega memory that somehow engages all these things. 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:37.919 But honestly, I don't know the answer, Like I couldn't 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:40.399 tell you for sure. I would suspect it, But again 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:43.280 that's because of what I've read already. Of course. Then again, 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:45.639 maybe one way to think about it is that that 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:49.239 a full experiential memory is maybe something kind of like 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:53.119 a web page where you have like images, and you 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:56.640 have text, and you might have music playing, and it's 0:20:56.680 --> 0:20:59.760 all different types of data, but it comes together for 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:02.160 one when it could be very well, it could very 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:05.200 well be when you remember something that you're leaving certain 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:09.159 details out entirely, which would again kind of lead you 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:14.119 to that thought of these are separate pieces to a puzzle, 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:18.520 but you don't necessarily need the full puzzle. Okay, so 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:25.600 what would it take to use technology to make knowledge 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:28.760 in the brain, Like, is is it really possible? And 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:31.840 and is there a role for technology to play in 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:35.720 the future of education? Obviously, I would always argue that 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:39.320 technology definitely has a role in an education. I don't 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:42.240 I'm not one of those people who thinks that education 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:46.640 that technology replaces the need for teachers. I'm the son 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:51.600 of two teachers. I value teachers. I value librarians very highly. 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:55.520 I think that they are incredibly important in the role 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:59.479 of education. I think that technology can make their jobs 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:04.080 easy year if it is used properly. And that's a 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:06.800 big if, because just throwing technology at the problem is 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:10.800 no guarantee that you're going to uh going to actually 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:13.240 help out right, right, or maybe maybe not easier, but 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:17.600 maybe I'm just different, more more enriched, but different. Well, 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:20.200 one example I think we can look at right now 0:22:20.600 --> 0:22:23.840 of how technology is doing something in education that we 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:29.879 normally can't do is stuff like personalized learning adaptive tutor software, 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:34.760 where so imagine you have something like students are you know, 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:38.440 elementary school students are trying to learn math alight, now 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:41.919 they might have a really good math teacher. And I 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:46.040 don't think that I can see anyway that technology could 0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:49.680 on the whole replace that teacher, but I can see 0:22:49.720 --> 0:22:55.200 it providing a really important individual attention that one teacher 0:22:55.320 --> 0:22:58.240