WEBVTT - Future Shock: Part II 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.960 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:14.000 Works dot Com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:16.280 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. This 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:19.720 is a part two. In our previous episode, we kicked 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:22.760 off the idea of Future Shock. We talked about this 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:28.360 groundbreaking um book by Alvin Toughlin and his wife Heidi 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:32.279 and uh, and we really broke down what the book is, 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:35.159 what the resulting documentary is, what the the idea of 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:37.440 Future Shock is all about. We're going to rehatch a 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:39.560 little bit here, but this is definitely a situation where 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:42.280 if you didn't listen to part one, you really should 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:44.640 listen to part one before you jumped in with parts Yeah, 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:47.199 because we are using Future Shock as as kind of 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:51.560 time capsule um of the twentieth century fear and anxiety 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:55.040 about change, the malaise about future, of fretting that has 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:57.960 now followed us into the twenty one century. So we're 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:00.600 looking at sort of like this time caps is quaint 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:03.200 um in this kind of retro futurist way, but it's 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:06.280 also really humbling because many of the concerns are prescient 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:10.679 and thoughtful. So let's launch right into him because one 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:13.880 of the things that the Toddlers talk about, and what 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:17.040 they got right, I think, in at least in my mind, 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:20.840 is some of the reproductive technology, or what they call 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:26.320 birth technology. UM Now Toddler says. Dr E. S. E. 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:30.759 Half As, an internationally respected biologists at Washington State University, 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:34.120 has publicly suggested, on the basis of his own establishing 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:37.080 work on reproduction, that within a mere ten to fifteen years, 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:39.920 a woman will be able to buy a tiny, frozen embryo, 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:43.440 take it to her doctor, have it implanted in her uterus, 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:45.520 carry it for nine months, and then give birth to 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:49.080 it as though it had been conceived in her own body. Now, 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:52.840 back in the day, this was what Yeah, what are 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:56.640 you talking? I remember the time magazine covers were they 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:59.160 were shocking and start is it really had a lot 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:01.680 of future shock to them. Yeah. And now he takes 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:04.240 this idea and he says, okay, so that that's an idea, 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:07.360 and he basically says, at some point it may be 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:11.880 possible to do away with the female uterus altogether. Babies 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.919 will be conceived and nurtured and raised maturity outside of 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:19.280 human body. Now, George Davarsky, writing for Ionine in an 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:22.760 article titled how to Build an Artificial roomb um. This 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:25.320 was published in He says it were still a couple 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:29.760 of decades away from this, but um there has been 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:33.720 the development of an artificial endometrium and that's been created 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:36.240 from real tissue. And he says that depending on the 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:40.560 technology is available, of placenta could either develop naturally on 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:43.760 that endometrial wall, or it could take the form of 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:47.239 an external device that performs some of the same functions. 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:52.000 For instance, a dialysis machine could actually help with waste disposal. 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:54.000 And then he says, you add a little bit of 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:58.120 synthetic ambiotic fluid, you regulate the temperature, you create some 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:02.519 sororeal stimulation for the baby, and add a few microbes 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:07.480 and boom, we'll be there. Well, even that as complex 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:10.440 of that sound also it's kind of an oversimplification, I think. 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:14.440 I I I researched the the artificial womb notion a 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:16.400 little while ago, and I remember being struck by just 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:21.560 how it's It's a far more complex event that's happening here. 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:23.919 It's not as simple as just squired the right fluids 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:27.120 into the baby vote and uh, and the right kind 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:28.960 of creature will emerged later he didn't like my car 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:31.680 wash analogy, just kind of spirt some stuff. They emerge 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:34.880 on the other side. Uh, no, you're right. The environment 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:39.080 of the womb is completely specialized, right. Um, So of 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:41.000 course it would take a lot of work to even 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:44.400 get to that point where you could do it. But hey, 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:48.000 I would say that steps are being made in that direction. Um. 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:51.360 But one of the things that that Toffler or the 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:56.920 Topplers really picked up here is that this would change families. 0:03:56.960 --> 0:03:59.120 This would change the face of families. This would change 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:02.880 the way that people decided to have children or become parents. 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:06.040 And he said that he thought he expected a lot 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:10.320 of people in future to remain childless or make that decision, 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:15.760 and that would allow them to both have robust careers 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:18.200 and to sort of navigate life in an easier way 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:20.280 as opposed to people who were saddled with a lot 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:22.400 of children. Because again, but at the same time, here 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:24.359 we're seeing birth control in place, and this is giving 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:27.560 women a lot more power and options in terms of 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:32.440 regulating their own careers and making decisions. And so he 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:35.720 does say, hey, there could be a compromise here, There 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:39.080 could be the postponement of children and He says that 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:42.400 instead of just being childless, people could decide that they 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:45.920 could freeze those embryos and then later on she's to 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:50.360 become parents. Now, he's correct in this sense that a 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:53.039 lot of people have delayed parenthood. If you look at 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:55.240 this historically, people are choosing to have children in their 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:59.120 thirties in their early forties as opposed to what we 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:01.440 would think of as the childbearing years in the twenties. 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:04.000 And of course there have been implications in this, but 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:07.960 he takes us a step further and says, hey, why 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:10.799 even worry about doing this while you're having your career. 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:15.159 Why not become parents when you retire. Well, yeah, that's 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:16.920 that's an idea too. We have. I don't know that 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:20.240 we've seen that that vision exactly pan out, but we 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:25.600 do see later in later stages of of of parenthood. Sure. Sure, 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:27.719 But what I'm thinking about is at this point, the 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:31.400 Tolfers don't even know about bio gerontology or Aubrey de Gray, 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:33.800 who is saying, hey, guys, we got it. We've got 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:36.800 we have got the mechanics to begin to preserve the 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:38.440 human body. I can't say it in a different way, 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:40.760 or maintain the human body in a way that will 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:44.839 extend our lives. And so if if the two could meet, 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:47.680 perhaps you know, in the near future, you would see 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:50.880 that people are beginning to have children in their sixties 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:53.159 or the seventies. Yeah, but that also kind of sounds 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:55.279 like you're you end up pushing the deadline out, and 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:57.880 then people still wait until right up to the deadline 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:00.279 to do things. So would you say, oh, now I 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:02.960 have more time to to enter the family stage of 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:04.560 my life, we would say, would you say, oh, well, 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:06.799 this is great for my career, and I'll just push 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:09.760 off the child thing just a little longer. It's possible. 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:12.599 But I just I really think that this analysis is 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:18.359 very interesting. Um and the Toddlers also talk about childless marriage, 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:21.840 professional parenthood, which was sort of like seeding your parenthood 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:27.960 responsibility to someone else post retirement, child rearing, corporate families, communes, 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:33.400 geriatric group marriages. Okay, And then he said they talked 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:37.120 about homosexual family units, polygamy. Than they say, these then 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:39.800 are a few of the family forms and practices with 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:44.400 which innovative minorities will experiment in the decades ahead. Well, 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:46.840 you definitely see a lot of that. I do feel 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:50.520 like the definition of family has has changed a lot 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:54.159 over the past few decades, and even even the definition 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:57.960 of a child and parenting, you know, I mean, because 0:06:58.000 --> 0:06:59.880 you have so many different models there. Now you have 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.320 again to their point that you have the test two babies, 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:07.919 you have the virtual fertilization, you have surrogate months, you 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:11.200 have adopted parenting, and I mean even something as simple 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:13.920 as adoptive parenting has really come a long way as 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:16.680 as this because back back in the year the seventies 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:19.520 and before, there was still that idea that you would 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:21.920 adopt a child and then maybe never tell them that 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:24.080 they were adopted. And we have a we have a 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:26.960 far more advanced and uh and I think, you know, 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:31.200 more truthful and healthy um idea of what adoptive parenting 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:33.440 is now and how that fits into this into our 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:35.800 new and evolving idea of what a family is. You know. 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:37.760 Some of that I think plays into this idea of 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:41.520 how we regard um one another at different stages in 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:44.760 our lives, because and in the book they were talking 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:48.760 about how before the seventies, it was either that you 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:51.360 were a child or you were an adult. There was 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:56.440 no teenager, there was no becoming an adult or acknowledging 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:58.560 that there are different stages, so I think they're to 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.760 that point. There's a lot more insitivity to how children 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:05.480 are developing, and as a result, people are thinking more about, 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:08.600 you know, how to form their minds as opposed to 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:13.240 like you're you, you're termed eighteen, your your men now right, 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:18.600 go out? And oh yeah, I mean so Like even 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:21.080 time I watch an episode of mad Men, I often 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:26.680 reflect on men in in my life, my you know, 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:29.720 my dad and my grandfather, you know, various uncles and 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:32.720 as well as Don Draper's example, and think about like 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:35.559 those past ideas of you know, you're no longer a 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:39.040 child and now you're a man, and how how that 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:42.120 that model doesn't really apply so much anymore, Like there's 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:44.839 no against so many of us figure out a way 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:49.160 way to uh sustain our childhood indefinitely and to put 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:53.360 off some imagined transformation into a man and definitely. And 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:56.720 also that model of what a man was culturally and 0:08:56.760 --> 0:09:00.480 say the nineteen sixties us is, I feel, rather than 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:02.560 what a lot of us would want to be. That's 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:06.280 sort of you know, don't don't look your family members 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:08.360 in the eye kind of a thing like work all day, 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:10.480 support the family and not be there like so many 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:12.800 of those models you see in in like old films. 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:16.880 They just like nobody even wants that anymore. It's so stifling. Yeah, yeah, 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:18.839 And that's kind of what they say in here, And 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:21.360 they say that that one of the things about having 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.920 more fractured society is that you have more freedoms. Is 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:30.560 that people begin to really embrace individuality in a way 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:34.520 that allows them to express themselves in a way that 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:37.000 they hadn't been able to before. Just to bring the 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:41.760 discussion back around to reproductive technology and future shock, I 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:44.440 ran across this wonderful quote from Ray Kurtz Flow in 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:47.439 a two thousand twelve Wired interview. He said, people actually 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.840 adjust to the reality of their technology amazingly quickly. Is 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:54.000 descriptions of technologies just around the corner that they find daunting. 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:56.360 But when there's a new treatment for a disease that 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:59.320 works better, people can wax philosophically. Oh, I don't know 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:02.080 if we really to extend longevity. But when it actually 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:05.080 comes to curing curing a disease or treating it better, 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:08.520 it's adopted without hesitation. The only question is does it 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:11.480 really work. The same thing with social networks or wikis 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:14.080 or Wikipedia, all these things, we eagerly adopt them. The 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:16.760 only question is that do they really help us. When 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:19.720 it becomes clear that they do, we adopt them very readily. 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:22.120 They quickly become a part of our everyday world so 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:25.000 that we can't do without them. That's true. I've read 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:29.360 um study. I believe that is the sixty plus group 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:33.480 that are really sort of the biggest users of their 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:37.200 smartphones because they're beginning to see that there is a 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:40.640 huge UM. I mean, this isn't a lifesaving thing, but 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:43.200 this is something that can really simplify their lives in 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:45.720 some ways. And so then you begin to get this 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:48.840 idea of well maybe it's you know, necessity is the 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:53.120 mother of adoption, um, rather than invention. Yeah, and you 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:56.040 see in some cases that kind of skipping of a technology, 0:10:56.280 --> 0:11:00.480 you know, like uh, you see like a various older 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:02.280 people in our lives that may have never figured out 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:05.160 exactly how to program a VCR back when that was 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:08.079 a thing, but now they're just complete masters of their 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:12.920 smartphone because the technologies farm are relevant to their existence. Well, 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:15.000 so much easier to yeah, yes, true with Surrey in 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:18.000 your life right now, Another topic that Toffler touches on 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:23.720 is the idea of a disposable society. He says, quote, 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:27.280 we develop a throwaway mentality to match our throwaway products. 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:30.319 This mentality produces, among other things, instead of radically altered 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:33.960 values with respect to property. But the spread of disposability 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:39.040 through society also implies decreased durations in man thing relationships. 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:42.000 And that's man thing, not man thing the comic book character. 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:45.120 If you're wondering, instead of being linked with a single 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:47.440 object over a relatively long span of time, we were 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:52.880 linked for brief periods with the succession of objects that supplanted. Um. 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:55.480 This is this is one of those those ideas that 0:11:55.520 --> 0:12:00.440 he brings out that at once rings true. Like there's 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:02.480 a lot of this that totally rings true. There are 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:05.239 some of the finer details of it that don't necessarily 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:08.040 hold up all the way. But but I feel like 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:10.920 for the most part he got this one right. Um. 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:15.280 Because one idea that instantly comes to mind here is furniture. Uh, 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:18.559 you know you mentioned Ikia in the last episode. Like not, 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:21.880 not only is Ikia a model of build it yourself furniture, 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:24.360 but it isn't a model of furniture that no one's 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:27.640 buying expecting it to be passed on to their grandchildren. 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:30.120 The previous model was, you know, you spent, you put 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:32.280 a lot of money into a well crafted piece of 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:37.319 furniture and that is part of your heritage. And now 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:39.240 we we really don't expect most of our furniture in 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:43.400 the last you know, in the next week. Yeah, there 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:46.559 is definitely a huge aspect of our society that is disposable. 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:50.920 But I'm also thinking about, um, the fact that we 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:53.640 tend to just kind of hoard a little bit, and 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:57.400 you know, there's that part of materialism which allows us 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:00.520 to do that, to just keep a mass more and 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:03.959 more things. Oh yeah, for instance, self storage units. I 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:06.960 believe we've touched on this before, but um, the latest 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:09.760 stats from the Self Self Storage Association, they say that 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:13.160 they are now over forty eight thousand, five hundred primary 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:16.640 self storage facilities in the United States as of the 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:19.280 year in two thousand thirteen, and then there are another 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:23.280 four thousand secondary facilities. Primary facilities are ones who are 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:24.920 basically all they do are the main thing they do. 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:28.520 In storage facilities, secondary there's some other primary business at hand. 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:31.640 But the self storage rentable space in the US alone 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:34.960 is now two point three billion square feet. That's approximately 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:37.840 two hundred and ten million square meters uh. And they 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:40.439 say that that figure represents more than seventy eight square 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:43.920 miles of rentable self storage space under one roof, an 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:48.160 area more than three times the size of Manhattan Island. 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:50.079 So that's kind of crazy. And I think that that's 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:52.920 part and personal of a disposable society, or creating goods 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:55.800 that are so cheaply made or so easy to buy 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:59.120 or so uh cost effective that you can either dispose 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:01.439 of them where you just can buying more and more 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:03.080 of the junk. You know, It's true, it's kind of 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:05.280 like both both sides of it. Yes, we're it's a 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:07.920 disposable culture, but we're not quite so disposable that we're 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:10.280 going to throw all of that old disposable stuff away. 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:12.480 We need to put that somewhere because we might need 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:14.480 it again. Like we're still clinging to some of those 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:18.000 sort of post depression ideas and and and the old 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:20.840 fashioned ideas that we need to hold onto the things 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:23.920 we own. We need to hold onto well crafted materials 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:27.160 because they are their usefulness will continue in the decades ahead. 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:29.720 We're still holding onto some of those ideas, but we're 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:32.840 holding onto it with disposable materials, and so we're kind 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:34.880 of getting the worst of both worlds. And then you 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:38.280 have some people in extreme cases who are have huge 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:43.680 amounts of anxiety connected to those things because their their 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:47.800 own sorts of uh psychological states are playing out in 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:50.640 terms of objects. And of course I'm saying hoarding here, 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:55.440 which is closely related to obsessive compulsive disorder. But this 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:59.800 was also making me think about um our relationships be 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.400 has the top us also point out that in the 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:06.160 future UM people will be so mobile and spread out 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:10.600 so much um that we will begin to have very 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:14.920 surface relationships, disposable relationships, will have what they call the 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:19.000 nine to five or the workday relationships, where you know 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:22.760 you're having these relationships through coworkers, but it's not necessarily 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:26.680 going deeper than that. And that we've begun to move 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:31.120 away from family in terms of social bonds and more 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:35.920 toward one another in in these very superficial ways. Yeah, 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:38.080 and I feel like you do see a lot of 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:40.800 that in life. Yeah, although if you want to play 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:43.640 Devil's after get here, you could say that people maybe 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:47.840 are a little bit more isolated because Uh. Technology has 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:49.880 put us in that position. And you know, a Facebook 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:52.520 front is different than a face to face friend. But 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:56.040 they would say that communities have sprung up uh in 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:59.160 the void, right, and that there is a connection that 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:03.880 people feel, even if it is as abstract as an 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:08.080 avatar that you create to communicate with another person. There's 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:11.160 a wonderful moment in the documentary version of Future Shock 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:13.280 where a little girl has has taken her doll back 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:16.640 to the shop UH and exchanges it for a new, 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:19.280 shinier doll, and then the store owner throws the old 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:22.160 doll and the garbage and the music is very ominous 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.040 and then UH. And then Orson Welles tells us even 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:30.280 friends don't last in this future UM, which which was 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:33.240 you know, again very much overstating the case there. But 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:37.200 again you do see shades of that in our modern society. 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:41.000 You do do. And they also talked about simulated environments, 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:44.680 this idea that we would begin to create these um 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:51.200 environments that we would move through in a more abstract way. UM. 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:54.520 But we haven't seen that completely yet. We we know 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:57.640 that the Internet of everything is on the horizon. We 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:02.160 know that nearly every surface can become interactive, but We're 0:17:02.200 --> 0:17:05.240 not quite there yet. But on the other hand, simulated 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:08.000 environments in the form of video games still remain a 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:11.440 very big business. People are putting themselves in these environments. 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:15.000 Not quite in the virtual reality UH idea that became 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:18.800 prevalent in the in the nineteen eighties and and and 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:22.040 part of the nineties. But still they are immersing themselves 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:25.240 in a virtual world uh an unreal world and spending 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:28.159 a lot of time and energy there. But I am 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:31.280 still waiting for that travel lodge of Remember that report 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:33.920 we saw from futurists Ian Pearson who said, like, one 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:36.600 day you can go that travel lodge and you can 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:39.800 call up any sort of background environment that you want. 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:43.560 You could have your sheets outfitted with sensors that might 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:47.320 interact with someone else. You could have contacts active contact 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:51.040 lenses that would put retinal images on your eyes and 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:53.720 into your brain, so that you could be staring at someone, 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:57.120 but they could be completely different than than than who 0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:01.360 you are actually staring at and transforming your reality into 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:04.320 this artificial reality. Yeah, and that was definitely a study 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:06.560 that gave me a little future shock, Like maybe not 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:08.920 like the crippling level of future shock, but very much 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:11.879 that that in all level of future shock where you 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:14.800 really have to think, wow, things could in the future 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:19.160 significantly change in a way that it shakes culture itself. Yeah. 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:21.119 And if you think about that model too, that changes 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:24.600 the economic model too, because everything in that that that 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:26.560 space is for sale too. I mean, if you like 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:28.919 the dresser, you can just go tap on it or 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:31.159 scan it and that could be delivered to you in 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:36.439 one hour via a drone. Yeah, thank you Amazon. On 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:40.680 the subject of a disposable culture, something we're talking about 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:43.040 recently in our very own break room here, how stuff 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:46.119 works cups because we have one of those k cup machines, 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:50.000 they're Curi Curig. We put a little the little plastic 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:52.160 cup in and then you pop it and it shoots 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:54.679 hot water through there and makes you a cup of coffee. 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:56.320 And then what do you do with the little plastic 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:59.879 cup You throw it away? Right. Well, it's become quite popular. 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:02.000 Just in our office. According to a survey by the 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:05.119 National Coffee Association, nearly one in five adults drink single 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:08.760 cup brewed coffee yesterday, so it makes it the second 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:11.119 most popular way to brew coffee, right after your normal 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:16.000 hum Mr coffee type coffee machine. Sadly, my method to 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:18.960 eropress hasn't quite made his way to the top yet. 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:22.159 But but here's where he gets the Erroopress is a 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:25.480 wonderful device, even though it is sometimes mistaken for either 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:29.560 a drug paraphernalia or some sort of a sexual device. 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:32.840 But still it's a wonderful way to make coffee. According 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:36.520 to Seattle Times, uh U S consumers bought one thirty 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:38.879 two million dollars worth of coffee pods in two thousand 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:42.280 eight four October, three point one billion for them last year, 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:45.359 and that was compared to six billion uh for roasted 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:48.800 coffee and two point five billion in instant coffee. This 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:51.480 is all from two thousand fourteen Mother Jones article Your 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:54.000 coffee POD's dirty secret and where it gets really dirty 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:57.639 is we can consider this. In two thousand thirteen, Green 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:01.000 Mountain produced eight point three billion cake cups, enough to 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:05.520 wrap around the equator of the planet ten point five times, 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:09.120 do we, liamb You will not quit telling me that's 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:11.199 that until I quite using the cake cups, will you. 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:14.000 I know they're fast, I know they're a little faster 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:17.840 than the other machine, but but yeah, ten point five 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:20.080 times around the uh The the equator of the point. 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:25.159 Now we should mention that that Kurig just released a 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:28.120 sustainability report announcing that the company plans to make all 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:33.280 their coffee pods recyclable by So there's a silver lining 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:35.280 the right. So if you can see the lining beyond 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:39.080 the belt of k cups that are now orbiting the plant, 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:41.760 So in six years I can feel good about having 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:44.520 a cup. Yeah, there you go, all right, or just 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:46.360 get the little my mom has one and she uses 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:49.400 a little uh disposable or not disposable, but the little 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:52.440 reusable thing you get like a little cake cup. Yeah, 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:54.119 and just fill it with you just put coffee grounds 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:56.240 in there and kind of treat it like a you know, 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:59.399 a grown ups coffee maker. All right, Yeah, it can 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:01.760 be done. You don't have to you don't have to 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:05.239 abandon your device. You just a little convenient it is. 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:09.200 It is, alright, So again something that the Dolfers could 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:11.440 not have anticipated. We're gonna take a quick break and 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:13.760 when we get back, we're going to talk about what 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:24.800 else they didn't anticipate. All right, we're back. Before we 0:21:24.840 --> 0:21:26.280 get it into the next section, I do want to 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:29.399 mention real quick that another area that I feel like 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:32.800 they maybe not got right, but are getting right, Like 0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:36.400 they're they've successfully forecast some of what's happening in the world. 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:41.000 As they mentioned possible technological backlash h quote protests against 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:44.320 the ravages of irresponsibility used technology, and they said that 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:48.760 they could crystallize in a pathological form a future phobic 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:53.400 fascism with scientists quote substituting for Jews and concentration camps. 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:56.200 That's an extreme vision of what the future could hold. 0:21:56.200 --> 0:22:00.480 But I instantly thought of, for instance, the the German 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:05.119