WEBVTT - Technology Conspiracy Theories I 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:09.000 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technologies? With 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:18.400 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello there, everyone, 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:21.400 and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulett, 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:23.440 and I'm an editor here at how stuff works dot 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:26.320 com and sitting across from me as usual, though they 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:28.600 may not want you to notice it, A senior writer, 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:35.880 Jonathan Strickland, Hey there, why are we so quiet today? Well, 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:38.320 that would be because we're finally going to tackle that 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:41.240 topic that we said we were going to tackle months ago, 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:43.320 and then everyone wrote in and asked us to keep 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:48.559 doing not Cantanna's, don't even go there. We got one 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:52.360 request for to do an episode on Cantana's like eight 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:54.920 months ago, and we still haven't done that once. Now, 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:56.800 this is the one that lots of people have asked 0:00:56.840 --> 0:01:00.240 us to do. We are, of course talking about heck 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:06.840 conspiracy theories. And before we get into that, though, Okay, 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:08.520 I wanted to talk about something that has nothing to 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:11.959 do with conspiracy theories at all. Okay, this there's there's 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:14.720 no conspiracy theory behind this, of course there isn't. I'm 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:16.560 going to ask that's what they want you to believe. 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:21.120 What what is your opinion about pumpkins? What is my 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:27.240 opinion about pumpkins? Um? There orange and they love flying 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:30.800 through the air. I agree, pumpkins do love flying through 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:33.640 the air. Now, if you were someone who were interested 0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:36.240 in seeing pumpkins fly through the air at great velocity 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:41.640 and distance, what would you do? I actually I wouldn't 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:44.240 do it myself. I would have somebody else do it, 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:46.080 and I would watch it. Right, But I mean I'm 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:48.360 saying like, if you want to watch that, I mean, 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:52.200 what opportunity is there? Uh? That would be the opportunity 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:55.800 to tune into the Science Channel on November. That's right, 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:59.480 because the Road to Punkin Chunkin, followed by Punkin chunk 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:02.880 In itself starting at eight pm, will be on the 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:05.560 air on the Science Channel on November twenty six, and 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:09.760 you can watch crazy individuals who have built insanely huge 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:13.040 machines designed to do one thing and one thing only, 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:17.720 and that is to chunk a punkin. Yep, it's uh, 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:22.080 it's pretty massive. I gotta say, yeah, Flying fruit no conspiracy, 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:26.120 there no no conspiracy. We can conspiracy to chunk punkins, 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:29.359 I suppose, so we can talk a little bit about 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:34.680 some actual conspiracy theories that relate back to technology. Okay, 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:38.440 I was going to start with our friend Nicola Tesla. 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:41.560 Oh him, Yes, we talked about this once before in 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:45.600 an earlier podcast about wireless power, and so I just 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:48.800 thought I would kind of touch base on that again. Sorry, 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:51.520 Nate Lankson, if you're listening, I know he hates that phrase. 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.839 So that's okay, We're going to take on the low 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:58.040 hanging fruit. Yes, we can raise any red flags we see, right, 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:03.520 I'm hoping for some synergy. So Tesla he came up 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:10.560 with this idea for transmitting electricity without wires using an 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:13.359 enormous tower. He actually had a couple of different ideas 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:16.000 on how to do this. One of them involved firing 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:20.079 electricity up into the iono sphere, which he thought was 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:22.440 more conductive than any other part of the atmosphere, and 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:26.560 then somehow transmitting electricity throughout the globe that way, which 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:28.640 we mean you'd have to have some sort of antenna 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:31.400 that could reach up there and and bring the electricity 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:35.760 back down. The other idea he had was using the 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:40.360 earth itself as a way to send electricity through some 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:44.000 sort of resonating kind of technology that that a lot 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:46.360 of people have tried to explain since then, but no 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:48.840 one's really got a good handle on it. And some 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:50.520 of that may be due to the fact that Tesla 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:53.320 was years ahead of his time, and some of them 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:55.520 maybe due to the fact that Tesla also appears to 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:57.920 have kind of gone crazy towards the end of his 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:00.360 life for good for good reason, he he had a 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:04.480 tortured existence toward the end of his life. Um, his 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:08.240 his mind worked unusually even when he was understandable, it 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:10.360 was sort of hard to get yeah, but he he 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:14.160 definitely had revolutionary ideas that have since come to fruition, 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:16.520 but they were just they were just too revolutionary for 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:19.000 the time that he lived in. But one one of 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:22.520 these was this idea of of broadcasting electricity wirelessly. Now, 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:25.680 he had published an article that kind of was all 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:27.440 over the place, but one of the things that talked 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:31.640 about was creating a wireless communication system. So this is 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:34.960 before radio, This is before any of that has really 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:38.280 taken place. Marconi has not made the big splash with 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:41.760 radio yet. So one of the people who read this 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:45.320 article and was interested was JP Morgan. I asked the 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:49.320 the famous American finance here right right, he was Mr 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:53.479 money Bags really and uh so actually a Mr monopoly 0:04:54.080 --> 0:05:01.120 is yeah, um yeah, apparently his favorite piece was the anyway, 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:05.359 he he actually agreed to to invest a hundred and 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:10.159 fifty thousand dollars in Tesla's idea, which was not chicken 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:13.159 feed at the time. A little money now, but yeah, 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:17.200 that's a lot then now. Granted, some experts believe that 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:19.840 the amount of money Tesla would have needed to complete 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:22.800 his project would have actually been closer to a million 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:25.960 dollars even back then, so it's still a drop in 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:28.360 the proverbial bucket. But Tesla was eager to get on 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:31.080 this project and he didn't care that it was just 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:33.080 part of what he would needed. He he wanted to 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:35.520 get started hope that he could continue to raise money 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:39.479 throughout the project. So he starts building this and the 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:43.400 conspiracy theory here is that Morrigan got wind that the 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:47.359 project was not to build a wireless communication network, but 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:51.320 rather to create a way of distributing electricity without the 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:54.200 use of wires, which would essentially mean that people could 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:57.680 get electricity for free. Yeah, and this is uh, this 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:01.400 is the famous Warden Cliff or in shore I'm Long Island, 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:03.920 which which did actually come to fruition? I mean, and 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:07.919 there was there was there was one. Yes, something was built. Yes, 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:11.160 part of it is still there. I think it's about 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:13.520 to get torn down in fact, but most of it 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:16.560 was taken a part in nineteen seventeen. Yes, yes, So 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:20.080 the conspiracy theorists say that what happened was Morgan heard 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:22.280 that there was going to be this free energy system, 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:24.279 and in order to prevent it so that he would 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:29.800 not uh see a dip in profits from any kind 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:34.640 of electricity delivery systems uh, he specifically pulled funding and 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:41.120 essentially sabotaged the the project by not paying for it. Um. However, 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:45.719 it appears that that it's not quite that sinister. It 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:48.000 still doesn't mean Morgan in a very nice light, but 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:50.480 it's you know, part of it is that Tesla was 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:52.880 not being upfront about what his project was about in 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:55.880 the first place. Well, yeah, that's true, and people who 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:59.080 are lending you money are generally interested in knowing exactly 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:01.000 what you're going to do with Yeah. Yeah. The the 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:03.719 de fault is not wholly upon Morgan in this case. 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:07.280 What appears to actually have happened is that while this 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:12.840 project was under construction, Mark Marconi successfully was able to 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:18.120 transmit the letter S transatlantically and it was able to 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:22.320 prove that his system of wireless communication worked and it 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:27.080 was relatively cheap. So now Morrigan is looking at his project, 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:29.800 that he's funding this hundred fifty project, and saying, well, 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:34.720 if there's a reliable and cheap way to to transmit information, 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:38.560 why am I pouring money into this very expensive and 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:42.240 so and so far unproven method. And that is why 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:45.960 he cut the funds to Tesla's project. Had nothing to 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:49.760 do with worrying that he was going to go bankrupt 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:51.880 because suddenly he had no way of making money out 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:56.280 of delivering electricity. Right, So that's that's one conspiracy theory 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.960 more or less debunked. Again, there was definitely a disagree 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.360 between these two gentlemen, Um, but I think it was 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:07.040 partly due to Tesla not being completely honest about what 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:10.840 his project was for, and also Morrigan was, you know, 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:14.960 he just wasn't willing to to to see if the 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:17.840 the this project would pay off in the future. So 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:20.920 but that's a good one to start with. Now, Um, 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:23.280 did you have any you want to bring up specifically 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:25.000 or shall I move on to the next one. I 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:28.120 was thinking maybe since we've been talking about energy and 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:34.720 people uh possibly conspiring to prevent a more efficient means 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:37.800 of using energy, that maybe we would stick with that 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:40.600 theme for a moment, since we were going to talk 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:45.559 about the the auto companies, yes, and basically how they 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:50.800 want to squash other forms of other forms of propulsion 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:53.760 in favor of the internal combustion engine that runs on 0:08:56.080 --> 0:09:00.560 diesel petroleum based rather than than than a electric cars. 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:04.000 We're really getting down to the oil companies here. There 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:06.200 are a lot of conspiracy theories out there that oil 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:11.640 companies have conspired to to essentially squash any project that 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:18.439 would have created an affordable and efficient electric vehicle. Uh. 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:20.560 There's a lot of evidence out there that kind of 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:25.000 suggests that, you know, some projects that would have brought 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:29.240 an electric vehicle to market earlier than we've seen were 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:33.600 in fact kind of squashed. But whether that was because 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:36.600 the oil companies were coming in and throwing their weight around, 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:40.520 or whether it was because other considerations had to pop up, 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:45.520 that's still that's still under debate. For one thing, let's 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:49.040 say that we did put electric vehicles out there earlier, 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:53.319 you have to have some sort of infrastructure to support that. Well, 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:56.959 there were electric vehicles earlier, much earlier, and in fact, 0:09:57.000 --> 0:10:00.440 Henry Ford was not a big fan of using assolene 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:04.960 at all. No. Um. Well, my point being that to 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:09.680 switch over to an all electric system needs more than 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:13.240 just putting electric cars on the market for people to buy. 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:16.400 They need a place to plug the things in to 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:19.199 make sure they remain charged so that or to have 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:22.640 some sort of stations where they can get there the 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:25.120 battery or whatever it is is going to provide the 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.920 electrical power to keep the car running. Uh. That infrastructure 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:32.800 costs money. Well, see, the people at Honda probably agree 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:35.440 with you, because one of the conspiracies that I saw 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:38.720 around there. One of the theories conspiracy theories around this 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:41.280 that I saw was that some people think that Honda, 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:43.719 you know, having their fc X and then later the 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:48.280 Clarity hydrogen powered cars, they had a home fueling station 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:53.839 that would basically convert natural gas to hydrogen that could 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:56.160 be used in the cars, and they said, well, they've 0:10:56.200 --> 0:11:00.520 had this technology for years and Honda is suppressing it. Um. 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:04.080 The thing is, you know, Honda says, well, you need 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:06.640 the infrastructure away from your home because what happens if 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:09.640 you run out of fuel when you're away from home. So, 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:12.760 you know, but the conspiracy theorists who who think Honda 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:15.240 is hiding something don't necessarily agree with that. The vehicle 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:17.280 doesn't do you much good if you can only travel 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:20.959 five to ten miles away, you know, and then you're stuck. Yeah, 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:23.960 I mean, you couldn't go even even under on you know, 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:25.959 you say, okay, well I take a hydrogen could get 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:28.360 me around town for a week. Well what happens if you, 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:30.480 you know, say, drive to your in laws house and 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:33.320 well they don't have a hydrogen fueling station and there's 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:36.840 no fueling station around. Then you're stuck. And that's that's 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:41.520 the that's the biggest obstacle I think to really adopting 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:46.199 a new and efficient and uh and and green um 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:50.760 strategy as far as transportation goes, it's that the initial investment, 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:55.080 that upfront investment and building the infrastructure necessary to support 0:11:55.120 --> 0:12:00.480 that kind of of endeavor is phenomenally expensive. Of not 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:03.200 only that, but you would still have to continue to 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:08.319 support the gasoline industry until you were able to make 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:12.360 a full transition over to whatever your alternative fuel was. 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:15.400 You couldn't just make the switch overnight because too many 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:18.040 people are driving gasoline powered cars. What are they gonna do? 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:21.280 You know, you can't just necessarily, like unless the government 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:24.520 does some weird subsidized thing where you can trade in 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:28.360 your gas vehicle for an electric vehicle, and that's it. Uh, 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:31.559 it just wouldn't work. And I can't imagine how expensive 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:33.120 a program like that would be. I mean, you think 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:35.600 about how many cars are on the road just in 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:38.640 the United States alone, That kind of program would be 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:42.440 insanely expensive. I think peak oil is also going to 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.559 force the petroleum companies to rethink their strategy, so I 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:48.040 think it's in their best interest to find other types 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:52.240 of fuels now. I mean honestly, there, as with all 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:55.280 of these, there may actually be something to these conspiracy theories, 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:57.880 but you know it doesn't to This one, to me, 0:12:57.920 --> 0:12:59.599 doesn't really make a lot of sense. I think the 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:02.360 most sense, the most sense I can make of it 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:06.400 is that it from a business standpoint, it really didn't 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:10.760 make sense to to invest in these other technologies because 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:15.240 it just again, building out that infrastructure was so expensive 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:17.600 until you get to the point where you absolutely have 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:20.960 to do it, you don't really want to take that expense. Now, 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:23.280 It kind of stinks that we have to wait until 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:25.680 we get that far because it means that you're depending 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:28.280 on foreign oil, you're also polluting the environment. There are 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:31.680 a lot of really negative things. But at the same time, 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:36.400 I mean, the world runs on money. It's it's a 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:40.000 sad fact. You cannot get around that. And whereas we 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:42.400 would love to think that these big companies would turn 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:45.400 an altruistic leaf and do what's right for the rest 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:49.199 of humanity, unless every single person is willing to do that, 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:54.320 I don't think you can really cast stones. Um. Now. Granted, 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:57.440 some of these companies act in a much more uh 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:01.360 irresponsible manner than others, and for that they should be 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:06.240 derided and you know, insulted or whatever. But yeah, I 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:10.560 don't think it's necessarily as I don't think it's a 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:14.199 group of old men in a smoky room chuckling evil 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:17.480 e to themselves as they squash he had another electric 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:21.200 vehicle design. No there, they make them smoke outside. Now, 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:23.360 that's true. They're still in the room, but you know 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:24.920 they go take a break every once in a while. 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:28.080 On a related note, here's the conspiracy theory of the 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:32.600 oil companies getting together to uh to dismantle the electric 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:37.600 cable car uh systems in various cities in the United States, 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:40.520 because a lot of cities had electric cable cars and 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.560 then they started to kind of go away and they 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:46.800 were replaced by buses. So there's a theory out there 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:49.840 that oil companies kind of got together and bought up 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:52.680 a lot of these cable cars in order to run 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:55.720 them out of business and create a monopoly. Now there's 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:58.680 some truth to this. There were a lot of companies 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:01.120 that did get together in order to make a monopoly 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:04.280 so that they would be the one and only provider 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:08.080 of the various parts you would need to replace the buses. 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:12.720 But on the flip side of that coin, by the 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:15.320 time a lot of these cable companies cable car companies 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:17.880 started to go out of business, it was because they 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:22.320 had rising costs and not enough revenue. It wasn't that 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:24.560 they were being run out of business. It was just 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:27.840 that they were becoming obsolete. They were the A lot 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:31.400 of these were having problems with maintenance. You know, cars 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:33.560 were falling apart, and there were no longer companies that 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:37.480 actually made the parts that originally went into these these systems. 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:42.560 This sounds familiar to those of us who live in Atlanta. Um. 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:46.560 But so, it doesn't look like to me that the 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:49.760 oil companies really had to do that much to run cable. 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:52.160 If they did had any anything to do with it, 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:54.400 they didn't have to work hard. It was just a 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:57.160 matter of time before these companies went away already, just 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:00.480 based upon how much they were in the whole. So 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:05.160 but um but that's another one of those common energy things. 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:10.920 I've got another one for cold fusion. So fusion, we're 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:15.680 talking about a nuclear process where you fuse two nucleus 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:19.000 is together. Turns out that's hard to do. Yeah, I 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:22.080 mean it requires a lot, a whole lot of heat. Yeah, 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:24.120 a lot of energy, because what you're talking about is 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:27.120 you've got a nucleus, you know, it's it's protons, neutrons, 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:30.800 So neutrons carry no charge. Protons carry a positive charge. 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:35.520 If you take two positively charged anythings and put them 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:37.960 next to each other, they repel one another because like 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:42.960 repels like correct, so positive repels are positive. In order 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:46.400 to fuse two nucleus is together, you have to you 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:49.720 have to essentially put in enough energy to break down 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:53.920 that that effect, and that's a lot of energy. That's 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:56.880 the problem. With fusion. That's why fusion is is looked 0:16:56.880 --> 0:17:00.520 at as a difficult problem to solve if you want 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:02.280 to use it to get energy out, because you have 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:05.119 to put so much energy into it that it doesn't 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:08.439 make sense as far as a source of energy. Cold 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:13.159 fusion is a theory or a process by which you 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:17.920 would be able to fuse two atoms together without pouring 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:23.480 all this energy into it, and therefore it could theoretically 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:28.119 be a source of practically endless energy, right, and it 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:31.200 sounds great, Yeah, it would be. It would be. When 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:33.560 they say cold fusion, they don't mean cold like in 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:38.119 you know, the inside of the large headron collider, but 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:41.760 that's very, very cold, almost as cold as the deepest 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:45.080 depths of space. Now, this is this is room temperature 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:47.680 we're talking about, So cold is relative in these things. 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:50.639 Cold being that it's not taking millions of degrees of 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:53.199 celsius of heat in order to do this, right, And 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:57.159 you also wouldn't necessarily need fancy equipment. You could by 0:17:57.240 --> 0:17:59.200 the process of cold fusion. The idea is that you 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:03.640 would use existing lab equipment at working at room temperature 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:07.199 to do this, which is you know, really seriously, we 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:09.320 could do that, Yeah, a pair of scientists back in 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:13.560 the UH I think it was March is when they 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:15.879 made their announcing. Hey look at that, Martin Fleishman and 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:21.680 Stanley Ponds, and they announced that they had successfully achieved 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:25.160 cold fusion. They they found in their experiment that um, 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:29.160 the experiment generated some heat that they could not otherwise explain, 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:32.200 and there were also some other byproducts that they could 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:37.320 not otherwise explain unless some sort of fusion had occurred. Uh. 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:40.760 Here's the problem. Uh, No one's really been able to 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:45.000 replicate this experiment and get exactly the same results that 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:48.639 they got without having some other problem pop up where 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:52.920 it kind of explains away the result, Like a faulty 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:56.639 piece of equipment, for example. Uh, a faulty thermometer. It 0:18:56.680 --> 0:18:59.160 doesn't measure the temperature correctly, and therefore you think you've 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:03.640 got unexplained heat phenomena, and it turns out you don't. UM. So, 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:06.680 even though there are a lot of people out there, 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:09.440 a lot of different scientists still working on cold fusion, 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:13.159 the scientific community as a whole still regards cold fusion 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:17.040 as essentially an impossibility, or at least it's unproven. They 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:19.720 say it's an extraordinary claim, and so far there is 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:22.760 no extraordinary proof to back it up. As a matter 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:26.840 of fact, the Ponds and Fleishman's theories, you know, once 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:29.760 they made them public, basically they were pounced upon by 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:33.680 an army of their peers, all of whom basically uh 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.000 ridiculed might not be a strong word to use in 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:43.720 this case. Yeah, the criticism was not kind. Now, scientists 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:47.480 and other cold fusion enthusiasts who all subscribe to the 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:52.480 whole cold fusion theory or process, argue that the scientific 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:55.159 community is now suppressing anything that has to do with 0:19:55.200 --> 0:20:00.960 cold fusion um out of arrogance or uh refusal to 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:04.880 look at evidence, however you want to define it. But essentially, 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:08.240 what they're saying is that their voices are being shut 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:11.960 out by the scientific community at large, even though they 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:17.119 claim that they have uh at least some fairly convincing 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:21.920 evidence to prove that it works. Uh. The scientific tift community, 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:25.920 on the other hand, says, everything that's been presented so 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:31.000 far doesn't meet the burden of proof necessary to show 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:34.080 that ColdFusion actually does work. So you've got these two 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:37.280 sides going back and forth. Of course, the scientific community, 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:40.560 the supporters point out, they're they're the ones with the power. 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:45.000 They're the ones who choose what papers get published in 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:49.679 in pure reviewed journals and what information essentially gets out 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:52.840 to the media. Although trust me, the media is all 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:58.359 about publishing weird, wacky scientific explanations. If if the media 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:01.480 thought that they could get away with talking about some 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:04.240 sort of free energy source, I can pretty much guarantee 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:06.399 you it would be all over the place. Even if 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:08.960 there were, there was not a shred of proof. Yeah, 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:12.520 it's just a sad fact. We know. Anybody who's watched 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:15.479 the movie Back to the Future knows that in the 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:17.879 future we'll all have a Mr. Fusion machine on the 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:20.320 back of our cars into which we can throw our 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:23.919 junk and it will turn into a miraculous propulsion system, 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:27.160 when in fact, of course, it's just a coffee grinder. 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:30.320 What an amazing segue. Really, Yes, because now we can 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:34.640 talk about hoverboards. Yes, well they really exist, right according 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:36.399 to the people who watched Back to the Future, to 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:40.520 who have lots of wishful thinking, Yes according to reality. No, 0:21:41.520 --> 0:21:45.080 well you know, even uh even Bob Zemeckis was was 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:48.880 saying that they were real. Uh so, if you don't 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:52.440 know what we're talking about, First of all, get some culture. 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:55.560 People rent the Back to the Future trilogy. Actually, you know, 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:57.840 the second one is really the worst one of the trilogy. 0:21:57.960 --> 0:21:59.679 It's terrible. It depends on how you look at it. 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:04.280 But that's we can argue about whether three are really 0:22:04.320 --> 0:22:09.359 whoa whoa whoa. Three was awesome. It was a western. 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:14.040 It was a western, and therefore was awesome, just like 0:22:14.160 --> 0:22:18.520 Sundown was a Western vampire movie and therefore is awesome. Okay, 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:20.480 we need to stop talking about movies and get back 0:22:20.760 --> 0:22:23.880 to the future. I mean, well that's still so anyway, 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:26.359 if you remember you were back to the future too. 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:30.119 There's uh, there's there's a scene where Marty McFly grabs 0:22:30.160 --> 0:22:34.159 hold of a hoverboard, a skateboard like device that hovers 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:37.439 above the ground seemingly by magic, and it had the 0:22:37.480 --> 0:22:41.760 brand name Mattel on it, and he floats around and 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:43.840 the bad guys chase him and blah blah blah blah blah. 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:46.760 Basically they recreated the skateboard scene from the first movie, Yes, 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:50.880 except this time everyone's floating. And uh. After the movie 0:22:50.880 --> 0:22:52.879 came out, there were people who were saying, hey, you 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:56.159 know what, there really are hoverboards. They're real and you 0:22:56.200 --> 0:22:58.760 can buy one if it weren't for the fact that 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:02.160 parents were so freaked out by it that they had 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:06.399 banded together and demanded that the these devices not go 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:09.000 on sale because they would be too dangerous for children 0:23:09.040 --> 0:23:11.440 to have. That or the other story which went that 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:15.359 Mattel did some intensive testing and somebody died horribly in 0:23:15.400 --> 0:23:19.840 a nasty accident. Yeah, either way, Um, neither of those 0:23:19.840 --> 0:23:22.919 are true. Uh. The fact that Mattel was on the 0:23:23.040 --> 0:23:25.760 name on of that hoverboard had nothing to do with 0:23:25.800 --> 0:23:28.160 the fact that, you know, it didn't support the fact 0:23:28.280 --> 0:23:32.280