1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,160 Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 2 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:13,680 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:16,479 Speaker 1: I am your host, Jonathan Strickland, executive producer here at 4 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:18,919 Speaker 1: how Stuff Works, and I love all things tech. And 5 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:23,279 Speaker 1: today we have a very special guest co host. I 6 00:00:23,360 --> 00:00:26,320 Speaker 1: mentioned that he would be joining us back on episode 7 00:00:26,360 --> 00:00:29,600 Speaker 1: one thousand. This is episode one thousand one. Welcome Ben 8 00:00:29,920 --> 00:00:33,599 Speaker 1: Bowland to the show. Thanks for having me or Jonathan, 9 00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:36,199 Speaker 1: It's always a pleasure to hang out with you on 10 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:40,160 Speaker 1: Tech Stuff. And I'm starting to wonder, quick question, am 11 00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:44,720 Speaker 1: I the most frequently recurring out of yes, you are 12 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:47,680 Speaker 1: most frequently recurring guest. If I were to, I can't 13 00:00:47,720 --> 00:00:50,600 Speaker 1: count Lauren because she was an actual co host, true, 14 00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:53,320 Speaker 1: So I have to just count the times that she's 15 00:00:53,360 --> 00:00:58,000 Speaker 1: been co host, post regular, gig, post host, post host. 16 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:02,560 Speaker 1: So I believe, if I remember correctly, you were number one, 17 00:01:03,080 --> 00:01:06,160 Speaker 1: and right behind you was Joe McCormick. Oh yeah, actually 18 00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:08,720 Speaker 1: Scott Benjamin actually was right behind you. Then Joe McCormick 19 00:01:08,760 --> 00:01:11,240 Speaker 1: was after him. Oh man, Well, you know, I think 20 00:01:11,319 --> 00:01:14,440 Speaker 1: the world of both of those guys. I was interested 21 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:18,600 Speaker 1: because we have you know, as as I think a 22 00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:22,720 Speaker 1: lot of our fellow Tech Stuff listeners know we interact 23 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:27,160 Speaker 1: on numerous shows, and we always sometimes sometimes unplanned, sometimes 24 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:30,440 Speaker 1: I've planned, and we always have a We always have 25 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:33,600 Speaker 1: a heck of a time. And off air earlier, you 26 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:37,080 Speaker 1: had invited me to come hang out with you as 27 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:42,880 Speaker 1: we explore a topic that is of particular interest to me, 28 00:01:43,040 --> 00:01:45,760 Speaker 1: you know, because I host a show called Stuff they 29 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:48,320 Speaker 1: don't want you to know. Yeah, exactly. Over an episode 30 00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:51,080 Speaker 1: one thousand, I talked about the scientific method, I talked 31 00:01:51,080 --> 00:01:54,520 Speaker 1: about skeptical thinking, critical thinking, that sort of stuff, and 32 00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:56,840 Speaker 1: I wanted to do an episode that kind of highlights 33 00:01:56,840 --> 00:02:00,080 Speaker 1: why that is so important, not just in tech, but 34 00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:03,559 Speaker 1: you know, in general. But because this is tech stuff, 35 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:05,880 Speaker 1: we're gonna look at it from a tech perspective and 36 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:08,200 Speaker 1: stuff they don't want you to know. Obviously. You guys 37 00:02:08,240 --> 00:02:12,519 Speaker 1: cover a lot of topics where there are varying degrees 38 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:15,240 Speaker 1: of critical thinking that have been put toward them over 39 00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:20,240 Speaker 1: the years, from from getting down to debunking something all 40 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:23,800 Speaker 1: the way to uh, we don't have enough information to 41 00:02:23,880 --> 00:02:27,239 Speaker 1: draw conclusions, which is totally valid by the way, You know, 42 00:02:27,320 --> 00:02:29,960 Speaker 1: I don't I don't decry out if someone says, well, 43 00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:32,679 Speaker 1: I just don't know, because I just don't have the information. 44 00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:34,640 Speaker 1: I think that's a responsible thing all the way to 45 00:02:34,880 --> 00:02:39,440 Speaker 1: the credulous right, people buying into things without the sufficient 46 00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:44,840 Speaker 1: support necessary to justify that that perspective, And so we're 47 00:02:44,840 --> 00:02:48,320 Speaker 1: gonna talk today about some stories in tech that fall 48 00:02:48,320 --> 00:02:50,280 Speaker 1: into that category. Now, some of the stuff we're gonna 49 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:54,200 Speaker 1: cover our outright hoaxes or scams where the person who 50 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:57,520 Speaker 1: was perpetrating it did so knowingly like they were actually 51 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:01,079 Speaker 1: setting out to deceive, whether for entertainment purposes, as will 52 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:05,840 Speaker 1: be our first entry, or for the filthy, filthy lucre 53 00:03:06,320 --> 00:03:10,440 Speaker 1: as I like to say, scratch the scratch, yeah, or 54 00:03:10,880 --> 00:03:13,600 Speaker 1: whether it was something where someone thought they were onto 55 00:03:13,639 --> 00:03:17,080 Speaker 1: something turns out there was nothing there, but they spent 56 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:21,600 Speaker 1: a great deal of time pursuing it, sometimes even going 57 00:03:21,639 --> 00:03:25,639 Speaker 1: so far as to promote the pursuit of this thing 58 00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:30,520 Speaker 1: without first actually having ascertained that there really was something 59 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:33,120 Speaker 1: to talk about. And it may very well have been 60 00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:37,360 Speaker 1: a completely honest mistake, an embarrassing one, but an honest one. 61 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:40,360 Speaker 1: And the first one I wanted to talk about is 62 00:03:40,600 --> 00:03:44,160 Speaker 1: one of my favorite stories in all of tech. Now, Ben, 63 00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:46,640 Speaker 1: you may not know this about me, uh, When I 64 00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:50,040 Speaker 1: was a kid. To the shock of no one who 65 00:03:50,040 --> 00:03:55,000 Speaker 1: has ever met me, I had a fascination with stage magic. No, 66 00:03:55,360 --> 00:03:59,560 Speaker 1: not you. You know I'm also a juggler, so I do. 67 00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:01,760 Speaker 1: I I'm glad you got in front of that before 68 00:04:01,880 --> 00:04:06,480 Speaker 1: I said it, because it's It's true folks, at pretty 69 00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:09,560 Speaker 1: much any time, and the how stuff works off as 70 00:04:09,960 --> 00:04:13,640 Speaker 1: you can walk by Jonathan, and if you happen to 71 00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:15,960 Speaker 1: have like three things, you could say, hey, do you 72 00:04:15,960 --> 00:04:18,560 Speaker 1: want to juggle these? I've asked you this multiple types. 73 00:04:18,640 --> 00:04:22,640 Speaker 1: You've never said no. Well, I considered a personal challenge. 74 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:24,640 Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I actually just the other day it was 75 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:28,200 Speaker 1: juggling tangerines. Uh yeah, that just sort of happens. But 76 00:04:28,279 --> 00:04:30,880 Speaker 1: stage magic, stage magic. So I was fascinated by that 77 00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:33,720 Speaker 1: as a kid too. I love the theatricality of it. 78 00:04:33,839 --> 00:04:36,599 Speaker 1: I love the secretive nature of it. I mean, anytime 79 00:04:36,640 --> 00:04:38,880 Speaker 1: you have any kind of and you know this from 80 00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:41,279 Speaker 1: covering stuff they don't want you to know. Anytime you 81 00:04:41,320 --> 00:04:45,200 Speaker 1: have a group that has kind of an insular, quiet 82 00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:48,880 Speaker 1: society where they share information with each other but not 83 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:51,680 Speaker 1: to anyone on the outside, that level of mystique is 84 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:55,200 Speaker 1: incredibly attractive, right, Like you just sit there and think 85 00:04:55,279 --> 00:04:57,919 Speaker 1: I want to be in the room where it happens 86 00:04:57,920 --> 00:05:02,279 Speaker 1: if I recording lin Manuel Miranda. So this first example 87 00:05:02,360 --> 00:05:06,040 Speaker 1: is the Turk. This was ultimately, this was meant to 88 00:05:06,080 --> 00:05:10,240 Speaker 1: be a magic trick. It was not necessarily meant to 89 00:05:10,320 --> 00:05:13,359 Speaker 1: be just a scam, you know. It was meant to 90 00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:17,240 Speaker 1: be like an entertainment, a diversion. And it was the 91 00:05:17,279 --> 00:05:21,760 Speaker 1: brainchild of Wolfgang von Kimberlin, who is a civil servant 92 00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:26,359 Speaker 1: in eighteenth century Austria Hungary. He was in service to 93 00:05:26,440 --> 00:05:30,880 Speaker 1: the Empress Maria Teresa. So Maria Teresa, good old Mary. 94 00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:33,920 Speaker 1: She has a magician come by, you know, he pulls 95 00:05:33,920 --> 00:05:36,960 Speaker 1: some rabbits out of hats, saw some courtiers into whatever. 96 00:05:37,640 --> 00:05:41,839 Speaker 1: And she turns to Wolfgang. He says, oh, wolf wasn't 97 00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:45,680 Speaker 1: that just as the most entertaining magic you ever saw? 98 00:05:45,920 --> 00:05:48,120 Speaker 1: And wolf gangs like I could do better than that, 99 00:05:48,839 --> 00:05:54,320 Speaker 1: And she said really, yeah, yeah, and she said prove it. 100 00:05:54,400 --> 00:05:58,720 Speaker 1: You got six months. So he goes off and for 101 00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:02,240 Speaker 1: six months he's working on creating an illusion, and his 102 00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:06,479 Speaker 1: illusion is the Turk. Now, what it looks like is 103 00:06:06,600 --> 00:06:09,440 Speaker 1: a big cabinet. I'm talking like like something that you 104 00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:12,760 Speaker 1: would see like a sideboard. It's about waist high. It's 105 00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:15,159 Speaker 1: like a desk, yeah yeah, kind of like a desk, 106 00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:19,240 Speaker 1: and then behind it stands appears to stand anyway, a 107 00:06:19,360 --> 00:06:22,600 Speaker 1: human figure dressed as a turk. Dressed that way because 108 00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:27,039 Speaker 1: in the seventeen hundreds in Europe people thought that if 109 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:28,880 Speaker 1: you were going to be doing magic, then you should 110 00:06:28,920 --> 00:06:31,600 Speaker 1: be dressed in Turkish attire, because that's where magic happened, 111 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:36,600 Speaker 1: ye enlightened. So he's dressed as a turk. He even 112 00:06:36,640 --> 00:06:40,080 Speaker 1: had a long clay pipe in one hand upon first 113 00:06:40,120 --> 00:06:44,440 Speaker 1: being unveiled. And on the top of this cabinet or 114 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:49,159 Speaker 1: dusk is a chessboard. Von Kimplin brought this out to 115 00:06:49,560 --> 00:06:52,640 Speaker 1: show off to the court of Teresa. And he opens 116 00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:55,240 Speaker 1: up the cabinet on one side. It reveals all these 117 00:06:55,240 --> 00:06:58,760 Speaker 1: different clockwork gears. He opens up the other side. There's 118 00:06:58,760 --> 00:07:01,160 Speaker 1: a little cushion in there, but there's not really anything else. 119 00:07:01,200 --> 00:07:03,760 Speaker 1: He even holds a candle on the opposite side of 120 00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:06,200 Speaker 1: the cabinet to let light show through, to show that 121 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:08,640 Speaker 1: there's not a mirror or anything in the middle. Right, 122 00:07:08,839 --> 00:07:12,640 Speaker 1: closes it all up, puts the the cushion under one 123 00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:16,800 Speaker 1: arm of the turk, and then invites someone to come 124 00:07:16,880 --> 00:07:21,520 Speaker 1: up and play chess. So at that stage you get 125 00:07:22,120 --> 00:07:24,160 Speaker 1: one of the courtiers. He comes up there and plays 126 00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:25,800 Speaker 1: a game of chess, and within half an hour of 127 00:07:25,800 --> 00:07:29,800 Speaker 1: the turk moving on its own accord. This this automaton 128 00:07:29,960 --> 00:07:35,240 Speaker 1: clockwork man right, the the the semblance, the mechanical hand 129 00:07:35,360 --> 00:07:38,480 Speaker 1: is making the actual movement. Yes, it's actually moving. The 130 00:07:38,600 --> 00:07:43,160 Speaker 1: arm itself moves over, the hand grips the piece, moves 131 00:07:43,200 --> 00:07:48,680 Speaker 1: it to the appropriate square. And uh. The only instruction 132 00:07:49,120 --> 00:07:52,560 Speaker 1: Von Kimblin gave to the courtier was make sure whenever 133 00:07:52,600 --> 00:07:56,080 Speaker 1: you place the piece down, you do so squarely in 134 00:07:56,120 --> 00:08:00,760 Speaker 1: the center of the square you're moving to. Because I've 135 00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:04,640 Speaker 1: aligned this machine so that it will go precisely at 136 00:08:04,680 --> 00:08:07,240 Speaker 1: those those coordinates. You know, if you were offside, it 137 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:10,680 Speaker 1: would miss because it's it's totally clockwork, and it makes 138 00:08:10,680 --> 00:08:13,440 Speaker 1: sense from the audience perspective. At this point they go, Okay, 139 00:08:13,560 --> 00:08:15,760 Speaker 1: that's how machines work. Yeah, well, I mean you think 140 00:08:15,800 --> 00:08:17,840 Speaker 1: about You're like, well, if you these days, we would 141 00:08:17,880 --> 00:08:20,680 Speaker 1: call it programming, right, you would program the machine to 142 00:08:20,720 --> 00:08:23,480 Speaker 1: be able to move a piece, but you wouldn't waste 143 00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:26,800 Speaker 1: time programming the machine to pick up places where a 144 00:08:26,840 --> 00:08:34,120 Speaker 1: piece would not be right, So the Turk is victorious. 145 00:08:34,160 --> 00:08:36,240 Speaker 1: It wins, and it's able to beat most people within 146 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:41,640 Speaker 1: half an hour. It would go on to great acclaim 147 00:08:41,640 --> 00:08:46,400 Speaker 1: both in Europe and beyond. Uh von Kemplin would eventually, 148 00:08:46,559 --> 00:08:49,199 Speaker 1: you know, he would pass away, and it ended up 149 00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:55,000 Speaker 1: in the belongings of another entrepreneur who used it to 150 00:08:55,040 --> 00:08:58,840 Speaker 1: bring it to exhibitions and to kind of make a 151 00:08:58,840 --> 00:09:00,920 Speaker 1: almost like a like a pt Barna mess kind of 152 00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:04,360 Speaker 1: show up out of it. And Uh famous people played 153 00:09:04,400 --> 00:09:08,640 Speaker 1: against the Turk. Ben Franklin played a game, did not win. 154 00:09:09,520 --> 00:09:14,280 Speaker 1: Um Napoleon Bonaparte famously tested the turk. So the story 155 00:09:14,320 --> 00:09:19,480 Speaker 1: with Bonaparte is that he played a game and purposefully 156 00:09:19,520 --> 00:09:24,760 Speaker 1: made an illegal move and just testing to see what 157 00:09:24,880 --> 00:09:26,560 Speaker 1: is this turk going to do if I make an 158 00:09:26,559 --> 00:09:29,160 Speaker 1: illegal movie a couple of times, three times and on 159 00:09:29,320 --> 00:09:32,760 Speaker 1: the third time, the turk, which could also move its 160 00:09:32,800 --> 00:09:34,240 Speaker 1: eyes back and forth, it can move its head a 161 00:09:34,280 --> 00:09:37,199 Speaker 1: little bit, and then it can move one arm, uh 162 00:09:37,559 --> 00:09:40,560 Speaker 1: swept its arm across the board, knocking all the pieces off. 163 00:09:41,120 --> 00:09:42,839 Speaker 1: And then of course there's like there's that you can 164 00:09:42,880 --> 00:09:45,680 Speaker 1: just imagine, like if you're thinking of it in movie terms, 165 00:09:45,679 --> 00:09:48,240 Speaker 1: there's the hush that falls over the crowd, and everyone's 166 00:09:48,240 --> 00:09:50,520 Speaker 1: waiting to see what happens, and the Napoleon just starts laughing, 167 00:09:50,559 --> 00:09:52,760 Speaker 1: and everyone's like, oh ha ha, oh, it wasn't that 168 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:55,520 Speaker 1: funny when it was totally not funny a second earlier, 169 00:09:55,840 --> 00:09:58,199 Speaker 1: like no one was sure someone was gonna lose their head. 170 00:09:58,559 --> 00:10:02,160 Speaker 1: So other people who who witnessed it would include Edgar 171 00:10:02,200 --> 00:10:05,200 Speaker 1: Allan Poe, who was convinced that there was a human 172 00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:09,000 Speaker 1: controlling this clockwork mechanism, but he didn't He wasn't sure 173 00:10:09,040 --> 00:10:11,640 Speaker 1: exactly how. At first, he started to think about how 174 00:10:11,640 --> 00:10:15,160 Speaker 1: it might be possible, even drew up some uh some 175 00:10:15,600 --> 00:10:19,520 Speaker 1: pamphlets about it, and more or less we believe he 176 00:10:19,559 --> 00:10:21,880 Speaker 1: got it, you know, kind of right. He figured it out, 177 00:10:21,960 --> 00:10:24,600 Speaker 1: figured it out more or less it became the basis 178 00:10:24,720 --> 00:10:29,800 Speaker 1: of detective stories in a way, his approach. But ultimately, yes, 179 00:10:29,840 --> 00:10:32,040 Speaker 1: it was a trick. It was not clockwork. It was 180 00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:34,320 Speaker 1: not some sort of device that you would wind up 181 00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:39,959 Speaker 1: and then it could actually witness a move process of 182 00:10:40,040 --> 00:10:42,880 Speaker 1: information and then make a move on its own. It 183 00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:48,320 Speaker 1: was more or less a very complex puppet. And from 184 00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:51,280 Speaker 1: what we can gather based upon the drawings von Kimblin 185 00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:57,400 Speaker 1: left behind uh, the operator. It was probably hidden in 186 00:10:57,480 --> 00:11:00,440 Speaker 1: the bottom of the cabinet. It was like a false bottom. Okay, 187 00:11:00,559 --> 00:11:03,000 Speaker 1: so you have a very thick bottom of this cabinet 188 00:11:03,040 --> 00:11:04,920 Speaker 1: which was on castors, so you could roll it everywhere 189 00:11:04,960 --> 00:11:07,079 Speaker 1: and no one knew how heavy it was. And then 190 00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:10,480 Speaker 1: once you close the cabinet up, they could slide out 191 00:11:10,520 --> 00:11:15,240 Speaker 1: from underneath and then operate all the pieces from inside. 192 00:11:15,240 --> 00:11:18,400 Speaker 1: They use levers to move the arms. I'm not entirely 193 00:11:18,440 --> 00:11:20,960 Speaker 1: certain what the mechanism was so that they could actually 194 00:11:21,080 --> 00:11:24,200 Speaker 1: view where the pieces were on the board. Yeah, that's 195 00:11:24,240 --> 00:11:27,040 Speaker 1: the one of the most interesting parts. And it has 196 00:11:27,080 --> 00:11:30,000 Speaker 1: to be I don't know, in the in the reproduction 197 00:11:30,280 --> 00:11:35,400 Speaker 1: pictures we can see it feels like it would. The 198 00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:39,920 Speaker 1: simplest answer would be some sort of one way mirror 199 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:43,760 Speaker 1: kind of thing where they could see which pieces. The 200 00:11:43,760 --> 00:11:45,960 Speaker 1: only problem there is that, I mean, you have to 201 00:11:45,960 --> 00:11:48,080 Speaker 1: pay a really close attention and make sure you know 202 00:11:48,160 --> 00:11:51,040 Speaker 1: which pieces what right, and how can you differentiate you know, 203 00:11:51,080 --> 00:11:54,040 Speaker 1: if they all look like just a peg, yeah, a peg? 204 00:11:54,600 --> 00:11:56,560 Speaker 1: Would there be some sort I was thinking about this. 205 00:11:56,640 --> 00:11:58,600 Speaker 1: Would there be some sort of marking on the bottom 206 00:11:58,640 --> 00:12:01,280 Speaker 1: that they could see. I mean, like if you are 207 00:12:01,320 --> 00:12:05,480 Speaker 1: a true chess like genius. You could just keep track 208 00:12:05,520 --> 00:12:07,880 Speaker 1: of which piece was moved, and then you know what 209 00:12:07,920 --> 00:12:10,240 Speaker 1: piece it was because you know what the starting position was. 210 00:12:10,760 --> 00:12:15,400 Speaker 1: Although in more recent demonstrations, the way this has worked 211 00:12:15,640 --> 00:12:20,360 Speaker 1: is John Gone, who created a a replica we just mentioned. 212 00:12:20,720 --> 00:12:23,600 Speaker 1: He has a replica of this that's in Los Angeles, California. 213 00:12:24,200 --> 00:12:26,720 Speaker 1: He apparently has a workshop that is phenomenal to visit 214 00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:29,600 Speaker 1: and no, you can't go there, and I'm so upset. 215 00:12:30,040 --> 00:12:33,440 Speaker 1: I'm so upset because it looks amazing, but it looks 216 00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:35,520 Speaker 1: like it's an invitation only kind of thing. Like it's 217 00:12:35,559 --> 00:12:39,080 Speaker 1: it's sort of like a magician's museum, not a not 218 00:12:39,160 --> 00:12:43,600 Speaker 1: a museum of magic, but a museum for magicians kind 219 00:12:43,600 --> 00:12:46,680 Speaker 1: of in the crowd, I think, because he designs illusions 220 00:12:46,720 --> 00:12:50,160 Speaker 1: for some of the most famous magicians out there, like 221 00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:54,560 Speaker 1: Chris Angel and David Copperfield and folks like that. Freak. Yes, 222 00:12:55,360 --> 00:12:58,040 Speaker 1: John Gone. John Gone has designed some of the most 223 00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:04,480 Speaker 1: elaborate illusions. But he built this replica and in his 224 00:13:04,840 --> 00:13:07,679 Speaker 1: versions where he's shown it off, he's had a book 225 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:11,839 Speaker 1: of famous end games and a and he invites a 226 00:13:11,920 --> 00:13:14,160 Speaker 1: chess master to come up and play against the Turk 227 00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:17,600 Speaker 1: and the chess master reaches in, looks at the book, 228 00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:20,760 Speaker 1: picks out an end game, they set up the board 229 00:13:21,520 --> 00:13:24,719 Speaker 1: for that particular end game, and they play from there. Well, 230 00:13:24,760 --> 00:13:26,560 Speaker 1: if it's if it's an end game that's out of 231 00:13:26,559 --> 00:13:29,200 Speaker 1: a book, and I'm assuming you're not doing a forced 232 00:13:29,960 --> 00:13:33,440 Speaker 1: uh choice upon the chess master, they have open choice 233 00:13:33,840 --> 00:13:38,200 Speaker 1: because there are magic tricks where yeah, it's a card 234 00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:41,600 Speaker 1: force is a well known way. I mean, there's lots 235 00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:43,080 Speaker 1: of different ways of doing this, but it's a well 236 00:13:43,160 --> 00:13:45,880 Speaker 1: known way of making it look like someone's chosen a card, 237 00:13:45,920 --> 00:13:48,240 Speaker 1: but in fact they've picked the card you've already chosen 238 00:13:48,280 --> 00:13:51,360 Speaker 1: for them. Makes makes finding a card a lot easier 239 00:13:51,400 --> 00:13:53,040 Speaker 1: when you already know what it's going to be before 240 00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:55,800 Speaker 1: the trick even starts. So I don't know if it 241 00:13:55,840 --> 00:13:57,960 Speaker 1: was like that or not, but if presuming it wasn't, 242 00:13:58,520 --> 00:14:01,200 Speaker 1: then there must be some way to to see the 243 00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:07,000 Speaker 1: board beyond just uh knowing which knowing which squares are occupied, 244 00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:09,520 Speaker 1: because if it's an end game, that means not all 245 00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:12,800 Speaker 1: the pieces are already are there, right, only certain pieces 246 00:14:12,800 --> 00:14:14,240 Speaker 1: are going to be there, and they're not at their 247 00:14:14,280 --> 00:14:16,560 Speaker 1: starting position exactly, So then you would have to have 248 00:14:16,640 --> 00:14:18,560 Speaker 1: some way of being able to see what the board was. 249 00:14:18,640 --> 00:14:20,480 Speaker 1: Now you might have some sort of periscope kind of 250 00:14:20,520 --> 00:14:23,840 Speaker 1: thing built into the figure so that you're using mirrors 251 00:14:23,880 --> 00:14:26,240 Speaker 1: to get a look that way. But no matter what, 252 00:14:26,840 --> 00:14:29,080 Speaker 1: it must have also taken quite a bit of dexterity 253 00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:31,560 Speaker 1: to move the arm, like I just think of the 254 00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:35,880 Speaker 1: claw games from like Amusements, where it's something along those 255 00:14:35,880 --> 00:14:38,960 Speaker 1: lines of trying to move the arm exactly because based 256 00:14:39,040 --> 00:14:43,520 Speaker 1: upon the images, the the inner workings of the Turk 257 00:14:43,600 --> 00:14:48,200 Speaker 1: were in fact, uh like cat gut ropes and and 258 00:14:48,400 --> 00:14:50,760 Speaker 1: pulley systems and things. It wasn't It wasn't like it 259 00:14:50,840 --> 00:14:54,720 Speaker 1: was a wooden suit that you could somehow slip into. 260 00:14:55,280 --> 00:14:57,720 Speaker 1: And the quarters are cramped in that cabinet even if 261 00:14:57,720 --> 00:15:00,320 Speaker 1: they get out of the false bottom. In makes me 262 00:15:00,360 --> 00:15:04,040 Speaker 1: think that it makes me imagine that there must have 263 00:15:04,040 --> 00:15:07,320 Speaker 1: been some down on his or her luck chess master 264 00:15:07,640 --> 00:15:13,800 Speaker 1: who accepted this strange occupation. And and the other thing 265 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:19,560 Speaker 1: that's entirely fascinatings that even today, to your point, we 266 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:25,280 Speaker 1: don't know everything about the Turk. We just know that 267 00:15:25,760 --> 00:15:28,160 Speaker 1: we know that there's a hoax, right, And I wanted 268 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:31,720 Speaker 1: to ask you were those gears entirely ornamental. I'm pretty 269 00:15:31,720 --> 00:15:33,880 Speaker 1: sure most of them were. Actually, I think most of 270 00:15:33,920 --> 00:15:38,040 Speaker 1: the gears were meant to give it this look of clockwork. Right, 271 00:15:38,160 --> 00:15:40,680 Speaker 1: that's what happened. It's it's yeah, it's all the it's 272 00:15:40,760 --> 00:15:43,360 Speaker 1: it's scientific theater is what it is. You know, we 273 00:15:43,400 --> 00:15:47,080 Speaker 1: think of like like security theater. You know, the idea 274 00:15:47,200 --> 00:15:49,760 Speaker 1: that you put on the appearance of security and that 275 00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:53,680 Speaker 1: will be enough to mollify people into thinking they are 276 00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:56,920 Speaker 1: in a secure situation. Same sort of thing with with us. 277 00:15:57,040 --> 00:16:01,280 Speaker 1: You have the trappings of authority, and that convinces people, 278 00:16:01,320 --> 00:16:03,440 Speaker 1: oh yeah, no, this is on the up and up 279 00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:06,640 Speaker 1: and again that is a way of disarming people from 280 00:16:06,680 --> 00:16:11,280 Speaker 1: being critical thinkers. Right. Um. The original Turk, by the way, 281 00:16:11,360 --> 00:16:13,520 Speaker 1: was destroyed in the fire in the eighteen hundreds, which 282 00:16:13,560 --> 00:16:15,880 Speaker 1: is why we have to you know, there's a replica 283 00:16:16,200 --> 00:16:19,200 Speaker 1: and it's based off of the what little what few 284 00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:25,320 Speaker 1: designs managed to survive. But uh, it's it's sort of 285 00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:28,920 Speaker 1: a best guess that that's how the original worked. Um. 286 00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:32,960 Speaker 1: John Gon did say that von Kemblin was incredibly prescient 287 00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:38,680 Speaker 1: and created elements of illusion that a lot of historians 288 00:16:38,720 --> 00:16:42,120 Speaker 1: didn't think were really invented until a century after that. 289 00:16:42,520 --> 00:16:44,800 Speaker 1: So that's pretty pretty interesting that the guy. The guy 290 00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:49,160 Speaker 1: really was a pretty clever inventor. And um, yeah, and 291 00:16:49,240 --> 00:16:54,160 Speaker 1: again I don't necessarily believe on Kemberlin himself wanted to 292 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:58,520 Speaker 1: put the turk forward as a legitimate this is a 293 00:16:58,640 --> 00:17:02,240 Speaker 1: clockwork chest lair. It was more like this is more 294 00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:05,840 Speaker 1: in the style of a magic trick, where you don't 295 00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:09,960 Speaker 1: acknowledge that it's a trick because that takes the theatricality 296 00:17:09,960 --> 00:17:12,240 Speaker 1: out of it. But you're also not trying to go 297 00:17:12,320 --> 00:17:16,760 Speaker 1: around claiming that you can build clockwork people. Right this 298 00:17:16,760 --> 00:17:19,480 Speaker 1: this feels like it was much more of a a 299 00:17:19,680 --> 00:17:22,800 Speaker 1: coup in the court for him, you know, just it's 300 00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:28,720 Speaker 1: an attempt to show off his intelligence and acumen. And 301 00:17:28,760 --> 00:17:35,440 Speaker 1: nobody is genuinely convinced that there is some sentient thing 302 00:17:35,600 --> 00:17:38,840 Speaker 1: made out of clockwork gears that is better at chess 303 00:17:38,840 --> 00:17:41,679 Speaker 1: than you meet bag. I mean, it's it's a possibility. 304 00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:44,080 Speaker 1: Some of them were only because clockwork was such a 305 00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:48,520 Speaker 1: relatively new type of technology in I didn't think about that. 306 00:17:48,600 --> 00:17:50,639 Speaker 1: Maybe you're right, you know, you're also talking about the 307 00:17:50,920 --> 00:17:55,560 Speaker 1: very just before the the Industrial Revolution, right, Uh, it's 308 00:17:55,600 --> 00:18:01,120 Speaker 1: post Renaissance, it's no enlightenment. You're talking about people wondering 309 00:18:01,240 --> 00:18:06,199 Speaker 1: where where the limits are to ingenuity. And when you 310 00:18:06,280 --> 00:18:12,200 Speaker 1: have interesting inventions being proposed and coming out so rapidly 311 00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:16,360 Speaker 1: in such a such a compact timeline, then you could 312 00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:19,520 Speaker 1: kind of see where someone could be a little credulous 313 00:18:19,520 --> 00:18:23,159 Speaker 1: and think maybe there, maybe someone did figure out away. Like, 314 00:18:23,280 --> 00:18:26,320 Speaker 1: after all, chess is based off math, right, so if 315 00:18:26,359 --> 00:18:28,959 Speaker 1: it's just if it's just processing math and someone Now 316 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:30,840 Speaker 1: keep in mind, this is a hundred years before the 317 00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:33,919 Speaker 1: difference engine or the analytical engine, it's before Babbage. But 318 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:38,199 Speaker 1: still you can kind of imagine that sort of possible 319 00:18:38,280 --> 00:18:41,679 Speaker 1: theory going in someone's head, didn't he He did, And 320 00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:45,359 Speaker 1: in fact, uh, he also was pretty darn sure the 321 00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:50,360 Speaker 1: turk was being controlled by a person. However, he thought, huh, 322 00:18:50,560 --> 00:18:56,720 Speaker 1: a machine that can process information. That sounds interesting. And 323 00:18:56,720 --> 00:19:00,320 Speaker 1: of course Babbage would later go on to first pose 324 00:19:00,400 --> 00:19:04,520 Speaker 1: the difference Engine, which would eventually be abandoned, and then 325 00:19:04,560 --> 00:19:09,000 Speaker 1: he would propose an even more glorious machine, the analytic Engine, 326 00:19:09,640 --> 00:19:12,800 Speaker 1: that would would have been the first mechanical computer if 327 00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:15,600 Speaker 1: it had ever been completed during his lifetime. And of 328 00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:19,560 Speaker 1: course I can't mention Babbage without also mentioning Ada Lovelace, 329 00:19:19,640 --> 00:19:23,639 Speaker 1: Lord Byron's daughter. Ada Lovelace, was a mathematician who worked 330 00:19:23,640 --> 00:19:27,520 Speaker 1: with Babbage, and she even proposed using his machine to 331 00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:33,639 Speaker 1: uh to use mathematics to express different ideas, not just 332 00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:38,359 Speaker 1: mathematical ideas, but using math to express things like poetry 333 00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:42,560 Speaker 1: and music and imagery. She was talking about coding in 334 00:19:42,560 --> 00:19:48,920 Speaker 1: a time well before electro mechanical computers were created, let 335 00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:54,639 Speaker 1: alone electronic computers. So phenomenal people, and you could argue 336 00:19:54,680 --> 00:19:59,120 Speaker 1: that at least some of their ingenuity was sparked by 337 00:19:59,200 --> 00:20:05,639 Speaker 1: this fake clock. We're a chess player, and lest we forget, 338 00:20:05,680 --> 00:20:07,920 Speaker 1: I feel like we need to emphasize this one more 339 00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:10,280 Speaker 1: time before we move on. One of the great things 340 00:20:10,320 --> 00:20:13,280 Speaker 1: about the Turk is it was not made for malevolent 341 00:20:13,520 --> 00:20:16,479 Speaker 1: purposes it was It was not made It was not 342 00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:21,080 Speaker 1: made to to steal money. It was not made as 343 00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:23,880 Speaker 1: a cash grab type thing, unlike some of the other 344 00:20:23,920 --> 00:20:26,280 Speaker 1: ones we're gonna be talking about. One last thing I 345 00:20:26,280 --> 00:20:29,520 Speaker 1: will mention before we transition to one that definitely was 346 00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:33,280 Speaker 1: more of a cash grab. Uh So, the Turk also 347 00:20:33,400 --> 00:20:38,360 Speaker 1: lends its name to something that Amazon has. Amazon Amazon 348 00:20:38,440 --> 00:20:40,359 Speaker 1: has the turk. They have the mechanical turk, which is 349 00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:44,760 Speaker 1: uh Amazon's the turk is where they use human beings 350 00:20:45,080 --> 00:20:50,919 Speaker 1: to process request certain information because it just from a 351 00:20:50,960 --> 00:20:54,439 Speaker 1: financial side, made more sense to employ human beings to 352 00:20:54,560 --> 00:20:58,400 Speaker 1: do the work than to create computer systems that could 353 00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:01,239 Speaker 1: do the work and be cause it's humans who are 354 00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:04,119 Speaker 1: doing the work, but it's through an interface that is 355 00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:09,360 Speaker 1: more commonly associated with things like search engines. They call it, 356 00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:13,760 Speaker 1: they refer to the turk because it's actually a human 357 00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:17,920 Speaker 1: that's that's powering the thing, which I thought was pretty clever. Now, 358 00:21:18,119 --> 00:21:21,000 Speaker 1: the first one we're gonna talk about where someone's actually 359 00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:27,360 Speaker 1: trying to scam folks would be Charles Redheffer and his 360 00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:33,480 Speaker 1: proposed perpetual motion machine. Now, perpetual motion is let's let's 361 00:21:33,520 --> 00:21:35,120 Speaker 1: let's just go ahead and shoot this route of the gate. 362 00:21:35,119 --> 00:21:38,480 Speaker 1: Perpetual motion is, as far as we can tell, impossible 363 00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:41,720 Speaker 1: based upon our our knowledge of the laws of thermodynamics. 364 00:21:42,320 --> 00:21:47,280 Speaker 1: So with the laws of thermodynamics, that that explains things like, uh, 365 00:21:47,520 --> 00:21:50,560 Speaker 1: energy within a system. Right, if you have a system, 366 00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:53,520 Speaker 1: a closed system, so there's nothing coming into it, there's 367 00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:56,080 Speaker 1: nothing going out of it, no energy is going to 368 00:21:56,080 --> 00:21:59,600 Speaker 1: be created or destroyed. It cannot You can't just create 369 00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:01,920 Speaker 1: or dist energy. You can convert from one kind of 370 00:22:02,040 --> 00:22:05,439 Speaker 1: energy to another. You can convert matter into energy and 371 00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:10,159 Speaker 1: vice versa if you have you know, like nuclear bombs 372 00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:13,080 Speaker 1: and stuff. But in a system, you can't create a 373 00:22:13,160 --> 00:22:16,760 Speaker 1: destroy energy. If you set a system into motion, Let's 374 00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:18,760 Speaker 1: say let's just a wheel. Let's say we've got a 375 00:22:18,760 --> 00:22:23,560 Speaker 1: wheel on an axle. We start spinning that wheel. That 376 00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:26,919 Speaker 1: wheel is eventually gonna stop spinning. The reason being is 377 00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:32,520 Speaker 1: that without additional energy put into that wheel, friction is 378 00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:36,280 Speaker 1: going to result in more energy being lost to the system. 379 00:22:36,320 --> 00:22:39,760 Speaker 1: Then is needed to keep the wheel spinning. Right, because 380 00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:42,600 Speaker 1: you're gonna have pieces rubbing against each other, that's friction. 381 00:22:43,119 --> 00:22:45,840 Speaker 1: You end up losing energy in the form of heat. Again, 382 00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:49,280 Speaker 1: energy is not destroyed, it's just converted from kinetic energy 383 00:22:49,359 --> 00:22:53,040 Speaker 1: into heat energy. First and second law the dynamics. Yes, 384 00:22:53,119 --> 00:22:55,960 Speaker 1: so the heat dissipates. That means you have less energy 385 00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:58,119 Speaker 1: in your system than when you started because your system 386 00:22:58,200 --> 00:23:01,360 Speaker 1: is not truly closed. It's open, it's open to everything, right, 387 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:05,000 Speaker 1: So eventually the wheel will slow down and stop because 388 00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:12,879 Speaker 1: of this drain on the system. So Charles Redheffer says, hey, 389 00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:16,160 Speaker 1: I made one. I made a perpetual motion machine that 390 00:23:16,240 --> 00:23:19,000 Speaker 1: if you if you start this sucker, it will just 391 00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:23,640 Speaker 1: keep on going forever and ever and ever. And that 392 00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:27,560 Speaker 1: flies in the face of the laws of thermodynamics. Now, if, 393 00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:31,440 Speaker 1: by the way, you can lose energy, not just through friction, 394 00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:35,280 Speaker 1: you can lose energy through sound too. Sound is energy, right, 395 00:23:35,359 --> 00:23:38,440 Speaker 1: Sound is vibration. So if you have anything vibrating against 396 00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:42,040 Speaker 1: anything else, that's energy that you're losing from your your system. 397 00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:45,119 Speaker 1: If you have your your system hooked up to something 398 00:23:45,119 --> 00:23:48,320 Speaker 1: like a battery or a power outlet, congratulations, that's not 399 00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:51,800 Speaker 1: a perpetual motion machine because it's continuously drawing energy from 400 00:23:51,800 --> 00:23:56,720 Speaker 1: a source. Right, energy is it is? It's it's more 401 00:23:56,800 --> 00:23:59,240 Speaker 1: finite with a battery than with a power outlet, but 402 00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:02,920 Speaker 1: ultimately it's finite with both. I mean even so, this 403 00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:05,439 Speaker 1: is the part of the conversation where some of us 404 00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:08,560 Speaker 1: in the audience might say, well, what about something that's 405 00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:13,560 Speaker 1: solar powered. Technically, also speaking on a grand scale, solar 406 00:24:13,600 --> 00:24:17,280 Speaker 1: power is also drawing from a finite energy, So it's 407 00:24:17,359 --> 00:24:19,920 Speaker 1: not even you don't even have to go technically. There's 408 00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:23,560 Speaker 1: a thing called nighttime. You're not drawing solar energy then 409 00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:27,200 Speaker 1: so yeah, but that's but in those cases it can't 410 00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:30,280 Speaker 1: be perpetual motion because it's actually drawing energy from an 411 00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:32,880 Speaker 1: outside source, an open system. At that point, unless you're 412 00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:37,400 Speaker 1: arguing my system also includes the sun. That's my perpetual 413 00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:39,960 Speaker 1: motion machine. I've patented it. No one else can use 414 00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:42,520 Speaker 1: it now. Also, would you like to buy a bridge 415 00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:47,240 Speaker 1: it's on the sun? So red Heffer, he claims he's 416 00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:50,320 Speaker 1: made a perpetual motion machine, and he puts it on 417 00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:53,920 Speaker 1: display in Philadelphia, and he starts trying to get people 418 00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:57,040 Speaker 1: to invest money, saying, hey, you know, I think we 419 00:24:57,040 --> 00:24:59,280 Speaker 1: can use this for lots of different purposes. He would 420 00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:02,399 Speaker 1: bring people up to his workshop in Philadelphia, show it 421 00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:05,000 Speaker 1: off and say like, hey, don't you want to give 422 00:25:05,040 --> 00:25:07,560 Speaker 1: me some money so that I can continue my work 423 00:25:07,600 --> 00:25:11,200 Speaker 1: and we can transform the world. Now, again, this is 424 00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:14,760 Speaker 1: in the nineteenth century, this is again Industrial Revolution. A 425 00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:18,040 Speaker 1: lot of people are wondering what might be possible. So 426 00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:20,480 Speaker 1: he was able to get quite a few people booled 427 00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:23,720 Speaker 1: on here. But there were some skeptics who were saying, 428 00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:27,159 Speaker 1: you know, this doesn't sound right, this sounds hinky. Also 429 00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:31,160 Speaker 1: he's charging admission to yes, like like, look at it 430 00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:34,320 Speaker 1: from like through a barred window or something, although he 431 00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:37,280 Speaker 1: wouldn't charge the ladies, well, or he wouldn't charge them 432 00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:41,760 Speaker 1: as much, classic Red Heifer, right, yeah, oh that's classic Redeffor. 433 00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:43,719 Speaker 1: So he would charge people to come up and take 434 00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:47,480 Speaker 1: a look at And eventually, as he's showing this off, 435 00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:49,639 Speaker 1: people are starting to ask some pretty tricky questions and 436 00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:51,960 Speaker 1: he thinks, you know what, I think I have a 437 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:54,919 Speaker 1: good thing going, but it's not. It's it's limited, so 438 00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:57,040 Speaker 1: I better get out with it. Getting is good and 439 00:25:57,040 --> 00:26:01,080 Speaker 1: it relocates to New York City. This reminds me of 440 00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:04,120 Speaker 1: the mono rail episode of The Simpsons. It's very much 441 00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:06,920 Speaker 1: like the monorail episode. I hear those things are awful loud. 442 00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:10,159 Speaker 1: It flips softly as a cloud. So so yeah, so 443 00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:13,200 Speaker 1: he goes to he goes to New York City and 444 00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:21,439 Speaker 1: he continues this perpetual motion machine. It's it's it's a 445 00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:23,440 Speaker 1: larger version of the one that he showed off in 446 00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:26,760 Speaker 1: Philadelphia and the one in Philadelphia. Apparently the perpetual motion 447 00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:30,200 Speaker 1: machine was connected to a smaller device, and he claimed 448 00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:33,800 Speaker 1: the perpetual motion machine was powering the smaller device that 449 00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:37,240 Speaker 1: was essentially not just perpetual motion, but free energy like 450 00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:39,760 Speaker 1: it was it was actually generating enough energy to power 451 00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:45,000 Speaker 1: a separate device. But a journalist looking at said, hang on, 452 00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:47,679 Speaker 1: that device looks like it actually from the wear and 453 00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:50,160 Speaker 1: tear I can view from where I'm at, it looks 454 00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:52,600 Speaker 1: like that little device is actually providing the energy to 455 00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:57,320 Speaker 1: move the big perpetual motion machine. It's it's the relationship 456 00:26:57,440 --> 00:27:00,560 Speaker 1: is the opposite of what we've been told. And at 457 00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:03,400 Speaker 1: something is going pouring energy into the small thing, which 458 00:27:03,400 --> 00:27:05,119 Speaker 1: is then making the big thing turn. And that was 459 00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:07,240 Speaker 1: too close to the truth. So Red Haffer moved up 460 00:27:07,280 --> 00:27:09,119 Speaker 1: to New York City. But then he decided to go bigger. 461 00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:13,280 Speaker 1: He decided not to use the same methodology. And he 462 00:27:13,359 --> 00:27:15,520 Speaker 1: thought he was in pretty good shape. He was ready to, 463 00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:20,240 Speaker 1: uh to defy people, to say, hey, you're you're you've 464 00:27:20,280 --> 00:27:23,720 Speaker 1: got Shenanigans going on. And then Robert Fulton paid him 465 00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:26,119 Speaker 1: a visit. You're getting to my favorite part of this story. 466 00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:32,920 Speaker 1: But so Robert Fulton, um engineer, inventor, very smart man. 467 00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:36,400 Speaker 1: He says, this sounds like a lot of hogwash to me. 468 00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:39,199 Speaker 1: So he goes to see what the heck is up 469 00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:44,080 Speaker 1: and he sees that, uh, he sees that this device 470 00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:47,280 Speaker 1: is moving, and he suspects that the machinery to make 471 00:27:47,320 --> 00:27:51,359 Speaker 1: it move would perhaps be located outside of the room 472 00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:54,000 Speaker 1: they are in, that it, in fact, was a very 473 00:27:54,080 --> 00:27:57,000 Speaker 1: complicated system. So he starts looking around and he discovers 474 00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:01,520 Speaker 1: that there is a chord of cat gut that connects 475 00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:05,720 Speaker 1: the device running up through a beam in the wall upstairs. 476 00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:08,960 Speaker 1: And so then he decides, well, let's go see what's upstairs, 477 00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:12,200 Speaker 1: and he goes on upstairs, and there he finds, according 478 00:28:12,280 --> 00:28:16,040 Speaker 1: to the story, a cranky old man. And I mean 479 00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:19,200 Speaker 1: that literally because he's turning a crank with one hand, 480 00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:23,040 Speaker 1: well just casually eating some bread with his other hand. Yeah, 481 00:28:23,040 --> 00:28:25,439 Speaker 1: because he's there all day. Yeah, he can't you know, 482 00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:27,160 Speaker 1: he doesn't get a lunch break. He's got to keep 483 00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:30,359 Speaker 1: turning that crank. So that literally, this perpetual motion machine 484 00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:33,879 Speaker 1: was in fact just a hand cranked device being powered 485 00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:37,280 Speaker 1: by a grouchy old guy in the attic. And uh 486 00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:42,640 Speaker 1: so Red Hefford eventually was he had to close up there, 487 00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:45,360 Speaker 1: but he wasn't done. In eighteen twenty, he was able 488 00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:49,320 Speaker 1: to secure a patent for a perpetual motion machine. Because 489 00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:53,960 Speaker 1: news flash, folks, uh there have been numerous occasions where 490 00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:58,800 Speaker 1: people have submitted patent applications for for perpetual motion machines 491 00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:01,640 Speaker 1: or free energy or free energy. That's another good example. 492 00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:08,040 Speaker 1: And the patent office, bless their hearts, Sometimes they get 493 00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:12,000 Speaker 1: claims that are apparently beyond there there ken they are 494 00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:16,320 Speaker 1: unable to grasp the nature of it, and so they 495 00:29:16,480 --> 00:29:20,480 Speaker 1: end up granting a patent for something that should not 496 00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:23,560 Speaker 1: have been patented because it was impossible. And that seems 497 00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:26,480 Speaker 1: to be the case here. However, we don't really know 498 00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:30,720 Speaker 1: because that guess what it just like the turk that 499 00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:33,040 Speaker 1: patent burned up in a fire. There was a big 500 00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:35,760 Speaker 1: fire in the U. S. Patent Office in eighteen thirty six, 501 00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:37,960 Speaker 1: and all the patents that had been filed there were 502 00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:40,880 Speaker 1: essentially lost, including this one, which was in the like 503 00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:43,479 Speaker 1: it was still somewhere like in patent three thousand, like 504 00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:46,560 Speaker 1: that's how early it was in the patent system. Like 505 00:29:46,600 --> 00:29:51,400 Speaker 1: we're in the millions now. So and also WHOA, we 506 00:29:51,440 --> 00:29:54,479 Speaker 1: have to ask ourselves what happened what happened to red Heifer. 507 00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:57,160 Speaker 1: I don't know, he kind of disappeared on the face 508 00:29:57,200 --> 00:29:59,640 Speaker 1: of the earth. I really did search to to see 509 00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:01,960 Speaker 1: if there were any record I could find. You know 510 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:04,560 Speaker 1: what I would like to speculate, Jonathan, What's I'd like 511 00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:09,440 Speaker 1: to speculate that he changed his name. That's the most 512 00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:12,280 Speaker 1: realistic explanation. I mean, you know, if we're talking, this 513 00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:17,120 Speaker 1: is definitely before a surveillance state, right, So maybe he 514 00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:22,400 Speaker 1: changed his name to UH. I don't know rourals Chad 515 00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:26,360 Speaker 1: Hoffer and strike out for California sounds good to me. 516 00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:29,000 Speaker 1: You know what also sounds good to me, Ben taking 517 00:30:29,040 --> 00:30:39,479 Speaker 1: a taking a quick break to thank our sponsor. Alright, 518 00:30:39,520 --> 00:30:43,120 Speaker 1: we're back, and then we have another similar story to 519 00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:44,560 Speaker 1: the one we just told. We just talked about a 520 00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:49,600 Speaker 1: perpetual motion machine. Let's talk about UH, a machine that 521 00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:53,680 Speaker 1: to this day, there are still people who believe that 522 00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:57,280 Speaker 1: this device in fact worked the way the inventor claimed 523 00:30:57,320 --> 00:31:01,840 Speaker 1: it worked, even though skeptical thinking would lead us to 524 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:07,400 Speaker 1: believe that such claims were probably nonsense. I also want 525 00:31:07,440 --> 00:31:10,320 Speaker 1: to advance one thing, just one note. Sure that's occurred 526 00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:16,320 Speaker 1: to me. This example and our previous two cases all 527 00:31:16,360 --> 00:31:23,360 Speaker 1: have this running thread of Pennsylvania. Have you noticed I well, 528 00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:26,400 Speaker 1: because the turk burned down in Philadelphia? Yes, right, yeah? 529 00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:31,440 Speaker 1: And then Red Hefford did his his demonstrations in Philadelphia. Yeah, 530 00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:36,920 Speaker 1: Pennsylvania is a wacky place. People who are familiar with 531 00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:39,240 Speaker 1: a character called The Quister might know that I went 532 00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:42,080 Speaker 1: through a whole bunch of these and dismissed them as 533 00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:46,520 Speaker 1: possible Quister segments for a Philadelphia planned segment um because 534 00:31:46,520 --> 00:31:47,960 Speaker 1: there's so much weird stuff. But then I got to 535 00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:50,479 Speaker 1: use it anyway because you're on this show, so yeah, 536 00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:52,440 Speaker 1: this is okay. Is this where some of this is 537 00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:55,160 Speaker 1: coming from? Yeah? Yeah, absolutely. When I was when I 538 00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:58,600 Speaker 1: was researching for a Philadelphia segment for for The Quister, 539 00:31:58,680 --> 00:32:00,240 Speaker 1: and I was like, oh no, wait, that's at doesn't 540 00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:01,920 Speaker 1: go really well, because I had already planned also on 541 00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:05,080 Speaker 1: doing one about hoaxes and flemploy this this example is 542 00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:10,240 Speaker 1: particularly fascinating to me because I was pretty unfamiliar with it. Yes, 543 00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:13,720 Speaker 1: this is the Keiley Motor Company and the founder was 544 00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:17,080 Speaker 1: John Ernst Worrel Keeley, who was born in eighteen thirty 545 00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:21,000 Speaker 1: seven in Pennsylvania. And uh. Something that should immediately set 546 00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:24,560 Speaker 1: up warning flags in anyone's mind is when you find 547 00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:27,600 Speaker 1: out that a job someone has held in their previous 548 00:32:27,600 --> 00:32:33,480 Speaker 1: experience included Carnival Barker, your your Carney prejudice is tearing 549 00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:37,080 Speaker 1: this company apart. I listen, I'm with it, in for it. 550 00:32:37,320 --> 00:32:41,920 Speaker 1: I I know, I know my, I know myke My 551 00:32:42,080 --> 00:32:46,640 Speaker 1: Carney lank lingo. Um. Yeah. So carnivals are really all 552 00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:50,520 Speaker 1: about this idea of creating an illusion and an experience, 553 00:32:50,840 --> 00:32:53,760 Speaker 1: and there's always something there's a different reality that's underneath 554 00:32:53,760 --> 00:32:57,560 Speaker 1: that experience, right, But that's all about the the the 555 00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:02,120 Speaker 1: allure of the carnival. There's something not just magical about it, 556 00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:05,600 Speaker 1: but kind of almost like dangerous about it. Right. Well, 557 00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:09,200 Speaker 1: I would argue that kind of experience if you are, 558 00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:10,840 Speaker 1: in fact someone who has worked in one of those 559 00:33:10,840 --> 00:33:14,680 Speaker 1: sort of carnivals. But be it's ideal for setting you 560 00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:17,800 Speaker 1: up to do things like run a run a scam 561 00:33:17,960 --> 00:33:20,400 Speaker 1: because you start to learn what people are looking for. 562 00:33:20,520 --> 00:33:22,680 Speaker 1: All you have to do is play to the stuff 563 00:33:22,720 --> 00:33:25,880 Speaker 1: that people want to believe in, because if they want 564 00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:28,680 Speaker 1: to believe in it, then you don't have to try 565 00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:33,000 Speaker 1: as hard to to keep the inner workings of what 566 00:33:33,040 --> 00:33:36,440 Speaker 1: you're doing secret. Right, they are already they're ready to 567 00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:40,120 Speaker 1: buy in. They want to go on that ride. It's 568 00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:42,480 Speaker 1: like people who go to a magic show. Most people 569 00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:44,600 Speaker 1: who go to a magic show apart from you know, 570 00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:48,040 Speaker 1: occasional jerks. They go there because they want to be entertained, 571 00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:51,400 Speaker 1: they want to be fooled, they want to have the 572 00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:54,800 Speaker 1: illusion that's something that is impossible actually happened while they 573 00:33:54,800 --> 00:33:58,640 Speaker 1: were there, and they saw it, and it's amazing. That's 574 00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:00,920 Speaker 1: what scam artists count on too. They said, well, if 575 00:34:00,960 --> 00:34:03,240 Speaker 1: you know what people want to hear and you tell 576 00:34:03,280 --> 00:34:05,360 Speaker 1: them that, you can get them to pay you a 577 00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:08,400 Speaker 1: lot of money. Important difference being that scam artists are 578 00:34:08,440 --> 00:34:14,040 Speaker 1: doing non consensual works of allusion. Yes, and they are, uh, 579 00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:17,920 Speaker 1: you know, using any method they can to pull the 580 00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:21,160 Speaker 1: wool over the eyes of their their marks, to use 581 00:34:21,239 --> 00:34:28,120 Speaker 1: carne lingo. So he decided to create what he claimed 582 00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:32,800 Speaker 1: was a special engine, which he gave various names throughout 583 00:34:32,920 --> 00:34:37,000 Speaker 1: its life. The hydro pneumatic pulsating vacuum engine is a 584 00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:41,520 Speaker 1: good one, the Liberator, which just sounds like a firework 585 00:34:42,160 --> 00:34:45,080 Speaker 1: in the US. Yeah, I also love Okay, so I 586 00:34:45,160 --> 00:34:48,160 Speaker 1: love this. When you were informing me about a couple 587 00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:50,920 Speaker 1: of these things off air. What I love about this 588 00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:55,080 Speaker 1: one is we're getting straight into the pseudoscience jargon, which 589 00:34:55,120 --> 00:34:57,560 Speaker 1: is my favorite part of these sorts of inventions. It 590 00:34:57,600 --> 00:35:00,600 Speaker 1: makes me also think a lot about steam pop. You know, 591 00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:02,799 Speaker 1: one of the things that I love about people who 592 00:35:02,840 --> 00:35:05,640 Speaker 1: are big into steampunk, it's not as like it kind 593 00:35:05,640 --> 00:35:07,759 Speaker 1: of went through it's heyday. There's still people who are 594 00:35:07,840 --> 00:35:09,719 Speaker 1: very much fans of it, but it's not nearly as 595 00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:14,080 Speaker 1: omnipresent as it was maybe a decade ago. But one 596 00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:15,880 Speaker 1: of the things I loved is that people would spend 597 00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:18,280 Speaker 1: so much time and effort coming up with fanciful names 598 00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:21,719 Speaker 1: to describe their technologies, and ether is almost always in 599 00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:25,799 Speaker 1: their dynamo might be in there somewhere, but it's a 600 00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:31,120 Speaker 1: way of using these these vaguely scientific sounding terms and 601 00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:35,600 Speaker 1: trying to give legitimacy to something just based upon a name. Uh. 602 00:35:35,640 --> 00:35:38,200 Speaker 1: He had claimed that he had created some sort of 603 00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:41,680 Speaker 1: motor that could run off of a mysterious energy that 604 00:35:42,719 --> 00:35:46,080 Speaker 1: had to do with molecular interactions. He said that, you know, 605 00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:49,879 Speaker 1: water would supply the molecules, and then you would use 606 00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:54,560 Speaker 1: these vibrations from like tuning forks and stuff to transform 607 00:35:54,640 --> 00:35:56,840 Speaker 1: the molecules in some way that would give off this 608 00:35:57,480 --> 00:36:01,360 Speaker 1: ethereal energy that his motor would be able to harness. 609 00:36:02,480 --> 00:36:06,480 Speaker 1: And so he wouldn't hold demonstrations of his motor and 610 00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:09,360 Speaker 1: his workshop, and he had sort of like a what 611 00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:12,200 Speaker 1: he thought of as a working prototype that could actually 612 00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:16,759 Speaker 1: do work. Like, this thing can create mechanical action and 613 00:36:16,760 --> 00:36:20,880 Speaker 1: it can do stuff, but itself is not practical for 614 00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:24,200 Speaker 1: a product yet. It's just it just shows the fundamentals 615 00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:27,759 Speaker 1: of the science, is what he would argue. So he 616 00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:31,240 Speaker 1: needed investments in order to be able to go into 617 00:36:31,280 --> 00:36:33,360 Speaker 1: the next phase and actually produce something that could be 618 00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:36,319 Speaker 1: used for practical applications. And he got a lot of 619 00:36:36,360 --> 00:36:39,400 Speaker 1: investments because people wanted to believe in it. People like 620 00:36:39,560 --> 00:36:44,960 Speaker 1: Ast poured money into this. Yeah, so you had you 621 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:47,839 Speaker 1: had some very famous, very rich people saying, well, if 622 00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:51,480 Speaker 1: this is true, if you can create and a motor 623 00:36:51,520 --> 00:36:55,920 Speaker 1: that runs off water, then that is transformative. It'll it'll 624 00:36:56,280 --> 00:37:00,440 Speaker 1: be an enormous boon. It's like solving the energy crisis 625 00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:03,759 Speaker 1: before we can have an energy crisis. And so they 626 00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:07,080 Speaker 1: started investing in money. And by the eighties, investors were 627 00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:10,560 Speaker 1: starting to get a little antsy because they were not 628 00:37:10,600 --> 00:37:15,520 Speaker 1: seeing any progress being made in producing an actual practical motor. 629 00:37:16,040 --> 00:37:19,320 Speaker 1: And Keiley was so good at getting people to believe 630 00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:21,880 Speaker 1: that the thing he had made was working that it 631 00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:24,560 Speaker 1: just seemed like it was just around the corner having 632 00:37:24,719 --> 00:37:28,520 Speaker 1: a product right based off that same thing, because he 633 00:37:28,560 --> 00:37:33,080 Speaker 1: had already proven, according to him, the principles of what 634 00:37:33,120 --> 00:37:35,920 Speaker 1: he said was going on, and so if in fact 635 00:37:36,160 --> 00:37:38,560 Speaker 1: what he was saying was true, he should be able 636 00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:42,600 Speaker 1: to create a practical product. But they didn't see any 637 00:37:42,719 --> 00:37:47,240 Speaker 1: So Chilly kept on holding demonstrations, but he never produced 638 00:37:47,239 --> 00:37:51,360 Speaker 1: anything that could be actually put to work. Um he 639 00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:54,200 Speaker 1: would just you know, show this device moving apparently on 640 00:37:54,239 --> 00:37:57,320 Speaker 1: its own accord through pouring water into a thing vibrating 641 00:37:57,360 --> 00:38:00,520 Speaker 1: a tuning fork, and then it starts moving, but there 642 00:38:00,560 --> 00:38:05,160 Speaker 1: was never any indication that there was like something that 643 00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:07,600 Speaker 1: would ever actually come out of it. And then he 644 00:38:07,880 --> 00:38:12,680 Speaker 1: died having never produced anything that was really working, and 645 00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:17,759 Speaker 1: some of his investors, we're really kind of wondering what 646 00:38:17,960 --> 00:38:21,279 Speaker 1: happens now. Because the Keiley Motor Company still existed, there 647 00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:24,359 Speaker 1: were still people working there, but Keely himself was dead. 648 00:38:24,800 --> 00:38:29,759 Speaker 1: The Philadelphia Press held an investigation and they discovered evidence 649 00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:33,480 Speaker 1: in his workshop that suggested he had been using a uh. 650 00:38:33,520 --> 00:38:36,200 Speaker 1: He had been using compressed air to create the force 651 00:38:36,760 --> 00:38:42,600 Speaker 1: to move the machinery, not this vibration water molecular thing, 652 00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:46,319 Speaker 1: and the Keiley Motor Company denied that that was true. 653 00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:49,680 Speaker 1: They said, no, no, no, this is that the investigation 654 00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:53,520 Speaker 1: is wrong. But seeing as how no one has ever 655 00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:59,680 Speaker 1: created an etheric motor based off his claims, uh, I 656 00:38:59,719 --> 00:39:05,759 Speaker 1: think that is pretty good evidence to suggest that perhaps 657 00:39:05,800 --> 00:39:10,279 Speaker 1: the more logical explanation that there was a compressed air 658 00:39:11,160 --> 00:39:14,880 Speaker 1: uh device that was providing the mechanical power makes more sense. 659 00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:18,520 Speaker 1: I mean Occam's razor, right. What's more likely that something 660 00:39:18,560 --> 00:39:22,480 Speaker 1: we know works provided the action, or something that no 661 00:39:22,520 --> 00:39:25,120 Speaker 1: one has been able to prove even exists did it. 662 00:39:25,360 --> 00:39:29,319 Speaker 1: Well that's the problem too, because you know, we don't 663 00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:34,520 Speaker 1: want to burst everybody's bubble here. But the big problem 664 00:39:34,680 --> 00:39:38,319 Speaker 1: with this claim is that after his death there was 665 00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:43,920 Speaker 1: unfettered access to his workshop, which means that if such 666 00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:48,800 Speaker 1: a thing existed at all, in any shape, fashion or form, 667 00:39:48,880 --> 00:39:52,160 Speaker 1: it would be there. Now that wasn't There's still people 668 00:39:52,239 --> 00:39:55,640 Speaker 1: to this day who say that we're just on the 669 00:39:55,760 --> 00:40:00,160 Speaker 1: verge of getting one of these motors working. I was 670 00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:02,400 Speaker 1: about to say, get this motor running head out on 671 00:40:02,440 --> 00:40:06,120 Speaker 1: the highway, but uh yeah, So there are people who 672 00:40:06,120 --> 00:40:12,200 Speaker 1: are still devotees of Keely despite the the investigation. You 673 00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:14,360 Speaker 1: know what, I would love to see a working model. 674 00:40:14,920 --> 00:40:19,000 Speaker 1: I would love to, Yeah, text stuff at COM. We'll 675 00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:22,040 Speaker 1: put it right next to the giant wooden gear that 676 00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:26,400 Speaker 1: we have that we haven't yet uh haven't yet yet decoded. 677 00:40:27,400 --> 00:40:31,560 Speaker 1: Our next one is one you've heard of N rays before, right, 678 00:40:31,680 --> 00:40:36,280 Speaker 1: or did so Renee Blondlow um in nine we had 679 00:40:36,280 --> 00:40:40,160 Speaker 1: this physicist, Renee Blondlow who was experimenting with X rays 680 00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:42,920 Speaker 1: and he was pretty sure while he was doing the 681 00:40:42,920 --> 00:40:47,239 Speaker 1: experiment that's something impossible had happened. So he had X 682 00:40:47,360 --> 00:40:51,239 Speaker 1: rays and he was firing them through an a quartz prism, 683 00:40:51,280 --> 00:40:54,080 Speaker 1: and the quartz prism should not have been able to 684 00:40:54,080 --> 00:40:57,319 Speaker 1: redirect X rays. He had he had already done the 685 00:40:57,440 --> 00:41:01,880 Speaker 1: same experiment using the electric field, which could deflect X rays, 686 00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:03,920 Speaker 1: Like he was. He was specifically kind of doing a 687 00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:07,000 Speaker 1: control group kind of thing. So he has a detector 688 00:41:07,040 --> 00:41:09,680 Speaker 1: on one side, and the detector has a little metal 689 00:41:09,719 --> 00:41:13,480 Speaker 1: filament that lights up if X rays strike it. Okay, 690 00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:16,920 Speaker 1: So he shoots at the electric field. The electric field 691 00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:19,040 Speaker 1: deflects some of the X rays. The detector lights up, 692 00:41:19,040 --> 00:41:21,960 Speaker 1: and he says, ha, so electric fields can deflect X rays. Well, 693 00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:25,040 Speaker 1: now I'm just gonna do it with this quartz reflector, 694 00:41:25,080 --> 00:41:28,000 Speaker 1: which shouldn't X rays should just go right through it. 695 00:41:28,040 --> 00:41:30,359 Speaker 1: They bounced off of it, and so he's doing this. 696 00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:32,520 Speaker 1: But he said, from the corner of his eye he 697 00:41:32,600 --> 00:41:35,360 Speaker 1: saw the filament light up, so just out of the 698 00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:37,719 Speaker 1: periphery of his vision, and so he said, well, X 699 00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:40,520 Speaker 1: rays wouldn't do that, So therefore I must have discovered 700 00:41:40,600 --> 00:41:44,640 Speaker 1: a brand new type of radiation. It can't be X rays, 701 00:41:44,680 --> 00:41:47,440 Speaker 1: but it made the filament light up, so it behaves 702 00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:49,319 Speaker 1: sort of like X rays. I'm going to call him 703 00:41:49,640 --> 00:41:53,720 Speaker 1: n rays, and he named it after Nancy Town in France, 704 00:41:53,719 --> 00:41:55,840 Speaker 1: where he grew up. I feel like he should have 705 00:41:55,880 --> 00:41:58,160 Speaker 1: gone the whole kiting caboodle and called the Nancy rays 706 00:41:58,440 --> 00:42:01,640 Speaker 1: Nancy rays. Yeah. Uh. I was wondering why he didn't 707 00:42:01,680 --> 00:42:04,160 Speaker 1: call him are rays. I guess it's because it would 708 00:42:04,160 --> 00:42:11,520 Speaker 1: be raise. Uh. So he would later on say, because 709 00:42:11,560 --> 00:42:13,920 Speaker 1: you know, he would do experiments. He said, oh, well, 710 00:42:13,960 --> 00:42:16,800 Speaker 1: it doesn't work if you're looking right at the film, 711 00:42:16,920 --> 00:42:20,680 Speaker 1: which I mean, come on. But again I don't think 712 00:42:20,680 --> 00:42:23,319 Speaker 1: he was. It seems to me he was sincere in 713 00:42:23,360 --> 00:42:26,239 Speaker 1: his belief. Yeah, because he's not he's not trying to 714 00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:30,600 Speaker 1: builk people. No, he thought he had discovered something monumental. 715 00:42:30,600 --> 00:42:33,360 Speaker 1: And this was a time again when people were making 716 00:42:33,400 --> 00:42:37,400 Speaker 1: such discoveries. I mean, radiation had only been discovered just 717 00:42:37,440 --> 00:42:40,360 Speaker 1: a couple of decades earlier, so it was not that 718 00:42:40,440 --> 00:42:43,000 Speaker 1: big of a leap to think, oh, I found something 719 00:42:43,360 --> 00:42:47,000 Speaker 1: that we hadn't heard about just now, Like all, no, 720 00:42:47,200 --> 00:42:50,560 Speaker 1: you know, we just discovered radio waves, electromagnetic radiation, Like 721 00:42:50,640 --> 00:42:53,160 Speaker 1: this is a time when people are finding this kind 722 00:42:53,200 --> 00:42:55,200 Speaker 1: of stuff. But when it gets to the point where 723 00:42:55,200 --> 00:42:57,000 Speaker 1: he says, oh, you can only see it when it's 724 00:42:57,080 --> 00:42:59,279 Speaker 1: in the corner of your vision. Uh, some of the 725 00:42:59,280 --> 00:43:03,480 Speaker 1: physicists are physicians rather out there, said, there's you can 726 00:43:03,640 --> 00:43:05,960 Speaker 1: end up because of the way perception works. You can 727 00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:08,400 Speaker 1: end up imagining that you're seeing things out of the 728 00:43:08,400 --> 00:43:11,440 Speaker 1: corner of your eye when really there's nothing there. And 729 00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:14,360 Speaker 1: they said, that's a far more likely explanation that he 730 00:43:14,400 --> 00:43:18,839 Speaker 1: thought he saw the indicator light up, because why would 731 00:43:18,880 --> 00:43:20,879 Speaker 1: it not light up if you're looking right at it? 732 00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:25,239 Speaker 1: What what's the logic there? Why would a detector not 733 00:43:25,400 --> 00:43:27,920 Speaker 1: light up if you're looking at it dead on, but 734 00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:30,000 Speaker 1: it will light up if you're if you're looking at 735 00:43:30,040 --> 00:43:32,240 Speaker 1: it from the side of your eye. That just doesn't 736 00:43:32,280 --> 00:43:37,920 Speaker 1: make sense. I mean, there's any explanation of that would 737 00:43:38,040 --> 00:43:40,960 Speaker 1: fly in the face of what we know about the 738 00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:45,400 Speaker 1: human eye basically. And then, to make matters more complicated, 739 00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:47,880 Speaker 1: there were several scientists in France who claimed that they 740 00:43:47,880 --> 00:43:50,640 Speaker 1: were able to replicate the experiments, but no one else 741 00:43:50,680 --> 00:43:53,239 Speaker 1: anywhere in the world could do it, which lead a 742 00:43:53,239 --> 00:43:56,760 Speaker 1: lot of scientists to say, either the scientists in France 743 00:43:56,760 --> 00:44:00,239 Speaker 1: are super extra special or they are deluding themselves. And 744 00:44:00,280 --> 00:44:04,520 Speaker 1: then Robert W. Wood ended up visiting blond Lowe's laboratory 745 00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:08,320 Speaker 1: to investigate the matter. And uh, first he had blonde 746 00:44:08,360 --> 00:44:11,879 Speaker 1: low call out when the in rays were fluctuating as 747 00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:15,160 Speaker 1: he as Wood would move an opaque lad screen in 748 00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:18,319 Speaker 1: or out of the pathway of the supposed in rays, 749 00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:23,560 Speaker 1: only say something when he thought he saw a change 750 00:44:23,680 --> 00:44:26,680 Speaker 1: in the rays right, right, he's looking for fluctuations in 751 00:44:26,719 --> 00:44:29,520 Speaker 1: the readings right, so he could not observe the movements 752 00:44:29,719 --> 00:44:32,120 Speaker 1: the right he so, so again, if you're thinking about 753 00:44:32,120 --> 00:44:35,600 Speaker 1: like a magic trick, which again Renee was not trying 754 00:44:35,640 --> 00:44:38,080 Speaker 1: to pull the wall over anyone's eyes. He legitimately thought 755 00:44:38,080 --> 00:44:40,960 Speaker 1: he was onto something. You have him in one space, 756 00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:43,399 Speaker 1: you have Wood in the other space they cannot see 757 00:44:43,400 --> 00:44:46,560 Speaker 1: each other. And then Wood's job is just to move 758 00:44:46,640 --> 00:44:50,080 Speaker 1: this lead sheet and in and out of the path, 759 00:44:50,239 --> 00:44:52,279 Speaker 1: and if it if it does so, it's supposed to 760 00:44:52,280 --> 00:44:56,080 Speaker 1: create these fluctuations, which then Renee Bludlow should be able 761 00:44:56,160 --> 00:44:58,919 Speaker 1: to see in his in his area and then call 762 00:44:58,960 --> 00:45:01,759 Speaker 1: out when the fluctuation since happened. And Wood said he 763 00:45:01,880 --> 00:45:04,600 Speaker 1: was wrong of the time, like he never got he 764 00:45:04,680 --> 00:45:07,040 Speaker 1: never called out a fluctuation when one should have happened, 765 00:45:07,040 --> 00:45:09,080 Speaker 1: and he called out fluctuations when nothing was going on. 766 00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:16,239 Speaker 1: Not accident right, But to make it even more uh blatant, 767 00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:22,000 Speaker 1: there was a point where would ended up working with 768 00:45:22,200 --> 00:45:26,160 Speaker 1: a piece of equipment blonde Low had said was would 769 00:45:26,160 --> 00:45:29,560 Speaker 1: allow you to split in rays up into various spectra 770 00:45:30,360 --> 00:45:32,880 Speaker 1: to be able to read off different wavelengths. And it 771 00:45:32,960 --> 00:45:35,320 Speaker 1: had an aluminum prism in it. So you would shoot 772 00:45:35,320 --> 00:45:37,680 Speaker 1: the D rays that the aluminum prison it would prism. 773 00:45:37,680 --> 00:45:39,360 Speaker 1: It would then split the D rays up and you 774 00:45:39,360 --> 00:45:43,880 Speaker 1: could read the different wavelengths. And so PRIs prism movably. 775 00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:48,560 Speaker 1: And so blonde Low has the inrays going, he reads 776 00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:51,759 Speaker 1: off the wavelengths and Wood says, oh, could you do 777 00:45:51,800 --> 00:45:54,640 Speaker 1: that again? I need to write those down, so blonde 778 00:45:54,640 --> 00:45:58,960 Speaker 1: Low goes to look at the wavelengths. Meanwhile, would surreptitiously 779 00:45:59,080 --> 00:46:01,960 Speaker 1: removes the illum in in prism, which means that there 780 00:46:02,040 --> 00:46:04,719 Speaker 1: is now no mechanism there for those wavelengths to get 781 00:46:04,760 --> 00:46:08,000 Speaker 1: split up. According to blonde Low, right, he said, the 782 00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:09,920 Speaker 1: whole purpose of the prism there's that splits the D 783 00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:13,920 Speaker 1: rays up into these wavelengths. And then Blondlow's magically able 784 00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:16,080 Speaker 1: to read off all the wavelengths because he believes he's 785 00:46:16,120 --> 00:46:20,759 Speaker 1: really seeing something. And Wood says, there's literally no way 786 00:46:20,800 --> 00:46:22,160 Speaker 1: for this to work the way you said it was 787 00:46:22,200 --> 00:46:24,440 Speaker 1: going to work, right, because I removed the part that 788 00:46:24,440 --> 00:46:28,600 Speaker 1: would have done it due to your own the constraints 789 00:46:28,680 --> 00:46:33,800 Speaker 1: of your own design, right, yep. And so then Blondelow was, uh, 790 00:46:34,080 --> 00:46:36,240 Speaker 1: you know it, kind of quietly went back to teaching. 791 00:46:36,640 --> 00:46:38,840 Speaker 1: And there were some reports that actually there are a 792 00:46:38,880 --> 00:46:41,200 Speaker 1: couple of different reports that were that have repeated the 793 00:46:41,239 --> 00:46:45,320 Speaker 1: story that Blondelow went mad and died a few years 794 00:46:45,400 --> 00:46:49,160 Speaker 1: later out of out of frustration. It's just so sad man. 795 00:46:49,280 --> 00:46:53,400 Speaker 1: But I read a report that said, no, he taught 796 00:46:53,920 --> 00:46:57,960 Speaker 1: in France for many years and died decades later. So 797 00:46:58,560 --> 00:47:00,600 Speaker 1: apparently there was a story that sirculates, so you have 798 00:47:00,640 --> 00:47:03,200 Speaker 1: to be skeptical even of the stories that circulated these people. 799 00:47:03,320 --> 00:47:06,520 Speaker 1: But I think I not, not even with that story 800 00:47:06,520 --> 00:47:09,200 Speaker 1: in particular. What I think is sad about it is 801 00:47:09,280 --> 00:47:13,400 Speaker 1: that he was sincerely trying to advance scientific progress and 802 00:47:13,440 --> 00:47:15,680 Speaker 1: maybe there was a little bit of ego wrapped up 803 00:47:15,719 --> 00:47:20,080 Speaker 1: in this, the idea of the idea that I renee 804 00:47:20,120 --> 00:47:25,000 Speaker 1: him the grand discoverer of this new groundbreaking thing. Um. 805 00:47:25,040 --> 00:47:27,680 Speaker 1: But you know, it's it doesn't sound like he was 806 00:47:27,680 --> 00:47:30,680 Speaker 1: trying to con anybody. It sounds like he just conned himself. 807 00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:35,360 Speaker 1: And again that's that's where he was not really employing 808 00:47:35,800 --> 00:47:39,239 Speaker 1: critical thinking of skepticism. Because he he saw something he 809 00:47:39,280 --> 00:47:42,759 Speaker 1: wanted to believe that he had discovered something novel. And 810 00:47:42,840 --> 00:47:46,480 Speaker 1: that is a very powerful feeling, right like you joined 811 00:47:46,480 --> 00:47:50,280 Speaker 1: the giants, right, Yeah, like William Reich an Orgon, which 812 00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:52,680 Speaker 1: we have to mention at this point. Okay, and you've 813 00:47:52,719 --> 00:47:55,759 Speaker 1: already mentioned this, I think in previous episode. I don't 814 00:47:55,800 --> 00:47:58,200 Speaker 1: know that I've ever talked about Oregon in a previous episode, 815 00:47:58,200 --> 00:48:01,279 Speaker 1: mostly because you it to a point and those and 816 00:48:01,360 --> 00:48:08,120 Speaker 1: those stories where uh, you it gets so weird that 817 00:48:08,200 --> 00:48:10,440 Speaker 1: it's difficult to dig yourself back out again. Orgon, by 818 00:48:10,440 --> 00:48:14,680 Speaker 1: the way, gets into a lot of psycho sexual stuff 819 00:48:14,760 --> 00:48:18,399 Speaker 1: and it's very much connected to that. So we can, yeah, 820 00:48:18,480 --> 00:48:21,719 Speaker 1: you can find out more about we're going. It's it's 821 00:48:21,800 --> 00:48:25,239 Speaker 1: similar to this story because it's similar to the in 822 00:48:25,360 --> 00:48:29,279 Speaker 1: Rays story because it's the story of an inventor who 823 00:48:29,280 --> 00:48:34,399 Speaker 1: believes that they have found some sort of some sort 824 00:48:34,440 --> 00:48:38,800 Speaker 1: of fundamental energy force that has yet to be observed. 825 00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:44,840 Speaker 1: And this was Orgon was described as an esoteric energy 826 00:48:44,960 --> 00:48:49,359 Speaker 1: by its those my air quotes sounds, and it's discoverer 827 00:48:50,200 --> 00:48:54,879 Speaker 1: William Reich or Villa Mourick. And the problem with it 828 00:48:54,920 --> 00:48:57,919 Speaker 1: is exactly as you said, Jonathan, there was a lot 829 00:48:58,000 --> 00:49:03,480 Speaker 1: of stuff that depends did upon the subjective opinions of 830 00:49:03,560 --> 00:49:08,839 Speaker 1: the participants, and uh, there were a lot of increased 831 00:49:08,880 --> 00:49:11,759 Speaker 1: there was there was what I call claim creep, which 832 00:49:11,800 --> 00:49:14,200 Speaker 1: is it starts out as a pretty narrowly defined thing 833 00:49:14,760 --> 00:49:18,040 Speaker 1: and then it has more and more and more implications 834 00:49:18,080 --> 00:49:20,879 Speaker 1: and it goes to the psycho sexual power and it's 835 00:49:20,880 --> 00:49:23,319 Speaker 1: all like, well, maybe this didn't work because you didn't 836 00:49:23,360 --> 00:49:26,319 Speaker 1: clap your hands and believed. It reminds me a lot 837 00:49:26,520 --> 00:49:29,799 Speaker 1: of the of the I'm sure you've seen videos of it, 838 00:49:29,920 --> 00:49:34,200 Speaker 1: of demonstrations of supposed kung fu masters or karate masters, 839 00:49:34,320 --> 00:49:36,680 Speaker 1: masters of the martial arts who have mastered their cheat 840 00:49:36,760 --> 00:49:38,960 Speaker 1: to a point where they just make a gesture and 841 00:49:39,000 --> 00:49:42,520 Speaker 1: people fall over and uh, and it becomes sort of 842 00:49:42,520 --> 00:49:46,400 Speaker 1: this shared delusion between the person who is making the 843 00:49:46,440 --> 00:49:49,000 Speaker 1: movements and the people who claim that they were actually 844 00:49:49,040 --> 00:49:52,799 Speaker 1: knocked over by it. It also falls into that category 845 00:49:52,960 --> 00:49:56,520 Speaker 1: of people who go under hypnosis for like a stage hypnotist. 846 00:49:56,840 --> 00:50:01,240 Speaker 1: How they are willing to go along was something because 847 00:50:01,280 --> 00:50:05,799 Speaker 1: there is this expectation for an outcome social pressure. It's 848 00:50:05,800 --> 00:50:08,839 Speaker 1: a social pressure, right you. You're being watched by people 849 00:50:08,880 --> 00:50:11,920 Speaker 1: who want to see an outcome. That's a very powerful motivator. 850 00:50:12,480 --> 00:50:14,920 Speaker 1: It would be it would take a special kind of 851 00:50:14,960 --> 00:50:21,080 Speaker 1: person to go up on stage and defiantly not do 852 00:50:21,400 --> 00:50:24,120 Speaker 1: the things that were asked of him or her to do, 853 00:50:25,000 --> 00:50:27,600 Speaker 1: because you know that's not what the audience wants to see. 854 00:50:28,040 --> 00:50:35,520 Speaker 1: And now, this excellent point brings us to a brings 855 00:50:35,600 --> 00:50:38,120 Speaker 1: us to a pivot, I would say in today's show, 856 00:50:38,200 --> 00:50:40,719 Speaker 1: because up to now we've been up to now, we've 857 00:50:40,760 --> 00:50:46,120 Speaker 1: been exploring the often I'll say it often hilarious stories 858 00:50:46,600 --> 00:50:52,080 Speaker 1: of hoaxters or deluded people who were still being you know, 859 00:50:52,400 --> 00:50:56,719 Speaker 1: entertaining and at the worst, committing financial scam. They might 860 00:50:56,719 --> 00:50:59,560 Speaker 1: be taking money from mostly from people who have enough 861 00:50:59,560 --> 00:51:03,960 Speaker 1: money to lose mostly. But we're about to transition into 862 00:51:04,120 --> 00:51:07,359 Speaker 1: some much more serious matters and we'll get to that 863 00:51:07,400 --> 00:51:09,319 Speaker 1: in just a moment, But first we're going to take 864 00:51:09,360 --> 00:51:19,560 Speaker 1: another quick break to thank our sponsors. Now, this next 865 00:51:19,560 --> 00:51:22,520 Speaker 1: story is when I have talked about on Tech Stuff before. 866 00:51:22,920 --> 00:51:25,239 Speaker 1: It's one that I point to frequently when I talk 867 00:51:25,440 --> 00:51:29,840 Speaker 1: about why skepticism is so important because it can, like 868 00:51:29,840 --> 00:51:31,960 Speaker 1: like we said earlier, it can be a matter of 869 00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:34,480 Speaker 1: sort of entertainment, but it's also a matter of life 870 00:51:34,560 --> 00:51:37,799 Speaker 1: or death in some situations. And I've talked about these 871 00:51:37,800 --> 00:51:40,760 Speaker 1: guys before. But I want to talk about fake bomb 872 00:51:40,800 --> 00:51:44,200 Speaker 1: detectors because this was a big story, uh a few 873 00:51:44,239 --> 00:51:47,240 Speaker 1: years ago, almost a decade ago now, and I covered 874 00:51:47,239 --> 00:51:49,120 Speaker 1: it on Tech Stuff, even got to the point where 875 00:51:49,120 --> 00:51:53,600 Speaker 1: someone sent me one of the detectors that was the 876 00:51:53,640 --> 00:51:57,000 Speaker 1: originator of this whole thing, which was I think it 877 00:51:57,120 --> 00:52:00,319 Speaker 1: was just meant to be a novelty gift where it 878 00:52:00,360 --> 00:52:01,759 Speaker 1: was called the Gopher and it was meant to be 879 00:52:01,840 --> 00:52:04,799 Speaker 1: a golf ball detector, and all it is, it's it's 880 00:52:04,880 --> 00:52:08,640 Speaker 1: just a plastic handle and there is a telescoping antenna 881 00:52:08,840 --> 00:52:12,600 Speaker 1: that you on. One corner of the plastic handle is 882 00:52:12,680 --> 00:52:15,080 Speaker 1: mounted on a little swivel and so it acts kind 883 00:52:15,120 --> 00:52:17,880 Speaker 1: of like a dowsing rod. So if you twist your 884 00:52:17,880 --> 00:52:20,440 Speaker 1: wrist a little bit, it'll swing to the left or 885 00:52:20,480 --> 00:52:23,120 Speaker 1: to the right. Yeah, and it's meant to be, Oh, 886 00:52:23,160 --> 00:52:25,000 Speaker 1: you need to find your golf ball, whip this out 887 00:52:25,040 --> 00:52:27,200 Speaker 1: and it'll point your point the way to your golf ball. 888 00:52:27,680 --> 00:52:30,680 Speaker 1: And I thought, there's no way this is being marketed 889 00:52:30,719 --> 00:52:34,240 Speaker 1: as a real thing. I mean, there's obviously no way 890 00:52:34,239 --> 00:52:37,200 Speaker 1: for it to work. There's it's just a piece of 891 00:52:37,200 --> 00:52:40,640 Speaker 1: metal that's on a hinge connected to a piece of plastic. 892 00:52:40,640 --> 00:52:43,960 Speaker 1: There are no wires, there's no battery, there's there's nothing 893 00:52:44,040 --> 00:52:48,960 Speaker 1: that could even possibly create any sort of of effect 894 00:52:49,320 --> 00:52:51,640 Speaker 1: apart from the ideo motor effect, which is where we 895 00:52:51,719 --> 00:52:56,520 Speaker 1: make unconscious movements, and sometimes it's based upon what we 896 00:52:56,640 --> 00:52:59,799 Speaker 1: expect to happen. Right, So again, like dowsers, this this 897 00:52:59,840 --> 00:53:03,080 Speaker 1: is pretty much the way you do you explain dowsers 898 00:53:03,080 --> 00:53:06,840 Speaker 1: people who are at least uh earnestly in belief that 899 00:53:06,920 --> 00:53:10,359 Speaker 1: they have this ability, they cross over an area where 900 00:53:10,360 --> 00:53:14,120 Speaker 1: they think the thing that they're looking for exists, which 901 00:53:14,200 --> 00:53:16,719 Speaker 1: is not always water. It could also be some sort 902 00:53:16,760 --> 00:53:19,919 Speaker 1: of uh mineral. They yeah, it can be all sorts 903 00:53:19,960 --> 00:53:22,200 Speaker 1: of different stuff. It all depends upon. Like there're people 904 00:53:22,200 --> 00:53:23,960 Speaker 1: who claim that they can do all sorts of things 905 00:53:23,960 --> 00:53:28,680 Speaker 1: with dowsing, and then the whatever mechanism they're using for dowsing, 906 00:53:28,760 --> 00:53:32,560 Speaker 1: that maybe a pair of bent rods that can freely 907 00:53:32,640 --> 00:53:36,319 Speaker 1: swing back and forth. They yeah, and then they'll they'll 908 00:53:36,440 --> 00:53:38,640 Speaker 1: cross and then they'll say, oh, well, that indicates there's 909 00:53:38,640 --> 00:53:42,399 Speaker 1: water here. Most of the time it'll be something where 910 00:53:42,400 --> 00:53:45,120 Speaker 1: it's a where a person believes that that's where water 911 00:53:45,200 --> 00:53:48,359 Speaker 1: would be found. And they're not necessarily consciously doing this, 912 00:53:48,440 --> 00:53:52,520 Speaker 1: but they unconsciously are moving their hands in such a 913 00:53:52,520 --> 00:53:56,319 Speaker 1: way where they the arms cross and they say, oh, 914 00:53:56,400 --> 00:53:58,600 Speaker 1: here's a hit. The same sort of thing is that 915 00:53:58,680 --> 00:54:03,080 Speaker 1: this was for golf balls, um, And so what then 916 00:54:03,160 --> 00:54:10,000 Speaker 1: happens is, UH, there was a uh someone who decided, 917 00:54:10,080 --> 00:54:15,520 Speaker 1: let's take the same idea, but let's converted over uh 918 00:54:15,520 --> 00:54:19,560 Speaker 1: and claim that this same device can detect something much 919 00:54:19,560 --> 00:54:21,960 Speaker 1: more serious than golf balls. That person was Wade L. 920 00:54:22,200 --> 00:54:25,440 Speaker 1: Quatal Bomb, which is a heck of a name. Quatal 921 00:54:25,520 --> 00:54:26,840 Speaker 1: Bomb is a heck of a name used to be 922 00:54:26,880 --> 00:54:30,080 Speaker 1: a used car salesman. I'm going to refrain from making 923 00:54:30,120 --> 00:54:34,839 Speaker 1: the Carnival Barker joke, but quatal Bomb said that you 924 00:54:34,880 --> 00:54:37,359 Speaker 1: could pick up one of these devices that was sort 925 00:54:37,360 --> 00:54:40,520 Speaker 1: of like a pistol grip device with an antenna attached 926 00:54:40,560 --> 00:54:43,000 Speaker 1: to it. Has a cable attached to the pistol grip 927 00:54:43,080 --> 00:54:46,359 Speaker 1: that goes to a plastic case that you would fit 928 00:54:46,440 --> 00:54:49,000 Speaker 1: on your belt, and that you would take these cards 929 00:54:49,040 --> 00:54:51,200 Speaker 1: that would have a signature of whatever it was you 930 00:54:51,239 --> 00:54:53,600 Speaker 1: were looking for, right, so it's like some sort of 931 00:54:53,680 --> 00:54:57,000 Speaker 1: element of the thing you're searching for. You plug it 932 00:54:57,040 --> 00:54:59,720 Speaker 1: into the case, and then that was supposed to calibrate 933 00:54:59,760 --> 00:55:02,640 Speaker 1: the I so that it could detect anything that fell 934 00:55:02,680 --> 00:55:08,080 Speaker 1: into that category, which could include firearms, bombs, drugs. Later on, 935 00:55:08,280 --> 00:55:11,160 Speaker 1: there were claims from people who are marketing the similar 936 00:55:12,680 --> 00:55:16,239 Speaker 1: just total nonsense, that they could detect things like diseases 937 00:55:17,239 --> 00:55:21,600 Speaker 1: like HIV. So this is like radionics almost. Yeah, The 938 00:55:21,719 --> 00:55:28,280 Speaker 1: idea that like the sympathetic magical thinking, wherein we are 939 00:55:28,280 --> 00:55:31,840 Speaker 1: our minds quote unquote or part of the machine or 940 00:55:31,880 --> 00:55:34,200 Speaker 1: the process, the mechanical process. I think that's what it 941 00:55:34,239 --> 00:55:36,880 Speaker 1: depends upon, but I don't. That's not how it was marketed. 942 00:55:36,960 --> 00:55:39,480 Speaker 1: It was marketed that these were totally up and up, 943 00:55:39,520 --> 00:55:42,840 Speaker 1: just detectors that have no that that you could, in 944 00:55:42,920 --> 00:55:45,560 Speaker 1: theory just turn these turn it on, turn it on. 945 00:55:45,600 --> 00:55:47,279 Speaker 1: Doesn't even make sense. There was nothing to turn on, 946 00:55:47,719 --> 00:55:50,680 Speaker 1: but you could. You could just have these like sitting 947 00:55:50,800 --> 00:55:54,440 Speaker 1: on a post, for example, and there's no one holding it, 948 00:55:54,520 --> 00:55:56,640 Speaker 1: and that it would work just as well. That's insane 949 00:55:56,680 --> 00:55:58,960 Speaker 1: because the idea was that you know, hey, you got 950 00:55:59,000 --> 00:56:02,680 Speaker 1: metal detectors. Sure, Bill, detectors are able to detect detect metal, 951 00:56:02,719 --> 00:56:04,359 Speaker 1: why can't you have a device like this that can 952 00:56:04,360 --> 00:56:07,239 Speaker 1: detect bombs and stuff? Because they weren't. They weren't going 953 00:56:07,280 --> 00:56:10,960 Speaker 1: forward and saying like, here's the theory we have behind 954 00:56:10,960 --> 00:56:12,600 Speaker 1: why it works. They were just marketing it as a 955 00:56:12,640 --> 00:56:15,839 Speaker 1: product that works, so quad o bomb. He ends up 956 00:56:16,040 --> 00:56:18,719 Speaker 1: doing this, Um says we could detect all sorts of 957 00:56:18,760 --> 00:56:23,239 Speaker 1: stuff like drugs and explosives. The FBI ends up investigating him, 958 00:56:23,360 --> 00:56:26,320 Speaker 1: and UH finds that he had been selling these for 959 00:56:26,440 --> 00:56:30,279 Speaker 1: hundreds or thousands of dollars a pop and UH. He 960 00:56:30,360 --> 00:56:33,440 Speaker 1: and his business associates would eventually get charged with mail fraud, 961 00:56:34,000 --> 00:56:40,080 Speaker 1: but they all got acquitted. Don't know why, but a 962 00:56:40,200 --> 00:56:44,279 Speaker 1: jury acquitted them of all charges. Anyway, some people in 963 00:56:44,360 --> 00:56:47,239 Speaker 1: the UK heard about this and they poured it over 964 00:56:47,320 --> 00:56:50,800 Speaker 1: to the UK and they really ran with it. And 965 00:56:51,080 --> 00:56:54,399 Speaker 1: it was actually a group of folks, possibly a ring 966 00:56:55,160 --> 00:56:57,839 Speaker 1: like it might have been. There might have been some collaboration, 967 00:56:59,560 --> 00:57:02,160 Speaker 1: kind of a little scam ring, you know, they're all 968 00:57:02,239 --> 00:57:05,320 Speaker 1: running the same scam. Or it could literally be that 969 00:57:05,560 --> 00:57:07,600 Speaker 1: one of them heard about the scam and thought this 970 00:57:07,640 --> 00:57:10,359 Speaker 1: is a great way to make some extra dough. One 971 00:57:10,360 --> 00:57:13,959 Speaker 1: of them would be James McCormick no no relation to Joe. 972 00:57:14,160 --> 00:57:16,200 Speaker 1: James McCormick is the one I talked about in previous 973 00:57:16,200 --> 00:57:19,480 Speaker 1: episodes of Tech Stuff, and he was ultimately arrested and 974 00:57:19,560 --> 00:57:22,680 Speaker 1: sentenced to ten years in prison and also was was 975 00:57:22,960 --> 00:57:26,360 Speaker 1: fined for uh. The fact that he was selling these 976 00:57:26,400 --> 00:57:30,880 Speaker 1: bomb devices largely in Iraq and Afghanistan, and most of 977 00:57:30,920 --> 00:57:35,440 Speaker 1: the the the rhetoric I've seen against him has been 978 00:57:35,480 --> 00:57:37,600 Speaker 1: about we don't even know how many people lost their 979 00:57:37,640 --> 00:57:41,040 Speaker 1: lives because they were dependent upon this technology that literally 980 00:57:41,560 --> 00:57:44,120 Speaker 1: could not work there was no mechanism in it for 981 00:57:44,200 --> 00:57:48,320 Speaker 1: it to work. So it's not that they just don't work, 982 00:57:48,360 --> 00:57:50,880 Speaker 1: it's that there's no way they could have worked. And 983 00:57:50,960 --> 00:57:52,960 Speaker 1: you know this like you were just putting these together. 984 00:57:53,000 --> 00:57:55,760 Speaker 1: In fact, some of the ones he had were literally 985 00:57:55,800 --> 00:58:00,960 Speaker 1: the gopher with a new sticker on it. So moves 986 00:58:02,000 --> 00:58:07,360 Speaker 1: this guy away from the sort of Slee's bag gradient 987 00:58:07,800 --> 00:58:10,640 Speaker 1: of being a con artist you have the snake oil salesman, 988 00:58:10,840 --> 00:58:14,320 Speaker 1: and into the completely reprehensible domain of being a war 989 00:58:14,440 --> 00:58:19,720 Speaker 1: profit here. Yeah, yeah, you could argue this is bordering 990 00:58:19,760 --> 00:58:21,920 Speaker 1: on what what we would casually refer to as being 991 00:58:22,000 --> 00:58:25,400 Speaker 1: a sociopath because they have no he has no real 992 00:58:25,440 --> 00:58:28,000 Speaker 1: consideration or care about what happens to the people who 993 00:58:28,040 --> 00:58:33,960 Speaker 1: buy the product. His famous detector that was, uh, the 994 00:58:34,040 --> 00:58:36,240 Speaker 1: one that was cited in most of the articles was 995 00:58:36,280 --> 00:58:38,640 Speaker 1: the A D E six five one, So if you 996 00:58:38,640 --> 00:58:40,160 Speaker 1: want to look that up, you can see what one 997 00:58:40,160 --> 00:58:42,960 Speaker 1: of these looks like. Uh. There were others who also 998 00:58:43,120 --> 00:58:46,240 Speaker 1: were arrested around the same time. Gary Bolton created a 999 00:58:46,240 --> 00:58:49,000 Speaker 1: company called Global Technical Limited. This was a different one 1000 00:58:49,040 --> 00:58:53,040 Speaker 1: than McCormick's, and he had the g T two hundred. 1001 00:58:53,280 --> 00:58:55,840 Speaker 1: He was also arrested in he was sentenced to seven 1002 00:58:55,920 --> 00:58:59,240 Speaker 1: years in prison. And Samuel Tree did the same thing 1003 00:58:59,280 --> 00:59:01,920 Speaker 1: in the UK and he was sentenced inten to three 1004 00:59:01,920 --> 00:59:04,840 Speaker 1: and a half years in jail. His wife got a 1005 00:59:05,000 --> 00:59:08,200 Speaker 1: sentence of three hours of community service, so she was 1006 00:59:08,480 --> 00:59:11,560 Speaker 1: let off fairly easy compared to the others. Now, as 1007 00:59:11,600 --> 00:59:15,840 Speaker 1: recently as there were still places that we're using these devices, 1008 00:59:15,880 --> 00:59:18,320 Speaker 1: I don't know if there's still are to this day, 1009 00:59:18,360 --> 00:59:21,919 Speaker 1: but there were hotels in Pakistan that were using these 1010 00:59:21,920 --> 00:59:25,840 Speaker 1: two supposedly check people for drugs or explosives before coming 1011 00:59:25,880 --> 00:59:29,400 Speaker 1: into to the hotel. And you could again argue that 1012 00:59:29,440 --> 00:59:32,280 Speaker 1: this falls into that realm of security theater, except this 1013 00:59:32,360 --> 00:59:36,120 Speaker 1: is a theater where anyone who's paid attention knows that 1014 00:59:36,360 --> 00:59:41,040 Speaker 1: the act is terrible, right, Like it would be like 1015 00:59:41,520 --> 00:59:45,960 Speaker 1: walking up to somebody at at an airport security and 1016 00:59:46,000 --> 00:59:48,880 Speaker 1: they're literally just holding a wooden dowel and they say, well, 1017 00:59:48,880 --> 00:59:51,840 Speaker 1: I need to scan you for any potential weapons, and 1018 00:59:51,880 --> 00:59:53,120 Speaker 1: you look at them and you're like, are you gonna 1019 00:59:53,200 --> 00:59:54,640 Speaker 1: hit me? Like no, no, I'm just gonna run this 1020 00:59:55,120 --> 00:59:57,320 Speaker 1: up and down your body and if if the wood 1021 00:59:57,440 --> 01:00:01,840 Speaker 1: vibrates then I know, like okay, well this literally is 1022 01:00:01,880 --> 01:00:05,800 Speaker 1: doing no one any good, right, I agree completely. Our 1023 01:00:05,880 --> 01:00:09,200 Speaker 1: last example is a fairly recent one. In fact, it's 1024 01:00:09,240 --> 01:00:12,200 Speaker 1: the story that's still unfolding, and that is of Thoranos. 1025 01:00:12,280 --> 01:00:15,600 Speaker 1: Were you familiar with Thoranos? No, I was not, not 1026 01:00:15,760 --> 01:00:19,080 Speaker 1: until you had told me a little bit about it. 1027 01:00:19,760 --> 01:00:26,400 Speaker 1: Snaps his fingers and immediately like half the people are gone. Spoiler, spoiler, spoiler, 1028 01:00:26,800 --> 01:00:31,280 Speaker 1: front of the spoiler. Okay, okay, okay, it's just a 1029 01:00:31,320 --> 01:00:33,440 Speaker 1: way of trying to make some light of what is it? 1030 01:00:33,520 --> 01:00:37,200 Speaker 1: Really a very serious thing. So yes, So tell us 1031 01:00:37,240 --> 01:00:42,240 Speaker 1: a little bit about Elizabeth Holmes. So, Elizabeth Holmes was 1032 01:00:42,320 --> 01:00:45,120 Speaker 1: determined early early on that she wanted to be a businesswoman, 1033 01:00:45,120 --> 01:00:50,440 Speaker 1: a successful businesswoman. From every interview I've read, every report 1034 01:00:50,480 --> 01:00:54,920 Speaker 1: I've read, she comes across as an incredibly motivated woman 1035 01:00:55,200 --> 01:00:58,640 Speaker 1: with a lot of drive and a lot of determination, 1036 01:00:59,440 --> 01:01:04,960 Speaker 1: perhaps more than is good for a person. But she, 1037 01:01:05,960 --> 01:01:08,480 Speaker 1: when she was going to Stanford, got an idea for 1038 01:01:08,560 --> 01:01:12,040 Speaker 1: a company, dropped out by age nineteen to work on 1039 01:01:12,080 --> 01:01:14,000 Speaker 1: this company. She had already launched it while she was 1040 01:01:14,000 --> 01:01:16,440 Speaker 1: in college, but decided to concentrate on a full time 1041 01:01:16,440 --> 01:01:20,960 Speaker 1: when she was nineteen and the company was going to 1042 01:01:21,080 --> 01:01:25,760 Speaker 1: produce a a wearable medical device that would monitor a 1043 01:01:25,760 --> 01:01:30,200 Speaker 1: patient's blood and then administer medication on an as needed basis. 1044 01:01:30,240 --> 01:01:33,320 Speaker 1: So imagine wearing something that is checking your blood sugar 1045 01:01:33,800 --> 01:01:38,320 Speaker 1: and can automatically administer insulin, that kind of thing sort 1046 01:01:38,320 --> 01:01:43,520 Speaker 1: of along those lines. But um, she then kind of 1047 01:01:43,760 --> 01:01:48,320 Speaker 1: evolved that idea and decided to try and create a 1048 01:01:48,320 --> 01:01:51,880 Speaker 1: technology that would allow you to run a whole battery 1049 01:01:51,920 --> 01:01:55,520 Speaker 1: of medical tests off a single drop of blood drawn 1050 01:01:55,680 --> 01:01:57,600 Speaker 1: from the tip of a finger, so you wouldn't have 1051 01:01:57,640 --> 01:02:00,720 Speaker 1: to draw blood intravenously through like your arm or a 1052 01:02:00,720 --> 01:02:03,880 Speaker 1: lot of Yeah, especially if you're like like I've had 1053 01:02:03,920 --> 01:02:06,320 Speaker 1: to go and give like two or three vials of 1054 01:02:06,320 --> 01:02:08,280 Speaker 1: blood in order for them to run tests on me 1055 01:02:08,400 --> 01:02:10,959 Speaker 1: for for certain things, you know, and it's you know, yeah, 1056 01:02:11,000 --> 01:02:13,080 Speaker 1: not a lot of people are keen to do that. 1057 01:02:13,200 --> 01:02:15,760 Speaker 1: So if you were able to get that same amount 1058 01:02:15,760 --> 01:02:18,280 Speaker 1: of information just from one drop of blood, that would 1059 01:02:18,280 --> 01:02:22,360 Speaker 1: be amazing. And so she said that she was working 1060 01:02:22,360 --> 01:02:24,680 Speaker 1: on this technology, she had hired the right people to 1061 01:02:25,240 --> 01:02:28,959 Speaker 1: uh to really develop it, and she really did hire people. 1062 01:02:29,000 --> 01:02:31,040 Speaker 1: I mean, she had people really working on trying to 1063 01:02:31,080 --> 01:02:34,120 Speaker 1: make this a thing. It's not like this was all 1064 01:02:34,240 --> 01:02:36,640 Speaker 1: a scam. From the get go. She really was trying 1065 01:02:36,680 --> 01:02:40,600 Speaker 1: to get this to work. She got hundreds of millions 1066 01:02:40,600 --> 01:02:44,760 Speaker 1: of dollars in investments, and she decided that she went 1067 01:02:44,920 --> 01:02:50,040 Speaker 1: to UH emulate Steve Jobs and to have a company 1068 01:02:50,600 --> 01:02:54,160 Speaker 1: that was built on secrecy, siloed departments that were not 1069 01:02:54,200 --> 01:02:57,000 Speaker 1: allowed to talk to one another. She was supposed to 1070 01:02:57,000 --> 01:02:58,760 Speaker 1: be one of the only people who really knew what 1071 01:02:58,840 --> 01:03:01,880 Speaker 1: was going on, right, So she she's she's the all 1072 01:03:01,920 --> 01:03:05,240 Speaker 1: knowing she's the omniscient person. She and UH the president 1073 01:03:05,280 --> 01:03:08,240 Speaker 1: of the company's Sonny Bowani, who UH was in a 1074 01:03:08,280 --> 01:03:11,760 Speaker 1: relationship with her at the time, they're the only connective tissue, right, 1075 01:03:12,040 --> 01:03:15,840 Speaker 1: So they know everything that's going on, and they decide 1076 01:03:15,880 --> 01:03:18,920 Speaker 1: that they're going to keep getting investment money. They're going 1077 01:03:18,960 --> 01:03:23,720 Speaker 1: to keep pushing for this. They're going to talk up 1078 01:03:23,760 --> 01:03:28,040 Speaker 1: their technology even though it's not ready yet. There their 1079 01:03:28,200 --> 01:03:32,400 Speaker 1: staff is telling them, hey, the technology we're developing, it's 1080 01:03:32,440 --> 01:03:35,120 Speaker 1: great and all, except it's not reliable. It's not it's 1081 01:03:35,120 --> 01:03:37,600 Speaker 1: not where it needs to be. We need more time. 1082 01:03:37,800 --> 01:03:40,520 Speaker 1: It's They had a testing device called the Edison. They 1083 01:03:40,520 --> 01:03:42,960 Speaker 1: said that it's failure rate was very high. It was 1084 01:03:43,480 --> 01:03:46,560 Speaker 1: not reliable at all. There were meanwhile already opening up 1085 01:03:46,600 --> 01:03:50,400 Speaker 1: wellness centers and partnering with companies like Walgreens to put 1086 01:03:50,400 --> 01:03:54,920 Speaker 1: out test kits. And turned out that she was using 1087 01:03:55,080 --> 01:04:00,560 Speaker 1: a lot of standard medical equipment to actually run these tests, 1088 01:04:00,600 --> 01:04:05,040 Speaker 1: not the company's equipment, not thoranus Is equipment, because Thoraniss 1089 01:04:05,080 --> 01:04:09,080 Speaker 1: equipment wasn't reliable at all, but because she was only 1090 01:04:09,160 --> 01:04:11,200 Speaker 1: drawing this tiny you know, the kids only asked for 1091 01:04:11,240 --> 01:04:14,080 Speaker 1: this tiny amount of blood. These other off the shelf 1092 01:04:14,520 --> 01:04:18,040 Speaker 1: devices that have been used in standard practices for for years, 1093 01:04:18,720 --> 01:04:21,480 Speaker 1: they frequently would fail to just because there wasn't enough 1094 01:04:21,520 --> 01:04:24,440 Speaker 1: of a sample there. They weren't designed for a drop 1095 01:04:24,520 --> 01:04:27,400 Speaker 1: of blood that often had to be diluted with other 1096 01:04:27,480 --> 01:04:29,480 Speaker 1: liquids so that you would have a sample size large 1097 01:04:29,600 --> 01:04:33,280 Speaker 1: enough for the machinery to actually run the tests. So 1098 01:04:33,760 --> 01:04:36,520 Speaker 1: you had this company that was making huge amounts of 1099 01:04:36,520 --> 01:04:41,400 Speaker 1: money through investors and was offering up a product in 1100 01:04:41,560 --> 01:04:47,360 Speaker 1: stores in wellness centers, and they were running their actual 1101 01:04:47,400 --> 01:04:49,760 Speaker 1: tests on other people's equipment, but claiming that they were 1102 01:04:49,840 --> 01:04:54,120 Speaker 1: using their own, and eventually the floor fell out from 1103 01:04:54,200 --> 01:04:57,760 Speaker 1: under them. It took some time for that to happen. 1104 01:04:58,240 --> 01:05:00,919 Speaker 1: So she she was running this busines Is for more 1105 01:05:00,960 --> 01:05:05,200 Speaker 1: than you know, eight or nine years. UH. It wasn't 1106 01:05:05,280 --> 01:05:10,520 Speaker 1: until there was an f D a complaint that was 1107 01:05:10,560 --> 01:05:14,360 Speaker 1: happening in UH they started to investigate the company. They 1108 01:05:14,360 --> 01:05:18,480 Speaker 1: received reports that the medical tests were not accurate at all. UH. 1109 01:05:18,480 --> 01:05:21,920 Speaker 1: The Wall Street Journal investigated them, and the report of 1110 01:05:22,120 --> 01:05:24,880 Speaker 1: that said that that was where it was revealed that 1111 01:05:24,880 --> 01:05:27,560 Speaker 1: they weren't even using their own equipment to actually process 1112 01:05:27,640 --> 01:05:30,840 Speaker 1: the tests. In the SEC and the centers for Medicare 1113 01:05:30,840 --> 01:05:35,240 Speaker 1: and Medicaid services also started to investigate the company. By 1114 01:05:35,360 --> 01:05:38,680 Speaker 1: July twenty six, Holmes received a band that stated she 1115 01:05:38,680 --> 01:05:40,560 Speaker 1: would not be allowed to work in the lab testing 1116 01:05:40,600 --> 01:05:44,160 Speaker 1: industry for two years. So in October, Toranos shut down 1117 01:05:44,160 --> 01:05:46,960 Speaker 1: its lab operations and as wellness centers, but the company 1118 01:05:47,000 --> 01:05:50,120 Speaker 1: continues to exist to this day. UH. The SEC then 1119 01:05:50,200 --> 01:05:54,040 Speaker 1: charged homes and Sonny and Thronos with fraud. In March, 1120 01:05:55,600 --> 01:05:58,920 Speaker 1: Holmes ultimately gave up financial and voting control of her company. 1121 01:05:59,040 --> 01:06:02,160 Speaker 1: She also agreed to pay a half million dollar fine 1122 01:06:02,200 --> 01:06:06,320 Speaker 1: and return nearly nineteen million shares of stock. She also 1123 01:06:06,400 --> 01:06:09,080 Speaker 1: said that she would not lead a publicly traded company 1124 01:06:09,120 --> 01:06:12,600 Speaker 1: for ten years, but Thoranos isn't a publicly traded company. 1125 01:06:12,600 --> 01:06:15,880 Speaker 1: It's a private company, so she remained as CEO of 1126 01:06:16,160 --> 01:06:20,480 Speaker 1: Thuranos for the time being. H On June eighteen, she 1127 01:06:20,640 --> 01:06:23,800 Speaker 1: finally stepped down as as CEO. Sonny had been ousted 1128 01:06:23,880 --> 01:06:26,280 Speaker 1: as president in twenty sixteen. She had kicked him out 1129 01:06:26,320 --> 01:06:30,680 Speaker 1: of the company already, so in June she steps down 1130 01:06:31,280 --> 01:06:34,520 Speaker 1: and she gets indicted by a grand jury on charges 1131 01:06:34,560 --> 01:06:38,320 Speaker 1: of wire fraud, as did Sonny. And so now we're 1132 01:06:38,360 --> 01:06:42,720 Speaker 1: in the wait and see phase of how if this 1133 01:06:42,760 --> 01:06:45,040 Speaker 1: goes to trial, you know, whether or I get settled 1134 01:06:45,120 --> 01:06:46,440 Speaker 1: or if it goes to trial. If it does go 1135 01:06:46,480 --> 01:06:48,920 Speaker 1: to trial, if she found guilty or innocent. If she 1136 01:06:48,960 --> 01:06:51,000 Speaker 1: has found guilty, she could face up to twenty years 1137 01:06:51,040 --> 01:06:53,880 Speaker 1: in prison and two fifty thou dollars of fines plus 1138 01:06:53,920 --> 01:06:56,800 Speaker 1: restitution on every account she has found guilty, and there 1139 01:06:56,800 --> 01:07:03,200 Speaker 1: are eleven counts against her. So possibly really bad news. 1140 01:07:03,240 --> 01:07:05,880 Speaker 1: And um, I mean, it's terrible news for anyone who 1141 01:07:05,920 --> 01:07:09,000 Speaker 1: worked for the company who was legitimately trying to make 1142 01:07:09,040 --> 01:07:12,480 Speaker 1: this a reality. But the feeling I get from the 1143 01:07:12,520 --> 01:07:17,000 Speaker 1: reports I read is that she had she was overly 1144 01:07:17,120 --> 01:07:19,919 Speaker 1: confident in thinking that they were going to be able 1145 01:07:19,960 --> 01:07:22,840 Speaker 1: to deliver upon their promise as long as they could 1146 01:07:22,920 --> 01:07:26,200 Speaker 1: just keep running till you make it. Yeah, Like, if 1147 01:07:26,240 --> 01:07:28,000 Speaker 1: if we can just keep if we could just keep 1148 01:07:28,040 --> 01:07:30,760 Speaker 1: the illusion going a little bit longer, then reality is 1149 01:07:30,760 --> 01:07:32,200 Speaker 1: going to catch up and we're gonna be able to 1150 01:07:32,240 --> 01:07:33,960 Speaker 1: do what we said we were doing all along, and 1151 01:07:34,000 --> 01:07:36,680 Speaker 1: everything will be fine and no one will be the wiser. Um. 1152 01:07:36,840 --> 01:07:38,840 Speaker 1: That's the feeling I get when I was reading a 1153 01:07:38,880 --> 01:07:41,760 Speaker 1: lot of this stuff. But there were also a lot 1154 01:07:41,800 --> 01:07:46,640 Speaker 1: of really negative reports about her behavior in general and 1155 01:07:47,520 --> 01:07:51,920 Speaker 1: like crazy security details. She hired her brother onto the 1156 01:07:51,960 --> 01:07:54,480 Speaker 1: company despite the fact that he didn't really have any 1157 01:07:54,560 --> 01:07:58,200 Speaker 1: any experience in the field at all. Uh, and then 1158 01:07:58,200 --> 01:08:00,280 Speaker 1: he went on to apparently bring on a a bunch 1159 01:08:00,280 --> 01:08:03,200 Speaker 1: of his frat brothers to work for the comedy. They 1160 01:08:03,200 --> 01:08:10,760 Speaker 1: were called the Thorana Bros. I think it was, so, 1161 01:08:11,120 --> 01:08:14,920 Speaker 1: you know, not a great story, but again one of 1162 01:08:14,920 --> 01:08:17,320 Speaker 1: those where a lot of people who were more knowledgeable 1163 01:08:17,320 --> 01:08:20,800 Speaker 1: in the field said, being able to test just a 1164 01:08:20,880 --> 01:08:23,599 Speaker 1: single drop of blood from the tip of a finger 1165 01:08:23,760 --> 01:08:27,679 Speaker 1: for all of these different potential diseases and conditions seems 1166 01:08:27,720 --> 01:08:30,600 Speaker 1: too good to be true. It seems like this is 1167 01:08:30,720 --> 01:08:34,760 Speaker 1: a big, big ask and that it's something that is 1168 01:08:34,800 --> 01:08:37,960 Speaker 1: not likely to be possible, and as it turns out, 1169 01:08:38,040 --> 01:08:43,000 Speaker 1: they were right, it seems, and there's so many similar 1170 01:08:43,280 --> 01:08:48,559 Speaker 1: examples of scams and hoaxes like this. We we could 1171 01:08:48,600 --> 01:08:53,840 Speaker 1: spend an hour easily just on the strange claims about 1172 01:08:53,880 --> 01:08:57,880 Speaker 1: alternative power for automobiles. Yeah yeah, like one cup of 1173 01:08:57,880 --> 01:09:00,920 Speaker 1: water will make this car go six miles kind of thing, 1174 01:09:00,960 --> 01:09:06,560 Speaker 1: don't worry about how yea or or there's numerous crowdfunding 1175 01:09:06,600 --> 01:09:10,000 Speaker 1: campaigns where people and I kind of covered that in 1176 01:09:10,040 --> 01:09:13,400 Speaker 1: a previous episode about crowdfunding campaigns where things were promised 1177 01:09:13,400 --> 01:09:16,920 Speaker 1: that sounded pretty spectacular and it turned out they were 1178 01:09:16,920 --> 01:09:23,280 Speaker 1: too spectacular to exist. So valuable lessons to learn um 1179 01:09:23,360 --> 01:09:27,160 Speaker 1: By this This is why, again, why skepticism and critical 1180 01:09:27,160 --> 01:09:29,880 Speaker 1: thinking are so important. It's because not only can it 1181 01:09:30,040 --> 01:09:33,920 Speaker 1: save you from perhaps getting swept up into the enthusiasm 1182 01:09:33,960 --> 01:09:37,040 Speaker 1: around something that doesn't have any substance to it, it 1183 01:09:37,080 --> 01:09:40,200 Speaker 1: could potentially save your life or the life of someone. 1184 01:09:40,240 --> 01:09:44,040 Speaker 1: You know, if you look into something and you say, 1185 01:09:44,080 --> 01:09:46,040 Speaker 1: that doesn't sound like it's all on the up and up. 1186 01:09:46,080 --> 01:09:48,200 Speaker 1: And this is a very serious issue, so maybe we 1187 01:09:48,240 --> 01:09:51,439 Speaker 1: need to be more careful about it. Um. I mean, 1188 01:09:51,520 --> 01:09:55,599 Speaker 1: that's that's very valuable information. I mean, that's why these 1189 01:09:55,680 --> 01:10:01,320 Speaker 1: charges against homes are so serious because again, like the 1190 01:10:01,360 --> 01:10:06,000 Speaker 1: bomb detection kits, we're talking life or death kind of 1191 01:10:06,040 --> 01:10:10,400 Speaker 1: situations here. People are looking to find out if they are, 1192 01:10:11,360 --> 01:10:13,840 Speaker 1: you know, if they have a specific condition or a disease, 1193 01:10:14,280 --> 01:10:16,519 Speaker 1: and if the test comes back negative but in fact 1194 01:10:16,600 --> 01:10:20,519 Speaker 1: they do have it, then they could be wasting time 1195 01:10:20,960 --> 01:10:23,719 Speaker 1: that otherwise they might be able to use treating whatever 1196 01:10:23,760 --> 01:10:27,920 Speaker 1: that is, so uh, you know, or they might get 1197 01:10:27,920 --> 01:10:31,320 Speaker 1: a false positive which causes them undo stress while they 1198 01:10:31,400 --> 01:10:33,680 Speaker 1: try and chase down something that doesn't exist. I mean 1199 01:10:33,720 --> 01:10:38,040 Speaker 1: that it goes both ways with that, so anyway, kind 1200 01:10:38,040 --> 01:10:39,639 Speaker 1: of a bummer to end on, but I think it's 1201 01:10:39,680 --> 01:10:43,479 Speaker 1: important to talk about because it's it really drives home 1202 01:10:43,840 --> 01:10:46,479 Speaker 1: the point I was trying to make. Now, Ben, before 1203 01:10:46,520 --> 01:10:49,880 Speaker 1: I let you go, are there any any of these 1204 01:10:49,920 --> 01:10:53,280 Speaker 1: that are your particular favorite or or do you do 1205 01:10:53,360 --> 01:10:54,880 Speaker 1: you have any other ones that you were thinking of, 1206 01:10:54,920 --> 01:10:56,400 Speaker 1: like Chath and I really wish you had talked about 1207 01:10:56,400 --> 01:10:59,080 Speaker 1: this one. Oh. I think we mentioned some really cool ones, 1208 01:10:59,120 --> 01:11:04,360 Speaker 1: the water powered car or going itself, which is maybe 1209 01:11:04,479 --> 01:11:08,320 Speaker 1: something that you and I can dive into on stuff 1210 01:11:08,320 --> 01:11:10,360 Speaker 1: they don't want you to know. One of these days, 1211 01:11:10,479 --> 01:11:11,800 Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to have you in here and we're 1212 01:11:11,840 --> 01:11:16,639 Speaker 1: gonna talk about Ingrams. Ingrams. That's gonna be. That'll probably 1213 01:11:16,680 --> 01:11:20,200 Speaker 1: the last episode of tech stuff. Is that the Ingrams 1214 01:11:20,240 --> 01:11:22,160 Speaker 1: correct me if I'm off base here? Is that the 1215 01:11:22,280 --> 01:11:27,960 Speaker 1: personality test that tells you, based on four letters, four 1216 01:11:28,000 --> 01:11:32,479 Speaker 1: out of eight letters, what you are. No, that would be. 1217 01:11:32,560 --> 01:11:34,400 Speaker 1: That would be the Myers Briggs. Oh, that's what he's 1218 01:11:34,400 --> 01:11:36,680 Speaker 1: thinking about. Inagrams are where you hold a couple of 1219 01:11:36,760 --> 01:11:41,200 Speaker 1: little metal polls and you're asked questions about your personality 1220 01:11:41,240 --> 01:11:43,360 Speaker 1: and the person on the other side is possibly going 1221 01:11:43,400 --> 01:11:47,000 Speaker 1: to invite you to be part of a big organization. Yeah, yeah, dude, 1222 01:11:47,080 --> 01:11:51,439 Speaker 1: let's let's go to court together. Okay, that's all right. Well, 1223 01:11:51,920 --> 01:11:54,880 Speaker 1: if you want to listen to Ben bolan Uh, and 1224 01:11:55,000 --> 01:11:59,120 Speaker 1: you should because he's fascinating, you should definitely check out 1225 01:11:59,240 --> 01:12:02,120 Speaker 1: his shows. He's got stuff they don't want you to know, 1226 01:12:02,400 --> 01:12:07,640 Speaker 1: where you can learn all about various types of weird ideas, 1227 01:12:08,040 --> 01:12:11,760 Speaker 1: many of which have incredible validity to them, sometimes not 1228 01:12:11,840 --> 01:12:14,880 Speaker 1: in the way that you first expect. Then you could 1229 01:12:14,880 --> 01:12:18,519 Speaker 1: also listen to Ridiculous History and occasionally I'll pop on 1230 01:12:18,600 --> 01:12:22,719 Speaker 1: there and be really obnoxious, So we want to add 1231 01:12:22,720 --> 01:12:28,000 Speaker 1: this Thank you, Jonathan. Jonathan makes multiple appearances on both 1232 01:12:28,000 --> 01:12:30,320 Speaker 1: of those shows. Thanks for classing up the joint by 1233 01:12:30,360 --> 01:12:33,439 Speaker 1: the way, happy to do it. And uh, we have 1234 01:12:33,640 --> 01:12:37,800 Speaker 1: a running gag with him, be with his alter ego 1235 01:12:38,120 --> 01:12:40,519 Speaker 1: which we mentioned at the top of the show, the Quister, 1236 01:12:40,800 --> 01:12:45,160 Speaker 1: And we received some questions from people that essentially said, so, 1237 01:12:45,320 --> 01:12:50,160 Speaker 1: what so is it really a secret identity because we 1238 01:12:50,280 --> 01:12:55,200 Speaker 1: introduce him by we introduce you by your full name, 1239 01:12:55,400 --> 01:13:00,400 Speaker 1: and then just add quister Quister. So if you were 1240 01:13:00,479 --> 01:13:04,000 Speaker 1: hearing this, then you were also in on his secret identity. 1241 01:13:04,080 --> 01:13:07,080 Speaker 1: And we we invite you to check out one of 1242 01:13:07,200 --> 01:13:10,600 Speaker 1: our favorite segments of ridiculous history. And thank you for 1243 01:13:10,640 --> 01:13:13,759 Speaker 1: having me on the show. Jonathan. Absolutely, And for anyone 1244 01:13:13,840 --> 01:13:17,120 Speaker 1: who doesn't know yet, I would I would like to 1245 01:13:17,160 --> 01:13:20,760 Speaker 1: get the scoop on these new shows I've been hearing 1246 01:13:20,760 --> 01:13:23,240 Speaker 1: about you working on through the grape vine. It's episode 1247 01:13:23,240 --> 01:13:26,200 Speaker 1: one thousand one. Why not. So we have a show 1248 01:13:26,240 --> 01:13:30,320 Speaker 1: coming out soon soon, probably being within by the end 1249 01:13:30,360 --> 01:13:35,240 Speaker 1: of the summer called The Brink. And this is a 1250 01:13:35,400 --> 01:13:40,840 Speaker 1: show that is all about really pivotal moments in businesses 1251 01:13:40,880 --> 01:13:44,400 Speaker 1: and and in entrepreneurs lives where things could have gone 1252 01:13:45,040 --> 01:13:49,799 Speaker 1: one way or another and because of a tough decision, 1253 01:13:51,080 --> 01:13:53,320 Speaker 1: it unfolded a specific way. I like to call it, 1254 01:13:53,400 --> 01:13:56,160 Speaker 1: say it's it's when someone is taking a bold step 1255 01:13:56,479 --> 01:13:58,120 Speaker 1: and they don't know yet if there's going to be 1256 01:13:58,160 --> 01:14:01,880 Speaker 1: ground on the other side. That's cool, that idea of 1257 01:14:01,880 --> 01:14:05,080 Speaker 1: of the brink, So that that's should be going up 1258 01:14:05,080 --> 01:14:06,679 Speaker 1: towards the end of the summer, and then a little 1259 01:14:06,680 --> 01:14:09,040 Speaker 1: bit later there's gonna be something totally different where it's 1260 01:14:09,040 --> 01:14:12,479 Speaker 1: going to be a very geeky geek culture podcast that 1261 01:14:12,520 --> 01:14:15,160 Speaker 1: I'm doing with a friend of mine. Actually I had 1262 01:14:15,200 --> 01:14:17,240 Speaker 1: been doing with a friend of mine for quite some time, 1263 01:14:17,720 --> 01:14:20,479 Speaker 1: and how stuff works said hey, why don't we rework 1264 01:14:20,560 --> 01:14:22,600 Speaker 1: that show and bring it over here. So in the 1265 01:14:22,840 --> 01:14:26,240 Speaker 1: fall of not sure when yet, I just know what's 1266 01:14:26,280 --> 01:14:28,719 Speaker 1: going to happen. Launch in the fall, We're gonna launch 1267 01:14:28,880 --> 01:14:32,080 Speaker 1: large nerd drawn collider and my friend Ariel and I 1268 01:14:32,120 --> 01:14:35,040 Speaker 1: will sit down and talk about the geekiest news out 1269 01:14:35,080 --> 01:14:38,679 Speaker 1: there and give context to it and uh, very different 1270 01:14:38,680 --> 01:14:40,880 Speaker 1: type of show than this one, but a lot of fun. 1271 01:14:40,960 --> 01:14:43,960 Speaker 1: And I think if you consider yourself a geek or 1272 01:14:44,000 --> 01:14:46,679 Speaker 1: a fan of stuff that is in geek culture, whether 1273 01:14:46,760 --> 01:14:50,559 Speaker 1: it's the you know, it's ultimately all owned by Disney. 1274 01:14:50,680 --> 01:14:53,960 Speaker 1: We know that it's Marvel, Star Wars, Disney Films, whatever, 1275 01:14:55,360 --> 01:15:01,840 Speaker 1: pretty soon twenty century Fox. Then we are pretty certain 1276 01:15:01,880 --> 01:15:04,799 Speaker 1: that I'm pretty certain that everything I own is actually 1277 01:15:05,360 --> 01:15:08,240 Speaker 1: leased from Disney at this point. Also behind the scenes, 1278 01:15:08,320 --> 01:15:10,720 Speaker 1: and I'm sure longtime listeners, I'm sure you know this. 1279 01:15:11,400 --> 01:15:14,599 Speaker 1: Jonathan is a huge Disney fan. I'm a Disney freak. 1280 01:15:14,720 --> 01:15:17,960 Speaker 1: But large or drunk Collider is not just about Disney Sota. 1281 01:15:18,720 --> 01:15:23,439 Speaker 1: Oh and so, so congratulations on these on these new shows, 1282 01:15:23,600 --> 01:15:27,640 Speaker 1: and congratulations we're old friends, Jonathan. You and I have 1283 01:15:27,800 --> 01:15:29,880 Speaker 1: hung out for the better part of a decade now, 1284 01:15:29,920 --> 01:15:37,280 Speaker 1: which is kind of spooky. Congratulations, uh, profound congratulations on 1285 01:15:37,520 --> 01:15:41,519 Speaker 1: reaching not just episode one thousand, but one thousand and one, 1286 01:15:41,640 --> 01:15:46,840 Speaker 1: and here's two, here's to another. At least nine. Probably 1287 01:15:46,880 --> 01:15:48,360 Speaker 1: hit those in a couple of years at the rate 1288 01:15:48,400 --> 01:15:50,680 Speaker 1: that are increasing, the number that I'm putting out per week. 1289 01:15:51,680 --> 01:15:55,320 Speaker 1: But it's job security, right There we go, there we go. Well, guys, 1290 01:15:55,360 --> 01:15:57,960 Speaker 1: if you have any suggestions for future episodes of tech Stuff, 1291 01:15:58,080 --> 01:16:00,639 Speaker 1: send me a message. The email address is tech Stuff 1292 01:16:00,640 --> 01:16:02,559 Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com. Or drop me a 1293 01:16:02,600 --> 01:16:04,880 Speaker 1: line on Facebook or Twitter. The handle there is tech 1294 01:16:04,920 --> 01:16:08,000 Speaker 1: Stuff h s W. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram. 1295 01:16:08,040 --> 01:16:10,400 Speaker 1: And yes, Mr bim Bolen, I'm raising my hands for 1296 01:16:10,560 --> 01:16:14,759 Speaker 1: Jonathan because I want to return a long overdue favor. 1297 01:16:15,479 --> 01:16:18,840 Speaker 1: If you're if there's something on if there's something on 1298 01:16:18,880 --> 01:16:22,080 Speaker 1: this episode or any past or future episode of tech 1299 01:16:22,120 --> 01:16:24,840 Speaker 1: Stuff that you found objectionable, if you have a bone 1300 01:16:24,880 --> 01:16:28,639 Speaker 1: to pick or a knit to pick, please feel free 1301 01:16:28,680 --> 01:16:32,639 Speaker 1: to write specifically to the Tech Stuff conplaint Department, which 1302 01:16:32,720 --> 01:16:35,599 Speaker 1: is Ben dot Bowling at how stuff works dot com. 1303 01:16:35,920 --> 01:16:38,040 Speaker 1: I owe you. I have to make this right. I 1304 01:16:38,080 --> 01:16:40,599 Speaker 1: feel so good. I can't tell you how many times 1305 01:16:40,600 --> 01:16:42,599 Speaker 1: I've opened up an email and thought, why the heck 1306 01:16:42,640 --> 01:16:46,080 Speaker 1: am I getting this? Alright? Guys? Well, that wraps up 1307 01:16:46,080 --> 01:16:48,640 Speaker 1: for this episode. Hope you enjoyed it. Looking forward to 1308 01:16:48,640 --> 01:16:51,360 Speaker 1: episode one thousand two, and I'll talk to you again 1309 01:16:51,920 --> 01:17:00,599 Speaker 1: really soon for more on this and thousands of their topics. 1310 01:17:00,840 --> 01:17:11,960 Speaker 1: Is it how stuff works dot com