WEBVTT - Summer Reading: Robert and Julie's Picks 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.000 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:15.640 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:18.120 My name is Robert Land, and I'm Julie Douglas. If 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:20.279 you remember from last year, we did an episode where 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.200 we discussed a few summer reading picks. We you know, 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:25.880 during the summer, people go on vacations they said, on beaches, 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:28.640 or they're man they're not in school, they're not teaching. 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:31.840 For various reasons, sometimes we feel more inclined to pick 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:35.159 up a book and enjoy it. Or or you know, 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:37.239 maybe you read something that's a little out of your 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:41.880 normal reading uh diet, something maybe a little more fun 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:44.320 or a little more technical in some cases. I mean, 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:46.559 it just depends. Were just outside of the genres that 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:49.360 you like to to prance around in. Uh So, last 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:52.239 year we did the episode where we each shared a 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:55.320 little fiction, a little science, and we let you decide 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:57.880 if you wanted to read any of them. Well, everyone 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:00.680 seemed to really enjoy those of that episode, so we thought, well, 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:03.440 this year, let's do it again, except we'll do double side. 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:07.320 We'll do one episode where um, Julie and I share 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:09.480 a few more picks for you to consider. For this 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:11.920 summer's reading, and then we'll do another episode where we 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:17.119 just get some guests to share their summer reading picks. So, um, 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:19.839 this is the first of those two episodes where Julian 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:21.520 and I are going to go through some things that 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:25.560 we have read, are reading on, and plan to read. Uh, 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:27.560 and we'll see if they line up with what you 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:30.759 would like to consume with your brain this summer. That's right, 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:33.600 So get your scrunches ready, put your hair up, slather 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:36.920 on the sunscreen, get your towels ready, because we're gonna 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:40.520 give you some good stuff to consider reading in your 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:43.440 lay about hours here. Yeah, and I'm just gonna launch 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:47.480 into like quintessential beach reading right now. Okay, Now, when 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:51.040 you say quintessential beach reading, uh, it is worth worth 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:53.400 mentioning that for some people, I think beach reads people 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:57.280 think leok, get the lowest level book you can get, 0:01:57.320 --> 0:01:59.880 you know, like a straight up airport grocery store. Sole. 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:02.280 But but we were approaching all of this with the 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:04.680 understanding that the stuff of all your mind listener um 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:07.760 is going to want something that engages the mind on 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:11.200 some level exactly, which is why I thought I would 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:14.400 start with the book by David Deutsch the beginning of 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:19.919 infinity colon explanations that transform the world. I mean seriously, 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:21.640 if you are at the beach and you are staring 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:23.840 out at the horizon the waves are crashing, then you're 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:26.960 probably considering more than ever at this very moment, how 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:30.480 the universe works, what it all means, right, And yeah, 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:32.679 that's always my experience with the beach. I mean it 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:37.520 summons deep thoughts, right, So why not go on exploration 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:40.840 with David Deutsch. Um he is a pioneer in the 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:45.120 field of quantum computation, uh, the multiverse theory. He is 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:48.000 very much someone who was a proponent of that, and 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:50.600 he has a variety of ted talks that you can 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:53.200 check them out in other ways. But um, I thought 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:56.200 this book would be great to really explore, and I've 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:59.919 just now dealt into it and it has actually see 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.120 my imagination from the first page because a lot of 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:04.720 the sort of territory that he covers is stuff that 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:09.400 we have touched upon or maybe even explored ourselves. So um, 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:13.280 someone who is a great science communicator Deutsches, and he 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:16.000 can sort of bring the whole story of the universe 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.040 to us in a way that it's difficult, right to 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:22.200 try to wrap all this up in one nice package. Um, 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:25.760 but I just wanted to say a little description from 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:29.400 the publisher and he it says that he argues that 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:32.960 explanations have a fundamental place in the universe. They have 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:36.520 unlimited scope and parato cause change, and the quest to 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:40.440 improve them is the basic regulating principle not only of science, 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:43.640 but of all successful human endeavor. The stream of ever 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:47.200 improving explanations has infinite breach. This is uh, the idea 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:50.600 of infinity that he's exploring. Um, we are subject only 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:53.840 to the laws of physics, and they impose no upper 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:56.880 boundary to what we can eventually understand, control and the chieve. 0:03:57.080 --> 0:04:00.640 So he goes through all the different periods of historical 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:05.240 thoughts by humans and you know, empiricism or enlightenment, and 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:09.880 then he gets to the science revolution and says that 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:14.280 we have ideas continue to exist and knowledge is the 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:17.400 limit less and so we know. It's kind of reminded 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:19.640 me of this idea that we talked about humans being 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:24.880 meme machines, idea machines, and that our ideas just exist 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:28.400 into the future and just transmutate as they go along. 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:31.960 So anyway, very cool, book trying to scratch at this 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:36.120 idea of infinity and knowledge and and how we move 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:38.679 through the world with the information that we have available 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:40.920 to this at this very moment. Wow, the I think 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:43.920 I'm gonna definitely have to pick this one up as well. Uh, 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:46.440 in part because I dare say we shall record an 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:49.520 episode in the near future on the topic of infinity. 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:54.279 In fact, I just returned from visiting the World Science 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:56.800 Festival in New York City, where there is a There 0:04:56.880 --> 0:05:00.680 was one lecture discussion on the nature of infinity. Is 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:03.640 there such thing as infinity? It's it's it's a really 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:08.640 fascinating topic because in some disciplines, if you run into 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:11.320 an infinity, you run into a problem, because an infinity 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:15.960 is an error in the computational process. Uh. So it's 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:18.919 a fascinating topic, and this book does indeed sound like 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:22.440 a great way to spend your time, uh, contemplating reality 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:24.880 on the beach. Yes, so there you go. That's that's 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:27.080 my first pick. You want to throw one in there too, Yeah, 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:28.880 I'm gonna. I'm gonna throw them start with the one 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:31.400 that I'm really most excited about because I just finished 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:33.480 reading it. I'm still at that stage where I'm I'm 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:36.320 trying to decide if I if I really really liked it, 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:38.840 or if I actually loved it I book like this, 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:40.640 I'll I tend to give it four out of five 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:43.600 stars right off the bat, and then as I think 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:45.599 about it out the side, well, I maybe should I 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:47.640 bump it up to five stars? Didn't really have that 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:50.600 kind of an impact on me? Or should I maybe uh, 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:52.960 you know, leave it for or even move it down 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:55.360 to three, you know, as you begin to fully digest 0:05:55.400 --> 0:06:00.000 the ideas. So this book is a surface detail by 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:03.040 Scottish author Ian M. Banks. If you remember from last year, 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:05.800 I actually recommended another E. N. M. Banks sci fi 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:09.679 story called The Player of Games, which, like this book, 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:13.359 is set in the Culture Universe. The Culture Universe of 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:16.440 idean in Banks has created in in these ten different 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:21.080 books is um far future, almost kind of space opera world. 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:25.880 They are all these different galactic societies at varying levels 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:31.000 of technological advancement, with varying ideologies and uh and the 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:34.240 central civilization is called the Culture and it is a 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:39.680 very much a post singularity world where the Culture society 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:42.120 has all of these humans and pan humans in it, 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:44.240 but they kind of do what they want to the 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:46.960 for the most part, they kind of live you know this, Uh, 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:50.599 this free for all existence within the culture, while very 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:55.280 advanced artificial intelligences make all the decisions and the main 0:06:55.400 --> 0:07:00.880 artificial intelligences here are these minds that control these enormous spaceships. 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:05.400 And the culture is kind of a benevolent entity that 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:10.760 that will, to varying degrees, involve itself in other galactic communities. Uh, 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:13.280 generally with the best intentions, but not always with the 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:16.560 best of results. And uh, even though this is a 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:18.800 ten there are ten books in this series. This is 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:21.520 not a part one, part two, part three book. You 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:24.679 can essentially jump in at any point. Not every book 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:27.600 is a great first book for someone to read in 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:31.280 this series. For instance, uh, The Player of Games. I 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:33.600 think it's an excellent first culture book to read and 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:36.160 I and I have a strong feeling that surface detail 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:39.520 also would work really well for someone who had who 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:42.200 has no idea or just a faint idea about what 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:45.280 the culture consists of. So the big thing about this 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:47.320 book that I found interesting, and certainly it has a 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:50.600 number of awesome sci fi ideas running around it. There's 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:55.600 digitized consciousness, there's a space warfare, their self replicating machines, 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:58.240 because even though it's post singularity, it's a it's for 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:01.840 the most party, very positive view of a post singularity civilization. 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:04.880 There's also the dark side of post singularity as well 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:08.560 as a there's a segment of the culture that has 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.720 to deal with with taking care of self replicating machines, 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:14.960 which they call smatter in the book, and keeping them 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:18.120 from becoming too much of a problem. So is is 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.560 boredom a problem? Um? It can't. Yeah, it can be 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:25.120 for sure within the actual pan humans. Within the culture, 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:28.560 they'll The way they tend to deal with this is 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:31.920 they get involved in the benevolent aspects of the culture, 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:36.400 trying to help other civilizations, etcetera. So they become sort 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:39.640 of like they tap into their inner opress. Yeah, yeah, 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:41.000 kind of. I want to see if you would win 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:43.120 souf I said that you did not, no, no, no, 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:46.000 no kind with that. But one of the things that 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:48.760 really drug dragged me into this book is, first of all, uh, 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:50.680 I've read a few culture books in the past, but 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:53.160 then the sad news recently is that ian and Banks 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:56.120 is dying of cancer and was not not long for 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:59.240 this world. Um, which is which is awful. We're gonna 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:03.000 lose a tremendous author and a tremendous mind here, who 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:06.280 has thankfully produced a number of books, both sci fi 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:09.959 and literary fiction. Uh. But I had I had heard 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:12.480 that his more recent books had dealt more with darker 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:16.679 issues and issues of mortality. And uh. And this book, 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:19.960 even though like a very advanced, you know, sci fi book, 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:23.720 deals for the most part, with hell, with theologies of 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:27.040 hell and the problem of hell. Because imagine a world 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:30.200 in which we can digitize human consciousness. We can create 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:33.280 a digital virtual version of you by just you know, 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:36.280 scanning the brain and put that into this virtual world. 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:40.120 So the culture and various other civilizations in this universe, 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:43.480 they generally reached the point where they either developed the technology, 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:47.719 borrow the technology, or steal the technology to digitize consciousnesses 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:52.040 and create a kind of afterlife for a virtual afterlife 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:54.360 for people who have died, for individuals who have died. 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:57.680 And for the most part, these various civilizations tend to 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:00.920 take a very um positive spin on things. It's just like, 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:03.559 you know, a hedonistic heaven for those have died, or 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:06.640 some sort of peaceful place you kind of store an 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.240 intelligence in a mind that you might want to, you know, 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:10.920 a loved one you might want to talk to later, 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:13.840 or a great thinker that you might want to consult 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:18.040 with later. But inevitably, some of these civilizations hold on 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:23.200 to their arguably primitive ideas of hell. So you have 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:28.880 societies that um end up sending digitized consciousness is too 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.200 at place of eternal suffering, and that's a problem for 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:35.320 the culture. The culture doesn't think that's cool to have 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:38.280 a you know, even a virtual world where an intelligent 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:42.280 being is tortured and had and suffers just horribly for 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:46.920 some you know, unimaginable length of time. So, uh, this 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:49.640 there ends up being this war that they call the 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:52.800 War in Heaven, but it's actually a virtual war game 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:57.080 that that ends up taking place between pro hell civilizations 0:10:57.120 --> 0:11:00.680 and anti health civilizations, and the ideas it they'll they'll 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:03.959 have this virtual war and then whoever wins wins. If 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:07.400 the pro Hell side wins, then well then these these 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:10.080 few societies that cling to the idea of hell, they 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:12.120 get to keep it, they get to keep their virtual health. 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:15.320 But if the anti health side wins, well then they 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:18.200 all have to be eradicated. But in this book, there 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.360 are a number of storylines that are that are coming together, 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:26.520 and there's this increasing possibility that this, this virtual war 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:29.719 game is going to emerge into the real world as 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:34.520 an actual conflict and actual armed conflict. That's really fascinating 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:36.720 because I've been thinking about war a lot, and of 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:41.040 course only because my daughter continues to ask various questions 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:45.200 four years old and curious about war, and so that's 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:48.240 been on my mind lately. And and then I wonder 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:50.600 if you could get to a point where you could 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:54.840 play out of virtual war in society, yeah, and I 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:58.000 mean for us, and would it have the same sort 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:01.800 of dire consequences in one way or another that actual 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:05.680 war does. I mean, I'm not talking about fatality so much, 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:10.120 but more in terms of regime control or the ways 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:13.240 that we can strip our citizens of rights. Yeah. And 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:15.320 this this book does explore that territory where you know, 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:18.920 it's a situation where there's a big, huge conflict between 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:22.400 these two factions. And for the most part, they realized 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:24.439 that this is something that we can settle in a 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:28.760 virtual environment outside of actually bringing in real deaths and 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:32.840 real destruction. But then to what extent can that work? 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:35.640 Does it reach a point where it boils over into 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:38.520 the real world again. So so I found it to 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:40.920 be a really fascinating book. Um, and I recommend it 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:43.360 to anyone out there who is who's interested in sci fi, 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:46.880 who's interested in uh in a little theology, a little philosophy. 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:49.600 Uh And and I also I should always add that 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:52.199 Ian and Banks had injects a certain sense of humor 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:54.920 into it as well, so it's not just you know, 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:58.960 cold hard sci fi and cold hard philosophy. There's there's 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:03.719 some giggles thrown in there as well, so very good. Well, Um, 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:06.280 I had brought up my four year old ask me questions, 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:10.400 and so I wanted to let you guys know of 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:14.760 a book called Big Questions from Little People and Simple 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:18.000 Answers from Great Minds, And this is geared more towards 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:20.600 the four too, maybe twelve year old set, and I thought, well, 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:24.280 I really do want to do a kid centric book recommendation. Uh. 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:26.800 Last year I think it was the Magic of Reality 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:30.360 by Hawkins, and that is excellent that book, by the way, 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:32.839 although I would say that's for older children, but this 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:37.280 book is, I mean, all the questions are generated by 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:41.719 children and the answers are given by various experts we're 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:46.240 talking about Mary Roach, Richard Dawkins, Philip Pullman, David Eagleman, 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:51.880 Noam Chomsky, Mario Batali. Uh So, just a variety of 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:55.280 different people and the questions very I mean, it can 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:57.840 be uh you know, sort of the wrote stuff like 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:01.280 who named all the cities? Anyway? To do aliens exist? 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:05.720 What makes me me? Is it okay to eat a worm? Uh? 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:09.120 Can a beasting another? B? Why are some people mean? 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:14.800 Why is the or why is space so sparkly? Um? 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:17.360 And it really it's one of those kind of books 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:19.080 in the in the explanations that I've given are so 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:22.080 pithy and great and oftentimes have a lot of humor 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:25.520 that even if you think you know the answer to 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:28.480 this question as an adult, it will be reframed for 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:31.440 you in another way and you'll definitely learn something from it. 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:33.720 In My four year old loves it. Well, just flip 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:35.080 through it every once in a while and let's just 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:38.520 say that one and when we discuss it. But anyway, 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:40.640 it's a it's a great kind of book for for 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:43.800 kids who are coming online in terms of expanding their 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:47.520 consciousness about the various topics in life, like hey, why 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:51.440 are people mean? Why is the uh nighttime skuys so 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:55.520 sparkly and it kind of gets at the meat of 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:59.360 those questions, which is pretty great. Cool. Well, my next 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:03.080 recommendation is is a science book, and this one is 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:06.960 is definitely aimed at, you know, more more grown audience, 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:09.960 though younger minds well I think also find plenty of 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:12.480 of wonderful things in it as well. And the book 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:15.560 is called Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments by 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:19.840 Alex Bows. Alex's his his line of study is the 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:23.920 history of science, and this book is a it's it's 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:26.400 a great one. It's a great book to just pick 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:29.600 up and so sort of flip through and find something 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:33.400 interesting and start reading it, because, uh, there are several chapters. 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:35.680 In each chapter has all these subdivisions. Each to each 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:39.720 subdivision an interesting look and an actual scientific experiment or 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:43.280 series of experiments that have taken place, generally experiments with 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:46.280 kind of a either a surface level weirdness, you know, 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:47.920 one of those where you're you're like, well, why did 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:50.640 they you know, why are they giving Latte's two cockroaches? 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:52.000 That doesn't make any sense? And then you then you 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:54.160 read it and you're like, oh, well, of course if 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:56.840 they had not given latte to cockroaches, we would not 0:15:56.920 --> 0:15:58.840 have this vital information. And then some of the other 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:01.920 ones are kind of reverse like, oh, well that seems reasonable, 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:04.600 but wow, they didn't really carry that out right. This 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:07.280 book gets its title from a nineteen sixty to experiment 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:10.960 that saw Oklahoma's School of Medicine researchers dose an elephant 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:14.800 named Tusco with l s D. Uh. Last, of course, 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:18.520 is the llucogen the artificial lucogens that we've talked about 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:21.640 in the previous episodes. Um. Not only did they give 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:24.800 Tusco the elephant LSD, they gave Tusco the largest dose 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:28.120 of LSD ever administered to a single organism, two D 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:31.560 ninety seven milligrams. That's three thousand times the level of 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:34.400 a human dose. Now, it's worth noting that at this 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.400 time everyone was getting in on LSD research. Okay, was 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:40.600 this is the heyday of LSD research and uh, and 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:42.840 we were fascinated by its effects on the human mind 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:46.360 and the way we we observe the world. Also, as uh, 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:49.040 as the author points out, UH, this was also a 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:52.080 time when the CIA was very interested in military applications 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:54.080 of l s D, so they funneled tons of money 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:58.760 through front organizations to various American LSD research projects. So 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:01.760 uh no, we're not sure. We can't say one we 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:07.440 or another. Uh if this particular experiment benefited from CIA funds, 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:09.480 but a number of them down. A lot of people 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:13.199 got their hands into that candy jar. So uh, this uh, 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:16.959 this is kind of a tragic experiment though, because of 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:19.600 what happens is that they they had a syringe of 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:23.800 this LST again, two seven milligrams of three thousand times 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:27.560 the level of human dosage injected into Tusco, and Tusco 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:32.720 staggers a bit, uh, trumpets his his trunk falls over 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:36.879 and seems to have a seizure. So they administer milligrams 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:39.879 of anti psychotics. The seizures subside a little, but not 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:43.200 much so. Then then they administer a bunch of barbagurates uh, 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:46.080 and Tusco dies a few minutes later. So it's sad, 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:48.560 not the first time an elephant has died neediously in 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:54.399 the scientifically experiment um, but but sad. Nonetheless, they performed 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.600 in that cropsy revealed that it died from asphyxiation. His 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:00.200 throat muscles had closed up, and there's a film this 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:03.440 somewhere in the u c l A archives, but it's 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:05.720 never been made public for obvious reasons. This was a 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:09.080 huge embarrassment. This was uh. It showed up in all 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.200 the papers. There were some misinformation floating about as well. 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:15.199 There was some information about how the researchers may have 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:18.760 had LSD themselves um earlier in the week, and that 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:20.720 led to some people saying, well, were they on LSD 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:23.679 when they get the elephant? LSD? There was, it was, 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:27.440 it was. It was not a pleasant story for anyone involved. 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:30.200 I can't imagine like that happened today. Can you imagine 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:33.880 the fun politicians would have with that. I mean, I'm 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:37.520 actually surprised that didn't become LSD gate back then. Yeah. Well, 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:41.520 in nineteen nine, another U c l A researcher came 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:44.400 along and he decided to follow up dozing two elephants 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:48.520 with LSD. But here's here's the catch, under much more control. 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:51.840 And the guy doing it was Ronald Siegel. And Ronald 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:53.879 Siegel was one of the world's leading experts on the 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:56.520 effects of Hallucingen's on animals, so he brought a lot 0:18:56.600 --> 0:19:00.200 more experience, a lot more control, and he had a 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:03.760 bad example to look back on. He was not involved 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:07.200 in the first experiment, but he benefited from their missteps. 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:09.800 So he did it a few things differently. Uh, he 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:12.520 put LSD in the animals water instead of a syringe, 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:14.919 and then that didn't then didn't let the elephants have 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:17.560 any water for twelve hours, so they came in thirsty. 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:21.640 But they're not getting that skyrocket effect all at once. 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:24.240 It's more of a gradual um. And they used two 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:26.840 dose wages, one for each elephant, one with a lower dose, 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:29.800 one with a higher and the higher one was actually 0:19:29.880 --> 0:19:34.000 proportionally equivalent to what Tusco had, not in terms of 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:37.840 the actual amount of the drug, but proportionately to its body. 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:39.880 And this is, you know, it's important for a number 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:42.239 of reasons. First of all, he wanted to correct the 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:45.600 problems of that first study. You know, let's let's and 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:48.240 figure out what happened, like why did the elephant die. 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:49.879 Did the elephant die because it had all of this 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:52.639 LSD in its system or was it the cocktail of 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:55.000 other things that they administered after the fact, you know 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:57.920 what was going on here. So so that they conducted 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:00.520 the experiment, the the elephants acted a little weird but 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:02.560 there were no seizures. There was just one of them 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:05.560 took an extended hay bath. Uh. It was a much 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:08.880 more pleasant story. So so it gave us a little 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:12.760 more insight into what what happens when packet erms take 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:16.960 hallucinogenic drugs and and also helped us better understand what 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:19.880 happened with this first disastrous attempt. So that's just one 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:22.800 of the studies that is looked at in the in 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:24.399 this book, and you can flip through it. There's all 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:26.919 sorts of stuff you want, stuff having to do with automobiles, 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:31.320 you know, digestion um cats. Oh, that there were a 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:33.960 way to measure whether or not the elephants were more 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:38.840 open as elephants as packetderms after really experience you know, yeah, 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:44.200 I don't know. I mean, what are elephant doors of perception? Anyway, 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:48.800 they were, They're very large, I'm sure. Nice. All right, 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:51.040 we're gonna take a quick break and when we get 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:55.320 back more books. We're talking to graphic novels, uh, novel 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:58.679 from an Icelandic author and all sorts of stuff, So 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:15.080 we'll be right back. Hey, we're back. We're continuing with 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:18.200 Julian and I summer reading recommendations to you the listener. 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:22.280 A mix of fiction, mix of science, a little science 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:25.359 fiction and even a little comics. So Julie take it 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:29.480 all right. So here is my little guilty pleasure. Here 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:33.040 this this summer. It is The Hitman's Guide the House Cleaning. 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:36.679 It is by hal Garum Halston and this is his 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:40.800 first book in English. He is an Icelandic author crime fiction, 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:43.679 very very dark humor. I cannot wait to read this. 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:45.919 My my husband actually get us for me. Let me 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:48.440 just kind of give you a quick synopsis of this book. 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:53.159 It is about this Croatian hit man. He worked for 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:57.040 the Croatian mafia. His name is Toxic. His real name 0:21:57.080 --> 0:22:01.600 is Thomas Loves Toxic and that he has sixties six 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:04.560 flawless hits under his belt. Of course number sixty seven. 0:22:04.600 --> 0:22:07.399