July 11, 2016 • 8 mins
The U.S. has a Transhumanist Party presidential candidate: What IS transhumanism? A car accident is raising questions about the safety and responsibility of autonomous vehicles. Plus, a study indicates that marijuana has a long-term impact on emotions.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to House to Works Now. I'm your host, Lauren Vogelbaum,
a researcher and writer. Here at House to Works. Every week,
I'm bringing you three stories from our team about the
weird and wondrous developments we've seen in science, technology, and culture.
This week, we're talking about trans humanism, the social theory
(00:20):
that says, for better or worse, that we're on our
way to becoming something more than we currently are. And unrelated,
a study into marijuana indicates that the drug does indeed
change the way that we process emotions. But first text
of host Jonathan Strickland discusses the recent Tesla car accident
that brought up important questions about autonomous cars, driver safety,
(00:42):
and corporate responsibility. In its current form, is a technology
more of a danger than a boon. The fatal accident
happened on May seven and involved Joshua Brown, the owner
of a Tesla Model S. Brown's vehicle was an autopilot mode,
a Tesla feature that's still in beta testing. Brown's car
(01:02):
collided with a big rigs trailer as the truck crossed
traffic while making a left hand turn. According to Tesla,
on the day of the crash, the sky was brightly lit,
making it difficult for both Brown and the Model s's
camera system to see the rigs trailer. On top of that,
the car's radar system didn't register the rig because it
misidentified the trailer as an overhead road sign. Later in May,
(01:24):
Tesla held a shareholders meeting. At that time, the company
had yet to disclose the autopilot accident to the public.
Though it had alerted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,
it wasn't until the end of June that information about
the incident became public knowledge. Some critics are saying that
Tesla should have acknowledged the accident ahead of the shareholder
meeting as a material fact, because the company has advertised
(01:46):
autopilot as a safe and important feature. Tesla founder Elon
Musk responded by saying autopilot, if it had been universally
available in twenty would have saved as many as five
hundred thousand lives, So who is right? Is autopilot dangerous
or a lifesaver? First, while autopilot sounds like it could
be an autonomous driving mode, Tesla has always maintained that
(02:09):
it's a driver assist feature. The company says that drivers
should keep their hands on the steering wheel at all times.
In fact, drivers must acknowledge this requirement in order to
opt into the beta test and activate autopilot. Second, Tesla
pointed out that this incident, while awful, represents the first
fatality in more than one thirty million miles of Tesla
vehicles in autopilot mode. That's lower than the average number
(02:31):
of desk per miles driven. In the US, there's a
fatality every nine million miles, and globally the figure is
one in every sixty million miles. Third, the autopilot feature
is still in beta testing, meaning Tesla is continuously modifying
and improving it. It's not a final product. That said,
perhaps it's time to acknowledge that autopilot isn't the best
(02:52):
name for a driver assist system. Next up, Ben Vallen,
host of stuff they don't want you to know, reports
on a study of marijuana use. We've all seen the
after school specials and the scare stories, But what if
we'd really does rob you of your emotions? Apparently it does,
(03:15):
sort of. It's better to say that marijuana changes the
way we process them, lowering our ability to notice some
emotions while heightening our sensitivity to others. A study by
Lucy Troop and assistant professor at Colorado State University found
that cannabis used significantly affects our ability to implicitly recognize
and empathize with the emotions of others. Here's how the
(03:37):
study worked. Over the course of two years, Troop and
her grad students experimented with about seventy volunteers. Each volunteer
was asked to identify her or himself as a chronic, moderate,
or non cannabis user. They hooked these volunteers up to
e g s and began showing them faces depicting four
expressions like neutral, happy, fearful, or angry. The e g
(04:01):
s monitored what happened in specific regions of the brain
when the volunteers saw these four types of faces. Troop
first asked the pot enthusiasts and the herbal teetotalers to
explicitly identify an emotion like look at this face, what
do you think this person feels? In this regard, all
three groups functioned at about the same level. However, when
(04:22):
asked to identify the gender of the face and then
later being quizzed about the emotion, Troop and her team
found some weird stuff. The cannabis users were really really
bad at it, like so bad. While they could explicitly
identify emotions, the second experiment asked them to implicitly register
the feelings of others. Cannabis users had a smaller response
(04:45):
to positive emotions those happy faces. Ah. But here's the
plot twist. The same cannabis users were found to be
more sensitive to negative emotions, especially anger. Are they just
used to having to be cool around authority figures and
avoid being busted? I'm kidding. Probably not. Since all of
the users were legal under Colorado's Amendment sixty four, Troop
(05:05):
and her team aimed to conduct a second study focusing
on mood disorders like depression or for the paranoid smokers
out their anxiety. It's important research, especially considering how marijuana's
legal status has until very recently hampered attempts to conduct
meaningful studies on its effects. Finally, this week, Robert Lamb,
(05:31):
host of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, explore some of
the ideas surrounding trans humanism, what it is, different schools
within it, and some of the ways that humans of
the future might upgrade. Trans Humanists just held their augmented
World Expo in San Jose. In the broadest possible terms,
(05:52):
trans humanism is all about the improvement of the human
condition through science and technology. We're talking Homo sapiens two
point oh here are upgraded via technology to become smarter
and stronger. You have the particulars of the vision, run
the gamut of existing human politics, and encompass everything from
mere science driven culture to the outright evolution of the
human species. For starters, just consider some of the various
(06:15):
schools of trans humanism to emerge since the nineteen eighties.
We've got democratic trans humanists who want advancements for every
socio economic level, libertarian trans humanist, and a narco trans
humanists who think advancements will elevate us all just fine
if the government stays out of it. We also have
survivalist trans humanists who just want to defeat death. You've
got singultarians who see trans humanism as an inevitable outcome
(06:39):
of the technological singularity. We can't avoid it. All we
can do is prepare for it and manage the outcome. Meanwhile,
trans human heatonists just want to feel good, and religious
trans humanist weave it all together with their faith those
are just a few of the approaches. In any case,
the next big question is how will we know we've
become trans human. In two thousand eleven, bioef is Kyle
(07:00):
mcintry presented seven potential indicators. First, we need to reach
the point where prosthetic limbs and implanted organs are actually
improvements over the original. We're not there yet. Second, will
need to have better brains by virtue of neuro implants
and cybernetics. We're talking a step beyond pharmaceutical power ups here,
and we have to be clear that it's not cheating,
(07:22):
not brain doping, but a desired upgrade and human cognition.
We're not quite there yet either. Third, artificial intelligence and
augmented reality would need to be a part of everyday
life now. Based on the phone app that basically drove
me to work this morning, I think we're at least
getting there. Fourth will want an average human lifespan of
roughly a hundred and twenty years. Fifth, according to mckintrick,
(07:44):
will want human reproduction to transcend into more of a
responsible planning choice. Some work to be done on both
of those. Sixth will each need total legal bodily freedom
to engage in the sort of cybernetic upgrades necessary to
achieve a higher human form. Right now, that's tie up
in a lot of governmental red tape. In seventh, mucin
Trick argues, we need a strong value of personhood for
(08:06):
qualifying non human entities such as artificial intelligences and dolphins.
After all, no one wants to upgrade themselves out of
their basic human rights. Right That's our show for this week.
Thank you so much for tuning in. Subscribe now for
more of the latest and strangest science news, and send
(08:28):
us links to anything you'd like to hear us cover
plus your favorite web comic. Shoot us an email at
now podcast at how stuff works dot com. Look up
the podcasts, Stuff to blow your mind, tech stuff and
stuff they don't want you to know. To hear more
from our hosts, and to access thousands of other stories
like these, check out our home Planet Now dot how
stuff works dot com.
Welcome to House to Works Now. I'm your host, Lauren Vogelbaum,
a researcher and writer. Here at House to Works. Every week,
I'm bringing you three stories from our team about the
weird and wondrous developments we've seen in science, technology, and culture.
This week, we're talking about trans humanism, the social theory
(00:20):
that says, for better or worse, that we're on our
way to becoming something more than we currently are. And unrelated,
a study into marijuana indicates that the drug does indeed
change the way that we process emotions. But first text
of host Jonathan Strickland discusses the recent Tesla car accident
that brought up important questions about autonomous cars, driver safety,
(00:42):
and corporate responsibility. In its current form, is a technology
more of a danger than a boon. The fatal accident
happened on May seven and involved Joshua Brown, the owner
of a Tesla Model S. Brown's vehicle was an autopilot mode,
a Tesla feature that's still in beta testing. Brown's car
(01:02):
collided with a big rigs trailer as the truck crossed
traffic while making a left hand turn. According to Tesla,
on the day of the crash, the sky was brightly lit,
making it difficult for both Brown and the Model s's
camera system to see the rigs trailer. On top of that,
the car's radar system didn't register the rig because it
misidentified the trailer as an overhead road sign. Later in May,
(01:24):
Tesla held a shareholders meeting. At that time, the company
had yet to disclose the autopilot accident to the public.
Though it had alerted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,
it wasn't until the end of June that information about
the incident became public knowledge. Some critics are saying that
Tesla should have acknowledged the accident ahead of the shareholder
meeting as a material fact, because the company has advertised
(01:46):
autopilot as a safe and important feature. Tesla founder Elon
Musk responded by saying autopilot, if it had been universally
available in twenty would have saved as many as five
hundred thousand lives, So who is right? Is autopilot dangerous
or a lifesaver? First, while autopilot sounds like it could
be an autonomous driving mode, Tesla has always maintained that
(02:09):
it's a driver assist feature. The company says that drivers
should keep their hands on the steering wheel at all times.
In fact, drivers must acknowledge this requirement in order to
opt into the beta test and activate autopilot. Second, Tesla
pointed out that this incident, while awful, represents the first
fatality in more than one thirty million miles of Tesla
vehicles in autopilot mode. That's lower than the average number
(02:31):
of desk per miles driven. In the US, there's a
fatality every nine million miles, and globally the figure is
one in every sixty million miles. Third, the autopilot feature
is still in beta testing, meaning Tesla is continuously modifying
and improving it. It's not a final product. That said,
perhaps it's time to acknowledge that autopilot isn't the best
(02:52):
name for a driver assist system. Next up, Ben Vallen,
host of stuff they don't want you to know, reports
on a study of marijuana use. We've all seen the
after school specials and the scare stories, But what if
we'd really does rob you of your emotions? Apparently it does,
(03:15):
sort of. It's better to say that marijuana changes the
way we process them, lowering our ability to notice some
emotions while heightening our sensitivity to others. A study by
Lucy Troop and assistant professor at Colorado State University found
that cannabis used significantly affects our ability to implicitly recognize
and empathize with the emotions of others. Here's how the
(03:37):
study worked. Over the course of two years, Troop and
her grad students experimented with about seventy volunteers. Each volunteer
was asked to identify her or himself as a chronic, moderate,
or non cannabis user. They hooked these volunteers up to
e g s and began showing them faces depicting four
expressions like neutral, happy, fearful, or angry. The e g
(04:01):
s monitored what happened in specific regions of the brain
when the volunteers saw these four types of faces. Troop
first asked the pot enthusiasts and the herbal teetotalers to
explicitly identify an emotion like look at this face, what
do you think this person feels? In this regard, all
three groups functioned at about the same level. However, when
(04:22):
asked to identify the gender of the face and then
later being quizzed about the emotion, Troop and her team
found some weird stuff. The cannabis users were really really
bad at it, like so bad. While they could explicitly
identify emotions, the second experiment asked them to implicitly register
the feelings of others. Cannabis users had a smaller response
(04:45):
to positive emotions those happy faces. Ah. But here's the
plot twist. The same cannabis users were found to be
more sensitive to negative emotions, especially anger. Are they just
used to having to be cool around authority figures and
avoid being busted? I'm kidding. Probably not. Since all of
the users were legal under Colorado's Amendment sixty four, Troop
(05:05):
and her team aimed to conduct a second study focusing
on mood disorders like depression or for the paranoid smokers
out their anxiety. It's important research, especially considering how marijuana's
legal status has until very recently hampered attempts to conduct
meaningful studies on its effects. Finally, this week, Robert Lamb,
(05:31):
host of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, explore some of
the ideas surrounding trans humanism, what it is, different schools
within it, and some of the ways that humans of
the future might upgrade. Trans Humanists just held their augmented
World Expo in San Jose. In the broadest possible terms,
(05:52):
trans humanism is all about the improvement of the human
condition through science and technology. We're talking Homo sapiens two
point oh here are upgraded via technology to become smarter
and stronger. You have the particulars of the vision, run
the gamut of existing human politics, and encompass everything from
mere science driven culture to the outright evolution of the
human species. For starters, just consider some of the various
(06:15):
schools of trans humanism to emerge since the nineteen eighties.
We've got democratic trans humanists who want advancements for every
socio economic level, libertarian trans humanist, and a narco trans
humanists who think advancements will elevate us all just fine
if the government stays out of it. We also have
survivalist trans humanists who just want to defeat death. You've
got singultarians who see trans humanism as an inevitable outcome
(06:39):
of the technological singularity. We can't avoid it. All we
can do is prepare for it and manage the outcome. Meanwhile,
trans human heatonists just want to feel good, and religious
trans humanist weave it all together with their faith those
are just a few of the approaches. In any case,
the next big question is how will we know we've
become trans human. In two thousand eleven, bioef is Kyle
(07:00):
mcintry presented seven potential indicators. First, we need to reach
the point where prosthetic limbs and implanted organs are actually
improvements over the original. We're not there yet. Second, will
need to have better brains by virtue of neuro implants
and cybernetics. We're talking a step beyond pharmaceutical power ups here,
and we have to be clear that it's not cheating,
(07:22):
not brain doping, but a desired upgrade and human cognition.
We're not quite there yet either. Third, artificial intelligence and
augmented reality would need to be a part of everyday
life now. Based on the phone app that basically drove
me to work this morning, I think we're at least
getting there. Fourth will want an average human lifespan of
roughly a hundred and twenty years. Fifth, according to mckintrick,
(07:44):
will want human reproduction to transcend into more of a
responsible planning choice. Some work to be done on both
of those. Sixth will each need total legal bodily freedom
to engage in the sort of cybernetic upgrades necessary to
achieve a higher human form. Right now, that's tie up
in a lot of governmental red tape. In seventh, mucin
Trick argues, we need a strong value of personhood for
(08:06):
qualifying non human entities such as artificial intelligences and dolphins.
After all, no one wants to upgrade themselves out of
their basic human rights. Right That's our show for this week.
Thank you so much for tuning in. Subscribe now for
more of the latest and strangest science news, and send
(08:28):
us links to anything you'd like to hear us cover
plus your favorite web comic. Shoot us an email at
now podcast at how stuff works dot com. Look up
the podcasts, Stuff to blow your mind, tech stuff and
stuff they don't want you to know. To hear more
from our hosts, and to access thousands of other stories
like these, check out our home Planet Now dot how
stuff works dot com.
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