How Primitive Will Our Descendants Find Us? | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. [Music]. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. too and this is stuff you should know. the last edition of the two to the o to. the deuce tray oh is this our final of. the year it is it's the last one of 2023. Chuck we we've recorded.

all of the episodes that we're ever. going to record in the year 2023 isn't. that amazing yeah and hey you know since. you brought that up can I say something. sure uh Spotify who carries our show as. do all platforms uh they have this. really cool thing they send out called. the rap. WAP uh I guess is in year-end wrap-up. kind of thing and they send they sent us. as a show our own statistical analysis. but then they send indiv idual users.

their own and we just had a lot of great. uh listeners sending us in their rap. statistics like hey I'm in the the top. 1% of stuff you should know listenership. and uh it was just really neat to see. all that stuff coming in so thank you it. really is it's amazing everybody's so. proud of it it's so great to see so no. matter what percentage you're in if you. are proud enough to send an email or. post it kudos to you because we're proud. of you right back I do think though. Chuck that we probably should shout out.

the person who wrote in with the Far and. Away the the largest number of listening. minutes according to Spotify yeah who's. that that is aravan. canera who is in the top. 05% of listeners and based on the 80,000. plus. 86772 minutes I don't see how there. could be anybody else in that you know. in the the the.

remaining what. 05% left yeah I did a little back of the. envelope math and that that's something. somewhere between like 25 and 30 hours. of stuff you should know a week yeah. that just that's a lot doesn't seem. possible so I have suspicions that this. person might have just played it on a. loop so they could you know and then. just went out shopping or whatever I. don't know I think aravan strikes me as. a pretty uh a pretty straightforward. person so congats to a and also.

seriously thank you to everybody who. listens to us so much that you get. statistics at the end of the year that. make you proud I mean that's amazing. guys thank you very much yeah and thanks. to Spotify that's a cool service that. they uh or I don't know is that a. service whatever it's a cool thing they. do it is it's a service it's a public. service we were downloaded in 163. countries I didn't know there were that. many countries which is uh we looked it. up it was actually something like 190 so. like that's most of the countries.

yeah I would say that's the vast. majority of them and by the way. everybody I knew that there were more. countries than that I was joking uh and. quickly I saw that I don't know if you. went through that uh Yet Josh but we our. third biggest country of growth was. Mexico oh no way and I'm gaming I'm. gaming I'm uh. aiming for a show in Mexico City I'd. like to do that we just don't know if. like people would come so you know if we. can get like a thousand people in a room. in Mexico City think that might be a fun.

thing to do yeah especially if it's a. room with seats yeah so we we should get. at least 500 emails saying at least two. people will come and then that means we. might. go uh all right so anyway should we get. on with uh barbaric. practices uh yeah let's because um I. find this endlessly fascinating Olivia. helped us with this and basically what. we're doing here is reversing what we. already kind of like to do smugly which.

is look back 50 100 200 years and be. like look at how backwards and. Antiquated those people were back then. um like even as recently as the '90s I. remember in the mid 90s I was I smoked. on an airplane on the way to Amsterdam. yeah and like there was it was just like. the last three rows were smoking but. it's not like it was sectioned off there. wasn't even a curtain it's just like. this is the smoking section even though. the entire plane's being covered in your. cigarette smoke this was the '90s man.

yeah the first time I flew to Europe. there was smoking uh and like that was. would have been. 96 yeah I mean imagine that today I mean. you would literally go to federal prison. if you tried to light a cigarette on a. on an airplane. today you know yeah I mean it's about. the fire but sure yeah a few decades. before that um there was jello salad. where was all the rage and like the. weirdest jello salad if you've never.

just kind of taken a stroll down memory. lane and and looked up like pictures of. jello molds from the 50s to the 70s yeah. treat yourself and go do that but make. sure you have not had lunch yet cuz. you're you're going to want to gag when. you see a lot of them that's another fun. thing to judge people for being stupid. with Jello because I don't know if we. said it yet we're going to do the. opposite of that we're going to look. forward and try to figure out what our. descendants are going to ridicule us or. look down at us about right what will we. seem primitive or barbaric or ridiculous.

about that's right uh but what we have. before us are seven I think a little. more serious things than Jello. molds and spanking kids is is on up. there uh however it really depends on. who you ask because uh about half of. Americans still think uh and this is a. quote and this from a survey a couple. years ago from the American Family. survey uh quote it is sometimes. necessary to discipline a child with a.

good hard spanking and half of those. respondents said almost under their. breath feels so. right yeah uh I mean big change from you. know back in the day they have another. stat from 68 when 94% of parents said. yeah hit your kids it's awesome quite a. drop that's a big drop uh but things are. really changing because a third of the. respondents between 18 and. 29 um agree with spanking compared to.

50% of the overall survey so it it's. something that's going out of fashion. for sure yeah it seems to be following a. larger trend of um moving away from. social acceptance of violence in any. form and it's being supported by studies. that find like yeah it's actually good. if you don't spank your kids because not. only has there never been a study that. shows it improves children's Behavior. study after study keeps suggesting it.

does the opposite it actually Mal. adjusts children I mean I can't imagine. what a well adjusted person I would be. if I hadn't been spank that handful of. times when I was a kid yeah you know I I. was we're always trying to poke around. to find you know the other opinion on. something just to take a look at it uh. and you know there are people who don't. agree uh I saw this one Professor uh. from the Oklahoma State Robert. lelli I can't even read my own. handwriting now but he said that the.

studies that are out there are flawed. for a couple of reasons uh one he says. these studies that say that if you spank. kids more they're that leads to them. actually acting out more he's saying no. kids it's the kids that are acting out. more that are it's a chicken in the egg. thing yes I've seen those the ones. getting spanked more I've seen that and. I I think I found in a a Scientific. American article there was at least one. group that managed to control for that. and basically if shown like no it's it's.

it actually does have this effect on. kids the the problem that L what' you. say lar Elli um I think so if my writing. is any indicator that what lar Elli is. saying is that these studies don't you. they don't start following kids right. and from like birth to 25 or 30 and then. see you know where you spanked where you. not spanked it's all just like they. might they might peek in on a kid who's. in the at the spanking age yeah yeah and.

look at their behavior then and you just. can't parse it apart so there's not. really good quality studies but I saw it. put like this even if there are no. studies that conclusively show spanking. is bad for kids or produces maladjusted. behavior in. kids there there are plenty of studies. that seem to suggest that there aren't. any studies that seem to suggest other. wise that it's it's actually good it's.

actually it's effective to spank your. kids and so the the argument that I've. seen is like why why do it then yeah I. saw a first of all I'm a parent I can't. in a million years imagine hitting Ruby. for any reason that's nice it makes me. want to cry just thinking about that. it's terrible uh for our family um but I. did find a study from 2018 that I found. uh from NPR uh they didn't do the study.

but they were you know did a a thing on. it oh I'm sure they were hot and heavy. on of course uh it was what they claim. and it seems like probably one of the. most robust studies at least that looks. at countries that have banned spanking. because uh I think something like 62. countries have banned spanking uh. starting with Sweden in 1979 did you. even know there were that many countries. yeah.

uh but they followed four or they they. used 400,000 children yeah from kids. from 88 countries so that's that's. pretty good uh 58 countries have the. bands and 30 don't I'm not sure which. one it is but uh what they found one uh. what they were tracking was incidences. of kids fighting like you know getting. in fights at school right and in the. countries that have banned spanking uh. there was a school fighting reduction by. 69% in boys. wow and.

42% in girls wow which is I mean that is. pretty. substantial uh I was curious about the. United States because you know we both. grew up like my dad was my Elementary. School principal and they were he. spanked me and other kids it's. ridiculous to think about M but uh. apparently in 77 the Supreme Court of. the United States gave the power to the. states uh these days 90% of schools. don't use corporal punishment but it is. still legal. in 17 States uh there are restrictions.

in place in a lot of those like maybe. your parents have to sign a thing that. said sure hit my. kid says but 177% of States you can. still do this uh with Mississippi. leading the way and the most spankings. uh and the other thing I found out that. we should point out is that uh black. males are twice as uh likely to be. spanked than anyone and get this 60.

.5% of kids that are corporately. punished in schools in America today are. disabled um oh my God usually it's an. intellectual disability wow is that not. disturbing yeah of course it's. disturbing that's horrible that's one of. the most horrible statistics you've ever. spouted out and I should say also just. want to verify for the listeners in any. of those 62 countries where spanking is. banned you're talking about. like public spanking like in school in.

17 States in schools you're allowed to. do that right yes a the teacher or a. principal uh and they say it's you know. and this is one of the other problems. that that Professor had is is that those. studies he says lump everyone in. together uh as in like the parents who. do it as the very last resort after. several other attempts at discipline or. parents are just like oh you screwed up. you know let's let's hit you or whatever. mhm and apparently most you know almost.

all the schools it is a last resort as. in they've tried other things but you. know it's just I don't know I try not to. judge people but don't hit your kids. well I was going to say it's it's legal. in 17 States for schools to spank kids. it's legal in all 50 states for a parent. to spank kids that's there there's not. really anything coming down the Horizon. that makes it seem like that's ever. going to be banned but it does seem. generationally like we're moving away.

from spanking pretty rapidly yeah my my. spankings as a kid were very uh. infrequent mhm and very organized as in. it was never done in the heat of anger. like just getting slapped or something. it was like all right go to the bathroom. and spend 10 minutes you know upset and. scared and then I got spanked with a uh. a bolo paddle you know the little bolo. paddle games I know the bolo tie no the. bolo paddle where where you little light. plywood paddle with a ball on a rubber.

band that's that was the spanking device. in my house those things are made of. like balsa wood yeah it wasn't too bad. it stung but you know how about all of. your spankings at gr a grownup that's. usually involves leather. okay you uh you want to move on to the. next one yeah let's let's move on to. chemotherapy okay so chemotherapy is one. of these things where um if you start. kind of putting it down today what. you're talking about is our current.

modern medical miracle that since the 9s. has has reduced the cancer death rate by. 25% yeah it's a really big deal that we. have chemotherapy now it's saved a lot. of lives yeah this is not poo poo in. chemotherapy no it's not um the reason. why we can probably guess that our. descendants down the line um are going. to look at chemotherapy as fairly. primitive and barbaric is because it's. so indiscriminate yeah in how it harms.

the body it harms the whole body in. order to kill the cancer cells right um. and we're moving it seems like much more. toward far far more specific and. tailored medicine and so um all of the. side effects and the horribleness that. come with chemotherapy even though it. does save lives um will will be going. away in future decades it looks like. yeah and it seems like and we're going. to talk about a a few ways that things. are becoming uh more specific but that.

that seems to be the way it's all trying. to go is instead of just like killing. all the cells let's see if they can just. specifically Target cancer cells and. then eventually you know get down to you. know the the human specific targeting of. things which is would be amazing. obviously you know patient specific. right uh but one of the first ones is uh. antibody drug conjugates and this is a. type of chemother thy but it combines.

chemotherapy like the drugs used in. chemotherapy with monoclonal antibodies. which are you know lab just like. antibodies that we have in our body. except they're created in a lab right. and so what happens is um we inject. these drugs these um antibody drug. conjugates into a patient with cancer. and those antibodies are designed to go. seek out that tumor the specific kind of. tumor that that patient has yeah um and. attached to that tumor that cancer cell.

and it's it delivers that payload of. chemo drugs to it says here you go. here's a nice little present and then. turns around and runs and then in the. background the cell explodes and the. antibody like ends up on its chest but. lives to fight another day yeah exactly. that's a if we're heading in that. direction that's fantastic yeah uh. vaccines is another one um the MRNA. vaccines that we detailed back when. those came out for covid uh two of the.

most successful versions of those. vaccines were originally brought about. to begin with as tumor vaccines and the. idea is to use sort of that same. technology to just. specifically uh Target tumors themselves. uh so it's not like a vaccine to prevent. a disease it's a a a shot that will. essentially specifically shrink a tumor. yeah just like the MRNA vaccines for. covid train the body to look for and. respond to Co viruses saying like hey if.

you see anything with this little horn. on it the spike go after it they're. doing the same thing with tumors right. so that's boosting the immune response. it's also training the immune response. so technically it does qualify as a. vaccine and because like we talked about. in the covid vaccine episode this mRNA. technology is just so you can just it's. just like ready to wear vaccines. basically um apparently yeah apparently. they they. they have reached a turning point and in.

the next five years a lot of cancer. researchers are saying we're we're going. to see a lot more cancer vaccines coming. down the pike amazing uh and then what I. talked about earlier like making uh like. targeting cancer cells specifically is. like a great direction to go but really. getting into personalized Cancer Care. will be the next step beyond that uh. like hey I'm going to identify uh. exactly what kind of tumor that you have.

in your body and not just maybe this. kind of tumor and you know treat like. get to Patient specific levels of. treatment and you know I know we poo. pooed AI in certain respects uh but this. is a place where AI can really probably. do a lot of good yeah I think we should. just clarify our position on it if I can. speak for both of us sure as long as AI. is not taking over the world or damaging. Humanity in some terrible way I'm all. for all the great ways it can help.

things and this is a really Sterling. example of that yeah it gave us a new. Beatle song yeah I would say that's. that's right in the in the middle for me. um but the I think what you were talking. about was taking a sample of the. specific tumor that a specific person. has analyzing its genetic makeup and. then looking at that genetic makeup. thanks to AI spitting out all of the. information that we need from analyzing. that huge genome um saying oh this is an.

Achilles heel this is another weakness. this is another way we can attack it and. then tailoring the treatment for that. specific tumor like that tumor like you. said not that kind of tumor that tumor. is getting attack it's so specific you. could name the tumor name the tumor. Melvin Melvin is toast when you're using. Precision or personal um Cancer. Treatments yeah and you know this kind. of stuff could even be possible now it's. just really really expensive to Target a.

specific tumor for a specific human M. and so the idea is hopefully with the. help of AI they can just reduce a lot of. the you know the cost basically for. doing that so it becomes instead of. something that's not even you know uh. not even something worth pursuing or or. able to be pursued because of finances. something that's like oh yeah just uh. step right up and we'll and we'll spit. out your treatment yeah and as more more. as the costs come down more people use. it which means more people using it. allows for greater a greater chance of.

new breakthroughs so yeah hopefully. we're going to have cancer licked in. this in the future I saw somebody um. suggest that it'll end up being kind of. like a chronic disease akin to diabetes. in the future just something you can. live fairly healthily with yeah you can. manage and there'll be plenty of drugs. to keep you going amazing you want to. take a break yeah okay well then let's. do. that. [Music].

all right uh next up on the list of. things that people may one day look back. and say why did you do it that way. dummies of the 21st century uh is organ. transplants uh we have we have a pretty. great. uh episode on organ transplants.

somewhere in our back catalog it feels. like a long time ago it was a little. while uh but what we're basically. talking about and again organ. transplants awesome it's amazing how far. they've come uh in the past you know. since they've been doing them but uh. rejection rates are still an issue up to. 10 to 15% uh for GID uh for kidneys for. instance and then also the fact that you. know transporting organs getting them to. the people uh in time can still be an. issue uh 17 Americans die every day.

waiting on organs and it's also. inequitable in that you know generally. people that have are the most funded uh. get the most organs for transplant H but. there's a Better Way Forward right yeah. I just want to say one I found a stat. that I found rather shocking one in five. donated kidneys goes unused it goes to. waste even though people die waiting for. kidneys that's just how clui the the. whole setup is right now yeah so yeah.

they're they're trying to fix the the. process and the system and the. organization in charge of that in the. United States but uh in like further. down the the pike on a longer timeline. the goal is. organogenesis which is what it sounds. like it's creating new um entirely new. organs from cells from scratch just like. watch this grow you remember those. little dinosaur sponges that you added. water to and they just grew grew grew. it's kind of like that but with fully.

functioning organs yeah how far are we. away from someone trying to grow a human. out in a. lab I'm sure somebody's probably trying. it already but I don't know how how long. it'll be till they're successful I mean. we had Dolly the sheep that was Dolly. was a clone right. yes and I don't know if everybody's read. our book and if you haven't I'll just go. ahead and share with you a um a little. fact from it yeah passage of dramatic. reading apparently dolly was named Dolly.

because she was grown from a mamary cell. so it was a '90s haha joke about Dolly. Parton. yeah I think we might have said that in. the Dolly Parton episode didn't we or. did we oh if we did I'll have to go back. and listen if so we'll edit this part. out no no no it appears repeating I. think okay so yes we're we're a little. ways off because not only Chuck are we. not capable of growing human from cells. we're not capable of growing a kidneys. or Hearts but we are somewhere we've.

grown and successfully transplanted um. wind pipes bladders fairly like simple. organs and structures but I mean simple. is like a relative term because we're. talking about something that was grown. from that person's own cells into the. very like piece of equipment that they. needed and then put in them and it. worked yeah which is remarkable uh I. know that they can do this with uh at. least right now the epidermis so if.

you're a burn victim you can get your. own stem cells uh and you can get some. new epidermis I was about to say just. skin but they're working on growing like. the entire thickness of the skin they're. not there yet but they they can now grow. epidermis from your own stem cells in a. lab and uh they transfer it to something. called fibrin which is a A protein that. really kind of helps your blood clot. when you get a a cut or something M and.

then they put it on your body and it. just it. goes and then you're done yeah that's it. makes that sound it takes a you know. obviously it's a process I was just. kidding around but uh right now they. can't like grow skin that grows hair or. sebaceous glands and stuff like that but. if you're a burn victim and you can get. you know uh your own epidermis to. replace you know your scarred skin on. your body that's pretty amazing it's. kind of akin to laying sod but with skin.

you know sure so um right now I think. the the state of the art with. organogenesis that extra o trips me up. and I like to add syllables so that's a. real tricky one is um growing organs in. other. animals and as we'll see hopefully we're. going to be moving away from that. because to take that organ from that. animal and Transplant it into a human.

you kill that animal in the process. right like you don't you you can't take. a pig's heart and be like good luck with. the rest of your life because it doesn't. have a rest of its life it's missing its. heart and from a lot of the trends that. I've seen it seems like a fairly safe. bet that we are moving in a direction. where um Animal Welfare is going to. become more and more and more important. to. where how we treat animals will be maybe. the most critical thing that people will.

of the future will look back at us on. you know yeah which that's coming up in. a more robust way in a second mhm uh but. to finish this up there's also uh 3D. bioprinting which is pretty amazing uh I. remember telling the story uh one time. I've known two people in my life who. were born without an external. ear uh and the and the process back then. was they formed a sort of a skeleton of.

the shape of an ear and if I'm not I'm. not sure what it was made of I think. cartilage but if I'm not mistaken that. then was uh there was like a a skin. bubble around it and then they would. suck the air out of that skin bubble. very quickly. to uh onto that cartilage to form you. know what looked close enough to an. external ear uh and I say external like. you know the the ear parts or yeah I. know what you're talking about um and.

I've known two people in my life that. had that done and they you know back in. the day it was not like it is now I. think the 3D bioprinting of of ears is. much much further along and they look. much better than they used to and that's. kind of the point right but they're. thinking like you know maybe one day we. can 3D bioprint a liver yeah pretty. amazing and that'll kind of come up a in. uh well in the next section two so I say. we move on to the next section because. it does kind of tie into what we were. talking about just now that's right.

let's do it so um getting meat from. animals is probably something that will. really be looked down upon in the future. because we already have techniques that. um will that that make it so we don't. really need live animals to create meat. to eat meat um and yet we're still. eating meat and that's despite and I'm. very much guilty of this too that's. despite knowing how horrific and. terrible. factory farming is for the animals.

themselves for the environment people. just really love meat and it's tough to. give up so rather than forcing people to. give up there's other Alternatives that. people are working on to replace it. we're going to need to do that too. because apparently Chuck um the growing. demand for meat is going to be totally. unsustainable in the next couple decades. yeah I mean there are statistics like. the UN will throw out that say uh we're. going to by the year 2050 the meat. demand means we're going to have to. produce 50 to 100% more meat than we do.

now uh but there's also other people. saying like hey this whole notion of you. know uh wealthier countries eat meat. because they can afford it and countries. that are more developing eat. agriculturally largely or vegetarian. because they're forced to isn't really. the case any or at least moving forward. it looks like because what they found is. the emerging trend is that people are. eating less meat once they get enough. enough wealth to afford it for a bunch. of reasons and one of which is what.

you're talking about is there's just a a. forever changing uh way that humans look. at animals and Animal Welfare for one. and also you know red meat and the fact. that it's terrible for your body is. another one and terrible for the. environment um livestock raising that. includes Transportation tractor. emissions but also methane from the cows. shooting ducks all the time that. accounts for 14 and a half% of global. greenhouse gas emissions so it has like. this triple triple impact triple.

negative impact on the animals welfare. the human body and the health of the. earth um and for those reasons it does. seem like people in wealthier countries. are starting to move away from meat and. so I think the um Organization for. economic cooperation and development um. they released the agricultural Outlook. within the last couple years and they. predicted that around 2075 the whole. world will start moving away from meat. and that um eventually we're just going.

to stop eating what's called carcass. meat very appropriately all together. yeah can I tell you something really. quick about a Instagram video I saw the. day yeah it has to do with the uh cows. and the methane uh actually our our. colleague our old friend tamaa at work. posted this yeah and it was a video of a. guy that was um showed how they treat. bloat and cows have you seen this no. when a cow gets bloated with gas they. stick a needle uh into the cow's stomach.

releasing methane and they light that. thing so they can see a flame to judge. like how much gas is still in there oh W. so there was a video of a cow with a. with a blowtorch coming out of its side. essentially wow what was the cow's. expression like well all I saw was the. cow but the the the guy who was hosting. the video his expression was uh. horrifying cuz he was like you know can. you believe that this is where we are in.

the world yeah I totally can believe. that that doesn't surprise me at all to. tell you the truth and they're trying to. help the cow but it's you know the cow's. the reason the cow's there is because of. factory farming right uh T by the way. has one of the better um non-celebrity. Instagram feeds you can find yeah to me. because this is great it's good stuff. but what you were saying about moving. away from uh what' you call it carcass. meat yeah there there are two main ways. that that's happening right now and that. is obviously what they call novel vegan.

meat Replacements uh you know fake meat. impossible stuff Beyond stuff uh and. then lab grown meat which did we do a. whole episode on lab grown meat yeah we. did a while back I thought so we should. update it like we did the recycling. episode you know like so much stuff has. changed since then I'm sure we'll we'll. update it eventually but lab grown meat. or cultured meat is exactly what it. sounds like you use a bioreactor. sometimes a 3D like bio printer using.

animal cells to recreate meat um and. they I think the there's a Consulting. Group called at Kerney they predict that. by 2040 which is not that long off. everybody 60% of global meat consumption. will be from cultured or non-vegan meat. Replacements yeah like that's. significant that's a huge change like. there may be countries that are. developing now that won't eat carcass. meat when they become wealthy because.

The Replacements will have become so. great there'll be no reason to eat. meat yeah uh you know if you ask the. CEOs of Beyond and impossible they're. going to say in 15 years there will be. no more eating of meat yeah uh that's a. little ambitious and I think that you. know maybe they're trying to drive up. the stock price uhuh uh so that's. probably not going to be the case but. that that at Kerney group uh prediction. like that's that seems quite possible I. buy that especially if there's a couple.

of challenges that are um overcome by. then which is you know that's 17 sorry. 16 years now away um and that's plenty. of time to overcome some relative speed. bumps one is replicating no I think they. have flavor kind of licked at least as. far as cultured meat goes yeah texture. texture is the problem because you don't. want to eat like a. little a little scobby of beef that.

tastes just like beef but looks like a. scobby from a kombucha batch no one. wants to eat that and yet Japanese. researchers recently showed um I think. in according to uh freethink this great. website I found uh in 2021 they. recreated a wagu steak which is got some. of the most complex marbling of fat. mixed in with the meat uh that you could. possibly ever come across and they. Faithfully recreated one I'm sure it. cost them a million half dollars to make.

that one steak but it was a proof of. concept that it can be done the other. big challenge is right now when you're. making that wagu steak from cellular. culture you actually need to take it. from an unborn calf as you Slaughter the. mom I don't think the mom has to be. slaughtered I think they just take it. while they're slaughtering the mom and. that's what they use to grow meat right. now and lot of people are like no still. I'm not okay with that it's still the an.

animal suffers somehow some way um and. so there's a company called meatable a. Dutch company that said we got this we. got our way around this yeah they made a. sausage in July 2022 MH that was lab. grown sausage lab grown pork uh but it. was not it did not use uh I don't think. we said what it's called fetal bovine. Serum is that blood drawn from the fetus. and that's what you said is typically. used but they didn't use that at all uh.

it was uh you know there were there was. no animal involved yeah they used cells. from like a live animal that was. unharmed by it well yeah yeah that's. what I meant no no animal involved as in. uh their death was not involved right. right exactly yeah the animal couldn't. have cared less either way from what I. understand they just they were in the. process of having they were being. degassed so they had bigger fish to fry. than somebody scraping a few off their. hind quarters you know it's like I got a. blowtorch coming out of my side exactly.

uh okay I say we move on oh but first. Chuck let's take a break because I it's. it's that kind of time let's do. [Music]. it.

okay we're back Charles we're talking. about what people in the future are. going to think of us based on the stuff. we do today that may seem primitive and. one of them might not seem well it could. seem primitive it'll seem quaint. probably is driving a car yourself yeah. or or maybe even owning your own car. because the predictions for the future. are. that car hailing apps will become so. ubiquitous that you're going to need. your own car less and less and less this. is a a prediction from car Caris schwier.

Swisher the New York Times Tech colonist. sorry Cara um that in not too many years. a owning your own car is going to become. Obsolete and then eventually The Next. Step this is me adding to that. prediction uh those cars that pick you. up when you use a ride hailing app will. not have a driver in them you will just. get in the back and go yeah I mean. self-driving cars has been in the news. news a lot over the past uh you know. decade or so uh I remember being in San.

Francisco a couple of years ago and. seeing a car with a crazy Contraption on. top and I was like what in the world is. that and is that a is that a Google Maps. or Google Earth like thing taking. pictures that car is wearing braces and. then I looked inside I like no no no. there's no human in that car uh and it. kind of startled me but did you shout. witchcraft. right did uh I threw a Molotov cocktail. at took care of that problem um but.

there was a company uh I think there. were you know there's more than one. company that's trying this stuff out uh. but there's a company called Cruz uh. which just recently in October of this. year well I guess last year now of 2023. uh the California uh state government. said you can't do this you can't. practice this uh anymore no more. driverless practicing out of you uh. because well for a lot of reasons. building up to the what was called the. incident but minor incidents involve.

things like blocking ambulances stopping. in the middle of an. intersection uh rearranging a bus. running red lights stuff like that uh. but the big incident was when a. pedestrian finally was bound to happen. was hit in downtown San Francisco uh. when she was hit by another car driven. by a real human knocked into the other. lane and then the cruise car apparently. breaked uh but then rolled over her. anyway uh pulled her forward and then.

stopped on top of her just stopped it. was like okay I'm fine I don't know what. to do I'm just going to freeze right. here on top of this pedestrian so yeah. Cruz is Far and Away the only company. from having problems with their their. Tech that they're working on they're. just the most recent poster child of the. problems with self-driving cars yeah she. didn't die by the way no thank you for. saying that yeah the the point of this. is though is that despite these setbacks.

we're ex we exist in the time of. setbacks in a couple of decades will. exist in the time where we're Beyond. those setbacks and we have driverless. cars these setbacks don't mean that it. we're never going to have driverless. cars in fact even people who who are. super skeptical of them right now still. admit we're probably going to have them. at some point in the future it's just a. question of when and it seems like we're. we're a little further behind than we. may have thought a few years ago yeah. and you know one thing that if if it's.

not I think the road there may uh not be. as abrupt because we already see in. newer cars a lot of like things like um. Lane assistance M like your car will. correct itself and steer itself back if. it sees that it's it's driving off the. road right like if you're drowsy or. you're on your phone which you should. never be um so you see like Lane. assistance and stuff like that um you. know if you're speed like really really. changes a lot a lot of times cars these. days will send you an alert that says.

like you know are you okay maybe you. should pull over um stuff like that so. that's sort of like these are the. intermediary steps that will lead to. full automation uh and they've already. come along way but apparently uh again. with the help of AI they could go a lot. further yeah eventually the car is just. going to start talking to itself and. you'll feel so left out you just don't. even get in the driver's seat. anymore but the whole point of removing. humans from car ours is to remove humans. from the equation of driving not for our.

convenience necessarily but for our. safety because we're our own worst. enemies when it comes to driving you. found a stat that uh recently it was it. like 2020 2021 do you know uh it's 2021. but just over the last few years in. general it's been about 30 to 33% of. fatalities involve at least one of the. drivers being drunk I couldn't find any. statistics that also include drugs but. just being drunk alone. 30% of people who die in the United.

States die because the one of the people. involved in that crash was drunk that is. unacceptable but it's humans people do. that it's a terrible decision people. think that that's not going to happen to. them and it does and it accounts for. thousands and thousands and thousands of. deaths every year yeah driverless cars. don't drink they have other problems. right now but as we work them out those. problems will become a part of the past. and drunk driving accidents will become.

a part of the past as well which will be. great for everybody yeah I mean 94% of. any accident in the United States. involves some kind of human error uh so. you know what I'm curious about is what. what the acceptable percentage of. driverless car error because it seems. like it seems like human car error is. just endlessly forgivable to the point. where you know like every car these days. you shouldn't be able to start unless. you can blow into a.

breathalyzer like that technology is. there yeah we're harder on computers. than we are on ourselves is what you're. saying huh well exactly so like what if. all of a sudden driverless cars they. prove like you know they can reduce. total accidents by 90% there would still. be people saying like in those 10% of. cases where someone died right it was. some AI computer or whatever yeah so. it's just I don't know I just find it. really interesting that we still allow. people to get into a car after they've. been drinking and drive even though the.

technology exist exists to to stop that. from happening well yeah I think that's. a cognitive bias of ours we tend to. focus on the more Sensational and the. more Sensational is a car being driven. by a computer killing somebody than a a. drunk dude killing somebody in his car. yeah um so yeah there's just removing. people from the equation should increase. safety it should also probably increase. um or decrease pollution as a result. there's somebody who came up with the.

eye popping statistic that 30% of the. traffic in metropolitan areas is people. circling the block looking for a place. to park if you don't own a car and. you're not driving your own car that. goes away so 30% of traffic goes away. instantaneously with that yeah I mean. that you had me right there. yeah yeah so driverless cars almost. certainly coming down the pike as long. as AI doesn't take over the world of. Courts I think we should caveat this. entire episode with that all of this is.

going to happen if AI doesn't take over. the world okay that's right uh and we're. going to finish up with a couple of. shorter ones um that I think are just. pretty awesome and interesting uh one is. the fact that uh sort of the current. thinking is that we we tend to tie um. like progress as a nation definitely in. the United States but in most places. around the world MH to how like robust. uh an economy is it's it's like always.

tied to finances on what kind of. progress we're making and there are. people that think like uh sort of like. with the way we're starting to look at. animals like you know one day that's not. going to be the most important factor. for humans and things like the health of. the earth and human beings health and. well-being both physically and mentally. is the uh you should equate that with. the success of a nation and one day. they're going to look back and say you. remember when we all that we cared about.

was the fact that uh the stock market. was flesh yeah because we GDP just tells. you whether an economy is growing or. shrinking right that's basically all it. tells you and it leaves out a lot of. stuff like you said human well-being um. things like whether people are dying of. deaths of Despair or whether they're. generally happy how many resources are. being depleted is anybody working on an. alternative that um all of the stuff.

that creates that growing economy just. is totally ignored yeah and I think. that's what that Economist Kate rayworth. was saying is like it's it's Madness. like that's so ridiculous to just. completely not count all of this stuff. that really really counts in in favor of. just this one metric which is growth or. shrinkage and um not only is that. probably going to be you know. thought of as ridiculous in the future. people younger people today who are.

becoming adults or who have recently. become adults they already tend to think. this way as a group so it's a pretty. sure indicator that we're going to leave. GDP or growth behind as an indicator of. the health of an economy and start. thinking more about the other stuff the. more important stuff and who knows what. can result from that like what what. great cascading um um knock on effects. that that will have yeah there's uh you.

found this uh Princeton University. bioethicist named Peter singer who. talked about the fact that the circle of. concern as as humankind advances is. expanding uh and that's just a wonderful. thought and you know you see it in. everything from the fact that you know. we've laughed before at like the madmin. episode where people used to just. willingly throw litter on the ground to. you know we look back at that as barbari. generally mhm uh and that that's just. one small example so as as humans are.

evolving down the line that Circle of. concern is expanding and people are. caring about more and more things uh. that they didn't care about before and. that's that's great yeah and Peter. Singer by the way is very famous um. ethicist as far as animal rights are. concerned in Animal Welfare um so yeah. his whole thing is like we're going to. stop focusing on conspicuous consumption. and rather you'll be more cons. considered like a great person not from. your wealth but from your charity and. your charitable giving which would be.

great and then uh that Circle of concern. kind of leads us to our last one too. because the most recent inclusion into. the circle of concern is the environment. the Earth the health of of the the Earth. um and that this one is just a sure. gimme there is no way that we're not. going to be looked down upon for this by. our descendants and that is burning. fossil fuels yeah I mean in 500 years. who knows maybe sooner it seems like.

people will definitely look back and. sayi can't believe that we used to burn. fossil fuels like we did uh and for a. lot of reasons not just um the you know. the process of removing fossil fuels and. all that goes into that MH uh or even. the the the climate in the ozone which. are all huge concerns obviously but just. things like pollution and air quality uh. and the fact that you know that kills. people and that cost so much money in.

healthc care uh I think that was a study. from the University of Wisconsin and. Madison that said if if we stopped. burning fossil fuels allog together uh. it would eliminate about 50,000. premature deaths per year because of air. quality alone and about $600 billion. dollar annually in the us alone in. healthcare cost yeah and I think even. more than looking at us as like Dum Dums. for ignoring that we're going to be. looked at as kind of reviled because of. the future we'll have delivered our. descendants because of the climate.

change we just allowed to happen yeah um. I saw a who estimate that um. 250,000 additional deaths per year are. expected to come each year between 2030. and 2050 because of climate change from. things like heat stress malnutrition um. insect born diseases that an additional. quarter of a million people are going to. die every year because of climate change. starting six years from now that's nuts.

so I can only imagine what the people of. you know 2100 are going to think of us. hopefully they'll have everything under. control by then but they're probably. going to be pretty ticked off that they. had to go to the trouble yeah I mean you. can see this coming because it already. happens now once again by seeing younger. Generations already looking at previous. generations as barbaric and how we treat. the Earth for sure I I saw an rhs. Financial um estimate or or prediction. that the um oil Market will collapse.

this decade that we're just based on. Trends current trends now and the way. people think now that probably we won't. be using oil nearly as much in the next. 10 20 years very interesting yeah the. future is interesting Chuck and it is. the future as a matter of fact it's. almost 2024 and I just want to say Happy. New Year to everybody huh uh that's. right happy new New Year everyone we. thank you once again for your support we. say it all the time if there was no you.

there would be no us we are always. grateful that we are allowed to do this. job because you listen yeah thank you. and happy New Year to everyone happy. birthday to you me and happy birthday. thanks Chuck and uh we'll see you guys. next year and if you want to get in. touch with us in the interim in this. very short time left in 2023 you can do. it via email almost instantaneously wrap. it up Bank it on the bottom put a sash. on it that says 2024 and send it off to.

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