Hidden Brain

In her new book, Turned On, Science, Sex and Robots, Kate describes the moment she first gazed up close at a life-size silicone woman.

As you point out in the book, the human fascination with artificial lovers is not a new idea.

Kate Devlin teaches the Department of Digital Humanities at King's College London. She's also the author of Turned On, Science, Sex and Robots.

I'm reading this great book by Louis O'Delmonte called The Artificial Intelligence Revolution.

Simultaneously, I was really trying to understand the social Dynamics of people who worked in creative industries I my first book the world hall economy was about how creative industries worked in New York City and it was a very qualitative book and I found when I spoke to artists and musicians and designers that Despite the fact that they didn't have a lot of money and that a lot of them needed space to do their work They felt compelled to live in New York City Even if you know getting a big warehouse space in Ohio would have served them well in a practical sense that they needed their social lives in New York.

He wrote with James Buchanan an important book in public choice.

And then James Buchanan won the Nobel Prize, though much of the contribution of the book is due to Gordon Tullock.

He writes in his autobiography, 'it has ever since been a pleasure to see good workmen handle their tools.'

So one of the fundamental premises in your book is that human beings are extremely dependent on the opinions and knowledge of other people.

And this is what creates channels for fake news to flourish and spread.

One reason we wrote this book is that we noticed that a lot of people thinking about fake news and false belief were thinking about problems with individual psychology.

But if you think about the things you believe, almost every single belief you have has come from another person.

And that's just where we get our beliefs because we're social animals. And that's really wonderful for us.

Ape laughter is very, very similar to human laughter.

Things that we actually touch a lot and have no idea or don't really think about how disgusting they are. Things like ATM buttons, actually our cell phones are just petri dishes of pathogens and germs and most of us do not clean our cell phones very often and yet we have this idea because of the associations that we know very specifically between toilets and waste from the human body that toilets are really, really filthy and yet we don't give a second thought to things like keyboards that people are touching all the time and could be very dirty and contagious.

So I think that brings up a great way to think about the idea of disgust and it is that it is the instinct that has to be learned We then feel disgusted by it, like for instance bodily products and toilet training and poop and so forth We don't have a question about whether or not it's disgusting especially if it's from somebody else where also is where meaning and context come into play But we did not think it was disgusting from the get-go.

So the British and the Americans are divided on the subject of wintergreen But I'm absolutely sure they'd come together It ain't happening My heart's pounding, oh my god They look like crickets! There's no sugar coating I'm about to throw up if I stay here I don't want to do it.

So the ability to say that we are disgusted by something actually comes from the privilege of having abundance and having enough to sustain us that we can make the decision that we don't want this and we'd rather have that.

Once upon a time, a baby named X was born. This baby was named X because no one could tell whether it was a boy or a girl.

In the story, X's parents keep hitting barriers as they try to raise the child without revealing its gender.

On his first shopping trip, Mr. Jones told the store clerk, I need some clothes and toys for my new baby. The clerk smiled and said, well now, is it a boy or a girl? It's an X. Mr. Jones said smiling back, but the clerk got all red in the face and said huffily, well in that case, I'm afraid I can't help you sir.

The point of the Baby X tale is to highlight all the ways gender stereotypes act as rules for children, from the clothes they wear, to the sports they play, to the interests they're encouraged to pursue.

The issue of immigration is one of the main factors that's driving white voters away from the Democratic Party.

But I think also Republicans willingly took on that strategy and are using it to their advantage, clearly.

And so you have eight years of the presidency of the first African American president in this country, coupled with the specific campaign message of immigration, all together tying in a lot of that racial resentment that happened in that past eight years, I think just is what galvanized his campaign and his presidency.

I think what pundits missed is that Trump isn't trying to attract all voters across the United States. He knew exactly what demographic and what base he was speaking to.

Race, as we all know, is such a fundamental cleavage in our society.

You're thinking it over Archie and George. I will gladly give my breasts over to you for whatever purpose you choose. George, you would wear them on the odd days. Archie, on the evens and I'd be free to get back to work, to get back to sleep at night, to end the constant and unrelenting fondling.

I saw that play like 500 times because that was the play that was being produced the summer I was there, like the worst summer of my life.

And, um, no, and that's what part of, you know, I remember Israel saying to me at one point, like, can you imagine hurting somebody? Like what that would do, like how ridiculous that is.

Nobody planned it, Margie. It just happened. Honest to God. I mean, well, boys are always talking about wanting to do it with this one or that one. And everybody was always saying they'd love to do it with you because you were, well, beautiful, but nobody really meant it jumping.

It's just when George here, well, started, everybody wanted to, to everybody liked you. You liked me, Arch? I did a lot. And that's how you showed me you liked me? I was strict out at first. I was. Otherwise, Margie, the first words you would have heard whispered in your ear would have been, I love you because I did. And I do. I do still, Mark.

She came across an unusual-looking book in the cooking section. This recipe book that looked a little bit different and the title said, Never Trust A Skinny Italian Chef.

I want to start with a story from your book, Froth and Scum.

Andy Tucker is a professor at Columbia University. She's the author of Froth and Scum and a forthcoming book on fake news. Its working title is Misinformed.

He's the author of the book Three Generations, No Imbeciles, Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell.

Slowly, the idea for a book emerged, a book of poems. She called it The Virginia Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded.

This is Dan Ariely, researcher and author of The book, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty, How We Lie to Everyone, Especially Ourselves.

What separates honest people from not honest people is not necessarily character, it's opportunity.

Things that we actually touch a lot and have no idea or don't really think about how disgusting they are, things like ATM buttons, actually our cell phones are just petri dishes of pathogens and germs.

And yet we have this idea because of the associations that we know very specifically between toilets and waste from the human body, that toilets are really, really filthy.

And so, in fact, in other experiments by Paul Rosen, he found that the idea, for instance, of how could you purify something like Hitler's sweater?

So good does not sanctify bad in the way that bad can sanctify good, whereas just one spot of something bad, like a cockroach, for instance, in a glass of water or milk or anything else, has the capacity to destroy the whole thing because negativity is much more pervasive and powerful from the way that we are built.

And it is that it is the instinct that has to be learned.

Back in 2000, the political scientist Robert Putnam wrote about this idea in his book Bowling Alone.