Vsauce!
Kevin here.
A robot opened a door.
Why did tens of millions of people watch this?
Why is opening a door a big deal?
Just five years ago there was a big robotics competition and only one team nailed the door-opening
challenge.
Getting robots to perform common human tasks was the central feature of the DARPA Robotics
Challenge, a competition sponsored by the US Department of Defense that challenged robots
to perform in emergency and search and rescue settings.
In 2013, a team from the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition was the only
one of 16 competitors to earn a perfect score on the door-opening task…
and many of the 2-legged humanoid bots fell on their face.
Just five years later, the 4-legged, well-balanced Boston Dynamics’ SpotMini is capable of
sneaking into your bedroom as you sleep.
So for now, four-legs are better than two for door-opening robots.
So why did this go viral?
It seems kinda creepy to some people for robots to bypass the human-made barriers of doors.
And the reason opening a door has been difficult for robots to do is because of the Moravec
Paradox.
Basically, that high level reasoning like computing math equations doesn’t require
much computational power but low-level reasoning like walking on a sandy beach or opening doors,
requires a ton of computational resources.
So things humans are able to do without thinking, biological skills that have been refined over
millions of years, are really hard to get robots to do and things we’ve developed
more recently like playing chess are a lot easier.
So that’s that.
But that’s not all because this is Mind Blow.
The Dumbo octopus got its name because its fins resemble the Disney character’s big
ears, and for the first time we’ve seen that baby Dumbo octopuses are actually born
as tiny adults.
Tim Shank of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts used a remote-operated
vehicle over a mile below the ocean surface to collect samples of what appeared to be
egg cases -- and then one hatched.
When the baby octopod emerged it had all the characteristics of an adult.
An MRI confirmed that, from the outside features to the central nervous system, this rare baby
Dumbo was fully-formed and ready to go.
He probably grew to be about 10 inches long… and danced around like this.
We know from Mind Blow #116 that rats are heroes who can detect landmines and diseases,
but they’re also all-around nice folks.
Researchers at the University of St. Andrews found that rats who have had something nice
done for them return the favor.
Rats trade food and grooming services -- and it’s shedding light on our built-in instinctual
responses to kindness.
So next time someone calls you a dirty rat - say, “Thank you, I am kind.
And I do need a bath.”
Israeli ramonauts have returned safely from a 4 day mission on Mars.
D-MARS.
Just like HI-SEAS in Hawaii, the Mars simulation I visited for my Planet Behind Your Eyes video,
the Desert Mars Analog Ramon Station in the Negev Desert simulates the arid, desolate
environment of the Red Planet.
Inside the Makhtesh Ramon crater, researchers can undergo the daily routine of life on Mars
and deal with its serious limitations.
Experiments from the first mission included determining the optimal materials for 3-D
printing on Mars and a psychological study of the correlation between stress and language
variability in writing.
It turns out that research subjects write less and use a smaller vocabulary when they’re
under stress, so the first D-MARS simulation is helping to show how our communication changes
when our environment changes.
The main takeaway I had from the lavanauts I interviewed in Hawaii was that developing
technology to live on Mars will help us better understand and live on Earth which seems good.
And now a word from 1981.
There's nothing we want to watch on TV tonight but we're still gonna watch something great.
With our RCA Video Disc Player and VideoDiscs.
Just flip a switch and on our TV we see Airplane!, or The Pink Panther, The Godfather, or Grease,
Muppets, Monsters, Mickey, MASH, and a hundred more.
Starting as low as $15.
And the player costs less than $500.
Put it this way: we're watching a great movie and you're watching us.
A new inkjet bioprinting technique uses common cells and molecules found in biological tissue
to create lifelike tissues in the lab.
Researchers at Queen Mary University of London are using droplet printing to assemble biofabricated
structures that can make testing drugs or researching cancer growth easier.
And the method utilizes molecular self-assembly that builds microscopic structures like Lego.
African Matabele ants frequently raid termite colonies, and they never leave a wounded comrade
behind.
Research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B shows that after intense termite
battles in which limbs are bitten off and the ants are gravely wounded, they send pheromone
signals as a cry for help.
Ants come to the rescue by picking up their wounded, carrying them home, and then engaging
in intense “licking sessions” that prevent infection until the wound is healed.
The ants have a two-step process that determines who can be saved and who… can’t.
The mortally wounded are passed over, while the lightly wounded are saved.
One model calculates that reducing the mortality rate in termite battles allows the ants to
have colonies up to 29% larger than if they continually lost soldiers -- and they demonstrate
to us that even insects can show compassion.
To come up with new breakthroughs in science and technology, you can’t just memorize
formulas you have to learn how to think through complex problems.
Brilliant's interactive problems are a great way for you to really understand math and
science.
They have everything from 2D Geometry, to Math of Poker, or this one I really like on
Physics of the Everyday.
This crime course allows you to use the physics of a bike track to solve a murder.
Which way did the killer go?
So click the link at the top of this video's description to get 20% off your annual subscription.
Your brain will thank you.
Now I’m gonna leave you with a video telephone concept for shopping over long distances in
1961.
And as always - thanks for watching.
These are the shapes of the future, the tools for communication now being forged and tested
against tomorrow’s unfolding needs.
Not yet, but sooner than you may realize.
And some of what’s on the drawing boards may be… a little out of this world.
“And now may we show you one of our newest models designed by Howard of Hong Kong.
Notice the dramatically-shaped bodice and the gentle form of the neckline.
The model comes in red, yellow…”
“I don’t know.
Do you have it in green?”
“Certainly.
Here it is.”
“Yes, fine.
That’s it!
I’ll take it.
Please send it out to me.
Here’s my credit card.
Oh, and don’t forget the striped pillowcases.”
“No, we won’t.
We’ll send them in the first delivery.”
“Thank you, bye.”
“Goodbye.”
There’s an old saying: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”