Learn about how slow blinking at a cat can help you make friends with it, how temptation bundling can help you reinforce good habits, and why Moravec’s Paradox says the easy stuff is hardest for artificial intelligence.
Learn about how slow blinking at a cat can help you make friends with it, how temptation bundling can help you reinforce good habits, and why Moravec’s Paradox says the easy stuff is hardest for artificial intelligence.
Slow blinking at a cat can help you make friends with it by Steffie Drucker
Reinforce Good Habits With Temptation Bundling by Ashley Hamer
Moravec's Paradox Is Why the Easy Stuff Is Hardest for Artificial Intelligence by Ashley Hamer
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/befriend-cats-with-the-slow-blink
[MUSIC PLAYING] ASHLEY HAMER: Hi. You're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity.com. I'm Ashley Hamer.
NATALIA REAGAN: And I'm Natalia Reagan. Today, you learn about, how slow blinking at a cat can help you make friends with it. How temptation bundling can help you reinforce good habits. And why more of x paradox says the easy stuff is hardest for artificial intelligence.
ASHLEY HAMER: Let's satisfy some curiosity.
[SWOOSH]
Cats get a bad rep for being aloof and expressionless. But if you've ever had a close relationship with a cat, you've probably learned to read their signs. One sign that many cat owners know and love is the slow blink. That lazy droop of their eyelids when they make direct eye contact with you from across the room. Some Cat owners even say it's how they say I love you. And that it's polite to slow blink back.
Well, finally, science has done a controlled study of the slow blink. And the result should make cat lovers everywhere feel vindicated. In the first experiment, scientists visited 21 cats in their homes to see how they'd react to their owner slow blinking at them. Each owner sat near their cat, and either ignored them or made direct eye contact as they did the slow blink. The team found that cats were more likely to slow blink after their owner had done it than, when they were just in the room together.
Next, they tested whether the same thing would happen with strangers, that is with the researchers themselves. The experimental setup was the same. But the team tested 24 different cats. The researcher first offered an outstretched hand to see if the cat would come close. Then they either slow blinked at the cat or made indirect eye contact. Just like with the owners, the strangers slow blinking made cats more likely to slow blink back. And even better, cats were more likely to approach the researcher after a slow blink, suggesting that they perceive a human slow blink as a positive.
Scientists haven't narrowed down why cats do this. The researchers note that this kind of eye narrowing happens in happy contexts with other animals too. Horses and sheep do it during grooming. Dogs do it when they're relaxing. And even humans do it when they smile. This may just be an extension of that universal expression.
Another theory is that direct eye contact is threatening. And slow blinking acts as an interruption to soften its effect. Whatever the reason, cat owners now have proof that the slow blink can build rapport with their pets.
NATALIA REAGAN: You mean rap-purr.
[LAUGHS]
ASHLEY HAMER: Yes, I do Natalia.
NATALIA REAGAN: OK. No, I love this because-- Yeah. I now think of Ashley every time I slow blink at a cat. Because I remember she pitched this a couple of weeks ago. And I was like, Oh, man.
ASHLEY HAMER: I was so excited. I said this to all the cat people I knew. I was like, that slow blink is real. Because honestly, it was one of those things that I thought was just like, we just make this up to make ourselves feel better about cats. But no, it's real.
[SWOOSH]
NATALIA REAGAN: Hey, everybody. It's Thursday. You know what that means? It's time to satisfy that Cody fix. And we've got a rerun of a story Cody just loves. He says, "This is an excellent story and a great way to make a new habit stick." Those were his actual words. Hopefully, you'll get something out of it too.
[SWOOSH]
CODY GOUGH: We all should have good habits. But we all want to do bad things. You should go to the gym. But you want to binge watch Game of Thrones. You should get your work done. But you want to tweet a bunch of weird online acronyms at people.
Well, there's a self-control strategy called temptation bundling that can help you use those wants to accomplish the shoulds. This is the thing I do.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah?
CODY GOUGH: Yeah.
ASHLEY HAMER: What's an example?
CODY GOUGH: I will give you an example, after I explain this concept.
ASHLEY HAMER: All right.
[LAUGHS]
CODY GOUGH: There's a tease for you. Everyone is now glued to their podcast app. What is it?
ASHLEY HAMER: I have a want. So now, I have to do my should.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah.
[LAUGHS]
You want to skip ahead. But you should listen to explanation first.
[LAUGHS]
Well, in 2014, researcher Katherine Milkman designed a study to test this idea. And the study was amusingly titled, Holding the Hunger Games Hostage at the Gym. She put 226 volunteers into three groups. One group, the control group, got a $25 gift card, and they were encouraged to visit the gym regularly over the 10 week study period. The second group was loaned four audio books of their choice, and encouraged to make a rule that they could only listen to the novels while exercising. And the third group was just like the second, except, they could only access their iPod loaded with audio books at the gym itself.
Participants in the second group made 29% more visits to the gym than those in the control group. But the people in that third group made 51% more gym visits than people in the control group. So basically, they could only listen when they were working out. So they worked out more. You can try this at home pretty easily. Just make a list of things you love, and figure out which ones can complement the habits you're trying to start.
For example, maybe you can only watch your favorite show while you're doing the laundry. Or you can only get a pedicure while you're answering emails. Or you can only have dessert after you've watched the dishes from dinner. Give it a shot and see if it helps.
And as for mine, I have done this for the video game a few times. I play this game called, Sid Meier's civilization six or five or four or whichever the newest one is. It's a turn-based strategy game. And once you progress further into the game, the computer takes longer to take their turn.
So sometimes what I'll do is every few turns, I'll hit enter or whatever to end my turn. And then I'll immediately either do a plank or a set of push up. And that means, I'm being a little more efficient with my time and getting a little bit of movement in there. So I'm not just watching the computer say loading while it's taking its turn. I'm actually getting a little bit of activity in there.
And it's spaced out naturally. Because it takes a few minutes to take a turn. Then I get a little break in between. It's not a bad deal.
ASHLEY HAMER: It's pretty good. I pretty much only listen to podcasts when I'm working out. That's kind of my thing.
CODY GOUGH: You would work out anyway though, wouldn't you?
ASHLEY HAMER: I mean, at this point, I would. Yeah. But even I still need a little bit of motivation to get out of bed, put on my gym clothes. Like there are steps involved that are kind of like, Oh, I just want to procrastinate.
CODY GOUGH: Even Ashley needs motivation sometimes.
[LAUGHS]
That is actually kind of surprising to me. I just thought you had infinite motivation.
ASHLEY HAMER: No.
CODY GOUGH: You're only human.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah.
CODY GOUGH: That's good to know.
[SWOOSH]
NATALIA REAGAN: The history of technology is full of predictions that now sound laughable. Early AI researchers thought by now, we'd have a robot that walked, talked, and thought like a human. But over time, they began to realize that the project wouldn't be that simple. They came up against a principle now known as more of x paradox. That is, it's easy to teach machines to solve hard problems. It's the easy problems that are difficult.
Artificial intelligence has definitely proven itself when tasked with specific problems like, categorizing distant galaxies, or imitating celebrity voices, or creating works of art. It even beat grand champions at chess and go. But the thing is, it can't beat a toddler at picking the right toy off the shelf.
In the 1980s, computer scientist Hans Moravec explained that this is what we should expect from machines that haven't experience the pressure of natural selection. Our brains have large, highly evolved sensory and motor regions, that are encoded with a billion years of experience about the nature of the world and how to survive in it. The things humans find easiest are the very things that took millennia of evolution to refine. The things that humans find hardest are the ones that are new. It doesn't take conscious thought to walk or throw a ball. And when you don't have to think about something, it's harder to figure out how to teach a machine to do it.
So how do you teach a machine to actually think? More of x thinks the answer lies in the very thing the machines lack, evolution. Of course, AI is continuously advancing. Engineers are teaching artificial intelligence algorithms to explore by having them play video games, for example. But it's a two-way street. Before we can teach machines to think like humans, we need to more fully understand how humans think.
Because of this, it's possible that the jobs in most danger of being overtaken by artificial intelligence are stock analysts and engineers, while blue collar workers, like cooks and gardeners will be secure. It's also possible that the paradox means AI will never be truly independent, and will always rely on the help of human users.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's good news for us.
NATALIA REAGAN: Goody. They have to keep us alive then. But in either case, we should all take a moment to appreciate the supercomputers working inside our skulls. They make the most difficult tasks in the world look easy.
[SWOOSH]
ASHLEY HAMER: All right. Well, let's do a quick recap of what we learned today.
NATALIA REAGAN: Researchers found that cat owners and strangers were more likely to receive a slow blink and attention from a cat that they slow blinked at. So there actually was a connection there. And Ashley, you'll be happy to know. I actually tested this on feral cats in the neighborhood. Sure, they still keep a very fine distance from me. But they do sit a little bit closer and engage an intense prolonged eye contact with me, peppered with slow blinks.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, that's great. I want to go do that now. I want to walk around my neighborhood.
[LAUGHS]
I actually just found a Facebook group that is entitled, Outdoor Cats of my Neighborhood. And it's really great. There are just pictures of cats. I want to comment on every picture, keep your cat indoors.
NATALIA REAGAN: Cat inside. Yeah.
ASHLEY HAMER: But I'm not going to be a wet blanket. I'm just going to enjoy the pictures.
NATALIA REAGAN: Yeah, vulnerable cats have Instagram.
[LAUGHS]
ASHLEY HAMER: Exactly.
NATALIA REAGAN: Where's that hashtag?
ASHLEY HAMER: And we learned that temptation bundling can allow us to indulge in an activity we love, whether that's listening to an audiobook or playing a video game, while doing an activity we don't really want to do like, working out or returning emails. That way, we get to have our cake, sometimes literally, and eat it too.
I've said this before on the podcast. But running is my time to listen to podcasts. I don't do it at any other time. And on some of those mornings when it's just going to be a slog, I'll look through my podcast feed, and find something that I really am looking forward to listening to. And it makes the whole thing a lot more fun.
NATALIA REAGAN: Oh, that's-- I love that. Yeah, it's a way you can just get a little bit out of both. Yeah, I feel like I like to do a little temptation bundling more, I guess, food stuff too. I mean, I have a little something sweet after I do a little working out or whatever. But the exercise-- What Cody said about exercising, and maybe watching a show like, doing the plank. I get that.
ASHLEY HAMER: Very good, yes. And we also learned that while AI can complete some pretty complex and incredible tasks, it's the easy things that we humans take for granted that are actually difficult for AI. And that's because we've had millions of years of evolution to help us figure out these little tasks. And that stuff's kind of hard to teach if you haven't had to literally figure it out.
So stuff like walking, and thinking, and humming a tune. All sorts of things that are just-- You have to painstakingly program AI to do these kinds of things. Maybe not the humming of the tune. But the stuff that we never have to think about is the stuff that they can't do yet. Someday.
[SWOOSH]
NATALIA REAGAN: Today's stories were written by Ashley Hamer and Steffi Drucker. And edited by Ashley Hamer, who's the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY HAMER: Scriptwriting was by Natalia Reagan and Sonja Hodgson. Today's episode was edited by Jonathan McMichael. Additional editing today by our producer, Cody Gough.
NATALIA REAGAN: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY HAMER: And until then, stay curious.
[MUSIC PLAYING]