Today, you’ll learn about why studying human intimacy in space is necessary for humanity, the mysterious sixth sense human beings have, which is not seeing dead people, and how researchers used artificial intelligence to figure out a way to speak pig.
Today, you’ll learn about why studying human intimacy in space is necessary for humanity, the mysterious sixth sense human beings have, which is not seeing dead people, and how researchers used artificial intelligence to figure out a way to speak pig.
Scientists say: we really do need to talk about sex in space.
Humans have a sixth sense, and it’s not seeing dead people.
Do you speak pig? You could, soon.
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Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/zero-g-romance-our-sixth-sense-oinking-at-ai
TITLE:
ZERO G ROMANCE, OUR SIXTH SENSE, OINKING AT A.I.
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to get smarter with Calli and Nate — for free! Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
NATE BONHAM: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Discovery. Time flies when you’re learnin’ super cool stuff. I’m Nate.
CALLI GADE: And I’m Calli. If you’re dropping in for the first time, welcome to Curiosity, where we aim to blow your mind by helping you to grow your mind. If you’re a loyal listener, welcome back!
NATE: Today, you’ll learn about why studying human intimacy in space is necessary for humanity, the mysterious sixth sense human beings have, which is not seeing dead people, and how researchers used artificial intelligence to figure out a way to speak pig.
CALLI: Without further adieu, let’s satisfy some curiosity!
[SFX: Whoosh]
NATE: Calli, did you ever get the birds and the bees talk?
CALLI: Yeah, communication is key.
NATE: Well today we’ve got something similar: the big bang and the black holes. Thats right, we are talking about sex in space!
CALLI: Oh man, science is fun. This will be good. I know NASA has been traditionally…tight lipped about sex in space.
NATE: Totally, but the reality is, if we want to make long-term space exploration a reality, we can’t afford to keep intergalactic intercourse taboo. Sexual health is an important part of human health. Its study, and practice, will be essential to our goals of exploring, and living in, the deeper parts of space.
CALLI: You’ve heard of astronaut Ed White, but how about astronaut Barry White? It's too bad we already had the mission “Deep Impact” when we explored a comet in 2005.
NATE: Agreed. Though NASA denies it, many folks already think the first, uh, airlock breach, has already happened.
CALLI: Well there's no such thing as a space chaperone.
NATE: The Russians may have beat us in this steamy space race. In 1982 the first co-ed cosmonaut mission Soyuz T-7 lasted eight days, and rumor has it A Close Encounter of the First Kind was always part of the plan.
CALLI: And…did we…make contact?
NATE: No confirmation. Others think it must have happened in 1992 on Space Shuttle Endeavor when astronauts Mark Lee and Jan Davis became the first married couple together in space.
CALLI: How was a married couple allowed up there together?
NATE: They only told NASA they’d gotten married after it was too late to get a replacement astronaut.
CALLI: Secret marriage. Sounds both sneaky and steamy. But do people in space….want to have sex? Are they trying to get all bow chicka bow wow, or are they trying to get all bow chicka science?
#NATE: Unfortunately NASA tells us more about ion drive than sex drive, lame. But there is some information to make us think libido might be low…The weighlessness astronauts experience is known to decrease estrogen, and low estrogen is linked with a decreased sex drive…But even the data on that is limited…Only 11.5% of astronauts are women, and most all opt to go on birth control to avoid menstruation in space, which can effect estrogen levels… But other astronauts have said sex drive returns after a few weeks in space.
CALLI: So there may be chemical changes, but what about the… hardware of these encounters?
NATE: Weightlessness does affect body systems like muscular and skeletal strength, even blood flow often reverses and heads toward the core rather than the extremities…but male astronauts have been explicitly clear: their rockets are ready to launch.
CALLIL: And the women? Is there…water on mars?
NATE: Definitely, but while on earth it…comes to the surface…on Mars it might stay a bit more subterranean. In weightlessness, liquids don’t flow, they stay near their source.
CALLI: Ah, well many systems in space do require a little extra lubrication.
NATE: Right.
CALLI: Well what happens when you try to…dock the Crew Dragon to the Space Station.
#NATE: It's not an easy connection. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction…On Earth, gravity helps us push back, but in the weightlessness of space, our “thrust…ers” can end up jettisoning an astronaut. Outside of perfect synchronization, it's a better bet to velcro one crew member to the wall.
CALLI: Who needs silk when you have hook and loop? A little BD-Space-M. So are we just exploring this for…personal needs?
#NATE: Well don’t discount personal need. While keeping your lines clear helps men prevent bacteria backup, reaching… your launch apex can relieve stress, anxiety, and help you sleep better…These are things hard to come by in space.
CALLI: Is it just me or are those Soyuz windows fogging up? If it's so important, why have we heard so little about it?
NATE: Well, a lot of space agencies rely on funding from the state. And governments can be famously conservative when it comes to sex, researching it, and paying others to have it.
CALLI: Well how are we going to change that if we want to go to…explore the dark voids of…the uterus, I mean universe.
NATE: Academics from Concordia University recently put out a paper called ”The Case for Space Sexology.”
CALLI: Sounds like something a highschooler would say in the planetarium.
NATE: They call it the “scientific study of extraterrestrial intimacy and sexuality,” and they want researchers to embrace it. Not only do we not know how time in space affects our sexual organs, we also dont know how it affects human gestation and early life. These are things we need to know if we want to do meaningful deep space exploration and settlement.
CALLI: Maybe we can finally get the answer to why girls go to Venus.
NATE: The scientists argue that the success of future space missions will not depend on fancy hardware, but rather… our hardware as human relationships will be the backbone of months-long missions.
CALLI: Well when do we need to get this research started?
NATE: Sooner rather than later, especially since we want to go to Mars in the next decade.
CALLI: Suddenly I am starting to wonder what I can do for my country.
NATE: Unfortunately NASA says they are, “Not currently seeking proposals.”
CALLI: Thank goodness I believe in citizen science.
[SFX: Whoosh]
CALLI: Nate, how's it going over there?
NATE: I’m good. No complaints really (*lights go out) Whoa what was that? Why’d you turn all my lights out?
CALLI: Can you see anything? It's a test.
NATE: No…I can't see anything…the lights are out.
CALLI: Ok perfect, now grab your microphone.
NATE: *Fumbles with microphone* like this?
CALLI: Exactly. Isn’t it crazy that your body knew exactly where it would be, even though you couldn’t see it?
NATE: I guess, but what's your point?
CALLI: Your ability to do that comes from a powerful skill in our brains: proprioception. It's like an additional sense that lets us know where we, and the things we interact with, are in space. New research is starting to show us where this seemingly magical ability actually comes from.
NATE: I mean it's a cool trick, but how is knowing where my microphone is in the dark important for survival?
CALLI: Without it we’d be incapable of balancing, walking across an uneven surface, or running with a soccerball. It helps us move through the world without having to stare at it.
NATE: So it doesn’t require my focused attention?
CALLI: Try no attention at all. How did you get from the bathroom to your desk?
NATE: Uh, I walked?
CALLI: Did you have to think “right, left, right, left?”
NATE: No?
CALLI: You can thank proprioception for allowing your conscious mind to daydream about the James Webb telescope. Close your eyes.
NATE: Okay…
CALLI: Now touch your left elbow with your right hand.
NATE: Got it.
CALLI: See, you didn’t have to look at it, you just know where it was, your subconscious did the heavy lifting. That's proprioception.
NATE: Well pro-pre-mind me to get some lotion after this, it's dry.
CALLI: This same mechanism allows us to move over a rocky trail, or throw a ball without staring at our arms making sure the joints move in succession. Knowing where our limbs are allows them to interact with the outside world without visual confirmation.
NATE: But how the heck is it doing it?
CALLI: It all comes back to the nervous system.
NATE: The thing that fires up on a first date?
CALLI: The sensory receptors in our muscles, joints, and tendons. Proprioceptors are on nerve endings in these areas, including your inner ear, and they tell your brain about movement, position, and force in your body.
NATE: That's a ton of information, and it must be constantly “updating.”
CALLI: It's an obscene amount of info, and it happens so quickly we think most of the subconscious decisions are reflexes.
NATE: How do these receptors work though?
CALLI: For a long time, it was a mystery, but recently proprioception research at the Scripps Research Institute has brought to light a fascinating receptor called piezo2. This receptor creates electrical pulses when the cells it resides in are stretched, letting our brains know about mechanical force or movement.
NATE: Ok, but important systems, we know, don't always work well. Can people have faulty proprioceptors?
CALLI: Totally. Doctors check this with a quick test you can try at home, though, you should have someone watching you. Stand up. Put your heels together, and close your eyes for 30 seconds. If you lose your balance, you may have a proprioceptive disorder.
NATE: I did alright, which means I have no excuse but to practice my basketball dribbling. What happens when people do have these disorders?
CALLI: All those subconscious data points and calculations falter just a bit. These people have issues walking on uneven surfaces, they’re often uncoordinated, and balance is tough. People with these disorders can work on balance and core strength, but they'll likely never be an NBA star, as athletes rely greatly on proprioception.
NATE: So the only thing to do is sit ups? We don’t have more advanced aids?
CALLI: Well, we still need to do a ton of research. Touch and proprioception are probably our least understood senses. But, neuroscientists are making strides, and some rare patients who completely lack piezo2 are helping us get there.
NATE: Completely lacking it? Does that mean their sense is just….
CALLI: Turned off. If the lights in a room go out, they fall over. Without a sense of where they are in space, when they lose sight of their body, they can’t keep it upright.
NATE: That’d like trying to hear without ears.
CALLI: Researchers hope that by studying these patients they can better understand proprioception and touch, the neural pathways they take, and how our brains are able to process all the inputs.
NATE: I can’t imagine what being able to recreate this kind of sense would let us do.
CALLI: Well, researchers hope it could help us make strides in creating better prostheses for amputees and treatments for those who suffer from their sense of touch, like chronic pain patients.
NATE: Well that'd be worth clapping for, with or without the lights on.
[SFX: Whoosh]
[SFX: Nate oinks happily]
CALLI: Nate, what are you doing?
[SFX: Nate oinks more intently]
CALLI: Lemme guess, this next story has to do with pigs?
NATE: (Nate oinks three times like a DING DING DING sort of vibe, then) You got it! It took you a second, but don’t feel bad.
CALLI: I don’t.
NATE: It’s common when interpreting pig grunts, for it to take a minute. But, Calli, if you apply scientific rigor, it gets easier. In fact, researchers in Europe have discovered distinctive patterns in the sounds that pigs make.
CALLI: Hey that’s cool. Like they can tell if a pig wants to watch Charlotte’s Web again.
NATE: They can’t get quite that specific. But, basic stuff. Positive and negative grunts have begun to show their own color. But, they’re not human emotions, so it takes some work to decipher.
CALLI: That’s nice. I’m sure the pigs will appreciate it.
NATE: Yeah! trying to be cognizant of the mental state of animals in your care, isn’t just a nice thing to do. The European Union has recognized animal sentience since 2009. And Britain’s parliament is considering a law requiring animals’ feelings be taken into consideration.
CALLI: Wow. That would be a huge boon for animal rights’ advocates. So, how did the researchers do this?
NATE: First, they used handheld microphones to record pigs in five research labs all across Europe, collecting moments from every part of a pig’s life. Birth, and early life, happy moments, sad moments, scary moments. Even at the slaughterhouse.
CALLI: Oh, man.
NATE: It wasn’t easy work. In the end, they recorded seven-thousand four-hundred distinct sounds, from over four hundred pigs. Then, they used what they called “intuitive inference” to sort the grunts into positive or negative.
CALLI: Intuitive inference. Like how your best friend always knows when you’re having a bad day. And not just because you had been texting the details as they happened.
NATE: Yes, totally. And while the scientists weren’t receiving any helpful DMs from the pigs, they were given context clues.
CALLI: Like what?
NATE: Like what was going on when the pig made the sound? So, like the sounds made while cuddling or nursing were probably happy. And ones while a pig was being castrated, those were probably on the negative side.
CALLI: Most likely! Jeez, Nate, maybe warn a girl!
NATE: I’m sorry, you’re right. I’m playing the part of objective science journalist, but these are real live animals we’re talking about. Which is precisely why it’s so important this research was done. So, they did this for all the sounds. Now, if you were to listen to the sounds without any context, it’s not exactly clear what the pig is trying to communicate. But once the scientists started to organize them, the patterns emerged.
CALLI: Did they take the same patterns of human sounds?
NATE: Yes and no. The biggest things they noticed were that happy grunts are typically shorter, and only use one note. Unhappy grunts are longer, and more variable in tone.
CALLI: Huh, I don’t know that I would’ve guessed that.
NATE: Based on the research, you probably would’ve guessed a little better than chance, if all you were given was sound, with no context. Then, of course, knowing the patterns would help your guesses, but you still wouldn’t beat the AI they built to guess.
CALLI: AI?
NATE: Yes, an Artificial Intelligence algorithm, designed by one of the study’s co-author’s Ciara Sypherd, guessed right 92% of the time. And it could even identify sounds thought to be closer to neutral, or both positive and negative.
CALLI: Like when you win at a game, but you’re sad you beat your friends.
NATE: That’s very sweet, Calli. But yes, if the pigs beat their friends at Settlers of Catan ...
CALLI: Shouldn’t have ignored the ports ...
NATE: ... they might have mixed feelings, and the AI would have been able to tell.
CALLI: So, what do you do with technology like this?
NATE: The next step is to use it to build tools, or apps, that will help farmers understand their pigs better. If they can interpret the grunts, they can see the mental state of the animals in a given moment. That will help them address what’s causing it, if it’s not so clear as physical pain or fear. And then of course, maybe there are other animals whose sounds they can decipher.
CALLI: And when do they build me an app to better understand you?
NATE: Many have tried and failed. I am enigma incarnate.
CALLI: And so the search for answers continues.
[SFX: Whoosh]
CALLI: Let’s recap what we learned today to wrap up. We’ve all wondered about space sex, but answering these taboo questions is no longer the stuff of whispered intrigue. Understanding human sexual and reproductive health could be the key to achieving our longterm space exploration goals.
NATE: Our body knows where it is in space, even if we can’t see it. This incredible sense is called proprioception and new research is helping us understand exactly how it works.
CALLI: Researchers in the UK have developed AI that can understand basic pig emotions, based on their grunts. After analyzing thousands of sounds, an algorithm was developed that had a ninety-two percent rate of accuracy. This is a huge advancement for animal welfare.
NATE: Join us every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to learn something new in just a few minutes.
CALLI: And until then, stay curious!