Ed Zitron

And this week, we are telling the story of a fake bomb detector that wound up getting a shitload of people killed thanks to the ideomotor effect and how that's weirdly relevant to our current moment in American culture, AI, all this good stuff.

To talk with me about that, Ed Zitron.

Ed, welcome back to the show.

Thanks for having me.

Now, Ed, you're the host of the Better Offline podcast.

And how are you feeling about the ideomotor effect and people being able to know what's real?

I'm amazed by Clever Hans.

I think Clever Hans is a hero who was unfairly eaten.

By German soldiers after he was murdered in World War I. They were very unfair to clever Hans.

I do.

He's a smart, smartest horse.

It was just desperation and not a punishment, but it does in the articles read a little bit like because they found out he wasn't really smart, they sent him off to die.

You were a fraud, Hans.

Oh, man.

I actually drop better when I'm high.

It heightens my senses, calms me down.

If anything, I'm more careful.

Honestly, it just helps me focus.

So we ended last episode by introducing the gopher, a gag gift that claimed to help you locate lost golf balls using the magic of the ideomotor effect into tricking people into thinking it was not an empty plastic box with an antenna.

If you read the fine print at the end of those magazine ads that Sophie displayed last episode, you'll see that the manufacturer bragged that the gopher was totally shockproof with solid state construction and no moving parts.