Chapter 1: What unique event happened in the humans vs. robots half marathon?
So there's an annual half marathon in Beijing where humans run against robots. It started last year. Last year, the robot, the winning robot, as in the robot who came in first, didn't win the whole race. The human won the whole race, stay with me. But the robot's time was two hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds, which was more than double the time of the human winner of that race last year.
That was the inaugural humans versus robots half marathon in Beijing. Fast forward to yesterday. Same race, humans versus robots. A robot one in a time of 50 minutes and 26 seconds, which is faster than the fastest half marathon ever run by a human. So just so you know, because if you're not a runner, you won't have this in your head, but that's less than four minute miles for 13.1 miles.
That's what the robot was running. And that's that improvement over 12 months. So they went from two hours, 40 minutes, 42 seconds to 50 minutes and 26 seconds. That's a huge improvement. If you're a mathematician, you'll tell me, is that exponential or better than exponential? And I was thinking to myself, well, you know, so a robot can run fast, so what?
And then it was answered in the article I was reading. Running faster may not seem meaningful at first, but it enables technology transfer, for example, into structural reliability and cooling and eventually industrial applications. That's what the spokesperson said from the company Honor, who built the humanoid. They don't call them robots, they call them humanoid robots.
I feel enormous changes this year. It's the first time robots have surpassed humans. And that's something I never imagined. We watched that War of the Worlds. It was with Gabriel Bourne during lockdown. And they had these four-legged robots that were dog robots. And they were very scary things. And they made this... noise. Very scary.
And you're thinking, if a robot can outrun a human, what would they be used for? Well, delivering post would be great. And then you think of, what about if they were used in war? What could they do? And then it gets a lot more sinister, doesn't it? And a lot more worrying. Like there was, back in the day, robots were sort of an oddity, weren't they? Something we laughed at and were curious about.
And more and more, of course, they're becoming a worrying part of our lives. And you always know if technology is developed in any way, shape or form, it will be used for good and for bad.
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Chapter 2: How did robots improve their performance in the half marathon?
Good and bad. And actually, coincidentally, Coleman Nocter is talking about that today, how we... are infatuated by technology initially and then we don't, unfortunately, think about the harmful effects of it until it's too late. And he's talking about that with regard to artificial intelligence. Anyway, we'll keep an eye on the robots and the annual half marathon in Beijing.
But back to technology and AI, I see a headline in the papers today, TCD medical students in line for assessment on the ability to love. And why is that? Well, the people who wrote the paper from Trinity College Dublin School of Medicine are saying the growing role of technology and specifically artificial intelligence
They're saying machines may be able to create a simulacrum, new word for me, simulacrum of empathy and compassion. But in healthcare, when you bring love into it, you're talking about actual clinicians stepping into the breach of the relationship and making a connection that is not going to be possible with a machine.
and that's the quote of Colin Doherty, who's the head of the School of Medicine at TCD, co-authored the article on the introduction of love into the curriculum for medicine in Trinity College. And the article is in the Journal of Medical Education and Curriculum Development. And Doherty says, love is very teachable.
You put the student by the bedside, you introduce small aspects of the compassionate self to the student. They get it very quickly. The list of graduate outcomes for TCD medical students was updated last September to include love. as part of the introduction of a new curriculum. We are only coming to the end of year one of the new curriculum, said Doherty.
These students will not be attending clinical placements until the spring of next year. So that's when they will be assessed in how well they learnt the love module. Evaluating capacity for love holds educators to a higher standard. It requires them to get to know their student and better understand what drives their desire to practice medicine.
Yeah, you know, it's the bedside manner thing, isn't it? That old trope. And of course, there's the Hippocratic Oath. And I think we should debate that more as a society. There is an ongoing problem, I think, that we are keeping people alive and not really considering the quality of life. And they're measuring the quality of life for years now more than just life expectancy.
So life expectancy is great. But if you're living until 90 and the last 11 years of your life are crap, what good is that? And at what stage do we go, well, yeah, medical advances, we can keep you alive, but what sort of life is it? So we have to have those conversations, adult conversations about adult things. That's mad, isn't it? Introducing love into the curriculum for medical students.
There was always a question. I remember when I was younger, I wanted to be a doctor. I'd been in hospital at the age of 10 and I wasn't sick. And you're saying, why were you in hospital? Well, I had a rash and it was brought in for tests. And a mad thing happened. I think the doctor went off on holidays.
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Chapter 3: What is attachment theory and why is it important?
You would probably say, the lads do all the singing, yes. It's about territory and attracting the females. So they're up there on the branch, the robin, the male robin with his red chest sticking out and he's singing his heart out, his little heart out and going, stay away from here. This is my plot here. This little garden here in suburban Dublin is my little bit of land.
And any females that come in here, they're my females. And you would have thought that was the way it was. Well, that's not the case at all. New research tunes into the hidden world of female birdsong. Now, this has been going on for the last couple of years, but there's a new book out with a catalogue of sounds.
Chapter 4: How do early experiences shape attachment styles?
There's a crowd called Sound Approach and they do bird books and bird sounds. You have to buy the sounds. That's why I'm not playing any of them for you. But seemingly over the years, most bird watchers were men. This is historically. And most of them were in a certain part of the world. And they all thought that all the song was coming from males.
Now, as more and more females become birdwatchers and scientists, ornithologists, the emphasis is changing. Anyway, 70% of female birds, they sing too. Why do they sing?
Chapter 5: What are the different types of attachment styles?
They sing to attract the males and they sing to ward off other females. Same as the males. Same as the males. And here's the thing that I got from the article I read over the weekend.
I'll play this for you and tell me which gender you would think this particular bird is.
Mark Constantine, who's the co-founder of Sound Approach and author of the new guidebook, he says, I love the fact that Donald Duck is actually a female. He quacks like a female. Most people don't realise that the female mallards quack and the males don't. So...
Who's going to tell Donald?
That's a major crisis there waiting to happen in the world of Donald Duck and Disney. I used to get confused over Donald and Daffy, but that's definitely Donald. Daffy, different sound completely. I remember we were working... in Switzerland years ago and there was a cameraman we worked with. Interesting man. He had He's those very hairy cats. Maine, what are they called? Maine coon cats.
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Chapter 6: Can attachment styles change over time?
He had those. Because we visited his house. He also had a DeLorean car. He had been very friendly with Chuck Norris, the martial arts person. But the one thing we weren't able to verify was he said he was the French voice of Donald Duck. That was another claim to fame. So, you know, when they dubbed it into French, he was the person who did it. Now, he did a very good impersonation of Donald Duck.
And we did see his DeLorean and we did see pictures of him with Chuck Norris and we met his Maine Coon cats. A fascinating character. What else did he say? There was one other thing he said. Oh yes, he said he shot the first video ever shown on Top of the Pops. And that was for Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street. Now, at the time, we didn't have Google, so I'd never checked it.
I must go away and check it this afternoon and come back to you tomorrow. He claimed he shot the very first video that was shown on Top of the Pops. Yeah, spectacular. We have the technology, we have the technology. I got a large envelope in the post today and it was full of Christmas cards. Yes, here we are in nearly the end of April and I was getting Christmas cards.
So they've been hanging around somewhere over there in that place. And eventually they landed on somebody's desk and that person put them into an envelope and sent them on to me. And there was a poor man who had asked me to play his Christmas song in one of the letters.
And then another one was from Father Brian Darcy and included with that was a letter from a woman who sent her letter to Father Brian Darcy to send it to me.
I don't know if she thinks we're related there was a joke at one time that he was my dad and he's not of course I'll tell you what he is though he's a wonderful human being his father Brian Darcy and if we were doing being human again I'd definitely put in the call to him and see if he'd sit down for a chat but thanks Brian for passing on that lovely letter from a woman in Waterford
She was worried about us. And a lot of people actually in the letters and the cards are worried about us. Well, we're fine. And if there's somebody in your life who would have been a regular listener and they don't listen to the podcast, well, you tell them we're okay. We're actually fine. Don't be worried. We're better than fine. We're better than fine.
But as a man that it took that long for the thing, the cards, you know, they've been swirling around in there and nobody said, just, he's up the road. Just bring them up the road. Put them in an envelope. The other thing is, and this is a warning, this is worthwhile actually. I can take this away with you.
If you were leaving a job, be very careful about your email address because you can get stuck. There was a wise woman in RT who used to say, are all you using your work email for personal accounts and all that sort of thing? And we go, oh yeah, it's all fine. And she said, no, no, no, I'd never use that. Now, maybe her concerns were about privacy, which I had no concerns about whatsoever.
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Chapter 7: What role does technology play in our relationships today?
But where's the PIN? It's in the former email address. It's very confusing. Very, and frustrating. It's very frustrating. So a word of warning to the wise, is that what they say? Make sure you sort out all your email stuff if you're leaving a job. Extricate yourself from that because it is, and do you know what it does as well? It brings you back to a place that maybe you don't want to go.
And it could be triggering. Yes, it could be triggering, bringing up certain emotions that you'd prefer were in the past, in the past. I've noticed these books in bookshops. I've never read one. Frida McFadden. She has six novels in the top 10 bestselling novels in the UK at the moment. She is a publishing phenomenon. Self-published in 2013 and did so for 10 years.
And then eventually she went the traditional route. I think she's published, I think, around 30 novels since 2013. So it's more than one a year, sometimes two, three a year. They're all sort of murder mysteries. She's in the news for a number of reasons. Firstly, The Housemaid, which has been a huge success, starring Sidney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried. That's based on her book.
And it has grossed $400 million worldwide. It's been a huge success. And the other reason is, in the last few months, she has revealed her true name. Because Frida McFadden is a pseudonym. Her real name is Sarah Cohn. And she is, or was, a doctor who specialises in brain disorders to children.
So since 2013, she's been holding down a job, a quite important job, and raising two kids and writing two or three books a year. That's phenomenon. What have you done today? And why did she come out and reveal her same name or why did she not reveal it from the outset?
Well, the reason she didn't reveal it from the outset was that she didn't want her colleagues in her work to know that she was a writer and maybe they wouldn't take her seriously if they knew what she was writing, that sort of thing. And the other, at the end of it all, she was frustrated, annoyed with all the theories around who Freda McFadden actually was.
There was one theory that she was three men who co-wrote the books. So she just came out and said, look, this is me. I'm Sarah Cohn. I've been writing these books. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Yeah, when I say she's a publishing phenomenon, she has sold over 30 million books worldwide. 30 million. You're sort of in awe and annoyed at the same time, aren't you?
When you read about people like that. Yeah, brilliant. Well done, you. Where do you get the time? Why are you so talented? Share it around. Thank you very much. Colman Octor is on the way. So Colman Noctor, a psychoanalyst who works with children and adolescents. And today we're talking about attachment theory. How we bond in infancy affects all relationships.
There's my one sentence explanation of attachment theory. Colman, how does that grab you?
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Chapter 8: How can understanding attachment styles improve relationships?
Now, there are two kind of extreme examples, but the variation of the spectrum of those experiences shapes us in terms of how we experience intimacy, how we experience care, how we experience love, all of those things. Now, attachment theory kind of, it flares up when you start to develop an intimate relationship in your own life.
So when you're starting romantic relationships, all the patterns of attachment that you would have had or that particular style becomes quite agitated in those relationships. So say, for example, if you have so you have the secure attachment, which is the holy grail that you want, that kind of, you know, I'm secure in my own self and I'm fine.
Or you could have an anxious attachment, which kind of would be described as something maybe a bit clingy, maybe needs reassurance quite a lot, is not sure that you're going to stick around. And then you have avoidant or dismissive attachment, which is someone who says,
I find being cared for or being loved threatening, so I'm just going to push it away and I don't want anything to do with that sort of thing. So what's happened is I think those have been characterized as traits of people within relationships.
So if people are now self-claiming that I'm an avoidant attachment or I'm an anxious attachment, and it's taken from a very low evidence base to make those claims.
But here's the thing, I suppose, so they're claiming that and is that excusing their behaviour? Which begs the question, can we reverse it? Can we reverse the effects of our infancy and our bonding and our attachment to whoever, our mother, our father or whoever?
Yeah, it's a big question. Here's how I'd answer it. The more understanding you have of why you are the way you are, the more informed you are to make decisions around how that might work. Does that make sense? And that's what therapy is. So say, for example, if you're, and some of the coping strategies that you develop as a child are very understandable in that situation.
So let's say, just bear with me. So you have a child who's a five-year-old and they grow up in a really hostile environment, or parents arguing there might be alcohol involved, whatever the case may be. And so the child develops this skill of disassociating from high-octane emotion. So they just switch off, they go off. Fast forward 37 years, they're now a 42 year old in a relationship.
And every time someone wants to talk to them about emotions, they get incredibly uncomfortable and they disassociate. And so they come to therapy to me, I'm saying to them, that coping strategy is understandable. And when you were five, it was brilliant that you did that. But you don't need to do that now. So I want you to say thanks to that five-year-old for giving you that coping strategy.
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