Two Brains One Bot

The Internet Illusions That Broke Our Brains

Ashley & Christy Season 1 Episode 23

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0:00 | 43:58

What color was the dress? No really, what did you see? 

In this episode, we’re diving into the internet of our past and the illusions that completely broke everyone’s brains. From the dress to Yanny vs Laurel and beyond we're asking a simple but slightly unsettling question: why can’t we agree on what we’re seeing and hearing? 

We get into: 

  •  Why the same image can look completely different to different people and none of us are technically wrong
  •  How your brain decides what you hear before you even hear it, rude. 
  •  The truth about how your vision actually works (it’s not what you think) 
  •  And why your brain might be…kind of making everything up 

Along the way, we test each other with “real or not” brain facts, uncover some very weird human glitches, and slowly spiral into the realization that we might not be as in control of our perception as we think. Cue another existential crisis.. love that for us. 

So if you’re tired of arguing with bots, come with us on a nostalgic deep dive into the simpler days of the internet... back when it wasn’t so dead. 

Love what you hear? Check out the videos on socials:

SPEAKER_01

Alright. Welcome back, everybody. My name is Ashley. This is Christy. And we are two brains, one bot. Um, okay, Christy, are you ready? I always ask you that. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

So, what have you been up to? Um, what have I been up to? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, okay. Like just life. It's weird because we always ask each other that, and I literally saw you like two or three days ago. Yeah. So it's like, what have I not already told you?

SPEAKER_00

I'm just, I'm still running a bit. I'm just still training. So doing the running. Doing the running, feeling good about life. Okay. Uh getting the kids to all the things. Kids are doing good. Yeah. Fair enough. What about you?

SPEAKER_01

I've actually, this is I don't know why it's embarrassing because it's not, but it kind of is. I've been playing a game on my phone lately. Oh god, that is embarrassing. So embarrassing. But it's a it's called White Out Survival. It's really fun. And it got me from one of those playable ads because I was playing something different. I was playing that whole game that I loved so much.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

No, now I'm in this whole war mode. So I started playing this in December when we were on our break. And um Do you have any problem? I have a problem because this passed like yesterday. This passed yesterday.

SPEAKER_00

This past Saturday, which was yesterday.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. There was like a a state versus state war all out. So it's so fun. You're like in an alliance and like you, like there's like real people, and you're like, oh, okay. It's really fun. I love my I love my little alliance. I'm never leaving. Okay, don't. But it's so fun. It's super fun. Like, um, you build your like little city up and you build up your troops and stuff, but then you work with your team to accomplish tasks, which is fun. And then this last one was like the big war or whatever. And um, yeah. Cool. It was our like whole, like our alliance and everybody in like our like state is what they call it, against a different one. And it was a lot of fun. Wow, mom.

unknown

Wow.

SPEAKER_01

I need oh my gosh. I listen, I'm having a lot of fun. But if you noticed our um uh stats go up a little bit on our podcast, is because I I said something in passing, and so people are like, I want to listen. Oh, heck yeah. So shout out to my alliance members. What's up, guys? Good guys, they're the coolest. I like it. Fridge sig is really hitting pretty hard in the chats lately.

SPEAKER_00

It's so funny. Fridge sigs are just hitting hard every time. Yeah, you gotta sometimes I'm like, oh, I didn't bring lunch today, and I base where I'm gonna grab lunch if I need to, based on like what diet coke I want.

SPEAKER_01

Oh. We just posted that video on our Instagram with that guy reading the Diet Cokes.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, you saw who that guy was, right? You know who that is. No, I don't know who that is.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, I saw his face. Who is that? It is the guy from the Zanlot. I don't know what the character's name is. No, no, no, not that one where he's eating the French fry and the Yes, that's the one. No, I know that that's the video that I posted, but I posted another one where this guy talks about your personality based off of what kind of diet coke you like.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah. Did you did you have feelings about that? Because I love a can discriminate. Oh no, no. I love a can diet coke. I don't love a bottle because I feel like it just gets warm. Yeah. And then the um random gas station, like that's just roulette. That's Diet Coke roulette. Like, yeah, and I'm not playing.

SPEAKER_01

No.

SPEAKER_00

But McDonald's Diet Coke, nothing hits harder.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, they have that, they have that secret syrup or something.

SPEAKER_00

No, they use filtered water.

SPEAKER_01

They use filtered water. Yeah. Interesting. They're like carbonation.

SPEAKER_00

And then they have like the ratios correctly. Yeah. Because like in those fountain machines in a past life, I worked at Subway. And I know that they're it you can like adjust the ratios of the syrup to the water. Oh. Um, but so not only are they starting out just with a good product, which is filtered water, but they have their ratios correct. So I'm guessing it's more that they use good water rather than just like the shit coming out of the ground.

SPEAKER_01

Which who knows how much mold is growing in those machines. Hey, hey, we're not gonna think about it. None of your business. That's none of my business. Back of my head, none of my business.

SPEAKER_00

Back of your head, yeah. I did get a lot of comments about that. It's true though. It was funny.

SPEAKER_01

Back of my head's none of my business. That's it really isn't it. It really isn't any of your business. It's none of my business. It's everybody else's business. I mean, sure. If you're that invested in the back of my head, get a hobby. Anyways, I don't know where I was going with that, but um fridge cigs are superior. So um that has nothing, literally nothing to do with my episode today. I just was curious about what you what you thought. Um, I will say about Diet Coke, going back, sorry, I have to have an opinion.

SPEAKER_00

I don't really like fountain sodas. What your opinion was, and you said you didn't have an opinion.

SPEAKER_01

I don't really discriminate, but I I'm not a fan of diet or of um fountain sodas because I feel like they get watered down.

SPEAKER_00

Oh.

SPEAKER_01

You know?

SPEAKER_00

You just drink it too slow. You guzzle it. I guess I'm uh I'm a guzzler.

SPEAKER_01

I remember when I learned how to shotgun last summer?

unknown

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

Do you remember that? Yes, I do. We learned how to shot you together on some Rando's deck. It was a good time. I mean, it is now. Right?

SPEAKER_00

Sure. Um, yeah. Let's go. Let's move on.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, let's move on. Okay, so um I couldn't, like, for the life of me figure out an episode topic, and I'm not doing another um AI one. Okay, like, you know, but um I was talking to my husband about ideas for my episode. And he mentioned something that he said he's always wondered about, and um that is how many gigabytes do our brains have? How many megapixels do our eyes see? And is there any way to determine if someone else sees the same shade or hue of color that you see in?

SPEAKER_00

I'm very interested in number three. Yeah. But I will say I'm pretty uh I don't I don't know. I guess I can't like like I can't in my head visualize what a gigabyte is.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's not real. Can you? No, I still don't even know what the algorithm is.

SPEAKER_00

You know, it's none of my business. That sounds like it's none of your business. So we've we've steadily moved away from you can't ask me that to Do you know what? It's actually just none of my business. But but also you can't ask me that could we replace that when when we get asked silly questions, like rather than being like, you can't ask me that. Is it hey man, that's just really none of your business? Probably. It's a little bit more direct.

SPEAKER_01

I think people will be like she's kind of a bitch.

SPEAKER_00

Better we get there quicker than later, sooner rather than later.

SPEAKER_01

That's true. You gotta arrive at that decision immediately. Yeah. Um, so, anyways, those questions, I'm I'm not really gonna get too deep into the science of it because I figured we needed a little bit more fun. Okay, but they did like as I was thinking about them, there was something from the depths of my memory that popped up. And that is, do you remember when the internet wasn't dead? And instead of arguing with bots about the value of human life, we were actually arguing with humans about the color of a dress.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, that was so good. Do you remember this? Yes, is it is it blue what no blue and black or gray and golden white? Golden white?

SPEAKER_01

So, um it's yeah, it depends on what you see. So today we're gonna talk about some of the fun internet debates that have broken our brains and honestly the internet. So, number one, don't believe your eyes, the internet, or your brain. The first one that we're gonna talk about comes to us from February 2015, and this is some serious internet lore. I was like amazed at how much stuff I could find about this. So it is the dress. I don't know if you recall. Yeah, this is the it's the blue and black or the white and gold. Do you remember what color you thought it was initially?

SPEAKER_00

I'm pretty sure I was blue black. Blue black. Okay. But okay, I'll I'll keep my questions till later.

SPEAKER_01

No, I want to know if this caused any arguments to you like in your real life.

SPEAKER_00

Dude, that was so long ago. I don't remember.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I guess it was. 2015.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and that was when I was really in the thick of childhood or raising children. I mean, I'm still raising children, but like at a different level.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um I wasn't sleeping in 2015.

SPEAKER_01

So you must have had opinions about this then.

SPEAKER_00

But also, what year was it? So I also left Facebook 2012, 2013. Oh, good for you. Um, so I I wasn't like super into it on that. So whatever I saw on like maybe Instagram. Right.

SPEAKER_01

I did, but like I I think that I mean they were obviously separate at that time, and Instagram was very much more of a vibe. Yeah. Hey, listen, yeah. If you haven't left Facebook yet, 10 out of 10 recommend. Now's the time. Now's the time. Um 20 2013 was the time. If you can vaguely recall, what color do you remember it? Like it was blue.

SPEAKER_00

I think it was uh black and blue. Black and blue, okay.

SPEAKER_01

Um, and you can't remember any arguments.

SPEAKER_00

But I just the only thing I remember is, and I hope this isn't a spoiler for anyone who hasn't seen the dress. But wasn't there just two versions of the picture? No. No.

SPEAKER_01

It's okay. It's lighting. So I actually have like a picture here that will kind of show you. It depends it depends on the lighting that you see it. So like Oh. But the dress was actually white and gold. No, blue and black. Oh, it was like the are we fighting about this right now? Okay, let's get into this. So I can see both, honestly. I can see both now. It just depended on like the concentration, but it's wild that I can see both. So um I'm I'm perplexed. Okay, so on that, speaking of internet debates, did you ever see the one about the shoes?

SPEAKER_00

No.

SPEAKER_01

It was in 2017. Pink and white versus gray and teal. So what do you see here?

SPEAKER_00

Oh no, this is all brand new to me. That's gray and teal. Is it? No in real life, those are pink and white. Which which is white, which is the white and which is the pink? Is it the the laces are because to me the laces are teal?

SPEAKER_01

No, the laces and the stripe are white. Okay. And the pink is the shoe part.

SPEAKER_00

Is this your fun way of telling me I don't know my colors?

SPEAKER_01

No, it's okay. Um, so it's like the same concept of a dress, but um it's the lighting incorrect like the like the lighting of the of the picture. Okay, but when you see that picture, so I can see pink and white? When I'm looking at it right now, I can see pink and white. Earlier when I was looking at it, I can see white and or I can see the teal and gray.

unknown

Oh my gosh. No.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Wild, huh? So this this was a controversy because um, for some reason, somebody posted this picture, and along with the picture, they put um this idea of if you're like the the the difference between right and left brain dominant. And like they associated that with characteristics of like personality characteristics. So this debate was actually more extreme and more intense because people associated that with their own like personality and then therefore intelligence and got way more offended. But it's the same concept as the dress. So the the idea is that like it can be depend on your like lighting of your screen, the lighting of your room, how tired your eyes are, like all of those factors, and also like just like your own perception of reality. It's kind of crazy. Um, so the the internet went off about this. Um, if you see one color the right way, you're more left or right brained. And ultimately this theory was debunked. Um, instead, scientists have determined that it's just an optical perception of what we see.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Which is why I thought like the white and gold dress, because I can see it being white and gold and then you seeing it on like a more shadowy screen of it looking black and blue. So I but I don't understand the opposite. In my mind, I don't understand how it's actually black and blue, but I'm seeing it as white and gold.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know, man. So um let's get into that then. Uh the things that are happening is shadow versus warm light, so lighting assumptions. So this could be alterations in your phone or computer screen brightness or your environment lighting of the picture itself. So um, like I said, depending on like the screen that you're looking at it in, like I said, with those shoes before, I could see both. I could see the teal and gray and also the pink and white. But on this laptop, I can just see the pink and white. And I think it's crazy that you can see the I know it's crazy. It's crazy, it's crazy. So um, it's also just your brain col correcting the color depending on what you tell it. So your brain was basically editing the image based on your own perception of known things.

SPEAKER_00

I wish you would have had me look at it first before asking. So let's like rewind. What do you mean? I'm just kidding. Oh because you told me you said it people either thought they saw like pink and white or gray and till. And so I was going into it thinking, okay, it's gotta be one of those two. Right. Right. So I don't know, man. Um now I'm just feeling bad about myself. You should. Just kidding. You know what?

unknown

I quit.

SPEAKER_00

I'm just gonna drink my little my little espresso over here.

SPEAKER_01

So, really, when you think about it, we're not necessarily seeing actual reality, we're seeing our interpretation of reality. And honestly, he who even knows if that's real? It's not. It's not, apparently. So, as far as the right brain, left brain idea, the brain does have lateralization, meaning certain areas are specialized for certain tasks, but like, for example, um, language processing is usually concentrated in the left left hemisphere while spatial awareness often involves the right hemisphere. The myth of like you being more right brain or more left brain um and that determines your personality is actually not supported by science. In fact, they did a study on MRI brain scans to show that both sides of the brain are in constant communication and work together for almost every single task, whether it's math, art, or daily conversation. And in 2013, a study of over a thousand brain scans found no evidence that individuals favor one side over the other. Oh, I did not know that. Interesting. Yeah. At the end of the day, despite what we may believe about our fellow keyboard warriors, people weren't actually crazy. Our brains just processed those images differently. But there were so many serious arguments about these things in your life, and that ultimately ended some relationships, actually. Are you ready for the drama? Always. There's some hot goss about that. Give me the tea, girl. Give me the tea. So, according to Goog, which is free by the way, please don't sue me for the following because this is a little bit of a hot gosse. But you can also just Google this. So, with the dress controversy or the debate, um, there was actually a mother-daughter fallout. So the woman that took the picture, um, she and her daughter had a bit of a falling out because of it. Um, the stress of the global media attention and their differing perceptions of color caused friction, but eventually they reconciled.

SPEAKER_00

So, what was what was the original context of posting the picture? Was it because they had originally had the conflict of, you know, she saw it one way, mom saw it the other, and they were like, What color is this dress?

SPEAKER_01

Um, I think so. I think, well, so the daughter was getting married, and the mom was looking for a dress to wear to her wedding. And I think she sent her that, and I think they were having like a discussion about what color the dress actually was. Because if you've ever planned a wedding, you know how you're like serious colors are.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and you're like, Mom, I said black and blue, and you sent me this golden white dress.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you can't wear white to my wedding. Get out of my life. Gotta be kidding me.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

So I'm sure the the mother was like, What are you talking about? Posted the picture, like, hey, do any of my friends like see, like, what is she talking about? And then it, you know, divided the entire world from there. That's so fun. But even more controversy. So they those guys eventually reconciled after agreeing not to talk about it anymore. But some more sad news. Um, in a dark turn years after the viral fame, the groom, where like uh the one that was supposed to be like where the dress was worn, yeah, was charged and eventually admitted to violently assaulting his wife. While these incidents were part of a long-term pattern of domestic abuse and not caused by the color debate itself, the dress legacy has become inextricably linked to the end of their marriage and these horrific legal developments. But some positive news on that. The phenomenon eventually inspired the Salvation Army domestic violence awareness campaign with a tagline, Why is it so hard to see black and blue? Using the dress's colors to highlight visible signs of abuse. Too soon. Sounds a little too soon. A little bit. Yeah. Um, on a broader scale, the dress debate was frequently described as something that divided the planet and caused heated office debates and interpersonal arguments as people struggled with the idea that others could see a different reality than their own. Which is what you're struggling with right now.

SPEAKER_00

I know. Dumbfounded. You got a topic that just makes me like it makes your brain be quiet. It's just wild. You're like, after that last episode where Christy wouldn't shut up.

SPEAKER_01

Listen, you guys, Christy is currently wearing a Pliny the Younger hat to troll after troll me, because as we were setting up, her husband was wearing a Pliny the Younger shirt, and I was like, You son of a bitch. How dare you?

SPEAKER_00

I'm so triggered. Well, and if I would have thought about it, I have a Pliny the Younger um sweater. But as I told you, I'm not taking this cardigan.

SPEAKER_01

No, you can't take off the arm sweatpants. So cute.

SPEAKER_00

So so cute. We're in the cutest freaking cardigan right now.

SPEAKER_01

Cutest. Okay. Um, so let's talk about the shoe one then. So, unlike the dress, the shoe debate was often shared with the false left brain versus right brain test, and this added a personal layer, like I mentioned before. People felt their personality and intent intelligence were being judged based on their vision. Because the claim suggested that logical people saw one color and creative people saw another, it turned a simple perception into a debate about character traits.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, ouch. Like if you don't see it this way, you dumb.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. And that's basically like some of the comments that people were saying is like, you dumb people that are seeing this color. Like it was wild. Um, ultimately, while the dress was a tragic legacy involving domestic abuse, the shoe remains a light, lighter, though still incredibly frustrating example of how easily our different perceptions can spark a fight. Oh, simpler times.

SPEAKER_00

You know. I wish that was. I want to go back to the simplicity of that. I know. Right. Oh. It's bringing me back. We gotta get rid of the bots. Gotta get rid of the bots. Okay, so now go ahead. But not this bot. Not this bot. But not this podcast.

SPEAKER_01

And honestly, like maybe that name was got kind of off. Yeah. Because we don't really use the bot as much as we we thought we would. We thought we would. Yeah. Oopsie. Oopsie doopsie.

SPEAKER_00

We'll have to like rebrand bot.

SPEAKER_01

Maybe.

SPEAKER_00

So if you have any ideas of how we can rebrand our name, that'd be great.

SPEAKER_01

Two brains in a fridge thig. Oh, dang it. It's us against the world. It's fine.

unknown

It's fine.

SPEAKER_01

I I'm not rebranding. There's no way I've already invested too much.

SPEAKER_00

The funny thing about the conversation that's occurring right now is that before we started recording, I was talking to Ashley about how sometimes I will like name something like quickly. Preemptively. Preemptively, yeah. And then I regret, like, oh, I should have like I missed an opportunity for this.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And this is that opportunity.

SPEAKER_01

Opportunity missed. That's correct. But also I was all I was all hyped up on some some light outer or those are different times. Those are different times. Those are different times. Yeah. Um, okay, so now we're gonna go to your ears because of course your eyes have, you know, got some stuff, but let's talk about your hearing. Okay. So do you remember in 2018 the Yanni or L'Oreal debate?

SPEAKER_00

Oh yes, I do actually. Yes.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I don't remember which one I thought, so don't ask.

SPEAKER_01

I guess we'll play it.

SPEAKER_00

You're gonna play it? Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Uh I can play it on here, actually. I have the YouTube I only hear one. You only hear one? Yeah. Which one do you hear?

SPEAKER_00

Laurel.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Do you what do you hear?

SPEAKER_01

I also hear Laurel.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Do you want to know why?

SPEAKER_00

Because it really just says Laurel.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, yeah. But okay, so let's talk about it. So there's actually different frequencies. So it's either I wrote that it's a it's a test either between different frequencies or a brutal age test.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01

And I'm gonna let you decide. Okay, I'm sure. I'm old. And I've I've But I'm in my prime. You are in your prime. So Laurel is composed of lower frequencies. People who are more sensitive to bass or are using speakers with good low-end range often hear this word. Or people with ears that have been around the block a bit longer. Because you start to lose the ability to hear higher frequencies.

SPEAKER_00

Dude, I am doing my best to protect my ears because you did some damage when you were young? No, but like all the studies coming out saying that like hearing loss is just like basically a direct route to dementia. Like, forget that. Yeah. So I wear I wear earplex to concerts, which I didn't. Initially nerd. Oh, you know, grow up.

SPEAKER_01

Just kidding. I will, and I won't be able to hear shit. I have I have good earplugs.

SPEAKER_00

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So yanny is uh found in the higher frequencies. So younger listeners who typically have a better high frequency hearing are more likely to hear yanny. And I don't know about you, but it doesn't matter what frequency I talk to my kids in, they ain't hearing shit.

SPEAKER_00

So I don't care. Now I need to ask my kids what they hear. Because even like even as you as you're playing it, if I think yanny, yanny? Is that the word? Yeah. I can't hear yanny. I only hear laurel. So if you if you think yanny, do you hear yanny?

SPEAKER_01

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00

We'll try it.

SPEAKER_01

Well maybe. Do you want me to play it again? Yeah.

unknown

Yanni. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Not even remotely. It's yanny. I mean it's Laurel. It's only Laurel. Right? Could you or could you even I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

I can hear Laurel. I cannot hear yanny. But I don't know if I ever heard Yanny.

SPEAKER_00

Are you sure it was actually the same video clip saying both? Mm-hmm. Okay. What are they really saying?

SPEAKER_01

It's they're really saying Laurel.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so I am better than everybody else.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Now that we've established that.

SPEAKER_01

When I was looking this up, it does say you can um actually force your brain to hear the other word by adjusting the pitch. So lowering the pitch by about 30% usually makes Yanny more audible, while raising it makes laurel clearer. So um if you want more like details on like the science of this, there's a really great YouTube video by ASAP Science, and they tell you exactly what's happening, which is pretty fascinating.

SPEAKER_00

Is that ASAP Rocky's brother?

SPEAKER_01

Probably sure. Doubt it, but sure.

SPEAKER_00

ASAP Rocky's sister. I don't know. Is that a that's a correct person, right?

SPEAKER_01

Sure. Okay. I have no idea. Somebody, no, don't talk, don't comment on it. Just don't ask us. It's like we're not even hearing the same word though, so we can't trust our either ears either. So like ASAP Rocky is a person. Love that for us.

SPEAKER_00

Sweet. Okay. I bet you uh yeah. Okay. Okay, let's let's keep it together.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so I'm gonna play this one for you, Christy. Okay, so I'm gonna play this. I don't have you have you seen the Green Needle versus Brainstorm one? No. Oh yes. You have seen that one? Yeah. Okay. So um I'm gonna play it for you.

SPEAKER_00

Brainstorm.

SPEAKER_01

Are you gonna Okay?

SPEAKER_00

Is that what you hear? I don't know. You don't know, okay. Probably, because that's the only one I can think of. Oh, brainstorm. Yeah. Okay. That's fascinating.

SPEAKER_01

What do you what do you hear? I'm gonna tell you more about this. Okay. So this comes from a clip from 2014 where someone's reviewing a toy. The toy is um like a little action figure, and you push down it like on the base of it and it makes a sound. The debate is whether someone hears green needle or brainstorm. Um according to Google, this illusion works through a psychological phenomenon called auditory priming. What's actually happening is that the audio quality is low and distorted, and the sound waves are ambiguous, and our brain really does not like it when it can't make sense of sound. Probably that there'd be an interesting link. You know how you're talking about dementia. I bet that's probably your brain's just like, forget it. I'm not even gonna try.

SPEAKER_00

Never mind.

SPEAKER_01

Forget everything. Clear this section of the brain out. We're done. Trash. So our brain uses um something called top-down processing to essentially just decide for us. It just decides what what it's saying. So the it's expectation. So if you read the word green needle and then you play the sound, you will hear green needle. If you read the word brainstorm and you play the sound, you will hear brainstorm.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, it's that that is vaguely like tickling a memory for me. But not with l Laurel and Nancy or whatever.

SPEAKER_01

I don't think that one is the same, and I think it's because of the way that like the sounds are. So, um just believe you? No. So so hold on, I have some notes here. So when you look at the words green needle, your brain expects to hear those specific phonetic patterns and fills in the gaps of the messy audio to match that expectation. Oh, okay, I get what you're saying. But it's not entirely just the brain deciding, there are acoustic overlaps in the sounds themselves. So the words actually share similar frequency patterns, unlike your Laurel and Yanny. Those are in different frequencies, but these are pretty similar. So, for example, the B in brainstorm can sound a lot like a G in green, and the S in storm occupies a similar higher frequency space as the E in needle.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

So it's not they're in different, like Laurel and Yanni are in different frequencies. And so your brain does it either hears one or the other. But this one, they're so similar that depending on what you read, your brain fills in the gap. Okay. So when you read it and look at it, it's kind of crazy. Um and I just have a note here that says if you've ever tried to teach someone to read in English, you can understand how absolutely stupid the English language is. Just a general PSA to my mom's um or you know, parent friends out there. Attempting to explain cat, C-A-T, and kitten, K-I-T-T-E-N, to a toddler will make your brain break. Because, like, guess what, guess what the answer is?

SPEAKER_00

Just don't ask your teacher. Why is it like this? We were I don't know, man. Ask your teacher. Yeah, I don't know. They went to school to learn how to do this, and I don't. I just know what it's supposed to say.

SPEAKER_01

I said, I promise mommy's not making up that cat starts with a C and kitten starts with a K. I know it's stupid. Wait until you find out about silent letters.

SPEAKER_00

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01

English is dumb. Learn Spanish instead. I don't know. Is Spanish dumb?

unknown

No.

SPEAKER_00

Yay, yay, yay! Um no, Spanish is I love Spanish. It's beautiful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um, I can't make my brain understand it.

SPEAKER_00

You're like, oh my gosh, do you love Spanish? You only talk about Spanish every single podcast. Yeah. That's Chrissy's personality. I'm having a great time. I do it every single day.

SPEAKER_01

Having a great time. I usually say that when I'm not having a great time. No, the hardest time.

SPEAKER_00

I sing it and then it means the hardest thing with Spanish though is uh like just some of the uh the pronunciations are like um like J is E. So like and I always want to be like ja, but yeah, so just retraining your brain. Yeah, that's how I'm keeping my myself young, is continually learning.

SPEAKER_01

Good, good for you. I don't know, man. So with this illusion, unlike many illusions, um, you can often switch what you hear in real time just by shifting your focus on one word or the other before the clip plays. But do you want to try it again? Sure. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

And I'm gonna think green needle. Oh, that's so bizarre. Can you hear it now? Yeah, so play that exact same thing again for me. And this time I'm gonna think brainstorm.

SPEAKER_01

And if you are listening to this on the podcast, you can do this by just thinking about it. Weird, huh? That's just the weirdest thing. So in the comments of that video, people were also saying they heard green storm, brain needle. Ooh, I want to do it okay.

SPEAKER_00

I want to do it again, and I think brain needle.

SPEAKER_01

You guys, you're just here along for the ride, you know.

SPEAKER_00

You're always here for along for the ride. No. Do it again. Right?

SPEAKER_01

Correct. That was a wild scene. So yeah, that's that's freaking wild.

SPEAKER_00

Guys, do it and you'll just be like so excited.

SPEAKER_01

Go back to um what did I say?

SPEAKER_00

It'll give you some good feel goods.

SPEAKER_01

2014. Go back to 2014 YouTube when everything wasn't trash and just really have a great time.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So you hear what you're thinking. Brain prediction overrides actual input, and your brain is literally deciding before you experience it. And this is why I can't hear anything without subtitles. I watch everything with subtitles on now. I love subtitles. Um, okay, so are we robots or are we just really bad at reality, or is none of this real? Or all of the above? I think we're bad at reality. Yeah, probably. Vision is edited, because like it can just be like whatever our brain decides. Hearing is filtered again through our brain. And, you know, um, people are just confidently wrong always.

SPEAKER_00

You are so right.

SPEAKER_01

So right. So we're not experiencing reality together per se. Rather, we're experiencing a version our brain built, and everyone's version is slightly different. And it's like we're experiencing life in parallel and only overlapping enough to argue about it on the internet.

SPEAKER_00

Not arguing with each other, we're arguing with bots.

SPEAKER_01

We we were arguing with each other back in the day. Let's go back to arguing with each other.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but real people.

SPEAKER_01

How would they even do that? Like, I don't even know. They would have I you'd have to ban bot accounts, but I don't even know how you would do that. And then like, how are we looking for it? It feels like it's above our pay grade. Yeah, it's above our pay grade. Send that to the guy in charge, which by the way, thanks to Christy's husband for the lighting again and setting us up. We've we finally got a webcam so we can see ourselves, which is pretty cool. We don't have to rely on my freaking phone that has massive files to move around. Makes me in my fridge sig real bad.

SPEAKER_00

I got unknown beverage right here that I'm working for Diet Coke to sponsor us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Can you imagine?

SPEAKER_00

We're putting this here.

SPEAKER_01

We're looking for some sponsors between Bubblerero and Diet Coke. Because these these hot takes don't come for free. No, they don't. And also Delta at some point with those faucets. Yeah. Christy could use a I'll turn it around. She'll get her act together, figure out how to pull down on things.

SPEAKER_00

Is it Moan? Mo Moen. Moen faucets. Moen.

SPEAKER_01

It's probably Moen. I bet I doubt a faucet company's like, we're gonna call ourselves Moan.

SPEAKER_00

I think it's Mo-E-N.

SPEAKER_01

Those are just the handheld ones.

SPEAKER_00

Get out of here. There's a whole side business for that. And we're checking the explicit box. Every time we upload an episode, you have to say whether it's like explicit or not. We just always market it as explicit.

SPEAKER_01

So how are we all looking at the same thing and getting completely different answers? This has happened multiple times over multiple years. Why haven't we learned? And maybe we just like to argue as humans. Maybe now that we have evolved enough to not have to focus on survival, we fill that hole with the need to be right about things. And in turn that leads to fighting about shit on the internet.

SPEAKER_00

Hey, listen, there is, I don't, and I don't even think it's it's definitely not 50% of the population, but there's a good percentage of the population that are mansplainers. Oh, actually the actu the well actually population.

SPEAKER_01

I'm sure they're gonna be in the comments of this video exactly telling me, well, actually you're bringing. It's like, listen, dude, I can Google too, it's free.

SPEAKER_00

Also, we're not here to be the experts. No, we're just here for hot takes.

SPEAKER_01

The thing that's interesting is that the people that go to podcasts, men, and listen to people who speak in the microphones, men, are usually not ones who have the ability to like think outside the box. Like if you're getting your information from if you're getting your like check in with yourself.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, get it get it together. We're just here to give you some giggles, some belly laughs, maybe like a little bit of a like a like a a good tummy ache from giggling.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That's all I'm here for.

SPEAKER_01

So maybe we're not robots, but we're definitely not seeing the same world. And at the end of the day, this kind of just reinforces my theory that we're living in a simulation. Are you ready? Yeah. Are you ready to play a game? Sure. We are gonna play a game called Real or Not Real, nobody knows. Oh, sounds great. Okay, so in this game, I'm gonna present short scenarios. Um, some of them given by Chat Bestie, and some of them made up by yours truly. And you're gonna guess whether they're real brain phenomena or false, weird, not real things. Okay. Okay, you ready? Yep. Number one researchers believe that the brain compresses memories over time. True. False. Okay. Not real. Great.

SPEAKER_00

Um I'm gonna go with the opposite of what I think.

SPEAKER_01

From here on out. This is opposite world.

SPEAKER_00

I'm always wrong.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. The brain is designed to create a full 360-degree model of your surroundings at all times. False. You're right. It is false. It is a really fun idea to think about, though, if you're thinking about simulation theory. Like this is a video game and your brain's like rendering as it goes.

SPEAKER_00

But it's it's really not.

SPEAKER_01

It's yeah, I don't know. Maybe.

SPEAKER_00

Honestly, I thought that was true. So cool.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, right. Cool, cool, cool. You can't tickle yourself because your brain predicts it. True. True. And also, why would you tickle yourself? Can you imagine someone just sitting there like dude?

SPEAKER_00

My family knows that like all rules are out the door if you tickle me. Like, I will, I don't care what age you are, I will punch you. Girl, hold my earrings.

SPEAKER_01

I'm gonna throw down. That's so funny.

SPEAKER_00

That you don't like to ticket. And this is just gonna spark it in my family. Probably. Here's the fun fact about my husband. I hate being tickled.

SPEAKER_01

He lied to me our almost our entire relationship about not being ticklish. That expletive is ticklish as hell.

SPEAKER_00

No, but guess what? Like, I feel like he is ticklish. There's places on me that are always ticklish, but then there's some times where I'm like not ticklish in certain spots, and then my spouse does think I'm lying. And I'm like, I'm just not ticklish right now.

SPEAKER_01

That's not a thing. There's no way that that I'm ticklish always, ever, everywhere. No, I'm saying there's certain write that down.

SPEAKER_00

I don't even know how I would write that down. And why would I write that down? Um no, but I just feel like sometimes like like I don't know, maybe I wonder if there's like any like correlation between maybe being like cold and being ticklish.

SPEAKER_01

I think it's probably like your brain. Your brain's probably like, no, I'm not ticklish today. Because we just decided that your brain can decide things, you know.

SPEAKER_00

I don't know. I'm just I'm always yeah, I'm always ticklish. My feet are always ticklish.

SPEAKER_01

Don't don't name the spots. Oh god. You're just giving your family ammo, man.

SPEAKER_00

They know the they know the consequence of a tickle. It's a punch.

SPEAKER_01

It's a fist punch, it's an elbow slam. My it's the people's elbow.

SPEAKER_00

These these fists are a fury just any anywhere. Okay, then I guess they don't tickle me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. They don't want to get straight punched, man. Um, okay. You can see your nose all the time, but your brain chooses to ignore it. Okay, I think that's true. It is true.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. And I thought that was true initially too.

SPEAKER_01

But how annoying would that be to like be able to just constantly like be conscious of the fact that you have a nose on your face?

SPEAKER_00

It's kind of like when you have like a I had like a zit under one of my eyes recently. And I was like, I can just see you all day long. Yeah, like you're just taking a real estate on my face and not paying for it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Or you have like something like your eyelashes are stuck together or something, and you can like see them, and you're just like, oh, I know what you mean. Um, studies have shown that the brain sends a signal every hour to reset your awareness of your surroundings. Gnar dog. Nar. You're right. You only see in full color in a tiny circle. Ooh, I don't know. Yes. Yeah, this is real. Okay. Your brain fills in the rest, but the way that your eyes perceive things is just in a tiny circle, which I'm pretty sure, don't quote me, but I'm pretty sure that's what your pupils is letting in light, kind of like a camera lens. Um eyes are fascinating.

SPEAKER_00

Eyes are really fascinating. They give me the heebie jeebies though. Like my youngest went from having to wear glasses to we had to do some like therapies with like amblyopia. Oh, I don't know what that is. Uh it's like I think where the the muscles of one eye is weaker. And so if you don't treat it, then that eye just like will permanently not work. So you have to train it to like whoa, you have to train your eyes to compensate. Like that's cool, anyways. But then one day we went to the eye doctor and he's like, Oh, does he wear his glasses all the time? And I was like, Yeah, he does. And he's like, Okay, well, he doesn't have to. And I was like, Come again. Whoa. So he just doesn't wear glasses anymore, he doesn't need them. Something so funny about that, actually.

SPEAKER_01

My friend Becky, she is just wearing one contact right now. Cool, isn't that crazy? So she went to the eye doctor, and one of her eyes is great, and the other one is just a slacker, she's got a slacker eye, and so they're like, We're gonna give you, you either get to wear glasses or like with a dummy lens, yeah. Oh wow, or you can have contacts, and she've opted for contacts, and she's like, It's so weird because I wear one of my contacts now and I can see super clear, and then the other eye is like glitching out because I don't have I don't have a contact in that eye, but it's not as clear, but it's but it's not enough to need a contact.

SPEAKER_00

But her eyes have figured out how to compensate for it. That's the thing, is like your brain just has to learn how to compensate for it, which is what the like the amblyopia therapy did. Yeah, it's so weird.

SPEAKER_01

Um, I didn't have to wear glasses until after my babies were born, and then my eyes just increasingly got worse. And I don't know if that's like a hormonal thing or what, but I well they say your eyes change in pregnancy. Yeah. And like as I mean, I'm sure obviously age has something to do with it too, because it's far away. Or no, I guess it was it's up close that you can't see. I don't know. I can't see far away. I can see up close, I can't see far away. Um, and I don't know. You're sighted. I yeah, I'm that I got and that changed. I was perfectly fine before I had kids.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I got LASIK in 2008 and I've just been smooth sailing ever since. That's and then my eyes didn't change with pregnancy.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's lucky. Yeah. I have thought about LASIK. Uh you told me to think about LASIK, and then I immediately wanted to throw it down one of the best things I've ever done. I can't, you would have to drug me up so much to do. No, I would need like twice the amount of drugs. I can't even go to the eye doctor without getting the heebie jeebies. You know? Don't be touching, don't be touching my eyeball. None of my business. Um that's none of my business. So, okay, studies have proven that you can remember something that never happened. I want to say true. Yeah. It is true. Defense attorneys love this one because they always call it out when they're like, Well, are you sure you're remembering that correctly? In like a case. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Our brains are notoriously unreliable.

SPEAKER_00

That sounds like a convenient answer. You've remembered everything correctly up until now, and now all of a sudden, Nardog.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Okay, last one, are you ready? Yeah. This podcast is the bomb, and we love our listeners. True story. Yay, yay, yay. That's all I have for you today. Yeah. It was a really fun dive into past internet.

SPEAKER_00

I know. Well, now I have to really think about my. You really blew me away with the dress because I want to see it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Wild, huh?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Oh, no, no, no, not the dress. The shoes. The shoes. The shoes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um, so be sure to rate, review, and follow us on all the things. You can listen and follow the show wherever you get your podcasts. And if you want to see our lovely faces, check us out on YouTube. We try to edit videos and post them on YouTube, and they will get better now that we have a more reliable camera and not.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, the webcam's pretty cool. It's pretty awesome. What's funny is like Ashley and I have been talking about webcams forever, and like that, we needed to buy one. And then one day I was like, I actually have a webcam.

SPEAKER_01

And you were like, And then I wanted to throw my computer in a wall. Uh cool, Christy.

SPEAKER_00

Classic Christy.

SPEAKER_01

Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.

SPEAKER_00

Always sabotaging. It's it's like the extra gloves. Like, oh my gosh, my hands are so cold. Oh, do you want these extra gloves? Happened the whole time.

SPEAKER_01

We also post clips on TikTok and Instagram. And if you are on there and you see our stuff, please comment and please comment encouraging nice things. Because if not, then I have to like troll you, and it's a whole thing. So just be nice to us, please. Yeah. Or say something so funny because Oh, we just want funny.

SPEAKER_00

Just say something funny. Just say funny things.

SPEAKER_01

Um, and that's all I got. So remember to stay human, stay curious, and don't let the robots win. T Bob out! Snuck that one up on you. Yeah, you did. Okay. Glad bye.

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