Moral psychology isn't always an easy thing to study. Experiments that actually puts people in what feels like a real scenario may get realistic results, but researchers must always balance the benefits of what we could learn with the safety and well-being of the people they study. Often what we learn from moral psychology experiments doesn't make humans look good. We are imperfect creatures. But the more we learn about why and how we make the moral choices that we do, the better we'll be able to tackle difficult questions in the future.
Someday, I will die. But should I? If I was offered a longer life, I would take that in a second. But how long is too long? Is death something I should deny forever, or is death and the role it plays in the universe something I am better off accepting?
Where is everyone? We have been listening for messages from outer space for more than half a century, and so far... silence, why? Are we truly alone in the universe? Or is everyone else acting like us and just doing a lot of listening? Maybe we need to be louder. Maybe we need to send more messages out there. But how do you write a letter to an extraterrestrial whose language and culture and biology and mind we have no concept of? And what do you say? Given all of the unknowns about what they might behave, should we say anything at all?
Completely proving something can be difficult, if not impossible. So instead, we have the faith of the believer, the confidence interval of the scientist. What we think we know, we really only believe we know. On this episode of Mind Field, we are going to take a look at a kind of lie we tell ourselves. And we are going to use belief to turn a lie... into a truth.
Destiny is beyond our control, our fate already set, perhaps from the onset of disease or being born with a special ability. You may think our lives are determined by the genes we're born with, but that is not the case. In the non-coding 98% of our DNA, we have countless switches to promote or suppress the physiological reactions of our bodies. Interestingly, we can change the states of these switches through our own efforts and even can affect the DNA conditions of our offspring before their birth. Explore the hottest area of bioscience, genomics with stunning live image, quality CGI, the forefront research, and real human stories.
In 1983 Hasbro bought the license of the Diaclone and Micro Change toys from Takara, then commissioned Marvel Comics to come up with a story-line and character names for the toys. The result: Transformers. Despite Tonka releasing the cheaper Gobots line six months earlier, Hasbro's Transformers took the toy market by storm in 1984, raking in US$150 million that year. At the peak of the toy line's popularity, The Transformers: The Movie hit theaters to further capitalize on its success, but the film polarized fans and collectors with the death of Optimus Prime and majority of the original characters. As Hasbro took full control of Transformers from Takara by the late 1980s, sales declined until the toy line was discontinued in 1991. After the failed Generation 2 reboot, Beast Wars rejuvenated the franchise in 1995. In 2007, the live-action Transformers film solidified Transformers' position as Hasbro's flagship toy line.
We are imperfect creatures. But the more we learn about why and how we make the moral choices that we do, the better we'll be able to tackle difficult questions in the future.