Machines, Creativity & Love | Dr. Lex Fridman

(instrumental music) Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life. I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today, I have the pleasure of introducing Dr. Lex Fridman as our guest on the Huberman Lab Podcast. Dr. Fridman is a researcher at MIT specializing in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and human-robot interactions. I must say that the conversation with Lex was, without question, one of the most fascinating conversations that I've ever had, not just in my career, but in my lifetime. I knew that Lex worked on these topics, and I think many of you are probably familiar with Lex and his interest in these topics from his incredible podcast, the Lex Fridman Podcast. If you're not already watching that podcast, please subscribe to it. It is absolutely fantastic. But in holding this conversation with Lex, I realized something far more important. He revealed to us a bit of his dream, his dream about humans and robots, about humans and machines, and about how those interactions can change the way that we perceive ourselves and that we interact with the world. We discussed relationships of all kinds, relationships with animals, relationships with friends, relationships with family, and romantic relationships. And we discussed relationships with machines, machines that move and machines that don't move, and machines that come to understand us in ways that we could never understand for ourselves, and how those machines can educate us about ourselves. Before this conversation, I had no concept of the ways in which machines could inform me or anyone about themselves. By the end, I was absolutely taken with the idea, and I'm still taken with the idea, that interactions with machines of a very particular kind, a kind that Lex understands and wants to bring to the world, can not only transform the self, but may very well transform humanity. So whether or not you're familiar with Dr. Lex Fridman or not, I'm certain you're going to learn a tremendous amount from him during the course of our discussion and that it will transform the way you think about yourself and about the world. Before we begin, I want to mention that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero-cost-to-consumer information about science and science-related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is ROKA. ROKA makes sunglasses and eyeglasses that are of absolutely phenomenal quality. The company was founded by two all-American swimmers from Stanford, and everything about the sunglasses and eyeglasses they've designed had performance in mind. Now, I've spent a career working on the visual system and one of the fundamental issues that your visual system has to deal with is how to adjust what you see when it gets darker or brighter in your environment. With ROKA sunglasses and eyeglasses, whether or not it's dim in the room or outside, whether or not there's cloud cover, or whether or not you walk into a shadow, you can always see the world with absolute clarity. And that just tells me that they really understand the way that the visual system works, processes like habituation and attenuation. All these things that work at a real mechanistic level have been built into these glasses. In addition, the glasses are very lightweight. You don't even notice really that they're on your face, and the quality of the lenses is terrific. Now, the glasses were also designed so that you could use them not just while working or at dinner, et cetera, but while exercising. They don't fall off your face or slip off your face if you're sweating, and as I mentioned, they're extremely lightweight, so you can use 'em while running, you can use 'em while cycling, and so forth. Also, the aesthetic of ROKA glasses is terrific, unlike a lot of performance glasses out there which, frankly, make people look like cyborgs. These glasses look great. You can wear them out to dinner. You can wear them in, for essentially any occasion. If you'd like to try ROKA glasses, you can go to roka.com, that's R-O-K-A dot-com, and enter the code Huberman to save 20% off your first order. That's ROKA, R-O-K-A dot-com, and enter the code Huberman at checkout. Today's episode is also brought to us by InsideTracker. InsideTracker is a personalized nutrition platform that analyzes data from your blood and DNA to help you better understand your body and help you reach your health goals. I am a big believer in getting regular blood work done for the simple reason that many of the factors that impact our immediate and long-term health can only be assessed from a quality blood test. And now with the advent of quality DNA tests, we can also get insight into some of our genetic underpinnings of our current and long-term health. The problem with a lot of blood and DNA tests out there, however, is you get the data back and you don't know what to do with those data. You see that certain things are high or certain things are low, but you really don't know what the actionable items are, what to do with all that information. With InsideTracker, they make it very easy to act in the appropriate ways on the information that you get back from those blood and DNA tests, and that's through the use of their online platform. They have a really easy-to-use dashboard that tells you what sorts of things can bring the numbers for your metabolic factors, endocrine factors, et cetera, into the ranges that you want and need for immediate and long-term health. In fact, I know one individual, just by way of example, that was feeling good but decided to go with an InsideTracker test and discovered that they had high levels of what's called C-reactive protein. They would've never detected that otherwise. C-reactive protein is associated with a number of deleterious health conditions, some heart issues, eye issues, et cetera, and so they were able to take immediate action to try and resolve those CRP levels. And so with InsideTracker you get that sort of insight, and as I mentioned before, without a blood or DNA test, there's no way you're going to get that sort of insight until symptoms start to show up. If you'd like to try InsideTracker, you can go to insidetracker.com/huberman to get 25% off any of InsideTracker's plans. You just use the code Huberman at checkout. That's insidetracker.com/huberman to get 25% off any of InsideTracker's plans. Today's podcast is brought to us by Athletic Greens. Athletic Greens is an all-in-one vitamin-mineral-probiotic drink. I started taking Athletic Greens way back in 2012, and so I'm delighted that they're sponsoring the podcast.The reason I started taking Athletic Greens and the reason I still take Athletic Greens is that it covers all of my vitamin, mineral, probiotic bases. In fact, when people ask me, "What should I take?" I always suggest that the first supplement people take is Athletic Greens for the simple reason is that the things it contains covers your bases for metabolic health, endocrine health, and all sorts of other systems in the body. And the inclusion of probiotics are essential for a healthy gut microbiome. There are now tons of data showing that we have neurons in our gut, and keeping those neurons healthy requires that they are exposed to what are called the correct microbiota, little microorganisms that live in our gut and keep us healthy. And those neurons in turn help keep our brain healthy. They influence things like mood, our ability to focus, and many, many other factors related to health. With Athletic Greens, it's terrific because it also tastes really good. I drink it once or twice a day, I mix mine with water, and I add a little lemon juice or sometimes a little bit of lime juice. If you want to try Athletic Greens, you can go to athleticgreens.com/huberman, and if you do that, you can claim their special offer. They're giving away five free travel packs, the little packs that make it easy to mix up Athletic Greens while you're on the road, and they'll give you a year supply of vitamin D3 and K2. Again, go to athleticgreens.com/huberman to claim that special offer. And now my conversation with Dr. Lex Fridman.