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Does a universe without noses or tongues

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Need flavor

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Take durian

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To some people it smells heavenly

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To others it smells like a sewer

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The same molecule

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The same cloud of gas

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Drifts into two different noses

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Yet produces completely opposite experiences

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Think about that carefully

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It is actually quite strange

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If odor were an inherent property of molecules

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Then why would the same molecule

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For different people

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Become something completely different

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Even more striking

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Feces that humans find unbearably foul

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Inside a dogs nose ten thousand times more sensitive than ours

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Does not merely smell fine

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It smells quite good

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Chinese village dogs

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Have eaten human feces for thousands of years

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And enjoyed every bite

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So today I want to ask you a question

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Not whether something smells good

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But something more fundamental

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Before the first life capable of smell appeared

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Did flavor exist in the universe

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Hello

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Everyone

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I am Leo Wang

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This is episode three of our series

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In the first two episodes we asked two similar questions

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Does a universe without eyes need visible light

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Does a universe without ears need sound

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The conclusion was the same

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Visible light is only a tiny slice of the electromagnetic spectrum

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The reception range of the particular hardware called the human eye

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Is what makes it visible light

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Sound is not the vibration of air itself

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It emerges after the cochlea translates vibration into electrical signals

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As a subjective experience rendered by the brain

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Without ears

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The vibration remains

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But the sound does not

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Today we extend this question into chemical sensation

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Taste and smell

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And I want to tell you

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This conclusion goes further than the first two

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And is even more unsettling

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Why

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Because light and sound

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At least correspond to things in the physical world

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That are relatively objective

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Electromagnetic waves and air vibrations

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Although color and sound are subjective

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Wavelength and frequency are measurable

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But flavor

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Is subjective at a much deeper level

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Let me begin with something I have noticed

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I love eating cilantro

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To me it has a fresh aroma

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But many of my friends

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Find cilantro as unpleasant as soapy water

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You might think they are being fussy

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They are not

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Their genes decide it

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Scientists have found

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An olfactory receptor gene on human chromosome eleven

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One variant of that gene

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Causes roughly four to twenty one percent of people

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To interpret aldehydes in cilantro as a soapy taste

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The same cilantro plant

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At the same concentration

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Smells fresh to you

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And like laundry detergent to them

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It is not poor taste

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The decoding chip in their nose

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Is simply a different model from yours

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And this is not an isolated case

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In 2019

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A research team at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in the United States

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Conducted a large scale experiment

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They comprehensively sequenced the olfactory receptor genes

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Of 332 people

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Then had each person smell 68 different odor molecules

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And rate both their intensity and pleasantness

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They found

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That even one different olfactory receptor gene

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Could noticeably alter how someone perceives an odor

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Humans have more than 400 olfactory receptor genes

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And each person carries a different combination of variants

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Think about what that means

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You and any person beside you

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Have different hardware configurations in your noses

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The world you smell and the world I smell

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Are already different worlds at the genetic level

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Taste works the same way

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A classic experimental compound is phenylthiocarbamide

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Scientists ask people to taste this chemical

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About seventy five percent of people

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Taste an extremely intense bitterness

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So bitter they want to vomit

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But the remaining twenty five percent or so

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Cannot taste it at all

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To them it is just water

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The difference is driven mainly by a variant in a bitter taste receptor gene

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The same glass of liquid

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Tastes unbearably bitter to you

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And like nothing at all to them

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Whose version is real

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The answer is

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Both are real

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And neither is real

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Because bitterness is not in the liquid

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It is in the translation between your receptors and your brain

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All right

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Now let us extend this observation

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From humanity to the entire living world

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And things become even more astonishing

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I spent some time in the countryside as a child

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And one scene remains vivid in my memory

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The village dogs

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Often ate human feces beside the latrines

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I was young then

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And wondered how dogs could be so disgusting

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But looking back now

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The phenomenon contains a profound question about perception

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A dogs sense of smell is ten thousand to one hundred thousand times more sensitive than ours

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Its nose contains about three hundred million olfactory receptor cells

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Humans have only about six million

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A fifty fold difference

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More importantly

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Dogs have an organ that humans lack

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Called the vomeronasal organ

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It can detect chemical information in odor molecules

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That we cannot perceive at all

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For a dog

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A pile of feces is not the foul object we experience

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It smells an information package

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Containing the identity and health of whoever left it

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What they recently ate and their emotional state

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And the undigested fat and protein left in feces

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May genuinely smell good

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To a dogs chemical receptors

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Scientists call this behavior coprophagy

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Many people think it is a bad canine habit

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It is not

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Professor Benjamin Hart at UC Davis

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Conducted a large scale survey

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And proposed that it may be an instinct inherited from canine ancestors

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Its purpose is to remove fresh feces near the den

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Before parasites can hatch and infect the pack

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His data showed

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That sixteen percent of dogs regularly eat feces

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And twenty three percent have been seen doing it at least once

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This is not deviance

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It is a sanitation program evolution wrote tens of thousands of years ago

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But my point is not why dogs eat feces

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It is that this behavior reveals

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A startling fact about the nature of flavor

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Humans smell feces

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And feel sick enough to vomit

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Dogs smell the same pile

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And approach it with enthusiasm

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The same collection of chemical molecules

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Inside two different perceptual systems

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Produces completely opposite experiences

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So let me ask you

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Is that pile itself fragrant or foul

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The answer is

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It is neither fragrant nor foul

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Fragrance and stench are not properties of molecules

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They are labels a perceptual system gives them

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A molecule itself is only a collection of atoms

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Arranged and vibrating in a particular way

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It has no flavor

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Just as electromagnetic waves have no color

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And air vibrations have no sound

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Flavor is a product of translation

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Not a property of what is translated

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That sentence is worth pausing on for ten seconds

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There is another subtler but more important layer

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Different species do not merely translate differently

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Even within the same species

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And even within one person at different times

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The translation can change

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You have surely experienced this

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When a cold blocks your nose

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Nothing tastes like anything

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The food has not changed

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Your translator has temporarily stopped working

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Or perhaps you hated bitter melon as a child

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And suddenly liked it as an adult

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The bitter melon did not change

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The density of your taste receptors

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And the preference weights in your brain

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Change as you age

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Research has found

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That taste sensitivity declines significantly with age

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Especially sensitivity to bitterness and sourness

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Women generally have more sensitive taste than men

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So strictly speaking

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A twenty year old woman and a sixty year old man

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Facing the same bowl of soup

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May experience dramatically different flavors

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Everyone lives inside a personal bubble of taste

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Believing they taste food as it truly is

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But there is no such thing as how food truly tastes

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You think you are tasting the world

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But all your life you have only tasted yourself

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All right

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Now let us turn back time

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Back to three point eight billion years ago

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Before the first single celled life appeared on Earth

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Then further back

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Back to four point six billion years ago

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When Earth had just formed

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And further still

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Back to the Big Bang thirteen point eight billion years ago

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Was there flavor in the universe then

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Let us see what existed

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A few minutes after the Big Bang

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The universe produced hydrogen helium and a little lithium

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Hundreds of millions of years later

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The first stars ignited

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And nuclear fusion began forging heavier elements

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Carbon nitrogen oxygen and sulfur

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Supernovae scattered these elements into space

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They met and combined in interstellar dust

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Forming all kinds of molecules

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NASA research has found

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Amino acids and nucleobases in meteorites

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Astronomers have also detected ethanol in interstellar space

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Yes the same alcohol we drink

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And ethyl formate

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The molecule that gives raspberries their fruity aroma

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Long long before life appeared

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The universe was already producing these molecules in abundance

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If you collected these molecules

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And placed them before a human nose

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That person would smell alcohol and fruit

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But there were no noses then

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Those ethanol molecules drifted through interstellar space for billions of years

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Without ever being experienced as the smell of alcohol

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The molecules were there

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But no nose existed to smell them

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And no tongue existed to taste them

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It is like what we discussed in episode one

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Electromagnetic waves filled space from the birth of the universe

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But before the first eye evolved

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There was no light in the universe

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Only radiation

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Light is an invention of the eye

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Not something inherent in electromagnetic waves

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The same logic applies

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Flavor is an invention of the nose and tongue

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Not something inherent in molecules

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Before life appeared

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The universe had molecules

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Chemical reactions

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Structures

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And energy

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But no fragrance

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No stench

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No sweetness

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And no bitterness

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Those words do not describe objective properties of molecules

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They describe a particular perceptual systems subjective interpretation

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Without an interpreter

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There is no interpretation

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Buddhism offers an exceptionally precise framework for this phenomenon

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The eighteen realms we have mentioned repeatedly

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The nose faculty meets the object of smell

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And gives rise to nose consciousness

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The tongue faculty meets the object of taste

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And gives rise to tongue consciousness

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The key phrase is gives rise

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Consciousness is not something that always exists

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It is an event that emerges only when faculty and object meet

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Without the nose faculty

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The objects of smell remain those same molecules

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But nose consciousness does not arise

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And odor does not exist

285
00:10:34,273 --> 00:10:35,952
You can say the molecules are there

286
00:10:35,952 --> 00:10:38,357
But you cannot say the odor is there

287
00:10:38,588 --> 00:10:41,837
In the Yogacara framework often discussed on this channel

288
00:10:42,109 --> 00:10:44,038
Molecules have the nature of dependent arising

289
00:10:44,188 --> 00:10:45,997
They exist through causes and conditions

290
00:10:46,269 --> 00:10:46,857
But flavor

291
00:10:47,229 --> 00:10:49,158
Flavor has the nature of imagined attachment

292
00:10:49,348 --> 00:10:52,758
It is a label your consciousness overlays on molecules

293
00:10:53,149 --> 00:10:54,058
You smell a stench

294
00:10:54,269 --> 00:10:56,237
And label it disgusting

295
00:10:56,468 --> 00:10:57,337
You smell a fragrance

296
00:10:57,629 --> 00:10:59,597
And label it pleasant

297
00:10:59,948 --> 00:11:02,798
Then you mistake the label for the thing itself

298
00:11:02,948 --> 00:11:05,117
Forgetting that you put it there

299
00:11:05,269 --> 00:11:08,870
This is a perfect example of what Buddhism calls inverted delusion

300
00:11:09,260 --> 00:11:11,269
There is something especially interesting here

301
00:11:11,780 --> 00:11:15,350
You can demonstrate the subjectivity of vision with color illusions

302
00:11:15,660 --> 00:11:18,949
And understand the subjectivity of hearing through auditory hallucinations

303
00:11:19,221 --> 00:11:21,299
But for the subjectivity of taste and smell

304
00:11:21,300 --> 00:11:23,189
You do not even need to design an experiment

305
00:11:23,420 --> 00:11:25,269
You only need to compare

306
00:11:25,300 --> 00:11:28,069
Your opinion of the same dish with someone beside you

307
00:11:28,101 --> 00:11:32,114
And you will find that you inhabit completely different universes of taste

308
00:11:32,506 --> 00:11:35,714
Your mothers braised pork is the best food in the world to you

309
00:11:35,825 --> 00:11:37,635
While your friend finds it merely average

310
00:11:37,986 --> 00:11:40,555
You find luosifen unbearably foul

311
00:11:40,665 --> 00:11:42,755
While your coworker finds it wonderfully fragrant

312
00:11:43,146 --> 00:11:46,954
We usually explain these everyday disagreements as different tastes

313
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And stop asking questions

314
00:11:49,185 --> 00:11:51,755
But today I invite you to think one step further

315
00:11:52,106 --> 00:11:54,295
What does different taste really mean

316
00:11:54,906 --> 00:11:57,145
It means your perceptual hardware

317
00:11:57,146 --> 00:11:59,064
Takes the same set of chemical molecules

318
00:11:59,065 --> 00:12:00,795
And produces different translations

319
00:12:01,106 --> 00:12:03,314
No translation is the standard answer

320
00:12:03,665 --> 00:12:05,635
No version is the original text

321
00:12:06,106 --> 00:12:09,395
The original is not even written in a language humans can read

322
00:12:09,465 --> 00:12:11,499
It is only a collection of atoms

323
00:12:11,771 --> 00:12:14,739
The philosophical impact is greater than you might imagine

324
00:12:15,050 --> 00:12:16,570
Because nearly all of us

325
00:12:16,570 --> 00:12:20,180
Carry an unexamined hidden assumption in daily life

326
00:12:20,371 --> 00:12:23,900
That the world I perceive is the world as it truly is

327
00:12:24,171 --> 00:12:25,320
Food has flavor

328
00:12:25,611 --> 00:12:27,010
Flowers have fragrance

329
00:12:27,011 --> 00:12:28,160
Feces smell foul

330
00:12:28,330 --> 00:12:29,900
These are objective facts

331
00:12:30,251 --> 00:12:31,280
But chemistry tells you

332
00:12:31,491 --> 00:12:32,900
Molecules have no flavor

333
00:12:33,251 --> 00:12:34,400
Neuroscience tells you

334
00:12:34,651 --> 00:12:36,619
Flavor is constructed by the brain

335
00:12:36,930 --> 00:12:37,999
Genetics tells you

336
00:12:38,210 --> 00:12:39,530
The way you construct it

337
00:12:39,531 --> 00:12:41,249
And the way your neighbor constructs it

338
00:12:41,251 --> 00:12:43,219
Already differ at the genetic level

339
00:12:43,690 --> 00:12:45,410
Comparisons across species tell you

340
00:12:45,411 --> 00:12:46,979
That something you find foul

341
00:12:47,090 --> 00:12:49,738
May be delicious to another species

342
00:12:50,168 --> 00:12:52,858
If you truly consider all this evidence together

343
00:12:53,008 --> 00:12:54,598
It is hard not to reach one conclusion

344
00:12:55,048 --> 00:12:56,598
Flavor was never outside

345
00:12:56,888 --> 00:12:58,577
Flavor has always been inside

346
00:12:58,808 --> 00:12:59,797
In your receptors

347
00:13:00,089 --> 00:13:01,608
In your neural pathways

348
00:13:01,609 --> 00:13:03,618
In your brains rendering engine

349
00:13:03,928 --> 00:13:05,697
You think you are tasting the world

350
00:13:05,729 --> 00:13:08,731
But you are tasting the activity of your own consciousness

351
00:13:08,881 --> 00:13:12,091
I know this conclusion may feel uncomfortable

352
00:13:12,361 --> 00:13:13,971
If flavor is not real

353
00:13:14,082 --> 00:13:16,030
Is the joy I get from eating false

354
00:13:16,486 --> 00:13:17,285
No

355
00:13:17,562 --> 00:13:19,321
Your experience is real

356
00:13:19,322 --> 00:13:21,370
And your joy is real

357
00:13:21,641 --> 00:13:23,770
I am not denying your experience

358
00:13:23,802 --> 00:13:26,370
I am challenging your mistaken belief about its source

359
00:13:26,761 --> 00:13:29,170
You think the joy comes from that piece of braised pork

360
00:13:29,361 --> 00:13:31,361
But the joy comes from your consciousness

361
00:13:31,361 --> 00:13:34,010
Making a particular interpretation of those chemical molecules

362
00:13:34,442 --> 00:13:35,611
Change the receptors

363
00:13:35,682 --> 00:13:37,890
And the same molecules might disgust you

364
00:13:38,361 --> 00:13:40,290
This does not mean joy does not exist

365
00:13:40,401 --> 00:13:42,691
It means joy is not inside the braised pork

366
00:13:42,761 --> 00:13:44,882
Joy is inside you

367
00:13:45,113 --> 00:13:47,841
This is actually a deeply liberating insight

368
00:13:48,192 --> 00:13:48,902
Think carefully

369
00:13:49,312 --> 00:13:51,801
If joy is not in external objects

370
00:13:51,873 --> 00:13:53,382
But in the activity of your consciousness

371
00:13:53,833 --> 00:13:55,201
Then you do not need

372
00:13:55,272 --> 00:13:57,912
To desperately cling to a particular external object

373
00:13:57,912 --> 00:13:59,122
In order to find joy

374
00:13:59,593 --> 00:14:00,341
Objects change

375
00:14:00,713 --> 00:14:01,142
They break

376
00:14:01,432 --> 00:14:02,321
They disappear

377
00:14:02,753 --> 00:14:04,961
But your capacity to create joy

378
00:14:05,032 --> 00:14:06,902
Has always been inside you

379
00:14:07,253 --> 00:14:08,612
Once you understand the nature of flavor

380
00:14:08,613 --> 00:14:10,461
You understand the absurdity of attachment

381
00:14:10,733 --> 00:14:12,301
You are not attached to a thing

382
00:14:12,572 --> 00:14:14,252
You are attached to your consciousness

383
00:14:14,253 --> 00:14:16,542
Translating that thing in a particular way

384
00:14:16,692 --> 00:14:17,732
And that translation

385
00:14:17,733 --> 00:14:21,091
Changes with your age your gene expression and your physical condition

386
00:14:21,093 --> 00:14:22,101
It is always changing

387
00:14:22,452 --> 00:14:24,331
The flavor you adored at twenty

388
00:14:24,333 --> 00:14:25,941
May mean nothing to you at sixty

389
00:14:26,213 --> 00:14:27,612
The version you cling to

390
00:14:27,613 --> 00:14:29,171
May have vanished long ago

391
00:14:29,172 --> 00:14:30,490
Yet you are still chasing it

392
00:14:30,880 --> 00:14:32,850
Let us return to the central question of this series

393
00:14:33,361 --> 00:14:35,689
A universe without eyes does not need visible light

394
00:14:35,841 --> 00:14:38,010
A universe without ears does not need sound

395
00:14:38,121 --> 00:14:40,210
A universe without noses or tongues does not need flavor

396
00:14:40,441 --> 00:14:43,169
The universe only needs molecules waves and vibrations

397
00:14:43,400 --> 00:14:47,199
What translates those physical processes into color sound and flavor

398
00:14:47,201 --> 00:14:48,090
Is consciousness

399
00:14:48,481 --> 00:14:50,490
Consciousness is not a spectator of the universe

400
00:14:50,601 --> 00:14:53,370
It is how the universe experiences itself

401
00:14:53,601 --> 00:14:54,309
Without consciousness

402
00:14:54,520 --> 00:14:55,970
The universe still operates

403
00:14:56,160 --> 00:14:57,970
But it does not know it is operating

404
00:14:58,121 --> 00:15:00,090
It has structure but no experience

405
00:15:00,121 --> 00:15:02,010
Processes but no sensation

406
00:15:02,121 --> 00:15:04,090
Information but no meaning

407
00:15:04,280 --> 00:15:06,821
Consciousness turns data into a world

408
00:15:07,292 --> 00:15:09,012
Your nose and tongue

409
00:15:09,012 --> 00:15:11,892
Turn arrangements of carbon hydrogen and oxygen atoms

410
00:15:11,892 --> 00:15:13,982
Into the taste of your mothers cooking

411
00:15:14,292 --> 00:15:15,161
And that taste

412
00:15:15,493 --> 00:15:16,514
Belongs only to you

413
00:15:16,865 --> 00:15:17,374
In the next episode

414
00:15:17,666 --> 00:15:19,315
We will continue this series

415
00:15:19,625 --> 00:15:23,354
The first three episodes unpacked vision hearing and chemical sensation

416
00:15:23,666 --> 00:15:25,335
What do you think we should explore next

417
00:15:25,769 --> 00:15:26,215
Touch

418
00:15:26,889 --> 00:15:27,374
Pain

419
00:15:27,945 --> 00:15:29,734
Or should we jump straight to the hardest one

420
00:15:30,066 --> 00:15:30,815
Consciousness itself

421
00:15:31,546 --> 00:15:34,306
Tell me what you think in the comments

422
00:15:34,842 --> 00:15:35,550
I am Leo Wang

423
00:15:35,788 --> 00:15:36,806
See you next time