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Statements posted on this blog represent the views of individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Center for Law Science & Innovation (which does not take positions on policy issues) or of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law or Arizona State University.

Tuesday Triple Trivia Tease for March 25, 2014

3 questions. 3 hints. 3 answers. Every Tuesday.

1. What popular expression related to the mind recently made “headlines”?  Was it, a) penny for your thoughts, b) put your thinking cap on, or c) get your brain in gear?

Hint:

Answer:  the thinking cap no longer appears to be restricted to the realm of idioms.   It seems that the part of the brain, believed to be responsible for the instinctive “Oops!” response we emit when we err, may be manipulated using transcranial direct current stimulation.  The hoped-for, now realized, outcome is the ability to control test subjects’ responses, thereby effectively influencing and improving learning, with the effects of each 20-minute stimulation lasting about five hours.  The implications of the findings extend beyond the potential to improve general learning to conceivably benefit conditions like schizophrenia, ADHD and other ailments evidencing cognitive malfunctions.  Read the specific details here.

2. While the Society of Toxicology is meeting in Phoenix, Arizona this week for its 53rd Annual Meeting (March 23-27),  what “poison” being sold “by the barrel” is coincidentally making headlines across the U.S.?

Hint:

Answer:  it is available for sale by the vial, the gallon and the barrel.  We are talking about nicotine, in liquid form, with available fancy color and flavor additives, that is fueling the emerging and popular e-cigarette industry and its consumers.  Take away the rainbow of colors and the appealing tastes and you are left with a bottom line ingredient which happens to be a powerful neurotoxin.   Toxicologists have warned that small amounts of ingested or absorbed “e-liquids” can cause seizures, vomiting and even death.  A lethal dose for an adult is less than a tablespoon.  For a child, a teaspoon is enough to kill.   With these dangers comes the added concern that this form of nicotine is not FDA regulated and easily available to consumers of all ages in stores and online.  Calls to poison control centers are on the rise: nationwide, e-liquid related inquiries increased 300 percent in 2013 from 2012, with the number expecting to double in 2014 according the National Poison Data System.  While the FDA has indicated it has plans to regulate the fast-growing e-cigarette industry (and its ingredients), it has not yet expressed how or when it will do so.  While many people, like Cynthia Cabrera, executive director of the Smoke Free Alternatives Trade Association, seem to approve of regulations that would include protections like childproof bottles, warning labels, and manufacturing standards, Cabrera notes that many companies are at least stepping up and are being proactive in that regard.  She adds that parents should also take some responsibility. Read additional details here.

3. Part of achieving fulfillment as a human being comes from having a purpose or function.  Satisfaction may be derived through a career, hobby, volunteer or caregiver position.  What emerging technology may have an impact, detrimental to at least one of these functions, that may well be unwanted but beyond control?

Hint:

What's next, a president bot?

Answer: much has been written on this topic over the last few years, the topic being “technological unemployment.”  This past week, in The Week, its editor-in-chief, William Falk, once again brings the likely inevitability to light, noting in an article that advancements in technological sophistication will have many of us standing in the unemployment benefits line… or coming up with solutions to the potentially distressing prognosis.  Falk states that, “in a recent paper, “The Future of Employment,” Carl Frey and Michael Osborne of Oxford University estimate that 47 percent of U.S. jobs could be automated in the next 20 years. Waiters, kitchen staff, cashiers, loan officers, accountants, taxi and truck drivers, pilots, retail salespeople, real estate agents, and even soldiers might all be replaced by intelligent robots or sophisticated software.”  Seriously.  For additional reading on this topic, see a recently published article by Gary E. Marchant et al., Law Professor and Faculty Director of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law Center for Law, Science & Innovation, entitled Technology, Unemployment & Policy Options: Navigating the Transition to a Better World.