The Backwards Brain Bicycle - Smarter Every Day 133

From the excellent smartereverday youtube channel ▶ this video Strongly recommend to watch the above video.He does an experiment on how long it takes to get comfortable by changing the handle bars.

I agree - surely adults can learn these tennis strokes, even if they are harder to pick up. There is an absolutely fascinating video about plasticity of learning between adults and children that I'd highly recommend watching [1]. A man built a "backwards bicycle", where the handlebars steer the bike in the opposite direction to what you would expect. It was almost impossible for him to ride the bike more than a few feet at a time before falling off. Finally, after 8 months of consistent practice, he could ride it relatively well. When he put his 6-year-old son on the bike (who'd been riding a normal bicycle for 3 years), he had it mastered just 2 weeks later . [1] ▶ this video

Reminded me of this Smarter Every Day video, which is definitely worth a watch: ▶ this video (The Backwards Brain Bicycle)

One of my friends one day forwarded me the YouTube link to Backwards Brain Bicycle by Dustin ( ▶ this video ) and I was so amazed by how our brains cling to the meanings of relative phenomena we've learnt in the past and how it characterizes our behavior as humans. For example, that's why we find it so hard to give up a certain habit. Our response, a replication of the concept in the form of a simple game. Let us know what you think.

Reminds me of this YouTube video (below) on how difficult it is (nearly impossible) to re-learn how to ride a bicycle when you have the handles are reversed (i.e. pulling left handle bar towards you, the wheel goes to the right) ▶ this video

Reminds me of those couple of guys who made a bicycle with backwards controls. They learned how to use it, which then rendered then unable to use normal bicycles lol. ▶ this video

I've used Linux as my primary OS for > 20 years. My current job supports Mac and Windows and I accepted it with the understanding that I'd have to use windows, but couldn't get used to it, so switched to a Mac. Maybe I could have gotten used to this, but switching between the Mac UI and Linux at home always felt like switching between a normal bike and one with reversed steering (see e.g. ▶ this video ). Luckily Linux is unofficially supported at work so I've switched back to that now.

Slightly related: there’s a YouTube video [1] of a guy teaching himself how to ride a bicycle “in reverse”, i.e. you turn left, and it goes right. It takes some practice but in the end it just “clicks”. So now he’s balancing and moving completely opposite to perception. So you’re right about the little man. I struggle to see why some arbitrary axis transform is “too hard”. [1] ▶ this video

Sadly it's wrong. My gripe with it is that it presents countersteering as necessary , while it's just a technique to more quickly initiate a turn. Basically by steering right while leaning left, then snapping the handlebars to the left, you can change your centre of gravity relative to the bike's faster than you can just by leaning left. When leaning your body left you also naturally push the handle bars right which produces a countersteer as well even if you didn't mean to. However, you can easily observe a bicycle steering without first initiating a countersteer. The easiest is if you just push it and let it coast by itself. It will naturally start leaning one way and continue turning that way until it falls on the ground without any countersteering. Another way is, if its geometry permits, to ride it without holding on to the handlebars - you can see you're steering left and right by shifting your weight on only the seat without any countersteering. Or you can consciously avoid doing a countersteer and make turns that way - noticeably less quickly than if you do countersteer, but quite possible. Another proof would be the fact that monowheels work and can be steered. You cannot countersteer a monowheel, yet it steers just fine. Look also at Destin's backwards bicycle experiment - ▶ this video . I really don't think you can countersteer that thing anyway, yet it steers just fine. I think if Veritasium had given people more time (days? weeks?) to adjust to the bike, they would le

> Look also at Destin's backwards bicycle experiment - ▶ this video . I really don't think you can countersteer that thing anyway, yet it steers just fine. Why wouldn't you be able to countersteer it as any other bike (except in this case by using the opposite handlebar motion compared to a regular bike)?

Thanks for pointing this out. It should be said, however, that Kuhn did cite Polanyi pretty extensively. Related: Destin, at the Smarter Every Day YouTube channel, has been kind of sliding into the same distinction Polanyi outlined, between "tacit knowledge" and explicit knowledge. Destin would label those "understanding" and "knowledge", respectively, but he has a lot of neat demonstrations of this distinction, e.g. riding a backwards bicycle[0], or hovering a helicopter[1]. [0] ▶ this video [1] link

I wonder how similar that is to the effect of the "backwards bike" shown in "Smarter every day": ▶ this video It seems like there's a very deep idea of how a bike should work and instead of learning the new behaviour bit by bit the new idea just "clicks" at some point. I've heard people with up/down flipped goggles also say it's quite sudden change. I'm curious if it's similar for reconnected nerves?