The Backwards Brain Bicycle

Destin, you're probably done with bikes, but please try riding this bricycle: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNQdSfgJDNM" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNQdSfgJDNM</a> - the claim is that it's impossible, but I think most people would have thought what you did in this video was impossible too. :)

Thanks alot Frank!

Smarter Every Day

I found one of these bikes in a theme park in New Zealand ...I found bang-bang control worked well(2/3 meters after a day's practice), but if i went too long without a switch my brain flipped to my regular bike linear controller. Results were ... humerous. Thanks for sharing !!!

well, that is actually the best part of typing Dvorak. Neither is faster. But *I'm* much faster on Dvorak. Not because of the layout though...because I'm forced to never look at the keys on the keyboard. Every keyboard I type on is Qwerty hardware, translated by the operating system into dvorak. So the stickers on the keys are unhelpful. Even touch typists frequently glance at the keyboard...this freed me from that slowing habit.

Robert Carpenter

i ride my biiiiicycle

safe Travels,and Blessed Journeys

Sally Haylock

I started to learn the Dvorak keyboard layout a few years back. It was really had to force my brain to learn a new layout after years of using QWERTY. I would have days at work that I would wriggle in my chair as i typed because I was so exhausted mentally from from trying to type. I just couldn't keep up typing with how fast I was thinking. After a few years of doing both I can switch back and forth seamlessly. I wonder if you kept riding both layouts of the bike if you be able to do either on demand?

Incredible.

Tyler Palmer

Very fascinating video. My question is; was that you who crashed into the lady in the cross-walk in the first part of the video? :-)

Nice work! Wheeee! Hadfield! Reminds me of this guy: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_M._Stratton" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_M._Stratton</a>#Wundt.27s_lab_and_the_inverted-glasses_experiments i heard the he adjusted to his new world pretty quickly, but it took much longer to get back to old-world. Cannot quite find that exactly in the article, but the direction is at least the same.

Chris K

The commander is awesome.

Smarter Every Day

Gyroscopic precession. I remember reading this.

Smarter Every Day

Language is crazy!

Smarter Every Day

Which is faster?

Smarter Every Day

wow! best dad ever! had thought about this before. "Why do we forget memories but not skills?" Now I do know that our brain can forget skills.

these videos are now making people "smarter" on levels beyond just science and engineering. Kudos Destin. Watching videos like these with my two sons is why I'm happy being a Patreon supporter of yours.

Destin! Great video and excellent experiment. I had a similar experience at about 19 when I decided to change keyboard layouts on my computer from qwerty to dvorak. It took me several months to get to where I could type *anything* anywhere, and then I was totally useless on a qwerty keyboard. Now, almost 12 years later, I can type on both, but it takes me about 45 seconds to switch when I'm just typing gibberish. Anyway, I saw a similarity. Not quite as adventurous as riding a backwards bike, but a really fascinating journey too. As I've been thinking about this for the last several years, I've wanted to try and understand the neuroplasticity (sp?) that we have as it relates to how *often* we're exercising learning difficult things. Our brains are fantastic pattern machines. We learn and repeat. But what I wonder is this: is the flexibility of learning that a child shows and an adult does not actually irrelevant of age but an exercise in a meta pattern that, as adults, we don't use any more? In other words, would it be easier for you to learn to juggle backwards, drive a backwards car, ride a unicycle, play a new musical instrument, or speak a language now that you're more used to remapping your brain by riding the backwards bike? Could you make it easier to learn a new language by also practicing on a backwards bike before your lesson? Anyway, great video.

Robert Carpenter

Thats Awesome! And you are correct, I cannot ride that bike. I tried it in Huntsville, and I'm not gonna lie, it was impossible, given the amount of time I had with it. I might have to build one to try it out. I wonder how much time it would take me to learn, considering how much older I am than Destin, or his son for that matter? hmmmm…. By the way, your videos just keep getting better and better! :)

I had a go on a 'backwards bike' many years ago ... not a chance ... but what a fun challenge... Probably not a good idea on our local red/black off road routes mind... lol

Matt

Amazing

You probably don't know, that there is another kind of manipulated bicycle, which seems to be impossible to ride with: <a href="http://www.ist.uni-stuttgart.de/education/sada/available/A242.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.ist.uni-stuttgart.de/education/sada/available/A242.pdf</a>

Philipp Wenzelburger

so true! i learned this when we moved to germany from idaho. different culture, different language, extremely different view on "truth". still working on "understanding" in this culture.

I can't wait to see the American Idol spot! (Even thought my favorite was eliminated last week!) I really want to try that bike. That is amazing.

The thing I'm most impressed by is that you are a content creator, and you let this project gestate through all the ups and downs, and you could have had something to share at many points. You could have stopped by showing how hard it is to ride the backwards bike. You could have stopped by showing that you finally mastered it. You could have stopped after showing your son mastered it much more quickly. Yet you still sat on it waiting for the right conclusion. A guy I used to work with was born and raised in the US, but was born to Turkish parents. He was fluent as a kid, but it atrophied from disuse as he got older. Then his family began returning to Turkey for a few weeks every other year. On arrival, and for a few days, he would struggle and be frustrated and couldn't speak or understand much. Then on the third or fourth night, he would dream in Turkish, and then he was fluent again (well, fluent as an 8 year old, as that is when he stopped using it daily). Two years later, on the next trip, the same thing would happen again.

Jim Battle

This is the coolest video ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ryan Duff

I'm reminded of the story of the development of the helicopter, which, if I've heard and remembered correctly, was all about creating an extra linkage in the control because the "simple" way to connect the stick to the rotors created an inversion so the first several attempts just crashed like the backwards bike. Only when an extra inversion was added did helicopters respond "naturally" and become controllable. Also, I've heard of similar experiments with vision, where, after wearing inverting glasses for (3?) days, the subjects were once again able to interpret "up" and "down" properly. The brain is really fascinating!

Mario Nigrovic

That was one of your best videos Destin. Science with a cultural message. Not sure if that is what you intended. I think there are so many meanings that can come out of it.

Destin, I can't tell you how awesome I found this video. It was both hilarious and eye-opening, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I'm also very jealous that you got to meet the commander himself. Now I want a backwards bike!