Newfangled Math Meets Newfangled Technology (Don't Try This at Home)

What do self-driving cars, new math and Fen-Phen have in common? A lot more than you'd think.

On this scintillating segment of The Glenn Beck Program, Glenn and his co-hosts discuss whether the government will allow self-driving cars to become a reality since they'll save an estimated 4,000 lives annually.

"Washington is already saying they have to be safer than that. Well, they're already much more safe than a car, than a regular car and people driving them. They're not having accidents unless people are interfering," Glenn said.

That's when co-host Stu Burguiere chimed in with his theory on risk aversion.

"I think people, generally speaking, react badly to new types of risk, even if it lowers the other type of risk that goes on," Stu said.

So far, so good, but introducing analogous, statistical information on Fen-Phen was his downfall.

"Oh, my gosh. He's so on his mathematical high horse," Glenn said jokingly.

Enjoy the complimentary clip above or read the transcript below for details.

GLENN: I was talking to a class of 18-year-olds. About 50 of them. I was teaching a class, and we were talking about the future. And I said, "How many people have their driver's license?" Everybody raised their hand. I said, "This will be the last generation that will have driver's licenses. Your kids will not get a driver's license."

JEFFY: No way.

PAT: I'm sure not.

GLENN: And they didn't grasp that. And it really shows how the American people have no concept of what's right around the corner.

JEFFY: Wow.

GLENN: And I said, "Your kids are actually -- your kids will actually say to you, they let you drive? You could drive?"

Yeah. Yeah. They did. Sounds really unsafe, now that I think about it. Yeah, but they did let us do that.

There was that story that was from the Washington Post earlier this week about how technology right now the Washington -- it will be the only thing that will stop this. And I don't know if you can, put the genie back in the bottle.

But Washington is saying, wait a minute here on these self-driving cars. I'm not sure we want these self-driving cars. Because if they only save about 4,000 people a year, is that enough?

I didn't even understand that. They're -- Washington is already saying, they have to be safer than that. Well, they're already much more safe than a car, than a regular car and people driving them. They're not having accidents unless people are interfering.

And if you had all self-driving cars -- and this will be the case. If everybody is in a self-driving car, supposedly you won't have any accidents, or you'll have very few accidents because they'll be able to navigate around each other and they'll talk to each other. And so there won't be that problem.

How does the government believe of saying, "Hey, if we could only save 4,000 people a year, maybe we shouldn't allow these to happen?"

STU: I think people generally speaking react badly to new types of risk, even if it lowers the other type of risk that goes on.

We see this with medications all the time, where -- there was one I was reading something about recently that had a -- they pulled it off the market, you know, decades ago. But they pulled it off the market. At the time, they believed it was a 20:1 reward to risk ratio. That it did create some new health problems for some, but for every one life that it ended, it saved 20 lives for what it was actually trying to solve. It was a 20:1, and they pulled it off the market.

GLENN: What was it?

STU: I don't remember. It was years ago.

GLENN: Did it kill them?

STU: Yeah. It was one of the weight loss drugs.

JEFFY: Phen-fen.

STU: Phen-fen.

PAT: Phen-fen killed one in 20 people?

STU: No, no. That's not what I said at all.

GLENN: That's what I heard too. Pat, that's what I heard. That's what America heard.

PAT: That's what I heard. I'm not sure phen-fen killed anybody.

STU: No, no. It didn't kill -- that's not what I said at all. I said for every 20 people -- it was a 20:1 reward to risk ratio. So the reward was 20 for every one of the risk. Right? So every one person it killed, it saved 20. That was what the doctors thought at the time. For every one person it killed, it saved 20.

PAT: Okay.

STU: Twenty times the amount of people saved for the one that it killed.

GLENN: I still hear that for every 20 --

STU: God, math is -- why do I bother? Why do I bother?

GLENN: Oh, my gosh. He's so on his mathematical high horse.

STU: I mean, that was not a difficult one.

GLENN: That's what I heard. Pat, you still hearing that?

PAT: Well, I mean, I know what he's saying.

GLENN: Pat, Pat.

PAT: Yes, that's what I'm hearing too, Glenn.

GLENN: That's exactly what you're hearing.

PAT: Yes. That's exactly what I'm hearing.

STU: But the point is, this happens with medications all the time, when you have something new. I think it's the same thing that we talk about with airplane flights. People are like, "Well, I don't have control of it." So they freak out because the plane might crash into a mountain. I did not just say everyone on a plane dies, just so we're clear.

GLENN: I'm getting on a plane tomorrow. I'm worrying about crashing into a mountain.

JEFFY: As long as you're not the one in 20.

GLENN: Every 20 flights, one crashes into a mountain?

PAT: That's what he just said. That's what Stu just said, and I don't believe it. I don't believe that's true.

GLENN: I don't think we can trust him and his stats.

PAT: Not at all.

STU: No, not at all.

GLENN: And his newfangled math.

STU: But the point is, when you have these new risks introduced, people just focus on the negative, they don't focus on the problem that it's solving.

GLENN: Well, here's where it's really going to come down to. Because it's really, when it comes to self-driving cars and robotics, it is not going to come down whether or not they're safer. Like, for instance, the trucks -- the automatic trucks that are going to be introduced soon, these will be self-driving trucks. I can guarantee you that they will be safer than what is, you know, currently happening in the United States and around the world.

But truck driving is like the number one job in many states. So all of those jobs will be lost. And they're teamster jobs. So what happens with the teamsters? What did they do when they start to lose and hemorrhage -- how much do they have with the government saying, "No, no, no."

For instance, I think what we'll settle on is, you have to -- you can't have those self-driving -- you have to have a teamster in a seat in one of those trucks.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: And they won't do anything, they'll just be there to oversee it. And that's the way the -- that will be the compromise. You have to have a human body in one of those trucks, even though the trucks are self-driving, don't have any reason for a human to be in it.

So it will be the job loss.

I was talking to a guy who lives in Silicon Valley and on the edge of virtual reality and really coming up with really amazing things. And he said, "Glenn, I'm really concerned -- he said, "I spent the weekend with a bunch of my colleagues in Silicon Valley that are all doing AI." And he said, "I'm really concerned, and they're very concerned about a coming really race war in America."

I wasn't aware of what he was talking about. I was going to another kind of race war. He's talking about a human versus robot race war. And I said, "What?"

He said, "The guys in Silicon Valley are very afraid right now because they don't -- they don't know how they're not all killed sometime soon in the future." And I said, "By the robots?" And he said, "No, by the people. Because they're going to be seen as the guys who are taking away all of their jobs because they're developing the robots." And he said, "People don't have any clue. They think Siri is AI. That's not Siri." When AI is introduced in robots form, it will change everything. Like, right now you could change a robot into this room -- this is how good AI is at this point, and they've demonstrated it. You can bring a robot into this room, and you could say, "Just turn on the lights and get things ready." Without giving it anymore instructions. And it can't leave the room. It can only use the things in the room. The robot will go over, try to turn on the light. The robot will look at the light, the lightbulb is burned out. It doesn't work. It will then scan the room to see if there's a lightbulb in it. It will go grab a new lightbulb. It goes and it reaches up and tries to reach for the light. It can't reach the light. It scans the room. It gets a chair, and it gets a table. It climbs on the chair onto the table, unscrews the lightbulb, puts the new lightbulb in, comes down off the table, onto the chair, onto the floor, puts everything back, and goes into sleep mode. Room's ready.

That's where we are now, to where it just -- it didn't program it, go change the lightbulb.

It saw the need, figured out a plan, figured out how to get to the lightbulb and how to make things right.

PAT: It's really hard to believe that we're there, because that's none of our experience with robotics. I mean, if you've ever had one of those vacuum cleaners that's supposed to vacuum your house --

GLENN: The Roomba.

PAT: You just turn it on, and it just goes. It's bouncing off the walls. It's doing the same area for an hour and a half. It's going outside.

JEFFY: Ours worked pretty good.

PAT: Comes back around. It mows the lawn.

Just vacuum my floor, will you!

GLENN: Right. That's what they're saying. They're saying that nobody understands how fast --

PAT: Yeah, because that's not our experience right now.

GLENN: -- how fast this is coming. And when it does, it will just eat jobs. And in Silicon Valley, they're not working for a lower unemployment rate. They're working for a 100 percent unemployment rate. They're saying, "Why should people work? Why do manual labor? The robots can do all the manual labor."

STU: And theoretically if you had enough money to spend -- I mean, we all like vacations.

JEFFY: Yeah.

STU: The only reason -- not the only reason, but one of the main reasons we work is to provide the basic needs of our lives, if you can do that and have money to do other things and enjoy yourself, you know, that would be theoretically the goal. But we have no idea the ramifications are of the that.

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The Truth Behind the 5G Airline Hysteria | Brendan Carr | Ep 130

The rollout of 5G has begun across the country … except at airports. Rumors are everywhere that the new 5G networks could cause massive — and deadly — disruptions to air traffic. But is this a factual fear, or does it belong in the same bucket as the billion other conspiracy theories surrounding 5G? Population control, invisible propaganda, hundreds of birds that die all at once, wavelengths that microwave your brain ... And what about the less far-fetched concerns about what 5G could usher in: Increased Big Tech monitoring, ESG scores, the metaverse? Since President Biden isn’t doing anything to calm America’s fears, Glenn sits down with FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr to cut through the noise and separate fact from fiction. Yes, Carr explains, there is a lot to be concerned about. But he also details why he’s so optimistic about the potential a 5G-powered world could have.

WATCH: The Great Reset: Joe Biden and the Rise of 21st-Century Fascism

The Great Reset is not just an elitist idea — it’s not even a socialist utopian concept. It’s a real-world fascist threat to every American from Wall Street to Main Street. It’s happening now in policies and cultural shifts big and small, obvious and subtle, from environmental promises to corporations going woke. But the mainstream media, global elites, and politicians brushed off the Great Reset as “nothing to see here.” Another myth they push: “The World Economic Forum is just a conference for elites who have no REAL power.”

Glenn Beck first exposed the Great Reset almost two years ago, and the globalist cries of "conspiracy theorist" soon followed. They said he believed the WEF was a “master cabal calling the shots from some evil underground lair.” But Glenn Beck never said that. Instead, he uncovered the true intentions of global leaders in finance and politics by simply highlighting their own words.

This week, the same global elites are doubling down on their agenda at the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda virtual event. But still, the global elites — like Twitter’s Jack Dorsey — are trying to downplay the WEF’s influence to stop people like us from interfering with their plans. The oligarchy will prosper in the new world order they’ve designed. You will not.

So Glenn unveils a master chalkboard based on his best-selling new book to outline the threats from globalists and why we must stop their agenda if we hope to keep the precious freedoms we still have.

Watch the full episode of "GlennTV' Below:

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution and live the American dream.

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RADIO

Explaining Washington’s rumored FORCED QUARANTINE law

Despite what the mainstream media may say, on January 12 Glenn DID fact-check a claim he made on Tucker Carlson about a rumored Washington law that could force citizens to quarantine or isolate. In this clip, Glenn clarifies his original statement, explaining that the law in question has been on Washington books since 2003 and therefore is NOT a result of the COVID pandemic. But Glenn also explains the more concerning context he — and those in the mainstream media — missed too: the fact that this law didn’t seem too farfetched for Washington citizens should be VERY concerning to us all.

RADIO

Follow THESE 8 STEPS so we can REVIVE our republic

It’s a new year, and every new year comes with New Year's resolutions. This is when we resolve to lose weight, join a gym, or finally read those books on our shelves. For many of us, the New Year's resolution has become a kind of joke, because deep down, we know the new diet won’t stick and that reading a book a day isn’t really sustainable. The real issue is that we usually create resolutions that are too idealistic and broad, like, “Be healthy.” When it comes time to deliver on those resolutions, we don’t know what to do, so we quit.

But the idea of resolutions is still a good one. It is good to set new and better goals for ourselves. The secret is keeping them attainable.

You will hear many people, like me, tell you that 2022 is the year to save the American republic. Well, that is a great idea, but what do we actually DO to make that happen?

I know this audience is already resolved to save America, so I want to offer you some specific, actionable ways to do that.

Here are some “Practical Steps to Revive the Republic.” It is by no means a fully comprehensive list. We will find a broad array of ways to save our nation. This list is a jumping-off point for the New Year for folks like us who love this country.

Practical Steps to Revive the Republic

1. Get married and have a family.

Mother Teresa said, “What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.”

Family is the first system of government we enter. It is where we are taught the virtues necessary for self-government. Children denied love and guidance when they are young struggle to successfully enter society, let alone the reality of their own lives. We call them “mal-adjusted.”

Ronald Reagan addressed the nation in 1986, saying:

“Consider, for example, that the philosopher-historians Will and Ariel Durant called the family ‘the nucleus of civilization.’ They understood that all those aspects of civilized life that we most deeply cherish — freedom, the rule of law, economic prosperity and opportunity — that all these depend upon the strength and integrity of the family. If you think about it, you'll see that it's in the family that we must all learn the fundamental lesson of life — right and wrong, respect for others, self-discipline, the importance of knowledge, and, yes, a sense of our own self-worth. All of our lives, it's the love of our families that sustains us when times are hard. And it is perhaps above all to provide for our children that we work and save.

“Some have suggested that in today's world, the family has somehow become less important. Well, I can't help thinking just the opposite: that when so much around us is whispering the little lie that we should live only for the moment and for ourselves, it's more important than ever for our families to affirm an older and more lasting set of values.”

If you are concerned about the fall of the American republic, remember that liberty is always just a generation away from success or demise, and the children we raise make all of the difference.

2. Tell the truth.

“When you have something to say, silence is a lie.” –Jordan B. Peterson

Lying is really easy. It seems to take the mess of the present and push it into the future. But lying makes the world like a mine field of constructed reality – one wrong step and it will all blow up. To maintain a lie costs the liar in consciousness, attention, and productivity. Enough lies make you useless. Useless people have very little capacity for self-government.

In 2021, we rightly pointed out, “The media lies!” “The politicians lie!” “The doctors lie!” “The celebrities lie!”

But if we lie too, can we expect better from them? If we are silent in the face of lies, when we KNOW they are lies, then how can we expect things to improve?

If we each agreed to stop lying and to tell the truth today, can you imagine how much better tomorrow could be? Theodore Dalrymple, the pen name of the English writer and psychiatrist, said it perfectly: “When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control.” We have to embrace and promote a way of life worthy of liberty – and that starts with me, you, and all of us.

3. Study history and read old books.

There is nothing new under the sun. It’s likely that the struggles of today were deliberated years ago by our ancestors. Perhaps they have some good ideas worth considering. We won’t know unless we study them. The American system of government was revolutionary not because the founders were somehow superhuman (although God was clearly with them) but because they embraced the lessons of the past. If you think practically, looking at the future is impossible, but moving into the future, regardless of where you look, is inevitable. The only concrete information we have is in the past. If you are being presented with a “new idea,” check with the past first to see how that idea will play out. If you love the American republic, study it. If you want to navigate the future, read old books.

4. Own. Don’t rent.

Many of us likely watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” over the holidays. This movie makes an explicit case for the correlation between home ownership and human dignity. The greedy villain. Mr. Potter, wants to keep the people of the town in his rental apartments and is threatened by the movie's protagonist, George Bailey, whose Bailey Building and Loan business is helping people own their own homes.

Home ownership matters. Not only does it set you on the path toward true self-reliance and out of the grips of the “Mr. Potters” of the world, but it also creates local buy-in, which makes our communities stronger. A 2001 Harvard study found:

“Strong and consistent evidence indicates that homeowners are more likely to:

a) be satisfied with their homes and neighborhoods;

b) participate in voluntary and political activities; and

c) stay in their homes longer, contributing to neighborhood stability.

To be metaphorical: It turns out that when we put down roots, we care more about the local soil. But right now, we are seeing the death of home ownership in exchange for perpetual renting. Even people with the financial capacity to buy a home are forgoing it for the ease of renting. But if we want to save our republic, we have to tend to our local communities. We have to take ownership over where we live.

Before our Declaration spoke about “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” John Locke was talking about the natural rights of life, liberty, and property. When he said “property,” he was talking about the holistic ownership a man can have over his destiny. The right to own property is about self-determination. In essence, it is about the right to own yourself – to own your destiny.

If you can buy a home, do it. If not, take on the mentality of a homeowner in your community, not a passerby.

Whenever possible, own, don’t rent.

5. Dump the tea into the sea.

Over the past two years, the government has grabbed at power like a drunken man in a strip club, losing all decorum, restraint, and sense of place in the greater society. But what is more disturbing is that we complied. After “15 days to slow the spread,” we stayed unnecessarily locked down physically, emotionally, and financially for almost two years.

Remember the last time kings tried to hold us down? I’m not saying to turn to violence. I am saying we should just start saying “no” to the government overreach – PEACEFULLY, respectfully, and deliberately.

Thomas Jefferson said, “The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive.”

Maybe the lovers of the American republic need to start getting into, as the left loves to say, “good trouble.”

6. Know your rights AND your responsibilities.

We all love talking about our rights. In fact, the word “rights” is being conflated with a narcissistic tendency to think we deserve the whole world to conform to our way of life. Yet our inalienable rights are eroded every day. If you haven’t read our founding documents, now is the time. We can’t protect rights that we can’t define or are ignorant of. But along with rights come responsibilities. We are accustomed to turning to the government to solve everything – to heal all of our “boo-boos.” It’s reflexive at this point.

“There are so many poor people ... I’ll call my senator!”

Yes, the government has a role in general welfare, but the government is bad at solving most problems. I would love to hear a politician, when asked about an issue, say, “Yes, I agree that is a problem, but the government should not be the one to solve it.”

Can you imagine?

There are plenty of issues in our communities – plenty of people who need help. We have to start helping them. Knowing the government will “help the poor” and lock them in cycles of poverty, we need to develop other solutions in our own communities. There are many important issues to address. We have forgotten whose job it is to address them. When we fail to love our neighbors, the government steps in as a poor and destructive substitute.

7. Say “republic” more than “democracy.”

You can’t turn on the news without someone telling you about the fragility of our “democracy.” In President Biden's Inauguration Day speech, he broke the record for the number of times the word “democracy” was used in an inaugural address. When politicians call for abolishing the Electoral College, they call it “undemocratic.” A Pew Research study found that 58% of U.S. adults think the Constitution should be amended so that the presidential candidate who receives the most votes nationwide wins. This would no doubt make America more democratic. But America is not a democracy. We don’t live in a democracy for good reason. The founders understood that “majority” does not mean “right.” That isn’t to say our founders didn't infuse our system with the best of the democratic values, but they ultimately decided in favor of a new system – a very delicate order of checks and balances and delegated power and representation. This was to provide protection against the whims of faction or, as we call it today, “the mob.” It’s the leaders of our modern mob who love to exchange the word republic, which is what we really are, for democracy. Words have meanings. Many young Americans believe they live in a democracy. When discussing America, make sure to use the word republic.

Federalist No. 10

From this view of the subject it may be concluded that a pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert result from the form of government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions. A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking.

8. Learn from people you disagree with.

Perhaps this needs no explanation. We have so much we can learn from each other in the honest pursuit of truth. Our forefathers didn’t ensure our freedoms of conscience and association for nothing.

Here's how the conversation went on radio Thursday:

Follow THESE 8 STEPS so we can REVIVE our republic youtu.be

Glenn's Show Prep