Ep 38: "CTL+ALT+DEL

In this episode, we explore a haunting question: what happens to Earth when humans are no longer part of the equation? Drawing inspiration from "The World Without Us" and stories like "There Will Come Soft Rains", we discuss a world where cities crumble, nature reclaims its space, and the systems we built keep running (at least for a while) without us. From overgrown highways to silent smart homes still executing routines without the residents, this episode highlights the sobering truth that neither nature nor technology pauses to mourn humanity. Forests grow back, animals return, and machines continue their programmed tasks until they inevitably fail. It’s a reflective and slightly unsettling conversation about legacy, control, and the reality that Earth doesn’t need us to keep going.

Intro and Outro music by Erin Garris and Khari Garris

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Yo yo yo, what it is, what it was, what's it gonna be? Welcome. Welcome to the latest episode of the Gen Expertise Podcast, episode 38, entitled Control All Delete. We are your hosts, Main and Rantz, aka We Are Legend. Yo, you like that?

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Yeah, yeah, that's a good one. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Yeah, that works.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

That works.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

That works. But Main, before we even start, son, I gotta get this off my chest. This is a ranch rant, yo. I gotta get it. Oh, yeah, let's do it. We got a ranch rant. So there's a rumor circulating, all right, that McDonald's is about to introduce a$54 or$56 a month limited food subscription.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Did you hear about this? I did hear about it. I didn't hear about it. I couldn't tell if it was real or not, because it's all like Instagram news. It's all Instagram, it's all right.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

But sometimes where there's smoke, there's fire, and one market employee is to throw something that may seem ridiculous just to see if the public fight. Just to see if they bite. And if they bite, you know what I mean? It's it's on deck. And if y'all do this, this is diabolical, son. Yo, main, this is diabolical. This is like Austin Powers Dr. Evil diabolical plan, son.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Yeah, I didn't think about that before you just said that, but it might just be a tester. It might be something, even if it's not real right now, yeah. Maybe they just threw it out there just to see how people will respond. And if people respond positively, then they can make it something real easily. Like it is something they could turn on pretty quickly, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

But like you said, it is it is pretty diabolical. And the and the worst part is if they succeed in doing that, which they probably will, like if you get a subscription service for something like that, and it kind of forces you, not forces you, but it encourages you rather to go there more often than you eat than you would even normally, right? Like, so even if you're like a once-a-week or once-a-month McDonald's person, if you had a subscription service, you're gonna go there just because you got that that subscription, whatever, right? Absolutely. If they're successful with that, that's a model for every other fast food restaurant to to go there, right? Yeah. So, yeah. Look out for the subscription to Burger King and Wendy's.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

You think people going crazy for those chicken sandwiches?

SPEAKER_00 2:44

The subscription to Popeyes?

SPEAKER_02 2:46

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

It's gonna be worse than Amazon.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

It's gonna be crazy. Remember when Oprah shut down KFC with the um the coupons for the for the grilled chicken when the grilled chicken came up? You don't remember? Oh yeah, the grilled chicken.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Yes, I do remember that.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

Oprah shut down KFC since she was giving out the free, like the free sample of the the when KFC didn't introduce it.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

And didn't people get mad because they found out that that they were like they were they were cooking it with like beef fat or something, or they were using somehow they were using beef flavoring or something to to grill it? I don't know. I believe so.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

But they were mad because they didn't have they could not she they had more tickets than they had chicken, bro. And um, yo, it was pet you think the Popeye's chicken um fiasco off the chain?

SPEAKER_00 3:33

It was. It was though.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Yo, Google the Oprah Winfrey KFC debacle, son, and and you and you will see this fast food thing is OD out of control. And I think anybody get hurt?

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Did anybody get hurt as a result of that one? Because people got hurt as a result of Popeye's one.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

I believe some people got hurt because of that, man. So that was crazy. The Oprah Winfrey KFC debacle, son. Grilled chicken, which they just removed from the menu, I heard. I heard they just finally got rid of it. Um but yo, Mickey D's, if y'all, if the golden archers, we're gonna call them the archers. Yo, the art the evil archers, son. If y'all go through with this, this is diabolical. And last thing, last thing of the rantorant. I just want you guys out there to think of this. You know how much food is nowadays, how much food costs. You know what I mean? You go, you spend$200, you come back home with one bag now. For the groceries. What kind of food do you think they are using to give you a$54 subscription, monthly subscription? I just want you to think about that. I just want you to think about the quality of that food, the quality of that meat that you will be getting for unlimited, monthly, unlimited specials, yo.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Yeah. I don't think they hear you though, but yeah, it is pretty crazy.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

Yeah, yeah, that's absurd. Okay, that I just had to get that one. I just had to get that one off my chest, yo. I just had to, I had to get a lot of money.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

No, that's a good one. That's a good one. That's worthy of of a rant. It's worthy of a rant.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

Yes. So, you know, we always refer back to old episodes, and so far we did the episode how we remembered the pandemic and how we survived the pandemic, how we got through the pandemic. That was survival of the fittest part one, I believe, right? And then we did the survival of the fittest part two, how we would survive if things shut down, how we would prepare, supplies, duct tape, etc. But now what would happen to the planet if we just weren't here? And that's what today's episode is about. You know, that's what we're gonna talk about today. Yeah. No human, no humans on the planet, just what the planet will be like without us, without humans. And uh today we have a special book that I have, and I'm starting to bring visuals like you now because.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

Oh, nice, no, no, no, I I I love it.

SPEAKER_02 6:13

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. So we're gonna go into this book and talk about this book about what the world would be like without us. The book was written in 2007. Yes, I believe 2007. And it's a good read because it basically, like I said, it just talks about what's gonna happen to the planet with no humans on it.

unknown 6:35

Right.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

And um if you've seen The Matrix, also The Matrix and I Am Legend with Will Smith kind of brought some inspiration along with us as well as we talk about this. We were just talking about this as well as how what would happen if humans were not here. And there's a uh a part in Agent Sm in the Matrix where Agent Smith says, and I always like to quote this when he says that he can't stand us because humans are a virus.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Yeah, it's that's an interesting thing because um I was having this conversation not too long ago with somebody, and we were talking about how humans have both like a positive effect and a negative effect on the earth, obviously, right? Like so, and then it it begs the question of whether or not we're making progress, or are we just getting in the way of kind of Earth's natural cycles, right? Because something like you mentioned, like COVID, right? Like we talked about COVID in a couple of episodes or how we survived COVID. But what we also touched on, I think briefly is that the the earth kind of heals itself when we take a break, right? Yes, so to speak, right? Like so if we kind of stop going in the road and and stop emitting, you know, gas fumes, if we just stay home for a while, we find that the water gets a little cleaner, the air is a little cleaner. Um there's places in the world where they saw like visible, visible change, like in China, they saw visible change in the sky itself, right? Like in San Francisco, they saw that there was change in in the breathable air. Um, because San Francisco is a place that's known for its not only its population, but also for a polluted sky as a result. Smog. Smog. So just stuff like that. I know we're gonna touch on this a lot, but um but the idea that that if we took a break for a little while, the earth would actually heal itself. And it begs the question, are we making progress all the time as a species and with our technology and so on, or are we just in the way of kind of a a more of like a paradise utopian earth? I'm exaggerating a little bit about that part, but but you know what I mean. Like, like we we might be kind of prohibiting nature, you know, yes in in a lot of ways, right? Like because we're paving over everything, we're always we're always using fuel, we're heating up things with the way we live. Um we're making products all the time. Like we talked about in a couple of episodes ago, like where we're making products, we're always consuming, we're always purchasing, but as a result of our consumption, we're also putting out a lot of waste into the environment. So we're we're constantly cycling through plastics and and synthetics and all types of stuff, uh, all types of chemicals in the air because of us. So, you know, we're kind of masters and and we have dominion over this place, but but it but what are we doing with that that responsibility, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:29

So it makes you think like, do we really have dominion over this place or are we just like the worst roommates ever? Like we're like we're like the we're like the roommates that you find in Craigslist or back then Well college or college, yes, you know what I mean? Like eating all the food out your fridge that your mom sent you to can pack it, you didn't say eating your dinty more beef stew and all that stuff, and all your Vienna sausages, all your Vienna sausage and your little nasty boxed mac and cheese, that nuclear-colored bottle. All the potted meat, yes, you know, it's like yo, and then never replenish it, never buying anything, never get a pap, never refills the fridge, nothing.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

That's a good that but that's a good point. Like it begs the question, are do we really have dominion over this place, or are we just kind of like you said, like, are we just uh like kind of like a virus or some sort of parasite on the earth almost? Like just dumping.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

Yeah, nothing on this planet uses up resources, no mammal, no insect, insects, nothing uses up resources like a like a human. Like we just lay waste to anything and everything that we touch, it seems sometimes. And we've already talked about sustainability. Um but what would happen if we were just gone? And this book, The World Without Us, talks about uh such a thing, and he breaks it down into uh minutes, days, years, decades, centuries, and basically how long can the world go on without us? And to start, he talks about the first couple of things that will go like in the first minutes and days, power plants fail and pumps stop working, and there'll be a global blackout. Of course, he used New York City as an example, and yo, a fact that I found out that um 13 to 14 million gallons of groundwater and rainwater get pumped out of daily of the subway systems. Yeah, they have 250 pumps going non-stop, and 60% of the subway system is below the water table.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

So within minutes, if we just automatically disappear, right? Those people that are manning these 250 pumps that are working round clock, that are troubleshooting, that are problem solving, that are making sh making sure everything runs smoothly, something's gonna go wrong within that first few minutes, hours, and days, and those are gonna stop. And that that right there is one of the first starts of our ending, and the quickest start because now you get the flag, now you have 13 million gallons of water not being pumped out, and the subway system is just going to just overflow and that water is gonna rise.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

That is, yeah, that is pretty crazy, and and it leads me to think about like all drinkable water and like the systems that people are manning to make sure that we have drinkable water, like people are monitoring systems, people are people are actually kind of working on that on a regular basis, right? Like that's kind of a daily task for for folks. So if we're not if people just start disappearing, then one of the first things to go is drinkable water. But then again, what does it matter if there's no people here? Yeah, like if there's no people here, like obviously, like you know, some of the things that we do to as maintenance are gonna are gonna be the first things to to go.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

Animals have no problem drinking polluted water. We're the only ones that that really need our water crystal clear, you know? We're really not built to survive. It's when you think of certain things, we're made to adapt. Humans are made to adapt. I believe the animal kingdom is more built to survive, and we adapt to anything, whether it's uh finding ways to filter water, making fire, you know, they just eat everything raw.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

And this and this is another thing. Like we we talked about this before, how like you know, water is one of those things that we're really not prepared if if the systems do collapse. Like, even if we forget about for a second, if humans were to disappear off the face of the earth, but just in case there's some issue, just in general with a system systemic breakdown, we're not really ready for a systemic breakdown, at least most of us, right? And and I guess I have to speak for for myself and maybe like my immediate family and friends. I don't think people are really ready for just like a few days of hearing on the news or something that that the water's not safe to drink, right? Because if there's a power outage and there's no water treatment, um, there's no filtration filtration systems in in in that are functioning. Um what if you did hear for three days? And I don't and I know this is not really the topic today, but but it just makes you think back, like, and I just want to kind of reiterate a little bit, man, like to encourage people to think through that. What if just for a few days there's no filtration of water, there's no um treatment of water, and then you hear on the news or or you hear from a friend or you're on your Instagram and and in your town, they say, hey, you you know it's not safe to drink any of the water that's coming out of your tap. Make sure you do not drink the water that's coming out of your tap. Like, what are you gonna do? Do you have any sort of filtration system that you can use? Are you storing any sort of water? Um, yeah, just like what's your what's your plan? But yeah, I mean back to the back to the town. Like I don't mean that to say.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

Basically, you you turned into like New Jersey, because you know New Jersey is known for yourshout to New Jersey. I'm not going to drinkable water.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

You know what? Shout out to New York. Shout out to Jersey.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

I have a lot of family and friends in Jersey.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

I live in New Jersey. I lived in New Jersey for a while, and we did have a britter picture.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

Yeah. So that's what happens in the first few minutes and days, and then they go for years and decades, which is infrastructure starts to collapse, and then the vegetation starts to break through. So um, you know how hard it is now if you have a lawn, or even if like in the sub and sometimes the sidewalks in front of your home, you think you have weed killer, you you weed whack, you do all this stuff, but it still manages to come through. Now there is no stopping it. You know, and roots break concrete. So after a few years and decades, you'll start seeing the vegetation start coming back through and the weaken weakening of building structures. And then they say, and he says in centuries and like 500 years, you'll start seeing these buildings start to collapse, totally start collapsing because of the water damage, because of the rust, because of whatever's wood is wearing down and getting old. Um, if you have a home, you know how bad a water leak can can be for your home, for anyone who's a homeowner. So that'll happen within like 500 years. You'll have total collapse of buildings and infrastructure. And that's all within a few centuries. Minutes, yeah. Minutes to days to years of centuries.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Right. So that's an interesting one, too, because I I I was reading about that part, and you know, you start to think about the fact that if we if we cease to exist, right, eventually everything that we've built as a society, as a as humans, will cease to exist, and there will be no real record of kind of what we would see as our our greatness, so to speak, right? Or or like kind of you know, the buildings and and everything that we built at this sort of monuments to to our our intelligence, our progress, um, the work that we've put in, stuff like that, right? Like as a as a human species. So I was thinking about that. Have have you ever heard of uh Azamandius? No. So it's it's kind of a famous poem, right? And and um, and you may have heard it and just not realized it or just like not paid any attention, but it comes up every once in a while. Like, have you ever heard of you you've have you ever watched Breaking Bad? The the screen.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

Yeah, Walter White.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

Yeah. So in in the in the Breaking Bad show, um, Azamandius comes up um because in Breaking Bad, there's kind of like a hubris that Walter White goes through where he feels like he's at the he's on the top and he's kind of the center of the universe because of everything he's doing, right? But Azamandius, um, it's a it's a poem, basically a sonnet written by, and I'm I'm not pronouncing this right, so forgive me, but I think it's Baish or B or Bishe Shelley. Um, and it's about um a pharaoh, Ramses II, um, also known as Azamandius, right? And the poem is really about a traveler who comes across these ancient Egyptian ruins, right? And it's a like a gigantic, I think, pair of feet. Um, and there's this kind of a an inscription, and it says, My name is Azamandias, king of kings. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair. Nothing beside remains, round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sand stretch far away. So, right, that so these are the words of these are the last words in the sonnet, right? I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but that's pretty much the last paragraph of this sonnet, right? It's a short poem. Um, but the point is that this traveler sees this monument, but he sees it in complete decay, right? And then, you know, the words at the bottom of it are my name is Azamandius, King of Kings, look at look up, look on my works, ye mighty, and despair, right? And what this really speaks to is like humankind's um what we think of ourselves, basically, right? Even the mightiest kings, the the greatest kingdoms in the world, uh, the biggest monuments, eventually they crumble to dust. And it speaks to kind of the transient nature of humankind, everything that we've created, right? And it also speaks to kind of the lasting power of time and nature. Like time is the big killer of things. Nature will be here long after we're gone. You know, when I say nature, I mean like the animals, the earth itself. A lot of people say, oh, we're destroying the earth, right? Like I've heard that before. Like when we talk about the environment, especially like when we talk like we were talking in the episode about survival, um, we talk about stuff like even the consumerism and how we're dumping a lot of waste into the environment. What comes up is that we're destroying the earth, right? Like I said, I hear that sometimes as a quote, right? But really, what we're doing is a little more profound than that in terms of our existence. What we're doing is we're not destroying the earth, we're destroying our ability to continue to live on the earth, right? And to me, that's why this conversation is relevant because we're reaching a point where and Weissman's book is becoming more relevant. It's funny that you said he he wrote this in 2007, right? And this predates COVID. It predates some of the things that we've gone through um as of late, obviously. But but I feel like we're we're getting to a to an inflection point where we're not going to destroy the earth, but we are going to do something that becomes kind of um untenable in terms of our ability to to continue to exist in the way that we have, right? Um for better, for better or worse, right? Depending on who you are, but I feel like we're reaching that that inflection point. So Azimandius is is a big example of kind of human hubris. In the face of not really, of the unknown, basically, not knowing your future, you think that things will always be this way. Like you'll always have dominion over this place. You'll always look at these monuments that you created. People will always kind of look at you and tremble, right? Because you're great. But even the the mightiest kings, like I said, eventually they die. Eventually, all the monuments they created will crumble, right? Same goes for any of us. All of us are gonna perish eventually. And anything that we created is eventually gonna perish, right? Like so it it and I'm not saying that to be like kind of doom and gloom about it, but it should give us a different type of reverence for things. It should give us like almost an urgency to kind of treat things with a a little more um you know, respect, right? Um, so yeah, I'm sorry to go off on a yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:29

No, I mean he they talk about this and and he he does talk about um the things that will last. Uh, and that's one of the topics that they they touch upon. What will last when will when we are gone, and it's like all of the worst things, you know.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

So Yeah, that's the other crazy thing. Like that is it's not gonna be like the things that that we really we might think of right away. Yeah. Um it's gonna be the things that that we kind of made mistakes on that are gonna last.

SPEAKER_02 21:57

Yeah, like polymers and plastic. Right. Because plastics won't break down. He said it'll just become tinier little pieces and become caught part of the ecosystem. Art, digital art, like most art will be destroyed, except for I think they said he mentioned stat like Mount Rushmore would probably be around for thousands of years to come. He said bronze statues, real physical art will be around. Ceramics would be around ceramics. And which makes sense because you know when you have the um archaeologists, they're always digging up and finding like the pots. One of the first things they find as a um as a clue for civilization is like they're cooking pots or they or their urns and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

I'm laughing at that because every once in a while, like I get into this conversation about museums and and actually the fact that um a lot of artifacts get stolen, obviously. Like it, you know, they call it like excavation and they take it and they discover it, right? Quote unquote, discover things. And then next thing you know, it's it's in a glass case in some museum, right? Yeah. But but I you know, I was laughing with with somebody about this, how you know, picture like a thousand years from now, people come to your house and they find like your your plates that were in your your cabinet, right? And then they they put them in a museum, and it's like, oh, these are the this is the ancient ritual plate of the Cooper family, like you know, and it's really just a plate you like to use when you had a midnight snack. It's just a plate, and now it's behind a glass case.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

It's my peanut butter and jelly plate. This is what this is what they did with us to have ceremonies, and this was the plate that they ate off of. This was the plate. So this was probably from the head or the chief of the household or the brand. And this isn't all I did was like make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

SPEAKER_00 23:50

They don't know, they don't know it's the seat, it's the sacred peanut butter and jelly sandwich plate.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

But yeah, I mean, sometimes it's a standard clothes chocolate chip cookie plate, yo.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

But we don't think of these things because because those some of the artifacts that they find are so old that we don't think of them as just like mundane objects that someone just used on a day-to-day basis. Yeah, but makes you know like like we're we're we're making people pay to come see them um when it's really just a cup or just a plate.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

Yeah, something simple. But you know something that they they say also would last? What's that? Radio waves.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:29

He said that he goes back and says that the first I Love Lucy episode, which was October 15th, 1951. Is already 70 light years away.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Wow, that's incredible.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

Yeah, said it's already 70 light years away. So what's that? That's 75 years ago. So if if if we all disappeared right now, um 75 years the Gen Expertise podcast will be broadcast broadcasting 70 light years away. So if this is if this is what somebody picks up on their transmission, they're not gonna know what this planet was all about. So and they're gonna believe if you hear this voice broken up, but they said that as billions of years away, like the radio waves don't I thought that was really interesting because I had no idea that radio waves are basically like immortal. They are forever.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

You know, they just Yeah, I didn't I didn't know that either. And it's it's interesting because that that also speaks to our need to to kind of be remembered and and survive, and like like our thirst for like um, I don't know, immortality in in whatever form we can get it, right? Um, yeah, I thought that was really, really interesting. But you know what the other thing that he said is gonna last is radiation, not not just radio waves, but he's saying like one of the other legacies that we have, because he actually is calling these legacies, right? Like again, it's an interesting thing, it's an interesting way to describe it because one legacy is like you said, like the pieces of plastic that we're gonna leave that are just never gonna degrade, all these little tiny pieces of plastic that are used, especially to to make polymers and to melt down and create things, that's stuff that's not gonna not gonna go away. And then all the waste products that we use that are plastic are gonna break down, and they've already broken down to a large extent. Some of them at the bottom of the ocean, finding they're finding pieces of plastic in in fish that that would usually be on the bottom of the ocean. And it's like, you know, that that goes to show how many microplastics and how many pieces of plastic are actually in the ocean. They say he's saying that that this will mix into the sand eventually, like where sand and and beaches all around the world are gonna be like not only have sand, but little tiny pieces of plastic mixed in. Um, but the other thing that we're gonna leave as a legacy, quote unquote, is um radioactive materials that are coming from literal um plants that that no that will no longer be maintained. Because if you go to a nuclear plant, a large a large part of people's job in a nuclear plant is to make sure that they're cooled, right? To make sure that they're controlling the temperature. And if there's no people on Earth, what's gonna happen is eventually those places are gonna overheat. There's gonna be some sort of explosion, some sort of leaks, and that that radioactive matter is gonna get into the atmosphere and it's gonna last for uh I don't even remember how long. How long did he do you remember how long he said? I can't remember how long he said, but he said pretty much like it's gonna take a long time before the earth recovers from that, right?

SPEAKER_02 27:41

Yeah, and he used Chernobyl as a he was talking about Chernobyl, how he was saying that um there have been like wildlife uh has returned, animals have returned, but of course we're we're no longer welcome there, basically. You know what I mean? Humans you don't want to go there. But the animals, the birds, the wolves have returned, but there's still traces of radioactivity. So the fish may have like two heads, or the wolf may be like some of these animals are deformed every now and then. They're they're able to live. I don't mean the water. So the wolves, the wild boars, but it's still always gonna be a trace there because it's like in the soil, it's in the ground, it's in the water that they're drinking. Um, and then when they die, they go into the earth and they get recycled. So it's all get it all like it's a continuous recycling of this radioactivity.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

And let me stop you, Rivera, because I gotta explain. Wow, like because this is real serious, and I'm laughing for a reason. Because I notice it's serious, and I don't mean to laugh at this, but the only reason I'm laughing is because when you said the fish might have two heads. Yes, yes, yes, my Gen X brother. Remember that episode of the Simpsons when they when they they first discovered the fish with the three eyes?

SPEAKER_02 28:55

That was the was that when he was the EPA came, the event, the environmental protection, but the fish had three eyes. That's a famous episode. Yeah, that's a that's a famous episode.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

Yeah, if you go to Universal Studios to this day, like they like they have a whole Simpsons kind of like a Simpsons world, basically, where you go in and everything is the Simpsons. You go to the bar and get duff. Um there's a quickie mart and all that stuff, but there's a there's a specific area like where you where you do see that a picture of that fish. But that's why I was laughing. I didn't mean to like like as soon as you said that that episode came to mind, and that fish as soon as I read it, that's what I thought about. They were trying to act like that was like perfectly normal. They're like it's just part of the evolution.

SPEAKER_02 29:37

Yeah, like it's some type of exotic fish, and it's like a new type of fish.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

That's a gen X memory.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

Yes, there are remnants. Yo, there's a lot of people that as soon as I said that, they thought about that.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

Yeah, I'm I'm I hope so. I hope it wasn't just me and you. I'm hoping it was hoping it wasn't just me and you. But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:57

So those are the remnants. And then he said um space, space materials like uh satellites, uh debris, satellite debris, probes, things of that nature, that nature, radio systems, those will be around not quite for forever, but for a very, very, very long time. Um but even under such and wasn't it wasn't that uh um in one of the Superman movies where the the nuclear plant was about to explode and everything was like turning red and it was like the the gauge was going off the chain and he had to come and use like his super breath. The Christopher Reeves Superman, that's the old old Superman.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Was that Superman 4, like where he's fighting that that he's actually fighting like a the dude that Lex Luthor made in the sun? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:40

With the nuclear rocket? Right, it might be. Yeah, he put him in a he put his embryo in the nuke when Superman took all the nukes from the planet and threw them into the sun.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

Yeah, and he was able to he was able to kind of hurt Superman a little bit, like he scratched him or something and Yeah, tore him up. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if it was if it was that one or or I'm I'm I'm pretty sure it had it, I think it had to be that one, because the third one was where Richard Pryor was in it, and that one was a little bit different. Yeah. That was the one where he where there was an evil version of himself. Yeah, because he I think he got exposed to red kryptonite, and then he he started to turn evil, then he kind of split in half and fought himself, and he beat he beat his evil self. Yeah, we're going off on a little bit here.

SPEAKER_02 31:33

Yeah, he was busting up the ball with like um cashews at the Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:37

He was plucking, he was plucking the nuts at the at the bottles. And then um even like Lana Lane, he went over to her house and you know he was acting kind of kind of like sleazy. He's acting different, yeah. He's acting real different. She was like, aren't you gonna go save those people? And he's like, Nah, I always make it there in time.

SPEAKER_02 31:54

Nah, they'd be alright. What's up with us?

SPEAKER_00 31:56

He was like, he goes out, he goes, I always get there in time.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

He had like the grungy five o'clock shadow.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

Yeah, it was all dark and dirty. He had a dirty Superman uniform, he had the the shadow, he's drinking.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

Yeah, man. He was a drunk crazy.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

Yeah, that was a that was a crazy one.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

That one that one was old. Now I have to watch it probably next week. But we can tangent.

SPEAKER_00 32:23

Hey, it's a Gen X tangent. So y'all remember that. Hopefully, y'all remember Superman 3 and 4.

SPEAKER_02 32:30

Yes. Yes, man. So these are the things that'll last for forever or close to forever.

SPEAKER_00 32:37

Alan Weissman actually describes that as a legacy for us, which is like, again, it's not what you think of typically when you hear the word legacy. Like you think of kind of positive things more so like than than but uh but it it makes me remember that you know, whatever you're leaving behind is part of your legacy. And it also speaks to like what are we gonna do about what our responsibility as having dominion over this planet? Are we gonna continue to to do the same behaviors? Like, are we gonna continue to to make more plastics and and actually leave it everywhere? Because they're saying like that even with the plastic we have today, there's no way there's basically no way to remove that stuff from where it is, there's no way to turn this back, you know. So I don't know, it's an interesting thing. Like maybe somebody will come up with some way to to clean up or some way to recycle or some some something, you know, like humans are very innovative, and with the advent of artificial intelligence, maybe that's something that somebody's already working on. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 33:35

Yeah, he says we leave a permanent mark on the planet, basically, with plastics, metals, and also altered soil and atmosphere. That's another thing he touches on, and he says how when we are gone, farmland will just crops will pretty much die, and like the wild vegetation will come back in its place. And we've messed with the soil so much, all the pesticides and all the chemicals that we've been pumping into the soils, which has been killing the soil. If you're our age and the older, especially the Gen X generation, you you remember how much difference fruit tasted when we were younger, you know how how how sweeter I barely remember to be honest with it when we weren't eating candy. I barely remember here the fruit tastes different, man. I eat a lot of fruit, so I remember the fruit tastes different, but it's because of the destruction of the crops, they're not as nutrient dense as they used to be.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

You know what I noticed, Rands? Now that you touch on that, right? Like, so every year, pretty much, um, me and the family go strawberry picking, right? And the whole point of this, I'll keep this brief, but like I didn't I didn't go this year because I had you know I was busy doing something else, but my wife took the kids and they went strawberry picking. So they brought back some strawberries, and I tasted one of the strawberries, and it tasted completely different than the even the ones in the supermarket. I felt like I forgot what a strawberry tasted like, but this was like you said, like like you know, maybe the soil, and maybe this, you know, I don't know, I don't know what it was, man. Like maybe it's just the fertilizer they're using, and maybe that that's because in this strawberry patch, that's what they're specializing in, where they, you know, where they went. Um, and maybe they're doing some whatever good techniques they're doing. But the strawberry was sweeter, it obviously tasted fresher. And I guess, you know, the ones in the supermarket, they're traveling for a while. They're doing something to make sure that it travels well and that it lasts at least until you buy it out of the supermarket. Because the thing with strawberries, and I know if I'm going off on another tangent, but I don't know if you ever noticed this, man. When you buy strawberries out of the supermarket, they're pretty much like got a time, like, yeah, they they they have like a time bomb in them. Like, like as soon as you as soon as you put them in the refrigerator, you come back the next day or two, they're gremlins in there. Like they turn into like turn into magwai. Like, I'm like, what? Yeah, the strawberries don't last two days in my house. As soon as I put them in the fridge, I come back, they're white. They're like furry. They're all furry. I'm like, what is going on here?

SPEAKER_02 36:01

They need a shave, especially when you wash them and you rinse them, because you know, you wash them and you rinse your free, you put them in the fridge, you pull them, you get home when you first bring it's like a trick. When you first get home, you taste it. It's the like, yo, this is I can't wait. Tomorrow I'm gonna do this, put in the smoothie tomorrow. I'm gonna do this. The next day, yeah. They mess up burns.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

Yeah, strawberries are like like treacherous, you know. It's like the most it's the most treacherous fruit. And I and I love strawberries, but they're the they're so treacherous. As soon as you get them home, like I said, like you open that fridge.

SPEAKER_02 36:34

That's a wrap. It's not the midnight.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

Gremlins, gremlins tour in there.

SPEAKER_02 36:38

What's your little strawberries pass midnight in the fridge?

SPEAKER_00 36:43

Yeah, you got gremlins too.

SPEAKER_02 36:45

It's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

What is going on in there? Cool.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

Most most fruit is picked, they they even take them off the vine before they ripen, and then they have to travel into trunks across country. Who knows what happens? So you're getting these things sometimes a week after they were actually picked. So you were picking strawberries right, fresh off the vine when they were in their primes. It's nothing like them. It's like you're in your 20s again. It's your best self.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

It's your best self. But that's what I noticed. There's a there's a huge difference even between the ones that my kids picked, like I said, and the ones that you would get in the supermarket. And I guess it's it should be obvious, right? Like you're picking them, they're fresher, you're picking them right off the vine, as opposed to like putting them in a truck to travel and doing whatever they have to do to make sure that they they make it to the supermarket and could sit there long enough for you to buy them. But but it just like was a stark difference to your point, like we're we're like, you know, you're you're remembering how fruit used to taste when we were younger, as opposed to how it tastes today. But I feel like just the process of of it going to the supermarket and making it available for sale changes a lot to it as well, right?

SPEAKER_02 37:49

Yeah, but imagine all the wild fruits and vegetables that'll be growing with us not here, not able to eat.

SPEAKER_00 37:54

Oh man, I'm sorry, we're gonna miss, we're gonna miss that. We're gonna miss out.

SPEAKER_02 38:00

Yo, the animals are gonna be like, yo, son, thank God they never gonna eat this food never tasted so good, son. And we don't have to look over our shoulder either.

SPEAKER_00 38:09

Remember that from um that this reminds me of like you were saying, like, I Am Legend. How in in that movie, because like what you know, I don't know if people under like know or have seen I Am Legend, right? But Will Smith plays this character that's kind of going through the world to uh it during like a zombie apocalypse, basically, where there's a chemical that's turned most people into basically zombies.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

It was like a cure for cancer they found. It's always like a cure for cancer, it's a cure.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

It starts yeah, it's it starts out as a good thing, like where they're trying to cure cancer, but it winds up turning a lot of people into basically um wild zombies. And so Will Smith is one of the last survivors where he is and he's walking around. And in some scenes in the movie, you're seeing that because people, you know, there's a that's a total breakdown in civilization, obviously, because people are not out and about, the world is kind of healer healed itself in a sense, right? Like the since we're not out there, you're seeing all the foliage come back, like it's kind of in the backdrop of the movie, right? But it but it feels like a kind of a a very consequential part of the movie, even though they don't really touch on it or speak on it. But it but it's in the backdrop. You're seeing that animals are out, like you know, he sees deer just out and about, right? What what seemed to have been a city setting, right? So even in in a in a place that was really urban, quote unquote, you see that return of of like foliage and animals coming back, and and you see that that nature is retaking the earth, right? Um but that's an interesting aspect of that movie, even though that's not really the point of the movie at all. Um it's something I that I definitely noticed and I picked up on.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

Yo, side note, did you did you ever read the book?

SPEAKER_00 39:50

I read some of the book, like I read excerpts from the book because I was really interested in in at at one point I wanted to understand whether or not the book was aligned with the movie. Because when the movie came out, there was a little bit of controversy that had come out that it it it really didn't really align well with with the movie at all. Um and what I read didn't, but when I read the the parts of the book that I did read, I'm like, this would have made a much better and more interesting movie, to be honest with you. Because um, yeah, I don't I don't want to spoil it for for anybody.

SPEAKER_02 40:17

We gotta throw a spoiler alert because ain't nobody gonna read that book, sir.

SPEAKER_00 40:22

You don't think the audience is reading? Like I think the audience is reading.

SPEAKER_02 40:25

I think our audience reads a lot, but you know what? I'm not gonna give a spoiler alert. I'm gonna give a spoiler alert without telling the the real the real plot twist. But it is similar in the way that the main character, uh, I think the book was written by Richard Matheson. Matheson, I believe. And the it is dissimilar with it's the man who lost his wife and his daughter uh violently to this virus. They were trying to find a cure, but it ended up turning people into like these bloodsucking night walkers or whatever they call him, and he was like the last probably human alive. But every day he would have to every day he would have to like board himself into his house and he would go out and he would conduct experiments and he would try to um to find some type of a cure. But where the movie differs from the book is that it the plot there's a plot twist in the book which would have been so much better if they made it, they made the movie about it.

SPEAKER_00 41:28

Yeah, no, the whole thing would have been better, man. And the yeah, like like to your point, like spoiler alert, it it's almost like um the the book reads more like a vampire book, right?

SPEAKER_02 41:38

Like, yeah, because it's garlic and all types of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 41:41

Yeah, it it reads more like a vampire horror type of story, right? Where you have these these creatures that come out um and you know the main characters locked in, like you said, like he has to lock himself up and board himself in. And in the move in the book, you they're actually calling out to him every every day, like like every night.

SPEAKER_02 42:00

Yeah, they're talking to him.

SPEAKER_00 42:01

They come and they and they call out to him, they talk to him, they're kind of like they try to taunt him, and that's why he has to he has to actually board up everything and lock everything down, because they're actually coming for him every night, right? Yeah, and then um you realize that he's the only one on earth left as as a normal human, and he's the actual villain. Like that's that's kind of the reason for um the I Am Legend title, because he is actually the legend.

SPEAKER_02 42:28

Yeah, so you just get you just gave you just spoiled, you just spoiled. I tried to save it in YouTube, but you know what? Since we there we didn't know, yeah, yeah, go ahead, well, there goes the plot twist.

SPEAKER_00 42:38

You guys are not gonna read I Am Legend, right? Like you're not gonna read I Am Legend. I'm sure you guys read a lot of it.

SPEAKER_02 42:43

Not after the Will Smith movie.

SPEAKER_00 42:44

Yeah, you saw you saw the movie, you're not gonna go read it.

SPEAKER_02 42:46

You saw the movie, you're not gonna, you're not gonna really read it. So the the the plot twist is that he's actually the boogeymots, the boogeyman to them.

SPEAKER_00 42:57

Right, to them, yeah. He's the boogeyman.

SPEAKER_02 42:59

He's actually the boogeyman.

SPEAKER_00 43:01

Right. So many years have passed that that that like society has like he thinks that these these folks are monsters now because of this virus. But what's actually happened is that the whole the whole world has basically become something different, right? Like it it's caused sort of an evolution that made them what he would think of as monsters, but he's the only one left of the old world, right? So when he goes out during the day, he's actually going out, not only trying to find whatever cure for trying to find others like him, but he's actually killing them.

SPEAKER_03 43:29

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:30

I don't know if you remember that from the book, but he actually kills them.

SPEAKER_03 43:32

Yeah, he kills him.

SPEAKER_00 43:33

He's like, he finds him sleeping, yeah. He finds him sleeping. Yeah, if he finds him sleeping, he kills them, right?

SPEAKER_02 43:38

He's a Baba Yeagus.

SPEAKER_00 43:39

So so in the end, you know, they kind of capture him and and they bring him to where where they are and they let him know that he is the he's like I can I think it's a child that actually tells him like like he like that the that the parents, he's this he's the story that they tell their children about about this boogeyman that's gonna come kill them every day, right? Like he comes to kill them. the woman that he meets actually the woman that he meets in the movie you know is the one that he meets and he what he realizes is that he's the only human but there are humans who aren't like the night walkers they're like blade they're like daywalkers so to speak you know and they're building they've built their own society right and they built a s and they're trying to rebuild humanity so to speak but they also dislike the the night walkers so she he actually I believe he like kills her husband or and then she tells him like look bro like I know you think you might be trying to do something here but we're actually hunting you because you are like the you're the monster you're the monster that has killed a lot of our family members our loved ones and our friends yeah you know so we're they're actually after we're actually needing to get rid of you because you're the one that like you're the boogeyman he's the legend yeah yeah and so he's like yo I am legend yeah so so so that's the real reason for the for the book title I am legend because he realizes that he is he's the story that that that people tell their their their children yeah about this this person that's gonna come and kill them the boogeyman you don't eat your vegetables so that's why it's I am legend but but the movie goes off on a completely different um kind of direction with this and it really doesn't it doesn't follow the the book at all and I really feel like the book would have been a much better um it'd have been a way better movie man yeah it would have been a much better twist and a a much better ad adaptation right because um I've seen an alternate ending to the Will Smith movie. Yeah I saw that craziness too man and and it felt like they tried to to to to like kind of parallel what the theme was in in the book a little bit like where they show that he's trying to kind of trying to cure one of the one of their women and really they're going after him because they just want to cap you know they just want to save her from him and just bring her back to to you know wherever they wherever they live right and that's what the alternate ending shows and I think that that they were trying in in a weird way to to kind of parallel the book a little bit more um but it doesn't it doesn't do it justice but obviously like it it doesn't really do the book justice. But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:20

Yeah so now that we have told you the book and everything it's still worth reading go read it yo it's a great book it's yeah it's a it's a it's a book it's so much different it's so different from the movie that it's it's worth the read. It's worth the read. Like I had I have read the book before I saw the movie so while I'm looking at the movie I was like oh man it was good.

SPEAKER_00 46:41

But they made it more of like an action Will Smith movie like if you if you're gonna have Will Smith in a movie like that you it's almost like you you need to have a lot of action and and you want to have like some suspense in there and you and the book is a little more like cerebral like you gotta really think about what you're reading and and it's it's a little more thoughtful than a Will Smith action movie needs to be right like so really like they turned it into a a straight up zombie movie like where you got Will Smith Will Smith trying to pull ups with his shirt off and running on a treadmill like there is a dog in the book but it's not like you know and he is he is actually trying to like save people but the book is way like darker like you know he's really depressed.

SPEAKER_02 47:26

He's you see it in the movie where he tries to like go out and like just kill himself but in the book it's like he's a drunk he's you know what I'm saying it's it's it's crazy. So Dag we're off on this this episode is springing all types of roots congrats so there you go there's your there's your booking movie your book and movie but we are on a tangent ladies and gentlemen welcome to the tangent welcome welcome to the tangent show he also talks about the oceans and the wildlife um wildlife coming back and surging because of the all of the overfishing we're like just totally stripping the ocean another thing one thing that I read that was interesting that he theorized that um rats and cockroaches will be on the decline when there are no humans because they're so dependent on us.

SPEAKER_00 48:21

That makes a lot of sense actually because we we produce so much waste and there's so much food around because of us that rats and roaches actually migrate towards cities. Yeah they thrive wherever wherever we are concentrated rats and roaches would tend to thrive and that makes a lot of sense. But the theme like I I guess one of the themes that strikes me right with this book right not just like kind of the factual parts about what happens at each phase as as the earth um as we're gone there's kind of phases that you're describing right like the first few minutes and the first few years and then the first hundred years or 500 years so on right but what also strikes me is kind of like the nature of of the earth right like the indifference that the earth has to humankind right like where like I said like there's a there's a hubris in us where we really think that we're the center of the universe here. Like we really think that we're the masters of all of this we have dominion over this earth um and it it begs the question do we really what are we really like what is our position here really are we just kind of absorbing resources are we here to like be the kind of stewards of this um and then how are we handling that responsibility right and then like you said like the this whole question of what happens after we're after we leave or after we're gone from the earth and and how it actually would heal itself to a certain extent but we're leaving also like a negative legacy in terms of things that would just never go away like and and those things tend to be more damaging than than than anything right like but what strikes me is this this book it speaks to themes that have probably been going on for a very long time that surprised me because when when you you told me about this book actually and it like kind of coincidentally my daughter was studying something in school that had like kind of a uh not exactly the same theme but very parallel right like she she comes to me one day and she asked me if I ever read Ray Bradbury. And I was like yeah I read you know I thought about it for a second and I I had to think for a moment and I'm like wait a minute I have read Ray Bradbury because Ray Bradbury actually wrote the book uh Fahrenheit 451 and I'm not gonna spend a long time on that but just to let everybody know Ray Bradbury wrote like one of his more famous books I guess and he probably has a he has a bunch right but one of the books that I think Rance we we both had to read it at one point for for school yeah but this is a book where it's kind of a um like a dystopian future type of book right like where where um instead of the fire department being called to put out fires we're in a future where books have been banned so if you get caught with a book or if somebody finds out that you have a book in the home or you're reading a book the fire department would actually come and burn your home down. They'll burn the books and they'll burn the house down and if you refuse to leave they'll burn the house down with you in it. But but the point is that Ray Bradbury also wrote a short story called There Will Come Soft Rains. And in that short story the the profound part about this is that this is written in 1950 by the way so he writes this short story it's 1950 we're on the tale of of like you know right after um World War II so this comes out right after World War II pretty much um and in 1950 he's writing a short story about a completely automated home it automates everything. The kitchen is automated to make breakfast in the morning the house is automated with like robot mice that that come out and clean up like if there's a spill or if there's any dust or if there's anything like these robot mice are come out in the story and they they clean up there's a wall that tells you the time and the weather and stuff like that. So picture like this type of automation like a completely automated home. But the eerie part about the story is that that the there's no one in this home right because it it where it takes place um it takes place in this town in California and there's been a nuclear war. And as a result of the nuclear war pretty much everyone's dead right and it the story explains that nothing's left in that house of the humans except for their silhouettes on the wall because apparently during a you know some sort of explosion nuclear explosion all that's left is their outlines on the walls. And that's the kids and the husband and the wife and as this house um you know remains with this technology it just keeps making breakfast it keeps making the food it keeps um reading stories that that is scheduled to read to the kids it keeps reading poetry that is scheduled to to read for the wife and it's still telling you the date and the time right over and over. But the point is that this technology um will go on regardless of of the human master so to speak being there right and so and and it it speaks to the indifference of not only the technology to us even the ones that the technology that we created to serve us is pretty much indifferent to us right our presence there after a while is is not even a necessity because it'll just keep going without us right and that's kind of a another a whole nother topic to to to to kind of contemplate but it also speaks in parallel to the indifference of nature to us because that short story is is also based on a poem of the same name. But this poem and I'm trying to find the the name of the the person that that actually wrote this poem um I it'll come to me man but but but Ray Bradbury took the name of this um of this poem and named his short story this because at some point in in his short story the the automated home reads the poem and the poem is written I think it's written in uh if I'm not mistaken like 1920 right so that's on the tail end of world war one and that is about how even after a war even after we we would kill ourselves off nature would would remain and not it not even the not the birds not the trees nothing would would would actually mourn us I'm kind of paraphrasing the poem yeah basically that's what it's saying like nature has an indifference to us and even if we we decide to create things that are that are kind of like the devices of our destruction or the means of our destruction you know nature will go on. There's kind of a a transient nature to our our power on this earth. It's kind of like next species up yeah exactly like pretty much man like it's it's it's yeah it talks about like the temporary nature of our power over this earth everything we're doing a quite a bit of damage but we're we're not even close to destroying the earth it but what we are doing again is destroying our ability to to to live on this earth we overdevelop the means of our own destruction the earth will continue on and so will like technology for that matter right like so it's kind of a parallel because it makes me think of as a technology person I'm thinking like wow Ray Bradbury wrote this this short story in 1950 um is being taught to kids in school now even today and it feels like it's more relevant than ever I said before like artificial intelligence is one of those examples where we've created something that that may kind of outpace us or is already kind of outpacing us in terms of intelligence. It's something that we just can't keep up with the ability to learn the speed it's going to learn the speed it's gonna be able to spread its learning to other to other machines. So it begs the question especially nowadays are we are we kind of building or have we built the means of our own demise? There's a lot of talk about artificial intelligence um replacing people in their jobs because AI can do knowledge work um more efficiently faster and without complaint it can work 247 um and doesn't need a day off doesn't need to talk to anyone an age doesn't need a cigarette break it doesn't need a it doesn't need a PTO it doesn't need PTO it doesn't need a mental health break none of that type of thing but the point is have we created something that's just no longer serves us but actually is replacing us right like so so and and it it it really leads one to question like what is our what's our point like what what what what are we what are we doing here? And then you know again like the whole theme of the indifference of technology indifference of nature to humans is something that you really got to think about and pause for a second because it it's humbling right yeah um because we're reaching another one of those inflection points and it's like similar to especially with the technology it it it's similar to to what happened during like the 1940s right like from 1942 to 1946 you had the man the Manhattan project right like where Robert Oppenheimer is working with a team of of physicists to basically create a an atomic weapon before the Germans.

SPEAKER_02 56:51

And the crazy part is that when it when this happens Robert Oppenheimer is quoted as saying I am become death the destroyer of worlds of worlds right and this whole theme makes me think of that like where for a very very long time humans have been developing the means of their own their own demise so so yeah yeah that was happy times now leave it to me to to to to make it you know it is you know what it is you've been to up like our last few episodes our last you've been on a two up B street it was time it was time son it was time not to be morbid not to be morbid it was time for a main minute yo we had a rant rant at the beginning that we have a main minute at the a main minute at the end about not to be morbid son say not to be morbid you better watch out yeah man but I mean it is true when you think about it have we become so lazy do we want things so easy that we're willing to just give up everything that makes us top of the food chain you know like it's is is it to the point where we just we're just that lazy now that we want something to do everything so much so that we're not we're we're not even paying attention that it's it it may be phasing us out.

SPEAKER_00 58:11

Right and and and and that's it and that's the thing yeah that that's that's an important thing man and and it's like this the second time probably in history that we created something so um potentially destructive that it it has the potential to to to maybe be the last invention right like because you know like and that's why I compare it to Robert Oppenheimer who who actually by by coincidence um or not like you know Robert Oppenheimer his birthday is April 22nd and it's the same date as um Sam Altman who is the CEO or the leader at um open AI that makes chat GPT so I I found that interesting that they they have the same birthday and they they both are responsible in a way for for introducing the world to uh a technology that that has the potential to to really really shift um human existence on this earth in a significant way right and maybe even lead to to the demise of it the the nuclear weapon for for obvious reasons but then the artificial intelligence which would like you said like the potential for it to phase us out the potential for it to to for us to create automated um autonomous weapons even right that don't even need us don't need humans anymore to make a decision on on who who and what to destroy right yeah um and we we've gotten there right like we we this is really like our Oppenheimer moment in terms of um technology it artificial intelligence has the ability to to create itself right you have artificial intelligence that can obviously code and it makes it it makes it easier for it can replicate it can spread itself easy um and there's there's also kind of the idea of the democratization of it where like me and you can just take our computer and if we spend enough time we could build our own models we can learn to to automate things ourselves. We could print out um we could print out uh uh enough parts to make a drone and and make it ai capable like so there's a danger in this that didn't exist with with atomic energy like atomic energy me and you me and you can't like go get uranium and enrich it to the point of of making a weapon but we could certainly buy a computer and start making artificial intelligence that that it could potentially have a negative impact right so so yeah not to I we're off on another tangent I guess but um but that's what this show is the tangent we should rename it the tangent show all tangent delete nah nah but but I feel like these things these themes may not be the same thing but I feel like they're related. I said our position on this earth and then the indifference of of the of nature to us and also the indifference of our own creation which is um the technology that we created to serve us which which at some point is becoming like you know almost a danger to us right it's becoming like the alien species that's come to earth with with with exponentially more intelligence than us right and the exponentially skynet right exactly right right I mean that that's exactly right like it like if you when you talk about like like you know the Terminator movies and make the Matrix you mentioned that earlier um all these things kind of come to mind right because you're you're talking about a super intelligent computer system that that had that that sort of in a way has all of our attention basically right like we're we're already kind of staring at our screens for a dopamine hit we're already unsure if what we're watching is real um or if it's been created by by some computer it it's already kind of destabilized things right like it destabilizes our our our political systems because we don't even know if if it's bots talking to us on on in our chats and in our news so we're already kind of down a rabbit hole to be honest with you of like um we we're we're forced to kind of question everything including how how much how much autonomy we actually have right yeah we we're really going down a rabbit hole with this that that I'm I'm afraid honestly is is is um is not really reversible without some real kind of cataclys cataclysmic event right something really have to happen for us to reverse course as a society that's like again I don't mean to be morbid but like yeah this this whole thing leads me to to that that conclusion of like you know when you bring up a book like Alan Weissman's book The World Without Us it leads me to all these themes that are kind of like not exactly the same but like I said they're they're parallel right like when you think about what's going to happen if we're no longer needed right what happens when no work is needed because robots and computers are have replaced us in every single way like not only just knowledge work now but we're getting to a put to a place where they're developing robots that have tactile skills like that can do things with their robot hands that can deliver food can screw in a light bulb can can work on an assembly line can pack boxes can you know you name it right like eventually and and if you think about it Rance like when you think about the technology today right now in this moment is the worst that the technology is ever going to be right and that's saying something because it's pretty it's pretty advanced it's pretty advanced it's pretty powerful but it's scary when you think that this is the worst that it's gonna be right it's only going to get better it's only going to become more efficient it's only going to become more adept at at the task that we do today. What does happen if we're just no longer required to be on earth because because there's just nothing for us to do.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:39

They're just up in a ship somewhere yeah we're just on a giant space yacht eating and drinking and drinking and deadfoot sitting around doing nothing forgetting how to do everything little wallies cleaning up all of our all of our waste is being cleaned up sprout of hope probably from Maine sprouting jaw yeah but one of the places that he says that are still like one of the last refuge I guess you would say is out in Poland and it's called the hold on I gotta the pushka bioluska pushka biologic without us because they say the trees are huge um it's dead quiet at night all you hear is like the howling of the wolves or the the uh hooting of the owls it's just so serene and so quiet and even now they're saying that they and well not even now so you know what I should look up 2026 because this was written in 2007 that that um they're trying to like destroy parts of that for you know for infrastructure and also he talks about the African paradox. Did you read did you hear about that?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:02

No.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:02

Because basically life and evolution started on the continent of Africa early humans lived in relative harmony with the ecosystem. The newer lands such as Europe and the Americans it was it was kind of a shock to nature's system because all of a sudden they just moved in they moved in with their machines chopping down trees um and creating this infrastructure laying concrete building buildings destroying nature putting animals on a uh endangered exp endangered species list and these animals and such if they weren't expecting this they said since life and everything in evolution pretty much started on the continent of Africa the animals of the animals over there are kind of used to seeing us do bad do bad things he calls it the African paradox so that's why you still also have the biggest animals are there. I think calls that the hold on I wrote the mega the megafauna the mega fauna paradox where Africa is the only place where they still have lions and elephants and rhinos like all of the biggest like you have you have elephants in Asia and you have like Bengal tigers in Asia but you don't have like all of the mammoths the behemoths in one place as as now that you say that I I do remember this I do remember this part because he talks about like how how like Africa's more biodegrad it would be the more biodegradable voice.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:32

Right yeah and he and he also talks about like how we kind of um destroyed so many species um you know like coming like in a place like North America like we came and they were the ones like bigger animals and and more you know the animals had dominion over a lot of land and but humans came in and basically destroyed them they either hunted them out or or destroyed their habitats or or like you know but yeah like I I do remember that part now that now that you now that you've mentioned this um I I I forgot about that but yeah um it was an interesting it was an interesting concept and he even talked about like the Serengeti and stuff and how even some parts now like the Serengeti it had to be there's certain parts that has to be like designated by humans because of the way like we just rip and raw and destroy through things.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:23

But that's the last like biodegradable area he says there will be the least have the what do they call it the carbon footprint that was that was very interesting too and I didn't realize well I did what I forgot how to dis differentiate between the African elephant and the Asian elephant is the African elephant has bigger ears and the Asian elephant has like two knots on the top of his head. And it's yeah and and it's like a it's like eleven feet tall while the African elephant is like 13 and a half feet. There's all these little differences between them that I I had forgotten about. I had read when I was younger but I had forgotten about so that's a little bit of excuse me a little tidbit of information for you now you're getting all types of jewels today all types of You're getting a good tangent this is this is like a gumbo right here. This is like a gumbo of just we going left we going right we going round you know what I'm saying we just breaking off into all types of tangents I spend a lot of time thinking now as a father of small children about what am I what am I gonna leave for them. You know and this is one of the one of the other things that I thought about while I while I was um we were talking about this episode um what am I gonna leave? What are you gonna leave for your children? You know you can't just say I'll be gone when things get really bad you know and just leave it to the next and leave it to the next because that's what kind of got us here in the first place. I think I said it the last episode just do small things here and there. You know we only get one planet dogs we sound like activists now but we know what I'm saying we only get one planet to live on and I want my kids to enjoy the same things that I I've gotten to enjoy walking through parks imagine if there's no central park anymore like we just destroy Central Park or imagine Central Park being Central Park without us being here to to enjoy to see it.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:20

Right right no it it it's it's it's important man like you said like we're not activists but I feel like some of the things that that you and I talk about um it leads me to think in a different way right like and to be more more concerned because of the fact that I'm getting information that that I probably wouldn't otherwise get if we if we weren't really touching on these things and kind of doing you know we go back and we do our little research like we know we know we know quite a bit already but like we go back and we kind of like re-review things and we see we find parallels we find like these different threads right like as we're as we're going over these things and as we're even discussing them during the podcast to be honest like in real time like we we kind of put together these threads and sometimes it just leads you to think like wow you know I'm I'm more concerned with this than I was previously right like and I'm hoping that that to a certain extent like we're spreading that because it's not about like you know quote unquote activism in the way that folks might think of it but it is a it is a type of activism though like in in terms of like that's part of why we started this is to to start conversations that get people thinking or that are of value or people that can relate can relate to um and you never know like we might be the people that that may not set off any sort of real revolution but we might spark the mind of someone that does right like Tupac that's a Tupac quote son yeah yeah I was wondering where I got from we throw the two pack quotes in here son yeah we yeah I knew I I knew I didn't make that up but but yeah so but but yeah we might be the ones that kind of spark the mind of somebody that that that um that will make a a a significant change or or we'll just spread the word right because maybe it's not all about making some sort of drastic change right now but maybe it's about spreading the word and and making sh making people a little more aware of it or making it something that people just start thinking about a little more right because we are having an an impact like whether we know it or not like whether not whether or not you know it you're leaving something right now it's up to you what what that is like it's up to you to be more intentional about what it is you leave. But everybody leaves a legacy right and sometimes if if you don't if you're not intentional about it then you don't know what you're leaving as your legacy but if you're intentional about it maybe you have some control over that maybe you you purposefully leave something like you said for our children for the next generation um for the people around you for your friends um you know be intentional about what it is what's what will be your legacy is really um up to you really oh there's that word again what's that intentional intentional intentional we gotta do the we gotta get the intentional the intentional shirts or something and you made you made reference in our Gil Scott Heron episode where you talked about how he felt what can you do to make a difference and he felt his talent was uh making music and spoken word that's his part now our talent may not be podcasting but we're gonna do it anyway we're gonna do it anyway we're gonna do it anyway you know what I'm saying so but this is our little part that we feel that we can play to get the word out there to just to make people to think just to have them think you know what I mean yeah no that's exactly right though like he talks about like you know making sure you use whatever it is you have right like when you're in a when you're in any sort of like like struggle or facing any sort of challenge you should use what what what you have use the tools that are that are available to you right the tool was his own talent and spoken word and making music and spreading the word in that way um and we're using the tools that are available to us right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:06

So that's it you got anything else I got one more thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:10

Oh okay let's hear it so as Gen Xers um it just occurred to me like recently that Gen X is the first generation and this is just like a little fun fact but Gen X is the first generation to grow up with the voting the voting right rights act of 1965. Oh if you think about that I did not know that so so so if you but if you think about it it's it's you know it's the Voting Rights Act you know was implemented in 1965 and that's pretty much the that line of demarcation where you have Gen X is being born that year right like so Gen X is I think from like 165 to 80 yeah actually actually yes 1965 to 1980 you're absolutely right yes we're the first generation that's post voting rights act right so it's an interesting fact the first generation to grow up with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 with post voting rights act think on that little gem for you drop a gem for you or as we say bars bars so this concludes our latest episode of the Gen Expertise podcast shout out to our now day 38 our day ones and everyone in between and as usual and as always shout out to our day one day one oh and I want to give another special shout out to my man Lightning Rob.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:48

I'm not gonna say his real name because he doesn't use his near name on any of his social medias or anything my man light and Rob who I went to college with who he always posts he always reposts our stuff and puts it in our stories our little clips and stuff so shout out to you and that's my boys from DC taught me how to do the hee ha down in in when I was down in school there in the DMV area. They know what I'm saying so shout out to you brother you know who you are and you know you know what man since we are prolific that's right we are prolific we will be back next Wednesday at the same Gen X time same Gen X place power to the podcast power to the podcast peace peace