0:00:00 - 0:00:19 Talk a little bit more about the closing information window and how it's getting harder and harder to find and share ideas. Now, this itself isn't a particularly new idea. If you're familiar with the things that I've been predicting, I've been saying for a long time that this was going to happen and 0:00:18 - 0:00:39 today it's not done happening. But today, I want to bring to your attention a few discrete steps that you may or may not be aware of. This is something that I'm sensing happening in, in real time. I I'm seeing signals of this all over the place and I'm not sure others are. So I just wanna make sure that 0:00:39 - 0:01:07 it's brought to your attention. So I just want to ask you in your experience over the last say few years. Have you noticed a significant difference in how information is found? How do you search for information and has that changed in the recent past? Have you found the efficacy of those searches to 0:01:07 - 0:01:28 be different than they were in the recent past? I've seen examples and I don't have any in this presentation, but I've seen examples of political shifts that have happened from one day to the next. And for example, Google search results shifting to reflect that change. That's how quickly these systems 0:01:27 - 0:01:59 are being modified in real time. And I'm not sure that, that people notice I saw another example of how COVID related search results have been doctored to make it seem as if the timeline of events during COVID was different than it was. So these are really disturbing changes. Um You probably saw that 0:01:58 - 0:02:20 Google released an A I and for, for image generation, when people were asking for historic pictures, they were inserting races that did not exist in those places and times and it wasn't subtle. And so they got called out on that and then they acted like it wasn't intentional. Those of us in the field 0:02:20 - 0:02:45 understand that of course, it's intentional. You can't build something like that by accident with those sorts of features anyway. So the what has happened is that since the days of the encyclopedia technology has swooped in and given us these phenomenal access, uh I guess phenomenal access to information 0:02:44 - 0:03:11 at ridiculously low cost. But what we're seeing in the recent, recent past just just currently is that these systems have been corrupted to the point where our access to information is becoming less than what it was before we had them. I hope you're noticing this because it's going to continue, it's 0:03:11 - 0:03:36 going to get worse, but it's not just facts in your access to facts it's also people. Now, one of the wonderful things about the social media revolution, if there were any wonderful things was that you could stay in touch with people that you knew already with a lot more ease. But what we've all noticed 0:03:36 - 0:03:57 is that the quality of those relationships has degraded in part because of the ease of the tool. So the the network of relationships that you could maintain ballooned, but the quality of those relationships, it was almost as if it were a zero sum game. And no surprise because your time is a zero sum 0:03:57 - 0:04:19 game. And so spreading your attention across so many people, you're dividing by a larger deno denominator. And so the quality of those relationships drops, another benefit, seeming benefit was that you could meet all these new people. But what we've all found is that very few of those relationships transitioned 0:04:18 - 0:04:39 into the real world and therefore they didn't become deep and meaningful. And there are some exceptions, you know, some gamer meets a person that they've been playing with for nine years and they know them quite well digitally and they get to meet face to face. That's always cool. But these are exceptional 0:04:38 - 0:05:07 situations for the most part, these are just, it's just the multiplication of more empty relationships. But that has been the case since around 2008 when these sorts of things started hitting mainstream. But recently, let me ask you, has even those have even those benefits begun to disappear. What I 0:05:07 - 0:05:37 mean by that is, have you noticed a significant shift in how social media assists you in meeting other people? I think that it's getting harder and harder to meet new people using social media. Now, what just to sort of broadly brush over some of the the facts with this until Elon Musk bought Twitter 0:05:36 - 0:06:11 , there was no major platform that still operated in a mostly unbiased way because Elon Musk bought Twitter. We know that there were just absurd amounts of intentional modification of these interactions between people. And so if someone's positions were not what the the controllers of the platform wanted 0:06:11 - 0:06:33 to propagate, they would diminish that person's access to others and diminish that per uh access of others to that person in particular. We know that happened and we know that's still happening with uh meta's platforms, which would be Instagram and Facebook. They also own whatsapp, but you don't really 0:06:33 - 0:07:05 meet people through whatsapp. So uh recently a gal wrote a book about her perspective on the effects of hormonal birth control and Instagram massively reduced the reach of any mentions of that book. So there's an example and whether you know, they've coined this word, misinformation, I refuse to use 0:07:05 - 0:07:31 the word whether what these people are saying these diminished voices is true or not, it's controlled speech. Now, if it's a pla private platform, I guess people have the right to decide what sort of information flows through there, but it's not comforting that it's so obscure and that people, most people 0:07:30 - 0:07:49 are just not aware that this is going on and maybe what's worse is those who are aware don't seem to care very much. They just sort of say, well, that's, that's just the cost of doing business. What are you gonna do? So what do I mean by that? What's an example of that on platforms like Instagram and 0:07:49 - 0:08:09 youtube where you will automatically get in big trouble for saying certain words, there's a whole new nomenclature of replacement words where people will say the replacement word instead of the word that will get you banned and they're just doing this left and right or there's some sort of hand gesture 0:08:09 - 0:08:31 or whatever because the algorithms are out there looking for people to mention these things or do these things. So my question to you are people being rewarded or punished for telling the truth? Are, are these, what used to be information sources? Are they, are they being used to propagate information 0:08:30 - 0:08:56 or propaganda? Because if you get punished for telling the truth, then that is now an instrument for propaganda, not sharing the truth. And are the opportunities to learn something? Are they growing or shrinking? Are you more likely to come away dumber or smarter for having spent five minutes on social 0:08:56 - 0:09:23 media? And while of course, you could train your own preferences in in on your account to prefer certain materials that maybe aren't super uplifting. The question is, how easy is it to do the opposite? How easy is it to train your account settings? Your, whatever your preference algorithm is to propose 0:09:23 - 0:09:46 to you that, to suggest content that will actually make you a better person. It's actually, it's pretty hard, it's difficult to do. Now, I mentioned Twitter is an exception to all this. I guess it's called X now. Uh I've been on there for two weeks now. Ish. And my experience is I, I think that it's 0:09:46 - 0:10:09 a pretty, it's a pretty nice platform, all things considered. I'm, I'm relatively impressed and I have been able to meet a few very interesting people. So that's nice. Now, it's in a sea of knuckleheads, but that's the population. So what do you want? So all of this being said, I, I hope that it's enough 0:10:08 - 0:10:31 of a picture to give evidence that in fact, the windows of information are closing, but it actually gets worse than this. So this is why I decided I'm always just cataloging things and prioritizing what I want to share. And when this is what pushed me over the edge, I saw this today and I'm making this 0:10:31 - 0:10:56 on March 29th, 2024. So first off, um Well, I, sorry, I set this up and I'm going to hit pause on it. One of the, one of the, the, the topics that I've been collecting information on is, or that I've been watching is um, compelled speech laws. Of course, the Canadian Compelled Speech Law launched Jordan 0:10:55 - 0:11:14 Peterson to fame. But for the most part, these laws, they don't help people who are trying to get a platform or they don't give a platform to people who are just trying to live their lives. For the most part. That's not the way it works. It's kind of like a genetic mutation. It, it's, it's much more 0:11:14 - 0:11:34 likely to kill you than to make you superman. Right. Much more likely. But the, the reason that's so important is to realize the fact that there's sort of the set of new intellectuals on the web like Jordan Peterson, not to say he wasn't an intellectual before he was famous. But I'm saying there's this 0:11:34 - 0:11:57 public following and it's a group of people and they all talk with each other and you could probably name a few of them. They're all older. They all came into their fame through a very specific set of circumstances which no longer exists, even though its recent history that that loophole got patched 0:11:57 - 0:00:00 up pretty quickly. So the next time a younger person gets hit with what Jordan Peterson did, they're not gonna be able to call Joe Joe Rogan and say, please help me because youtube just canceled me and then mysteriously two days later they're back on and youtube says it was a technical glitch. Yeah. 0:00:00 - 0:12:35 Right. That's not gonna happen with the young up and comer that way is closed, that way is closed. And Jordan Peterson, I mean, he was a, he was a professor for a long time before that, a person like Jordan Peterson cannot be a professor today. Even if they're established, they're probably on their way 0:12:34 - 0:12:56 out or they're really biting their tongue, which is a moral quandary. It's not a very, uh, courageous thing to do. It's, it's not the morally right thing to do, but an up and comer is never even gonna get through their graduate program before they get canceled. So that way is closed. You can't say the 0:12:56 - 0:13:17 things that Jordan Peterson said for years and years and years in the classroom and not get fired today. So my point with this is all of those people are hourglasses with most of the sand through them already. They're all aging and there will be no replacements that our present system will not allow 0:13:16 - 0:13:37 another Joe Rogan to come along. And if you look at how he got to where he is, this is a larger topic that I've been thinking about and I don't want to get too much into it, but it's the idea of who do we expect to tell the truth in our society? And today, there's basically a blank check for any normal 0:13:37 - 0:13:55 person to bite their tongue and not stand up for what's right and not tell the truth and not call people out when they're saying what is clearly a lie and to not call people idiots when they're saying things that are obviously stupid. No one judges normal people for not doing that. Why? Because we all 0:13:55 - 0:14:20 expect some famous or rich person who has no skin in the game to say it for us. Now, there are enough of those people who are willing to do it and happen to be making a lot of money doing it, which is why they're willing to do it for now. But there are no replacements for these people and the system 0:14:20 - 0:14:44 will not allow a significant number of them to rise up and take the place of the ones that are there. So we're teetering on a cliff here and there really isn't anything on the other side of it. And we need to realize that each of us has to take up this mandate of actually telling the truth and it's going 0:14:44 - 0:15:09 to get people fired, it's going to sever relationships, it's going to get people in trouble and it's going to get worse. This is a separating issue. It will separate the wheat from the tears and it already is, it already is very few people have the courage to be as I'm describing. But if you don't, you 0:15:09 - 0:15:29 better get it because the clock's ticking and you're on the wrong side of the line. So these free speech laws have excelled and expanded since Canada adopted them. Well, Canada is about to modify them as far as I understand in taking the religious exemptions out. That's sort of what's on the docket right 0:15:29 - 0:15:50 now there. But Scotland's got some of these laws now. Um, I believe England has had them for a while now. Yeah, I'm, I'm remembering now someone just got arrested for that. Uh, JK Rowling's always in trouble for pushing the line on that. And there's an example, of course, she's got massive amounts of 0:15:50 - 0:16:11 money. She could hire lawyers, she can pull strings to, to famous friends of hers and powerful friends of hers. But normal people can't do that without having their lives ruined. And so they stay on the sidelines. Uh The eu has all sorts of laws like this. Germany is sort of renowned for this. There's 0:16:10 - 0:16:31 AAA gentleman who keeps getting arrested for saying the wrong things over there, uh popping in the news every once in a while. And, uh that I wish I could remember this guy's name, but there was a famous, uh it was a well publicized trial that he had and the judge ended up throwing out his case and I 0:16:30 - 0:16:55 think that was a year ago and he's in trouble again. So what all can happen when they don't like what you're saying? Well, you can go to jail, of course, you can lose your job. And for the most part, the people who are doing this, it's not just your job, it's a whole career, but as we saw with the Canadian 0:16:54 - 0:17:24 Trucker rally, more and more officials are trying to add the ability to divest your your money into their menu of options of what they can do to you. So um many credit card companies financing platforms and just straight up bank accounts, there have been many examples of people suddenly dropped with 0:17:24 - 0:17:51 no explanation from the financial tools that they depend on for livelihood right after they said or did something that the powers that be didn't like. And so, you know, you could think of this in situations that maybe are, are, are, are easier to understand if say a big company has a, has a, a uh someone 0:17:50 - 0:18:12 who, who they sponsor, uh maybe an athlete, musician, whatever it is. And then that person says something that's extremely unpopular if they wanted to sever the contract. That's one thing. But this is very different because these are people whose relationship with the company in question is completely 0:18:12 - 0:18:36 unknown to the public. I mean, all of us have credit cards, right? Do you know whether mine is a Mastercard or Visa or something else? No. And who cares? Right. So the fact that I use a certain credit card, it, it's irrelevant if I say some crazy thing, that credit card company wouldn't drop me as a 0:18:36 - 0:18:55 threat to their business. But in the modern world, this is happening left and right. And why does this matter? Because if they can do it to rich and famous people, they can do it to you as well. And you say, well, how would they know what I think about XY or Z? Well, there have been stories in the news 0:18:55 - 0:19:19 recently of credit card companies, for example, looking at purchases and using those purchases to decide if they like the political leanings of their customer. So suppose you bought a firearm or even a Bible or went to some conference. Well, they could look at that and they wouldn't even really have 0:19:19 - 0:19:43 to pay much to do it because they could just build an algorithm to look at her for them. So that's an option. And then here's a scary one. All modern cars have remote electronic control. So, you know, if you have AAA GM vehicle, you probably have OnStar equipment installed and they can start your car 0:19:42 - 0:19:59 remotely and they can turn it off remotely. And if you think these things are harebrained or far fetched, just look at China, you know, they say as California goes, the rest of the country goes too and we all see crazy things happening in California and eventually they migrate out to the rest of the 0:19:59 - 0:20:21 country in varying degrees. Well, that's kind of the way authoritarianism goes in China. So look at what China does and you can bet it's going to be rolled out in the Eu in the United States soon enough in Australia. So they can shut down your car and they will do so with, with your social credit score 0:20:21 - 0:20:46 . If they don't like what you're saying, you're doing, they will ruin your life. And so people will watch what they say and do so. Again, if you think this is far fetched, now I get back to the setup I made forever ago. This is what I saw today on X. There's this story, it was on Fox News about how the 0:20:45 - 0:21:13 FBI asked Google youtube for watch history. They said we want a list of the, the names and addresses of all the people that watch the following videos and apparently this is happening all the time. So again, when we talk about these predictions, people have what I call all of a sudden itis where they 0:21:13 - 0:00:00 think that either it all has to happen at once or it's never going to happen. And of course, that's ridiculous. That's not the way most things work with this. What I'd like to point out is a related human tendency, which is to say it has to be super all in intense. This is the shock and awe fallacy. 0:00:00 - 0:21:55 It has to be super all in intense or it could never happen. I've spoken about this in regards to a potential invasion by China. I saw just the other day yet another little inf that said why the US could never be invaded because we have more guns per person than any other country in the world who cares 0:21:54 - 0:22:15 last last time I checked it's been a while since anyone invoked the second Amendment. Do you think magically you're gonna start shooting people because there's an invasion plus a bunch of overweight hunters. I'm not sure are the biggest threat in the world. The point is of a full on all out shock and 0:22:15 - 0:22:35 awe invasion. Sure. Having so many armed people would be a deterrent. But who says they're coming through the front door and people just can't wrap their heads around anything other than what's already there. It's, it's just seems impossible for people to exercise the slightest modicum of creative thought 0:22:35 - 0:22:59 . When we think of censorship, it doesn't have to be black helicopters coming to your house and knocking your door in just this story. It already had almost a million views when I saw it this morning. This story will, will scare enough people that I guarantee you something like 90% of the people that 0:22:59 - 0:23:24 hear about this and a lot have heard about it obviously are going to significantly alter their viewing behavior on youtube and they'll be less likely to click on something that before they would have clicked on. I guarantee because this is all it takes. People just aren't very robust, they're not courageous 0:23:23 - 0:23:50 , they're not bold, they're not daring, they're certainly not principled and it's 1000 paper cuts. This is how it all happens. It's little by little. It's the overton window. So rounding out the thesis here, we come back to the beginning, make use of what you have right now, make use of what you have 0:23:50 - 0:24:12 right now. The window is closing it. It's not going to be years from now. If we still have the internet, which is an open question, you're not just gonna be able to Google any old thing. You might not be able to Google any old thing one year from now. I'm not saying that's gonna be the case, but I'm 0:24:12 - 0:24:34 not saying that I'm not saying that's gonna be the case. You need copies of things that you're going to want to look at and paper is better than electronic. Now, you can't fill a house with books. I mean, if, if you think that's your calling, you're gonna be the guy who saves all the books. Hopefully 0:24:34 - 0:24:58 you don't live in any suburban or urban area, but whatever floats your boat. But I'm just saying on a practical basis, if you need something, don't count on just Googling it, don't count on just opening a browser and getting there and whatever you wanna do with meeting new people and sharing ideas, whether 0:24:57 - 0:25:11 that be the gospel or something else, it doesn't matter. Get on it now, get on it now because tomorrow will not be like today, it's going to get harder and harder to share this stuff.