Tomorrow - 239: The Meta grift

Episode Date: October 31, 2021

This week on Tomorrow, Josh and Ryan obsessed over Dune. After getting all hopped up on the spice melange, they dive into the Metaverse... and find it wanting. There's also some discussion of Bitcoin and Halloween. Stay spooky, Tony! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey and welcome to Tomorrow, I'm your host Josh Wattipolsky. Today on the podcast we discuss the metaverse spice and Halloween. I don't always one minute. Let's get ready. Alright Ryan we're back. It's been too long. We got a lot to talk about. This is no joke. Yeah. We said that we would have had this scheduling nonsense out but it didn back. It's been too long. We got a lot to talk about. This is no joke. Yeah. We said that we would have really cut this scheduling nonsense out, but it didn't. It wasn't meant to be. You know what? You know, it's life comes at your fast, as they say. I was so busy with Dune that I couldn't recall. I was going to say, you know, one minute you're just a, you know, you're just a young boy on Caledon, just learning how to fight with Gurney Hallick and learning all about the universe with Dr. Ewing. The next thing you know, you're the God Emperor of Dune.

That's just how it be. You know what I mean? Yeah, one day you're doing your thing, the next day you're doing your thing. Okay, we just don't need for wordplay here. Wordplay is a thing for cattle and lovers. It's actually, I'm paraphrasing the classic gurney-halic line. Mood is a thing for cattle and love play

just before him and Paul have a sick fight anyhow. I can't honestly't honestly can't remember if that's in the book or not, but Clearly we're in obviously at atoni. I'm sure you feel the same way We have doing on our minds You know, I mean come on who who who listens to this podcast didn't raise your hand I don't know which Tony which of the Tony's did not enjoy Dune? Well, I'll say this. Lea Finnegan, the editor-in-chief of Gawker, said it to me, well, said not just to me personally, but to the Gawker team and the Gawker Slack.

America has Dune fever. I would say that's true. And I have some theories about that. I guess we should preface this by saying that Denis Villeneuve directed a movie called Dune, part one, and it was released in theaters and to HBO Max. But really see it in theaters if at all possible to safely do. You know, actually, though, I'm gonna counter Ryan's bullshit by saying, I watched it on a TV and it was fucking great.

And I didn't need, I wasn't like, wow, this is a spice harvester, just like, I just don't, I just don't see anything. I watched it twice on my gorgeous LG GX with surround sound. It's an LED, LED contextual lighting. I had a wonderful two viewings in that manner. However, seeing it at the Alamo Drafthouse

in an enormous screen and hearing the ooze in Oz of a crowd, I hadn't been to a movie. I don't, wait, was that the first movie I saw? No, Spencer was the first movie I saw. That was the second movie I saw since COVID. And it was so great to be back. The ooze in Oz of nerds, huge nerds who love worms, who love to talk about sand worms.

So here's what I'll say. I mean, I've already said, I mean, I'm sure you've read all my tweets. I've been basically only tweeting about Dune for the most part for the last week. But, you know, I am a, first of all, I'm a big Dune head, old school Dune head. I've read not all of the books, but I've read two and a-three books two and a half books

Whatever I mean like I need to I need to finish children of doom which I believe is the third book if I'm not mistaken but But read the read some of the books so I'm pretty familiar with that Piece of it. I've obviously love and have obsessed over the David Lynch version of Doon, which David Lynch, I guess is disowned, but David Lynch is, you know, he makes mistakes too, and his mistake is disowning one of his best films. You know, I got into Doon through Yoderoski's Doon,

the documentary, then I went back and watched the Lynch and said, this isn't a bad movie, and then I read the book. That's, no, I think I saw the movie as a kid, and I was like, like, young. And I was like, what the fuck is going on? This is so insane. And then I was like, oh, that's a book

and I got to read that and then I read it. And I was like, okay, it makes a lot more sense. But it still was like, I mean, to me it started with the film, but I actually did, started watching the documentary and, and I never finished it. It's not that it's not interesting. I find it very interesting, but like,

I guess, while at the end. Yeah, I guess I'm sort of, first of all, I'm kind of burnt on documentaries to be very, very real. Yeah, Netflix, my document, docu-fittie gives a real thing. It's like I can only take so much real, like I got real life coming at me 24-7, right?

Like straight to my fucking face. Like I don't need also to experience more real life in the form of a film like if I'm gonna take an hour and a half to watch something I want to I really would like to not be dealing with reality I'm not like I'm not gonna like check out Requiem for a dream right now like in the current state of the world like I'm I need to like and that actually brings us to bring us full circle anyhow so so'm a big dune fan and I had a lot of reservations about this dune being something that I would enjoy partially because I don't, this director to me, Dylan Oove is like hit, or I don't know if I'm pronouncing it right or not, but he's

kind of a hit or miss guy. I think he's done some really interesting stuff. I, I, despite my, again, despite my reservations, I did enjoy Blayrunner 2049, though I have issues with it. But I will say with him, the issues, or even the movies I think are creatively maybe failures, I find way more interesting than the vast majority of movies that I think have issues or have failures. Like, he's definitely a guy who takes chances.

He's got balls. I will and I'll say, and I think an important thing that should not be lost and I think is a major reason why we America and the world to some degree has doomed fever is we, this movie is an adult, it's in a movie for adults. It is an adult movie. And I don't mean that like it has a lot of like adult content,

though, I mean in the sense of like it doesn't have like a ton of nudity or something. The Force Awakens is not an adult movie. An adult Star Wars fans want an adult space opera and it didn't need to be doomed, but Dune came at the right time and it's very good on its own. And I don't think it's just like,

I mean, of course, I don't wanna, we can't spend, we'll be doing a four hour podcast if we talk about all of why Dune is important as a piece of science fiction content in the world. But I will say, there is no, I mean, there is no Star Wars without Dune. And like, Dune is like the, one of the tough things about Dune is that it predates

in so many ways and with so many big ideas, the things that we all know that so well now that we're so familiar with, that it's very hard to think of it being like, feeling new to people and feeling like, oh, this is a story I haven't heard before. And yet, even though it contains so many of those little nuggets of sci-fi culture and storytelling and tropes, it still is in so many ways such a different and original and weird-ass story.

The way it is told and what I think. And so anyhow, so getting back to this film, I had a lot of like, my thought going into it was, I'm probably not gonna like this, but I'm excited to see it, because maybe it will be really good, or maybe it will be entertaining at the very least. And I think it exceeded my expectations. But I think that what was so striking to me

is that it feels like in a movie, a movie that is made for adults. It is a heavy story. It is a, it is not an action film. There are some sequences of action in it, but I would by no means label this as an action film. If you are a person who has enjoyed like the Marvel films, I do not think this movie works on the same level. Like

maybe like you might like something like civil war might get you close to like civil war is like of them films that are the Marvel movies is somewhat of an adult film, but at the end of the day, it's still like it's more their pure franchise. Yeah, but it's like it is this is not a superhero film. Yeah, there are no heroes in it. There are no there are no There aren't like broad sort of like broad characterizations the way you see in a lot of modern movies This is not a Wambang like you know Incredible action sequence that ends the film like nothing like any of them Of the owns not late stage game of yeah. Yeah, and it's, and listen,

and I would say that my number one gripe about this movie is that it feels like it needed to be, and this is true of David Lynch's movie too, it needed to be like twice as long and like, which is essentially what the director is saying is like that's what he wanted to do, and so he split this movie into two, and now there's going to be a second part.

But in reality, part one could be four hours, six hours. It should be an giant series or a 16 hour movie. I mean, the Game of Thrones treatment, there is no better possible source material, in my opinion, for something that gets a great Game of Thrones treatment than Dune. And like, it kind of sucks. And there's this great account we actually wrote a little blog post about on input called Secrets of Doom that has been tweeting like pages from the script that they didn't do and like images from like scenes that were either shot and left in the cutting room floor

or they didn't couldn't fit in for some reason. Like, you know, Josh Brolin's character, Gernie Halik, there's this whole story about him in the book about how he's like, yes, he's like this tough like military guy, but he also plays, he plays this, you know, like guitar instrument, it has a name, the bat, the bat, it's like a bat ballast draw or something. And ballast set, it's called a ballast set. And he does a song, he like sings a song.

He actually, and by the way, that role is played by Patrick Stewart in the David Lynch movie which, and I believe he does play the ball set in that film. But like, there's all this dimensionality to these characters that is not touched on. And there is a lot of, and if you haven't read Dune, one thing that you probably don't know is that it is a book, and it is very unusual in this way, where the characters that you meet not only are you like reading the interactions they're having with the other characters in the book, but much of the book is their inner dialogue with themselves and their inner sort of like their personal insights about things that are happening. And I was like really struck with because so David Lynch in his film version

has people you can literally hear their thoughts. Like they look at something and then you hear what they're thinking, which is basically how the book is written, except it's obviously supposed to be this kind of inner monologue going. And what it does is it gives you this whole different sensibility

about certain things that are happening. Like there's a ton of politics and the way that the sort of people are like, oh, well, he said this, but what he really means is this because of these historic things that have happened. And it goes really, really fucking deep into motivations and all of these sort of subtlities of interaction. And so in the movie, when you've got two and a half hours

to tell this sweeping, I mean, even the first part of it is a sweeping bit of story. It's very, very hard to get to know any of the characters or any of their motivations. And so you get, and this is my main gripe, and this is a super fucking nerd gripe, and I'm gonna gripe it anyway, you get, you know, just get a whiff of the actual story, you know?

And I think for, I must, I feel like a lot of people must have watched this who are unfamiliar with the source material and been like, I enjoyed that, but like, I don't know if I got all of it, you know? Like, I don't know what exactly what's going on here. Like, and I will say, the way this movie ends is, I mean, I liked it, it's fucking weird. Like, it is such a weird way to end a movie. Like, it feels like the ending of a episode,

the first episode of a 10-part series on HBO. Yeah, well, I think they definitely, I think they had to absorb people watch a lot more TV than they do movies nowadays. And I think they reabsorbed the way that Marvel's whole innovation was to be like, it's just a TV show. You're just going to go to the movies to see it and pay a lot of money. Right.

It's like we're going to do a 20-part TV show over, you know, it's $500 billion worth of movie making and yeah, over 20. Black male, the greatest actor, whatever. Yeah, it's $500 billion worth of movie making and yeah, over 20 years. Blackmail, the greatest actor, whatever. Yeah, it's insane. But I felt like they had to absorb a couple of the tricks from TV because it is a, to most audiences, it is a new IP.

A completely new world, something that they have zero interest in and a book that, although great is not a mass market adoption, you know, it's not like a YA book, like a Hunger Games that everyone can just see it's there. But I also think, you know, the themes of doing are so relevant right now, like the still suits, I mean, could you ask for a better pandemic, Aligury? You've got, I mean, it really is like, you've got a lot of capitalism, you've got masks. I mean, I mean, the, the, even spice itself and it's,

and it's similarity to the, you know, prices of medicine or like even, like mental health care or, or like, it's just, it's, it's really interesting to me. And, and I think that, that, in their translation to the screen for this modern audience in this release at this time, that some of it had to be made a little more spoon-feeding

But I don't think that it hurts the movie they do it in a way that I think It it feels Effortless and I and I and I say that because I Really really really don't like a notice usually when things get spooned-fini. I don't like when movies tell you the rules of vampires, just like I don't like when movies have vampires and then won't say the word vampire. I don't like when they stop everything in Harry Potter and tell you how things work. Why, why, why would they do that? It's so, it is so annoying.

I mean, even lines where they're like, how long have you been my brother? People don't say how long have you been my brother. That's an insane thing that no one has ever said in real life. But they do a really good job of it. And so I think it's because they walk those lines really finely and still had a movie that they wanted to make that they made. It works.

But yeah, I think it was, I was gonna say, but just because the source material is very relevant and has very precious themes, does it mean it was a foregone conclusion that it would work? You know, I actually, when I finished the film, I did some tweets and one of my tweets, and actually the next day when you and I were talking about it, I tweeted about this notion that I had, which is like, I think it was really, I thought it was really good, but for lots of different reasons, I feel like it could very easily be a commercial failure,

which like it is not, but I will say this, and I'm not trying to be like, I got it right, because I think it was successful, but it is not successful the way you hear about like, and obviously we're still in the midst of, a hardcore pandemic here, so it's like, and obviously we're still in the midst of, you know, a hardcore pandemic here. So it's like, there are successes different these days, but the, it is not successful like this thing made $500 million in its first weekend. It, it made enough to justify

another. And brought critical acclaim and big attention to HBO Max, which is a strategic win for the parent company. Which is what they've been after, which is what they've been after all along. And so kudos to them. And I think it's deserved in this case. But I think people did like it. A lot of people watch it. I think a lot more people today are interested

in the story of Dune than they were a week and a half ago. And that's great. I don't think this is the kind of thing that generates a Star Wars level fandom. It just is like, it is a dark story and I think what is most interesting and what I am excited about is that Villanuev seems to get

the some of the most important things that this story is about. And there's been a lot, now listen, this book was written in 1965. If you look at it through the lens of 2021, you'll see a lot of stuff in the book where you're like, I don't know, I don't know Frank Herbert. This is like pretty, this is like pretty white guy writing about culture that he's not a part of.

And you have to see a transposition of Western imperialism on Eastern cultures and Eastern people and like there is obviously, there's a storyline here that like the spice in Dune is, you know, representative obviously of oil and obviously of the wars that we've had. These wars that we're talking about and the way that there is essentially this like,

massive galactic corporation that mines it on a planet of people who are oppressed is not a subtle, you know. And to have a white fever prince commit, you know, like it's very, yeah. The, the, yeah, it's very like, very, very, very, oh yeah, like I wrote this in 1965. That said, you've taken, you've taken for what it is.

It's an amazing series. There are, sure, there are issues you go now. You might go, well, I would have maybe made different decisions about this. But there's still something really compelling about the core story. But what is at the heart of it and what this movie seems to be getting towards is that, I mean, really, it is a, to me, the thing that I thought was most mind-blowing about reading these books, and what kind of develops in it is, obviously, it's like a thrilling adventure where there's this, like, Messiah type of character who comes along, and that does, I mean, I don't want to spoil it for anybody,

but like, the path that Paul Atreides is on, unless they dramatically deviate in the second part of this story, is like, he definitely is gonna become like a total badass, you know, God Emperor of Dune, as he's known in a later book. But what it's really about is like politics and religion, and imperialism, and frankly capitalism in a lot of ways. Like, what they don't talk about in the movie is that Paula Trades and his family are members of a thing called Chome, which is a giant, as I said, galactic corporation essentially, are like conglomerate of corporations that are in the business of spice mining and control of spice, which is like the, quote, unquote, the most precious resource in the, in the business of spice mining and control of spice, which is like the quote unquote, the most precious resource in the known universe.

And you know, it's like a really interesting examination and excavation of what that looks like and what that means in the real world. But it also is this interesting indictment of religion as a completely fabricated story that has been like, that has been used. And this to me is what's so interesting about what this new dune is doing is that.

The story, much of the story, and they say this a lot in the new movie, is that there has been like, for thousands of years, there has been a story told that a Messiah will come and lead all of humanity, including the Fremen who are the native inhabitants of Iraqis, to this glorious future. But the concept of that Messiah is essentially planted there by a group of cosmic witches called the Benny Jesuit.

And they've essentially been like genetically engineering a Messiah, but also planting stories of the coming of the Messiah on all of these, in all these planets for thousands and thousands of years. So like, you know, when it happens, people are like, yes, this is what's supposed to happen, but it's all been completely fucking fabricated and engineered to make them feel that way.

I think what's interesting is like, and what I believe that Villeneuve is toying with is this idea that, I mean, it took me a second viewing to really appreciate, and by the way, spoiler is for the movie if you haven't seen it, but it took me a second viewing to appreciate what he's doing with some of the, Paul has a lot of hallucinations on Arrakis. He's like high on spice and is like seen stuff. He's seen and die as I think we all do when we're high on spice. Absolutely. And but like the things that he sees and actually like he's asked this early in the movie if like the things that he, if he can't, you know, often has visions of things that come true and actually, like he's asked this early in the movie, if the things that he often has visions of things that come true, and he's not exactly. And I think that what the story here is that this Messiah that Benny Jeser at his

engineered in the Messiah that has been rumored is not who he is. He's not the manufactured endpoint of this larger construction. And I think that's a really interesting thing to play with because it is where it goes in later books too. Like there is a lot more in that kind of idea of, are you, no, sort of is he this thing that was created or is he something that is completely its own and what does that look like?

But anyhow, it's fucking great because there hasn't been adult sci-fi to watch in so long. And like, everything is so to me, is like so like, I just can't, it does not hold my attention. I'm so lacking in things that are truly interesting to me from an entertainment standpoint lately. So, this has been a real breath of fresh air.

And I'm glad that I get to talk about You know a topic that has been a passion point for me for many years and now everybody never He's like let's explain the sandworm to me shy halloude. Can you can we talk about? We talk about the water of life for a second anyhow. It's really exciting and I'm looking forward to everybody the water of life for a second. Anyhow, it's really exciting. And I'm looking forward to everybody, just getting all fucked up with the second half of this because this first part was like pretty straightforward to be honest.

Yeah, I don't know. People are gonna flock to the second one and there will be surprises. I think there's gonna be, I think people are gonna, there's a bunch of things also that I honestly hope that they, I hope that they, I hope they make more. I don't want them to just make a second one. Here's what I want, I want a four hour cut

of the current film, minimum four hours. Yeah, minimum. So it could be six if you want. And then I want a four hour cut of the second and then I want them to do like, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. I mean there's like most people consider the, you know, Frank Herbert wrote I think six books and then his son started writing books after he died. Most people basically discounted his son's books as not being canon. And I at least would love to see them do the

the whole Frank Herbert part of it, but I don't know I don't know if this this audience can sustain like six six hour movies, but I certainly can listen and if the content Farms keep drying up at the pace that they have been people might know I know okay, so look so there's a lot of other stuff We have to talk about but I there's another, I wanna talk about another big, big series that dropped this week, which, and I know you wanna talk about it too. It's a work that we've all been waiting for for a long time, and it is something that I think just has global appeal.

Of course talking about the action button really on the side of the... I was so pumped. The action button review of Cyberpunk 2077, that's Tim Rogers, if you don't know, who's got, in my opinion, the most entertaining and interesting channel on YouTube, known as action button.

He also has a Patreon, you should go give money. He does these reviews, I think I've talked about it before. We've certainly talked about it before. He did a six hour review of a game called Tokyo Mecky Memorial, which I had never even heard of before. Now, and I've heard of a lot of shit. So I was like, what's this? And I was like, I'm not going to watch a six hour review of Tokyo Mecky Memorial.

And you know what I did, actually, and I loved it. And he has done, I don't know how long the actual whole thing is. I want to call it, let's say 10 hours maybe. Eight hours. I think it's just below eight hours because of various. Well, including the intro video, I think we can get from the approaching time. Yeah.

It's like at nine and a half hours of cyberpunk review content. And the way he did it was, you know, I don't wanna spoil anything, but he did it in like he basically, I'm gonna do six reviews of this game from different perspectives of how you can review it. And so each review is kind of its own self-contained review of the game, but also, I mean, he says to pick two of the reviews

and watch those and then come to like the final part of it, but I did not follow his instructions. I'm watching them all straight through. And I just gotta say, it's fucking, a couple of things. One, it's so good and interesting and weird. Now, I mean, you've got to really want to watch them. And you definitely have to care about Cyberpunk 2077

to some extent. Like, I very much thought John was not gonna care for it. And then he sat down for one of the hours. And he was like, this is great. I was like, yeah, he was like, I don't have time for it, but this is great. Laura watches it like she's doing other stuff, like doing other work stuff and like genealogy stuff,

but she definitely is like paying attention and I think as a person who she absolutely does not give a shit about Cyberpunk and definitely doesn't care about game reviews, I think she a person who she absolutely does not give a shit about cyberpunk and definitely doesn't care about game reviews, I think she quite enjoys them. And you know, they're just such, we should have him come on the podcast actually, just occurred to me, he should come on and talk about his project. But they're just such interesting, such like, like there's so many little bits and pieces and crevices and sort of like,

just his sensibility about culture, obviously gaming culture, but the broader pop culture landscape, is so interesting and the way he draws parallels between, I mean, the game that he's talking about and the history of gaming and the cultural forces that inform those things and like and also he just does in this hilarious way that is just so compelling to listen to and i'm not i'm like i'm a fan of very few things i think we've we've probably talked about this before i certainly throughout my career talked about how i don't get like the fanboy mentality like i like a certain computer or a one-boy mentality, like I like a certain computer or a phone or whatever, but I never, ever, ever have felt like I need to defend this brand or stand up for this thing.

Well, you're a stand, but you're not a stand. I love stuff. You go to the concert, but you're not getting multiple tickets sets and doing meet and greets and like, well, I mean, there's up, but there's a few, but there's a few things in my life where I'm like, I have catapulted beyond simply being a fan. Totally. Like John Carpenter is a person who I went, you know, I've seen him play live, he's, he's plays music live, which is fucking awesome.

Several times in their best, best shows I've ever been to in my opinion. And uh, uh, and I got like last time I got like the meat and greek package and got like autographs and stuff because I'm such a fucking fan of his entire body of work. It's very rare for me though. There's very few people that would fit into that category. You know, it's like John Carpenter, Tom Cruise, as you well know. And Tim Rogers, I mean Tim Rogers.

I'm like, I just think he's so, you know, it's funny because he's in our space. I mean, he's a critic, he's a critic of video games. He's certainly in like, he used to work at Kataku. He is certainly like in our world of like, you know, bloggers or media people or whatever. But what he does to me is just on a whole other level, just a whole different head space. But what's so interesting to me when I watch

his stuff is I'm constantly like, oh my god, this guy's brain is broken in exactly the same way my brain is broken. He has a whole bit, he has a one of his cyberpunk reviews is about the graphics. It's just, it's like an hour and 20 minutes on just the graphics, okay? And he talks about how often he is like switching the graphics settings. And I'm like, oh my god, dude, like I thought I was the only person who does this. I mean, maybe it's very widespread, but he's almost every scene I would go into the graphics menu and try to refine my settings to either get a higher frame rate or better graphics quality or whatever

for the particular setting. And I do this constantly. I'm like to such a tinkerer. And I think it's like, I mean, Lauren, I have talked about this a lot like when I get a new game where you can create a character, you know, I'll sit for like forever trying to create like the perfect character. Like what I like to do is try to make the character look as much like me as

possible. Like as much as I can, I try to use the tool to create a character that looks exactly like me as possible. Like, as much as I can, I try to use the tool to create a character that looks exactly like me. And like, Laura's like, it gets very impatient. Like, she likes to watch me play games, you know, but she'll be like, God, can you please just, why do you care? Like, what does it matter? But I feel like it's this thing.

It's like, I just want to have this, like, perfectly dialed in person representing me into the game. I do that, but I make myself a little more idealized than real life. And John, on the other hand, he's never ever. I don't even think his maybe the me's that I made for him for like the login screen looked like him. He always makes an actress that doesn't exist.

He makes a very interesting looking woman and she is the star of his game. And he's like, I just prefer to play as a woman and he's not a woman and he doesn't identify as a woman and he doesn't care too, but he likes to make an interesting looking woman. And so every time I play with it, it adds something to his game that is really real,

that is not in my game because I'm only doing self-inserts in every single game I play. Right, right. And I actually, and I will say, one of the things, as I've been watching the Cyberpunk review is obviously, it's made me very excited to go back into Cyberpunk. I'm on my, like, I'm continuing my play through, like, I've

gotten one ending. There are, I mean, from what he describes, there are at least five endings, and apparently some secret one one which I didn't even know about. I'm trying to like, you know, I'm worried about it being spoiled, but I'm like trying to, I would like to see all of them. This is a game. This is a game. I've never done this in my life where I just have played it and played it and played it and played it and just not stopped. And sort of actually I've been doing that a lot with dying light, the original dying light, which I picked back up last year and I find it to be almost endlessly entertaining. And you can just pick it up and play a little bit and then put it back down and it's sort

of fun. But he actually has a lot of playthroughs that he shows where he plays as the female V, which I haven't done yet. And so I'm going to, I want to do that. He also is like, you know, the Corpo, like storyline intro is like the best one. It is 100% the best one. Okay, no spoilers, but I really wanna play,

I wanna play all of the different, you know, intro pieces. And like, there's so much of the game I haven't seen. I mean, there's stuff in his videos where I'm like, what's, wait, what part is this? Like, I haven't seen this part. So it's like one of those things, it's like, anyhow, the game is so vast and there's so much going on and his reviews are so smart and funny and interesting

and like honestly, he goes into, in one of the reviews, he goes into some health problems that he had, like sort of like from the crazy schedule that he had himself on doing these reviews and it really, I mean, it a really interesting kind of crazy story. And it made me think a lot about, you know, my sort of work ethic and my, you know, he talks about crunch because crunch was a big topic about why Cyberpunk ended up kind

of as insane as it was when it was released. And it's just interesting. It's so good. Anyway, I just highly, I cannot recommend it enough. It's, I've been, people have been waiting for it. It's like been like 10 months since he said he was gonna review it. You know, I think they're maybe...

I have been paying for the Patreon at the high, high, high, high, one of the high tiers, maybe not the highest. For, since it started and I regularly go through my Patreon subs and like weed out things that I'm no longer looking at because it's not like Twitter where, you know, because it's not like Twitter Where you know like it's coming out of my account?

um, yeah, and I never I never turned it off because I was like it's coming I know it's coming it could come in two years and it would be worth my support Yeah, I mean it's um, it's just like yeah, it's really good and he's really good and I just highly I just highly encourage everybody to go check it out. And I'm working on everything low key. And I think a lot of times when I get really excited about a new project, I like the bigger projects I've done in my life, I feel like there's, you know, inspiration comes from a million different

sources and certainly I wouldn't say what I'm doing is that similar to anything he's done, but I would say that his commitment to what he does and his complete confidence that if you don't, and this is something I truly have believed since I worked on the show Difficult People because it was like our credo. His confidence that like if you don't understand the reference, then I'll explain it to you and if you still don't understand it, you can google it. But like I'm not, I'm not dumbing this down. I'm not making it shorter. I'm not gonna be like, I'm not revising it to make it worse,

to hopefully make it more palatable, because if it's good, you'll put in the work too. You know what I mean? And it's better that you do. It's sometimes the best stuff that you watch is the stuff that requires a little bit out of you. And I really, I find his work very inspiring on that level of like, it is exactly what he will set out to make. And it is very honest, seeming. I mean, maybe

the whole thing, you know, maybe he's a complete storyteller and it's all a lie. It's very honest. It's very, it's unashamed and very confident in its ideas. I mean, I do think his character on YouTube is a performance. Yeah, totally. Yeah. You know, like, which I think he basically kind of acknowledges in these videos. And but I mean, I think that he is the genuine article, as they say, when it comes to, I mean, I know how good to be anything but I mean, I should say not to be, you know, not to, I'm not, maybe I'm'm by I know him a bit Like we had lunch and you know I've to spoken to him you know a little bit like on the internet and I you know

I found him to be as fascinating to sit and talk to as He is watching you know It may be more so than I mean because we're it's a conversation But anyway, which is why I was like yeah, we should we should have them on the podcast because it would be really fun and interesting and I Think he is insight into games that are like just into the concept of what video games are that are just on another level. And also he's super funny and like, I don't know. There's very few things that I would, there's very few things that I watch on YouTube for extended or on anything really for extended periods of time and his stuff is like, just always super interesting.

And I recommend you guys check it out. If you haven't Tony, please, please check it out. God, I'm just thinking about this. There's what's happened this week and I just remembered the other. Yeah, I was going to say if you want to talk some more about video games, I have a big topic. Let's talk. Let's do it. I'm ready. topic. Let's talk about it. Let's do it. I'm ready. Facebook has changed its name, Tameda, which seems very much to be a calculated move that they've been planning as a nuclear option for the brand since 2019, as a response to the increased pressure and criticism on the company for its various ethical, unethical actions and war crimes. And so they did a big thing at Facebook Connect

where Mark went up there and he changed the name of the company to Netta. I don't know how I feel about that name yet, but it is better than Facebook. I mean, if we can just be like real for a second, it's a better name than Facebook for a company. Yeah. But that's not, I don't,

that's not in that door, cement of the... No, I'm not like, I'm not like it's a cool move, but to me it is a, you can call whatever the fuck you want. Like, they call Google, I mean, Google is alphabet now, I guess, sure, for 99.9% of the people on the planet, they are gonna call it Google and it will always be Google, sure, for 99.9% of the people on the planet, they are going to call it Google and it will always be Google.

Yeah, it's alphabet on paper. But this is a statement of the different than Google's fun tax shell games. This is a statement that, or Mark wants it to be, a statement that the company is shifting its focus away from what it brands as social media, even though obviously that pays all the bills and it's the most important thing that they do. And pivoting its focus to creating what he calls the metaverse, which is an internet that is in 3D space in virtual reality, that Facebook doesn't necessarily own in control, because that sounds scary, but designs and conceives,

and you know, is one of the only corporations with any power over. Well, yeah. And it's like, and also it's completely a fantasy at the stage. Like he's explaining what he would like this company to be, but it's not the company he works at and it certainly doesn't exist. Yeah, and it's like, and it's like I,

what they're hoping I believe in the long run. Forget about the lofty, and we can talk about the lofty ideas of what the metaverse is, which I actually think the metaverse, conceptually, the metaverse concept is totally bunk. It is as bunk as like, web, people you hear a lot of people talking about web three, web three, which is all like crypto, backed, crypto derived.

Even if it was a good idea or idea that could be brought into fruition, through force, through just the force of money, I don't think that it will work. It just the premise of, everything looks like a corporate office space and there's no sacs. Well, I just, I just,

the whole, just to get down to the heart just to the before we even get into the metaverse conceptually, it is a marketing term for people in large-ling Silicon Valley. It is a thing to talk about that is in how Facebook actually sucks and is horrible and is doing a lot of really bad, just has created a really bad product that has a lot, has caused a lot of trouble in the world,

for lots of different reasons and lots of different ways. To me, when I make that web three comparison, it's like it sounds good to people who have money, and it sounds good to the stock market, and that's great, and I'm happy that they've found another thing to talk about that they've been seeing. And everyone's been prepped, right?

Ready Player One was a very big hit movie. And everyone's been prepped to think that this is the natural next step for technology. Although, no, there has been almost no mass adoption of VR and... There's no indication, yes. There's no indication at all that there is going to be. And I do think VR will break through at some point.

I do think that it has huge potential, VR and AR and all this stuff. But where we're at versus where they want to be is we're talking like 3D movies. A little bit like 3D movies, I think there's more there there than there were with 3D movies, but I still think like, so that's just on this conception of the metaverse or whatever. But let's really talk about what meta is because the more important thing about meta and the thing that is what they want, they really want, okay, Facebook wants to be, and by the way, I think that in some ways I'll say this, I like the idea of brands that are like, let us get out of the way,

we want to be here to support and build other brands. Like, I think that frankly, the company were at, in the best case scenario, and I believe that they think that most people think this is true as well, is kind of like, let people build brands here that people know, like, oh, I go to this website, I love it, and not try to be like, this is, you know, BDG or whatever.

You know, like, I think like what works at Vox, for instance, is like, not people aren't like, oh, yeah, Vox, like, I love, of course, there's Vox.com, which is a brand. And frankly, we could talk about whether or not it was a good idea to call your news site, Vox, and your corporate site, your corporate company Vox. That's a whole story for another day. But I will say, generally speaking, when people go read the verge or when people read Pauligan or when people read New York bag is either when people read Eater or whatever

the fuck, they're not like, I'm reading a Vox thing. They're like, I like this thing. This, it has personality and it has character and it is something that I feel that I identify with, which is the best brands in the world. That's the way they operate. The best publications in the world. That's the way they operate.

So Facebook really, Facebook is, when you hear Facebook, you're like, oh, that's where they operate. The best publications in the world that's where they operate. So Facebook really, Facebook is, when you hear Facebook, you're like, oh, that's Facebook, right? And all the Instagram is all Facebook. Well, it's like, you know, it says Facebook, you know, what's that by Facebook or Instagram? By Facebook and you're like, okay, Facebook is this thing. It's the place where the white supremacists are.

It's the place where my fucking old-ass relatives are, who suck, it's the thing that I get this shit weird fucking spam on, it's like, I keep getting notifications, it's Facebook, it's so annoying. And they're like, what if we could do things? We could make a new thing. And it's like, back by a company called Meta, that you've never heard of and you don't care about.

And so you're just like, wow, I love this new TikTok or whatever it is, because that's what they want, because at the core of everything to Facebook is doing right now, is an undeniable truth, okay? And this is the undeniable truth, and I really want everyone, every Tony, to think about it. Facebook is losing. They may have a lot of money right now.

Their stock may be up 17% whatever. They are losing the young audience that they need to stay relevant and to keep making money. They are becoming a product of 45, 55, 65 year old, increasingly conservative people, certainly in the US, it is an uncool fucking demographic. It is the Fox News demographic.

That is increasingly who is interested in and on Facebook. The reason they bought Instagram has panned out for them. They needed younger people to be inside of a product that did not feel, look, or act like Facebook. That's why they bought Instagram. That's why they bought WhatsApp. They would love love to buy TikTok, but they couldn't. And so now the idea here is the truth about it is the core product is going is failing.

It is rotting. It is rotting. It is rotting structurally. It is rotting philosophically. It is like it is fucking as uncurally, it is rotting philosophically, it is like, it is fucking as uncool as uncool can be, okay? And that's not where you want to be, right? Like in the same way that like diet coke is no longer a popular beverage, like young people

kind of are like, that's not that cool actually. And I, there's better shit I can drink. And actually, now that we know a lot about that, I love diet coke. Don't gonna be wrong, but I'm old as fuck, you know? But like, they need to get back into the game because as long as they lose in this particular way, it doesn't matter how much they wanna make the metaverse happen.

By the way, no fucking young person is like, well, the metaverse will be cool if Facebook runs it. They don't think it's any cooler of meta runs it, but if some new thing that they've never heard of before suddenly becomes cool, and it just so happens to be maybe started by or owned by this company, they don't really care about it, don't think about it. That might be okay, that might work.

Like I don't know, you know, TikTok is owned by a Chinese company. The nobody knows shit about. It's a massive company, okay? Or was, I guess it still is. I don't know what the arrangement is now. I don't Trump like try to break it up or something. I don't fucking know. But at any rate, like, and people are like,

I don't care, whatever. I love, there's like, there's like half-nude fucking teenagers on this. I like it, you know, which is, I believe basically much of the TikTok audience is just like just half-nude girls on it. So I'm gonna check it out. The, not, by the way, you know, listen,

everybody's got their thing. It's like AT&T made Dune, but I didn't think about AT&T when I bought it, Dune ticket. Right, exactly. And so, so Facebook desperately wants to be not associated with Facebook. They wanna be in the background in the the shadows, sucking up your data and your time and

your money and showing you advertisements and understanding you better to do the next thing that they're going to be. They make this vice-belong. And that's their business. They make money off of you and your data and your attention. And if they don't have that, they can't make money. And so they're desperate, they're desperate. They'll do anything.

And so Metta is not about the Metaverse, not about Mark's fucking vision for the future. Mark doesn't have a vision for the future. Mark Zuckerberg is not a person who has a cogent, reasonable, interesting vision for the future. I honestly believe this is a dude more than any other person in history perhaps,

who's like right place, right time, right people around him. Not saying he's not a good businessman, not saying he can't run a business, not saying he didn't have some ideas. I just like would, you know, I'm not betting on Mark Zuckerberg's vision of the future. I'm just not, I don't believe in it, I don't think he has it.

Like, he's an interesting guy. He's not the person who I'm just not. I don't believe in it. I don't think he has it. Like, he's an interesting guy. He's not the person who I'm gonna be like, I'm, by the way, so many of these people in Silicon Valley, and so many of these startup people, the fucking Andres and Horwitz is the world. Mark Andres and we'll tell you, his vision of the future is right. And, you know, all these, they don't fucking know.

They don't know. They have money. He's like, they have money. You can do a lot, you can do a lot about the future if you've got money that doesn't mean you actually know what the future is supposed to be. And in fact, and in fact, the fucking problem is that people with money who don't know

what the future is supposed to be, keep building things, telling everybody else that this is what it is. And you end up with a shit pile, like Facebook, that doesn't work for people, that is actually fucking bad for humanity, that is as a service has been outmoded in outclassed in 10 different ways. But like, it's because of the money and the power that is controlled by this group of people, we keep acting like we have to pay attention to it, you know?

And so like, and now they're just moving on to like, they're like, okay, so the American Facebook audience getting older and wider and more conservative and it's very fucking uncool. How do we salvage that? Elsewhere they're moving into developing countries trying to become the de facto internet. And then at the core of all of it, if you go back, you want to go back to the metaverse concept for a second. I don't believe it's about at all, Mark's vision of fucking virtual reality,

workplaces, which is, again, I was fucking so such a boring vision. I mean, it's a vision from a billionaire who works in a space stage, fucking tower. It's like everything's white and may it might have barbed. Is it, would it be, nobody is a genital. Yeah, it's like, right. Cory Cica wrote a great piece on, for New York magazine about like this vision of the

future where it's like there's no sex. And it's like, it is like, you know, Instagram's like a sex list. It's like people are like, I got to blur out these nipples because I don't want the ins, it's like so fucking childish. It's so stupid. And like, that is not the internet I'm interested in. It's not just about nudity or whatever. It's not just about porn.

It's like, this like, safe space where nothing's too risky or nothing's too shocking or you know what I mean. We wrote a piece about furries and how they're, they've created this tiny or version of the metaverse in which they hang out and they come up with games to play. It seems to be a great social space where everyone is treated with respect and it's managed by committee and everyone's creating their own ideas of what the future could be, whether

it's 3D art or whether it's recreating a place that you used to spend time with your friends and meeting up with them there. And it's interesting and it's messy and it's weird and it's definitely not for everybody. And that was how the internet started. That's how all cool things started. That's how punk music started. It wasn't supposed to be for everybody. You perfect what it is and then lots of people will see its appeal.

But you can't reverse engineer. If Henry Ford had asked people what they wanted, he wouldn't have given them a car, he would have given them a mountain of ice cream because that's what people say they want. But people don't- I think that's the quote. Yes, that's the exact same. Right. And the yes, I mean, everything you're saying is true. And I just think I do think if we want a better, more interesting future, whether it's online or offline, we have to somewhat make it ourselves. And I do feel like, yeah, I don't know.

I mean, it's fucking, it's boring. It's boring to some extent. I'm so tired of this conversation about Facebook. I don't know. I don't know about you. But the only time I encounter Facebook is. But it's not as if this matters, right? Like, ultimately, yes, we don't really use a lot of their products.

And ultimately- Well, I use Instagram, but- It's a distraction technique. I'll say this, it is yes. Well, yeah, and- And- I mean, you look, it's a double edged sword. I mean, it's a distraction, but also some of it is,

sometimes this stuff is really necessary. I think the pandemic, but also some of it is sometimes this stuff is really necessary I think the pandemic last two years of having living in pandemic a pandemic stricken world You see the utility and the value of technology that lets us connect to other people That's great the way we connect other people is fucking insane It does not make any sense. It is not what anybody should be doing is not healthy like we are we do not need to know All the things we need to know in real time. We do not need to say all the things we say in real time. And I say this is a person who's made a career out of saying things in real time.

You know, um, the, and is that for everybody? Is it, is everyone going to be a creator? Will we live in a world where like everybody's starring in their own weird little reality show with a not fans to support their rent? Like, I don't think so. I think we're going through a moment. And it is a moment that's going to change dramatically over the next five to 10 years.

I think particularly like, things that seemed really important during the pandemic will seem less and less important as we get out of it. And things that we're, that we used to value, I think will seem much more valuable suddenly. But is the future of society that, like you are an influencer as a career? No, I don't believe that's the case.

And I don't believe that everyone is a creator. I don't believe that we live in like an infinite creator economy where everybody given the time and attention necessary or the tools would become a fucking painter or whatever. I don't think that that is the world we should even aspire or want. It's okay that some people just don't, that some people don't want to make things or work or produce. Right.

It's fine. It is totally good. It's actually, it would be amazing. It would be utopia if you got to just pick whatever you wanted and you didn't have to produce anything. Right, I mean, the great, listen, the great, I mean, there's this, you know, on the politics right now, there's a massive debate going on in our government

about like creating programs that have, you know, I don't know, paid family leaves so that when someone has a child, they can spend a decent amount of time in the early days of raising that child to get them off the ground, you know, as a human, instead of working, and that we would support that because we want to live in a place and in a world where children get the support and love and attention they need in the early days of their life and their parents don't have to have a gun to their head. And like, you know, I'm trying to imagine a parent somewhere that's like, yeah, I don't want that. Like, I'd like to go before us to go back to work as quickly as possible.

I can't think of a single parent that I know who would be like, yes, please let me do that. But, you know, we're in the middle of this huge debate in America about like, you know, hey, handouts, you know, fucking ancient. Newborn mother mothers being with their newborn babies. It's a handout. It's a handout, right? We're like this big debate about who, you know, if we should support, you know, projects that are good

for everybody, like infrastructure projects or clean energy projects, we're kind of like, well, I don't know, if the million, 1.8 million people in West Virginia don't have their coal mine. We're in the dumbest fucking conversation ever in this country. And I cannot wait till Joe Manchin dies. I'm not saying he should, but I'm looking forward to celebrating his death because he sucks. And that's all someone else.

Right. But we are having some of the dumbest debates in the world, but there is this idea that in America, especially, but obviously everywhere, it is like your value, your existence is the value of your existence is predicated on how much you can produce, whether it's creative or otherwise. Yeah, how so-called culture, baby, is anything. It's just about make more so that you can give it to the people who need it, which is rich people.

And they'll decide what we do with all the stuff we're making. And it's not a great idea. It's not. And it's like, frankly, it's an, it's like we're all living in such an unnatural. I'm not saying we should all be fucking laying around doing whatever we want, smoking weed all day.

But like I think we should have the opportunity to at least explore that as a life choice. Yes. And see why it isn't good for us. And I don't know, yeah, I think I'm a person who, in any situation, there's a point where I go, okay, I gotta be doing something. And I think a lot of people are like that, whether it's a job or creative, or whatever. Studies show people will occupy their time in fulfilling

and productive ways, but not necessarily both of those things and they're not, but necessarily both required of people. But certainly, the vast majority of people, given unstructured time, go on to do things that we would deem a value, but they have a much better quality of life. Yeah, so I just think it's like we have this, we're having this conversation in society about,

you know, where we're all headed or whatever. And I, again, just getting back to Facebook and the metaverse, it's like, I'm not saying that there would not be components of that in that Facebook, or meta now, won't be a part of it, but like, I do think we need to, we need to evaluate like, who's telling us what the future is supposed to be like, you know? Like, I mean, I'm not saying nobody knows or nobody has an idea, right? But, but it's like, there is a limit to how much they know and to what their idea is. And I think that if anybody has proven themselves a bad steward of like how to take, you know, where to steer the ship for the future, it is like Mark Zuckerberg and the people who he surrounded himself with at his company. And so he was right.

I think the future was Facebook. For now, he was right when he made it, or when I guess it pivoted into being Facebook. He was correct to be like, the future is connecting people, the future is data, the future is 100%. But he didn't realize what that future was beyond the fact that it would involve connecting people in data. And in fact, it's been really bad. It's been really, really bad with him at the wheel.

And I think like, we all need to look at the things that turned out good and the things that turned out bad. And I think Facebook turned out really bad. And email turned out pretty good. And I think we should look at how those things were developed and how they're used. And I don't think that Silicon Valley being super powerful means that they're correct. Right. super powerful means that they're correct. Right, and I think that it's really important to point out that, yeah, I mean,

I just think we're in a fleeting moment, we're in a moment where it's like, you think it's like Facebook was actually, it means your point, you're like Facebook was right, but was it, or was it, again, right place, right time, adoption of the internet, mobile internet, you know, other sort of competitors had faded out. Advertising, was that a total drug?

I mean, you could say, but you could say, oh, well, this is all because the Mark Zuckerberg made the right decision, he made the right calls or whatever. It's like, yeah, or possible. He made the ones that seemed right at the time and those were right, but it's not like because he's a genius, but it's like right place, right time, right product. That's all true and I'm not saying he's not, he's stupid, but like, it doesn't mean that he knows what is actually supposed to be happening right now or where it's actually just be going in.

Also, what it means is that we don't know because we got off on a fucking, we're on an off ramp to Facebook and we've been on this off ramp to Facebook for so long now for like a decade of like very popular use, right? And it's like, where are we here? What is this? Like what do we, what, are we in the place we're supposed to be or are we somewhere that we accidentally ended up, you know, Like, were you reading a fucking map? Or did you just wing it?

And like, that to me is the kind of foundational problem I have with all of this stuff, which is like, I don't believe we took the right exit, you know? And so here we are in this fucking town. We took the most lucrative exit. I mean, not the one that served any other need. It was the one that we made the most money. We got off a highway, we're in a town,

it's pretty great, and there's a lot of stuff in the town, but I'm kinda like, I think we need to get back on. I think we need to keep going. We're not where we're meant to be. This isn't a great town, it's a town that we stopped at. It's a town, it's got all the stuff, but I don't know this is where I wanna spend the rest of my life. It's not a fucking emerald city, or your campus is far.

That's my, I think this, I think this metaphor is actually works very well. This is not, I am in a pretty, a pretty interesting city, but it is not where I wanna spend the rest of my life. And like, what if I get back on the road and go find something else? And like, what is out there? We don't know.

And as long as you stay in this town, as long as you stay off the fucking highway, you're not gonna find out. And is Facebook really the town you wanna stay in? Do you really want? I mean, we do live in a world where every single product has been impacted by and has modeled itself after a handful of things that were held up as being like,

like Facebook was truly said to be a perfect product. Like, it was the future. It was the biggest success story. It's one of five companies. But like, it's sort of like the disneyification of things. It, there were, there was a huge in level of innovation that Disney had on a few different topics.

And we, everything in American culture absorbed it. And it's okay to move on now and be like, all right, we've got the benefit from this. I mean, I don't have to, obviously, in a society that only has media from one company called this company. But to be, that's a great point, because I actually feel, and maybe I'm wrong,

but I actually feel the power of Disney waning in our current state. I agree. I feel the whole Marvel thing is collapsing on the subject. I mean, this was a temporary extension of the state of affairs. Marvel and a few other ideas were temporary extensions, but I really truly believe that nothing will stop the power of technology to tear something like Disney apart.

Well, I remake it and it's in. But I think it's like, I think it's, I just think that people move on. There's a whole generation that's gonna move on. Like, I think that you cannot have the same thing indefinitely. You know, Madonna, Michael Jackson and Madonna will not be the biggest pop stars in the world for the rest of our lives. Even if we could resurrect them.

You know what I mean? Like, even if we could create the Madonna of the 1980s and she's a robot and she will just perform forever and have new eras and new sounds. It still wouldn't work. That's just not the same. Like Madonna was an amazing pop star and she's a robot and she will just perform forever and have new errors and new sounds. It still wouldn't work. That's just not the way Madonna was an amazing pop star for a long time.

Now, if Madonna puts out a record, it's not going to be a number one hit. It just isn't, and we've moved on. And there's a lot of reasons why she has stayed in a place where she cannot get out of, we have moved on to a place that we cannot come back from. And that's like, that's normal, that's what should happen. So Facebook is going to experience the same thing.

I just, what I want is I want people to be ready to see, to like get, to move on to the, whatever the thing is. And listen, I'm, I'm, Facebook's rearranging things in the town. What we need is to take, things in the town. What we need is to leave the town. Yeah, Facebook's like, Facebook's like, you'll never wanna leave once we're finished with this renovation.

Yeah, you know. Facebook's like, I've heard, okay, we got a show. We got a show. No, they're like, listen, the town is great, but we think this town could be a metropolis, okay? That we can design,

and all of the things that you'd want in any other town will be here, okay? But just stick around for a littleropolis, okay, that we can design. And all of the things that you'd want in any other town will be here, okay? But just stick around for a little bit and let us build it. And it'll be great. It's like no, it's like that's, you gotta fucking escape. So I'm not like, you know, quit Facebook,

quit Facebook, don't, I don't care. Like, it doesn't matter. But like, but I do not, I'm not interested in a world where Facebook builds the future. I think so far what they build is fucking shit. And the thing is, they didn't build Instagram and they've not made it better. They didn't build Oculus.

They did not build Oculus. They did not cook build all-face VR. They did not create Beat Saber. They did not create supernatural fitness. All of the things that they are rolling up to say, like we made the future. They didn't create what's out. They didn't make any of that.

Right, and so this is, and this is the, this is their argument, actually. They're like, we might not make all of it. We might buy some of it. And it's like, I don't need you to buy some of it. It can exist on its own. It doesn't have to fucking exist in your universe. You know, I'm so tired of like,

I'm so exhausted by the, you know, Mark Zuckerberg talks about how, oh, being in another people's hardware, you know, it's been hard to do what, it's like, yeah, it's been hard because you don't control at all. Like, what you'd like is total control. Yes. And what all of these companies, and again, we've tied up at this a million times, what Apple wants, and what Google wants, and what Facebook wants, and what Amazon wants, is complete control of your digital life Of everything you do that they can touch they want to touch and it's like I don't want that you shouldn't want that Meanwhile, it's not perfect, but Wikipedia

Doesn't have the problems that a lot of these other quote-unquote thing like institutions that came up around the same time did But email does not have the problems that Twitter has, even though email has a spam problem, and a harassment problem, it's an open vector. It's not the same, because these companies have, are all working from the same philosophy, and not to get on a giant communist soapbox, but they are profit driven,

and they live within the exact same confines of our system. And we're recreating the same thing over and over again with different groups of people in different colors and calling them competitors. But I don't believe that what Facebook does is fundamentally that different than a couple other companies. They think they're the most egregious sample.

But when they absorb things, I think a lot of people look at the only way to make money as a startup. Where the only way your superhero is any good is if Marvel buys it and makes the movie. the only way to make money as a startup or the only way you're super hero is any good as if marvel by that makes the movie the only way your startup is any good as if apple by that makes a part of the o.s. we have to stop thinking like that like this is not i mean it isn't even the premise of capitalism right like i mean

yeah i mean well i mean it may be the end point of capitalism but uh... but uh... but it's not what they sold us on you know what i mean and silicon valley did not become silicon valley because of giant corporation like IBM stepped in and said, no, this is what's social media. And that is, and that is, and that is the thing and listen, how do you return to this point? Like, how do you get back there? But like, and I'm not saying it's gotta be the little guy versus the big guy or whatever, but all of these so many of these things were created to challenge and incumbent, like, to be like, hey, this thing that existed I've been given and my whole life that I've been served, I mean, IBM is a great example. Like I don't want your version of it.

I want my own version. I want to have something better. I want something different, you know, and like, listen, we talk to, we're blue in the face about this, but like getting back to Facebook's meta rebranding. It's like, they can call themselves whatever they want. The thing to worry about is not the name change, and it is not actually the metaverse. The thing to worry about is what they can do from the shadows when you don't call them

Facebook anymore. And what meta is allowed to do as a parent company that owns things like Facebook and Instagram and WhatsApp. In my opinion, they should be regulated like a motherfucker. That's it. What we have, I mean, supposedly, is political power to say,

no, we're not gonna let it, we're not just gonna let it happen. There have to be some rules around this. You can't just eat all of the things you wanna eat and not have to pay for them. Like you can't just be this ever growing. But forget about Facebook for a second. I mean, look at Amazon, you know?

And I say this as a happy Amazon customer, he uses the product. I, they're too, they're fucking too big. Yeah. There's too much stuff, they're doing too much stuff, they have too much control. Like partially, you know, people talk about the supply chain right now, they talk about how you can't get diapers

and like, you know where you can get diapers, you can get them on Amazon. And the prices are higher, but they're readily available. And I can have them drop shipped here tomorrow. But like, they're available on Amazon, because they're readily available. And I can have them drop shipped here tomorrow. But like, they're available on Amazon because they're willing to pay a premium to make sure they're not available anywhere else. And like, you can't get them at your like,

local bodega right now. I mean, it's not you can't, but they're in shorter supply because they're in high supply somewhere where you have no control, there's nobody has any control over it, right? It's like, that's, we gotta rebalance. Like, everything has to be rebalanced

in our, in our, in the way that we think about these things. Because, if we don't, if we don't, it's like, we're fucked as a society. We're just absolutely fucked. And I don't think we are absolutely fucked, but I don't, I don't want Zelda to live in a world that is like, the metaverse and Amazon are the only things that speak, you know? It's fucking depressing. Anyhow, all right. What else we have to talk about here

We've we've certainly ranted about that meta meta and the metaverse for long enough. We also one other thing. Sorry Facebook truly nailing the coffin in my my opinion, for making the metaverse being a cool thing that anybody wants. Now that they're like, well, we were interested in the metaverse, I'm like, the last thing I'm interested in is the metaverse, as long as they have anything to do with it, whatever it is, this fucking made up idea that doesn't exist.

What were you gonna say? I was gonna say the last topic that we had to discuss is one that you added to the list. And it certainly a very different, we've talked about some big topic. Is this the thing I dropped to the other day? Yeah, it is. Bitheater.

Heat bit. Heat bit. Heat bit. Well, I did it. Heat bit. Oh, hold on. Really quick. I was gonna say, I got to have the new pixel. I think Ray's review will be going up soon be, he'd be. Well, I didn't, he'd be, he'd be, oh, hold on. Really quick, I was gonna say, I gotta have the new pixel.

I think Ray's review will be going up soon. The pixel is six. It's fine, whatever, it's a phone, who cares? It's fine. That's my review, it's whatever, it's a phone. But at least it's whatever this time because the last one was, ooh. It's a phone.

And now it's a good, it's a really good phone for the price, but like, it's also a phone. And there are many of them available, and they all do the same thing. None of them will change your life. The heat bit, I only wanted to bring this up because it's funny. I mean, it's actually kind of in reference to,

I just saw it yesterday and I was like, what the fuck is this? There is a enormous amount. I do think the pandemic is like, it's really like fucked up are, you know, because we're not all out, we haven't been all out like interacting normally with each other and like with normal things. I think we've got a really skewed idea that like, like whatever people are talking about on the internet actually is life, you know, is real or whatever. And so, I don't even know where to begin.

I just think this is a great example. Like there are so many people who are like cryptos, like cryptos, the future of like cryptos, this crypto is like, it's like, they're just so into crypto. But I mean, I'm sure there are, and I know there are, and I believe there are very practical, very reasonable, very good uses for the concept of crypto and cryptocurrency and the blockchain.

Heat bit is, is it one? I don't know. Heat bit is a, is a heater, a small heater for your house. It's a, you know, it's, it, it blows hot air. What you said? I think metaphorically, I think metaphorically very good. Heat bit is a product that generates heat by mining cryptocurrency.

And then, and by the way, conceptually, this is actually, if you were like, I'm doing something that is like so intense, like a computation that is so intense that it generates an enormous amount of heat and I need to do something with it. There are actually, there are a lot of like larger scale projects like this where people say, oh, we're gonna do this like where you have a,

you know, server farm and the server farm produces an enormous amount of heat and it's like, well, we can collect the heat and use that to heat the facility in like cold months or whatever and it's like Oh, wow that's fucking brilliant a brilliant way to reuse energy, right? Yeah, so reuse energy that is otherwise lost So heap it does that on a small scale. This is my understanding that it that it mines Bitcoin Okay, and as it mines it is a it is a full of, I guess, CPUs. It's full of silicon chips.

They're those are the heating element. They get so hot that the heat bit will then below the air on you to warm your home. Now, I have to say, as far as a concept goes, you know, pretty interesting. Now, I have to say, as far as a concept goes, you know, pretty interesting. It's just fun idea, right? Like, I can make money off of my small heat, my desk, heater, or whatever.

Like, I'm listening. You know, let's see here, they have a calculation. Yeah, how long does it need to run to return on the end? Well, they have a calculator. They have a calculator. The current price of Bitcoin is Okay average price of electricity in New York City is

14.34 for sense. Okay. Hello, what are? Okay, so price electricity. So let me here we go. I got it 14 cents and I run it for 24 hours a day for a year. You ready? At that rate, if I run it all day long, let's just say if I run it like 12 hours. I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. No, no, no, no, no, no, this is good.

This is good. Yeah, let's say I run it 12 hours a day, which nobody runs a heater for 12 hours a day, but it's real cold. It's just for this. Let's say it's real cold. It's really cold. At the current price of Bitcoin, by the way,

at Bitcoin, let me see if Bitcoin drops to like 40,000. Which also I just want to make a note of one of the only things we don't need more of at the moment is heat on this planet, but okay. Yeah, but yeah, but okay, 14 cents. If you run it for a year, 12 hours a day, okay? The cost of your electricity is $797, presuming that that cost doesn't change what it definitely does, and definitely will go up in the colder months. Yeah. And the earnings, you earn, you earn $855.

So you make $58 just for running, just for running your heater 12 hours a day, okay? I don't think anybody can argue with that. I know, how about this? If you run it, if you run your heater for six hours a day, okay? I don't think anybody can argue with that. I know. If you run it, if you run your heater for six hours a day, you make $29. A year. A year, it has to be all year.

A year. How much is it? How much is it cost? Let me pre-order it. How much is it? It's a thousand fucking dollars for the heater. It's $1,000 US dollars just to get the heater just to buy it. You're out of thousand.

So I just wanna be clear, you made $29 in the first year, but that's 29, you have to take that, you're chipping away your $1,000 investment. And crypto, how many? So how many? So how many harder to mine, right? I just wanna be clear, how many years do you have to own the heat bit to pay for it?

Expand it. Let's say you, let's just you, I just want to run the numbers real quick again. I just want to look at this. I'm running it for one year. Let's say I'm running it 12 hours a day. I'm making $58 a year. What is it take? What am I talking about here? I can pay the heat bit off in 20 years of 12 hour a day.

Like these chips will even work in 5 years from just being burnt. Just fucking burning hot all the time. Crypto gets harder and harder to mine. Anyhow, this fucking scam, I can tell you, it is Christmas for scammers right now folks. Yeah, it. Christmas. It is Christmas for scammers right now folks. Yeah, oh it's Christmas. It is Christmas. It is fucking like, it is, there has never been a doper time to scam, okay? Like you are, you are in,

this is the greatest moment of all time to be a scammer. I mean you could be any kind of scammer, if you're a food scammer or a health scammer or a fucking cryptocurrency scammer. You could be an openly scammer a lot of the time. I mean we have never really talked about Aussie. Do we talk about Aussie we did a few weeks ago? It's a great fucking example.

Aussie.com, they took like fucking like $100 million or something investment. They fucking literally have no, nobody ever read them. They were like, they were like, we have 50 million unique visitors every month. They have like 200,000. Okay? You just can fucking say anything now.

It's so amazing. I really wish that I had no like, scruples. Scruples. I think about it all the time. I think. And I have ideas for scams too. Yeah. If I had, if I could sleep at night

through some sort of magic pill that had no long-term effects, I would go to the ambient. It's so rich. I would be to ambient. It's so rich. I would be so rich. All you need is ambient to be the man you want to be. Here's the thing. I just like, it's like, I used to think this when I made music.

I was like, what if I just was like any melody that is just fucking, you know, no matter how cheesy, no matter how dumb, no matter how like done before. What if I just like was like, yeah, if I'll do it, who cares, it would be so liberating. Must feel so great to just not give a shit if your shit's good, you know? And I feel like it must be the same if you're a scammer, like it must be so liberating to be like Carlos Watts and or whatever, just fucking spew shit every room

you're in, every person you talk to, every time you talk to them, you're just fucking talking total shit, you're just making things up all the time, like well that must be dope. Again, this is the appeal of the real housewives. We just watch people do that. Oh my God. Oh my God.

Quit trying to get me to watch the real housewives. I'm not. I'm just saying, it's fun. It is interesting to watch people who fully contribute nothing. Listen Brian. All of our production. And all they talk about is hard work and the household.

And it's great. Listen, they may be grifting, but they're in a lot of danger. Ryan all of our production and all they talk about is hard work and hustle and it's great listen They know you know you they may be grifting but they're they're under they're in a lot of danger They've been held up five times the cake gunpoint and I saw your tweets about this I was like what is Ryan talking about? I'm like wow this sounds bad. They're under constant threat All right, we got I got to wrap up because there's literally a hamburger waiting for me that I want to eat give me a knife An impossible burger waiting in the next room and I have to eat it Give me a nice, and impossible burger waiting in the next room and I have to eat it.

Nice thing. It's fucking Halloween weekend. Zelda is going as a Pokemon trainer, Ash Ketchum, maybe you've heard of him, and she looks fucking great, and I'm excited about it, and I love Halloween, and there's a great trick of treating vibe over here in the burbs where I live, and there going to go out and walk around and it's going to be like the eighties and there's going to be it's going to be like night of the creeps and there's going to be an alien invasion and there's going to be zombies and it's going to be fucking incredible and I can't wait. So jealous. My nice thing is Halloween. My nice thing is a little farm all the way out on Long Island that if you're from Long Island you know it everyone else might not. People say that it's worse than it used to be but that's a lie that's just Long Islanders trying to. It's called Trump Farms. It used to be better. It's called the

Breiomir farms and they make pie. They make pies and all their pies are good. Sponcon. Sponcon. And I bought a pie there this weekend, last weekend. That was an Apple Roobar pie, which I've never tried that combination of flavors. And it is delicious. So my nice thing about this is... Oh yeah. ...is fall food. No fake comparison. Fall food. Yes, I was just gonna say like you know what fucking rips

just the whole fall eating experience. I don't even like food. I don't like food that much, but I'm so psyched about Thanksgiving man. I can't fucking wait. I know Thanksgiving is canceled or whatever. I mean I know we're like Thanksgiving's wrong, but still I can't wait to have Thanksgiving dinner. I love I love the whole deal. I love that everything about it. Fall food just kills, pumpkin pie, so fucking good. Like, it's the best. Sider is sick. It's incredible. Stuffing is for the pile of things you like.

Oh my god, man. Oh my god, stuffing is so good. I mean, even like shit, stuffing is the best. Like, stovetop rules. Have you had it recently? It's delicious. No, it's great. I recommend everybody eat a lot of food this fall.

I think just go to town. Yep. I've been like hardcore dieting just so I could just be an absolute maniac. I'm gonna blow up during this heaven. Oh my god. I'm so excited about it. Alright, let's get out of here. Bye. Bye Well, that is our show for this week. We'll be back next week with more tomorrow. And as always, I wish you and your family the very best. But just remember, a warning for you and your family.

When you die in the metaverse, you die for real. you