September 16, 2024 • 49 mins
Over in the UK, David Game College has instituted a revolutionary -- and disturbing -- pilot program: What if, they argue, we can just have AI teach students in place of human teachers? "What could go wrong?" Researchers create a biohybrid robot controlled by a King oyster mushroom -- and it just learned to start walking around. Months of turmoil in the small town of Millersville, Tennessee lead to a TBI raid of the local police department. All this and more in this week's strange news segment.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Nol.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
They call me Ben.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
We are joined with our guest producers Dylan the Tennessee
Pal Fagan and Andrew Triforce Howard. Most importantly, you are you.
You are here that makes this the stuff they don't
want you to know. It's hurtling headlong into autumn and
we are excited to explore strange news. Guys. You remember
(00:56):
how we talked pretty often about water filters. Remember we're
talking about life straws with the casual preppers and the
whole fluoridation argument.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, those are very important things to have in your house,
the same way, well it's not the same way a
fire extinguisher is, but it's.
Speaker 5 (01:15):
Close, guys.
Speaker 6 (01:17):
I literally just got a kitchen fire extinguisher.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
I'm a real boy now.
Speaker 6 (01:22):
And I also have my water filter for the fridge
on auto reorder so that whenever it's time to change it,
a new one shows up.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
Because that is really important.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
And it's just what they want you to do. No,
they want you on all those auto ordered things.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
I live a subscription based life.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Just subscribe, right, And we're bringing this up for some
positive strange news. The boffin's over at m I T
have developed a water filter that can eliminate forever chemicals
and heavy metals. So apologies to all fans of heavy
metal water those days.
Speaker 6 (01:59):
Like Liquid Death about that's the heaviest metal. No, no,
let's let's not get sued by Liquid Death. There is
no heavy metal content in Liquid Death water sparkling or still,
it just looks that way in the branding.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
There's a sparkling version.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
Yeah good, they got like a maco.
Speaker 6 (02:17):
It's a little too sweet for my taste of mar
of a Lacroix. Lacroix boy.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
But this is a huge deal though. If they can
eliminate pfas in the water systems, Uh whoa is it?
Speaker 5 (02:30):
Do we know?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
If it's for uh the actual like the water plants
that are purifying the water, or is it for an
end user?
Speaker 4 (02:38):
I think at this point these specific applications are still
being explored. Okay, you could scale up or down to
a municipal or individual household level, but we wanted to
establish this really quickly. We're your fellow hydro homies. Did
you guys know about that? Do you hear the phrase
(03:00):
hydro homies?
Speaker 5 (03:01):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
It's just an internet movement of people who love drinking water.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Water enthusiasts.
Speaker 6 (03:07):
I got one of those bottles, you guys, that has
like every time, like hour listed on it, and then
when you get to the end of it, you refill
it and it tells you how much water you're supposed
to drink for an entire day. It's hard to drink
as much water as you're supposed to do in a day, y'all.
Speaker 5 (03:20):
It takes effort.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
I don't know, man, I just need to get one
of those camelbacks. Dude.
Speaker 6 (03:25):
Just always have a bathroom break, man, I mean, it's
really kind of prohibitive that it can really throw in
your life.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
There's a solution for that too, that diver carry around
some some form of external colostomy bag.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
Okay, love it.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Finally, finally the time has.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Gone and we've returned. One of our first stories this
evening is something we teased in a previous previous conversation
over in London. Someone asked, what do we need human
(04:07):
teachers for?
Speaker 5 (04:10):
I don't like that question.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
I don't like that.
Speaker 6 (04:12):
I don't like the implication framing. It's kind of got
a little attitude behind it. As we've made very clear
on the show, we love teachers. We have teachers in
our lives, we have been inspired by teachers, many of
us have teachers from our families. And so I don't know,
I resent the implication.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Oh yeah, what, so you don't need humans, you need
what AI? Is that where we're going with.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
This good That's exactly where we're going. And I still
yet again maintained that the phrase AI itself is intensely problematic.
But if we travel to David Game College over in
London in the UK, then what we'll find is this
private school is running the first class in the United
(05:02):
Kingdom that will be taught by a virtual intelligence, the
first foray out. This is happening now in September of
twenty twenty four. The first foray out will be twenty
students in this experiment. At least they're calling it an experiment,
and they're tapping into virtual reality headsets with these AI
(05:27):
enabled platforms to guide their learning. The concept here like
The utopian version is that this virtual mentor or teacher
is going to be able to more quickly, more nimbly
respond to a student's needs, right, their strengths, their weaknesses,
(05:50):
It will be able to assess them actively.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Right.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
So, now you know, we know one of the big
problems with a lot of education here in the US
is just that these amazing teachers have more and more
students in every classroom year over year. Right, we're talking
one person with what's a typical size classroom, like thirty
(06:14):
two kids.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
They're twenty one in my son's class.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
It also varies probably from school system to school system.
Speaker 6 (06:20):
Like I don't know what like the law is in
terms of like maximum capacity for a classroom, but I
imagine it would have less to do with the person
and more to do with see how many chairs they
can fit in there.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
To your point, been the adaptive quality of this is.
Speaker 6 (06:35):
Interesting in some respect because we do know that oftentimes
kids with learning disabilities, for example, can fall through the cracks,
and maybe if those things aren't identified, you know, by
a teacher who is overwhelmed, then that kid could maybe
go through a long period of time in school in
a public school where they're not getting the education that
they need because a lot of kids with those learning
(06:57):
disabilities need to be identified so they can get either
more time on tests or whatever it might be. These
things are important to identify early.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
But it sounds like the job of a psychologist or
a parapro or somebody else, not the teacher in mindset,
at least.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
Well, the teacher is the first line of defense, though
I mean to at least indicate that maybe another person
should make an assessment. It should be the parents, But
oftentimes we know that doesn't happen either.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, and this is part of the dilemma.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Look, we called it earlier, some kind of pilot program
like this is inevitable, right because we need to understand
what this looks like when we take.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
It around, you know, in real life.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
How will this impact the students involved? How will this
impact the teachers that would have been teaching these kids.
And what we're seeing is that just like when a
semi autonomous vehicle started rolling out, there are humans still
involved in the process. There are three what they're calling
(08:06):
learning coaches that are going to monitor behavior keep an
eye on these bespoke lesson plans that are generated by
the students activities. I don't know, you know, I was
looking into the laws or the policies that the United
Kingdom has around AI in the classroom. And if you
(08:28):
want to quick catch up with his folks, highly recommend
checking out. AI will teach this class a huge lesson,
but won't be hanging in the teacher's lounge. An article
on tech Radar from Eric hal Schwartz. I got to
tell you, you know, I feel curmudgeonly, but I am
(08:48):
so intensely skeptical of the concept of an AI classroom.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
It gets a little matrix.
Speaker 5 (08:55):
I don't like it.
Speaker 6 (08:56):
I'm just gonna come right ound and say it. It
just rubs me the wrong way. And I think their
uses of AI that makes sense, and maybe if it
was AI deployed to assist teachers in some way, but
the notion of replacing the human touch and sort of
the human empathy that is so important for a teacher,
it really bothers me.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, guys, there's a school out here where I am.
I'll just say what it is. It's called Secondear High School.
I think that's how you say it. Sec K I
n g Er high School. And it is an AI
high school. So it like imagine some of those specialized
high schools that exist out there that's like a performing
(09:37):
arts focused school or a I don't know, there are yeah,
magnet schools that kind of thing. This is an AI
school that is specifically to teach kids the history of AI,
how to program AI, and how to get involved in
some kind of career eventually that deals with AI, which
really weirds me out because it's being incorporated a lot
(10:00):
into the school itself, but not in this way we're
talking about.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
And you could argue, you could argue what you're describing
is a new iteration of what we would call a
trade school, right.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah, kind of, but it's but it's a it's a
full high school. So I don't know, it's weird, it's yeah,
I think it's just being embraced.
Speaker 6 (10:23):
Yeah, but is it sort of like the next step
of of like you know, coding sort of pilot.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
Classes in high schools.
Speaker 6 (10:31):
Or this is really kind of an all encompassing thing
where this is like the the entire purpose of.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
The of the schooling.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
They call it an artificial intelligence themed high school, so
they're going to get like college prep courses all about
artificial intelligence.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
I like the I am interested in the concept and
the approach for that. I just have to roll my
eyes when someone and THEMEDY, I know this, this is
one of the most important informative parts of your life,
(11:10):
little human.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Also it is themed.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Uh, I don't know that's that That leads us to
one of the bigger questions here. So obviously the David
Game College folks are good faith actors. You can go
to David Gamecollege dot com and learn more about the
sobering program.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
It's spelled s.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
A b R E W I n G like saber
wing is probably saber wing.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
Stop it.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
So this uh so our mispronunciations aside as a guy
who's still actively learning English. You can learn more about
this pilot program, the motivations behind it. They're their aims
and their aspirations. And the question now becomes, I think, philosophically,
(12:08):
what is the line between the virtual teacher adapting to
you and the virtual teacher steering you toward or away
from certain areas of knowledge?
Speaker 5 (12:21):
Kind of? I mean it's maybe a little different.
Speaker 6 (12:23):
But in the virtual non virtual Assistant, the robot Servant
episode that we just did, we talked about two schools
of thought around robot service, the idea of designing robots
so they better suit the environments we currently live in,
or redesigning the environments to suit the robots. And this
kind of feels like that, but in like an even
(12:44):
more all encompassing way in terms of like, yeah, like
adapting to the technology as opposed to the technology adapting
to the needs of humans.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
It's like that thought experiment that we mentioned a little
while back. It's going to steer everyone towards it's benefit
in a way, or you know, away from the eventual
torture will have to perform in perpetuity on the people
who don't help it come to life. I have.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
Friend of the show, Carly actually reached out to me.
Speaker 6 (13:14):
It was like, I can't believe you talked about Rocco's basilisk.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
You've doomed everyone.
Speaker 6 (13:19):
She is, of course teasing, and I did give a
trigger warning, but yeah, I mean stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
It does make you think.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
And thanks to our fellow conspiracy realist who prompted that conversation,
we know that we know that the idea of adaptive
learning shows great promise, right, the idea of like you're saying,
it's no longer a single teacher and a large group
(13:46):
of kids, all with their own particular set of skills.
I was gonna say, but you know, there are certain natural,
intuitive strengths and things that they need a little more tea.
I'll see on the idea of having a single teacher
for a single student is again potentially possibly an amazing
(14:11):
beautiful thing. My question, just to reiterate here, is what
happens if this system is somehow incentivized or programmed to
prevent pursuit certain types of knowledge. Right like old school
analog history textbooks are already a source of contention. What
(14:35):
if instead of worrying about the thing being in print,
you could just pretend that certain areas of history never existed.
Speaker 6 (14:44):
Oh well, we've certainly seen that in certain schools already,
just in terms of the way things like evolution are discussed.
Speaker 5 (14:50):
So I mean it's definitely there's precedent for it.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Yeah, and there's much more to this conversation. Please please
join us, become a part of it. We want to
hear your ideas or your experiences with this sort of
virtual teaching method. Is it helpful, is it harmful? Is
it inevitable? Tell us your thoughts. Conspiracydiheartradio dot Com. We're
(15:16):
gonna pause for a word from our sponsors, and then
we'll be back with more startling explorations of technology.
Speaker 6 (15:31):
And we have returned with conversation around a news item
that I think probably a lot of folks have seen
in some form or another involving the humble mushroom, the
oyster mushroom, I believe, in this case, the King Oyster mushroom.
But guys, I know this is a subject that interests
all three of us just in terms of, like it's
(15:51):
been mentioned on the show, the notion that like mushrooms
and fungi are like the closest thing to the aliens
that we have, you know, right here on play at Earth.
The way they communicate through these really advanced neural networks underground,
and they transmit signals basically in the same way that
neurons do, and it's all completely naturally occurring. And if
(16:14):
anyone's seen the film on Netflix, I believe fantastic fungi.
I mean, you know, of course, all of the spiritual
connections to mushrooms, the psychedelic qualities that certain species provide
that you know, access parts of our brains that clearly
are there en dormant and just need a little poke
to kind of open up and make us realize that
we maybe have capacities beyond what we think we do
(16:37):
in terms of maybe an additional sense or what have you.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
So entirely unrelated, everybody, please check out The Passage of
J Edgar Hoover, executive produced by Matt Frederick.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Entirely unrelated.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
Wait wait, I'm so bet, Matt.
Speaker 6 (16:52):
You got to hit me to this to the connection
has to be a connection. Ben doesn't just bring things
up apropos of nothing.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
It's a story that Ben wrote for a fictional, a
historical fictional, but it's a fictional show based on historical figures,
so in imagining of things, and it's really great.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Welly can't wait to check it out, And I'm sorry
that I haven't already.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
And if you want to find it, search for the passage.
That's the title of a podcast and the episode is
episode seven, The Passage of J Dot Edgar Hoover. That
dot is a period.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Again, nothing to do with anything.
Speaker 6 (17:34):
Yeah, well, okay, so let's talk about fiction and the
depiction of things. Like I guess sinister brain controlling mushrooms
is how it's described in this really cool piece on
Popular Science's website titled this robot is being controlled by
a king Oyster mushroom.
Speaker 5 (17:52):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 6 (17:53):
All those things we talked about, the mystical powers of
mushrooms have captivated the imaginations of a writers and scientists
and you know, psychonauts, let's just say, for.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
A very very very long time.
Speaker 6 (18:07):
And now some scientists have figured out a way to
actually harness mushrooms and that kind of really adaptable neural network,
communicative kind of situation that we were talking about a
little while ago into a way of controlling a robot.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
In a very very flexible and adaptive way.
Speaker 6 (18:27):
It's part machine, part fungus, and ultimately will serve as again,
according to this pop Side article, a building block for
more advanced bio hybrid chimeras that can remotely analyze agricultural
fields for potentially harmful changes in soil chemistry. This is
a research out of Cornell University and the University.
Speaker 5 (18:50):
Of Florence in Italy.
Speaker 6 (18:52):
They wanted to see if electrical signals they already know
that passed through my selium of fungi, my celium being
those kind of connective tissue things that can make up
the neural network underground if they could be translated, because
after all, it's all just electricity, it's all just impulses
passing from one thing to another and harnessed as an
(19:13):
input source for controlling robots.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
And it turns out yes it can.
Speaker 6 (19:18):
These findings were published last month in the journal Science Robotics,
and again, reading from the pop side article, I just
think they put it so beautifully. They were ultimately able
to create a system capable of analyzing and processing naturally
occurring electrical signals sent through the mycelium. Those data points
were then translated into a digital control signal, which, when
(19:40):
beamed to a pair of robots, caused them to move.
If anybody wants to see what this looks like in action,
you can find video of this stuff online. It turns
out that fungi are also incredibly photosensitive. We know that
fungi really liked to grow in damp, dark places, so
(20:01):
apparently when you expose them to flashing light, they react
in really interesting ways. There's a quote here from one
of the researchers at Cornell University, professor of Mechanical and
Aerospace engineering by the name of Rob Sheppard, from a
statement on the project. This paper is the first of
many that will use the fungial kingdom to provide environmental
(20:23):
sensing and command signals to robots to improve their levels
of autonomy. By growing my celium into the electronics of
a robot, we were able to allow the bio hybrid
machine to sense and respond to the environment. So, I mean,
I don't know if you guys are picturing this right
off the rip, but it makes me think of the
idea of like a human brain like wired into a robot.
Speaker 5 (20:47):
You know, that's essentially what this stuff is doing.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
You know, it's acting as this sort of biosensor that
is able to do things like for example, and when
deployed or if deployed in agriculture, it could test levels
of toxicity you know, in soil and then communicate that
with you know, systems or individuals that could mitigate those
kinds of things, or like service kind of a warning
(21:11):
and early warning signal. Those electrical signals actually produce these
patterns of activity that are very similar to what happens
in the human brain. This is something that a lot
of researchers have been saying for some time. The idea
that these connections resemble pretty closely neurons in our brains
and the way that they, you know, transmit electrical signals.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
You know, I've been pretty public I think with the
fascination with the world of fungus again, they're probably the
best candidates for astronauts on this planet. It reminds me
Nold of the earlier conversations we had, not just about
the absolute legendary piece of cinema, Pacific rim Uprising, the
(21:57):
sequel to the original Pacific rim where and spoiler, the progenitors,
the creators of the Kaiju, manage to make something very
much like this, and they have small brains controlling these
large mechs. But in real life it gives us a
(22:17):
stunning opportunity to get again evaluate or contemplate the nature
of intelligence. I'm thinking in particular of that fascinating experiment
where a brainless quote unquote brainless slime mold built a
one to one replica of the Tokyo subway.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
Oh yeah, because of the way it is adapts and
fills the space.
Speaker 6 (22:41):
And we also did a story on Strange News maybe
earlier this year last year about fungus and space, because
fungus is really, really resilient to things that humans just
absolutely cannot withstand, things like the cold, harsh.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
Deadly vacuum of space and radiation.
Speaker 6 (23:00):
So the fact that the stuff is so incredibly resilient
it leads to all kinds of potential uses for creating
these sort of hybrid robots that can go places that
humans can't but have I.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
Guess, human like kind of brain material. I guess. I mean,
I don't know how.
Speaker 6 (23:18):
I'm not, you know, an expert on the subject, but
it does seem that there is benefit to this sort
of bio factor that is beyond something that is purely
mechanical and just to batchat just a little bit. I
mentioned the whole light sensitive thing, so one of that
was kind of one of the aha moments here when
researchers started shining UV light onto the fungus that actually
(23:40):
triggered those electrical impulses that then got sent to the
motors and actuators of these two custom built robots.
Speaker 5 (23:47):
And they have two to one.
Speaker 6 (23:49):
It's sort of like a I guess they call it
a starfish like robot. It sort of looks like a
camera tripod. It has four legs, so has to be
a quadrupod. But it kind of looks like, you know,
the kind of like a crab robot or something that
would kind of skitter around.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
And then the mushroom part is on.
Speaker 6 (24:05):
Top, and it sort of almost looks like a little
like a spotlight or something like with the white material.
It's in a petri dish as my understanding of of
how it's loaded onto this robot, and then they designed
a second one that is more wheel based.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
So these researchers.
Speaker 6 (24:23):
Believe that this data, these findings could actually help produce
future robots that, again what I previously said, are much
more resilient and able to not only respond to environments
that are prohibited for humans, but they can respond to
changes in the environment and would be a really really
helpful way of monitoring things like soil chemistry in order
(24:46):
to alert the appropriate authorities or individuals or what have
you of potential diseases that could affect the soil simply
by passing.
Speaker 5 (24:56):
These electrical signals through it.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
It could then be interpreted and the robots could themselves intervene.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
That's really interesting, So like an auto get your soil
right system?
Speaker 6 (25:08):
Yeah, you know, yes, that's certainly the main use that's
being discussed here, but it does seem like it could
lead to bigger, more diverse uses of this kind of technology.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
I guess maybe for me, you guys correct me here,
I'm not seeing why this is more beneficial than just
an array of any type of machines that have sensors
on them that would find the same things.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
And I'm having a hard same identifying that as well. Matt.
It does seem like there would be an analog, you know,
in the completely digital or electronic realm that could do
something similar.
Speaker 5 (25:45):
I will say it's neat. It's like the fact.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
That that we are finding, you know, continuing to find
incredible things that these you know, organisms can do, I
think is part of the fun of this.
Speaker 5 (25:59):
But it's it's a good.
Speaker 6 (26:00):
Point, Matt, and I'd maybe have to dig a little
deeper into the actual paper and study to see what
that has been. Do you have any suggestions as to
what that benefit might be having that organic aspect versus
something that's purely electronic.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
Yeah, it's fascinating because first you establish the concept, right,
the proof thereof, and then you find what the applications
of that concept in specific could be.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
It's a great.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Question about you know, what problem is this solving by
having this type of mechanism replacing other ways to monitor
soil Already, I would be very interested again to take
this kind of application to space. So we can program robots, right,
(26:51):
we can program the inorganic part. How possible is it
to program a mushroom to program the molds and the
fun guys, Because that's where it gets really interesting. If
you could make a code that simply reproduces itself, right,
regardless of the hardware, that I think you're stumbling upon something.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Fascinating.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
Yeah, so that's the idea. I think we're still in
a very wide horizon here.
Speaker 6 (27:22):
Oh and one thing I did just notice, Ben, They
do make the point in the pop side article to
Matt's question. I'll let's read it from it, because it's
just I don't want to sum.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
It up as too good.
Speaker 6 (27:32):
Eventually, scientists believe this cornucopia of animal machine mixtures could
be deployed in swarms to remotely monitor coral reefs, forests.
Speaker 5 (27:41):
Or other ecosystems.
Speaker 6 (27:42):
Once their job is complete, the organic elements of the
robot could, in theory, simply be left to biodegrade.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
So perhaps there's.
Speaker 7 (27:51):
A recycled, reduced reuse aspect to this as opposed to
like losing technology in space, having debris or I don't know, man.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Up until the fungus says, hey, man, why don't I
do what I want to do?
Speaker 5 (28:07):
Exactly?
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Well, yeah, I did, And that's the point I was
going to make. Actually. In this earth dot com article
that you linked us to, NOL, it's titled mushroom is
given a robot body and runs wild in fascinating video.
The second paragraph in there says this, and I just
maybe maybe you guys can react to it, or and
then I'll tell you my reaction. It says, when they're sprawling,
(28:31):
my ceial networks flicker and pulse, their electrochemical responses mimic
the activity in our brain cells. I think it's the
other way around, guys. I think our brains mimic my
celial networks, which one's been around longer.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
Million percent that I think about that all the time,
you know, Like I mean, I certainly am not of
the mind that like human beings are just some sort
of happy accident.
Speaker 5 (28:57):
I do think there's something beyond that.
Speaker 6 (28:59):
But yeah, the stuff that makes up our brain chemistry
and are the way we ambulate and all of those
types of things. They exist in nature. We're a combination
of like all of the best features of all of
these various things that have existed along before we ever did.
Speaker 5 (29:15):
It's a really good point, Matt.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
What if the big scary AI thing that we're we've
been frightened of through popular culture and you know, through
philosophical thought for so long, is not actually an artificial
intelligence emerging a general artificial intelligence. It's a fungal intelligence
that finally has the ability to move robots around.
Speaker 6 (29:38):
Yeah, it's something to think about. Man, it is a
chicken or egg question too, and it's like, are we
just the conduit for the ultimate ends of these fungal intelligences?
Speaker 5 (29:55):
Anyway, certainly food for thought.
Speaker 6 (29:58):
Let's take a quick break, hear a word from our sponsor,
and then we'll be back with one more piece of
strange news.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
And we're back, guys. We are gonna talk about something
very weird through a long list of articles that describe
a long list of very let's say, odd happenings in
a suburban part of Nashville, Tennessee. Or maybe it's not
suburban part. It's it's far enough north that it's it's
(30:32):
a whole other part of Tennessee that just happens to
be north.
Speaker 5 (30:35):
Of Nashville exurb.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
It's Nashville adjacent.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, between Nashville and the next state up
which Tennessee gets, Kentucky. Okay, So between Nashville and the
Kentucky line, it's a place called Millersville, and there is
wild stuff happening there. And it's been happening, at least
(30:59):
to my knowledge and to the articles we're going to
reference here, since January of twenty twenty four. So every county,
every small town, we all live in them. You guys
live in a bigger one, but it's still Fulton County,
and there's things the city commissioners and folks that you
got to deal with on a smaller scale. It's not
(31:21):
just the mayor of Atlanta that you got to deal with.
But in this case, I guess there's one to one
because there's a mayor of Millersville as well. And before
we get into what's happening, let's shout out two publications,
The Tennesseean and news Channel five Investigates. Yeah, they do
good work. Both of these have been publishing extensively on
(31:46):
just the weird happenings. So let's go to the first
article from the Tennesseean written by Kirsten Fiscus. Ficus Fiscus,
I don't know how to say your name, Sorry about that, Kirsten.
So the first one comes from the Tennessee and written
in January of twenty twenty four. The title is middle
Tennessee town acts as third top ranking official in less
(32:08):
than a week. Huhuh, okay, it's a Tennessee town. All
they did was fire some people. But they did three
in one week's time. That's a little weird. It says
here that the city manager and the attorney, as well
as now the police chief were fired by the interim
(32:30):
city manager, someone named Tina Tobin. And guys, what do
you think, maybe first, what first comes to mind when
you hear about a small town firing a whole bunch
of the primary individuals who run that town.
Speaker 5 (32:49):
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (32:49):
That's the kind of stuff that we were stressing about
with like Project twenty twenty five, in the idea like
installing loyalists as opposed to experts.
Speaker 5 (33:00):
It just occurs to.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Me, yeah, exactly. That is precisely the thing that came
to my mind as well Project twenty twenty five. Okay, well,
maybe some people are getting pushed out because one person,
let's say this city manager who is the interim city manager,
decided there need to be some major changes and took
it on themselves to do this. It gets weirder though,
(33:23):
So this person, the Millersville Police Chief, mister Robert Richmond,
joined the department back in January or I think in
December maybe, when the police department that he was in
charge of was under a pretty serious investigation by the
group known as the Tennessee Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission.
(33:45):
And the reason why he was even in there is
because the standing chief and assistant chief both resigned as
a part of that whole investigation. Guys, we're in the
weeds here. This is a story that is in the weeds.
So you don't really even have to remember the primary
names or anything. Just know that three major officials were
(34:06):
fired from their jobs in this small Tennessee town back
in January. And then we go to the same small
town now in April of twenty twenty four. There is
a guy named Brian Morris who is the new city
police chief who is now running things there, and he
becomes the interim city manager, and he has to function
(34:30):
as both the police chief and the interim city manager
because Tina Tobin, the person we just talked about that fired,
those three people resigned. So it's just this weird, pretty
consistent churning over the course of four months where people
are losing their jobs, being appointed by people who are
then resigning and or being fired. And it's this weird
(34:52):
churn of human beings that are attempting to run the
ship there, and it appears that either everybody's failing or
somebody is decided that they're not right for the job.
Then you get to July of this year when the
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation shut out TBI, GBI, and all
(35:14):
the other statewide bureaus of investigation. Very interesting groups of
people there. Not quite FBI, but really close, right. Oh yeah,
And then we jumped to July and we find out
that the TBI, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, is beginning
a full on investigation because that's what they do of
(35:36):
Millersville and everything that's been going on there, specifically the
police department. Remember we just said that the police department
was previously investigated by another group that had to do
with kind of standards and practices basically, and now the
TBI is looking into stuff, and specifically, y'all, they are
looking into what news Channel five Investigates describes as quote
(36:03):
a conspiracy minded assistant police chief, a guy named Sean Taylor,
who is he's the assistant police chief there back in July.
He is not afraid to come out and fully state
that he believes in a lot of the Pizzagate stuff,
a lot of the stuff that we've talked about on
this shows.
Speaker 5 (36:21):
Twist.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
Yeah, it called conspiracy cop.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Right, they call him, they call him conspiracy cop, and
they are using that in the thought terminating cliche way
that we've described on this show many times, I think,
as a way to make people think, oh, this guy
is just nuts. At the same time, this person, Sean Taylor,
is fully invested in his belief, let's say, his personal
(36:45):
belief that many political figures, including some that are involved
in Tennessee maybe on a wider scale, are involved in
things like child sex trafficking and other nefarious things that
are described in Pizzagate, and you know, some of the
other just larger conspiracies that originated, you know, on four
Chan in places like that. So this guy is under
(37:09):
a lot of scrutiny. He's being investigated. The entire Millersville
Police Department is being investigated. And then you keep going
down to September of this year. Early September, the TBI
does a full on raid of the Millersville Police Department,
and they also check out several other locations like it
(37:32):
appears to be individuals' homes that they search to find
out what's going on. And I've put a bunch of
articles in here, guys. I think one of the biggest
things to note the Tennessee and reports on September fifth
that the TBI cut access to crime data or crime data.
(37:54):
I guess before they decided to raid this police.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
Department cut access in what respects.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Well, they cut access to specifically the chief of police there,
Brian Morris. His entire department was restricted from using the
quote financial crimes enforcement neck Natives or Finnsen got it.
They locked him out of all that, which is a
thing that tracks financial crimes or financial related crimes, and
(38:24):
which is really weird. Think about that. You are the
you are a full police department. Then somebody comes through
and says you no longer have access to this thing
that you use, I guess on a regular basis.
Speaker 6 (38:36):
Yeah, that's like if they cut off our lexus nexus
or something like that.
Speaker 5 (38:39):
You know.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Yeah, Well, it's supposed to track a lot of things,
but money laundering is one of the big things. And
then there are accusations here that somehow this police department
is running some weird stuff with money, with corruption, with
all kinds of I don't know who knows what innigans
(39:00):
because nobody's talking right now. The Attorney General isn't giving
any details. Nobody's giving any full details because the TBI
is still doing their investigation. Thing.
Speaker 6 (39:09):
This is breaking news, Matt, I mean, this is something
that to continue to keep an eye on.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Right Well, it is, Yeah, it is somewhat breaking news.
But it is also just odd because it is a
small town problem. This is a very small place right now,
pretty isolated from a lot of other major metropolitan areas
of Tennessee. And I don't know, I don't know. I
just wanted to talk to you guys about it, let
(39:34):
people know about it. So because I don't know, I
like small town stuff that's happening, especially when it feels
like there's some bigger implication here.
Speaker 6 (39:43):
Well, it always seems like these kinds of things tend
to happen in smaller towns because they're away from the
prying eyes of like larger organizations that would maybe uncover
this kind of corruption. So it does tend to to
flourish or fester, I guess is a better word in
(40:03):
some of these more isolated areas.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Agreed. And if you want to learn more about this,
head on over to the Tennessee and that's the t
N N E S S E A N. It's a
website you can find online. Look at the article titled
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation confirms raid on Millersville police amid
city turmoil. And in here you will you're gonna hear
a lot from this person named Susan Nyland, who's a
(40:28):
spokesperson specifically for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. And they're
saying that it is a search warrant that they are
executing at the Millersville Police Department as part of an
ongoing investigation, and that it was the second search warrant
that was carried out specifically to look at that police chief,
the assistant police chief, Sean Taylor, because it was his house,
(40:51):
his private home that was also investigated, but they won't
give any more details what.
Speaker 6 (40:57):
Would trigger such a raid on a per individual person's home.
And I guess the closest thing we have to a
clue here is they're cut off from the financial stuff,
so maybe they were exploiting that, or maybe he's got
stuff at his house that would indicate some sort of
grift that he was at the center of.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Well, it appears that we have a somewhat of an
answer here. Guys. Remember we talked about this assistant police
chief who's a little conspiracy minded, maybe a little more
than a lot of people are comfortable with. They're in
the small town. The small town is making a ton
of changes, and they have been since the start of
the year about who is the right person or maybe
the good person in their minds, you know, in their opinions,
(41:34):
to run the show around there. And then there are
allegations that either individuals at the Millersville Police Department or
some you know, people who are running the city, the
officials that have been appointed or moved around, that they
are investigating political enemies and specifically like money stuff with
(41:55):
their enemies, which is why they maybe lost use of
that database, because that would be pretty bad, right if
you were using if you're in an official public position,
or especially a police department, and you are investigating political
enemies and like gailing, perhaps maybe or again, what if
(42:17):
it is somebody who believes that some of these officials
are getting into super nefarious things and then wants to
prove that somehow because there's no evidence that actually shows it,
But maybe you look for other things, so then you
just keep your eyes on any transactions that a particular
individual does, or maybe even use and this is my
(42:41):
own thought here, but maybe even use some kind of
surveillance technology that's available to the police department to just
keep an eye on people because you've got an idea
and you feel something that is happening, so you decide
to take those actions, which are illegal even for a
police department if there's no official investigation.
Speaker 6 (42:59):
So I mean, Ben, if you in't mind, do you
have any thoughts on like what would happen? What happens
when an entire government and or you know, a wing
or branch of government is determined to be corrupt at
its very core. These clean house install an entirely new
police department like, how does that work.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
It's a difficult proposition. I mean, that's why there are.
Speaker 4 (43:25):
That's why the TBI is doing this kind of investigation.
That's why things like the FBI and theory exist because
there has to be some sort of chain of command
or accountability. You know, in this case where it appears
there are deep systemic issues, you start thinking through things
(43:47):
like continuity of governance. You know, Millersville, for anybody from
Tennessee has long been famous for being a speed trap town.
Uh So there were there were already there were already
long standing beliefs, uh that that the the powers that
(44:11):
be on a municipal level were not completely above board.
So to your questional, it feels like one of the
next things that would have to happen is uh an
election with a cleaning of house, Right, somebody has to
occupy those roles. But it gets pretty it becomes a
(44:32):
pretty complicated lasagna when you realize that in a very
small town, most of the people will know each other,
so it's kind of difficult to find a shiny new
penny in a political or governmental candidate.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
Well, yeah, that they hired outside of even the county
or you know, they went to different other small towns.
Like this guy, Brian Morris was normally the police chief
of a place called the Ridgetop Police Department in a
county called Robertson, Robertson County, and he got brought over
in February. And the other thing here that we have
(45:13):
to consider. Guys, maybe we just gave it out momentarily.
But what if this assistant police chief has these views
and some of them might be wackado out there right,
Like just some of those views are so far to
the fringe that there's no way it's true. But what
if he, in his search for answers to those things,
(45:35):
or connections or evidence to those things, leads him to
actual corruption on like a city level, on a county level,
on a state level. What if he finds actual stuff?
What happens then? If you try and raise a flag
as an assistant police chief of a small town. What happens?
(45:56):
Would the TBI come in and say, Hey, we're raising
your place and we're gonna take all of that stuff
that maybe is evidence against somebody that we are protecting. Yes,
I don't know, that's.
Speaker 5 (46:09):
An interesting proposition.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
Yeah, well it's a wild thought, I guess. But at
the same time, what would that look like if that happened.
Speaker 5 (46:19):
It's a good question.
Speaker 6 (46:19):
I mean, that's I guess what I was posing why
this story is particularly interesting because like what happens when
it is determined that like a division of government or
whatever is just rotten to the core, and it's not
just one bad apple or whatever, like it's like fundamentally
part of the culture of that entire organization.
Speaker 5 (46:40):
I don't know, it's it's wild, man. I'm fascinated by
the story that you found that.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
I think it is too, and I'm going to keep
my eyes and ears on it. We hope you do too.
So thanks so much for checking out this episode of
Strange News Today. Let's tell everybody how to contact us.
Speaker 4 (46:57):
Yeah, thanks so much for tuning into our weekly Strange
News segment. Folks, we hope if you are AI human
or a fun guy that you have you will join
us in the future to wrestle with some of these questions.
Would you be comfortable with your children in an AI classroom?
(47:19):
What do you think about Pacific rim Uprising? Tell us
also your first hand experience in the trenches with small
town corruption. We try to be easy to find in
a manner in a number of manners, one of which
is online.
Speaker 5 (47:35):
Correct.
Speaker 6 (47:35):
You can locate us on the Internet, your social media
platform with choice at the handle Conspiracy Stuff, where we
exist on Facebook with our Facebook group. Here's where it
gets crazy. Get in on the conversation post some memes
have a ball. We also exist in that handle on
x fka, Twitter and on YouTube, where we have video
content galore for you to peruse at your leisure.
Speaker 5 (47:57):
On Instagram and.
Speaker 6 (47:58):
TikTok, however, we are Conspiracy Stuff show.
Speaker 2 (48:02):
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one eight three three std WYTK. Use your mouth to
leave a voicemail. There's three minutes. Give yourself a cool
nickname and let us know if we can use your
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(48:24):
why not instead send us a good old fashioned email.
Speaker 4 (48:27):
We are the entities that read every piece of correspondence
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Speaker 3 (48:34):
Our evening to hear from you. Folks. Be aware, yet unafraid.
Speaker 4 (48:40):
Sometimes the void writes back, So join us out here
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Stuff they Don't Want You to Know is a production
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Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Nol.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
They call me Ben.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
We are joined with our guest producers Dylan the Tennessee
Pal Fagan and Andrew Triforce Howard. Most importantly, you are you.
You are here that makes this the stuff they don't
want you to know. It's hurtling headlong into autumn and
we are excited to explore strange news. Guys. You remember
(00:56):
how we talked pretty often about water filters. Remember we're
talking about life straws with the casual preppers and the
whole fluoridation argument.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, those are very important things to have in your house,
the same way, well it's not the same way a
fire extinguisher is, but it's.
Speaker 5 (01:15):
Close, guys.
Speaker 6 (01:17):
I literally just got a kitchen fire extinguisher.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
I'm a real boy now.
Speaker 6 (01:22):
And I also have my water filter for the fridge
on auto reorder so that whenever it's time to change it,
a new one shows up.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
Because that is really important.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
And it's just what they want you to do. No,
they want you on all those auto ordered things.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
I live a subscription based life.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Just subscribe, right, And we're bringing this up for some
positive strange news. The boffin's over at m I T
have developed a water filter that can eliminate forever chemicals
and heavy metals. So apologies to all fans of heavy
metal water those days.
Speaker 6 (01:59):
Like Liquid Death about that's the heaviest metal. No, no,
let's let's not get sued by Liquid Death. There is
no heavy metal content in Liquid Death water sparkling or still,
it just looks that way in the branding.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
There's a sparkling version.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
Yeah good, they got like a maco.
Speaker 6 (02:17):
It's a little too sweet for my taste of mar
of a Lacroix. Lacroix boy.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
But this is a huge deal though. If they can
eliminate pfas in the water systems, Uh whoa is it?
Speaker 5 (02:30):
Do we know?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
If it's for uh the actual like the water plants
that are purifying the water, or is it for an
end user?
Speaker 4 (02:38):
I think at this point these specific applications are still
being explored. Okay, you could scale up or down to
a municipal or individual household level, but we wanted to
establish this really quickly. We're your fellow hydro homies. Did
you guys know about that? Do you hear the phrase
(03:00):
hydro homies?
Speaker 5 (03:01):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
It's just an internet movement of people who love drinking water.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Water enthusiasts.
Speaker 6 (03:07):
I got one of those bottles, you guys, that has
like every time, like hour listed on it, and then
when you get to the end of it, you refill
it and it tells you how much water you're supposed
to drink for an entire day. It's hard to drink
as much water as you're supposed to do in a day, y'all.
Speaker 5 (03:20):
It takes effort.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
I don't know, man, I just need to get one
of those camelbacks. Dude.
Speaker 6 (03:25):
Just always have a bathroom break, man, I mean, it's
really kind of prohibitive that it can really throw in
your life.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
There's a solution for that too, that diver carry around
some some form of external colostomy bag.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
Okay, love it.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Finally, finally the time has.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Gone and we've returned. One of our first stories this
evening is something we teased in a previous previous conversation
over in London. Someone asked, what do we need human
(04:07):
teachers for?
Speaker 5 (04:10):
I don't like that question.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
I don't like that.
Speaker 6 (04:12):
I don't like the implication framing. It's kind of got
a little attitude behind it. As we've made very clear
on the show, we love teachers. We have teachers in
our lives, we have been inspired by teachers, many of
us have teachers from our families. And so I don't know,
I resent the implication.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Oh yeah, what, so you don't need humans, you need
what AI? Is that where we're going with.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
This good That's exactly where we're going. And I still
yet again maintained that the phrase AI itself is intensely problematic.
But if we travel to David Game College over in
London in the UK, then what we'll find is this
private school is running the first class in the United
(05:02):
Kingdom that will be taught by a virtual intelligence, the
first foray out. This is happening now in September of
twenty twenty four. The first foray out will be twenty
students in this experiment. At least they're calling it an experiment,
and they're tapping into virtual reality headsets with these AI
(05:27):
enabled platforms to guide their learning. The concept here like
The utopian version is that this virtual mentor or teacher
is going to be able to more quickly, more nimbly
respond to a student's needs, right, their strengths, their weaknesses,
(05:50):
It will be able to assess them actively.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Right.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
So, now you know, we know one of the big
problems with a lot of education here in the US
is just that these amazing teachers have more and more
students in every classroom year over year. Right, we're talking
one person with what's a typical size classroom, like thirty
(06:14):
two kids.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
They're twenty one in my son's class.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
It also varies probably from school system to school system.
Speaker 6 (06:20):
Like I don't know what like the law is in
terms of like maximum capacity for a classroom, but I
imagine it would have less to do with the person
and more to do with see how many chairs they
can fit in there.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
To your point, been the adaptive quality of this is.
Speaker 6 (06:35):
Interesting in some respect because we do know that oftentimes
kids with learning disabilities, for example, can fall through the cracks,
and maybe if those things aren't identified, you know, by
a teacher who is overwhelmed, then that kid could maybe
go through a long period of time in school in
a public school where they're not getting the education that
they need because a lot of kids with those learning
(06:57):
disabilities need to be identified so they can get either
more time on tests or whatever it might be. These
things are important to identify early.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
But it sounds like the job of a psychologist or
a parapro or somebody else, not the teacher in mindset,
at least.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
Well, the teacher is the first line of defense, though
I mean to at least indicate that maybe another person
should make an assessment. It should be the parents, But
oftentimes we know that doesn't happen either.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, and this is part of the dilemma.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Look, we called it earlier, some kind of pilot program
like this is inevitable, right because we need to understand
what this looks like when we take.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
It around, you know, in real life.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
How will this impact the students involved? How will this
impact the teachers that would have been teaching these kids.
And what we're seeing is that just like when a
semi autonomous vehicle started rolling out, there are humans still
involved in the process. There are three what they're calling
(08:06):
learning coaches that are going to monitor behavior keep an
eye on these bespoke lesson plans that are generated by
the students activities. I don't know, you know, I was
looking into the laws or the policies that the United
Kingdom has around AI in the classroom. And if you
(08:28):
want to quick catch up with his folks, highly recommend
checking out. AI will teach this class a huge lesson,
but won't be hanging in the teacher's lounge. An article
on tech Radar from Eric hal Schwartz. I got to
tell you, you know, I feel curmudgeonly, but I am
(08:48):
so intensely skeptical of the concept of an AI classroom.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
It gets a little matrix.
Speaker 5 (08:55):
I don't like it.
Speaker 6 (08:56):
I'm just gonna come right ound and say it. It
just rubs me the wrong way. And I think their
uses of AI that makes sense, and maybe if it
was AI deployed to assist teachers in some way, but
the notion of replacing the human touch and sort of
the human empathy that is so important for a teacher,
it really bothers me.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, guys, there's a school out here where I am.
I'll just say what it is. It's called Secondear High School.
I think that's how you say it. Sec K I
n g Er high School. And it is an AI
high school. So it like imagine some of those specialized
high schools that exist out there that's like a performing
(09:37):
arts focused school or a I don't know, there are yeah,
magnet schools that kind of thing. This is an AI
school that is specifically to teach kids the history of AI,
how to program AI, and how to get involved in
some kind of career eventually that deals with AI, which
really weirds me out because it's being incorporated a lot
(10:00):
into the school itself, but not in this way we're
talking about.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
And you could argue, you could argue what you're describing
is a new iteration of what we would call a
trade school, right.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah, kind of, but it's but it's a it's a
full high school. So I don't know, it's weird, it's yeah,
I think it's just being embraced.
Speaker 6 (10:23):
Yeah, but is it sort of like the next step
of of like you know, coding sort of pilot.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
Classes in high schools.
Speaker 6 (10:31):
Or this is really kind of an all encompassing thing
where this is like the the entire purpose of.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
The of the schooling.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
They call it an artificial intelligence themed high school, so
they're going to get like college prep courses all about
artificial intelligence.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
I like the I am interested in the concept and
the approach for that. I just have to roll my
eyes when someone and THEMEDY, I know this, this is
one of the most important informative parts of your life,
(11:10):
little human.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Also it is themed.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Uh, I don't know that's that That leads us to
one of the bigger questions here. So obviously the David
Game College folks are good faith actors. You can go
to David Gamecollege dot com and learn more about the
sobering program.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
It's spelled s.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
A b R E W I n G like saber
wing is probably saber wing.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
Stop it.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
So this uh so our mispronunciations aside as a guy
who's still actively learning English. You can learn more about
this pilot program, the motivations behind it. They're their aims
and their aspirations. And the question now becomes, I think, philosophically,
(12:08):
what is the line between the virtual teacher adapting to
you and the virtual teacher steering you toward or away
from certain areas of knowledge?
Speaker 5 (12:21):
Kind of? I mean it's maybe a little different.
Speaker 6 (12:23):
But in the virtual non virtual Assistant, the robot Servant
episode that we just did, we talked about two schools
of thought around robot service, the idea of designing robots
so they better suit the environments we currently live in,
or redesigning the environments to suit the robots. And this
kind of feels like that, but in like an even
(12:44):
more all encompassing way in terms of like, yeah, like
adapting to the technology as opposed to the technology adapting
to the needs of humans.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
It's like that thought experiment that we mentioned a little
while back. It's going to steer everyone towards it's benefit
in a way, or you know, away from the eventual
torture will have to perform in perpetuity on the people
who don't help it come to life. I have.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
Friend of the show, Carly actually reached out to me.
Speaker 6 (13:14):
It was like, I can't believe you talked about Rocco's basilisk.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
You've doomed everyone.
Speaker 6 (13:19):
She is, of course teasing, and I did give a
trigger warning, but yeah, I mean stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
It does make you think.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
And thanks to our fellow conspiracy realist who prompted that conversation,
we know that we know that the idea of adaptive
learning shows great promise, right, the idea of like you're saying,
it's no longer a single teacher and a large group
(13:46):
of kids, all with their own particular set of skills.
I was gonna say, but you know, there are certain natural,
intuitive strengths and things that they need a little more tea.
I'll see on the idea of having a single teacher
for a single student is again potentially possibly an amazing
(14:11):
beautiful thing. My question, just to reiterate here, is what
happens if this system is somehow incentivized or programmed to
prevent pursuit certain types of knowledge. Right like old school
analog history textbooks are already a source of contention. What
(14:35):
if instead of worrying about the thing being in print,
you could just pretend that certain areas of history never existed.
Speaker 6 (14:44):
Oh well, we've certainly seen that in certain schools already,
just in terms of the way things like evolution are discussed.
Speaker 5 (14:50):
So I mean it's definitely there's precedent for it.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Yeah, and there's much more to this conversation. Please please
join us, become a part of it. We want to
hear your ideas or your experiences with this sort of
virtual teaching method. Is it helpful, is it harmful? Is
it inevitable? Tell us your thoughts. Conspiracydiheartradio dot Com. We're
(15:16):
gonna pause for a word from our sponsors, and then
we'll be back with more startling explorations of technology.
Speaker 6 (15:31):
And we have returned with conversation around a news item
that I think probably a lot of folks have seen
in some form or another involving the humble mushroom, the
oyster mushroom, I believe, in this case, the King Oyster mushroom.
But guys, I know this is a subject that interests
all three of us just in terms of, like it's
(15:51):
been mentioned on the show, the notion that like mushrooms
and fungi are like the closest thing to the aliens
that we have, you know, right here on play at Earth.
The way they communicate through these really advanced neural networks underground,
and they transmit signals basically in the same way that
neurons do, and it's all completely naturally occurring. And if
(16:14):
anyone's seen the film on Netflix, I believe fantastic fungi.
I mean, you know, of course, all of the spiritual
connections to mushrooms, the psychedelic qualities that certain species provide
that you know, access parts of our brains that clearly
are there en dormant and just need a little poke
to kind of open up and make us realize that
we maybe have capacities beyond what we think we do
(16:37):
in terms of maybe an additional sense or what have you.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
So entirely unrelated, everybody, please check out The Passage of
J Edgar Hoover, executive produced by Matt Frederick.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Entirely unrelated.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
Wait wait, I'm so bet, Matt.
Speaker 6 (16:52):
You got to hit me to this to the connection
has to be a connection. Ben doesn't just bring things
up apropos of nothing.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
It's a story that Ben wrote for a fictional, a
historical fictional, but it's a fictional show based on historical figures,
so in imagining of things, and it's really great.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Welly can't wait to check it out, And I'm sorry
that I haven't already.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
And if you want to find it, search for the passage.
That's the title of a podcast and the episode is
episode seven, The Passage of J Dot Edgar Hoover. That
dot is a period.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Again, nothing to do with anything.
Speaker 6 (17:34):
Yeah, well, okay, so let's talk about fiction and the
depiction of things. Like I guess sinister brain controlling mushrooms
is how it's described in this really cool piece on
Popular Science's website titled this robot is being controlled by
a king Oyster mushroom.
Speaker 5 (17:52):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 6 (17:53):
All those things we talked about, the mystical powers of
mushrooms have captivated the imaginations of a writers and scientists
and you know, psychonauts, let's just say, for.
Speaker 5 (18:05):
A very very very long time.
Speaker 6 (18:07):
And now some scientists have figured out a way to
actually harness mushrooms and that kind of really adaptable neural network,
communicative kind of situation that we were talking about a
little while ago into a way of controlling a robot.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
In a very very flexible and adaptive way.
Speaker 6 (18:27):
It's part machine, part fungus, and ultimately will serve as again,
according to this pop Side article, a building block for
more advanced bio hybrid chimeras that can remotely analyze agricultural
fields for potentially harmful changes in soil chemistry. This is
a research out of Cornell University and the University.
Speaker 5 (18:50):
Of Florence in Italy.
Speaker 6 (18:52):
They wanted to see if electrical signals they already know
that passed through my selium of fungi, my celium being
those kind of connective tissue things that can make up
the neural network underground if they could be translated, because
after all, it's all just electricity, it's all just impulses
passing from one thing to another and harnessed as an
(19:13):
input source for controlling robots.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
And it turns out yes it can.
Speaker 6 (19:18):
These findings were published last month in the journal Science Robotics,
and again, reading from the pop side article, I just
think they put it so beautifully. They were ultimately able
to create a system capable of analyzing and processing naturally
occurring electrical signals sent through the mycelium. Those data points
were then translated into a digital control signal, which, when
(19:40):
beamed to a pair of robots, caused them to move.
If anybody wants to see what this looks like in action,
you can find video of this stuff online. It turns
out that fungi are also incredibly photosensitive. We know that
fungi really liked to grow in damp, dark places, so
(20:01):
apparently when you expose them to flashing light, they react
in really interesting ways. There's a quote here from one
of the researchers at Cornell University, professor of Mechanical and
Aerospace engineering by the name of Rob Sheppard, from a
statement on the project. This paper is the first of
many that will use the fungial kingdom to provide environmental
(20:23):
sensing and command signals to robots to improve their levels
of autonomy. By growing my celium into the electronics of
a robot, we were able to allow the bio hybrid
machine to sense and respond to the environment. So, I mean,
I don't know if you guys are picturing this right
off the rip, but it makes me think of the
idea of like a human brain like wired into a robot.
Speaker 5 (20:47):
You know, that's essentially what this stuff is doing.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
You know, it's acting as this sort of biosensor that
is able to do things like for example, and when
deployed or if deployed in agriculture, it could test levels
of toxicity you know, in soil and then communicate that
with you know, systems or individuals that could mitigate those
kinds of things, or like service kind of a warning
(21:11):
and early warning signal. Those electrical signals actually produce these
patterns of activity that are very similar to what happens
in the human brain. This is something that a lot
of researchers have been saying for some time. The idea
that these connections resemble pretty closely neurons in our brains
and the way that they, you know, transmit electrical signals.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
You know, I've been pretty public I think with the
fascination with the world of fungus again, they're probably the
best candidates for astronauts on this planet. It reminds me
Nold of the earlier conversations we had, not just about
the absolute legendary piece of cinema, Pacific rim Uprising, the
(21:57):
sequel to the original Pacific rim where and spoiler, the progenitors,
the creators of the Kaiju, manage to make something very
much like this, and they have small brains controlling these
large mechs. But in real life it gives us a
(22:17):
stunning opportunity to get again evaluate or contemplate the nature
of intelligence. I'm thinking in particular of that fascinating experiment
where a brainless quote unquote brainless slime mold built a
one to one replica of the Tokyo subway.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
Oh yeah, because of the way it is adapts and
fills the space.
Speaker 6 (22:41):
And we also did a story on Strange News maybe
earlier this year last year about fungus and space, because
fungus is really, really resilient to things that humans just
absolutely cannot withstand, things like the cold, harsh.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
Deadly vacuum of space and radiation.
Speaker 6 (23:00):
So the fact that the stuff is so incredibly resilient
it leads to all kinds of potential uses for creating
these sort of hybrid robots that can go places that
humans can't but have I.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
Guess, human like kind of brain material. I guess. I mean,
I don't know how.
Speaker 6 (23:18):
I'm not, you know, an expert on the subject, but
it does seem that there is benefit to this sort
of bio factor that is beyond something that is purely
mechanical and just to batchat just a little bit. I
mentioned the whole light sensitive thing, so one of that
was kind of one of the aha moments here when
researchers started shining UV light onto the fungus that actually
(23:40):
triggered those electrical impulses that then got sent to the
motors and actuators of these two custom built robots.
Speaker 5 (23:47):
And they have two to one.
Speaker 6 (23:49):
It's sort of like a I guess they call it
a starfish like robot. It sort of looks like a
camera tripod. It has four legs, so has to be
a quadrupod. But it kind of looks like, you know,
the kind of like a crab robot or something that
would kind of skitter around.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
And then the mushroom part is on.
Speaker 6 (24:05):
Top, and it sort of almost looks like a little
like a spotlight or something like with the white material.
It's in a petri dish as my understanding of of
how it's loaded onto this robot, and then they designed
a second one that is more wheel based.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
So these researchers.
Speaker 6 (24:23):
Believe that this data, these findings could actually help produce
future robots that, again what I previously said, are much
more resilient and able to not only respond to environments
that are prohibited for humans, but they can respond to
changes in the environment and would be a really really
helpful way of monitoring things like soil chemistry in order
(24:46):
to alert the appropriate authorities or individuals or what have
you of potential diseases that could affect the soil simply
by passing.
Speaker 5 (24:56):
These electrical signals through it.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
It could then be interpreted and the robots could themselves intervene.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
That's really interesting, So like an auto get your soil
right system?
Speaker 6 (25:08):
Yeah, you know, yes, that's certainly the main use that's
being discussed here, but it does seem like it could
lead to bigger, more diverse uses of this kind of technology.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
I guess maybe for me, you guys correct me here,
I'm not seeing why this is more beneficial than just
an array of any type of machines that have sensors
on them that would find the same things.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
And I'm having a hard same identifying that as well. Matt.
It does seem like there would be an analog, you know,
in the completely digital or electronic realm that could do
something similar.
Speaker 5 (25:45):
I will say it's neat. It's like the fact.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
That that we are finding, you know, continuing to find
incredible things that these you know, organisms can do, I
think is part of the fun of this.
Speaker 5 (25:59):
But it's it's a good.
Speaker 6 (26:00):
Point, Matt, and I'd maybe have to dig a little
deeper into the actual paper and study to see what
that has been. Do you have any suggestions as to
what that benefit might be having that organic aspect versus
something that's purely electronic.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
Yeah, it's fascinating because first you establish the concept, right,
the proof thereof, and then you find what the applications
of that concept in specific could be.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
It's a great.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Question about you know, what problem is this solving by
having this type of mechanism replacing other ways to monitor
soil Already, I would be very interested again to take
this kind of application to space. So we can program robots, right,
(26:51):
we can program the inorganic part. How possible is it
to program a mushroom to program the molds and the
fun guys, Because that's where it gets really interesting. If
you could make a code that simply reproduces itself, right,
regardless of the hardware, that I think you're stumbling upon something.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Fascinating.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
Yeah, so that's the idea. I think we're still in
a very wide horizon here.
Speaker 6 (27:22):
Oh and one thing I did just notice, Ben, They
do make the point in the pop side article to
Matt's question. I'll let's read it from it, because it's
just I don't want to sum.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
It up as too good.
Speaker 6 (27:32):
Eventually, scientists believe this cornucopia of animal machine mixtures could
be deployed in swarms to remotely monitor coral reefs, forests.
Speaker 5 (27:41):
Or other ecosystems.
Speaker 6 (27:42):
Once their job is complete, the organic elements of the
robot could, in theory, simply be left to biodegrade.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
So perhaps there's.
Speaker 7 (27:51):
A recycled, reduced reuse aspect to this as opposed to
like losing technology in space, having debris or I don't know, man.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Up until the fungus says, hey, man, why don't I
do what I want to do?
Speaker 5 (28:07):
Exactly?
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Well, yeah, I did, And that's the point I was
going to make. Actually. In this earth dot com article
that you linked us to, NOL, it's titled mushroom is
given a robot body and runs wild in fascinating video.
The second paragraph in there says this, and I just
maybe maybe you guys can react to it, or and
then I'll tell you my reaction. It says, when they're sprawling,
(28:31):
my ceial networks flicker and pulse, their electrochemical responses mimic
the activity in our brain cells. I think it's the
other way around, guys. I think our brains mimic my
celial networks, which one's been around longer.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
Million percent that I think about that all the time,
you know, Like I mean, I certainly am not of
the mind that like human beings are just some sort
of happy accident.
Speaker 5 (28:57):
I do think there's something beyond that.
Speaker 6 (28:59):
But yeah, the stuff that makes up our brain chemistry
and are the way we ambulate and all of those
types of things. They exist in nature. We're a combination
of like all of the best features of all of
these various things that have existed along before we ever did.
Speaker 5 (29:15):
It's a really good point, Matt.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
What if the big scary AI thing that we're we've
been frightened of through popular culture and you know, through
philosophical thought for so long, is not actually an artificial
intelligence emerging a general artificial intelligence. It's a fungal intelligence
that finally has the ability to move robots around.
Speaker 6 (29:38):
Yeah, it's something to think about. Man, it is a
chicken or egg question too, and it's like, are we
just the conduit for the ultimate ends of these fungal intelligences?
Speaker 5 (29:55):
Anyway, certainly food for thought.
Speaker 6 (29:58):
Let's take a quick break, hear a word from our sponsor,
and then we'll be back with one more piece of
strange news.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
And we're back, guys. We are gonna talk about something
very weird through a long list of articles that describe
a long list of very let's say, odd happenings in
a suburban part of Nashville, Tennessee. Or maybe it's not
suburban part. It's it's far enough north that it's it's
(30:32):
a whole other part of Tennessee that just happens to
be north.
Speaker 5 (30:35):
Of Nashville exurb.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
It's Nashville adjacent.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, between Nashville and the next state up
which Tennessee gets, Kentucky. Okay, So between Nashville and the
Kentucky line, it's a place called Millersville, and there is
wild stuff happening there. And it's been happening, at least
(30:59):
to my knowledge and to the articles we're going to
reference here, since January of twenty twenty four. So every county,
every small town, we all live in them. You guys
live in a bigger one, but it's still Fulton County,
and there's things the city commissioners and folks that you
got to deal with on a smaller scale. It's not
(31:21):
just the mayor of Atlanta that you got to deal with.
But in this case, I guess there's one to one
because there's a mayor of Millersville as well. And before
we get into what's happening, let's shout out two publications,
The Tennesseean and news Channel five Investigates. Yeah, they do
good work. Both of these have been publishing extensively on
(31:46):
just the weird happenings. So let's go to the first
article from the Tennesseean written by Kirsten Fiscus. Ficus Fiscus,
I don't know how to say your name, Sorry about that, Kirsten.
So the first one comes from the Tennessee and written
in January of twenty twenty four. The title is middle
Tennessee town acts as third top ranking official in less
(32:08):
than a week. Huhuh, okay, it's a Tennessee town. All
they did was fire some people. But they did three
in one week's time. That's a little weird. It says
here that the city manager and the attorney, as well
as now the police chief were fired by the interim
(32:30):
city manager, someone named Tina Tobin. And guys, what do
you think, maybe first, what first comes to mind when
you hear about a small town firing a whole bunch
of the primary individuals who run that town.
Speaker 5 (32:49):
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (32:49):
That's the kind of stuff that we were stressing about
with like Project twenty twenty five, in the idea like
installing loyalists as opposed to experts.
Speaker 5 (33:00):
It just occurs to.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Me, yeah, exactly. That is precisely the thing that came
to my mind as well Project twenty twenty five. Okay, well,
maybe some people are getting pushed out because one person,
let's say this city manager who is the interim city manager,
decided there need to be some major changes and took
it on themselves to do this. It gets weirder though,
(33:23):
So this person, the Millersville Police Chief, mister Robert Richmond,
joined the department back in January or I think in
December maybe, when the police department that he was in
charge of was under a pretty serious investigation by the
group known as the Tennessee Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission.
(33:45):
And the reason why he was even in there is
because the standing chief and assistant chief both resigned as
a part of that whole investigation. Guys, we're in the
weeds here. This is a story that is in the weeds.
So you don't really even have to remember the primary
names or anything. Just know that three major officials were
(34:06):
fired from their jobs in this small Tennessee town back
in January. And then we go to the same small
town now in April of twenty twenty four. There is
a guy named Brian Morris who is the new city
police chief who is now running things there, and he
becomes the interim city manager, and he has to function
(34:30):
as both the police chief and the interim city manager
because Tina Tobin, the person we just talked about that fired,
those three people resigned. So it's just this weird, pretty
consistent churning over the course of four months where people
are losing their jobs, being appointed by people who are
then resigning and or being fired. And it's this weird
(34:52):
churn of human beings that are attempting to run the
ship there, and it appears that either everybody's failing or
somebody is decided that they're not right for the job.
Then you get to July of this year when the
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation shut out TBI, GBI, and all
(35:14):
the other statewide bureaus of investigation. Very interesting groups of
people there. Not quite FBI, but really close, right. Oh yeah,
And then we jumped to July and we find out
that the TBI, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, is beginning
a full on investigation because that's what they do of
(35:36):
Millersville and everything that's been going on there, specifically the
police department. Remember we just said that the police department
was previously investigated by another group that had to do
with kind of standards and practices basically, and now the
TBI is looking into stuff, and specifically, y'all, they are
looking into what news Channel five Investigates describes as quote
(36:03):
a conspiracy minded assistant police chief, a guy named Sean Taylor,
who is he's the assistant police chief there back in July.
He is not afraid to come out and fully state
that he believes in a lot of the Pizzagate stuff,
a lot of the stuff that we've talked about on
this shows.
Speaker 5 (36:21):
Twist.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
Yeah, it called conspiracy cop.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Right, they call him, they call him conspiracy cop, and
they are using that in the thought terminating cliche way
that we've described on this show many times, I think,
as a way to make people think, oh, this guy
is just nuts. At the same time, this person, Sean Taylor,
is fully invested in his belief, let's say, his personal
(36:45):
belief that many political figures, including some that are involved
in Tennessee maybe on a wider scale, are involved in
things like child sex trafficking and other nefarious things that
are described in Pizzagate, and you know, some of the
other just larger conspiracies that originated, you know, on four
Chan in places like that. So this guy is under
(37:09):
a lot of scrutiny. He's being investigated. The entire Millersville
Police Department is being investigated. And then you keep going
down to September of this year. Early September, the TBI
does a full on raid of the Millersville Police Department,
and they also check out several other locations like it
(37:32):
appears to be individuals' homes that they search to find
out what's going on. And I've put a bunch of
articles in here, guys. I think one of the biggest
things to note the Tennessee and reports on September fifth
that the TBI cut access to crime data or crime data.
(37:54):
I guess before they decided to raid this police.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
Department cut access in what respects.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Well, they cut access to specifically the chief of police there,
Brian Morris. His entire department was restricted from using the
quote financial crimes enforcement neck Natives or Finnsen got it.
They locked him out of all that, which is a
thing that tracks financial crimes or financial related crimes, and
(38:24):
which is really weird. Think about that. You are the
you are a full police department. Then somebody comes through
and says you no longer have access to this thing
that you use, I guess on a regular basis.
Speaker 6 (38:36):
Yeah, that's like if they cut off our lexus nexus
or something like that.
Speaker 5 (38:39):
You know.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Yeah, Well, it's supposed to track a lot of things,
but money laundering is one of the big things. And
then there are accusations here that somehow this police department
is running some weird stuff with money, with corruption, with
all kinds of I don't know who knows what innigans
(39:00):
because nobody's talking right now. The Attorney General isn't giving
any details. Nobody's giving any full details because the TBI
is still doing their investigation. Thing.
Speaker 6 (39:09):
This is breaking news, Matt, I mean, this is something
that to continue to keep an eye on.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Right Well, it is, Yeah, it is somewhat breaking news.
But it is also just odd because it is a
small town problem. This is a very small place right now,
pretty isolated from a lot of other major metropolitan areas
of Tennessee. And I don't know, I don't know. I
just wanted to talk to you guys about it, let
(39:34):
people know about it. So because I don't know, I
like small town stuff that's happening, especially when it feels
like there's some bigger implication here.
Speaker 6 (39:43):
Well, it always seems like these kinds of things tend
to happen in smaller towns because they're away from the
prying eyes of like larger organizations that would maybe uncover
this kind of corruption. So it does tend to to
flourish or fester, I guess is a better word in
(40:03):
some of these more isolated areas.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Agreed. And if you want to learn more about this,
head on over to the Tennessee and that's the t
N N E S S E A N. It's a
website you can find online. Look at the article titled
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation confirms raid on Millersville police amid
city turmoil. And in here you will you're gonna hear
a lot from this person named Susan Nyland, who's a
(40:28):
spokesperson specifically for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. And they're
saying that it is a search warrant that they are
executing at the Millersville Police Department as part of an
ongoing investigation, and that it was the second search warrant
that was carried out specifically to look at that police chief,
the assistant police chief, Sean Taylor, because it was his house,
(40:51):
his private home that was also investigated, but they won't
give any more details what.
Speaker 6 (40:57):
Would trigger such a raid on a per individual person's home.
And I guess the closest thing we have to a
clue here is they're cut off from the financial stuff,
so maybe they were exploiting that, or maybe he's got
stuff at his house that would indicate some sort of
grift that he was at the center of.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Well, it appears that we have a somewhat of an
answer here. Guys. Remember we talked about this assistant police
chief who's a little conspiracy minded, maybe a little more
than a lot of people are comfortable with. They're in
the small town. The small town is making a ton
of changes, and they have been since the start of
the year about who is the right person or maybe
the good person in their minds, you know, in their opinions,
(41:34):
to run the show around there. And then there are
allegations that either individuals at the Millersville Police Department or
some you know, people who are running the city, the
officials that have been appointed or moved around, that they
are investigating political enemies and specifically like money stuff with
(41:55):
their enemies, which is why they maybe lost use of
that database, because that would be pretty bad, right if
you were using if you're in an official public position,
or especially a police department, and you are investigating political
enemies and like gailing, perhaps maybe or again, what if
(42:17):
it is somebody who believes that some of these officials
are getting into super nefarious things and then wants to
prove that somehow because there's no evidence that actually shows it,
But maybe you look for other things, so then you
just keep your eyes on any transactions that a particular
individual does, or maybe even use and this is my
(42:41):
own thought here, but maybe even use some kind of
surveillance technology that's available to the police department to just
keep an eye on people because you've got an idea
and you feel something that is happening, so you decide
to take those actions, which are illegal even for a
police department if there's no official investigation.
Speaker 6 (42:59):
So I mean, Ben, if you in't mind, do you
have any thoughts on like what would happen? What happens
when an entire government and or you know, a wing
or branch of government is determined to be corrupt at
its very core. These clean house install an entirely new
police department like, how does that work.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
It's a difficult proposition. I mean, that's why there are.
Speaker 4 (43:25):
That's why the TBI is doing this kind of investigation.
That's why things like the FBI and theory exist because
there has to be some sort of chain of command
or accountability. You know, in this case where it appears
there are deep systemic issues, you start thinking through things
(43:47):
like continuity of governance. You know, Millersville, for anybody from
Tennessee has long been famous for being a speed trap town.
Uh So there were there were already there were already
long standing beliefs, uh that that the the powers that
(44:11):
be on a municipal level were not completely above board.
So to your questional, it feels like one of the
next things that would have to happen is uh an
election with a cleaning of house, Right, somebody has to
occupy those roles. But it gets pretty it becomes a
(44:32):
pretty complicated lasagna when you realize that in a very
small town, most of the people will know each other,
so it's kind of difficult to find a shiny new
penny in a political or governmental candidate.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
Well, yeah, that they hired outside of even the county
or you know, they went to different other small towns.
Like this guy, Brian Morris was normally the police chief
of a place called the Ridgetop Police Department in a
county called Robertson, Robertson County, and he got brought over
in February. And the other thing here that we have
(45:13):
to consider. Guys, maybe we just gave it out momentarily.
But what if this assistant police chief has these views
and some of them might be wackado out there right,
Like just some of those views are so far to
the fringe that there's no way it's true. But what
if he, in his search for answers to those things,
(45:35):
or connections or evidence to those things, leads him to
actual corruption on like a city level, on a county level,
on a state level. What if he finds actual stuff?
What happens then? If you try and raise a flag
as an assistant police chief of a small town. What happens?
(45:56):
Would the TBI come in and say, Hey, we're raising
your place and we're gonna take all of that stuff
that maybe is evidence against somebody that we are protecting. Yes,
I don't know, that's.
Speaker 5 (46:09):
An interesting proposition.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
Yeah, well it's a wild thought, I guess. But at
the same time, what would that look like if that happened.
Speaker 5 (46:19):
It's a good question.
Speaker 6 (46:19):
I mean, that's I guess what I was posing why
this story is particularly interesting because like what happens when
it is determined that like a division of government or
whatever is just rotten to the core, and it's not
just one bad apple or whatever, like it's like fundamentally
part of the culture of that entire organization.
Speaker 5 (46:40):
I don't know, it's it's wild, man. I'm fascinated by
the story that you found that.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
I think it is too, and I'm going to keep
my eyes and ears on it. We hope you do too.
So thanks so much for checking out this episode of
Strange News Today. Let's tell everybody how to contact us.
Speaker 4 (46:57):
Yeah, thanks so much for tuning into our weekly Strange
News segment. Folks, we hope if you are AI human
or a fun guy that you have you will join
us in the future to wrestle with some of these questions.
Would you be comfortable with your children in an AI classroom?
(47:19):
What do you think about Pacific rim Uprising? Tell us
also your first hand experience in the trenches with small
town corruption. We try to be easy to find in
a manner in a number of manners, one of which
is online.
Speaker 5 (47:35):
Correct.
Speaker 6 (47:35):
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Speaker 5 (47:57):
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Speaker 6 (47:58):
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Speaker 2 (48:02):
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(48:24):
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Speaker 4 (48:27):
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Speaker 3 (48:34):
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Speaker 4 (48:40):
Sometimes the void writes back, So join us out here
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Speaker 2 (49:08):
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