December 6, 2025 • 49 mins
This week, the team dives into a set of questions that you have sent us throughout the year.
Guest: Luke Sanders
Will Sikkens, Bill Snodgrass, and Gretchen Winkler
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
Welcome to We Are TechnologiesUser friendly.
2.0 with host, Bill Sikkens,
technology architect.
And this is User Friendly 2.0I am your host Bill Sikkens.
Welcome to this week'sshow, Bill Gretchen, welcome.
Hello there.
(00:30):
We are in the middle of the 2025 seasonof Giving and user Friendly.
Is proud to supportthe William Temple House in Portland.
This is a great charity.
They've been around for 60 years.
They provide mental health servicesto those
that can't afford it, either lowor no cost, depending on the situation,
and also provide a full food bankwhich this year has been in demand.
(00:52):
I wouldn't say it hasn't been in the band,but more this year.
They're doing a fall fundraising campaign.
Check it out if you want to see whatthey offer or if you can make a donation,
go to William temple.orgor User friendly dot show.
Either one will take you to the rightplace to get some more information.
All right.
Bill, Gretchen, how was your week?
(01:12):
All right.
Yeah, I did some crazy, shopping.
Well, that's that's good.
And enjoy it because, you know,with the onset of AI and everything else
that's going on, there's been a lot ofdifferent things talked about.
But according to Elon Musk, we're notgoing to have to work at all in 20 years.
Now, I don't know what that means
exactly, but,you know that prediction, I'll be dead.
(01:36):
Yeah, that's one possibility, right.
We're going to be talking this weekabout a lot of different things,
including AI, where that's headed,cybernetics, robotics,
answering some of your questionsyou've been sending in that
we haven't gotten to earlier in the year.
And just kind of giving a quick once over,I don't know how quick, but
more of a deep dive,I guess this will be in the second segment
(01:57):
to look at what you know,we might need to fear
and what we don't need to fearand all the rest of that.
And the other big thing isI going to steal your job.
We're going to talkabout that a little bit too.
After the news in this segment,
our guest is going to beon talking about his e-book.
I will leave it to thatand we'll get to that a little bit later
when we get closerto that part of the show.
(02:18):
But before that, let'sgo ahead and jump in to the news.
What do we have this week?
All right.
Shopify suffers an outage at a bad time.
So what is a bad time?
I would think any time would be oh yeah.
Any times a bad timeI'll tell you. You know.
And that's the question though. Hey,you know, what's a bad time?
What's a good time for your websitenot to work. Right.
So Shopify, for anybodythat doesn't know this runs
(02:41):
a lot of businesses, mainlysmall businesses that have web presence.
And they offer credit card processing,the ability to load catalogs
and inventory.
And most of the time,you probably don't know
that you're on a Shopify site when you arethere may or designed to be able
to look like whatever company they are,and they handle the background well.
They had an outage on Cyber Monday.
(03:02):
That was the bad time.
Oh yeah.
And,
this is something that affecteda lot of businesses because Black Friday
weekend, Cyber Monday,
all of these, or the reason they call itthat is because we have for years
because with most businesses,especially retail,
the day after Thanksgiving
when the shopping starts iswhen they get into the black,
(03:23):
which is the term forwe are now in profit.
So it's a very, very important time.
And with all of that moving onlineas it has in recent years,
if your website doesn't workduring one of the main days,
which Cyber Monday is a big part of thatnow people will go and find the product
somewhere else,the first brand loyalty and stuff.
They might want to come back,but this is just something
(03:43):
that you don't want to have happen.
We've had a lot of outages, as we'vetalked about over the last few months,
from Amazon to Microsoft to others, thisbeing another one for a different reason.
As of right now, the explanationthat's been given is just simply
that they had a problem.
Well, I could have told you thatwithout reading their explanation.
Get more details on it.
We'll certainly talk about it.
(04:04):
But this is something that I arewe are technology
and we have several clientsthat do use Shopify.
And this was a major problemand there was no way to switch to a backup
or anything else.
So on the positive side for Shopify,I have not heard about this
happening often.
In fact, I think this is the first timeI've ever heard about a real problem.
There's been some quirks with it, thewhere it's actually gone down like that,
(04:26):
but just that was not theday to have it happen. And
also the term in the red meantthat you were in debt.
Yeah, exactly.
I used to use, redink for when the money was leaving
and black ink for when the moneywas coming in the books.
Yeah, exactly.So that's where that saying comes from.
(04:47):
From in the black,because now you're in black ink.
Red ink is bad. Blackink is good. Right? So.
Right.
Cambridge scientists
successfully reverse human skin cells age.
So this is an interesting thing.
And they're talking about a reprogramingprocess is what they're calling this.
(05:10):
And this is one of those thingsthat I'm going to preface with.
I'd like to actually see this.I completely believe it.
Although looking at it,it looks like it is not an exact study.
It's if it is, it'sreally kind of a cool thing because there
and this is the part of itthat made me question it
a little bit, is they're claimingto be able to reverse the,
age of your skin cells by about 30 years.
(05:32):
Okay. That would put me at 20.
That would be really nice.
Yeah.
So they're saying that the approach
could be an important steptowards future anti-aging therapies,
although it is still earlyand much more testing needs to be done.
So, you know, the thing of it is,is talking about it from a standpoint,
(05:53):
assuming all of this is asthe study has presented it,
I do know we're we're movingin the direction of having
some technologies at the forefrontthat will do things like this
that we're not,you know, we're science fiction.
Not so long ago.
So the idea that this is possible.
Yeah. It's possible.
Are they up to a point wherethey can reverse your aging by 30 years?
(06:15):
In my opinion, probably not.
But even if it's somewherein the middle of that
or even ten years,that's still a big accomplishment.
Well, well, think of it this way.
If if humans are living longer,
that means our skin needs to last longer.
Yeah, think about it that way.
And if you were able to do somethingto help the skin regenerate,
(06:38):
that could be just useful, right?
Right.
And, you know, and again, all the wayaround, it could be useful, right?
I mean, if you can reverse your agenow, it's not
they're not claimingthey reverse your aging,
but your skin's aging bysomething like that.
Whatever the reason, it be nice to do so.
Yeah.Well so we'll see what happens with that.
If they do say like I say, it's in theearly testing stages and all of that.
(07:01):
And I'm sure if this becomes a thingwhere it really works and is available,
we're going to behearing a lot more about it.
All the movie stars will use it.
Okay.
Japanesehelmet with built in visor is created.
Tell us.
So this is a model called GT three helmets
and developed by the French companyEye Lights.
(07:24):
So basically what it is isit is a motorcycle helmet, as you said.
And in the visor you have a projectorand that projector sends up information
like your speed, your musicthat's playing or talking on the phone,
that kind of thing.
I would imagine mapping and all thatkind of stuff would be a part of this too.
Now, what's interesting about it is,is this type of technology is something
(07:46):
that would be very beneficial.
I'm just a little surprised
that they're just announcing it now,because we've had had displays for a while
and even, you know, 15 years ago,I know it didn't market well,
but with the beginning of all of this,which would arguably be Google Glass
had this type of a technologyand the fact that it's
now being perfected and availableon a consumer level, that's great.
(08:07):
But we're seeing this type of thingalready in glasses and other things
that you can just get upand look at and wear and buy.
So I think it's a good idea.
I think it's great for peoplethat ride bikes, and that type of thing
makes things even safer.
So you're not having to fumble around,you know, just like in a car.
But when you do that on a motorcycle,it's even more dangerous.
(08:27):
And having that available.
Oh, I'm just surprised that
it's at this pointthat it's just coming out.
Teens innovative system eliminates
96% of microplastics from drinking water.
Yeah, and this is absolutely cool.
I was looking into this to try and,you know, because we try to confirm,
(08:51):
stories we get.
And I will say that a good portionof what comes in is,
you know, you don't cover itbecause it's like this.
It might be something more for The onion,but this one is not.
And this is somethingthat is really kind of cool.
I am working on getting this, the inventor of this thing, on the air
(09:11):
next year.
Some time to talk about thisa little bit more.
Because of this, he did a Ted talkand some other things, and I'll get into
names and details here in a minute.
But basically, what we're talking abouthere is microplastics are in everything.
And that causes a lot of problemsbecause they're toxic.
So when you have somethingthat's made out of plastic,
even biodegradable plastic,if it's not recycled properly,
(09:33):
it will break down, break
down, and eventually break down to a pointwhere you don't see it anymore.
But it is definitely still there.
So what ends up happening is this hasgotten into the water, into the air,
into our bodies, into our animals bodies,all of these different type of thing
and something that is very hard, if notimpossible at this point to get away from.
So what you're coming up with hereis a system
(09:55):
that is able to basically filterthe microplastics out of drinking water.
So this is something that would workin, conjunction
with things like your watertreatment plants and all of that.
And then the other part of itthat's really cool.
And this has been an areathat has been somewhat difficult, to do
(10:15):
is that itactually can capture this stuff,
and then they can get itout of the environment and recycle it.
I'm in the plasticat that point could be reused.
So somethingthat if this can be actually automated
and put into,you know, that type of a situation,
I think that this could be somethingthat is a game changer or a game changer.
(10:36):
Yeah, that's the word I'm looking for,really I it absolutely is.
So again, you did this.
And what I'm keeping for the moment isI want to get our interview
set up for next year,but we will put some information.
I'll make sure it gets up onto our socialsto be able to get to the TEDx talk.
What to know about the three Atlas comment
(10:59):
and why people keep talking about aliens.
Yes, so
really Atlas,
for anybody that doesn't know aboutthis is a
comet is what NASA's calling it.
They came from outsideof the solar system.
It's the third interstellar objectthat we've observed ever, meaning
that it's simply that it did not originatewithin our solar system. So.
(11:24):
But the thing of it is, is there'sstuff in space besides just what's here.
I mean, you know, the Earth is not flat,and it's not the center of the universe.
I'm sure I'm going to get some commentson that, but just I believe me, it's not.
So just ignore them.
Yeah.
So in a quick aside on that,there was a meme that came up with it
(11:44):
says, well, this is embarrassing.
Has our solar systemof all the other planets and ours is flat?
Well that's embarrassing.
Yeah, that would be in any of it.
Even the comet has been
exhibiting some unusual behaviorsthat researchers
have not seen in other objects,interstellar or otherwise.
One of them is that it seems to be ableto correct its own ports.
(12:07):
There seems to be exhaustthat changes color.
It went aroundthe sun, used it to launch itself back out
the tail of the comet, which normallygoes away from our normal comet.
The ice is melting,so that's what creates the tail.
And it's going in the opposite directionof where it's moving.
It had an anti tail.
It was going the other way.
And from thatthere's been a lot of speculation
(12:30):
with the idea of is this actually justa naturally occurring thing
or is it something like, you know,an exotic example being an alien spaceship
or even a probe like a Voyager?
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
You know, or something of that nature.
First of all,this wouldn't be impossible.
But the thing of itis, it's a major researcher at Harvard.
(12:51):
We talked about this earlier in the year,has come up with the idea.
He's not saying, well,this is a spaceship, but he's saying,
look at the facts from scientific theoryand scientific method.
There are some things here that require
an open mind to be able to look at thisand see if maybe there is
something else going on that is somethingthat we haven't seen before at all.
(13:13):
From that end, we're getting,
a lot of disinformationI've noticed on the internet
as well as I produce thingsthat make it look like a spaceship.
You know, being reported.
Well,this is the picture NASA took. No, it is.
And if that was the case,there wouldn't be speculation.
But the thing of it is, is at the endof the day, it is also an odd size,
which is also something that,
(13:35):
again, is different from most comets.
Is it impossible?
No, but one of the other thingsthat really has surprised
people is the emissions of this thinginclude elements like arsenic.
But upuntil now, we've only found in refined,
you know, modern technologywhere these things are made.
So again, it's certainly possiblethis is all naturally occurring,
(13:56):
which is something very unusual.
And on the other end of the spectrum, it'scertainly possible that this is
something that is completely new and,you know, game changing would be the case.
Now people talk about this kind of stuff.
Stephen Hawking said that meeting aliens
could be very negative for humanity.
Yeah, that'sone of the things that drives, all this,
(14:18):
you know, a lot of this kindof speculation and stuff in respect
to the idea of what happenedwhen the Europeans got to North America,
as if, for example, as we all know, thatwent very badly for the Native Americans.
And there are a lot of storieslike this in our history.
Now, if we're going to talk about aliens
and look at thisfrom a scientific approach,
(14:38):
I personally would think that, number one,
if this was possible,they'd already be here.
Probably,we might not know it, but number two,
I don't see where express rulesthat have the ability to create spaceships
have this type of technologywould want to take over this planet
if I was one of them.
And figure out what's going on,I think I just let my ship
(14:59):
in the opposite directionand go as fast as I could.
Thesepeople are crazy, you know, to look at it.
And but the thing of it is, is thereprobably isn't that much difference
either.
You know, Roswell, when all that happened,hey, maybe it was one of their kids
got a hold of a saucer shipand took it on a joyride
and crashed it into the desert.We all know.
Oh, yeah.
(15:19):
Oh, yeah,that would be, I'd be a big ol bet.
Dad, I crashed the spaceship.
Yeah.
You know, it's like,
can you imagine this is bad enoughthat I crashed your brand new BMW?
I think this would even be worse.
So, in fact, I'm quite sure it would.
But, you know, again,at the end of the day,
very likely.
I mean, you know,you've look at the numbers and everything,
(15:41):
there's very likely I would almost sayyou can't say with certainty, but 99%
that there are other speciesthat live in this universe
and other intelligencesand all of that kind of stuff.
And, you know, again, people are worried.
Well, the other side of itis, is having this technology
and things they might show upand try to help us.
In fact,I think they would be much more likely
(16:01):
because if they were going to invadewould be invaded, you know,
you know, reality. Yeah.
And so there might bea very positive direction
that something like that could go to nowis I Atlas an alien spaceship.
Well, look at the evidenceand decide for yourself what you think.
Generally speaking,
(16:21):
the reality that those in
these mindsets believe is thatit is just an unusual planet.
But there are other peoplethat are credible scientists
that seem to be suggesting otherwise.
And I'll tell you this if it is turns outto be aliens, I don't know.
Would it be ancient aliens?
I mean, history is going to have to dosomething with that history channel.
All right.
(16:41):
So I guess it's entirely.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, anyway.
All right, well, that's our news.
Let'sgo ahead and get over to our interview
and find out about e-booksand some things dealing with that.
There we go.
Joining us now, Luke Sanders,author, podcaster and many other things.
Welcome to User Friendly.
(17:01):
Thank you. Thank you for havingme. I'm glad to be here.
So instead of me trying to sit here
and describe all the things you do,I'm just going to throw it to you.
Luca, tell us a little bit about yourself
and your podcastand your upcoming e-book.
I know those weresome of the things on the agenda.
Yeah, absolutely.
So my name is Luke Sandersand Indianapolis native,
if you don't know too much by Indianapolisbabyfaces from here, people like that
(17:25):
come I start here worked on web seriesand at that place on Amazon.
Then I went into radio and transitionedinto podcasting with podcasting.
I've been able to be a nine timetop ranked Apple
podcast host,and with radio, I earn two certificates.
Thank you.
And then nowI'm interested in being an author.
So I had my first book, my debut book,Luke's Dreamland Superhero in a movie.
(17:49):
So I'm super excited about that.
So that story is not based of my life,but is inspired by my life,
like some things are differentabout the character,
but he's a six yearold boy, has a big imagination,
lucid dreamer, and yeah,the possibilities are endless with him.
All right, so let's dive into thata little bit more.
Talk about the book.
And, you know,when you're going to be releasing it yet
(18:12):
and tell us a little bit about
why don't give us any spoilers,but a little bit about the story.
No. So the book came out on Tuesday, soit's been out for, a couple of days now.
But really, about the book.
So not giving too much away, we noticedabout a dreams about a superhero,
but the synopsis is he goes to sleepafter watching his favorite movie
about a superhero, and he wakes upand he's that superhero in that dream.
(18:36):
And, he learns very quicklythat it's not all about fun and games.
You have to, in a very quickly.
That is so true of superheroes.
I think, you know, I know, yeah, there'salways that journey of of discovering.
Oops, it's not as easy as it looks.
Yeah, but how do people find your book?
You have a website or go to Amazonwith Access Point?
(18:58):
Absolutely.
So you call meI loopy Sanders on social media platforms,
you also can search on Apple Books,and you also can buy it online on Barnes
and Nobles and other places, as wellother places online.
All right.
So I will include thatin our social media.
So the link is out there.
But thanks so much. I'm curious what's up.
Yeah, I haveI have a question, why just an e-book and
(19:22):
and not not a printed versionor maybe just not.
Yeah. Question.
I am self-published,so this is just a start.
So for
audience is 1 to 5 year olds, but,it's getting started.
First time book, first time author.
Oh, terrific.
Thank you. Gratulations.
Now I want to ask about some other thingsin your bio here.
(19:43):
You say you're a filmmakerand I've worked in that too.
Tell us a little bit about that.
That sounds interesting.
So I have a webseries called Luke's IV Chronicles
which basically, chronicled my lifethrough college.
And I'm bringing it backfor a two part special.
So it's really about the third season,but it's put together in two parts
with the 21 minuteformat for each episode,
(20:04):
and it's at the same showthat people have seen before.
As much more fun as all the love andediting that deserve a first go around.
And, yeah, it's a it's a great time.
So it's about me going back to college.
It's also about real lifeand catastrophes happening.
We try to take a podcastand go back to school days later.
It's real.Life is fun. Life is everything.
(20:26):
And so, you know, writing a bookand doing the web series
and everything else to do, it sounds,you know, there's so many things
what goes into something like this,but what is it taking you to actually get
to the pointwhere you're both ready to go out
and actually get your, series ready to where it was to go out?
I mean, I know there's a lot going on,but you talk about that a little bit.
Great. Yeah, absolutely.
The book.
(20:46):
So I came up with the titleand the idea two years ago.
I was lookingwhen would be a good time to release it,
and, this was a good timefor me to release it, but,
yeah, really held it back to make surethe manuscript was where I wanted to be.
I designed the cover.
So I really wanted to work hard on that.
And then with the web series,I'm kind of a one man
(21:06):
show when it comes to like, the editingand the story of it all.
And because it's a docu web series, it's
not a reality show,but it's that web series.
So people don't know.
It's like a documentary,but it series format.
But, yeah, takes a lot of blood, sweatand tears.
Time, patience.
Going back to the drawing board whenyou know this different stuff happens.
So takes time.
(21:28):
Yeah, I the reason I,I think it is absolutely amazing
when you see content creatorssuch as yourself being able to actually do
this, as you say, a one man showand a bigger production.
You have all these people aroundto do all these different things.
But, when you do ityourself, you're wearing a lot of hats.
You and have to really knowa lot of different things,
you know, to pull it offproperly. So that's great.
(21:48):
Thank you.
Is thereanything else you'd like to talk about?
Reallyjust getting the word out about this book.
I'm really excited about it.
I made, like, I made him kind of like.
Like I said, inspired by me.
Like, his hair is blond,hair is not blond, but is kinky.
So there's different things,that I put into him.
I made him interracial
so he can appeal to kids who are of colorand who are not of color.
(22:12):
So, yeah, just really excited about him,even though he's me and I'm him.
Like, look, it's not the same person, but,
but yeah.
So movie sounds.com.
I'll go ahead.
And Gretchen so I was going to ask you,so do you seem your target audience,
is it mostly childrenor do you think that adults could read it
(22:32):
and enjoy it just as well?
So like if you're, you know, a momand you're reading it to your kid
with the mom, enjoy it too.
Yeah,absolutely. I do. I can say that humbly.
I know I wrote it, but, I do think adults would enjoy it as well
because it's a it's a simple story,but it's a fun story.
It's something that you would really
it will reallyyou will really get immersed in the story
(22:53):
and just seeing all the what it does
and the people that he savesand how this story ends.
And will it be a part too,with the cliffhanger?
Because there's a cliffhangerat the end. So yeah.
But all the way around to have this
underscore is where you go, and we'llinclude that in our social media loop.
Thank you so much for joining usand good luck with this.
Thank you so much.Thank you for having me.
(23:15):
All right.
Next segmentwe are going to be talking about
cybernetic bionics artificial intelligence
and answering some of your questionsand looking at the actual state
that this is the onewhere it's probably headed, given
some of our opinion,this is user friendly 2.0.
We'll be back after the break.
Snow's coming down, and,
(23:37):
I'm watching at home.
You know, I love people around and maybe.
Please come up in the church bell now.
Welcome back. This is user friendly 2.0.
Check out our show at User FriendlyDot show.
That's your one stop for everythinguser friendly back episode.
(24:00):
Submitting your questions and comments.
Looking at our blog,which we promise to start writing again
this year and did twice and stopped.
So we're going to havethat be a New Year's resolution.
How's that? Gretchen? Oh goody.
I've been busy. I've been really busy.
I have these things called novelsthat I've been fretting over.
Yeah, yeah, you got it.
Speaking of which, before we getinto our topic today, how's it going?
(24:23):
All right.
School Journal is out almost now.
It is almost out. Yes.
And, after, you know, monkeying aroundwith formatting and,
and all kinds of technicalities,we're getting, like, super duper close.
Yep, yep.
So it's, it's going to bethe we're actually going to cover this
in a little more detail next weekbecause it will be out by then.
(24:44):
You know, so what we're going to get youthe details on it and how to find it.
It's turned out to be an amazing book too.
So, I think you're going to probablyreally enjoy it anyway, that being said,
let's dive into the topic that we're goingrobotics,
cybernetics, AI, and so on in your bookactually goes into that a little bit too.
So that's appropriate sorta.
So let's let's talk about some things
(25:08):
that ten years ago were completely sciencefiction.
And today are an absolute reality.
And one thing I can say on that front,
with all honesty is I am a cyborg.
And I will explain thata little bit later on.
This is called your teasethat you need to listen to this segment.
(25:30):
So let's start with AI.
Okay?
We've talked about this a lotthis year, as any technology show has,
because it is proving itselfto be somewhat groundbreaking,
a little bit more than I thoughtit would be a year ago.
And there's both sidesof the argument on this,
but we'll get into herein just a second on how this is used.
(25:51):
Now, Bill, I know you're concerned
and I've talked about itupstaging and replacing artists.
And why don't you commenton that for a minute?
Just because this is a big thing.
People are asking questions about?
Well, when it first started out,it was easy to determine
whether it was an AI picture or not.
And now that it's been a year sinceyou know, those softwares have been out,
(26:14):
the AI now being done to get betterand better at it, and it becomes
harder and harder to determineif it's been AI generated or not.
And it has taken away a lot of jobs
that, was previously for artists.
And we're going to dive into the jobsthing
in a minute here, because that is one areathat is directly affecting
(26:36):
artists, graphic designers,that whole area of expertise.
Now, Gretchen, you're a artist.
I mean, you write novels and are an artistand these type of things.
And I know we're just talkingabout High School Journal.
You've used AI not to write the book,but for some of the editing process.
And this,I think, would be a positive thing.
Can you talk about that a little bit?
(26:56):
Actually, it's really been helpfulas far as the editing process.
But you have to be mindfulthat when you use one of these
AI to help you edit that, you don'tjust accept everything that it suggests,
because I have seen a couple of instanceswhere it made a suggestion
(27:17):
that would change the meaning ofthe sentence, you don't want to do that.
So this is a tool that you work closelywith.
Like, all right.
When I went to college,they did not train me
how to write for, like, like a novel.
It was only expository.
(27:38):
And so I didn't learn the properpunctuation
for, conversations in a textbook.
Okay, I didn't learn that.
And so I'm startingto learn the punctuation
from the softwarebecause it keeps correcting me.
I keep making the same mistake.
And so I'm learningwhile it's it's telling me, hey,
(28:01):
you need to do that,but it's something you work with. It.
And, you have to be careful because a lot of it
seems like theAI that I'm using is business oriented.
It's mindset is focused on
helping businesspeople write factual documents.
(28:21):
So when I'm using it, I'm doingfictional characters,
I have children,I have adults who are maybe less educated.
I have to be careful that I don't let
this suggest the wrong thingsfor the characters.
So you have to use your brain.
So it's ait's it's a companion, it's a helper.
(28:42):
But it does not replace the writer. Okay.
It doesn't come up with the ideas.
I do write in the.
Now, the thing of it is,is it? Conceivably it could.
And I think that'swhere Bill's coming from.
The fact that he's the writer,you know. Right.
I tend to look atAI is it's like the backup camera.
Most newer cars have a backupcamera is shift in a reverse
and the camera turns
on the original goal of that was
(29:02):
you would look in the mirror andthen have an additional in the lookout.
A lot of people just look at the backupcamera.
It's it's not meant to replacewhat you would normally do.
And I think that analogykind of connects here
because you look at something like artnow, not the monitor monetization
of it, graphic artistand that type of thing.
But true artists was about sitting downand creating something from nothing.
(29:25):
It's a skillthat not a lot of people have,
and those that do have it are unique,and it really is something to look at.
I've often said before, I can't drawa straight line, but I love art.
I know what I like, right?
So from that type of a standpoint,
you're going to still have artistscreating art.
But Bill, like you said, it'sgetting to a point where you can't tell
what's made by a human,what's made by machine anymore.
(29:47):
And and even a year ago, you couldnow there's still
some stuff in there right now, today,I think if you really take a look at it,
you can pick it out.
But at the rate it's going another year,that might not even be here either.
So now you look at industryand things like graphic design
or commissioned artists or anything elsethat is a moneymaking venture
of being an artist,is that going to affect those jobs?
(30:10):
Well, yes, it certainly will.
And it certainly already has.
Now, I know from my own standpoint
that some of the stuff that we work infor clients and that type of a thing,
a lot of the area is that I wouldexperience is things like logos
and other assets like that, things like,like Jeremy would have produced back
when,you know, he was around and doing that.
(30:33):
I know from
my own standpoint,I have yet to go to an I have tried,
I have yet to go to an AI and say, hey,this is what I want, make me a logo.
It does, but it looks something.
It's just not the creative component
that would exist fromthis is what I want it to be is not there.
So what ends up happening?
You're wanting to build logos
(30:54):
for a lot of different stuffand don't care about that.
And yeah, now you've just displaced jobs
from the graphic designersthat would normally have been doing it.
But there's another part of this
where and it's the waythat I've been as I've been able to get it
to come up with conceptsI like that I wouldn't have been able
to create on my own.
And then we have been handing those offto an actual graphic designer
that then takes it and makes the real logoand that kind of stuff.
(31:17):
So again, this is somethingthat has a lot of moving parts
because it's changing so much.
So today as we stand, will not be wherewe're at a year or even a month from now.
And it's a good idea in theseprofessionals to keep an eye on that.
And I think that this is one areawhere it would be nice if government
caught up a little bit not said, well,you can't use AI for artwork, but
(31:38):
definitely said that you have to declare,
you know where this stuff originated.
I noticed Gretchen, in publishing yourbook and stuff and working with Amazon,
there's a checkboxnow that, you know, is this AI generated?
You have to you know, some of the biggercompanies are already doing this,
and it's nothing againstI think it's an amazing tool.
I think it is something that I have foundhas really helped me with programing
(31:59):
and other things.
But there are hallucinationsand that kind of stuff,
and you can't take everything as you say,just here it is.
A lot of people do and likelooking in your mirror and nothing else.
Knowledge.
You see articles and stuff that arewritten by AI that have not been vetted.
You can tell.You can tell most of the time.
And also
at the end of the day,it is going to replace a lot of
(32:22):
outside commercial artists.
Yeah, a lot of the commercial people.
We're going to see that change,
and I think we're going to see a change,just like when we went from,
you know, using Movable Type and Blue Lineand all of that kind of stuff
to having computers.
There was a huge change in the industryat that point, too.
You used to have type setters and peoplewho would, create these layouts
(32:44):
and things, and then all of a suddenthe computer did it right.
And so that was a big change.
So now some of the other areas to just
doing some research to talk about thisthat I found is
it is actually adding in many wayswhere it is
giving additional artistic endeavorsthat wouldn't have existed before.
Things like you, list your houseon the market, and AI creates the rooms
(33:08):
so that you can see what it look likewith furniture in it, that type of thing.
Now, this is not somethinga graphic artist would have done.
It's not something that would have beena thing before I was here to do that.
So that's not replacing a job, that'sjust adding on to what it what it can do.
So I think, to be perfectly honest,are we going to see job loss?
Have we already in artistic graphic arts.
(33:29):
Things like architecture.
Yeah we are.
And it's very leastit's going to change it.
There will still be commissioned artists.
There will still be peoplethat create art for art's sake.
But all through history,it's been known that it's very rare
that an artist is rich.
Yeah, it tends to be, you know,after their lifetime, things become good
and that kind of stuff.
(33:51):
And the last 40 or 50 years artistshave been able to monetize their work.
And I think that one thingthat will happen with
this is we're going to have whatI call a SAG moment.
What I'm talking aboutthere is a view of two years ago
now when the Screen ActorsGuild went on strike
because they were trying to useAI to replace actors in movies.
And today, couldthere needs to be some rules
(34:14):
that we live by to make surethat we aren't eliminating artists,
because that's not a thing that you want,because art is important,
real art is very important,and that's something that can't go away.
And if it does, that wouldreally diminish society in my opinion.
You know, I agree.
So that being said, I think definitely
(34:36):
what we've been talking about hereis that it is a tool.
It is a very useful toolwhen used in the right way.
But you go to college and try to use
AI to write all of your papers,even if you get away with it,
you're not accomplishing anythingbecause yeah, you got to
maybe get the degree,but you're not going to know
what it is that you have a degreein. Not really.
(34:57):
You're not going to understand
and be able to producewhen you're out in the real world.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Some of the dangerous parts of this
are talking about jobsand all that kind of stuff.
Some of the more dangerous parts
is the bad guys, hackersand so on, or using AI for those sorts.
And one of the things is,as with all these scams,
we've talked about itmany times, you get an email that you're,
(35:19):
you know, how to charge your credit cardand it's going to post
if you didn't really make the charge.So you better call us.
And there's a phone number.
Now, even a year ago, you looked at thisand you could see some things
that were out of whack.
You know, the logo might be wrong orin the wrong place where it's misspelled.
That kind of thing just didn'tlook right today with using AI.
It can look pretty much perfect.
You don't notice it anymore.
(35:40):
So from those type of standpoints,you have to take a different approach
that if you need to call about your creditcard,
you never, ever use anythingthat's in a message that you've received,
whether it's text or email or whateverwebsite you go to, your card, all the bank
with the number
that's on the back of the actual cardor a bank statement or something,
and check into it that way,
because the number you callis going to put you in touch
(36:00):
with the bad guys that sent you the email,it's not going to do you much good.
It's going to do you very bad, you know.
Yeah, yeah,
it's and it's interesting to me too,because the banks aren't
completely getting this.
And this is a true storyabout six months ago, I was online
ordering, some stuff for an arcadecabinet and get the Facebook.
And there's this thing that there were,you know, some accessories on sale.
(36:22):
It was 11:00 at night.I was going through.
I did not check it. This was my fault.
But I went on to go,okay, this is a good thing.
I'm going to go ahead and order it.
Turned out to be a fraudulent site.
Facebook Marketplace does not gettheir advertisements very well.
And, you know, fortunately,it was only like $90.
So, I realized that the next morning.
Okay, when I looked at the credit card,there's a pending charge from something
(36:45):
that was in Chinese letters,which is being paid one up.
Yeah.
And this is what really got me.
I called American Express to let them knowthere's been a false charge.
You know, right away.
Well, we can't do anything about ituntil the charge actually post.
But you need to call them backand see if they'll remove the charge.
Let me try really scammers.
And and that's what I was told to doI couldn't. Yes.
(37:08):
So, Yeah.
So there's a lot to be learned.
Both businessand personal things on this kind of stuff.
And things that we're going to have todeal with is this continues down the road.
Now, the other side of thisis robotics and cybernetics.
Okay.
So the definition of a cyborg isyou have at least one mechanical implant
that senses
(37:28):
something on your body and manipulatesyour body based on what it sends.
Okay.
That's a that's essentially a definition.
So by strict definition,a pacemaker would make you a cyborg.
Yeah. In my case,I have an inspire implant.
That's what I was talking about.
And some other guys with the inspireimplant senses when I'm having a moment
of sleep apneaand stimulates muscles to eliminate that.
(37:51):
No, no, the CPAp machine has beenquite nice, but that is cybernetics.
Now, where this is going on downthe road is we're seeing
a lot of the technologieswe have in medical
that are essentially being upgraded.
Bionic knees, bionic hands.
Okay.
So arm and leg extremity
replacements, somethingthat's been around for a while now.
(38:14):
But they are mechanical.
They're getting to a point now wherethe machine can interface with your brain
and be able to reactand interact in the exact
same way that your natural leg or armor whatever would have been able to do.
We're seeing this inthings like art replacement
and other stuff of that nature,and this is something where this can go
(38:36):
really build a quality of life,different type of things.
Now, of course, when you go thereyou can add sensors
and different things that wouldn'tnormally exist in the original bio,
you know, material.
And one of the things that I think isinteresting is a concept called smart
prosthetics network controlled,adaptive and Future Ready.
(38:56):
They connect to the 5G networkon the device.
Cloud computing and machinebased neural learning helps
to improve control and adaptability.
On one side of it, that's great,but on the other side,
what could possibly go wrongwhen somebody has to weigh,
oh no, I've got restless leg
syndrome for serious, seriously,
(39:17):
it's.
Yeah, I do think people
I think cyberpunk, kind of describes
that because, you know,you can hack somebody's cybernetics.
Yeah.
And it certainly would be possible,you know, true cybernetics.
You're going to have a controlunit of some kind built in.
What is it.
What is it?
(39:37):
Control run pulls out a cyber deckand there's other names for it,
but it's kind ofyour central control system
that interfaces between your biologicaland your machine parts.
And yeah, you would want to protect thatat all costs that somebody can't get in
and hack you in this possiblyis already a thing and it's getting there.
So then the next thing that comes upfrom that kind of stuff is this argument
(40:01):
that's coming out.
That would have been something you wouldhave seen in a movie not so long ago,
is what is a prostheticand what is an upgrade.
So right now,today, I can go have my wrist replaced.
There's a site online that does that.
My wrists are fine, but I could still gohave them replaced with something
that would have more power,you know, that kind of thing to it.
(40:22):
And you can get them even wherethey're scanned to look like Iron
Man or whatever you would want it to be.
Now, is that elective surgery?
Are you upgrading your body?Is it a prosthetic?
You know, what are you actually doing?
I don't like using the cyberpunk analogywith these type of things,
but using it the wrong way.
You could go down a very dark roadwith that.
And the technology is here,
(40:45):
you know, basically now it's eitherbeing developed or it's already here.
So it'sa situation of like any technology, it's
not about the technology itself.
It's about what you do with it.
Talking about somethingfrom the last century, nuclear energy,
this type of a thing from one standpoint,it's a bomb can blow things up, destroy
(41:06):
life on Earth from another one.
It can produce clean energyuntil your reactor melts down
because you built it wrong or something.
But it can produce energy
and do some thingsfrom that kind of a standpoint.
So there's, you know, uses for some ofthe technology itself is benign.
It's what you do with it.
And that'sI think that's a lot of the same thing
with implantsand all of these type of things. Now,
you know, I've been asked in the past,but what do you think about it?
(41:26):
I'm all for it.
I'd be I'd be not cyberpunk, but I'd bethe person that would go in and,
you know, change what I can changeand all of that.
And I'd have a problem with it.
As long as number one, I have completecontrol over it, I can turn it off.
I know where it was manufactured.
And my goodness,if it's online, I have, you know, complete
control over that of that system as well,my friend.
(41:47):
You'd what you'd want thethe items to be constructed
by rational peoplewho aren't trying to make a quick buck,
people who care about whether you're goingto have an allergic reaction,
whether it functionswell with the rest of the body.
These are all really important,complicated factors to think about.
(42:09):
And so I kind of deal with some of thisin my cyber hock books.
Yeah.
And I have to think about whatkind of problems good and bad can occur.
And you know, at the end of the day,I think it would be other cyborgs
that would maintain it,because you'd also have to have someone
that knows what it isto have that kind of equipment, you know?
(42:30):
Yeah.
And obviously people you can trust,I mean, this is all stuff
that we are going to have to addressand deal with.
And one of the thing
that is a thing that you could do rightnow is something called biohacking.
And this is using implanted technology,very basic implant technology
in some ways to do certain thingslike start your Tesla,
you know, or things of that nature.
(42:52):
I think with some of the cyberneticsthat are coming out,
you'll be able to be the key to your carif you want.
You know, stuff like that.
Some of this is already possible.
Some of it is going to be herevery, very soon.
Is the technology to do itactually already exists?
It may just not be in a waythat you can get to it just yet.
So, you know, you look into this
(43:14):
and you have to start talkingabout the ethics,
the moral construct for different people,because different people
are going to think of thesein different ways
what it can do,what it can't do, and all of that.
And that's talking about cybernetics,
where you still have a human involvedin some capacity.
Now the next one is robotics.
There is a number of different companies
(43:36):
that are really doingwell at producing robotics.
I mean, you know, you you,
like spot the dog
if you've ever seen that on,why Boston Dynamics.
Yeah. The Boston Dynamics. Yeah.
It's not really a dog,a creature that can run around and
they're going and kicking it overand all this kind of stuff.
And I'm thinking,oh, that's not a nice thing to do.
(43:58):
And, you know, but no, it's not.And then it gets back up.
Oh yeah. Sobut these things are our robot.
They have a program that's running them.
They're operating off of that.
And that's basically the end of it.
But what you're seeing is directionwhere we're going to be essentially
combining cybernetics, bionics, roboticsand AI and going to end up
(44:20):
with something very different,you know when that happens.
So you knowfrom that kind of a standpoint,
you know question is we reach outwhere is this going to end.
Well you know Ironman I'm
Gretchen is you do you are learning to flyan actual real jetpack.
That does work. Yeah.
You know and it's usable.
(44:40):
Yep. Technology was before 2017when, Richard Browning
actually started working onthis was completely,
completely with an astronaut sciencefiction in the 1950s.
They did have a jetpackfor a little while.
They were working on a few problemsthat could only stay in the air for 30s,
for one thing, and was not very user
(45:03):
friendly in the sense of being ableto steal and all the rest of it.
Gravity's pax.
And I can say from personal experience,
you know, itis something that I'm I'm not there yet.
Hopefullysomeday I'll learn it at this point.
But those that can fly these things will.
It looks just completely effortless.
Yeah, it does look effortless.
It's impressive.
Now watch some of those videosand it makes you wonder, oh, is this real?
(45:28):
Just like with some of the robotsthat I've seen, I wonder is that
I know the Boston dynamic ones are real,but then I see some of these other ones
from Asia and I go, are those realor are they messing with us?
You know, if
and that's really what it comes down tobecause you're, you're,
you know, you're talking about somethingwhere
(45:49):
again, is what you're seeing propagandaor is it something that's real?
And enough of this stuff exists
now that is real,that you can't just write it off anymore.
And this second part of it is, is okay,you know what's going on with it.
What happens when the AI has to makethe decisions instead of the human?
Well, we're seeing this and what they'recalling self-driving cars.
I don't think we're completely there yet,but we will be someday.
(46:12):
But when the car has to make the decision,okay, I'm going to get it in.
No accident.And then I don't have a choice here.
Do I hit the human in the crosswalk?
Or do I hit the guy in the wheelchairon the sidewalk?
This kind of thinghas already started coming up.
And so you have a machine that's goingto have to make a decision like that,
and that could be a problem, you know?
(46:32):
And that's why I say that is becausethat's one standpoint where that's
something that would be accidentaland that you wouldn't want to have happen.
All right. Let's take another step.
We all know that drones are being usedmore for now.
And I startedto be used to run the drones.
And what they're doing is the humanor in some cases with Implant cyborg.
I'm going to just use that wordbecause that's what it is, is controlling,
(46:53):
a set, a group,a unit of whatever you want
to call it, of robots, whether that's AIor ground pounders or whatever.
And then the AI actually controlsthe individual unit.
So it's like a command or controls the AI,
but the AI makesthe on the ground decisions
like something you've seen out of a movie.
Right? Exactly.
I, I don't know, I was havinga conversation with this with a think tank
(47:15):
a while back, and I said, well, you know,in my case right now, I've got to decide.
I'm already a cyborg, okay, by definition.
So if this keeps going,do I want to be at 800 or 81,000?
If you haven't seen Terminator yet,
you know,and then they got into a big argument.
Is the Terminatoractually a cyborg because of the android?
(47:37):
You know, because it's, the 800 is the one with a, you know,
melting skin and all that.
I'm not sure there arebiological components.
Yeah, that's a good question.
So when are you going toend up like General Grievous?
What is that to I, you know,
Star Trek or Star Wars or Star Trekbefore they blew up the enterprise
(47:58):
and every movie recently or StarWars, Star Trek is idealistic.
Star Wars is more probablywhat the reality would be.
Yeah. You know, in my opinion.
All right.
So we're almost at the end here,but this is a good conversation.
And again,touching on a lot of the questions.
So I mean please continue sending the man.
We'd love to do a Q and A on this.
I'm going to tryto also get a guest on the make
(48:19):
some of the biohacking products to talkabout that a little bit and what it is
and where you can go with thatand just see where it is.
It's going to be interestingto see where we are
when we're closing the year next year,see how much this has changed.
And if it's the three of us really here,
or if you're just going to be listeningto Three Eyes
and tell them this is user friendly.
2.0 keeping you safe on the cuttingedge, user friendly 2.0.
(48:41):
Copyright 2013 to 2025
by User Friendly Media Group incorporated.
All rights reserved.
Content is the opinionof the show's participants
and not necessarily this stationor platform.
Request for material use.
Interviews CcpA Privacy Noticefor California residents,
(49:05):
GDPR information for UK and EU residents
and any other feedbackmay be submitted at userfriendly.show.
We welcome your input.Thank you for listening.
Welcome to We Are TechnologiesUser friendly.
2.0 with host, Bill Sikkens,
technology architect.
And this is User Friendly 2.0I am your host Bill Sikkens.
Welcome to this week'sshow, Bill Gretchen, welcome.
Hello there.
(00:30):
We are in the middle of the 2025 seasonof Giving and user Friendly.
Is proud to supportthe William Temple House in Portland.
This is a great charity.
They've been around for 60 years.
They provide mental health servicesto those
that can't afford it, either lowor no cost, depending on the situation,
and also provide a full food bankwhich this year has been in demand.
(00:52):
I wouldn't say it hasn't been in the band,but more this year.
They're doing a fall fundraising campaign.
Check it out if you want to see whatthey offer or if you can make a donation,
go to William temple.orgor User friendly dot show.
Either one will take you to the rightplace to get some more information.
All right.
Bill, Gretchen, how was your week?
(01:12):
All right.
Yeah, I did some crazy, shopping.
Well, that's that's good.
And enjoy it because, you know,with the onset of AI and everything else
that's going on, there's been a lot ofdifferent things talked about.
But according to Elon Musk, we're notgoing to have to work at all in 20 years.
Now, I don't know what that means
exactly, but,you know that prediction, I'll be dead.
(01:36):
Yeah, that's one possibility, right.
We're going to be talking this weekabout a lot of different things,
including AI, where that's headed,cybernetics, robotics,
answering some of your questionsyou've been sending in that
we haven't gotten to earlier in the year.
And just kind of giving a quick once over,I don't know how quick, but
more of a deep dive,I guess this will be in the second segment
(01:57):
to look at what you know,we might need to fear
and what we don't need to fearand all the rest of that.
And the other big thing isI going to steal your job.
We're going to talkabout that a little bit too.
After the news in this segment,
our guest is going to beon talking about his e-book.
I will leave it to thatand we'll get to that a little bit later
when we get closerto that part of the show.
(02:18):
But before that, let'sgo ahead and jump in to the news.
What do we have this week?
All right.
Shopify suffers an outage at a bad time.
So what is a bad time?
I would think any time would be oh yeah.
Any times a bad timeI'll tell you. You know.
And that's the question though. Hey,you know, what's a bad time?
What's a good time for your websitenot to work. Right.
So Shopify, for anybodythat doesn't know this runs
(02:41):
a lot of businesses, mainlysmall businesses that have web presence.
And they offer credit card processing,the ability to load catalogs
and inventory.
And most of the time,you probably don't know
that you're on a Shopify site when you arethere may or designed to be able
to look like whatever company they are,and they handle the background well.
They had an outage on Cyber Monday.
(03:02):
That was the bad time.
Oh yeah.
And,
this is something that affecteda lot of businesses because Black Friday
weekend, Cyber Monday,
all of these, or the reason they call itthat is because we have for years
because with most businesses,especially retail,
the day after Thanksgiving
when the shopping starts iswhen they get into the black,
(03:23):
which is the term forwe are now in profit.
So it's a very, very important time.
And with all of that moving onlineas it has in recent years,
if your website doesn't workduring one of the main days,
which Cyber Monday is a big part of thatnow people will go and find the product
somewhere else,the first brand loyalty and stuff.
They might want to come back,but this is just something
(03:43):
that you don't want to have happen.
We've had a lot of outages, as we'vetalked about over the last few months,
from Amazon to Microsoft to others, thisbeing another one for a different reason.
As of right now, the explanationthat's been given is just simply
that they had a problem.
Well, I could have told you thatwithout reading their explanation.
Get more details on it.
We'll certainly talk about it.
(04:04):
But this is something that I arewe are technology
and we have several clientsthat do use Shopify.
And this was a major problemand there was no way to switch to a backup
or anything else.
So on the positive side for Shopify,I have not heard about this
happening often.
In fact, I think this is the first timeI've ever heard about a real problem.
There's been some quirks with it, thewhere it's actually gone down like that,
(04:26):
but just that was not theday to have it happen. And
also the term in the red meantthat you were in debt.
Yeah, exactly.
I used to use, redink for when the money was leaving
and black ink for when the moneywas coming in the books.
Yeah, exactly.So that's where that saying comes from.
(04:47):
From in the black,because now you're in black ink.
Red ink is bad. Blackink is good. Right? So.
Right.
Cambridge scientists
successfully reverse human skin cells age.
So this is an interesting thing.
And they're talking about a reprogramingprocess is what they're calling this.
(05:10):
And this is one of those thingsthat I'm going to preface with.
I'd like to actually see this.I completely believe it.
Although looking at it,it looks like it is not an exact study.
It's if it is, it'sreally kind of a cool thing because there
and this is the part of itthat made me question it
a little bit, is they're claimingto be able to reverse the,
age of your skin cells by about 30 years.
(05:32):
Okay. That would put me at 20.
That would be really nice.
Yeah.
So they're saying that the approach
could be an important steptowards future anti-aging therapies,
although it is still earlyand much more testing needs to be done.
So, you know, the thing of it is,is talking about it from a standpoint,
(05:53):
assuming all of this is asthe study has presented it,
I do know we're we're movingin the direction of having
some technologies at the forefrontthat will do things like this
that we're not,you know, we're science fiction.
Not so long ago.
So the idea that this is possible.
Yeah. It's possible.
Are they up to a point wherethey can reverse your aging by 30 years?
(06:15):
In my opinion, probably not.
But even if it's somewherein the middle of that
or even ten years,that's still a big accomplishment.
Well, well, think of it this way.
If if humans are living longer,
that means our skin needs to last longer.
Yeah, think about it that way.
And if you were able to do somethingto help the skin regenerate,
(06:38):
that could be just useful, right?
Right.
And, you know, and again, all the wayaround, it could be useful, right?
I mean, if you can reverse your agenow, it's not
they're not claimingthey reverse your aging,
but your skin's aging bysomething like that.
Whatever the reason, it be nice to do so.
Yeah.Well so we'll see what happens with that.
If they do say like I say, it's in theearly testing stages and all of that.
(07:01):
And I'm sure if this becomes a thingwhere it really works and is available,
we're going to behearing a lot more about it.
All the movie stars will use it.
Okay.
Japanesehelmet with built in visor is created.
Tell us.
So this is a model called GT three helmets
and developed by the French companyEye Lights.
(07:24):
So basically what it is isit is a motorcycle helmet, as you said.
And in the visor you have a projectorand that projector sends up information
like your speed, your musicthat's playing or talking on the phone,
that kind of thing.
I would imagine mapping and all thatkind of stuff would be a part of this too.
Now, what's interesting about it is,is this type of technology is something
(07:46):
that would be very beneficial.
I'm just a little surprised
that they're just announcing it now,because we've had had displays for a while
and even, you know, 15 years ago,I know it didn't market well,
but with the beginning of all of this,which would arguably be Google Glass
had this type of a technologyand the fact that it's
now being perfected and availableon a consumer level, that's great.
(08:07):
But we're seeing this type of thingalready in glasses and other things
that you can just get upand look at and wear and buy.
So I think it's a good idea.
I think it's great for peoplethat ride bikes, and that type of thing
makes things even safer.
So you're not having to fumble around,you know, just like in a car.
But when you do that on a motorcycle,it's even more dangerous.
(08:27):
And having that available.
Oh, I'm just surprised that
it's at this pointthat it's just coming out.
Teens innovative system eliminates
96% of microplastics from drinking water.
Yeah, and this is absolutely cool.
I was looking into this to try and,you know, because we try to confirm,
(08:51):
stories we get.
And I will say that a good portionof what comes in is,
you know, you don't cover itbecause it's like this.
It might be something more for The onion,but this one is not.
And this is somethingthat is really kind of cool.
I am working on getting this, the inventor of this thing, on the air
(09:11):
next year.
Some time to talk about thisa little bit more.
Because of this, he did a Ted talkand some other things, and I'll get into
names and details here in a minute.
But basically, what we're talking abouthere is microplastics are in everything.
And that causes a lot of problemsbecause they're toxic.
So when you have somethingthat's made out of plastic,
even biodegradable plastic,if it's not recycled properly,
(09:33):
it will break down, break
down, and eventually break down to a pointwhere you don't see it anymore.
But it is definitely still there.
So what ends up happening is this hasgotten into the water, into the air,
into our bodies, into our animals bodies,all of these different type of thing
and something that is very hard, if notimpossible at this point to get away from.
So what you're coming up with hereis a system
(09:55):
that is able to basically filterthe microplastics out of drinking water.
So this is something that would workin, conjunction
with things like your watertreatment plants and all of that.
And then the other part of itthat's really cool.
And this has been an areathat has been somewhat difficult, to do
(10:15):
is that itactually can capture this stuff,
and then they can get itout of the environment and recycle it.
I'm in the plasticat that point could be reused.
So somethingthat if this can be actually automated
and put into,you know, that type of a situation,
I think that this could be somethingthat is a game changer or a game changer.
(10:36):
Yeah, that's the word I'm looking for,really I it absolutely is.
So again, you did this.
And what I'm keeping for the moment isI want to get our interview
set up for next year,but we will put some information.
I'll make sure it gets up onto our socialsto be able to get to the TEDx talk.
What to know about the three Atlas comment
(10:59):
and why people keep talking about aliens.
Yes, so
really Atlas,
for anybody that doesn't know aboutthis is a
comet is what NASA's calling it.
They came from outsideof the solar system.
It's the third interstellar objectthat we've observed ever, meaning
that it's simply that it did not originatewithin our solar system. So.
(11:24):
But the thing of it is, is there'sstuff in space besides just what's here.
I mean, you know, the Earth is not flat,and it's not the center of the universe.
I'm sure I'm going to get some commentson that, but just I believe me, it's not.
So just ignore them.
Yeah.
So in a quick aside on that,there was a meme that came up with it
(11:44):
says, well, this is embarrassing.
Has our solar systemof all the other planets and ours is flat?
Well that's embarrassing.
Yeah, that would be in any of it.
Even the comet has been
exhibiting some unusual behaviorsthat researchers
have not seen in other objects,interstellar or otherwise.
One of them is that it seems to be ableto correct its own ports.
(12:07):
There seems to be exhaustthat changes color.
It went aroundthe sun, used it to launch itself back out
the tail of the comet, which normallygoes away from our normal comet.
The ice is melting,so that's what creates the tail.
And it's going in the opposite directionof where it's moving.
It had an anti tail.
It was going the other way.
And from thatthere's been a lot of speculation
(12:30):
with the idea of is this actually justa naturally occurring thing
or is it something like, you know,an exotic example being an alien spaceship
or even a probe like a Voyager?
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
You know, or something of that nature.
First of all,this wouldn't be impossible.
But the thing of itis, it's a major researcher at Harvard.
(12:51):
We talked about this earlier in the year,has come up with the idea.
He's not saying, well,this is a spaceship, but he's saying,
look at the facts from scientific theoryand scientific method.
There are some things here that require
an open mind to be able to look at thisand see if maybe there is
something else going on that is somethingthat we haven't seen before at all.
(13:13):
From that end, we're getting,
a lot of disinformationI've noticed on the internet
as well as I produce thingsthat make it look like a spaceship.
You know, being reported.
Well,this is the picture NASA took. No, it is.
And if that was the case,there wouldn't be speculation.
But the thing of it is, is at the endof the day, it is also an odd size,
which is also something that,
(13:35):
again, is different from most comets.
Is it impossible?
No, but one of the other thingsthat really has surprised
people is the emissions of this thinginclude elements like arsenic.
But upuntil now, we've only found in refined,
you know, modern technologywhere these things are made.
So again, it's certainly possiblethis is all naturally occurring,
(13:56):
which is something very unusual.
And on the other end of the spectrum, it'scertainly possible that this is
something that is completely new and,you know, game changing would be the case.
Now people talk about this kind of stuff.
Stephen Hawking said that meeting aliens
could be very negative for humanity.
Yeah, that'sone of the things that drives, all this,
(14:18):
you know, a lot of this kindof speculation and stuff in respect
to the idea of what happenedwhen the Europeans got to North America,
as if, for example, as we all know, thatwent very badly for the Native Americans.
And there are a lot of storieslike this in our history.
Now, if we're going to talk about aliens
and look at thisfrom a scientific approach,
(14:38):
I personally would think that, number one,
if this was possible,they'd already be here.
Probably,we might not know it, but number two,
I don't see where express rulesthat have the ability to create spaceships
have this type of technologywould want to take over this planet
if I was one of them.
And figure out what's going on,I think I just let my ship
(14:59):
in the opposite directionand go as fast as I could.
Thesepeople are crazy, you know, to look at it.
And but the thing of it is, is thereprobably isn't that much difference
either.
You know, Roswell, when all that happened,hey, maybe it was one of their kids
got a hold of a saucer shipand took it on a joyride
and crashed it into the desert.We all know.
Oh, yeah.
(15:19):
Oh, yeah,that would be, I'd be a big ol bet.
Dad, I crashed the spaceship.
Yeah.
You know, it's like,
can you imagine this is bad enoughthat I crashed your brand new BMW?
I think this would even be worse.
So, in fact, I'm quite sure it would.
But, you know, again,at the end of the day,
very likely.
I mean, you know,you've look at the numbers and everything,
(15:41):
there's very likely I would almost sayyou can't say with certainty, but 99%
that there are other speciesthat live in this universe
and other intelligencesand all of that kind of stuff.
And, you know, again, people are worried.
Well, the other side of itis, is having this technology
and things they might show upand try to help us.
In fact,I think they would be much more likely
(16:01):
because if they were going to invadewould be invaded, you know,
you know, reality. Yeah.
And so there might bea very positive direction
that something like that could go to nowis I Atlas an alien spaceship.
Well, look at the evidenceand decide for yourself what you think.
Generally speaking,
(16:21):
the reality that those in
these mindsets believe is thatit is just an unusual planet.
But there are other peoplethat are credible scientists
that seem to be suggesting otherwise.
And I'll tell you this if it is turns outto be aliens, I don't know.
Would it be ancient aliens?
I mean, history is going to have to dosomething with that history channel.
All right.
(16:41):
So I guess it's entirely.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, anyway.
All right, well, that's our news.
Let'sgo ahead and get over to our interview
and find out about e-booksand some things dealing with that.
There we go.
Joining us now, Luke Sanders,author, podcaster and many other things.
Welcome to User Friendly.
(17:01):
Thank you. Thank you for havingme. I'm glad to be here.
So instead of me trying to sit here
and describe all the things you do,I'm just going to throw it to you.
Luca, tell us a little bit about yourself
and your podcastand your upcoming e-book.
I know those weresome of the things on the agenda.
Yeah, absolutely.
So my name is Luke Sandersand Indianapolis native,
if you don't know too much by Indianapolisbabyfaces from here, people like that
(17:25):
come I start here worked on web seriesand at that place on Amazon.
Then I went into radio and transitionedinto podcasting with podcasting.
I've been able to be a nine timetop ranked Apple
podcast host,and with radio, I earn two certificates.
Thank you.
And then nowI'm interested in being an author.
So I had my first book, my debut book,Luke's Dreamland Superhero in a movie.
(17:49):
So I'm super excited about that.
So that story is not based of my life,but is inspired by my life,
like some things are differentabout the character,
but he's a six yearold boy, has a big imagination,
lucid dreamer, and yeah,the possibilities are endless with him.
All right, so let's dive into thata little bit more.
Talk about the book.
And, you know,when you're going to be releasing it yet
(18:12):
and tell us a little bit about
why don't give us any spoilers,but a little bit about the story.
No. So the book came out on Tuesday, soit's been out for, a couple of days now.
But really, about the book.
So not giving too much away, we noticedabout a dreams about a superhero,
but the synopsis is he goes to sleepafter watching his favorite movie
about a superhero, and he wakes upand he's that superhero in that dream.
(18:36):
And, he learns very quicklythat it's not all about fun and games.
You have to, in a very quickly.
That is so true of superheroes.
I think, you know, I know, yeah, there'salways that journey of of discovering.
Oops, it's not as easy as it looks.
Yeah, but how do people find your book?
You have a website or go to Amazonwith Access Point?
(18:58):
Absolutely.
So you call meI loopy Sanders on social media platforms,
you also can search on Apple Books,and you also can buy it online on Barnes
and Nobles and other places, as wellother places online.
All right.
So I will include thatin our social media.
So the link is out there.
But thanks so much. I'm curious what's up.
Yeah, I haveI have a question, why just an e-book and
(19:22):
and not not a printed versionor maybe just not.
Yeah. Question.
I am self-published,so this is just a start.
So for
audience is 1 to 5 year olds, but,it's getting started.
First time book, first time author.
Oh, terrific.
Thank you. Gratulations.
Now I want to ask about some other thingsin your bio here.
(19:43):
You say you're a filmmakerand I've worked in that too.
Tell us a little bit about that.
That sounds interesting.
So I have a webseries called Luke's IV Chronicles
which basically, chronicled my lifethrough college.
And I'm bringing it backfor a two part special.
So it's really about the third season,but it's put together in two parts
with the 21 minuteformat for each episode,
(20:04):
and it's at the same showthat people have seen before.
As much more fun as all the love andediting that deserve a first go around.
And, yeah, it's a it's a great time.
So it's about me going back to college.
It's also about real lifeand catastrophes happening.
We try to take a podcastand go back to school days later.
It's real.Life is fun. Life is everything.
(20:26):
And so, you know, writing a bookand doing the web series
and everything else to do, it sounds,you know, there's so many things
what goes into something like this,but what is it taking you to actually get
to the pointwhere you're both ready to go out
and actually get your, series ready to where it was to go out?
I mean, I know there's a lot going on,but you talk about that a little bit.
Great. Yeah, absolutely.
The book.
(20:46):
So I came up with the titleand the idea two years ago.
I was lookingwhen would be a good time to release it,
and, this was a good timefor me to release it, but,
yeah, really held it back to make surethe manuscript was where I wanted to be.
I designed the cover.
So I really wanted to work hard on that.
And then with the web series,I'm kind of a one man
(21:06):
show when it comes to like, the editingand the story of it all.
And because it's a docu web series, it's
not a reality show,but it's that web series.
So people don't know.
It's like a documentary,but it series format.
But, yeah, takes a lot of blood, sweatand tears.
Time, patience.
Going back to the drawing board whenyou know this different stuff happens.
So takes time.
(21:28):
Yeah, I the reason I,I think it is absolutely amazing
when you see content creatorssuch as yourself being able to actually do
this, as you say, a one man showand a bigger production.
You have all these people aroundto do all these different things.
But, when you do ityourself, you're wearing a lot of hats.
You and have to really knowa lot of different things,
you know, to pull it offproperly. So that's great.
(21:48):
Thank you.
Is thereanything else you'd like to talk about?
Reallyjust getting the word out about this book.
I'm really excited about it.
I made, like, I made him kind of like.
Like I said, inspired by me.
Like, his hair is blond,hair is not blond, but is kinky.
So there's different things,that I put into him.
I made him interracial
so he can appeal to kids who are of colorand who are not of color.
(22:12):
So, yeah, just really excited about him,even though he's me and I'm him.
Like, look, it's not the same person, but,
but yeah.
So movie sounds.com.
I'll go ahead.
And Gretchen so I was going to ask you,so do you seem your target audience,
is it mostly childrenor do you think that adults could read it
(22:32):
and enjoy it just as well?
So like if you're, you know, a momand you're reading it to your kid
with the mom, enjoy it too.
Yeah,absolutely. I do. I can say that humbly.
I know I wrote it, but, I do think adults would enjoy it as well
because it's a it's a simple story,but it's a fun story.
It's something that you would really
it will reallyyou will really get immersed in the story
(22:53):
and just seeing all the what it does
and the people that he savesand how this story ends.
And will it be a part too,with the cliffhanger?
Because there's a cliffhangerat the end. So yeah.
But all the way around to have this
underscore is where you go, and we'llinclude that in our social media loop.
Thank you so much for joining usand good luck with this.
Thank you so much.Thank you for having me.
(23:15):
All right.
Next segmentwe are going to be talking about
cybernetic bionics artificial intelligence
and answering some of your questionsand looking at the actual state
that this is the onewhere it's probably headed, given
some of our opinion,this is user friendly 2.0.
We'll be back after the break.
Snow's coming down, and,
(23:37):
I'm watching at home.
You know, I love people around and maybe.
Please come up in the church bell now.
Welcome back. This is user friendly 2.0.
Check out our show at User FriendlyDot show.
That's your one stop for everythinguser friendly back episode.
(24:00):
Submitting your questions and comments.
Looking at our blog,which we promise to start writing again
this year and did twice and stopped.
So we're going to havethat be a New Year's resolution.
How's that? Gretchen? Oh goody.
I've been busy. I've been really busy.
I have these things called novelsthat I've been fretting over.
Yeah, yeah, you got it.
Speaking of which, before we getinto our topic today, how's it going?
(24:23):
All right.
School Journal is out almost now.
It is almost out. Yes.
And, after, you know, monkeying aroundwith formatting and,
and all kinds of technicalities,we're getting, like, super duper close.
Yep, yep.
So it's, it's going to bethe we're actually going to cover this
in a little more detail next weekbecause it will be out by then.
(24:44):
You know, so what we're going to get youthe details on it and how to find it.
It's turned out to be an amazing book too.
So, I think you're going to probablyreally enjoy it anyway, that being said,
let's dive into the topic that we're goingrobotics,
cybernetics, AI, and so on in your bookactually goes into that a little bit too.
So that's appropriate sorta.
So let's let's talk about some things
(25:08):
that ten years ago were completely sciencefiction.
And today are an absolute reality.
And one thing I can say on that front,
with all honesty is I am a cyborg.
And I will explain thata little bit later on.
This is called your teasethat you need to listen to this segment.
(25:30):
So let's start with AI.
Okay?
We've talked about this a lotthis year, as any technology show has,
because it is proving itselfto be somewhat groundbreaking,
a little bit more than I thoughtit would be a year ago.
And there's both sidesof the argument on this,
but we'll get into herein just a second on how this is used.
(25:51):
Now, Bill, I know you're concerned
and I've talked about itupstaging and replacing artists.
And why don't you commenton that for a minute?
Just because this is a big thing.
People are asking questions about?
Well, when it first started out,it was easy to determine
whether it was an AI picture or not.
And now that it's been a year sinceyou know, those softwares have been out,
(26:14):
the AI now being done to get betterand better at it, and it becomes
harder and harder to determineif it's been AI generated or not.
And it has taken away a lot of jobs
that, was previously for artists.
And we're going to dive into the jobsthing
in a minute here, because that is one areathat is directly affecting
(26:36):
artists, graphic designers,that whole area of expertise.
Now, Gretchen, you're a artist.
I mean, you write novels and are an artistand these type of things.
And I know we're just talkingabout High School Journal.
You've used AI not to write the book,but for some of the editing process.
And this,I think, would be a positive thing.
Can you talk about that a little bit?
(26:56):
Actually, it's really been helpfulas far as the editing process.
But you have to be mindfulthat when you use one of these
AI to help you edit that, you don'tjust accept everything that it suggests,
because I have seen a couple of instanceswhere it made a suggestion
(27:17):
that would change the meaning ofthe sentence, you don't want to do that.
So this is a tool that you work closelywith.
Like, all right.
When I went to college,they did not train me
how to write for, like, like a novel.
It was only expository.
(27:38):
And so I didn't learn the properpunctuation
for, conversations in a textbook.
Okay, I didn't learn that.
And so I'm startingto learn the punctuation
from the softwarebecause it keeps correcting me.
I keep making the same mistake.
And so I'm learningwhile it's it's telling me, hey,
(28:01):
you need to do that,but it's something you work with. It.
And, you have to be careful because a lot of it
seems like theAI that I'm using is business oriented.
It's mindset is focused on
helping businesspeople write factual documents.
(28:21):
So when I'm using it, I'm doingfictional characters,
I have children,I have adults who are maybe less educated.
I have to be careful that I don't let
this suggest the wrong thingsfor the characters.
So you have to use your brain.
So it's ait's it's a companion, it's a helper.
(28:42):
But it does not replace the writer. Okay.
It doesn't come up with the ideas.
I do write in the.
Now, the thing of it is,is it? Conceivably it could.
And I think that'swhere Bill's coming from.
The fact that he's the writer,you know. Right.
I tend to look atAI is it's like the backup camera.
Most newer cars have a backupcamera is shift in a reverse
and the camera turns
on the original goal of that was
(29:02):
you would look in the mirror andthen have an additional in the lookout.
A lot of people just look at the backupcamera.
It's it's not meant to replacewhat you would normally do.
And I think that analogykind of connects here
because you look at something like artnow, not the monitor monetization
of it, graphic artistand that type of thing.
But true artists was about sitting downand creating something from nothing.
(29:25):
It's a skillthat not a lot of people have,
and those that do have it are unique,and it really is something to look at.
I've often said before, I can't drawa straight line, but I love art.
I know what I like, right?
So from that type of a standpoint,
you're going to still have artistscreating art.
But Bill, like you said, it'sgetting to a point where you can't tell
what's made by a human,what's made by machine anymore.
(29:47):
And and even a year ago, you couldnow there's still
some stuff in there right now, today,I think if you really take a look at it,
you can pick it out.
But at the rate it's going another year,that might not even be here either.
So now you look at industryand things like graphic design
or commissioned artists or anything elsethat is a moneymaking venture
of being an artist,is that going to affect those jobs?
(30:10):
Well, yes, it certainly will.
And it certainly already has.
Now, I know from my own standpoint
that some of the stuff that we work infor clients and that type of a thing,
a lot of the area is that I wouldexperience is things like logos
and other assets like that, things like,like Jeremy would have produced back
when,you know, he was around and doing that.
(30:33):
I know from
my own standpoint,I have yet to go to an I have tried,
I have yet to go to an AI and say, hey,this is what I want, make me a logo.
It does, but it looks something.
It's just not the creative component
that would exist fromthis is what I want it to be is not there.
So what ends up happening?
You're wanting to build logos
(30:54):
for a lot of different stuffand don't care about that.
And yeah, now you've just displaced jobs
from the graphic designersthat would normally have been doing it.
But there's another part of this
where and it's the waythat I've been as I've been able to get it
to come up with conceptsI like that I wouldn't have been able
to create on my own.
And then we have been handing those offto an actual graphic designer
that then takes it and makes the real logoand that kind of stuff.
(31:17):
So again, this is somethingthat has a lot of moving parts
because it's changing so much.
So today as we stand, will not be wherewe're at a year or even a month from now.
And it's a good idea in theseprofessionals to keep an eye on that.
And I think that this is one areawhere it would be nice if government
caught up a little bit not said, well,you can't use AI for artwork, but
(31:38):
definitely said that you have to declare,
you know where this stuff originated.
I noticed Gretchen, in publishing yourbook and stuff and working with Amazon,
there's a checkboxnow that, you know, is this AI generated?
You have to you know, some of the biggercompanies are already doing this,
and it's nothing againstI think it's an amazing tool.
I think it is something that I have foundhas really helped me with programing
(31:59):
and other things.
But there are hallucinationsand that kind of stuff,
and you can't take everything as you say,just here it is.
A lot of people do and likelooking in your mirror and nothing else.
Knowledge.
You see articles and stuff that arewritten by AI that have not been vetted.
You can tell.You can tell most of the time.
And also
at the end of the day,it is going to replace a lot of
(32:22):
outside commercial artists.
Yeah, a lot of the commercial people.
We're going to see that change,
and I think we're going to see a change,just like when we went from,
you know, using Movable Type and Blue Lineand all of that kind of stuff
to having computers.
There was a huge change in the industryat that point, too.
You used to have type setters and peoplewho would, create these layouts
(32:44):
and things, and then all of a suddenthe computer did it right.
And so that was a big change.
So now some of the other areas to just
doing some research to talk about thisthat I found is
it is actually adding in many wayswhere it is
giving additional artistic endeavorsthat wouldn't have existed before.
Things like you, list your houseon the market, and AI creates the rooms
(33:08):
so that you can see what it look likewith furniture in it, that type of thing.
Now, this is not somethinga graphic artist would have done.
It's not something that would have beena thing before I was here to do that.
So that's not replacing a job, that'sjust adding on to what it what it can do.
So I think, to be perfectly honest,are we going to see job loss?
Have we already in artistic graphic arts.
(33:29):
Things like architecture.
Yeah we are.
And it's very leastit's going to change it.
There will still be commissioned artists.
There will still be peoplethat create art for art's sake.
But all through history,it's been known that it's very rare
that an artist is rich.
Yeah, it tends to be, you know,after their lifetime, things become good
and that kind of stuff.
(33:51):
And the last 40 or 50 years artistshave been able to monetize their work.
And I think that one thingthat will happen with
this is we're going to have whatI call a SAG moment.
What I'm talking aboutthere is a view of two years ago
now when the Screen ActorsGuild went on strike
because they were trying to useAI to replace actors in movies.
And today, couldthere needs to be some rules
(34:14):
that we live by to make surethat we aren't eliminating artists,
because that's not a thing that you want,because art is important,
real art is very important,and that's something that can't go away.
And if it does, that wouldreally diminish society in my opinion.
You know, I agree.
So that being said, I think definitely
(34:36):
what we've been talking about hereis that it is a tool.
It is a very useful toolwhen used in the right way.
But you go to college and try to use
AI to write all of your papers,even if you get away with it,
you're not accomplishing anythingbecause yeah, you got to
maybe get the degree,but you're not going to know
what it is that you have a degreein. Not really.
(34:57):
You're not going to understand
and be able to producewhen you're out in the real world.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Some of the dangerous parts of this
are talking about jobsand all that kind of stuff.
Some of the more dangerous parts
is the bad guys, hackersand so on, or using AI for those sorts.
And one of the things is,as with all these scams,
we've talked about itmany times, you get an email that you're,
(35:19):
you know, how to charge your credit cardand it's going to post
if you didn't really make the charge.So you better call us.
And there's a phone number.
Now, even a year ago, you looked at thisand you could see some things
that were out of whack.
You know, the logo might be wrong orin the wrong place where it's misspelled.
That kind of thing just didn'tlook right today with using AI.
It can look pretty much perfect.
You don't notice it anymore.
(35:40):
So from those type of standpoints,you have to take a different approach
that if you need to call about your creditcard,
you never, ever use anythingthat's in a message that you've received,
whether it's text or email or whateverwebsite you go to, your card, all the bank
with the number
that's on the back of the actual cardor a bank statement or something,
and check into it that way,
because the number you callis going to put you in touch
(36:00):
with the bad guys that sent you the email,it's not going to do you much good.
It's going to do you very bad, you know.
Yeah, yeah,
it's and it's interesting to me too,because the banks aren't
completely getting this.
And this is a true storyabout six months ago, I was online
ordering, some stuff for an arcadecabinet and get the Facebook.
And there's this thing that there were,you know, some accessories on sale.
(36:22):
It was 11:00 at night.I was going through.
I did not check it. This was my fault.
But I went on to go,okay, this is a good thing.
I'm going to go ahead and order it.
Turned out to be a fraudulent site.
Facebook Marketplace does not gettheir advertisements very well.
And, you know, fortunately,it was only like $90.
So, I realized that the next morning.
Okay, when I looked at the credit card,there's a pending charge from something
(36:45):
that was in Chinese letters,which is being paid one up.
Yeah.
And this is what really got me.
I called American Express to let them knowthere's been a false charge.
You know, right away.
Well, we can't do anything about ituntil the charge actually post.
But you need to call them backand see if they'll remove the charge.
Let me try really scammers.
And and that's what I was told to doI couldn't. Yes.
(37:08):
So, Yeah.
So there's a lot to be learned.
Both businessand personal things on this kind of stuff.
And things that we're going to have todeal with is this continues down the road.
Now, the other side of thisis robotics and cybernetics.
Okay.
So the definition of a cyborg isyou have at least one mechanical implant
that senses
(37:28):
something on your body and manipulatesyour body based on what it sends.
Okay.
That's a that's essentially a definition.
So by strict definition,a pacemaker would make you a cyborg.
Yeah. In my case,I have an inspire implant.
That's what I was talking about.
And some other guys with the inspireimplant senses when I'm having a moment
of sleep apneaand stimulates muscles to eliminate that.
(37:51):
No, no, the CPAp machine has beenquite nice, but that is cybernetics.
Now, where this is going on downthe road is we're seeing
a lot of the technologieswe have in medical
that are essentially being upgraded.
Bionic knees, bionic hands.
Okay.
So arm and leg extremity
replacements, somethingthat's been around for a while now.
(38:14):
But they are mechanical.
They're getting to a point now wherethe machine can interface with your brain
and be able to reactand interact in the exact
same way that your natural leg or armor whatever would have been able to do.
We're seeing this inthings like art replacement
and other stuff of that nature,and this is something where this can go
(38:36):
really build a quality of life,different type of things.
Now, of course, when you go thereyou can add sensors
and different things that wouldn'tnormally exist in the original bio,
you know, material.
And one of the things that I think isinteresting is a concept called smart
prosthetics network controlled,adaptive and Future Ready.
(38:56):
They connect to the 5G networkon the device.
Cloud computing and machinebased neural learning helps
to improve control and adaptability.
On one side of it, that's great,but on the other side,
what could possibly go wrongwhen somebody has to weigh,
oh no, I've got restless leg
syndrome for serious, seriously,
(39:17):
it's.
Yeah, I do think people
I think cyberpunk, kind of describes
that because, you know,you can hack somebody's cybernetics.
Yeah.
And it certainly would be possible,you know, true cybernetics.
You're going to have a controlunit of some kind built in.
What is it.
What is it?
(39:37):
Control run pulls out a cyber deckand there's other names for it,
but it's kind ofyour central control system
that interfaces between your biologicaland your machine parts.
And yeah, you would want to protect thatat all costs that somebody can't get in
and hack you in this possiblyis already a thing and it's getting there.
So then the next thing that comes upfrom that kind of stuff is this argument
(40:01):
that's coming out.
That would have been something you wouldhave seen in a movie not so long ago,
is what is a prostheticand what is an upgrade.
So right now,today, I can go have my wrist replaced.
There's a site online that does that.
My wrists are fine, but I could still gohave them replaced with something
that would have more power,you know, that kind of thing to it.
(40:22):
And you can get them even wherethey're scanned to look like Iron
Man or whatever you would want it to be.
Now, is that elective surgery?
Are you upgrading your body?Is it a prosthetic?
You know, what are you actually doing?
I don't like using the cyberpunk analogywith these type of things,
but using it the wrong way.
You could go down a very dark roadwith that.
And the technology is here,
(40:45):
you know, basically now it's eitherbeing developed or it's already here.
So it'sa situation of like any technology, it's
not about the technology itself.
It's about what you do with it.
Talking about somethingfrom the last century, nuclear energy,
this type of a thing from one standpoint,it's a bomb can blow things up, destroy
(41:06):
life on Earth from another one.
It can produce clean energyuntil your reactor melts down
because you built it wrong or something.
But it can produce energy
and do some thingsfrom that kind of a standpoint.
So there's, you know, uses for some ofthe technology itself is benign.
It's what you do with it.
And that'sI think that's a lot of the same thing
with implantsand all of these type of things. Now,
you know, I've been asked in the past,but what do you think about it?
(41:26):
I'm all for it.
I'd be I'd be not cyberpunk, but I'd bethe person that would go in and,
you know, change what I can changeand all of that.
And I'd have a problem with it.
As long as number one, I have completecontrol over it, I can turn it off.
I know where it was manufactured.
And my goodness,if it's online, I have, you know, complete
control over that of that system as well,my friend.
(41:47):
You'd what you'd want thethe items to be constructed
by rational peoplewho aren't trying to make a quick buck,
people who care about whether you're goingto have an allergic reaction,
whether it functionswell with the rest of the body.
These are all really important,complicated factors to think about.
(42:09):
And so I kind of deal with some of thisin my cyber hock books.
Yeah.
And I have to think about whatkind of problems good and bad can occur.
And you know, at the end of the day,I think it would be other cyborgs
that would maintain it,because you'd also have to have someone
that knows what it isto have that kind of equipment, you know?
(42:30):
Yeah.
And obviously people you can trust,I mean, this is all stuff
that we are going to have to addressand deal with.
And one of the thing
that is a thing that you could do rightnow is something called biohacking.
And this is using implanted technology,very basic implant technology
in some ways to do certain thingslike start your Tesla,
you know, or things of that nature.
(42:52):
I think with some of the cyberneticsthat are coming out,
you'll be able to be the key to your carif you want.
You know, stuff like that.
Some of this is already possible.
Some of it is going to be herevery, very soon.
Is the technology to do itactually already exists?
It may just not be in a waythat you can get to it just yet.
So, you know, you look into this
(43:14):
and you have to start talkingabout the ethics,
the moral construct for different people,because different people
are going to think of thesein different ways
what it can do,what it can't do, and all of that.
And that's talking about cybernetics,
where you still have a human involvedin some capacity.
Now the next one is robotics.
There is a number of different companies
(43:36):
that are really doingwell at producing robotics.
I mean, you know, you you,
like spot the dog
if you've ever seen that on,why Boston Dynamics.
Yeah. The Boston Dynamics. Yeah.
It's not really a dog,a creature that can run around and
they're going and kicking it overand all this kind of stuff.
And I'm thinking,oh, that's not a nice thing to do.
(43:58):
And, you know, but no, it's not.And then it gets back up.
Oh yeah. Sobut these things are our robot.
They have a program that's running them.
They're operating off of that.
And that's basically the end of it.
But what you're seeing is directionwhere we're going to be essentially
combining cybernetics, bionics, roboticsand AI and going to end up
(44:20):
with something very different,you know when that happens.
So you knowfrom that kind of a standpoint,
you know question is we reach outwhere is this going to end.
Well you know Ironman I'm
Gretchen is you do you are learning to flyan actual real jetpack.
That does work. Yeah.
You know and it's usable.
(44:40):
Yep. Technology was before 2017when, Richard Browning
actually started working onthis was completely,
completely with an astronaut sciencefiction in the 1950s.
They did have a jetpackfor a little while.
They were working on a few problemsthat could only stay in the air for 30s,
for one thing, and was not very user
(45:03):
friendly in the sense of being ableto steal and all the rest of it.
Gravity's pax.
And I can say from personal experience,
you know, itis something that I'm I'm not there yet.
Hopefullysomeday I'll learn it at this point.
But those that can fly these things will.
It looks just completely effortless.
Yeah, it does look effortless.
It's impressive.
Now watch some of those videosand it makes you wonder, oh, is this real?
(45:28):
Just like with some of the robotsthat I've seen, I wonder is that
I know the Boston dynamic ones are real,but then I see some of these other ones
from Asia and I go, are those realor are they messing with us?
You know, if
and that's really what it comes down tobecause you're, you're,
you know, you're talking about somethingwhere
(45:49):
again, is what you're seeing propagandaor is it something that's real?
And enough of this stuff exists
now that is real,that you can't just write it off anymore.
And this second part of it is, is okay,you know what's going on with it.
What happens when the AI has to makethe decisions instead of the human?
Well, we're seeing this and what they'recalling self-driving cars.
I don't think we're completely there yet,but we will be someday.
(46:12):
But when the car has to make the decision,okay, I'm going to get it in.
No accident.And then I don't have a choice here.
Do I hit the human in the crosswalk?
Or do I hit the guy in the wheelchairon the sidewalk?
This kind of thinghas already started coming up.
And so you have a machine that's goingto have to make a decision like that,
and that could be a problem, you know?
(46:32):
And that's why I say that is becausethat's one standpoint where that's
something that would be accidentaland that you wouldn't want to have happen.
All right. Let's take another step.
We all know that drones are being usedmore for now.
And I startedto be used to run the drones.
And what they're doing is the humanor in some cases with Implant cyborg.
I'm going to just use that wordbecause that's what it is, is controlling,
(46:53):
a set, a group,a unit of whatever you want
to call it, of robots, whether that's AIor ground pounders or whatever.
And then the AI actually controlsthe individual unit.
So it's like a command or controls the AI,
but the AI makesthe on the ground decisions
like something you've seen out of a movie.
Right? Exactly.
I, I don't know, I was havinga conversation with this with a think tank
(47:15):
a while back, and I said, well, you know,in my case right now, I've got to decide.
I'm already a cyborg, okay, by definition.
So if this keeps going,do I want to be at 800 or 81,000?
If you haven't seen Terminator yet,
you know,and then they got into a big argument.
Is the Terminatoractually a cyborg because of the android?
(47:37):
You know, because it's, the 800 is the one with a, you know,
melting skin and all that.
I'm not sure there arebiological components.
Yeah, that's a good question.
So when are you going toend up like General Grievous?
What is that to I, you know,
Star Trek or Star Wars or Star Trekbefore they blew up the enterprise
(47:58):
and every movie recently or StarWars, Star Trek is idealistic.
Star Wars is more probablywhat the reality would be.
Yeah. You know, in my opinion.
All right.
So we're almost at the end here,but this is a good conversation.
And again,touching on a lot of the questions.
So I mean please continue sending the man.
We'd love to do a Q and A on this.
I'm going to tryto also get a guest on the make
(48:19):
some of the biohacking products to talkabout that a little bit and what it is
and where you can go with thatand just see where it is.
It's going to be interestingto see where we are
when we're closing the year next year,see how much this has changed.
And if it's the three of us really here,
or if you're just going to be listeningto Three Eyes
and tell them this is user friendly.
2.0 keeping you safe on the cuttingedge, user friendly 2.0.
(48:41):
Copyright 2013 to 2025
by User Friendly Media Group incorporated.
All rights reserved.
Content is the opinionof the show's participants
and not necessarily this stationor platform.
Request for material use.
Interviews CcpA Privacy Noticefor California residents,
(49:05):
GDPR information for UK and EU residents
and any other feedbackmay be submitted at userfriendly.show.
We welcome your input.Thank you for listening.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.