Episode 88

A.I. and The Future of Fake Firs: Exploring New Technology for Christmas

Published on: 10th December, 2022

Artificial Intelligence, artificial ingredients, artificial Christmas trees... Where do we draw the line?! Come along with me down the rabbit hole, as I explore the capabilities of new technologies, such as: Lensa, the A.I. portrait app, OpenAI's GPT3, and artificial Christmas trees from big box retailers.

Does creating "art" require sentience from the artist? If a computer can create beauty beyond human capabilities, but has no concept of what that even means, does it still hold the same creative value?

If a flawless artistic masterpiece is painted by A.I., is it the creative equivalent of a plastic Christmas tree? Can we even call it art?

Is A.I. art hollow like a dead log?

Does it inspire and bring life or does it lack the critical zest of a human touch?

Are we doomed to a future filled with new pictures, but lacking true art?

Will A.I. improve until it rivals the scriptures and eventually even has heart?

Humans are masterful creators; almost god-like in our ability to bring something from the world of thought into the world of 3D reality. We are made in God's own image. Creation is what we do, and until now, no other animal species in the history of this planet has done it better.

But if we handover our creative tasks to A.I. are we destined to be a species of uncultured swine doomed to walk this Earth void of purpose beyond our roles as valued consumers. Should we be purists when it comes to culture and traditions so that we aren't at-risk of losing them to the passage of time?

If we allow technology to dilute our culture with fake art and fake Christmas trees, what's next? Will we lose the very essence of what it means to be human? Will we still advance as a species if we try to outsource the powers of invention?

Only time will tell...

Please click subscribe/follow on your podcast player!

If you enjoy the show, please be a pal and leave us a 5 star rating and a nice review. It REALLY helps the show get to more people.

Thank you so much for listening!

Keywords: Artificial intelligence; A.I.; Christmas; Dall-E 2; OpenAI; Mid journey; Stable Diffusion; Metaverse; GPT3; ChatGPT; Lensa; Contrastive; generative art; machine learning; algorithm; SEO; Christmas cultural traditions; cultural heritage; end of days.

Ramble by the River Links:

Music:

  • Exits, Felix Johansson Carne.
  • Paradigm Shift, Gavin Luke.
  • Luv, Bomull.
  • Still Fly, Revel Day.
  • Dead Bells, Heyson.
  • Time on Our Side, Ten Towers.
  • Rested, Heyson.
  • Slippers, Frook.
  • Lovey Dovey Christmas, Damma Beats.
  • Naughty List, Heyson.
  • Magic Day, Loving Caliber.
  • Unceasing Snow, Placidic.
  • Baptized and Buried, Will Harrison.
  • Riverboat Rambler, Bo the Drifter.
  • Xmas is Coming, Sure Zetterberg.

Copyright 2022 Ramble by the River LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Transcript
Jeff Nesbitt: [:

Jeff Nesbitt: we're switching it up this week. And the normal episode of Ramble by the River is taking a break. We're taking a week off. We'll be back next week with a regular episode, featuring a guest as usual, the whole shebang.

Jeff Nesbitt: But this week we're taking a break. So rather than leave you hanging. I thought I'd give you access to one of our episodes of ramble on the road. The exclusive subscriber only usually. Companion podcast to Ramble by the River. Ramble on the road is available through Patrion. You can get access to it by going to Ramble by the River dot com and clicking subscribe at the top of the page.

Jeff Nesbitt: Uh, there's no doubt about it. The world is changing quickly. I don't know about you, but I don't want to get left behind.

tt: Artificial intelligence, [:

Jeff Nesbitt: Come along with me down this rabbit hole, as I explore the capabilities of new technologies, such as Lenza the AI portrait app. Open AIS GPT three. And artificial Christmas trees from big box retailers.

Jeff Nesbitt: Does creating art require sentience from the artist. If a computer can create beauty beyond human capabilities, but it has no concept of what that even means. Does it still hold the same creative value? If a flawless artistic masterpiece is painted by an artificial intelligence Is it the creative equivalent of a plastic Christmas tree. Can we even call it art?

Jeff Nesbitt: Is AI art hollow, like a dead log. Does it inspire and bring life? Or does it lack that critical zest of a human touch? Are we doomed to live in a future filled with new pictures, but lacking in any true art.

improve until it rivals the [:

Jeff Nesbitt: Humans are masterful creators, almost godlike in our ability to bring something from the world of thought into the world of three-dimensional reality. We're made in God's own image. It says so right in the Bible. Look it up. Creation is what we do. And until now no other species in the history of this planet has done it better.

Jeff Nesbitt: But is that about to change? If we hand over our creative tasks to AI. Are we destined to be a species of uncultured, swine doomed to walk this earth, void of purpose beyond our roles as consumers. Should we be purist when it comes to culture and traditions so that we aren't at risk of losing them to the passage of time.

Jeff Nesbitt: If we allow technology to dilute our culture with fake art and fake Christmas trees. What's next. will we still advance as a species? If we try to outsource the powers of invention. Will we lose the very essence of what it means to be a human. Only time will tell.

Jeff Nesbitt: Stick [:

Jeff Nesbitt: if you'd like to reach out to Ramble by the River on social media, check us out at Ramble by the River on Facebook and Instagram and at Rambleriverpod on Twitter. If you have guest suggestions or you'd like to advertise on the show, you can reach out at admin one at Ramble by the River dot com. all of this information, as well as the most recent episodes and links to the entire catalog. Are available at Ramble by the River dot com.

Jeff Nesbitt: In the episode today we're talking about technology in particular, the new technology of artificial intelligence, primarily generating. Artistic images, also speech, and also a lot of other things. Shit's just really blowing up. So I hope you enjoy this episode. If you like it, please do me a favor and share it.

ng just as simple as a quick [:

Jeff Nesbitt: I don't know. Talk to your roommate. Say, hey. I've been listening to this new podcast. It's really funny. It's comedy, but it's also got heart. They talk about science, they talk about education, they talk about culture, philosophy, all kinds of stuff. You are gonna love it. I've been playing it all throughout the apartment all week.

d like you don't even notice [:

Jeff Nesbitt: ideally somebody from the demographic of. 55 to 75 year old females.

Jeff Nesbitt: That's my target demo,

Jeff Nesbitt: but I digress.

Jeff Nesbitt: Ramble by the River is supported by the generous contributions of our listeners through a thing called Patreon. Patreon is a premium service that allows us to distribute exclusive content to our paid subscribers.

Jeff Nesbitt: This is a way that the Ram Fam has been able to support Ramble by the River and also get a little bit of benefit

t to listen to an episode of [:

Jeff Nesbitt: That will take you right over to Patreon, where you can select your subscription tier and get listening.[00:07:00]

Jeff Nesbitt: So one more time. Thank you to our Patreon subscribers. You guys make this show possible. We love ya and we appreciate ya. One more time. If you'd like to join the Ram famm, head over to Ramble by the River dot com and click that subscribe link right at the top of the page.

All right. All right. Enough. Jibber-jabber from me. Let's get to the main event. Presenting ramble on the road.

A.I. and the Future of Fake Firs: Exploring New Technology for Christmas.

But first. A brief message from our sponsor.

Jeff: [:

Jeff: I'm your host, Jeff Nesbitt, buckle up.

Jeff: Because it's gonna be a bumpy ride .

Jeff: I'm not sure when this is gonna come out, but the date of recording is December 4th. . It's kind. Dormy day,

Jeff: so I'm hoping we still get good sound quality. Apologies if it doesn't sound good, but I think we're gonna be just fine.

Jeff: Feels good to be back. Feels good to be back. I've been doing a lot of podcasting lately. More on the editing side. I just put out several episodes last week, so I'm back into the mode of trying to find guests looking for new topics. Et cetera, et cetera. Left turn

ch I recently started doing, [:

Jeff: The Christmas spirit, it's in the air. Thanksgiving was last week. People are getting their Christmas trees up and my family has a pretty, just. Think holiday tradition where we go cut our own tree down at a ucu lot or somewhere in the forest if we can get away with it.

Jeff: And then, uh, we, you know, go decorate it together. And it's a whole thing. We drink hot coco, we sing holiday songs. It's fun. Last three years though, it's been kind of tricky because all of the good you cut tree places are either going outta business or they are outta trees or the climate is changing and they're just struggling or, I don't know what the deal is, but there used to be a lot more options than there is now.

Nema, , but their trees are [:

Jeff: And the trunk themselves are, you know, probably 10 to 12 inches thick on some of 'em. They're a full blown tree. You just, you can't be doing that. You got, you gotta have it be able to fit in that damn tree. Stand.

Jeff: Oh, I'm really thirsty.

Jeff: Uh, I'm not supposed to stop by the store anymore. I'm not allowed by decree of the Queen,

Jeff: What? I gotta just.

Jeff: be dehydrated. That's just not fair.

Jeff: Just not fair. I work hard. I deserve to stay jaded, but you know, gotta follow the rules.

having company in the truck. [:

Jeff: It's been a long time since I actually did right turn.

Jeff: Boy, I like the holiday season. It's nice. People seem happy, even though it's rainy and gray, which it almost always is during this time of year. It's not that bad. It's not.

Jeff: Left turn.

Jeff: I don't know if anybody else notices, but people drive way faster on 1 0 1 than they used to. I started making this drive between South Bend and the Peninsula, which is like 40 miles of state highway. About 10 years ago and when I started I would see stater after Stater State Highway patrolmen just cruising the strip back and forth.

them with people pulled over [:

Jeff: Also, during that same time, there was the Black Lives Matter protests and cops were getting pretty bad press. There was the whole defund, the police movement, and I imagine it became pretty difficult for cops to enforce the law there for a while. Maybe they just got outta the habit. Writing tickets and it just didn't start again.

I'm gonna pick up the pace. [:

Jeff: I don't know what they're thinking. We're driving through the woods. Animals can run out in front of you at any moment. I mean, not right at this moment. We're in a, , big flooded river valley, but very . Soon we shall be in the woods.

Jeff: I tried a new app today, a new AI app called Lens, and it really, really impressed me. They're getting better so fast. It's crazy. If you've been following the technological updates on the AI art world, then you'll probably be aware of these already.

ty good. I. At the time, but [:

Jeff: And we've gone from what was really abstract and hard to recognize, forms that were still looking artistic. Like they, they were using shading and they were using, you know, composition and color and light and different artistic elements like that. The AIS had started using that stuff in the contrastive pieces and that had a huge effect.

Jeff: It look artistic, but what they've got now is just so far beyond that. They've taken that to a whole nother level and now they're things are looking photo realistic. You can, you can tell it exactly what you want to see and it will draw you that exact thing. Draw even feels like the wrong word. It will render that image for you.

e AI space even before that, [:

Jeff: They did start another line called the Reality Stone, and I played around without a lot and it was a substantial upgrade from the AI engine that was building their original line, but still nothing compared to what we got today. started seeing these advertisements for Dolly two, and I was like, oh, great, my competitor and I had very little sense of what that was.

Jeff: I'd never heard of it before. I didn't know what Dolly one was. I knew Dolly to be a kid's movie.

Jeff: Ah,

Jeff: my jaw hurts today.

r one of two ways. You wanna [:

Jeff: This is how fast you should be driving.

Jeff: A lot of these tourists think they want to get around me this road is very curvy and up and down, lots of hills and curves, and there's only a couple places where you can pass. So these people think they want to get around me because they see I'm in a big truck, but they don't realize I know the road.

Jeff: I know exactly how to drive it. I've driven it thousands of times. I'm better at it than them, and they are gonna try to get around me on the straight stretch. And then as. It to the curves in the hills. They're gonna try to slow way down, but I'm not gonna slow down cuz I've got my cruise control set and I'm cruising.

Jeff: So they better get the fuck outta the way. And they usually do, they'll, a lot of the time they'll pull over or they will, uh, speed the fuck up.

Jeff: We're making it work

Dolly too. If you'll take a [:

Jeff: It's very cool.

Jeff: I did one for the recent episode with Brian Martini. I did one for the episode with Matt. Shannon did one for all of the recent episodes of Ramble on the Road as well, there's probably one around the frame of this video also.

Jeff: I'll usually try to think of a, what I want the thumbnail to look like. I'll type it in, get a few different versions, pick the one that's the closest, edit it and kind of tweak it until I can get it to look the way I want it to look. Then I'll pull that image from Dolly to and drop it into Canva and with Canva.

e once I get the name of the [:

Jeff: I've been enjoying it. It's fun. I love art. I love doing art, artistic stuff. Creative work, but it doesn't pay well, you know, it doesn't pay well.

Jeff: So Christmas is coming up. Black Friday was last week, so I bet a bunch of people got all kinds of Christmas shopping done. I definitely did. I had a bad Christmas last year. I waited too long to buy presents, and then when I finally did go to buy presents, I didn't have any good ideas and I ended up getting dumb stuff.

my own Christmas by just not [:

Jeff: I got Sawyer a Roomba, which is a weird gift for a 13 year old boy. It was not a name brand. It was a knockoff Roomba. And yeah, I thought he would like it. He used to talk about the Roombas all the time when he was a little boy. Was into him. So I, I thought it was funny and not funny, but I thought it was cool.

Jeff: I was, I got him one and he didn't get it. He didn't like it. He didn't want it. He was kind of pissed and uh, yeah, but he was happier than Melissa, who I got a security system for. That was her Christmas present, her main Christmas present. Now, obviously I got little Knick Knacky stuff too, and stocking stuffers and all of that good junk, but, Main gift was I just kind of dropped the ball.

the girls, but I do remember [:

Jeff: Got on there black Friday week and. Just started checking off boxes, making lists, checking it twice. You know, I'll give a fuck if you're naughty or nice, you're getting a gift. It's Black Friday and Jeff got some spending to do,

Jeff: so that's just one less thing you have to worry about as Christmas approaches. It's nice.

Jeff: Part of the tradition of Christmas in our family is getting a Christmas. And putting up Christmas decorations around Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was last week, so the plan was for us to go out and get a tree this weekend. Today being Sunday, I'm at work, but uh, I worked on a Sunday.

Jeff: So yesterday [:

Jeff: From Chinook, so it's not the end of the world. not ideal to pile into the truck on Saturday morning, but we do it a lot for basketball tournaments, baseball tournaments, whatever else. So it didn't seem like that big of a problem. got the family wrangled up into the truck.

Jeff: So far so good. We make it through Astoria, through Napa. To, I don't know, we're over halfway there and we come to a closed road. The state highway is completely closed. There's been a landslide and they turn us around. So now we have the option. If we wanna still go to Longview, we gotta go all the way back through Naselle, through the Washington way.

e another couple hours stuck [:

Jeff: Also, if you've ever tried to go find your own tree in nature, it's much, much harder than you think. Christmas trees are not grown. Just natural. They're a lot bushier and they are a lot shorter than a natural tree. They're stunted because if you just let a tree grow under natural conditions, they get really tall, really fast.

. Be tall, [:

Jeff: But Christmas trees are shorter. You know, you're, a lot of our ceilings are only seven, eight feet tall, so you know, you need a tree that's below that. You still wanna have enough branches between the ground and that seven and a half foot mark that you can hang some ornaments, you know, get a full tree effect.

Jeff: So there are special growing conditions and pruning techniques that make the Christmas trees. What they are, and you can't just find those anywhere. So that's another issue with getting your own tree in the Wild. And then lastly, there's covered in bugs. When you bring a tree out of nature, the forest, it's covered in bugs, it's covered in, you know, mold spores and fungal bacteria and all kinds of the wonderful stuff that is, fills the forest but is meant to stay there.

ng off of it and. . And then [:

Jeff: People keep telling me how great they are. You can't even tell the difference. It doesn't mess up the vibe of the Christmas spirit in your home. It's all. And, uh, to some extent I believe that, I guess. But for the most part, it still just seemed weird to me to have a plastic tree. It's like when we live, where we live in the forest, I mean, there's a lot of trees.

Jeff: Uh, I don't know, just seemed like a, a almost like disloyal to the real trees.

Jeff: Okay. Plus my favorite part of the Christmas tradition is the burning of the Christmas tree

Jeff: as a way to cap [:

Jeff: But yeah, they make it inferno. I've been doing this for years. My dad did it when I was a kid actually too. It's just a way to kind of cap off the holiday season. It's put a final end to it, a punctuation mark, go out with a bang. And also it's good for fire safety because it really shows you how dangerous Christmas trees can be.

our head for the last month. [:

Jeff: If you're still on a natural tree, take my advice and burn that motherfucker after it dries out. It's fun. You're gonna enjoy it. You'll thank me later,

Jeff: but I decided the tradition was over. The tradition now will change, so I grabbed the boy, we loaded up and we went to Home Depot, started pricing fake trees. And I was like, I'm gonna get the nice one, the pre-lit with the, you know, sparkly shit.

Jeff: And. And all the good stuff. I'm gonna pay up to $200 for this tree. Get to Home Depot, find out the cheapest one. There was like two 50 and it was, shit. The good ones were like $600. I was not impressed. So I ended up getting one that was $200 and it was pre-lit, but it was pretty poor quality.

tinsel and wire. And it was [:

Jeff: I kept trying to have the family help me with that. It's like, these guys have never seen trees before. Them to, you know, make it look like a branch. Branches grow up and out. They don't grow straight up all sporadic or crazy. That's just . I mean, uh, I just didn't get it. I, I found it frustrating. We live in the forest.

But I had to go back through [:

Jeff: talking with Sawyer later about it, I was like, dude, I wasn't trying to be a jerk. I was just trying to show you like leaves face up. They're looking for sunlight. So they're reaching for the sun branches. Reach for the sun. They're, they're solar panels, so the leaf needs to face the sun The needles.

Jeff: Need to face up the sun, you know? And he is like, I put the branches up. I just, I didn't adjust the fucking needles. And I thought that was pretty funny.

Jeff: After about two hours of straightening out all these wire tensile branches, I was getting really, And I started encountering a problem. A lot of the inner branches were completely wound up in this wire for the lights. It's like when they made the fucking tree, they didn't think about how it would actually be pulled outta the box and assembled, because the way the wires for the lights were wound up around these branches.

were making it impossible to [:

Jeff: It wasn't a single length, like a strand, it was a loop. So as I'm unwinding these, I never do find the ends. And then before I know it, there's just massive tangles. The tree is now in three parts. There's unhooked wire. Where I tried to put it all back together and just, you know, basically I fucking destroyed the tree.

lights from last year on our [:

Jeff: And Melissa's like, You just pay $200 for this tree, you're not gonna destroy it. It doesn't make any sense. So I was like, all right, alright. And I just keep trying to fix it, keep trying to fix it, and at a certain point I realize I don't even know how this fucking thing works. I, I couldn't figure it out.

Jeff: And, uh, I, I'm embarrassed about it. It's, it was, uh, a shameful experience to have my family all sitting there watching me as I'm trying to fix this tree that I've already destroyed. And I was pretty sure by this time that I wasn't gonna fix it. And, uh, I was thinking I was just, Being a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, just a pitiful, disgusting tree that looks like shit and brings dishonor on the family.

ought it back to Home Depot. [:

Jeff: Wish I would've done that to begin with because this tree was set up in like 30 minutes. Beautiful, beautiful pre-lit tree dimmable, lights, timers, colors, switches, all the shit, all of it just like top of the line tree. It did cost a hundred dollars more. I will say that. At least a hundred dollars more, but it was worth every penny.

Jeff: Don't get the. When you eventually switch, and you will, you will. Oh, by the way, the thing that people always say about, oh, now your house isn't gonna smell like Christmas. It does somehow. It still does. I didn't notice it all. It's almost like your brain just adds the smell because it sees all the other Christmas stuff, C, C, C, I don't know.

buy some scent and spray it [:

Jeff: so it's the beginning of a new chapter in our Christmas life. The fake tree years, it's kind of sad, but at the same time, I, I'm not really gonna miss all of the extra tedious work that goes along with having a real tree. Oh, I'm not gonna miss laying on my fucking belly in the pine needles in the wet, cutting the thing down.

Jeff: I'm not gonna miss hauling it. Not gonna miss rinsing it off to get the spiders off. I'm not gonna miss letting it dry. I'm not gonna miss the kids begging me. If we could please, can we decorate it today? I was like, no. Try all of that stuff. I'm just, no, no, no, no, no, no more. Now it's just fake tree and that's okay.

rience. It did hurt. I will, [:

Jeff: I kind of wanted it to hurt. I wanted to be able to feel it and I definitely could feel it. The second time though, he tried a couple different needle spots and in particular he did two spots in the back of my head, right in my suboccipital muscles Three needles in the, in the same spot on each side, so six needles total, just in this one little cluster.

Jeff: And they went through my upper trapezius and into. Suboccipital muscles, which were really hypertonic, so like super flexed and really, really hard to release. I have no control over them. Actually, if I do that, nothing happens. I think they're like that because of problems with my jaw and my alignment and my, the fact that I drive so often and sitting at a desk and my neck and the phone usage and all of the things.

sterday, my jaw did not hurt [:

Jeff: I'm able to open it without a huge amount of pain,

Jeff: oh yeah, I didn't even mention. That he also put three, I think three needles in my jaw. I'm not sure which muscles, if it was the Mac or what, but actually I'm gonna go this way. But it worked yesterday when I was driving out, even with the stress of the tree thing and all that. I felt great. My job was really good.

Jeff: I was able to speak and eat and all the stuff. I loved it. So I'm going back and I'm gonna try to get the acupuncturist, whose name is Tony. He's a really cool guy. I'm gonna try to get him on Ramble by the River. I floated the idea to him the other day and he seemed open to it, so we'll see.

razy. The way it works is he [:

Jeff: On the spot, taps it in, and then to stimulate it or activate it. He sits there. I, I think he's twisting it and pushing slowly or I'm not sure, but it feels kind of like when you're putting a meat thermometer into a roast, how you wanna push it in enough and kind of turn as you push to feel the contact.

ain and a jolting sharp pain [:

Jeff: That nerve pain and he's hitting that nerve and boom, I feel like a jolt. And depending on. He was at, sometimes that jolt would go through my whole body. One of the times I even saw it flash a bright white light when he jolted me on my, uh, my hand. The point right here.

Jeff: Yeah. And then he leaves a room, puts on some nice twinkly music, and I sit there and meditate for 10 minutes. He comes back, he restimulate all the needles, leaves for another 10 minutes and then comes back and removes 'em. And they feel like antennas. When they're stuck in there, I can feel a hum throughout my whole body.

lly shocked when I opened my [:

Jeff: Oh shit, it works cuz I didn't have expectations. I wasn't, it's not a placebo effect because I, I really had zero expectations. I also wasn't even looking for effects. Uh, I hadn't thought about it at all. I just happened to notice that my jaw didn't hurt and I was like, oh, that's weird. I wonder what? And then I remembered I had got acupuncture and it now doesn't hurt.

Jeff: So I really take that correlation to be pretty causal, which is pretty exciting. I've only gone twice and I think it's gonna get better and better. I hope so.

Jeff: I can't believe:

Jeff: Oh yeah. I was talking about ai.

it through, its AI learning [:

Jeff: So I ran my own pictures through and I got some that I really liked, really, really liked. Like they, they're much better looking than me in real life. So I, I really, I just, I'm blown away by 'em because they're not all good and it made me cross side in a lot of 'em and put my eyes really close together,

Jeff: So I'm thinking that like, My eyes probably really are pretty close together cuz it, some of 'em had like exaggerated my features. That was one of the features that it really exaggerated a lot. So I'm thinking maybe I looked kind of funny. Oh, well, not all of 'em looked like that. In fact, the ones that the eyes looked normal on didn't look like.

really make of that. I never [:

Jeff: so it's really not that strange. But the fact that they can generate something like this with this much precision that quickly and really with this much artistic ability, it, they're very artistic. They're composed. They just look good. The amount that this technology has improved in the last year kind of scares me almost.

es and scenarios and styles. [:

Jeff: then I sent her a couple more and she's like, oh my gosh. On that first one, I thought it was me. And then I started sending her like a bunch. I sent her like two dozen, one after another after another. And I was like, this model is your doppelganger. She looks exactly like you. she's like, it almost looks like you used some kind of ai.

Jeff: And I was like, actually I did. That's what I did. But, uh, isn't this. It's, it is cool, but it is scary. So if I was to do that to sort to a stranger, all I have to do is get 10 pictures of their face and I can make these avatars that I can pretend to be them. They also have 'em to work with video. not this specific app but

create fake videos of them. [:

Jeff: Well, I, for what? I'm excited about it. I'm really excited about it actually. I've even considered trying to find some kind of niche profession. Where I could get in. I don't know. It's just such a new technology and I want to be a part of it. It's fun. I mean, it's cool and it's so loaded with potential.

u could be walking through a [:

Jeff: And then the fence opens up and you just go, like, your thoughts could just change anything and AI would just generate it and render it right in front of you in real time. We're not far from that. We're not far from that at all. We have all the component parts that are needed for a system like that to run.

Jeff: They just haven't been integrated yet and they probably have. I just haven't seen it.

hat we can really only truly [:

Jeff: And the robot wars are over, the sky is blackened. The buildings are all turned to rubble. Then we'll be able to look back and say, you know, we should have nipped this in the bud. Back when they started making photorealistic regenerations of our faces.

Jeff: Or, you know, we really should have nipped this in the bud, uh, when Lambda, the sentient artificial intelligence, conversation generator from Google. We, maybe we should have nipped it in the bud when Lambda became Sentian. Sentient. Sentient. I never know which one to go with. I know they're both acceptable.

hat we can do? I don't think [:

Jeff: Can't put a cat in a bottle. Especially not twice.

Jeff: I think it's too late. I think we have started the momentum and it's, it's, there's no slowing down now. Next stop. Pink Pods of goo Hope not.

Jeff: Yep. Yep, yep, yep. Yep.

Jeff: You may have noticed that on episode 86, which was called Life of a Mortician with Melissa Meadow, went through some changes. First, the original episode had aired with an introduction featuring friend of the show, Geoff Hylton. I thought the intro was okay, but somebody was mad about it because Jeff called me and asked me to take him out of it.

I'll pull 'em out. It I did. [:

Jeff: But somebody in his life was unhappy with what was said, and I'm not gonna get into who it was, but needless to say, I pulled it and replaced the episode with a version that did not feature Jeff. So that's what happened If you were curious. Not a big deal. It's not the first time. It won't be the last, and it's okay, All right, well, we're getting close to home, so I think I'm gonna call it a day. Thank you so much for tuning in. I appreciate it a lot. Be safe out there. I love you guys. I will talk to you next time. Bye. [00:38:00]

Jeff Nesbitt: Hey, I hope you enjoyed this episode of Ramble on the. If you liked it and you'd like to become a member, to get access to the rest of the series, go to Ramble by the River dot com and click subscribe right at the top of the page. That'll take you over to Patreon, where you can select your subscription tier and get listening today.

e you enjoyed the show. I'll [:

Next Episode All Episodes Previous Episode
Show artwork for Ramble by the River

About the Podcast

Ramble by the River
With Jeff Nesbitt
Ramble-(verb)
1. walk for pleasure, typically without a definite route.
2. talk or write at length in a confused or inconsequential way.

Ramble by the River (Ramblebytheriver.com) is about becoming the best human possible.

Join me and my guests, as we discuss the blessing that is the human experience. Ramble by the River is about finding an honest path to truth without losing our sense of humor along the way. It is about healing from the trauma of the past and moving into the next chapter of life with passion.

Common topics include: personal growth, entertainment, pop-culture, technology, education, psychology, drugs, health, history, politics, investing, conspiracies, and amazing personal stories from guests.

What does it mean to be a person? Is there a right or wrong way to do it? How has our species changed to accommodate the world that we have so drastically altered? What defines our generation? Where are we going? What is coincidence? Is time a mental construction? What happens after death? Which Jenifer is better looking (Lopez or Anniston)?

Tune in to any one of our exciting upcoming episodes to hear a comedian, a New York Times Best-Selling author, a fancy artist, a plumber, the Mayor of a large urban metropolis, a cancer survivor, a Presidential candidate, Jeff's dad, a female bull-riding champion, the founder of a large non-profit charity organization, Elon Musk, a guarded but eventually lovable country musician, a homeless guy, a homeless woman, a commercial fisherman, a world-renowned photo-journalist, or Kanye West.

When you go on a ramble, you never know where you are going to end up. All you can do is strap-in and enjoy the ride!
Support This Show

About your host

Profile picture for Jeff Nesbitt

Jeff Nesbitt

Jeff Nesbitt is a man of many interests. He is infinitely curious, brutally honest, and genuinely loves people. Jeff grew up in a small coastal community in the Pacific Northwest and after college he moved back to his hometown to start a family. When the Covid-19 crisis hit in 2020, regular social engagement was not an option, and Jeff realized that the missing ingredient in his life was human connection. So, like the fabled Noah and his Ark, Jeff started building a podcast studio without knowing what his show would actually be. Before the paint was even dry, Jeff start recording interviews with interesting friends, and Ramble by the River was born.