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Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is

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Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or

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Speaker 1: learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A

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Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome back to

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Speaker 1: the show. My name is Matt, my name is Nol.

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Speaker 1: They called me Ben. We're joined as always with our

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Speaker 1: super producer Ball mission controlled decads. Most importantly, you are you,

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Speaker 1: You are here, and that makes this the stuff they

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Speaker 1: don't want you to know. Folks, you may have heard

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Speaker 1: the old saying, give a man a gun and he

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Speaker 1: can rob a bank. Give a man a bank and

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Speaker 1: he can rob the world. There there's so many versions

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Speaker 1: of this phrase that the etymology of it or the

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Speaker 1: origin can be a little bit tough to trace. Uh.

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Speaker 1: I think many of us in the audience have heard

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Speaker 1: some version of that idea before, maybe a Mr. Robot.

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Speaker 1: It comes up in that show. Uh. And it's a

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Speaker 1: neat quote. It's a little oversimplified, sure, but as there's

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Speaker 1: no getting around it. Really, money makes the world go round.

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Speaker 1: And whether you love or hate the world's financial system,

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Speaker 1: you know that banks are necessary. So it makes sense

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Speaker 1: to wonder how much power this gives people running banks

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Speaker 1: or running investment arms. That's really what we're talking about today.

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Speaker 1: You know, what what kind of power do you wield

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Speaker 1: when you are in charge of investment and venture capital

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Speaker 1: and venture capital? Yeah? What kind of power do people

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Speaker 1: like ceo s, board members, or oddly enough, the CIA

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Speaker 1: have when they get in the world of venture capital?

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Speaker 1: That's yeah, this is a CIA episode. For everyone who

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Speaker 1: didn't did see the title, this is one that freak decide.

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Speaker 1: I mean, before we get started it, I think, um,

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Speaker 1: maybe you'd be helpful for us to to give a

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Speaker 1: little foreshadowing. We talked about the CIA and venture capital

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Speaker 1: a while ago, a number of years back, when we

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Speaker 1: learned just how many pies they had their fingers in.

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Speaker 1: Do you guys remember that, I do, it's been a while.

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Speaker 1: Is that around the time we hit Air America and

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Speaker 1: some of those other venture capital situations like front companies? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: front companies. I think that's what we're talking about. I

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Speaker 1: don't know, it all kind of runs together sometimes. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: We talked in a previous episode about the often unexamined

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Speaker 1: relationship between intelligence agencies and private technology companies, right especially

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Speaker 1: during the dot com boom, especially as the tech giants

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Speaker 1: came to be. And now now we're diving into the

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Speaker 1: nuts and bolts of how this happens. What the fans

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Speaker 1: of today's topic will say, it's the best way to

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Speaker 1: cut past the loopholes of traditional private contractors. But the

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Speaker 1: opponents of this practice would say, you're crazy. This is

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Speaker 1: this has potential to be terrible for a number of reasons,

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Speaker 1: and we'll explore those reasons too, But let's start at

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Speaker 1: the beginning. Here are the facts. The c i A.

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Speaker 1: They don't really have a bank, but they do have

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Speaker 1: an investment arm. And just one person's opinion here, its

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Speaker 1: name is terrible in q tel. It kind of doesn't

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Speaker 1: it sound like a like a kind of antiquated kind

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Speaker 1: of telephone company, or like it's trying to sound futuristic,

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Speaker 1: but it doesn't quite know what that means. It's definitely

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Speaker 1: rings of communication and technology. Yeah, sure, in q tel,

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Speaker 1: But a lot of people know it as i q T.

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Speaker 1: You may you may have heard of it in that

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Speaker 1: way I cute, Yes, yes, i qte uh, which it's

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Speaker 1: almost it's one of those um accent exercises. It almost

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Speaker 1: sounds like you're saying, hey qt in a different accent.

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Speaker 1: I QT so so there is a reason this name

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Speaker 1: came about. The investment arm was originally called Pelias UH,

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Speaker 1: and the i q T name is at least partially

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Speaker 1: inspired by Q from the James Bond universe. So they

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Speaker 1: have this idea their tech focus. They want to uh,

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Speaker 1: they want to be a real life Q or you know,

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Speaker 1: that's the like, that's the fun part of the brainstorming meeting.

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Speaker 1: They said, Oh, we love James Bond. Uh. This is

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Speaker 1: pretty recent was founded in with twenty eight million dollars

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Speaker 1: and starting capital from the CIA, which honestly, in the

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Speaker 1: world of venture capitalism is not a huge amount, right, No,

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Speaker 1: not at all, But in the early two thousand's rocking

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Speaker 1: twenty eight million dollars to get a few companies off

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Speaker 1: the ground that then become your base, right, that then

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Speaker 1: expand out maybe acquire other companies. It's you can see why,

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Speaker 1: that's really all you need. And it's interesting stuff too.

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Speaker 1: The people that have been in charge of i q

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Speaker 1: T or in q tel Um or the people who

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Speaker 1: end up on the board of trustees and other high

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Speaker 1: positions in the company are fascinating because they are names

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Speaker 1: that you likely have heard of before, and some names

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Speaker 1: that you probably have never heard of before, like Norm Augustine.

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Speaker 1: You ever heard of Norm Augustine Norman perhaps, um, he was.

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Speaker 1: He was the CEO of lockeed Martin at one time.

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Speaker 1: And you know this guy ran the show at in

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Speaker 1: q Tel at least early on, and then over time

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Speaker 1: people have come through from all different parts of the government,

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Speaker 1: including the heads of CIA, the former heads of CIA.

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Speaker 1: It's it's classified as a bank, correct And does that

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Speaker 1: mean that it finances other CIA initiatives or is it

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Speaker 1: exclusively for lending like and for financing you know, venture

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Speaker 1: capital startups. Yeah, it's well technically it's it's purely a

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Speaker 1: venture capital firm. And it is unlike a lot of

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Speaker 1: other venture capital firms. Uh, it's not. It's not really

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Speaker 1: concerned with a lot of stuff that other businesses would

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Speaker 1: I would think about. It exists entirely because of a

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Speaker 1: guy named ruth A. David Back in the nineties. He

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Speaker 1: ran the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology, and he was, um,

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Speaker 1: he was evangelical. He was championing the importance of cutting

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Speaker 1: edge tech for the CIA, especially information technology, cryptography, things

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Speaker 1: like that. And you needed you needed to have that

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Speaker 1: evangelical figure, right too, because somebody had to see essentially

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Speaker 1: the future in that this all these various emerging technologies

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Speaker 1: we're going to hold they were going to be the

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Speaker 1: advantage that someone was going to have over everyone else. Right,

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Speaker 1: and we're talking the nineties, So that's back, that's like,

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Speaker 1: what are cutting edge Well, I don't even know what

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Speaker 1: the CIA is cutting edge technology in the nineties. Was

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Speaker 1: those are those are the two technologies? Yes, but but

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Speaker 1: you can see how maybe a large government entity wouldn't

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Speaker 1: necessarily want to be able to pivot really quickly and

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Speaker 1: to you know, take in new technologies and and incorporate

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Speaker 1: them into their systems because it would be difficult. But

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Speaker 1: you needed my only all this is to say, you

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Speaker 1: needed somebody that evangelical about it to really push forward. No,

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Speaker 1: it makes perfect sense, no, I mean, and and so

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Speaker 1: we always talk about how the technology that we as

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Speaker 1: consumers or as civilians are aware of lags far behind

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Speaker 1: of the technology that's actually available. So you gotta wonder

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Speaker 1: if like some of this was maybe to get a

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Speaker 1: leg up on some of that secret tech, you know,

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Speaker 1: because I mean, I wonder we'll get into it. But

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Speaker 1: some of these deals are not for like public consumption. Right,

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Speaker 1: This isn't all just them being benevolent donor or benevolent

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Speaker 1: you know, angel investor. I mean, this is stuff that's

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Speaker 1: meant to benefit the CIA's mission of like protecting you know,

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Speaker 1: national security. Right, absolutely, Yeah, they needed a profit. A

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Speaker 1: profit was came in the form of David And I

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Speaker 1: want to go back to a point we just raised earlier,

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Speaker 1: which is, uh, the strangely connected world of high level execs.

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Speaker 1: This is something that people don't talk about all the time.

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Speaker 1: But the the guy you mentioned, Matt norm Augustine, he

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Speaker 1: was recruited by George Tennant And you said something really

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Speaker 1: interesting when we talked about the various people associated with

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Speaker 1: this organization over the years. At after a certain threshold

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Speaker 1: of success in the corporate world, it starts to feel

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Speaker 1: like everybody knows each other, you know, and and there

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Speaker 1: are it's almost, um, well, it's normalized. It's considered a

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Speaker 1: standard strategy for a CEO to make a name for

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Speaker 1: themselves going from company to company. Right, So there's nothing

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Speaker 1: unusual about it. But it might but it might seem

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Speaker 1: strange to the majority of people hearing this episode today

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Speaker 1: because for a lot of us growing up, you know,

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Speaker 1: you're taught the dream is to have one single career, right,

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Speaker 1: That's that's the American dream. That's not how it actually

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Speaker 1: works at the top. That's it's very rare for that

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Speaker 1: to happen anyway. So there are people with all these

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Speaker 1: different interests and um, no, with your question, you're you're

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Speaker 1: hitting on some of the things that make this company unique. Uh.

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Speaker 1: They focus on three areas of research. They don't care

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Speaker 1: about having a super diverse portfolio. They want to learn

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Speaker 1: more about software, infrastructure, and material sciences, three very very

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Speaker 1: broad things. And they have been pumping money into some

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Speaker 1: of Silicon Valley's most innovative, cutting edge companies ever since

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Speaker 1: the nineties. They're doing it now as we record there

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Speaker 1: at work too and there and their their work is

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Speaker 1: just um, I don't know. I don't think it's weirder

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Speaker 1: than ours. Maybe a little bit dangerous. Yeah, And if

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Speaker 1: you want to follow along, as Ben said, they exist

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Speaker 1: right now, head on over to i q T dot org.

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Speaker 1: While you're listening to this episode. Just scroll around and

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Speaker 1: you you'll see some of the stuff we're gonna mention

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Speaker 1: later on in this episode, and you'll see some stuff

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Speaker 1: we we won't have time to mention as well. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: let's talk about what makes them unique. Technically, they are

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Speaker 1: a not for profit venture capital firm, which means it's

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Speaker 1: okay if they don't make money, but if you're concerned,

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Speaker 1: don't worry. I promise they are fine. Financially, they are

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Speaker 1: doing well. Uh. And they because they focus solely on

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Speaker 1: tech that could be useful in the realm of national

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Speaker 1: security very broadly defined. Uh. There, they're not concerned with diversity.

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Speaker 1: They don't have a bunch of investors that they're on

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Speaker 1: the hook with when it's time for like the annual

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Speaker 1: shareholder meeting. And they're also openly active. Like it might

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Speaker 1: surprise people who know what the average American knows about

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Speaker 1: the CIA, it might surprise you to one of the

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Speaker 1: world's most famous, slash infamous intelligence agencies is pretty open

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Speaker 1: about this operation. Like Matt said, Uh, they kudos to

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Speaker 1: them for their transparency on their website. They also are successful,

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Speaker 1: as we record this, they have a track record of

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Speaker 1: bringing in like significantly more cash than your guard variety

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Speaker 1: venture capital firm. For every for every single dollar the

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Speaker 1: CIA gives or funnels through i q T in q Tel,

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Speaker 1: that company delivers another eleven to fifteen dollars in value,

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Speaker 1: which is nuts. That's like, that kind of return is

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Speaker 1: pretty impressive, But we don't know many more details about

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Speaker 1: it because they don't tell you how much they invest. Uh.

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Speaker 1: There was one Washington Post story back in two thousand

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Speaker 1: five that said their typical investment in a company is

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Speaker 1: somewhere between five grand to two million. But how many

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Speaker 1: companies are they talking to, how are they growing? How

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Speaker 1: did Silicon Valley handle this? It's an interesting story. Oh,

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Speaker 1: it's really interesting. And when you think about those lower numbers,

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Speaker 1: think about it this way. If you were going to

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Speaker 1: make an investment in a company that is already fairly large,

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Speaker 1: that is already fairly well known, you know that kind

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Speaker 1: of investment is going to have to be big. But

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Speaker 1: if you're investing in an individual that has some promising

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Speaker 1: you know, algorithm going on, a small group of people

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Speaker 1: that are working on a piece of software, or you

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Speaker 1: know something in the materials science or like hardware side,

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Speaker 1: I mean you would only need a little bit of

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Speaker 1: money to push forward whatever whatever is occurring and on

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Speaker 1: that innovative stage that they're playing in. It just you

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Speaker 1: can think about it that way, and especially if you

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Speaker 1: think about in two thousand five those numbers, Like, how

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Speaker 1: that changes. Yeah, that's a really good point. You know.

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Speaker 1: Originally Silicon Valley was a little bit skeptical about this,

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Speaker 1: but they change their tune quickly when civilian firms and

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Speaker 1: startups realize that i q T is different from the

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Speaker 1: other folks they've been dealing with. The ease Angel investors

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Speaker 1: have a direct line to the halls of power, and

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Speaker 1: they have the keys to a massive budget. If they like,

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Speaker 1: you know, if they like what you're spitting, they can

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Speaker 1: they can buy whatever beat you want. And and they

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Speaker 1: get a lot of pitches, like a crazy amount of pitches.

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Speaker 1: Once people figured out they were legit and they were

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Speaker 1: paying you would in real cash, they were clamoring at

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Speaker 1: the door. One former CEO of i q T, a

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Speaker 1: guy named Gilman Louis, said the company hears from a

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Speaker 1: wide gamut of ideas and inventors, and he noted he

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Speaker 1: he noted something that I didn't really think about. He said, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, people pitches pretty powerful technologies and some pretty

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Speaker 1: off the wall technologies, and those are a favorite. Those

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Speaker 1: are the ones that go deep into the lower depths

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Speaker 1: of our building in Arlington Virginia. Yeah, oh yeah, and

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Speaker 1: i q T is registered in Virginia. Obviously we should

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Speaker 1: point that out. They have allegedly an office in this

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Speaker 1: large building that also has a Primrose school. I think

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Speaker 1: I think that's what it was. Uh. And it's right

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Speaker 1: across right across the river there from Washington, d C.

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Speaker 1: But do they have a subway? Take that Pentagon still

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Speaker 1: got it? Actually think the Pentagon closed their subway, which

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Speaker 1: is a shame. Never made it, never made it there anyway.

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Speaker 1: Louis has something interesting to say when he's talking about

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Speaker 1: off the wall technologies, and this again, this is a

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Speaker 1: real life quote from him, just to get you a

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Speaker 1: set give you a sense of the weird stuff they

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Speaker 1: hear every week. Louis says, the two percent of our

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Speaker 1: submissions fall into the second category. We got a lot

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Speaker 1: of perpetual motion submissions or the for sure you can

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Speaker 1: see that, or the ability to talk to anyone in

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Speaker 1: the world with zero latency. Um, we keep them in

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Speaker 1: a best of collection. Whenever things are going bad, we

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Speaker 1: call them up from the Internet for a laugh before

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Speaker 1: we go back to work. So endearing it is. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you remember that perpetual motion machine, Remember that water powered

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Speaker 1: vehicle idea. Just remember cold Fusion? Am I right? Hey,

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Speaker 1: I like it. It's like I can picture a sitcom

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Speaker 1: vibe almost. You know, it's like, hey, blah blah blah

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Speaker 1: is really depressed. You know, the divorce has been hard

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Speaker 1: on him or her. I think somebody needs to get

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Speaker 1: some quality time with the best of collection A million percent?

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Speaker 1: Is this funny? We all, all three of us, you

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Speaker 1: know here, pitches for podcasts every now and then. I'm

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Speaker 1: sure each one of us could list like there are

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Speaker 1: three versions of these three things for like pitches for

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Speaker 1: the CIA venture capital startup funds. Um Mine is always

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Speaker 1: like a celebrity driven um music like what's you? What's

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Speaker 1: your favorite song? Podcasts you know, like insert celebrity name

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Speaker 1: here or non celebrity. But everyone always thinks that they're

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Speaker 1: the first one to come up with that idea. It's tough, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it can. It can be tough to be first to

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Speaker 1: the plate with an idea right of any sort. And

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Speaker 1: and you're right that that's not an unfair comparison the differences.

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Speaker 1: When we hear a podcast pitch, it's usually not directly

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Speaker 1: affecting national security. It's so weird that I have to say,

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Speaker 1: it's usually not occasionally occasionally occasionally. Then I want to

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Speaker 1: go back to Louis and I want you to please

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Speaker 1: do we have a quote from him about anything really

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Speaker 1: weird that they heard, like describing a perpetual motion machine

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Speaker 1: or something. Oh, well, that's the thing. They can be

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Speaker 1: a little bit squirrel e or cag about the specific details,

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Speaker 1: but he does. He does, in an interview, relate the

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Speaker 1: story of the goofiest pitch he ever heard. His words. Okay,

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Speaker 1: he said, somebody calls claiming he had the ability to

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Speaker 1: put any idea into anyone's mind, but it was so

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Speaker 1: secret he was afraid to say over the telephone what

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Speaker 1: it was. So we said, why don't you just beat

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Speaker 1: it into our brains? We never heard back. So I

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Speaker 1: think that's like, I think it's important for us to

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Speaker 1: talk about this because, you know, we do have this

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Speaker 1: sort of evil empire stereotype of the CIA and all

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Speaker 1: the things associated with it. And I would argue that

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Speaker 1: stereotype is very much based in truth. But these folks

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Speaker 1: are these folks are a different kind of professional, you know,

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Speaker 1: and they're and they're having they're having the shark take moment,

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Speaker 1: which is cool and that's a funny anecdote, and it

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Speaker 1: gives us a sense of just how weird things can

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Speaker 1: get at i q T. But not many people see

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Speaker 1: it as a laughing matter, because again, we're talking a

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Speaker 1: huge amount of cash and immensely powerful, possibly dangerous technology.

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Speaker 1: Right because those the crackpot ideas, or what Louis seems

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Speaker 1: to believe, or the crackpot ideas, only comprise about two

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Speaker 1: of all the pitches they get. It's the other ent

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Speaker 1: you need to be concerned about. And that's why so

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Speaker 1: many people in the US and around the world are

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Speaker 1: asking what is the CIA actually doing through in q tel.

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Speaker 1: We'll tell you afterward from our sponsor and we're back now.

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Speaker 1: Before we continue on, I want you to do something.

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Speaker 1: If you're not driving, and you can do this, head

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Speaker 1: on over to YouTube and search for i q T.

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Speaker 1: We're in q tel. It's got dashes in between. So

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Speaker 1: in dash q dashtel, find their YouTube channel, look up,

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Speaker 1: look it up. Then know that on that channel there's

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Speaker 1: an unlisted video titled i q T Celebrates twenty years

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Speaker 1: of Innovation. Then you can find it through their website.

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Speaker 1: Check out that video, watch it. Before we we go

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Speaker 1: into this because it's just gonna it's gonna give you

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Speaker 1: a corporate speak version of like what we're about to

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Speaker 1: tell you in their own words, it's worth it. Can

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Speaker 1: we play a clip from it? Maybe? I guess so, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, I just think it's worth it did get

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Speaker 1: a sense because we were talking about it off air,

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Speaker 1: and it's like Matt and Matt and Paul and I

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Speaker 1: have all worked in corporate video editing stuff in the past,

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Speaker 1: and I just remember editing together videos like this for

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Speaker 1: various organizations or you know, brands or whatever, and it

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Speaker 1: all uses the same. Like there was this period when

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Speaker 1: Apple put out Final Cut Pro and it came with

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Speaker 1: this like multidisc set of like free use music, and

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Speaker 1: you hear it all the time. You hear it in

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Speaker 1: local TV commercials. It's like people still have these disc

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Speaker 1: laying around and this rings of that for short to me, Yeah, sure.

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Speaker 1: And if we're gonna play a clip, let's play a

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Speaker 1: quick statement from both Chris Darby, who's the president and CEO.

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Speaker 1: He will hear him first, and then Steve Boucher, who's

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Speaker 1: managing general old partner at least as well. I think

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Speaker 1: inc You Tell is the only vehicle that sits at

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Speaker 1: the intersection set of government venture capital in the startup community.

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Speaker 1: Sitting at the intersection of these two worlds that don't

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Speaker 1: talk to each other and don't really understand each other,

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Speaker 1: and being trusted by both of them. That's really the

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Speaker 1: secret sauce of ink tel. So those statements sound fine,

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Speaker 1: you know, shiny utopian intersection secret sauce, all the all

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Speaker 1: the good ones, but it doesn't answer the question from

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Speaker 1: before the break. So to reiterate, what is the CIA

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Speaker 1: actually doing through in q tel, Here's where it gets crazy.

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Speaker 1: You might not have heard of in q tel before today,

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Speaker 1: and that's fine, you know, it's not a top secret thing,

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Speaker 1: but it is sort of obscure unless you live in

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Speaker 1: one of these venture capital tech startup worlds. But whether

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Speaker 1: or not you've heard of them, it is highly likely

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Speaker 1: that if you have used some of the tech that

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Speaker 1: they have funded, you might already be familiar with their

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Speaker 1: mapping technology. I q T back in the day invested

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Speaker 1: in something called key Hole incorporated key Holdness. You remember this, Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: yeah it was. It was later acquired Keyhole that is,

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Speaker 1: by Google, by Big G itself in two thousand and four,

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Speaker 1: and today you know i q t s investment as

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Speaker 1: Google Earth. That's the one. I remember this from my

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Speaker 1: days producing Jonathan Strickland's show Tech Stuff, and he talked

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Speaker 1: about Keyhole and that whole kind of development into what

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Speaker 1: we now know as Google Earth. That's why I rang about.

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Speaker 1: Do you guys remember what key Hole actually refers to

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Speaker 1: the satellite system, the spy satellite system. Yeah, and that's

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Speaker 1: what that That is true, folks. Matt is correct. And

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Speaker 1: what's fascinating about the Keyhole satellite oper rations is I'm

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Speaker 1: still I'm still so surprised, and I have to admit

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Speaker 1: objectively impressed by how that worked. They were using satellites

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Speaker 1: to take photographs from space of places where they couldn't,

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Speaker 1: you know, get a human spy or have a traditional

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Speaker 1: aircraft fly over. But the technology of the time when

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Speaker 1: key Hole in Corona were in play, the technology of

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Speaker 1: the time was not super advanced. They couldn't just remotely

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Speaker 1: send or electronically send these images. They had cameras on

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Speaker 1: the satellites. The cameras used film like actual roles of

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Speaker 1: film for anybody of a certain age might remember those.

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Speaker 1: And then they would just they would drop the canisters

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Speaker 1: from space. Who who was the hapless, incredibly intelligent person

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Speaker 1: who had to go out and figure find those film canisters,

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Speaker 1: Like how how how accurate were they able to be?

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Speaker 1: Was it? Was it like, okay, beyond third and seventy

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Speaker 1: second at four pm and just hold your hand up

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Speaker 1: to the sky, or is it like somewhere in Utah?

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Speaker 1: What are you doing this weekend? We think it's somewhere

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Speaker 1: on the left side of Utah And then they say,

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Speaker 1: do you mean the western side? And they go, I

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Speaker 1: don't know. It's four thirty, man, it's a Friday. Just

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Speaker 1: just get the bill. Yeah, but you're right, you're right.

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Speaker 1: So Keel's Google Earth. That's only one example. Can we

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Speaker 1: just jump to a quick little more information on that,

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Speaker 1: just because it is so fascinating and it's a great

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Speaker 1: that's a great entry point for you if you're interested

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Speaker 1: in learning more about this, Like go down the keyhole

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Speaker 1: in q tel google uh rabbit hole and you can

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Speaker 1: really start there and start to see other things. Um.

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Speaker 1: There's a Guardian article titled Google's Earth, How the tech

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Speaker 1: giant is helping the State spy on us. It was

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Speaker 1: written in and if you look through there it describes

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Speaker 1: the I think it was The investment was finalized in

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Speaker 1: two thousand three, according to this article, and it was

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Speaker 1: made in partnership with the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency that

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Speaker 1: is one of the intelligence agencies or the apparatus that

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Speaker 1: the United States has, and their job was to deliver

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Speaker 1: satellite based intelligence to the CIA and the Pentagon. And

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Speaker 1: essentially they incorporated this new company, Keyhole, in the software

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Speaker 1: they were creating this version of Earth, this virtual Earth,

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Speaker 1: and we're able to use it for their needs. Um.

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Speaker 1: And then of course Google comes along and makes it

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Speaker 1: public facing. Uh. And there's a whole other story we

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Speaker 1: could get into their about data collection and why Google

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Speaker 1: may want to have something like that, but we don't

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Speaker 1: have to go into that now. Well, we're already a

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Speaker 1: part of that. Everybody listening is already a part of it,

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Speaker 1: even if you've never touched Google somehow did I'm sorry?

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Speaker 1: Really quickly? Is the implication here that like Keyhole was

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Speaker 1: meant for something greater and then ultimately kind of got

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Speaker 1: co opted into something that has ultimately become kind of

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Speaker 1: an Internet parlor trick. Like, I mean, I know there's

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Speaker 1: there's uses for Google Earth, but at the end of

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Speaker 1: the day, people more use it for doing scavenger hunts

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Speaker 1: and marking it up for blogs and things like that

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Speaker 1: are sharing. It doesn't seem like what's it's intent initially

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Speaker 1: was using these high tech satellites. It's now become a

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Speaker 1: bit of a almost a gimmick. I'll tell you what

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Speaker 1: it was used for in the early two thousand's, around

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Speaker 1: two thousand three, because what happened around two thousand three

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Speaker 1: we invaded a rock. It was used as an intelligence,

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Speaker 1: an extra set of intelligence to monitor the movements around

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Speaker 1: certain bases in the rock, around you know, certain strategic

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Speaker 1: points in the rock. They were using keyhole to do that,

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Speaker 1: or the you know the that was keyhole. Again, this

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Speaker 1: is only one example we could do. It's a matter

428
00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:08,560
Speaker 1: of fact, I was thinking about it a few years ago,

429
00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:14,040
Speaker 1: doing just like a mini series, a limited podcast where

430
00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:19,440
Speaker 1: we just go episode by episode weird companies and their

431
00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:23,840
Speaker 1: government ties and how frequently it happens and how seldom

432
00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:28,639
Speaker 1: it is publicized or admitted. Right, And maybe maybe I

433
00:27:28,640 --> 00:27:30,480
Speaker 1: would always I'd love to do a stuff that wants,

434
00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:34,360
Speaker 1: you know, limited series on something cryptogy. We're we're interested,

435
00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:37,119
Speaker 1: let us let us know because we have tons of

436
00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:40,720
Speaker 1: free time. Sorry, sorry, you guys, let's jump back in here.

437
00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:44,840
Speaker 1: And it is true. You could make a series about

438
00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:49,679
Speaker 1: just this because they're you know, Google Earth is one

439
00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:53,720
Speaker 1: one successful example of some of a process that occurs

440
00:27:53,760 --> 00:27:56,879
Speaker 1: often and that I believe will accelerate in the future,

441
00:27:56,880 --> 00:27:59,640
Speaker 1: in the very near future. By the way, but now,

442
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:04,400
Speaker 1: if in the year like from the early two thousands

443
00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:07,679
Speaker 1: to the current day, you will find no shortage of

444
00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:10,720
Speaker 1: rumors about i q T investment. And one of the

445
00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:13,920
Speaker 1: most popular claims is that i q T and therefore

446
00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:18,080
Speaker 1: the CIA had a big hidden hand in the creation

447
00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:24,639
Speaker 1: of Facebook. Right this is this is pretty interesting, but

448
00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:29,399
Speaker 1: the claim itself, unfortunately, the claim itself gets a little

449
00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:32,199
Speaker 1: bit tenuous when you dig into it, walk through this

450
00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:38,600
Speaker 1: really quickly. So the CIA has in q tel. Ink

451
00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:42,640
Speaker 1: Tel tries to you know, throw money at tech startups.

452
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:47,239
Speaker 1: Ink Tel has a board of directors made up of

453
00:28:47,280 --> 00:28:52,240
Speaker 1: people who have experience in this field. It's first CEO

454
00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:57,120
Speaker 1: that we mentioned earlier. Gilman Louis used to once upon

455
00:28:57,160 --> 00:28:59,200
Speaker 1: a time serve on the board of a place called

456
00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:03,600
Speaker 1: the National ven Sure Capital Association. While he was on

457
00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:06,760
Speaker 1: that board, there was another guy on the board named

458
00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:13,440
Speaker 1: James Bryer, and he ran a capital firm called Excel Partners,

459
00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:16,000
Speaker 1: and they invested in a lot of stuff. One of

460
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:19,880
Speaker 1: the companies they invested in was Facebook. So that's kind

461
00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:23,000
Speaker 1: of like a six degrees of Kevin Bacon association, you

462
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:25,600
Speaker 1: know what I mean? Yeah, it is, it is. But

463
00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:27,880
Speaker 1: the one thing we do know and then we're going

464
00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:30,880
Speaker 1: to get into a little later here, is that in

465
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:36,080
Speaker 1: Q tel is attempting to invest in anything that is

466
00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:40,760
Speaker 1: cutting edge, especially when it comes to data collection and analysis.

467
00:29:41,120 --> 00:29:44,120
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, like early two thousand's there would be there

468
00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:49,240
Speaker 1: was significant investment in imaging technologies. Uh, we'll and we'll,

469
00:29:49,280 --> 00:29:52,200
Speaker 1: we'll get into that. That led to some criticism for

470
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:55,400
Speaker 1: them as well, which is kind of valid. But but

471
00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:59,360
Speaker 1: you're absolutely right. And it's weird because if we were

472
00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:03,080
Speaker 1: if if the five of us on the show today

473
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:06,600
Speaker 1: you're listening at home, Matt Noel, Michigan Control, if we

474
00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:08,920
Speaker 1: were like a little start up and we're working on

475
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:12,360
Speaker 1: something interesting related to this, like we found a faster

476
00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:16,720
Speaker 1: way to encrypto or decrypt things like that um or

477
00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:18,600
Speaker 1: you know, it's several years ago and we have been

478
00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:23,680
Speaker 1: in blockchain, then according to the Washington Post, we would

479
00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:25,760
Speaker 1: get a call from n Q tell they would cold

480
00:30:25,800 --> 00:30:29,320
Speaker 1: call us. Their fingers are in a ton of figurative pies.

481
00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:33,480
Speaker 1: The Washington Post says that quote virtually any US entrepreneur,

482
00:30:33,760 --> 00:30:37,680
Speaker 1: inventor or research scientists working on ways to analyze data

483
00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:40,640
Speaker 1: has probably received a phone call from in q TELL

484
00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:43,640
Speaker 1: or has at least been googled by its staff of

485
00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:47,240
Speaker 1: technology watchers. First off, that sounds like a cool job.

486
00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:50,120
Speaker 1: You just watch technology, you know, you just find out

487
00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:53,360
Speaker 1: what's new. We would do a bit of that. A

488
00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:57,480
Speaker 1: bit of that, Benber just makes me think of and

489
00:30:57,520 --> 00:30:59,680
Speaker 1: I forget what the exact name of the laws, but

490
00:31:00,200 --> 00:31:04,320
Speaker 1: you know how the government can basically take your patent

491
00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:07,720
Speaker 1: away from you if it's something that's threatening to national security.

492
00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:10,320
Speaker 1: Is this sort of in that zone. Is it's not

493
00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:12,240
Speaker 1: like we'll take your patent away, but you gotta do

494
00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:16,240
Speaker 1: this thing for us. Is that, well, it's press you.

495
00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:19,160
Speaker 1: You're you're touching on something we do need to explore,

496
00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:23,880
Speaker 1: which would be the criticisms. So there's no it should

497
00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:26,640
Speaker 1: be no surprise to anyone that the CIA and i

498
00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:29,960
Speaker 1: q T have their fair share of critics. We can

499
00:31:30,080 --> 00:31:33,600
Speaker 1: we can walk through some of this and we'll get

500
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:38,760
Speaker 1: to the law you mentioned here. So i q t

501
00:31:39,080 --> 00:31:43,880
Speaker 1: s explanation of their organizational set up and their partnership

502
00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:47,959
Speaker 1: with the CIA. It seems contradictory to some people because

503
00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:53,800
Speaker 1: they it's almost a sugar daddy situation because they say,

504
00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:58,000
Speaker 1: you know, i q T officials employees say, Okay, yes,

505
00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:03,840
Speaker 1: the CIA pays this money. We have an annual contract

506
00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:06,800
Speaker 1: with them. We know what they like, they know what

507
00:32:06,920 --> 00:32:11,120
Speaker 1: we like. But we are independent. Despite the fact that

508
00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:15,000
Speaker 1: we run virtually all our investment decisions by Uncle Sam

509
00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:19,040
Speaker 1: first for approval, and despite the fact that we intentionally

510
00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:21,440
Speaker 1: look for the stuff that they want and do what

511
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:26,120
Speaker 1: they tell us to do. We are independent. Yeah, we're independent.

512
00:32:26,520 --> 00:32:29,640
Speaker 1: But you heard you heard the you heard the words

513
00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:35,200
Speaker 1: from those folks refection. I mean, it's very odd if

514
00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:38,040
Speaker 1: you go to their website and we keep talking about

515
00:32:38,080 --> 00:32:40,080
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna read you if you're if you can't

516
00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:41,760
Speaker 1: get there for any reason, I'm gonna read you. What

517
00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:44,840
Speaker 1: it says at the top says innovation on a mission,

518
00:32:45,280 --> 00:32:51,640
Speaker 1: visionary startups, experienced vcs, venture capitalists, dedicated government professionals in

519
00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:55,240
Speaker 1: q TEL leads from the center of this matrix. What

520
00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:58,320
Speaker 1: did they lead from the center of the matrix? Connecting

521
00:32:58,360 --> 00:33:03,280
Speaker 1: cutting edge technology, strategic investments, and purpose to enhance and

522
00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:07,400
Speaker 1: advance national security for the US and its allies. So

523
00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:11,720
Speaker 1: it clearly has a mission that is government facing, right,

524
00:33:12,320 --> 00:33:16,239
Speaker 1: and it doesn't mean it's necessarily an arm of the

525
00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:19,400
Speaker 1: government in that way the way you would think of

526
00:33:19,440 --> 00:33:23,280
Speaker 1: the CIA is but it is I don't know, it's

527
00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:28,760
Speaker 1: a finger, Yeah, that's the thing. So it's a valid

528
00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:31,960
Speaker 1: question to ask is this just is it a private,

529
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:37,160
Speaker 1: not for profit entity and it's as one customer, right,

530
00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:39,880
Speaker 1: which would be the CIA, Or is it more should

531
00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:43,640
Speaker 1: we think of it more like a quasi quasi governmental

532
00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:48,120
Speaker 1: organization similar to the FED. I think that's what we're

533
00:33:48,120 --> 00:33:51,680
Speaker 1: talking about, because you do have people that run the show.

534
00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:55,080
Speaker 1: They're like Michael Crowe, who's chairman, he's a board of

535
00:33:55,160 --> 00:33:58,520
Speaker 1: chairman of the board of trustees, who feels a little

536
00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:02,400
Speaker 1: more independent as Steve Boucher Boucher that we mentioned earlier

537
00:34:02,400 --> 00:34:05,400
Speaker 1: in Chris Darby, but then also sitting on the board

538
00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:09,399
Speaker 1: of trustees. The guy that Ben mentioned much early on

539
00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:13,080
Speaker 1: who used to be the director of the CIA, George Tennant,

540
00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:17,279
Speaker 1: He is currently one of the he's on the board

541
00:34:17,280 --> 00:34:20,640
Speaker 1: of trustees. So like we know that government officials jumped

542
00:34:20,640 --> 00:34:23,920
Speaker 1: to the private sector, and private sector people generally don't

543
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:26,960
Speaker 1: jump to the government in that way, you know, unless

544
00:34:26,960 --> 00:34:30,080
Speaker 1: they're an elected official. But it's um, it's and you know,

545
00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:32,680
Speaker 1: and it's an interesting thing to see that direct connective

546
00:34:32,680 --> 00:34:36,279
Speaker 1: tissue to the guy that kind of started or one

547
00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:39,120
Speaker 1: of the people that began the show over there. It

548
00:34:39,160 --> 00:34:41,759
Speaker 1: didn't quite Yeah, and that leads to a question. I

549
00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:45,320
Speaker 1: think a lot of us always wonder about a little

550
00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:51,279
Speaker 1: bit how many business decisions are made unofficially. You know,

551
00:34:51,400 --> 00:34:55,880
Speaker 1: how how many agreements happen while someone is at the

552
00:34:56,000 --> 00:35:00,960
Speaker 1: same fundraiser or you know, charity event. We're playing call

553
00:35:02,320 --> 00:35:04,319
Speaker 1: at the barbecue, you know what I mean, at the

554
00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:08,640
Speaker 1: country club, drinking the she crap soup, and then you know,

555
00:35:09,160 --> 00:35:12,000
Speaker 1: by the time you leave, you have made some important

556
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:15,040
Speaker 1: decisions that will go on to impact millions of people.

557
00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:19,320
Speaker 1: But nothing official ever happened. They're just friends of friends

558
00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:24,520
Speaker 1: talking to folks who accidentally run into It's beautiful. It's terrified,

559
00:35:24,920 --> 00:35:27,399
Speaker 1: but it's a beautiful system in the way it's laid out.

560
00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:31,319
Speaker 1: You gotta respect it. This is just the beginning of

561
00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:34,839
Speaker 1: the concerns. In fact, I propose we pause for word

562
00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:39,080
Speaker 1: from our sponsors and dive into the other concerns, which escalate,

563
00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:48,120
Speaker 1: by the way, as we continue. We're back, all right,

564
00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:54,520
Speaker 1: second national security concerns. So here's the deal. It's a

565
00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:58,799
Speaker 1: criticism that surprised me personally, but you'll find scholars who

566
00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:06,440
Speaker 1: say the the i q T is problematic because, uh,

567
00:36:06,520 --> 00:36:11,200
Speaker 1: it is a itself is a security risk. Here's what

568
00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:14,600
Speaker 1: they're talking about. Some of the companies and startups that

569
00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:19,040
Speaker 1: i q T messes with our international in scope. So

570
00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:21,680
Speaker 1: this means that the CIA could run the risk of

571
00:36:21,719 --> 00:36:26,160
Speaker 1: potentially unnecessarily allowing enemy forces to get an inner glimpse

572
00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:30,720
Speaker 1: of the agency's methods, priorities, and current capabilities a number

573
00:36:30,719 --> 00:36:36,640
Speaker 1: of areas, like hypothetically, let's see, we're for an intelligence agency.

574
00:36:36,760 --> 00:36:39,879
Speaker 1: We got out of the invention business, but now we're

575
00:36:40,040 --> 00:36:43,600
Speaker 1: now we're somehow for an intelligence agency. And no, you

576
00:36:43,680 --> 00:36:46,920
Speaker 1: work at our foreign intelligence agency and you have, because

577
00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:51,000
Speaker 1: you're very good spy, gotten ahold of i q t

578
00:36:51,280 --> 00:36:56,239
Speaker 1: S wish list of technologies to watch their seat. They

579
00:36:56,280 --> 00:36:59,680
Speaker 1: refused to say publicly did anyone what they use technology for?

580
00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:03,120
Speaker 1: But you can look at this list their wish list

581
00:37:03,200 --> 00:37:07,600
Speaker 1: and think, huh, somebody really wants a fast way to

582
00:37:07,680 --> 00:37:13,000
Speaker 1: translate handwritten Arabic, right, like, could do you think do

583
00:37:13,040 --> 00:37:16,239
Speaker 1: you think you, as this hypothetical agent, could just look

584
00:37:16,280 --> 00:37:19,279
Speaker 1: at a list and kind of from there figure out

585
00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:22,160
Speaker 1: some priorities. Yeah, I would certainly think so, Ben, I mean,

586
00:37:22,280 --> 00:37:26,680
Speaker 1: especially being the big wig government venture capital guru that

587
00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:30,320
Speaker 1: I most certainly am. So. Yeah, you can see that

588
00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:34,120
Speaker 1: that concern is valid. The question is how serious is

589
00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:38,879
Speaker 1: this potential risk? And the problem is it's nearly impossible

590
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:42,239
Speaker 1: to estimate any potential danger here because we don't know

591
00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:45,360
Speaker 1: enough about i q t s inner workings. But you

592
00:37:45,360 --> 00:37:47,960
Speaker 1: know what we do know about what's that you can

593
00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:51,719
Speaker 1: head on over to. These are two places to go.

594
00:37:51,800 --> 00:37:57,879
Speaker 1: The first one is i q T dot org slash emerge. Yes,

595
00:37:58,200 --> 00:38:03,280
Speaker 1: learn about that first, which is the innovation pipeline. It'll

596
00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:07,319
Speaker 1: come up, Yeah, it'll come up, yep. And next, this

597
00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:12,120
Speaker 1: one's most important, i q T dot org slash labs

598
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:15,719
Speaker 1: I believe. Let me make sure that's correct. Yes, uh,

599
00:38:15,880 --> 00:38:19,600
Speaker 1: i q T dot org slash i q T dash labs.

600
00:38:19,960 --> 00:38:23,239
Speaker 1: If you go there, you can get a list of

601
00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:27,200
Speaker 1: the labs projects that they currently have going. And this

602
00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:29,879
Speaker 1: is exactly what we're talking about ben you can get

603
00:38:29,880 --> 00:38:32,520
Speaker 1: a glimpse of some of the things. You're not gonna

604
00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:35,200
Speaker 1: get all the information. You can get a glimpse of

605
00:38:35,239 --> 00:38:37,080
Speaker 1: a lot of the things that are being worked on,

606
00:38:37,120 --> 00:38:39,680
Speaker 1: and a wish list of sorts, as you said, and

607
00:38:39,760 --> 00:38:42,920
Speaker 1: you can while while you're on that website, go ahead

608
00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:46,120
Speaker 1: and head over to their portfolio section so you can

609
00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:49,520
Speaker 1: see where you can see a number of the companies

610
00:38:49,719 --> 00:38:52,759
Speaker 1: invested in. These are still these are still not the

611
00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:57,560
Speaker 1: biggest concerns. The third concern pretty obvious. I mean, like

612
00:38:57,600 --> 00:38:59,560
Speaker 1: at this point, it's almost funny because it has to

613
00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:02,960
Speaker 1: come up in these conversations all the time, and I'm

614
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:05,239
Speaker 1: sure the i q T folks have to deal with

615
00:39:05,280 --> 00:39:08,080
Speaker 1: it on a daily basis. But it's just simply this.

616
00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:12,120
Speaker 1: The CIA has a ton of historical baggage, and by

617
00:39:12,239 --> 00:39:17,120
Speaker 1: nature of their close relationship, i q T gets associated

618
00:39:17,719 --> 00:39:21,040
Speaker 1: with that baggage, whether or not it deserves it. I mean,

619
00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:25,440
Speaker 1: you're imagine you're one of these startups. It's fair to

620
00:39:25,520 --> 00:39:28,080
Speaker 1: assume at least a few of the startups have had

621
00:39:28,160 --> 00:39:31,840
Speaker 1: second thoughts about partnering with a group that is funded

622
00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:38,000
Speaker 1: by the same organization that has provably orchestrated coups committed

623
00:39:38,040 --> 00:39:41,799
Speaker 1: illegal experiments on human beings and in fact grown so

624
00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:46,239
Speaker 1: comfortable with assassination that they literally wrote manuals about the

625
00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:48,359
Speaker 1: right way to do it, you know what I mean.

626
00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:52,880
Speaker 1: Like you, I'm not saying it is fair for i

627
00:39:53,040 --> 00:39:57,480
Speaker 1: q T to get associated with those horrific acts. But

628
00:39:57,600 --> 00:40:00,239
Speaker 1: on the other hand, you can't really blame people for

629
00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:03,680
Speaker 1: thinking about that. You know, like, oh, m kaal, the

630
00:40:03,800 --> 00:40:06,480
Speaker 1: people who did in k culture are funding us on

631
00:40:06,680 --> 00:40:10,759
Speaker 1: our neat app to help you know where all your

632
00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:17,560
Speaker 1: shoes are a shoe tracking system. Very elaborate, but you know,

633
00:40:17,640 --> 00:40:20,799
Speaker 1: they really are working on guys. Uh, They're working on

634
00:40:21,160 --> 00:40:24,880
Speaker 1: this thing called infodemic, which is an automated matching of

635
00:40:25,040 --> 00:40:29,839
Speaker 1: fact checked claims about COVID nineteen. It's kind of interesting, right.

636
00:40:31,080 --> 00:40:34,960
Speaker 1: Here's here's another one, a teachable camera that can detect

637
00:40:35,080 --> 00:40:38,560
Speaker 1: objects of interest in the field using AI hardware. Guys,

638
00:40:38,880 --> 00:40:41,040
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I have to kind of repose the question

639
00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:43,839
Speaker 1: I said earlier. This all sounds like stuff that they

640
00:40:43,880 --> 00:40:46,840
Speaker 1: thought maybe would have some sort of intel use and

641
00:40:46,880 --> 00:40:50,239
Speaker 1: then sort of you know, bombed, and then they ended

642
00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:52,000
Speaker 1: up releasing it to the public as some sort of

643
00:40:52,040 --> 00:40:57,799
Speaker 1: like cute novelty item like shoe tracking. Yeah, well, weirdly enough,

644
00:40:57,840 --> 00:41:01,600
Speaker 1: those things aren't usually it's elusive. Like I would be

645
00:41:01,800 --> 00:41:06,839
Speaker 1: the opposite of surprised if it turned out that there

646
00:41:07,080 --> 00:41:10,920
Speaker 1: is a there is a non public version of Google

647
00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:15,960
Speaker 1: Earth technology that is much more robust, has way cooler layers,

648
00:41:16,040 --> 00:41:18,960
Speaker 1: and we're kind of getting the kiddie version, you know

649
00:41:18,960 --> 00:41:22,080
Speaker 1: what I mean. It's like, I think that's why. I mean,

650
00:41:22,120 --> 00:41:25,120
Speaker 1: I think you're absolutely right, Like you wouldn't release something

651
00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:28,480
Speaker 1: super robust and dangerous into the wild because if the

652
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:31,879
Speaker 1: public can get it. The public is a big demographic.

653
00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:35,880
Speaker 1: It's literally everybody else on Earth. It's not the c

654
00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:40,440
Speaker 1: I A well, like, imagine it this way. Google Earth

655
00:41:41,320 --> 00:41:45,640
Speaker 1: started early in the two thousand's. You can still pull

656
00:41:45,719 --> 00:41:47,840
Speaker 1: up Google Earth right now and check it out, and

657
00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:52,319
Speaker 1: it's it's advanced significantly from a public facing side from

658
00:41:52,320 --> 00:41:56,239
Speaker 1: what he used to be. Right, but imagine how far

659
00:41:56,719 --> 00:42:00,560
Speaker 1: that you know, all of that satellite imagery, how how

660
00:42:00,640 --> 00:42:03,560
Speaker 1: high res some of that satellite imagery could be compared

661
00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:06,360
Speaker 1: to what we are allowed to see as you know,

662
00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:08,920
Speaker 1: a member of the public, a citizen of whatever country

663
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:12,160
Speaker 1: using Google Earth. I would argue, just as Ben said,

664
00:42:12,840 --> 00:42:15,359
Speaker 1: there is a version of Google Earth or you know

665
00:42:15,800 --> 00:42:19,719
Speaker 1: Keyhole or whatever that tech was. That is you could

666
00:42:19,800 --> 00:42:23,640
Speaker 1: pick out, you know, a quarter in somebody's hand standing

667
00:42:23,640 --> 00:42:28,120
Speaker 1: on the ground secret Facebook, right, and we all have

668
00:42:28,200 --> 00:42:31,759
Speaker 1: profiles on it. And the thing is, our profiles, which

669
00:42:31,760 --> 00:42:35,240
Speaker 1: are not accessible by us, uh, have more information about

670
00:42:35,320 --> 00:42:38,400
Speaker 1: us than we have about ourselves, you know what I mean. Well, also,

671
00:42:38,520 --> 00:42:41,239
Speaker 1: like running that version of a Google earthric hell you're

672
00:42:41,239 --> 00:42:44,279
Speaker 1: talking about would require so much more processing power than

673
00:42:44,320 --> 00:42:48,560
Speaker 1: an average consumer computer would have, or massive massive amounts

674
00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:51,920
Speaker 1: of like on site uh server capacity, you know, so

675
00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:54,200
Speaker 1: we we think it's pretty dope. We can say it's

676
00:42:54,239 --> 00:42:56,839
Speaker 1: my roof, but you're right, you could probably And then

677
00:42:56,840 --> 00:43:00,640
Speaker 1: those aren't real time necessarily, right, whereas the uh maybe

678
00:43:00,719 --> 00:43:03,640
Speaker 1: the version that exists in secret is real time and

679
00:43:03,719 --> 00:43:06,319
Speaker 1: can like zoom in through windows, you know, I mean,

680
00:43:06,960 --> 00:43:10,839
Speaker 1: I mean listen, I'm I'm allow, I'm making you jump here.

681
00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:13,399
Speaker 1: But even the name Keyhole to me implies we can

682
00:43:13,440 --> 00:43:18,239
Speaker 1: get you, can get you where you are. Yeah, I'm

683
00:43:18,360 --> 00:43:21,080
Speaker 1: I'm taking with both of these ideas. I still I

684
00:43:21,160 --> 00:43:23,680
Speaker 1: really want to if you're if you're a high level

685
00:43:23,880 --> 00:43:27,840
Speaker 1: government operative and you tuned into the show, thanks for listening. Also,

686
00:43:27,920 --> 00:43:30,400
Speaker 1: let me know if there's a secret Facebook and what's

687
00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:33,040
Speaker 1: on it. I don't know why that just I'm so

688
00:43:33,160 --> 00:43:36,600
Speaker 1: into that it is possible. There is another elephant in

689
00:43:36,600 --> 00:43:39,240
Speaker 1: the room. We do have to address it, the National

690
00:43:39,320 --> 00:43:44,760
Speaker 1: Inventions Secrecy Act of n Yeah, we discussed this before

691
00:43:45,040 --> 00:43:47,759
Speaker 1: past episodes. But here's the gist. You're an inventor with

692
00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:51,640
Speaker 1: the technology that might have an impact on national security

693
00:43:51,960 --> 00:43:56,760
Speaker 1: defined in a cartoonishly broad way. The US government can

694
00:43:56,960 --> 00:43:59,880
Speaker 1: and will just take your patent. They'll pay you a

695
00:44:00,040 --> 00:44:02,200
Speaker 1: little bit for it. Uh, they have It's weird. I

696
00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:04,359
Speaker 1: learned this after we talked about they have a like

697
00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:09,719
Speaker 1: they literally do have a pay scale based on how

698
00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:12,840
Speaker 1: much or how little they believe your invention could impact

699
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:16,959
Speaker 1: national security. Sure, it's like paying FBI informants or something

700
00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:19,160
Speaker 1: like that. Right, it's probably tied to the quality of

701
00:44:19,160 --> 00:44:22,600
Speaker 1: the intel they're getting. Yeah, yeah, that's a good marrisson,

702
00:44:22,800 --> 00:44:25,200
Speaker 1: it really is. And here's the thing. If you let's

703
00:44:25,200 --> 00:44:29,000
Speaker 1: say you are the inventor, guess what getting paid Suka. Well,

704
00:44:29,040 --> 00:44:32,360
Speaker 1: I think it's also a good uh analogy, because FBI

705
00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:35,480
Speaker 1: informants are often done forced to be that under dress,

706
00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:38,359
Speaker 1: where like they are you know, like arm twisted, because oh,

707
00:44:38,400 --> 00:44:40,719
Speaker 1: you're gonna go to prison unless you cooperate. But they

708
00:44:40,760 --> 00:44:42,880
Speaker 1: also get paid a little stipend. It's the same with

709
00:44:42,920 --> 00:44:45,359
Speaker 1: these inventors. You don't really have a choice, but we're

710
00:44:45,400 --> 00:44:47,760
Speaker 1: gonna take the sting out a little bit by giving

711
00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:51,320
Speaker 1: you a few you know, ducats. Yeah, but you gotta

712
00:44:51,560 --> 00:44:54,279
Speaker 1: keep it tight, keep it. Uh, you can't talk to

713
00:44:54,320 --> 00:44:57,239
Speaker 1: anybody about it. E Marris does the code. Yeah, that's

714
00:44:57,320 --> 00:45:00,799
Speaker 1: that's the thing. Uh. We don't know how these inventors

715
00:45:00,840 --> 00:45:03,520
Speaker 1: feel about this process. We know that there are some

716
00:45:03,640 --> 00:45:07,120
Speaker 1: alive right now, maybe even listening to this show, who

717
00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:11,239
Speaker 1: have been subjected to it, but we will never know

718
00:45:11,280 --> 00:45:15,520
Speaker 1: their reactions because they are subject to a incredibly powerful

719
00:45:15,600 --> 00:45:18,640
Speaker 1: gag order. Friends who from discussing this in public, from

720
00:45:18,680 --> 00:45:22,280
Speaker 1: publishing work related to this, from talking about it, pretty

721
00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:23,920
Speaker 1: much for the rest of your life, or until that

722
00:45:24,080 --> 00:45:27,600
Speaker 1: order is rescinded. And this means taking it back to

723
00:45:27,640 --> 00:45:30,000
Speaker 1: i q T. This means that if you are a

724
00:45:30,040 --> 00:45:32,759
Speaker 1: startup or an inventor, you might feel there is an

725
00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:35,920
Speaker 1: implied threat in an offer from i q T. You

726
00:45:35,960 --> 00:45:39,360
Speaker 1: may feel it's an offer you can't really refuse because

727
00:45:39,360 --> 00:45:44,319
Speaker 1: you're dealing with the people who enforce the rules, like

728
00:45:44,600 --> 00:45:48,440
Speaker 1: enforce the law, so they can also and they all,

729
00:45:48,680 --> 00:45:51,160
Speaker 1: you know, the CIA also has a track history of

730
00:45:51,320 --> 00:45:56,520
Speaker 1: ignoring the law when it becomes inconvenient. So whether or

731
00:45:56,560 --> 00:46:00,239
Speaker 1: not there is a real threat here, it's understand well

732
00:46:00,239 --> 00:46:03,319
Speaker 1: that people might freak out when they imagine all the

733
00:46:03,400 --> 00:46:08,799
Speaker 1: consequences of a conversation going sideways. So that's that's one

734
00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:11,720
Speaker 1: of the big concerns. But the you know, the ultimately

735
00:46:11,800 --> 00:46:14,000
Speaker 1: the biggest concern with this, I would say, is i

736
00:46:14,160 --> 00:46:18,520
Speaker 1: q T secrecy. Like Matt said, you can learn a

737
00:46:18,680 --> 00:46:23,360
Speaker 1: lot about the about the organization through their official website.

738
00:46:24,239 --> 00:46:26,880
Speaker 1: Uh and once you get past some of the corporate speak,

739
00:46:26,960 --> 00:46:31,319
Speaker 1: you will see substantive details on companies they work with,

740
00:46:31,560 --> 00:46:37,879
Speaker 1: areas of technology, etcetera, etcetera. But when you ask how

741
00:46:37,960 --> 00:46:39,719
Speaker 1: much money they give, when you ask some of those

742
00:46:39,760 --> 00:46:45,240
Speaker 1: financial details, the conversation cuts off. And specifically when you ask, hey,

743
00:46:45,239 --> 00:46:48,839
Speaker 1: so what do you guys want this for? Like, I'm

744
00:46:48,880 --> 00:46:52,160
Speaker 1: also really excited about the intersection and the synergy and

745
00:46:52,200 --> 00:46:55,719
Speaker 1: the secret sauce. This is so wheelhouse bro. But what

746
00:46:57,280 --> 00:47:02,880
Speaker 1: after all? Start with somewhat about that one earlier, but Yeah,

747
00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:07,440
Speaker 1: when you ask what what are you using it for? Uh,

748
00:47:07,680 --> 00:47:10,200
Speaker 1: you get past the corporate bus terms, they're just start

749
00:47:10,200 --> 00:47:13,200
Speaker 1: going to tell you it's their policy. And that means

750
00:47:13,880 --> 00:47:18,200
Speaker 1: that it makes everybody kind of like that hypothetical for

751
00:47:18,320 --> 00:47:22,360
Speaker 1: an uh, for an intelligence agent. You're left a conjecture,

752
00:47:22,600 --> 00:47:26,680
Speaker 1: read some tea leaves, speculate, and then worry. Oh, I'm

753
00:47:26,680 --> 00:47:29,160
Speaker 1: gonna do that later, right before we end this episode.

754
00:47:29,200 --> 00:47:31,919
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you a heavy dose of that. Yes,

755
00:47:32,080 --> 00:47:37,040
Speaker 1: that's correct. Yeah. So in their in their defense, multiple

756
00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:44,080
Speaker 1: individuals from all sides, private startups, former executive CIA officials, scholars, etcetera, etcetera,

757
00:47:44,320 --> 00:47:47,200
Speaker 1: they've spoken pretty openly about i QT and how it

758
00:47:47,239 --> 00:47:49,640
Speaker 1: works and what they like about it. The problem is

759
00:47:49,680 --> 00:47:52,640
Speaker 1: in this situation, again, because of c i A baggage,

760
00:47:53,239 --> 00:47:57,680
Speaker 1: anything less than full transparency will inevitably keep the conspiracy

761
00:47:57,760 --> 00:48:02,000
Speaker 1: fires burning. That praise, by the way, the reason all

762
00:48:02,040 --> 00:48:04,960
Speaker 1: the former employees have such a good attitude about it

763
00:48:05,040 --> 00:48:07,759
Speaker 1: is very understandable because I didn't know this, but for

764
00:48:07,800 --> 00:48:10,879
Speaker 1: a long time, if you were employed there, you had

765
00:48:10,920 --> 00:48:13,799
Speaker 1: to put ten per cent of your pay into a

766
00:48:13,960 --> 00:48:17,279
Speaker 1: fund that invested in all the stuff in q Tel

767
00:48:17,440 --> 00:48:20,640
Speaker 1: was investing in and that meant that you got a

768
00:48:20,680 --> 00:48:24,440
Speaker 1: piece of the pie. Those were those became your bonuses,

769
00:48:24,560 --> 00:48:28,799
Speaker 1: those payouts. It's probably better than four oh one K.

770
00:48:29,080 --> 00:48:32,239
Speaker 1: And there there's no detail right now about how much

771
00:48:32,280 --> 00:48:36,359
Speaker 1: money that shook out to per employee. But they were

772
00:48:36,400 --> 00:48:39,080
Speaker 1: not strapped for cash, you know, when Christmas came around

773
00:48:39,239 --> 00:48:43,359
Speaker 1: or anything like that. The experiments, and it did start

774
00:48:43,640 --> 00:48:47,359
Speaker 1: as an experiment, is a success. So much so the Army,

775
00:48:47,400 --> 00:48:51,359
Speaker 1: the Navy, other agencies have or are planning their own

776
00:48:51,480 --> 00:48:55,880
Speaker 1: venture capital efforts based on this model. And the future

777
00:48:55,920 --> 00:48:59,359
Speaker 1: is scary. I q T is evolving. Just this year

778
00:48:59,400 --> 00:49:04,439
Speaker 1: they announced program briefly mentioned called i q T Emerge. This,

779
00:49:04,800 --> 00:49:08,320
Speaker 1: Oh man, do you guys remember this the old toy

780
00:49:08,480 --> 00:49:17,200
Speaker 1: sets spy tech, Yeah, with the sideway, the mirror lazy

781
00:49:17,239 --> 00:49:18,640
Speaker 1: like I know, I mean the most popular ones were

782
00:49:18,640 --> 00:49:23,040
Speaker 1: the mirror shades I think, which were very awkward looking elongated, right,

783
00:49:23,200 --> 00:49:27,600
Speaker 1: the laser one and um like invisible inc various invisible

784
00:49:27,640 --> 00:49:31,680
Speaker 1: ink type situations. Right, I forgot about the invisible ink. Well,

785
00:49:32,239 --> 00:49:35,320
Speaker 1: we might not be the only people who really dug

786
00:49:35,520 --> 00:49:40,960
Speaker 1: spy tech toys because i q T Emerge is kind

787
00:49:41,000 --> 00:49:43,319
Speaker 1: of doing a grown up version of spy tech. They

788
00:49:43,360 --> 00:49:47,480
Speaker 1: want to take these stuff that they have developed or

789
00:49:47,520 --> 00:49:51,600
Speaker 1: funded and make it commercially available, probably in you know,

790
00:49:51,880 --> 00:49:56,960
Speaker 1: um a safer version than whatever they're actually using. So

791
00:49:57,120 --> 00:50:00,320
Speaker 1: their idea is that they can make another in comes

792
00:50:00,360 --> 00:50:04,480
Speaker 1: stream and they can also brace yourself for the corporate

793
00:50:04,560 --> 00:50:08,680
Speaker 1: terms here, they can also spur innovation and encourage public

794
00:50:08,680 --> 00:50:14,319
Speaker 1: and private sector collaboration. Yeah. Man, that's pretty cool. So

795
00:50:14,400 --> 00:50:17,759
Speaker 1: that just this concept that they're gonna take stuff developed,

796
00:50:18,239 --> 00:50:20,480
Speaker 1: you know, through all these connections, them being at the

797
00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:22,440
Speaker 1: center of the matrix there because you know, they are,

798
00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:26,040
Speaker 1: and being able to make just tons of money because

799
00:50:26,040 --> 00:50:29,720
Speaker 1: they are venture capital after all, and they're not for profit.

800
00:50:30,160 --> 00:50:32,680
Speaker 1: It's interesting because again it doesn't matter how much money

801
00:50:32,719 --> 00:50:35,319
Speaker 1: they do or don't make. That's so interesting. I think

802
00:50:35,320 --> 00:50:38,759
Speaker 1: of the terms venture capital and not for profit being

803
00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:42,880
Speaker 1: like the two most unrelated concepts that could be, But

804
00:50:42,960 --> 00:50:45,799
Speaker 1: I guess they can co exist time. Yeah, And what

805
00:50:45,920 --> 00:50:49,520
Speaker 1: I love about not for profit it's such a Goldilocks thing.

806
00:50:50,000 --> 00:50:52,680
Speaker 1: It's like, we have to make money, but we won't

807
00:50:52,680 --> 00:50:55,120
Speaker 1: get in trouble if we do. That's exactly what I've

808
00:50:55,120 --> 00:50:57,880
Speaker 1: always wondered, Like, it's not a prerequisite for being a

809
00:50:57,920 --> 00:51:00,120
Speaker 1: non problem. Maybe it is for certain ones, but as

810
00:51:00,120 --> 00:51:03,600
Speaker 1: a tax purposes, right, But like, is it required that

811
00:51:03,640 --> 00:51:05,799
Speaker 1: you make no money that you just break even and

812
00:51:05,800 --> 00:51:07,719
Speaker 1: just pay everybody? Or like how I don't understan I've

813
00:51:07,719 --> 00:51:13,160
Speaker 1: always wondered about that aspect of nonprofit work. Oh yeah, nonprofits, Uh,

814
00:51:13,960 --> 00:51:18,000
Speaker 1: quick tangent. But non nonprofits have certain rules about how

815
00:51:18,040 --> 00:51:22,239
Speaker 1: they allocate funds that they receive, you know, through donations

816
00:51:22,320 --> 00:51:26,560
Speaker 1: or if they generate something through fundraisers. So when nonprofits

817
00:51:26,560 --> 00:51:31,560
Speaker 1: get accused of being crooked, the primary way that occurs

818
00:51:31,840 --> 00:51:35,279
Speaker 1: is through the salaries of someone who's at the top

819
00:51:35,320 --> 00:51:37,000
Speaker 1: of the company, and you know they're making a lot

820
00:51:37,040 --> 00:51:40,840
Speaker 1: of money. Uh, that money could have been going to

821
00:51:40,880 --> 00:51:44,080
Speaker 1: the cause that they say they support. Things like that,

822
00:51:44,120 --> 00:51:46,600
Speaker 1: like always be careful when you hear a portion of

823
00:51:46,640 --> 00:51:51,080
Speaker 1: the proceeds go to a portion is anywhere from to

824
00:51:51,239 --> 00:51:55,040
Speaker 1: less than one percent? Still a portion? Yeah, I mean

825
00:51:55,080 --> 00:51:59,080
Speaker 1: it's an unfortunate points true. But this all this i

826
00:51:59,200 --> 00:52:02,120
Speaker 1: q T and merror, which is interesting especially when consider

827
00:52:02,200 --> 00:52:07,160
Speaker 1: the CIA also just in September announced the creation of

828
00:52:07,200 --> 00:52:10,440
Speaker 1: their first ever federal lab for in house R and

829
00:52:10,560 --> 00:52:15,840
Speaker 1: D verse of creativity. This is called CIA Labs, but

830
00:52:16,040 --> 00:52:18,960
Speaker 1: here's what it does. It allows CIA officers to get

831
00:52:19,000 --> 00:52:23,319
Speaker 1: patents and licenses for things that they make. So this

832
00:52:23,400 --> 00:52:27,680
Speaker 1: opens the door for someone at US. Maybe there's a

833
00:52:27,800 --> 00:52:31,120
Speaker 1: startup that is not totally on board with this, so

834
00:52:31,160 --> 00:52:33,520
Speaker 1: opens the door for a member of that startup to

835
00:52:33,640 --> 00:52:37,399
Speaker 1: split to get hired by the CIA. Just cut out

836
00:52:37,440 --> 00:52:42,120
Speaker 1: the middleman, dude, Yeah, completely, and and and just to

837
00:52:42,160 --> 00:52:44,239
Speaker 1: take this really to connect it back to the i

838
00:52:44,360 --> 00:52:47,720
Speaker 1: q T Labs, which is something we talked about before.

839
00:52:48,320 --> 00:52:51,120
Speaker 1: You probably have heard of Google Labs. I think that's

840
00:52:51,160 --> 00:52:54,000
Speaker 1: what they called it for a long time. Um where

841
00:52:54,120 --> 00:52:57,440
Speaker 1: it was you know, brand new, brand new tech that

842
00:52:57,480 --> 00:53:00,360
Speaker 1: could be incorporated into Chrome or Google or you know

843
00:53:00,480 --> 00:53:04,239
Speaker 1: other just venture capital being pushed into new new technologies

844
00:53:04,239 --> 00:53:07,520
Speaker 1: and new firms, but being incorporated back into Google. It's

845
00:53:07,560 --> 00:53:10,640
Speaker 1: basically Google trying to get new things and putting a

846
00:53:10,640 --> 00:53:13,160
Speaker 1: bunch of throwing a bunch of money at people to

847
00:53:13,239 --> 00:53:16,239
Speaker 1: get new things, new ideas. Well. I q T s

848
00:53:16,360 --> 00:53:20,120
Speaker 1: Labs does the exact same thing. And I'm gonna read

849
00:53:20,160 --> 00:53:22,359
Speaker 1: you I swear this is my last quote that I'm

850
00:53:22,360 --> 00:53:25,880
Speaker 1: gona read from that uh that one YouTube video I mentioned.

851
00:53:26,360 --> 00:53:29,560
Speaker 1: This is from George Tennant himself. In q Tel only

852
00:53:29,600 --> 00:53:33,680
Speaker 1: has one venture company making more investments every year, only

853
00:53:33,719 --> 00:53:38,520
Speaker 1: one that's Google Ventures, So essentially Google Labs, the arm

854
00:53:38,600 --> 00:53:40,799
Speaker 1: of Google that does the same thing that they're doing.

855
00:53:41,280 --> 00:53:45,080
Speaker 1: The experiment has been a wild success, beyond anything I

856
00:53:45,160 --> 00:53:48,960
Speaker 1: we could have thought of, because in absolute terms, the

857
00:53:49,000 --> 00:53:52,359
Speaker 1: country's a lot safer. But just that making the point

858
00:53:52,400 --> 00:53:56,640
Speaker 1: there that it's basically Google and in q Tel that

859
00:53:56,640 --> 00:53:59,920
Speaker 1: that are that are funneling money into new tech ideas.

860
00:54:00,160 --> 00:54:02,960
Speaker 1: But it's not just them, but they're big players. And

861
00:54:02,960 --> 00:54:04,799
Speaker 1: then again, another point we have to bring up here

862
00:54:04,840 --> 00:54:06,839
Speaker 1: is if it wasn't them, it would be someone else.

863
00:54:07,960 --> 00:54:12,720
Speaker 1: That's just true. But as we closed the episode today,

864
00:54:12,719 --> 00:54:15,960
Speaker 1: we hope we've given you a decent introduction to in

865
00:54:16,160 --> 00:54:20,960
Speaker 1: q tell UH, the odd little duck of venture firm

866
00:54:21,040 --> 00:54:24,160
Speaker 1: that it is UH, and we've outlined some of the concerns,

867
00:54:24,400 --> 00:54:27,360
Speaker 1: some of the reasons it's around some of the allegations

868
00:54:27,480 --> 00:54:32,480
Speaker 1: or possibility for conspiracy and corruption. But let's let's end

869
00:54:32,520 --> 00:54:36,560
Speaker 1: on something juicy. This is something that that um we

870
00:54:36,600 --> 00:54:41,120
Speaker 1: had all been talking about off air. You read into

871
00:54:41,600 --> 00:54:45,520
Speaker 1: pretty fascinating video just before we recorded. Oh yes I did.

872
00:54:46,160 --> 00:54:50,160
Speaker 1: I'd like to turn your attention to another website. It's

873
00:54:50,200 --> 00:54:54,640
Speaker 1: called B the letter B next any xt dot org.

874
00:54:55,320 --> 00:54:57,640
Speaker 1: This is another thing that's mentioned on i q t

875
00:54:57,840 --> 00:55:01,360
Speaker 1: s website, i q T dot org. Uh. This is

876
00:55:01,400 --> 00:55:05,080
Speaker 1: a brand new thing that they started back in the

877
00:55:05,200 --> 00:55:10,520
Speaker 1: late twenty teens. And it's it's a good idea. I

878
00:55:10,560 --> 00:55:15,320
Speaker 1: would say it's a noble idea. It is a bit strange,

879
00:55:15,400 --> 00:55:19,439
Speaker 1: and you can see how this kind of thing could

880
00:55:19,560 --> 00:55:21,719
Speaker 1: lead people to think in a certain way if we

881
00:55:21,840 --> 00:55:24,160
Speaker 1: if we go back to what Ben was talking about,

882
00:55:24,920 --> 00:55:29,760
Speaker 1: the absence of major details causing people to make cognitive

883
00:55:29,800 --> 00:55:34,560
Speaker 1: jumps sometimes right from one thing to the next. Um,

884
00:55:34,600 --> 00:55:41,440
Speaker 1: because this thing be Next. It's a bio technology arm

885
00:55:41,719 --> 00:55:45,279
Speaker 1: of in q TEL and it's a well, actually, you

886
00:55:45,280 --> 00:55:47,200
Speaker 1: know what. Let's just listen to a part of this

887
00:55:47,360 --> 00:55:52,160
Speaker 1: video that's posted on i q T labs video site.

888
00:55:52,719 --> 00:55:54,920
Speaker 1: The mission of the Next is to raise awareness of

889
00:55:54,960 --> 00:55:58,840
Speaker 1: the bio revolution and construct a technology architecture to protect

890
00:55:58,840 --> 00:56:04,280
Speaker 1: the nation against large lethal epidemics. This architecture will describe

891
00:56:04,280 --> 00:56:10,000
Speaker 1: existing and emerging technologies essential to fighting infectious disease. B

892
00:56:10,120 --> 00:56:13,680
Speaker 1: NEXT will help us answer questions such as can we

893
00:56:13,760 --> 00:56:18,600
Speaker 1: rapidly detect and quench disease outbreaks. Can we dynamically adapt

894
00:56:18,640 --> 00:56:21,960
Speaker 1: to new information and minimize the toll of big epidemics?

895
00:56:22,880 --> 00:56:26,680
Speaker 1: Can we design and manufacture new vaccines when and where

896
00:56:26,719 --> 00:56:32,120
Speaker 1: we need them? The digital revolution change the world. The

897
00:56:32,160 --> 00:56:36,920
Speaker 1: bio revolution will transform it. Yes, there you go. Now

898
00:56:36,960 --> 00:56:39,960
Speaker 1: here's the important thing to note that video was posted

899
00:56:40,000 --> 00:56:48,320
Speaker 1: in February, specifically February, a year here and change before

900
00:56:48,760 --> 00:56:56,120
Speaker 1: the novel coronavirus of was identified. Now here's where the

901
00:56:56,200 --> 00:56:59,359
Speaker 1: leap is a problem. That doesn't mean in q TEL

902
00:56:59,480 --> 00:57:02,120
Speaker 1: or ban X is doing anything nefarious when it comes

903
00:57:02,160 --> 00:57:05,239
Speaker 1: to you know, epidemics and pandemics like the one we

904
00:57:05,360 --> 00:57:08,759
Speaker 1: just experienced and are in the middle of still, but

905
00:57:08,840 --> 00:57:12,520
Speaker 1: you could see how anyone who is skeptical or feel

906
00:57:12,840 --> 00:57:16,880
Speaker 1: or fearful of the CIA and other government entities would think, oh,

907
00:57:16,960 --> 00:57:19,840
Speaker 1: they were working on that stuff right before it happened,

908
00:57:20,280 --> 00:57:23,080
Speaker 1: and it could make you feel an easy as I

909
00:57:23,120 --> 00:57:26,120
Speaker 1: have to admit personally, it does make me feel uneasy

910
00:57:26,160 --> 00:57:28,760
Speaker 1: a bit, But it doesn't mean it's true or they

911
00:57:28,760 --> 00:57:31,800
Speaker 1: had they were doing anything nefarious or are doing anything nefarious.

912
00:57:32,000 --> 00:57:36,960
Speaker 1: It's just that little coincidental thing that can happen. I

913
00:57:36,960 --> 00:57:39,000
Speaker 1: don't know what do you guys think so. I think

914
00:57:39,000 --> 00:57:44,439
Speaker 1: it's interesting. I my head automatically categorizes this with other

915
00:57:45,160 --> 00:57:50,280
Speaker 1: what I call COVID coincidence conspiracies, like you know, the

916
00:57:50,320 --> 00:57:54,400
Speaker 1: paperback thriller that appeared to outline the spread of something

917
00:57:54,720 --> 00:57:59,840
Speaker 1: like COVID uh and then it later turned out that

918
00:57:59,840 --> 00:58:03,720
Speaker 1: that book had been updated after the fact, so it

919
00:58:03,800 --> 00:58:06,040
Speaker 1: wasn't really you know, from the eighties or whatever. And

920
00:58:06,080 --> 00:58:09,920
Speaker 1: predicting this the idea of a so called planned demmick

921
00:58:10,400 --> 00:58:14,400
Speaker 1: because of the different scenarios that in g o's and

922
00:58:14,520 --> 00:58:18,000
Speaker 1: governments were running to try to game out how an

923
00:58:18,040 --> 00:58:22,160
Speaker 1: epidemic would spread. I just keep going back to it, man,

924
00:58:23,000 --> 00:58:25,760
Speaker 1: I hear you. We don't know enough. We don't know

925
00:58:25,960 --> 00:58:29,280
Speaker 1: enough to definitively say there's not something sketchy a foot.

926
00:58:29,680 --> 00:58:31,960
Speaker 1: Well yeah, well, the White House right now is still

927
00:58:32,040 --> 00:58:35,959
Speaker 1: they're pushing hard to get more information on that lab

928
00:58:35,960 --> 00:58:41,439
Speaker 1: in Wuhan, China, where perhaps of virus escaped, whether through

929
00:58:41,560 --> 00:58:45,600
Speaker 1: accidental or to various purposes. And you know, it doesn't

930
00:58:45,640 --> 00:58:47,640
Speaker 1: mean that's true. It means the White House and the

931
00:58:47,720 --> 00:58:50,720
Speaker 1: United States government is interested in that possibility. Right Well,

932
00:58:50,800 --> 00:58:52,800
Speaker 1: let yeah, let me And I'm really glad you brought

933
00:58:52,840 --> 00:58:55,120
Speaker 1: that up because we do need to point out the

934
00:58:55,160 --> 00:58:59,959
Speaker 1: difference here. So what they're pushing to do could best

935
00:59:00,040 --> 00:59:03,600
Speaker 1: be understood as a kind of due diligence, with the

936
00:59:03,640 --> 00:59:07,920
Speaker 1: hope being that through understanding the the origin in the

937
00:59:07,960 --> 00:59:14,440
Speaker 1: genesis of COVID nineteen, the world and the US in particular,

938
00:59:14,520 --> 00:59:17,960
Speaker 1: will be better able to prevent the spread of the

939
00:59:18,000 --> 00:59:21,600
Speaker 1: next pandemic. And there will be another one. It's statistically

940
00:59:21,800 --> 00:59:24,600
Speaker 1: on the way, So don't feel too bad if you

941
00:59:24,680 --> 00:59:27,000
Speaker 1: hoarded a bunch of toilet paper might come in handy

942
00:59:27,400 --> 00:59:30,240
Speaker 1: the next time the stores run out. But that's a

943
00:59:30,240 --> 00:59:34,400
Speaker 1: great point, and it should be known that this pandemic

944
00:59:34,640 --> 00:59:36,720
Speaker 1: that we're going through right now was it was. It

945
00:59:36,840 --> 00:59:39,480
Speaker 1: wasn't known that this one would happen, But like you said, Ben,

946
00:59:39,520 --> 00:59:41,600
Speaker 1: it was known that one was going to be coming

947
00:59:42,120 --> 00:59:45,479
Speaker 1: right sometime in the future. That's why you could say

948
00:59:45,520 --> 00:59:47,960
Speaker 1: in q TEL and the c i A and all

949
00:59:48,000 --> 00:59:50,400
Speaker 1: these people were aware that something like that was on

950
00:59:50,440 --> 00:59:53,320
Speaker 1: the horizon, they didn't know when it would occur. It is.

951
00:59:53,760 --> 00:59:59,080
Speaker 1: It does feel strange that they got the biggest test

952
00:59:59,640 --> 01:00:04,360
Speaker 1: of this new you know thing be next within a

953
01:00:04,440 --> 01:00:08,000
Speaker 1: year's time of them starting. Yeah, yeah, that's I mean,

954
01:00:08,040 --> 01:00:12,120
Speaker 1: that's true. But just to be clear, this new investigation

955
01:00:12,440 --> 01:00:16,360
Speaker 1: is based on un some valid stuff, like it is

956
01:00:16,400 --> 01:00:20,200
Speaker 1: true that in the past, I believe with um with stars,

957
01:00:20,240 --> 01:00:24,120
Speaker 1: maybe there were lab workers in Singapore who contracted it

958
01:00:24,920 --> 01:00:28,800
Speaker 1: just through human error and through accident. So there there

959
01:00:28,920 --> 01:00:32,120
Speaker 1: is a reasonable basis for this, and it's not I

960
01:00:32,160 --> 01:00:34,440
Speaker 1: don't believe it's meant to be some kind of like

961
01:00:34,560 --> 01:00:37,000
Speaker 1: finger pointing, you know what I mean. I don't think

962
01:00:37,000 --> 01:00:40,160
Speaker 1: they're trying to find someone else to blame for the

963
01:00:40,200 --> 01:00:43,760
Speaker 1: way the US handled the pandemic or dropped the ball

964
01:00:43,960 --> 01:00:48,120
Speaker 1: on the pandemic, which the U S did, so hopefully

965
01:00:48,160 --> 01:00:51,480
Speaker 1: this will better prepare us. But then also again, no

966
01:00:51,520 --> 01:00:54,720
Speaker 1: matter how many cool corporate videos we see with in

967
01:00:54,840 --> 01:01:00,680
Speaker 1: q Tel, we like much of the public no full

968
01:01:00,720 --> 01:01:04,960
Speaker 1: well that the CIA gets up to dastardly stuff. So

969
01:01:05,160 --> 01:01:08,000
Speaker 1: what are they gonna like? You can play this game

970
01:01:08,000 --> 01:01:10,440
Speaker 1: with yourself. Go to the website, look at the innocuous

971
01:01:10,440 --> 01:01:14,400
Speaker 1: technology and then imagine what, like in your mind, what

972
01:01:14,640 --> 01:01:18,760
Speaker 1: is there a crazy thing that it could be used for? Right?

973
01:01:18,920 --> 01:01:22,760
Speaker 1: What what kind of stuff could the CIA do with

974
01:01:22,920 --> 01:01:26,920
Speaker 1: these pieces of tech that may seem innocuous? All I

975
01:01:26,960 --> 01:01:31,240
Speaker 1: know is that the digital revolution change the world, but

976
01:01:31,320 --> 01:01:35,160
Speaker 1: the bio revolution is gonna transform it. And what's the

977
01:01:35,160 --> 01:01:38,040
Speaker 1: difference between changed and transformed. It's like that old joke,

978
01:01:38,160 --> 01:01:41,400
Speaker 1: you know, like I haven't I haven't abridged the saurus.

979
01:01:42,040 --> 01:01:46,480
Speaker 1: I hate it. Not only is it terrible, it's also terrible.

980
01:01:48,520 --> 01:01:50,960
Speaker 1: I didn't write that. Be careful with that joke is antique.

981
01:01:51,400 --> 01:01:54,280
Speaker 1: But let's let us know what you think, folks, is

982
01:01:54,320 --> 01:01:58,200
Speaker 1: this is in q tel a smart way to avoid

983
01:01:58,280 --> 01:02:02,560
Speaker 1: the pitfalls of traditional you know, government contracting to the benefits,

984
01:02:02,640 --> 01:02:06,720
Speaker 1: aweigh the potential risk. What is going on? This is

985
01:02:06,760 --> 01:02:10,160
Speaker 1: going to continue, obviously, I'm so excited there's a real

986
01:02:10,200 --> 01:02:13,440
Speaker 1: life spy tech back in the works. I loved those toys,

987
01:02:14,280 --> 01:02:18,840
Speaker 1: but I don't know, I don't know what consequences come

988
01:02:18,880 --> 01:02:22,880
Speaker 1: attached to them. If they make new flear like cameras,

989
01:02:23,320 --> 01:02:25,640
Speaker 1: that would be cool, so we can just you know,

990
01:02:25,760 --> 01:02:28,480
Speaker 1: maybe they maybe they can make high end audio video

991
01:02:28,560 --> 01:02:32,080
Speaker 1: gear that would be cool. So like the in q

992
01:02:32,240 --> 01:02:35,840
Speaker 1: tell and whatever this becomes, it's just the new Sindhiser

993
01:02:36,680 --> 01:02:38,600
Speaker 1: or you know, the new Shore, and then we can

994
01:02:38,600 --> 01:02:43,920
Speaker 1: get crazy cool mix to podcast with. I'm all for

995
01:02:44,040 --> 01:02:46,640
Speaker 1: crazy cool mikes. You know that, Yeah, let's do it.

996
01:02:46,920 --> 01:02:49,840
Speaker 1: We want to hear your thoughts on this. Have you

997
01:02:49,920 --> 01:02:53,280
Speaker 1: had experience with startup culture or have you had experience

998
01:02:53,320 --> 01:02:56,640
Speaker 1: with in Q tell Can you tell us about it? Uh,

999
01:02:56,720 --> 01:02:58,960
Speaker 1: whether or not you can't, we'd love to hear from you.

1000
01:02:59,040 --> 01:03:01,280
Speaker 1: We try to be easy to find online. That's right.

1001
01:03:01,320 --> 01:03:04,200
Speaker 1: You can find us on Facebook and Twitter where we're

1002
01:03:04,200 --> 01:03:07,479
Speaker 1: Conspiracy Stuff. You can also join our Facebook group Here's

1003
01:03:07,520 --> 01:03:09,720
Speaker 1: where it gets crazy. You can also find us on

1004
01:03:09,760 --> 01:03:13,080
Speaker 1: Instagram or We're Conspiracy Stuff show. Uh. You can also

1005
01:03:13,120 --> 01:03:15,640
Speaker 1: find us as individual human people. I'm just about only

1006
01:03:15,680 --> 01:03:19,120
Speaker 1: on Instagram. I am at how now Noel Brown And

1007
01:03:19,440 --> 01:03:22,880
Speaker 1: if you want to go to YouTube and watch videos,

1008
01:03:23,200 --> 01:03:26,479
Speaker 1: older videos, even their one on the CIA and Front

1009
01:03:26,560 --> 01:03:29,160
Speaker 1: companies or just front companies in general. But we mentioned

1010
01:03:29,160 --> 01:03:31,720
Speaker 1: the c I a head on over to YouTube dot

1011
01:03:31,760 --> 01:03:34,640
Speaker 1: com slash conspiracy Stuff. You can also watch videos of

1012
01:03:34,680 --> 01:03:38,120
Speaker 1: these conversations. They get put up every week. We hope

1013
01:03:38,160 --> 01:03:40,600
Speaker 1: you enjoy them. That We know they're a little different

1014
01:03:40,680 --> 01:03:43,040
Speaker 1: than the older videos that we used to make, but

1015
01:03:43,120 --> 01:03:45,760
Speaker 1: have no fear there's all kinds of stuff happening in

1016
01:03:46,160 --> 01:03:48,600
Speaker 1: in the background that you cannot see yet. We have

1017
01:03:48,640 --> 01:03:51,840
Speaker 1: our very own std w y t K labs, and

1018
01:03:52,600 --> 01:03:54,680
Speaker 1: there will be there will be new things to you.

1019
01:03:54,880 --> 01:03:58,000
Speaker 1: Is that your Instagram handle? Matt know that whole conversation

1020
01:03:58,120 --> 01:04:01,480
Speaker 1: is his Instagram. Got it on that whole sentence, but

1021
01:04:01,560 --> 01:04:05,160
Speaker 1: you can find it at std labs, I think, No, Nope,

1022
01:04:05,200 --> 01:04:08,880
Speaker 1: that's wrong. That's a different lab. Std labs is a

1023
01:04:08,960 --> 01:04:12,680
Speaker 1: different lab. We're they're doing good work, but it's not

1024
01:04:12,840 --> 01:04:15,120
Speaker 1: us doing that. Uh and yeah, we have to be

1025
01:04:15,160 --> 01:04:17,720
Speaker 1: a little in q tel right now about some things

1026
01:04:17,760 --> 01:04:20,720
Speaker 1: on the horizon, but hopefully they're all good news. Stay tuned.

1027
01:04:21,000 --> 01:04:22,800
Speaker 1: If you want to get a behind the scenes peak

1028
01:04:23,240 --> 01:04:29,880
Speaker 1: of my various misadventures or weird myopic research, then then

1029
01:04:29,880 --> 01:04:32,200
Speaker 1: find me app and bowl in hsw on Twitter or

1030
01:04:32,280 --> 01:04:36,120
Speaker 1: at ben Bowland bow l i n on Instagram. Guys,

1031
01:04:36,320 --> 01:04:40,280
Speaker 1: you're saying, I listened to your social media and big

1032
01:04:40,400 --> 01:04:44,280
Speaker 1: data episodes. Why are you still why? I'm not a

1033
01:04:44,320 --> 01:04:47,560
Speaker 1: social media person, you're saying to yourself, But I have

1034
01:04:47,720 --> 01:04:51,280
Speaker 1: to contact you. I have something very important to tell you. Well,

1035
01:04:51,800 --> 01:04:55,240
Speaker 1: you are in luck, fellow conspiracy realist. If you don't

1036
01:04:55,280 --> 01:04:58,440
Speaker 1: sip on the social media, you can still contact us directly.

1037
01:04:58,640 --> 01:05:01,680
Speaker 1: We have a phone number. That's right. Our number is

1038
01:05:01,720 --> 01:05:05,320
Speaker 1: one eight three three S T D W y t K.

1039
01:05:06,160 --> 01:05:09,200
Speaker 1: Find your favorite Google voice number. Oh there's Google again,

1040
01:05:09,520 --> 01:05:14,920
Speaker 1: or you know any kind of phone number obscuring app

1041
01:05:15,280 --> 01:05:17,280
Speaker 1: and give us a call, or just use your regular one.

1042
01:05:17,320 --> 01:05:19,600
Speaker 1: That's fine. But know that we can call you back

1043
01:05:19,840 --> 01:05:22,200
Speaker 1: if you call us. So when you do call, if

1044
01:05:22,240 --> 01:05:24,360
Speaker 1: you choose to call, please tell us what you'd like

1045
01:05:24,400 --> 01:05:26,200
Speaker 1: for us to refer to you as when we play

1046
01:05:26,200 --> 01:05:28,560
Speaker 1: your message. Let us know that we can play your message.

1047
01:05:28,720 --> 01:05:31,520
Speaker 1: Then leave your message. You have three minutes. You can

1048
01:05:31,520 --> 01:05:34,000
Speaker 1: do whatever you want with them. We do recommend that

1049
01:05:34,080 --> 01:05:37,040
Speaker 1: you only call one time and leave a message, and

1050
01:05:37,160 --> 01:05:39,200
Speaker 1: do keep it as brief as you possibly can. That

1051
01:05:39,240 --> 01:05:41,760
Speaker 1: will help us too as we go through them, and

1052
01:05:41,760 --> 01:05:43,920
Speaker 1: then it will increase your chances to get it on

1053
01:05:43,960 --> 01:05:46,160
Speaker 1: the air if you'd like it to be. And please

1054
01:05:46,200 --> 01:05:49,200
Speaker 1: don't call multiple times back to back to back, if

1055
01:05:49,720 --> 01:05:51,480
Speaker 1: just because it's difficult for us to go through all

1056
01:05:51,520 --> 01:05:54,240
Speaker 1: of that. If you've got a longer message, please send

1057
01:05:54,320 --> 01:05:57,880
Speaker 1: us a good old fashioned email. We are conspiracy at

1058
01:05:57,880 --> 01:06:18,800
Speaker 1: iHeart radio dot com. Stuff they Don't Want You to

1059
01:06:18,880 --> 01:06:21,640
Speaker 1: Know is a production of I Heart Radio. For more

1060
01:06:21,680 --> 01:06:24,439
Speaker 1: podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,

1061
01:06:24,520 --> 01:06:27,360
Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.