Speaker 1: Flex and Frooms, Flex and Frooms.
Speaker 2: This is the Flex and Frooms catch up podcast.
Speaker 1: Happy Wednesday, Freaky's thirtieth of August. Pinch and a Punch
Speaker 1: is happening in two days. Just getting quickly letting you know,
Speaker 1: because we need to bring back that bit from the
Speaker 1: early primary school days. And also, if you're a little
Speaker 1: child on today's show, if you could be a barnyard animal,
Speaker 1: which would you be taking into account that you can't
Speaker 1: choose your owner or your lifespan.
Speaker 2: Well your lifestyle, Yeah, exactly like being a free range
Speaker 2: chicken lit being a little cage giving anyway, Also, were
Speaker 2: to talk about giving a speech at your sister's wedding
Speaker 2: when you hate the husband to be ill.
Speaker 3: Take time, Tech time, tech time, It's tech time with
Speaker 3: Flex and Frooms on cater.
Speaker 2: To the next level.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 2: A couple of weeks ago, Josh, who works with us
Speaker 2: in the studio filming our social videos, came in and
Speaker 2: immediately asked me the question, did you hear what happened
Speaker 2: with snapchat? Aibot? Well, knowing that we like tech, we
Speaker 2: like futuristic themes, and we like unpacking gossip and drama,
Speaker 2: but I hadn't And because it was happening in real time.
Speaker 2: There wasn't really anything to say. All he mentioned is
Speaker 2: that it seemed as though Snapchat's aibot had posted a
Speaker 2: story or a snap of some sort of something that
Speaker 2: looked like a white wall, kind of the line of
Speaker 2: demarcation where the ceiling meets the wall, like very indiscernible,
Speaker 2: who knows why. But that immediately started going viral because
Speaker 2: people like, what is the meaning of this post? Why
Speaker 2: did it happen? And so what ensued were people tweeting
Speaker 2: pictures of their walls in comparison to the Snapchat walls
Speaker 2: to confirm that it was a wall being posted, and
Speaker 2: from there try to figure out why what's coming up?
Speaker 2: Is it a sign? Is it a clue? And for
Speaker 2: context with this Snapchat AI bot, you just ask it
Speaker 2: questions like what's going on today? How do I make
Speaker 2: a million dollars? What's the weather? How do I say
Speaker 2: sorry to my friend? That's the kind of function, kind
Speaker 2: of like Smarter Child from when we were teenagers.
Speaker 1: And it's got the logs of what you said to it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, did you use smarter Child?
Speaker 1: I have no idea use any chatbots, Mickeynabe.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was on MSN for a little bit.
Speaker 1: What was it?
Speaker 2: Child Smarter Child was an AI? I don't know it
Speaker 2: was an AI, but it was a chatbot. You would
Speaker 2: speak to it and it would speak back to you.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, okay, so it's where we learned how to
Speaker 1: get out some aggression.
Speaker 2: Yeah. People were obviously just so rude to it immediately.
Speaker 2: I wasn't. So people started speculating immediately that the AI
Speaker 2: was growing sentience because of what it posted. How could
Speaker 2: it post something so normal, so human if it wasn't
Speaker 2: intending on becoming or being human Like Snapchat came out
Speaker 2: and responded and said, it's just a glitch people, truly,
Speaker 2: just a glitch, a temporary outage. But people think that
Speaker 2: might be some kind of cover up. Why would you
Speaker 2: tell us if this AI is growing sentience, that might
Speaker 2: reflect poorly on you, or you might not know the
Speaker 2: scope of what's about to happen, so you're concealing this evidence. Now.
Speaker 2: When I saw this, what concerned me is number one,
Speaker 2: our inability to tell the difference between what is human behavior,
Speaker 2: what is just a random glitch, and what AI is
Speaker 2: actually capable of. The AI that's in the Snapchat one
Speaker 2: is not one that's generating images and whatever. It's just responsive.
Speaker 2: You're giving you information. It's giving you information back forth,
Speaker 2: back and forth. It's not like compounding intelligence like these
Speaker 2: other things like chat, GPT three and whatever. And then
Speaker 2: the other thing that we see a lot of when
Speaker 2: it comes to AI is this concept called anthropomorphism, where
Speaker 2: you give kind of like human characteristics to objects or
Speaker 2: to add animals or you know, like if I hit
Speaker 2: if I hit a table and I say, oh, sorry, babe, accidentally,
Speaker 2: or if I look at a dog and be like, oh,
Speaker 2: she's so manipulative, and it's like, is she just being
Speaker 2: a dog? Or is she being manipulative? And I think
Speaker 2: if we're doing it now, where for the most part,
Speaker 2: the AI we're interacting with doesn't have a lot of power.
Speaker 2: Our fear that AI is going to gain power over
Speaker 2: us is going to happen just statistically eventually, but I
Speaker 2: fear that it might happen prematurely because of how we're
Speaker 2: viewing it already already as this thing that has so
Speaker 2: much power when it's not even doing anything profound. This
Speaker 2: thing glitched and immediately it went viral sentience. What's happening next?
Speaker 2: What's it going to say, what's it going to do?
Speaker 2: Keep an eye at it? Just glitched And realistically, now
Speaker 2: I've started to think whether AI gains power or not
Speaker 2: in our life over in the next five years. Every
Speaker 2: conversation we have about it gives it social power, Like
Speaker 2: we render ourselves kind of submissive to this entity that
Speaker 2: we don't know anything about, and we're just assuming we're
Speaker 2: at the bottom of the tone pole, even if for
Speaker 2: all intents and purposes, it's at its infancy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, until it isn't.
Speaker 2: And I grew up so fast so far. A big
Speaker 2: sentiment I've seen floating around in my own personal circles
Speaker 2: is that people aren't feeling creative. They're reflecting on who
Speaker 2: they were four years ago, five years ago, and have
Speaker 2: all these tales about what they used to do with
Speaker 2: their time. Gosh, I used to paint so often, I
Speaker 2: went to pottery, I made videos, I listened to all
Speaker 2: these podcasts, I read so many books. I had so
Speaker 2: many thoughts, and now I just don't. And given the
Speaker 2: age group that we're sitting in late twenties, I assumed
Speaker 2: it was just a byproduct of getting a little bit older.
Speaker 2: You know, when you're twenty and twenty one, you have
Speaker 2: more time, and you also have more incentive to in
Speaker 2: on these things that become part of your identity. Yes,
Speaker 2: and then when you grow up and you kind of
Speaker 2: formed your identity, maybe it becomes less of a priority
Speaker 2: to try and signal who you are by what you do.
Speaker 2: For sure. So that was one idea. But then as
Speaker 2: I kept thinking about it, I reflected on a conversation
Speaker 2: I had with a friend where they asked me what
Speaker 2: I was doing on the weekend. This general chit chat
Speaker 2: just evolved into like, but I'm too exhausted to do
Speaker 2: the things I actually want to do. You said, so
Speaker 2: I'm yeah, so I'm doing like low level fun things
Speaker 2: like I'm playing more games and I'm building my lego.
Speaker 2: But what I really want to do is get back
Speaker 2: into building my furniture and reading and learning and exposing
Speaker 2: myself to things I don't understand and like upcycling and whatever.
Speaker 2: Then the person said to me in return, oh, so,
Speaker 2: like is it a creative block thing? And I was like,
Speaker 2: I guess, so, like maybe I'm overestimating how much energy
Speaker 2: it takes to do these things I want to do.
Speaker 2: But I just think I don't have ideas, like I
Speaker 2: used to. I was thinking that I really wanted to
Speaker 2: make some videos on what I thought about stuff, but
Speaker 2: then I just feel exhausted to think sometimes. And then
Speaker 2: this person's like, do you think that part of the
Speaker 2: issue with this is that you're just not bored enough?
Speaker 2: And I was like, what do you mean, I'm not
Speaker 2: bored enough? And so this person went into a bit
Speaker 2: of a monologue and they were saying that they feel
Speaker 2: as though the antidote to, or kind of like the
Speaker 2: Achilles heel of creativity, is that a lot of us
Speaker 2: are filling in all that bored time with stuff, generative dopamine, TikTok, socials,
Speaker 2: empty kinds of fun. And he's like, the real thing
Speaker 2: that's meant to fuel your desire to do stuff is
Speaker 2: the absence of doing stuff. It's that empty time we're like, gosh,
Speaker 2: I'm just like sitting around doing nothing. Oh, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: pick up a really fun book. Oh I'm gonna build
Speaker 2: I'm gonna play with some Plato or something. Yes. And
Speaker 2: so I'm like, that is so true, because if I
Speaker 2: have any kind of empty time, let's say I've got
Speaker 2: forty five minutes, I think to myself, that's just enough.
Speaker 2: Time to watch forty five TikTok videos. Yeah, it could
Speaker 2: be just enough time to make some progress on my
Speaker 2: Barbie dream House Lego set. You know, I could make
Speaker 2: some distinct progress, but I guess I'm not bored enough
Speaker 2: to think about it that way. I'm trying to measure
Speaker 2: the energy I have based on the outcome I think
Speaker 2: it's gonna give me. And so I know, if I
Speaker 2: just scroll on TikTok, it's gonna be enjoyable because something's
Speaker 2: gonna come up one percent. But forty five minutes of lego,
Speaker 2: is that really gonna be enough to make me feel good?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I wonder what that is, because, yeah, watching Tiktoko is
Speaker 1: essentially just like putting your brain on ice for a bit, Yeah,
Speaker 1: which is sometimes kind of like.
Speaker 2: It's not just a bit, it's like now the majority
Speaker 2: and now we're all dumb guys.
Speaker 1: What the food?
Speaker 2: Do you think that boredom is integral to creativity? I
Speaker 2: probably never.
Speaker 1: Used to, but yeah, like I think I was really
Speaker 1: creative during COVID MM, So I think what else is
Speaker 1: important for creativity is having little expectations on yourself. And
Speaker 1: I wonder, like, the longer you don't do a video.
Speaker 1: The longer you don't make a piece of furniture the
Speaker 1: more or like, the longer I don't write, then I'm like, damn,
Speaker 1: what the this is really hard? Like why do I
Speaker 1: ever enjoy that? And then you get in the group
Speaker 1: and you're like, yeah, let's go rub on the hands,
Speaker 1: feel and let's go boys.
Speaker 3: Look.
Speaker 1: So I've never enjoyed being bored, and it's hard for
Speaker 1: me to think boredom means I'm more creative because to me, they're.
Speaker 2: Like when is boredom ever inspiring? Exactly?
Speaker 1: And to me they're so opposite into the spectrum because
Speaker 1: my favorite thing is to make something I don't know, man, chick,
Speaker 1: got's pretty good, though. What can I say? Thank God's
Speaker 1: name when I's ready, truly truly.
Speaker 2: Am I last I saying no to giving a speech
Speaker 2: at my little sister's wedding. She framed it as a
Speaker 2: request but also said, do you want so? I said no,
Speaker 2: I don't actively want to, but if you genuinely really
Speaker 2: want me to, I will. I'm gay and I have
Speaker 2: two hetero sisters, both getting married in the next six months,
Speaker 2: so I've been absolutely inundated with boring wedding chitchat for ages.
Speaker 2: I feel weird about marriage as a whole because being
Speaker 2: gay wasn't an option until recently. Plus, I've never liked
Speaker 2: the fiancee in question. He's a good person, but I
Speaker 2: find him super annoying, and she and he both know it.
Speaker 2: And they've been together since they were fourteen years old,
Speaker 2: which I just find so weird, and they're twenty four now.
Speaker 2: Drag him. I don't care about marriage or the guy.
Speaker 2: So am I the asshole for not wanting to do
Speaker 2: a speech at my little sister's wedding? Is this person
Speaker 2: the asshole? I'm going to go ahead and say no,
Speaker 2: you're not the asshole for not wanting to give a
Speaker 2: speech at the sister's wedding, but you might be an
Speaker 2: asshole for thinking that. In any way, a request from
Speaker 2: your sister who's getting married is anything mandatory. It's never optional.
Speaker 2: Do you want?
Speaker 1: Do you care?
Speaker 2: What color the dresses? You might care? You might hate
Speaker 2: wearing salmon, but if your sister wants salmon, I think
Speaker 2: you're gonna have to wear salmon for the kind of
Speaker 2: day it is. I think for me personally, I really
Speaker 2: would not want to give a speech at any kind
Speaker 2: of wedding, not my friends. Yeah, I don't know what
Speaker 2: it is. I just the thought of it. Maybe you're
Speaker 2: a seasoned empty Well this is the thing, and I
Speaker 2: have a weird relationship with spotlight. I like the spotlight
Speaker 2: that I've earned. I don't like the spotlight that feels
Speaker 2: like it's being taken and every kind of wedding that
Speaker 2: I've observed, when somebody outside of the actual couple gets
Speaker 2: the stage, it feels like a derailment. Doesn't feel genuine,
Speaker 2: it doesn't feel completely necessary, and it also doesn't feel
Speaker 2: like the most appropriate reflection of the celebration we're having
Speaker 2: at hand. In this instance, in particular, you got assist
Speaker 2: who's like, not that big on weddings, not that big
Speaker 2: on marriage, doesn't really like the guy you're marrying. Why
Speaker 2: would she do a speech? You know what I'm saying. Yeah,
Speaker 2: But then, when observing what wedding culture is and how
Speaker 2: people feel about it and how sacred it is, it's
Speaker 2: almost like you're feeding into someone's fairy tale. So the
Speaker 2: very least you could do is play your position. How
Speaker 2: do you feel, Mickey?
Speaker 3: For me, I think family dynamics are always going to
Speaker 3: be complicated and like you can never like you know,
Speaker 3: there's probably a lot of history here, So yeah, I
Speaker 3: don't think she's an assehole for not wanting to do it,
Speaker 3: but I guess it depends on how important it is
Speaker 3: to your sister, like if your sister's going to like cry,
Speaker 3: or the fact that you're not going to give a speech, give.
Speaker 2: The speech, give speech, story, don't have to make it long.
Speaker 1: Honestly, I think that if you are diametrically opposed. Is
Speaker 1: that the term?
Speaker 2: I don't know, but I like the way it sounds.
Speaker 1: To marriage, And obviously you have your history of being
Speaker 1: queer and like it not being available to you, So
Speaker 1: I say fair enough, Like I think your sister should
Speaker 1: appreciate all of that. And plus she knows that you
Speaker 1: don't like the husband, Like if she wants you to
Speaker 1: do it, she's setting up you to do the perfect
Speaker 1: roast and that's going to make you more sad. So like,
Speaker 1: I would never want someone to be my bridesmaid or
Speaker 1: do a speech because they feel like they have to,
Speaker 1: Like it's going to rip the bandaid off for them
Speaker 1: for them to tell you. But it's better than you
Speaker 1: putting all of this emotional energy into someone who doesn't
Speaker 1: like you that much.
Speaker 2: You definitely want an enthusiastic yes for all of it.
Speaker 2: But then I also think on the other part, who
Speaker 2: can be more excited than you for your wedding? You know?
Speaker 2: I feel like to a point, you have to recognize
Speaker 2: that nobody cares about this as much as you do,
Speaker 2: and most people recognize the burden it is to be
Speaker 2: involved in somebody's wedding, you know, like it's an honor
Speaker 2: to be somebody's bridesmaid. But then you think about the
Speaker 2: financial burden and like the responsibility and the timing and
Speaker 2: all of these things that make it not that fun.
Speaker 1: That's apparels of being popular, truly, would you rather barnyard? Addition,
Speaker 1: we have been known to be piglets and little tiny
Speaker 1: animals running through the forest.
Speaker 2: Cats always like a team united front. When I'm not down,
Speaker 2: talk to me Ready.
Speaker 1: If an evil genie came to you and said, waking up,
Speaker 1: you are one of these pets. You cannot fly. Your
Speaker 1: owner will be completely random, and the owner can be
Speaker 1: good or bad. You cannot choose when to die, but
Speaker 1: you can only choose the species of your choice. WHOA
Speaker 1: Here are the selected animals in the PS three of
Speaker 1: your mind five ps five dog, cat, rabbit or rodent fish.
Speaker 1: And then in one brag it horse, dony, pink, donkey,
Speaker 1: pink chicken.
Speaker 2: I think I'm going to be a cat.
Speaker 1: Okay why?
Speaker 2: I just think on the hierarchy of privileged animals, cats
Speaker 2: rank quite high. I was initially going to say dog.
Speaker 2: But if I'm a barnyard dog, that means I'm working.
Speaker 1: Oh you're a red dog.
Speaker 2: Yes, But if there's no working cats on the farm, I.
Speaker 1: Mean you might not be in a barnyard. That was
Speaker 1: more just the catch hale for this break.
Speaker 2: How you can I say barnyard edition and say, well,
Speaker 2: not really in a barnyard.
Speaker 1: What is a barnyard inside the barn or outside the barn.
Speaker 2: I'm going to say it's a cat. Of all the
Speaker 2: animals that exist, and the domestic ones, I feel like
Speaker 2: you don't really have to give a lot to your
Speaker 2: owners to get a lot in return. I feel like
Speaker 2: a lot of other animals put in work or have
Speaker 2: to justify their presence.
Speaker 1: However, you would be in the broader demographic as a cat.
Speaker 1: In Australia. They are the most prolific animal in Australia.
Speaker 2: I not have an owner in this witchy rather.
Speaker 1: You can't choose. They could be the worst person ever.
Speaker 1: So it's really like what speaks to you. I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what I want to be. Okay, I want to
Speaker 1: say cat, but you took.
Speaker 2: It, so I won't done.
Speaker 1: Dude, Okay, okay, not big because it's too intelligent for
Speaker 1: its own good chicken because the chicken practices in Australia
Speaker 1: read on eating meat. It's a good one, stilly meat.
Speaker 2: But it was very when it needed to hear. It
Speaker 2: resonated at the time, exactly.
Speaker 1: I wasn't more of like a pescatarian died at the time.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm gonna say a rodent like being a
Speaker 1: little mouse.
Speaker 2: People like pest control and like rat traps.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but i'd be super cute. So they think, oh,
Speaker 1: the little mouse, like like Stuart Little.
Speaker 2: I don't know that'side in the context of a pet store.
Speaker 2: Rodents don't really get that far.
Speaker 1: It's a mouse, not a rodent. Put some respect on
Speaker 1: the name.
Speaker 2: Is a mouse not a rotent?
Speaker 1: Yeah, but like it's a mouse, a little little mouse,
Speaker 1: not derogatory or actually a funny one. Possum ringtail possum
Speaker 1: Barnyard Edition.
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