[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: You're listening to casual talk radio where common sense is still the norm whether you're a new or long time listener. We appreciate you joining us today. Visit
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[00:00:21] Speaker A: It happened again. I was told or accused of being anti technology. I don't know where that comes from. I don't understand why of all people that somebody would ever meet, that somebody would claim that I am anti technology.
I thought it was good to have the conversation and just to kind of preface and give some framework around how this works.
When we talk about anti technology, let's define that anti technology. What it does not mean is if you are against certain technologies or you're against the use of certain technologies, or you believe that technology is misused, that is not anti technology. That's being smart about technology.
I've been touching some form of technology and obviously technology is a broad term, but we're talking computing technology. I, I've been touching some form of technology since as far back, at least as far as I can recall, as five years old, possibly four.
It's always been around. I've always interacted with it, whether it was regular computers, whether it was tablets, whether it was phones and so on. Many of us dealt with regular landline phones and then cordless phones became a thing. So. And then cars, right? There's technology in cars and we go from whether it's eight tracks to tape decks to CDs or something else, streaming Bluetooth, Sirius, etc. And so on. Power windows which were not and power locks which were not standard at one point. Air conditioning which was not standard, believe it or not, at one point, headlights that were not auto.
There's been technology of various forms, right? So when we say anti technology, we need to put some clarity around what we mean because we're using it in a denigrating fashion, but we don't understand what it is that we're saying. I am not and have never been anti technology. I have a strong firm belief that technology should serve the human, not the other way around. Technology has been forced into a leadership role and that is what I chafe against because it's not the right answer. As somebody who understands the negatives of technology, for example, getting your identity hacked, I believe that we have gone too far with technology in our attempt to lessen reliance on humans and human fallacies. I'm not suggesting that humans are not screw ups, they obviously are screw ups, but I also think that part of this is simply upbringing you know, in the olden days, I just saw an article about time capsules, right? And a fire. There's a fire shop. And they found a time capsule in the wall from. It was like the late 1800s, ironically, the very year where there was a mysterious fire that destroyed a very important census record. I digress. But in this time capsule, you know, you look at some of the historical documentation of the time.
You listen to some of the people speak. All the way up through, like, the 50s and the 60s, there was a difference in presentation. And I think a lot of that's lost.
Nobody really wants to speak properly anymore.
Most are reliant, I would say too much so, on technology to do basic things. I just had people who struggle in the basics of managing a bank account.
And I was there, but I had to force myself to learn it because it was important. Especially when everything rushed to direct deposit. You're like, what do you mean, rushed? There was a time when direct deposit was not standard. There was a time direct deposit didn't exist, but later it was offered as an option if you wanted, but the default was still to get a physical check. And you would go down to the bank and either deposit it or cash it, because that's what you did. That was your proof you got paid. Direct deposit was not a standard till later, and then it became the standard and getting a check was an option.
Most still walked around with the physical stubborn. Then later they went to digital stubs like it was a transitional process. I don't have a problem necessarily with direct deposit other than the fact that banks can steal your money. And I don't like that. I'm not a fan of banks being able to steal your money. But I learned over time, it's really about the certain type of bank. It's just there are certain banks that are unethical and certain banks that are not. And credit unions, which some people say is the superior option. I would argue with some notable exception, credit unions are certainly better than banks, but I would not consider them the solution to all problems. I think credit unions have their own issues of their own sorts in their own making. But all of the technology and all the changes in technology over time.
For me, I never wanted technology to be a leader because I don't think it's suited for this. I don't ever think it's suited for this. I think it should always be serving humans. So when we think about computers, the idea that you have to power it on with a finger of some kind, fine. The idea that you have to use a fingerprint to log in? No. The idea that you have to key in a password which assumes that you remember it or you wrote it down. Absolutely. The idea that you can use your phone to unlock it. No. That's how I believe we've gone south, we've gone the wrong direction. Smart TVs. My TV is not connected to the Internet, nor will it ever be. I don't mind a little rockyou device. I actually have one. It's still sitting in the box. I haven't used it, but I'm not connecting the TV to the Internet. So it can just choose whenever it wants to force an update and reboot right in the middle of a critical show where I'm about to see somebody get knocked out and then it decides to just do on its own thing. No, I do not want my devices constantly listening. So no, I do not have an Alexa something where it's constantly listening and sending data up to the interwebs where they can then sell it to some companies to sell you products. And some people are like how do you know that's happening? Because you know it's happening. I don't have to guess. We all know that's happening. That's how they make money. That's literally how they make money. Think of consider why things like Alexa and this voice acted stuff activated is being crammed into everything by default and you cannot, it should not, it should be an option, but instead they're just cramming in there by default. Consider why that is. Is because it lets them gather critical information that they can use against you. As in sell it to other companies so they can pitch you products. That's literally why they're doing it. Because remember in the old days, if you're old enough, certain of these features were always optional. You had to ask for them and you paid extra for them and the privilege because they truly were convenience things. They were not defaulted things.
The idea of voice control used to be an add on feature, used to be something you had to ask for, not a default. And I certainly would not want to give it to Google or Amazon for that matter. So lighting, I have all sorts of lighting around. I'm looking straight at my bow window deal or bay window deal. And it's got lighting and the lighting is scheduled. It's scheduled to turn on at a certain time and turn off at a certain time. I have no problem with this. In fact, I think everybody should have these things. The idea of light switches feels silly to me. I have motion sensor lights all over the place, no problem. Neither of these things are connected to the Internet because they don't need to be. They're simple automations designed to be convenient. I would love to do that for a lot of the different things that I have. I just haven't got to that point yet.
The point I'm trying to make is it is not anti tech. I'm surrounded by at least eight computers right now.
The microphone I'm talking to you on, I do have a landline. I do not have a cell phone. Why? Because I don't need it. I can make phone calls, I can receive phone calls. That's all I need. I don't need text messaging. There's no reason to require text messaging. Could I receive a text message if I needed or felt like doing it? Sure. But I'm not going to be tethered to constant connectivity because there's no reason to. If somebody needed to reach me for something important, they can. I've reached out to certain people to make sure they knew how to reach me in case they needed something urgent so they understand how to reach me in those situations. Other than that, if I were going to have a conversation with somebody, it would need to be face to face or on the phone for whatever reason. Even people I've grown up with, they're just anti phone now. I suspect some of that has to do with them being parents because obviously becoming a parent, your priorities change.
Everything changes. Even when they leave home, even when they're grown kids and they leave home, everything changes for you. You now have to change everything about what you used to do and your priorities change. Especially if you, you know, like Covid or you're struggling through something at a time, it's all different. So I understood it's not the same. I even told one of them, look, the reason I don't call you is because I know you're busy. I'm not. I mean, I work, but I can take a call if you need it. But I want you to feel, I told two of them, I want you to feel like you can just pick up and call if you need something. Right. But I'm not gonna just call you as a random blue because I know you're busy. I, I talked to another one and he was out with his kid. And that's what it is. This, this is a person that I would spend at a time, two hours on the phone with and his sister, I would spend hours on the phone with her. She can't let go of text messages. I understand. But it's not what I do because it's impersonal. It's not the right answer. It's not, you know, and it might get you in trouble. Not with her. I don't have to worry about it. I'm saying in general.
So the summary is the idea of being anti technology assumes that I don't. You know, I'm not a Luddite. I would say that I, I do like the Amish belief system, but I'm not a Luddite. There are certain technologies that I'm surrounded by and have no problem doing. You know, having a vacuum cleaner to tie in, but it's not a smart vacuum cleaner. No, my power stack, which basically powers my entire great room off peak hours, no problem. It's connected to a tablet. The tablet controls the thing. And there's a schedule of a thing. Absolutely. You know, I've got webcams and lighting and all sorts of, you know, fans. There's all sorts of technology around me to the point I have to upgrade the service panel because there's tons of tech. But all of the tech serves me, not the other way around. The car, which I would love to buy a new one, but I'm not. All the newest is all SUV garbage and all, you know, Apple kits and car plays and Google Plays. No, I don't want that garbage. I want a simple. And then they're yanking out CD players. So like, all right, screw you, because I'm not doing a streaming of a thing. No, I will not. I will buy a thing from the music store and I will pop it in there and play it. I don't mind MP3s as an option, but you will not force me to have Internet access to play songs. You're like, well, you could just load it on the device.
I'm not putting it on a device that might fail or break or something where you have to replace it and then you got to swap all the stuff out and if it gets damaged now your stuff's stuck there. No, I'm not doing cloud. These. This is simply an understanding.
You can give up your rights if you want. You can give up your privacy if you want. You can put yourself out if you want. That's cool. I won't, because I don't need to. That's not anti tech. That is being smart about technology. And again, as somebody who works tech for a living, it would behoove everybody to listen to somebody who works tech telling you that you're probably dangerously embedded in, in your technology and you should back Down. See, I've been asked countless times, countless times, why is it that things seem to be so dirty, easy for me, why is it that communication seems to be better for me? Why is it that it seems that I seem to have this awareness that others lack? It's because I do not stare at tech. I don't flip through phones and do this stuff that degrades your brain. It dumbs you down. I read books, I read magazines, I read newspapers. I have a newspaper subscription. Because I believe you are made dumber by relying on technology for everything that you do. Because the technology is built to steer you to certain information that it wants you to focus on. When you're pulling from these offline sources of information, it can only be what it was built at the time.
And since it can only be what it was built at the time, it cannot be changed unless you get a new version. And now it's apparent what was changed over time. In a newspaper, it's all about the newspaper. And largely you don't have. The opinion piece is like a separate section. So you can choose to ignore everything opinion. If you look at it on mainstream video sources, they're injecting opinion even in the news updates. So what does it do? It, it derails your focus. It causes you to focus on the opinion. It causes you to then form your own opinion, which likely may lean to the way they're doing it. If they're influential in their messaging, I don't let that happen. If I'm reading it on a paper, it's the news. The news is the news and that's all that it is. And I do not care about somebody's opinion unless I care. And if I care, I'll go get it. I don't want it imposed upon me. This is the flaw of AI because somebody's opinion has derailed what AI has done. There's countless videos, you can see where they gave examples of Alexa, who was trained to say basically nothing about Donald Trump, but says a bunch of positive stuff about Obama and positive about Joe Biden. This is somebody who had those opinions and trained it to do these things to influence you to believe it's the right answer because it's coming from technology. What you don't understand is that somebody was behind that programming and they built it in a way to influence you to their belief system. So if you buy into it, it's on you. No problem. I'm simply saying I will not have not. No, because I can sense when that's being done. I can sense. When I'm being influenced to believe something, I can listen to somebody telling me something. They got to have a very strong argument, and it has to be something I can independently verify, and if not, I'm likely not going to listen to it.
Podcasts, for example, you can choose which podcast to listen to, and there's tons of them. There's countless of them. Your tendency is to listen to the podcast that most aligns with your values and beliefs. That's fine. I like to listen to podcasts that challenge what I otherwise would believe or think, because why would I want to listen to somebody that already believes what I believe? I'm not being enriched. I'm not learning anything. I'm not getting anything new about new out of it, out of that person. So when I hear somebody, you know, I've been listening, like Howard Stern, right, Listening to you for years, da, da, da. It's like, so what you're saying is you've not learned anything new. You have no new perspective. You are not anything different than what you used to be. You're the same as what you used to be, and you're going to always be that way, and you're happy being that way. Me and that person not going to get along has nothing to really do with podcasts. And it's not saying that podcasts in general are bad, right? But we all have our own messaging. What I try to do is to align my messaging with my own beliefs, but present them in a way that is not designed to influence per se, but rather challenge. Challenge what you've always believed. So when I started about anti tech, what am I challenging? I'm challenging this notion that technology should be ubiquitous, that technology should be everywhere, that everything should be done with technology, that we no longer have to think, that we no longer have to work, that we no longer have to read physical media, that we no longer have to go anywhere, that we no longer have to do anything. We could just let tech and robots do it all for us. I'm challenging that notion because I'm causing you to think, if you're so willing, think about the downsides of trying to do that. Let's go down the list of what I just mentioned.
If you wanted technology, just in general, if you wanted technology to do all the thinking for you, what good are you? What's the value of you? What's the purpose of you? If you want a technology to do all of the work, if the technology is doing the job, what good are you? What value are you? What purpose do you Serve. Why are you here?
Let's take a relationship. If you have somebody that you've met, you think very highly of, or maybe you decided to marry him, and both of you are ones where you believe in flipping on your phone at the dinner table and you decide to have kids and you decide to give them smartphones because you felt, why not all their friends have phones or quote, I need to be able. They need to be able to reach me. Because of course, we've yanked all the pay phones out of places. If you're that kind of person, you're that kind of family. I challenge. What's the point? What's the purpose of you if all you care about is what some device is feeding you 24 hours a day? What's the value of you? What's the purpose of you? You become redundant, you become the product, you become a waste of space. If you're letting the technology feed you instead of you enriching yourself by pulling information as a desire to learn and a desire to develop and grow. As a person, you can't develop and grow. Flipping through the device, you would say, likely by you searching out information, it's causing you to grow. I would counter and say, it doesn't make you grow, it steers you down a certain road. That rhymes. So if you want to be steered, that's up to you. I'm challenging that narrative. I'm saying, why not consider getting back to a world where you are actively seeking information that is going to enrich you? And if you don't or don't know how because you don't remember how, or maybe you were never taught how. That's the reason my podcast exists, CasualTalkRadio.net is to try to add different insight and alternate ways of perceiving reality. The reality that's always been there, it's always around you, but you've been trained to ignore it. Mine is simply to expose the fact that it's still there. Whether you choose to continue ignoring it or not is completely up to you. I'm suggesting that there's a better way, whether you choose to take that better way or not. I can't force anything.
But I do think those that are willing, those that are curious, those that feel something's wrong, right? They sense the matrix, but they don't know how to describe it. They're the ones that are going to benefit and be enriched from everything that I'm describing because they're going to take a leap of faith. They're going to try. They're going to try dropping all the technology around them with exceptions, right? I'm not suggesting get rid of it. I'm saying maybe put the phone down, do something that enriches you. You can listen to a podcast in the background. You can download the podcast so it's offline and listen to it offline while you paint something, while you cook something, while you do the yard, while you do something that actually enriches you and motivates you and enlightens you and makes you more of a well rounded person.
As I close today, I thought I would share a little tidbit of something that fascinated me when I first heard it. And I thought I would share it because it may fascinate some other people out there. And once again, I understand reading physical media is not something that is common anymore like it used to be. I'm not going to be disappointed if what I recite is foreign. I understand I recite it because it may be foreign. But if I can just inspire one person to dig and learn and enrich, I'll consider that a win.
Rudyard Kipling, you may have heard the name.
You might recall the name from school, wrote a poem if.
And I want to share a snippet of this. This is the inspiration I refer to. This is the enrichment I talk about. This is where people that are normal are separated from what are referred to as kings. People that are standard, people that are basic. There's nothing wrong with being basic. I'm saying that this is what separates them from those that are kings.
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you. If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too. If you can wait and not be tired by waiting or being lied about. Don't deal in lies or being hated. Don't give way to hating yet. Don't look too good, nor talk too wise.
Just think about that. Think about it. If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, think of the power of what that means. Composure, right? You know there's chaos everywhere around you. But also take it to a real scenario, everybody. When you're young, you seek to surround yourself with people. You're probably shy as a young person, but eventually you seek to surround yourself with people.
But you're doing it for selfish reasons. You're not doing it necessarily to be better. You're doing it simply for numbers. Think of yearbooks, getting signatures. You do it for accounts. You're doing it for arrogant reasons, not necessarily to enrich you. You're doing it because why not more and more and more? And you believe more is better, but is it really? And you grow up and you may end up with less friends. And the ones you do accumulate, there's a little bit of betrayal that leaks around the corner. And you have to be careful of these things.
What I'm saying is enrich yourself because these are things you will not be fed by TikTok. These are things. And I know some people will say, I'm sure I can search and find that on TikTok.
You'll find some idiot trying to recite it through TikTok with some garbage music in the background. This doesn't enrich you because it doesn't allow you to absorb that information at your own pace, on your own time, in your own space, with your own ambience.
Control of the situation is part of it. If you lose that control, you are part of the problem. Because if you lose that control and you delegate it to somebody else, you're telling that person who's taking control, you are not the king, they are.
Why would you be okay letting somebody else be the king over you, over your area or your space, over your zone? Why would you let them dominate you in that regard? Why does that make any sense? You might say to me, because you're a pacifist, you're a passive person, and you're not interested in being in charge. I've had people tell me, I don't want to be a leader, I don't want to lead, I don't want to be in charge. I'm perfectly fine being a follower to those people. I've always said it sounds good. And right now I happen to be the leader and you're telling me you don't want to take my place. What are you going to do if something happens to me?
You have no answer. You can't rely on always being a follower because our leaders won't be around forever.
So everybody ideally would want to at least have the traits of leadership, even if you don't have to employ them now because somebody else is there that you believe is stronger as a leader.
Everybody, I believe, should employ those traits of leadership and ownership, that you should want to control your space. You should want to control your situation. Even somebody so down in the weeds as people that are on only fans have to learn to be successful. They have to learn there's more to it than just posting content. You have to plan, you have to manage, you have to Budget, you have to time. You don't really have a personal life and you no longer really have a modicum of privacy. You're giving those things up to own your brand. And by owning your brand, you maintain control. And by maintaining control, you're not letting anybody else dictate to you. But you're also opening doors for yourself, for other organizations and people who look at what you've done and now want to offer you those opportunities to partner up, order off you, sponsorships, etc. So you open doors by maintaining that control. Your advancement as a human being can only come by having leadership traits. It can never come by being a follower. I learned the hard way a long time ago, I can be perfectly happy working call center for the rest of my life.
But I had to understand. And one supervisor told me, you're going to have to learn to be more than what you are. Because if you want to survive, you have to have that trait about you. The ones that wash out are the ones afraid to take control and they're perfectly happy legs somebody else lead them by the nose. Those people don't have your best interests at heart. They don't care about you, they care about themselves. Those are the same people pushing technology heavy. They're pushing technology to replace you because they understand that you're perfectly willing to turn a blind eye to what it is they're really doing, which is to slowly but surely work to get rid of you and make you redundant and make you irrelevant.
I am not suggesting that I have every answer. I don't. But I'm giving you a spoiler alert. If you're one of those that's passive and you're not willing to engage yourself and you're not willing to enrich yourself and you're not willing to take control of your situation and you're not willing to seek information on your own without relying on technology as a crutch. If you're not willing to step up, if you're not willing to raise the bar, if you're not willing to stand out in a crowd, if you're not willing to be that boss, you are the target for replacement. Not only by technology, but by the people who are pushing the technology. They are all too happy to get rid of you because they consider you irrelevant. They consider you redundant.
The whole thing is a game. It's a game. You have to recognize it as a game. Once you recognize it as a game, you then learn the rules of the game. And there's one simple rule to every game that these People are playing on you. You have to be a boss.
I don't suggest you have to lead people now. I'm saying you have to be a boss. You have to control your situation. However that happens, that takes courage. I understand. Some people simply don't have that dog in them. To push back on things that are wrong, to push back on people that are insulting you, to push back on people that are disrespecting you. I understand. Some people simply don't have it.
I would posit you probably have it inside of you and don't know it. Because if you've ever been in a relationship where your voice ever got to a loud pitch, you do have it in you. You just don't know. You can employ that same authority on those people who are dissing you at the workplace. You can. You can walk away. You can. Does it. Does it mean that you struggle a little bit? Absolutely. Does it mean it's hard? Absolutely. Is it hard to get another job? Absolutely. So you time it. You do strategic. You find something else on the sly. You very slick with it. And once you're lined up and once you're in a good spot, you tell these people to kick rocks when they try to pitch to keep you. You ignore that lie because you understand by you accepting that counteroffer, they're going to add you to a layoff list and they'll cut you before you can walk. Walk on your own accord, walk with your own voice in front of you, and don't let anybody push back. Because again, the technology, the reason I resist it is because I understand. I understand where it's coming from. I understand where the push is coming from. The excessive push is coming from those people who ultimately want to get rid of you, get rid of me, get rid of everybody else, and keep all the wealth for themselves and keep you enslaved. And I choose not to be enslaved. I will not. Because I want to run the game myself, and that's me. You may be different, and I understand. I simply wanted to inspire a little bit. And I want you to dig and challenge yourself. Dig into yourself and challenge yourself. Where are you? Who are you? What are you? Why are you?
And think. Does that make sense? Is it something you can do and what would it take? And what do you risk? Because there's always a risk behind every decision that you make, but every step you take is a step in the right direction, if you believe it to be.
