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The hosts announce this is the last “50 Cups Hot Take,” explaining the tea/retail venture is ending after selling the NC State coffee shop, subleasing the second location, shutting down the tea website due to heavy online competition, and deciding to move on while continuing the podcast under Jim Baker’s Sumus Development Group. They discuss recent lawsuits against Meta/Google/YouTube over addictive and harmful social media content for minors, predicting more state action, safeguards, and settlements. The conversation shifts to AI’s risks and benefits, including job disruption, dependence, and potential guardrails, plus concerns about blue light and technology’s health impacts. One host shares impressions from a Japan trip, contrasting its cleanliness, order, education, and health with U.S. decline. They also touch on UAP/UFO claims, disappearances of program-related people, and spiritual/scientific doubts.
00:00 Farewell to 50 Cups
01:02 Coffee Shop Reality Check
02:28 Competition and Exit Plan
04:15 Online Tea Dream Fizzles
05:43 Podcast Rebrand to Sumus Development Group
06:39 Social Media Addiction Lawsuits
13:25 AI Fears and Job Loss
16:37 AI as a Tool in Business
19:22 Trades and Legal Access Debate
24:41 Education Dependence and Resilience
25:49 Life Before GPS
28:02 Losing Human Skills
28:20 Blue Light Health Fears
29:51 AI Dependence Debate
30:18 Japan Society Shock
34:58 Back to US Reality
36:18 Why We Litter Now
38:49 Japan Takeaways
39:25 UFOs to UAPs
40:40 Disappearances and Coverups
42:57 Science and Spiritual Fallout
45:08 Ancient Tech and Holograms
47:18 Wrap Up and Next Guests
Creators and Guests
Host
Jim Baker
Author of "The Adventure Begins When The Plan Falls Apart" Converting a Crisis into Company Success, Jim is a husband and father of 4, Baker has spent the last 30 years in the business world as an entrepreneur, investor, and advisor. He had a successful exit in 2014 after owning and managing a CRO and functional services company, Ockham, specializing in Oncology. During that time prior to exit, Baker grew ASG and then Ockham both organically and through M&A. Over time Baker has experience in acquiring and selling companies, working with investment bankers, private equity, and mezzanine debt funding. In addition, has vast experience in business branding and managing and leading people. After the sale to Chiltern International, Baker started Sumus Development Group, an advisory business focused on operational excellence, exit strategy and marketing. In addition, Baker is an active investor in the business community.
What is Hot Takes: 50Cups?
United We Sip – Dive into the fascinating world of American culture with "Hot Takes: 50Cups." Join founder Jim Baker as he shares his hot takes on everything from day to day life, business trends and societal shifts, uncovering how we are all more united than we think.
At 50Cups, we believe in the power of community and the shared goal of living a healthy, fulfilled life. Our mission is to inspire you through organic, great-tasting teas, education, and awareness, uniting us all in our quest for better living.
Each episode of "Hot Takes: 50Cups" features Jim's candid and insightful commentary on the challenges, triumphs, and everyday experiences that shape our collective journey. From entrepreneurial wisdom, cultural observations, to health topics and nutrition this podcast offers a fresh perspective that will leave you inspired and enlightened.
Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a business leader, or simply curious about the threads that bind us, this podcast is your gateway to understanding and connection.
Subscribe now and join the conversation!
32 - Hot Takes
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[00:00:00]
Bill: Hello everybody. Um, it is with a heavy heart. It is with a heavy heart that today will be the last 50 cups hot take.
That we ever do. So that's kind of the sad news, but there's good news as well.
Jim: And Jim, yeah, we're gonna continue with Hot Takes. It's just gonna be under a different brand. Um, I have a multiple brand entity in Jim Bakker and we're gonna go with Summas. I
Bill: like
Jim: that development group going forward, which is our advisory investment business.
Um, but yeah it's a great run. Run. There's no tee today, so there's
Bill: no tea. It was kind of a tip [00:01:00] off. Yeah. I didn't want to be rude and ask, but, um,
Jim: well, you know, in past podcasts if you have watched you'll know that we went, ventured into the retail world a few years ago.
Bill: Yes,
Jim: you do. We bought a coffee shop.
Bill: Mm-hmm.
Jim: Which we thought was in a great location right in front of a major university, NC State. And, um, when the kids were in school they loved coffee. And they really loved coffee. They didn't really love tea too much. Mm-hmm. Um, but we sold a lot of coffee and we sold some tea. Um, but it's hard to make a sustainable profit in a beverage shop.
Right. If you're not serving alcohol especially. And we didn't, and also just due the dynamic of the school calendar where. Thank God I'm not paying tuition anymore, but nobody seems to go to school anymore, right? They're off all the time, right? Fall break, winter break in between Christmas and you know, January.
Big break. Get outta school earlier and earlier now. I think the end of the end of April, [00:02:00] when I was in school, we ended in mid part of May. Mm-hmm. Um, so I mean, there's a lot of time where the kids are just simply off and, um, traffic is down. And so I decided to double down during that time and then open up another shop that wasn't near university, but it was probably two miles away in another shopping center.
And, we opened. People still love coffee over tea. But we had, we were getting there, you know, we were slowly moving in the right direction. And then the landlord, um, there was a, a bagel shop that moved out three doors down from me and the landlord told me I'd be thrilled with the new business that was coming in.
Oh, cool. And I'm thinking it's gonna be a restaurant. Oh, yeah. Like a nighttime restaurant type of thing. Lunch thing. Um, and there's this. Coffee shop called Drift Coffee,
Bill: put it right
Jim: next next to you. And they're really big on the coast of North Carolina.
Bill: Oh,
Jim: yes. And everybody, especially [00:03:00] in that area of Raleigh, pretty much vacations down in the area where Drift is.
Bill: Yes.
Jim: Every summer. Yes. And lo and behold. Drift coffee's coming in. Oh man. And she said to me, why aren't you happy? I said, because everybody that's living full-time in Raleigh vacations down in with the drift land of the eastern part of North Carolina, and they're gonna bring back their summer memories and they're gonna go to Drift every day.
Plus it's a great place.
Bill: Right, right.
Jim: So yeah, I said, basically you just wiped me out.
Bill: Right.
Jim: So I got out of the entire retail world. I sold a NC State location, and then I. I was able to sublease to, um, boba pop tea which is a more of a, what I would call a bubbly sweet tea concept.
Bill: Okay.
Jim: Um, that's Asian and I think they're doing okay by the way, 'cause they have a nighttime crowd.
You know, usually it's, it's more of a dessert thing from, you know, six to 11 o'clock at night. So it's [00:04:00] not really. Affecting Drift too much and vice versa. Drifts not really affecting them too much. So good news is I was able to transition outta the retail world without taking a total. Massive hit to my bank account, although I did lose money.
Then I thought, well, we're just gonna go online and we'll have this great organic online tea presence and we will go ahead and set the world on fire in that regard as well. Sure. Well, if you've ever done a online search of tea, um, there is a trillion places. Oh no. You can get your tea and the big gorilla is Amazon and you can get organic.
You can get anything you want in Amazon. Sure can. And um so we gave it a shot, you know, for about a year and a half. We also thought our Hot Takes podcast would draw. Multiple tea drinkers to our site and even the guests, um, have not ventured to our site.
Bill: You spun up on a TV and you should force feed 'em like at the airport.
Jim: Oh
Bill: my.
Jim: So at the end of the day, [00:05:00] um, probably good, we meaning me, um, since I'm the only person left in the company. Decided I was time to move on. Yeah, that's good. So I shut down the website. I do have some product left and we'll donate the product or I'll just drink it until I, until it's gone. No
Bill: big closeout sale?
Jim: No, no big closeout sale. Okay. Um, but it's been a great run. You know, I gave it a shot. Yeah. Um, I always thought I wanted to be in retail, um, as a kind of a fun thing, and I realized that. I can't stand retail and I should have known better. 'cause I don't even like going to retail stores myself as a consumer.
Yeah. So why would I want to be a, an owner, um, in that regard. Um, but as with anything in life, you know, you live, you experience it and you learn and then you move on. If it's worked, doesn't work out and you learn from it. And, so the good news is we're gonna continue with the podcasts 'cause I have a lot of fun doing that.
Bill: That's good. Great.
Jim: And we're just gonna pivot to another LLC that I have.
Bill: Okay.
Jim: Which may be more in line with what we're trying to do anyhow, which is, you know, learning, um, from other folks [00:06:00] with their life and their business experiences. Mm-hmm. Um, and, you know, I think it's a little bit more aligned with what we're doing at Summas, you know, compared to what we were doing at 50 Cups.
Regarding the podcast. That's
Bill: great. I think he wrote a book about, you know, when things aren't going your way the adventure begins. Something like that. That's right. The
Jim: adventure begins when the, but the adventure is over with
Bill: now with 50 cups, but
Jim: Slightly better sales than the T-cell with the book, but yes,
Bill: yes.
Jim: Slightly.
Bill: Great.
Jim: Not a lot.
Bill: Well, a producer can get a, get us a lot of views. He, he told us that, so, yeah.
Jim: Yeah. So but we're gonna continue. Don't everybody go crazy. We're not leaving for good, but well, that's good. We're just moving on.
Bill: Great. Well, I know we have a lot of topics we you would like to talk about and one may have been the ai just to bring it up.
A lot of people go to AI now. Yeah. And ask us questions about, well, I have a tea shop and located across from the college. And the AI will come back and tell you if it's a good idea or not.
Jim: Exactly. Exactly.
Bill: But that is, it is a big issue. Um, in [00:07:00] fact, there was a big lawsuit. Some, some people came forward, right, and sued Google, YouTube Facebook and lo and behold they actually won the case.
Jim: Yeah, this is weird. It's, so that's. We're pivoting away from AI to talk about social media right
Bill: now. Yeah. I'm sorry. I didn't
Jim: mean
Bill: to, it was a terrible segue on my part.
Jim: Well, it's okay because I think, you know, losing 50 cups I think is set a battle a
Bill: little bit. Yeah. That kind of It did, it rattled me.
It did. Especially when you brought up the podcast.
Jim: Yeah. And I can't talk about my hair 'cause I have none. But looks like you got a little long in the
Bill: Yeah, I go in just, um, yes, yes. With the little I have left. It's, it's outta control right now, but. Oh, geez. I feel so insecure on this podcast. I don't know why for a minute.
I always thought I was gonna say, well, it was nice working with you. But anyway, let's, let's do talk about, because I think this is a big deal. We've seen this before, haven't we? I mean, we, with opioids, they, because of addiction and we found out the, the, the, the people, the. Pharmaceutical companies had pill that wasn't [00:08:00] addictive and yet they sold the addictive one, cigarettes, that type of thing.
And that's kinda what they, they came forward with in their lawsuit is saying, YouTube, Facebook, these folks know this is addictive and therefore they should be punished. And the jury said, yeah, what's your take?
Jim: And it's, well, it's a good point on the opioid thing, um, although they were pretty late to the game
Bill: Yes.
Jim: In, in stopping that. But then before that, you had the cigarette companies
Bill: Absolutely.
Jim: Who basically all the states ended up suing them and they got a giant windfall, did, you know, with fines and penalties and everything else. And, um, help fund their budgets for a period of time. So I do think this is the next wave because a lot of these companies obviously, um, have tons and tons of money.
They've made tons and tons of profit, and, um, I think they're going to reap, um, you know, some of those benefits through these lawsuits. Down the road. I think eventually the states, these [00:09:00] individuals groups have su, have sued.
Bill: Mm-hmm.
Jim: Google, YouTube, and, and Meta at this point in time. But I think it's eventually the states are gonna start suing also.
They're
Bill: gonna win. They smell the money. Yeah. They're gonna win. They smell the money. How do they do that though? Because this is, um, unlike, um, the opioids or even the cigarettes, you had a, an actual chemical that physically made you addictive to their product, and they knew about it and sold it. Knowing that.
You know, it was a pretty secure commodity to sell. How did they make that sell with Facebook and YouTube? I mean, it obviously went over with the jury.
Jim: Yeah. I mean, one, the meta case was in New Mexico and then the Google YouTube one was in Google. Yeah, Google, YouTube. One was in California. And similar things, um, I think the New Mexico one was set up through the law, through law enforcement, I believe the FBI, who basically they posed us.
Kids and were online and, you know, the, they were looking at content and [00:10:00] I guess just to simplify it, you know, there was no warning, there was no blocking, there was no, um, deleting or, you know, prohibiting, you know, these individuals from, you know, being able to look at this content. And, um, so, and then they had some whistleblowers.
I think in all three companies, you know, that have come forward saying yes, you know, it's the practice of the company not to deliberately do it, but we don't have enough safeguards, you know, in place to, you know, prevent, you know, a minor, for example, from being able to see content they shouldn't be seeing.
And also, I think more importantly, um, and we've seen documentaries about this. We've written book read books about it. For whatever reason, this technology is wildly addictive. You know, it's dopamine and um, it's. Especially for kids, and it's harmful and obviously the suicide rates in this country have skyrocketed.
Mm-hmm. Especially in young people, um, [00:11:00] over the last, you know, 20, 30 years, 15 years or so. And, um, so I think there's a lot of merit to it. And I guess at the end of the day, because Meta didn't do anything and or YouTube, Google didn't do anything. Um, they got punished and I think the mattifying was $350 million.
Um, I think the YouTube Google one was, was less still. I,
Bill: it was about six or so, but even so,
Jim: yeah,
Bill: but that, that was my next question actually, because they're billions. I mean, they're making billions and billions of dollars. It's
Jim: printing money, really kind of a printing money. It's nothing.
Bill: It's nothing to them.
So what do you see this going? You mentioned states, and that would be, that would be something if the government decided. That's some free money for us. If we can win,
Jim: they'll probably lose a couple more court cases and then the states will get involved Uhhuh, and then eventually just like the opioid and the cigarette companies there'll be a settlement, you know, and hundreds of million dollars will be money grab for all the states.
Um, the social media copies will be forced to prohibit. Mm-hmm. And want put warning [00:12:00] labels on, um, you know, put all these safeguards in place just like you see in a cigarette pack right now. With opioids now, you can't just go, you know, you can only get a prescription obviously, but even with the over the counter stuff that could be turned into to meth, I mean, you go to Walgreens for example, and you gotta get a little card, and then you gotta go behind to the pharmacist and ask the pharmacist to go get you the allergy pills.
You gotta show 'em an ID and everything else. So I think whatever they're gonna do for the social media world, that's what's gonna happen. And then there'll be billions and billions of dollars that'll go to the states. Um, but they'll still operate, they'll still be able to do what they're gonna do and Sure.
Um, I think ultimately it's gonna be up to the parents and, and to legislatures to probably put laws in place. And I, I don't, I wouldn't be surprised, you know, that cell phones, um, from a social media perspective, um, kids will be prohibited from using him until they're a certain age.
Bill: That actually would be a good idea.
And [00:13:00] it'd be nice if educators would also embrace the, um, traditional learning away from the computers and all of that as well. I think that's all, it's a whole different group of kids growing up and, and there there's a lot of problems and I think a lot of it's associated with that. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.
Um, you know, if I had a computer right now, I'd, I'd look up what to do on ai, Jim and see what they would suggest, although I bet they're biased. I bet the AI would, whoever, whoever this God is behind this screen is biased, which is another subject, if you don't mind me segueing into it is, this is scary stuff to me.
Do you think it's scary stuff because it's going to impact us like nothing has. Probably in the history of mankind. That's the way I see it. I don't think I'm overreacting. What say you,
Jim: so why do you, why are you scared of it?
Bill: I, I just think it's going to destroy jobs. I think it's also based on what I've read.
It is now producing life itself. It is writing [00:14:00] its own programs, and I think that's incredibly dangerous. And because we've been dumbed down while this thing is certainly smarter than the combined minds of all of us where does it, where does it end up? Where do we go from here? And if you're, you wanna get into conspiracies, some might even say.
It, it is the antichrist in the long run. And I've heard people talk about that. That's how much fear there is about it. But we've been afraid of everything that's been unknown. Right. So, are we overreacting?
Jim: I, I, you know, good question. Um, obviously if you, we probably don't remember, but, 'cause we've been living with the internet for the last, you know mm-hmm.
30 plus years. Um, but what, what was that like, you know, back then I remember. Um, you know, you had the a OL AOLs of the world and you could go online and the screen was kind of weird looking and, you know, it was all black and white initially then it was kind of this weird color. Um, that email got kicked in and I remember having a company at one point in time.
Mandating [00:15:00] so dumb. I was mandating everybody from now on, we're not using the phones anymore, we're going to email everybody.
Bill: Right.
Jim: Um, and and then you, so you go like all in right? And then you back off. Right. And I'm wondering, we seem to be like all in on AI right now and my guess is we'll back off and we won't go back to the extreme of no ai, but there'll be, AI will find it place and I'm hoping that place is as a tool.
To help businesses, help individuals to simply be more efficient and more knowledgeable? Um,
Bill: yeah, well, I think that's happened. I would hope that that is already taking place. There was a funny video and it had to do with a a woman trying to, trying to talk to a real person. On the phone, very much like the times you're stuck on a phone with one of your unhappy endings with one of these folks, right?
Sure. Right. Yeah. And initially it's a, a really clear. [00:16:00] Obvious computer talking to you, and then you're going, you're hitting zero. You're yelling, I want a real person. Please give me a real person. And they ship her to another person. It sounds like a real person, Jim. And they have a discussion. They argue, she questions to the point where the computer eventually has to say, yes, I will find, or I'm not a real person.
That's how good it is, Jim. Now if they can do that. What about all those office people, for instance, and all of those jobs out there that can now be performed by AI quite easily and already are starting to what happens?
Jim: Well, so let's look at the positives. Okay. So, and I've, I think I've experienced this actually because we've been complaining for years, um, with companies offshoring their customer service.
So if you. Yes. Have Verizon, for example, a phone company and you got a problem, you're probably talking to somebody in a different country, right? Right. And they did that to save money, obviously cheaper [00:17:00] labor. You have the technology to be able to do it, and so on and so forth. But I personally had a hard time sometimes understanding not because of the, necessarily the, um, well, some of it was the accents are pretty sick, so a lot of, sometimes of it was the bad headphone
Bill: Yes.
Jim: Quality that the headsets that they did, they had, you could barely hear 'em. Right. You know? Um, but I, I've noticed lately, and I'm not one to call customer service, but if I, I had to do it recently and I remember, wow, I'm probably talking to a computer and there's probably a human that's there. I could understand now, right?
I could hear it. I mean, so if it's done appropriately as a tool, um, where you're still talking to somebody, let's say in in India for example, they're there, but they're, the computers and artificial intelligence is transcribing. Um, they're still. Managing the artificial intelligent response, but you, the human in this case, on the other end, can understand what's going on and hopefully get that problem solved.
Right? And then if [00:18:00] the AI can't solve it, then that person's behind them, you know, being able to do it. Now the question is, if the call center has 200 people right now, can they get away with a hundred people down the road?
Bill: Right.
Jim: Right, right. Um, I don't think you could ever go to zero. So I do think there's gonna have to be a human element.
There, and certainly some of those jobs might be lost, but just looking at it from an AI search, um, through chat, GPT you know, it's basically. They predict three categories, um, of jobs, you know, potentially being lost over time. And to your point, it is that administrator. Mm-hmm. Or that paralegal, um, somebody who's doing right, you know researching content, things like that.
Writing. Um, I think those positions, you know, may be, you know, in jeopardy down the road.
Bill: I, I did look a little bit and they were talking about office and administrative and they were talking even legal and all of that. But they also mentioned that with robotics, for instance, and that whole era and ai, now even in [00:19:00] manufacturing, that it seems like virtually anything is a possibility.
Where there you would see humans working with ai, which is a wonderful thing, but you'd see this huge reduction in. Jobs available to people. And the question then becomes then what do those people do? You know, how do you train yourself? Um,
Jim: well, as you know, and we talked about this before, there's a gonna be a gigantic need for trade people.
Bill: Yes, absolutely.
Jim: Um, so. Electricians, plumbers, carpenters. We still need those people.
Bill: We do.
Jim: Yeah. Now I think those people on the, you know, not the actual electrician who does the work, 'cause he gets paid a lot of money, but, you know, some of the apprentice jobs, you know, they don't get paid as, and it's tough work.
Um, but there could be a way with artificial intelligence where, um, they can navigate, they can rewire a certain way, um, which makes a, a [00:20:00] being a trade person. A little bit more efficient. Mm-hmm. Um, and therefore they could probably use a little bit less labor. But on the flip side make more money and have their job become a little bit easier, you know, than what it is at this point in time.
But I think with the demand out there for some of these trades, because nobody wants to do the work anymore, I think that's right for people to move from one position into another. And I was talking to somebody the other day who, um. I think got his degree in philosophy or something like that and wanted to go into sales and did for a period of time.
And he is like, you know what, I'm gonna be an electrician. And he sees an opportunity there because the sales world where he's at was a little bit saturated and now he's doing great. He's an electrician.
Bill: Yeah, I think that's that's an awesome idea. And we certainly need 'em. [00:21:00]
I was thinking about it, Jim, now even more so knowing that, um, you know, this podcast might be in jeopardy. No, I'm teasing. But
Jim: but just think about the, I think New York State, um, prohibits individuals like me to, I, I could be wrong on this, so somebody fact check, but I can't. Use AI to defend myself in a lawsuit.
Bill: Mm-hmm.
Jim: I have to go through an attorney still. So there are already states [00:22:00] out there that are protecting those
Bill: jobs.
Jim: Yes. Those jobs. Right. And I'm thinking to myself, how fair is that for a low income person?
Bill: Mm-hmm.
Jim: Who do no fault of their own, let's say was hit by somebody they got hurt and you know, they don't want to give 33%.
Of the, any type of award to an attorney because they can't afford it.
Bill: Right.
Jim: Um, they could simply go online and probably defend themselves, right? Absolutely, yeah. And write a couple letters, crank some things out, and hopefully get a nice settlement without having to pay somebody 33% of it. Um, now all the lawyers, especially Harvey that we had on, um, six months ago, he might tell you differently, but I'm thinking, how does that.
That helps a little person. And if you're a government, why wouldn't you wanna help the little person?
Bill: You're right. I think we did a show about this where I talked about really when you have these claims, it's one AI talking to another AI ultimately anyway. But no, that, that's an excellent point. And states will do [00:23:00] that.
I think that's what licensing is really all about, protecting those trades. There's certainly a lot of trays that you have to get a license for that, you know, you, you wouldn't need to, it's a protection thing, but I get a sense that you feel much more comfortable about this.
Jim: Half full kind of guy on this.
One of the jobs I thought would go away would be the computer coders, the people that write software.
Bill: Right.
Jim: And they're saying that actually there's gonna be more need for coders, really. Um, yeah. To continue to. Code, you know, artificial intelligent programs, um, to debug them, to monitor them, et cetera, et cetera.
So that, I thought that was a little bit interesting. I think the SAS SA Software for Service World, um, they seem to think that's gonna be affected by ai. Right now you spend a lot of money in companies to. You know, bring in a, a enterprise package that you know, that has a contact management software, finance software, it all ties in together.
[00:24:00] Implementation's usually millions of dollars. And then you have to have some consultants maintain that, you know, going forward. So it's a giant money stream for the Big five. And for other, you know, firms out there like salesforce.com is a big company that's grown because of that. And I think artificial intelligence certainly could.
Reduce, um, a lot of that, that back office information, you know, spreadsheets, contact management, um, that you're seeing right now. So a lot of companies are, excuse me, A lot of forecasters are pretty down on the software, software for servers models at this point in time.
Bill: Well, I, but like with anything, there's the good and the bad, and hopefully we can filter through it.
I had a recent survey. No, the colleges said it. They were allowing their students to use AI to write their whatever papers and take tests even. And they get great grades, but then they gave 'em a test without AI and most of 'em failed. Or I think 64% was the, the [00:25:00] going grade on that. So, you know, you got that too going.
We've become so dependent on things and sometimes we forget how to think ourselves, but, um. I'm hopeful too. I hope you're right, Jim. You usually are. So I sort of feel better about it.
Jim: Yeah. I think the the danger is because you have a lot of answers at your fingertips that you, and
Bill: they may not be the right answers though.
Jim: May not be right. And you wouldn't know, but then at end of the day, you're becoming a weaker human being.
Bill: Yes,
Jim: exactly. You're not resilient, not being able to figure out what's right or, and what's wrong. So God forbid if somebody pulled the plug. You couldn't get your AI answers anymore, or your phone didn't work right, and you were stuck in the middle of nowhere.
Mm-hmm. Like how do you, whatcha gonna do, how you gonna find where you're going and doing what you're doing?
Bill: That's just it. If you ever were able to time travel from this period back. You'd have all these great ideas, phones, and you'd name it. [00:26:00] I mean, but you wouldn't know how to build it, therefore you would remain,
Jim: which reminds me.
Bill: Yes.
Jim: So this is not little less to do with ai, but more about the internet.
Bill: Yes.
Jim: How did we get where we were going back in the eighties and the seventies and the sixties?
Bill: We made it. It was a lot of, we, we were able
Jim: to do it.
Bill: Do you remember I remember
Jim: did you have a bunch of maps in your car?
Bill: Yeah, we had maps and I'd be yelled at quite frequently by someone who felt I should stop and ask for directions.
But of course, manhood prevented me from doing that. But yeah, we, that's how we did it. And the phone had a cord, and if you were you upper class somewhat in my neighborhood, you had a long cord that could go from one room to another. So it was a completely different lifestyle. And I guess all of us who are older look back on it fondly and say, I think maybe it was a better lifestyle.
And I think it was in a lot of ways, you know, but
Jim: yeah, I remember just booking in a doctor appointment or a reservation at a [00:27:00] restaurant and you call them up, you got it, and then mm-hmm. And where are you located? They give you the address and then, you know, if you were close enough, you'd say, well, how do I get there from, you know, the center of town?
You go to the third stop sign, you take a right, you go up here, go left, and boom, you're right there. That's
Bill: right by the big hill. And there's usually a cow standing by that by the oak tree there and you can't miss it.
Jim: So I always remember driving into New York City and you know, you knew how to get to New York and then you just figured it out when you got into the city.
And the worst case scenario to your point. You just, sometimes you had to go into a, a store or a gas station or mm-hmm. See somebody in the street and say, Hey, I'm looking for, you know, Bloomingdale's. Right. You know, oh yeah. It's two more blocks. Take a left, take a right. You know, so you had to talk to humans.
Bill: When I first moved to Raleigh, I drove in, I got caught in this, the loop. I couldn't remember where I had to get off, so I got off and asked somebody hadn't done that in forever. I said, I'm I'm, am I in Raleigh? I mean, where is it? I couldn't because of the trees you can't see around here. He said, well, you're in Raleigh.
And I was [00:28:00] very embarrassed and never asked a person ever since that date. But at that time you were, if you were going to survive, you had to depend on your skills and you and other people to be accommodating. Right. And now. That whole part of humanity, I think we're losing in a way, but I, I agree. This could be super good.
Jim: I think the biggest thing that scares me, and I was listening to this podcast the other day and um, he was making the argument that obesity and the unhealthiness of our populace is 10% processed foods and food, big food, and it's 90%. Technology.
Bill: I agree with that. Yeah.
Jim: So the blue light technology is harmful to your health.
Bill: Mm-hmm.
Jim: And it, all our screens have that. And the glasses that we're supposedly buying to block the blue light really don't block the blue light. Right. And then we're doing away with the [00:29:00] incandescent light bulb in 2028. So everything that's gonna be illuminating, um mm-hmm. Is blue light also. And he was saying that.
That is the biggest issue. And your body actually, and be, and we're more of an indoor society now.
Bill: Mm-hmm.
Jim: But your body actually needs sunlight.
Bill: Yes.
Jim: Um, to to regenerate mitochondria and to survive and to be healthy. And the, this blue light basically messes up our cells and SAPs everything out of us.
And as a result, that's why we're getting sicker. That's why we're getting fatter, et cetera, et cetera. I allowed to say that word fat.
Bill: You can.
Jim: Okay. Thank you.
Bill: You can, and I agree that the fact that we're so dependent. We stay in, we play games and indoors, we are on our computers constantly. We're not getting out and doing what we used to do as a kid.
You know, ride bikes, go out and play and all that kind of stuff. That doesn't happen anymore.
Jim: And so what scares me about AI is are we gonna be more dependent?
Bill: Exactly.
Jim: Um, or in a positive way, will AI. Take that [00:30:00] hour long search and tie it down to 15 minutes, and then suddenly you're off the computer, you're outside, you're walking, hiking, you're playing outside, you're doing whatever you're doing.
I think that's be the ultimately
Bill: earbuds in
Jim: question. Right? That's right.
Bill: Well, I, I'm sure we'll survive, but it, it is gonna be interesting and kind of exciting. Um, speaking of exciting, you just got back from Japan? I did. So I've never been to Japan. Um, I have my, my own vision of Japan. I see a lot of fish, you know, a lot of, and, but I see, see a lot of healthy people.
I see people who actually, covet the old and seek their wisdom at least,
Jim: kinda
Bill: like we
Jim: do,
Bill: kinda like we do on this show from time to time. Um, and but what was it like, I mean, and, and in comparison to what it's like here versus going to Japan?
Jim: Yeah. So I'm gonna say this and it's gonna sound like I'm criticizing the US and I kind of am, but um, I'm just, it's interesting.
And, and I had been there before.
Bill: Mm-hmm.
Jim: [00:31:00] Um, about 10 years ago, 12 years ago. But, um, I got a chance to see it again. Um. I joke when I say this, but I know we won World War II and the Japanese had to surrender to us after we, um, dropped the bombs. Mm-hmm. Basically. Um, but I think in the long haul from a society standpoint, they're ahead of us right now.
Bill: Yeah.
Jim: It's, every city is immaculate. It's an orderly. Society, it's a bilingual society, um, signages in English and in Japanese. Um, every kid that goes to school, they go to school six days a week, by the way.
Bill: Mm.
Jim: And in public school, they wear uniforms in addition to the private schools. Mm-hmm. So they're really big on education and.
Um, they're all, they have to learn English and, and in school. Now, whether they practice that when they get out, I have no idea. It's kind of like our kids learning Spanish and they don't know how to speak Spanish when they're 25, [00:32:00] 26 years old. So unless you immerse yourself in it, I think it's gonna be pretty tough.
Um, Uber drivers, immaculate cars, drivers wearing suits with white gloves, taxi drivers. Suits, white gloves. Um, every worker is wearing some type of a uniform, so if you're in a restaurant, you can recognize the the worker compared to the customer. You know, if they're working in the subway station or wherever they're doing, you know, there's a differential, um, between a worker and a customer.
And then for those that are just walking around, not necessarily, you know, in a job per se, during the day, um, they're all. Dressed appropriately. Mm-hmm. And very professionally, um, whether they're taking a tour of a park or they're, um, you know, going shopping or whatever it is. So I thought, and on top of that, wildly friendly, I mean, super nice [00:33:00] people.
And, you know, we were in Tokyo, we were in Kyoto. We went down to Hiroshima for a day and then we went up to ha to get a glimpse of Mount Fuji. For whatever reason, Mount Fuji is the top part of the mountain is always covered in fog and it's it's, it's hard to get a good glimpse of it. You can get a good glimpse of it if you're on the left side of the bullet train.
Mm-hmm. Going from Kyoto to train,
Bill: bullet Tokyo, bullet
Jim: train. Yes. And um, but we drove up, we actually got a glimpse of it for about maybe a minute. Mm-hmm. And then it got covered up again. So that was kind of cool. Um, but it was a wonderful experience. The food's phenomenal. Um, they have the lowest cardiovascular disease of all the first world countries.
Um, mainly because their food is clean. Mm-hmm. For the most part. And it's local. Um, and, but they eat fried food just like we do. Um, but obviously they eat a lot of more fish than we [00:34:00] do. But it's it was a great experience. I, I truly, it. Everything was just done really well and we didn't. Know, um, go to five stars.
Um, you know, we stayed in normal hotels just like everybody else. Um, but they're very big on cleanliness. Um, and there's no graffiti, you know, there's no trash flying around the streets. I didn't see, I didn't see any unhoused, quote unquote people. Oh, yes. None of that. Um, I think it's, no, I, i, sure there's why, I'm sure there's crime.
Bill: Why is it
Jim: have respect? I think they have respect for their society.
Bill: Alright.
Jim: And I think, you know, they have laws mm-hmm. And I'm sure that, you know, the governments and the law enforcement enforce those laws. Um, so, um, whereas as you know, we, we don't necessarily do that anymore in our country. We, in certain areas, no, we don't.
So it's it was, it was, it was a great experience and. I get back [00:35:00] and I, we land in Denver and we have probably a 20 mile walk from the, um, the gate to the customs area, and we get there and it wasn't crowded, which is good. But global entry's down due to the, I think it's back up now, but at the time it was down due to the, the budget, um, the defunding of parts of, of the DHS.
Bill: Right.
Jim: And, um, so they're calling like seven people at a time to basically get into this elevator. And I'm like, that's kind of weird. Then I realized that the escalator is broke and, but nobody's trying to fix it.
Bill: Right.
Jim: In Japan, that escalator would not have been broken.
Bill: Right.
Jim: And if it was broken, they would've been fixing it.
Bill: Right.
Jim: Um. So it was a, it just was like, nobody cared. It was just like, all right, seven more. Go, go downstairs, wait in line, you know, all that kind of stuff. And I'm thinking, and then we waited. I did not check a bag. I never check a bag. That's my biggest hot tech in life. Um, if [00:36:00] I have to, I'll have the hotel, do the laundry, but I never check a bag.
Right. But some family members that we were traveling with my grandson came, so they had to check a bag. Almost an hour before that, that baggage claim started spinning around.
Bill: Sure. An hour. Yeah. See what we grow accustomed to as normal. It never was it ever that way? See, I remember things we weren't as efficient 'cause we didn't have the technology, but there was a certain amount of respect for neighbors, for community pride.
I remember cities would, um. What I think they often paid for to get the America's best city or you know, to go for all awards and recognition and certainly. The garbage I see on the roadways just in North Carolina is something I would only see if you were to go across the border into Mexico when I was in Iraq.
You know, this just, I don't care where I throw it, it's gonna go there. [00:37:00] I, I said, did anybody ever see the crying Indian? I don't think they did, Jim. Right? We had the crying Indian. Did it work? Nobody cares. And if the, if the public isn't going to care, the customer isn't gonna care. I guess you get what you get.
I wish we could change that. You don't have an answer for that one, but
Jim: yeah. You know, we obviously had a, a big little problem back in the, seventies, and that's where we, they ran those commercials 24 7. Right. And I think that helped, you know build public awareness around cleanliness, um, in the environment at least.
And the weird thing is, we're giant environmentalists in our country. I mean, we love the, the forest and the mountains and clean water and everything else, but you know, we need to take that one step further and let's keep our communities clean as well.
Bill: Well, you can go to many places, um, I think in almost any city.
Literally city, if they're, it's on the way home, it's out the window and it takes a couple of [00:38:00] weeks and the whole road roadway side of the roadway is just nothing but garbage. And I, I just don't understand why that happens. I don't know if it happens more here or not, but it seems to be pretty prevalent
Jim: here.
Yeah. Well, here we have like couches on the side of the road.
Bill: Oh, are you?
Jim: So I know they fall off a truck. Yeah. But why wouldn't you stop the truck and go get
Bill: the couch? We had a freezer. Somebody threw a freezer off the back of a truck. It was loaded full of whatever, and it sat there for, it wasn't thankfully near me, but on the way home and it sat there for weeks.
Mm-hmm. On the side of the road. I think you could actually put together an automobile if you collected the parts. Taking the loop around Raleigh. It's, it's really quite, it's embarrassing. Yeah, it is. And it was a time most Americans would be embarrassed by output
Jim: and our public service people would, they'd be out there cleaning up.
I mean, now they don't.
Bill: Yeah. Well, um,
Jim: but I highly recommend that trip if you ever want to
Bill: go. I, I would love to. I would be, I think every American should take a trip like that. So they, they are. 'cause a lot of people don't remember [00:39:00] the old days. But seeing what could be versus what we live with would be all very, and
Jim: the only two negatives one of 'em is they love to wear masks over there, which I'm an anti mask guy.
Um, but number two, which is really the most important thing, they have one of the lowest birth rates in the world. So the society that I experienced a couple weeks ago isn't gonna exist in a hundred years. Yeah. Unless they do something different.
Bill: That's true. That's very true. Well. I think I've heard President Trump say something about releasing all the info on UFOs.
Jim: Oh yeah.
Bill: They're
Jim: not UFOs anymore, bill.
Bill: Where are they? Oh, they're not. Excuse me. What are they called now, Jim? They're called what? UAPs, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I don't know. Do you take this seriously or not? I mean there's a lot of a lot of. A lot of government officials documentaries coming out saying, well, this stuff is real.
You should see it. And oh my goodness. And yet here we are, I have yet to see any substantial evidence of [00:40:00] existed other, other people visiting us from another planet.
Jim: Well, my original hot take on the UFO to UAP was the actual, the changing of the acronym.
Bill: Yeah.
Jim: Right. I'm like, what's wrong with UFO? Right.
Um, mm-hmm. And I guess the, a word now is
Bill: it's aerial. Anom
Jim: anomalous. I'm not very good at pronouncing that, which the anomalous means that, well, we gotta worry about unidentified objects in the water.
Bill: Mm-hmm.
Jim: Um, on the land and in the air. Right. So I guess this is this universal word that Right. I think other than looking up an artificial intelligence, no one's gonna know what it means.
So that was my original hot take, and then I thought. Weirdly, after I decided I wanted to talk about that, I literally listened to a, a news update this morning, and there's about seven or eight people that have been in the UAP program in the US that have myster. Disappeared. Mm-hmm. Or died. Mm-hmm. In the last six months.
Bill: That's [00:41:00] exactly right.
Jim: And they talked about this one guy who was the head of the, one of the programs in New Mexico. He went out with a coined to his wife backpack, a revolver to go for a hike. I dunno why he'd bring this revolver and hasn't been seen in months. And then there was a woman who worked for this.
Person in California and she disappeared. She also went out for a hike one day and then somebody else was, scientist was found dead. Um, and it was somebody else who was in the same area, but he was more of a biologist, whatever that means, um, in that line of work. And he was found dead also. So there's like this weird thing that's going on right now.
Bill: Well,
Jim: there is. Did you hear the same thing?
Bill: I did. I actually read some of that and I scratched my head too, and I go, well, you know.
Jim: There was a time I just read it off as a conspiracy theory,
Bill: but I've noticed that conspiracy theories have been coming true on a fairly regular basis over the past 10 years.
So I'm not so quick to do that, but [00:42:00] and can you imagine the impact if the government did say, yeah, we, this is where our aircraft design came from. We've been reverse engineering. These people are, have been with us. So what that would do to the psyche of the. Normal walking, talking, human being on planet earth, which may be the reason they're not actually coming out with it or it doesn't exist at all.
But it's darn convincing when you start putting all these little pieces together, it's hard to walk away and say, well, nah, there's nothing here. People still think we didn't land on the moon too. Right. And so, I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. I, I don't know where it's going. Um, I don't know if Trump's doing it for other reasons or if he'll do it at all, but it would be interesting to take a look at everything they got.
I will tell you this. He
Jim: did say he is gonna release, correct?
Bill: He said he was gonna release everything and Barack Obama was out and said, oh no, they exist.
Jim: Yeah,
Bill: he hasn't seen one, but they exist. So.
Jim: So what does that do for you spiritually then? [00:43:00]
Bill: Well see. I don't believe they do exist.
Jim: Okay.
Bill: I just don't, because of the science involved to do it, it just I saw a piece, it was a wonderful piece and I'm not smart enough to regurgitate it to you, but just from a, a scientific perspective with what we know, there's just no way you can possibly travel that distance unless they figured it out, of course, but spiritually it would be.
Something that you would have to reconcile with the Bible, because they don't talk about that. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I suppose they just focus on earth and people, you know. But, um, it, it would be a life changer, wouldn't it? If you were told, Jim, we've your next door neighbor's been an alien this whole time.
You know, you, you would, why would they be here? You know, I don't know. See, there's just too many questions. I'm sorry I'm rambling because I'm trying to, in my head right now, trying to try to figure this out. I just don't have an answer for that.
Jim: Yeah. My thought process could be [00:44:00] totally wrong, but if you, if an alien was able to travel 170 light years to get here
Bill: mm-hmm.
Jim: Clearly they're way more advanced than we are.
Bill: Oh yeah.
Jim: And then how in the world then are we holding them in captivity and learning from them? That, that part, I don't understand. That is
Bill: an excellent point. That is like, well, you know, maybe they're more like America versus Japan and they just didn't care about the equipment on, on their Starship.
I don't know. But yes, that's an excellent point. But if you talk to people and read things, I shouldn't say you, you read all the articles and you see like. The B bombers, the whatever, they're the B two, the big winged bombers. It it strangely looks like a lot of the UFO or UA Ps now that we've seen in photos from way past.
So I don't know. I'll tell you this. I had a, a man member of the family who was stationed at, is it Area 51? That's the super secret alien base. And, um, he would not answer me, [00:45:00] but. His non-answers, he implied that. Yeah. It's, it's all real. So, or he was messing with me
Jim: then you wonder, 'cause you hear, um, especially when you're talking about the Egyptian pyramids
Bill: mm-hmm.
Jim: That there was this way advanced civilization that basically got taken out through either some type of weather event, you know, volcanic, you know, eruptions or something. Um, and. Otherwise the pyramids could never have been built by what we thought of was the technology at the time. Exactly. In ancient times.
And so then now I'm starting to think, well, maybe if they didn't come here from a far away planet, but they're somehow survived for thousands of years and we found them. Mm-hmm. At the bottom of the ocean or wherever. Um, that's a little bit more explainable to me, um, which means that from a spiritual standpoint, [00:46:00] maybe God erased.
The previous civilization for whatever reason. Um, or, and start over again. Um, I don't know. I mean, we go down a
Bill: rabbit. Well, there is, yeah. Well that, you know, I don't know, we probably running really long, but the Bible does talk about that and some of the books they didn't make into the Bible. And it talks about the angels falling down, falling agents coming down and m meeting with women in the FLM and all of that.
But one of the things they did, one of the big sins was providing technology. Of course the flood then wiped him out. Um, it's very short story for a long, long explanation, but there are other explanations if you wanna go. Is that any more farfetched?
Jim: Yeah,
Bill: I don't know. But, um I think too, it's a matter of, um, if it's gaining any recognition, there's always been a conspiracy theory.
Here's one for you. Because we now have the technology to, with holographic technology, to [00:47:00] put an invasion from outer space coming down and you'll look at it in the sky and think, hell, that's real. And it might be a way of controlling all of us. Who knows? It could very
Jim: well be going deep right now. We're going deep.
Bill: We're going deep. I'm gonna have to check out AI when I get home and ask him these questions and see what he comes up with. Absolutely. But wow. Um, we haven't gotten together in a while, either that or I've just
Jim: it's been a while. We've been trying to get a guest
Bill: Yeah.
Jim: For a long time. And unfortunately we were unsuccessful.
Bill: Yeah. This last time was a, it would've been a great one,
Jim: but I'll be loading you up with some guests in the next two or three segments that we do.
Bill: Beautiful.
Jim: So, um, as always, great talk to you.
Bill: Yeah. And, I don't even miss the tea, Jim. I don't even miss it, but you're a
Jim: coffee guy. Anyhow.
Bill: Yeah, so I'm looking forward to the upcoming podcast and we appreciate everybody viewing.
Jim: Yeah,
Bill: have a great day. All right. Thanks Jim. Thanks.
Jim: Bye.
[00:48:00]