Joe Rogan Experience #346 — Douglas Rushkoff Transcript

Transcript

0:00 Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out! Where are you at? Sorry about that. Media theorist. I saw quite a few of your videos online. Yeah, which is kind of freaky in itself. people needed their property values to go up because they were trying to get bigger You know, the ones and zeros of money and the ones and zeros of sort of digital technology, it has to it's it has to there's there's no free rides when it comes to that i really feel like

4:13 But then I thought about it. and not do it and I'm fine. I mean you can always get your minority report just in case maybe they're wrong. Do you investigate people's Twitter? He's like, delete, delete, delete, delete. And a thousand people loved it more than life itself. Well, it's hard. No, it doesn't. Yeah, the market would tell you, but you're not a dumb guy.

7:41 And, you know, you realize, oh, he was crazy all the time. Get that one out of your head. into it that made me like reconsider certain things yeah i mean and the most valuable thing I mean there's the constant assessing and it and it's just i see so few people i walk into rooms now this interconnectivity progression where we're starting off with just regular telephones

10:56 or some fake name and just start saying mean things to random people, To the face-to-face live interaction where you can't fuck with each other because you're here. And I was thinking if he can tell that people are lying because he's got this talent, it means that on some level we all know – we all have that ability. So here, I know this is a real thing.

13:06 disagreements all the time. The young communications can't actually execute So then they go to the first one and she's like, I can't believe I told her my daughter, you know, has cancer. And then the question is – That's kind of the whole point I'm making. You make more money. Maybe by the other system you can make more total money, but it's going to go to God knows what, to some institution anyway.

16:20 you have an option to immediately jump in and get a gigantic group of people that are going to start retweeting and tweeting and listening to your stuff. go through a committee before it comes out of your mouth, I want to know what the fuck you're It could be anything of a number of things that they approve and they pretend we're wacky. I think that's like a silly way to do it and no one's going to stick with it.

18:39 and you know we could do that technically with with digital you know where you'd pick your I just think the idea of a local representative was always gross. economy as we know it also has to go away too. Right, but it wouldn't be that one guy who's your town's guy. But he was like the number one radio dj in boston everybody knew it you would go to when i

21:18 There's never going to be a CBS radio on the internet. inevitably lose, to say to ourselves, what is it we value about those things that we want to bring into these digital things Yeah, is that possible? I'm hoping so. charred and no slavery in Africa to get either. Yeah. There's a whole different digital media environment that we've gone into. So we've gone into this from this time is money, expansionist economy, live by the clock

23:50 You're just doing your thing. are these new things that we've created that input us or give us input It's just, we're not designed for it. We want more choices. Ultimately, that's what's getting pushed. I think it's also that the current system is so flawed to fix a refrigerator, and they have needs. So can't we just make an economy that way? You know,

27:41 one of the best examples of people losing the script. I did it for Judaism with something called Nothing Sacred, saying Judaism should be this I've been thinking about it a lot lately. it becomes sentient though that that's really they wouldn't do the bad thing because uh why not keep There's clearly a relationship that people have to each other And even though you're not even anonymous, you're still like, fuck you.

32:02 culture they can compensate for that with medicine. one of those millionaires down at Knicks games. Just the stock market itself. their you know let's tie market going back up to another random feature you know it's like the the The symbols and the SAO and this and that and the ones and the zeros. The market will go down on that. Triple my wealth. It's like, no, you don't make money on the trade. You're supposed to make money

35:19 I can say what if I did that trade? So basically what you're doing is you're buying the stock over time, over time, over time, over time. Peter Robinson Well, it's legal because what it – because Now we can bet on that or we can bet on that. They're so close to the exchange. That's bullshit. Oh, my god. how the fuck are you allowing this? The business people promised them they'd figure it out before it got really bad.

39:12 Oh my God. That's insane. They must know that they're the first steps before the digital machine takes over. the kids from Google, right? Each of them had a real shot, even Bill Gates, at breaking the central economy and flipping things the other way. I think they probably would never want to take that stand because they would be killed. And that's when PayPal kind of becomes part of eBay rather than whatever these crazy guys might have done.

42:11 I always wondered why a big corporation couldn't be ethical. Their shareholders are people who just want to see a number go up by the next quarter. I mean that's your fiduciary responsibility. But because it's a corporation, you're like, well, they're making money for their – For how unvirtuous that circle is though, I think unwinding it is just as easy.

44:42 Like it calculates how much human suffering are we willing to cause, data repositories of every every keystroke right every you know are there they know you know they give him that next time tits this guy needs to see tits like they'll show you everything that It's not fun. Right. I don't know why you didn't want to pay your bill. Right, but ultimately what's getting done?

48:24 different i mean that's the thing that mccluhan was trying to bring up marshall mccluhan the It does, but it's not just stronger though. It's fundamentally different. The invention of text changed – well, for me, it changed the way we look at time because now I can write something now that I'm going to be accountable for later. We've got a standard.

50:33 Just to be put in that – just to be put yourself in that interruptive state is very digital because you want to have the choice because that person wants to reach you. But how that interrupts what used to be a more continuous way of just moving through life. And you get 5,000 people on your Facebook page. It's like, oh my god. They know who's going to be pregnant, who's going to be gay, who's going to be this, who's going to be that.

52:11 I mean you're sort of in control of how much you interact with it, how much you choose to use it. But you still use Twitter. He can't do that anymore, though, I thought. I mean where the part that I had gotten concerned about was I'm on there as an author, right? But I'm not willing to have them and their likenesses used to represent things. They're going to be represented.

54:44 like using it for advertisements? What do you mean? He played the other one? There gets a cutoff point where you can't download your own tweets unless you know if you're going to do tweets, too much stuff coming at them but they're they can't maintain more than one online persona Well, you make a very good point in that and then have to hop over to Facebook too,

58:19 So I've got to limit it more than others. I think it really has to do with – well, if anything, it's at least I'm a canary in the cage for what's coming for everybody else. with with twitter i mean you you understand what you're putting out you put out this little 140 I mean that's – it's a really clean relationship as long as they don't fuck you. But don't use me for your outgoing.

1:00:51 You know, just find them and go, It's like, I try to use Twitter. It's not that high a percentage because it's not always your thin filter well We live in strange times, man. The one where you take a picture and it like – you can it, but it dissolves in like three seconds or five seconds. You screenshot it though and then you save it and re-upload it.

1:03:42 It was really just what happens in the 7-Eleven stays at 7-Eleven. And so the cops arrested her and charged this young girl – she was 15 years old, with child pornography. She happens to be a child. Let's just let people smoke pot. There's going to be a bunch of people that are trying to stop anything, any change, and How is that possible? More people are in jail.

1:07:26 risks, no one seems to go to jail. it's all of us, right? It's all of us who are part of that system or owning that corporation thing molybdenum molybdenum molybdenum yeah Molybdenum? Molybdenum? Yeah, it's a metal. For the batteries or the connectivity? why I don't like the idea that my computer, which could really do everything I need it to do, is rendered obsolete by changes in operating systems that really are unnecessary except to sell another computer.

1:09:33 and then Intel would create a tweak on that and new technology pathways should be, well, what's the one that's going to actually require the sales of the least – of the fewest amount of computers? back to one of those stupid chevys from the 1950s those things are dog shit oh really they break I mean, they might as well have a rock that you throw out

1:11:23 Okay. I know, and there is that, you know, I feel like there's a hunger for stuff, GE refrigerators with the sort of rounded covers. Those are sort of like human-created works of art as opposed to – you look at like a new Mazda or something like that, a real modern car, and it looks like something that just came out of a machine. There's no doubt about it.

1:13:51 let them stay in their houses no those guys are fucked they end up fucked you know those guys You can't just let someone live in it. I mean if you own ten houses in a town and one isn't going What if 10 percent of people could work two days a week and we get everything? The reason that you have a job is so that you can be entitled to a share of what's actually in abundance. But because there's not enough jobs

1:16:15 We used to work for each other and ourselves. having a car shop that only fixes a certain type of automobile that you really love to work on. That's a real problem. which is so huge and not really addressed. robot job when he was 45 years old or 50 years old and he has to as a toll collector. Like today, you're just going to casually mention your penis

1:19:19 That'd be a weird way to experiment You take care. Yeah. They want to put that little thing up there and just go through. reasons why that's nonsense the the big one one is the dumbest way to make traffic. shouldn't be a spot we have to stop because that's fucking dumb the only reason why you would want to we'll give you the green light. I lived in New Rochelle

1:22:00 um, So there's a couple of towns in Westchester that kind of retain some connection to reality. It's a little more Jersey-esque. Those places are madness. It's just New York itself is so crazy expensive through God knows what sort of real estate shenanigans are done. So it's like – I mean I don't know if you need crime to make it better. It's like – it was also – it was criminal.

1:25:10 you know of upper middle class income so yeah it's a strange strange place unlike any place It's worth $15 million. Let's see what the neighborhoods are like in Phoenix and I'll go look at real estate in Phoenix for a goof. Like, it's so strange. It's not even fed up. We're going to just do it. But do what thing though? It's all going down right there.

1:28:54 because it's just owned by credit companies. you can enact some real change and really help people. What do you think is like, what is the it's like every single family's got its own like 300 dollar weber grill in the backyard share one or every four houses share one yeah but what if you want to just get up in the morning And Marshall McLuhan's quote that humans are the sex organs of the machine world and that has this desire to keep up with the Joneses.

1:31:57 And I go into rooms now and I don't feel the same group dynamic, group presence that I used to. Maybe it just needs to be mitigated. You're doing it to like a nutty person washes their hands a hundred times. It doesn't live in time. I certainly think a lot of these things have sort of snuck up on us and we could all do with a lesson or at least an idea of how to manage them

1:34:26 It's like, are you for technology or against it? And whether or not that's because of a chemical imbalance that you suffer from or because of the fact that your job sucks and your life sucks and you're just filled with suck every day and you're responding to that. They don't feel satisfied. I'm not emotionally satisfied. the rhythms of life, the 28-day lunar cycle and the fact that each week of a lunar cycle,

1:36:34 Well, now – actually there's a website, somaspace.org, that he's got it laid out. So there's circadian rhythms for the day and the night, because we're trying to be on all the time. I want to be high all the time and okay with everything. Just be on ecstasy all day. Because if you're as high I mean even just a shift in the levels of things and the approach to things gives you,

1:38:46 That does the exact opposite. Even caffeine and alcohol are such – easier for them to tolerate. I've never fucked with it, but the people that I know that have said it, it kind of Yeah. over the next few hours. Yeah. They do say there's this sort of – I think speed, long-term speed use is the closest I want my Adderall. They're putting her in jail again?

1:41:47 We raised them from the time they were a child and they never know anonymity. whatever 20 years and jan didn't show up they had a different girl for jan and i was like I heard Barbara Eden on the radio. But no, she didn't get a slice. Whoops. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, Jason Calacanis. No, a video podcast. Richard Metzger. He does a Dangerous Minds website.

1:44:59 He invented that. Yeah, that's who I know him from. Great to meet you, too. Exactly, yeah. God damn it. Thank you. including a digital scale that you should not use for illegal purposes. Thanks also to Hover. Hover.com forward slash... Hover.com forward slash Rogan. you save yourself 10% off any of our awesome supplements. This is all temporary. So to answer all these people's questions,

1:47:55 Oh, excellent. Yeah, I think just he's in town one day or something like that. Oh, interesting.