Hamilton Morris on Pharmacopeia and the Science of Reaction & Analysis

WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:05.400
Right now, there is this invisible digital package and it's
2
00:00:05.480 --> 00:00:08.880
labeled explicit, and it is pinging off satellites, you know,
3
00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:13.240
landing simultaneously on smartphones in places like Botswana, Iceland.
4
00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:14.800
Chicago, Yeah, everywhere, all at.
5
00:00:14.679 --> 00:00:18.440
Once, exactly, and it takes up absolutely zero physical space,
6
00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:23.239
right yet it contains nearly three hours of just completely unscripted,
7
00:00:23.600 --> 00:00:25.359
taboo human conversation.
8
00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:27.879
It's wild when you think about it like that.
9
00:00:27.839 --> 00:00:29.920
It really is. I mean, we're talking about an artifact
10
00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:33.240
that crosses borders at the literal speed of light, carrying
11
00:00:33.280 --> 00:00:38.280
this this super in depth exploration of altered consciousness, only
12
00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:42.320
to just crash head on into digital toll booths and
13
00:00:42.719 --> 00:00:43.960
regional censorship loss.
14
00:00:44.079 --> 00:00:47.039
Yeah, totally. Well, it's basically a perfect microcosm of our
15
00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:49.960
modern era. I mean, we've built this massive infrastructure capable
16
00:00:49.960 --> 00:00:54.240
of universal distribution, but we are still like fiercely negotiating
17
00:00:54.280 --> 00:00:56.679
what exactly we are willing to distribute, right and.
18
00:00:56.640 --> 00:00:58.880
Who is actually allowed to hear it exactly. So welcome
19
00:00:58.920 --> 00:01:02.479
back to another deep dive today. Our mission for you,
20
00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:04.599
and we know you're a fellow learner trying to make
21
00:01:04.640 --> 00:01:09.120
sense of the information age, is well, it's entirely different
22
00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:10.239
from our usual approach.
23
00:01:10.359 --> 00:01:12.079
Yeah, we're taking a bit of a detour today.
24
00:01:12.159 --> 00:01:14.519
We are we are not reading a dense book. We
25
00:01:14.560 --> 00:01:19.799
aren't you summarizing some sprawling investigative report. Instead, we are
26
00:01:19.879 --> 00:01:23.159
performing like an autopsy on a digital.
27
00:01:22.840 --> 00:01:24.000
Footprint, an autopsy.
28
00:01:24.040 --> 00:01:26.799
I like that, thanks. Yeah, we are going to look
29
00:01:26.840 --> 00:01:30.879
strictly at the metadata, the landing page, basically the container
30
00:01:31.359 --> 00:01:34.000
of a single massive cultural artifact.
31
00:01:34.280 --> 00:01:36.840
And specifically, just so we're clear, we are analyzing the
32
00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:40.040
packaging for episode number eleven thirty six of the Joe
33
00:01:40.120 --> 00:01:41.599
Rogan Experience.
34
00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:43.319
Right, featuring a guest named Hamilton Morris.
35
00:01:43.439 --> 00:01:46.079
Yeah, but to be totally clear here, we aren't going
36
00:01:46.120 --> 00:01:48.200
to play a single second of the actual audio today.
37
00:01:48.239 --> 00:01:49.120
At one second, we.
38
00:01:49.079 --> 00:01:51.000
Are just looking at the box it comes in because
39
00:01:51.359 --> 00:01:53.159
when you strip away the audio and just look at
40
00:01:53.159 --> 00:01:55.760
the raw data, the descriptions, the run times, the warnings,
41
00:01:55.799 --> 00:01:58.760
all those global distribution tags, that box tells a really
42
00:01:58.799 --> 00:01:59.760
profound story.
43
00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:03.400
It really does. It reveals the sheer scale of modern
44
00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:08.840
media and honestly, the bizarre contradictions of modern scientific exploration.
45
00:02:08.680 --> 00:02:11.759
Not to mention the invisible borders that still slice up
46
00:02:11.759 --> 00:02:15.080
our supposedly you know, borderless internet Yeah.
47
00:02:14.879 --> 00:02:16.960
The Internet is not as open as we like to think.
48
00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:20.639
Absolutely not. The metadata is basically a mirror. It reflects
49
00:02:20.719 --> 00:02:24.199
back to us what society values, how we categorize knowledge,
50
00:02:24.240 --> 00:02:29.560
and the immense friction involved in transmitting unfiltered reality across
51
00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:30.159
the globe.
52
00:02:30.280 --> 00:02:34.919
So let's start with the sheer physical or well rather temporal.
53
00:02:34.479 --> 00:02:36.400
Weight of this artifact, right, the run time.
54
00:02:36.639 --> 00:02:39.319
Yeah, because the metadata provides a few key facts right
55
00:02:39.439 --> 00:02:42.479
up front. This is episode eleven thirty six. It was
56
00:02:42.479 --> 00:02:47.000
published in late June twenty eighteen. The platform updates semi weekly.
57
00:02:47.439 --> 00:02:49.680
But the number that truly demands our attention here is
58
00:02:49.719 --> 00:02:50.840
that runtime.
59
00:02:50.520 --> 00:02:51.919
Two hours and fifty eight minutes.
60
00:02:52.039 --> 00:02:53.639
Right, two hours and fifty eight minutes.
61
00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:56.560
I mean, that is one hundred and seventy eight continuous
62
00:02:56.599 --> 00:02:59.439
minutes of talking. The duration there, It isn't just a
63
00:02:59.479 --> 00:03:03.280
technical detail, you know, it is a profound philosophical statement
64
00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:05.759
about how we actually consume information today.
65
00:03:05.879 --> 00:03:07.560
Well, let's look at the history of that, because it's
66
00:03:07.599 --> 00:03:12.479
important context. For the entire twentieth century, broadcast media was
67
00:03:12.599 --> 00:03:15.000
totally dictated by the iron law of scarcity.
68
00:03:15.080 --> 00:03:17.479
Oh yeah, airtime was incredibly expensive.
69
00:03:17.599 --> 00:03:21.439
Exactly, a radio tower could only broadcast one signal at
70
00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:24.120
a time, a television network had to carve up the
71
00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:27.680
day into these rigid, you know, thirty minute blocks.
72
00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:29.879
Right, you had twenty two minutes for a sitcom, so
73
00:03:29.879 --> 00:03:32.199
they could squeeze in eight minutes of commercials.
74
00:03:32.319 --> 00:03:36.159
Right, a massive geopolitical crisis had to be summarized in
75
00:03:36.240 --> 00:03:40.039
a four minute evening news segment. Everything was just completely compressed.
76
00:03:40.319 --> 00:03:42.919
And the justification for that, well, it was always framed
77
00:03:42.919 --> 00:03:43.639
around the audience.
78
00:03:43.759 --> 00:03:43.919
Right.
79
00:03:44.240 --> 00:03:48.120
Network executives always insisted that human attention spans were just
80
00:03:48.199 --> 00:03:49.159
incredibly short.
81
00:03:49.240 --> 00:03:50.879
The audience can't handle anything.
82
00:03:50.599 --> 00:03:54.639
Longer, exactly. They built a whole culture of media consumption
83
00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:59.159
based on this premise that viewers needed rapid scene changes,
84
00:03:59.639 --> 00:04:04.199
highly rehearsed sound bites, and a really neat, sanitized conclusion
85
00:04:04.680 --> 00:04:05.800
before the top of the hour.
86
00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:08.560
But then you look at this metadata and it completely
87
00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:11.719
shatters that entire premise, oh completely, I mean, a nearly
88
00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:16.839
three hour unscripted conversation basically proves that the whole short
89
00:04:16.839 --> 00:04:19.759
attention span theory might have just been a myth, you know,
90
00:04:19.839 --> 00:04:22.279
created by the limitations of the technology itself.
91
00:04:22.480 --> 00:04:26.720
Yeah, it reveals this immense latent human appetite for endurance.
92
00:04:26.759 --> 00:04:29.600
I mean, think about it. When two individuals sit across
93
00:04:29.639 --> 00:04:33.439
from one another for three hours, something fundamental shifts in
94
00:04:33.480 --> 00:04:37.360
the dynamic. How so well, you just cannot maintain a
95
00:04:37.439 --> 00:04:41.439
rehearsed public relations persona for one hundred and seventy eight minutes.
96
00:04:41.560 --> 00:04:45.839
You just can't. The prepared talking points are completely exhausted
97
00:04:45.879 --> 00:04:47.319
within what the first half hour?
98
00:04:47.519 --> 00:04:49.720
Yeah, totally, So what fills the remaining two and a
99
00:04:49.759 --> 00:04:50.279
half hours?
100
00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:55.000
Exactly? It becomes structural wandering, its vulnerability. It's tangents that
101
00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:59.079
turn into these deep, complex philosophical rabbit holes. The length
102
00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:02.399
basically forces the participants to abandon the script and just
103
00:05:03.560 --> 00:05:06.120
exist in the conversation. It moves from being a formal
104
00:05:06.120 --> 00:05:10.199
presentation of ideas to a real time exploration of them.
105
00:05:10.319 --> 00:05:11.920
I mean, I see the appeal of that, for sure.
106
00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:15.360
It's like sitting next to two deeply fascinating strangers at
107
00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:17.319
a bar for a quarter of your waking day.
108
00:05:17.439 --> 00:05:18.519
That's a great way to put it.
109
00:05:18.600 --> 00:05:20.160
But let me push back on this a little bit.
110
00:05:20.319 --> 00:05:22.639
Is this actually the most efficient way to learn?
111
00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:23.600
Well?
112
00:05:24.079 --> 00:05:26.600
Because we are so accustomed to the idea of an
113
00:05:26.759 --> 00:05:29.759
editor cutting away the fat, you know, in a documentary,
114
00:05:30.199 --> 00:05:33.600
a filmmaker spends two years shooting, but they distill it
115
00:05:33.639 --> 00:05:38.439
all down to a tight ninety minutes of pure, concentrated.
116
00:05:37.720 --> 00:05:39.079
Insight, right the highlight reel.
117
00:05:39.240 --> 00:05:44.519
Yeah. So does an unedited three hour run time automatically
118
00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:49.240
equal depth or does it just offer breath by demanding
119
00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:51.519
three hours of my time? Isn't there a huge risk
120
00:05:51.879 --> 00:05:55.560
that the actual transmission of knowledge becomes incredibly diluted?
121
00:05:56.040 --> 00:05:58.399
That is the core tension of long form media right there.
122
00:05:58.439 --> 00:06:00.959
I mean, if your goal is simply to acquire a
123
00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:04.360
list of verified facts, like just the yeah, highly edited
124
00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:06.800
summary is way more efficient, obviously, But if you consider
125
00:06:06.839 --> 00:06:08.639
the mindset of the learner, and that's who we're talking
126
00:06:08.639 --> 00:06:12.079
to here, the value isn't just acquiring the conclusion. The
127
00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:16.040
value is actually witnessing the process of discovery.
128
00:06:15.480 --> 00:06:17.800
The journey, rather than the destination. Basically.
129
00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:21.680
Yeah, but more than that, even it is the epistemological transparency.
130
00:06:21.959 --> 00:06:23.360
Okay, unpack that word for me.
131
00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:26.879
So, in a highly edited piece of media, the editor
132
00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:30.600
acts as this invisible god. Right, they have already done
133
00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:33.360
all the intellectual heavy lifting to connect point A to
134
00:06:33.399 --> 00:06:35.720
point B, and they just hand you the finished map.
135
00:06:35.959 --> 00:06:38.160
Right. You don't see the rough drafts exactly.
136
00:06:38.399 --> 00:06:41.279
You just have to trust their invisible process. But in
137
00:06:41.319 --> 00:06:45.680
a three hour unedited conversation, you actually watch the map
138
00:06:45.720 --> 00:06:47.199
being drawn in real time.
139
00:06:47.439 --> 00:06:48.040
Oh I see.
140
00:06:48.120 --> 00:06:50.759
You hear the host ask a naive question. You hear
141
00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:54.399
the experts stumble, maybe reconsider their own assumption, and then
142
00:06:54.519 --> 00:06:58.000
recalibrate their answer. You hear the pauses, the dead ends,
143
00:06:58.079 --> 00:07:01.079
the course corrections.
144
00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:02.680
The difference between looking at a polished marble statue in
145
00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:07.399
a museum versus actually watching the sculptor chip away at
146
00:07:07.399 --> 00:07:08.680
the raw stone for three hours.
147
00:07:08.839 --> 00:07:11.399
That is exactly it. And for a certain type of mind,
148
00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:14.800
watching the stone being chipped away provides a much much
149
00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:17.000
more profound understanding of the medium.
150
00:07:17.079 --> 00:07:18.000
That makes a lot of sense.
151
00:07:18.040 --> 00:07:20.360
And furthermore, we have to look at the frequency listed
152
00:07:20.399 --> 00:07:22.160
in the metadata. It says semi.
153
00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:23.160
Weekly, twice a week.
154
00:07:23.399 --> 00:07:26.000
Think about the scale of that. If a platform is
155
00:07:26.040 --> 00:07:30.160
publishing a three hour conversation twice a week, that is
156
00:07:30.279 --> 00:07:32.480
roughly three hundred hours of content a year.
157
00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:33.480
That's insane.
158
00:07:33.639 --> 00:07:36.079
It is that is not a show you casually tune into.
159
00:07:36.319 --> 00:07:40.079
That is a parallel digital ecosystem. It creates a parasocial
160
00:07:40.120 --> 00:07:44.079
bond with the listener that rivals actual real world friendship.
161
00:07:43.759 --> 00:07:46.199
Oh easily. I mean you were spending more time listening
162
00:07:46.199 --> 00:07:49.879
to this specific conversational dynamic than you might spend talking
163
00:07:49.879 --> 00:07:50.399
to your own.
164
00:07:50.319 --> 00:07:53.800
Neighbors, without a doubt, which makes the other prominent label
165
00:07:53.879 --> 00:07:56.560
on this digital container incredibly significant.
166
00:07:56.639 --> 00:07:57.720
You mean the explicit tag.
167
00:07:57.920 --> 00:08:01.279
Yeah, right next to that monument full time stamp, there
168
00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:04.920
is the word explicit. It's just one word, but man,
169
00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:07.639
it carries so much cultural baggage, it really does.
170
00:08:07.759 --> 00:08:11.000
I mean it is a functional warning. Certainly, it signals
171
00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:15.879
to the platform's algorithms and obviously to potential advertisers that
172
00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:19.879
the language or the subject matter refuses to adhere to
173
00:08:20.399 --> 00:08:22.279
polite general audience standards.
174
00:08:22.360 --> 00:08:24.639
Right, it's a red flag for the ad agency exactly.
175
00:08:25.079 --> 00:08:29.199
But functionally, how does an audience actually interpret that word today?
176
00:08:29.680 --> 00:08:33.720
Because it feels like it has transformed, transformed, How like
177
00:08:33.960 --> 00:08:36.279
it went from being a warning into almost a promise.
178
00:08:36.919 --> 00:08:39.240
Back in the day, a parent advisory sticker on a
179
00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:41.960
CD was designed to keep people away, right to.
180
00:08:41.960 --> 00:08:43.039
Prigore and all that.
181
00:08:43.200 --> 00:08:47.039
Right, But here the explicit tag seems to function as
182
00:08:47.080 --> 00:08:49.360
a guarantee of authenticity.
183
00:08:48.960 --> 00:08:52.919
A guarantee of an unvarnished reality. Yeah, I completely agree
184
00:08:53.440 --> 00:08:56.559
if the three hour runtime promises that the conversation will
185
00:08:56.600 --> 00:08:59.799
eventually break down the walls of a rehearsed persona. The
186
00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:03.360
explicit tag sets the ground rules from minute.
187
00:09:03.039 --> 00:09:04.799
One, which is that there are no walls.
188
00:09:04.879 --> 00:09:08.279
Exactly, there are no walls. It promises an environment totally
189
00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:10.240
devoid of mainstream sanitization.
190
00:09:10.600 --> 00:09:13.519
It tells the listener like, hey, we are not going
191
00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:16.000
to treat you like a fragile consumer who needs to
192
00:09:16.039 --> 00:09:19.240
be protected from harsh language or taboo concepts.
193
00:09:19.320 --> 00:09:21.600
And that framing is so crucial when we look at
194
00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:23.519
the specific guest anchoring.
195
00:09:23.120 --> 00:09:25.039
This episode, Hamilton Morris.
196
00:09:24.879 --> 00:09:29.240
Right, because you cannot have a three hour explicit exploration
197
00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:33.200
of reality without a navigator who is deeply enmeshed in
198
00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:34.919
the complexities of that reality.
199
00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:37.759
Well, that brings us right to him, and the way
200
00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:41.519
the metadata introduces him is honestly fascinating. It doesn't just
201
00:09:41.559 --> 00:09:43.799
call him a scientist, it doesn't just call him a journalist.
202
00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:44.799
Yeah, it's very specific.
203
00:09:44.879 --> 00:09:52.840
It provides four distinct, deliberate titles. It calls him a writer, documentarian, psychonaut,
204
00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:54.279
and scientific researcher.
205
00:09:54.480 --> 00:09:58.639
It's a multi hyphenate identity that, honestly, upon close inspection
206
00:09:59.039 --> 00:10:01.320
contains a massive amount of internal friction.
207
00:10:01.559 --> 00:10:04.399
Yeah, let's break those four titles down, because if you
208
00:10:04.639 --> 00:10:09.039
organize them, they really represent two completely different spheres of
209
00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:12.840
human endeavor. How do you mean, Well, the first two
210
00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:16.399
writer and documentarian, those belong to the sphere of the communicator.
211
00:10:16.519 --> 00:10:19.639
Right, Okay, Yes, these are outward facing roles exactly.
212
00:10:19.879 --> 00:10:23.159
The primary function of a writer or a documentarian is translational.
213
00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:26.039
They go out into the world, they gather all this complex,
214
00:10:26.200 --> 00:10:29.279
messy reality, and they shape it into a narrative structure.
215
00:10:29.399 --> 00:10:32.440
Right. They build the bridge that allows the general public
216
00:10:32.600 --> 00:10:35.120
to access and experience they otherwise couldn't.
217
00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:38.840
They are the storytellers. But the second pair of titles,
218
00:10:39.039 --> 00:10:43.320
scientific researcher and psychonat those belong to a completely different.
219
00:10:43.080 --> 00:10:44.840
Sphere, the investigators.
220
00:10:45.080 --> 00:10:48.519
Yes, these titles aren't about how you tell the story.
221
00:10:48.919 --> 00:10:51.039
They are about how you gather the raw data in
222
00:10:51.039 --> 00:10:51.679
the first place.
223
00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:56.519
And the juxtaposition of those two specific methods of investigation
224
00:10:56.919 --> 00:11:01.320
scientific researcher and psychonaut that is exactly where the metadata
225
00:11:01.399 --> 00:11:04.519
reveals a profound epistemological contradiction.
226
00:11:04.840 --> 00:11:07.519
I mean, yeah, let's focus on that word, Yeah, psychonaut,
227
00:11:07.639 --> 00:11:11.240
because it's sitting right there the official Apple Podcasts description
228
00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:13.879
right next to writer. Yeah, it's treated with the exact
229
00:11:13.879 --> 00:11:17.559
same occupational gravity as writer. So what does it actually
230
00:11:17.559 --> 00:11:19.639
mean to plain that as a professional title?
231
00:11:19.720 --> 00:11:22.919
Well, the etymology is incredibly revealing here. It stems from
232
00:11:22.960 --> 00:11:26.639
ancient Greek. You have psyche, which translates to the mind,
233
00:11:26.679 --> 00:11:29.440
the spirit, or the soul, okay, and not which means
234
00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:30.919
a sailor or a navigator.
235
00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:35.559
So an astronaut navigates the stars, an aquanont navigates the
236
00:11:35.639 --> 00:11:36.720
ocean depths.
237
00:11:36.639 --> 00:11:38.279
And a psychonat navigates the mind.
238
00:11:38.360 --> 00:11:39.600
Okay, I love that breakdown.
239
00:11:39.960 --> 00:11:43.919
Yeah, it refers to an individual who deliberately induces altered
240
00:11:43.919 --> 00:11:47.399
states of consciousness, often through the use of psychoactive substances,
241
00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:50.440
though you know it can involve other techniques too, But
242
00:11:50.519 --> 00:11:52.840
they do it for the express purpose of exploring the
243
00:11:53.080 --> 00:11:57.399
uncharted internal territories of human perception. It is a real
244
00:11:57.519 --> 00:12:00.559
commitment to exploring the innerspace with the exact exact same
245
00:12:00.600 --> 00:12:03.840
deliberate intent that an astronaut explores outer space.
246
00:12:04.360 --> 00:12:07.799
Okay, but this is where I have a major conceptual
247
00:12:07.840 --> 00:12:11.519
problem with this, and it's where I think the metadata
248
00:12:11.559 --> 00:12:14.279
presents an impossible paradox.
249
00:12:13.879 --> 00:12:15.799
All right, laid on me unpack the paradox.
250
00:12:15.960 --> 00:12:20.039
How can one individual simultaneously operate as a scientific researcher
251
00:12:20.039 --> 00:12:23.639
and a psychonot ah? Right, Because by definition, the scientific
252
00:12:23.720 --> 00:12:28.080
method demands objectivity. It requires the researcher to remove themselves
253
00:12:28.120 --> 00:12:30.440
from the experiment as much as humanly possible.
254
00:12:30.480 --> 00:12:31.720
You isolate the variables.
255
00:12:31.759 --> 00:12:35.279
You isolate the variables. You rely on empirical, reproducible data.
256
00:12:35.399 --> 00:12:37.519
If a scientist mixes two chemicals and a lab in
257
00:12:37.519 --> 00:12:39.639
New York, another scientist has to be able to mix
258
00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:42.279
those exact same chemicals in Tokyo and get the exact
259
00:12:42.320 --> 00:12:43.480
same observable reaction.
260
00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:48.279
Right, the observer's personal feelings are completely irrelevant, exactly.
261
00:12:48.519 --> 00:12:51.840
The elimination of the subjector self is basically the foundation
262
00:12:51.919 --> 00:12:58.240
of modern empirical science. But a psychonod is entirely inescapably subjective. Inherently, Yes,
263
00:12:58.320 --> 00:13:01.559
if the laboratory is your own mind and the instrument
264
00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:05.879
of measurement is your own consciousness, there is absolutely zero objectivity.
265
00:13:06.120 --> 00:13:10.039
The data you gather is entirely dependent on your unique neurochemistry,
266
00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:13.919
your mood on that particular Tuesday, your past traumas, your
267
00:13:13.960 --> 00:13:15.039
personal context.
268
00:13:15.159 --> 00:13:16.519
Right, you can't put that in a spreadsheet.
269
00:13:16.639 --> 00:13:20.440
You cannot. So is this metadata just slapping the word
270
00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:23.240
scientific next to psychonot to I don't know, legitimize the
271
00:13:23.320 --> 00:13:26.480
use of mind altering substances. How do you actually reconcile
272
00:13:26.519 --> 00:13:28.919
these two seemingly opposite approaches to truth?
273
00:13:29.440 --> 00:13:32.399
The friction you are identifying there is perhaps the most
274
00:13:32.519 --> 00:13:36.960
vital debate in the entire study of human consciousness. Really, oh, absolutely,
275
00:13:37.039 --> 00:13:40.440
you are entirely correct that traditional materialist science struggles with
276
00:13:40.480 --> 00:13:42.799
the subjective. I mean, you can put a human in
277
00:13:42.840 --> 00:13:47.679
an fMRI machine and watch the objective quantifiable data. You
278
00:13:47.679 --> 00:13:51.360
can see exactly which synapses are firing, which blood vessels
279
00:13:51.399 --> 00:13:54.000
are dilating when a substance is introduced to the brain.
280
00:13:54.240 --> 00:13:57.080
And that's the scientific researcher part. You can measure the
281
00:13:57.120 --> 00:13:58.440
physical mechanism.
282
00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:02.200
Of it exactly. But the fMRI cannot tell you what
283
00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:05.000
the color blue actually feels like to that person, Oh right.
284
00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:08.960
It cannot quantify the emotional weight of a forgotten memory
285
00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:13.440
that is suddenly unearthed. It cannot measure the sensation of, say,
286
00:14:13.879 --> 00:14:18.360
ego dissolution, because it's internal. Right. The objective tools stop
287
00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:21.200
at the physical mechanism. They cannot cross the threshold into
288
00:14:21.240 --> 00:14:23.000
the actual experience of consciousness.
289
00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:27.600
Okay, So by combining these titles, the metadata is suggesting
290
00:14:27.639 --> 00:14:29.679
some sort of hybrid discipline.
291
00:14:29.799 --> 00:14:34.559
Yes, it suggests the practice of experiential science experiential science. Yeah,
292
00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:37.840
it implies an investigator who refuses to accept the limitations
293
00:14:37.879 --> 00:14:40.919
of either extreme. They are not content to simply look
294
00:14:40.919 --> 00:14:44.279
at the fMRI scan in a sterile laboratory because they
295
00:14:44.320 --> 00:14:47.200
recognize that the objective data is only half the story.
296
00:14:47.360 --> 00:14:51.879
But conversely, conversely, they are not content to simply have
297
00:14:52.120 --> 00:14:56.440
a profound, unexamined subjective experience out in the woods somewhere
298
00:14:57.279 --> 00:15:00.759
without attempting to categorize it and understand and the chemistry
299
00:15:00.799 --> 00:15:01.240
behind it.
300
00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:03.759
Oh wow, So they want to map the physical chemistry
301
00:15:03.759 --> 00:15:05.960
from the outside, and then they want to sail the
302
00:15:05.960 --> 00:15:07.600
actual chemical waves from the inside.
303
00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:11.000
Exactly, They become both the observer and the subject, the
304
00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:12.919
cartographer and the terrain. Right.
305
00:15:13.080 --> 00:15:14.919
As a fascinating way to put it, it.
306
00:15:14.919 --> 00:15:19.799
Is a highly specialized, historically controversial, but deeply necessary approach
307
00:15:20.200 --> 00:15:22.559
if you actually want to understand the complete picture of
308
00:15:22.600 --> 00:15:23.879
a psychoactive.
309
00:15:23.279 --> 00:15:26.279
Substance, right, Because you can't just have one or the other.
310
00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:29.240
No, you must measure the molecule with the rigor of
311
00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:32.440
a scientist, and then you must navigate the psychological effect
312
00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:34.960
with the courage of a psychonat It's.
313
00:15:34.759 --> 00:15:36.600
Basically an immersive epistemology.
314
00:15:36.759 --> 00:15:37.039
Yeah.
315
00:15:37.080 --> 00:15:39.919
It actually reminds me of those legendary scientists from the
316
00:15:40.039 --> 00:15:43.039
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, you know, the ones who
317
00:15:43.639 --> 00:15:47.360
would synthesize a totally new compound in their lab and
318
00:15:47.399 --> 00:15:51.279
then bravely or maybe foolishly, just ingest it themselves to
319
00:15:51.279 --> 00:15:52.480
see what happened.
320
00:15:52.480 --> 00:15:54.559
Right, because there was literally no other way to know
321
00:15:54.600 --> 00:15:55.639
what it did exactly.
322
00:15:55.679 --> 00:16:00.480
Self experimentation had this really long, super complicated history science.
323
00:16:00.600 --> 00:16:03.679
It does. But what the metadata reveals next is that
324
00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:09.200
this guest hasn't just embraced this experiential science as some private,
325
00:16:09.799 --> 00:16:14.399
quiet methodology. He has built a massive public platform right
326
00:16:14.440 --> 00:16:14.879
on top.
327
00:16:14.759 --> 00:16:16.879
Of it, which brings us to the third piece of
328
00:16:16.919 --> 00:16:19.840
the puzzle here, the vehicle for this exploration, right. Yeah,
329
00:16:19.840 --> 00:16:23.480
Because the text notes that this multi hyphenate guest has
330
00:16:23.519 --> 00:16:27.960
its own show titled Hamilton's Pharmacopeia and it is broadcast
331
00:16:27.960 --> 00:16:29.159
on the network Viceland.
332
00:16:29.320 --> 00:16:32.360
There's a really dense amount of cultural coding packed into
333
00:16:32.440 --> 00:16:34.679
that specific title and that specific network.
334
00:16:34.720 --> 00:16:37.759
Oh, for sure. Let's start with pharmacopeia. That is a heavy,
335
00:16:38.120 --> 00:16:40.600
almost archaic word. I mean, it's not a word you
336
00:16:40.679 --> 00:16:42.679
hear in standard television branding at all.
337
00:16:42.840 --> 00:16:43.399
Not usually.
338
00:16:43.440 --> 00:16:45.279
No, it sounds like a book chain to a desk
339
00:16:45.320 --> 00:16:46.679
in some medieval monastery.
340
00:16:46.799 --> 00:16:50.440
Well, historically, a pharmacopeia was the ultimate symbol of institutional
341
00:16:50.480 --> 00:16:54.320
authority in medicine. It is an official, comprehensive book, usually
342
00:16:54.360 --> 00:16:57.600
issued by a government or a really prestigious medical society,
343
00:16:58.080 --> 00:17:01.919
that contains a master list of small drugs, their precise
344
00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:07.640
chemical formulas, their intended effects, and strict, uncompromising directions for
345
00:17:07.759 --> 00:17:08.319
their use.
346
00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:10.640
So it is the definitive rule book. It is the
347
00:17:10.680 --> 00:17:14.440
institution basically saying this is exactly what this substance is,
348
00:17:14.839 --> 00:17:16.559
and this is exactly how you must.
349
00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:20.480
Use it exactly. But notice the crucial grammatical pivot in
350
00:17:20.519 --> 00:17:21.400
the title of his show.
351
00:17:21.400 --> 00:17:22.359
Okay, let's look at it.
352
00:17:22.359 --> 00:17:25.319
It is not the pharmacopeia. It is Hamilton's pharmacopeia.
353
00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:29.960
Ah. By adding the possessive, he completely subverts the institutional
354
00:17:29.960 --> 00:17:30.799
authority of that word.
355
00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:34.480
Yes, he decentralizes the authority. The title implies that this
356
00:17:34.519 --> 00:17:39.000
psychonaut researcher is traveling the globe, conducting his experiential science
357
00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:44.480
and compiling his own highly personalized alternative index of reality. Wow,
358
00:17:44.519 --> 00:17:48.000
he is taking the ultimate symbol of rigid objective science,
359
00:17:48.079 --> 00:17:51.759
the master medical Catalog, and he's rewriting it entirely through
360
00:17:51.759 --> 00:17:53.920
a subjective, first person lens Man.
361
00:17:53.960 --> 00:17:56.519
That's a brilliant piece of framing. It takes the clinical
362
00:17:56.640 --> 00:17:57.960
and makes it completely visceral.
363
00:17:58.039 --> 00:17:58.640
It really does.
364
00:17:58.920 --> 00:18:01.839
And the fact that this personal pharmacopeia is hosted on
365
00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:05.920
Viceland provides even more context for the listener trying to
366
00:18:05.960 --> 00:18:07.599
picture the tone of all this.
367
00:18:07.839 --> 00:18:10.519
Yeah, because Viceland is a network brand built on a
368
00:18:10.640 --> 00:18:16.319
very specific ethos. They completely rejected the polished studio anchor
369
00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:20.400
model of journalism. Their whole aesthetic is rooted in immersion,
370
00:18:20.599 --> 00:18:26.519
often embedding their reporters in gritty, countercultural or fringe environments.
371
00:18:26.599 --> 00:18:29.440
They favor the raw, the edgy, the experiential. It's like
372
00:18:29.480 --> 00:18:33.319
taking a dusty nineteenth century apothecary's journal and turning it
373
00:18:33.359 --> 00:18:34.839
into a punk rock travelogue.
374
00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:37.559
That's a great analogy. So the metadata is painting a
375
00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:40.599
very clear picture of this artifact. For us, we have
376
00:18:40.640 --> 00:18:41.240
a three.
377
00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:45.160
Hour explicit conversation featuring a scientist who uses his own
378
00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:49.799
consciousness as a laboratory discussing his personalized countercultural index of
379
00:18:49.880 --> 00:18:51.200
mind altering substances.
380
00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:52.880
And if we look at this from the perspective of
381
00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:56.519
our listener that learned the very existence of Hamilton's pharmacopeia
382
00:18:56.559 --> 00:18:58.880
on a major network and his appearance on this massive
383
00:18:59.240 --> 00:19:02.480
semi weekly de dive, it highlights a huge shift in
384
00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:06.000
mainstream appetite. Holso what's a shift, Well, it proves that
385
00:19:06.079 --> 00:19:09.000
a large segment of the population is just no longer
386
00:19:09.039 --> 00:19:13.480
satisfied with knowledge being handed down from some sterile, unapproachable
387
00:19:13.559 --> 00:19:14.279
ivory tower.
388
00:19:14.440 --> 00:19:16.119
Right. They don't want the lecture exactly.
389
00:19:16.160 --> 00:19:18.200
They don't just want the dry data. They want the
390
00:19:18.240 --> 00:19:21.039
adventure of the data. They want to see the human
391
00:19:21.079 --> 00:19:25.319
being actually wrestling with the raw material of reality. The
392
00:19:25.359 --> 00:19:29.480
blending of the documentarian and the psychonat is precisely what
393
00:19:29.559 --> 00:19:33.480
makes the scientific research palatable and engaging to a mass audience.
394
00:19:33.559 --> 00:19:35.839
They want the science, but they want it delivered with
395
00:19:35.880 --> 00:19:36.759
dirt on its boots.
396
00:19:36.839 --> 00:19:40.960
Yes, perfectly said, which leads us to the final and honestly,
397
00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:44.400
perhaps most mind bending section of this metadata.
398
00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:46.319
Oh, the distribution list Yes.
399
00:19:46.400 --> 00:19:50.359
The sheer scale of how this explicit, countercultural three hour
400
00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:54.400
exploration is actually distributed across the physical planet.
401
00:19:54.480 --> 00:19:57.480
Yeah, Because the bottom half of the source text transitions
402
00:19:57.519 --> 00:19:59.880
away from the content of the episode entirely and goes
403
00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:01.400
the logistics of its existence.
404
00:20:01.519 --> 00:20:02.440
It's fascinating.
405
00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:07.319
It basically becomes this massive, scrolling directory of the global
406
00:20:07.319 --> 00:20:11.160
digital infrastructure. We have an enormous list of countries and
407
00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:13.839
regions where this file is simultaneously available.
408
00:20:13.880 --> 00:20:15.960
Let's look at the geographical spread there. I mean it
409
00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:19.960
spans Africa, the Middle East, India, the Asia, Pacific, Europe,
410
00:20:20.079 --> 00:20:22.920
Latin America, the Caribbean, and North America.
411
00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:29.000
It explicitly lists places like Azerbaijan, Botswana, Iceland, Sri Lanka,
412
00:20:29.119 --> 00:20:31.559
El Salvador, Oman Madagascar.
413
00:20:31.799 --> 00:20:32.519
It's huge.
414
00:20:32.839 --> 00:20:36.039
The juxtaposition here is staggering to me. We just spent
415
00:20:36.119 --> 00:20:39.799
twenty minutes dissecting how incredibly niche and specific this content
416
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.400
is a three hour endurance test exploring altered states of consciousness,
417
00:20:44.599 --> 00:20:48.279
stamped with an explicit warning, and yet this highly specific
418
00:20:48.319 --> 00:20:51.240
file is pinging off satellites to reach over one hundred
419
00:20:51.240 --> 00:20:53.359
different nations at the exact same moment.
420
00:20:53.480 --> 00:20:56.240
It represents the ultimate realization of the borderless broadcast.
421
00:20:56.400 --> 00:20:58.279
Let's try to imagine what it would take to distribute
422
00:20:58.279 --> 00:21:01.400
this exact same conversation globally before the Internet, like say,
423
00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:03.279
in nineteen eighty five oh.
424
00:21:03.079 --> 00:21:08.160
Man in nineteen eighty five disseminating a three hour explicit
425
00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:13.359
countercultural recording about psychoactive substances that many countries would be
426
00:21:13.400 --> 00:21:15.000
a logistical impossibility.
427
00:21:15.039 --> 00:21:16.000
You just couldn't do it.
428
00:21:16.200 --> 00:21:20.319
No, you would need physical tape duplication facilities on every
429
00:21:20.319 --> 00:21:23.960
single continent. You would need massive cargo shipments. You would
430
00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:27.880
have to navigate the physical customs checkpoints of one hundred
431
00:21:27.960 --> 00:21:29.279
different sovereign borders.
432
00:21:29.319 --> 00:21:30.440
And the censorship boards.
433
00:21:30.559 --> 00:21:33.359
Oh right, you would face local censorship boards who would
434
00:21:33.440 --> 00:21:37.759
literally physically confiscate the tapes. It would take years, millions
435
00:21:37.799 --> 00:21:40.880
of dollars, and it would ultimately fail in most regions anyway.
436
00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:45.240
But today, the architecture of platforms like Apple Podcasts bypasses
437
00:21:45.279 --> 00:21:49.759
the physical border entirely completely. It takes this sprawling philosophical
438
00:21:49.799 --> 00:21:54.119
exploration and instantly standardizes its delivery to a smartphone in roll,
439
00:21:54.160 --> 00:21:57.200
Botswana just as efficiently as it does to a laptop
440
00:21:57.240 --> 00:21:58.240
in downtown Chicago.
441
00:21:58.319 --> 00:22:01.039
And the metadata shows how the platform attempts to localize
442
00:22:01.039 --> 00:22:04.279
this global footprint too. It includes specific language tags like
443
00:22:04.319 --> 00:22:09.319
what Well, it lists Espanol for Mexico and Latin America, Arabic, Russian,
444
00:22:09.799 --> 00:22:17.319
Simplified Chinese, French, Korean, Portuguese for Brazil, Vietnamese traditional Chinese.
445
00:22:17.559 --> 00:22:20.839
So the platform is essentially wrapping this English language conversation
446
00:22:21.480 --> 00:22:25.000
in the local linguistic architecture of the region to reduce
447
00:22:25.039 --> 00:22:28.559
the friction of access. Yes, it's creating a localized doorway
448
00:22:28.839 --> 00:22:30.920
into a global room exactly.
449
00:22:31.319 --> 00:22:34.880
However, the metadata also reveals that the utopian vision of
450
00:22:34.920 --> 00:22:40.960
a completely frictionless, borderless digital globe, well, it's an illusion.
451
00:22:41.160 --> 00:22:42.519
Yeah, the friction is still there.
452
00:22:42.720 --> 00:22:45.039
It is the physical borders of the world have learned
453
00:22:45.079 --> 00:22:47.519
exactly how to assert themselves in the digital space.
454
00:22:47.720 --> 00:22:51.160
Right Because, scattered amidst this massive list of global access
455
00:22:51.200 --> 00:22:54.960
points are two very stark, very specific operational warnings.
456
00:22:55.079 --> 00:22:55.759
Let's look at those.
457
00:22:55.839 --> 00:22:58.720
The first one says content restricted. This episode can't be
458
00:22:58.720 --> 00:23:00.599
played on the web in your country, your region.
459
00:23:00.839 --> 00:23:04.039
Right. This is the digital equivalent of customs confiscating the
460
00:23:04.039 --> 00:23:06.960
tape at the border. It is the friction of geopolitics
461
00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:09.480
imposing itself on the flow of information.
462
00:23:09.480 --> 00:23:13.200
But what does that restriction actually mean in practice? Like
463
00:23:13.359 --> 00:23:16.640
how does a government block a weightless artifact?
464
00:23:16.720 --> 00:23:20.640
Well, the Internet may feel like this single unified cloud
465
00:23:20.720 --> 00:23:25.079
to us, but the Web is heavily regionalized through IP
466
00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:29.240
addresses and geofencing technology. The platform knows exactly where the
467
00:23:29.359 --> 00:23:31.680
user is physically located at any given moment.
468
00:23:31.960 --> 00:23:34.000
Okay, so attracts your location, right.
469
00:23:34.039 --> 00:23:37.400
And when a nation's legal or cultural framework dictates that
470
00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:41.279
certain topics like the discussion of psychoactive substances or maybe
471
00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:46.000
explicit language are forbidden, the global platform must comply with
472
00:23:46.079 --> 00:23:49.039
local sovereignty to maintain its operating license in that region.
473
00:23:49.160 --> 00:23:51.759
So the platform essentially acts as the enforcer for the
474
00:23:51.799 --> 00:23:55.279
local government. Exactly, it builds a digital wall around that
475
00:23:55.359 --> 00:23:58.039
specific country. The conversation is still happening out there in
476
00:23:58.079 --> 00:24:00.880
the ether, right right, but the citizen inside that walled
477
00:24:00.920 --> 00:24:02.759
garden cannot hear it.
478
00:24:02.759 --> 00:24:06.640
It creates a fascinating philosophical tension. Honestly, we have built
479
00:24:06.680 --> 00:24:09.960
a library capable of holding the sum total of human conversation,
480
00:24:10.400 --> 00:24:12.440
but the specific books you are allowed to check out
481
00:24:12.440 --> 00:24:15.200
depend entirely on the GPS coordinates of your chair.
482
00:24:15.400 --> 00:24:18.119
That is so wild to think about, and even in
483
00:24:18.200 --> 00:24:21.079
regions where the content isn't banned outright by the government,
484
00:24:21.400 --> 00:24:24.440
the metadata reveals a second layer of friction.
485
00:24:24.480 --> 00:24:25.559
Right the second warning.
486
00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:31.039
Yeah, the text clearly states to listen to explicit episodes sign.
487
00:24:30.799 --> 00:24:32.319
In the digital toll booth.
488
00:24:32.920 --> 00:24:36.400
This fascinates me because it's not asking for money, it's
489
00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:38.039
asking for identity.
490
00:24:38.279 --> 00:24:40.839
Yes, in the physical world, if you want it to
491
00:24:40.880 --> 00:24:44.519
eavesdrop on a taboo conversation, you could slip into the
492
00:24:44.519 --> 00:24:46.920
back of a crowded room, keep your head down and
493
00:24:46.960 --> 00:24:48.039
just listen anonymously.
494
00:24:48.240 --> 00:24:50.319
Sure, nobody has to know you're there, right.
495
00:24:50.880 --> 00:24:54.400
But the digital architecture requires a transaction of identity before
496
00:24:54.440 --> 00:24:57.079
it grants access to the explicit material.
497
00:24:57.279 --> 00:25:00.440
I mean it's an age gating mechanism, obviously designed to
498
00:25:00.480 --> 00:25:04.519
keep children away from mature content, but structurally it forces
499
00:25:04.559 --> 00:25:07.920
the listener to leave their own digital footprint in exchange
500
00:25:07.960 --> 00:25:08.519
for the audio.
501
00:25:08.759 --> 00:25:12.039
You must verify your existence. You must align your user profile,
502
00:25:12.119 --> 00:25:15.440
your email address, your digital history with the platform itself.
503
00:25:15.599 --> 00:25:19.160
You literally trade your anonymity for the key to unlock
504
00:25:19.240 --> 00:25:20.400
the unfiltered reality.
505
00:25:20.720 --> 00:25:24.000
It's like arriving at a massive global stadium where Hamilton
506
00:25:24.039 --> 00:25:27.279
Morris is about to give a three hour, unscripted lecture
507
00:25:27.640 --> 00:25:31.240
on the far edges of human consciousness, and anyone from
508
00:25:31.319 --> 00:25:34.039
over one hundred countries is invited. But before you can
509
00:25:34.079 --> 00:25:37.400
walk through the turnstile, the guards demand to see your ID,
510
00:25:37.880 --> 00:25:40.759
They log your presence in a central database, and they
511
00:25:40.920 --> 00:25:43.799
check if your local mayor has banned you from attending.
512
00:25:44.400 --> 00:25:49.279
That is the paradox of our modern information infrastructure, perfectly encapsulated.
513
00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:53.839
We possess a technology of radical, unprecedented freedom of distribution,
514
00:25:54.559 --> 00:25:58.920
but it's policed by mechanisms of equally radical, unprecedented tracking
515
00:25:58.960 --> 00:25:59.680
and restriction.
516
00:26:00.359 --> 00:26:03.039
It really forces you to step back and just marvel
517
00:26:03.039 --> 00:26:05.000
at the complexity of what we're dealing with here.
518
00:26:05.079 --> 00:26:05.440
It does.
519
00:26:05.559 --> 00:26:08.160
Let's trace the arc of what we've uncovered from literally
520
00:26:08.240 --> 00:26:09.559
just a single page of text.
521
00:26:09.759 --> 00:26:12.319
We began by examining the sheer mass of one hundred
522
00:26:12.359 --> 00:26:15.279
and seventy eight minute runtime, recognizing it not just as
523
00:26:15.319 --> 00:26:19.000
a length but as a deliberate rejection of sanitized sound
524
00:26:19.000 --> 00:26:23.720
bite media in favor of real intellectual endurance and structural wandering.
525
00:26:24.039 --> 00:26:27.519
And then we dissected the decontradiction at the heart of
526
00:26:27.559 --> 00:26:31.920
the guest's profile, the tension between the subjective psychoonotut navigating
527
00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:35.440
the innerspace of the mind, and the objective scientific researcher
528
00:26:35.519 --> 00:26:36.720
demanding empirical truth.
529
00:26:36.960 --> 00:26:39.559
Right we saw how those two roles fuse into a
530
00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:43.920
practice of experiential science, culminating in a decentralized sort of
531
00:26:43.960 --> 00:26:48.839
punk rock pharmacopeia broadcast to a mainstream audience that is
532
00:26:49.000 --> 00:26:51.480
obviously hungry for the adventure of discovery.
533
00:26:51.640 --> 00:26:55.359
And finally we zoomed out to see this massive, explicit,
534
00:26:55.759 --> 00:27:00.519
taboo breaking conversation being beamed simultaneously into over one hundred
535
00:27:00.519 --> 00:27:04.359
different nations, colliding with the invisible digital walls and identity
536
00:27:04.440 --> 00:27:06.319
checkpoints of the modern Internet.
537
00:27:06.400 --> 00:27:10.200
We have analyzed the box from every single angle, and
538
00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:13.039
the box tells us that society is currently engaged in
539
00:27:13.079 --> 00:27:17.160
a massive real time negotiation over who gets to explore reality,
540
00:27:17.440 --> 00:27:19.920
how that reality is allowed to be discussed, and who
541
00:27:19.960 --> 00:27:20.680
is permitted to.
542
00:27:20.680 --> 00:27:23.240
Listen And for you listening to us right now, this
543
00:27:23.319 --> 00:27:25.960
is the ultimate takeaway. Every time you open an app,
544
00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:27.839
every time you press play on a piece of media,
545
00:27:27.880 --> 00:27:30.039
you are not just passively consuming content.
546
00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:30.960
No, not at all.
547
00:27:31.240 --> 00:27:35.279
You are interacting with a wildly complex architecture of metadata,
548
00:27:35.640 --> 00:27:39.519
cultural packaging, and digital borders. In a very real way.
549
00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.079
As a learner navigating this endless ocean of information, you
550
00:27:44.240 --> 00:27:47.079
have to be your own kind of psychonaut. You are
551
00:27:47.160 --> 00:27:48.279
charting a course.
552
00:27:48.039 --> 00:27:51.359
Through the noise which leaves us with a provocative final thought,
553
00:27:51.400 --> 00:27:53.680
a concept to carry with you the next time you
554
00:27:53.799 --> 00:27:57.400
encounter a massive, unedited exploration of ideas like this one.
555
00:27:57.720 --> 00:28:00.559
Hear it well. If the very definition of tzeconot is
556
00:28:00.599 --> 00:28:04.079
someone who takes an immersive, deeply personal journey into the mind,
557
00:28:04.680 --> 00:28:08.079
and if our global infrastructure allows millions of people to
558
00:28:08.160 --> 00:28:12.200
simultaneously plur into the unvarnished three hour audio stream of
559
00:28:12.240 --> 00:28:13.200
that journey.
560
00:28:12.920 --> 00:28:15.799
Where does the boundary of the experience actually end?
561
00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:20.720
Precisely? Are we as listeners silently absorbing these massive conversations
562
00:28:20.759 --> 00:28:23.039
in our cars, on our walks, in our homes. Are
563
00:28:23.039 --> 00:28:26.720
we simply passive consumers of a digital artifact, or by
564
00:28:26.720 --> 00:28:29.480
investing a quarter of our waking day actively processing their
565
00:28:29.519 --> 00:28:32.279
intellectual journey. Do our minds sync with theirs? Do we
566
00:28:32.359 --> 00:28:35.240
cross the threshold from being an audience to actually becoming
567
00:28:35.319 --> 00:28:37.359
co passengers on the voyage.
568
00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:40.279
By listening deeply enough, we become part of the experiential
569
00:28:40.319 --> 00:28:45.720
research that is a brilliant framework. The artifact might be witless,
570
00:28:46.079 --> 00:28:49.160
but the impact it leaves on the observer is incredibly profound.
571
00:28:49.359 --> 00:28:50.759
We build the meaning together.
572
00:28:50.960 --> 00:28:55.079
Well. That concludes our autopsy of this digital footprint. Keep
573
00:28:55.160 --> 00:28:58.880
questioning the containers that hold your information, keep navigating the
574
00:28:58.880 --> 00:29:01.559
deep waters, and keep diving into your own sources.
575
00:29:01.759 --> 00:29:03.599
Until next time, enjoy the journey.