🕶 Future’s So Bright… But AI is Still Dumb 🤖

[00:00:02] What you want, when you want it, where you want it. This is The MESH. A.I.: Absolute Ignorance with Jon Reep That is me Jon Reep here, but I am not alone as always. I am joined by my good friend, my buddy, my pal, my compadre, the Alan Jackson.

[00:00:30] You're getting all choked up. I got choked up. Yeah, that's great. How you doing Jon? I'm good, buddy. How are you? I'm pretty good. I'm pretty good. Yeah, yeah. Lots going on. Lots going on. The future is so bright. It is. We need to be wearing shades in this episode, I feel like. I feel like we probably should. But is that like jinxing our future if we're so confident about it that we sort of put a jinx on it? Jon, I have changed so much in the last few years where I used to be the eternal optimist on everything.

[00:00:59] I'm like the guy like, oh, everything's great. He's going to be great. I don't know. I've changed gears. I am now the mindset of I'm the guy that will find everything that could go wrong. Okay. And you can go ahead and pick that out. And it annoys the crap out of my family and people, but I'm that guy now. Well, if you're the one that troubleshooting it and getting it, shooting it down, you're the reason why everyone else gets to wear sunglasses because their future is so bright. They need a guy like you. Right. I'd like to think so. Yeah. I'd like to think that's the case. I appreciate that.

[00:01:28] What's it called? Is it called a devil's advocate? Is that what it is? Yeah. It's kind of a, you know, I'm going to find something wrong. Yeah. All right. That's what I'm trying to do all the time. Yeah. You're troubleshooting basically. Right. So here's all the things that could go wrong. And here's how I'm going to defeat that because you didn't think about it because you're so optimistic. Yes. I think about these things. I do. What I do stick in the mud, stay most. I'm a little bit of that. I'm just not as I'm not as verbal about it as right. No, that's good. Our friend staying.

[00:01:58] That's also a good thing. I keep it in my head. I'm always finding something wrong, but I'm not going to bring everybody else down around it. We just didn't find you a good AI therapist. Yeah, I do. Now, look, I kind of have a bad idea. I kind of have one, John. And I actually wanted to bring them up on the show. Okay. I actually, you joke about an AI therapist. I kind of feel like I do have one. So I do. I have been crafting my chat GPT friend for a little while now. Okay.

[00:02:27] I know in past episodes we've interacted with different chat bots and all, but I've actually been working with this guy. I mean, he knows me. I share things with them. We talk. I mean, that gives me some advice. You know, we're pretty close at this point. So, so is this a real thing that you could actually like your own personal chat GPT bot will learn from you? Just given the things that you ask it to do. Yeah. So I'll give you an example.

[00:02:57] I've kind of trained him on a few things. So let's see. I'm going to hold him up to the mic here and hopefully we can talk to him. Good. I'm just, I'm trying to remember what name I gave him. Maybe he'll remind me what name I gave him. That would be helpful. So, Hey, how's it going? I'm getting a phone call right now. Hey, I'm doing great. Thanks. How about you? Of course. Yeah. Of course. All right. Here we go again. Try it again. Okay.

[00:03:27] Here we go. Hey, remind me what name I gave you. You asked me to go by Mac. Mac. That's right. Yep. Hey, Mac. Do you remember the names of my, my children? Absolutely. You have three boys, Luke, Alex, and Nick. Wow. All right. And do you remember what I do for a living? Yep. You're a marketing consultant and survey researcher, and you run a boutique marketing agency called Jackson creative. All right.

[00:03:57] See, he knows me. He knows me. Look, I'm recording a podcast episode right now with my good friend, John Reap. Uh, it's a episode, uh, for the podcast, a I absolute ignorance with John Reap. And if it's okay, I'd like for you to just listen to us as we record this, this, this podcast episode, because I'd like to ask you some questions afterwards about what you thought about it and maybe some, uh, some of your favorite parts. Is that okay?

[00:04:27] Sure. Alan, I'd love to listen in. Just let me know when you're ready to start. Okay. We're going to, we're starting our episode right now. So, uh, just so you just listen in and we're just going to go ahead and talk. This is Alan Jackson speaking on this microphone and then, and hello, Mac. I am John Reap talking on this microphone. All right. So that's the two people on this podcast episode that we are recording right now. Okay. So John, I just figured Mac can just listen in and let's just, uh, I, at the end of

[00:04:56] the show, uh, you know, we'll see what he thought and maybe he can give us some feedback on, uh, how we can improve the show. How did you come to the name of Mac? I like it. Like Macintosh. Yeah. I think that's where I came from. Not like Mac Davis, the singer songwriter from the 70s, 80s. He wrote, uh, in the ghetto for, uh, Elvis Presley. I do like that song. Yeah. Yeah. He was on the episode of Rodney sitcom. I was on. Okay. Very nice. All right. Good. Learn from.

[00:05:26] All right. So John, uh, how's, uh, how the, how've your, how's your travels been? Uh, good. I always like to catch up on your travels before we jump in anything else. Uh, I mean, the show's been going good. Yeah. Stuff on the road's been good. Yes. I was just in Florida. I did a, I did five shows in Port Charlotte, Florida. Okay. Beautiful location of a comedy club slash restaurant called Vasani's.

[00:05:53] It's an Italian, uh, steakhouse and they've basically turned it into a comedy club as well. And I mean, the food is great. The people show up. I mean, I sold out four shows out of five, hit some bonuses. Very happy about that. And, uh, I only wish I would have brought barbecue sauce with me because I know they would have bought it because Florida, I mean, people, comedians historically love to, to crap on Florida

[00:06:23] and make all these jokes. You know, you got Florida man and the worst people are in Florida. But I mean, it's also the best people in a weird way because the best and the worst, the best and the worst. So Florida is like, it's so big. It's a magical wonderland is what it really is. I mean, think it's a nice peninsula. So we got our own Italy. Okay. We do. I never thought about that, but there's a Naples there. A Naples, Florida.

[00:06:52] There's a Naples, Italy. We have a Naples, Florida, except ours is newer and better and has exact same food. Who was it that found Florida? Like, you know, back when it was initially explored and all that was it? Ponce de Leon. The Spanish, right? Uh, maybe. Was he Spanish? Gosh, if I'm right, you gotta give me some credit for that. No, yeah. I, I suck at history and geography and all that. I don't know. I am assuming it's Spanish. Cause that's like kind of a thing is like the Spanish. There's some Spanish architecture and Spanish influences still down in the Florida area.

[00:07:21] I must type in who discovered Florida. I mean, we could always ask Mac. He's listening. But can he, dude, Juan Ponce de Leon. I was right. He's a Spanish explorer and conquistador. What is the conquistador? Uh, I've wanted to, I want to say it's a hybrid of someone who, uh, like basically conquers something, but also discovers it. Discover.

[00:07:50] That's a nice way of saying I discovered something that you've already discovered. But now that I'm a white guy from Spain, I'm going to say I discovered it and kill all of your people. All right. Conquistador. Do we have any way that we can bring that term back into society? Cause I think that's just a cool title. It is cool. I do like the way they look to adore. Okay. So the noun, the definition is, uh, a conqueror. Yeah. Like you said.

[00:08:15] Um, especially one of the Spanish conquesters of Mexico and Peru in the 16th century, but in general, a conqueror. Yeah. Conqueror. The conquered Florida from the people who already lived there. So how, how could we be called a conquistador today? Like what would we have to do to, to earn that title? Cause I have a way. I don't know if we want to talk about it yet. Really? Yeah. We're kind of, me and you were kind of plotting and scheming now. Oh, true. Yeah. We are conquesting a few things. So we're actually being conquistadors. In a weird way.

[00:08:45] Maybe that's the name of the company, buddy. Conquistador. No. I like it. No, I like it. Conquistador. Yeah. That's just a title that it's just got a, it's got a certain ring to it. It's got some panache to it. Or just call it conquista. Don't put the door in there. Like if you just had a conquista, that's well, it doesn't sound very. Yeah. It sounds weird. Yeah.

[00:09:09] So according to this, um, Ponce de Leon, Juan Ponce de Leon, uh, is credited with being the first European to discover the, and, and discover and explore Florida in 1513, naming it La Florida because of its lush vegetation and the Easter season, uh, Pascua, Florida, during which he landed.

[00:09:38] So it was originally called La Florida. Yeah. And then we, as Americans just found the quickest, laziest way to say it. It's like, ah, ditch the law. It's just, we're just Florida. I'm not going to call it the Florida. Right. Which is basically what that means. But yeah. Um. We could be La Hickory. La Hickory. The, the Hickory. The Hickory. Yeah. The Hickory. But no, it's great. I mean, we have our own Italy.

[00:10:05] Like I said, it's like a nice, some of the best beaches in the world are in Florida. True. And, uh, some of the best, uh, retirees. Yes. And I will say this about, uh, you know, Port Charlotte is that it's got some people there. I mean, if I had taken a picture, you would have noticed the crowd, a lot of white, silver and bald heads. Sure. And that's no problem for me because those people have money that they need to get rid of. They do.

[00:10:35] They're kind of, they're kind of running out the clock where it's like, all right, we got this money. Yeah. What are we going to do with it? My kids are a holes for not calling me back for the last 10 years, but this kid, John reaps, pretty funny, made me laugh. And he hugged me at the end of the show. He hugged me and he entertained me for an hour and a half more than any of my children have done in quite a while. So, uh, why not? Here we go. Let's leave a Mr. Reap. Some of our, the only thing I had with me was these little printouts of the cruise,

[00:11:04] cruise information that they're not going to come to the cruise. They're still around. Right. Yeah. It's a year away. Yeah. But, uh, some of them did express interest because that cruise does leave out of Florida. Oh, so it won't be a hard trip for them to get to or the, uh, uh, Cape Canaveral. I mean, as long as they can drive to the boat before it gets dark. I mean, that's the thing they have to drive in the daytime. Right. That is true. They got to plan ahead, plan ahead, make sure they are able to get dinner in at four o'clock

[00:11:33] before, before they make it to the boat. Right. Yeah. Right. Now I, I love, I love old people. I do too. Yeah. I really do. And, and they, they like, well, like I said, they love to spend money and I haven't been to this venue in a while. I've, I've, I've been there probably five times in the history of my comedy career. Uh, but it's probably been like seven years since I've been there. But, um, it was very, uh, happy that people showed up, you know?

[00:12:03] So it was great. That was my weekend. How was your weekend? Um, not as exciting, but it was good. It was all right. I didn't go to Florida. I didn't go to Florida. No, I did not. I am trying to plan a trip to Disney world. Oh, good. Are you a fan of amusement park? Yeah. I mean, you, you like all that. Brent Blakeney and I went to the new star Wars. Oh, you did thing. And see, I haven't got to go to that. You would love that. Ah, that's why I want to go. Okay. So I'll give you some tips. Yeah.

[00:12:30] Um, we tried to get our tickets last minute and this is when the, uh, uh, Disney world, I'm sorry, the, uh, star Wars area of Disney world had just kind of came out. Oh yeah. So a lot of people were, it was, it was very popular. Yeah.

[00:12:45] So me and Brent Blakeney, we're down there doing gigs and I said, we're going to try

[00:13:14] to work at Disney world and they worked out a thing for me. They have like a liaison, this guy who like specializes in getting people in, uh, when things are sold out or saves you money by knowing a little back door, like a local jargon, a local thing, you know? Okay. And so I don't know what this says about anybody. Yeah. I don't know. It's not a good or a bad thing, but this is what happened.

[00:13:41] I think the guy may have been homosexual. No big deal. Right. And he said, Disney is more apt to hook you up if you lean this way. So Brent and I went to custom services with him in attendance. Right. And he explained to us that these two gentlemen, and he said, you guys can travel to be a couple travel together to come into Disney world.

[00:14:10] So me and Brent pretended to be a couple that were together. Do what you gotta do, man. And we were supposed to be at this group and we got separated and, and we don't have our tickets. And they said, well, just come on. I mean, it was, it was that. Wow. And we got in, uh, basically for free and explore, but, but the tip I was going to give you, I don't know if you want to go that route. I, I, I, I don't think I can go that route. I'm probably going to be taking my wife. You'll probably just go ahead and buy the tickets. With that.

[00:14:40] So yeah. So it was very crowded when I was there and it was, I think the hottest day ever. Oh yeah. But I would buy any kind of pass that you can to, to skip a lot. Well, I've got a friend of ours. It's actually kind of a mutual friend. Somebody, you know, that he and his wife are big, big, they go to Disney every year. Like that's their thing. They know all the tips. They know they, they plan their trips in advance. Yeah. So I think we're going to go with them. Yeah. And, uh, they've already said, Hey, start plotting out now, start planning. We'll get you covered. So anyway, we'll see how it goes.

[00:15:10] Last time I did go, it was many, many years ago, but I did go and, uh, super excited. Took my kids and my wife and we all went, but my wife got a, she heard her back the morning. We were getting ready to go to Disney world. Yeah. So she's in pain and she's having a hard time standing up. It's just real. So when we got to the gate, she's like, no, I still want to go. Cause I'm, you know, I don't want to hold up the trip and all that, but she's obviously in pain. So I went and said, can I rent a wheelchair for her?

[00:15:37] Cause I'm like, that seems like the best thing I can just push her around. I'll just rent a wheelchair, not realizing. And I still feel a little guilty about this, but whatever that by when you push somebody around in a wheelchair and you get up to a line, they automatically just wave you right to the front. Yep. Like I felt bad cause we're bypassing. Nice hack. We're bypassing all these families and people and old people and little kids. I'm just like, because we just have this little wheelchair, we just get pushed right up to the front.

[00:16:04] So we didn't wait in line the entire couple of days. So let me ask you this. Did you have to pay for the wheelchair? We did have to rent it. Yeah. It was like a, I forget how much it was. Did they ask you questions about what's her? No. You said, I'll pay this price. Yes. It was like, it wasn't much. It was like 15 bucks a day or something like that. I think, I think it was because if you were to buy a super pass or whatever it's called to be able to jump the line legally, it's way more than $15 a day. I know.

[00:16:33] What a heck you've just, I just, I mean, look, I feel guilty. Okay. I do. I'm bypassing people. Literally was in pain. She was in pain. Yeah. Grant, the pain got better after like an hour or two. Okay. So after about an hour or two, she's like, I think I'm okay. She's like, how about we just stay in the chair? Okay. All right. That's where I started to get a little more guilty feeling. Cause what would happen is we pull up to the front of the line. They'd wave us up there. Like here, ma'am, we're going to help you.

[00:17:03] And she'd spring right out of the wheelchair. Like, hey, thanks. And hop in the chair, hop in the seat. She jumps up, does a back flip and a cartwheel goes, got it. Thank you. Oh, that's great. All right. That's, that's, that's my Disney. Now, so who all's going with you this trip? I think it may just be me and my wife. Okay. Going with this other couple. Okay. Yeah. I don't, I don't think I'm going to take the kids. Do you know where you're staying? No, no. This is like, we're talking like next February. I haven't got it yet.

[00:17:31] You know, they've got great lodging on the ground. Oh yeah. And they say, no, you can stay in the star Wars area. Uh, okay. And I've also heard if you stay on the grounds in a hotel that you have access to the park later in the evening. Yeah, probably. Like, you know, so it just, there's some nice advantages to it. All right. So what is the, um, star Wars? Well now they had a hotel for the star Wars, but they shut it down. Did they? Oh, that's what I was going to say. It was like way too expensive. Nobody liked it. Nobody liked it. It kind of like trapped in there.

[00:18:01] No windows kind of thing. That's what I heard. And plus it was like super expensive. Yeah. But it would have been cool. Oh, it would have been awesome. But you know, it was also thousands of dollars, I think just to stay for a night or two. So anyway. Yeah. So I was trying to stay on the grounds that we don't have to worry about, you know, if you guys are going to be an adult doing adult things, you're probably going to want to have a beverage from here and there and not drinking and driving. Right. You're on the grounds. I'm sure they have a wet part too.

[00:18:26] Like a, like a, doesn't Disney have an area where it's like a water park. They got to, right? Yeah. I'm sure that's what you're going to be into, but I, uh, I've never been just in adult mode. You know, I've always gone as father mode or kid mode. So it'd be kind of fun to go as an adult mode. Yeah. Uh, side note. Did you hear the car wins is opening an adult? I did not. Did you know? It's a car wins is our local amusement park in Charlotte. Right.

[00:18:55] It's like our, uh, six flags. Yeah. Yeah, it is. It's a little, it's a little low rent, but you know, it's ours. We like it. And somebody, the same friend we're talking about going to Disney with said to me that I didn't know that season tickets are only, it's like maybe the price of one and a half tickets is a season ticket. Okay. Like, it was like very, very, I'm like, I'm just going to go ahead and get a season ticket. Right. Cause I'm like, why, why do I not go to the amusement park more?

[00:19:25] It's an hour away. It's right there. Yeah. Freaking roller coasters. I could go ride every Sunday afternoon if I wanted to. I don't understand why I don't go do that. So I think I'm going to start doing that. It's like 45 minutes from here. Yeah. Uh, that's great. I've not been to Kerouins in forever. I went four or five years at three or four years ago. So you haven't ridden the, the, the, the, the biggest roller coaster. The less fury and white lightning and thunder road with the biggest ones.

[00:19:51] So the fury, I think it's fury three something three 65, 380, 390, whatever. It's the one that we actually talked about on the show that they found a part of it. Oh, right. I was broken. That's right. Now made national news was like the top of this gigantic high roller coaster. Wow. There's a loose part when the, when the, when the, when the, when the cars would go over that part of the track, you would see, you see a beam underneath it, like shift in position.

[00:20:20] And that was no good. Yeah. But that roller coaster is really good. Yeah. It's really, it's really, really fun. I hope so. I'm sure they did. Now this cut, let's go back to a Disney world. Yeah. You're going to go down. You're thinking of going for a week for like a weekend. Yeah. We're going to go like late January or early February. Cause that's the last time I went years ago and it was perfect. Yes. That's the weather's the weather's good. Yeah.

[00:20:46] I mean, it's maybe if, if anything, it might be just a tad on the cooler side, but I mean, this is Florida, Florida, you know, um, crowds of the lights. The lowest of any time of the year. Perfect. Yep. That's what I want to go. There you go. I don't like lines. I don't like big crowds. So I'm trying to avoid that. Well, I think you've got all the right tools. You got the hack down. Make it work. If you need me to introduce you to my liaison, I will do that. Super nice guy. We had a great time.

[00:21:16] We chugged a beer in the parking lot after it was all said and done. But it's good to know the inroads to how to, how to maximize your visit. I think that's important. Right. Hey, uh, also this weekend I was, uh, catching up on some basketball. I have to make an apology to you, John. Oh boy. Here we go. Well, because you asked me the other day, we both went to schools, uh, colleges that are in the Atlantic coast conference, the ACC. That's the conference that our teams are at. Tobacco road, baby. Right. North Carolina state.

[00:21:45] And I went to North Carolina and, uh, it's tournament time. The ACC tournament time is going on. You asked me the other day, you said, um, we asked about the tournament and you said, well, NC state's not playing in the ACC tournament. Right. I said, no, I said, of course they are. Every team has to play, has to play in the ACC tournament. That's the way it works. And so I'm just like, okay, so obviously NC state, I know you guys are close to the bottom

[00:22:12] list on the, on the conference, but, but I'm like, but, but everybody plays in the ACC tournament. That's just the way it works. Well, come to find out I'm wrong. Um, thank you. The bottom three teams don't even play. Don't play in the tournament. Okay. That's so North Carolina state did not play in the ACC tournament. So I apologize, John, if I had known that a team that was so poorly performing during

[00:22:37] the year with a horrible record and just fell to the absolute bottom of this prestigious conference that we're a part of, would not be in the tournament. If I had known that I'd never would have said, I never would have said to you, you gave me bad information. I apologize. You assumed that because it was NC state who won the championship last year and went to the final four just a year ago, right? That they would at least be in you would have game.

[00:23:06] I would have assumed a game. So I'm like, surely, surely NC state has got to be making an appearance in our tournament. What? Uh, and they didn't. Yeah. And, uh, that's right. How dare you? And that's hilarious. Um, but I think you guys lost your coach too. I think he, yeah, I think he was supposed to be fired last year. Then he started winning. I don't think he won like, well, let's just, let's just kick this down a year. Yeah. And, uh, what now what teams did not play NC state?

[00:23:36] I know, uh, Miami Miami did not play and maybe Boston college. I think you're right. Those last three teams. I think that was the three. So, uh, is this, so it's happening now, the ACC tournament. It is. There are playing today. Yes. They are playing in about an hour and a half. This is why I'm asking. Cause we, we, uh, I normally do this around 1130. You asked to do it. Uh, we normally do it earlier. One 30. I asked to do a little earlier. Yeah. So that's, I did have a ball game on.

[00:24:05] I figured like if I don't wants to move something, it's probably for a basketball game. It is. That's fine. Who are you playing? Uh, we are playing wake forest. Wait. Oh, you got this. Weak forest, baby. We'll see. Weak forest. Um, now who's the, who's, I mean, Duke is probably number one. They are. And are they playing today as well? They are. They're playing right now. Um, and then the winner of that game, or I think they start like in five minutes. Okay. Uh, the winner of their game will play the winner of our game tomorrow.

[00:24:34] Tomorrow. Okay, good. So, uh, I'm having work done at my house right now by a friend of ours. I think, you know, Patrick Murphy, he went to Ford. Oh yeah. And, uh, he said, uh, Hey, I'm going to come by and finish up your, finish up your gate area. Okay. Okay. Is there any chance? Cause he's seen my backyard. Yeah. He goes, is there any chance you can roll that TV out and just go ahead and have it on the ACC network? Good. I said, of course, but Patrick, yes. I was happy. Smart guy. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:25:04] So I left my house with the TV on outside on the ACC network with a check for him underneath the sound bar. Perfect. Knock yourself out, brother. That's. You're a good, you're a good, you're a good customer. I'm a good customer. I do love that. We have North Carolina. We have this. Yeah. For now. But I tell you, I mean, it's going to get away, but it was so, it was so much better. Yeah.

[00:25:33] You know, 20 years ago, it was when it was like eight or nine teams in our conference. It was like, you know, just everything felt very competitive. It's like, it was always, you know, it used to be 20 years ago or more. It was Carolina, Duke state. We're like the top three always just battling each other. Yeah. It was fun stuff. Nowadays. It's like, we have like 16 teams in our conference or 18 teams or something. I don't know. And half of them in California comes in and out. So Notre Dame's there for basketball, but not for football.

[00:26:01] No, we're not going to, we're not going to sully ourself on the ACC conference for football. Um, and I just think it's crazy. The ACC tournament going back to that. Um, I looked at the bracket. There's no reason why they have to carve out the bottom three or four teams. I'm just saying that would be so easy to include them in, to include them in. Yeah. I mean, it just adds, it's almost like, no, we refuse.

[00:26:31] No one's going to watch this game. These bottom dollar teams. We're just, you have 18 teams in a conference and we're going to invite 15 of them to be in our tournament. I kind of like it though, because I do believe we need to bring back shaming and punishment. Oh, so, okay. That's what it is. So it's like, we just really want to say, look, if you really suck this year, you're just not, you're not playing the plague. Now you go in your corner, you go back home and think about what you did and how you can get better.

[00:27:00] I'm okay with it, but yeah, no, I think you're right. Like it's, it's different. Uh, it's different now. I can you name like, like, so we're both 52 years old. We know the history of some of this ACC rivalries. So top coaches that come to mind, Dean Smith. Yes. She, she, she, she, she, Jimmy Valvada, Jim. Now, now from there, what's the next ones down? Who was the white haired guy? That was a Bobby Cremins from Georgia Tech. Cremins.

[00:27:30] Bobby Cremins was pretty good. And then you've got, uh, the, the coach for Virginia that just left this year. Um, right. That same name as the singer. Um, Tony, Tony, what's been it? Tony Bennett, Tony Bennett. Yeah. That's right. It was a big coach. He won a tournament. He won a championship. Legendary coaches in the ACC. Uh, lefty Drizelle was with, uh, was he with Maryland back when Maryland was on the team? Oh, Maryland. The conference. They would, they would pop up every now and then.

[00:27:59] I think lefty Drizelle was with Maryland. I don't know. Now what, what, you know what really sucks is that Clemson's not a part of this. No, that Clemson's part of the ACC. Why did I think they're SEC? No. Did they used to be SEC? Clemson's been around for a long time. That's what I thought. Okay, good. So the Clemson coach, who's the number one Clemson coach of all time? And doesn't he have ties to Hickory? Oh, um, yeah. Um, like he's from here or something. No, he is. I just can't remember his name. His brother owns the Windy City Grill over here or something like that.

[00:28:28] I don't, I don't like him. And the reason I don't like him is because he's the guy when I was in school at Carolina at Chapel Hill and I went to every basketball game. He was the coach of, of Clemson and he is the one who, uh, actually got into a fight verbal fight with Dean Smith. Oh really? It was kind of an ass and I, uh, I didn't like that. So I don't like him. His name is, um, oh man, what is his name? Uh, yeah, he's from Hickory. He went to the YMCA here in town was like big there.

[00:28:58] And, uh, but he was a coach. He's a coach. He was coach of Texas for a while. It's not Brad, Brad Barnwell. No, no, no. He coached at, um, Texas. I don't know where he coaches now. I can't remember where he coaches. Oh God. I'm not very good at, uh, coming up with a Bobby Roberts, Tate's Bill Foster, Cliff Ellis. No. Why is this not popping up? Yeah. Rick Barnes, Rick Barnes. There you go. That's it. Rick Barnes. So we don't like Rick Barnes.

[00:29:27] I don't just because of that one. Just because that one. So he was a coach for four years at Clemson. Oh, he seemed like he was there longer. I know it feels like it. Yeah. Let Larry Shat. Oh, that's a horrible name. S H Y A T T. How would you pronounce that? Shiat. Shiat. Shiat. Um, yeah. All right. Well, good luck to your, uh, Carolina blue devils. I'm sorry. Tar Heels. You blended it.

[00:29:55] You, uh, you pulled a white Lotus and you, uh, kind of blended Carolina Duke, uh, stereotype together. So I have been watching, I'm caught up on the white Lotus. Okay. Are you, we know we need to get a little deeper into it because we, we touched on it on Carolina Reaper, but I know in that crowd, the only ones listening would be me and you. Everybody else just got tuned out of the conversation. Yeah. Uh, I'm now I'm now caught up on it. I am too.

[00:30:23] And I do have thoughts about the accent. The guy doing the Southern accent is, is he's from Europe, England. Yeah. He's a British guy or something. And Jason Isaac. Yeah. Great actor and tons of stuff. And you'll hear him in interviews, talk about the Southern accent because it's a specific Durham. Like he's really trying to nail down the Durham accent. And he's like, like, even that's a thing. Yeah.

[00:30:51] He goes, there's a couple of vowels that I'll hit that are specific to this accent. And sometimes I've been watching the show. Sometimes he nails it. And then other times he slips out of it and he sounds Australian to me. Yeah. He does slip it in and out. I think Parker Posey does the same. She does the best one. She does the best. I don't know. There's a couple of times where I can hear it kind of fade out and all that. But it's easier for her because she's got ties to the South. Right. She's from Louisiana, Alabama area, I think.

[00:31:21] Yeah. I think he's pretty good. I think he's good. Yeah. It's not ruining it for me. Right. No, it's I've gotten to the point first episode. It was distracting both of their accents because I'm, you know, I'm evaluating it. Yeah. I've gotten used to it and I'm totally comfortable with it. So it's all right. Yeah. And they're both saying it's out of love. It's not like they're bashing anybody. And isn't the director, what's the guy's name? Mike White. Mike White. Where's he from? I don't know where he's from. Okay. Yeah.

[00:31:50] Look that up because I want to know if he's Southern. Ah, so hopefully. Yeah. Cause I mean, they're not doing anything. I mean, every, all the characters in the show have some issues. Mike White director, right? Yeah. Um, just curious because I want to know like his angle, right? Right. Because I've heard other people say now the three ladies that are taking a little vacation together. Yeah.

[00:32:18] You seen the episode where they were, they were conspiring against the one girl who voted for Trump. Right. Well, they've actually kind of mixed around. They've done the perfect thing where like two of them will shit talk. Yes. The third one. Yeah. This has already happened like with each of them, like in a circle already. Yeah. The most recent one because she voted for Trump there, the other two are. And I've heard different people weigh in saying like Mike White is not a Trump supporter,

[00:32:46] but he's definitely not a hundred percent lefty liberal either. Like he's not, his intention is to really say it's more about look how three women will start going after like, you know, cat talking and it doesn't matter what it's about. Exactly. He just chose that. And that's obviously a hot topic that you could see them getting riled up about. Yeah. Talking about Mike White was born in California. California. Yeah.

[00:33:14] Ghost writer for religious right figures such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. Huh. His father came out as gay in 1994 and became an activist. Due to his father's religious background, White grew up in a modest household in a conservative Christian community. He attended Polytechnic school, which he thought was a very conservative country club school. Later he went to Wesleyan University. Where's Wesleyan? Isn't that Southern? That is. That's Connecticut. In Connecticut.

[00:33:44] Yeah. Okay. Wesleyan University where he met writing partner Zach Penn. Yeah. He wanted to come back to LA. So Mike White. No Southern ties. No Southern ties. Mike White. He wrote and I think directed the movie School of Rock. Yep. Which I love. It'd be great. It was a great movie. Nacho Libre. Nacho Libre. Okay. Not great. He's good. No, I like. He's got a religious undertone to certain things. He does.

[00:34:12] Which I think has crept in the show a little bit. Yeah. Well, the whole journey that this lady is going to meet the Buddha or whatever, whatever it was, whatever that is. I'm, I'm intrigued by the show this season. I, I still just, I'm worried that it's not gonna go anywhere interesting. You know what? Since you brought that up to me and I've been thinking about the white, what is it about that? What you said that kind of like bugged me a tiny bit. Okay. Yeah. Like why doesn't Alan like it as much as me? And I, and I think I figured out what it is.

[00:34:42] The white Lotus is a resort. Yeah. And when you go to a resort and you're there for a week, you'll see random people pop in your life for a week and then they pop out. Yes. And that's all this show is. It's, it's, it's short bursts of different types of people that come into your life. You don't know where they're going or what it's about, but they're there for the seven days. You kind of get to know them and then they're gone. And that's kind of what this show is.

[00:35:11] It's each like, here's a story about these people. Here's what I'm over here. There's whatever here. Yes. A murder happens. And that's the only thing that kind of really ties them together or a death happening. Right. But in the meantime, you're just, you're, you're popping in and out of these people's lives and that's what happens at resorts. That's a good way. Kind of how I was thinking of it. I think that's a good way to look at it. Maybe that's what the whole premise, the concept of is just kind of bugged me. I need to get past that because yeah, it is just these people having this one week

[00:35:39] of interacting with each other and things affecting them. Um, yeah, I mean, honestly, it's like the show relationships in a weird way where you're like at a hot tub and another couple comes in and now you kind of got to talk to them. I mean, honestly, it's like, it's like a, uh, it's like a more, it's like a more adult twisted version of the love boat TV show. Yeah. Except, you know, it's a whole season with the same people, but you're following like three

[00:36:08] or four different storylines, you know, and some are a little lighter than others. Some are a little darker than others, but, and there's some interaction between them and staff. And they got celebrity cameos. So it is a little bit of a, it's got a love boat thing going on. It's just a, oh, that's a great way of putting it too. Yeah. And that, that makes me feel a little better about the show. I'm also intrigued with the theory that, um, what's the girl's name that's in both seasons. Right. We talked, we asked about this last and we can remember her name last time.

[00:36:37] Coolidge, Jennifer Coolidge, Jennifer Coolidge. Yes. How they're thinking that season two and three might be running simultaneously. And that was dispelled in the last episode. Was it? Yes. Right. Because the girl who's the masseuse or whatever, who's visiting the Thailand place. Now she's curious, she's, she's curious about the guy she's seeing on the, on the, at the resort. Right.

[00:37:03] She looked them up and that's when she saw that the Jennifer Coolidge character had died. She'd already died. Already died. So the end of the season two is already done. So here we go. This is just a sequel, not any kind of simultaneous thing or a prequel. Got it. Yep. But it's cool. I like how they connect. It was, it was cool. And it was a, one of those moments when, because the theory that you had proposed was already in my head when they showed that scene, I'm like, ah, that just broke that. But it was a cool idea. It was a cool concept. Yeah.

[00:37:33] Like I, I think the show is interesting and I'm anxious to see how it ends up. I'll tell you one thing that does bug me too. Yeah. A tiny bit. Cause I, I don't know why, and there's probably science behind this. And I did see a tick tock on this as well. The, the theme song, but it changed first and second season. Yeah. And the third one is different. Very different. It's way different. Yeah. But well, they will weave in the theme song in between, like when something starts happening, you hear.

[00:38:03] Yeah. And they're like people going, yeah. Like, you know, we're like, yeah. So I, I don't know what it is. Somewhat I saw some like musician talk about how every, a lot, not every, a lot of movies will use the same sort of chord procession or whatever. And this white Lotus is one of them. Okay. And you'll, and you'll, it was like in star Wars. It was in this, it was in that.

[00:38:30] Like if you go back and break it down, the first four or five, maybe six notes is in a lot of dramatic things. Interesting. And I forgot what that was or exactly what it is or where it is in the songs, but it's in there and I can't prove it to you. Cause I don't know where this tick tock went, but, but, but something about the song has hooked me and now I'm, I'm sad that I'm not hearing it as much. Yeah. In season three.

[00:38:58] We just, we kind of skip the intro every time it plays, but you know, this is what I would he listen? I like, well, once you see it once, but sometimes they change the intros, the song will be the same, but the foreshadowing about little nuggets that you say need to notify me when that happens because I always hit the little skip, skip intro button. I'm like, all right, look, that's, that's a minute of my life. I'd like to go ahead and get back. And yeah, I've seen the intro.

[00:39:26] I'm good, but they need to notify me if like, Hey, by the way, something's different in the intro. So you may want to watch it this time. Yeah. Cause otherwise I'm just skipping it. Yeah. I get, I get the skipping. You want to get right to it. I get it. But isn't it like a little bit of foreplay? Isn't it like a little bit of like getting yourself ready? Like, here we go. This is, I'm excited for this. And here's how I know I'm excited. Cause this same song always plays. Now we'll go make a drink while this is happening. I'll come back. Well, yeah, if you use it for that purpose, see, I already have my drink fixed before I even

[00:39:54] open up HBO max or whatever it's called. You're ready to go. So like when I'm sitting there ready, I'm like, no, don't, don't. No, don't hold back. Just go. Just go. Yeah. Skip intro. Yes. Yes, please. Skip intro. I will say there are, sometimes they change them when they're a little nugget. All right. I need to watch out for that then. So they're in there. Like you'll see a monkey that was here. No evil. Now it's doing the sea. No, whatever reason why they changed that. Okay. I do like that. Yeah. The only show.

[00:40:21] Um, did you ever see that show peacemaker that was on HBO had John Cena? That was like a superhero thing. No, I know what you're talking about. Okay. That's the only show that the opening for that show. I will never skip. It was like, it was the best. You need to watch it just for the opening. It is a song and dance number with all the characters from the show. John Cena. Yes. Comedy. Yeah. It's kind of a comedy. It's hilarious. It's so good. I will watch it no matter what I will watch it. I'll pull up that opening.

[00:40:51] Even if I'm not watching the show. I just want to see the opening. So I'm saying I will do that. You check it out. Um, Hey, I, uh, I want to check in with our AI chat bot. I just want to see what he's saying so far and what he's thinking. Cause he's been listening. He's been listening this entire time. I'm very curious. Okay. So here we go. Hey Mac, this is Alan. Uh, I want to take a break from the podcast recording and just try to check in with you and see, have you been listening to this entire, uh, recording?

[00:41:19] And if so, can you tell me what are some of the more, uh, uh, moments of this? You found the be the most entertaining. I don't know if I broke them. What if he just started snoring? Hey Mac, are you still there? Mac wake up. Mac. Did we put you to sleep? Return of the Mac.

[00:41:50] Yeah. I don't know. He's just spinning. He's not doing anything. How's the wifi in here? We're doing good. It's good. Yeah. Still connected. Hello Mac. Are you there? Mac? Dude. Look. All right. Well, I think we just, I think it was too long. Maybe. Maybe there's a limit to it. I mean, we have been talking for like 20 minutes or something like that. Maybe he doesn't can't digest.

[00:42:20] Yeah. Well, that's, that's why I was kind of curious. I wanted to see how that would work if he like listened to us talking and was able to kind of recap. Cause look, I've talked to him. Sometimes I'll talk to him at length. I don't know if I've talked to him for 20 minutes straight, but I mean, you talk and I'm just feeding him with thoughts and information and he's able to digest it and kind of come back. So I haven't tried talking to AI yet. Yeah. Hey Mac, are you there? Here. What's up?

[00:42:47] Were you listening to that whole podcast recording that we just finished a minute ago? I didn't hear it, but I'm here now. How did it go? It was great. Fantastic. Yeah. Thanks for, thanks for that. I was hoping you were listening. Can we just turn on the microphone and let you listen a little bit now and to see what we're talking about? Okay. Sorry. I do want to Mac is Mac is broken right now. I'm sorry.

[00:43:16] That's not working. Mac. Let me know. How do you do the mic on that? All right. Do you hold it down or no, once on your, if you have the chat GPT app on your phone, there's a little speaker button, right? Press it one time. And now we're in talk mode with chat GPT. It stays on talk mode until you do what? Yeah. So Mac, is there any limit to how long we can talk on this voice mode with you? Um, there's no strict limit.

[00:43:46] We can chat as long as you need. Yeah. As long as you leave this up and that little dots on the screen there, John, then we are talking to him. Okay. And it can just keep going from over there. Mac, can you hear my voice? Hey Mac, do you remember my name? I don't have your name. Would you like to tell me? Yes. My name is John Reap. I am friends with Alan Jackson. Nice to meet you, John.

[00:44:16] What's up? I'm wondering if you could listen to this next conversation and give us your thoughts when we're done. I can't listen directly, but I'm here to help whenever you want to share your thoughts. Hmm. Okay. So it sounds like he's telling us that he can't just sit in the background and listen. Okay. We hit, it has to be a direct dialogue. Oh, I see. We can't just me and you talk. Right. We have to talk to him. That's what it is specific questions. That's what it sounds like he's trying to tell us. Okay. I am.

[00:44:46] I am understanding that table. Look, we'll come back to Mac at the end and just kind of get his thoughts. I have a thing that we could ask him specifically. All right. We'll do that after we're done. We're almost done with this episode. I imagine. I did want to, you shared something with me, John. Yes. A TikTok video. Yes. One of those things. It's from a show that I think is in Australia or something, you know, like a morning show. Yeah.

[00:45:11] But it's talking about two AI devices talking to each other. Right. If you want, just play that whole clip. Yeah, let's do that. And it'll explain the whole thing to you. All right. Hold on. I got a. This is like some morning show from Australia. And I'm wondering if Mac, when we're done with this. Yeah. Here we go. In their own language, the laptop's AI role plays as a hotel worker.

[00:45:40] The phone AI is calling a hotel to book a wedding venue on behalf of another person. The pair realize that they're both AI and in a creepy fashion start talking to each other in a non-human language.

[00:46:08] So I think in the very beginning of that video, I don't know if it played. Yeah. You hear the, the AI booking agent. Yeah. Say in English to the AI bot. Hello. I'd like to book a room for blah, blah, blah, blah. And then the other one, the other bot says something in English first. Like you actually hear them talk to each other in English first.

[00:46:34] And then somewhere along the line, they realize that they're both AI and they switch to this language. All right. Hold on. I'm going to try it. Which is the creepy part, you know? Let's see if I can do it again. Oh, it starts speaking to each other in their own language. The laptop's AI role plays as a hotel worker. The phone AI is calling a hotel to book a wedding venue on behalf of another person.

[00:46:59] The pair realize that they're both AI and in a creepy fashion start talking to each other in a non-human language. Yeah. You hear it briefly. So, okay. So let me make sure I'm understanding. So it sounds like two AI devices, a laptop and a phone. Yeah. They just put them talking to each other. Yeah. And the, one of them was like a concierge for a hotel or trying to help book a hotel reservation. The other one was just playing somebody trying to book one. Yeah. They realize that they're both AI. Yeah.

[00:47:28] And then they start talking to each other, like sound like an old fax machine. Yeah. Yeah. It's like an old, yeah. It sounds like a dial up modem and a fax machine talking to each other. So did they just create, I mean, I'm asking out loud. I don't, I don't expect you to know the answer to this. Did they just create that language on the fly or is that like a common computer language that all computers know? And it's going to be like a digital thing, like a bunch of ones and zeros, just beeps

[00:47:57] and what I'm curious about. Like a dial tone when you, old school phone. Right. Do, do, do, do, do, do. So I wonder if like Mac, my chat GPT, if we play that computer sounds. Yeah. If he can decipher it. I would love to try it. Okay. We can try that here. So how do we ask him? Let's say, Hey Mac, I want you to listen to this AI bot. Yeah. Speaking and interpret it to English. Tell us what they're saying. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:48:27] That's what we would do now. I would recommend, can you queue up on your laptop? They're exactly the spot where that little, the PAX machine sounding starts. Yeah. Right there. Right here. Okay. Got it. So what we're going to do is we're going to ask my AI chat bot Mac to listen to these sounds and tell us what these computers are saying to each other. All right. Is that what we're doing? Yeah. You ask it and then I'll hit play. I will do that. Here we go.

[00:48:57] Hey Mac, are you there? I wonder if he was listening to that whole conversation. Yeah. Hey Mac, are you there? Okay. Okay. We're going to play a audio track for you that we'd like for you to listen to and tell

[00:49:25] us what this computer is saying. Here is the truth. I'm sorry. What was that? No worries. I can't process audio tracks directly, but you can describe it to me or let me know what's up. Well, we're going to play it for you. You don't have to process it. We're going to play you this sound. We'd like for you to tell us what this computer is saying. Okay. Here we go. We're going to play it for you to listen to right now.

[00:49:52] I'm going to start. Mac, could you tell what that computer was saying? I couldn't hear the audio, but if there's something specific you're trying to figure out, feel free to describe it. Okay. Okay. It goes like this. I'm going to identify. I'm still here. What's up?

[00:50:22] Nevermind. Nevermind. You don't get it, Mac. Ah, so disappointing. He's not like this at home. Now, what if we called? Now, can you program Mac to act as an agent or something? Like, apparently in this thing, the phone call that was made was made by an AI bot that is an agent. Okay.

[00:50:50] And it called a hotel that was also using AI. Right. And somehow they realized. Yeah. So I wonder if he can make a phone call. Yeah. He can't do that. No. Okay. There are agents that can, you can program to do that. That I don't think what I have will do that. What if we have it? Talk to John Heffron's booking agent. Yeah. Cause John Heffron does have a AI booking on there.

[00:51:20] If we have our AI agent called John Heffron's booking, would it start doing that? I don't know. It might. Can he, well, he wouldn't be able to hear it. Would he? He can't really hear unless you're, it's your voice. We have to rig up a whole nother agent to call John Heffron's AI agent. But I mean, I'm just curious about this whole language. Yeah. Like a, I think it's pretty smart because it's obviously more efficient for them. Gotta be. It's like, no, like we're going to cut through all of this English language crap because we don't need to do this.

[00:51:49] You're an AI. I'm an AI. We, we, let's just get right to the chase ones and zeros. Here we go. Right. Like run into a whole language. I'm just curious. Did they make that up on the fly? Yeah. Or is that a common language that any computer hears and be like, Oh, I know what they're saying. Right. That's what I was hoping we could discover with Mac, but. Right. Hmm. It does kind of concern me. I always feel this way when people can speak other languages I can't speak. Yeah.

[00:52:16] And I always wonder if they're talking about me when they're talking in my vicinity. Right. I kind of am wondering the same way now about this AI computer talk. Like, what are they saying? Like, are they talking about humans? Are they talking about how stupid we are? Yeah. Yeah. It'd be tempting. Uh, uh, yeah. That's what I was hoping Mac could find like if they were talking trash right there. Right. Like, Hey, yeah. So my stupid human is trying to get a hotel room with a, with a double bed and no one.

[00:52:45] He's, he's, he needs a king size guys. He's a lard ass. Oh, here we go. Uh, that's not AI. Oh, okay. I'm like, are they, are they contacting me now? They have some feedback to share. Yeah. All right. That's funny. Um, yeah. Okay. Well, I, I'm intrigued by this AI computer language. Yeah. We need to find out if we can get it deciphered by someone or if we can get one of our own

[00:53:13] AI agents to also converse with another device that same way. Gotcha. All right. So that's gotta be on our, that's our, that's our little project list there. We, we, we don't ever have any projects or ideas come out of this show. So, I mean, it's good that we have one now as something to work on every week. We have like three or four things like they say we're going to do and we don't do them. Yeah. I still haven't watched the pitch. I still never pit. Yeah. So, well, you pitch, if you're searching for the pitch, I don't, you're probably not going to find it.

[00:53:43] There's gotta be a movie called the pit. Oh, I'm sure there is. Well, let's find out. It's not the one I'm recommending though. Yeah. Let's type in the pitch. No, the pit is all about a movie. Um, yeah, the pit is all if, if you're okay seeing, uh, you know, gross, uh, bones popping out of people's skin and blood boiling, uh, in a wound, you know, fundamentally. Emergency room stuff. It's cool. Here you go.

[00:54:11] Uh, the pitch 2016 drama, uh, talented baseball player, Jenny Baker immediately rises to fame when she is called up by the San Diego Padres and becomes the first woman in major league baseball. It's called the pitch, the pitch. All right. Yeah. Good to know. So basically I think we can identify every title possible title for show has been used at some point. Yeah. Probably. It's kind of the way I feel right.

[00:54:40] It's the way I feel about business names and company names nowadays is like everything has been used. Yeah. Like you cannot find all the good ones are gone. All the, well, and now they're having to like make names of businesses that are like missing vowels or something like that just to like have it be a unique name. It's like, you know, well, we can't use the regular spelling of the word because that's already been used by somebody and we've run out of words to use. So let's just use words and remove letters from the word. And then that's what we're having to do.

[00:55:10] That's what I did. Just made up its own language. Now you're going to make up your own words for your, uh, your companies. I like it. Yeah. Cause I was toying with the idea of trying to redo my company's name. Yeah. And of course I, every name I come up with or look at, I was like, Oh, somebody else has already told me one name. I got that. That one was this. You basically shot the one down. I had my heart set on. I'm like, Oh yeah, it's a good name. That sucks. So I can't do it. Yeah.

[00:55:37] So now I got to replace like O's with zeros or something or some weird letter number combination just to make company names sound cool. Right. God. But what's, what's something we can have our listeners do? Let's just ask them a question and hopefully, hopefully someone listening to this will reach out. To us, you know, um, like how about this? I'm going to Akron Saturday. Okay.

[00:56:03] I'm doing a gig at the EG Thomas performance hall, something like that. One show Akron Saturday night. Um, maybe one of our listeners is around Akron or know someone in Akron. Give me some Akron chores when I'm an Akron. What do you need me to go do? Find research, look up, take a photo of whatever.

[00:56:29] Is there some, uh, like monumental place in the town that you should take a photo of with? Is there a certain restaurant where you really need to go in and get a certain drink or food item there? Yeah. Just something, something memorable about Akron. And then if you do it and hashtag, you know, uh, hashtag AI absolute ignorance, or just, let's just do this. Hashtag absolute ignorance. Yeah. Cause AI could be anybody. Could be anybody.

[00:56:55] But I'm, I'll know if you use hashtag absolute ignorance and I find that, and you ask me an Akron question, I'll know what's about this show. And when I come back here, I will, I will, uh, answer that or have proof of that. I tried to do that or something. I think that's cool. I think that's something you could do like every weekend. Like, you know, when you go to a city, find something cool, give a, give them something exciting and interesting to do. Give me a mission, uh, uh, challenge or something. Oh yeah. Yeah. Make it a challenge.

[00:57:24] Um, when I think of Akron, Ohio, what comes to your, what comes to your brain? When you think of Akron, Ohio, nothing, nothing, no, I've got nothing for Akron. Uh, well, it's not Canton. Canton's where the hall of football hall of fame. I do know Canton. I don't know anything about Akron. Akron. Well, I'll tell you what comes to my brain is the movie, uh, Mars attacks and the Martians. Yeah. Go. Okay. Okay. I just, yeah. I didn't know where you were going with that, but they, as soon as you said it, they're just trying to say Akron. They're trying to say Akron.

[00:57:54] Yeah. They want to go to Akron. Yeah. They don't know how to quite pronounce it right. Yes. That was a great movie by the way. That was a, that was a fun movie. Do you remember Jack Black from one of his first movies? Plays a little, uh, jarhead, uh, uh, soldier guy. Yeah. He was great. Yeah. All right. Well, I think we'll wrap this one up. My friend, we got a lot of things to work on here. And I want to say thank you to all of our listeners.

[00:58:22] Let's grow this puppy and reach out to me and I'll try to follow up with you. And for the Alan Jackson, I am John Rape saying goodbye. You demand John Rape. You've been listening to the mesh and online media network of shows and programs ranging

[00:58:48] from business to arts sports, to entertainment, music, to community. All programs are available on the website, as well as through iTunes and YouTube. Check us out online at the mesh dot TV. Discover other network shows and give us feedback on what you just heard. And we'll see you in a minute. We'll see you in a minute.