Join us on Now We Consume. Take in the knowledge.
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Why suffer through the existential crisis of
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I. For immature audiences only. If you've ever
dreamed of living in a megacity like in the Judge
Dredd comics, this is the show for you. Welcome
to the Now We Consume podcast. I'm your host,
Pip. Here as always with my co -host is Gibbs.
I am internally screaming. When are you not when
I'm around? Usually it's for fear. Right now
it's just because of existence. That's the usual
difference right now. The daily existential crisis
of existence. continues to grind and that's why
we're here yeah unfortunately it sounds more
like rip and tear at this point the rip and the
tear exactly oh I hope you know that reference
hedonism to the resort the rip and the tear oh
yes so I hope everybody had a good 4th of July
weekend hope everybody's coming back with all
All digits intact and hearing with no extra tinnitus.
Freedom rings 24 -7 when you're a combat veteran.
Fuck yeah. I've never heard that. I don't know
how the hell I've never heard that. That's fucking
hilarious. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. It was a good
weekend. Did you get out and get some sun? You
look a little redder than usual. It's not blood
pressure related. Well, it's been both but no
it was good and had some fun honestly got away
for the weekend and just kind of Kind of uh,
you know, you know spend a little bit of time
just relaxing taking Honestly, just want to get
away from the city. That was my big thing Just
wanted to be out the middle of nowhere hang out
with the girl and just just relax, you know enjoy
some good food a little bit of traveling and
just You know be at peace for a little bit Until
I came back here and then I'm being bullied.
So that's a whole different thing. That's what
we do around here. Exactly. But no, I had a fun
time celebrating. How should I say? England taking
a big fat L on that one. So thank you guys. I
appreciate your participation trophy, but you
also get a loser's trophy. So this is why we
don't listen to the opinions of England. Because
you're losers. Yeah, I hope England enjoyed that
day of work on Friday. Oh, yeah. Holy fuck nuts.
Good. Yeah. God, the thunder. Sorry. Oh. I'm
sorry. That thunder kind of came out of nowhere.
It's been storming. So I hope the podcast. I
hope I don't lose power tonight because holy
shit. oh god well you know that'll be a fun one
to experiment with so tonight's episode cities
of the future uh we had teased about this in
last week's episode and uh we've we've actually
mentioned this in a few prior episodes and we
wanted to do a whole episode dedicated to this
topic because it's something that we've actually
talked about a few times uh Just amongst ourselves,
taking the concept of shrinking down the living
space and condensing people into a smaller area,
making it efficient, and trying to min -max the
space. Like I said in the intro, the Judge Dredd
comics showed the concept of the megacity. Many
years ago, I had a concept. of taking warehouses
and converting those into smaller versions of
the mega cities and putting, you know, retail
and commercial space in the lower levels and
residential space above because warehouses can
get pretty fucking huge and you could get a lot
of apartments into that kind of a space. You
put solar up on top, recycled water systems,
irrigation, you can grow food. I mean, it's not
going to be totally self -sufficient, but it
would. cut down a fair amount on the amount of
external input that you would need to run it.
And a lot of people, maybe not everybody, but
a lot of people that live there could also work
there. So again, you're minimizing the outflow
of traffic from that footprint of a building.
So you expand on that and you take it to a citywide
concept and you start putting multiples of these
miniature cities and buildings. all around a
city block a city mile and expand it it's what
they were trying to do with the line over in
where was that saudi arabia yes yes uh which
the line was supposed to be this 100 kilometer
or 500 kilometer it's down to like five miles
or some bullshit now that they're maybe trying
to build in the desert and it's it's a failed
project It's going to be a luxury idea. It's
really what that's going to be. Yes. It's going
to be a little Dubai in Saudi Arabia. Yeah, exactly.
Yes. One of the things that, because we've been
discussing this for a while and we've had our
own ideas and other things, there is an inherent
problem with the way we built cities. And I think
it's because we did not understand the rate of
growth. and the influx of immigration and everything
else that we would have in many of these major
cities, where because these cities are so segmented,
meaning designated separate zones for industry,
commercial, residential, the inherent problem
you always have is everything is so separated
that it is difficult to handle logistics, and
it always creates an unnecessary amount of traffic.
because they were never designed really with
vehicles in mind up until recently and even then
look at some of the cities that are designed
even more recently they still suck yeah all of
them are terrible yeah uh the east coast cities
you can really see that in literally anything
east of the mississippi the traffic is horrendous
and the bigger the city the more east coast you
get that's just more prevalent uh cities like
new york boston uh philadelphia those cities
were not properly configured with modern traffic
flows in mind. And they're a nightmare to have
to drive around. And you're talking about, they
were considered cities back when they had a couple
hundred thousand people. Now when you have multiple
millions that have to get in and out every day,
it's a nightmare. Right. So I do understand why
there's a big movement for these new city concepts.
And I understand why there's a lot of people
in different groups that are trying to find ways.
To make it more efficient. Yeah. But as you'll
see, it's one thing to go from useful ideas to
taking away your rights and other options and
other things. There's this weird fine line that
we're going to be discussing tonight here that
I think people are going to need to be aware
of. And you can even see it happening in some
of your local cities. So some of the stuff that
we're talking about, you might be vaguely familiar
with. Yeah. And this whole concept originally
started with the high -rise buildings. They were
intended to be you live here, you work here,
or you work within walking distance. But as populations
increased, the living space needed to be more
and the working space in and within walking distance
of those buildings needed to be less. So as the
car became more popular, the idea of walking
to work was less popular. That's why most people
commute now. You'll see this weird overlap and
you can even look at it. Boston is a really great
example for this. I happen to be near it. So
I kind of know the housing prices in Boston versus
outside the city. Yes, there were a difference,
but you weren't talking three or four times the
price of a 10 times the price per square foot.
You were talking 30 to 50 % increase because
they were near the city. But back then you could
still afford to work in the city and live in
or near the city because that was back before
there were massive traffic changes. Now, because
of commute times, because of the availability
for commercial space and industrial space, nowadays
in every single metropolis or megacity I can
think of, that residential space is at such a
premium that now per square foot you're talking
three times, five times, sometimes even ten times
the cost in some areas, which is insane for the
same square footage, not to mention you have
to factor in things like parking. or being able
to even get a car, because for a lot of those
cities, you still need a vehicle, whereas something
like maybe out west, not as much. Like, because
I know Boston really well, you can get around
without a car, but there's a lot of areas of
Boston that you can't necessarily get to, or
it's going to be hours. So it's this weird problem
of, with a lot of, especially, you're right,
east coast cities, of because of the traffic,
it has risen the prices exorbitantly. of any
residential whether it be high rises or any property
of any sort condos renting anything to where
now that housing has become a far bigger issue
than what it even used to be 20 years ago yeah
because they're trying to beat the commute because
now the commute is way longer than just using
the poor you know public transport that's in
the area right and that's been you know falling
apart for for decades as well so that's It boggles
my mind, and I hate using that word, but it really
noodles my casserole that the remote work concept
is as frowned upon as it is. The amount of office
jobs that could be done remote, we saw during
COVID that that works. I can tell you from someone
that I know, the thing that I found out, which
was interesting, was so many companies. use the
write -offs and losses on property in the taxes
for the company that it literally they save more
money by paying people extra to work in the office
and then do the tax write -offs for the building
and everything else and they would save by just
not having those and paying people less which
is insane. But if you're a multi -billion dollar
company, like let's just say Intel or some big
insurance company like Progressive or Geico or
something like that or whatever, any one of those
big names you can think of, any one of the top
500s, they have thousands of people. They have
thousands of people they hire specifically to
figure out what is the best way to save us the
most money. And unfortunately, good and bad news,
but they can write off a lot on depreciation
and losses. So it's one of those things where
let's just say if they can write off a few million
dollars, if not tens of millions of dollars on
property loss, if they can pay you an extra $5
,000, $10 ,000 a year to do it, and there's just
100 people that work there, I hate to say it,
but the math works out because they're still
keeping a leverageable asset. Yeah. Because that's
the other thing. A lot of these companies, they
can't leverage their intellectual property for
loans, but they can. But see, that takes us back
to the initial concept. that building space then
could become a living space. They would be better
off having, and I agree with your assessment
100%, of more multi -use spaces where the idea
is it could be half residential, half commercial,
and then offer those apartments to people that
work in the company, work out a deal, figure
it out. All of a sudden now, there's way less
of a demand on public transport. Or transport
of any kind at all. Because you just go down
a set of stairs. Like, oh no, long commute to
work. It took me 97 steps. Like, poof, whatever
will I do? But I think your idea of the multi
-use... Sorry I was late for work. I tripped
down the stairs. And it's one of these problems
that's a little bit more uniquely American because
of our cities and because of our lifestyle and
everything else that's going on. But it is something
that's definitely solvable. It just depends on
how we want to solve that. And there's a few
different avenues I think we could do. I do think
maybe the way we should do it with your multi
-use purpose space idea is maybe make it so that
you can write off a significant percentage of
taxes multiplied by the amount of multi -use
space that you're using. So the idea is if you're,
let's just say, Intel and you buy a big building
and you have a third of it be industrial and
a third of it... be residential all of a sudden
now hey maybe you can write off 66 of the taxes
on that building maybe you incentivize efficiency
possibly but it would have to be occupied and
used and not just sitting empty oh of course
they'd have to be like usage uh minimums for
all of that yeah but at least if they did relocated
some of that imagine the idea of let's just say
you worked at Some company that they had a bunch
of boxes, like you run, because I know this industry,
you run like a kitchen company. We rebuild kitchens
and everything like that. You do that for restaurants.
You have all your inventory down the basement,
down the lower floors, and you have your commercial
stuff on the mid floor and your residential up
top. All of a sudden now it's like, hey, the
people that work here, we have everything in
this one building. Everything we need, all of
our trucks, all of our everything. And that way
people can save money and also be more flexible.
Because I also don't think people realize, but
like all that commuting time. I think there's
a lot of people that'd be willing to split the
difference to be at work and be home. Like the
amount of people I know that drive an hour to
work every day or at least 45 minutes. Oh yeah.
What's the average commute time now? It's like
an hour. Almost. It was getting close to an hour.
Last time I looked, I last time I looked, it
was like 48 or 50 minutes. Yeah. But that was
like six months ago, I think. And that's every
day each way. Yeah. So if, if you got that kind
of time back in your life, I mean like I, I have
a very good friend who just got, that kind of
time back in their life because they moved for
their job. And now they got back like an hour
and a half a day. Oh, and like the life change
that that can give you. It's insane. So you're
talking an extra 50 hours a month. Yeah. If it's
an hour and a half, like imagine that, that,
that, that is almost work week at a, at a, at
a day. Yeah. And then some, depending on your
schedule. I think there's something that a lot
of corporations don't realize that travel time
has become such a nuisance. Oh yeah. Community
has become such an issue that I know there's
a lot of people that would say, Hey, I'd be willing
to work an extra hour a day. If that means I
could live above where I work and just go home
like five o 'clock, I clock out and I'm home.
Yeah. However, And I know we're going to talk
a little bit more about this a little bit later,
but that brings into question the issue of homeownership
and renting, leasing from your living space from
the company you work at. Because what happens
if the company goes under? What happens if they
sell out? I will quote the World Economic Forum.
You will owe nothing and be happy about it. Yep,
that is the eventual future we are moving towards.
I do not want. I don't want it either, but I
think they are definitely pushing, and I say
they meaning, unfortunately, some of the wealthy
billionaires that are all interconnected, that
they foresee a future for the world on their
terms. The shadowy cabal that secretly tries
to run the world. Yes. Their heads are shaped
like Doritos. Probably. You never know at this
point. It's all the Bohemian Grove types, should
I say. But there was a famous video about some
of the guys from the World Economic Forum saying
that in the future, the city of 2035, 2040, the
average person will own nothing. They'll be happy.
They will rent everything. Everything will be
a subscription. Everything will be a rental.
You will never gain a leverageable asset. This
is where I think, unfortunately, we are heading
at some point. We're going to talk more about
the different options with some of the city stuff,
but this I did want to cover really quick. I
think there's a lot of cities who are going in
the direction of there's no way to buy real estate.
There's no way to buy commercial property. Everything
you will have, eventually, there are some cities
now where you can even own a car or they don't
want you to own a car. Do you think that's been
the plan with the retail housing market? Drive
the prices up so high that no one has the option
to buy, so they just have to rent or lease them
from these companies. Maybe that's why these
companies have been buying these houses up at
the rate they have been. They don't want you
to buy them. They want to buy them so you can
rent them from them. They will take the short
-term loss to have the long -term gain of owning
all of the rentable property. Because here becomes
the problem down the road. What happens is, let's
just say... Black Rock, Vanguard, State Street,
all of them. What if they own 20 % of all the
houses in an area? Well, congratulations. They
can now set the rental price. They can control
who gets mortgages because they're also the banks
that you're pulling the money from. People don't
understand. The same people who are trying to
borrow money to buy a house, to then rent it
out, they're the same people getting the money
from and trying to out -rent. They're always
going to beat you. Why? Because, oh, their loans
have 0%. you're always going to have to charge
more on the rent than they will. You will never
get ahead. They might even own, you know, they
might even, in the case of some towns, they might
even give the town a bunch of money so they get
special privileges for their land so they don't
have to pay taxes or doing other stuff. So I've
seen it happen. It's very unfortunate, but I
do think it is part of the long -term plan is
if Americans can't own their own land, you cannot
retire. You can't. There is no future. You do
not have a leverageable asset. Just think about
any car that you buy now. They all depreciate
in value. Everything's a depreciating asset.
The minute you drive off the lot, you lose 15%.
Yeah. And for most Americans, that's going to
become their big purchase. It's like I've been
saying this for a while. Do you know in Sweden,
less than half of anybody in Sweden owns their
own house? Wow. Yes. The majority rent. Now,
I'm not saying that is a bad thing, but what
I'm saying is in that country, they also de -incentivize
having cars. They have a 100 % tax on vehicles.
100 % tax? Last time I looked, it was about 100
% tax. So the idea for them is you don't need
a car. We have public transport. But if you want
it, you've got to pay extra. They do not incentivize
you owning a home. But if you want it, you're
going to have to pony up and pay extra. I think
it's going to be the case of they're going to
look at the idea of homeownership as a luxury.
They're going to look at the idea of you owning
your own space, even commercially, if you're
a restaurant or any other business, that's a
luxury. That's not necessarily a right or not
necessarily something that should be afforded
to you. So it's going to be crazy because how
do you start a business? Most people, what do
they do? They leverage their house as an asset.
If you can't leverage a house. You can't start
a business, and especially with the rules and
regulations, everything is stacked against you
if you cannot gain equity in a house. You can't
do anything. That's insane. So that's just my
little few cents. But yes, so on to smart cities,
or really the future of cities. Um, there have
been a lot of cases or a lot of, um, not cases,
I would say, but there've been a lot of discussions
about politicians, um, trying to make plans for
future cities, smart cities, the idea of establishing
it from the ground up to try and make it as you're
talking about more efficient, um, to be way less
wasteful, you know, to which, okay. Without sounding
like a tree hugger, that is a smart thing to
do. Oh, no, I agree. A hundred percent min max
and maximize. Your use of resources in both planning,
designing, building, constructing, and use of
space. That's the smartest way to go about it.
The most cost -effective way to go about it.
Absolutely. That's what they should do for, I
think, almost any living space, to be honest
with you. Because of the premium that we have
for real estate and for space, we really should
be focusing on efficiency for a while. Especially
when you have a lot of people, I think, now with
the housing market. These houses are going to
become generational houses. I think we're going
to be going a lot of the way kind of like Europe
and Japan where you see several generations living
in the same house for extended periods of time.
So we need to start thinking about, hey, maybe
these houses are going to be made to last several
hundred years. Maybe they need to be built to
be serviced, to be repaired. Not just a house
that you throw up and then 50 years down the
road when it looks like a piece of shit, you
bulldoze it and rebuild it. You know, you can
no longer just buy a house in a Sears catalog.
So... Especially all the regulations everything
else you have to go through and really the amount
of knowledge you have to have nowadays It's not
like how it used to be where you just kind of
you know assemble a house together hook up some
plumbing Plugging the electrical and call it
a day now. It is way way way more complex and
skilled so Because of that we should be looking
to extend the life the useful life of these houses,
and we're not That's the other problem is we
still in America. It's weird. We have really
high standards for some stuff But then, like,
our foundations are shit. Our roofs are crap.
They're leaking everywhere. And they're the most
important parts of the fucking house. The literal
top and bottom that the house depends on. Yep.
You know what's crazy? I like in England, they
still use slate. And you know what's crazy? Slate
is awesome. Some of the places warranty them
for like 50 years. Some places even 100. In America.
You try to hire a roofing company now, they're
like out of five years, maybe 10. And half the
people working on it don't know what the fuck
they're doing anyway. I hate to say that, but
like. No, well, that goes back to the whole education
episode. And what's nuts is it seems like other
countries have found ways of using natural resources.
to make their homes not only well insulated,
but also waterproof. Like, have you ever seen
the thatched homes in England? Dude, they just
have to redo them every 20, 30 years. But the
stuff grows. They're using plants to do the roof
of the house, and it works. Like, how the hell?
We have all this land to grow, all the food and
crops and everything else, and we can't just,
like, do that? Are you kidding me? No. It's insane.
Yeah. Or at least have it as an option. I guess
that's my big thing. You know, we have a lot
of new construction techniques that have been
proven in the field. They need to be more available.
Things like 3D printing of houses. I really want
to see that become more available. Even if it's
not a fully 3D printed house. Do parts of the
interior as a 3D printed. portion and then do
the exterior as or vice versa 3d print the exterior
and build the interior normal i mean start combining
this shit there's got to be a way that you can
use 3d printing in a way in which you can put
all the channels all the raceways all the everything
for all of your electrical and plumbing they
do that have it so but that's not like mainstream
that should be something that's already like
like literally pre -done So everything you do
has its own little block, its own little area.
That way it's easy to service it. It's easy to
get to it. You also know where it is. You just
follow. Hey, look, the blue, you know, 3D printed
block holds the plumbing line in it for the main
water line. So all you do is follow that and
that's where that goes. And hey, look, here's
the main raceway for all the electrical for the
second floor or first floor or whatever. And
you look inside and all the wires have their
own neat little notch and they're all color coded
and it's labeled and everything. If you pre -make
this stuff, it makes it so it's really simple
because our biggest problem in America is servicing
or repairing homes. They say it's standardized,
but let's be real. Every house is their own.
Granted, I'm going to be biased on this topic
because I have one of the worst situations I
have to deal with with this house. But that being
said, how have we not figured out how to do this
more efficiently by now? This should be at least
something that's relatively simple. And I agree
with you. If you can do a full 3D printed house
or just even the room design, that'd be awesome.
Because you already know. You have the little
pop -out thing. So you put the electrical receptacles
here and there. You have the molding there. You
have this and that. You can even have built -in
storage and walls and everything. You just pop
out or move. It makes it so those tolerances
can be very simple. Two things. I'm just going
to kind of like brain shit this out. Boxable.
and yes the dnd snap together tiles why not do
something like that where you've got whole rooms
that are just like pre -done that are just ordered
as the house is designed like okay i want these
modules with these two modules and this other
giant module and that's what's ordered and brought
to site and put together everything is pre -made
at the factory because boxable makes those whole
houses and that's what's deployed And then it's
just assembled on site. It'd be more like a mobile
home. It'd be more like a prebuilt home that's
just, you know, erected and raised on the site.
And then you put a roof on it on a foundation.
We have the fucking technology to do that shit.
Why are we not? Oh, let me guess. Codes and money.
Because someone can't design the permit process
to be profitable. And that's that's one of my
biggest issues, I think, is. One, the permitting
process is different in almost every county,
almost every town, every city. They have to stick
their nose in it for whatever reason. Number
two, there needs to be a focus on the ease of
maintenance and the ease of repair. Because one
of the other problems we see is a lot of the
stuff in our houses are built to basically, it's
for the life cycle of whatever it is, and then
it's done. And the problem is, for a lot of things,
you have to rip up entire floors to redo plumbing,
to rip out all the walls to redo electrical,
or God forbid there's an insulation problem you
have to redo. There's got to be a way. And I
do feel like with 3D printing technology, that
is one of the options, as well as being able
to prefab and premake things at a point to where
it should just be able to be plug and play, or
at least that as an option. And I know there's
a couple of companies like Boxable you mentioned.
There's a few other ones as well. That are kind
of mobile home kind of companies that they do
make, you know, things that kind of snap together.
But it's the issue of the engineers not making
stuff accessible. Like, I don't understand. And
this is something that I actually spoke to a
friend of mine who was an architect. He's no
longer an architect. But about designing a house
to where everything can be easily accessible.
And it's not actually that crazy to do. Sure,
you have to make a couple of considerations.
Like, you have to sacrifice a room. for like
an electrical closet and you have to run a chase
way through certain areas in the plumbing a certain
way but if you do it right all of a sudden you
can design a house where everything is accessible
and it makes it far safer because there's nothing
that's hiding behind walls or something to where
a mouse can get into something and a house catches
fire i i have a buddy of mine he recently lost
he had like a second like an investment property
and he lost it due to an animal getting in the
house and they weren't home and the house caught
fire they caught it on camera and everything
And it's because it was an old house that was
built in the late 1890s. It's just there was
nothing you could do. So I know we're kind of
just throwing out general like, oh, you should
just do this. But come on, it's got to be a solvable
problem at this point, especially when it comes
to we think about like like big sky rises and
stuff like that with larger. residential buildings.
There's no way you can't make that to something
to where at least everything plugs, plug and
play, easy peasy, all done. That way it's consistent.
That way you know how it operates. A lot of it
comes down to regulation, which of course it
always does. Design, layout, forethought, pre
-planning. I mean, again, it's 2025. We have
the technology. Why are we not doing this? There's,
there's really no good excuse as to why we're
not outside of just, we lack the will. So a lot
of it's profit based too. Yeah. The contractor
can't make any profit and adding the stuff on,
why would they do it? And that's the problem.
Yeah. But aside from the, manufacturing of the
buildings, we have to also think about the infrastructure
of the roadways. So we could drop some of these
onto existing roadways, putting in new roadways,
but not just the roads, but the sewer systems
too. All the waste management, all the trash
and stuff. I mean, yeah, in the future, like
Futurama, everything is recycled. You know, food
gets recycled. aluminum cans get recycled into
robots and robots get recycled into aluminum
cans that's that's the you know ultimate dream
but uh that kind of reminds me of uh the the
japanese invented the poop stakes you know do
do we have to go down that line because I'm sorry.
Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. The fuck
are you talking about a poop steak? Hold on.
You don't remember the Japanese poop steaks?
No. You need to stop what you're doing right
now and explain this to me because I'm very concerned.
What the fuck do you mean is a poop steak? Yeah.
The Japanese made an actual steak out of poop.
Why? Because they could. Again, this is the Ian
Malcolm philosophy. They were too busy trying
to figure out if they could. They never stopped
to think whether or not they should. Japan has
been hit and faced with issues pertaining to
food and food production for years because of
their population. But who the fuck are Japan?
I know the Japanese are into some weird shit.
Yes, they are. But who the hell in Japan has
gone to... Yes, has gone to a restaurant going...
I'd like a poop steak. Nobody. Nobody. No. If
they have, they should be ashamed of themselves.
No. I will kink shame. They took human waste,
filtered it, cleaned it, reconstituted it, and
more or less grew it into a steak type product.
I can and will link the articles. I really hope
you don't. But, you know, that kind of calls
into memory. It's a situation where if they actually
do the megacity concept, 3D printed food, lab
-grown food, remember the cow from Upload. It's
lab -grown food. I'm not against if it nutritionally
makes sense. Yes. Also texturally. Yeah. Again,
there are some things I think that you can make
a viable and acceptable substitute. However,
it's got to actually not have the downsides of,
I don't know, fucking killing you over time.
It seems like anything artificial. That has come
out of the lab after a while. I mean, maybe it's
going to kill your market, you know? No, no,
it's all a conspiracy. No, no. So that that that's
one of my I guess it's my concern is like if
there comes a day where we can 3D print literally
using like, you know, a protein molecule type
of thing, you could build it basically like a
replicator from Star Trek. That's a different
story. But, man, lab -grown meat, for some reason,
I feel like there's no way you're going to get
the nutrients that we need in something like
that. There's no way. Well, so they are experimenting
with lab -grown meat that's essentially just
cultured tissue from donor tissue where the tissue
is just grown on a scaffold. And it propagates.
And that's all that it does. It's the tissue
that grows just like it would in the body. It
just propagates on a scaffold type structure.
It grows the exact same way that it would in
the body, just in a lap. It's not in a body.
It's in a contraption that mimics the body's
conditions. So I'm kind of on the fence about
it because I don't trust some of this stuff.
Like, would I try it? Yes. I'd absolutely try
it. Would I replace meat with it? No. But, like,
I'd try it. I still might eat a human before
I do some of the slime -grown shit. I don't know.
You're, like, three for three with pro -cannibalism.
I'd be able to consign with you. Don't shame.
I really feel like you'd be the first guy on
the ship. That's like, the ship's going down.
Oh, no. And you have a knife and a fork in each
hand. Everyone's like, dude, we're in the Titanic.
We've got a pinhole. You're like, oh, no. Whatever
will I do? As you're like half deep into a thigh.
Like, oh, no. Just one at a time. One excuse.
You know. Oh, no. Meat's back on the menu, boys.
Jesus Christ. But. But no, like some of the lab
-grown stuff, I'd be okay with trying, but just,
I think maybe it's because of all the stuff medically
lately, but I would want longer time periods
to study and figure out what's going on with
this before we just hop on the train of, yep,
we'll switch everything to lab -grown, because
you know, I think we all know here, that the
minute the government's like, oh, we can just
grow our meat, well, we're just going to do it.
By the way, I want to put in a little asterisk
here. There's a guy. I'm not going to say his
actual name, but it sounds an awful lot like
Gil Bates, who is heavily invested into lab -grown
meat. And he also bought up a ton of farmland.
Yeah, that too. It's almost like he wants the
real meat for the elites and us to have the lab
-grown meat. He wants us to eat bugs. And I've
already flat said, I will not eat bugs. I will
eat a human before I eat bugs. So there's four
for four. Or just to recount it for one of the
threes. Fair enough. Back on the transportation.
Go ahead. But this is all tied into that push
for efficiency. Because if you could make lab
-grown meat and all this other stuff, you wouldn't
need farmland for cities. They'd be able to grow
that in the city. Which I think for a lot of
reasons that would actually help. If you were
able to, in cities, be able to grow your own
meat with the lab -grown stuff, that'd make it
less dependent on urban areas. Sorry, rural areas.
I think the lab -grown meat needs to be pushed
harder for the space programs, too. Or hear me
out. Let California ban real meat. Let them test
it out, and we'll see how they are in 10 or 15
years. Well, if California gets their way, they're
going to leave the country anyways. So that's
a discussion for another podcast episode. You
know what? All I can say is I believe Sun Tzu
said don't interrupt your enemy when they're
making a mistake. So I will let them absolutely
set you off to pasture. We're good. The last
thing I'll say on that is I think it should just
be SoCal. Like the southern half of California.
Because the northern half is fine. They're all
normal people. Let them vote by county. Yeah.
It's the southern half that is all psychotic
and out of their minds. But anyways, back on
to the transportation stuff. Once you have a
new city laid out, if you've ever played anything
like SimCity or Cities Skylines, you know transportation
is a big issue. You're not going to have private
cars going everywhere. You're going to have efficient
bus lines and e -bikes and robo -taxis going
everywhere. So that's going to be one nicety
is it's all going to be on just like loops. You
could possibly even have SkyTrams, hover taxis,
drone transports, which those are actually coming
out now. So that's another thing that could be
taken into consideration is the lack of roads
that would be needed thanks to the air transport
industries that are coming online. Well, it's
something that if designed correctly, the idea
is that you would be able to take public transport
and be able to get somewhere efficiently, but
also cost efficiently as well. That way, at least
a lot of taxes would cover public transport.
I know, I think it was either in Boston, I believe,
that they were going to make public transport
either free for a period of time or even possibly
going forward in the future. I don't know if
that's going to be a permanent thing because
the mayor of Boston, Michelle Wu, was kind of
a little all over the place. So we'll see how
that goes. But I know there's several places
around here. Yeah, I know. We'll save that for
another episode. But I know there's several places
around Massachusetts where they are now basically
doing free public transport to try to make that
work. That's a good thing because a lot of people
rely on that. Yeah. And also for a lot of people,
like if you're already making minimum wage at
a job in a city where you can't afford shit.
Having to pay two or three bucks every fucking
bus ride is ridiculous after a while. It adds
up quick. That's several dollars a day and a
lot of dollars a week and a lot more dollars
a month. So, yeah, that that adds up and that's
going to help out a lot of people that need it.
But if you design these cities in a way where,
you know, like you're talking about where you
can use bikes, you can walk, use public transport
and with the mixed use buildings. You could theoretically,
I know one of the other city designs that we
were talking about was the idea of the 15 minute
city. The idea was that you can get to anything
you need within like 10 or 15 minutes. You could
walk to any grocery store, any sort of outlet
for commercial centers, transportation hubs,
industry hubs, as well as obviously a residential
center. And everything's within a 15 minute equidistant
kind of walk with these multi -use buildings.
And I do feel like that's something where that's
probably a good. Because I think everybody, honestly,
a lot of Americans would be way healthier if
we did have a 15 -minute walk to work. Yeah.
Because we don't walk. We're Americans. They
essentially have to take the perfect, air quote,
layout, copy and paste it just right down the
line. Yes. Because that's all that you can do.
It has to be, this is the perfect layout. Do
not change it. Copy and paste, copy and paste,
copy and paste. That's the only way it's going
to work. And that way, I think for most people,
there's a lot of people that would work somewhere
local, even if they made a little less, just
to be able to walk 10 or 15 minutes to work and
then back. Especially with the younger generations
coming up. They've got that mindset where they're
going to be coming out of school, trying to start
their lives. They don't have anything of their
own. They don't have that. They're potted plants.
They can be transported more easily and they
can just kind of be put into that environment
to grow and thrive easier than established folks
like us. And it also makes it easier for them
to get a start because then they don't have to
buy these other things and have to afford. They
don't have the overhead. Yeah, that's that's
one of the bigger problems you have is nowadays
with a lot of cities. You have that weird problem
of. You almost have to have a vehicle, but you
can't really afford to have a vehicle. You can't
afford to park it anywhere. You have to pay for
the extra parking. Because you're in a city,
your insurance is much higher. So it's this weird
thing where, like, wow, I'm just losing $1 ,000
a month just to have a vehicle that I use, like,
twice a month. It doesn't make any sense. Whereas
for a city design like that, you could get by
perfectly fine and not have a vehicle. And because
so few people would be driving, public transport
would work. And if you want to have a car, there'd
be spots available. It'd be okay to drive. Like,
I thought it was amazing. My girlfriend and I
went up to Portland, up to Maine, over the 4th,
and it's a small city. Give you an idea, it's
a 15 -minute drive from one side to the other,
like 15, 20 minutes. It's quick. It's small.
But, dude, being in a city where, like, there's
an abundant amount of space, we drove in and
out during the 4th of July during the highest
traffic points, and it was, like, maybe 10 minutes
of traffic. When it wasn't... During the 4th
of July, there was no traffic. You can get anywhere.
I cannot believe, maybe it's because I've been
near Boston all my life and New York City and
stuff. The idea of just wanting to go into a
city and just getting there is amazing. Because
then you see the idea of you have to plan. You
don't understand. If you try to go into Boston
at the wrong time, it could be a half hour, it
could be three. Oh, gross. If you don't leave
Boston by one o 'clock, you're not getting home
until four. Like, I'm sorry, you're just fucked.
Like, there's no way around it. God forbid there's
an accident, there's no way around. Whereas with
a city like that, it was like, what do you mean
I can just, like, get in my car and go? And you
can go somewhere, and you can find a parking
spot. You can park. And there's so many cities
where you just can't. It's like, ah, congratulations,
good luck, go fuck yourself. Yeah, that's insane.
I don't recommend people to go to Boston. It's
fun to visit, but don't move there. Yeah. God,
why would you? Trust me. Trust me. Nobody in
Boston's happy. I will tell you that as someone
that's been there. No. No. Everyone's unhappy.
Yeah. But it's because it's the opposite of an
efficient city. Yeah. One other point of efficiency.
We were talking about the whole food thing. You
can promote. urban agriculture community gardens
like i said the the gardens on the the roof of
the building itself we mentioned the 3d printed
food the lab grown food but you can also encourage
the one thing i would have the most trouble with
the sustainable diet but you know that brings
us back to the soil and green type of thing so
you know They should definitely incentivize with
all the wasted space in cities to have greenhouses
on the top of every building because why not?
And if you already have the solar panels on top
of there anyway, you can help deal with some
of the energy inefficiencies as well as you have
that wasted space. Like if you go into any of
these major cities, every single one of those
skyscrapers on top of it has nothing. Well, we've
also now got clear solar panels. Yeah. So windows
should be getting replaced. You know, that's
actually the biggest thermal loss and the biggest
issue with modern cities is the fact that we
made everything out of glass, which is not that
great thermally and the buildings heat up and
they do not keep cool. So therefore we spend
a shit ton of money on air conditioning. Something
like 40 % of our electric use is on HVAC. And
then when you add in like drying clothes, it's
like 60%. Yeah. And then also, all those buildings
leave their lights on every night. I'll never
understand that. Because, you know, safety. Yeah,
I think it's insane. It's so wasteful. Yeah.
Yeah. We're a wasteful species, but. Well, you're
not wrong. Yeah. So there's already a lot of
data that backs up a lot of these ideas and plans.
A lot of different countries are trying to implement
micro experiments to kind of get this off the
ground. But like we said, private ownership is
one of the bigger things that's kind of impeding
things because we are a country that is focused
and obsessed with private ownership. Giving those
reins away is a very difficult concept for the
majority of us to get to just be comfortable
with. trying to conduct the business of a whole
city with nobody except the government or some
overarching entity owning everything there would
be a very alien concept for the majority of Americans
to acquiesce to. I used a big word, Gibbs. So
trying to figure it in as what's called a CLT,
the CLIT, Community Land Trust, a nonprofit organization
would own the land in perpetuity while individuals
and entities can own the buildings on that land
through long -term leases. That way, it's not
some big government entity that owns it. People
can actually have a piece of ownership of what
they're driving to achieve. And it separates
the costs out of the land from the cost of the
structure so that the businesses have a little
bit less overhead and they can actually buy and
sell the properties like normal, but it kind
of caps the value of the property so that there's
not this stepped inflation and we're right back
to where we are now. Exactly. That's not a bad
idea. Yeah. There's limited equity cooperatives.
residents would purchase a share in a cooperative
that owns the entire property, like an apartment
building or the megacity manufactured home community
like we talked about. The members would have
the right to occupy the unit and vote on co -op
matters. The resale prices of the shares would
be typically what you would buy when you sell
out. That way the units stay there and they're
just kind of like the... benefit of having the
shares so that's something else that can be done
and that's already on paper um the leasehold
systems you can get around taxes with that too
oh yeah because that's one of the big things
that i kind of want to drive home in a few of
these different models you're talking about is
it's a way of owning something without actually
owning it in terms of liability so because the
original whether it be the co -op or the land
trust model they still retain the ownership of
it so theoretically you wouldn't have to pay
a property tax granted you would have to pay
for that in terms like the membership but because
it's but it would be covered by that exactly
but it would be way more efficient because you're
splitting it up by that many people and as you
know with property taxes the bigger the building
and if you're doing like any sort of residential
kind of thing it becomes less and less per person
per that share so It becomes more efficient.
So you could actually make a living situation
where it's far more cost effective for people.
And because they can vote, they could do things.
They can make decisions and help contribute to
that. Whereas for a lot of places, really, you
rent it out and you have no fucking say. And
I'm not saying you should, but at least with
this, you have some skin in the game without
having the tax liability. Yeah. Or the repair
costs and whatnot. So, you know, which warranty
programs and whatnot. Repair contracts could
all be figured into that shit. There's leasehold
systems, which are similar to CLTs, but potentially
implemented on a broader scale where the government
or a public entity would retain ownership of
the land and lease it out for development and
use. This would allow the public entity to control
the land use, enforce sustainable building standards,
and potentially capture land value increments
for public benefit. That one is essentially,
What is in play right now? I think it would allow
the most access for the lowest cost, but would
eventually, you know, 30 to 50 years out, we'd
be right back to where we are now. Yeah. You've
got the public private partnerships with restrictions,
more or less the exact same thing, but you're
able to kind of cap some of the things that can
and cannot go in there. Land can be leased or
sold to private developers. Building standards,
affordability, the types of businesses allowed.
I don't know that I would be okay with that.
And then you've got the famous social housing
models. This is a fun one. Cities can prioritize
a large percentage of housing as social housing.
owned and managed by public or nonprofit entities
offered at affordable rates based on income.
When has that ever fucking worked? It doesn't.
Because eventually what ends up happening is
because they're public owned, that land and the
buildings can't really be sold and nobody wants
to be responsible for putting money into refixing
them or repairing them. And because the people
living there don't own them, they have absolutely
no onus to actually take care of the place. So
if you want to see what I'm talking about, refer
to Section 8 housing is basically what I'm getting
at. That's exactly what that is. There's a reason
why there was an epidemic with Section 8 people
pulling copper out of the walls and tearing apart
the place and doing stuff. And in the state that
I'm from, you can't even kick them out without
a six month notice. So it's one of those things
where if they tear apart everything. That happened
to a family member of mine. She rented it out
to someone, and because that person had a kid,
it was, well, you've got to give them their six
months. It's like, yeah, but they literally tore
the walls out. And the response was, well, they
have a kid. It's per the law. You've got to give
them their due diligence. You've got to give
them their time. And it's more of a problem of
the laws that are in the books rather than Section
8 in and of itself or the social housing because
if there were guarantees... Or standards saying,
hey, you've got to work this many hours and you've
got to take care of this place and there were
inspections. That would be a different story.
And I'm sure there is a way to make social housing
work. I'm sure there are some people that maybe
they can only work 20 hours a week or 50 hours
a month or whatever it is. Maybe they can only
do certain things or they're disabled or this
or that or they're elderly and just shit happened
in life or they don't have other options. I feel
like for those people, that's something that
should be available. But for people that are
able -bodied and able to do stuff and able to
work and are educated, that's where I have an
issue with this. If you're able to actually do
something, contribute, you shouldn't be in something
like social housing. But unfortunately, that's
how it always gets abused because there's really
no system that efficiently keeps people out of
it. Because they always say it's discrimination.
So that's always the issue. So it's that revolving
door where it could work, but nobody really wants
to put their foot down and say, I'm sorry, you're
not approved. No. No, it's sad because the social
housing stuff like Section 8, you always have
more bad apples than good that ruin it for everybody.
And there are people who genuinely just need...
a leg up and a break for that point in their
life. And it's, it's sad because they always
end up there with the, the shitheads trying to
just take advantage of things. I hate that, but
so we can talk all day about the idea of building
these cities from scratch and making multi -use
buildings and everything. But Where the hell
are you going to put them? You got to have land.
So last episode, we talked about the use of federal
lands in a couple different ways. Excuse me.
But we had talked about BlackRock potentially
buying. Some of the federal lands to be used
as development, but that was still kind of in
the air as to whether that was true or not. I
still have not found anything as to like hard
rock proof that there is any allowance for them
to do that. But on the assumption that either
them or other investment companies will be allowed
to purchase federal lands. or just federal land
being opened up to any entity to build on. You've
got BLM that manages a lot of land, which I know
we've seen how BLM likes to interact with the
people out west when it comes to land issues.
Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife, and the National
Parks, which the National Parks, There are a
lot of very special places out West that need
to be protected. And I want to put that out there
first, but I think it's worth kind of saying,
okay, maybe some of these places are just a little
bit too big and they don't need 50 ,000 acres.
You know, the main park is, you know, this 30
,000 right here. So let's maybe re -look at some
of these areas. Look at it. I'm not saying open
it up 100%. Just kind of look things over is
all I'm saying. Well, I guess the way to look
at it is this, and this is something pretty simple.
Cities generate a lot of heat. So why not look
at areas of the country that are usually very
cold, that are very tundra - Underground! Well
- Let's go back underground! Well, I'm getting
- That's another point I was going to make, but
- What I'm getting at is there are places like
out in the middle of Montana, North Dakota, anywhere
along that Canadian border. We've even looked
at properties up there where there's just nothing
for hundreds of miles. There are reasons, Gibbs,
because it gets cold and we don't like the cold.
But we are really good at making a cold place
a warm place. We are very good at insulating
things. So here is my thought. I'm very good
at insulating myself, as you can see. Yeah, I'm
too good at it. That's my problem. I went a little
too ham with that. I said, fuck being cold, and
now I'm just sweating all the time. It's not
recommended. Don't get fat, kids. It's not worth
it. But what I'm getting at is if we start saying,
hey, we have all this land up in the north that
there really isn't much of an ecological population.
There's not really many animals or much going
on. It's almost like a tundra. Why don't we start
saying, hey, if we need more land, let's build
there first. Don't build in areas where we have
beautiful forests and parks and all this nature
and everything else going on. Let that be so
we have it in the future for future generations
to enjoy. Because I dislike the idea of us selling
that land and saying, well, we need the space
when we have entire towns and cities in this
country that are abandoned. Then we have already
plots of land that are not federal land in terms
of like conservation land that are just empty.
There are towns and cities in the U .S. with
a population of zero. Why don't we start there?
They're already connected to roadways. They're
already connected to stuff. It's very simple.
Find some of those that are near enough to highways
to be connected and start designing these cities
from day one. Until we use up all that land,
I don't think we should be selling any of the
federal land because I do not trust for a second.
I agree with you. Average Americans will get
their hands on that land. It will all go to some
mega corporation that one of these politicians
are in bed with. And then all of a sudden, one
day you're going to say, hey, wow, 10 % of Utah
just got bought by BlackRock. And it's a gold
mine. And it's a lithium mine. They're just going
to strip everything. Well, that's rare metal
mining is the number one concern that most people
have with the opening of a lot of the BLM stuff.
Bureau of Land Management. Yes. I hate I have
to clarify that. Jesus. I know. Yes. But I think
you see what I'm saying, though, is let's go
that route first. And I don't know why as well.
We haven't already tried to restart some of these
old towns and cities anyway that are dying. The
infrastructure is already there. Sure, it needs
updating, but that's sure as shit going to be
cheaper. There's a guy on YouTube that bought
an old silver mining town. And he's been kind
of going around and just fixing up the buildings
there. It's amazing. See, I wish I could develop
a family homestead like that or a family compound.
That's my dream. But if they could do this in
a way where you build an airport out in the middle
of nowhere, you build some infrastructure, you
build some things, you eventually will get enough
people moving there because all you have to do
is create jobs. That's your number one thing.
People don't move to somewhere where there are
no jobs. Yes. Or you make it with really good
internet and then you have a remote job hub.
Which would be great as well, especially if you
have tax benefits and everything else. There
are ways to do this. If the politicians stop
being old curmudgeon pain in my ass and actually
fucking got with the times, people would actually
move there and do these things. But no, it said
all of our politicians are 85 years old and they
don't know what the internet is. So I, yeah,
they'll never understand. It's not until my generation
gets into politics a little more heavily. Which
is going to be fucking terrifying, by the way.
Especially if Gen Z gets into politics like hardcore
because they're going to. Right. But no, Gen
Z is going to run the country one day. That's
a terrifying thought. There's going to be a Gen
Z president. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll
just skip Gen Z and go straight to Gen Alpha.
Which is even more scary, dude. I can't imagine
a president that always has an iPad in front
of his face. I can't. I just or or the president
speech is going to be, yo, what's up, fam? Thank
you for the nog. I really appreciate it. Like
it just it's going to be so cringe. It's going
to be the most ridiculous thing. This this speech
will be ultra sus and skivity. It's going to
be a whole fucking. You know what? You know what's
going to happen is we are going to look at that
like we currently look at Shakespeare. We're
in the weird middle group to where we do speak
mostly regular English. Previously, it sounds
weird to us. And then, like, 50 years in the
future, it's going to sound weird. We're going
to be this weird anomaly where eventually they're
going to say, well, then there was a time for
middle English. And, you know, discusses from,
you know, the late 1850s until, you know. Think
about this. Eventually, we're going to be in
a history book someday. It's the fucking idiocracy
timeline. Yes, this is... Oh, my God. What do
you do here? We knew this. We knew this was happening.
No, but it really is. Yes. It's a prophecy. Okay,
y 'all, listen, listen. If you have not watched
Idiocracy before, or if you have not seen it
recently, do that this weekend, okay? Sit down
and watch Idiocracy and take some fucking notes
because it's fucking happening. Welcome to Costco.
We love you. It is a movie that I think that
the viewers at home got to understand that like
this has been inevitable, but it's going to get
way worse. It's going to get way worse than that.
I want to get a message to the scientists at
CERN. Good luck. Please turn the fucking machine
off. I don't like this timeline, okay? Oh, Jesus.
See, no, no, no. It's because of the Harambe
thing. It has nothing to do with CERN. We got
put on a weird timeline ever since that. They
turned on the machine, Harambe died, and now
we're on that fucked up timeline. Yeah. Anyways.
I don't know. The world's weird. None of this
makes sense. No. If multiverse theory is true,
we're in one of the weird ones. We're definitely
in one of the weird ones. We're in one of the,
wow, I didn't think it would go that way. So
as far as land acquisition goes, there is another
method that we can go about. We can destroy what's
already there and just rebuild over top of it.
Like aliens destroying a major city. and us building
upon the ruins like they did in Futurama. We
can use giant space lasers to set big cities
on fire, like in Maui and Los Angeles. That has
unfortunately not been confirmed, sadly. Wait
a minute. Are you suggesting that these other
places, they set fires and purposely only burn
down certain buildings to therefore gain ownership
of and then build whatever they want? I said
nothing of the sort you did. How dare you? How
dare you? Honestly, though, I still think that
was a setup. I'm sorry. I know that's conspiracy
theory. I, Pip, of the Now We Consume podcast,
personally feel both of those cities were 100
% setups. However, as much clickbait, rage bait,
and bullshit video stuff is out there. I cannot
find undeniable proof that that was what happened.
It just seems like... I just can't. The AI stuff
is too good. And we've talked about this. And
I know that we have had episodes, like three
of them now, on AI bullshit. We're probably going
to have to fucking do another one because of
all the other shit that's going on with AI stuff.
And it's freaking me the fuck out. And I sound
like a goddamn nut job when I talk about this
stuff. But holy shit, it's really fucking scary
because it just makes sense. Yeah, but here's
the thing you don't have to worry about. Eventually,
the AI will know you so well that it will just
make the world make sense for you. Eventually,
you won't be able to distinguish what reality
is. It'll be what you think it is. So you'll
always be right. Congratulations. I don't like
that comment, Gibbs. It's the world you always
thought it would be. It's just not the one you
wanted. I do not want the penile implant shoving
into my head every day like they showed in The
Matrix, okay? I do not want that implant. Well,
you're assuming you get to consent to that. Wait
until the day when the Starlink or fucking whatever,
the Starlink, the NanoLink, the brain thing,
whatever, it's going to be deemed... Neuralink.
Yeah, Neuralink. Wait until the day, because
I will tell you this right now, I know for a
fact where this is going to go. They're going
to start requiring that for people that are felons
at some point. It's going to... I'm telling you
right now... Demolition Man, but with Neuralink.
Yep. Oh, yeah. Oh, you've touched my talala.
You've been convicted of a thought crime. How
guilty do you plead? How guilty do you plead?
Oh, Gibbs. Yeah, I'm telling you. Oh, man. Think
about this. We're already figuring out how the
brain thinks, but they're using the brain to
be able to control different prosthetics, so
they understand now what the command is to move
your arm. Different prophylactics? Prosthetics,
not prophylactics. That sounds like a you problem.
But they could probably do those, too. It could,
but think about it. If we can already, as of
now on a inexpensive scale, be able to build
prosthetics that your brain can control, just
being open the hand, close the hand, move the
finger, move the arm. If we've already figured
that out, give AI a few years with that information.
You ain't safe. Yeah. Nope. No. And for anybody
that has taken the time to find the discord,
And I see those numbers. Slackers. I posted in
there that there's a company by the name of Andrill
Industries. Feel free to look them up. They make
drones for the military. They just signed a contract
with ChatGPT. They're going to have access to
their AI software. Did no one watch the Terminator
movies? Or am I the only one? Because holy shit.
They're building a plant like an hour away from
me. Even better. Ohio is going to be the reason
that the apocalypse happens. People were right.
I don't like any of this. I like how we're getting
subsidized. Terminator is what we're getting
at this point. It wasn't even just a company
building it. It's going to be government subsidized
Terminator. Yeah, it's going to be full on Skynet.
They're building Skynet. Yes. I hate sounding
like a fucking crackpot. But I see the connections.
It's not hard to fucking make the red strings
on the corkboard. It's like A connects to B connects
to C, and holy shit, we're dead. Just wait until
they make all the IRS agents, those guys, so
that we get the term where you're blocking down
your door. Come with me if you want to pay your
taxes. Dude, I'm telling you. I have armor -piercing
rounds. I'm not worried about them. Yeah, but
it's not the first one that comes to the door.
It's the 37th. I have way more armor -piercing
rounds than they have bots. Yeah. But it's, I
don't know. It's just one of those things where
it's definitely getting out of control. It is,
but I also posted on our Discord the clip from
that show about the little killer drone. That
was like it fit in the palm of your hand. It
was from seven years ago. That's the kind of
bullshit they're going to be making at that factory.
Because you know what? We have the technology
now. I sound like an absolute psychotic crazy
person when I say this. But it's all there. It
is literally all right there on a silver fucking
platter. And it's just let's make these connections
and we're dead. Well. We're going to have a very
interesting future. Gibbs, I do not want to be
right on this shit. And I'm really kind of worried
that I am. And I'm sorry that we went from talking
about megacities and Judge Dredd comics to, you
know, drones are going to kill us. But that's
just kind of how my brain works sometimes. It
goes in the fact that, so this is one of the
reasons why I brought this up originally, was
these megacities have a very dystopic kind of
background to them. And what I'm getting at is
the other half of the conversation when it comes
to great. So you will get, if let's just say
everything planned out, you will get a city that
you can walk everywhere, inexpensive apartment.
You don't have to own things like a car. You
don't own the apartment. You just rent it or
you're part of a co -op or whatever. The idea
being is the good news in that city is that you
have everything that the government and or the
planners think you need. But is it everything
you want? That's the other half of the argument,
is that they are building a city for what they
think you might want or need. And my question
is, are you okay, as a listener or viewer, are
you okay with giving that up to the government
and just saying, hey, design my city, do it,
make it pre -planned and everything, and whatever
gets whatever I get? Because the other problem
with these cities is when you're talking about
surveillance, You're talking about freedom of
movement. If you look at what's been happening
in England for the last 10 or 15 years, did you
guys know that there is basically a fine to go
drive in and out of London? It's basically like
an emissions kind of fine. Where the idea is
that you have to pay an emissions tax to get
in and out of the city. Gross. And they have...
Speed cameras everywhere. So they will even track
where you're going, let you know, hey, we saw
you were here, this and there. They will give
you fines even if you're going just a couple
of miles an hour, a couple of kilometers an hour
over the speed limit. But it's constant surveillance
everywhere you go to the point to where people
that even say things that are not necessarily
bad, but maybe controversial, have been arrested.
The issue I wanted to bring up is with these
cities. While. there are many chances to make
the lives easier for people. You are also removing
many of your freedoms in this situation because
every single building, every single part of the
infrastructure, every vehicle is already pre
-planned. So if you want anything outside of
that norm, you basically don't have an option.
You basically can't. Being able to get out of
that city will be prohibitively expensive. That's
the other flip coin. The flip side of this is...
what happens if you want to travel or if you
want to go around if you want to buy some land
somewhere or own something there is the potential
if done correctly it can give you more freedoms
and more options unfortunately as we see with
most any of the mega cities in the us every single
one of them due to your safety to make your day
better they restrict your freedoms every single
time so it is something to keep in mind as to
while i'd like the idea of a more efficient city
Something that is planned better, much better
public transportation, even maybe better policing,
security, fire, building standards, everything.
You are going to have to give up, I think, with
the way that they're talking about it, some of
your freedoms. Things like possibly being able
to choose where you get your food from, for example.
Or being able to choose what you do for work,
because the government might be picking out what
you do. The reason why I bring this up is, for
example, the new mayor of New York City that
got elected. He wants to bring government run
markets in government run grocery stores. This
is part of the concern is that once you start
going down a little bit down this path of things
being government run, it just trickles down more
and more. So if we did this combination of this
pre planning with a. laissez -faire capitalist
style but with some pretty strict restrictions
in some areas there's a way of making it work
but it seems like it every single time you try
to do something like this they push the boundary
they push it farther and then it really really
becomes an issue to where your freedoms are limited
if you look at what's happening in places like
london for example um watch some videos watch
some interviews It's amazing how different it's
looked from 15 years ago in terms of their rights,
their freedoms, and what the population demographics
are. So just keep that in mind. I just want to
bring that up because we already have some case
studies kind of on how this has gone. Yeah. I
have some thoughts on the London situation and
the mayor of New York and some other things,
but I'll keep those to myself for now. I'm on
enough lists. Yeah, so I think back to the original
conversation that started all this is, I think
you and I could both agree, there have been natural
disasters or disasters that have been created
to clear certain areas so that these areas can
eventually be rebuilt. Tennessee Valley Authority.
Yeah. They flooded out a whole region to build
a dam for a power plant. Look up the Tennessee
Valley Authority. Do some reading. That's a great
one to look into. Now, yes, they did that. With
permission from most of the residents, but not
everybody wanted to sell. Nope. But if you don't
get permission, oh, well, there's something called
eminent domain. They'll just take your shit.
Yep. Just like if anyone ever wants to get really
pissed off, look up civil asset forfeiture. Oh,
yeah. Look up that one. That's a fun one. Oh,
yeah. So the government loves taking your shit.
Trample my right, daddy. Oh. So, yeah, I think
with the cities movement, there is something
to be said with making cities more efficient
and changing out some things. My question to
you was going to be, I know you kind of touched
upon this a little bit. What if we just, you
know, how should I say this, became dwarves and
just dug into the mountain, just dug underground.
Digging hole, digging hole. Because when you
think about it, it's living underground. It's
way more thermally efficient. It would be. The
issue is we lose a lot of our humanity if we
go underground. There was an experiment done.
I cannot think of when, but I want to say back
in like the 70s or 80s. It doesn't have to be
all day. Oh, you just want to live or sleep underground.
So what I'm getting at is hear me out on this
one. You build all the infrastructure underground,
but to get. it you have all these parks and beautiful
areas and different things so that way when you
want to walk from work to home or vice versa
want to hang out you still have all of nature
it basically looks like farmland on top so like
the secret city under la yes but instead of being
la it's farmland it's it's like nice greenery
and you have parks and you need to have some
homes if some people wanted like some like suburb
kind of looking things on top okay so suburbia
on top yeah Industrial hellscape underneath.
I like that. Exactly. I like that. Yes. It doesn't
have to be. It doesn't have to be a hellscape.
It can be nice. I mean, you're putting it underground.
You might as well just feed the beast. Go for
it. I feel like I almost wanted to be. Full throttle.
Let's do it. You just want this heat. Ultra hellscape.
You just. Just do it. Let's do it. Send it. But
that being said, I get what you mean, though.
But I feel like there is a way where we could
build into the side of mountains even or side
of hills There's got to be a way of even if we
just did like apartment complexes that were built
into a pre -existing Hill that has like 40 or
80 units or something like that Where at least
you can have little windows coming out on the
sides, but that way it's also that point It's
basically tornado proof granted. Yes. You have
to worry about flooding or something like that,
but there's pros and cons earthquakes Okay, see
that's the earthquake part is the one thing Motherfucker.
2024 YR4, we're all dead. Look that one up. It's
2025. We're already through 2024, so does it
count? Yeah. We might have to do an episode on
the potential impacts of 2024 YR4. Oh, potential.
Yeah, I think we spoke a little bit about that.
No, because this one was not found until like,
you know, yeah. This is scary. It's not going
to hit us. It's not going to hit us. We've at
least confirmed that. No, it's going to hit the
fucking moon. What? Yeah, that's the current
track. Wait, whoa, wait a minute. How is this
not? What? How have you not? How am I just now
hearing about this? How big is the asteroid?
Yeah, kind of, not small. all right well here's
the thing not small to an ant is different not
small to an elephant so like like like do you
are you talking like the size of a bus are you
talking like the size of manhattan but like like
where are you where are you going with this 53
to 67 meters oh okay um but if it hits the moon
uh that's that's enough or big enough to cause
significant damage to the moon which could then
shotgun wait a minute debris from the moon how
fast is this fucker traveling good god if something
like 150 foot round can do that much damage also
jesus christ if it does hit the moon oh great
so now we're just gonna be pelted like fucking
shotgun pellets I swear to God, if I finally
get my life in order and get my house paid off
and everything else like that, just to get wiped
out by the moon, I'm going to build a fucking
killdozer. I'm going to lose my shit. I'm going
to be the angriest motherfucker alive. Yeah.
2032 is the suspected date. So what I'm hearing
is I got like six years to somehow. asteroid
proof my house hmm ah yes so my fund for traveling
on vacations actually become a cannon fund yeah
I'm gonna need a lot of German 88s with some
flack rounds let me tell you every out there
looking like a fat German of World War two just
It looks like it could be expected to impact
anywhere between 37 ,000 and 60 ,000 kilometers
an hour. Oh. So, you know, got a little bit of
ass on it. I was going to say, I believe the
scientific notation on that is hauling ass. That
is moving. Have you ever thought about pulling
like a... just like shooting a nuke at it or
something so at least it breaks up before it
hits the moon yeah they might try something like
that because we have enough warning but I don't
know god yeah this episode has gone everywhere
that's how it usually goes though so final thoughts
on Living in a mega city building like an old
gutted Amazon warehouse that's been rebuilt to
have your work site where you live. What do you
think? Yay or nay? It depends on how it's done.
It could be great. I honestly think that's like
the general consensus for most things. It really
just depends on how it's done. I feel like there's
a way that we have to leverage tax incentives
in order to force companies to do it the right
way. But I feel like most people in cities are
so focused on making taxes even higher that they're
going to basically force people to be indentured
servants to that company and then be forced to
live there and basically be like company run
like slumlords is where I feel like this is going
to go. And slumlords and high crime are like
and drug like. Yeah. High drug use, high prostitution,
everything. Those are like the biggest concerns
for those type of dwelling layouts, residency
layouts. You have to have a high presence of
some kind of community policing. So that's something
to keep in mind when you're designing these kinds
of things. It's good. But hey, with AI and bots
everywhere, I mean. Maybe we don't have to worry
about it. I can tell you right now it's going
to become the case of it's going to be a massive
camera network with AI listening and watching
all the time in public areas. That way AI will
report crimes as they're happening or even when
someone's yelling. And just dispatch the judges
everywhere with their sidearms. That's the only
thing that concerns me is something I was thinking
about too is what if because all these buildings
and lands are private, what if it's privately
run security? Private security? Like, imagine,
let's just say, theoretically, you live in a
major city, you work at Amazon location 10, where
the warehouse is below you, and then on the middle
floor are the commercial offices that Amazon
feeds into, and then you live on top. What happens
if you're like, hey, my neighbor three doors
down sexually harassed me? Does Amazon send out
the fucking Kill Dread 9000 to go interrogate
the neighbor? Like, how does this work? Will
they fight to be able to have their own jurisdictions?
They might. And I mean, honestly, if you've got
a building that has a population of like 5 ,000,
it might be required. So here's, this is my other
part of my thing. It's like, is it going to become
to where like these massive, these mega buildings
are going to be basically their own little towns
that basically function independently? which
actually would almost have to be, which in a
way could be good if they had their own governmental
structure and their own things. And they just
all kind of work together until they devolve
and turn into gang run buildings. This is the
other problem is absolutely until you get the
one guy in there that owns all the guns. It's
like, Oh, thanks for hoarding all these supplies
for me. I appreciate it. You know, you did the
hard work for me. I will make sure to kill you
quickly. Like it just, this could all go very
right or very wrong. Very quickly. All I can
say is just every one of those buildings would
end just as being underground strip clubs and
drug dens. That's all it would be. Hell yes.
That's a great place to be on a Friday night.
It's literally just going to be the cities that
are owned by Amazon, Costco, Target, and Walmart,
and just going to have those four competing factions.
Will there eventually be faction warfare? Like
Target tries to take over this district. And
then eventually every restaurant becomes Taco
Bell like in Demolition Man. I don't know how
Taco Bell would win. Be well. Honestly, it would
have to be McDonald's because they have the highest.
Well, yeah, but Taco Bell didn't require meat.
They have vegetarian options. Oh, so that's why
Taco Bell won. Wow. I didn't think about that.
I haven't seen Demolition Man in a while. Yeah.
Worth a watch. You know, as time goes on, it's
becoming more and more relevant. Scary. Demolition
Man, Idiocracy. Fahrenheit 451, read the book.
That is the one that would make you the most
depressed, by the way. I'm just letting people
know. If you're a thinker, you are not going
to like yourself after reading that book. Yeah.
But worth a read. Don't watch the movie. The
movie's not great. Don't watch that. But the
book is good. Yeah. If you're not a fan of reading,
at least do the audiobook. I haven't tried the
audiobook with it. I'll have to look that up.
I gotta get into that more. Yeah. So. But yeah.
That's Cities of the Future for us. Any thoughts
that we missed? It could be horrible. It could
be awesome. It could be just another utopian
dream that falls into disarray and cannibalistic
paradise, you know? Jesus Christ. You know, so
here's what you need to... Fuck, Society 25,
I think it was. Or Universe 25 or something.
There's an experiment that was done with rats.
it was set up to where the rats were given everything
they needed and like it was a utopian society
for the rats and they just laid around they they
just had sex all day and they just lived their
lives and had fun and it devolved into utter
cannibalistic chaos And it was horrifying. And
they didn't just do this once. They did it like
over and over and over. And it was the same exact
result every single time. As soon as there was
no purpose. I got to find that. And there was
nothing to strive for and there was no purpose.
There was no meaning. Chaos finds a way. Oh,
yeah. So that's something to kind of keep in
mind with this. But yeah, I think we hit all
the points that we wanted to. To hit for this.
So I guess my final word would be look at if
you're near a local major city, start looking
at some of the policies being proposed with things
like taxing people to get in and out of your
city, trying to remove vehicles or private transportation,
starting to force people to use public transportation
only. Even things like not allowing certain people
to be able to buy land or certain companies,
not people to do certain things. This is something
to where it's starting to affect many of the
major cities in small ways, but it's starting
to become very public. So a lot of things that
we're talking about now are going to be very,
very, very mainstream pretty soon. I'm already
seeing it. Just like New York City, they instituted
a policy that you have to pay to get into New
York City. Yeah, fuck that. Yep. That's what
everyone said. Yep. Gotta love congestion pricing.
It's great. Surge pricing. But it's for travel.
Oh, God. That, nothing. Whoever thought about
surge pricing, I'll show you a surge price. This
one's for free. Let me tell you. Oh, man. Whoever
thought about that, Jesus Christ. Whoever's the
asshole that thought about surge pricing and
then when a hurricane comes and water's going
to be $5 ,000 for a bottle. Yeah, I've got a
special. Discount for them. Yeah. Yeah. These
hands identify as unisex. No way. Oh, yeah. But
I'm sure we'll talk about that when that becomes
a thing. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. Yeah. Is there anything
that we really missed on this one? Is there any?
No, no, no. We hit all the points. Share the
episodes with your friends. Want to see some
more engagement? Want to see some more listens?
We're hitting some really weird numbers. So I'm
trying to see what's going on. If I have to start
broadcasting while in a pool of mayonnaise and
a Speedo, I will. I want to try to get some more
numbers so that I don't have to do that. You'd
end up smelling like mayonnaise for weeks. I
don't care. I'll do that for the show. That is
my own form of hell, by the way. I don't like
mayonnaise. So just the thought of randomly getting
a whiff of mayonnaise throughout the day and
you can't figure out where it's from. I'll be
like, I kill this. I can't even say that. I can't
even say that. I can't. I would cease to exist
is the diplomatic way I can say that. Okay, you
know what? I'll compromise. I'll start with whipped
cream. Okay. I will wear a Speedo and do a little
pool of whipped cream. From like right back here.
But you're going to get the pasties with the
tassels on them though. If I have to. You're
going to get the tassel pasties, you know. I
will. I will do that. If I have to do that to
drive some viewership for the show, I will do
that. But then I expect you to do something as
equally crazy and unhinged. So we need to start
driving some viewership and some downloads. Oh,
Jesus. Yeah, Carly, tell him. Tell him, Carly.
Oh, Jesus Christ. You hear her? I'd have to find
out something crazy to do, you know? Yeah. Yes,
Gibbs shaves his head. You know. I think that's
a good suggestion. You know, 30's been hitting
me hard this year. That did not help my self
-confidence. Thank you, buddy. I appreciate it.
I know the hairline's receding. I get it. I get
it. It's okay. Maybe I'll... I don't know. I'll
find a way. Yeah. You know what I could do? I
could do an entire episode. I'll paint myself
green and talk like Kermit the Frog. That'd be
funny. What do we have here in these major cities?
Oh, yeah. I have something with that. See, I
do have to address chat. They just said embrace
the receding hairline. My thought is if anybody's
ever watched Dragon Ball Z, I will eventually
go full Vegeta and just have the receding hairline
that goes all the way back. Anybody that knows
Dragon Ball Z, just look up Vegeta and you'll
see. Or just pull off the Picard look. Here's
the problem. Picard was small in French. He can
do the bald. My problem is I'm a fat American.
I'm just going to look like a thumb with two
thumbs. It's not going to work. I'm a hairy thumb
with two thumbs. It's going to look fucking weird.
I got to figure out what I'm... That's the problem
is I'm going to lose the hair up there. I got
to figure out more what I'm going to do down
here. It's got to work. I mean, okay. Butterbean
with a beard, I could possibly see. That's also
insulting. I appreciate... Butterbean's a badass,
though. Or he was. Yeah, it wasn't a good term
with that. Oh, man. Geriatric Butterbean versus
Geriatric Tyson. Oh, Jesus. Goddamn. All right.
Well, I think we can go ahead and cut the show.
We hit all the points. Share the episodes. Try
to get your friends involved. We do love you
guys. We appreciate your hanging out with us.
And hopefully we got some good stuff coming down
the pipe that's not just warm and sticky. Wrong
show. Well, maybe for some people it's the right
show. That's supposed to be behind the paywall.
You can't give that to them for free. Well. I
got to tease him a little bit. All right, fair
enough. Tease it in there a little bit. That's
fine. Fair enough. Fair enough. So, all right.
Well, we love you guys. Thanks for hanging out.
And we'll see you all next time.