WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.140 Welcome, everyone. We're just so glad you are 00:00:03.140 --> 00:00:05.240 here with us today. Really glad. Yeah, because 00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:07.940 if you are joining us right now, you are probably 00:00:07.940 --> 00:00:09.900 exactly the kind of person we love doing this 00:00:09.900 --> 00:00:13.039 for. Absolutely. You're a learner. You are naturally 00:00:13.039 --> 00:00:15.460 curious. You are the kind of person who loves 00:00:15.460 --> 00:00:18.280 digging below the surface of the everyday world 00:00:18.280 --> 00:00:21.359 just to see what kind of hidden wiring makes 00:00:21.359 --> 00:00:23.120 it all work. Right. Looking for the man behind 00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:26.399 the curtain. Exactly. And well, today we have 00:00:26.399 --> 00:00:30.350 a very special, honestly. incredibly unique. 00:00:30.760 --> 00:00:33.200 mission for this deep dive it's a fun one it 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:36.799 really is we're taking a single seemingly completely 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:40.359 dry document and we're just going to ring it 00:00:40.359 --> 00:00:43.119 out to find the absolute magic hidden inside 00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:45.560 of it i love that ringing it out yeah because 00:00:45.560 --> 00:00:48.299 our source material today is and bear with me 00:00:48.299 --> 00:00:51.320 here believe it or not a single wikipedia disambiguation 00:00:51.320 --> 00:00:54.640 page a single page specifically we are looking 00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:57.280 at the disambiguation page for the word rollin 00:00:57.280 --> 00:01:00.579 which uh also covers the variant Roland with 00:01:00.579 --> 00:01:03.320 an apostrophe at the end. It is such a thrill 00:01:03.320 --> 00:01:05.980 to be doing this. And setting the stage here 00:01:05.980 --> 00:01:09.680 is really crucial because, um... Well, this is 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:11.540 such an unexpected piece of source material. 00:01:11.579 --> 00:01:14.400 Yeah, it's not our usual fare. Right. For you 00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:16.700 listening, it really helps to think about what 00:01:16.700 --> 00:01:20.780 a Wikipedia disambiguation page actually is fundamentally. 00:01:21.180 --> 00:01:24.459 Yeah. At its core, it is just a piece of Internet 00:01:24.459 --> 00:01:26.980 housekeeping. Just filing things away. Exactly. 00:01:27.159 --> 00:01:29.819 It's a navigational tool. It exists entirely 00:01:29.819 --> 00:01:33.120 in the background of our digital lives to fix 00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:36.079 incorrect internal links and point lost Internet 00:01:36.079 --> 00:01:38.079 travelers in the right direction. Like a map 00:01:38.079 --> 00:01:40.400 director. Basically. Imagine you search for a 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:42.260 word that could mean, I don't know, 20 different 00:01:42.260 --> 00:01:44.939 things. Right. This page is the digital traffic 00:01:44.939 --> 00:01:47.099 cop that steps in and says, hold on, which one 00:01:47.099 --> 00:01:48.640 of these realities were you actually looking 00:01:48.640 --> 00:01:51.319 for? I love that. A digital traffic cop. Yeah. 00:01:51.400 --> 00:01:53.859 But when you stop rushing past it, when you really 00:01:53.859 --> 00:01:56.400 look closely at this specific list for the word 00:01:56.400 --> 00:02:00.120 Rollin, it sheds that utilitarian skin. It really 00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:02.040 does. It stops being just a navigational tool. 00:02:02.099 --> 00:02:04.420 It becomes this fascinating, completely accidental 00:02:04.420 --> 00:02:08.120 time capsule. Yeah. It is a bizarre cross -section. 00:02:08.490 --> 00:02:12.090 of human culture, of geography, and even of science, 00:02:12.229 --> 00:02:14.930 all bound together by just six letters. Okay, 00:02:14.969 --> 00:02:17.210 let's unpack this. Because looking at this list, 00:02:17.270 --> 00:02:20.250 it is not just raw data. No, not at all. It is 00:02:20.250 --> 00:02:24.250 a bizarre, beautiful slice of history. And the 00:02:24.250 --> 00:02:26.629 chronological jumps alone are just staggering. 00:02:26.909 --> 00:02:29.740 They'll give you whiplash. Seriously. So the 00:02:29.740 --> 00:02:32.780 bulk of this page is dedicated to a massive music 00:02:32.780 --> 00:02:35.300 section. Right. And the timeline there kicks 00:02:35.300 --> 00:02:38.439 off way back in 1974. A great year. And right 00:02:38.439 --> 00:02:40.860 out of the gate in that exact same year, the 00:02:40.860 --> 00:02:44.120 word splits into two completely distinct cultural 00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:46.979 lanes. Which is wild to think about. First, you 00:02:46.979 --> 00:02:49.460 have the Bay City Rollers dropping an album simply 00:02:49.460 --> 00:02:52.180 titled Rollin'. Classic. And then sharing that 00:02:52.180 --> 00:02:55.000 very same year, Randy Newman releases a song 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:57.240 called Rollin' from his album Good Old Boys. 00:02:57.580 --> 00:02:59.319 Just think about the cult. real dissonance of 00:02:59.319 --> 00:03:01.599 that for a second it's crazy you have a massive 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:04.120 scottish pop rock sensation sharing the exact 00:03:04.120 --> 00:03:06.780 same digital real estate as a deeply cynical 00:03:06.780 --> 00:03:10.319 american satirical singer -songwriter two completely 00:03:10.319 --> 00:03:12.919 different worlds exactly and the timeline just 00:03:12.919 --> 00:03:16.360 keeps leaping forward from there we hit the 1980s 00:03:16.360 --> 00:03:18.960 with the jazz trumpeter freddie hubbard releasing 00:03:18.960 --> 00:03:22.439 a 1982 album called roland incredible record 00:03:22.439 --> 00:03:25.120 by the way oh yeah and then we catapult all the 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:27.949 way into the modern era landing on a 2022 Two 00:03:27.949 --> 00:03:31.349 songs simply titled Rollin' by the artist Yeet 00:03:31.349 --> 00:03:34.150 from the album Two Alive. So we are talking about 00:03:34.150 --> 00:03:37.289 nearly half a century of music. Half a century. 00:03:37.370 --> 00:03:40.150 The sheer elasticity of the word is what makes 00:03:40.150 --> 00:03:42.810 that timeline possible. It bends to fit whatever 00:03:42.810 --> 00:03:45.250 era it lands in. And it bends across completely 00:03:45.250 --> 00:03:47.349 different musical landscapes, too. I mean, the 00:03:47.349 --> 00:03:50.009 genre whiplash on this page is wild. Oh, it's 00:03:50.009 --> 00:03:52.469 everywhere. Let's just look at the hip hop, new 00:03:52.469 --> 00:03:54.789 metal and R &B spaces for a second. Let's do 00:03:54.789 --> 00:03:58.530 it. So Limp Bizkit absolutely dominated the year 00:03:58.530 --> 00:04:00.909 2000 with their massive track Rollin'. I couldn't 00:04:00.909 --> 00:04:03.449 escape that song. You really couldn't. Then a 00:04:03.449 --> 00:04:05.770 decade later, Lil Wayne steps into the arena 00:04:05.770 --> 00:04:08.270 with a track called Rollin' on his 2011 release, 00:04:08.469 --> 00:04:11.050 sorry for the wait. Right. And just a year after 00:04:11.050 --> 00:04:14.590 that in 2012, Ish featuring Steph Lang released 00:04:14.590 --> 00:04:18.139 a song by the same name. That is one very specific, 00:04:18.360 --> 00:04:22.180 swaggering flavor of music. But completely parallel 00:04:22.180 --> 00:04:24.480 to that, the country music world is adopting 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:27.199 the exact same term. Which is so funny to me. 00:04:27.610 --> 00:04:30.230 Garth Brooks jumps into the fray with a song 00:04:30.230 --> 00:04:33.029 called Rollin' on his album Fresh Horses back 00:04:33.029 --> 00:04:37.009 in 1995. Massive album. Huge. And Big & Rich 00:04:37.009 --> 00:04:39.769 follows suit in 2004 with a track from their 00:04:39.769 --> 00:04:41.829 album Horse of a Different Color. Another big 00:04:41.829 --> 00:04:44.730 one. And then, if we pivot entirely away from 00:04:44.730 --> 00:04:47.269 rap and country, Kylie Minogue takes the word 00:04:47.269 --> 00:04:49.370 straight to the pop and dance clubs with her 00:04:49.370 --> 00:04:52.269 track on the 2018 album Golden. What's fascinating 00:04:52.269 --> 00:04:56.029 here is the absolute... linguistic power of dropping 00:04:56.029 --> 00:04:58.490 a single consonant yeah we aren't just looking 00:04:58.490 --> 00:05:01.149 at a random list of artists we are looking at 00:05:01.149 --> 00:05:03.750 the evolution of an attitude an attitude i like 00:05:03.750 --> 00:05:05.889 that because by simply dropping the g at the 00:05:05.889 --> 00:05:08.250 end of the word rolling and replacing it with 00:05:08.250 --> 00:05:11.560 an apostrophe You instantly communicate a universal 00:05:11.560 --> 00:05:13.959 vibe. It completely changes the tone. The word 00:05:13.959 --> 00:05:16.360 fundamentally changes. It is no longer a strict 00:05:16.360 --> 00:05:18.459 verb describing the physical movement of a wheel. 00:05:18.579 --> 00:05:21.360 It becomes the state of mind. Right. It transcends 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:23.980 those wildly different musical styles you just 00:05:23.980 --> 00:05:28.800 mentioned because dropping that G instantly signals 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:31.779 something casual. It's relaxed. It signals forward 00:05:31.779 --> 00:05:35.019 momentum, a lack of friction, something effortlessly 00:05:35.019 --> 00:05:38.139 cool. Exactly. That is why it serves a swaggering 00:05:38.139 --> 00:05:41.259 hip hop beat, a laid back country driving anthem 00:05:41.259 --> 00:05:44.500 and a high energy dance track with equal perfection. 00:05:44.819 --> 00:05:47.519 It's the ultimate chameleon word. It really is. 00:05:47.660 --> 00:05:49.279 And I want to throw this back to the listener 00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:52.220 for a second. What stands out to you when you 00:05:52.220 --> 00:05:55.000 think about how one single slightly modified 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:59.319 word can anchor a 1970s piano ballad just as. 00:05:59.439 --> 00:06:02.000 comfortably as it anchors a 2000s new metal stadium 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:04.519 anthem. It really does make you realize how much 00:06:04.519 --> 00:06:07.019 heavy lifting a single piece of punctuation, 00:06:07.199 --> 00:06:10.139 just that little apostrophe, is doing to signal 00:06:10.139 --> 00:06:12.680 emotion. So much heavy lifting. But as wild as 00:06:12.680 --> 00:06:14.920 that genre whiplash is, we have to talk about 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:17.300 the absolute most bonkers thing on this entire 00:06:17.300 --> 00:06:19.120 Wikipedia page. Oh, I know exactly what you're 00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:20.800 going to say. Here's where it gets really interesting, 00:06:20.920 --> 00:06:24.379 because there is a massive, undeniable statistical 00:06:24.379 --> 00:06:27.300 anomaly sitting right in the middle of this document. 00:06:27.379 --> 00:06:29.779 Just hiding in plain sight. I am talking about 00:06:29.779 --> 00:06:34.319 the year 2017. Ah, the 2017 cluster. It jumps 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:36.740 right off the screen. It is a total barrage. 00:06:36.740 --> 00:06:38.800 Let me just break down exactly what happened 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:40.939 in that 12 -month window, according to this one 00:06:40.939 --> 00:06:45.060 page. Please do. In 2017, the K -pop group B1A4 00:06:45.060 --> 00:06:48.920 released an EP, which, for anyone outside the 00:06:48.920 --> 00:06:51.240 music industry, is an extended play, basically 00:06:51.240 --> 00:06:53.779 a mini -album, and the title song was called 00:06:53.779 --> 00:06:56.629 Rollin'. Okay, that's one. That exact same year, 00:06:56.730 --> 00:06:59.689 another K -pop group, Brave Girls, also released 00:06:59.689 --> 00:07:03.189 an EP and a title song called Rollin'. Two. Also 00:07:03.189 --> 00:07:07.089 in 2017, the global DJ Calvin Harris released 00:07:07.089 --> 00:07:09.629 a song called Rollin'. Three. Little Big Town 00:07:09.629 --> 00:07:12.029 released a song called Rollin' from their album 00:07:12.029 --> 00:07:14.939 The Breaker. Four. And finally, the K -pop group 00:07:14.939 --> 00:07:17.040 twice released a song called Rollin' on their 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:19.779 album Twice to the Gram. Five. Every single one 00:07:19.779 --> 00:07:22.680 of those releases happened in 2017. If we break 00:07:22.680 --> 00:07:25.860 down the geographical and cultural improbability 00:07:25.860 --> 00:07:28.980 of that convergence, it is genuinely staggering. 00:07:29.240 --> 00:07:31.199 It doesn't make any sense. It really doesn't. 00:07:31.199 --> 00:07:32.920 Think about the global recording industry as 00:07:32.920 --> 00:07:35.420 a series of isolated ecosystems. Right, they 00:07:35.420 --> 00:07:38.079 don't really cross over in production. No. In 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:41.439 a single year, you have the K -pop industry heavily 00:07:41.439 --> 00:07:45.920 represented by B1A4, Brave Girls, and Twice. 00:07:46.259 --> 00:07:49.019 Three massive groups. You have the juggernaut 00:07:49.019 --> 00:07:51.660 of American country music represented by Little 00:07:51.660 --> 00:07:54.319 Big Town. Yep. And you have global electronic 00:07:54.319 --> 00:07:57.379 pop represented by Calvin Harris. It's all over 00:07:57.379 --> 00:08:01.279 the map. Literally. Yeah. The producers in high 00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:04.379 -rise boardrooms in Seoul, the songwriters sitting 00:08:04.379 --> 00:08:06.879 in acoustic circles in Nashville, the marketing 00:08:06.879 --> 00:08:09.220 teams in electronic dance studios across Europe, 00:08:09.339 --> 00:08:11.819 none of them are calling each other up to coordinate 00:08:11.819 --> 00:08:13.680 their release schedules. Right. Calvin Harris 00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:15.699 isn't calling Little Big Town like, hey, what 00:08:15.699 --> 00:08:17.639 are you guys naming your track this year? Exactly. 00:08:17.639 --> 00:08:21.319 Yet simultaneously, all of these incredibly distinct 00:08:21.319 --> 00:08:24.939 ecosystems. independently gravitated to the exact 00:08:24.939 --> 00:08:27.199 same title at the exact same moment in human 00:08:27.199 --> 00:08:30.259 history. It is like the word just permeated the 00:08:30.259 --> 00:08:32.340 global water supply that year. That's the only 00:08:32.340 --> 00:08:34.700 explanation. It is the Great Roland Convergence 00:08:34.700 --> 00:08:37.360 of 2017. The Consurgence. But while that year 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:40.299 is this massive, loud cluster, my eyes actually 00:08:40.299 --> 00:08:43.500 zeroed in on something much quieter. Yeah, the 00:08:43.500 --> 00:08:46.879 source text has these weird, solitary outliers, 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:50.899 these strange, highly specific entries that give 00:08:50.899 --> 00:08:53.740 the list so much. texture the oddities exactly 00:08:53.740 --> 00:08:56.879 right in the middle of all these massive hits 00:08:56.879 --> 00:08:59.919 there is a tiny parenthetical note down in the 00:08:59.919 --> 00:09:02.429 album section i think another one There is an 00:09:02.429 --> 00:09:05.370 entry for an album simply titled Roland by an 00:09:05.370 --> 00:09:07.990 artist named Ava Lee. Yes. The date listed is 00:09:07.990 --> 00:09:11.470 2008. But right next to it, Wikipedia specifically 00:09:11.470 --> 00:09:14.809 notes the word unreleased. That entry might be 00:09:14.809 --> 00:09:17.090 the most philosophically profound thing on the 00:09:17.090 --> 00:09:19.029 entire page. Why do you say that? Think about 00:09:19.029 --> 00:09:21.710 the psychology of digital permanence. Okay. The 00:09:21.710 --> 00:09:24.409 Internet, generally speaking, catalogs the victors. 00:09:24.490 --> 00:09:26.669 Right, the winners. It catalogs the finished 00:09:26.669 --> 00:09:28.750 products, the massive hits, the things that made 00:09:28.750 --> 00:09:31.299 it to the finish line. Sure. We don't know the 00:09:31.299 --> 00:09:33.440 circumstances surrounding Avilee's project from 00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:36.019 this text. We just know it never officially saw 00:09:36.019 --> 00:09:38.539 the light of day. It just faded away. And yet 00:09:38.539 --> 00:09:42.639 it has earned a permanent structural spot on 00:09:42.639 --> 00:09:46.139 this Wikipedia disambiguation page. That is wild. 00:09:46.460 --> 00:09:49.500 It is a ghost ship sitting right in the middle 00:09:49.500 --> 00:09:52.279 of this busy harbor of information. A ghost ship. 00:09:52.519 --> 00:09:55.179 It was deemed notable enough to be meticulously 00:09:55.179 --> 00:09:58.600 cataloged right alongside multi -platinum albums 00:09:58.600 --> 00:10:00.899 by Freddie Hubbard and the Bay City Rollers. 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:03.460 It's permanent. It proves that our digital archives 00:10:03.460 --> 00:10:05.860 hold onto our hiatuses and uncompleted works 00:10:05.860 --> 00:10:08.940 just as tightly as our successes. A ghost ship 00:10:08.940 --> 00:10:11.840 in a harbor of information. That is a beautiful 00:10:11.840 --> 00:10:14.919 way to put it. And contrasting with that quiet, 00:10:14.980 --> 00:10:18.460 unreleased project, you have the incredibly loud, 00:10:18.659 --> 00:10:21.399 highly specific entries. The ones that really 00:10:21.399 --> 00:10:24.039 scream for attention. Yes. Most of the songs 00:10:24.039 --> 00:10:26.639 on this list rely on the sleek one word title. 00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:30.100 But then Big and Rich show up in 2004 and their 00:10:30.100 --> 00:10:32.779 entry stretches the convention entirely. They 00:10:32.779 --> 00:10:34.539 couldn't help themselves. It is fully titled 00:10:34.539 --> 00:10:37.899 Rollin' The Ballad of Big and Rich. They literally 00:10:37.899 --> 00:10:40.000 forced their own names into the parenthetical 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:42.100 of the title. Very on brand for them. Highly 00:10:42.100 --> 00:10:44.279 on brand. You also have Hootie and the Blowfish 00:10:44.279 --> 00:10:48.100 bringing their own flavor with a 2019 song from 00:10:48.100 --> 00:10:50.700 an album called Imperfect Circle. That's a great 00:10:50.700 --> 00:10:53.360 album title. It is. And we certainly can't forget 00:10:53.360 --> 00:10:55.960 the heavy metal side of things. Texas Hippie 00:10:55.960 --> 00:10:58.720 Coalition has an entry for Roland that covers 00:10:58.720 --> 00:11:01.539 both their 2010 album and the title song from 00:11:01.539 --> 00:11:04.580 that album. Double duty. It just proves how endlessly 00:11:04.580 --> 00:11:07.019 varied the applications of this word can be. 00:11:07.240 --> 00:11:09.600 It serves whatever purpose the artist needs it 00:11:09.600 --> 00:11:13.139 to serve, whether that is a punchy one word pop 00:11:13.139 --> 00:11:16.179 hook or a sprawling self -referential ballad. 00:11:16.179 --> 00:11:18.620 Exactly. But I think it is time we step outside 00:11:18.620 --> 00:11:20.659 of the recording studio entirely. I am ready. 00:11:21.019 --> 00:11:23.440 Because as deep as that music section goes, this 00:11:23.440 --> 00:11:26.519 list proves that Roland is far more than just 00:11:26.519 --> 00:11:28.860 a musical phenomenon or a piece of slang. Oh, 00:11:28.919 --> 00:11:31.159 without a doubt. When you scroll past the music, 00:11:31.259 --> 00:11:34.279 we land on a section simply titled Other Uses. 00:11:34.299 --> 00:11:36.759 Always a fun section on Wikipedia. Oh, it's the 00:11:36.759 --> 00:11:39.340 best. And right away, the page reminds us that 00:11:39.340 --> 00:11:41.379 human beings actually walk around with this as 00:11:41.379 --> 00:11:43.559 their official legal first name. Really, people. 00:11:43.779 --> 00:11:45.740 It is printed on birth certificates and driver's 00:11:45.740 --> 00:11:48.539 licenses. But beyond that, it is literally stamped 00:11:48.539 --> 00:11:51.460 onto maps and coded into... early computer software. 00:11:51.679 --> 00:11:54.519 The transition from pop culture into geography 00:11:54.519 --> 00:11:57.419 and technology is where the time capsule element 00:11:57.419 --> 00:12:00.559 really solidifies. Right. Because in geography, 00:12:00.860 --> 00:12:03.440 the list points us to Rollin Township, located 00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:05.860 in Michigan in the United States. So you could 00:12:05.860 --> 00:12:08.019 drive there right now. It is an actual physical 00:12:08.019 --> 00:12:10.379 destination you can drive through. And speaking 00:12:10.379 --> 00:12:13.259 of driving, the industrial history documented 00:12:13.259 --> 00:12:15.799 here is incredible. Oh, the motor company. Yes. 00:12:16.100 --> 00:12:19.100 We have an entry for Rollin Motors. The text 00:12:19.100 --> 00:12:21.350 describes... It describes it as a 1920s American 00:12:21.350 --> 00:12:24.389 car brand, noting that it was founded by a man 00:12:24.389 --> 00:12:26.590 named Rollin White. Makes sense. And it even 00:12:26.590 --> 00:12:28.970 provides a cross -reference directing users to 00:12:28.970 --> 00:12:31.509 the White Motor Company. So we are looking at 00:12:31.509 --> 00:12:33.929 1920s American automotive manufacturing on the 00:12:33.929 --> 00:12:37.629 exact same list as 2017 K -pop. And nested right 00:12:37.629 --> 00:12:39.929 between the physical soil of a Michigan township 00:12:39.929 --> 00:12:42.429 and the physical steel of a 1920s automobile, 00:12:42.809 --> 00:12:45.570 you find a piece of purely digital history. It's 00:12:45.570 --> 00:12:48.700 a software. The list includes a 1995 video game 00:12:48.700 --> 00:12:51.740 simply titled Roland. It was an MS -DOS game 00:12:51.740 --> 00:12:54.399 created by a company called Ticksoft. MS -DOS. 00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:56.700 That takes me back. For anyone who might not 00:12:56.700 --> 00:12:59.860 remember that era of computing, MS -DOS was that 00:12:59.860 --> 00:13:02.860 old -school black screen with the blinking cursor. 00:13:03.159 --> 00:13:05.899 Before Windows and mice. Exactly. Where you actually 00:13:05.899 --> 00:13:07.759 had to type in text commands just to make the 00:13:07.759 --> 00:13:10.539 computer boot up a program. I just love picturing 00:13:10.539 --> 00:13:13.779 someone in 1995 sitting in a dark room illuminated 00:13:13.779 --> 00:13:18.320 by a giant heavy beige CRT monitor clacking away 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:20.759 on a keyboard to boot up Roland by Ticksoft. 00:13:20.860 --> 00:13:23.120 If we connect this to the bigger picture, it 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:26.700 acts as a brilliant analogy for the entire evolution 00:13:26.700 --> 00:13:29.179 of human industry over the 20th century. Look 00:13:29.179 --> 00:13:32.080 at the progression represented just in this brief 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:35.759 other uses section. You start in the 1920s. With 00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:38.899 heavy, physical, industrial manufacturing. Right. 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:41.019 A literal motor company bearing a man's name, 00:13:41.179 --> 00:13:44.379 Rollin White, is an era of steel, oil, and assembly 00:13:44.379 --> 00:13:46.960 lines. Very tangible stuff. Then society progresses, 00:13:47.159 --> 00:13:50.100 and you jump to the 1990s, the dawn of the digital 00:13:50.100 --> 00:13:52.799 age for the masses. Right. Now, the exact same 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:55.820 word is attached to digital software. An MS -DOS 00:13:55.820 --> 00:13:57.919 video game built entirely out of invisible code 00:13:57.919 --> 00:14:00.700 and pixels. Completely intangible. And all the 00:14:00.700 --> 00:14:03.320 while... It remains anchored to the physical 00:14:03.320 --> 00:14:07.299 earth as a quiet township in Michigan. Wow. It 00:14:07.299 --> 00:14:09.419 beautifully illustrates how our naming conventions 00:14:09.419 --> 00:14:12.159 carry forward, even as our medium of creation 00:14:12.159 --> 00:14:15.720 completely changes. That progression from physical 00:14:15.720 --> 00:14:19.080 steel to invisible code is such a fascinating 00:14:19.080 --> 00:14:22.100 lens. But I have to warn everyone, we haven't 00:14:22.100 --> 00:14:24.360 even gotten to the wildest part of the entire 00:14:24.360 --> 00:14:27.220 page. Not even close. Just when you think you 00:14:27.220 --> 00:14:29.279 have a handle on this list, you've got your arms 00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:31.980 wrapped around the pop music, the rural towns, 00:14:32.100 --> 00:14:35.250 the vintage cars, the retro video games. The 00:14:35.250 --> 00:14:38.169 page decides to throw a massive science curveball 00:14:38.169 --> 00:14:40.690 at you right at the very end. The see also section. 00:14:40.850 --> 00:14:43.149 Yes. Is the ultimate left turn. Down at the very 00:14:43.149 --> 00:14:45.009 bottom, tucked away in the see also section, 00:14:45.210 --> 00:14:47.149 there is a link for something called Rollin' 00:14:47.149 --> 00:14:49.850 Film. Rollin' Film. Now naturally you hear that 00:14:49.850 --> 00:14:52.610 phrase and your brain tries to categorize it 00:14:52.610 --> 00:14:53.970 based on everything else we've talked about. 00:14:54.110 --> 00:14:56.429 You're primed for pop culture. Exactly. You think, 00:14:56.429 --> 00:14:58.169 okay, this must be an independent movie or maybe 00:14:58.169 --> 00:15:01.889 a documentary. Or maybe a specific type of photographic 00:15:01.889 --> 00:15:05.279 film used in old cameras. Right. But no, the 00:15:05.279 --> 00:15:08.840 source text explicitly defines Rollin Film as 00:15:08.840 --> 00:15:12.480 a film of liquid helium. A film of liquid helium. 00:15:12.600 --> 00:15:15.440 Yes. It is completely absurd and utterly spectacular. 00:15:15.440 --> 00:15:18.019 I genuinely laughed out loud when I got to that 00:15:18.019 --> 00:15:20.620 line. Same here. Just picture a physicist in 00:15:20.620 --> 00:15:23.440 a sterile laboratory wearing safety goggles, 00:15:23.700 --> 00:15:26.799 intensely studying the properties of liquid helium, 00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:29.720 while a limp biscuit track plays in the background 00:15:29.720 --> 00:15:33.120 and a 1920s mechanic fixes a carburetor. It's 00:15:33.120 --> 00:15:35.580 a beautiful image. That is the absolute beauty 00:15:35.580 --> 00:15:39.299 of a Wikipedia disambiguation page. Think about 00:15:39.299 --> 00:15:41.799 the digital real estate here. It's prime real 00:15:41.799 --> 00:15:44.480 estate. This is arguably the only place in the 00:15:44.480 --> 00:15:47.279 entire known universe where a film of liquid 00:15:47.279 --> 00:15:50.519 helium sits shoulder to shoulder with 1995 Memes 00:15:50.519 --> 00:15:53.639 Doss video games, a 2010 Texas Hippie Coalition 00:15:53.639 --> 00:15:57.659 metal album, and a 2018 Kylie Minogue dance track. 00:15:57.919 --> 00:16:00.019 They are all permanent roommates on this one 00:16:00.019 --> 00:16:03.120 tiny sliver of the internet. Exactly. It represents 00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:05.960 the ultimate democratization of data. A disambiguation 00:16:05.960 --> 00:16:08.220 page doesn't judge the relative cultural importance. 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:09.480 importance of these things. It doesn't care. 00:16:09.639 --> 00:16:12.940 It simply catalogs them without bias. Liquid 00:16:12.940 --> 00:16:16.080 helium physics is given the exact same hierarchical 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:19.639 weight, the exact same bullet point as an unreleased 00:16:19.639 --> 00:16:23.259 2008 pop album. It's all just data to the algorithm. 00:16:23.639 --> 00:16:25.419 And just for the sake of completeness, we should 00:16:25.419 --> 00:16:27.879 do a little housekeeping on the text. Sure. The 00:16:27.879 --> 00:16:31.019 very final link on the page sitting just below 00:16:31.019 --> 00:16:35.019 the liquid helium is a link to rolling, but fully 00:16:35.019 --> 00:16:38.440 spelled out with the G. Rolling disambiguation. 00:16:38.639 --> 00:16:41.240 The ultimate signpost. It is. It is the page 00:16:41.240 --> 00:16:44.039 gently telling the user, if you still haven't 00:16:44.039 --> 00:16:45.960 found what you are looking for among the cars 00:16:45.960 --> 00:16:48.139 and the K -pop, maybe you didn't mean to drop 00:16:48.139 --> 00:16:51.200 the G after all. Try next door. Exactly. Here 00:16:51.200 --> 00:16:53.220 is the door to the fully spelled out version 00:16:53.220 --> 00:16:55.759 of the word. So what does this all mean? Big 00:16:55.759 --> 00:16:58.659 question. We started today with a single, incredibly 00:16:58.659 --> 00:17:01.679 brief document. A page that only exists in the 00:17:01.679 --> 00:17:04.279 background to fix broken digital links. A traffic 00:17:04.279 --> 00:17:06.970 cop. Right. But when you actually take the time 00:17:06.970 --> 00:17:09.990 to read it, it maps a full century of human endeavor. 00:17:10.269 --> 00:17:13.029 It really does. We traveled from a 1920s American 00:17:13.029 --> 00:17:17.089 car brand through a 1974 cultural clash between 00:17:17.089 --> 00:17:19.930 the Bay City Rollers and Randy Newman right into 00:17:19.930 --> 00:17:23.250 a bizarre global K -pop and country music convergence 00:17:23.250 --> 00:17:27.210 in 2017, all the way down to the atomic physics 00:17:27.210 --> 00:17:29.390 of liquid helium. And for you, the listener, 00:17:29.529 --> 00:17:32.410 I think there is a really practical, grounded 00:17:32.410 --> 00:17:34.769 takeaway here. I'd love to hear it. This matters. 00:17:35.079 --> 00:17:37.680 because it is a perfect reminder that information 00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:41.319 never exists in silos. Never. We have this deep 00:17:41.319 --> 00:17:44.240 societal tendency to compartmentalize our world. 00:17:44.519 --> 00:17:47.480 We put science in one rigid box, pop culture 00:17:47.480 --> 00:17:49.779 in another, and industrial history in a third. 00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:52.559 We like neat categories. We do, but language 00:17:52.559 --> 00:17:55.299 doesn't care about our boxes. Language is a shared 00:17:55.299 --> 00:17:57.380 resource. That's a great point. It is constantly 00:17:57.380 --> 00:18:00.000 reused, recycled, and repurposed by completely 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:02.759 unrelated fields. The next time you are looking 00:18:02.759 --> 00:18:05.079 at a mundane list, or scrolling through a drop 00:18:05.079 --> 00:18:07.440 -down menu, or staring at a dry spreadsheet at 00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:10.200 work, I encourage you to look just a little closer. 00:18:10.359 --> 00:18:12.440 Big deeper. Look for those hidden tapestries 00:18:12.440 --> 00:18:15.500 of connections. boring navigational tools in 00:18:15.500 --> 00:18:18.539 our daily lives are so often built directly on 00:18:18.539 --> 00:18:21.960 top of incredibly rich bizarre human histories 00:18:21.960 --> 00:18:25.160 the history of the world is hiding in plain sight 00:18:25.160 --> 00:18:27.619 in the administrative pages of the internet well 00:18:27.619 --> 00:18:30.420 said we are going to leave you today with a final 00:18:30.420 --> 00:18:32.960 lingering thought to ponder on your own let's 00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:36.609 hear it If dropping a single letter from a single 00:18:36.609 --> 00:18:39.910 word to swapping a G for a tiny apostrophe can 00:18:39.910 --> 00:18:42.289 reveal a cultural footprint spanning a century 00:18:42.289 --> 00:18:45.150 of automobiles, early software, and international 00:18:45.150 --> 00:18:47.910 pop music, what other everyday words in your 00:18:47.910 --> 00:18:50.549 vocabulary have completely hidden parallel lives 00:18:50.549 --> 00:18:53.589 just waiting to be disambiguated? Something to 00:18:53.589 --> 00:18:55.390 think about. Thank you so much for joining us 00:18:55.390 --> 00:18:57.670 on this deep dive. Keep learning, keep questioning, 00:18:57.809 --> 00:18:59.109 and we will see you next time.