Is a Technological Takeover Inevitable

My real worry is that it doesn't matter what we think is right. That technology always goes towards innovation. It always goes towards improvements. It always goes towards technology advancing where it's more effective, more available, easier, better, cheaper, faster. This is what we always do. This is what we've done with every single thing we've ever invented. It's got to happen with that as well. I think the difference between our position is that you think the march of technology is completely inevitable and there's nothing we can do to shape it or stop it. It's just going to happen. Whereas I think none of this is inevitable. I think human beings are capable of adapting and changing without technology. This year is a really good example of this. We're all waiting for a vaccine. The vaccine has not arrived. We've saved ourselves by changing our behavior. Changing our behavior in a altruistic way by staying at home even though we might not get sick with coronavirus or wearing masks for other people's benefit. I think human beings are really adaptable. We can adapt by changing our behavior rather than relying on technology. This march of technology only exists if we continue to always think that technology is the solution. People have to make this stuff and people have to buy this stuff in order for it to march on. We always have the power to say, you know what, I don't want it. I think reasonable people like yourself, yes, that's going to happen. But clearly you've seen videos of Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale where kids are making out, half naked, on the beach. Nobody gives a fuck about coronavirus. Then there's maps that show the spread of them leaving Florida and going all through the rest of the country. And then all these infections that show up there. But there's enough people that are being reasonable that when those things happen, it's really shit and people get ill. But it's not the end of the world. That's the point. I think most people are reasonable and are able to behave in a kind of way where the good kind of wins out. I think I agree with you on a lot of these things. However, when I look at human beings, I try to look at human beings as if I was from another planet, if I was an alien. And I looked at them without any connection to the way they think or behave or their culture. And I said, well, what do these things do? Well, this is what they do. They make technology. All they do is make technology. They're obsessed with materialism, which plays into technology. It plays into this want and need for the bigger, better, faster, greater thing that comes around every year. And that's what fuels them to work every day. They go to work and they toil. And one of the things they reward themselves with is the newest, greatest thing. And this is the fuel for this technological growth. And this technological growth appears unstoppable because it seems like that's all the human animal does. If you looked at it from afar objectively, all I'm seeing is a constant wave of technology. But I don't think that's true because we don't just make technology. We also talk to each other and we communicate like you and I are now. And we have discussions and we are capable of incredible change and that we could live in a world where it was OK to keep slaves and impregnate your wife every year and keep her in the kitchen. But through having these discussions, we can really, really change the way we live very drastically from one generation to the next. It's not just technology. It's also what defines a human being is that we use technology and that we're social animals. And those are two different things. And the idea that the technological advancement is always going to win out isn't necessarily what I buy. I'm not saying it's going to win out. I don't think it's going to win out. I think it's just it's inevitable. And I think we're going to find it's inevitable. And as a society, we can make change just as much as we can make change by using technology. Yeah, that is the fascinating balance. Right. I mean, most people today are aware that they're addicted to their cell phones, yet most people still use their cell phones. We were aware that it's harming us, but yet we still use them because we just go, it's just a phone. No big deal. But you know, it's a big deal. Everybody. I know it's a big deal. I know I checked my messages too much, but yet I still check my messages too much. And I'm aware of it. And I've read a lot of books about it. But I think if you thought it was harming you enough, if you thought it was destroying your brain cells, you wouldn't. Right. The point is, it's about it's about how you weigh up harm and you think, yeah, you know, I should probably be doing other things. Oh, I shouldn't be constantly checking the Twitter feed of that person I hate that's bad for my soul. But you still do it because it's bad for your soul, but only a little bit. And if it was really, really corrosive and bad and then you would stop. I mean, yeah, maybe you're a healthy person or maybe you're one of those people that likes to pick scabs and you just you just keep scratching. That's possible. Yeah. I'm worried for people. I really genuinely am. And this is as a person who enjoys people. I just I don't know how much time we have left in this form. Like when I look at the archetypal alien, when you see those little gray men with the big heads, I'm worried that what that is is like we instinctively know that that's our future. That we're going to be these genderless, weird things that reproduce through some sort of, you know, some sort of some sort of technology instead of these bizarre, imperfect biological creatures with emotions that we you and I both enjoy so much because of all those all the weirdness. I mean, my whole business, everything I do is about the weirdness of people, whether it's stand up comedy, whether it's podcasts or even fighting. When I do commentary on fighting, that's all the weirdness and imperfect nature of the human animal. And I think it's awesome. I mean, I love people. Don't get me wrong. I'm not rooting for technology to do this, but I see the writing on the wall. It's not pretty. Well, the thing is, it's all about the richness of the human experience. What makes it interesting to be human, which isn't just the basic functions of our life or basic logic. You know, the fact that we have art galleries everywhere and music, you know, music, which is completely, completely illogical. Yeah, it's because there's more to being human than those basic functions. I mean, when you talk about, you know, sexless aliens reproducing without sex, like that kind of stuff is going to happen quite soon. And I looked into quite a lot of this. We can make like gametes. We can make cells. They can do this in mice. You can make sperm and eggs out of cheek cells. So you could make an egg out of your cheek cell and sperm. There'll be a future where people can make sperm and egg whichever one they need for whichever relationship they're in and that you can grow a baby outside the human body and we will become less and less gendered. That is going to happen. You know, the end of sex for reproduction is quite possible that we will just have sex for fun and then we'll do babies in this kind of very controlled way. But we're always going to be weird human beings. We're always going to like strange things like dancing around to music, all this stuff that can't be explained. And the drive to be weird and the drive to be illogical is very, very powerful. And I just think I think I'm not so deterministic about stuff. And when I was when I was like doing all the work for my book, I was quite worried it was going to be really depressing because, you know, in a book like mine, like you come to a conclusion where it's like, well, there's a future where women might be obsolete, where we can be replaced by robots and artificial uterases and, you know, misogynist men can live without us. Or, you know, all of these things are really dark and worrying, but that's that's to buy a particular view of human nature as as being a kind of slave to whatever comes next. And we're too kind of weird and idiosyncratic, I think, to be done away with that easily. Episodes of the Joe Rogan experience are now free on Spotify. That's right. They're free from September 1st to December 1st. They're going to be available everywhere. But after December 1st, they will only be available on Spotify, but they will be free. That includes the video. The video will also be there. It'll also be free. That's all we're asking. Go download Spotify. Much love. Bye bye.