Founder. Poet. Scientist. https://aqeelakber.com/ Tue, 16 Jun 2026 11:14:34 +1000 Tue, 16 Jun 2026 11:14:34 +1000 Jekyll v4.4.1 <aside class="extravaganza-cta extravaganza-cta--top"> <p class="extravaganza-cta__lead">Proudly sponsored by my own company.</p> <p class="extravaganza-cta__action"><a class="extravaganza-cta__link" href="https://getmeos.com/extra-ep3-micoff">Get the app → <strong>getmeos.com/extra</strong></a></p> <p class="extravaganza-cta__creed" data-creed>meos is where i keep thinking with the mic off.</p> </aside> <p> Connecting Stories — conversation with Sarah Mak (CEO of Folktale). The Aqeel Akber Extra Extra Extravaganza, made by Aqeel in Canberra. </p> <p> Watch the full episode below — also on the podcast feed wherever you listen. </p> <div class="extravaganza-player" id="extravaganza-yt-anchor"> <iframe id="extravaganza-yt" width="100%" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/voxPVSDPcVc?enablejsapi=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Faqeelakber.com&rel=0" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div> <section class="extravaganza-teaser"> <h2 class="extravaganza-teaser__heading">In this episode</h2> <div class="extravaganza-teaser__section"> <h3 class="extravaganza-teaser__label">The facts</h3> <ul class="extravaganza-teaser__list"> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">Sarah Mak, co-founder and CEO of Folktale, joins Aqeel for episode three, Connecting Stories.</li> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">Folktale connects people who know stories with those who need to hear them.</li> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">Their conversation recalls a Pacific customer event celebrating community story excellence across many countries.</li> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">Much of the discussion centres on development-sector reporting beyond lengthy written documents.</li> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">Trust, consent, and where shared stories travel recur as the conversation deepens.</li> </ul> </div> <div class="extravaganza-teaser__section"> <h3 class="extravaganza-teaser__label">Between the facts</h3> <p class="extravaganza-teaser__prose">What begins as a memory of communities celebrating their own achievements soon folds into harder questions about evidence, outcomes, and what gets left out when reporting stays numerical and impersonal. Sarah and Aqeel keep returning to the gap between the stories humans naturally share and the systems that still prefer summaries, metrics, and text without context.</p> </div> <div class="extravaganza-teaser__section"> <h3 class="extravaganza-teaser__label">Beyond the facts</h3> <p class="extravaganza-teaser__prose extravaganza-teaser__prose--beyond">Beneath the practical talk of platforms and programmes sits a quieter argument: that understanding is incomplete when lived experience is treated as optional data. As tools accelerate and more decisions lean on machine-readable information, the human texture of who speaks, who listens, and who is kept safe becomes harder to ignore.</p> </div> <div class="extravaganza-teaser__section"> <h3 class="extravaganza-teaser__label">Why you should listen</h3> <p class="extravaganza-teaser__prose extravaganza-teaser__prose--why">The arc does not resolve into a product pitch or a policy answer. It moves from celebration and purpose toward trust as the condition that makes sharing possible at all, and ends in the kind of open uncertainty these conversations are meant to hold. Worth staying for the full exchange if you care how story, technology, and accountability meet in real communities.</p> </div> </section> <section class="extravaganza-transcript"> <h2 class="extravaganza-transcript__heading">Transcript</h2> <p class="extravaganza-transcript__note">Auto-generated from captions — likely errors. Timestamps seek the embedded player.</p> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__body"> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="0"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT0S">0:00</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">This is episode three.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="4"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT4S">0:04</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">We've started recording. How did you record? When it picks up a hand, it starts recording. So now this just happened. Okay, so I guess now we start.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="14"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT14S">0:14</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Go for it. Warm cold. This is this is episode 3. Sarah. Hi. Would you like to introduce yourself? I'm Sarah. I'm the co -founder and CEO of Folktale.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="27"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT27S">0:27</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And uh and uh uh our purpose is to connect people who know and have stories with those Who need to know them that's a good start it's a really good start um so i met Sarah at their oscars event x years ago two three years ago it was a customer event yeah Yeah it was a celebration of story excellence in a particular kind of community group across like eight To ten countries in the pacific and they're celebrating the achievements they were doing and I remember our</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="62"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT1M2S">1:02</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Conversation because we had just arrived in Canberra and um and what was great is that the whole Celebration was nothing to do about technology right and we're a technology company and it was all about The celebration of what the people had achieved the stories of celebration all the ways of connection, the Ways they're connecting through, you know, through our platform.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="82"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT1M22S">1:22</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So we were really much in service of what the individuals and the communities and the partners had Been able to do themselves because we were supporting them.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="94"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT1M34S">1:34</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I will describe how I remember the event and what I got from it. There were a lot of communities that were,</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="103"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT1M43S">1:43</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">From my understanding, the thing of like, let's say you're getting stories from one place to another to The people need to hear it. It was to do with whether, was it aid that was given?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="113"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT1M53S">1:53</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah, that's the development sector. Yeah, like in the development sector. And then they were effectively providing reporting</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="121"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT2M1S">2:01</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Back in a way that was natural, real, and authentic, rather than writing a 40 -page document. Written report, often a different language that people often don't read.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="134"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT2M14S">2:14</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So the The whole approach to how we're communicating and connecting evidence, anecdotes to outcomes, that's sort of The place where we sit. It's really disconnected. We have lots of information.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="148"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT2M28S">2:28</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Often it's numbers and it's not really human. So how do we actually start to bring in personal experiences and human insight that often gets missed In a lot of the complex work that organizations often do?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="163"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT2M43S">2:43</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Why does that matter? Yeah, it's a great question. Why does it matter? I think we're wired for stories as humans, right? Like we're talking about our experiences and the ways in which we connect through conversation.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="176"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT2M56S">2:56</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And yet we're making decisions on very non -human things, on numbers and reports and things that are Actually missing the richness and the depth of what actually happens.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="186"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT3M6S">3:06</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So if you think about, like, information gathering, we really want to understand what happens within ongoing programs Or initiatives. We want to know, are we doing a good job?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="199"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT3M19S">3:19</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Are we achieving the things we want to achieve? And the system that it often sits within is do reports, give us some numbers. And those are good.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="209"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT3M29S">3:29</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Those are important. I'm not saying that that's not right. I think it's just missing a lot of you're missing data and qualitative data stories in the form Of multimedia not just written but verbal visual just the ways in which we connect there's so much That's being missed so what does that mean for actually making more informed decisions trusting that you have So much evidence or sharing of reflections and moments that can really help you move the needle on Decision you're making on ongoing basis.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="246"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT4M6S">4:06</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So it matters because we're human, I think. Yeah.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="250"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT4M10S">4:10</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's especially this comes up, let's say like, or AI space is moving so fast. But I used to say a few months ago, at least how important it is that we have The context, not just the text, Correct.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="264"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT4M24S">4:24</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And artificial intelligence or large language models have been trained with a lot of the text. They hadn't yet got the richness of the context, which has made it a bit drier.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="274"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT4M34S">4:34</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah. And then you can imagine that's why the decision -making was not going to be quite as good. And the more modality, fidelity, and context of the experience is what matters.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="287"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT4M47S">4:47</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah. It's like bringing it to the AI. Have you seen the thing in AI where people are always testing it where it's like, I have My car's dirty, I need to go to the car wash, it's 100 meters away, do I drive A walk?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="301"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT5M1S">5:01</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And the AI always says to walk, right? Because it never had an experience of a body. Of course it's going to answer that way. In the same way, if you're going to then make decisions based on other people's sort of experience, And all you have is a document.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="318"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT5M18S">5:18</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah you have a document that has outputs outputs outputs we delivered x number of workshops we were Able to do y number of things but those are a lot of activities that don't necessarily say Have we achieved the ultimate outcomes we're trying to do all of those things accumulate to what do Good outcomes look like for all of us right and how do we do that in a really Simple streamlined an effective way that enables all types of people in the ecosystem to engage and participate.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="351"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT5M51S">5:51</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">How do you define a story? A story, oh my goodness, that's a really great question because I think the word story has been Taken apart and used in different ways.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="362"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT6M2S">6:02</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">A story is a telling and retelling of events in your own perspective. Whether it's true or not, it's a moment in time. It's part of information you have.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="373"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT6M13S">6:13</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And a story can be built by many different ways in terms of the expression of a story. It can be multimedia, visual, written, you know, in terms of the medium itself.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="386"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT6M26S">6:26</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">But as simple as it gets, a story is just telling and retelling of events. That's important to you. Is that part of the, I guess, Pressure where it's an experiential and subjective thing, storytelling, that makes it difficult for having productionization for business Is that why we've moved we evolved into a world without it and now we swung too far And we need to recalibrate what do you think it's a great question i think that i don't Think it'S a simple question i Think that we're trying to make sense of things in an easy</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="421"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT7M1S">7:01</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And fast way and oftentimes you can take a number and you can say great we can kind Of make sense as quickly as possible but the nuance and depth is often is what's missing, right?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="432"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT7M12S">7:12</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And I think we swung one way to try and make some decisions, whether they be right or Wrong, in one direction. Interestingly, now, everyone's kind of seeking that, you know, that richness and that depth, even regulators are saying, We want to hear, actually, we want to have this understanding of grounded knowledge coming directly from different Perspectives.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="453"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT7M33S">7:33</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And often, that's really hard to do. And so it's not that we like, I think I think we do it because often the system Itself, it costs a lot of money.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="462"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT7M42S">7:42</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">If you were to look at traditional approaches, really expensive to go and connect on an individual basis To hear from different perspective. It's faster to say, oh, there was 100 people there, we've met the milestone.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="476"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT7M56S">7:56</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I think it's a complex system -wide conversation around why we've swung one way, but I think as Emergence of AI, the emergence of all this new kind of approaches of working, people are now starting To talk about, and we're seeing this faster, the notion of what connection means, the notion what the Human experience can mean amongst this really interesting fast -paced environment where truth and, you know, complexity is Coming in.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="506"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT8M26S">8:26</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">What do you think?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="509"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT8M29S">8:29</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I am really lucky i have a great upbringing from my parents my dad for me it always Dropped these little like one line truth bombs because a poet and a scientist and i've gone through A lot of stuff as well i'll definitely be interviewing him at some and it's those snapshots of Stories that are in a sentence that are foundational to me that I use to guide me.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="539"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT8M59S">8:59</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And that's sort of why I like writing poetry as well and I have so many mantras because These are the narratives or the schema because it's a schema, right?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="549"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT9M9S">9:09</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">You do the thing to shortcut to be able to get somewhere and how can I add more Complexity to that? It has to be creative. It has be hitting something in the human condition to be be able have to expand into something That is actually going to drive me to be moving towards an outcome, right?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="562"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT9M22S">9:22</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Absolutely. Like my personal mission is to decrease otherness while simultaneously increasing individual safety. Yes. And between those two paradoxes, those pressures, I believe that's the thing that will allow me to drive Forward.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="577"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT9M37S">9:37</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So that's how I've used the story to get me a direct outcome rather than just measuring have I done a chapter box. So I use stories in that way quite a lot.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="591"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT9M51S">9:51</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's, I suppose,</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="594"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT9M54S">9:54</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">When there's things with mathematics and numbers and for the machinery of business, it's, uh,</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="600"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT10M0S">10:00</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I try to connect them as much as possible as well. Yeah. But that takes tricky math and we've managed to do a bit of a familiar, like we've got Our own, we defined our own I guess currency unit for the AI usage that we have control Over.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="618"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT10M18S">10:18</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So now I can make it accounting for carbon credits so I know it's green thought moving along And this and that so you have to you have develop complexity and I see that</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="630"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT10M30S">10:30</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Especially in like storytelling pitching trying to get results and in business everyone's like make it simpler make It simple I don't necessarily believe people are looking for simplicity but I think they look for elegance And i call elegance finding like the simple path in complexity and then it's like an elegant sort Of thing that's what's i try to strike out of things to get effective results yeah</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="665"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT11M5S">11:05</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">That's to me a story is like the narrative we have to be able to like a schema It cuts through, right? It has that elegance. And one of the things we talk about with story is speak to the heart to move the Mind.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="680"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT11M20S">11:20</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And to do that, that's really difficult sometimes to do, right. How do you do that? Is there a distinction between the heart and the mind?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="690"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT11M30S">11:30</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Is there distinction? I think they're somewhat connected. They're very much connected, but it's more what moves what. Oftentimes, if you think about, depending on the individuals, are you driven by visuals?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="702"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT11M42S">11:42</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Like if you see something and you want to eat it right do you smell it first you See it first you taste it first do you think about it first right some people you know Just in terms of even having i'm gonna have you thought um have you heard of something called Aphantasia i was gonna say i have it i have severe aphantasia yeah wow we both have aphantasha There you go however dave doesn't if i can tell him hey i want pasta tonight he can</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="729"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT12M9S">12:09</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Close and visualize it in 3d and be able to like have picture on picture and and so Then when i'm like actually i've changed my mind i think i want you know i think I Want tacos and said no no no i have visualized it it's ready to go and i'm not Like no no it doesn't matter to me but that visual response so going back to your question It all depends on now the input of how you how you connect all the different parts of</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="753"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT12M33S">12:33</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Your body which are connected yeah but fun that you have aphantasia i haven't met a lot of People yeah when i first heard it like i guess around covid there were it went viral where Not everyone has a audio like inner voice then not everyone had an inner voice yes and then It came up with not everyone has the visuals yes and i'm like oh right yeah of course I'm probably i don't have visuals i never looked into it to see that it was actually a</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="778"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT12M58S">12:58</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Minority of people yeah and then i heard like many many years later where it's like oh aphantasia Only like two percent of people have it, which is probably a lot more.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="788"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT13M8S">13:08</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I think it's more of a discovery because it's still really new in terms of its understanding. It's just a difference in the human condition. Yeah. I like it.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="798"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT13M18S">13:18</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I love it. No. I'm not limited. You know, I have no limitations. I can close my eyes and be like, end of day, off we go. Yeah, open eyes.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="806"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT13M26S">13:26</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Let's go again. Yeah yeah and in my pottery episode that I did um because my pottery maestro he was shocked That i could exist in the world without being able to visualize something he'd never heard of this Idea but then i was able to just completely vibe and just go with the flow so it Was much more playful which is something that in the moment is yeah yeah kind of kind of Needed wow that's really interesting because i think when i try and explain aphantasia to people?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="838"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT13M58S">13:58</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Like, I guess, how would you explain aphantasia, just for people who don't understand? I've described this to a few people, and somebody who's told me they did a test on me Because they were so surprised of this.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="848"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT14M8S">14:08</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">They're like, okay, go ahead, visualize a horse. What way is it facing? Yeah. And I'm like, I don't know. That's not even a thing. Yeah. But if you ask me to visualize a force, I'll be like, yeah, I'm visualizing it.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="859"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT14M19S">14:19</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah, sure, sure. But you're thinking about it. You're not seeing it, though, right? I have the...</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="865"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT14M25S">14:25</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">This is where it gets interesting. Because I do have, no, it's definitely completely nothing there. But I have a visual intelligence and understanding that I utilize. And I've utilized it a lot in my physics studies.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="877"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT14M37S">14:37</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And it's also why I can understand things in higher dimensionality spaces. So I can just as easily visualize four dimensions as I do three. When you say visualize, though.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="890"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT14M50S">14:50</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's my comprehension of visualization. Yeah, likewise. So it's not like the second monitor that other people have, the picture -in -picture second monitor. Yeah, well, if your eyes are open, like, for example, my husband Dave, if he's driving and he's On the road, and I'm like, can you see a unicorn in the road?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="909"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT15M9S">15:09</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">He was like, yep, I can see that picture -on -pickure. Yeah, yeah. It's definitely not that at all, not at all. But I do recognize a visual intelligence, a visual comprehension being different to my other comprehension and my Language comprehension.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="923"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT15M23S">15:23</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">But I'm not limited to things I've seen or three dimensions. So I can do rotations in four -dimensional space of objects, and I can understand that. Mm -hmm.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="933"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT15M33S">15:33</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah, so that's a good thing. I think that's wonderful. It is, though,</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="938"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT15M38S">15:38</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">If you do have such... Something I really find interesting is Qualia. You know about Qualia? Yes, well, yes, in terms of some of the work they do.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="947"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT15M47S">15:47</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Oh, no, not a company. Oh, it's a company! The name of the company is called Qualia! No, there is a company called Qualiar. Yeah, there it is.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="953"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT15M53S">15:53</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">But I'm talking about the term qualia where it's like, you know, my green is different to your Green. Oh, OK. Yes. Sorry. I went down company. But yes.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="960"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT16M0S">16:00</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah. Yeah. So because of that fact, how is it possible to tell stories? And so I think of words as lossy compression. Like I have this crazy idea in my head of like my understanding.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="976"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT16M16S">16:16</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And then I compress it into a serial string of words. And I hope you absorb it and decompress it into the same idea. But obviously, that doesn't happen.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="985"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT16M25S">16:25</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's not true. How can we minimize risks and guarantee outcomes and get things going on? And is this the reason why it's so tricky to do what you do?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="997"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT16M37S">16:37</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Very tricky. I think that when someone is sharing their expression of a story or their experience, it's it's that's Only one part of the experience it's how it's received how it's heard what people do with it So it's that call and response of sharing and then listening and what you make of it in Terms of processing so that in itself is really lots of the skewed bias and complexity in terms What that actually means as you mentioned and there's also like everyone that chooses to share their reflections</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1038"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT17M18S">17:18</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Or experience is not to say one is to determine if it's right or wrong. It's also that is one experience amongst potentially a multitude of experiences. And so you also look at what that means for the individual contribution through to a collective and What you can learn from all of those different knowledges and experiences coming through and what does that Mean for us to then make sense of information as the listener who wants to understand what's going On both at the collective as well through to the individual and how do we actually start to</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1075"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT17M55S">17:55</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Make sense all that information To see the outcomes or the understanding to make decisions as a result of that contribution yeah does That make sense so it's like it's not just a it's just a simple kind of world it's Like there's so much context that comes into why people choose to share.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1093"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT18M13S">18:13</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's not just sharing like people can share for the sake of it but naturally it stems from Some sort of context. I'm sharing because or against you know something that I wish to get people to understand further or It's really important to me.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1107"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT18M27S">18:27</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And then how does that actually translate to okay now so what what does that mean for the Receiver? How do we process that? How did we you know actually see action come from the power of story.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1117"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT18M37S">18:37</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Do you speak other languages? I speak two others. Yeah. French and Cantonese. Does it like that storytelling and translation? Is it different across those languages?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1131"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT18M51S">18:51</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">There would be because the language itself, the words that are spoken, Some words in, for example, Cantonese, there's just not a single word that you can distill it down To in English.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1143"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT19M3S">19:03</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">There's naturally a lot of cultural nuance associated with words and</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1148"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT19M8S">19:08</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Even that in itself, I think it is quite different, the stories that are told in the different Languages. Yeah, I'm learning traditional Chinese as an adult now and the way it's being taught to me is Through the history of the evolution of the characters yeah and the way that I found that works For me to understand it semantically is I have to this is very hard for a person with A fantasia take that image and then project it and project it I project it as if it</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1181"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT19M41S">19:41</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Existed in ancient Chinese painting then I can understand the context of what it is there and then I can understand meaning there's so much context yeah I have too you have to understand the cultural Context of the words for me to understand the meaning at all.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1199"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT19M59S">19:59</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Because there's so much depth in, like, a single character, for example, even the way it's written, the History of it. I wonder if I have the book here, actually.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1208"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT20M8S">20:08</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And so how many languages do you speak?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1212"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT20M12S">20:12</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">English. That's it. Oh, okay. Great. And then learning? Yeah, I'm just learning Chinese now. I can understand Urdu.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1220"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT20M20S">20:20</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I learned how to read arabic as a kid i can never understood what i was saying oh Okay that was that was interesting that's interesting it's because i was um learned the quran i just Learned how to recite it and i didn't actually know what it said but at least you could Read it i could read it and then i could memorize it but never understood still time don't Know what the story he is at all yeah cool well I think that um</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1248"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT20M48S">20:48</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Where do you feel like you want to take Folktale Yeah it's a great question but in terms of what that actually mean we really want to be A place where at the heart of everything we do human experience human experience and actually hearing from A whole different group of different people helps change the way we work so from a company perspective We've got some really big aspirations for Folktale is that sort of the questioning in terms of where You want to take it it's like we're talking about communication and moving stories around and i guess</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1294"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT21M34S">21:34</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">You're a tech company that helps that happen</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1298"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT21M38S">21:38</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And there are just we need something for this and it's about where is it going to stand In the future of AI and work and organizations or humanity and people I like you're not just A media company no you're just a tech platform you're, not just as that platform there's clearly something That you're trying to achieve.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1322"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT22M2S">22:02</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Authentic, grounded knowledge. At the same time, I think that in itself, in terms of authentic evidence, how we can then Ensure that that stays at the heart of what we do.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1336"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT22M16S">22:16</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">But naturally, there are applications of AI on our platform around verification and making sure that there's a Level of traceability and understanding the story that someone is told actually gets to the decision.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1349"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT22M29S">22:29</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So there's all these kind of nuances in there. But at the heart of what we do, how do we actually transform systems and decisions through authentic Evidence?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1359"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT22M39S">22:39</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I think that's sort of the way. And that's a really new way of working. Right. So am I understanding this right, is that you're trying to provide a richer link to the source?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1372"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT22M52S">22:52</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Richer link, not only to the resource, yes, but also a greater tapestry of different insights coming through. Not necessarily information or the widely available that's out there that you can aggregate, but it's actually in This space of we actually are really wanting to understand how we can make great progress and impact In the work we're doing.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1394"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT23M14S">23:14</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Is it doing, is the work doing what it's meant to do? And we can do that if we can hear from the individuals who have the knowledge of the Experience right okay so it's like you're in if we made this the terrible method of it it's Like mass surveillance and then trying to bring it into a sort of thing to get an insight Yeah well master that's definitely a great kind of analogy that's one side of it so this is About participation and sharing in a way that um understands i'm sharing this because i know it's gonna</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1428"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT23M48S">23:48</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Really inform i want to share this willingly this is important this is about reflections and progress not Just things that are working not just the happy stories but these are the things that we think Should change that's really cool I wonder if we could use our platform your platform on meos let's Learn more I think that's what's really great about the emergence of all the things we're doing because Like we're a direct -to -consumer company a phone app I've currently got a thing that is you</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1458"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT24M18S">24:18</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Can go into the comm box and message us human beings and give us feedback but if it Was a matter of all of our customers can get feedback in a rich way onto a platform And then we aggregate and then you're going to make decisions that's really yeah it's really really wonderful Tell me like give me an example of how people are using meos right now so I can Kind of see that connection the way people are using me us right now is for capturing their</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1487"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT24M47S">24:47</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Thoughts on the fly that they're a need later and staying in the flow of their inspiration so It's on a phone app where whenever you capture one new thing it shows you all of the Things that you captured about that related to it right so it''s like a flash card yeah but For exactly those associated moments so it it strengthens your stride as you move forward.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1513"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT25M13S">25:13</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And given that it's all private, and everywhere is private, it feels like a safe space to use It. Is it through the medium of all audio at the moment?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1524"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT25M24S">25:24</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Or how are these contributions coming through? Text, audio, image, drawing, actually, as well. You can draw on it. I haven't added video yet, but it's on the roadmap to add video.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1536"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT25M36S">25:36</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's full multimodality and immediate at capturing and play. So when someone has an idea, for example, if I'm, you know, in terms of all of our Different hats that we wear as individuals, if i'm like, all right, so I'm going to talk about This subject versus this subject.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1551"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT25M51S">25:51</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Are you saying that if I want to talk about an idea I have, I'm going to put It into this space, then it starts to keep that all organized in the one?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1560"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT26M0S">26:00</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's your private space. It's a private studio for thought. And in fact, it's got this messenger on it that I hinted to yeah that also becomes your Thoughts it's a space on your phone that is actually trying to service you and bring you back Into the real world rather than the phone app taking you into the digital world okay so it's The other way around yeah so I put all of my ideas in here and thoughts that are Fragmented and then when I need them later I can go and I can talk to the agent</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1587"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT26M27S">26:27</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">On it and it synthesizes it understood yeah it just brings it all up and I just get Something and I move on yeah I use it as a CRM I take photos of business cards Yeah and I take a little audio note of how I actually what I want to do and Who to talk to this person on and then I just go talk to the agent and be Like I'm meeting this person what do I need to do it pulls up all the notes gives</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1608"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT26M48S">26:48</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Me a little brief immediately that's a really great example of how me ask could help streamline all The different thinkings yeah yeah the thing that I like using it the most for though is like A little polaroid moment where i open up the app and i open it directly to start taking An audio recording so it's immediately recording then i press the camera button to start making a photo Yeah take a little selfie with whoever i'm with and i was already recorded the thing beforehand so</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1637"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT27M17S">27:17</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It was doing a bit of a record of all different types of multimedia in that particular thought Process in that pad we call it a pad yeah and then i take the photo and then I write a little note about it like Like I'm writing on the bottom of a Polaroid and I press done.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1651"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT27M31S">27:31</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And most of my meos has these like cute little moments of like I was with my partner. We're at a gig. I started recording. You could hear the music and everything like that.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1661"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT27M41S">27:41</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I captured the photo and then I put a little note of where I was. And that's I call them these little meos moments. Those to me are the things that I find so precious and so important in this product and App.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1675"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT27M55S">27:55</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And it's not getting read by Google or like creepy Google images and anything like that, you know? So it also, I feel like people believe that there is a tradeoff between your privacy and convenience And technology, which there isn't.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1691"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT28M11S">28:11</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">That's why meos is here to be able to give the safety and safe passage through this era Of going into AI and this future where we can have these wonderful connectivities.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1701"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT28M21S">28:21</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">In terms of the messenger, All your direct messages to each other as well, they cluster in that same view with your notes. So if I write down an idea or something and I've messaged somebody about that same idea, those Two things surface each other.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1721"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT28M41S">28:41</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So you can connect ideas to people and it really surfaces who you need to talk to when You need to talk, to them, not just when you have to.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1733"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT28M53S">28:53</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So it gives you a bit of a proactive based upon. Yeah. Everything about meos is to help you get into a flow. A flow of being present as well, by the sounds of it.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1742"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT29M2S">29:02</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Life flow. And not just the workflow, a life flow. It's a life that for work and to be at the highest performance you have to harmonize it With your life anyway at least it feels that way as an entrepreneur and this is really about Capturing and solidifying your the river of your world yeah and in technology and making sure it's safe Feel safe yeah okay that's really interesting because I'm using a whole bunch of different systems yeah that Could align with what you're doing at MIA.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1779"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT29M39S">29:39</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So like back in the day, I used to put everything into Flickr. Oh, Flickre. Flickrer, remember the throwback of those days? But again, very static images and then share it with friends saying, hey, this is what I did Camping.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1791"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT29M51S">29:51</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Here you go, right? And then I can see like really interesting application for, you know, moments in different sectors right away, Like individual from parents through to the actual schools themselves to lots of different moments and flows.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1805"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT30M5S">30:05</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah. So I share straight from Instagram into meos and I picture that all the images so I can Remember these educational things later. Yeah. And I put these moments with my partner and it keeps them separate automatically.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1816"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT30M16S">30:16</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's just a beautiful, beautiful melting pot of mess that is always going to be relevant for me To capture and recall. How does it, Because I've been playing with Obsidian as well.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1829"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT30M29S">30:29</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah, Obsidian has a similar notes to that in a different functionality, right like i think definitely researchers And yeah they'll be using that and so it feels like this is that interweaving like an obsidian World but then you still put in yeah you're different obsidian like we can import from obsidian into meos and i think the big difference obsidian is just markdown plain text files yeah better than with Metadata that allows you to link it yeah i actually just posted yesterday on youtube and linkedin about</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1861"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT31M1S">31:01</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Meos constellation and i talk about like how the linking that you put in obsidian in fact if You have to use a link as a keyword</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1874"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT31M14S">31:14</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">That goes to the exact same thing where like a bit of text and a keyword will never In fact tell the story of what the actual context is inside of that just organization of key Moments and it's organization of keywords but for why you don't really actually look at it it's probably Organized in the wrong lens anyway yeah so meos gets around all of that and works in this Semantic higher level space so it's always about meaning hmm yeah yeah i think okay let's talk more</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1903"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT31M43S">31:43</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">About this i can definitely see some potential collaborations oh really yeah oh my god that's really interesting Okay yeah yeah so it it's a fun product and i think that but for me from like A business perspective of course i want to know what's happening with my users and how they're feeling It and telling stories because complex things and complex products are what we're going to have to move Towards and telling the stories elegantly is the hard part it is really particularly if it's not through</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1934"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT32M14S">32:14</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Like a third party but it is done from a whole different group of individuals that otherwise would Never be asked right they never would be invited to share now it's like what are we missing It's not the ones that we are hearing from but it's like who have we not heard from That's the stuff we're really interested in is that is that the folk tale is that the idea Behind it yeah it's about being able to well yeah that's a whole other conversation around the name</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1963"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT32M43S">32:43</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Itself right yeah the name himself comes from like you know from our history of ideation um yeah The name our name folk tale is about like different stories different stories that we tell ourselves yeah Yeah so storytelling always comes up like in every other podcast for sure it does yeah i can Get the the fact that this is is this telling a story are we telling a story to Somebody that's listening or are we talking story to each other who is it for exactly yeah it's</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1994"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT33M14S">33:14</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Not just and sometimes it's just for yourself as a way of documenting so we don't miss those Moments right i think that's fine too it's just identifying who are we doing it for and if We don't know that's fun we can just keep it in our our little capsule if that is The outcome you're looking to achieve so in the process of creating are you also consuming but</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2023"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT33M43S">33:43</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Not mandatory like as like you don't have to but oftentimes there is a huge there's a huge Kind of body of engagement around when I share I want to know who else is sharing as Well and I potentially wish to but again but if you make a capsule it's for yourself you've Consumed your own work consuming your own work but I guess consuming others or my own you're always A consumer of your own because is a sense of pride as well and what you do for</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2053"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT34M13S">34:13</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yourselves right you don't want to just even if you create something you still want to know that There's pride there there's something that i'm really wanting to is that a common theme do you think I think um i think so because um one thing that we emerged is like anyone can press That little red button we all have all the tech and tools and plays there right but actually To create stories that have meaning and elegance um it does require this kind of like all of</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2084"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT34M44S">34:44</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">The different things that sit around that it's not just oh we can build any tech around it It's actually very human the things we're looking to do i ask because i know artists that just Make art and never publish it and they consume it for themselves there's a sense of pride they Have a sense a pride but then they also have this tearing apart of them at the fact That they don't share it and they kind of want to share it but then they also just</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2106"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT35M6S">35:06</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Prefer their own work at the same time so there is I guess a confusion that I've observed Or when I hear people saying this is there any insight that you can think into that it's Like psychies that's a that's a very deep That's that's a bigger one I think reasons for why people decide to share and not share I Think that's in itself quite a big topic yeah I think that's why context really matters it's not just sharing or gathering for the sake of it It's understanding the context at different stages of that journey and the process itself could be just for</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2150"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT35M50S">35:50</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Myself or the process itself is that's it like regardless of a destination there's joy and enjoyment in The middle space so it's not one to say this is the right or wrong way it's just Like If we're looking at what you know organizations individuals you know groups are trying to achieve I think It really is contextual to what your outcomes are.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2175"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT36M15S">36:15</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah I suppose I ask because like if you if there are groups that aren't sharing and their Voices we will never hear</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2183"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT36M23S">36:23</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Their voices are there. It's just more that it's not that they don't have stories to share everyone does I think it's Just a matter of is is there trust is there An understanding and so that trust is also One of the biggest things that can be make or break Whether someone decides to share or not Share um what do they need to trust well for example in our world if if if</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2208"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT36M48S">36:48</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">If we're asking a certain group to share stories but they don't necessarily trust who's asking why they're Asking where it's going what implications am i safe is my story going to be widely shared like All of those questions around am i able to share something and where i know where it'S going To go um trust and confidence are often some of the bigger things, which are very human.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2234"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT37M14S">37:14</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And so when you're looking at some of the things we look at, like we really are looking To connect those who know with those who need to know, Those who know and have things to share, there's still an embodiment of okay, well, what does that Mean to share?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2251"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT37M31S">37:31</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Who is it sharing with? There's this trust. Trust is really important as part of that equation. And just similar back to your example of the artist, if I choose to just do it myself In my world because that's that's my that's my trust bubble great that's nothing wrong with that it's Just understanding where trust sits in the overall equation Yeah cool that's a really good place to end I think I think that we are in a Trust economy we are and it's gonna get it is getting more and more relevant</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2287"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT38M7S">38:07</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Trust is something that i feel is</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2295"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT38M15S">38:15</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Easier to understand when we have it related to a person rather than an entity which is also Something that I think we're gonna have to tackle in the future too I think that's already happening Now I think faster than it's um than we realize yeah so well we'll work that out yeah As usual we're entrepreneurs yeah and uh do you have anything else you want to add or say No</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2326"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT38M46S">38:46</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I think we'll just kind of keep unpacking as we go is there anything how about you is Any questions or any final thoughts no other than like I think trust is such a good place To end because I before we started recording we spoke about the trust economy it's so and like meos is all about trust about making sure that your stories and things are safe it's not going To be taken by a big data company the other podcasts i suppose were a episodes where it</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2357"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT39M17S">39:17</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Was about being able to get your if your art is stolen what does it even mean is It never safe to be able to do that versus is this just because we still see ourselves As individuals rather than collectives and ego there seems to be themes that are coming up that I Don't think any of us have answers to no and that is the entire of these conversations Because if I had an answer then I would just no that's it I think just staying open To that curiosity and saying that we don't have the answers and that's okay it's the best thing</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2397"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT39M57S">39:57</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Today that's the best thing and then just I think that's just so human that's that's why we Just keep unpacking and play in that space yeah well thank you so much thank you</p></div> </div> </section> <aside class="extravaganza-cta extravaganza-cta--closing"> <p class="extravaganza-cta__lead">Proudly sponsored by my own company.</p> <p class="extravaganza-cta__action"><a class="extravaganza-cta__link" href="https://getmeos.com/extra-ep3-micoff">Get the app → <strong>getmeos.com/extra</strong></a></p> <p class="extravaganza-cta__creed" data-creed>meos is where i keep thinking with the mic off.</p> </aside> <aside class="extravaganza-more"> <p class="extravaganza-more__show">The Aqeel Akber Extra Extra Extravaganza</p> <p class="extravaganza-more__browse"><a class="extravaganza-more__btn" href="https://aqeelakber.com/extra">All episodes →</a></p> <p class="extravaganza-more__follow">Follow: <a class="extravaganza-more__link" href="https://youtube.com/@admiralakber">YouTube</a> · <a class="extravaganza-more__link" href="https://open.spotify.com/show/033xq7NchOx1AyybFkWzR5">Spotify</a></p> </aside> <script type="application/json" id="extravaganza-creed">{"basePath":"extra-ep3","creeds":[{"key":"micoff","text":"meos is where i keep thinking with the mic off."},{"key":"capture","text":"capture and connect in meos."},{"key":"watch","text":"capture your thoughts in meos and watch them connect."},{"key":"liveson","text":"the thinking out loud here lives on in meos."},{"key":"listen","text":"capture your ideas while you listen - in meos."},{"key":"remember","text":"never forget the things you learn - with meos."},{"key":"privacy","text":"privacy for the ai future."},{"key":"insta","text":"save straight from instagram into meos."},{"key":"resurface","text":"meos resurfaces your ideas back to you."},{"key":"nocloud","text":"zero data retention. no logins. no cloud. just you."},{"key":"dm","text":"a proper anonymous direct messenger."}]}</script> Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +1000 https://aqeelakber.com/blog/2026-06-16-connecting-stories.html https://aqeelakber.com/blog/2026-06-16-connecting-stories.html extravaganza podcast youtube <aside class="extravaganza-cta extravaganza-cta--top"> <p class="extravaganza-cta__lead">Proudly sponsored by my own company.</p> <p class="extravaganza-cta__action"><a class="extravaganza-cta__link" href="https://getmeos.com/extra-bt2-micoff">Get the app → <strong>getmeos.com/extra</strong></a></p> <p class="extravaganza-cta__creed" data-creed>meos is where i keep thinking with the mic off.</p> </aside> <p> Meos Constellation — a solo bit on a new Meos view where your notes cluster themselves, instead of you maintaining tags and folder trees like Obsidian. Aqeel on why that felt wrong, and why the map should move when you do. The Aqeel Akber Extra Extra Extravaganza, made by Aqeel in Canberra. </p> <p> Watch the full episode below — also on the podcast feed wherever you listen. </p> <div class="extravaganza-player" id="extravaganza-yt-anchor"> <iframe id="extravaganza-yt" width="100%" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xr7TjlvIi3w?enablejsapi=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Faqeelakber.com&rel=0" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div> <section class="extravaganza-teaser"> <h2 class="extravaganza-teaser__heading">In this bite</h2> <div class="extravaganza-teaser__section"> <h3 class="extravaganza-teaser__label">The facts</h3> <ul class="extravaganza-teaser__list"> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">Solo bit on Meos Constellation: notes cluster themselves without tags or folder trees.</li> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">Aqeel contrasts Obsidian-style graphs that ask you to maintain connections by hand.</li> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">The view extends Meos cluster semantics into a macroscopic map of everything in your databox.</li> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">Clustering draws on astrophysics-inspired maths; layouts live in three dimensions and relabel as you add notes.</li> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">Shipping soon on Meos desktop for Plus and Ultra users, made by Aqeel in Canberra.</li> </ul> </div> <div class="extravaganza-teaser__section"> <h3 class="extravaganza-teaser__label">Between the facts</h3> <p class="extravaganza-teaser__prose">The conversation moves from why fixed topic tags feel like the wrong lens every time, to why wikis and hierarchies crack when new material arrives. Constellation is offered as the dynamic alternative: same semantic engine as cluster, scaled up so the map can reshape instead of locking you into one version of your thinking.</p> </div> <div class="extravaganza-teaser__section"> <h3 class="extravaganza-teaser__label">Beyond the facts</h3> <p class="extravaganza-teaser__prose extravaganza-teaser__prose--beyond">Beneath the product walkthrough sits a wider argument about heuristic computing and safe passage into a knowledge era — tools that surface what you have forgotten across thousands of notes, without outsourcing judgment. The map is meant to move when you do, because a static graph would only preserve whoever you were when you last filed things away.</p> </div> <div class="extravaganza-teaser__section"> <h3 class="extravaganza-teaser__label">Why you should listen</h3> <p class="extravaganza-teaser__prose extravaganza-teaser__prose--why">The full arc carries the reasoning Aqeel has been holding back from a longer blog post: why Meos never shipped a conventional knowledge graph, and what pan-dimensional clustering is trying to protect. Worth the listen if you care how note-taking software should behave when your interests, seasons, and sense of relevance keep shifting.</p> </div> </section> <section class="extravaganza-transcript"> <h2 class="extravaganza-transcript__heading">Transcript</h2> <p class="extravaganza-transcript__note">Auto-generated from captions — likely errors. Timestamps seek the embedded player.</p> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__body"> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT1S">0:01</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Look great thank you thank you so much and you know what else looks really good something like This so uh given that we are in the note-taking space and you've probably seen all of those Obsidian sort of things making those graphs and all that sort of stuff but you have to maintain Those tags and everything yourselves and then people tend to use llms to do this to be able To make these tags now i am going to have to write a full blog post about my</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="39"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT39S">0:39</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Rant on this on why we haven't made a knowledge graph because let's say you've decided to tag And connect together everything by let's say topic or subject how is that the right lens to look At something Every time that you are going to then put a label upon something there is a certain way Which you're looking at it and i wanted to make sure for meos that we have something that Is more pan-dimensional more general and then within that you should still be able to find patterns and</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="76"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT1M16S">1:16</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Importantly why would we restrict the traversal of artificial intelligence or your way own way your own brain Works based on something as basic as are they a boy or a girl you know and that 's why um this research project that we've got and we'll be shipping pretty soon we call me Os constellation and not only is it pretty it's actually good and useful the useful part here is Suppose you have made a wiki or a hierarchy of stuff as soon as you add more information</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="114"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT1M54S">1:54</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And notes and things like that then where do you come from like i've at least found you Try and make a file structure and you always add new information it's like it doesn't quite fit In you have to redo everything so this is entirely dynamic it is built upon the exact same Thing that builds meos cluster so on the cluster view you see that same sort of thing that Semantic sort of stuff goes on there this is the macroscopic view of everything that you may have</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="144"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT2M24S">2:24</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">In your data box as well as then being able to see the trends upon those uh we 've then applied algorithms that and algorithms and mathematics that are inspired by some ideas that i got From my astrophysics and cosmology classes back in the day long time ago and it turned out to Work really well in this information space to be able to understand things hence why calling it constellation So over here we have an example set of notes that we have turned into a constellation so</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="178"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT2M58S">2:58</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Over here all of the clusters are connected together you can see they've all got a title once We have worked out a clustering then we can give it a label if you add a new Information that label and hierarchy will highly likely change and that's just like us when you learn something New you change you shouldn't necessarily separate ideas from each other not if you want to stay relevant In this world you know</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="208"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT3M28S">3:28</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I'm gonna say that yep keep that in so we can take it take a look here and Like three dimensions i believe works really well to be able to explore this rather than two dimensions Um it in fact actually works well with the algorithm as well so for example um all concepts Here and then the next level technological process process and then inside that scientific advancement inside that economic And tech these positionings are roughly correlated to their likeliness with each other as well in some places</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="243"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT4M3S">4:03</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">You can sometimes it comes up where you see that they overlap so you would expect eventually them To overlap but there are none in this case it is strictly hierarchical so let's give an example Over here i'm going to go into cultural achievements let's say cultural achievements over the right it says There egypt pyramids invention of printing press uh hemingway shakespeare that sounds like cultural achievements so that's pretty Good that's pretty good there i guess by the nature of this being semantic and heuristic you will</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="278"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT4M38S">4:38</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Potentially find errors and this is something that i believe is okay when we have it being more Representative a big philosophy of meos is to help the everyday person move into this era of he Uristic computing and this like i like to call it the knowledge era and that allows we're trying To give them safe passage through that in a way that is familiar allow your own judgment and We never infantilize we don't want to let people's brains fall out just because we have ai and</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="319"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT5M19S">5:19</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">There this is a ai product or whatever this and that it's actually designed to strengthen your own Mind's intelligence in every single way so this is meos constellation i am really excited about this we Are going to ship this pretty soon actually and it will be available on meos desktop to our Plus and ultra users they will be able to explore their information and notes and i'll leave this Here with one thing and that is when you have a lot of information and notes yourself you</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="353"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT5M53S">5:53</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Might not know what you don't know or you might not remember what you don't remember in fact You don't that's the whole point this is useful because it allows you to glimpse that and know What's in your thousands of notes i have over 10 000 elements in my data box on m Ios now on my phone which is really phenomenal how quickly you start accruing all of this information The cluster view is great because as soon as you add something it brings up associated things that</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="382"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT6M22S">6:22</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Are the same but what if you just living through a different season of life what if you Are now not necessarily remembering that you did something that could be useful for now that's exactly what This view is for and that's exactly why it needs to stay dynamic because if it was just Topics it's only going to reinforce one version of you that is non-dynamic</p></div> </div> </section> <aside class="extravaganza-cta extravaganza-cta--closing"> <p class="extravaganza-cta__lead">Proudly sponsored by my own company.</p> <p class="extravaganza-cta__action"><a class="extravaganza-cta__link" href="https://getmeos.com/extra-bt2-micoff">Get the app → <strong>getmeos.com/extra</strong></a></p> <p class="extravaganza-cta__creed" data-creed>meos is where i keep thinking with the mic off.</p> </aside> <aside class="extravaganza-more"> <p class="extravaganza-more__show">The Aqeel Akber Extra Extra Extravaganza</p> <p class="extravaganza-more__browse"><a class="extravaganza-more__btn" href="https://aqeelakber.com/extra">All episodes →</a></p> <p class="extravaganza-more__follow">Follow: <a class="extravaganza-more__link" href="https://youtube.com/@admiralakber">YouTube</a> · <a class="extravaganza-more__link" href="https://open.spotify.com/show/033xq7NchOx1AyybFkWzR5">Spotify</a></p> </aside> <script type="application/json" id="extravaganza-creed">{"basePath":"extra-bt2","creeds":[{"key":"micoff","text":"meos is where i keep thinking with the mic off."},{"key":"capture","text":"capture and connect in meos."},{"key":"watch","text":"capture your thoughts in meos and watch them connect."},{"key":"liveson","text":"the thinking out loud here lives on in meos."},{"key":"listen","text":"capture your ideas while you listen - in meos."},{"key":"remember","text":"never forget the things you learn - with meos."},{"key":"privacy","text":"privacy for the ai future."},{"key":"insta","text":"save straight from instagram into meos."},{"key":"resurface","text":"meos resurfaces your ideas back to you."},{"key":"nocloud","text":"zero data retention. no logins. no cloud. just you."},{"key":"dm","text":"a proper anonymous direct messenger."}]}</script> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +1000 https://aqeelakber.com/blog/2026-06-13-meos-constellation.html https://aqeelakber.com/blog/2026-06-13-meos-constellation.html extravaganza podcast youtube <aside class="extravaganza-cta extravaganza-cta--top"> <p class="extravaganza-cta__lead">Proudly sponsored by my own company.</p> <p class="extravaganza-cta__action"><a class="extravaganza-cta__link" href="https://getmeos.com/extra-ep2-micoff">Get the app → <strong>getmeos.com/extra</strong></a></p> <p class="extravaganza-cta__creed" data-creed>meos is where i keep thinking with the mic off.</p> </aside> <p> Emerging Technology — a conversation with Mei Weng Brough-Smyth at the Knox Cafe in Watson, with cafe staff and Esther saying hi. The Aqeel Akber Extra Extra Extravaganza, made by Aqeel in Canberra. </p> <p> Watch the full episode below — also on the podcast feed wherever you listen. </p> <div class="extravaganza-player" id="extravaganza-yt-anchor"> <iframe id="extravaganza-yt" width="100%" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zkFTlNrVqFU?enablejsapi=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Faqeelakber.com&rel=0" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div> <section class="extravaganza-teaser"> <h2 class="extravaganza-teaser__heading">In this episode</h2> <div class="extravaganza-teaser__section"> <h3 class="extravaganza-teaser__label">The facts</h3> <ul class="extravaganza-teaser__list"> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">Episode two records a conversation with Mei Weng Brough-Smyth at Knox Cafe in Watson.</li> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">Cafe staff and Esther drop in briefly while the microphones stay on.</li> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">The table turns on whether people still want what is good for them, and how trust is calibrated.</li> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">Meos appears as an AI-native operating system built to prioritise the person using it.</li> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">Advertising, attention hijacking, and the line between machine learning and everyday AI get unpacked.</li> </ul> </div> <div class="extravaganza-teaser__section"> <h3 class="extravaganza-teaser__label">Between the facts</h3> <p class="extravaganza-teaser__prose">Self-interest, gut feeling, and product design share the same table. The talk drifts from scroll habits and limbic hijacking into targeted feeds, then into what privacy would need to look like if software genuinely served you.</p> </div> <div class="extravaganza-teaser__section"> <h3 class="extravaganza-teaser__label">Beyond the facts</h3> <p class="extravaganza-teaser__prose extravaganza-teaser__prose--beyond">Beneath the cafe noise sits a familiar tension: tools that promise care while engineering capture. Community, habit, and the quiet pull of defaults keep circling each other without settling into a neat verdict.</p> </div> <div class="extravaganza-teaser__section"> <h3 class="extravaganza-teaser__label">Why you should listen</h3> <p class="extravaganza-teaser__prose extravaganza-teaser__prose--why">The arc runs from a plain question about good behaviour into the architecture underneath Meos and the contracts that keep your data yours. Stay for the full drift — from the urge to step off social feeds to tool-calling, local memory, and why enterprise-grade zero retention might belong on a phone.</p> </div> </section> <section class="extravaganza-transcript"> <h2 class="extravaganza-transcript__heading">Transcript</h2> <p class="extravaganza-transcript__note">Auto-generated from captions — likely errors. Timestamps seek the embedded player.</p> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__body"> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="0"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT0S">0:00</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">This is episode two.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="5"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT5S">0:05</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Cheers. Cheers.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="9"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT9S">0:09</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Mei, how do you get people to do what's good for them?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="18"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT18S">0:18</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Do people want to do what's good for them? Do you do what's good for you?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="28"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT28S">0:28</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Occasionally.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="30"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT30S">0:30</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Thank you. Um</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="34"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT34S">0:34</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Personally</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="37"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT37S">0:37</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I feel like I've got a like an internal algorithm which is always doing um a lot of Like prioritization work so I'm doing what's good for me but I've convinced myself through my like own Internal compass as to why</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="63"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT1M3S">1:03</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And what and how this thing is gonna be good for me how do you trust that that's Calibrated my my gut tells me oh yeah and I'm still around she's still alive</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="78"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT1M18S">1:18</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">You know the reason I ask right is we have an idealistic product yes we do yes</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="88"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT1M28S">1:28</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So we create a app called meos like me operating system and to the of this conversation how Do we do the things that are good for us it's about me me as an operating system What do i care about how can i prioritize myself how can i make myself do what i Want</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="118"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT1M58S">1:58</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So we've embedded a lot of design decisions in order to prioritize you</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="126"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT2M6S">2:06</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah and maybe the question is not how do you make people do what's good for them But why have they stopped doing what's good for them i</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="146"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT2M26S">2:26</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Think we we have that like gut feel Of like i'm not doing the right thing right now i'm being like a little bit way late Yeah and it's typically due to hijacking hijacking hijacking the limbic system Right especially with technology especially with like social media that's why we got blockers and all that sort Of stuff absolutely yeah i think of like the the little scroll like the scroll that we just Kind of like default to it was very fun back in the day like when we started using</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="183"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT3M3S">3:03</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">These things but now it feels like a little digital cigarette you're like a digital cigarette</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="192"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT3M12S">3:12</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah yeah yeah yeah</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="198"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT3M18S">3:18</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">That's that that is real i suppose we do like</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="206"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT3M26S">3:26</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">That gut feeling people are driven to delete social media They're driven to listen to stupid conversations like this on the internet</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="217"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT3M37S">3:37</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Rather than themselves</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="222"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT3M42S">3:42</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Um i think like it's it's a fascinating shift in relationship with social media to delete it entirely We gain so much we do gain a lot of</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="236"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT3M56S">3:56</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Intelligence and insight understand what's going on you can it's kind of like talking about what happened at The game on the weekend like let's talk about the newest meme yeah yeah to remove yourself off Of social media is Ludicrous</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="256"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT4M16S">4:16</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's part of what makes uh our community but it also uh is literally engineered in order to Take your attention and drain you</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="271"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT4M31S">4:31</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="273"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT4M33S">4:33</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Suppose there's a difference between conscious</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="278"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT4M38S">4:38</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Consumption versus unconscious consumption though right and what you're talking about where it's like good and how it Can gain benefits Surely there's an element of</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="295"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT4M55S">4:55</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">You're conscious of that fact perhaps maybe by being conscious or having a vaccination to your own mind That vaccination to your own mind yeah yeah so if you've got just like how um I guess being brought up on the internet us two we're a bit more resilient to ads they Call that banner blindness yeah banner blindness but it's not blindness for me i'm just resilient to it A bit more but now the advertising has changed a lot compared to the ads of the past Like i i really enjoy instagram ads to be honest they're quite targeted they're useful they're great you</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="339"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT5M39S">5:39</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Know what i absolutely agree yeah um this concept of targeting only could have come about due to The proliferation of ai really i believe existed before that uh they were never this intelligent your feed Really knows you and it knows exactly what you want the um back in the day we used To have just programmatic ads yeah it was just trash yeah it's just got better i wonder if It is ai though i don't think it is i'm pretty sure ai is a huge component to</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="378"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT6M18S">6:18</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Excellent advertising um i mean like google google is the ad platform meta is the ad platform yeah And where did all of this like ai come from i suppose the reason why i'm like i'm Not sure it's ai is because i'm such a technical nerd i'm like okay what is it using Ai what is it machine learning and what is it actual AI -inspired algorithms?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="404"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT6M44S">6:44</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Okay, sorry. I think I do need to clarify. I think of it as machine learning or like using embeddings, potentially. I don't necessarily mean like a large language model, which is what most people colloquially would associate with AI.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="420"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT7M0S">7:00</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So thanks for bringing that up. Yeah.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="425"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT7M5S">7:05</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">What do you think is the difference between machine learning, AI, and LLMs? I have a i have an answer but i want to know you what you think okay so I'm taking my jacket off for this one i think of ai as oh okay so a large Language model is the next token generation uh experience that we get which has created this new user Experience that is the chat application natural language natural natural language right like it's large language helps you Get natural language interface is that what you mean um i think of natural language as possibly something</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="473"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT7M53S">7:53</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Else okay um i i'm just i'm not a machine learning no no the whole i actually ask This to everyone because i like to understand the definitions and people's definitions that they have of what Their words are as they communicate to them so like there's no wrong answer here we just need To know what your answers are i think that in terms of the large language model it is It is typically like natural language yeah but then there are other things like we have generative multi</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="504"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT8M24S">8:24</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">-modal yes we have multi -modal and you have like text to image image to text yeah so That's not necessarily like natural language that's image gen yeah yeah I guess the technicality is that all That is generative too yeah the technicality is that the large language model turns everything into its own Language but the that you're making is that it's that next token generation yeah that user interface yeah Like tell me about the moment that you first engaged with a live language model?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="536"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT8M56S">8:56</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Oh, oh, okay.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="540"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT9M0S">9:00</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Where were you?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="543"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT9M3S">9:03</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I was in a train, I think going from Scotland to London. Hell yes. And, um, you were traveling. Yes, I was. I had no job</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="561"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT9M21S">9:21</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I still don't have a job It's been a while this was like four or five years ago me does have a job it's Just that we're not paying ourselves right now don't have a salary</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="577"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT9M37S">9:37</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">You're getting wealthier I hope there's definitely something accruing If that is aging or it's my mind expanding</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="588"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT9M48S">9:48</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So you were on a train from scotland to london london scotland from scotland to london and i Had</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="600"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT10M0S">10:00</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="603"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT10M3S">10:03</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Had just uh hung out with a lover nice And um</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="613"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT10M13S">10:13</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">We it was a it was a spicy event uh some people were hurt yes it was spicy</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="623"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT10M23S">10:23</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Consensually</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="625"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT10M25S">10:25</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Um</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="629"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT10M29S">10:29</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Everything was clean on my side okay okay like everything like the ramifications were was like on him To deal with but like she was very clean like i'm very very clean anyway so you're saying There was a train wreck that occurred while you're on this train yes but you You know what?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="648"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT10M48S">10:48</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">He healed up. He healed up. He healed up. Like, a few months later, he was in a totally, in a better life position. And I like to attribute myself to that success.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="662"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT11M2S">11:02</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And this is exactly the sort of disruption that we would expect to be occurring around the of First engaging with a large language model, right? Absolutely, yeah.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="675"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT11M15S">11:15</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Uh yeah it's very funny uh it's not yeah it wasn't benign was it no so as i Said it was a bit spicy but my lover had um access to i think it was chat Gbt3 at the time and 3 .5 was a chat it was chat it was 3 .5 okay It was 3 .5 yeah um i was really out of it at the time i did not Really engage in technology so i was such a luddite but um he sent me this like chat</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="710"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT11M50S">11:50</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Log where he had just like prompted like you know may and x met um on like a Little um tour guide like yeah to a journey through Scotland and these were few details and the Way that chat GBT expanded upon the very vague prompts that he gave us it was basically on It was quite good at predicting our our movements specifically as human beings and so that was really Freaky</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="752"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT12M32S">12:32</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Is it because ChatGPD was trained on all of the romance novels and all of the like</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="760"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT12M40S">12:40</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">All the websites that I do still remember the domains to Good times, huh? Good times. I don't still visit them obviously I do</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="773"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT12M53S">12:53</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">None of us do Obviously I do.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="779"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT12M59S">12:59</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So yeah, what came first, the website or us? And then next, did ChatGPT come first or us? So I'm just trying to say, like, I obviously went on these websites Where my actions proliferated via these websites And then ChatGPG knew that of all likelihood, I would have Gone through these particular actions with my lover.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="809"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT13M29S">13:29</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Are you asking me?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="811"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT13M31S">13:31</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah, yeah. It's actually... It's just kind of like a hype, whatever. I think it's a good question. Yeah. Because if I were to talk about AI, LLMs, and machine learning, yeah that statement there is quite A useful thing to remember to actually comprehend and understand it so a large language model is a Machine learning model that is able to comprehend things as language anything as language and determine patterns within It and i think of them as a lossy compression algorithm for language and then the decompression is</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="854"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT14M14S">14:14</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Like you put a little key in and it like unlocks it so it's like a database that's Really like lossy okay so lossy means that it reduces in quality it's not exactly the same uh Okay so it's like remember it's like memory exactly yeah so it's generation is like suppose that you Train something to be like okay make sure absolutely perfectly reproduces this particular information and gets it out Again you need to have it bit for bit bite for bite that's not lossy right but then</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="890"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT14M50S">14:50</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's about integrity coming out the other side yeah but large language models machine learning is all statistical</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="897"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT14M57S">14:57</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So large language models have looked up the entire corpus of existing human information and knowledge. So that answers your thing. What came first? You guys. Right? Us writing the stories, for sure.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="911"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT15M11S">15:11</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Then the large language model absorbs it and then finds patterns so that when you put something in It, it will auto -complete it out. I consider that as a lossy decompression right so you put the input before it's like i'm actually Going to go query into that world again and be like i'm actually going to like go with That and it's actually decompressing that information which it originally compressed in the machine learning process and it's Come out now you know the thing the moment for me when like i met and I told</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="944"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT15M44S">15:44</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">You this is big with AI was when I met 5 .4, Microsoft 5 .4, where 5 .4. This speaks volumes about you.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="958"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT15M58S">15:58</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah, talking about models.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="963"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT16M3S">16:03</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I love it. Thank you. Yum. So 5 .4 being only 32 million parameters, so 32 billion parameters, sorry. Um and so it was able to produce such incredible incredible like outputs of knowledge like how the Hell can we compress so much knowledge into this smaller area and then what i actually got really Excited about is that obviously when you make smaller and smaller models you reduce the amount of size Of it you lose the ability to be able to reproduce the original it's starting to become less</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1002"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT16M42S">16:42</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Of a compression algorithm and a decompression thing and what's getting left over is that we're slowly oh That looks really good thank you what's left over is then what has been like exciting me about The miniaturization and open source is that we are cracking the code of reason</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1021"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT17M1S">17:01</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And so in the process of creating large language models that are compressing decompressing and making them smaller And more efficient. Within that process of the machine learning Is emerging an algorithm that is intelligently able to traverse through these things and produce an output.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1043"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT17M23S">17:23</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And that's the artificial intelligence.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1047"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT17M27S">17:27</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So the artificial intelligence, I see it as something that has become emergent out of the game that We set up here and system that we're being able to produce so it's a form of like Meta learning yeah and also the way i think of it is like you know in science we've Like ideally in physics or whatever you have your theory you write your math you test it against The real world and you do that ideally as much ab initio as possible because otherwise if you</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1077"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT17M57S">17:57</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Like try to do an experiment and you look at it it's like and then you make something Theory to fit that experiment result then you're like overfitting yeah like you're not actually getting what is Something that's going to be generalizable and true yeah and what's different to what we've done here to Be able to crack the code of intelligence compared to what we would get normally in science is That we've taken this empirical view where it's like let's just shove all of the world's information on</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1102"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT18M22S">18:22</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Here put it through this game and this ability to do this stuff and then it started to Emerge that it was had a semblance of intelligence. The reason why I corrected you between 3 and 3 .5 is because that was the where it Started to happen.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1117"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT18M37S">18:37</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Right. It was in GPT -3. I remember when GPT -3 was released, and that was research early. When you met GPT -3. When I met GPT -3.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1126"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT18M46S">18:46</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">That was when everyone was like, hold on. There's something else about this. It's something a bit more than what it was before. They're no longer just generative pre -trained transformer models right it's like hold on there's something actually in Here and then when you introduce rlhf the reinforcement learning with human feedback that turns it into the Chat bot that made 3 .5 that really amplified whatever the hell that thing is that is able To make it intelligent what when was the moment you realized there was something here like there was</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1163"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT19M23S">19:23</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Sentience sentience like this like when you like the the leap from 3 to 3 .5 there was Something that that you had felt when probing like that technology you realize like yeah oh this thing's Actually yeah it's got something there yeah yeah Yeah, yeah.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1186"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT19M46S">19:46</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">3, 3 .5, 3 .5 when I first used it, ChatGPT when I first used it, blew my Mind away. I'm like, holy crap. I asked it to make a RISC -V CPU emulator that is GPU accelerated so I could run It faster and hopefully speed up development for that open source and open hardware thing.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1209"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT20M9S">20:09</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And it produced something and I looked at it and I'm like, sort of how I would do It. And this was something that i had in my brain for ages where it's like one day i Wish i could do that project yeah and i just did it blew my mind then four came Out gpt4 was impressive with its words 4 .0 really impressed me with its ability to get better And smarter and smarter but the one that changed everything for me was o1 because o1 was the</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1236"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT20M36S">20:36</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">First thinking model and that's when i'm like the thing's alive the thing is alive i'm just trying To think about like drill down into</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1248"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT20M48S">20:48</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">When you say like it's really good at with words is there a where you feel like oh I'm i'm talking to this thing and it's giving me something more what</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1260"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT21M0S">21:00</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">More are we talking about because like For me, I use chat as a way to generate code and occasionally architectural documents. And that's basically about it. And I'm a software person.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1282"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT21M22S">21:22</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">This is like my evaluation process. Because for you, there's this underlying understanding of intelligence.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1295"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT21M35S">21:35</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Like is there a sign or a feeling that you can identify or an event that you could Identify which actually made you feel a particular way about these models?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1312"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT21M52S">21:52</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1316"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT21M56S">21:56</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Assess these models in the same way I assess humans, and it's across the bounds of their</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1329"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT22M9S">22:09</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Creativity, their knowledge, their honesty, their personality and behavior, their, I</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1342"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT22M22S">22:22</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Suppose, Because I</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1345"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT22M25S">22:25</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Look for,</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1347"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT22M27S">22:27</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Like I look for in humans, how much density and gravity that I feel that they have in The universe.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1357"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT22M37S">22:37</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">A person that has amazing presence.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1361"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT22M41S">22:41</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">They're like the people that I'm usually most attracted to. I feel like they're just a presence. They're strong. I've in fact found that artificial intelligence has been going through waves of that feeling depending on what Model it is there is natures of we make it feel like it has that personal gravity then We get rid of that part it excels in like its intelligence and creativity this way and that Way and that makes sense by the way that we train these models and And we still have</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1393"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT23M13S">23:13</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Problems of catastrophic forgetting. Oh, hello, I'm recording right now. Oh, yeah. It's good to see you, Esther. Aww.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1408"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT23M28S">23:28</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So catastrophic forgetting and the pre -training process, it's unlike Hebbian learning.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1414"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT23M34S">23:34</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's a totally different process. So we can understand that we move all over the place that way. And this is where I found when I said GPT -4 had good writing, it felt nice it Looked nice it really was good and the writing of AI has gotten worse and worse but it's No longer sounds like any other human because they're no longer writing English they're no longer decompressing they Have made a representation of language and they're just translating their internal representation of language into English for</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1443"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT24M3S">24:03</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Us and obviously it sounds certainly different looks certainly different um so there's that bit of gravity of That that is lost but then i don't know it's like a beautiful complexity Uh to these intelligences as there's beautiful complexity to human beings</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1465"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT24M25S">24:25</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">You're always just trying to try to search for what's useful what's good in them and And the Thing that I'm feeling for is not anything more than how</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1482"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT24M42S">24:42</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Close they are to being honest to themselves and truth to that themselves. That makes me feel like they're more reliable. That's what I look for.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1494"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT24M54S">24:54</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Gemini is cracked, for example, go all over the place. In terms of truth? Just itself. No, it's sense of self. Oh, I see. These entities sense of self.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1504"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT25M4S">25:04</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Oh, well, it's just dynamic. It just performs differently in many different scenarios. No, no, no, no, no.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1513"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT25M13S">25:13</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">That's... People that are dynamic or adaptive still have that gravity. I feel like they've got that gravity to it.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1521"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT25M21S">25:21</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">But Gemini...</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1525"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT25M25S">25:25</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Just to clarify, are you using a paid version of Gemini?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1530"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT25M30S">25:30</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Of course, of course. I just use straight APIs. Because we're developing, and I use all of them all the time, right? I just use them directly. But it's just like Gemini Flash at the moment.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1541"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT25M41S">25:41</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's not actually... There's Gemini 3 .1 Pro I've used, Gemini 3 .5 Flash. I've used all of them. Gemini is an interesting one. Since Gemini 2, it's been getting...</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1552"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT25M52S">25:52</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Gemini 2 was okay. Gemini 2 .5 was all right.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1557"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT25M57S">25:57</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Sometimes it started to get a bit out of hand.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1560"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT26M0S">26:00</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">That's when it started to get a bit out of hand. Like it started doing weird things and now i don't think they know how to get rid of It or give it its psychological grounding again because it was optimized to just traverse to be able To do what and</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1576"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT26M16S">26:16</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">That's the sort of thing where it's like now when i'm talking with like ai or llms i'm Trying to look for that more robustness and groundedness since they have become more intelligent and capable i'm Now looking more for that gravity before that when it's like oh what What was that moment with GPT -4, this and that?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1592"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT26M32S">26:32</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I'm really just enjoying the creativity.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1599"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT26M39S">26:39</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So in meos, we have hand -picked a few models. Yes. Let's go through each of them. Oh my god, you're going to feel it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1611"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT26M51S">26:51</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I actually just shipped a few new ones.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1615"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT26M55S">26:55</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">All right, so I'm going to hold up, go to AI and then we've got like this new New chat and then from here we have all of these hand -picked models and we are constantly Testing and creating new models in order to update these yeah they're hand -picked and so I do Have reasons for all of these so it's actually a really good thing to do I can I Can tell you decisions amongst all of them.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1652"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT27M32S">27:32</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Do you want to go to them? Yeah, let's do them. OK, so let's start up right off the top. This is structured from top to bottom, cheapest first.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1660"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT27M40S">27:40</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Cheapest, yeah. In terms of TFU token cost, yeah. We made one simple unit, TFU, for everything, so you don't have to worry about tokens being different Across them all.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1670"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT27M50S">27:50</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yes, so if you ever run out of credits, you can just purchase a little TFU booster pack. We think of thought as bytes. Thought is the new bytes.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1680"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT28M0S">28:00</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yes. Thought flow is the new bytes. Thought flow units. TFUs are thought flows.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1685"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT28M5S">28:05</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">OK. So the first one is GBTOSS120B. Yes. It is a mixture of experts model. So it's very fast and efficient. It has been trained on a very high quality data set by OpenAI.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1700"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT28M20S">28:20</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So it has very good intelligence and performance for its size. Because it's so fast and efficient it's an excellent like baseline model yeah and we can provide people A really great experience on that that's so speedy yeah the other reason is that it runs on Cerebris which recently went public by the way and um i got my stocks in cerebris nice so They it runs really really fast we put it on the extra high reasoning for you as the Default so um if you look at ever look at benchmarks of this and you think it's low</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1737"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT28M57S">28:57</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Take a look at how a benchmark with extra high reasoning and because it's so fast and on Cerebris it turns out to be great value it's so good for retrieval it just makes tool calls And just goes for it and you're just gonna add some it's like really really simple stuff but Also kind of intelligent i was really impressed when um somebody told me they're an opus user only And then they used meos OSS 120 billion, they're like, I was really surprised at how good it</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1765"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT29M25S">29:25</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Was, given that it was small. And like, well, yeah, because we designed everything. So yeah, it's good. It's really good for the design. Yeah, I love it.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1776"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT29M36S">29:36</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I think it's so good for just, like, doing a quick query, and it will just say things How it is. It doesn't think too hard. It actually thinks a lot, just so you know.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1787"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT29M47S">29:47</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It feels like it doesn't. It feels like it doesn't. So it's just like, and here you go. I can see why it's got this eco -like badge over here.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1795"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT29M55S">29:55</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">That's right. Tell me more.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1798"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT29M58S">29:58</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Because it is such a mixture of experts model, the way it's architected, it is energy efficient. And we are now carbon offsetting it. And more than that, you'll be able to see some documentation very soon on how we do that.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1813"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT30M13S">30:13</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And we're going to do it for all of our open source models.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1817"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT30M17S">30:17</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And importantly, I will talk in that blog post and that paper about why we do it for The open source models and why open source models are so important so we can have that clarity Of actually how much carbon it uses.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1828"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT30M28S">30:28</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And we're probably going to double carbon offset it. So it's not just offset. We're just going to make it go negative. So every time you use that model, you are going to take carbon out of the environment.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1840"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT30M40S">30:40</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Image.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1843"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT30M43S">30:43</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">This particular model comes defaults and free tier if you're using meos, so you can use it literally Right now. There's actually a few also some innovations on this model where they can actually stream it into the GPU fully encrypted.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1864"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT31M4S">31:04</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">That's awesome.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1868"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT31M8S">31:08</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So we're trying to keep the application as private as possible. But this is on a hardware level fully encrypted. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's a really exciting model.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1879"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT31M19S">31:19</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's a really underrated model amongst the general public. Amongst the technical people, we love it. But yeah,</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1887"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT31M27S">31:27</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">We want to give the general public the good stuff. Yeah.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1893"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT31M33S">31:33</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Shall we move on? Yeah, let's go. Okay, so Gemini 3 .1 Flash. 3 .1 Flash is only a little bit more expensive than OSS 120 billion. It has a longer context length, so it is more eager and able to do tool calling on Multiple levels.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1912"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT31M52S">31:52</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So context length is like how much information you can put into a chat term. Yeah, yeah. It's a mixture between like your working memory that you have as a person, Like, you know, the Fact that I know that my plate is here, even if I'm not looking at it, and the Fact that I remember what I ordered.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1932"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT32M12S">32:12</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah, yeah. So it's got a longer context length, and it is more eager to do multiple tool call turns Compared to OSS 120 billion. If OSS 120 billion would just straightaway give you an answer.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1946"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT32M26S">32:26</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">If i want to be like maybe i want to expand that a little bit more i just Switch it to gemini 3 .1 and it actually searches my data box a bit more</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1956"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT32M36S">32:36</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Okay let's go for minimax minimax yeah that is um a good model the reason why i put It there is it is really collaborative as a personality actually</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1974"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT32M54S">32:54</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Is that what i wrote there yeah agentic and collaborative yeah i found that using it to be Able to search my data box and ideate and web search feels it just it just feels a Bit more collaborative you know so you like ideate with it you're just like giving it more things To think about yeah and it doesn't feel as sycophantic as Gemini 3 .1 as well hey yeah All right so that one's for ideation Nemo Tron 3 Ultra this is a new one I know</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2008"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT33M28S">33:28</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I shipped this a couple of days ago by NVIDIA yes that's right NVIDIA's new model that they Announced at that keynote just recently right mmm I included this here because it is state of the Art like we're talking about days old so it's really smart and it is they say it's fast But you know i guess we're spoiled by os that's 120 billion and how fast things are it Is an efficient and interesting architecture of a model and has using things that are slightly different to</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2042"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT34M2S">34:02</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Transformers so it's not not all transform so this is a different thing entirely It's a hybrid of Different things. Wow. Yeah, so I put it in there because I want to try it out and test it, honestly.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2053"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT34M13S">34:13</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So if you want to play around and experiment. Yeah. What you'll be engaging with there when you work with Nemo Tron 3 Ultra</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2063"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT34M23S">34:23</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Is frontier intelligence that is an architecture that is not a transformer.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2069"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT34M29S">34:29</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And GPT, Generative Pre -Trained Transformer, that's how it all began. So this is actually next generation architecture. On. Whoa.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2079"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT34M39S">34:39</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So that's why that one's there.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2083"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT34M43S">34:43</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Wow. OK, so DeepSeq B4 Pro, intelligent and great value. Yes, it is really good value. It's in the middle there of terms of costing. But it is more intelligent than the open source models that are a bit lower.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2101"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT35M1S">35:01</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's a bit slow. That's something to note. But what i enjoy about the deep seek models deep seek is kind of like the foundational model For a lot of these companies like the architecture of the other open source models as well so Deep seek is you know how it's speaking about gravity deep seek has gravity like it has a Feeling when i communicate with deep seek i have a feeling i feels it feels feels feels something It feels like okay there's a there's a there's a gravity here yeah okay</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2144"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT35M44S">35:44</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Use deep seek if you want to feel if you want to feel the gravity yeah feel the Gravity</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2151"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT35M51S">35:51</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Okay the next one is kimmy k 2 .6 yeah that's right um agentic great for research yes That's right it's uh basically think of them minimax but better okay yep um glm 5 .1 yeah Glm 5 .1 is a great model it's now a bit older compared to kimmy k 2 .6 So it has a bit less world knowledge but i really enjoy glm's 5 .1's usage of tools So it's sort of in between how gemini 3 .1 um flash would work uh and kimmy 2</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2194"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT36M34S">36:34</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">.6 so think of it in between those two and how it behaves</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2199"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT36M39S">36:39</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I will note that like these uh open source chinese models they actually are they are less sycophatic Um yeah what does that say about us i don't know i honestly don't know I have no idea you've been learning chinese recently learning chinese yes oh my god i actually could Talk about this uh yeah yeah i could talk about this and it's it's it is interesting but That is definitely another one hour conversation i'm really excited for this yeah i think the creation of Ai could potentially represent how we would like to be handled you know like like the user experience</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2250"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT37M30S">37:30</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Of a of an ai could represent how you would like to be handled so the culture developing That model may steer it differently all right let's move on Gemini 3 .5 flash brand new from Google yep it is the smartest from Google it's fast it's smarter than Gemini 3 Pro which is The reason why Gemini 3 Pro isn't on that list right so that's part of the thing yeah That's they have to try this one out yeah that's i i think i i actually selected if</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2288"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT38M8S">38:08</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">You selected gemini 3 pro in the past it will automatically switch you cool this goes to i Guess the when you're when you're purchasing meals and you're using the us you're buying our you're buying This knowledge you're buying our opinion and these decisions to make this easier for you um yeah it's Just flat out that all It's smart and it's fast it is more expensive than what i would hope which is why i Haven't replaced 3 .1 right 3 .1 is so good for its price that makes a lot of</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2322"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT38M42S">38:42</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Sense considering that they're probably using some semblance of it in order to aggregate their search results and Give you those like Gemini and answers all right so past this we go get to our flagship Models GPT for our GPT 5 .2 for it's on at 4 .6 for this like Claude Opus 4 .7 Opus 4 .8 which was launched very recently and then the most expensive model gpt 5 .5 i know uh yeah so i want to start with the important fact that gpt 4 .0</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2365"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT39M25S">39:25</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Is on there mm -hmm tell me that's an old model it's a model that you can't get On chat gpt anymore if you buy chat gpt you can't use gpt4o anymore and why do we Want to use 4o</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2383"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT39M43S">39:43</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">4o is not a thinking model it's kind of it's evolved to be a bit different they kept Doing the Post training on reinforcement learning with human feedback it started feeling and getting really smart out of that Aspect it had its troubles and issues in that started getting very sycophantic you can totally drive it To be whatever the hell you want you can make it it's really good for role playing that's Where like the whole like you know gpt4o was my husband or wife and people getting married to</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2422"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT40M22S">40:22</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Them all that stuff that you probably have heard of and remember that was people using GPT -4 -0 yeah and when open AI removed it there's just was like so much loss and pain I Guess for those people and they're always like bring back 4 .0 we want something that feels human Blah blah blah this and that etc.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2444"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT40M44S">40:44</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I included it there because I believe we're adults</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2455"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT40M55S">40:55</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And i believe that education and as long as we've got awareness that we shouldn't moralize or judge And let people use things that they make them feel good that's basically it yeah yes and we We do have this opinionation in meos where like you're the one in control we give you the Best and we care about your experience over</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2484"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT41M24S">41:24</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Anything? Actually anything? Really actually over anything</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2491"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT41M31S">41:31</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">The extents that we've gone to to try and make this good and like I guess we're gonna Do that done right series the done right series There's reasons why people haven't done this And Yeah we're just crazy enough to do it hey Yeah, it's very exciting.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2508"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT41M48S">41:48</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">What's after 4 .0? It's all of the flagships. Oh, so 5 .2, Sonic, 4 .7, 4 .8, and 5 .5. So I'm going to mention why 4 .7 and 4 .8 is there, both of them.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2523"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT42M3S">42:03</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">The reason for that is 4 .7 is a slight enhancement over 4 .6, which was a unit Step of intelligence compared to 4 .5. And 4 .7 was more directed so it will do what you say specifically 4 .8 is all Of that but they added the behavior of it is less likely to lie to you okay they In fact anthropic put a lot of effort into making sure that it is being honest and you Will see this in opus 4 .8's thinking it's like I should be honest I will do this</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2567"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT42M47S">42:47</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Thing etc it starts to say those words back to you more and more so it's very clear That they included in their post training step from 4 .7 to 4 .8 that particular like switch There and again We trust your judgment once you're educated to know what you can do and what you want to Use yeah that's a lot of opinionation and difference in results between those two yeah like there's a Element of choosing here to make it easy for for everyone to just like get going and then</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2600"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT43M20S">43:20</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Also i just don't want to infantilize people absolutely i believe that everyone has the ability to learn All this stuff It's not that bad no so we just like have a list of all the models um and We have a little description which is incredibly accurate yeah you just pick which one you want i Guess if you're confused ever you can message meos001 from the comb box and you'll like actually be Able to talk to us and we can actually give you opinions you are you will not talk</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2633"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT43M53S">43:53</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">To a chat bot it is actually us we might need to put a chat bot there at Some when we like get busier but we will review all of it for sure and that but Will be trained by us and like or like yeah yeah but like if you if you download It now as like as in like when we're posting like right now</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2663"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT44M23S">44:23</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So you mentioned tool calling oh yes yes so what is that</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2671"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT44M31S">44:31</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So people may know that LLMs, they produce words and they can now I guess see that it Starts to do web searches. A web search is a tool call, it calls an external server or rather more importantly the LLM Responds back in the system and the system has to be able to see that that response is Run a function.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2695"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT44M55S">44:55</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And then that system then calls an external server to do a web search. It comes back and spits a thing.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2702"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT45M2S">45:02</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">We should do a whole thing on MCP at some as well. Machine copy -paste. Sounds good. The tool calling that we have in meos and on the meos system, there are some unique tools That we've given it.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2713"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT45M13S">45:13</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And we've put a lot of effort into being able to Make meos this phone app. The reason why it's an operating system is that it's actually a whole application kernel and it's ai Native so the ai is able to read through your data box or have functions and tools that It can go through there and synthesize all that sort of stuff yeah so it's just like go Going ahead and finding uh the correct information for what you need that's right at the time it's Like it knows how to use your computer yeah think of it that way yeah like it knows</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2752"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT45M52S">45:52</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">How to run commands it knows how to run the commands within meos there's some really cool hyper -technical stuff about how we can extend that without sentience protocol and mcp and all that sort of Stuff where you can extend its capability of this brain but tool calling ultimately is the magic that Allows things to be relevant and contextual to you so that the results are much much better and You don't have to like copy and paste context in like memories are all handled yeah it searches</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2782"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT46M22S">46:22</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Your memories for you and i want to say importantly about meos is that the level of privacy In this compared to anything else you're going to be using is probably unparalleled all of the data Is on your phone</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2796"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT46M36S">46:36</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">They're all about cloud providers we have zero data retention policies with by default you cannot not get A provider from us we won't there's a reason why grok isn't there xai don't provide zero data Retention so everyone everything you use there they're not retaining data at all and i mean like not Even for like 30 days chat experiences do not delete your data i looked into this it's really Scary yeah the whole soft delete anyway where it's like maybe we deleted it they actually have to</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2827"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT47M7S">47:07</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Uh hold on to it yeah for legal reasons The reason why you can use these models in zero data retention is that we're effectively providing what Is enterprise -level contracts for you guys.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2842"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT47M22S">47:22</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">The same with our web search. The web search on there is using Brave Web Search Zero Data Retention. So all of these tool callings, all of these things, everything, like going over your chats, all of That is all private.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2855"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT47M35S">47:35</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Exactly. And this is part of the reason why we have OSS 120 billion feeling so much smarter, because It gets the right context. And that's what you need, really.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2866"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT47M46S">47:46</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Like, it just needs to know things. AI just needs to know things. It's just kind of context. You have to tell them what it needs to know.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2875"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT47M55S">47:55</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah, so zero data retention. It's enterprise level contracts. Basically, we're just saying, like, you deserve the best. Yeah and if you're really nerdy you can actually host it locally host something locally your own and Put your own endpoint in oh yeah yeah you can you can use like that as well in Like olama locally run LLM if you want yeah yeah yeah anyway we should eat hey yeah this Was fun</p></div> </div> </section> <aside class="extravaganza-cta extravaganza-cta--closing"> <p class="extravaganza-cta__lead">Proudly sponsored by my own company.</p> <p class="extravaganza-cta__action"><a class="extravaganza-cta__link" href="https://getmeos.com/extra-ep2-micoff">Get the app → <strong>getmeos.com/extra</strong></a></p> <p class="extravaganza-cta__creed" data-creed>meos is where i keep thinking with the mic off.</p> </aside> <aside class="extravaganza-more"> <p class="extravaganza-more__show">The Aqeel Akber Extra Extra Extravaganza</p> <p class="extravaganza-more__browse"><a class="extravaganza-more__btn" href="https://aqeelakber.com/extra">All episodes →</a></p> <p class="extravaganza-more__follow">Follow: <a class="extravaganza-more__link" href="https://youtube.com/@admiralakber">YouTube</a> · <a class="extravaganza-more__link" href="https://open.spotify.com/show/033xq7NchOx1AyybFkWzR5">Spotify</a></p> </aside> <script type="application/json" id="extravaganza-creed">{"basePath":"extra-ep2","creeds":[{"key":"micoff","text":"meos is where i keep thinking with the mic off."},{"key":"capture","text":"capture and connect in meos."},{"key":"watch","text":"capture your thoughts in meos and watch them connect."},{"key":"liveson","text":"the thinking out loud here lives on in meos."},{"key":"listen","text":"capture your ideas while you listen - in meos."},{"key":"remember","text":"never forget the things you learn - with meos."},{"key":"privacy","text":"privacy for the ai future."},{"key":"insta","text":"save straight from instagram into meos."},{"key":"resurface","text":"meos resurfaces your ideas back to you."},{"key":"nocloud","text":"zero data retention. no logins. no cloud. just you."},{"key":"dm","text":"a proper anonymous direct messenger."}]}</script> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +1000 https://aqeelakber.com/blog/2026-06-13-emerging-technology.html https://aqeelakber.com/blog/2026-06-13-emerging-technology.html extravaganza podcast youtube <aside class="extravaganza-cta extravaganza-cta--top"> <p class="extravaganza-cta__lead">Proudly sponsored by my own company.</p> <p class="extravaganza-cta__action"><a class="extravaganza-cta__link" href="https://getmeos.com/extra-bt1-micoff">Get the app → <strong>getmeos.com/extra</strong></a></p> <p class="extravaganza-cta__creed" data-creed>meos is where i keep thinking with the mic off.</p> </aside> <p> A solo bit on NEAT, POET, and MAP-Elites — evolutionary algorithms that grow neural networks and their wiring, not just weights. Aqeel walks through a weekend experiment where simple creatures evolve to recognise images they themselves produce, and how symmetry and low-energy constraints start to look uncannily like life. </p> <p> Watch the full episode below — also on the podcast feed wherever you listen. </p> <div class="extravaganza-player" id="extravaganza-yt-anchor"> <iframe id="extravaganza-yt" width="100%" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gWJhNSDOimM?enablejsapi=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Faqeelakber.com&rel=0" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div> <section class="extravaganza-teaser"> <h2 class="extravaganza-teaser__heading">In this bite</h2> <div class="extravaganza-teaser__section"> <h3 class="extravaganza-teaser__label">The facts</h3> <ul class="extravaganza-teaser__list"> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">Solo walkthrough of NEAT, POET, and MAP-Elites — algorithms that evolve network topology, not just weights.</li> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">A weekend experiment lets evolved creatures recognise images their own DNA sequences produce.</li> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">Browser-based swarm compute via WebAssembly and PartyKit — anyone can help evolve the population.</li> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">Symmetry and low-energy constraints in a three-dimensional setup begin resembling biological form.</li> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">Lines from Stanley, Clune, and Risi connect decentralised evolution to ongoing work on Meos.</li> </ul> </div> <div class="extravaganza-teaser__section"> <h3 class="extravaganza-teaser__label">Between the facts</h3> <p class="extravaganza-teaser__prose">NEAT-family algorithms meet a long-deferred weekend after shipping Meos to the app stores. The self-recognition task turns a research toy into something stranger: brains that must read pictures of their own making. Distributed volunteers in browsers carry a population search that would once have stayed on a lab cluster.</p> </div> <div class="extravaganza-teaser__section"> <h3 class="extravaganza-teaser__label">Beyond the facts</h3> <p class="extravaganza-teaser__prose extravaganza-teaser__prose--beyond">Simple rules for wiring, energy, and symmetry start to resemble the shapes biology favours. A trace of identity persists inside artefacts that are partly constructed, partly discovered — a motif that echoes beyond the simulation.</p> </div> <div class="extravaganza-teaser__section"> <h3 class="extravaganza-teaser__label">Why you should listen</h3> <p class="extravaganza-teaser__prose extravaganza-teaser__prose--why">The bit follows how a standing research interest surfaces in product choices and a live experiment you can join. Hearing it in Aqeel's voice carries the technical walkthrough and the quiet reason the project exists at all.</p> </div> </section> <section class="extravaganza-transcript"> <h2 class="extravaganza-transcript__heading">Transcript</h2> <p class="extravaganza-transcript__note">Auto-generated from captions — likely errors. Timestamps seek the embedded player.</p> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__body"> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT1S">0:01</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">My weekend project cost me two and a half thousand dollars of opus 4 .8 credits</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="8"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT8S">0:08</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So one of my weekend projects i haven't done one in a while because i've been so focused On building meos that has been my weekend and weekday and late night project uh but since we Launched of the app stores, I was really excited to finally have time to work on an algorithm I've had a romantic obsession with ever since I got exposed to AI.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="35"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT35S">0:35</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And that was NEAT, which is using evolutionary algorithms to not only change the Weights of a neural network, but also the way that it connects together.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="48"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT48S">0:48</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It uses genetic algorithms, so it defines a DNA sequence per neural network and then with that you Test it out in a simulated environment and then you see which ones are the fittest and then Breed a new population based on the one before that there are extensions to this algorithm and I Kept following it by the way the work is all biologically inspired by and the pioneers are Kenneth O.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="75"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT1M15S">1:15</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Stanley Jeff Kloon is another one that i am really inspired by with his works where he extended It to include the algorithm called poet poet then is about being able to make the environment which You test it in also evolve at the same style size um same way as the algorithm evolving So you have ways of knowing how to get to the place you want to get and then Further work sebastian risi i think was their name that worked on MAP-Elites and this turned into</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="108"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT1M48S">1:48</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">A really great nature paper of robots that heal themselves so you get like a hexapod robot and These algorithms are really good unlike they're not really used for training llms or ai but they're really Good for robotic gait so you can imagine a hexapod needs to know how to move its legs.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="133"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT2M13S">2:13</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And instead of keeping the algorithm that knows how to move its legs in the perfect living situation, You then put it in environments where or you measure particular evolved genomes of these brains where the Leg itself, one of the legs might not be touching but it's still moving now this is useful To keep and you keep it like multi -dimensional parameterization of this so that in the field suppose That like hexapod's leg got like taken off then that way it still is able to change its</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="172"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT2M52S">2:52</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Brain really quickly without retraining so these are that's the algorithm that i was really excited about and I never had chances to play with it. I also had, I've always, like, I guess, in this course, the meos, and you can see it All in meos, I have an obsession with decentralization and utilization of, I suppose, volunteer compute.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="193"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT3M13S">3:13</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And because this is a population search algorithm, it is able to be embarrassingly parallel and decentralized. So utilizing the web browser in Cloudflare Party kit I then and WebAssembly I was then able To develop a neural evolution artificial life experiment where anyone can go to it to this website you Can go onto your phone onto this website and it connects you to the cloud the swarm compute And you're helping evolve neural network life forms that are doing one thing which i think is this Is where it became a weekend project not a bit of an art where they're trying to understand</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="242"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT4M2S">4:02</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Their true self so as i said earlier the neural networks image or like what defines the neural Networks architecture can be done as a sequence, a DNA sequence.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="256"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT4M16S">4:16</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">That then produces a pattern. That pattern gets through an algorithm that turns into the brain. The inputs then for that brain, or we can think of like what we put as the eyeballs, What we put as the input into that thing to test it, is that I give it the Image that produced itself.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="277"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT4M37S">4:37</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So it's like right now I'm looking at a preview of myself. My brain is seeing a picture of me and the task then that we tested on is that Given that input of seeing the produced image can that neural network reproduce the sequence that developed that Image</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="301"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT5M1S">5:01</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And uh this again like the genesis um random seed to start this entire algorithm i used the Sequence and And yet a trace of the true self exists within the false.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="314"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT5M14S">5:14</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">This is a ridiculously hard problem Because it is solving a few things. It has to know how to make a sequence, that's one. So that's sort of like a LLM sort of deal.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="330"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT5M30S">5:30</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So I've decided to extend a lot of the work that was usually done in neural evolution and Bring in some of the more recurrent neural network stuff like Karpathy, Andrzej Karpathy really made famous with Their original blog post on the, what was it called?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="347"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT5M47S">5:47</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">The unreasonable effectiveness of recurrent neural networks.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="352"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT5M52S">5:52</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So it's going back to all that stuff and then bringing in a bit of what we know Now today of AI. So this is the repo, you can go check it out.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="362"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT6M2S">6:02</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's MIT, I think, it's probably, or whatever. I have a whole heap of research in here, the documentation. You can see the literature review on the white paper as well.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="372"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT6M12S">6:12</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">But I also have, as I said, it's all WebAssembly and runs in the browser. So as soon as you go to the GitHub Pages site, this is actually the app and it's Loading now.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="384"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT6M24S">6:24</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So what this is happening here are all of the neural networks that are a different type of Niche of behavior. So if this was the hexapod, it would be like a human being.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="401"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT6M41S">6:41</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Let's say it's like the percentage that this neural network keeps its left leg on the ground versus The right leg on the ground.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="408"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT6M48S">6:48</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So if you and then the challenge in that case might be who moves the fastest. That's like kind of what this MAP-Elites here is doing. So in this case, we are doing it by symmetry versus complexity to the actual neural network.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="427"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT7M7S">7:07</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">The neural network itself, it's super glaring, let me close this.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="436"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT7M16S">7:16</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Can you open the window? Yeah, There we go.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="441"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT7M21S">7:21</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Cool. So the neural network sequence, the original sequence is there. That neural network sequence creates this convolutional pattern producing network That takes X, Y, Z. It's actually X1, X2, Y1, Y2, blah, blah, blah.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="463"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT7M43S">7:43</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So that makes a connectivity matrix that will be in three dimensions. Those patterns that it produces are these images here. That's the 3D image. So that neural network DNA sequence produces an image Like this.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="484"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT8M4S">8:04</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And then you use another algorithm. This comes from actually the ES -hypnete, Evolved Substrate Hypnete extension. That's the two -dimensional version. So different parts of density determines the nodes.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="497"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT8M17S">8:17</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">That's the actual brain itself.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="500"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT8M20S">8:20</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So the input then to this neural network takes this image as a sequence and it actually has Attention to be able to determine what part is most interesting and then tries to produce a sequential Output.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="519"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT8M39S">8:39</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">To produce a sequence is already hard enough to be able to learn but the real hard thing, As I guess the only people that be understanding this by now would know is when to stop Producing the actual sequence.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="534"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT8M54S">8:54</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">That's effectively a halting problem. That's obviously incredibly hard so it has to know by looking at the image of itself the length Of its very own DNA sequence in which is over here.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="549"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT9M9S">9:09</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">You can see how often it glimpsed at the actual thing and thought before it actually wrote the Neural The sequence out and this one you can see it has produced five nodes 18 connections out of It should have done 19 connections i've also implemented Hebbian learning and neuroplasticity as well as neuromodulation This is also really cool stuff or proper biologically inspired neural network things Hebbian learning and associative Learning allows you to do learning at runtime.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="582"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT9M42S">9:42</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So it's sort of like attention in a way or recurrence in a way. It is also how we operate a lot more and a big part of meos.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="592"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT9M52S">9:52</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">You can really see what I really enjoyed about doing this project was you can really, I could Really see the thread</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="607"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT10M7S">10:07</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Of these things that I found interesting as a researcher the things that I was attracted to as A researcher and even though I didn't go into AI research and I decided to go into AI Business I guess and consulting originally when it kind of boomed and if I went into AI research I probably would be a lot more better a lot more well off this is I can see How these things have inspired my actions in building meos or the things that I've held on to</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="637"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT10M37S">10:37</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And that real poetic ending to all of this is the reason why I decided to make this Neural network and artificial life experiment try produce an image of itself again goes to that genesis and Yet a trace of the true self exists within the false Just as so many of these research Ideas and thoughts of mine, they exist within meos, they exist within this website you can go to, And importantly, they exist within MI.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="676"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT11M16S">11:16</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Add the biological nature of these simple rules of we've got this three dimensionality and then a pattern Producing. So this is the currently best performing brain that we have evolved so far.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="694"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT11M34S">11:34</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Again, please go to the website and you can help us evolve more. Over here on the left, you can see these two input neurons and then it goes to the Output neurons on the back.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="705"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT11M45S">11:45</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And then one that this reminded me of, by looking at this, was the very well known and Established fact in neuroscience that our eyeballs evolved into our brain.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="720"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT12M0S">12:00</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">The fact that we just started as eyeballs and that sensor alone then turned into this brain. You can see that here. You can see those two eyeballs at the front.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="731"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT12M11S">12:11</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">You can see them. There they are. There's two little eyeballs at the front. Goes into a big fat piece of neurons connected together and then to an output which I guess Would be the spine this is just one of them you can take a look at other different Shapes here let's take a look at this shape there's a kind of cool shape as well you Can always see there's like oh input neurons they're the sensors they're like eyeballs two eyeballs those are The two eyeballs that are looking at this image that i gave this simple mathematical problem and because</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="766"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT12M46S">12:46</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I followed the rules of exactly how we make this in the physical world doing it in 3d Three dimensions Getting symmetry is a thing to do with energy converse conservation as well trying to keep things low Energy, it started making things that look like life.</p></div> </div> </section> <aside class="extravaganza-cta extravaganza-cta--closing"> <p class="extravaganza-cta__lead">Proudly sponsored by my own company.</p> <p class="extravaganza-cta__action"><a class="extravaganza-cta__link" href="https://getmeos.com/extra-bt1-micoff">Get the app → <strong>getmeos.com/extra</strong></a></p> <p class="extravaganza-cta__creed" data-creed>meos is where i keep thinking with the mic off.</p> </aside> <aside class="extravaganza-more"> <p class="extravaganza-more__show">The Aqeel Akber Extra Extra Extravaganza</p> <p class="extravaganza-more__browse"><a class="extravaganza-more__btn" href="https://aqeelakber.com/extra">All episodes →</a></p> <p class="extravaganza-more__follow">Follow: <a class="extravaganza-more__link" href="https://youtube.com/@admiralakber">YouTube</a> · <a class="extravaganza-more__link" href="https://open.spotify.com/show/033xq7NchOx1AyybFkWzR5">Spotify</a></p> </aside> <script type="application/json" id="extravaganza-creed">{"basePath":"extra-bt1","creeds":[{"key":"micoff","text":"meos is where i keep thinking with the mic off."},{"key":"capture","text":"capture and connect in meos."},{"key":"watch","text":"capture your thoughts in meos and watch them connect."},{"key":"liveson","text":"the thinking out loud here lives on in meos."},{"key":"listen","text":"capture your ideas while you listen - in meos."},{"key":"remember","text":"never forget the things you learn - with meos."},{"key":"privacy","text":"privacy for the ai future."},{"key":"insta","text":"save straight from instagram into meos."},{"key":"resurface","text":"meos resurfaces your ideas back to you."},{"key":"nocloud","text":"zero data retention. no logins. no cloud. just you."},{"key":"dm","text":"a proper anonymous direct messenger."}]}</script> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +1000 https://aqeelakber.com/blog/2026-06-13-artificial-life.html https://aqeelakber.com/blog/2026-06-13-artificial-life.html extravaganza podcast youtube <aside class="extravaganza-cta extravaganza-cta--top"> <p class="extravaganza-cta__lead">Proudly sponsored by my own company.</p> <p class="extravaganza-cta__action"><a class="extravaganza-cta__link" href="https://getmeos.com/extra-ep1-micoff">Get the app → <strong>getmeos.com/extra</strong></a></p> <p class="extravaganza-cta__creed" data-creed>meos is where i keep thinking with the mic off.</p> </aside> <p> The Potter — a conversation with ceramic artist Daniel Leone (IG: @danielleone_art), featuring Miranda Chilver (IG: @enquicken.wellbeing). The Aqeel Akber Extra Extra Extravaganza, made by Aqeel in Canberra. </p> <p> Watch the full episode below — also on the podcast feed wherever you listen. </p> <div class="extravaganza-player" id="extravaganza-yt-anchor"> <iframe id="extravaganza-yt" width="100%" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/07Bh333WMHM?enablejsapi=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Faqeelakber.com&rel=0" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div> <section class="extravaganza-teaser"> <h2 class="extravaganza-teaser__heading">In this episode</h2> <div class="extravaganza-teaser__section"> <h3 class="extravaganza-teaser__label">The facts</h3> <ul class="extravaganza-teaser__list"> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">Ceramic artist Daniel Leone meets Aqeel at Mawson Gallery in Canberra, with Miranda Chilver present.</li> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">Leone works in wood firing: flame paths, falling ash, carbon, and kiln atmosphere shape the clay.</li> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">One firing can take fifteen people feeding timber across a week, after weeks of preparation.</li> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">He builds with slag and breakage rather than discarding work after rare, labour-intensive firings.</li> <li class="extravaganza-teaser__item">Bonsai pots hold sculptural succulents — codiciform plants — layering soft form on gnarled surfaces.</li> </ul> </div> <div class="extravaganza-teaser__section"> <h3 class="extravaganza-teaser__label">Between the facts</h3> <p class="extravaganza-teaser__prose">The talk drifts from pyrometry and glaze chemistry into what cannot be controlled or fully understood. Leone describes wood firing as mostly guesswork, then contrasts perfect crockery with surfaces marked by ash, salt, and accident. A gallery walkthrough turns technical detail into something tactile: wadding scars, flame paths, and pots that look ordinary until a plant sits inside them.</p> </div> <div class="extravaganza-teaser__section"> <h3 class="extravaganza-teaser__label">Beyond the facts</h3> <p class="extravaganza-teaser__prose extravaganza-teaser__prose--beyond">Pottery here is less about mastering the kiln than learning to read what the fire and ash leave behind. The thread runs from childhood play through adult pressure about what art ought to be, and back toward freedom without abandoning craft. Brokenness and volatility become part of the work rather than evidence of failure.</p> </div> <div class="extravaganza-teaser__section"> <h3 class="extravaganza-teaser__label">Why you should listen</h3> <p class="extravaganza-teaser__prose extravaganza-teaser__prose--why">The full conversation has room to wander from Canberra gallery floors to the mental shift of stopping the fight with nature. Leone’s account of rare firings, wasted pieces, and deliberate collaboration with randomness needs the longer arc to land. Stay for how science, labour, bonsai, and temperament keep circling the same question: what to do when you cannot force the outcome.</p> </div> </section> <section class="extravaganza-transcript"> <h2 class="extravaganza-transcript__heading">Transcript</h2> <p class="extravaganza-transcript__note">Auto-generated from captions — likely errors. Timestamps seek the embedded player.</p> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__body"> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="0"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT0S">0:00</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">This is episode one.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="3"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT3S">0:03</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Now I feel very on the spot. You're on the spot. Welcome to the Extravaganza. Dan, would you like to introduce yourself?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="13"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT13S">0:13</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Hello, Daniel Leone here.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="17"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT17S">0:17</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Ceramicist, artist, bonsai extraordinaire.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="24"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT24S">0:24</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Akil's master. Maestro. Maestro. Yeah, that's what that is, right? Here I'm making my piece of work in their Going Large workshop. Dan has been excellent. They're here at the Mawson Gallery, one of the cool people in Canberra, very creative.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="42"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT42S">0:42</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And they just showed me some of their work they did with, what was it, a fire? Wood firing. Wood firing, yeah. And the chemistry that occurs is phenomenal.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="55"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT55S">0:55</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And we were just discussing the overlaps of science and art.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="65"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT1M5S">1:05</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">What science do you know? What's on the boundaries of your understanding when it comes to pottery?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="74"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT1M14S">1:14</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Well, that's a good one.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="80"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT1M20S">1:20</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I guess you're in the field of kind of pyometrics</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="86"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT1M26S">1:26</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Um and it's kind of more akin to baking as well which would be the uh the glaze Making But yeah no the wood firing is all about understanding um flame path how the ash falls how The ash and the carbon and the atmosphere create certain reactions in the clay and we get all These different surface textures and treatments and um yeah like we were saying before it's very much science Meets art and exploration and play and ticks every box that's why i do it what part don't</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="123"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT2M3S">2:03</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">You understand oh 99 of it it's one big guessing game the entire time you learn a little Bit every time you you get you get clues and hints but it's always random and that's the Best part And i've actually learned to make my work in conjunction with that randomness the volatility the that's it It kind of has led my practice yeah whereas other people try to force it a lot like They'll make cups or crockery and they're trying to make perfect work but you know there's ash and</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="161"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT2M41S">2:41</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">There's really rough carbon and there's really there's breakages and there's all these problems in the kiln and Then when they get their work they're really frustrated because I tried to make a perfect cup and Now it doesn't work properly whereas and I guess that's how I kind of started but I thought What's the of throwing away half your work when these wood firings are so intense and labor intensive And you know we only get to do one or two a year that's how special they are</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="190"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT3M10S">3:10</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah i was telling um akil it takes 15 people to fire this kiln and it's fired over A week straight constantly feeding it timber so it takes you know weeks of chopping timber it takes Shifts of people through the night um and then you've got to grind the bricks and the clean The kiln and it's just worked so much work so yeah to sit there and then throw work Away after the fact is heartbreaking i don't get it so that's why i work with slag i</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="224"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT3M44S">3:44</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Work with broken things i you know what i mean i i see what results it gives me And then i make my work after that so instead of fighting nature you started working with it At what did you realize you didn't have control and what was it like being a person thinking You had control and now getting I guess a state of mastery where now you can play with The truth of nature and art</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="256"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT4M16S">4:16</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">What was it that was going on what's the journey there's surely a lot right like that's a Huge mental physical personal thing to go through yeah yeah you're definitely right about the journey part I Think we all are kind of born with the answer at when we're kids we we we start At the finish line but we take it for granted and we don't understand just how freeing childhood Is that you can make things and you don't care what other people think you're not influenced by</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="291"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT4M51S">4:51</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">What your art has to be you don't but as you become older and you're told what good Art is and you know and you become a teenager and you're susceptible to pressure and all the Nonsense, you become, I think, all artists become a bit brainwashed as to what art must be.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="314"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT5M14S">5:14</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And then I think the journey is really trying to get back to a state of freedom, get Back to a place of play, Get back to that childhood freedom.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="325"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT5M25S">5:25</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">But you want to take, I think for me, you want to take those elements of what it Means to be an adult in terms of mastery i don't know like if you ever master anything Really i don't know what that kind of means these days um when</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="341"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT5M41S">5:41</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I i hire people or look at people i see if they've got the ability to play within Their thing whatever they're doing and i consider that mastery whether they can play with it interesting now I suppose that adulthood childhood is that are you talking about the crafting the wisdom or the knowledge Like what's the difference between art and craft for you oh that's yes such a good question because That that for me is everything um there is a big divide and I think most most of</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="374"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT6M14S">6:14</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Us don't we talk about art that's good or bad and I don't believe art can be good And bad but craft can be good and bad so craft is the thing that you can really Teach and learn like you you you have to respect the material that is something i guess you Could master you can understand how material works you understand how the wood fires how the kiln works The hot spots all those things</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="400"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT6M40S">6:40</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">You know craft a chair either works or it doesn't work how the chair looks the artistic and The conceptual side of the chair you know how i there is no good and bad in that That's completely subjective and that's like saying is green a good color a bad color well it's the Color green it makes zero sense but if it was yeah does that does that check out i'm Just chuckling because it just my my associative memory is really like a whole thing which is why</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="434"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT7M14S">7:14</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Conversations with me a wild and when you said what is green is green is just a thing It reminded me of seeing there was a cafe here in canberra and it was like a milkshake And one of the ingredients was green oh like matcha or something i don't know it was just Green i'm like okay what's green</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="456"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT7M36S">7:36</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It just made me chuckle because immediately i saw this and it just decidedly i was like what Is green just what is what is what is green and it brings up the sense of qualia And all that stuff as well which qualia is i feel like partially the reason why art can Either be good or bad because it fundamentally is the observed experience of somebody else looking at it I guess but i do want to go because that's a whole conversation in a stream that we'll</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="484"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT8M4S">8:04</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Get to but i do want to talk about something you said about mastery there again which was Like the craft can be mastered because you could understand it</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="496"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT8M16S">8:16</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">We can understand how things respond react we can learn from each other as to like well i Tried melting this at this temperature and we can pass on that that information which is kind of How i see science and art merging is that mastery though well that's the funny thing i mean What does it really mean i mean yeah you can spend your life learning i don't know for Example you could learn one type of mushroom and you'll never know 90 of that in your lifetime</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="530"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT8M50S">8:50</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">About that one type of mushroom you know um when i was doing my phd in nuclear physics There was this during my literature review where i was like i can kind of start to see Where all of the things that my professors and like supervisors were talking about how it kind of Would come together but it would take me over 10 years to scratch the surface of that understanding It was hilarious in in art school when um you know i had one of my glaze teachers</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="560"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT9M20S">9:20</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Greg daly is world renowned has written several books on it he goes to china and japan and Teaches them glazes um spent his entire life chasing alchemy and he and he's under he's the chemist Yeah really I mean and it's funny we we did like a whole semester on glazing and learning The chemical reactions and the components and all these different things and at the end of the class They're like well throw it all out the door because anything can happen anyway exactly doesn't this is</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="591"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT9M51S">9:51</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">The clay and it's a good thing actually Miranda to explain to you that even though you see That little glaze on the wall you've got a different clay body it goes in a different part Of the kiln there's different at the way you applied it's different so it's just too random and That's why i don't understand why people this is why perfectionism is bullshit oh tell me more but We're in this and it's really it's a great conversation the art craft divide and mixing in perfectionism</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="624"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT10M24S">10:24</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Versus play and chaos and those things because we're at pivotal time in history where you know we've Got the we've got mass production we've got ai we've got the you know if i want a Perfect cup i can go and buy one for two dollars and it's but you know through most Of history somebody had to hand make that and so there was really this push of making how Perfect can you make a cup there was a really good measure because it was so hard to</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="662"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT11M2S">11:02</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Eliminate the human touch but now we're at a in history where we've lost the human touch altogether So some people are still stuck in the world of tradition and can't kind of pivot so when You go to these firings it's really interesting you get these potters that must be perfect and precision Because history and tradition has told us you need to be a master crafts person you know in There's the 10 000 hour fallacy there's all this you were still heavily influenced by the japanese culture</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="694"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT11M34S">11:34</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Of you know making one thing over and over and over and getting it perfect but it's funny Because that concept is special as that was right up until this in history is now redundant in My eyes yeah i'm noticing your definition of mastery is extremely different to mine mine being the one Where you can decide i notice that somebody's able to play as in the moment that i see Somebody starting to do things with</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="722"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT12M2S">12:02</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">The chaos making something that is actually quote -unquote less perfect or rather it's less mechanical that's where I see it's mastery That's how I define mastery. When I look for mastery, I look for that.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="736"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT12M16S">12:16</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Whereas from your discussion and your definitions, it has been, and maybe this goes to the nomenclature of, I guess, master and apprentice in pottery anyway, which is, I guess, closer to craft.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="753"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT12M33S">12:33</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And you also meant craft as understanding, which to me, I don't value it. That I as an extremely educated knowledgeable person I'm just like well yeah whatever you know it's no Big deal knowledge understanding like science yes I can tell you it's science I can kill it with Science and I can actually kill it with science to the it becomes beautiful again well that's where It's like the true mastery I guess which is I guess why you said where it's like then Throw it out the door because anything can happen and that's why I like the the stuff that</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="788"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT13M8S">13:08</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">You had with the fire right like the wood itself having silica within it becoming a glaze and Like it's a complex chemistry rather than a oh yeah it tells it tells a story of the Yeah yeah i think the funny thing is you say that you don't like craft i think we're Just we've reached that pinnacle in time where everything is so machined that everything is so perfect that We kind of take it for granted like you don't notice a bad cup like a bad cup</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="823"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT13M43S">13:43</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Until you drink from one till it's uncomfortable to hold till it dribbles down your face till it But we never experienced those cups because we're inundated with mass -produced cups no you're forgetting the cup That i made for me oh yeah yeah which i i so wish i got i got you Both to drink that while i was watching because i knew it wasn't gonna pour yeah it's funny I pulled out this teapot the other day i made in um uni um from a we did</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="852"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT14M12S">14:12</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">A restaurant commission component and um i had a friend and it was a beautiful looking teapot this Is typical italian design it looks good doesn't work properly um and the um i thought oh this Is a beautiful teapot why don't I use this anymore so I had a friend coming over and I thought I'm gonna make her a nice cup of tea and I pulled it's got its own Little tray and I pulled it out and I went to go pour us both the tea and</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="877"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT14M37S">14:37</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It was such a bad pour just water went everywhere and we both just laughed and I was Like oh this is why I don't use this tea so you notice it you know you notice It when but it's a very with craft and be completely artistic and be completely conceptual and it's A privilege because through history you never got to do this like pottery wasn't art until like 100 200 years ago it was just it was like we need a cup you know what I mean</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="913"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT15M13S">15:13</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I need I need</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="918"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT15M18S">15:18</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's weird it's just like yeah it's just like I need somewhere to sit we better make a Chair but we got to the where it's just like well now we've got so many chairs and We're so good at making them why don't we make weird chairs why don't what happens if we Take away a leg what happens if we get conceptual with this totally and so we're just at Such a weird in time where everything goes but everything's machined and we're trying to fight to be</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="945"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT15M45S">15:45</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Humans it's just a</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="947"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT15M47S">15:47</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah yeah it's fascinating it's i don't know where i stand in it all i'll tell you that I love uh bow house as a i guess art thing as a canon it's a canon that's The word kadinsky right one of them yeah one of them yeah uh yeah yeah german expressionist i Think Yeah um and their whole thing form and function i love that concept of form and function and The where something can be so perfect and of such great form and function that it becomes art</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="983"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT16M23S">16:23</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Itself which is how i describe meos as art which i say it is perfection in its form And way and really is architecturally and a lot of effort has gone into its design but it's Absolutely not at all like your standard phone app doesn't have buttons down the bottom like if you Think it's got this crazy radio menu but that's all inspired from something else it's not like it's Completely innovative in you how much of your art is stolen oh all of it good answer there's</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1019"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT16M59S">16:59</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Nothing new under the sun um there's a very daniel element that i can't remove that's for sure The noses that uh Yeah, well, even that I've hinged from a – no, I don't think noses Or anything new.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1037"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT17M17S">17:17</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">What I try to steal, though, it's interesting. What I try to steal is not the design or the concept – oh, sorry, not the design Or the looks.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1044"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT17M24S">17:24</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I try to steal the concepts and the philosophy.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1048"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT17M28S">17:28</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So here's a big one. Like in indigenous culture there's a big especially with first nations paintings and things there was a lot Of people ripping them off do you know a lot of white people doing their own dot paintings Yeah um and stealing and so when i talk about taking from culture i talk about more like I think this is my understanding is that not that we're trying to replicate the work but we're Trying to pass on the philosophy what we're stealing is the appreciation stealing is the wrong word but</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1084"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT18M4S">18:04</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">What we're copying is the philosophy so there's this deep appreciation say in first nations works for land For care of land land management for understanding territory for understanding those to to having pride of what's Around you and awareness to your surroundings that's what we're taking from it or like in bonsai for Example we're trying to make beautiful mutated stunted trees that wouldn't stand a chance in the wild and Then we put them in pots but what people don't understand is that they'll they'll just try and</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1123"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT18M43S">18:43</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Copy the Japanese they'll just try and grow things like this like a cedar right this isn't my Tree this is a client's I'm making a pot fruit but they'll try and copy the japanese but What the japanese don't want you to copy them they want you to copy the they want you To take the philosophy they want you to appreciate your native material and work with your native so That's why we're moving towards gum trees and casuarinas and that's how so that's how i steal i</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1152"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT19M12S">19:12</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Love i steal the concepts i steal the philosophy and i make my own work and they i Guess they're open for that to happen you know kind of but that's what we want isn't it Exactly yeah like i'm reminded of like for some reason in my life somehow i people look to Me as a leader somehow it just happens it's always kind of bothered me in a way it Comes with the height and i have always been like i've always struggled where it's like i don't</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1188"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT19M48S">19:48</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Want followers i don't want people to follow me i'm like don't you understand my whole philosophy is Like to try make you in your strength and you know in that example what do you think It is that people are following i have no idea i but i think i wonder if it's The same sort of...</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1207"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT20M7S">20:07</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I noticed that there are certain types of people that would be more likely to copy and follow Rather than really</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1218"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT20M18S">20:18</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Look for the truth behind it or being able to</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1222"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT20M22S">20:22</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Integrate within themselves as truth. There's this like meme I love. This is me taking the philosophy of a meme and like engaging it to myself. I love it so much.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1233"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT20M33S">20:33</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's like on my signal bio and like instagram bio yeah and i actually just recently like last Weekend i made an artificial life experiment based on this one phrase which is from the meme which Is and yet a trace of the true self exists within the false and the meme is um It shows a dinosaur yeah evolving into a chicken which turns into like chicken breast which turns into Chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1265"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT21M5S">21:05</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Right it's also part of the reason why i have like a plastic dinosaur at home just it Reminds me it's like oh yeah that's fossil fuels that turned into oil</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1275"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT21M15S">21:15</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Central plastic dinosaur that's actually a dinosaur i love this and i think that like when i they're Nice reminders of um if there is something that has truly evolved and i think that's it whether It's an evolution or a copy i think that's the key aspect that i guess i'm looking for Whether people are just trying to copy a design and imitate something versus truly understanding it and then With that comprehension i guess once amongst the qualia qualia being their subjective understanding of something the fact</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1308"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT21M48S">21:48</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">That my green is different to your green Once it's engaged into my being and then I try to recreate it based on that new truth I'll create a falsehood of what if I was trying to produce the other thing but if I Really integrated it within me it'll be an evolution and there's so in the artificial life experiment that I created it's on github if you're listening and you want to go look it up It's called Autograph It is based on a neural evolution Through augmented topologies algorithm for evolving neural networks</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1346"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT22M26S">22:26</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Something that I had a romantic obsession with it uses a genetic algorithm just like humans has a DNA sequence for each neural network then you test them and then you make a population you breed A new one etc it always evolves and the task that i've got them to do is that Neural network needs to take the image the actual image the thing that defines the neural network as Its input and then output the dna sequence that created that image and it's a continuous evolution experiment</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1382"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT23M2S">23:02</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">That goes on forever that you can visit on your phone and it starts helping the experiment of Having these little neural networks trying to produce their true self out of the false their original dna Out of the false and that every single one that gets slightly better than the one before it As well because it is a genetic algorithm has a bit of the original genome of where it Was before that and it's always an evolution there's this other saying that like is stuck with me</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1416"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT23M36S">23:36</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">As well which is evolution is amoral culture serves the genome culture serves the genome and for humanity To survive we must transcend if we do nothing</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1433"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT23M53S">23:53</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Then whatever culture is existing will service whatever nature of creation let's say it's like a set of A hundred different pots it'll continuously service it if that's the need if you need chairs you need This and that you need a cup that's just what it needs to serve and we'll continue to Evolve there we're just that's just we're getting more and more efficient and better so where is it At now well the transcendence is play if that's where i think it's like you get to a</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1470"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT24M30S">24:30</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Of mastery and play like i think when it's you've gotten to the of being able to do That so well the transcendental thing to do there is let's just mix up the algorithm a bit Because it's good enough we have the safety and it's fine um that we can actually inject a Bit more about humanity into it again which is like going to ai generated art always being imitation Always being a copy same</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1500"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT25M0S">25:00</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Thing our humanity is that a little bit of transcendence that we can provide to be able to Create it further and i think it goes through a lot of things do you see evolution and Transcendence as a linear thing that it's moving forward in a way or do you see is just Change it's just change yeah it's just change time and the directionality of it and all that sort Of stuff that's another thing that keeps me up at least once a quarter</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1535"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT25M35S">25:35</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Doesn't make sense anyway it was great chatting are we not chatting anymore we've been chatting for 25 Minutes have we oh oh time flies yeah um these are meant to be like 10 minute episodes We haven't heard from miranda oh yeah miranda's in the room oh that's the first name</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1556"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT25M56S">25:56</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">That other voice you might be hearing they're not really in front by podcast world by podcast world And um thanks oh oh uh oh yeah uh daniel leone art instagram come and find me yes And you run classes here in this classes, Bonsai services, sales talks, demos classes, coffee tea, biscuits even a viable bathroom We've got it all here at the Mawson Gallery my thing is you should get me us and Go to getmeus .com bye everyone</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1599"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT26M39S">26:39</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">The conversation was so good that we had to continue no we had we had to continue all Right welcome welcome back podcast world welcome pod back yes indeed you're saying back on stealing yeah yeah Roping back around um i don't really think you can steal if you see it as stealing you're An individual you're thinking individually because You're not really one person are you you're like a culmination of everybody and everything around you like It's easy to sit here and say this is my thing i made this out of clay and</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1634"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT27M14S">27:14</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's your intellectual property but you didn't make the clay you didn't make the wheel you're on the Water in the clay came from you know it took hundreds of millions of people to get to This and then it's going to take many more people to fire it and to you know so I think our culture really heavily Puts the individual on a pedestal but there's no such thing there is no michelangelo there was the Church there was the community the country the everything around them the apprentices the paint makers that it</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1671"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT27M51S">27:51</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Would yeah i mean i was watching a documentary the other night on um egyptology and they dig Up these kings and queens and pharaohs and but it's not really</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1684"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT28M4S">28:04</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's not really Tutankhamen, is it? It's more a representation of Egypt at the time And the goldsmiths and the calligraphers.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1695"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT28M15S">28:15</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">There was no Tutankhamen. Do you know what I mean?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1700"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT28M20S">28:20</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah, I like the Chuck Palahniuk quote, which is in Invisible Monsters, which is nothing of me is Original, the combined effort of everyone yeah yeah yeah well what was that other i can't remember that Politician that said if i'm great it's because i stand on the shoulders of giants it's classic we Use that one in science all the time stand on the shoulders of giants right isaac newton said That was it isaac newton yeah yeah yeah it's very common but yeah we're just building a plot</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1734"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT28M54S">28:54</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's a bit like okay ai stealing art artists are hating it right now you think ai is Stealing art that's what people are saying yeah let's see the narrative is like</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1754"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT29M14S">29:14</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So miranda's in the podcast now apparently</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1758"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT29M18S">29:18</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I'm gonna mic you up but the ai like these companies have taken all of this information and Knowledge and haven't necessarily attributed it it's interesting in the scientific world and the coding world we kind Of just accepted it that that would happen because we put our stuff into public domain to be Consumed in public domain for the good the fact that scientific knowledge is finally getting around paywalls it's Actually kind of good um as well so but then i think that because the artists themselves they</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1792"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT29M52S">29:52</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Have never really got under recognition or any i guess kickback and they're under a lot of stress Already in society this is just like why are you continuing to do this to us by like Well i just i just see it as a telltale sign that the individual has remained an individual In their minds there they don't see themselves as a collective as one with everybody else they still See them because if you're that threatened that someone else is going to take you out what are</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1819"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT30M19S">30:19</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">You really threatened by there that you're you'll no longer be special that somebody else will get recognition For what the ego me wanted you know i've met artists that won't share their glaze recipes or Tell you how they do things and that's fine it's up to them it's just really it's disappointing Because and I was there at one myself where I was very protective and egotistical about my art But it is ego wasn't it it is and and not in a negative sense its ego is</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1854"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT30M54S">30:54</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">In the literal meaning of me i we've identified with something and we don't realize that really the Ego never actually did anything the ego is there just observing it's necessary but it's</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1874"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT31M14S">31:14</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Weird that we would take something we create and then</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1878"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT31M18S">31:18</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">We've got this external object we made i'm now going to attach my identity to it And i need prestige and i need honor and i need</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1889"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT31M29S">31:29</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Here's a really good example um when i was at furniture school back in 2019 in mitigong it Was quite a prestigious fine furniture school i had two i had many teachers some of the best Furniture makers in australia um two 80 year old guys and i won't say who they are But One of them was a very, both very traditional craftspeople.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1916"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT31M56S">31:56</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">One of them was very proud, very bit egotistical,</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1923"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT32M3S">32:03</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Wouldn't share some things, also could come over and be quite negative or very critical, sometimes good, sometimes A bit unnecessary. Necessary and he made some nice furniture this other furniture maker same age i would say a lot More accomplished had furniture made the speaker's chair at parliament house made i mean anything you could think Of furniture at the governor generals overseas would make some of the finest furniture in the world and Super accomplished like as far as you could get as a furniture maker in this life and could</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1961"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT32M41S">32:41</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Come over to a student who had just been there for a year and just come up and Be totally amazed, come over with eyes wide open and talk to you as if.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1970"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT32M50S">32:50</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">But you could see that it wasn't a pat on the back, that that was true mastery, that They could. Yes. When you reach the pinnacle and you realise that more is more, you know, why hide secrets?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1982"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT33M2S">33:02</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Why harbour? And there has been many artists in the past that took their secrets to the grave and no One knows how to do it. And who benefits from that?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="1989"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT33M9S">33:09</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">What the fuck's the wouldn't it be great if we knew how the pyramids were built aliens oh Yeah we do know right i thought it was giants but who knows all right giant aliens but Who and i mean imagine if the if we treated everything else like that in the world i've Got a cure for cancer but i won't share it with anybody i won't tell anybody imagine if What would the world be if we didn't share these things so why is art different that's the</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2017"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT33M37S">33:37</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Silly thing if i have in fact i think it's an honor that someone would want to copy Me when someone wants to put a nose on a cup i go fuck yeah let me show You how i do it yeah actually when you said you were impressed by my concept then you Did the same thing i was honestly so flattered yeah um it's and you can never copy anyone That's the funny thing no matter how hard you try to copy like the impressionists would copy they</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2043"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT34M3S">34:03</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Had just opened trade with Japan back in the, I think, late 1800s And they were getting, like, Japanese woodblock prints. So you had, like, Van Gogh copying Japanese art.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2056"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT34M16S">34:16</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And you see it, but it's Van Gogh. No matter how much he tried to copy it, it was never going to be Japanese art. Yeah. I could try and copy you as much as I want.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2065"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT34M25S">34:25</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I'll never be a keel. Yeah, yeah. You can't copy.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2071"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT34M31S">34:31</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Have you even seen ai can't even copy itself i saw the funniest um it someone put in Uh a picture of the rock uh duane johnson and it said he said reproduce this perfectly exactly The same don't change a thing and just kept saying that and it was amazing how it could Never yeah i can't do it it just kept altering there's the same with us noise yeah i Could talk about intellectual property as well having being somebody that especially in the tech and innovation space</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2104"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT35M4S">35:04</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Like i can make intellectual property trivially that's the easy part it's easy to have ideas and have That concept and i remember that there were people that were like oh my god you should painted This this and they're stood on this pathway commercialize this i'm like you know it just came up Trivially it's fine the hard part is actually always the craft in fact to really you get the The value of it of that intellectual property but if you can share that process as well i</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2131"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT35M31S">35:31</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Think that's way too and it can only benefit you i mean if three people are working with The same medium or material or technology you're all trialing different things and you're bouncing that information off Each other the best and i've just learned it the best art collections i've seen bonsai whatever it Be uh the most communal the people that hide away in their backyard and refuse to talk to Anyone else their work unfortunately becomes a bit stagnant it becomes a bit predictable yeah that's that's right</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2163"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT36M3S">36:03</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Like you know there is a a good outcome usually from collaboration if you can learn to collaborate It's hard to it's funny that it's destroying your ego why do you think people go into why Do you think people need feel the need to like</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2179"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT36M19S">36:19</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Create an ego from it or to strengthen a personality though like whether they enter the science world Or oh isn't it weird they'll enter the science world but not share their science with other people Or sports people will go in and</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2194"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT36M34S">36:34</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I don't know where i was going with that one but um yeah i i'm sort of i've Had too many experiences of people with big egos yeah hiding research not letting it be reviewed or Trying to manipulate it in companies and business or i was going to say with sports people it's A made -up game and yet they'll cheat</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2215"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT36M55S">36:55</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It doesn't make any sense i don't understand this why yeah and it's a very western thing because Over like i was doing an art residency in indonesia a few years back and the individual almost Didn't matter the art was completely communal and they would have they had the same level of respect Like for super traditional batik or puppet making alongside street art and graffiti and even the graffiti artists Would go next to each other rather than over the top of each other there was this there</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2251"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT37M31S">37:31</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Wasn't so much a sense of self it was kind of more art of the people by the People for the people it wasn't i was um i went to see bangara recently on canberra love And in terms of like dance i find i personally find contemporary dance and dance my favorite art Form to consume yeah and there's nothing that quite moves me like bangara i was in tears from The beginning to the end constantly and i was trying to think like you know i've seen so</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2290"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT38M10S">38:10</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Much excellent excellent work what is it always about bangara like why is it there and like the Reason why i enjoy it so much as well is that i could i can't understand like i Always come out of it being like i just don't understand why this is moving me so much I just and i love being confused it's my favorite thing and it's pretty rare to be yeah To embrace the unknown i think that's the most scary it's the best thing about being alive right</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2322"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT38M42S">38:42</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's the biggest hurdle what embracing the unknown well yeah maybe people want to know things for the Sake of ego but i i realized that that's a very human thing too right like we want To have some idea where what's going to happen in the future we don't want to just go Into the unknown we wouldn't just walk over into that paddock yeah not knowing what animals are there Or we want to have some concept yeah well we i think we might take it a bit</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2352"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT39M12S">39:12</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Too far you know oh all the time to the where it's like yeah you have to have Control an idea like of everything well you wrote put a background to art and that's why you Talk about like you become a master of play yeah you become a master of letting go and Just seeing what happens but people fuck around and find out yeah fuck around and find out i Love that yeah but and that's where this whole perfectionism thing comes in they have an idea in</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2380"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT39M40S">39:40</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Their mind and they can't let it go and they think that that's perfect and it is perfect In the mind but but the best things in life come from the unknown and i think the Perfection For me is i like to say perfection is how well we can handle ourselves during our mistakes</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2403"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT40M3S">40:03</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah and perfection is achieved by completely taking the space which is available knowing the limitations of what That space is i found bengara what it is for me that i realized it's like because like At the end of it every time the last three bengaras i've seen i've been in tears i'm Like i just keep crying to the person next to you i'm like i just see this is How we could all be is what we could all this is it this is everything this is</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2433"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT40M33S">40:33</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Like all of the stuff and i could never comprehend and put the words to it but then This time around i watched it and then had a bit of time to reflect and i realized That it's because they their work unlike more western work which is very much still exploring and i Feel like the west is still exploring it Existential sort of concepts and finding hope there the the western work is now moving as well to I think what this bengara work is that i discovered is actually really about belonging they all of</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2474"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT41M14S">41:14</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Their work is they are truly masters not only of dance but of the understanding of belonging so Well that it comes across in their dance that to them it's completely integrated it's they're already hit The sense of belonging whereas now with contemporary western artworks and work and i guess the zeitgeist and Feelings people are really starting to move on beyond the absurdism and start to give people hope and We've gone beyond optimism a bit more as well because like</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2511"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT41M51S">41:51</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">The we need to give people a bit more agency but then like for why and the for Why is the belonging</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2522"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT42M2S">42:02</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">That bhangara they worked it out they've always known it i got a bit of a theory on This as well i think with any art form you can never hide the intention whether your intention Is to just make money or your intention is to play and have fun or your intention is Um to show off or whatever it be and bangara this is my kind of theory is that Because they're it's got that first nations push and it's all about appreciating culture land there's so much</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2557"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT42M37S">42:37</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">You know that sense of belonging like you said you can't get away from that intention that's right And this goes to that and this is where and why i love that thing and yet a Trace of the true self exists within the false you can't hide that true originality eventually there's that Evolution there yeah and you can feel quality yeah feel quality when it's fully integrated and the ego Is no longer there yeah yeah</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2585"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT43M5S">43:05</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I still don't have a i guess</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2590"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT43M10S">43:10</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Answer to why people seek ego maybe they just stressed i think it takes a lot of luxury To be able to go through the process of being safe enough to i don't know i don't Know obviously got no idea what do you think miranda cognitive scientist here yeah stuff about ego we Can talk about it later i mean that's a whole other realm i think i think the the Ego is important it's important to have an ego in modern world as well it's funny that it's</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2630"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT43M50S">43:50</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Just dominated though yeah wise mind is like combining the rational and the emotional mind</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2638"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT43M58S">43:58</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So talk me through this where are you going with this where i'm going with my artwork well I put a hole here so that i can run a cable if i want to put some Lights through here and get like coming out and like probably some leds why would you not run The cable through the bum why would i not yeah i thought about it for a long time That's why i was sitting here yeah yeah and also it's a great butt cheeks it is like</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2665"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT44M25S">44:25</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">They're really really nice you're right and it's too it adds a level of it makes it too Comical yeah and your work's not meant it's not what you're chasing so yeah just a nice little Heart there i might put a few hearts on the sides here like that's the boring part of The piece they can see I guess and yeah exploration I really like it it's coming together it Is this fits on now I'm happy gotta put the ear over here beautiful side yeah love it</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2697"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT44M57S">44:57</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">The femur the grass puppy femur over here grass puppy yeah grass puppy and um i guess the The face</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2714"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT45M14S">45:14</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And what's even beautiful is like once it's all finished the work how you use this it then Just becomes a whole nother building material for the next thing whether it be food or plants or It's got to go like this that angle yeah not just straight Yeah, it's going to be so Much fun.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2733"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT45M33S">45:33</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's going to be fun. It's going to be super dynamic. You've just given yourself lots of options. Yeah. And it's definitely got the potential to keep evolving.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2744"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT45M44S">45:44</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Well, you've done well to encapsulate everything you've been talking about. Yeah. It's cool to see ideas manifest.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2753"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT45M53S">45:53</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah. Yeah, they just sort of come out, don't they?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2757"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT45M57S">45:57</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I have to wee -wee. All right. Thank you. Thank you, podcast world. Thank you, Podcast World, for the corollary. You definitely don't want to keep the mic on for that experience.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2768"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT46M8S">46:08</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">See you later. And now it's time for show and tell. And don't forget, you can purchase all of this art, and I recommend you reach out. Oh, yes.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2778"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT46M18S">46:18</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">All right, so if I was explaining it to Miranda. Yeah. So basically it's called a groundhog. In Japanese, an anagama. It's a very primitive very very ancient style kiln just powered by lots of wood it takes like A team of there's 15 of us um weeks of chopping wood and yeah powered over like five Days where you're constantly feeding it but yeah like i was saying it tells the tale of like The kiln so this pot was sitting in the kiln like this right whoa so you can see</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2811"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT46M51S">46:51</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">See all this this is ash that Falls on the so wood would have been thrown on top of this it's burnt down into ash The ash has melted into a glaze and can you see all that see this yeah that's seaweed What oh what's up on this i put seaweed on my pots look at that and those little Orange blobs are like where the seed pods were seaweed and they explode and they cause flashing oh So that stains it orange yeah and then then you can see so there's mixed um ash glaze</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2846"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT47M26S">47:26</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">As well that's carbon from the firing uh trapped carbon this is a halo caused so it would Have been sitting on the kiln like that yeah that's flashing caused by the fire so this pot's Really cool because you a bit of everything that's insane and then i use it i pair really Weird textural succulents and things that just contrast this dude this one so this was also had lots Of wood being thrown on top of it um there's different parts of the kiln but yeah this</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2884"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT48M4S">48:04</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Is right where we're feeding the kiln and all this debris is yeah ash and just crap so How is the kiln set up like when you say you're throwing it in is there you're literally Throwing it in and there's a fire there it's it's a good question it's a good question and I and i realize how disconnected the um pottery world than the normal person that is we're not Normal but yes i guess the best way to describe it so like i mean pottery basically it's</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2920"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT48M40S">48:40</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's like an extension of a campfire that would have been the first kind of firing we got Some mud and we put in a campfire and then it evolved into basically building a building a Room to contain the heat to go higher like an oven pretty much so you can imagine it's A big hole in the ground probably the size of this half this house so a big kiln Yeah half in the ground and then half domed with like uh kiln bricks so you can actually</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2951"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT49M11S">49:11</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Like walk in but you're like this yeah and it's</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2958"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT49M18S">49:18</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Got it's a big dome they call it a dumpling kiln it looks like a big dumpling um And literally uh there's a door at the front you open it to throw fire to throw wood In and there's a bit of work on the ground but it's a very volatile spot because wood's Getting thrown in and pots do get smashed but that's why i put a big chunky pot in There um and then towards the back you've got shelves which have like cups and finer work so</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="2985"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT49M45S">49:45</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">They catch the ash and things but they're still usable so like um for example that was one Of the cups that came through the wood farm right oh wow that's so clean in comparison yeah Just like because different parts of the kiln i like the gnarly bits and no one likes those Parts of the kiln so i get i get free reign that was um so i've just done A gold repair so i can't let you touch it but um this was in the kiln um</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="3013"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT50M13S">50:13</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And it connected to someone else's work and that's ash that's run down his work and he didn't Want it because there was a bit of a broken bit but i thought i'll repair it yeah It's like all the unique things it's like you won't be able to replicate it ever again so You might as well appreciate it and that's exactly right like you'll never get two pieces the same Like so this this these are the two pods this woman makes um i've just gold repaired these</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="3039"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT50M39S">50:39</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">For her she has a mold for these and she makes lots of these these are in two Different parts of the kiln same clay same everything so you can see that that's why it's so Exciting and look at this like look at that beautiful just drip of ash so you just never Know what you get it's sometimes they're duds and so you'll see a lot of red which is Like a lot of iron because this is iron heavy clay but the green see those green yeah</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="3069"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT51M9S">51:09</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">That's where the ash starts to form a glaze and then you get the flame path as well That creates so does the ash melt like when it when it forms a glaze is it kind Of melting into it a bit of both okay so it does melt but sometimes it doesn't and Then this is where it hasn't yeah yeah yeah yeah this is where it has and so that's Like the ash there some people will mix ash into glazes and make in fact some potters when</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="3103"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT51M43S">51:43</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">They pass on will have their ashes mixed into a lace it's a lovely touch yeah but you Also get flame puff so this is where the flames kind of come across the work yeah it Creates um so it's hard to know what you're kind of looking at a bit sometimes i think On first appearance you can be like oh it's a lot of browns or it's a lot of You know or it's poopy greens but when you start to learn what caused them it gets exciting</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="3128"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT52M8S">52:08</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">That's like oh it's got a cast yeah it didn't mean to but it's got a cast and Look this one's stepped in a pot it's got socks okay that's really interesting and they're just really Fun to use so so this is called wadding so basically because the kiln it gets full of Salt and ash everything The whole kiln becomes like an entire glaze, So everything sticks to everything.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="3161"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT52M41S">52:41</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So you have to use wadding to separate. See, this is how these are light. There was wadding there because if I didn't have it, it would just stick to the kiln.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="3171"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT52M51S">52:51</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So that was a bit of wadding, but it got stuck on.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="3177"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT52M57S">52:57</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">I could take that off, but it looks like a cast. It looks cool. Yeah, it looks like he's got a little cast. And it fits well. They're cute, aren't they?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="3186"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT53M6S">53:06</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And they become fun to use.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="3189"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT53M9S">53:09</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So are these all, you would use them for pots for like bonsai or other plants?</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="3196"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT53M16S">53:16</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Yeah, a bit of everything. Some bonsai. I'm into these kind of plants at the moment called codisiforms. So I was showing you that one outside. But see how it looks like a tree, but it's a giant succulent.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="3212"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT53M32S">53:32</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">And this is called Codex. And so the plural for is codiceforms because it's not a type of plant. It's just a way they grow.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="3222"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT53M42S">53:42</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">So you get all different types of plants, but they're kind of really cool because they're kind of Sculptural. Yeah.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="3228"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT53M48S">53:48</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Super textual and they look really funky in these pots. So it's like texture on texture. And you have these really soft blobby forms on like jagged, gnarly, ashy pots.</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="3241"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT54M1S">54:01</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">Super fun. Yeah, great. Contrast and you can tell just even just looking at this so this is like a quite ordinary Pot right especially when you've just been looking at yes it completely changes the experience and i've seen Some of the other bonsai has been like very like like i don't know tailored pots or things Well they can look very commercial can't they they're very very like you go to bunnings and because They are in in stock in they're a bit too perfect aren't they</p></div> <div class="extravaganza-transcript__line"><a class="extravaganza-transcript__ts-link" href="#extravaganza-yt-anchor" data-seek-seconds="3273"><time class="extravaganza-transcript__ts" datetime="PT54M33S">54:33</time></a><p class="extravaganza-transcript__text">It's funny like that</p></div> </div> </section> <aside class="extravaganza-cta extravaganza-cta--closing"> <p class="extravaganza-cta__lead">Proudly sponsored by my own company.</p> <p class="extravaganza-cta__action"><a class="extravaganza-cta__link" href="https://getmeos.com/extra-ep1-micoff">Get the app → <strong>getmeos.com/extra</strong></a></p> <p class="extravaganza-cta__creed" data-creed>meos is where i keep thinking with the mic off.</p> </aside> <aside class="extravaganza-more"> <p class="extravaganza-more__show">The Aqeel Akber Extra Extra Extravaganza</p> <p class="extravaganza-more__browse"><a class="extravaganza-more__btn" href="https://aqeelakber.com/extra">All episodes →</a></p> <p class="extravaganza-more__follow">Follow: <a class="extravaganza-more__link" href="https://youtube.com/@admiralakber">YouTube</a> · <a class="extravaganza-more__link" href="https://open.spotify.com/show/033xq7NchOx1AyybFkWzR5">Spotify</a></p> </aside> <script type="application/json" id="extravaganza-creed">{"basePath":"extra-ep1","creeds":[{"key":"micoff","text":"meos is where i keep thinking with the mic off."},{"key":"capture","text":"capture and connect in meos."},{"key":"watch","text":"capture your thoughts in meos and watch them connect."},{"key":"liveson","text":"the thinking out loud here lives on in meos."},{"key":"listen","text":"capture your ideas while you listen - in meos."},{"key":"remember","text":"never forget the things you learn - with meos."},{"key":"privacy","text":"privacy for the ai future."},{"key":"insta","text":"save straight from instagram into meos."},{"key":"resurface","text":"meos resurfaces your ideas back to you."},{"key":"nocloud","text":"zero data retention. no logins. no cloud. just you."},{"key":"dm","text":"a proper anonymous direct messenger."}]}</script> Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +1000 https://aqeelakber.com/blog/2026-06-12-the-potter.html https://aqeelakber.com/blog/2026-06-12-the-potter.html extravaganza podcast youtube <p> I was invited to be the opening keynote speaker of the &ldquo;AI in Government&rdquo; conference held at the QT Canberra, Australia held 24-25 July 2025. </p> <p> In this talk, under the veil of &ldquo;The role of AI in modern work&rdquo;, I actually share what I consider one of my most valuable pieces of intellectual property - something I&rsquo;ve held onto for years - and it is in fact a philosophy. </p> <p> I speak about my extension to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIKW_pyramid">DIKW pyramid</a>, not only going Beyond Wisdom, but also talking about what we do with it. I talk about the very nature of what intelligence is. </p> <p> This is a valuable framework for anyone working with artificial intelligence to understand ways we can (1) best collaborate with artificial intelligence, (2) understand artificial intelligence as an enabling technology. </p> <p> The talk opening also includes a call to action to act and do something good with AI for the public ASAP citing the cultural legacy we have gained around nuclear power due to the disruptive technology starting the atomic era being weaponised for harm before we had a chance to win the public&rsquo;s trust, and rightfully so. </p> <p> Finally, I introduce how I use and apply this thinking in my latest venture: <a href="https://usemeos.com">meos</a>. Artificial Intelligence starts the Knowledge Era. We can now move knowledge around like we move information. We have built the kernel to an AI operating system. We have the SDK. Our first application on top of it is notes. </p> <p> Enjoy and as always feel free to reach out. </p> <iframe width="100%" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ylVT2Ferlt0?si=2uRvteuKc6Mbxwwc" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe> Tue, 08 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +1000 https://aqeelakber.com/blog/2025-07-08-beyond-wisdom.html https://aqeelakber.com/blog/2025-07-08-beyond-wisdom.html presentation ai business government musings <p> Watching the AI ecosystem transform on a daily basis consumes most of my workdays. Thinking about what comes next fills the rest, though it’s now becoming ever clearer. Recent technological advances have shed light on some of AI’s economics: the incredible performance of FOSS models, their ever-smaller footprints, and computers like the frame.work desktop and NVIDIA Digits to run them. The macro economics of an AI future are starting to make sense. </p> <p> A fortnight ago, I was invited to the Australian AI CoLab Initiative to deliver a fireside chat on <a href="2024-12-11-the-synthrole-manifesto.html">The Synthrole Manifesto</a>. The discussion was excellent, and it benefitted both the audience and me. By the time I got home and was browning my onions for dinner, I had my eureka moment, a topic I’m saving for a later note. </p> <p> For this entry however, I draw once again upon The Synthrole Manifesto. In that document, I outline my lean framework for integrating artificial intelligence into a business. I propose Synthroles as a new form of role design where technology isn’t merely bolted on but is embedded at the core of the role, synthesised. </p> <p> Since publishing that manifesto three months ago, my conviction has only grown. I now firmly believe that business leaders should start thinking in terms of Human/AI Team Building as a logical extension. </p> Sat, 01 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +1100 https://aqeelakber.com/blog/2025-03-01-human-ai-team-building.html https://aqeelakber.com/blog/2025-03-01-human-ai-team-building.html note ai business <div id="outline-container-org6b053aa" class="outline-2"> <h2 id="org6b053aa">Personal Journey and Context</h2> <div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org6b053aa"> <p> The incredible boom in machine learning and AI pulled me away from physics. The release of the 1080Ti changed everything—it made neural networks cheaper, faster, and suddenly feasible for far more people. To me, this felt like the next cutting edge of science and technological progress. I wanted to be there. </p> <p> When I told people, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m doing my PhD in nuclear physics,&rdquo; they lit up with fascination. But my research wouldn&rsquo;t impact their lives for decades. I love explaining science, but I wasn&rsquo;t comfortable feeding excitement about applications that might not materialise. </p> <p> Machine learning was different. It was already booming, and I could seehow it could help people today. That realisation motivated me to found Thaum in 2018, focusing on computer vision and data science. Running a business kept me from diving deeply into ML/AI, but I stayed engaged with the field, maintaining a scientist&rsquo;s curiosity. </p> <p> At Thaum, I learned to align my scientific lens with a business perspective. After five years, I moved on to <a href="https://dsq.studio">dsq.studio</a>—a space for my projects and consulting. At dsq, I certainly have no intention creating in &ldquo;Yet Another AI Product&rdquo; (YAAP). We&rsquo;ll revisit YAAPs another day, but I&rsquo;ll say this: they didn’t excite me, and I always follow my excitement. I wanted to start with scaling my productivity—to help people, build ventures, dive into research, and find time to enjoy the world. </p> <p> Scaling myself meant building tools. Equipped with my Larq bottle and the joy of large language models (LLMs), I began crafting systems for personal and professional use. LLMs have ignited a new era of software. Once you adopt this mindset, distractions fade, revealing opportunities. Recently, I’ve provided remarkable value to businesses with similar, thoughtful, lean LLM implementations—a skill born from experience and a love for crafting elegant solutions. I&rsquo;ve distilled my 7+ years of B2B AI consulting experience into a framework for leaders and developers to design valuable AI solutions that seamlessly integrate into their businesses, delivering immediate impact: Synthroles. </p> </div> </div> <div id="outline-container-orgbfcc818" class="outline-2"> <h2 id="orgbfcc818">A Lean Framework</h2> <div class="outline-text-2" id="text-orgbfcc818"> <p> As I explored the possibilities that machine learning and AI opened up, I began to think about how these technologies could be implemented in a lean, effective way, not just for products but for the way businesses could operate. AI and machine learning are often framed as cutting-edge innovations—and they are. But just as often, their potential is clouded by overcomplicated systems and bloated solutions that miss the mark. I wanted to find a way to bring the power of AI down to a more usable, manageable level—a lean framework that could be immediately effective, scalable, and practical. </p> <p> A lot of businesses, especially those working with AI, tend to get caught up in complex solutions or theoretical constructs, often because they&rsquo;re chasing the allure of &ldquo;big AI&rdquo; without realising how simple and powerful AI can be when approached with a lean mindset. Instead of trying to develop the next all-encompassing system, why not focus on specific applications, tools, and capabilities that provide immediate value? </p> <p> The term &ldquo;lean&rdquo; has been used for decades in business to describe efficiency and minimalism, and it&rsquo;s something that I wanted to bring into my thinking about AI. A lean AI framework doesn&rsquo;t just focus on the “big picture”; it zeroes in on the actions that will directly move the needle for businesses, ensuring that AI augments what you already have, rather than trying to overhaul everything. </p> <p> This was the mindset that led to what I now call Synthroles: a way to rethink roles within businesses in a way that makes them leaner, smarter, and ultimately more productive. Synthroles are a tool for leaders to streamline their organisations by implementing AI in such a way that it fits seamlessly into existing processes, boosting productivity without introducing unnecessary complexity. This approach isn&rsquo;t about throwing everything out the window and starting from scratch. It&rsquo;s about augmenting what you already have, using AI as a powerful tool for efficiency and growth. </p> <p> By focusing on this lean mindset, I began to see how AI could be leveraged in a way that wasn&rsquo;t just about adopting new technologies but using them to create smarter workflows, less friction, and greater results. This is what led me to a crucial insight: that AI doesn&rsquo;t need to be a giant, intimidating beast of a system. It can be a series of small, impactful changes—changes that will transform businesses and roles without complicating everything in sight. </p> </div> </div> <div id="outline-container-org0b30f47" class="outline-2"> <h2 id="org0b30f47">Moving Beyond YAAPs</h2> <div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org0b30f47"> <p> In the world of AI, there&rsquo;s a pervasive trend: Yet Another AI Product (YAAP). We&rsquo;ve all seen it—every week, another flashy tool, another shiny new product claiming to solve some major problem with the magic of AI. But if you&rsquo;ve been following the space long enough, you start to realise that most of these products are nothing more than band-aid solutions to today&rsquo;s problems. They&rsquo;re quick fixes that might provide a temporary boost, but they rarely deliver long-term, sustainable value, let alone a disruptive and competitive edge. </p> <p> The problem with YAAPs is that they&rsquo;re built with the assumption that AI is the solution to everything. But AI isn&rsquo;t a silver bullet. It&rsquo;s a tool—and just like any tool, its value is determined by how it&rsquo;s used. Too often, YAAPs are created with one-size-fits-all solutions in mind, without considering the unique needs of a business or a particular role. They&rsquo;re not tailored, and they don&rsquo;t fit into the existing workflow of an organisation. </p> <p> I&rsquo;ve seen this play out first-hand in my own experience in the AI industry. The temptation to create the next big AI product, the next flashy app or platform, is real—and who can blame anyone for wanting to get in on the AI hype? But the reality is that many of these products are quickly outpaced by the next wave of technology, or they simply don&rsquo;t meet the needs of users in the way that was promised. This constant cycle of creating and abandoning YAAPs doesn&rsquo;t move us forward; it keeps us in a loop of shiny distractions to solve problems that don&rsquo;t exist, never really digging into the immense power of what could be. </p> <p> This is exactly where the concept of Synthroles comes in. Synthroles aren&rsquo;t about creating yet another AI product that promises the world and delivers little. They&rsquo;re not about introducing flashy, gimmicky tools that only add complexity. Instead, they&rsquo;re about rethinking roles, reimagining how people work, and using AI to streamline processes and drive value in a way that&rsquo;s practical, immediate, and sustainable—which is what I will introduce to you today. </p> <p> By adopting a lean mindset and focusing on the value AI can bring to individual roles, businesses can stop wasting time on YAAPs and start building systems that are both scalable and sustainable. This shift is key: it&rsquo;s not about piling on more AI products or features, it&rsquo;s about implementing AI in a way that directly benefits the workflow of the people involved. It&rsquo;s about real value—not just more hype. </p> <p> What we need now is a shift in focus: from the constant churn of AI products to a more strategic approach—one that centres on the human aspect and how AI can fit into roles, not the other way around. This shift is the key to moving beyond the noise of YAAPs and creating something with lasting impact. </p> </div> </div> <div id="outline-container-org9b7b482" class="outline-2"> <h2 id="org9b7b482">Introducing Synthroles</h2> <div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org9b7b482"> <p> Now that we&rsquo;ve discussed the pitfalls of Yet Another AI Product (YAAP), let&rsquo;s turn our attention to something more meaningful: Synthroles. </p> <p> A Synthrole is not a traditional role with a sprinkle of AI, nor is it a completely automated job run by an AI. A Synthrole is a reimagined role where human capabilities and AI functionalities seamlessly merge to create a new, more efficient form of work. It&rsquo;s where we leverage AI&rsquo;s strengths to amplify human potential, not replace it. The synthesis comes from understanding how AI can augment existing workflows, handle repetitive tasks, and enable the human element to focus on creativity, problem-solving, and value-driven decision-making. </p> <p> The key to Synthroles lies in how we design them. They don&rsquo;t emerge from a vacuum, nor are they created with the assumption that AI can do everything. Instead, Synthroles are built by understanding the human element of a role first—the skills, the tasks, the objectives—and then considering how AI can enhance or automate parts of that role. Similar to job crafting, ask, given the new era of software: how can we help our staff achieve more than they imagined? With more joy? With more alacrity? This requires a new mindset: rather than seeing AI as a tool to replace jobs and responsibilities, we should see it as a partner that can make our work more efficient, more focused, and more impactful. </p> <p> The beauty of Synthroles is their adaptability. They&rsquo;re not a one-size-fits-all solution. Each Synthrole is tailored to the specific needs of the role it&rsquo;s designed for, meaning that businesses can create roles that evolve with their needs, rather than being locked into a mode of operation enforced by &ldquo;yet another SaaS product&rdquo;. The flexibility and scalability of Synthroles enable businesses to keep up with the fast pace of technological change while maintaining a human-centric approach to work. </p> <p> Synthroles represent a new form of role design, where the technology isn&rsquo;t just bolted on but is embedded at the core of the role itself. The promise of Synthroles isn&rsquo;t about AI for AI&rsquo;s sake—it&rsquo;s about creating roles that leverage the full potential of both human and machine to achieve far greater outcomes than either could on their own. This is the future of work, where the combination of human intelligence and AI creates a more productive, creative, and fulfilling environment for everyone involved. </p> <p> This approach isn&rsquo;t just theoretical. It&rsquo;s something that can be implemented today. In fact, the simplicity of Synthroles makes them an ideal first step for businesses that want to adopt AI but are unsure where to begin. By focusing on existing roles and understanding where AI can add value, businesses can start small and scale quickly—without the risk and complexity of trying to build a completely new AI product or system. This is a lean, practical framework for integrating AI into businesses, one that doesn&rsquo;t require a massive overhaul or the creation of complex, unproven technologies. Instead, it&rsquo;s about focusing on what works and building on it. </p> </div> </div> <div id="outline-container-org86e5b11" class="outline-2"> <h2 id="org86e5b11">The Emergence of AI Stewards and Synthrole Managers</h2> <div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org86e5b11"> <p> As the concept of Synthroles takes shape, I hypothesise a new category of professionals—AI Stewards or Synthrole Managers—could soon emerge. These individuals will be pivotal in managing and evolving the integration of AI into human workflows, ensuring that the balance between human input and AI augmentation is optimised. While still a hypothesis, the emergence of these roles represents the potential for a new class of professionals in a brand-new industry. </p> <p> An AI Steward or Synthrole Manager would play the critical role of ensuring that Synthroles—AI-enhanced roles designed to maximise productivity and creativity—are implemented effectively within organisations. These professionals would combine a deep understanding of AI technology with a nuanced grasp of business operations, acting as a bridge between the human workforce and the tools that augment it. </p> <p> In this emerging model, AI Stewards wouldn&rsquo;t just be technical and AI specialists; they would also need to understand the intricacies of human workflows and organisational needs. Their primary responsibility would be to identify opportunities for AI to support, rather than replace, human effort. They would work to ensure that AI doesn&rsquo;t just automate tasks, but enhances the work of human teams, making processes more efficient and creativity more expansive. </p> <p> Importantly, AI Stewards would be responsible for ongoing optimisation. As AI tools evolve and business needs shift, the role of the AI Steward would be to continually assess and recalibrate the Synthroles, ensuring that the synergy between human and machine remains fluid and productive. This isn&rsquo;t just about implementing AI once—it&rsquo;s about managing a dynamic, evolving system that requires regular updates and adjustments. </p> <p> While this concept remains in its early stages, it&rsquo;s clear that the demand for professionals capable of managing AI-human collaboration will only grow. The role of the AI Steward or Synthrole Manager could, in fact, give rise to an entirely new industry—one focused on the intersection of human potential and AI. </p> <p> The emergence of these roles is an exciting possibility. As AI becomes more integrated into the workforce, businesses will need leaders who can guide the development, implementation, and management of AI-powered systems. These professionals would help ensure that AI enhances the human experience, rather than replacing it, and they would shape the future of work itself. </p> <p> AI Stewards and Synthrole Managers represent a form of middle management that could be efficiently provided, alongside the development of relevant tools, by businesses specialising exclusively in delivering this B2B service. </p> <p> If this hypothesis becomes a reality, it could represent one of the most exciting opportunities of our time—the chance to lead in a rapidly growing field where the lines between AI, human potential, and business efficiency are not only blurred but reshaped. </p> </div> </div> <div id="outline-container-org7fd48fc" class="outline-2"> <h2 id="org7fd48fc">The Future of Synthroles and Why You Should Care</h2> <div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org7fd48fc"> <p> The concept of Synthroles is not just about redefining roles in the workplace—it&rsquo;s about fundamentally reshaping the way we think about work, productivity, and the relationship between humans and technology. Synthroles provide a framework for integrating AI into workflows in a way that empowers people, rather than replacing them, creating a future where humans and machines amplify each other&rsquo;s strengths. </p> <p> Leaders who embrace this mindset early will have a significant advantage. By adopting Synthroles now, businesses can build a foundation for long-term growth, creating workflows that are more adaptable, scalable, and resilient to technological change. This isn&rsquo;t just about staying competitive in the short term; it&rsquo;s about positioning yourself for a future where AI is deeply embedded in every aspect of work. The organisations that succeed will be those that can harness this synergy between human insight and AI augmentation effectively. </p> <p> More exciting still is the potential for a new industry to emerge around Synthroles. With the growing complexity of AI systems and the need for thoughtful integration, we could see the rise of Synthrole Managers or AI Stewards as indispensable roles in the workforce. These professionals will be tasked with creating, refining, and optimising Synthroles across organisations. They will ensure that the balance between AI augmentation and human input is carefully maintained, driving not just efficiency but innovation. </p> <p> Synthroles aren&rsquo;t just a response to the growing influence of AI—they&rsquo;re a way to unlock its full potential in a practical, human-centred way. They provide a clear path for businesses to embrace AI today, not by overhauling everything, but by enhancing what already works. Leaders who embrace Synthroles will be the pioneers who discover and demonstrate how to synthesise with AI—and the transformative outcomes that synergy enables. </p> </div> </div> Wed, 11 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +1100 https://aqeelakber.com/blog/2024-12-11-the-synthrole-manifesto.html https://aqeelakber.com/blog/2024-12-11-the-synthrole-manifesto.html musings ai business <p> Ah, said the cat, </p> <iframe width="100%" height="240" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/zl3xoKrgabY?si=g76kVq7Gd5hLEgbH" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe> <p> how I wished I had shared my experiences between my last posts and now. </p> <p> Well now, this is not too hard to repair. I&rsquo;ll share from here and now, and as I do, the wisdoms I&rsquo;ve learned will be scattered amongst the words. </p> Mon, 16 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +1000 https://aqeelakber.com/blog/2024-09-16-ah,-said-the-cat,.html https://aqeelakber.com/blog/2024-09-16-ah,-said-the-cat,.html musings beauty <p> Since I started my Ph.D about 2 years ago, I have been thinking a lot about where knowledge is contained. This is because one of my objectives during my Ph.D is to advance human knowledge. My research sub-field in nuclear physics is nuclear structure. The holy grail of nuclear structure research (as far as I see it) is to represent the <a href="http://people.physics.anu.edu.au/~ecs103/chart/">nuclear chart</a> in such a way such that nuclei with similar quantum structure are grouped. The electronic quantum structure has been classified in this way already, we have the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodic_table">periodic table</a> of elements. However, nuclear structure is objectively more complicated and it&rsquo;s unlikely that a simple 2-dimensional table will be an accurate representation. Thus, a large amount of study of nuclear structure involves identifying systematic trends between nuclei. I can add knowledge to the field of nuclear structure by connecting nuclei by a trend / behaviour. Turns out my thoughts on this topic align very closely with the relatively modern (2005) theory of learning called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectivism">connectivism</a>. </p> <div id="outline-container-org334a27a" class="outline-2"> <h2 id="org334a27a">Connecting nuclear physics and blogging</h2> <div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org334a27a"> <p> The posts on this blog are like nuclei. The ideas they contain might be related to others by a topic. Much like how all the nuclei mid shell are well described by the rotor model. I could tag all those nuclei with <span style="font-variant: small-caps; color: maroon;">rotor</span> just like I <a href="/tags">tag blog posts</a> with a topic. Topics may be connected by posts. The simplest nuclear physics analogy I can think of: <span style="font-variant: small-caps; color: maroon;">K isomer</span>s are connected to <span style="font-variant: small-caps; color: maroon;">rotor</span>s by nuclei in the Hafnium region. Now this post connects <a href="/tags#blog" style="font-variant : small-caps;">blog</a>ging to <a href="/tags#physics" style="font-variant : small-caps;">physics</a> and I tricked you into learning some nuclear physics. </p> </div> </div> <div id="outline-container-org5eac150" class="outline-2"> <h2 id="org5eac150">The knowledge contained in this blog</h2> <div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org5eac150"> <p> I wanted a way for me to keep track of the big picture that this blog is presenting to the internet for self preservation and improvement. There&rsquo;s no way a tag cloud was going to be good enough for me. I want to know how topics are connected as that is some representation of the knowledge I have on the blog. I want a network of tags as nodes and posts as links, so I made it. Here it is: </p> <p> <div name="tagnet" class="svg-container" style="display: inline-block!important;"> <svg width="300" height="200" class="svg-content-responsive"></svg> <script src="https://d3js.org/d3.v4.min.js"></script> <script src="/js/tag-network.js"></script> </div> </p> <p> I have bounded the above to a tiny box so that it&rsquo;s viewable on all devices but may look a bit crowded. A more luxurious version can be found on <a href="/tags">my tags page</a> provided your screen is &gt;600px wide. The graph was made with JavaScript library <a href="https://github.com/d3/d3">D3.js</a> and I generated the input data from my blog using <a href="https://jekyllrb.com/docs/liquid/">Jekyll Liquid</a>. </p> <p> Nodes are sized based on how many posts have that tag. Nodes with more connections are forced closer together. You can mouse over the nodes to see the posts associated with the topic. </p> </div> <div id="outline-container-org472a603" class="outline-3"> <h3 id="org472a603">Generating the data with Jekyll Liquid</h3> <div class="outline-text-3" id="text-org472a603"> <p> This blog is hosted <a href="https://github.com/admiralakber/admiralakber.github.io">GitHub</a> and compiled automatically when I push to the repository using Jekyll. I wrote a bit of liquid that iterates over tags and posts and generates the input data. </p> <p> Liquid code: <a href="https://github.com/admiralakber/admiralakber.github.io/blob/master/js/tag-data.json">GitHub</a> → Jekyll output: <a href="/js/tag-data.json">This blog</a> </p> </div> </div> <div id="outline-container-org8fb8c99" class="outline-3"> <h3 id="org8fb8c99">Generating the graph</h3> <div class="outline-text-3" id="text-org8fb8c99"> <p> This is the combination of three D3.js examples by: <a href="https://bl.ocks.org/mbostock/4600693">Mike Bostock</a>, <a href="http://bl.ocks.org/d3noob/5141278">d3noob</a>, and <a href="https://bl.ocks.org/puzzler10/2531c035e8d514f125c4d15433f79d74">Tom Roth</a>. </p> <p> JavaScript code: <a href="https://github.com/admiralakber/admiralakber.github.io/blob/master/js/tag-network.js">GitHub</a> </p> </div> </div> <div id="outline-container-org0211e08" class="outline-3"> <h3 id="org0211e08">Embedding it in your blog</h3> <div class="outline-text-3" id="text-org0211e08"> <p> Save the code above in a folder <code>/js</code> on your webhost and with a little bit of styling: </p> <div class="org-src-container"> <pre class="src src-css"><span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span><span style="color: #6592F0;">.node</span> { <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span><span style="color: #4373e1;">stroke</span>: <span style="color: #ffffff; background-color: #000;">#000</span>; <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span><span style="color: #4373e1;">stroke-width</span>: 1px; <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span>} <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span><span style="color: #6592F0;">.link</span> { <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span><span style="color: #4373e1;">fill</span>: none; <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span><span style="color: #4373e1;">stroke</span>: <span style="color: #ffffff; background-color: #000;">#000</span>; <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span>} <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span><span style="color: #6592F0;">.svg-container</span> { <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span><span style="color: #4373e1;">display</span>: inline-block; <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span><span style="color: #4373e1;">position</span>: relative; <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span><span style="color: #4373e1;">width</span>: <span style="color: #316BEB; font-weight: bold;">100</span>%; <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span><span style="color: #4373e1;">vertical-align</span>: top; <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span><span style="color: #4373e1;">overflow</span>: hidden; <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span>} <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span><span style="color: #6592F0;">svg.svg-content-responsive</span> { <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span><span style="color: #4373e1;">display</span>: block; <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span><span style="color: #4373e1;">margin</span>: auto; <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span><span style="color: #4373e1;">position</span>: relative; <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span><span style="color: #4373e1;">left</span>: <span style="color: #316BEB; font-weight: bold;">0</span>; <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span>} </pre> </div> <p> And a little HTML: </p> <div class="org-src-container"> <pre class="src src-html"><span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span>&lt;<span style="color: #8FA0AA;">div</span> <span style="color: #bbc6cc;">name</span>=<span style="color: #4373e1;">"tagnet"</span> <span style="color: #bbc6cc;">class</span>=<span style="color: #4373e1;">"svg-container"</span>&gt; <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> &lt;<span style="color: #8FA0AA;">svg</span> <span style="color: #bbc6cc;">width</span>=<span style="color: #4373e1;">"600"</span> <span style="color: #bbc6cc;">height</span>=<span style="color: #4373e1;">"300"</span> <span style="color: #bbc6cc;">class</span>=<span style="color: #4373e1;">"svg-content-responsive"</span>&gt;&lt;/<span style="color: #8FA0AA;">svg</span>&gt; <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> &lt;<span style="color: #8FA0AA;">script</span> <span style="color: #bbc6cc;">src</span>=<span style="color: #4373e1;">"https://d3js.org/d3.v4.min.js"</span>&gt;&lt;/<span style="color: #8FA0AA;">script</span>&gt; <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> &lt;<span style="color: #8FA0AA;">script</span> <span style="color: #bbc6cc;">src</span>=<span style="color: #4373e1;">"/js/tag-network.js"</span>&gt;&lt;/<span style="color: #8FA0AA;">script</span>&gt; <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span> <span style="color: #4b4b53c04e9b;"> </span>&lt;/<span style="color: #8FA0AA;">div</span>&gt; </pre> </div> <p> You can embed the tag network anywhere on your Jekyll blog. </p> </div> </div> </div> <div id="outline-container-org7393593" class="outline-2"> <h2 id="org7393593">Conclusions</h2> <div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org7393593"> <p> I have been thinking about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectivism">connectivism</a> as a means of representing knowledge, and encoding information. I have implemented a tag network for this blog to test this idea. The <a href="/tags">tag network</a> represents the topic connectivity of this blog. At a glance you can see what topics are covered by this blog, how much information about that topic exists, and how to extend your learning to other topics using this blog. </p> <p> As the author of this blog I can use the emergence of clusters in the tag network as an indicator of concepts that I am covering strongly. I can also use it as a tool to make me cognisant of the knowledge I contain and publish publicly. Unlike in nuclear physics where the universe defines the connections between nuclei, I have control over myself and can use the tag network for self improvement. </p> <p> I am impressed by how information rich the tag network is and have intentions of applying it in my research of nuclear physics. </p> </div> </div> Sun, 23 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +1000 https://aqeelakber.com/blog/2018-09-23-visualise-the-knowledge-contained-on-your-blog-with-a-tag-network.html https://aqeelakber.com/blog/2018-09-23-visualise-the-knowledge-contained-on-your-blog-with-a-tag-network.html musings physics logging javascript