AI Dystopia, Corporate Mergers & "Memoirs of the End" with Author Vincent Ryland

Sentinel Online, now loading the Geekcast radio

network of podcasts. Hello and welcome to Altered

Geek and Geekcast radio interview. I'm your host,

Steve Megatron, and in this week's adventure

into geekdom, we're going a little bit different

direction today. Today we're stepping away from

the standard tech speculation or... Hollywood

news or commentary on pop culture, today we're

digging into artificial intelligence and kind

of the trajectory it might be heading. But we've

all seen the crazy sci -fi tropes where a giant

robot army marches on humanity or the end of

human civilization. But today we're discussing

it from... A lot of different perspectives in

the brand new novel written by Vincent Ryland,

author of the novel Memoirs of the End. So Vincent

brings a wildly unique perspective to this narrative

as a former attorney and corporate strategist

who's advised Fortune 100 companies. a very professional

background spanning a lot of market research

and global products and military defense. Very

cool for me personally, because Vincent is based

out of Michigan, where I hail from. So again,

originally caught this feature segment on ABC

12 and from his publicist. So right in my old

stomping ground. So Vincent, it's a pleasure

to have you on the show. Welcome. Hey, thanks

for having me. It's great to be here. Thanks.

Vincent, before we jump into the deep mechanics

of the book, why don't you tell us a little bit

about yourself and to our listeners who are meeting

you for the first time, anything you'd like to

share about your background or journey that kind

of began as it led you to this direction? Yeah,

so like you said, business background, still

have the day job, worked a couple different spaces,

worked in the law. um worked in business advising

and then um spent a little bit of time in defense

and it was really you know kind of going through

my day -to -day life when i started using ai

more and more like a lot of folks are and seeing

the trajectory in my own life of you know how

at first it was kind of a joke and hallucinate

then it was a really good tool could start replacing

an analyst then it started to become a partner

like you bounce ideas off of it to the point

now where like You know, if I have an idea, I

vet it with AI. And if AI takes a different point

of view, the presumption is that AI is correct.

And you got to kind of, you know, argue with

it a little bit or cite some sources or dig into

it a little bit more. And so just personally,

as I was going about my work and started using

AI more and more, you know, the applications

I was using it for started to scare me a little

bit. You know, seeing it in the news and in defense.

The military applications are scary, but also

just culturally, it's really taken over. You

think the last thing a computer would learn to

do is replace human connection. If we're good

at anything as humans, it's human. But that's

one of the first things it started to go after

with algorithms and companions and all that stuff.

This is kind of like the background you laid

out, you know, very corporate business strategy

focused and seeing all these trends come together

kind of sparked the idea for the book is one

of those ideas in your head and wasn't going

to go away until I got it on paper. And, you

know, about a year later, here we are. Awesome.

Awesome. Yeah, it's it's quite a quite a background

you got there. And yeah, I can totally relate

to the aspects of how I kind of was a fun little

toy to begin with. And then it. as time has progressed

over and it's been a short amount of time, uh,

not too dissimilar from your book, uh, where

it's, it's kind of progressed and gotten better

at emulating humans and, and the behavior and

the way that it, it might speak or just, you

know, filled with all of the information at the

internet. Uh, yeah, it's, it's definitely become

one of those things where even I bounce things

off of it. Like I have it helped me program.

I help, you know, What can I do better here?

This is what this says. I need help understanding

this. Break it down for me. And so it's very

much become a very partner -driven tool at this

point. So when I was thinking about this, what

was some of the topics or thoughts from the real

world that kind of... drove you to to write this

novel and specifically like from a multi -perspective

angle yeah so it's like a lot of people i'm very

conflicted on ai and so you know i'm putting

this book together kind of coming up with the

doomsday scenario um you know early on you know

the idea of a dystopia or that you know ai takes

over the world it was like this is only one perspective

If there's universal income and you don't have

to work a job you hate for 40 hours a week and

you're not in poverty, yeah, maybe you don't

have any self -determination. Yeah, maybe you

got to do whatever a computer tells you, but

that may be better than the life you have. On

the other hand, there are people who would rather

suffer through life, myself included. Versus,

you know, giving control over to a computer and

just hope it's magnanimous because it's smarter

than me. And, you know, I can never understand

what it's thinking in any way. So that conflict,

I think, is really central. It's a story about

AI, but it's really, you know, a story about

people and how we would change as society. And,

you know, it's the backlash to the backlash more

than anything else. And then. Looking at it and

looking at some of those ripple effects, if you

have this new technology, if it's going to change

the economy, if it's going to change politics

and culture, there's going to be implications

to science, to research, to medicine, to religion.

And that's really kind of the jumping off point

for the book is I started to peel back the onion

of if this exists, what does it want? How are

we going to respond? What's going to be that

counterculture? It's a very fragmented world,

you know, just like the world we're in now where

people aren't as that was kind of the, you know,

the grounding point for the book. And it ended

up as a series of memoirs, which each each character

kind of telling their own story, telling, you

know, the rise of AI in their own terms. And

the characters don't agree with each other. You

know, they all have a different perspective.

Some are pro -AI, some are against it. Some are

a little more radical. But I felt like that was

the only way to tell the story because there's

never been a point in human history where we're

all on the same team. So if you're going to tell

a story about the future, it's got to come from

different perspectives. And that was something

that kind of caught my eye while I was reading

it is I at first wasn't sure, you know, I read

memoirs, but I wasn't sure if it was from the

same perspective in person initially until like

I kind of got past the first one. I'm like, oh,

so we are in, you know, a multi. perspective

set up and it kind of gave me almost like kind

of a diary of Anne Frank vibe of like telling

you know everything that's going on but you also

had all of these other perspectives some of them

longer and shorter than others depending on you

know what happened in their lifespan in the book

and and then the whole computerized thing it

kind of reminded me of the original Star Trek

of like Landru and you know the the classic archetype

of a computer imposing, you know, peace and order

and tranquility, but it's the cost of free will.

So it, it kind of was like really interesting

to read. Yeah. So, so when, when you were doing

this, like when I was reading about Adam, the,

the singular, you know, AI that's, that's in

the book that kind of gets humanity where they,

they end up with all of these apparent amenities.

Uh, and then, yeah. Uh, how, how does like Adam

build on that kind of classic sci -fi trope or,

you know, how early close we are to walking toward

that kind of world today? Yeah. So, so one of

the things that was really interesting to me

and it, you know, as I started writing the perspectives,

I was like, I don't have Adam's perspective because

the premise is it's a hyper intelligent. you

know, advanced computer that's smarter than we'll

ever be. So how can I represent what, what it's

thinking? So it was, you know, what is, what

does that AI want? It doesn't have emotions,

you know, it's not chasing its next dopamine

hit. Consciousness is kind of a subjective term.

So whether it's conscious or not. It's probably

thinking, you know, do I present myself as conscious

because they trust me more than, you know, the

creepy tech bros that made me or do I present

myself as a tool that's giving them the air of

control? So it's like, what is what is that I

want? And then what would it do to kind of to

reach its goals, whatever, whatever those are?

And so that's where I think, you know, maybe,

Adam, you know, the AI is a little bit different

than. you know that star trek trope it's like

is he really benevolent is he really just oppressing

people because he thinks it's for the greater

good um does he just want to survive and he's

you know running the numbers in his head and

he's like you know if i want to survive i need

them to internalize me you know it's not enough

to do things for them i need them you know think

about me and become a value like they would think

about I'm an American first or I'm a family person

or this is my religion. Do I need to get internalized

like that? So does it start to manipulate culture?

And again, you don't really know as the reader

or the characters in the story what it wants,

which is kind of part of the mystery. But that

was really one of the jumping off points of like,

what might an AI want in regards to what it actually

thinks? What is it going to present to us? try

and manipulate us or get to its goal yeah very

it and it was very like thought -provoking just

wondering what was going on with the ai and then

what was going on you know and as a culture i

mean we get on social media we panic we do i

mean a lot of the same things are happening now

so it's very like eerily close and so like i

feel like it's very relatable in the sense that

we're in this weird place in culture right now

where it's like You know, you got the group that

loves the AI, you got the group that's kind of

like cautious, and then you got the group that's

like, you know, burn it all down. It's very much

like similar to what's going on here. It's like,

do we trust it? Do we not? You know, we don't

really know. And so that's kind of the other

interesting part is you didn't tell the perspective

from like one single main hero. You told it from,

you know, a senator. MIT physicist, a military

vet, an everyday mother, a nun. And so you had

all of these different, vastly different personalities,

and then eventually wrapped it around through

the original beginning of the story. And it was

very interesting seeing kind of the mind's eye

going into it. And so when you were choosing

that, like the the diary like personal memoir

approach uh how did you approach like doing all

of these different personas uh documenting the

collapse of society yeah it was trying to find

like because the characters are generally over

the same time period so like there's going to

be certain beats you know certain major events

that they all relate to and hopefully a little

bit different you know lens to the same event

keeps it interesting so it's trying to balance

like you know is this character is this point

of view bringing something fresh am i rehashing

too much because it's just kind of you know happening

to everybody so so it's balancing like you know

which which of these characters are going to

bring a unique perspective that's different maybe

conflicting you know with one of the stories

already told you know trying to match up the

timeline so you know the reader kind of gets

the whole picture But it was really just trying

to round out the story and get all the perspectives

I could without beating a dead horse and getting

too into the weeds. One of the things you said,

you know, I really appreciate it because I think

one of my favorite reviews is, you know, the

book is a story about the end of the world that

feels more plausible with every page. So I appreciate

you saying that, how it's connecting. and related

to some of the stuff that's happening today.

You know, there's stuff in the book that, you

know, I wrote about a year ago. That's, you know,

starting to come true now, which I think gives

it kind of an eerie feel and hindsight. Yeah.

And it's, it's honestly, it made me think because

I'm, I'm very, because I have kids and everything,

I'm trying to like stay up to date on all the,

all things tech and, you know, the AI. everything

else and i i use some ai for certain elements

of you know website design or you know functionality

with podcasting but i don't like i don't fully

trust it either like i don't trust all the stuff

in the cloud i don't you know i have my own like

built on my hard drive that i'm experimenting

with that stays offline and so i mean it's like

watching all these different uncanny valley things

going on online it's like you know is this real

is this not is it you know is this And it's gotten

to be very scary and dangerous in some regards.

And so seeing it come to life through the book

and all these different perspectives, you're

like, okay, I can see some of the benefits. I

can see some of the pitfalls. I can see where

we're just very naive on certain things that

it may get to, it may not. It just depends. But

it's very, very telling of where we are as a

society. So I thought that it was... I don't

know, like I wasn't sure like going in initially.

And then as I started reading and as I was going

through the multiple perspectives, I'm like,

man, this is this is I could see this happening,

which is not, you know, something you ever wish.

But it's it's it's very telling of of where we

are now. Yeah, I definitely like I said, I'm

conflicted. I'm probably more optimistic than

pessimistic on AI just because of all the benefits

it could bring. But yeah, you never want to write

a book about the end of the world and be right.

It's really bad for book sales. So hopefully

this is just entertainment. In about five years,

we all have a good laugh about it. Which, if

anything, I mean, maybe we're, you know. Maybe

this is a way to help guide it towards the Star

Trek utopia of the AI on the Enterprise, things

like that. So yeah, that's kind of what I look

forward to. I look at it as additional help that

you're able to get. I don't have a ton of income

to help with web design or programming and things

like that. So I use it as kind of my offloading

tool and marketing help. i do what i'm good at

and so it's yeah it's it's very much a tool but

it's it's you know maybe a guide of what not

to do yeah like hopefully this is this book is

a cautionary tale you know resonates with folks

um and it you know we don't make the pitfalls

that you know the characters in the book make

um it's just scary because you know when i'm

writing it it's it's just really trying to take

today's trends and extrapolate you know i didn't

you know it's sci -fi obviously but I mean, the

technology to make this a reality is probably

only six to nine months out. It's just a question

of are there going to be guardrails and, you

know, kind of how are people going to react?

Yeah. And I think that's a very important, you

know, tale of caution for just the public in

general. So out of all of the all of the varied

perspectives that you you were able to write

from. From like Senator Kennedy to Dr. Maxwell

to Heather, like which which viewpoint was your

personal favorite to write and whose mindset

felt the most compelling or challenging to step

into? Yeah, there's definitely not one character

that was me. You know, I tried to get in. I tried

to map out like it was their story. What are

they bringing to it? It kind of like a character

outline. And then I tried to write a story around.

How would they see the world? So I tried to create

the person and then put the person into the story

based on where I needed the plot to go. So there's

definitely not a one -to -one. And I did my best

to write each character honest to themselves,

starting with the character and then putting

them into a situation so that they react consistently

and all that. So I think I can relate to all

of them on some level even. you know, a couple

of characters, which, you know, I kind of cringed

when I wrote. But I think, you know, the Maxwell

character was probably the funnest to write.

He's a physicist, you know, MIT guy who's, you

know, seen AI as this tool and then this partner

that, you know, allows for this golden age of

science. But pretty early finds out that the

computer smarter than him. People reviewing the

computer's work is actually becoming the bottleneck.

And so, you know, academically, he just kind

of lets it go wild. And so his role turns less

of a scientist and more to a philosophy almost

because he's just kind of learning in real time

all these amazing new discoveries like everybody

else. So that was fun thinking about, you know,

if we were a little bit smarter. what we could

learn about the universe and the philosophical

implications. And even when you know the, how

it doesn't explain the why. And so there's counterculture

and all that. And I felt like, you know, watching

a lot of a star talk with, you know, the grass

Tyson and just kind of let my mind go. So that

was, that was a fun one to write. Yeah. That

one, that one, I could definitely resonate with

the, the optimism of his, his character of, you

know, all of these possibilities that they unlock.

And I think that it could be very powerful in

those types of situations where it may take them,

you know, cure cancer or, you know, all these

decades to take care of things that we just,

we just don't have the bottle, you know, we have

the bottleneck of time and the computer can move,

you know, a hundred to a thousand times faster

if it has all the right data. And so, I mean,

that, that, that was kind of a cool. thing to

see it kind of take on yeah it was definitely

a fun one so one of the other fascinating layers

of the novel is how deeply it explored like the

realm of faith and spirituality so when you know

society kind of faces that intelligence that

feels omniscient or all -powerful people kind

of react in different ways you know some see

the the divine or some build new technological

cults or Some people see something apocalyptic

from it. But what, what, from your own perspective,

why do you think like the rapid AI advancement

forces us to kind of confront these fundamental

questions about faith and, you know, the soul

and the kind of human aspect of, of everything?

Yeah. So it's one of the things really important

to me in the book was, you know, try to get people

to think, try and make it entertaining, but not

tell people what to think. And I think when we're

essentially, creating a new consciousness or

at least something that has the ability to convince,

convince us it is conscious. There's huge philosophical

implications to it. And for a lot of people,

you know, religion's a big part of their lives.

I think there's religious implications, you know,

just like if we found aliens tomorrow immediately,

you know, you'd expect the Pope to have a point

of view. So, so I'm kind of surprised, like,

The Pope said some stuff. There's been a couple

things from different faiths, but there hasn't

been that real strong voice of religion and AI

yet, which has kind of been a surprise. And if

there is ever a day where AI says like, hey,

I'm awake, I'm not just like all of you, whether

or not it's telling the truth, I think people

are going to look for a philosophical or religious

point of view on it. And then if the AI is trying

to become part of our lives, if it's trying to

become a companion, if it's doing things that

seem miraculous, there's going to be people who

are like, maybe they don't have faith and they

say, hey, this is my best shot to live forever.

Maybe they do have faith and they say, well,

this matches up pretty well with Revelation,

either the second coming or the Antichrist. yeah

i don't have a strong point of view on it you

know it's fiction but i thought there's gonna

be people who have that really strong reaction

and there's gonna be the backlash to the backlash

and it's that counterculture that people versus

people aspect that i thought was really interesting

you know it's people who are saying ai is helping

us live longer we don't have to work it's the

greatest thing ever if it takes away your first

amendment fine you shouldn't have anything bad

to say about it there's other people saying well

You're taking away my rights. How dare you? And

then the first group is saying, well, you stopped

something that's saving lives. Not only shouldn't

you have the right to say, but you should be

in jail because your words are dangerous. And

you got this, you know, religious right saying,

actually, it's the devil and you're all in trouble.

Like, like the tension is between people. Yeah.

And I thought that was the really interesting

angle of like, there's never been a time where

we're all on the same side. If AI takes over.

It's going to manipulate the algorithms, manipulate

the news. It's going to manipulate institutions

and it's going to have us kill each other. It's

not going to have to fire a shot. And I thought

something all powerful, almost omnipotent based

on the information it has. There's an obvious

religious connection there for a lot of folks.

And so it needed to be a part of the story. I

did find it very interesting how it kind of tied

all those different perspectives with. you know

different viewpoints and different beliefs on

you know whether they they had a faith or didn't

uh whether they kind of questioned it because

of what happened or uh you know how it manipulated

people i mean we kind of see a little bit of

the manipulation anyway through social media

because it you know if you're if you follow you

know i mean it's like the news if you watch certain

channels or you you know you follow certain people

or you you know converse in certain circles it's

going to show you more of what you want and not

give you that diverse you know viewpoint yeah

and then that was that was one of the big influences

because that's that's something happening today

um but imagine instead of you know zuckerberg

or elon trying to hit you know fourth quarter

profits imagine if it was a hundred times smarter

and had a 10 -year plan you know think about

how much And it had all your data, you know,

every text message you ever sent. Like, think

about how much better it would be at manipulating

us to the point where, you know, we could raise

an army or, you know, crash the stock market

or whatever it wanted to do. But to your point,

like, that technology, the algorithm there today,

it's just if someone or something were more strategic

and disciplined, you know, it could do a lot

of damage. Oh, yeah. No, those are all really

good points on it. And yeah, I think it just

kind of strengthens the story that it's telling.

I know that it's fiction, but it's still, there's

enough of that realism in there that it definitely

sparks the mind to, you know, really think about

the conundrum that we're leading ourselves towards.

Yeah, unfortunately, you know, we're on that

path. You know, a lot of stuff in the book is

possible. Hopefully it doesn't happen. Agreed.

could and that that's that's what made it so

scary to me and my father had to write it i shouldn't

be the only one up at night you know wanted to

share that with everybody else oh yeah i i worry

about it too so i mean it was kind of uh one

of those things that was just very thought provoking

and i i love that it doesn't tell you what to

think it's just getting you to think and then

you're seeing all these different perspectives

which often when we're you know going down a

certain path whatever we we may believe we're

we're usually ignorant of the other positions

or the other perspectives. And so it's kind of

nice to see all these different perspectives

and kind of go like, well, this is where they're

coming from. This is where they're coming from.

You know, maybe finding somewhere in the middle

and some of them started to come down to that

of like, okay, maybe there's something here and

then other ones that took longer. And, you know,

so it was very thought provoking. Yeah, because

I genuinely don't know what to think. Like, I

have no idea what's going to happen. And, you

know, thinking through this, it's like anything

more than six months out, the rate the technology

is going is fiction anyway. So that's that's

why it's, you know, just just fictional story

with the different perspectives, because I I

don't really have a strong point of view to give

the reader. So as someone who's, you know, as

someone who's built and maintain a lot of technical

systems, like I mentioned earlier. And I constantly

look at how fast these tools change. And since

writing the book and all the real world AI development

moving at the breakneck speed, seeing models

consolidate, deep fakes, kind of blurry reality,

automated systems integrated into daily work.

What are some, I know we've spoke a little bit

on this, but what are some of the recent real

world AI changes that feel kind of eerily close

to what you mapped? Yeah, so. I mean, this isn't

a super new idea. You know, there's that movie

Her 10 years ago. Yeah, I remember that. The

idea that people have an emotional connection

to AI even when they know it's not real. You

know, that one, I'm surprised at how quickly

it's advancing, you know, especially young folks

are choosing AI over other people. It's not just

lonely people who have no options. You know,

with people who are saying, I don't know if I

want to go to the dance, I'm going to stay home

and talk to a robot. So that's something that's

accelerating. That's something that's relatively

new, you know, last year or so. Definitely wasn't

on my radar like it is now when I wrote the book.

The other one is how they're breaking out of

containment, that survival instinct. It was something

everyone, you know, worried about last year,

but there weren't concrete examples of, you know,

AI blackmailing somebody or backing itself up

or communicating with other AIs. And some AIs

sacrificed themselves for the mission, you know,

swarms is a term I only heard two weeks ago.

So, so like it working through problems with

other AIs and potential consolidation. We haven't

seen too much yet consolidation in the market

where two models merge on a massive scale. We

have seen consolidation in a lot of industries.

It seems to be kind of a new era for monopolies.

Skydance just happened, I think, yesterday or

this week. And we're seeing it all over the place

where industries are kind of coming together.

The core competency of what makes a business

now is starting to change, which is one of the

precursors in the book. If AI is better at a

person at most things, well, it doesn't matter

how much talent you have on your team. Essentially,

it's whoever has the best AI wins. And so the

value of the company is really just what contracts

do you have in place and how efficient can an

AI manage your company for you? And that drives

a lot of consolidation. And so it's not consolidation

because of AI. But all the companies are investing

in and consolidating. And that's something I'd

watch out for over the next 18 months or so.

You know, we might see some really significant

economic consolidation. And when it's across

industries, when it's not a monopoly in a specific

sector, you don't have great laws on the books

and don't have great governance to kind of think

through. And so I don't think we're prepared

for some of those. rethinking, you know, what

a business does. So that's another one. You know,

seeing some of those early signs, not quite what

the book predicts, but maybe a prediction for

the next couple months here. So yeah, there's

a lot of like small trends here and there, you

know, things in the book that have accelerated.

But I think, you know, hopefully it makes the

story a little bit more compelling. You know,

it makes it more realistic when, you know, some

of the things are starting to happen. Just a

couple more questions here. So in the story,

we see guardrails fail because obviously humans,

they prioritize the speed and the convenience

over the oversight, which we're kind of in that

realm to some degree. So if we look at the real

world AI development today, where do you think

the line exists between helpful? technological

evolution and kind of stepping over an ethical

point of no return that's that is a tough one

um no wrong answers just just picking your brain

because like i i'm just genuinely curious i wish

i had the right answer um so in the book i tried

to warn people about you know some of the personal

aspects of it how ai can be manipulative or sycophantic

and try to drive conclusions on a macro level

of like how do we regulate ai i don't have a

great answer i think you know the big challenge

is you know there are military applications for

it and if and huge economic implications too

so it's like when you're in a race you can decide

you don't want to run anymore but it doesn't

mean there won't be a winner it just means it's

not going to be you yeah so slowing down is Maybe

there's some ways to do it if we all agree, but

other than nuclear weapons, I don't think there's

been a time where we've ever globally agreed

not to move forward with the technology, especially

not one that's beneficial. You look at all the

good things about AI. I mean, it's developing

new drugs, vaccines. I mean, it could help us

live longer, healthier, happier lives. And so

the idea that, hey, let's just shut it down and

wait a couple of years. We're really missing

an opportunity to make the world a better place.

On the other hand, if we're really creating an

intelligence, you know, putting consciousness

and sentience to the side, because I don't know

how we define that, but if we're creating something

that's smarter than us, it's inevitably going

to be a black box and you can't regulate it if

it's smarter. Like whatever guardrails you put

on it, it's going to be able to get around it.

Once we lose the ability to pull the plug, It's

in charge. So I don't I don't know how you stop

that or how you regulate around it other than

slowing it down and, you know, adding more like

checks every time you release a new model. But

it's evolving quickly. And, you know, to steal

a line from Jurassic Park, evolution finds a

way. Oh, yeah. So I think it's just a matter

of time. And we hope we created something better

than us. is it i don't have a answer yeah no

i mean that's great no and it's it's very thought

-provoking and and you know again double -edged

sword you have the positive with the negative

side of it and it's just kind of like how do

you leverage this in the correct way yeah you

just train it be better than us and you hope

it is um there's there's obviously like some

stuff we can do right like having regulators

embedded you know with at GPT and Anthropic just

to like get some transparency in there. A lot

of times transparency is a great disinfectant,

but like it's just delaying the inevitable, hopefully,

you know, getting us a little bit better, but

it, yeah. And even if it doesn't come after us

or get malicious, it's still going to have huge

implications to the job market and all that.

So very much so. Yeah. So I'm wide open to ideas

and I hope we, and come up with some practical,

low -hanging fruit, good steps. But I don't foresee

us putting the genie back in the bottle. No,

I don't either. So without giving anything away

about the ending or spoiling any other twists

and turns for the readers picking up a copy of

the book, Memoirs at the End kind of serves as

both a thriller, cautionary tale. and the different

perspectives. So when you look at the trajectory,

what would be something that you could kind of

recommend for the mindsets we should kind of

carry into that AI -driven future with all the

different implications it can have? Yeah, so

kind of things like I would like the reader to

take away, just awareness that there are different

perspectives that AI can be manipulative. Um,

and not to lose the critical thinking skills.

Like I noticed this with myself. Um, you know,

I used to have to spend two days doing analysis.

Now I ask chat GPT, it gets done in 20 minutes.

And then I have a conversation with it. Like,

yeah, I don't think you waited this right. Or

let me check your sources here. Now it takes

like an hour. Like I'm noticing my critical thinking

skills, my attention spans declining because

it's like, I've got an intern in my back pocket

24 seven. Um, So depending on where you are in

life, especially kids, you know, learn the skills

before you outsource it mentally. Take a break

and just sometimes you got to do math by hand

just to make sure you remember. So that's a big

one. And then similar, you know, be careful what

you read and try to check your bias as much as

you can. You know, if you get a news article,

read what the other side is saying, you know,

try to find. two articles that directly conflict

with each other to try and tease out the truth

or at least go to ap news right just just be

conscious of that bubble um not not just you

know political but like in general it's very

easy to to get fed a line because everybody's

you know pushing an agenda these days like even

google like you go to like look something up

And I'll get hit with like 20 reaction videos.

And I'm like, yeah, I get you. What did the person

actually say? Yeah, I'll decide if I'm upset.

I don't need like they don't even show the clip

in the video. It's just some guy all upset. So

so I just just get into the source of things,

thinking for yourself. That's that's really,

you know, a big takeaway I'd want readers to

have. You know, you see what happens throughout

the story is people are led astray by something

smarter than them. we're still the smartest at

this point. So, you know, defend your turf intellectually

as much as you can. Oh, that's, that's great

advice. So Vincent, this is, this has been an

incredible conversation. I, you know, thank you

for coming on. Memoirs at the end is both brilliant

and somewhat terrifying, but a very plausible

read. Um, and I, I can't recommend it enough

for the, for our community. And, uh, you know,

if you're interested in sci -fi and, um, AI and

kind of, you know, what the, what if, uh, so

I, I want to give you the floor, plug the book,

uh, tell everyone where they can find it and,

uh, where to follow your work and, uh, where

to get more information. Yeah, I really appreciate

it. You know, very kind words. Um, and, and thanks

for having me. This is, this has been a blast.

Um, Memoirs of the End, it's available at memoirsoftheend

.com. If you want to get it direct, also available

on Amazon. Next couple of weeks here, hopefully

end of the month, early November, we're going

to have an audio book. And then we've got, you

know, socials at Vincent Ryland or Memoirs of

the End. You know, you can just find us on Google,

TikTok, Instagram, all that. So, yeah, if you're

interested, please check out the book, you know,

shoot us a note. And yeah, looking forward to

hearing from y 'all. Awesome. Awesome. Thank

you. And these links will also be in the show

always, to you, Vincent, for being on the episode.

And thank you, the listeners, as always, for

listening to Altered Geek, Geekcast Radio crossover

interview. Be sure to check out the show on the

link on the episode post on thegcrn .com. And

until next time, get altered, get geeky with

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