How much information is too much? Information fatigue is a very real phenomenon, especially when we’re being fed so much on a regular basis. At this point, is it still beneficial for us to receive reports on the state of the world without opportunities to take concrete steps towards changing it?
In this episode, Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby discuss the urgency of taking action in our deteriorating world.
According to Alexander McCaig, modern space satellites and ancient Egyptian mythology shared one thing in common. The sun god Ra was often shown with a hawk head, symbolizing how Ra was constantly the eye in the sky. Modern satellites have a similar design, with a huge “eyeball” in the front and wings at the side in the form of solar panels.
The main difference between Ra and these satellites is that the sun god never came down and told people what they needed to do. The priests of old were the ones who started claiming that they had sole access to the word of God.
Today, progress in technology has allowed machine learning to fine tune climate models, giving us the opportunity to receive incredibly detailed reports on the state of the world. However, this information can only do so much if it is not accompanied with movement.
There are limits to the amount of change you can make when you are only focused on raising awareness. We need to be ready to take action.
There are plenty of problems in the world right now. Aside from climate change, we are struggling with poverty, corruption, and discrimination. In many cases, these issues become intertwined with one another and more difficult to resolve.
It’s already clear that we have a lot of challenges that we need to face. Modern technology has given us the opportunity to understand just how big of a problem we’re facing here. But at some point, we have to cross that line between just knowing there’s a problem and deciding to act on that problem.
As Alexander McCaig explains, it isn’t just about observing outcomes but about taking actions on the catalysts as well.
The harmful part about placing so much emphasis on using technology to raise awareness is that its evolution continues to go down that road exclusively. We have the opportunity to go beyond with TARTLE. Fill out data packets on the platform so that you can help researchers understand your behavior, waste patterns, plans for the future, and consumption of resources.
Your effort will go to people who are invested in making a positive change. One example is the 5 Gyres Institute, which focuses on cleaning up all the downstream waste humanity creates in our oceans.
There are plenty of other causes that you can support through the TARTLE marketplace. Your data will play a valuable role in helping us save our world.
What’s your data worth? Sign up for the TARTLE Marketplace through the link here.
How much information is too much? Information fatigue is a very real phenomenon, especially when we’re being fed so much on a regular basis. At this point, is it still beneficial for us to receive reports on the state of the world without opportunities to take concrete steps towards changing it?
Alexander McCaig (00:10):
Let's give a little piece of history here. You go back to ancient Egyptian culture.
Jason Rigby (00:14):
I love where this is going.
Alexander McCaig (00:16):
They thought the sun god, Ra, things of that nature. And they would appropriate it with the hawk. Right. The hawk of the desert or the falcon, the wings, the eye in the sky. When you look at modern satellites, they carry the same thing. Big, huge eyeball on the front, whether it's bouncing off radar wave or whatever it might be, or visually taking an image.
Alexander McCaig (00:37):
And it's got these big wings, solar panels. And they float around, always watching from above. There's an interesting aspect to this, and I'm just going to make a strange bridge. Did the son god ever come down and start telling people what to do?
Jason Rigby (00:51):
No.
Alexander McCaig (00:52):
No. It watched from the sky. Watched things occur. Right?
Jason Rigby (00:55):
No, it was the priests that began to get an ego that interpreted that and then said, "We have the special to God."
Alexander McCaig (01:03):
Yeah. We got this interesting article here then. You're seeing where this is going. The how machine learning is helping us fine tune climate models reach unprecedented detail. Okay. We have this eye in the sky that's watching. And it's putting this stuff back into this climate model. And it's out outputting all this stuff.
Alexander McCaig (01:24):
You can do that. You can write the Bible. You can write the Egyptian book of the dead. But unless the information can translate to the common man and help him understand what the eye in the sky sees, the bigger picture, nothing's ever going to change.
Jason Rigby (01:41):
No.
Alexander McCaig (01:42):
I love the fact that our climate models are because coming more detailed, unprecedented amount of details. Great. I don't need you to detail more for me how fucked up the climate is. I get it. I just need to find a way to actively translate that to a human being so that they can make a change so that these climate models don't have to become more clear. They already are clear. It's a closed system that's burning up.
Alexander McCaig (02:11):
I don't need the eye in the sky to tell me. I need me to recognize it on the ground. I can look up and say, "Thank you for helping me with the awareness, eye in the sky, satellite." But I got to tell you if I don't understand it, if I can't put it in a application and see with my own naked eye as a human being that something is actually messed up and that I can fix it, no good will come from it.
Alexander McCaig (02:37):
We have these, I was just out in San Francisco. And I'm watching a drone, a sea drone get towed out to sea. They're orange. And they got a bunch of sensors on it and stuff and they look like a buoy with a sail on it. And I'm like, it's all well and good, but I don't need a drone out there to tell me that there's plastic bags over here sitting in the bay. I don't need the drone to tell me that there's significant amounts of consumer waste up on the hill, flushing down out to here.
Alexander McCaig (03:05):
I don't need the drone to tell me that when I was just up in Montana, it's the hottest it's been in years and it was 103. I don't need a drone in the sky to show me that as I go by Mount Shasta, there's an entire scorched earth because there's no water over there. It's so dry and the complete thing is burnt to the ground.
Alexander McCaig (03:23):
The beauty of the earth is disappearing. And it's not the Earth's fault. It's us, abusing certain natures, resources. We're asking too much of a system. Okay. To give to us, but we do not respect it in return. And it's burning itself out. And when we don't have those resources, there's no you left. I don't need an eye in the sky or an algorithm to tell me something. It's right here in front of me.
Alexander McCaig (03:53):
The question is, are you going to begin to pay attention to the data that you see every single day? Or will you ignore it? Or will you wait for some company to invest more money into a more advanced satellite or to a sea drone to tell you something that you should already be able to see?
Jason Rigby (04:06):
Well, people don't realize. When we have this high level of carbon dioxide and we get these high temperatures, we don't survive. These guys will.
Alexander McCaig (04:15):
Plants will.
Jason Rigby (04:16):
Yeah, these really tough plants, they'll survive.
Alexander McCaig (04:19):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (04:19):
And then they'll survive. And then they'll clean up. After humans are gone, they'll clean up the earth and then it will restabilize back to itself, but humanity's gone.
Alexander McCaig (04:28):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (04:28):
And then if the aliens want to come and put another group of peeps and start over again, that'll be great.
Alexander McCaig (04:36):
But there's no point in writing algorithms. For the obvious.
Jason Rigby (04:40):
But people need to understand that when you have great data, that provides information. And what you said, that truthful information should bring awareness.
Alexander McCaig (04:48):
Right.
Jason Rigby (04:48):
And if you're not getting awareness off the data, because we can be a drone company or a satellite company, and we can think that we're helping the earth and we can just create better satellites, better satellites, better satellites. But what have you done to actually help? Yeah, you brought awareness, which is great. That's good. But bringing more awareness, at some point you have to take the responsibility of that information that you're collecting and do something with it.
Alexander McCaig (05:13):
Yeah. You're observing outcomes.
Jason Rigby (05:15):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (05:16):
But you're not taking action on the catalyst that creates the problem which you're watching.
Jason Rigby (05:20):
And that's the problem that we have. I'm all for the military-industrial complex. I'm great with Lockheed Martin and all them. Make those satellites, do everything you want.
Alexander McCaig (05:26):
Go ahead.
Jason Rigby (05:26):
But take the technology, make it available to help. Take Lockheed Martin, say, "How can we help the planet?"
Alexander McCaig (05:36):
What's so hard about that?
Jason Rigby (05:37):
Yeah. We'll build this great new... I mean, I got these planes all around here. And all technology came and helped humanity, but it's not just in and of itself. It's not a closed system just to be selfish to help you.
Alexander McCaig (05:50):
Correct.
Jason Rigby (05:51):
You can take that technology of that B2 bomber, or whatever, the U2, whatever it may be. But you can take the technology that you've learned from that, but it's like, "Okay, now let's take it to the next level. How can we help humanity with this technology?"
Alexander McCaig (06:02):
Correct.
Jason Rigby (06:03):
Because and even if you want to think ROI and fucking capital. Well, now, you've just created two, because people will pay governments. Organizations are going to pay for that technology that you have to be able to help the planet.
Alexander McCaig (06:15):
Yes.
Jason Rigby (06:15):
You can make money that way too. It just doesn't have to be, how can we blow shit up better?
Alexander McCaig (06:20):
Yeah. And I just want to be like, stop watching, start doing. The data is right in front of you. Wake up in the bubble that you're in. I don't frankly care how sacred your river is. It's polluted with fucking trash.
Jason Rigby (06:37):
It's not sacred.
Alexander McCaig (06:38):
It's not sacred.
Jason Rigby (06:39):
What makes it sacred?
Alexander McCaig (06:40):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (06:40):
Ask that question.
Alexander McCaig (06:42):
Yeah. That's a great question. Do you know what I mean? I don't want frankly, want to hear about straws and turtles.
Jason Rigby (06:49):
Well, what's so funny is GPT-3, it's collecting all the information from the internet and then it's able to write articles and all that stuff. And it's even able to do, they're doing small forms of math and stuff like that because it's being able to grab that off the internet. But they were saying that GPT-5 is just watching what GPT-3 and GPT-4 is doing. And then it's being able to learn even quicker and being able to understand.
Alexander McCaig (07:18):
If I make two copies of Alex.
Jason Rigby (07:20):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (07:21):
Send them out. Here's Alex one, Alex two and then Alexander. I'm going to watch these two evolve. And then they'll come back to me and then I'm going to evolve in a more efficient rate.
Jason Rigby (07:31):
That's machine learning.
Alexander McCaig (07:32):
Because I have two other things testing.
Jason Rigby (07:33):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (07:35):
Your universe does it all the time.
Jason Rigby (07:37):
How long has it been doing it for?
Alexander McCaig (07:40):
Longer than computers have been around, I'll tell you that. I just, it's all well and good. We can write models all day. Stocks can grow, awesome. But there has never been greater disparity, greater harm to our climate, greater misunderstanding amongst ourselves than right now.
Alexander McCaig (08:03):
We have a growing population. There's more of us. And we cannot continue to grow in the number of human beings and decrease in the amount of understanding that we have. We cannot create a further spread between things that need resources and lacking the understanding of where those resources come from. That is not a winning algorithm. It is very apparent for us. And I just want people to see that the earth is legitimately on fire around them.
Alexander McCaig (08:36):
And I'm not saying that as a click bait thing, I've stood in the fires. I've been choked out by the smoke. I've seen the river beds dried up. They cease to exist. Life doesn't flow there anymore. Imagine if I pulled the blood out of your body, like pulling water out of the riverways. You die. Your body doesn't move without the current flow of blood. Okay.
Alexander McCaig (09:02):
The earth does not flow. Things cease to exist. Life disappears, until it starts a very slow process of rebuilding. But unless we wake up and see what's right in front of us and not put our attention into algorithms that are analyzing things from the sky in greater detail to tell us what's so apparently obvious that I can see 50 feet out in front of me. If we do not see the obvious, we are going to find ourselves in the very, very obvious future.
Jason Rigby (09:34):
Yeah. And you have one of the statements for Tartle is Your World, Your Future, Your Choice. Climate stability is number one on our big seven. How could somebody right now, instead of relying on these satellites or these companies to do this, how can an individual right now help climate stability?
Alexander McCaig (09:50):
An individual right now can help climate stability. Number one, fill out data packets that help researchers understand your behaviors, your waste patterns, what you plan to do, how you plan to consume resources. That's number one. And then after they've understood it and you've earned money from it, share that, those earnings towards causes, people that are boots on the ground out there fighting the fires, educating people on these things that are so obvious.
Jason Rigby (10:25):
Well, I mean, you were just telling me off-air about a not for profit that just signed up. Share a little bit about them real quick because we did a whole episode with them. And then how somebody could donate their data towards them. And what it would change.
Alexander McCaig (10:38):
The 5 Gyres Institute just recently listed themselves on Tartle. They are doing everything they can to educate us on the downstream waste that we are creating in our oceans. And the fact that our oceans, the biodiversity of the ocean which we suffocate, which with all of our polycarbonates and everything else, all the waste that goes in there, it's not just affecting marine life. It affects our diets and the biological systems that are interlinked with those oceans itself.
Alexander McCaig (11:09):
They are trying to show us and actively clean the ocean at the same time that this is very intricately interlinked. And what looks like it's not in your backyard is directly in your backyard. That the waste created in the United States has a direct effect over people in Indonesia and vice versa. Because the oceans speak to one another. There are currents. They feed. They shift things around.
Alexander McCaig (11:37):
And if the commodification of current human development is putting its byproduct of waste in our oceans, our systems that life support us, phytoplankton, all those things that create that fresh oxygen for us. If we kill that off, there's nothing for you to breathe. We cannot share in the benefits of our biological evolution if we have no sturdy clean foundation for us to step off of.
Alexander McCaig (12:00):
If you want to do something special, join Charles, share some data and donate those earnings towards the 5 5 Gyres Institute. Help them out because they're over there making it happen. And you can actively support those that need your help.
Jason Rigby (12:14):
Sign up for tartle.co. What does it look like? This will be last question. We'll close. What does it look like when somebody begins to take responsibility as an individual?
Alexander McCaig (12:27):
There will be a lift in your spirits. You will feel an air of freedom. You get rewarded for your freedom. You will start to feel how a human being should feel. Unchained, making choices, having autonomy. Great steps towards mental health, understanding of you. And then better understanding of your neighbors and your loved ones.
Alexander McCaig (12:56):
Relationship grow, systems boom. Pain decreases because we're not harming each other, emotionally, physically, whatever it be because we're at better understanding of how people think walk, talk, and act. But when you start to take that responsibility, you feel that lift. You feel what it's like to step into the true skin of what it means to be a human being. And I encourage you, I challenge you to do that.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Thank you for listening to Tartle Cast with your hosts, Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby, where humanity steps into the future and source data defines the past. What's your data worth?
