Your choices matter. There’s a story I once heard about a Vietnam veteran by the name of Colonel Hall. Specifically, he was a prisoner of war (POW). Conditions in the North Vietnamese prison camps were terrible. POWs were tortured and starved as a matter of course. This particular POW lived in a 7.5 square foot cell. That kind of confinement is enough to drive most men crazy after a while. Not Colonel Hall though. The officer was a lover of golf and to keep himself sane, he trained his mind to visualize himself playing a full eighteen holes of golf every day. He visualized everything from where to hit the ball to even putting his socks on before getting to the course. When he was finally released in 1973, he managed to play a game of golf. He scored his handicap, even though he hadn’t so much as picked up a club in over seven years. In case you’re wondering, no, he didn’t spend time getting back in shape either. He basically walked out of a tiny box and six weeks later golfed the game of his life.
The mind is a powerful thing. While it can’t literally reshape reality, it is the first tool we use in doing so. Every intentional action, good or bad, begins in the mind. We conceive of something we want or want to happen, or a problem we want to solve and then act to make that conception a reality. The best ideas, the best conceptions are the ones that just don’t leave us alone. Those are the ones we catch ourselves daydreaming about, the thoughts that cause us to lean back from the computer and stare at the ceiling. Or as a kid, we might have stopped paying attention to the teacher and instead stared out the window. Today, as always, we need that impulse. We need the people who daydream.
Why? No doubt you’ve noticed that there are a lot of problems in the world that need solving. Some, bigger than they have ever been. Yet, all most people ever do is yell about it, point fingers and get mad, usually at all the wrong people, the ones who can’t or won’t do anything. But the daydreamers, the ones who see the problem and stare out the window until they think of a solution, are the people we need. Those are the people who can and will come up with creative solutions that can really make a difference.
Already, these dreamers are bearing fruit. It’s been known for some time now that there are certain bacteria that can actually eat plastic. Once we learn how to best use the microbes, they could go a long way to reducing the microplastics in our oceans. Speaking of plastic, another dreamer has begun using plastic to build roads. This process keeps plastic out of landfills and oceans, while also helping build roads that need less maintenance.
Another fine example of this kind of creative environmentalism is the Plastic Bank. This initiative was begun both to reduce the amount of plastic garbage littering the third world and provide an economic resource to people in that same area. People bring in plastic in exchange for money. That plastic is then fed into 3D printers and used to make products such as belts that can then be sold around the world.
This is what we are talking about, dreamers with creative, out of the box thinking that are helping to solve real problems. We need everyone to spend a little time daydreaming, to sit back and imagine what they might be able to do to build a better world. And then, take those ideas out of their imagination and work to make it a reality. Maybe that’s making a breakthrough on solar panels, maybe it’s just sharing your data through TARTLE so others can use it to help solve problems. The choice is yours, but choose you must.
What’s your data worth? Sign up and join the TARTLE Marketplace with this link here.
The mind is a powerful thing. While it can’t literally reshape reality, it is the first tool we use in doing so.
Automated Voice (00:07):
Welcome to Tartle Cast with your host Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby, where humanities steps into the future and source data defines the path.
Alexander McCaig (00:24):
Welcome back. You probably don't know what we're going to talk about in this episode because you can't read the future. You don't know it.
Jason Rigby (00:33):
No, we're not, Alex. We're not fortune tellers.
Alexander McCaig (00:36):
We're not fortune tellers, but what are we? We're entities of action. And so if you think about it in the logical sequence of cause and effect, what we do now at this moment defines what our future looks like. And if we may not be able to see it 60, 70 years in the future, right?
Jason Rigby (01:00):
Right.
Alexander McCaig (01:01):
Or even tomorrow in the next 24 hours, I still know that I, right now, can define my future by these choices I'm making right at this moment. Is it a positive choice? Is it something that unifies? Is it truthful? Have I shared who I really am? Have I respected others? Have I respected this planet, my world? Have I respected the thoughts of others? The thoughts of animals and plants that are around me and my environment that helps support me? Have I thought about these things? Have I made choices that are driving towards that positive future? Have I really weighed the decision-making that I need to take that may be a more sustainable decision-making?
Jason Rigby (01:47):
Yeah. Have you seen the movie Inception?
Alexander McCaig (01:49):
Of course I have.
Jason Rigby (01:50):
So when I think of your future, I think of this movie because, and there's so many analogies and it's so great. Whenever you look at the beginning and then they have this team that comes together and so they have to put themselves into this deep sleep and then they hop into this other dimension, you can almost look at it and then it goes from one to the one to the one. And then what happens in those are dependent upon what happens in the next ones.
Alexander McCaig (02:19):
Correct.
Jason Rigby (02:19):
And then how deep they get, if they get so deep, they can't go back. And then is this really reality or not?
Alexander McCaig (02:26):
Because the time dimension becomes so much, you can't really get out of it.
Jason Rigby (02:30):
Yes. And I began to think of our future and where we're at now. And then if you take the big seven that we have, and I encourage everybody to go online, the climate stability, human rights, government, corporate transparency, I mean, there's so many of them, global peace, each of those seven are all of those seven different dimensions that are in Inception.
Alexander McCaig (02:50):
Right.
Jason Rigby (02:52):
So you can look and filter your world according to global peace and what does that look like? And then what does that look like for me when I'm entering into this dimension of global peace and how can I be responsible? Because each of those seven interact with each other to create a different humanity, a different world.
Alexander McCaig (03:10):
They're not separate.
Jason Rigby (03:11):
No.
Alexander McCaig (03:12):
They're a function of our future.
Jason Rigby (03:13):
They're chains that... Because what happens here can break that chain in that third dimension.
Alexander McCaig (03:18):
You could ignore that probability into your future altogether.
Jason Rigby (03:21):
Yeah. Which most people do.
Alexander McCaig (03:23):
Go ahead. Go ahead. But just realize, because you didn't weigh those options, you didn't really consider the future.
Jason Rigby (03:29):
Hmm. Weighing the options.
Alexander McCaig (03:30):
Right?
Jason Rigby (03:30):
That's what Leonardo DiCaprio was doing the whole time. He's always like, "Is this reality or not?"
Alexander McCaig (03:36):
Correct.
Jason Rigby (03:37):
If this cause and effect is that movie...
Alexander McCaig (03:41):
Yes. That's what it is. And so how does one dimension, how does a dimension in a part of this big seven, how does a dimension of public health actually affect climate stability? How does economic utilization actually affect human rights or vice versa? What is that? And what does... I want you, not you specifically, but anyone that's listening to this, anyone that's a living, breathing, thinking, human being, regardless of IQ, EQ, whatever the hell you want to call it, self-awareness. I want you to think about and imagine deep within your mind what a future looks like for you. Really think about that future. And if you think about that future long enough, you will bake that so deep into your conscious and your subconscious that every choice and action you do on your waking day in life, every breath you take will drive you towards that vision of what you see in that future. Maybe you don't even know where that starting point is.
Alexander McCaig (04:42):
So let us tee you up with seven starting points about what a bright future looks like. Think about them all the time with everything you do. Put it at the forefront of your thoughts, and then see how these things begin to change, how your behaviors begin to change when you are constantly imagining that future beyond what's happening right now at that moment so that these moments that you do make, every single second that goes by is one moment that drives closer to that daydream, to that beautiful nighttime state of deep consciousness for these colors of things you're visualizing, a world that doesn't seem like reality right now, that the news may coin as something that's a total improbability, but I'll tell you right now in one swift strike, if we all focused on one specific thing, we could see what that future looked like and we can have it tomorrow.
Jason Rigby (05:33):
We had that with the vaccine and COVID. Scientists from all over the world got together and something that would normally take seven years took less than a year.
Alexander McCaig (05:43):
But what was the idea here? The idea is that we see a future without the struggle of that epidemic.
Jason Rigby (05:49):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (05:50):
That was the focus.
Jason Rigby (05:52):
Right.
Alexander McCaig (05:52):
And look what happens when we, as humanity, come together and focus on what a positive future looks like.
Jason Rigby (05:59):
A Chinese scientist, an Israeli scientist, a Canadian scientist, all getting together for one common cause. What would that look like with climate stability?
Alexander McCaig (06:06):
That's exactly the point. And what do they do? They shared truthful information between one another. They were trying to elevate each other because there was a more demanding, purposeful, humanitarian goal in mind than profits or needing more material stuff. The idea was it's about human lives. It's about people wanting to have their probabilities, to experience this life, to learn, to share in those moments. But if we don't solve this, that sharing those moments, those probabilities, they disappear, they cease to exist.
Jason Rigby (06:39):
Probabilities. I think that is a key word. So I'm going to ask you this. I'm going to ask you this. How did Leonardo DiCaprio, in the movie Inception, how did he know if he was right or not, where he was at?
Alexander McCaig (06:51):
He would spin that top.
Jason Rigby (06:52):
So let me ask you, why is data the top?
Alexander McCaig (06:56):
Why is data the top? Because if this thing continues to spin forever, you know you're in a dream state. It just keeps on going, but there might be some sort of probability that this dream, the spinning top has been going for awhile, but the data, at one swift moment, the top falls over.
Jason Rigby (07:17):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (07:18):
That dream actually is the reality. And for so long, you've been watching this top spin. You've been in these dream states, but the focus, everything you've been doing is about interacting with this dream. So your interaction with this data, with your future is that top and you want it to fall over.
Jason Rigby (07:37):
Because data is the future and data is what is going to bring us to the point of extinction or bring us to the point of us taking responsibility and saving ourselves.
Alexander McCaig (07:50):
Precisely correct.
Jason Rigby (07:51):
Because data, we have two paths with data, but data is that catalyst.
Alexander McCaig (07:55):
That's right. Like famously said by Led Zeppelin, Stairway to Heaven.
Jason Rigby (07:59):
Mm, yes.
Alexander McCaig (08:01):
There's two paths you can go by.
Jason Rigby (08:04):
Right.
Alexander McCaig (08:05):
But in the long run, there's still time to change the road you're on. What else do you need to know at that point?
Jason Rigby (08:11):
So big tech, big pharma, all this big, big, big, these extremely... Everything's based off for shareholder value. Everything's built off of collecting all this data for free and having it. What does a future look like with Tartle's marketplace and people taking back their data?
Alexander McCaig (08:29):
You want to know what my dream looks like?
Jason Rigby (08:31):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (08:32):
My dream looks like a world where everyone chooses to be responsible to say, "I am going to take charge of my life. I'm going to take charge of my information, my thoughts. I'm going to be truthful. I'm going to share it as much as possible," and I want to see that world get compensated for that sharing. I want to see that world, see the benefits of that sharing in this interlinked, intricate nature of this [inaudible 00:08:59] we live on. I want to see people open up. I don't want it to be a world of resource hoarding. I want it to be a world of shared growth, shared evolution. I want to see a world of developed consciousness, studying things that we never thought to study before. Look at the unstructured and find the structures within it. I see a world where we are not focused on climate stability, because everything we do is stabilizing. The choices you make stabilize.
Alexander McCaig (09:31):
I want to see a world where people are not struggling to feed themselves. I want to see a world where we see the respect in one another, where the data shows us that we, at the very base of all things, are human beings, regardless of the choices are made, whether you think it's good or bad, you're a human being. And that should be enough to unite all of us. And data will help bring clarity to that without dogmatism. It will be agnostic. It won't have a bias. It will just show what needs to be shown and how we want to perceive it and recognize it for its value, for its clarity of who we are and the choices we're making, that's upon us. But my daydream, my vision for that future is one that is immensely positive, immensely evolutive, immensely peaceful and unifying for all of us. And that will happen if we focus on the probabilities of what we want that future to look like and driving the choices to get there.
Jason Rigby (10:24):
So since it's our choice, and that's a big point, and you're saying there's responsibility to make the right choices. When we look at Tartle, and people looking at it, "Yeah, yeah. I can sign up. I can earn money, whatever. I can give towards the big seven." They're looking at it in the sense of it being, I don't want to use the word afterthought, but kind of being something else that they can do. Why is Tartle primary in their life?
Alexander McCaig (10:55):
It's not the afterthought. You interacting with all these other separate systems are afterthoughts. This is the primary driver that will help solidify your future and everybody else's. So just as much as you want to take the responsibility for your future, you would hope that everyone else would do the same thing, would you not? So your primary goal is to use an interactive system because it creates the bridge between all of us, but everything else you've currently been doing, none of that is a bridge building operation. It builds walls. So I would ask you to become that bridge builder. Engineer your future, engineer your future to that vision that you have seen.
Jason Rigby (11:33):
So I want people to understand this. So data, it's that top that's spinning. It creates the reality of where we're going to be. It is the future of us being able to save humanity by taking in all this information and having our exchange, this marketplace on Tartle, and then us being able put these seven and a half billion people for a cause and move it in that direction. I want you to explain this, because this is very important. If we had one day where we opened up the whole world and said, "Okay, you can travel for one day. There's no borders. There's no countries. You guys can go wherever you want to go." Do you remember The Purge, the movie? Do you remember how crazy that was?
Alexander McCaig (12:15):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (12:16):
This is kind of the same thing. People would just be like, "Oh my God, we got one day." And they would just plan for it every year and then you'd have mass people going in at all different... Tartle has no borders.
Alexander McCaig (12:27):
No.
Jason Rigby (12:27):
Tartle has no... Tartle doesn't look at you in Russia, look at you in the Philippines, look at you in Brazil, Canada. It doesn't look at you as being different. There's there's no... I mean, you use the word altruistic, but I'm trying to... It's unifying in the sense of looking at everyone as an individual, but at the same time, looking at everyone as a collective whole.
Alexander McCaig (12:55):
That's what it is. It's the collective.
Jason Rigby (12:57):
My question to you, long, long question, sorry about that. But my question to you is whenever you look at the marketplace and you look at it not having borders, not having an identity in individualism, then how does that create a future that's de-centralized?
Alexander McCaig (13:17):
Because it strips away biases. When you strip away this false perception of separatism, this human created paradox, that we're all completely separate, that we have no interaction with one another, you find yourself changing the conversation in your own mind.
Jason Rigby (13:41):
Hmm. Yeah. I like this.
Alexander McCaig (13:44):
Through the change in that conversation, you create a sense, deep, deep sense within you that there's more to me and to everyone else than what we've currently been seeing. This marketplace is an example, a metaphor for how humanity needs to look at the truthful aspects of what brings us together. We do not have these borders because it's a false perspective of reality.
Jason Rigby (14:19):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (14:19):
We wanted to create something that was truthful...
Jason Rigby (14:22):
I like this, yes.
Alexander McCaig (14:23):
... that reinforces truth. And if we could share that with you openly, regardless of where you are in locale, we know that we can bring truth with a tool to you so that you can then come back and double down on that truth for yourself and for others. Is that clear?
Jason Rigby (14:41):
Yeah. That's ultra clear. So last question because we want to make sure that we're respectful of people's time. Your future, whenever we at Tartle, we look at people signing up, we look at them taking back their future. When you see Tartle five years from now, what do you see?
Alexander McCaig (15:02):
I see billions of people awake. We've been sleepwalking for so long. It's the only way I can describe it. I see people actually awake to a light, to a truth about themselves and others.
Jason Rigby (15:17):
So define awake.
Alexander McCaig (15:19):
When I say awake, I said, I look at it as the information and the truth is right in front of your face. And through that awakeness, you are no longer oblivious to the choices you are making, your conscious waking, considering, contemplative about what you are going to do and the effect that's going to have. And if we can get a billion people doing that, we've pushed the needle on the planet exactly in the right direction it should be going. It's not that we did it, Tartle, it's that you took the responsibility to do it for yourself and for others. Now you're stepping out and you're acting as a human being should act, one that cares more than just for the self, but for the greater benefit of everybody that they interact with, beyond their families, other individuals and their families also. Show me that you care. Bring it on.
Jason Rigby (16:17):
No, but I mean, whenever you say your future, and then you're like, "Show me that you care," and then I'm sitting in a hut barely able to pay these extra loans that I've got on my phone, that they gave me all these extra loans and I'm sitting there looking at my wife and my two children and I don't know where I'm going to get the next meal from, I'm hoping when I walk down there that they'll give me a job for a day and then give me a few bucks so that I can pay for my meal, but I have a phone, I'm sitting here. I mean, my future does not look good.
Alexander McCaig (17:01):
No, it doesn't.
Jason Rigby (17:03):
And in reality, me signing up for this app, how much is it going to do for my future in here in the now?
Alexander McCaig (17:12):
It could do...
Jason Rigby (17:12):
Because I'm not worried about my future. I'm just worried about feeding my family.
Alexander McCaig (17:15):
Well, I guess if you're so worried about feeding your family, you will take every probability under the sun to make sure that happens, right? So you would use that time to interact with this system to generate as much truthful value as you could, because the more truthful, the more honest with yourself you are, in times of struggle, that's when we figure out who we really are.
Jason Rigby (17:35):
Mm, yes.
Alexander McCaig (17:36):
If you can share that truth, not only with your family and others around you, because you're trying to make it happen for them, because you're trying to get fed, you're trying to find that shelter, share that with others too. Bring light to that situation. People want to know, they need to know, so help them know, help them understand, help each other, help yourself. So even if it might seem like one more damn thing you got to do, at least you know that this thing that you're doing will benefit you. You may not see right this very second, but it's going to come around and it's going to happen.
Jason Rigby (18:12):
But the beautiful part is, yeah, it benefits you and it can benefit your family, but it can benefit your community, your city, your country. And it just goes out from there. So if we just constantly are in this self-absorbed, and you know this as well as I do, if we're just constantly in this self-absorbed bubble of me, me, me, me, whether you're in a first world country or a third world country, it doesn't matter, and it's just me, me, me, me, that future looks pretty bleak.
Alexander McCaig (18:42):
Because you're absorbing, you're sucking the energy in, you're not creating a resonance that everybody can share in and double down on that resonant, to make it resonate more. You are hindering the symphony of life. That's the problem.
Jason Rigby (18:58):
You're one instrument playing... You're just waiting and then you play your little piece and then it's quiet play your little piece again. You need that symphony.
Alexander McCaig (19:07):
Yeah. But what happens when we're all playing our piece?
Jason Rigby (19:10):
As individuals.
Alexander McCaig (19:11):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (19:11):
But in unity with music.
Alexander McCaig (19:12):
And think about how much that would shake and literately uplift that body, feel those vibrations, and then it's quite beautiful. The reason they call it the universe is because it's a uni verse, it's one song.,
Jason Rigby (19:26):
Uni verse, yeah.
Alexander McCaig (19:27):
You've been operating in some other song that is truly not universal. Look to that. Be universal in your thoughts, be universal in your actions, be universal in how you share, be universal in your perspective of how you view others. If being universal with technology, sign up at tartle.co.
Automated Voice (19:55):
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 path. What's your data worth?
