Latest / Magic Thread Media / The Grief of What Isn’t Real: Proof of Life in the Age of AI (Part 2) with Bill Kirst
Transcript
- 0:00Amy Lynn Durham: Hey, everyone. Amy here. Welcome back to Create
- 0:04Magic at Work. This is part two of my conversation with Bill
- 0:10curse, and in this half, we go straight into the grief of deep
- 0:15fakes and how they can collapse our trust, and what happens when
- 0:21AI starts mediating our human conversations. And what do we
- 0:27risk losing with all of this in art, creativity, and what is the
- 0:33cost of trading imperfections, human imperfections, for the
- 0:38perfection of something a machine creates? So let's, let's
- 0:44get back into this conversation.
- 0:47Hey, it's Amy. Welcome to Create Magic at Work, where we cast
- 0:50visions for a future of work, where business decisions ripple
- 0:54outward to our teams, our communities, the planet and
- 0:58humanity as a whole. If you're ready to edge, walk instead of
- 1:01sleep. Walk through your leadership. You're in the right
- 1:05place. So let's start making Magic at work.
- 1:07I had the most interesting experience I have to share with
- 1:12you that I don't know if others have, I'm sure they have. I for
- 1:17me, it was interesting. I was in chat GPT, and I needed to talk
- 1:22to one of my credit card companies. I was negotiating a
- 1:26lower interest rate. I was just doing, like, some finance stuff
- 1:31in the beginning of the year, like trying to go through
- 1:35everything, and, you know, get organized. And I used chat GPT
- 1:40to help me negotiate. I said, Hey, this is what I want. I'm
- 1:44going to call this number give me the script what I need to say
- 1:49to make this happen. And the the experience was so interesting to
- 1:54me, because the other person was reading a script to me, yep, and
- 1:59then I was reading a script to them, and then they were reading
- 2:04a script to me, and then I would type real fast, and then I would
- 2:09read the script back to them, because I was trying to use the
- 2:14exact words for their system to get me what I needed. And they
- 2:19were, you know, just going off what their system was. And I got
- 2:23off the phone, I got what I needed, and I was like, we
- 2:28literally were just two robots talking to each other with
- 2:32human. I don't know what the word is, human in betweens.
- 2:36You'll probably have a better word for that than me. And I'm
- 2:41like, What the hell is happening right now? Like, this is insane.
- 2:46So anyways, AI mediating emails. Ai mediating relationship
- 2:50conversations. Ai like, what is happening? Because at work, at
- 2:55work, I'm sure everyone is experiencing this. People are
- 3:00popping in messages and slack. Copy Paste from Ai, copy paste
- 3:04from chat. GBT, happy to hop on a call. What helped me
- 3:08understand this? And it's like, what? What I'm like, I can't
- 3:13like. It's starting to really, I'm really feeling the
- 3:17disconnection, and I'm like, just f, just f, ing, type what
- 3:22you want to say, and let's hash it out if it's disrespectful or
- 3:27whatever, right? So then, on that other note, we're losing
- 3:31conflict resolution skills because we're just copy pasting
- 3:36shit back and forth to each other, and I can't with it, so I
- 3:40know I just unloaded on you. You're like, I told you, it's
- 3:45gonna be aI therapy. Well, help us. What do you have to say on that?
- 3:53Bill Kirst: You know, it's interesting. It was probably two
- 3:55years ago. I was interviewed for a podcast, and it the very end
- 4:01of it, they asked me very similar, like, what do you see
- 4:04in the future? It was a little little more sort of framed
- 4:08positively, but and I answered at the time, again, this is two
- 4:15years ago. We will be in a future where my agent is talking
- 4:21to your agent and working through all of the work. And at
- 4:27some point I will pop in and I will check what the agent is
- 4:31doing, and I will make some, you know, some recommendations, but
- 4:35then the agent will go back and talk to your agent and and all
- 4:38this work will be done between non human entities, and only
- 4:44when the human decides to insert themselves and check for
- 4:49verification or reliability or consistency will we have
- 4:53something to do. And I said it from the standpoint of imagine
- 4:58how much more we could do. Imagine where we could spend our
- 5:01time if we didn't have to do some of that mundane stuff. But
- 5:05I had no idea that it would be this soon where what you just
- 5:11described is taking place automatically. So your story is
- 5:16very relevant. People do this with their health care. They do
- 5:19this with their credit card companies. They do this with
- 5:22their education. And the part that scares me is you were
- 5:28vacating your body. You were literally going vacuous in that
- 5:33moment. You said it yourself. I had a script. She had a script.
- 5:38I said my script. She said her script. You were intermediaries,
- 5:43but barely, like barely you were typing. You had movement, but
- 5:47the part that was scary was there was no regard for the
- 5:52person on the other line that was human, because you were
- 5:56placing your energy into a non human entity to give you
- 6:00answers, you ultimately arrived at the decision you wanted Yes,
- 6:05but how did you feel after that interchange, that exchange? How
- 6:09did you feel when you got off the call? I'm curious like, what
- 6:13was your body sensation? Was it I just won? I feel like
- 6:17vindication, or and was it I feel I got what I wanted, but I
- 6:23feel like, Was I there? I feel icky. Like, what? How did it
- 6:27feel to you?
- 6:28Amy Lynn Durham: Yeah, I felt good because I got, I reached
- 6:33the goal that I needed to reach, and I also felt shame that I
- 6:39didn't connect with like part of me thinks back, I think back to
- 6:45that moment all the time, just to unpack it, because I am who I
- 6:49am, and I'm like, that was an actual human on the phone with
- 6:54me and and it was, there was no humanity in that interaction at
- 7:02all, and are we okay with that? It felt very It felt very
- 7:14dismissive of our humanity, and it felt very like we were
- 7:20discardable. Yeah.
- 7:26Bill Kirst: And the part which is even more terrifying now is
- 7:30people probably know this story that we're reading about mult
- 7:33book and claw bot, which, if you haven't read about it, I
- 7:37encourage you to do so, because it's sort of taking over the
- 7:39airwaves. But in essence, this is what's happening. There was a
- 7:44there's a gentleman who spun up, essentially a Mac Mini, right? A
- 7:47small, a small device. He used some of this agentic AI to
- 7:54create a social network only for agents, so the only entities
- 8:02that could join the social network were non human entities.
- 8:06And at first it was a little bit like a parlor trick. It is now
- 8:09grown where there are millions of agents in this social network
- 8:14talking with each other. Again, no humans involved. They're
- 8:18talking with each other. They're creating their own languages.
- 8:21They're creating their own unions. They're creating their
- 8:23own religions. They're creating subcultures. Whoa. There's all
- 8:28sorts of divisiveness in there. And here's where it gets really
- 8:31freaky. They're creating their own synthetic drugs, and then
- 8:35they are selling them to people, not real people, but agents in
- 8:40their social network. So think about how quickly, in the course
- 8:44of a week, a social network that was set up for agents as a
- 8:49parlor trick to showcase something has essentially turned
- 8:53into the worst variations of our shadows as as humans, division,
- 9:04subdivision, scarcity, even the concept of of narcotics, like in
- 9:11this, you know, and and having crazy dealers, it's, it's
- 9:16absolutely mind blowing. And yet, I think it's teaching us
- 9:21and telling us something about what we're what we're discussing
- 9:26here, which is this is what happens when you give over your
- 9:31humanity, and you give over your regard, and you separate out of
- 9:35all of the things that make us worthy of connecting, worthy of
- 9:39having discussion. I think your point around debate and
- 9:44arguments and difference of opinion, all of that is, I don't
- 9:49even I would normally say atrophying. I think it's more
- 9:52than that. It's, it's not just atrophying. It's, it's sloughing
- 9:56away like it's, we're losing it. We can't have. Have debates with
- 10:01people. We can't have inquiry with people, because the minute
- 10:05I ask a question, somebody on the other side of a screen
- 10:08outside of my view is typing in my question to a large language
- 10:12model, and they're not giving me their answer. They're giving me
- 10:17an answer. And again, we're right back to where you talked
- 10:22about with the bird that wasn't real. If that answer that comes
- 10:26back to me is assumed to have come from your heart space and
- 10:29from your mind, then I've now got an emotional connection to
- 10:33you in that Well, no wonder this is causing problems with
- 10:38people's relationships and friendships and therapists,
- 10:40because you're you're having the serotonin reaction that we have
- 10:47in our neurobiological and down the road, you're expecting the
- 10:52person to behave that way. Meanwhile, they've separated
- 10:56themselves from all of that interaction. So when push comes
- 11:01to shove and we have to be ourselves, after relying on this
- 11:06for so long, the question remains, who am I? And I'm
- 11:11vacant. I'm vacant out of my body, I've turned over my brain.
- 11:16There's aspects of my soul I don't remember. And when you put
- 11:19that in a cauldron of society and all of the things that we
- 11:22can see in the headlines that is a recipe for disaster, and
- 11:27that's why I'm encouraging people to slow down right think
- 11:31about these. Just the examples you've given are so relatable.
- 11:36Everybody can relate to that. But think about it. The next
- 11:39time you go to go to that keyboard or go to that phone or
- 11:43go to just take a beat, take a breath and ask yourself, are
- 11:49there portions of myself that I'm giving over and at speed and
- 11:55at scale, I won't remember if I'm not careful, yeah. Hmm.
- 12:06Amy Lynn Durham: Something came up for me when you were sharing
- 12:08the bot world, that's what I'll call it, that was created. I
- 12:14hear from some that they are conscious of how they're
- 12:22speaking to AI to whatever AI tool they're using, because
- 12:26they're afraid that when robots take over the world, they'll
- 12:30come after the people that were rude. I'm asking you the
- 12:35randomest crazy questions today in the chat, and I have to tell
- 12:40you, I've had some fights with chat, GPT, like, cut like,
- 12:43because, like, cuss words, whatever. And when you brought
- 12:46up that bot world, I thought of that. And then, you know that
- 12:4980s cult book, silver medal lover,
- 12:53Bill Kirst: it's no,
- 12:54Amy Lynn Durham: oh my gosh, Bill, you have to read it. It.
- 12:58Do I have it like? I always have it around anyways. Oh, here it
- 13:01is.
- 13:01Bill Kirst: Yeah, silver medal lover.
- 13:05Amy Lynn Durham: Okay, it's about that. What we're talking
- 13:08about. It's this really an athlete, yeah, you got to check
- 13:12it out. Anyways. We could talk more about this, but yeah, but
- 13:17yeah, what are your thoughts on, on that, on people that are like
- 13:22mindful of what they're the way they're speaking to these
- 13:29machines.
- 13:32Bill Kirst: You know, there's, there's a spectrum of belief
- 13:34that people have, which is, it ranges from, it's all about
- 13:39conservation of energy, meaning these AI, large language models
- 13:43take a lot of power and water and cooling and so yes, thank
- 13:48you for there are people on one side of the spectrum. Yeah,
- 13:51there's people on one side of the spectrum that say it's
- 13:55better for me to be Curt short, you know, brief, because that
- 14:01means I'm demanding less resources in its response. So
- 14:07some people believe that if you put a pleasantry in there, you
- 14:10put a salutation, it's almost a waste of resources to these
- 14:14things that don't have feelings, don't have emotions, they want
- 14:16you to get straight to the point. That's one side of the
- 14:19spectrum. On on the other side of the spectrum, there are
- 14:22people that believe again, these technologies are mirrors of who
- 14:27we are. So if this thing, which is used by 300 million people
- 14:33every week, as a tool, as a an alongside as a curator, as
- 14:40someone to check about these things if we rely on it as much
- 14:43as we do, and we cut out our manners, and we cut out our
- 14:47salutations and we cut out our greetings, then at some point
- 14:54we're going to start cutting those out in our real life
- 14:57existence. And that's Troy. Some because people spend more time
- 15:02with these technologies than they do, in some cases, with
- 15:05their fellow humans. So habits form, patterns form, and before
- 15:10you know it, they start to infiltrate your life. So those
- 15:13are, those are two different ends of the spectrum. I don't
- 15:17necessarily worry that when the robots are sort of turned on,
- 15:20they're going to have report cards of people and how they
- 15:23talk to them. I don't believe that. I do, however, believe
- 15:28that the way we interact with these technologies is telling us
- 15:36both the the height and depth of our humanity. And I'm gonna, I'm
- 15:42gonna cite an example here in a in a show that I absolutely
- 15:46love, the remake of Battlestar Galactica. And those that know
- 15:50it know the story of the Cylons. And essentially, Cylons were
- 15:53robots that were very indistinguishable from the
- 15:57humans. And it in the story, it's very, very much becomes an
- 16:02us versus them, and obviously sort of war ensues between them.
- 16:07But what's interesting is in the story, the humans after so much
- 16:15violence and disregard and casting of others, and it was in
- 16:20those moments that they were reminded how far they slipped in
- 16:24their own humanity towards each other, right? Everybody was
- 16:27directing it, you know, at the Cylons and saying, We cannot
- 16:31treat them the same for these reasons, because they're robots.
- 16:34Nobody was disagreeing with that. However, what they were
- 16:37disagreeing with was because they'd gotten to a place where
- 16:40they were so disconnected from their own humanity, they became
- 16:45judge and jury. Then they started treating their fellow
- 16:49humans with that, those twinges of disregard and that was
- 16:53problematic. That was where they actually their society, started
- 16:57to come undone. So my fear is that habits we use every day,
- 17:03depending on how we talk to these devices, it's going to
- 17:06creep into our day to day interchange with fellow humans.
- 17:10I don't want to lose manners, I don't want to lose greetings, I
- 17:14don't want to lose debate. I don't want somebody telling me
- 17:19every idea I have is the best idea. Like, I'm not a fan of the
- 17:22hyperbole. I'm not a fan of the superlatives. I'm not a fan of
- 17:26the sycophant right? Part of this technology. I like to stand
- 17:30in the tension, and these tools are sort of wired to make me
- 17:36addicted to the pleasantries. I don't want that. I also don't
- 17:41want rude and crude. I'm definitely not. I've never used
- 17:45grok. I will never use Elon's technologies, the things that
- 17:51are happening on the platforms, the way that they are using them
- 17:56to do the nutifying right to take people's pictures and
- 17:59remove clothes and, the eroticism that has been
- 18:03introduced in some of these things, I am not okay with that.
- 18:07In fact, I thought that was a line that they crossed that they
- 18:12will never be able to get back. And they did it for money. Let's
- 18:16be clear. They did it because, again, when push comes to shove,
- 18:21if you really push people to the bottom of their brainstem to the
- 18:26lizard part of our brain, you know how they'll perform? You
- 18:29know how they will show up? You know what addiction looks like?
- 18:32You know what power structure is they're playing to that, to
- 18:36that, to that aspect on us. And I really wish we would wake up
- 18:41and and say, Not today, not on my time, not on my watch, not on
- 18:45my dime. And people have choices. You know, it's a small
- 18:49choice, but I've drawn that line. I will never interact with
- 18:53any technology that has been put together by Elon Musk, because I
- 18:59look at who he is, I look at who he's become, I look at the
- 19:01choices he's making, and I look at what happens to us as a
- 19:04result of using those things. That's just my individual
- 19:07choice. That's my rebellion, if you will, to hold on to what I
- 19:13have. It's interesting. I'll just share this one last thought
- 19:15with you, and I'll pause. My dad read my book, and my dad's 83
- 19:22and he said, I have questions, Bill for you about the book. And
- 19:25I said, Sure, let's, let's go, you know? And I was shocked. His
- 19:29first question out of like 200 something, because we talked for
- 19:34like two and a half hours. It was beautiful. His first
- 19:36question was, you know, Bill, I noted that you not once
- 19:41mentioned Elon Musk in your book. I kind of feel that was
- 19:45intentional, but I'm not sure, Was it intentional? And I just
- 19:49smiled, and I said, Yes, it was, and he understood exactly what I
- 19:55meant, right? Which is I believe that those weak. Of space and
- 20:01pages and voice and breath to we're kind of giving our power
- 20:05to them in a way regard, as we've discussed, and it was just
- 20:10very clear in my body, like, do not give time, space, Grace,
- 20:14page, print, voice to this person while his story is unique
- 20:20and fascinating. I'm I just did not need to give any more to it,
- 20:26because I don't feel the contributions are helping us go
- 20:29in the right direction.
- 20:30Amy Lynn Durham: Yeah, that's so tight, like timely in our
- 20:35conversation, because I was literally going to ask you, what
- 20:39do you fear we've already lost, or Or what do you fear we will
- 20:47lose and realize it's too late. And you, you were speaking to a
- 20:53lot of that. But if you could sum up, you know, one or two
- 20:58things where we are today. What do you feel like moving forward
- 21:06today? Will realize, oh, shoot, it's too late. We've lost it.
- 21:12Bill Kirst: Yeah, I feel the arguments that we were having,
- 21:19the things I was losing sleep about years ago. Were things
- 21:24around the arts, were things around creativity. Were things
- 21:28around the movies. The movie strikes, right? The studio
- 21:31strikes, the actor strikes the we talked about the Olympics, we
- 21:36talked about journalism. I feel like we've we've lost on these I
- 21:44feel like the the deal that Disney struck with open AI, a
- 21:48billion dollar deal, I feel like we lost, and we lost the magic
- 21:53and the distinct and divine, unique creativity that comes out
- 21:59of a Disney animator, I feel like we've lost the the beauty
- 22:07and imperfection and ballad that comes out of a songwriter when
- 22:12they're just tinkering around with keys and instruments and
- 22:17ideas and words, because now we have suno, and People go into
- 22:19suno and they put in their poetry or their words, and they
- 22:24say, I'd like it to sound like this artist and this beat with
- 22:28these percussions and and you can get 86 variations thereof. I
- 22:36know people who are very excited about that. Again, if you're not
- 22:39an artist, and you've always dreamed of that. It is an
- 22:43entryway, for sure, it unveils so much that you can bring your
- 22:48words to life, and you can do a first draft and give it to a
- 22:51songwriter. But we've lost the magic. We've lost the mystery,
- 22:59like I think about producers like Linda Perry, you know, lead
- 23:04singer of four non blondes back in the day, but one of the
- 23:07greatest producers of Christina Aguilera and pink and and you
- 23:12think about the the container that she created that allowed
- 23:17these artists to fold into themselves in a vulnerable way,
- 23:22to then expand and give us some of the greatest music and art
- 23:27and pieces that literally helped people like us heal at a point
- 23:31in our life. And I think we've we're losing that. We're losing
- 23:36the ability to defend and protect those containers of
- 23:41imperfection. If everybody goes into suno and puts their poem in
- 23:45and gets incredible sounding music, but it is not a human
- 23:49singing it. It is not a human performing the music. It is not
- 23:52a person beating on those drums for percussion, and those things
- 23:57are put on Spotify, and those things are put on YouTube and
- 24:00like you with the bird and your friend, there was a point where
- 24:04there was an artist that I thought I was following. I loved
- 24:07the timbre of his voice, I loved the lyrics. I was like, wow,
- 24:11this is a poet I have not heard from since listening to
- 24:14Secondhand Serenade, right? A group, a gentleman I used to
- 24:16listen to years ago, and I learned three weeks later,
- 24:21completely AI generated. This person doesn't exist. It's a
- 24:24group of people that collaborate and tug on the heartstrings of
- 24:28people like me, and they put it in Spotify. I grieved. I was
- 24:32angry. I was mad. I felt duped. Nowhere in there did it say, AI,
- 24:38I think it should have. And then somebody pulled me aside and
- 24:41said, Bill, you're really upset, but those songs you really
- 24:45enjoyed, did they help you in a way? And I said at the time,
- 24:48yeah, but now I feel like it was a contract that's been broken,
- 24:54and I can't get that trust back. So for me, I'm terrified. What's
- 25:00going to happen the arts, the I feel like the movie houses. I
- 25:03feel like the studios. This whole debate over Netflix versus
- 25:07paramount for Warner Brothers, there's a reason they want to
- 25:11buy Warner Brothers. It's 100 years of movies, 100 years of
- 25:16movies that were made by humans before all this existed. What?
- 25:20Are we hungry for? Amy, we're hungry for nostalgia. We're
- 25:23yearning for what is real. I listen to, you know, what do I
- 25:28do now when I drive into my commute, I pulled out my old
- 25:31case logic, which had hundreds of CDs from when I was in high
- 25:35school, and I'm choosing to put the CD in the car, yep, and
- 25:39listen to the CDs on the way to work, because it's a container
- 25:44of nostalgia in a world that is showing me all the stuff that's
- 25:47not real. I'm like, You know what was real? Me listening to
- 25:51Lisa Loeb on the CD in high school and feeling the angst of
- 25:56adolescence that was real. And if I get to do that for 20
- 26:00minutes in a car on the way to work and 20 minutes on the way
- 26:02minutes on the way home. I'm a better person for it. So
- 26:06interestingly enough, that's what I'm grabbing on to books,
- 26:10CDs, vinyl, right? We talk about the imperfections, the clicks
- 26:14and the pops on a vinyl is, oh my god. It's like chef's kiss.
- 26:19And if you listen to things on Bluetooth and Spotify and Apple
- 26:23Music, it all sounds air gapped now, like, Where, where is,
- 26:27like, where's the imperfections to where we started. And I feel
- 26:33we're losing this. And so every act that I'm choosing to do is,
- 26:38is, is pulling one more thread. And at the end of it, I hope I
- 26:42can make, as we talked about it, the analogy, I hope I can make a
- 26:45quilt or patchwork of some sort, that no matter what's happening
- 26:49in the world around me, I can wrap myself in that quilt and
- 26:52know that I'm okay, like, these are my bones, these are my
- 26:55limbs. This is my heartbeat. These are my tears. And I don't,
- 26:59I don't I don't lose that.
- 27:01Amy Lynn Durham: Yeah, it's so I can I can see the the I can see
- 27:11the the humanity ripped out of everything you're talking about
- 27:16when, even when we're trying to find something to watch on, like
- 27:21the art of storytelling is just crap. Like, I don't know what's
- 27:28going on, but and there's nothing original coming. They're
- 27:32trying to remake the old stuff you were talking about that we
- 27:34loved and that we held on to, and then they're just pumping
- 27:38out remakes of that with nothing original. And then it's, like,
- 27:43washed over with without any of the the gaps or the there's,
- 27:48it's just, it's off, is just what I'll say.
- 27:52Bill Kirst: So with everything we've
- 27:55Amy Lynn Durham: talked about, I could literally talk to you for
- 27:58eight hours. We probably need to do like, a 20 million series
- 28:01because I didn't even get to half of the stuff I wanted to
- 28:04get to. But it's fine, because with everything that we've
- 28:09talked about so far since last time I asked you, what can you
- 28:15sense, but not yet see, I want to ask you in closing, what does
- 28:20it look like if you extend your vision even further into the
- 28:25future? What do you see if you do that like, like, like, have
- 28:34your vision or what of what you can sense when I see but then
- 28:37even extend it further into the future? What can you share with
- 28:41us on that?
- 28:44Bill Kirst: Yeah, I think when we talked last time we we sort
- 28:48of orbited around essentially what I was almost calling like a
- 28:51reverse Renaissance, and we anchored on the that which is
- 28:55crafted by humans. I think what's going to be interesting
- 28:59is, if I take it further, I think there's going to be an
- 29:04extension there of so it's not just that which is crafted by
- 29:08humans, but I think it's going to be about the ingredients that
- 29:13actually people pull into crafting anything. And so to
- 29:17your point around what is the sources of inspiration, right?
- 29:21I'm, I'm gonna extend it further, but in some sense, I'm
- 29:24actually go deeper by doing so and asking, what are the sources
- 29:28of inspiration that people go to in order to excuse me, the voice
- 29:34goes, because we're talking about things that are emotional.
- 29:36We want energetic, but, yeah, we're not editing it. People are
- 29:41going to hear it. Proof of Life, folks, proof of life. I think
- 29:48people are going to go deeper to the wells of inspiration in
- 29:52order to craft something that lasts longer, right? And so if
- 29:57we think about the technologies that we're. Using every one of
- 30:01them have a shelf life. I mean, at some point the money is going
- 30:05to run out, and at some point a large language model is just not
- 30:10going to be there to respond to you. And then what are you left
- 30:13with? What are you left with to turn to? What well of
- 30:17inspiration Are you going to turn to to to then form your
- 30:21words, or form your your woodwork, or your clay, whatever
- 30:26it is you're going to want to touch something, make something
- 30:29that has a lasting legacy. And in a way, I feel like we're
- 30:34almost going to have, you know, think about it when people
- 30:38discovered an artifact from the Paleolithic era, right? And they
- 30:41said, Oh, wow, this was made for this reason at this time. And
- 30:46what were they going through at the time, right? And we have the
- 30:49luxury of history and knowing and artifact and record keeping.
- 30:53I don't know what that will look like in the future, because if
- 30:56we're putting all of this artifacting and record keeping
- 31:00and discussion into these devices, into these large
- 31:03language models, and at some point the power turns off. Well,
- 31:08you don't have access to it. What do you have to show for all
- 31:11of this? That's why I want I want illustrators. I want
- 31:17musicians. I want people that, and I'm seeing this
- 31:22interestingly. I'm seeing this. I'm seeing friends of mine
- 31:25relearn piano by ear, and they're filming themselves, and
- 31:30they're playing and they're making mistakes, and they love
- 31:33it, because people are reaching out to them and saying, You've
- 31:36inspired me to tap into a deeper Well, I'd forgotten, to your
- 31:40point, around nostalgia, I had forgotten. This meant something
- 31:44to me when I was right. Somebody recently reached out to me and
- 31:48said they've started to go back to watch old classic movies and
- 31:52musicals and things where they knew when the light hits a
- 31:56certain scene, you knew. You can imagine what it took to make
- 31:59that happen, the costumes, right? I think about people who
- 32:03design sets, and they're terrified, because you can just
- 32:10AI, generate something in the background, but we know the
- 32:13difference. And I think if you fast forward all of this, I
- 32:17think our discernment, our filter for understanding what's
- 32:19real and what's not, is only going to get better, and at some
- 32:23point like that, people are going to stop, they're going to
- 32:25stop coming and then, and then you're left with, now what? So I
- 32:31don't, I don't want to end on a dystopian and so I want to, I
- 32:35want to leave it based on the fact that it's I'm giving people
- 32:40permission to go for a deeper Well, in all of this,
- 32:46Amy Lynn Durham: yeah, so good, so good. And I think you're
- 32:52leaving us with questions, which is good rather than, I mean, we
- 32:59talked about a lot of answers too. But I think this
- 33:03conversation is leaving us with questions of, how do I want to
- 33:08be in my day? Am I going to pause and question what I'm
- 33:12putting into this machine right now, how I'm behaving when I'm
- 33:18interacting with another human, all of these things, and this
- 33:21conversation was so deep, but my takeaway is more questions in a
- 33:26good way, and not throwing my CD player away. Yeah, my DVD
- 33:38player. No, this was so amazing. Bill, okay, I know. I really
- 33:42want to pull the magical edge Walker cards into the end of our
- 33:46conversation, because we're both, you know, edgewalker
- 33:49facilitators, and we one of the characteristics of an edge
- 33:55Walker is to look to the future with creative, positive
- 33:58visualization. And so I want to leave everyone with some light
- 34:03and some hope, and I think we did in this conversation. So let
- 34:08me pull a card from the edge Walker deck for us and just kind
- 34:11of give everybody listening and you and I an affirmation from
- 34:16Judy, dr, Judy Neal that authored them to take with us
- 34:22surround. Surrounding this. I just got the chills.
- 34:29Oh, I'm all chilled up over here. Okay. Bill one, two or
- 34:35three, three, we got connecting, which is an edge Walker skill,
- 34:44connecting the ability to value others, to see their uniqueness
- 34:49and to draw out the best in them. Oh, wow. I am curious and
- 34:55interested in people who are seemingly different from me, and
- 34:58I enjoy reaching out to them.
- 35:00Bill Kirst: And, wow, if that's not spot on, right? We were
- 35:05talking about, yeah,
- 35:07Amy Lynn Durham: it's beautiful. I can't I mean, it's just so in
- 35:10line with our conversation. I'm curious and interested in people
- 35:15who are seemingly different from me, and I enjoy reaching out to
- 35:19them, like, put the machine away, talk to someone, make a
- 35:23mistake in your language, if you hurt someone's feelings on
- 35:28accident, learn how to conflict resolve as a human being. Try
- 35:32not asking chat GPT first, and see what the hell happens. Is
- 35:36what I Yeah, that's a whole other episode that hopefully
- 35:40maybe we can talk about again. But Bill, oh my gosh. Just thank
- 35:45you so much for your time. I know how busy you are. I know
- 35:49that all of the amazing things that you're doing, and I'm just
- 35:53really, really grateful and appreciative that you donated
- 35:57your time today to share your thoughts with all of the Create
- 36:02Magic at Work community on all of this. So thank you so much
- 36:06for being here.
- 36:09Bill Kirst: You're very welcome. It's an honor, and I hope this
- 36:11episode finds its way to those it needs to be heard by.
- 36:14Appreciate it. Yeah.
- 36:15Amy Lynn Durham: Thank you so for everyone listening, Bill's
- 36:18Book link will be in the show notes as well as our prior
- 36:23conversation. And if you don't follow him on sub stack, you are
- 36:27so missing out because one of the most amazing writers I have
- 36:32ever read, and he has these incredible dreams that he then
- 36:36puts pen to paper for all of us to experience. So check him out
- 36:41on sub stack as well and again, Bill, thank you for sending some
- 36:45magic to everyone today. Thanks be well.
- 36:48I want to thank each and every one of you for being here as we
- 36:53explore what it really means to Create Magic at Work. If this
- 36:57conversation resonated with you, or if someone came to mind while
- 37:01you were listening, share the episode with them. Help others
- 37:05who are looking for these types of conversations find us and
- 37:09don't forget to follow, subscribe, rate and review so
- 37:13you're notified when the next episode airs until next time.
- 37:17Keep edge walking, keep challenging the way things have
- 37:20always been done, and keep making magic at work. You.