Awareness 110 Talk # XV (transcript)

Welcome to 110 talk where we aim to elevate the discussion and nothing that is relevant to the discussion is off the tables so we explore any topic that helps to accomplish that goal .

And today we're going to explore the concept of self-awareness because I think it really is a building block in unlocking anyone's potential.

So it's like self-awareness from the personal aspect, right?

Where am I really at in this moment?

That can be creatively, that can be strategically, tactically, relationally, or even financially.

It's about taking stock of the moment that we're in and seeing where we're at and where there's a gap and where we intend to fill that gap.

But the part that I want to focus on today is actually about where the moment of the world is really at in culture, in events, in history and in society.

And I've noticed a few things in this current moment of time that we find ourselves in in 2025.

What I noticed first is that our culture is very much about a zero sum gain mindset.

If he loses, I win.

If I win, she loses.

And I think that this fuels our politics and cultural divides, whether it be Democrats versus Republicans or different ethnic groups against each other or issues.

It's like, well, if this side wins, then the other side loses. This also fuels battles between people from the highest levels of government, you know, where the politicians call each other little demeaning names to try to make it stick.

It starts at the highest levels, sometimes with a gutter mentality, and it echoes out into arguments between famous people or even smear campaigns behind the scenes. It's like, well, if this person gets this thing or if this person elevates, then the other person loses .

I think it's important to be aware that it happens in every level of our society.

And sometimes because of the way that the news comes in and the way that we see things online, it really can take that skill of reading between the lines in order to put those pieces together.

So I wanted to bring that to the attention and as far as the politics, I did a blog about ways that I think we could rebuild democracy.

It's starting ideas. It's a rough draft. It's an ongoing conversation.

I think that a lot of people are concerned about the moment that we we find ourselves in politically, and in history.

So I would just encourage everybody to come up with their own ideas.

My ideas have to do with giving everybody a seat at the table so it's not just one party takes all.

I understand that (those ideas would have) to go through constitutional amendments and there's a lot of heavy lifting and red tape to overcome.

But I think that the only way that we can really honestly look at rebuilding this democracy and fixing what is broken is by putting those ideas out there and not being ashamed to put those ideas out into the universe, even if it sounds stupid at first.

It is a starting idea and it can be collaborated on and discussed with others.

America is supposed to be the leader of the free world.

We're supposed to have these conversations about innovative ideas.

We're supposed to set an example.

That's what I think we need to be doing.

And I think we need to stop looking at things as zero some gains .

The next thing that I noticed in our culture recently, is the weaponization of events to actually reduce this awareness that we so need to evolve into the next chapter.

And I think this is best illustrated with the example of Charlie Kirk being shot at

Let me just say this.

Violence is never okay against anyone exercising free speech.

I do not care if they're saying hateful things or they're saying things that you love.

It is never okay, especially in this country.

We have the Second Amendment.

We have guns.

And so we have a responsibility to use them responsibly.

With that power comes that responsibility.

And I wish that he was still here today, even though I probably would have disagreed with him on every single issue.

I think conversation is how we solve things.

It is not through violence.

It is not through assassinations.

And we need to set an example in this way.

The way that I saw this play out is: in a way that people were going to misspeak and attack each other on both sides of the aisle, which was then used to try to cancel or shame people into being silenced, which is exactly what those behind the shooting did and what we are trying to prevent.

They shot him to silence him, whoever they were, shot him to silence his message.

And then what happened as a result of that was that people were misspeaking and being canceled and silenced because of their comments that maybe were not the most eloquent, maybe they were reactionary.

Maybe they wished they could have rephrased them.

But I bet even Charlie would say that, no, we do not want people to be silenced as a result of this, which was targeted to silence somebody.

So I think that this is actually weaponized and actually reducing awareness because we don't have voices speaking up.

And so people need to speak in good faith.

I try to speak in good faith all the time and we cannot silence people.

And this is coming from me - I've had algorithms (work against me), shadow bans, and copyright, license issues, blah, blah, blah.

It's like, I think everybody needs to speak up when it's important and try to be as on point in good faith as to the point that we're trying to make, but we have to understand that we are humans and we make mistakes.

So let's not let a horrible event be weaponized to silence other people and let's do better in the use of using our guns wisely.

The next thing that I notice in this current moment is about what is being revealed.

And I will start by saying that we knew who we elected with this President.

We knew exactly what we were going to get.

When people complain about him, I just kind of laugh because I'm like, well, this is who we elected.

And we knew exactly what we were going to get.

So I tend not to blame him.

I tend not to blame him when he's within his responsibility as President.

But what I do tend to notice is how he reveals things in other people and even other companies .

He is somebody that acts like a mirror and exposes people's characters, intentions, and positions on issues.

And (when I learned about this issue) actually, I was doing laundry the other day reading Apple News articles.

And I noticed that the H-1B visa now requires $100,000 payment.

Trump somehow made that a thing where the companies have to pay $100,000 for an H-1B visa for their employees who are coming here from elsewhere to be able to work legally in this country.

And we knew Trump was going to do this.

It's not a surprise.

But what's interesting to me is that it actually forces the companies to take a stance on this and decide whether they're going to pay this fee to have employees from another country coming here, which I think is a beautiful thing.

This country is made of immigrants.

Unless we are Native Americans, we are all immigrants here.

And I think that is part of what makes this country so beautiful.

And especially when you do it on a work basis and people are contributing to society and adding new perspectives and bringing their skills from another country, I think that is one of the most beautiful things about our country .

The way that Trump has done this, he's forced companies to take a stance on it.

I saw that Walmart is holding it back.

They're not willing to pay, at least right away, maybe before the pressure gets knocked up a little bit or maybe they don't like to sponsor workers from another country.

I'm not sure what the deal is with that.

But I just thought that that was very revealing Walmart's hesitance to pay $100,000.

This is a multi-billion , many, many billion dollar company.

And $100,000 is like not even pocket change.

And the fact that they're not willing to pay that at least up front to sponsor H-1B visas, I think that is a little bit alarming, but I think that it creates an opportunity for other companies to say, we do stand up and we do pay this.

These values are important to us and we care about the diversity of our workforce and these are the values that we stand for as a country.

So I think that Trump does this on a lot of different issues in allowing people to reveal themselves.

But I just thought it was very, very telling that one of the largest companies in the world is not willing to make that initial investment.

I mean, I love Walmart, but come on, guys, do the right thing.

Finally, I have noticed, as we all have noticed, the AI discussion in the news, every other article is about AI, people making songs with AI, people making videos with AI.

Everything is AI, customer service is AI.

It used to be that it would be frustrating when you're calling a company and you have to dial zero to get to the operator.

That used to be about the extent that you'd have to deal with the robot.

It was the automated phone system to get to a person.

But now it infiltrates every aspect of our lives, what we see online, how we deal with companies, even how we create our own content.

And I think it really warrants a discussion in what kind of world do we want to live in.

Because all these companies are racing to be the leaders in AI, right?

They're investing billions and billions of dollars on all of this, and they're trying to be the leaders and have the most impact with it.

But has anybody actually stopped to survey the populations and see how this could most provide benefits to humans?

Like everyday humans, people on the internet, people in the workforce, maybe even people that don't use the internet Internet very much or at all.

How could AI improve their lives?

Has anybody even asked that question or even done a comprehensive survey?

Because there's so many ways that this technology can be misused and we've already seen it.

Something that is really disturbing to me is the fact that you can put fake images and videos and voices of people out there.

You can create with, bypassing one security clearance, a pornographic video with somebody in it without their consent.

And they never made that video.

It's all animation, right?

It's all AI.

Or make them say something completely hateful or completely different than what they actually said and making false narratives to smear someone.

I'm sure that this has already happened, but the potential, as this becomes more widespread, to put any kind of narrative out there, really lays the groundwork for an even more toxic internet with arguably less truth and awareness of reality, which is the opposite of what we're trying to do.

And where those with the most control get to run the show.

They have the most influence or they have the control of the companies .

And I think that we need to stop and think about this and have discussions about this and how to implement best practices that protect people.

Because what if it was you your friend or what if it was your son or daughter or your mother or father that was the target of some type of false video?

I mean, does everybody need to have a lawyer on retainer to fight this?

Is that the world that we're moving into?

I feel like if this gets too much into the AI space, some people are just going to completely tune out of the internet.

And while the internet cannot be the end all be-all, it is an important tool.

I think that we need to encourage more people to come to the internet, give more people the voice to explain how, if at all, AI can be helpful to them and take it from there.

So I know everybody wants to be the leader, but if you are the leader, I'm talking to all the guys out there, all the boys, all the men who want to be the leader in AI, you have a big responsibility to the world as you achieve that position to implement it responsibly for the good of all of humanity and thinking about not only the coming months and years, but the coming decades and how we want this tool to evolve, think 10, 20, 30, 50, 100 years from now.

Finally, in regards to AI - I've seen things online about using AI as therapy for people going through a crisis or instead of having a talk therapist or a psychologist.

I do have mixed feelings about therapy overall just because I believe that as humans, we all have more of a capacity to heal and evolve than we give ourselves credit for without an intermediary.

I think we all have that despite what we've been led to believe .

But with that being said, I absolutely oppose AI as an alternative to therapy.

People do need therapy.

I've gone through it.

I know people who have gone through it and it's changed their lives .

And especially if somebody's at a critical point, they need to be able to get on the phone with somebody, a hotline, and talk to a human being.

I do not think we should put robots in charge of psychology or in charge of talking people off the ledge or in charge of helping people plan next steps in their lives.

That is a line that I'm completely against.

One of the things that worries me is I did see an article about how mental health funding is being threatened.

So if the places that help with these things are not funded and we don't have the therapists, the psychologists, then it's on the chopping block, right?

And it could be sent over that way to AI bots.

I don't want to see that happen.

I think about it if it was my child and I would want them to be able to talk with somebody who is a human being, I would never let them (talk to) the AI bot.

That's why I say this here is because anybody who has a family member who's gone through something, I think that this cannot be something that evolves to be AI therapy.

I don't like that at all.

So I wanted to bring these awareness issues that I notice in society to the forefront of what I'm talking about.

I will be doing, and we are with some of the other content that we're doing, talking about the self-awareness in our own lives.

But I think that it is so important to notice what is going on in society and oftentimes those things that are going on can tend to numb us or silence us or make us less aware.

I'd love to know what you notice going on as well.

That's how I learn more and become better and have more of an enriched perspective. It's a good step to be able to share these things with each other and we have the power to change things and we have the power to set the discussion and we have the power to chart the course for the future.

Nothing is set in stone, so these conversations are important and I think this is a good step is this communication.

So with that being said, it's the end of October.

Happy, almost Halloween.

And I hope you have good celebrations, whatever your religion, your faith is, whatever you celebrate for the holidays.

I hope that that is a wonderful season for you that is upcoming .

And from my heart to yours, love and light, and I look forward to connecting with you real soon.

Bye for now.