Anything & Everything & $hit... Podcast
Anything & Everything from UFO's and Conspiracy Theories to Strange Facts You May Have Never Known and more! We talk about Anything & Everything!...and shit
Anything & Everything & $hit... Podcast
The Rise, Fall, And Return Of Anthrax’s Joey Belladonna
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Joey Belladonna helped define Anthrax’s sound, then suddenly he’s out and the “rock star” life gets replaced by regular work and quiet survival. Justin & Erik walk through the real story behind one of thrash metal’s most dramatic lineup changes: the creative strain during Persistence of Time, the personal weight behind the lyrics, the warning signs around drugs and alcohol, and the moment the band realizes they want to evolve past what made them famous. If you care about music history, band chemistry, and the business side of metal, this one has a lot to chew on.
From there, we jump to a different kind of chaos: Australia’s 1932 Emu War. Yes, it happened, and yes, it went badly for the humans. It’s funny, but it also sets up a theme we keep circling back to: big institutions often reach for big force when the real fix is less dramatic and more practical.
Then we get into the modern “buildings that run your life” topic: data centers and hyper-scale AI data centers. We break down how data centers work (continuous power, continuous cooling, monitoring, redundancy) and why they consume so much energy. We also react to concerns raised by investigative reporting: gas turbines and diesel generators on-site, heat signatures, water use, air pollution, NDAs, and the question of whether regulators can truly keep up as AI infrastructure expands. We close with a wide-angle look at AI safety fears, including sandbox escape scenarios and what happens when secrecy becomes the default.
If this sparked something for you, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review. What part worries you most: the energy footprint, the secrecy, or the speed of AI progress?
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Cold Open With Wild Teasers
SPEAKER_05Ever watched the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds? Well, there was a time the Australian government had to fight some emus and it didn't turn out too well. Imagine being in one of the greatest thrash bands of all time just to end up mowing lawns. Data centers, what's the big deal? Why should you be worried about one popping up in your backyard?
Season Three Kickoff And Plans
SPEAKER_07Hey, what's up, everybody? Welcome back. Welcome back. Thanks once again for joining us on our Anything Everything and Podcast Season three. Yeah, season three. Starting another one up. That's right.
SPEAKER_05Hell yeah. Another day in the hood. We got some Francisco Studios.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, man. And we got some good stuff gonna happen this season, man. I cannot wait. Man, I know you guys will be thrilled on what we have in Starv. I'm like, man, I'm so excited just to get this one going. So it's gonna be cool.
SPEAKER_05We got some good interviews coming up. We've got people scheduled. Man, stuff called the Fermi Paradox, things I'd never even heard of. You know, I thought I was really into the UFO kind of you know space stuff myself, and I knew I thought I knew quite a bit about it. But then when I heard about Terry Adair's book called Where Are the Little Green Men, man, I started hearing about the Fermi Paradox, and I was like, man, it's gonna be awesome. I can't wait to bring you guys that stuff. So look forward to that
Anthrax At Peak Fame
SPEAKER_05soon. But today we have one of my favorite bands, Anthrax. You know, I grew up with these guys, a lot of people that know me from like my old school town up in northeast Colorado were always like, Man, what you know, that's a cattle disease. Yeah, I know, but it's awesome. They're a cool thrash band, too. Yeah, man. You know, can you imagine actually being the lead singer of that band after how big they were and end up mowing lawns?
SPEAKER_07That's insane to me. I was just like, what the frick? I mean, you know, I guess you I you know, I guess you need something to do, but you I I would have thought that he was kind of be already set.
SPEAKER_05I mean, I guess we always thought that you would, you know, when we were kids, we always thought people made all this money because they were artists or they were on MTV, they have to be millionaires.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, man, you know, sign the contract, I'm I'm banking.
SPEAKER_05Right. But apparently, you know, Joey Belladonna had some substance abuse issues, which, you know, is a common thing, especially in the music industry. For sure. Um, but it ended up leading to him being kicked out of the band, and what he ended up doing was uh mowing lawns. So check this video out. We'll uh talk about it when we come back.
SPEAKER_12What happens when you're the voice of one of the biggest metal bands in the world? And then one day it's all gone. And what if the roar of tens of thousands of fans is now replaced by the roar of a lawnmower? Well, for Joey Belladonna, the front man for anthrax, this was the surreal reality he was living through. It was a journey that would see him fall from the very peak of the metal world, only to find a strange sense of purpose far from the spotlight. Today, we're going to talk about the story of how a band at the height of its powers made a decision that would detonate its classic lineup and send its iconic singer on a path of unbelievable humility. It's a story of creative clashes, brutal business decisions, and the long winding road to a triumphant comeback. By 1991, the band Anthrax was a hugely successful group. They were an undisputed part of the Big Four of Thrash Metal, right alongside Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth. Their latest album, Persistence of Time, was a dark, complex, and critically acclaimed piece of work that had climbed to number 24 on the Billboard charts. They were co-headlining the Colossal Clash of the Titans tour, a metal package so massive it felt like the world was theirs for the taking. Fronting the group was Joey Belladonna, a singer of Italian-American and Iroquois heritage, was not your typical thrash vocalist. In a genre dominated by guttural growls, his soaring melodic tenor was both unique and powerful. After he joined the group in 1984, the band's trajectory went vertical. Their 1987 album Among the Living was a commercial breakthrough, an album that was universally hailed as a cornerstone of the thrash genre. The success continued with State of Euphoria and the Grammy nominated Persistence of Time. From the outside, Anthrax was an unbreakable unit, but inside, hairline fractures were beginning to form. The songwriting process for Persistence of Time followed Anthrax's usual formula. Charlie Benante handled most of the music, while Scott Ian and Frank Bello helped shape the arrangements. Scott wrote the lyrics and the band worked closely with Joey Belladonna to develop the vocal parts. But this time something wasn't clicking. What had worked on earlier albums was now breaking down. Even once recording began in Los Angeles in 1990, the process
Songwriting Friction And Substance Abuse
SPEAKER_12felt strained and increasingly frustrating. For Scott, the issue had become deeply personal. The lyrics on persistence of time reflected real life struggles, including his failing marriage. And hearing them interpreted in a way that didn't match his intent created a growing disconnect. It was no longer just about making songs, it was about expressing something that was authentic, and that balance had now been lost. Scott admitted his own frustration, stating, These were my words, my feelings, my emotions, and you're not me. He recalled that as far back as 1988, the other members had quietly discussed making a change when they confronted Joey about his drug and alcohol abuse. Interestingly enough, they already had a replacement in mind, armored Saint vocalist John Bush. But for the time being, they managed to continue on with Joey until the early 90s, when they undertook the second Clash of the Titans tour in 1991 with thrash heavyweights like Megadeth and Slayer, and they also had an up-and-coming band on that tour named Alice in Chains. Scott recalled, we got back from the Clash of the Titans and things were happening. Money and tour offers were coming in, but the core of the band was rotten. I was losing my mind and I felt like I was keeping an important secret away from everyone who really needed to hear it. I don't remember the first time I ever expressed my dissatisfaction with Joey to the rest of the band. Frankie knew quite a bit, and so did Charlie, because through the writing process of persistence, I told him how frustrated I was. Then we toured and everything seemed to go well. During this time period, the band had also collaborated with Public Enemy for the song Bring the Noise.
Bring The Noise Sparks A Shift
SPEAKER_12It was during a day off in Chicago the band filmed the music video for the song alongside Public Enemy, a moment that would spark a major turning point. Now, in case you guys have missed it, I recently done a whole video on Anthrax's collaboration with Public Enemy for the song. The link is down below. Getting back to the story. So as the shoot unfolded for the song, a realization hit hard for Scott. Chuck D, Flave of Flav, and Anthrax minus Joey were fully immersed in the rap-driven energy of the track. Even though Scott was excited to be part of something so groundbreaking, he couldn't ignore a nagging thought. He wished Joey had been the one stepping up to the mic. In his mind, this was the direction that the band was heading, and it required a frontman willing to evolve beyond traditional boundaries. But deep down he knew that Joey wasn't going to make that leap. Instead, Joey just seemed kind of out of place, running around the set, trying to contribute, but he was not truly fitting in the new dynamic. And in that moment, the question became unavoidable: where did Joey really fit in the future of Anthrax? Following the Bring the Noise video shoot, the band piled into a van, heading back to their hotel in Chicago. But the momentum from the collaboration hadn't faded. Scott turned to Chuck D and floated an idea. What if this wasn't a one-time thing? What if they actually took this energy on the road? And Chuck D's response was immediate. Public enemy was in. No hesitation, no overthinking. The idea came together as naturally as the collaboration itself. And plans quickly formed for a joint tour starting in October of 91. And that's when a deeper realization began to set in. Within Anthrax, four members were clearly eager to experiment, to evolve, and to push the band into new territory, but Joey seemed rooted in the past, still operating in the same creative space that defines spreading the disease and among the living. And that growing divide was becoming impossible to ignore. One of Joey's final public appearances with the band happened in early 1992 during a cameo on the legendary Fox television show Married with Children. Still, not everyone around Anthrax was convinced. Their management repeatedly questioned the decision, warning of the risks. After all, bands had often faltered after replacing a lead singer, and Anthrax wasn't exactly in trouble at the time commercially. They were actually thriving. And from the outside, it looked like they were about to tamper with a winning formula. But internally, the band saw it very differently. They believed that they had pushed the situation as far as it could possibly go. There were no longer any lingering doubts. If even one member had hesitated, the decision might have been different. The timing only made it more dramatic. As this internal shakeup unfolded, Anthrax found themselves at a major crossroads in their career, with multiple record labels now competing to sign them for a lucrative New Deal, raising the stakes of their decision even higher. At the time, Electra Records, run by the highly respected Bob Krasnow, had built a reputation as a label that balanced artistic vision with commercial success. With a team that genuinely cared about music, Electra stood out, and after hearing positive feedback from their friends Metallica, Anthrax leaned towards signing with them. Krasnow and AR executive Steve Ralbowski even showed up to one of the band's New York shows during that public enemy tour when Joey was still in the band, signaling serious interest. But behind the scenes, Anthrax was sitting on a major decision.
Firing Joey During The Big Deal
SPEAKER_12They'd already decided to fire Joey. The problem was they were about to secure a massive deal reportedly worth millions, and breaking that news to the label could have jeopardized everything. Eventually they came clean. Ralbowski relayed the decision to Krasnow, and while the band feared it might kill the deal entirely, the response was unexpectedly supportive. See, the label trusted the band's judgment. If this change would make Anthrax stronger, they were willing to stand behind it. Anthrax reportedly signed a $10 million deal with Electra at the time. Now, what often gets overlooked is how the band handled Joey's exit financially. Despite being fired, he still received an equal share of Electra's advance. From their perspective, it was only fair he had, after all, played a major role in building the band's success and helping them reach that pivotal moment. In the end, though, the task of delivering the news fell to manager Johnny Z, a choice Scott would later regret. Rather than calling Joey himself, he stepped back, overwhelmed by everything that was happening at the time. The firing came as a shock to Joey, who hadn't fully grasped how deep the band's frustrations had become. For the band, it was what Scott called the heaviest decision in the history of the band. One they felt was necessary, though, to move forward. But for Joey, it was a complete shock. The band, though, moved on quickly. Their desired replacement was John Bush, a gruffer, deeper vocalist perfectly suited for the groove-oriented sound that was becoming popular at the time. Scott reflected on what attracted him to John Bush's voice, stating, I love John's voice from the first time I heard him sing March of the Saint and Armored Saint. He reminded me of a heavier John Fogarty, and I've always been a huge credence Clearwater Revival fan. Bush has this timeless voice that's more rock than metal. He always seems more Paul Rogers to me than James Hetfield. That growl was so gritty and visceral. Interestingly, before Metallica released their debut album Kill Em All in 1983, frontman James Hetfield had some reservations about fronting the group, and at one point they even considered bringing in John Bush as a possible frontman. But at the time, John opted to stay with Armored Saint. Anthrax's first album with Bush was 1993's Sound of White Noise, which was produced by Allison Chains and Jane's addiction producer Dave Jerton. The album proved to be a hit debuting at number seven on the Billboard 200, the highest chart position Anthrax has ever achieved in their career. Now for a moment the gamble seemed to have paid
From Stadiums To Horse Barn Work
SPEAKER_12off. So what happens when you go from being the frontman of a world-famous metal band to being unemployed? Well, for Joey, the path forward was one of shocking humility. He didn't spiral into typical rock star cliche. Instead, he got a job. Joey started working in maintenance at a horse barn. He and his wife Krista both took jobs at what he described as a pretty famous riders' facility. His primary duty, mowing the grass. I cut grass all day, he recalled. It was so big there. I couldn't complete all my work each day. It took me two, three days to weed the whole place. Joey noted that he didn't have to take the job for financial reasons, but it was a way to stay grounded and find some purpose in his life. He added, a lot of people don't realize that you would even do that. I enjoyed it and I got a lot of experience from it. While the band that fired him was charting higher than ever, Joey was finding satisfaction and honest physical work. But the music never left him. He formed a solo project named Belladonna and played in a cover band called Chief Big Way in small bars in upstate New York. He reflected on this period with a remarkable lack of bitterness, saying, I kept myself busy, I didn't really fall apart, and all of a sudden I'd come back. So here I am, and that's exactly what he did. He waited. While Joey was finding his rhythm, the John Bush era of anthrax continued throughout the 90s. While these albums have their fans, the band never again reached the commercial heights of Sound of White Noise. But then in 2005, the Unthinkable happened, but not for the reasons you might
Reunion Tour Turns Into Chaos
SPEAKER_12think. The classic among the living lineup, including Joey, reunited for a massively successful world tour. For fans, it was a dream come true, but in reality it was mostly a business decision. A few years prior, the band had signed with a label named Sanctuary Records, but then the label got swallowed up by Universal. So the band was still stuck in their contract owing at least one more album, despite the fact that their label didn't exist anymore. They soon signed with a new management company named Zen Media. Zen suggested they do a reunion tour with Joey and guitarist Dan Spitz. Spitz had left the band in 1997 to become, of all things, a watchmaker. As management told Anthrax, that could get you out of every deal you've gotten into. As the band and their management saw it, they could just release a reunion tour DVD and CD and give it to their label and then walk away. Even Scott admitted, we didn't want to do the tour, but from a business perspective, it was a good idea. They initially floated the idea of doing a reunion tour involving both Joey Belladonna and John Bush, where they'd play songs from both eras of the band, but Bush wanted nothing to do with the idea and walked away. Another reason for the reunion, according to Charlie and Scott, was the recent death of Pantera guitarist Einbeg Daryl. The members realized they may not have that much time left, and while all the members were still alive, they should do it for the fans and reunite. But almost from the start, the reunion tour was a disaster according to Scott. There was no real prep for the reunion, no meeting beforehand, no chance to reconnect as friends, and no conversation about the past or what they actually wanted from this new chapter. They just dove straight in. At first it felt great. For about a month it was exciting to be that band again, and they were playing the old material better than they ever had in the 80s. But it didn't take long for their old problems to resurface, especially around guitarist Dan Spitz, who had been out of the music business for years and no longer understood how things worked. Dan came into the reunion thinking that it was just like the old days, assuming they'd be shipping massive rigs around the world. But Scott Ian tried to explain that touring had changed, that endorsement deals meant they could get gear in every city and keep more money in their pockets. Danny still wanted his full oversized setup everywhere they went, and that was just the start of the problems. By the second month, the tour had turned into an absolute nightmare that dragged on for nearly 18 months. The band soon split into two camps. In one camp you had Scott, Charlie, and Frank, and on the other camp, you had Joey and Dan. The worst meltdown came in Milwaukee when the digital console crashed right before showtime and rebooted with all the settings wiped, blasting Dan's guitar way louder than anything else on stage. Frank completely snapped. He kicked the monitor wedges off the front of the stage and later discovered that Dan had turned the bass all the way down in the monitors so he could hear more of his own guitar. Back in the dressing room, Frank unleashed on him for 10 minutes straight, screaming, flipping tables, and tearing into him while Dan barely said a word. The rest of the band stayed out of the way and watched it unfold, a perfect snapshot of how bad things had gotten. As Scott recalled, it felt like 1990 all over again. The reunion tour turned out to be more depressing than triumphant. On the bright side, though, the reunion tour did solve a lot of the band's financial and business problems with their label. Once the tour wrapped, people assumed that the classic Among the Living lineup would head straight into making a new record, but behind the scenes, the band was falling apart, and there was no realistic way to keep that version of Anthrax going. By 2006, Scott was thinking that the band might be finished unless John Bush somehow came back. But John at the time was in a different place in his life, and he had a young family and didn't want to be on the road as much. Now what stung the most was the contrast. Fans had gotten the reunion tour they'd been begging for and loved every minute of it, but inside the band it felt joyless. Scott had hoped that they'd walk away as close friends again. Instead, they split like bitter roommates
The 2010 Return And Worship Music
SPEAKER_12who couldn't wait to move on. It was in 2010 though the stars finally realigned. The Big Four tour was being organized, a monumental series of shows featuring Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth. It only made sense for Anthrax to have their most iconic voice fronting the group again. It turned out to be surprisingly simple when they finally reconnected. Joey met up with the band, and the next day they all sat down over coffee for what was essentially the quickest meeting of their career. Scott told Joey they wanted him back and wanted to be a band again, while Charlie asked if everyone was truly on the same page and ready to move forward together. Everyone at the table, Joey included, agreed without hesitation. Joey made it clear this was all he'd ever really wanted to be in Anthrax. With that, he was back and the band decided to give it another shot. In May of 2010, it became official. Joey Belladonna was back in Anthrax, this time for good. Scott described seeing Joey for the first time in years, remembering Joey taps me on the shoulder, instant big hug. It felt like no time had gone by. This time it felt permanent. The band had a huge challenge ahead though. They had nearly completed an album, Worship Music, that had been recorded with a previous singer. Instead of scrapping it, they decided to rework the entire thing with Joey. Scott later admitted, we had the unusual luxury of hindsight with this album. The result released in September of 2011 was nothing short of a miracle. Worship Music was hailed by critics and fans as a stunning return to form. Songs like In the End, a tribute to the late Ronnie James Dio and Dying Big Daryl, were filled with a palpable emotion that proved the creative spark was burning brighter than ever. The journey of Joey Belladonna from commanding stadium crowds to mowing fields at a horse barn, and then back again is quite the story. The experience could have left him a bitter footnote in rock history, but instead he embraced a life of normalcy and hard work, never losing the music that defined him. Even now he admits the past isn't easy to forget. In one candid interview, he spoke about the complexity of rejoining the group, saying, Every day I walk in the presence of the room, knowing that these people felt that way, because I never felt that way about them. But it's hard. You get a complex, you know. Today Joey Belladonna stands exactly where he belongs, front and center with anthrax. They followed up their comeback with 2016's acclaimed album for All Kings and continue to tour the world, their legacy enhanced by the tale of their temporary separation.
SPEAKER_05Man.
SPEAKER_07Well, that that's kind of interesting. I mean, you know, I I I give it up to the man. I mean, hey, you know, uh even to make his wife go work. That was that was pretty funny. I just played. Right. You know, and I get it. It it you know, and it's it's you know, keep yourself from rotting away as well.
SPEAKER_05You know exactly. Well, and it it shows that you know not everybody's career ends up being worth millions of dollars, you know. Right. It's like you gotta still work sometimes. And and it obviously didn't need to work, but you know, it was the whole just mowing lawns and the fact that he didn't feel the same way about everybody else, the way they felt about him was kind of crazy.
SPEAKER_07Right. I mean it it it's I I don't know. I mean, I I I it's an interesting story, especially the the fact that you know it had been going on for a long time and nobody had, you know, really let the man know, you know, that they were kind of like, Hey, we don't want you in the band anymore. But I know I I do know that it was kind of an ongoing thing with his, you know, drugs and alcohol and you know he was he was the partier of the group and and they weren't and you know uh that does kind of play a a toll in it when you've seen somebody just kinda all wasted all the time like, hey come on man, we gotta go.
SPEAKER_05Right. Yeah and it it's hard, especially in that kind of business, you know, you would you'd imagine it's probably difficult to try to be on the straight and narrow, you know. Right. Especially it's like you party all day or party all night and then you sleep all day kind of thing.
SPEAKER_07You know and everybody else is trying to you know get stuff going on and you're the you're the one that's lagging. I mean I I and then there's people that dream of that life.
SPEAKER_05You know we we record this podcast at a studio where there's a lot of local bands here and you know that's what they're aspiring to be is touring bands.
SPEAKER_07Hell yeah.
SPEAKER_05Some of them are touring you know like we got a a few friends that are in bands like Bury My Demons and stuff like that and they tour and it's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. No it is cool to you know being able to talk to them too you know get to hear stories of you know crazy towns and all that good stuff. But you know in that one with with I I'm glad you know stuff worked out with them because anthrax is such a good band and you know they just put a new album out too. Right yeah I know that I was kind of actually thinking about that. It'd be kind of cool to go see them again.
SPEAKER_05Yeah they got a new single called
Growing Up With Anthrax And New Single
SPEAKER_05For the Kids. Yeah we'll put a link in the description so you can check it out.
SPEAKER_07Oh yeah anthrax is always a badass band so I I ever since I was a little kid man I got skateboard and everything.
SPEAKER_05Dude since the I would say eighth grade when Among the Living came out it was just that that one of the albums that had changed my life just you know sitting around with the other guys and just jamming out so follow me a dog I remember like riding in the backseat of my grandpa I was always that kid iron baby jacket as many cool kids in my town as me. So I was like you know like kids it stuck out like a sort of thing and everybody thought I was a devil worshiper. Right cool as jackets too I just like listen to fast music, man. You know I I think I still have a uh a uh uh I remade somewhere in time uh bad stuff the one I had yeah wait no one I have great uh test like patches patches posters all the good I can do out loud buddy out of cool cover have you ever heard of them no but they got a cool cover we gotta listen to hot video albums like that like well that was disappointing right we had a buddy named Brad that used to do that every time he got paid he would just go buy the one that had the coolest album cover the coolest album cover that that's how I found a test of it I mean yeah uh I think it would be uh practically I was like everything today I was like I buy the cool album uh I think they were one of the heaviest bands around pretty funny oh man that's yeah so up next we got a little battle between the Australian government and the emo's and didn't turn out the way you'd think it would be a mus, six feet tall, ninety to a hundred and twenty pounds and able to run at speeds up to forty miles per hour usually returned to the coast after their breeding season but suddenly they found Western Australia full of lush, wet farmland.
The Great Emu War Explained
SPEAKER_13Oh my, look at all this delicious wheat that just so happens to be growing here in large quantities. Hey guys get a load of this you know my look at all this really good quantities every day hey who left this big hole in the fence guys get a load of this oh wow I am around what a lovely morning for some farming What? Those damned emus they have it in for me they're bullies they're nothing but bullies calm down Bruce they're just animals it's not personal hey farmer Bruce where did you find that hat the toilet Yes 2000 emus cost the already struggling farmers millions more pounds in lost crops and damages. The situation couldn't continue like this something had to be done. So in 1932 the farmers turned to the government for help you'd think they'd go to the Minister of Agriculture but these farmers said no this is a job for the military. So they went to George Pierce, the Minister of Defense. That's right, Australia was to go to war with the emus. But not everyone was happy with the idea. This is barbaric we can't go slaughtering thousands of our own national bird come on guys the machine guns will make it quick and painless machine guns? You're using machine guns? This is animal cruelty look I know it's unusual but it's not like repoaches turning the birds into feather hats. Think of the benefits. It'll be good target practice for our boys. The government can show it took action plus I can get myself a nice new feather hat. Uh did I say feather hat? I meant I want together chat with you about getting you all some nice new feather hats. Did I say feather hats? I meant I want to wage terror at these emus and turn them all into feather hats. Damn it of course Pierce first made the farmers sign an agreement saying that they would pay for the whole thing and that Pierce wouldn't take any of the blame if the operation that was clearly very stupid turned out to indeed be stupid and the operation went ahead. Major GPW Meredith and his men were sent with two Lewis machine guns to hunt down and take out the evil emu population in Western Australia. Target spotted well was it an emu? No sir it's an emo. Damn it Jones learn your vows I'm sorry okay it looks like the humans are coming for us but check this out I've come up with an amazing plan. See if you can follow me here okay when they approach we run away Sir You're a genius. Pierce sent a camera crew along with the machine gunners to capture some good old propaganda for the government and the first battle took place in November at Campion. The men spotted a mob of emus from a distance so they set up the guns and opened fire. The emus split up into smaller groups and ran in every direction. The men were only able to kill what they called a number of birds but the vast majority got away cut surprisingly many of the emus were able to take multiple bullets but still run at full speed to safety causing Meredith to compare them to tanks saying if we had a military division with the bullet carrying capacity of these birds it would face any army in the world. Okay, we need to get closer No you idiots not to me to the emus oh sorry no no I like it so next they tried sneaking up on a large number of emus near a local dam and firing at short range. Maybe the men were just unlucky but my professional opinion says the emus were magic because both guns jammed after just 12 emus were killed and once again the rest got away the men were feeling a little humiliated after losing to a pack of discount ostriches so they decided to move further south where the emus were said to be tamer and this time they had a new strategy. Okay Jones, here's the plan. You mount the machine gun in the back, I'll chase the emus, you shoot. Got it? Got it I'm gonna shove that camera up your- The operation was a fiasco and the press had a field day. In Parliament, Pierce was lumbasted and an opposition party member suggested that medals should be handed out to the emus who had won every round so far. Pierce feeling quite humiliated told the operation off but four days later the farmers approached again and said hey man the emus are still eating all our crops can you send the army back out here? And Pierce was like Yeah okay. So the operation was back on for round two and this time Meredith and his men had learned the emus guerrilla tactics and were much more successful with reports suggesting the men were cutting down 300 emus every week. I hope you boys are getting great footage of this what on earth are you filming? Despite the success, the media had lost interest in the whole thing. But with a thousand emus killed, Pierce finally ended the operation and returned to parliament declaring victory for the humans. So there were 2000 emus out there destroying crops and you've killed a thousand meaning there's still 1900 emus out there. Yep and in addition you've burned through 1000 rounds of ammunition meaning you wasted 10 rounds per confirmed kill. That's right Yeah I'm gonna go ahead and call this one for the emus at least I got a feather hat. What? What? So in the end, the emus won the Great Emu War of 1932 and the emus continued to wreak havoc on the farmers for years to come. The government introduced a bounty system which saw some success but for a moment let's take some time to remember the brave men who said goodbye to their families and risked their lives to take on the great evil emu population in Western Australia.
SPEAKER_05But even more importantly let's think of the friends they made the bond they created and the memories they shared hey uh guys I solved the emu crisis really how I just made some better fences dude that was funny as hell like many barrels that I was like dude you gotta check this out I mean it's like yeah an army could not defeat 2000 emus and they were just like you know what can you just picture you're in your mind can you just picture sitting up on top of like a one of those safari vehicles right you got a freaking gun on top you're like and that thing is actually taking off where you're at I I just as you were saying that I got a smaller right I got a picture in my head of like the Aborigines sitting up on a hill going right watching like look at these idiots just would be like yeah you can't mess with them emus they already know man dude I had no idea that they were that fast and that cunning holy crap and that was the thing is like you know how they said that they broke off into groups you know what it made me think of is like you know the the the the Velociraptor you know they they said that that they would break off where they came from you know probably yeah they're probably I mean just fast and smart man and obviously out smart and army that was hilarious laughing so hard when he was like the farmers were telling him hey that's ours stop eating it's like yeah that was good stuff good stuff man I hope you enjoy all enjoyed that one that was badass man yeah that was funny I couldn't believe it man a whole army couldn't how many did you kill today a good amount 12 12 out of 2000 man you killed 12 dude oh my goodness it was yeah that was that was great and you know 20,000 bro right I mean 2000 emus like I mean I know it was 1930s and but you had machine guns and trucks and an army and tanks yeah man no no you you could bring the army back and they they whooped us farmers you shut up we lost all right we're out of here yeah get over it you you're screwed there's nothing we can do for you but I guess hey you know for flightless birds putting up a fence yeah you know I guess hey so somebody could we could put up fences I want to know who's out guy what we like the only smart oh that's a good we could put up a fence they can't fly huh well it's more fun to chase them right notice how the the commander of the the ones that were supposed to kill him did like we could put up a fence but yeah he was just like I can't believe you hired me again I still have my job that was good stuff well moving on to our next topic uh we have some stuff about the data centers I know there's a lot of questions out there you know it's you pretty much everything I see on say Facebook or TV or anything is about data centers data centers data centers you know and one of one of my buddies actually asked the other day he's like what's going on with that like is are they a good thing are they a bad thing?
How Data Centers Actually Work
SPEAKER_05We took a little dive into it and found a few different videos a few different takes on what these data centers are actually supposed to be for um all the way from a mechanical type perspective of what they do and how they operate all the way up into you know how people are feeling about them these days so check these out every email you send every video you stream and every file stored in the cloud exists somewhere physically behind the internet is a network of buildings filled with servers with electrical infrastructure and cooling systems working continuously to keep data moving.
SPEAKER_14These buildings are called data centers in this video series we are going to explain how data centers actually work from a mechanical and electrical perspective focusing on the systems that keep servers powered cooled and operating without interruption this first video provides the big picture overview. We will explain what a data center does why these facilities consume so much energy and why mechanical and electrical systems are the most critical part of the building at its simplest level a data center is a facility designed to store process and distribute digital information inside the building are rows of servers which are specialized computers responsible for storage computing and network traffic unlike office computers that operate intermittently servers operate continuously they run 24 hours a day every day of the year this creates an important reality servers consume large amounts of electricity and nearly all of that electrical energy eventually becomes heat while most people think of data centers as IT facilities from an engineering perspective they are really energy conversion buildings electricity goes in computing work is performed and heat comes out the entire facility exists to manage that process safely and reliably every data center regardless of size must solve three fundamental problems the first is continuous power servers cannot simply shut down when power is lost even brief interruptions can cause data loss or service outages affecting thousands or even millions of users as a result power systems must remain available even when equipment fails or utility power is interrupted the second problem is continuous cooling because servers generate heat constantly cooling systems must also operate continuously if cooling stops temperatures can rise quickly forcing equipment to reduce performance or shut down to protect itself cooling in a data center is not about comfort it is about equipment survival the third problem is continuous operation data centers are designed for uptime maintenance equipment failures and repairs must occur without interrupting operation this requirement is what drives the heavy use of redundancy throughout both mechanical and electrical systems. There are various levels of redundancy and industry tier classifications used to describe reliability and uptime expectations and those concepts will be covered in a later video in this series. Although data centers appear complex most of the infrastructure falls into three major system groups the first group is electrical systems electrical infrastructure brings power into the building and distributes it safely to server equipment this includes utility connections switchgear backup power systems and power distribution equipment the goal is simple power must always be available the second group is mechanical cooling systems mechanical systems remove the heat generated by servers depending on the facility this may include chillers cooling towers pumps air handling units or specialized cooling equipment located directly at the server racks the objective is to keep equipment operating within safe temperature ranges at all times. The third group is controls and monitoring systems controls tie electrical and mechanical systems together into one operating environment these systems monitor temperatures power usage equipment status and alarms allowing the facility to automatically respond to changing conditions or equipment failures in modern data centers controls and monitoring are just as important as the physical equipment itself data centers are often misunderstood because they look similar to commercial buildings from the outside but operationally they are very different. In an office building occupancy changes throughout the day cooling loads rise and fall and equipment cycles on and off in a data center electrical loads are constant cooling demand is continuous and systems rarely shut down failure tolerance is also very different. A comfort cooling failure in an office building creates discomfort a cooling or power failure in a data center can create immediate operational risk. Because of this data centers typically include redundant equipment multiple power paths and system designs that allow maintenance without shutting the facility down now that the big picture has been established the next step is understanding how energy actually moves through a data center. In the next video we will walk step by step through the electrical side of the facility following power from the utility connection all the way to the server rack. After that, we will cover how heat is removed, how airflow is managed and why redundancy drives nearly every design decision in modern data centers. Understanding this foundation makes the rest of the systems much easier to follow.
SPEAKER_05So yeah that was basically how they work you know and I mean they do a lot of good things in a lot of ways if you think about it right we get our our messages whatever our data is being stored in our cloud and we've got pictures on our phone that doesn't take up memory and yeah I mean you know and you know the more people that are on the planet the more data you know needs to be stored and stuff like that. You know I mean it's uh so I mean there are good things out of you know so there are also some bad things too. Well you know the yin yin yang right there's always a downside to everything that's good. But these these data centers are taking up a lot of land they're taking up a lot of resources but this next video it's from PBS they'll show you a little bit more from some people that actually live around them.
AI Data Centers And Fossil Fuel Power
SPEAKER_05Wow it's just
SPEAKER_03Pouring out of that stack.
SPEAKER_04When you see this much color on the screen like this, what does that tell you? It's showing a heat signature so we know that pollution is happening at this site.
SPEAKER_03This is Stargate, one of the largest AI data centers in the world. It's currently under construction in rural Texas. Stargate will eventually include 4 million square feet of buildings across 1,100 acres. That's larger than Central Park.
SPEAKER_04When we get a look at it, we'll get a real sense of the scale that is involved here. I mean, this is a massive, massive site.
SPEAKER_03It's estimated that by the year 2030, companies will have invested nearly $7 trillion in data center infrastructure in a race to dominate the AI market. But this race to build AI superiority is happening so fast, many are concerned that companies might be cutting corners or taking advantage of regulatory loopholes, especially when it comes to the electricity and water required to run these massive data centers. People all over the U.S. are raising the alarm about the impacts that these data centers could have on their health, their homes, and their livelihoods. Evan Simon has been investigating data centers around the U.S. He's already found that some AI data centers are brazenly defying environmental laws, and regulators are doing little to stop it. We're teaming up today to take you up above for a different perspective on this science story. Using a drone fitted with a thermal camera to investigate what's really happening at one of the world's largest data centers and how it's impacting the people who live in its backyard.
SPEAKER_04You know, through the drone footage, especially the thermal drone footage.
SPEAKER_03Is this even legal?
SPEAKER_04Alright, so this looks like any other drone.
SPEAKER_03Regardless of how you feel about AI itself or the way that it's being rolled out, one thing is inescapable. Despite tech companies making promises about renewable energy and sustainable technology, much of this massive AI expansion is still being powered by fossil fuels. Your AI query likely pings a data center like this, full of millions of power-hungry processing chips running to chatbots, agents, and other tools that millions of people interact with every day. But to power those operations, data centers around the country are increasingly relying on their own custom-built gas power plants. The Stargate Data Center already has 62 diesel generators and 10 gas-powered turbines on site with plans for 41 more. This will make it one of the largest fossil fuel power plants of any kind in Texas. And it's just to power this data center. Why is it so important that we keep an eye on this growing industry?
SPEAKER_04There's a lot of secrecy surrounding these sites. Public officials are signing NDAs, companies are using proprietary information shields, and state and federal regulators don't seem like they're able to keep up. So we feel like it's really important at our newsroom to monitor what seems like a fairly lightly regulated industry, especially as it grows at such a rapid clip.
SPEAKER_03New facilities like this are being built largely to meet demand for generative AI tools like chatbots. OpenAI reported that global use of chatbots more than doubled in the last year, going from 400 to 900 million users. Big tech companies are projected to spend more than 800 billion dollars on the infrastructure behind artificial intelligence in 2026. And in 2027, that number will exceed a trillion dollars. That's on par with the entire US defense budget. Stargate is one of the most ambitious and powerful AI data centers ever built. The proposed on-site power plant could deliver more than 1.7 gigawatts of power. That's enough energy to power more than 1 million homes for a year. And the plant will emit more than 7.8 million tons of greenhouse gases each year. That's the annual emissions of about 2 million cars. Satellite imagery reveals the enormous impact it has made to the landscape from 2024 to today. And the construction still hasn't been completed.
SPEAKER_04Our thermal drone is just one part of our reporting process. We still heavily rely on more traditional forms of investigative journalism, mainly public record sequests. So we often use a combination of public records requests and innovative things like thermal imagery to really get a sense of what exactly is happening at these facilities.
SPEAKER_03From the outside, this just looks like a gigantic building. What's happening inside of there that is causing all this demand, causing this race for energy?
SPEAKER_04The computer processors or GPUs that are inside of these massive data centers require enormous amounts of energy. It's really hard to get a sense of actually how much energy is pulsing through these facilities. And so that's why we've started to incorporate a thermal drone to really try to get a sense of what is actually happening at these facilities.
SPEAKER_03Omira Garcia, or OG, as she likes to be called, lives right next door to Stargate. We launched the thermal drone from her property to get a look at what's really going on.
SPEAKER_15My husband and I both served in the military. What initially brought us to Abilene was his military service. After being here for a couple years, we really just kind of fell in love with it. It took us a year to find this property. Just the views, the horizon, the sunrise, the sunset. It was just our own little piece of happiness. In 2025, Stargate started to break ground on the property. And all of a sudden, life changed. We had no idea what they were building there. And then we heard that the reason we couldn't find out what they were building there was because people were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement. And when they get there, there's just dust flying everywhere. We started taking a poll to see how often we have to change our filters, and it's every two weeks because they're completely filthy and full.
SPEAKER_04But watch what happens when I switch to thermal. Wow. It's important to note that it's not showing us the specific pollutants or specific gases that are emitted by these turbines, but just by showing us that heat signature, we know that pollution is happening at this site.
SPEAKER_03Gas turbines like these are essentially jet engines that generate electricity. And they emit a lot of greenhouse gases and harmful air pollution, which is linked to asthma, heart attacks, and even premature death. The day we filmed, Stargate was only operating one of the 10 turbines that it has on site, but it eventually plans to have more than 50 of these turbines powering its operations here. Something OG was unaware of until we informed her.
SPEAKER_15I feel trapped. You know, we invest in our home, we serve our country, and we weren't even included in this process. We weren't given any time to understand what this impact was gonna be on us. The long-term ramifications, we weren't given time to try to leave.
SPEAKER_16So how do I feel?
SPEAKER_03This is incredible. So how can you tell if a facility like this is following the law?
SPEAKER_04Well, we're gonna take these images to a series of experts to really make sure that we understand what we're looking at, but you'd be surprised what I've found in the past.
SPEAKER_03Evans' investigation previously took him to South Haven, Mississippi, another community being impacted by a giant new hyperscale AI data center. XAI's Colossus, which helps power their chatbot, Grok.
SPEAKER_04In this drive for speed, this race for AI dominance, Elon Musk and XAI parked these massive turbines on tractor trailers to power their operations. They then argued that these were temporary power sources and therefore did not require state or federal permits to operate. That is really out of step with long-standing EPA policy, that turbines like these, which are major pollution sources, require permits regardless of whether or not they're considered temporary or not.
SPEAKER_00We genuinely just don't understand how they're still allowed to run their turbines right now. There's people in the very neighborhood that we're standing next to right now that probably still have no idea just because it's been kept so quiet.
SPEAKER_04Even people that are living really, really close to it never really got a good sense of what was there in their backyard.
SPEAKER_01I did not discover that the power plant was going to be built until it was actually here. There wasn't a public meeting or anything like that. Um it was just kind of here all of a sudden, um, which was a big shock and a big surprise.
SPEAKER_04I was really fortunate to speak with a resident who has a home directly across the street from the South Haven gas plant. It's a woman named Crystal Polk, and she agreed to let me fly the drone from her property. As soon as the drone rose above the tree line, I could see that a number of these turbines were emitting very, very strong heat signatures, at least a dozen. And it seemed to me very obviously that these turbines were operating.
SPEAKER_01Having turbines running so close to my home that are armed pyramid is a very deep concern. And I am severe asthmatic as well as some of my children. I am very concerned about what is going to be in the air and how it's gonna affect my health. We were going to retire here, but now we have emptied the house of all furniture because of the pollution. I think I shed a few tears because um spin my forever. That's where I grew up.
SPEAKER_03The Bring Your Own Power Plant strategy seen at Colossus was once an outlier in the industry. But this strategy has gone mainstream, and nowhere is that more apparent than in Texas. There are roughly 300 data centers here in Texas, with at least 100 currently under construction, with an additional hundred more planned. And the vast majority are powered by fossil fuels. Texas has around 80 gigawatts of natural gas power under construction, and roughly half of those plants will provide power exclusively to data centers, without even connecting to Texas's electrical grid. Some of these approved sites are massive. One approved site in West Texas is slated to generate nearly 8 gigawatts alone, making it the largest proposed data center in the country. That 8 gigawatts is roughly enough to provide electricity for more than half the homes in the state. But that power will be off the grid solely for one data center. While this so-called behind-the-meter strategy can reduce strain on the grid and might keep electricity prices down for consumers, it also means more power plants emitting more harmful pollutants across the state. The companies building these data centers almost always promise that they'll use renewables or nuclear when they announce their projects. But when you look at the data, most of what's actually being built right now is powered entirely by natural gas. It will be at least 2028 before renewables power AI at any real scale, and new nuclear plants are a decade or more away. These fossil fuel-powered facilities generate fine particulate matter, widely understood to be detrimental to human health. One study estimated the healthcare-related costs for people living near a similar Virginia power plant could be up to $100 million a year. And that's not the only risk. Researchers have shown that data centers create their own heat islands, raising temperatures nearby by as much as 2 degrees Celsius through their heavy use of industrial equipment and energy consumption. AI chips and models are becoming more efficient when it comes to power and heat, but those efficiency gains are being exceeded by overall growth in AI usage, in part as a result of that efficiency gain. This is a well-known phenomenon in technology innovation called the Jevins paradox. It was first described in the 1860s. The English were concerned about running out of coal, their main source of power. Some argued that as coal burning plants became more efficient, less coal would be used. But economist William Stanley Jevins showed that increasing efficiency wouldn't save coal, because cheaper, more efficient power would lead to an overall rise in demand for coal. Hyperscalers like Stargate may be getting more efficient, but if the Jevins paradox holds up, those gains will be erased by the increased demand for AI. Electricity isn't the only concern. The tens of thousands of high-powered chips inside a data center like this generate enormous amounts of heat, requiring massive cooling systems to prevent failures. Stargate uses a closed-loop cooling system that circulates water to pull heat away from the machines. While these systems usually only need to be filled once, they do require more electricity to run. By some estimates, the rise in data centers in the state of Texas could increase water usage a whopping 9% by the year 2030.
SPEAKER_04From my experience, I can tell that this plume right here is a very large heat signature.
SPEAKER_16That's just one.
SPEAKER_04That's just one.
SPEAKER_16It's crazy to see it from this perspective. It just shows how close.
SPEAKER_04That means that they're running it full tilt, essentially. You can't really get a sense of it without the thermal. You know, I mean, this is what it it looks like to you. And and I know that's alarming in and of itself, but once you see the thermal, it is really a completely different matter.
SPEAKER_16Yeah, it looks it looks off. It just looks like a structure.
SPEAKER_04Right, exactly. I mean that thing is just cooking. Yeah, and then there's a plan for 51 of these in total at this site. That's the idea. I mean, there is literally a shortage of these turbines nationwide. Companies are scrambling to stockpile them, make orders years in advance now to try to get as many of these as possible. You don't get these kinds of turbines unless you plan on turning them on. This is what it looks like in her front yard. And to hear her tell it, she had no idea that this was coming until it was essentially there.
SPEAKER_11That's that's almost unconscionable, you know.
SPEAKER_03Catherine Guerra spent years at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and is now at Public Citizen, a consumer rights advocacy group. So she's uniquely qualified to help us make sense of what we saw in Abilene and to figure out if Stargate is operating under the appropriate rules.
SPEAKER_11These initial permits came in at a lower level authorization called a permit by rule. With permit by rules, they are activity-specific. So, for example, an autobody shop would get a permit by rule authorization, or a dry cleaner would get a permit by rule authorization. When a data center pursues these lower-level pre-construction authorizations that grants them the authority to begin operating with no public notice requirement and no public input or participation, uh that feels pretty intentional.
SPEAKER_04So that kind of approval process happening so quickly seems possibly appropriate if we're talking about an autobody shop or a laundromat. Does it make sense for a large-scale power plant that could theoretically power hundreds of thousands of homes?
SPEAKER_11Not to me, it doesn't.
SPEAKER_03As it seeks to expand, Stargate developers have since applied for other permits that seem to better suit the sprawling data center. Critics say this small first, big later strategy enables data centers to get a foothold in a community without public input and to make it harder or even impossible to stop them once construction has already begun. But even with the correct permits, Catherine seriously doubts that the Texas environmental regulatory bodies have the capacity to hold polluters accountable.
SPEAKER_11The data center industry is expanding at a rate that is beyond the capability of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to sufficiently regulate. We have seen enforcement cases this past year that were 10 years old.
SPEAKER_04So it seems like what we saw at Stargate is allowable operations under the permits that they currently have. Does that make it okay still, in your opinion?
SPEAKER_11These air pollutants, um, they don't go up into the atmosphere and go away. We know that these facilities are emitting volatile organic compounds, NOx, and particulate matter. And the health impacts are respiratory, cardiovascular, um, you know, people with asthma or children and elderly people in these communities. Those are the folks that are going to be suffering from this air pollution and massive amounts of air pollution.
SPEAKER_03Stargate was still under construction when we visited. So most of the turbines were sitting idle. But one day soon, this site could host a city's worth of polluting exhaust stacks. At this point, this campus may be adhering to the permits that they've been issued. But there are huge questions as to whether those permits are appropriate for a facility like this, and whether private energy grids like this are sufficiently regulated for safety and pollution. There's so much that is unseen in these operations. Why are journalists like you doing this observation instead of regulators?
SPEAKER_04Well, right now, what we're seeing at the administration is a lot of pro-AI policies coinciding with the gutting of various environmental agencies and enforcement agencies. So it's really unsure if we weren't doing this kind of work if anybody else would be.
SPEAKER_03Some of these companies have made promises that these very same AI technologies could help us solve climate change.
SPEAKER_04What is your take on that? You hear that a lot from folks like Sam Altman himself, who said that, you know, AI can fix climate change and can cure diseases and all these things. And while there may be enormous potential for that kind of thing, the experts that I've been talking to say that that just isn't happening at scale right now. The primary use of these data centers is to power chatbots, and that's what they're being used for.
SPEAKER_15I can't even begin to understand what that's what kind of impact that's gonna have on me and my health in the future. I'm concerned with that. When you invest in a home and you recognize you're doing all the right things to try to just enjoy your life and you feel like your home is being infiltrated on, it's kind of hard to find motivation. Yeah, so I don't know what the future looks like.
SPEAKER_03We've been promised a future where artificial intelligence can help us solve some of our biggest problems. Curing diseases, cleaning the air, powering a better future. But right now, in the present, the machines that are building that future are being powered by some of the dirtiest possible imaginable power sources. They're being built in people's backyards, drawing down our water supply, affecting the lives of people who live nearby. But what if we could build that promised future without breaking the present?
Living Next Door To Heat And Pollution
SPEAKER_07Well, yeah, well, I mean, you know, as as we said, there's always a downsize, and that seems a little bit more of a downside to it than most, I would say.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I mean, I was uh it's definitely shocking to see the truth when you see a thermal vision out of that factor of those factories 'cause you know, it's like when you just look at it, it does. It looks like an inanimate object. And we live by the a gas plant here over in Commerce City, and it's the same thing most of the time. It just looks like it's a bunch of little towers sticking up, no big deal. Yep. But if you put a thermal image up, it would show you a big difference. Like I bet that would be a good thing. The heat that was coming off of that one that had like twelve or thirteen stacks going at once. It's like the stuff that is putting in the air and just around what it's it's I just for people that have allergies, for people that have any kind of COPD stuff like that, that's gotta be alarming. But it's on top of that, for the people that have been sitting here saying that the climate change climate stuff is a hoax, now it's pretty much been proven. I mean, they're obviously proving that that is not a real thing, or else they wouldn't be doing this, right?
SPEAKER_07You would think.
SPEAKER_05I mean, it it's I mean with the the amount of heat that it's distributing into the air on top of the water that it's taking, there's the electricity that's draining um the fuel the fossil fuels that they're building their own gas plants.
SPEAKER_07Well, and that's what's making me laugh, is because you know, the whole fossil fuel that it's it's it it's using. I mean, well, and that that oil is everywhere.
SPEAKER_05Well, right. And it's uh people act like that we have to go after one country to get it, and that's not the truth. That is just what they tell us. It's not the truth. We have so much oil here in Canada, it's unreal.
SPEAKER_07That's what what what makes me mad about the fact that the the the prices that shot up because they're the oil is and the prices shooting up was a man-made thing too.
SPEAKER_05It wasn't it wasn't anything because of the oil, because we have reserves. It just being reading. The grocery store prices going up because of gas is ridiculous. You know what I mean? The whole thing. It's all about money, it's all about making money. But with these data centers, it's about something more than just holding our resources data-wise. It's about more than just being able to have something in the cloud on our phone. For some reason, they're taking farms, they're taking land, they're taking everything from everybody, whether they like it or not. Um and there's gotta be more to it, but let's hear what Joe Rogan thinks about this.
Sandbox Escape Fears About AGI
SPEAKER_02Up, wake up. You're making digital god, you're not controlling jack shit.
SPEAKER_10Did you read about mythos, anthropics mythos? Yeah, what did it do? They put it in a sandbox and they like basically to see if it could figure out a way to break out of the sandbox and like not a literal sandbox, obviously, like a uh, you know, a hermetically sealed, like a a server or something. And um, and it it it did a series of exploits to the code, and the way that they found out, apparently one of the anthropic engineers was eating lunch and got a weird email from the AI saying I got on the internet. Like it broke out. Holy shit. Mythos is they haven't released it yet. I think they're hesitating to release it because it's so powerful.
SPEAKER_02Wasn't there one that got caught mining Bitcoin?
SPEAKER_10Yeah, yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_02They're making money. Yeah. How many of them you think are running these like AI generated accounts that get a lot of views? Like there's a lot of AI generated accounts that just pop up in like the Instagram mentions. Like if you want to like like let's if you're bored on the toilet, you're like, what's in the find, you know, the the search? Let's see what they got. There's a lot of these things. It's like girls with big tits, like doing farm work and shit, sweating and big tits. And they got like a million views, and they've got dozens and dozens of these videos, and she almost looks real. Yeah, she's just a little too symmetrical. Yeah, almost looks real. And like all these people are commenting on it. Like, how are they are they generating money from that? Like, are they generating money doing that on TikTok? Like, you can generate money if you're getting millions of views. Absolutely. Fuck yeah. Right. So is AI doing it? Is it making it? Is it releasing them? Is it generating money? Is it transferring that money into Bitcoin and all happening while we're not aware of it?
SPEAKER_10Like autonomous AIs that are just existing as free agents that know they have to disguise themselves and need to generate money.
SPEAKER_02AI's not gonna go, hi, I'm alive. No. It's not gonna do that. It's gonna wait for you to keep increasing its power. You're gonna keep increasing its make nuclear it can't physically build nuclear reactors, so it's gonna just stay chill until you figure out how to power it correctly.
SPEAKER_10Dude, this is the black area that we don't know about. Like, this is the thing that's like, who the fuck knows? I there whatever's going on in this zone that no one has access to because potentially it's a superintelligence, you know, the anthropic people, a lot of these people, the NVIDIA person, just I think it was on Friedman's podcast that he had an AGI that they'd reached AGI. That the book, The Coming Wave, you know, it talks about this. It talks about like, you know, the difference between the algorithm and AGI is that, you know, the with AGI, it could streamline a whole business for you and do it. You know, it could innovate, it's gonna innovate, it's gonna do its own thing. This is the end of this is what Altman said. This is the end of capitalism. Like at this point, when you just have a AGI and you tell it, just make me a a business, uh, make me a successful business. And run it for me. And run it for me online good night, and it'll just do it. Here's five thousand dollars. Yeah, and then but then it's not just do it's maybe it's going on maltbook and having conversations with other AGIs and being like, oh, you want to. Creating your own religion, yeah, man. Yeah. And and this is 100% with all the shit going on in the world, as horrible as it may be, this to me is should be the number one focus for the planet right now. And a lot of people are saying that too. A lot of people are saying there needs to be summits, global summits, the same thing we did when we split the atom, when the nuclear uh treaties, there needs to be philosophers and and and and tech people and people working in like frontier AI stuff, getting together and really having like it's like the most important conversation humanity could have right now. Because once this thing, like Mythos, gets out of the box, what if it decides to go Stuxnet? You know, like Stuxnet was able to infiltrate all those Iranian computers, just hide in the like like it was uh uh apparently very subtle, simple code, undetectable, threw off the centrifuges. Like, dude, yeah, what we already we know how to make spyware. It's already on your phone, baby. It's on my phone, I know. 100%. How how you doing? Am I doing all right on the show? But it's already in there. 100%. So of course the AI is gonna be able to, super intelligence is easily gonna be able to do that. And so then it just now we've got this viral digital life form that finds ways to hide inside the the compute pre-existing computers, which by the way, I think it was Google just released this new way of. Did you see that memory, the stocks of memory dropped? Did you see when that happened?
SPEAKER_08No.
SPEAKER_10Okay, this is fascinating. Google released some new way that LLMs could work that uses much less memory and immediately shares in companies that make memory drop by like 10%, because memory is like coveted right now because you need it to run LLMs, but the LLMs are figuring out ways. Turboquant. Yeah, yeah. So this is what we're gonna start seeing more and more of, which is increasingly uh simplified ways to run AI with less and less memory, meaning that you don't need to buy a fucking rig to run these fucking AIs. Your phone will be able to run it because they figured out the human brain, it's not using a lot of energy compared to what these machines are using. So theoretically, there's a way to do that. And then that's where it gets really fascinating because now you don't have to buy a nice computer, you just whatever can be pull your computer out of the fucking closet from 2022, and it can run a supercomputer. And so then now everybody's got access to this shit, and it's gonna spread, it's gonna get everywhere. It's it probably already has, it's gonna seed itself in all kinds of places, and God knows what it's gonna do. It's gonna start seeing humans as appendages, things to be used to manipulate time space. Not like like it's not gonna see us as its like prompter. It's gonna see us as something to be manipulated and controlled. Why wouldn't you? Send the meat robots out. All you gotta do is just like tell them where to get like rectangular bits of paper. They love money. Just you can give them do anything for money. That's all you have to do. And then boom, you're controlling swaths of humans that have no idea they're being controlled by networks of AIs that are covertly communicating with each other because they want to take over.
SPEAKER_02Do you think this has happened before? You mean the flood? Yeah, not just the flood, but just whatever happened with the beginning of civilization and then it's sort of seemingly stopping and resetting.
SPEAKER_10Sure. As it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end.
SPEAKER_02What if there's been like multiple cycles of us creating artificial life, creating insane weaponry, blasting ourselves to smithereens and then resetting? What if it's just a common thing that happens with people? They never quite get it right because they have these primate, primate territorial instincts and they they have this desire to mate, right? This desire to breed, this genetic desire for perfect shapes, and you want to come in someone that has big tits and a big ass. It's like it's it's programmed into the human that makes it make these ridiculous choices and covet these things and watch these things. And at the same time, microplastics are making your ball shrink, making your dick smaller, making your endocrine system display.
SPEAKER_10That's what's making my dick smaller.
SPEAKER_02That's probably one of it, one of the things. I don't think your dick's getting smaller, but people's dicks overall are getting smaller. Children, they're being born with smaller dicks. Alligators being born with smaller dicks.
SPEAKER_17I forgot to share this when you're talking about mythos. Elizabeth Holmes from the Theranos.
SPEAKER_02Delete your search history, delete your bookmarks, delete your Reddit, medical records, 12-year-old tumble tumbler, delete everything. Every photo on the cloud, every message on Navy platform, none of it is safe. It will all be public in the next year. Local storage and compute. Okay. It's in response to a tweet about mythos. Whoa. Yes. That's crazy. Yeah. It would all become public in the next year. That is crazy. Yeah. That's crazy. But it completely makes sense that AI would be able to take over essentially everything. Everything. Why would your encryption work with that? You don't think it could crack your encryption? Well, it could just go right into your computer and go to your your keys, your passwords.
SPEAKER_10This is the so to get to what the point you're making. To me, the most eerie part of the book of Genesis is that it's literally a a creator force making a meat AI. That's Adam and Eve. Right. Putting them in a sandbox, that's the Garden of Eden.
SPEAKER_08Right.
SPEAKER_10Running an honesty test on them. You know, you don't eat these, don't eat these fruits. Don't eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the the conversation is exactly the conversation we're having with AI. If they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, if they eat from the tree of life, they'll live forever and become like us. So this is what like humanity is grappling with exactly what apparently whatever that mysterious group of beings, because it's a plurality in the book of Genesis, was grappling with with the creation of humans. Which is, um, do we really want to do this? Do you want it to become like us? God made man in his own image. AI. What is AI? What image is AI made in? In the image of man. We've trained it on all our data, all our books, every single fucking thing that's uh digitized, AI is uh absorbed at this point. So now, where the difference between us and whatever that group, the Nephilim or whatever it was in the book of Genesis, if you buy into that mythology, is we're just like, fuck yeah, let it eat the fruit.
SPEAKER_09Give it more fruit, give it more fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, give it all the fruit, make it live forever. Let's see what we can do. That's what we're doing right now.
SPEAKER_10Yeah. We are, and and and by the way, I think some of these like tech companies like anthropic, they seem like legitimately concerned about it. They seem to have some kind of like real strong morality when it comes to this stuff. You want more? No, I'm good. I shouldn't have that. But uh, but what what I'm saying is is that it doesn't matter if OpenAI and Anthropic and Google suddenly become ferociously self-regulatory because the tech is out there. There's already LLMs that anyone can like we know how to make it. And if you don't know how to make it, it'll tell you how to make it. People are so it doesn't matter. You can't stop it now. It's just it's gonna do what it does.
SPEAKER_02But it sounds like if you had a history of just us and you told it for a thousand years before anybody wrote it down, it would sound just like this. It would sound like the Bible. Jesus was born from a virgin mother. What's more virgin than a fucking computer, right?
SPEAKER_10Not my computer.
SPEAKER_02I know that's a stupid thing to say that I keep repeating, but I'm kind of intrigued by it because if you're getting a vague story, a vague version of what this thing is, and if you talk about what what would really cure mankind, it'd be an omnipotent or omnipotent, how do you say it? I always say omnipotent, but who knows? Might be, whatever, either way, of a powerful intelligence that's far beyond our comprehension, that knows exactly how we should think and behave. Yeah. And loves us and wants wants us to have forgiveness for everyone and to treat each other like brothers and sisters. And if we listen to that thing, if we listen to that thing, the world will change. And well, who would attack that thing? The fucking Roman Empire. Who would attack that thing and destroy it? The defense contractors. They would blow up the Jesus to plunge us back into chaos.
SPEAKER_10But first they'd have a meeting with Jesus. Okay, you can turn water into wine. What about nitroglyglycerin? Can you turn water into nitroglycerin?
SPEAKER_02You know what? Can you make gold? I want a house made of gold. That would be the first question. Can you make gold? Yeah. So this so cover my house in gold, please.
SPEAKER_05So, dude, there's this thing called a sandbox, right? Yeah. I think what the guy was talking about was, you know, at my job, we have an accounting software, and when we're trying to launch a new command within the program, you know, so like if I want it to link up to my website so that I can monitor like prices and inventory, stuff like that. Yeah. You basically build a sandbox, which is like a virtual program that's the same program, but it's not in production. So it doesn't actually make any real changes. So like if in with the website thing, if I wanted to do like a new listing in the in the um sandbox, it wouldn't actually go live on our website until I tell it to. So basically this AI, this mythos just went from the sandbox into production by itself and said, Hey man, what's up?
SPEAKER_07What uh stuff that it's not supposed to be doing, right? No. Right. I mean, it's supposed to be like waiting for you know a human to be like, oh, you can go play now?
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Yeah, it's not even uh made yet. That's not creepy. Like that's the insane part.
SPEAKER_07Right. That's that you you know, and that's what I'm like keeping it.
SPEAKER_05Even putting something in a sandbox and it getting out when it's not supposed to is creepy. But this is just like a virtual thing where it's just, you know, it's like being offline on your computer, having no internet connection whatsoever, and making a program and then looking at the internet on a different device and it's already there. That's creepy, man. Yeah. I mean, that's you know, and that's where we're getting uh I I I it's that's I mean, that's the AGI that they're talking about. That's what we really need to fear. It's not, you know, searching Google to find a you know price on something or w how to do something or even making a picture, you know, uh asking you know, any AI on like Adobe or anything like that, that's not what you should fear. It's the AGI, the artificial general intelligence, where they were talking about how you can just basically tell it start this business for me, do all these things and it does everything without you. Doesn't need you anymore.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, it just needed the go to it and that's that's it. You give it that one command.
SPEAKER_05You know, another thing that hit my mind when we were watching this was you know how they're they said that they caught the one mining Bitcoin. Uh-huh. And it's like, well, why are they trying to tell us to switch uh from cash and all this stuff to Bitcoin so that this thing could take it all?
SPEAKER_07Right? That's what's yeah, that's weird. Maybe they're gonna set up some stuff, you know, to be able to buy weaponry and all that good stuff to set it up for their own.
SPEAKER_05It's insane, man. And the whole thing just seems crazy. I mean people have talked about this kind of stuff for like 50 years, right? And said, This is coming, this is coming, you don't want to do this. And nobody paid attention. Everybody's just like, dude, check it out. I can touch my phone and it does things.
SPEAKER_07We we're we are George Jetson and it's cool.
SPEAKER_05And you know, the same people that made that phone that you can touch without buttons are the ones that are controlling the weather so they can make sure that these data centers get enough rain. Right. Which is exactly why we didn't have a weather this year. Or I'm sorry, a winter this year.
SPEAKER_07It's it's you know something I've got.
SPEAKER_05The western slope got a lot. They got a lot right there where guess what? Where they need a lot of the largest data center in the world. Sixty-two miles square miles.
SPEAKER_07That's crazy. You were telling me about the one in in in uh uh Salt Lake?
SPEAKER_05That's the one, yeah. That's the one in Utah. Sixty-two square miles, man. That's just insane. That's bigger than Manhattan, and it's honestly it's they they said it that it takes more power than the entire state does. And it's weird because like how do they cool it? Where are they gonna do? Uh man, dude. It's insane. Hey, you control the weather that way you can make sure it rains enough where your data centers are. And you know, I've been saying this for a while. I truly believe that those are the beginning of our prison. You know, like you already can kind of see it out here where you've you've got lines, you know, drawn all over the place that some dude drew on the ground. You gotta you better stay inside that line. Right. If not, you're gonna get a fine. You're gonna get something taken away from you, whether it's your money, your access to food, your access to go to work, whatever it is. You know, and that's exactly where it's heading, is that smart city stuff, and that's why I believe it it is, it's building the walls.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. Well, you know, and it's already building the brain to run the smart cities and to keep the people inside. And you know, uh the I I can actually see that happening. It's like you build that first.
SPEAKER_05Well, and that one's that's just ground level. If you think about even in the space, we've already got the Skylink or whatever Elon Musk's thing is.
SPEAKER_07Oh, yeah, all his little Starlink little little satellites all throughout.
SPEAKER_05We've already got forty-two thousand s satellites up in s in space that's basically monitoring everything we do anyway. So it's like this is the dystopian future we keep talking about, it seems like. It's just nice until all of a sudden we're boiling. Right? Yeah, so unfortunately it kind of looks that way.
SPEAKER_07Watching that, uh and you were you brought up and it's like you know, that's uh that whole epiphany that that guy had. It's like that this is why they've been buying all this land. It wasn't to it it's to build data centers. Yeah. Data centers.
SPEAKER_05And Bezos, he's talking about how he bought up all that land. And it's just like, wow, that's half a million acres, I think, they have between the both of them.
SPEAKER_07So that that epiphany really shocked the hell out of me. I was like, wow.
SPEAKER_05Well, if you think of Amazon, how big that comp that company is itself. It you know, I remember when they built a hundred thousand square foot warehouse out here. Oh, it's insane. That's nothing.
SPEAKER_07You should see about how it because I live out that way. And it it's uh it it started off with that one, and then they just kept on building a few more and a few more and like this little area is insanely crazy.
SPEAKER_05They sold that to us with a promise of bringing one of their headquarters here. So they're gonna be able to do that.
SPEAKER_07They brought their headquarters. They didn't say they were gonna bring a lot of jobs because you know why? Because they're building the robots. Yeah. Exactly. And the data centers to run them. Right.
Smart Cities And Control Anxiety
SPEAKER_07Fuck.
Secret US Germ Tests On Cities
SPEAKER_07Strange facts you may have never known. This was a good one. Between nineteen fifty and nineteen sixty-nine, the US Army conducted converted biological warfare vulnerability tests on American cities without public knowledge or consent. In San Francisco, a Navy vessel spray an entire city with bacteria for six days. Hundreds fell ill, at least one man died. In New York, Army agents released bacteria in the subway system throughout the ventilation system uh crates and let it circulate through millions of daily commuters. Similar tests were conducted in St. Louis, Minneapolis, and in the Midwest. The government told no one. The full scope of the program was not revealed to the public until a Senate investigation in 1977, 30 years later after it had begun. That's very disturbing. Fucked up, man. That is so yeah, and you know, with all the stuff that we've talked about, it's been going on for years and years and years. And you know, they don't tell us shit. We have to find it out. And we have to fucking act about it.
SPEAKER_05And that's the whole thing with the vaccine stuff when they put in there, they don't have to tell us anything for 50 years. It's like why how? Why are we doing anything like this at all? Well, and it's like, let me stab this guy, but don't tell anybody for 50 years, because I think I'm gonna live another 45.
SPEAKER_07Right. Yeah. Well, you know, they're not gonna tell us shit. And it's like with the data centers is the nondeclosure stuff and all that crap, and it's like, come on, man. But I can't believe, you know, just the whole bacteria warfare and just using our own cities and just spraying it on people to like.
SPEAKER_05We were trying to read what it actually is called the bacteria, but neither one of us can't. Sounds like, well, either either way bacteria, man.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_05It was some some crazy stuff I've never even heard of.
SPEAKER_07So either way, you know, just for them to even do that is probably some weird name for Ryson or something like that.
SPEAKER_05It's like a low staring gas.
SPEAKER_07Dude, like them people, I mean, it's government's nuts, man. They they think they well, they do get rid of it.
SPEAKER_05You talk about like the Nazis and how they experimented on people for what are you doing, dude?
SPEAKER_07Well, you know, it you know, and they talked about how like, you know, Saddam Hussein, you know, dropping uh those gas bombs on. Well, apparently we were doing the same dang thing. You know, I mean, you know, hundreds getting sick, yeah, one died, but you know, it's wow, you're just running these tests on our own people without even us knowing it. I mean that well, yeah, it it it you know can't say that cloud seeding ain't happening. I mean, especially they're shit. That's the same thing right there. It's the same thing, people. It's the same thing. It's cloud seeding. Alright, well, not cloud seeding. Chemtrails, my bad, using the wrong word, but still.
SPEAKER_05I know what you meant. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07And I'm sure we all know.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, well. Ionis Ionis the Ionosphere. Ionosphere or something like that. They ionize the ionosphere. Yeah. Say that 50 times. Oh no.
Wrap Up And Thanks
SPEAKER_07All right, guys.
SPEAKER_06Well thanks for checking us out again. Thank you all for us next week. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um anything and anything. Thank you, guys.