Help Yourself!
Help Yourself!
Where Mexican Fast Food Meets Time Travel Theories
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Have you ever wondered if the Crunchwrap Supreme could hold the secrets to time travel? Feast your ears on our latest episode where we embark on a journey from the inventive culinary twists of Taco Bell to the enigmatic corridors of time itself. Our adventure begins with a lighthearted debate over the Grilled Cheese Steak Burrito's rightful place in the pantheon of Mexican cuisine, leading us into a nostalgic reflection on fast food's evolving landscape. But don't let the playful banter fool you; we're serving up a hearty discussion that will leave you hungering for more than just a value meal.
Prepare for a thought-provoking ride as we ponder whether time travelers could be subtly influencing our present or if UFOs are just tourists from our own future. We weave through the fabric of time, pulling at threads from art, fiction, and the very nature of existence. Our conversation takes flight with wild theories and the humorous musings of comedian Nate Bargatze, before posing the tantalizing question: where would you go if you could traverse the epochs at will? Join us for this metaphysical feast, and you might just find yourself craving a side of enlightenment with your nachos.
In the final stretch of our temporal odyssey, we turn introspective, examining how the daily rituals we practice are the true vessels that carry us forward. We share personal stories and insights on the profound impact of habits, inspiring you to craft a future filled with intentionality rather than regret. By the end of this episode, we aim to leave you motivated to scrutinize your daily actions with a fresh perspective. So, buckle up, snack in hand, as we explore the intersection of fast food, fleeting moments, and the enduring journey through time.
Welcome to Help Yourself. Food and Philosophy with Brian and Nick. I'm Nick and I'm Brian. You know I talk a lot about Dory's cooking and how good it is, and it's so good that she's turned me into a time traveler, because I always go back four seconds.
Speaker 2What's your name, brian? Four seconds, four seconds. Four seconds For seconds. Four seconds, yes, for seconds. All right, what am I eating? Oh, so a little while ago, you were talking about Taco Bell, which I never go to, and we had a little conversation about that. I never go to Taco Bell, and so you inspired me. I did Thank you, except when you do.
Speaker 1Kind of like I never eat French fries, except when I do.
Speaker 2Thank you for the inspiration to go to Taco Bell. I really appreciate it. It's a dark inspiration. So what did you get from Taco Bell? I got a like it's a grilled cheese steak burrito, so it was like a. Yeah, I was listening to a podcast recently.
Speaker 2This is going to take us off track immediately, but I was listening to a podcast recently. They were talking about Taco Bell. They were actually reviewing a different taco fast food taco chain called Del Taco, which if you're in certain areas of the country, you'll know what that is. If you're not, you know, in the South we don't have really, we don't really have Del Taco here. It's more of like a West Coast kind of thing, and we used to have some there were a couple, but they all went away and they.
Speaker 2So they were talking about that and the one person their guest, made a comment and said that at Del Taco it's just hey, this is a burrito, this is a taco, and they might use different meat and different. You know iterations of that where they're basically like this is this kind of taco, and this one has instead of cheddar cheese, it has pepper jack cheese or it's instead of pork, it has beef or whatever, right. And so it felt like you're going to a fast food taco restaurant or fast food Mexican restaurant because you're just getting. They'd just call it those names. But then they said but Taco Bell is its own thing, because they have things like that. What? When they're like, yeah, this is the crunchy bell beef or nacho.
Speaker 2You know, yeah, supreme, you know whatever. And you're like, okay, that's just a made up food that you just made up like a Crunchwrap Supreme. You wouldn't even know what that was, unless you were like excuse me, what is the Crunchwrap Supreme? Because it's not a thing Like you know what a burrito is and you know what a taco is, but a Crunchwrap Supreme is a thing that a Taco Bell chef just made up and said we can do this thing. Well, whatever.
Speaker 2You're overstating it there. I'm saying, for a corporate thing they have like food marketer, they have food inventors, whatever, and so anyway, so like that is a grilled cheese steak burrito, which. All those words make sense, but the only time you're ever going to utter all those in one sentence is when you're ordering a Taco Bell. You're not going to have any other sentence that uses all those in that same order.
Speaker 1It's like yeah, I'd like a quesadillo what? Yes. Yeah, is it quesadillo and a burrito and a baby? Yeah.
Speaker 2I went to a restaurant last night that my son got soft pretzels and it came with beer cheese queso and I was like you know so queso in Spanish means cheese, so I'm like so beer cheese cheese. And then when it came out it was it was beer cheese. So there's queso dip and there's beer cheese and they're saying, oh, this is queso made with beer cheese. So it had like jalapenos in it and it had, like you know, like a queso dip wood. But it was so. It's that kind of thing where they just made something up. I don't really care if they make it up, it tastes really really good. I mean it's cheese. I mean obviously not not the ideal thing to eat, but that's what I probably have been to Taco Bell like in the last two years. I've probably been 10 times. You know it's not, you know I don't go there all the time, but but thanks to your positive and influence in my life, I drag you down with me brother, Exactly no, so I got that it was.
Speaker 2It was actually really good. I typically stay away from ground meat options at Taco Bell. I just for some reason.
Speaker 2I, yeah, I typically will go with a chicken or a steak variation, even though I'm sure if you saw the chicken or the steak, it's probably not the most high quality. You know, it's not like you're getting filet mignon in your taco at, you know, or wagyu beef or something like that. But I find it a little bit more agreeable than you know could like that, and also consistency wise. It's not just like the ground meat is part of like just big conglomeration of everything, it's just it has different texture to it. So so, yeah, so that's what I got. It was good, it was actually very filling too. But I will say that the price of Taco Bell from you know, okay, here here comes my old man rant. Back when I was a kid, you could go to Taco Bell and eat for like $4, you know you're like, yeah, I want three tacos and a drink, and you know, and it was $4 and 75 cents or whatever you know.
Speaker 1Yeah. I still remember the commercial that it was like 59, 79, 99 and 59 cents would get you either a plain, crunchy taco meat crunchy or soft taco. The 79 would get you the supreme with the plain meat. Yeah. And then the 99 would get you, I guess, a supreme with one of the quote premium meats, the chicken or the steak you were talking about. Right. Right, and it was like yeah, like you said you could eat, get full for four bucks.
Speaker 2Yeah, and now you can still do that. They have still the dollar menu. Like the dollar, I think it's still. I think it's still a dollar, like for certain items.
Speaker 1Right, it's pretty limited, it's like all the potatoes?
Speaker 2Well, they have one. They have a cheesy roll up too, like a cheesy roll up on there, which is literally just a tortilla with some cheese in it and they melt it right. So a rolled up quesadilla. So if you really I mean theoretically you can get by on the cheese, that's generous too. Yeah, well, you can get by on the cheese. No peanut cheese.
Speaker 2But what I'm saying is, if you order any of the things like that, like a Crunchwrap Supreme or a, you know Supreme adds like a dollar immediately for anything, and then any of the specials, like, if you go up and they're like hey, we're featuring a, you know like this, the grilled cheese steak burrito, you know that's going to be like probably about the same as it'll cost you to get like a part of a meal at a sit-down Mexican restaurant, and it's going to be like five or six or seven bucks, you know, for a burrito. And so so what did you get?
Speaker 2Well, I got a yeah, so I got a a grilled cheese steak burrito.
Speaker 1Got it.
Exploring the Concept of Time Travel
Speaker 2So it was and it was good. It had obviously steak in it, but it also had like I don't know, it had like chips in it. It had like chips in it, like different kinds of like corn chips inside the burrito and stuff like that. So it was.
Speaker 2Burritos? Yeah, no, not those like the. You know, the chips that you get that are like the red, that are like red and white and like the different colored chips, like corn tortilla chips, like that. Yeah, it looks, yeah, yeah, and so I was good. Like I said, it was good, but it was just, it's just like. Sometimes you're like, do I want to? Many times it's just I'm in a hurry, like it's like, okay, I just want to. I need to get something like and potentially eat this in my car on the way to the next thing I'm doing, because time, you know, time is finite and it moves in a straight line and it's linear and no, anyway, okay, I'm going to do a brief BBC Brian's beverage corner. I've got hydration is important.
Speaker 2I've got water and I've got this, okay, so this is I feel like I feel like the energy drink game is turning into a much younger man's game than I'm like maybe I should not be in that game anymore. So this, this energy, this energy drink, is called Bucked Up and it has like a. It has a, you know, a picture of a deer on the can. It's an all black can picture of a deer with antlers and probably pretty good deer to shoot if you're hunting. It's got a lot of points on it.
Speaker 1So yeah, it's got an angry sort of yeah, demonic.
Speaker 2And then the flavor is yeah. And then the flavor. Now it's zero sugar. Flavor is blood razz, so I guess that means raspberry right, which it does taste like that, but it has a bunch of. It's got like 300 milligrams of caffeine in it, so I don't even know if I'm going to drink this whole thing, but it's zero calories. It's got 8,333% of my B12 allowance for the day, so I'm covered for the B12 for a while. And B12 is good. No, it is, it's yeah.
Speaker 1I'd be up all night playing video games.
Speaker 2The B, the B vitamins are like used in almost everything that you do, like they're just, you know, like literally it's you need to have a lot of it, right? So, okay, so I had that, I have the water and that's it for my BBC. So if I start talking faster, like if time seems to speed up during this episode, it's because of the blood razz and me getting bucked up about it. So, yeah, what about you? What are you eating?
Speaker 1Because this is sort of a snack episode, you know, being a shorter episode smaller episode. I'm bonus here. I've got a snack. I have a Sargento. I think is how you pronounce that. Yeah, it is Sargento, maybe Balanced Breaks and it's the.
Speaker 2Oh, is that the little thing with the compartments on it?
Speaker 3Yeah, it's so cute. It's so cute, it's so cute, nick.
Speaker 1It's funny fits in the palm of your hand. You could. It's about the size of a puck In terms of diameter.
Speaker 2Yeah, what was the varietal?
Speaker 1It's the varietal, not wine, marmoray Jack, dried cranberries, dark chocolate and banana chips.
Speaker 2Next time you go to the market, it's the grocer. What other varietals do you have of the Sargento?
Speaker 1Yes, what varietals of Mountain Dew do you offer? Oh, you have the hard Mountain Dew knife.
Speaker 2Oh man, that is excellent. Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1I'm looking for the softer drinks. Do you mean softer drinks? Just see what. I've got some notes ofalso got some salted cashews to supplement that. Oh yeah. My classic glass water bottle.
Speaker 2Your rusty trusty, the rusty trusty, no, so I'm calling it from now on Rusty trusty.
Speaker 1We learned the other time that that's not what it's to be called. If it's rusty trusty. It needs to be washedy and toasty.
Speaker 2Wow, I wish we could travel in time back to the beginning of this episode to start over.
Speaker 1I mean, if I could turn back time, I would find a way to start this episode over and prevent you from what you're about to say. I also have some coffee, just decaf espresso sweet cream.
Speaker 2Coffee.
Speaker 1Okay, standard, classic Standard classic. Actually sleep at night, yeah.
Speaker 2Mm-hmm. At this redactedI mean on this redacted day, at this redacted time. I don't know if our friend still listens to the podcast. Does our friend still listen to the podcast?
Speaker 1The Marshall couch yeah.
Speaker 2He is the OG of friends to this podcast.
Speaker 1Anyway, yeah, he hasn't harassed me in a while, so probably not. We'll see. I'll ask him.
Speaker 2I don't blame him, you know, for not harassing me. No, for not listening. I don't blame him. All right yeah. So that's ourthis is our bonus episode, if you haven't noticed, three Thursdays in February and it will be time bound. And it will be time bound.
Speaker 1Yeah, but actually this will. Yeah, this is a leap year.
Speaker 2It is, so I think that's true.
Speaker 1Yeah, so that was part of the inspiration for the bonus episode, right Was like hey Time travel. Yeah, this is time. This is a weird moment in time. Well, not just this episode, but this whole series. Right, it's like this leap year and weirdness with days and dates and Well, on this particular episode coming out on that day.
Speaker 2it just happened to line up, so it's perfect. How often do you get a podcast that comes out on the 29th of February?
Speaker 1You say perfect, and I can say this because I think it was my idea. I say it's adequate. I think it's an adequate excuse to talk about time. Sure, well, you're very kind, brian. Thank you.
Speaker 2And time travel. It sort of goes into this. Is that wesoand also? That's another thing I want to know is do we add that one day every four years because of just our time is not exact, like it, doesn't? We got to keep it on track with the calendar, like it'sthere's time drift with the calendar Is that why we do that. It's notit's not exactly 24 hours in a day, or Right, and so, like every four years, we have to like, add a date. It's like 24.25. Yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2To make it all line up again, that's not perfect. Sure.
Speaker 1Like it'sthere's still a rounding error.
Speaker 2So what you're saying is we don't know what the actual date is, ever because since? Well, we do, because we .2024 years have passed. We all collectively hallucinate it to be the same thing We've been doing, leap yearhas leap year happened since the Gregorian calendar began, or did we like at some point go aw crap. This is all messed up. This is notwe're like four months off, people. We got to figure something out.
Speaker 1This is how much I care, Brian. I can't be bothered to Google it.
Speaker 2All right. Well, I care less. I and our listeners are just going to have to not know that fact Actually.
Speaker 1Because only I speak to the computer I'm like. So when are we ever at Galaxy Quest? Okay?
Time Travel and Concept of Time
Speaker 2So the question that we had is Time travel. Talking about time travel and really honestly, whether that's even possible. We already talked about in the last couple of episodes about, theyou know, our perception of time. So psychological aspects of time, biological aspects of time and then also the philosophy, sort of philosophy of time and how that has been studied over the years, and so we thought, as a fun topic, you know, for a sort of shorter episode and everything else is talking about time travel. It'stime travel is. So you can tell when we as humans are fascinated by something, when time travel is depicted in our art and our other creative aspects, and especially in movies, movies and books and things like that, that creative aspect. It's been a topic that has been explored Like fictional. You know, fictional works have explored that topic and some more realistic than others, some have fun with it and it's more comedy.
Speaker 1But you talking about it, depicted in art like that in commentary, kind of a callback to our previous episodes and some of Dory's own art.
Speaker 1One piece that she's particularly proud of is. It depicts time like an arrow and circular. At the noon there's like it's like a clock, and at the noon hour there's a human shooting a bow and arrow and the arrow is traveling around like a clock and circular and at each hour, roughly each hour, there's a different species of animal and the order in which they were extinct and the arrow is coming back to hit the human in the back, sort of like where the bringers were.
Speaker 2Where the next to go extinct yeah.
Speaker 1If we keep bringing animals extinct, we're going to bring ourselves to extinction Right Only a matter of time. Yeah. It's a great visual metaphor. She should be proud of it, yeah.
Speaker 2That's interesting yeah. Well, so.
Speaker 2I think, and that goes back to like what the you know different theories, the linear versus cyclical or circular time, you know frames, things like that, but the question so anyway, in our fictional that's what I'm saying like in our fictional works and works of art and other things like that, we have lots of movies that deal with time. I think you were, you had mentioned which I didn't even realize it was time travel per se, or perception of time, was planted in the apes. You were talking about that and it's not necessarily time travel, but it talks about your relativity.
Speaker 1Every story is a time travel story. It's just in the same direction. It's like time travel. All of us are traveling in time, right, it's just always in the drive gear and there's no reverse gear and we're going at the same speed, except with general relativity, where we talk about sci-fi and they go faster than the speed limit.
Speaker 2you know faster than light, and so they travel faster through time, but there's no reverse, and so the interesting thing is that's one of the things that I read was reading about, because when you break down time travel, the question is okay, if you're going to travel in time, is it possible, first of all, to travel in time? Second of all, is it possible to travel forward or backwards or both in time? And so people have done studies on all of those, or at least have I don't want to say studies, but they've researched and tried to come up with. Is it plausible that we might be able to find a way to travel? So each one of those things is a different question. One of the big things that they brought up in some of these articles is Dr who. Like Dr who's been going on forever and that whole thing is based on. You know, the whole series is based on time travel. Obviously, and I'm going to Dr who people out there are going to kill me because I can't remember what.
Speaker 2TARDIS stands for no, TARDIS, like the main thing. It's like time and relative distance in space or something TARDIS, I don't know.
Speaker 3See, and that's what I'm going to get hate mail right now. People are like.
Speaker 2It's not that, it's not TARDIS, it's this, you know.
Speaker 1I would welcome hate mail.
Speaker 2Yeah, hey, if you want to email me, you can email us. Absolutely. Tell us that we're idiots, anyway, that you know. Nice to hear from someone else. Back to the future, we have that. I also have other. I'm trying to remember that there was one movie that I saw recently that was really sad and it was talking about. It was time travel. But it was literally this family and all of them had the secret power of being able to time travel, but there were certain restrictions upon that time travel. Interesting.
Speaker 2Yeah, and one of the things that why don't we want to spoil the movie? Well, if I don't say the name of the movie, is it really a spoiler?
Speaker 1If I just recap a plot point, I'm going to want to know, so tell me how to.
Speaker 2So the plot point is oh, you want me to tell you after. Or should I not spoil it, or should I spoil it?
Speaker 1Just tell us, brian, let's roll the dice.
Speaker 2No. So the plot point is that at some point in the motion of time, the person's father who you know when he discovered that he had this ability to time travel the son had this ability to time travel the father had to like bring him in. Almost like when the father's the werewolf and the son turns into the werewolf and the father has to say like, hey, yeah, we're all werewolves, I just want to bring you in. Finally, you did your change or whatever. So you're aware of this.
Speaker 2At some point the father passes away, and so he's using time travel to spend more time with his father, but then there becomes a restriction where he can't go back to see his father because if he does, it erases other parts of his history and or other things. And so he's faced with the choice of do I want to spend more time with my father? And I can't remember the exact plot point. It might have been like somebody that he was in love with or something like that, but it was. He's faced with like a moral thing of like, yeah, but if I go back and I spend more time with my dad, which I desperately want to do or if I don't, then I lose my father forever, but I get this other thing. So you know, it's like that type of a thing.
Speaker 2So, anyway, interesting concept, so one of the things that I read, though, is that many of the studies say that it's highly possible and likely that you could travel into the future, but that traveling into the past, like the which a lot of time travel things we've seen would be very if not, if it's even plausible would be extremely difficult with our current knowledge.
Speaker 1And so it's like an ordinance about an order and amount of energy, yes, or like right literally twisting the universe.
Speaker 2That's right, I think.
Speaker 1Einstein said if you could twist, the universe could go backwards in time. Right, oh, that's not, that's not that hard. Yeah, just take the space, the time, the fabric, the literal fabric of space time, and twist it and then travel space, shuttle to it, around it.
Speaker 2So, yeah, so it's just like I said, interesting that like this one talks about. You know, scientists have come up with a few ways that it might be possible to travel into the past. Basically, you would. You know it would involve I'm trying to read this article at the same time, but yeah, it's exactly what you said. You read it and I talk.
Speaker 2No, it says the idea involved, the massive long cylinder, but it says it twists space time along with it, exactly what you just said. It literally has to. You have to fold it back upon itself and I think I think actually the good place. If you've ever watched that TV show, even though that's technically about, you know theoretically the idea of heaven and hell or you know wherever you go after you die.
Speaker 2Even they talk about how time is. I believe their concept was like Jeremy Baramy and so like, when you sign the name Jeremy Baramy, it's all these curves and stuff like that, and they're saying that's how time is. It's looping and it loops back on itself and then it goes back and then it so like if you sign it in cursive, it looks very loopy, right, and and so they're saying that's the actual concept of time, not this line that is old to new or present into future or whatever.
Theories and Paradoxes of Time Travel
Speaker 1So does the loopy imply or suggest that the present can inform the past or influence the past, or the future can influence the present?
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1And that's a bit brain breaking brain.
Speaker 2Yeah, it sort of does so, like I'm trying to remember what it is. So that's why I was trying to pull up like something that basically talks about that.
Speaker 1I mean in terms of fictional accounts. I'm fascinated by the different theories of sort of the mechanisms or what it would be like to travel back in time. So there's the. If we follow, the time flies like an arrow. Yeah analogy. There's the theory of time travel, like back to the future, where you you move back to where the arrow was in the past. Yeah.
Speaker 1You know and and the only the arrow is otherwise unchanged is just a position and you're you know on that version of it. Then there's like, so, you're influencing your own past. But then there's others, like Avengers, where they went back in time, they went to a different timeline. So it's like they they jumped to a different arrow or, by going back, they created a new arrow right of time. Yep.
Speaker 1And then somehow could travel back to their existing time arrow without creating yet another time arrow. Okay, which I'm pretty sure. Yeah, that now I'm thinking of another, like a YouTube short, not a YouTube short like you know, the two minute clip, but there's like a six minute video of this guy who has a time travel device and he ends up creating like 70 something different universes where he kills himself so he can experience another chance at talking to this girl in a park bench. It's darkly hilarious. It's like a literally contrived meat cute. Yeah.
Speaker 1But where am I going all this? Well, but then there's, like other vehicles too, of do when you go back in time. You know, like in back to the future you could go back in time and potentially meet your past self. You can talk to your past self, right. Yes.
Speaker 1There's other versions where it's your consciousness that goes back in time. Your body's still there. So when your consciousness goes in back in time, it like inhabits yourself back at that time. It's almost like you possess yourself in the past, which knows what happens to your. You know the consciousness of you back in the past. When that happens, like you raise, hijack yourself that's crazy. Yeah, we ever talked about that, or do they? Or does it get pushed back into the present? You like a body swap with yourself chronologically.
Speaker 2Yeah, well, so the question here's maybe a question that will push us slightly in different direction, which is do you think that because, theoretically, time travel has already happened and there's people walking among us that have traveled in time? So and that's one of the paradoxes is one of the things that people ask is, if time travel is possible, then how come we don't encounter people from the future, or from the past, or from wherever? Or maybe we do Right, and that's the point, yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's why it's a paradox. There's like, well, maybe we do and just don't realize it, or it's considered like fringe woo woo science you know, in the stand up comedy realm.
Speaker 2You know I'm like blanking on the guys. I'll have to like remember the guy's name, but he's sort of a local comedian that's famous and he does a whole bit about time travel, like him going back.
Speaker 1Nate.
Speaker 2Bergasse, nate Bergasse, yeah, where he's like yeah, he's like he goes back in time and he's like he's like he famously self deprecating and is like yeah, I don't have a high education and I don't know a lot of things, I'm just a guy, you know. And so he goes back and he's like, you know, people are like oh, you're from the future, huh, and he's like yeah, man, do you know that? Like there's phones that you just have in your pocket, and then they're like oh really, how do those work? And he's like I don't know, I don't know how those work, like, and he's like I think, it's like, I think it's like satellites or something. And they're like what's a satellite? He's like ah crap, ah, geez. And he's like I probably would go back into history and I'd be worse off than when I am now, because I wouldn't know.
Speaker 3They'd be like oh, that guy's a crazy person you know he's like yeah.
Speaker 1But yeah, there's like probably dozens of YouTube videos talking about like photographic evidence of the distant past of people using future technology or future clothes. You know present day clothes or near present day clothes in the past, yeah, and then that's whatever you know. But then I don't know if this is original to me or I heard it once and latched onto it or what. But you know the little, the little green man or the little gray man the stuff and the flying saucers and whatnot and their advanced technology.
Speaker 1right Like what if that's just us, highly evolved millions of years into the future? Yeah, when we figure out space travel and, being the scientists and nerds and tourists that we are, go back in time to observe ourselves and understand our origins right.
Speaker 1Right, like that would explain a fair amount. I know that I don't know. I would imagine, because of the quote, determinism of the, of astrology and what cosmological physics or whatever, like we know where things are going to be in space because of the steady rate at which we orbit around the sun the moderate at which we're flying around in the Milky Way and blah, blah, blah, whatever, whatever.
Speaker 1So if we have advanced spacefaring technology and whatever technology to travel in time, we would know exactly what part of the universe to fly to and go back in time to, to intercept the planet, to then see it at that point in time.
Speaker 2Yeah, you know well, so here's your. Here's the table topics for you.
Speaker 1Uh huh.
Speaker 2If you could travel back in time, or if you could travel in time, would you travel in time? In which direction would you go? What would you do? That's a lot of table topics, questions, but go ahead these, I think.
Speaker 1I feel like I've answered that once before and I made it come up with a long, one or two minute way of saying I would just keep doing what I'm doing because I'm right, I don't have any regrets, I'm content with my current situation, all the stuff I've learned I've learned and now it can make my life better. Now, if I go back and fix for change anything that I will have learned that lesson, we'll just have to learn it all over again. Um, you know something along those lines?
Speaker 2Well, yeah yeah, I think I think, if you're well so getting aside from the whole, like, oh, I'm going to go back and meet some other thing, or I'm going to go back and assassinate a you know, assassinate a person or stop an assassination from happening or whatever right. Getting aside that, even if you could just go back and observe and then come back again, wouldn't you? Wouldn't it also change the course of your future, because you've seen things? Isn't that the? Isn't that the concept of the?
Speaker 2observer effect, the Christmas story, the oh, it's not Christmas story. What's? What's the?
Speaker 1life.
Speaker 2No Scrooge. There's the one with Scrooge in it. Why am I like blanking?
Speaker 1on it.
Speaker 2A Christmas Carol. A Christmas Carol, yeah, I said a Christmas story, but Christmas Carol. So like, yeah, he's going to go to past, future, present or past Christmas, present, christmas, future, christmas, right. And then he comes back to present time and he's a changed man, right? So wouldn't it be that same thing if you could time travel, like you go into the future and you go, oh geez, yeah, I got to do something. Or you go into the past or even the present, right.
Speaker 1Yeah, there, that I would like, if I'm just going back, to observe and maybe get like a refresh for recollection, you know, more direct recollection of what happened. That would be very different and much more interesting to me. I don't know if it's my poor memory or my poor childhood, probably my poor memory, but I don't remember much from my childhood and a lot of advice I've been getting lately is like think back to what you love as a child and you know hypnosis man Not your chance to pursue those things like uh, you gotta go get hypnotized have you ever?
Speaker 1been hypnotized? I have, but it was like a comedy stage thing. But have you ever?
Speaker 2been legitimately like you're, you know, for either therapeutic reasons or for you know, because like that could be considered somewhat time travel, right, like, for instance, like you just said, I can't remember things, but I bet you, if you could get into a state of like it's in there, like the memories in there somehow, no, I don't believe it is. You don't think so.
Speaker 1You think it's been e-jetted, I think if I didn't pay attention to it then, then I didn't record it.
Speaker 2Yeah, but haven't you ever had like an experience where you remember something.
Speaker 1If you have the camera on and you only film in it, there's no way to retrieve what's on the film, because there was no film.
Speaker 2Right, but haven't you ever had the experience of like something that you're like? Oh man, I completely forgot, Like I hadn't thought about that in years, and like a thing will come up where you're like? I remember something, some obscure fact about something, some experience in your life that you didn't you like, you didn't think, you literally had not thought of it, like it just came back into your consciousness, right.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, it is kind of a triggering recollection, right Like the song comes on, or a synth.
Speaker 2So to me, hypnotizing is the same as that. Is that there's some way to access that you don't. You know, this is a completely different subject.
Speaker 1It's alright. Maybe so the skeptic in me just knowing how impressionable we are. Yeah. And you know the power of suggestion, especially when you're under hypnosis. Yeah.
Speaker 1That it's more likely that in your passive, suggestive state, that the psychologist is asking you leading or the hypnotist is asking you leading questions, that you fill in the blanks and come to believe through the power of suggestion. And that's how, like 700 women in the same tri-state area think they're ancestors Cleopatra, you know like, or a baroness. You know that nobody ever thinks that their ancestors were milkmaids or impoverished or anything. You know, it's all.
Speaker 2Yeah Well but, that's also like that's spoken, spoken like someone who's only been hypnotized by a comedian on stage, Whereas no, no, and I don't know.
Speaker 2I wasn't trying to be like insulting. What I was saying is like that, when I so my experience of it was, I was actually experiencing anxiety and trying to get over that somehow. So I was using hypnosis in a way to not necessarily recall things in the past or anything like what we're talking about right now, but just as a way to get over my own brain, like to somehow create a different circuit in my brain. But the experience is that the questions aren't asked. The questions weren't like that. The questions were like think about something as a child that you, you know, a memory or anything else that you have as a child. Or think about the elementary school you went to and think about you know, and so you're trying to mentally go through in your head, like as an example, I just I've been trying to use mine I think they're called mind castles or something like that to like remember things.
Speaker 2Mind palaces, mind palaces yeah, that's what it is. See, I can't even remember what it's called, so I need them terribly. Yeah, so you know, but that relies upon you having a physical location that has different rooms that you can migrate in and out of and so that you have a good memory of, and so I haven't been, you know, I haven't been inside my childhood home, for, you know, years and years and years, but I still have a vivid understanding. Now I will say that, even though I haven't been in it, I've seen pictures of the inside of it since I was in it. So, like you know, so it refreshed my memory, is what I'm trying to say. So question is do I actually have a memory of it as a child or do I, do I have a memory of the pictures that I saw recently of the inside of the, you know, of the structure?
Speaker 1So well, our and that's the other thing is our memories are very constructive right. Yes, our thumb drive of our long term memory is like 1.3 gigabytes. Yeah. We can't store video, we can only store snippets. Yeah. They're like like comic strip panels and we have to fill in the blanks to create the motion and the memory.
Speaker 1And you know so like yeah, if you've just got this distant memory of this one vignette from that is what you have to recreate the context and what happened after that, and you're more likely to imagine things with each time you remember something. And again in a suggestive state, there's going to be times where I'm going to construct something and I'm going to remember that the karate dojo or whatever that I practiced karate in as a nine year old was down, and it wasn't. But because I'm sitting on a brown couch, I'm remembering it being brown. Yeah. And it's those little things get pre-crept in because you just sort of grasp whatever. Yeah.
Speaker 1It's sitting in your subconscious to keep you going. So it's like I don't. I wouldn't trust that nearly as much as being able to go back in time and observe it all over again. Yeah.
Memory, Time Perception, and Eyewitness Testimony
Speaker 2Well, I think, getting sort of back to our I took us off on a tangent there, but you know the in terms of the time travel aspect it's. I guess it's just interesting because there are a lot of. I mean, there's not only is there like the physical hey, do I, you know, can we actually do it? But then the question of whether we should do it. You know, it's like the Jeff Goldblum, it's like, yeah, we, we, we asked whether we could do it, we didn't ask where we should, right, and so then the question would be whether, whether we should do something like that, like what, what? What impact could it have?
Speaker 2Obviously, there's the. You know, if science fiction is true, then it's like, hey, if I go back in time, do I affect that timeline? And we have start talking about multiverses and all the things that everyone's talking about right now because of the MCU, basically. But you know multiverses, and hey, if I go back and do something, does that change the course of like like? The example I see in here is like, yeah, the paradox of like you traveling back in time and killing your own grandfather, well, you can't, that's impossible, because you wouldn't. If you killed your own grandfather, you wouldn't have been born, so then you wouldn't be there to travel in time to go back to kill your own grandfather, right? So blah, blah, blah Right.
Speaker 1So okay. So what there's? There's a time travel movie that breaks my brain and I've. I probably have to watch it again. I don't have any hopes of ever making sense of it, but it's called predestination. Uh huh. And it's Darv's Ethan Hawk. So not a small time actor. And yeah it's I have. Let's see what's the rating. I don't know if I'm recommending a Badrated movie parents guy, but yeah it'll, it'll mess with you. If you like time trial movies, Would love to know it are what is it called again?
Speaker 2Predestination predestination is rated R.
Speaker 1It is rated R. Okay. So 2014.
Speaker 2Yeah, yep, I Like Ethan Hawke, though he's in another movie that's like a futuristic movie that I like a lot Gadica, which is awesome movie. Creed all right, so then check that out.
Speaker 1Sure, you wait. I interrupted you, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2You did interrupt me, but I don't remember what I was saying. No, I'm sorry, it's getting to be that time. Um, yeah, that movie that I mentioned before, the sad movie, is called about time and. That's. That's the one where, like they have, you know, the family has their Superpower or whatever within the family is. Yeah, everybody is able to travel in time, but it has certain restrictions and consequences, things like that.
Speaker 1So Sure, but it is maybe sometimes a metaphor of, you know, living in regret, or yes. Worrying about the future you know we and within our minds, we kind of travel Back in time or live in the past, as it were.
Speaker 2Yeah, Well, it's a good point. What you made like our minds being creative or, excuse me, constructive, like that is that I, I just had a recent interaction with my younger sister and we were remembering the same memory, but and I don't know if she's miss remembering or I miss remembering but we remember it completely different, like in completely different locations and in completely so like you know it. I'm like, didn't that happen there? And she's like, no, I think it happened here and I'm like I don't know. I thought it did, but I think I might be. My brain could be mixing two memories together. Her, her memory could be bad, you know, then, actually, in the legal arena, we get this into a lot. This is like, not even with regard to time travel, but it's with regard to memory of Eyewitness. I witness verification, and we still hold that to some like super high esteem in terms of evidence in a court, and the fact is that our brains are totally faulty. So, and I triggered you to do Google something, so it's definitely I did something right.
Speaker 1Yes, neil deGrasse Tyson, I think you talked. He was talking to Joe Rogan. Yeah, and it was something about you know, and again I'm admitting to having a vague recollection of this, but but the the gist is that the judge asked if Anyone would have a problem, you know, for jury duty, if you wouldn't have a problem Drawing a guilty, non-guilty conclusion with this evidence and the only evidence was.
Speaker 1I witnessed testimony. You know the police tried to find stuff you know licked in dumpsters. It might have been a purse snatching, I don't remember exactly. But Neil deGrasse Tyson said like your honor, I would not feel comfortable if this is the only, if the only evidence is eyewitness evidence. I do not feel comfortable making a determination and and and I don't remember how the judge misheard, but the judge says so. Is it? Is it right that you you wouldn't trust evidence presented by the court? Or or rock solid again. She here, she, the judge, misheard something, misinterpreted something. Yeah and um, and somebody else who was gonna be a juror candidate spoke up so that Neil deGrasse didn't have to. Is like your honor with? With respect, that's not what he said.
Speaker 1Yeah, you are an eyewitness to what he said and you did not hear what he said. Yeah, you misinterpreted you and it was like this in the moment. Great anecdote of how like Even something within a few seconds. Mm-hmm. Nobody has a perfect recollection of what just transpired. That's right yeah we apply our own influence, ideas, subjectivity and Things get lost right away.
Speaker 2We're not which it goes back to you. I mean, on our subject, our perception of time. Because If you're in one of those moments where you're in, you're in the mode of passing time, like you're sitting in an airport, you're not really paying attention to your surroundings because you're just like I'm trying to get through this, our weight or whatever I got to do In a doctor's office waiting room or whatever that is. You know you're probably not gonna perceive things in detail, whereas you know if you're really paying attention you don't have your hand in your phone, in your hand and things like that. Then you know you might be able to recollect more clearly.
Speaker 1So and that, and that's why I, like my, don't trust my memory if I'm not paying attention to something. Yeah and being open to what I'm seeing, then the the fidelity of what I'm recording.
Speaker 2Yeah very poor right in my memory the fidelity. Wow, all right low fidelity Picture right.
Speaker 1Or or I start putting the thing, other things related next to it and end up conflating memories. You know they mix together well that happens to me a lot.
Speaker 2I think where I'm like I remember it this way and then Then I'll like speak with my mom about it. She's like no, I don't think that happened there. But then I'm, then you're so convinced of it. That's the thing about I witnessed stuff. You're so convinced that your brain is not faulty, like you're trying to trick yourself into think like no, I saw that and it's, you know, and it's the. I guess I don't say it was probably one of those fallacies, you know, cognitive or cognitive by cognitive biases that we talked about is for the reason for that. So, just like belief that your brain doesn't fake is not faking you out, you know.
Speaker 1But that wasn't. That I came across in our research for the previous episodes is that memory has a lot to do with our perception of time. Ah, yeah, yes. It's like what, what we remember recently, or people who have permanent damage to their ability to record short-term memory, long-term memory. Yes have no kind like they think they're just waking up. Right every minute. They think they just woke up right and it's. It's like hell. They'll take notes like a and it. They just they see their previous notes and they they feel like they're going crazy.
Speaker 2Memento. Yeah the movie. Yeah, well, he literally had like seconds of stuff tattooed on his body because he's like I don't want to forget this. So he's like, hey, tattoo this on my body so that I can look at my forearm and see, oh, don't trust the guy that wears the blue jacket or whatever you know.
Speaker 1I think we all have some of that to some extent, right Like I've looked at code, I've written, I'm like I don't remember this at all.
Speaker 2Yes, like.
Speaker 1I'm so glad that I gave myself some comments to help me remember what I was thinking at the time, because this is stupid, this doesn't make any sense. Yeah thinking and like oh, that's what I was thinking. Yeah. Same thing with journaling. It's like did I write that man? I was a self-centered jerk. Am I still a self-centered jerk? Oh my gosh. And then yeah.
Building Habits for a Successful Future
Speaker 2And then the next entry in the journal is hey, stop calling yourself self-centered jerk, everything's gonna be fine. No, this is your future self. I actually said that in our toast master's meeting yesterday. Your future self like Referring to your future self your future self is not gonna regret, as your future self will thank you for you doing this. You know like, and there's this perception of like, oh yeah, I'm actually building my future self right now, like in the present moment. I'm building my future self, whether that's two seconds from now or ten years from now. Right, and then hey, to being a fur full circle is. Bring it back to our favorite atomic habits, james. Clear is your habits are building you in the for you like your future self. So like, the more you know as you're going down the path. If you have a habit and you habitually do something, then that's that's going to play into who your future self is. So I Don't know, it was a really big stretch to get us back to that, but but, but again, that's that.
Speaker 1That is like how we are traveling into the future. Now, right is Setting yourself up. Yep for the future is working in the present. Yeah, residual benefits in the future, um, otherwise life will pass you by.
Speaker 2That's right Like you're a cryogenic sleep. Well, what I hope is I hope that the people that listen to this don't Think that they were like man. I really wish I could have that time back. Like I wish I could travel back in time and say don't. I shouldn't have listened to these three episodes in February. I don't know what the heck I was thinking.
Speaker 1Just send us that hate mail. Yeah extra five minutes and tells what you really think, so we can Shape up right.
Speaker 2All right, that's it. That's all she wrote. We're gonna travel few into the future in a positive way, together, yellow simmering, see ya.