Joe Rogan Experience #2167 - Noland Arbaugh

Noland Arbaugh 0:00 (drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

Narrator 0:04 The Joe Rogan Experience.

Joe Rogan 0:06 Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (instrumental music) All right. What's up, Nolan?

Noland Arbaugh 0:14 Nothing much. Can you guys hear me through this?

Joe Rogan 0:16 Yeah.

Noland Arbaugh 0:16 Is this too far away? Cool.

Joe Rogan 0:17 No, it's perfect, it's perfect.

Noland Arbaugh 0:18 Yeah, cool, man.

Joe Rogan 0:18 It's a pleasure to meet you, man.

Noland Arbaugh 0:20 Hey, you too. Me- you too. Thanks for having me.

Joe Rogan 0:22 I have a feeling if there's a movie that they do in the future-

Noland Arbaugh 0:26 Oh.

Joe Rogan 0:26 ... of how the world changed in 2024, you're gonna be in that movie.

Noland Arbaugh 0:30 (laughs) Yeah, that would be cool.

Joe Rogan 0:31 (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 0:32 Yeah, that'd be cool. I wonder if they'd get to play me.

Joe Rogan 0:35 Y- I ... They probably don't need people by then.

Noland Arbaugh 0:38 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 0:38 They probably just do movies with AI-

Noland Arbaugh 0:40 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:40 ... and probably really quickly. You could probably, like, take a really great novel like The Great Gatsby-

Noland Arbaugh 0:46 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 0:46 ... run it through an AI video creator, and it would just make you the most amazing version of The Great Gatsby.

Noland Arbaugh 0:51 Yeah, that's true.

Joe Rogan 0:52 Probably.

Noland Arbaugh 0:53 Yeah, that'd be sick.

Joe Rogan 0:54 But if we're talking about, like, historical moments in human beings and in technology, the implementation of Neuralink on the first human patient, that's you.

Noland Arbaugh 1:06 Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. Um-

Joe Rogan 1:08 No, definitely.

Noland Arbaugh 1:09 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:10 (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 1:10 Yeah, I mean, I was... I keep thinking about it like, you know, BCI have been around for a while, um, so I've told people-

Joe Rogan 1:16 What is BCI?

Noland Arbaugh 1:18 Uh, brain computer interface, so like-

Joe Rogan 1:19 Mm-hmm.

Noland Arbaugh 1:19 ... just, uh, implants that they've done in people, um, different ways that they've found. Um, they've given people the ability to, like, control electronic devices. They've been able to control computers and stuff. There are a couple things out there that... Utah Array, um, Synchron came out with something, um, where basically they go through the, um, um, artery in the neck and that they kinda thread something up into the brain that expands, um, in a vein up there, in an artery up there, and then they can, like, control the brain through that. So BCI has been around for a while, a few decades at least, I think since, like, the '90s. So I always say that we're standing on the shoulders of giants sort of thing, but I know Neuralink just has, uh ... It's in a league of its own, and I know that, you know, with Elon's name attached to it, it's gonna blow up way more. Um, but I think this is the beginning. I think everyone else that, you know, comes after this basically is gonna be pulled up by the progress Neuralink's making and the fact that they are trying to, like, open source basically all of it. Um, I think the whole field is just gonna grow exponentially at this point.

Joe Rogan 2:25 Well, we can only hope so, and that, that really is fascinating.

Noland Arbaugh 2:28 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:28 And it really is fascinating how many different ways and strategies they've employed to try to-

Noland Arbaugh 2:34 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:34 ... connect computers to human beings-

Noland Arbaugh 2:36 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 2:36 ... and brains. So what ... Do you know what year the first one was that they did this?

Noland Arbaugh 2:41 (sighs) '98 maybe?

Joe Rogan 2:44 Oh, wow.

Noland Arbaugh 2:44 Yeah, I think so. I think that was the Utah Array. Um, that just, uh, was, uh, looks like a chip with like more fixed, um, uh, like threads on it. They were, I think, a lot smaller, and it just sat on the brain. Um, so obviously another, uh, open brain surgery, and they put it in there, and then it would read a section of the brain motor cortex, I think, as well.

Joe Rogan 3:08 (clears throat) Have you seen some of the stuff now where they're using, um, some kind of scanning imagery where they can actually see thoughts?

Noland Arbaugh 3:16 No, I haven't.

Joe Rogan 3:17 Yeah. They're, they're, they're doing where they think they're gonna be able to record dreams eventually.

Noland Arbaugh 3:23 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 3:24 And what they're able to do now is get, like, an approximation of what someone is seeing and thinking.

Noland Arbaugh 3:30 Whoa.

Joe Rogan 3:31 Can you find that, Jamie, so we could figure out exactly what they did?

Noland Arbaugh 3:35 Yeah, that's-

Joe Rogan 3:35 Here it is. Scientists read dreams-

Narrator 3:37 Oh, hold on. This is an older one.

Joe Rogan 3:38 ... using brain scans. This is an older one?

Narrator 3:40 This is not the newer one.

Joe Rogan 3:41 Okay.

Noland Arbaugh 3:41 (coughs) That's crazy. I mean, I've always heard that, um, scientists really don't know how, like, what dreams are and, like, what is going on or why we do it. I've heard plenty of people say, like, "Yeah, we still don't know why you even need to sleep," or, like, "What's going on when you dream?" I don't know if that's changed recently, but, like, I don't know. Dreams are, dreams are an interesting thing.

Joe Rogan 4:01 The whole sleep thing is interesting.

Noland Arbaugh 4:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 4:03 MRI scans reveal what we see in dreams. Japanese researchers unveil dreams visuals with 60% accuracy.

Noland Arbaugh 4:09 What?

Joe Rogan 4:10 Using innovative MRI scans at pivotal Kyoto study showcasing a breakthrough in sleep science.

Noland Arbaugh 4:17 Whoa.

Joe Rogan 4:17 Wow. Wild stuff.

Noland Arbaugh 4:20 That picture just looked AI. Are we dreaming in AI now?

Joe Rogan 4:24 I think we're close.

Noland Arbaugh 4:25 (laughs) Yeah.

Joe Rogan 4:25 I think if the simulation is real, it seems ridiculous now. Less so than it seemed five years ago, but I think five years from now, it'll seem likely.

Noland Arbaugh 4:34 Hm.

Joe Rogan 4:35 I think it's all interconnected in some very bizarre way.

Noland Arbaugh 4:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 4:38 I think we're slowly building toward that connection-

Noland Arbaugh 4:42 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 4:42 ... with all of this technology and all of these new innovations and all of a, a, a greater understanding of quantum physics and space and all these diff-

Noland Arbaugh 4:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 4:52 As they build on all this stuff, I think it's gonna become more and more likely that this whole thing's (laughs) somehow or another real, but not real at the same time.

Noland Arbaugh 5:05 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 5:05 Neither a simulation-

Noland Arbaugh 5:07 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 5:07 ... nor, like, actual reality. Like, a, a hybrid of these things.

Noland Arbaugh 5:11 Oh, yeah. That'd be crazy. I'm ... That's one of the things I'm really excited about with Neuralink, is how much we're going to learn just about the brain from this, like, the amount of data they're collecting. Um, I mean, little things, like the fact that, um, all the stuff with the thread pullout going on with my brain, um, or one of the reasons that they think it happened is because, um ... Well, I don't know. Have you heard about, like, the thread pullout and stuff?

Joe Rogan 5:38 Yes.

Noland Arbaugh 5:39 So basically-

Joe Rogan 5:39 Can you explain it to people?

Noland Arbaugh 5:40 Yeah, yeah, yeah. So basically, um, there are 64 threads implanted in my brain, um, uh, with 16 electrodes on them each. And over the...... course of a month, um, we saw a lot of the threads start retracting from my brain. So the threads that the robot implanted, um, were retracted. And so we were getting less signals from a lot of them, and they can't see that on, like, brain scans or anything. So, like, the threads are so small, you know, uh, not even the size of a human hair, that in order to get a scan of them, you'd have to use such a big machine that it would probably just fry my brain. So, they can't just go in and look at 'em. Um, so a lot of the data that we have that shows that they were moving or coming out of the brain was literally just, um, whether or not the electrodes on the threads were sending signals anymore, if they were picking up neuron spikes. Um, so a lot of the threads were getting pulled out and that led to, you know, some, um, declined performance for a while. They kind of fixed that in a way. Um, but some of the reason that that happened, at least we think, is because the brain moves more than they thought it would, which is something that was so bizarre to me when I first heard that. I was like, "You guys don't know how, how much the brain moves?" Like, this feels like, like, that should've been something that was solved, you know, ages ago.

Joe Rogan 7:03 I never even thought it moved.

Noland Arbaugh 7:04 Yeah. So it pulses-

Joe Rogan 7:05 Oh.

Noland Arbaugh 7:05 ... like, with, with, like, your brain, with your heart, I mean. So, like, as your heart pulses and stuff, your brain pulses as well, um, 'cause, you know, there's blood running through it and everything. So, um, it's just pulsing. And they thought that it moved, like, pulses, at about a one-millimeter rate, so that's how much it'll pulse, like, move, is one millimeter. And they found in my brain that it was moving three millimeters, pulsing. So that's on a scale of 3X times what they had made the whole Neuralink and the threads and everything for, um, to be able to withstand. So, they think that that might have had something to do with it as well.

Joe Rogan 7:40 So, is that a normal thing that, like, does the brain have a range?

Noland Arbaugh 7:46 Yeah, I don't know. I think that's gonna, um... We'll, we'll know more.

Joe Rogan 7:50 Stiffness pulsation of the human brain detected by non-invasive time... The human brain pulses every time the heart beats. Scientists have used the tiny jiggle to reveal new insights about our neurons. Neuroscientist, try that name, Ueli Rut-ishauer, Rutenshauer, Ueli Rutenshauer, PhD, thought he'd uncovered a strange new phenomenon about the human brain. So, so it pulses every heartbeat. So if your heart beats a lot, if your heart's beating fast, if you're jacked up, does your brain pulse fast too?

Noland Arbaugh 8:22 Yeah, I'm sure. I mean, I get like... What happens with me is if my heart rate's higher, um, I'll get, like, headaches and stuff. So, like, I have a lot of weird things with my, with my body with being a quadriplegic where, like, I can tell, like, if I have really high blood pressure, my head just gets, like, really, really... Like, I get really bad headaches and stuff. But, um, yeah. So, brain moves more than we thought it did, which blew my mind. Once we get more people in the study, then we'll really know if for some reason my brain just moves a lot more than it should. Um, I imagine that we'll see something around the same, and then we will be able to determine, like, a range, like you're talking about. If it's, you know, a range of one millimeter to, say, five millimeters, or if it's pretty consistent around three millimeters, I'm not sure.

Joe Rogan 9:13 So, what this implant allows you to do is you can interface with a computer.

Noland Arbaugh 9:19 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 9:19 And you can use keyboard, you can type in URLs, you can play video games.

Noland Arbaugh 9:24 Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 9:25 How does it work?

Noland Arbaugh 9:26 Yeah. So, basically, um, f- excuse me, um, my implant has, uh, like a Bluetooth connection to the computer, and then through that, Neuralink has created an app that they have, uh, uploaded to the computer. And through that app, I can interface with the, um, with the computer. What it does is all of the electrodes on the threads, um, are sending, uh, neuron spikes, neuron signals. And through my... So, it's all implanted in my motor cortex. Through my intentions, so say if I wanna try to, you know, move my hand left, right, up, down, I can't really move it. I have, like, a little bit of movement in my hand, but I can't really move it. But the neurons are still firing. That intention is still there. So, like, those signals are being sent, there's just a cutoff in my spinal cord, so obviously it's not getting down. Um, but it's still, it's still going on in my brain, and those electrodes are picking up those signals, and there's an algorithm, um, like machine learning going on in the background that is, um, you know, taking those intentions, and over time, it is learning what I'm trying to do, and that translates to cursor control. So-

Joe Rogan 10:43 Oh, shit.

Noland Arbaugh 10:44 Yeah, so if I wanna try to move the cursor to the left, I move my hand to the left, but that's not necessarily what I would need to do. If I wanted to move the cursor to the left, I could kick my foot or I could do any sort of, like, motor action to train it to learn that's what I want it to do, to go left.

Joe Rogan 11:01 Oh.

Noland Arbaugh 11:01 So, there will be, um, like, a visual on the screen that says, um, like, "Move your hand to the left," and then they will train that left movement to left on the cursor control. But that visual could be anything. It could be, like, do a little jig and that'll move it to the left. Like, anything that it can do, um, anything you can do, I mean, it can learn, and you can map that to anything with the cursor.

Joe Rogan 11:25 So, does this include facial movements? Does it-

Noland Arbaugh 11:28 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 11:29 So you can, like, move it with your nose?

Noland Arbaugh 11:30 Yeah, I, um, I'm pretty sure. Like, uh, we haven't tried anything like that. We haven't tried, you know, a lot of stuff. This is very, very, um... Like, it's still very new, so there are things that, you know, we've...We're working on what works well at this point, so like, a lot of it is, uh, like my right-hand stuff. We have mapped a lot of things to, like, individual fingers, um, hand movements in general, but we've done, like, left-hand stuff, we've done, like, foot kick stuff, and it doesn't look like the signals are as good, but that also might be, um, just due to the fact that some of the threads are pulled out. So, when they fix that issue, uh, with the next people, then those things would be much, much better. And w- if that's the case, then you could theoretically do multiple things at once. It's not just, you know, you map, say, my right hand to the cursor control, then you map my fingers, uh, in my other hand and my toes to, um, like, key control. So I could be moving the cursor and typing at the same time with my toes or something.

Joe Rogan 12:32 Wow.

Noland Arbaugh 12:32 Yeah. There's, there's a lot, a lot to, uh, explore with this.

Joe Rogan 12:37 It's so interesting that it's tied to your mind telling different parts of your body to move. I c- I'm very, obviously very ignorant to this stuff.

Noland Arbaugh 12:47 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 12:48 I thought like you were just using your mind and telling the cursor to go around.

Noland Arbaugh 12:52 Yeah, so it's something ... That is true. So it's something that, um, we differentiate. Um, there are what are called attempted movements and imagined movements. So at the very beginning, I did a lot of attempted movement. Attempted movement is just what it sounds like. I attempt to move my hand in a certain direction. I attempt to move my fingers, like lift your finger up, down, left, right. I attempt to do something, and then the algorithm will take that and translate it to cursor control. But what I realized maybe a few weeks in was that I could just think, "cursor go here," and it would move. Um, that, it blew my mind when that happened for the first time. Like, l- like I said, with, um, everything going on in my brain, all of it still works. All the signals are still there. Like, I think something to try to move, and the signal gets sent. So when I'm attempting to move my hand and the cursor's moving and it's moving basically where I want it to, I'm like, "Yeah, that makes sense." It didn't really shock me that it worked. I, I assumed that it would work because all the signals are still working. It's just my spinal cord that's jacked up. Um, but when I moved it for the first time with my mind without attempting to move it all, it ... I, like I was giddy the entire day. I could not believe what had just happened, and I think we're gonna find that with a lot of things. Um, right now, we are doing like, I'm, I'm trying to map, um, like sign language, uh, like the sign language alphabet in order to text, um, like write words and stuff. And it's pretty promising. It w- worked. I'm sure there's a video out there of me somewhere that Neuralink has of me spelling a, a couple words, um, with sign language. Uh-

Joe Rogan 14:45 Wow, so you're thinking in your mind or you're trying to get your hands-

Noland Arbaugh 14:50 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 14:50 ... to make the signs of sign language-

Noland Arbaugh 14:53 Yep.

Joe Rogan 14:53 ... and then the computer interprets that-

Noland Arbaugh 14:54 Yep.

Joe Rogan 14:55 ... as the language and types it out.

Noland Arbaugh 14:56 Yep, and I think the same thing is gonna happen where I went from attempting to move my hand to imagining just moving the cursor. I think it's gonna be the same way with the texting. I'm not, I haven't had this, um, confirmed yet, but I don't see why not. I think at some point, the computer's gonna learn, like me trying to do certain letters, if, uh, like attempting it, at some point, I'm just gonna think that letter instead of actually trying to move, and it'll-

Joe Rogan 15:23 Oh.

Noland Arbaugh 15:23 ... type it.

Joe Rogan 15:24 Wow.

Noland Arbaugh 15:24 Yeah, 'cause I think it's, I think it's both like me learning what like the computer's trying to do, the algorithm, and the algorithm learning what I'm trying to do. And so, over time, it's just gonna be completely thought based. Um, I don't see why it wouldn't get there. Um, from what I've seen, just with the cursor control, it makes sense that, you know, as I'm attempting, it's learning, and then instead of even need to, needing to attempt, it'll just understand what I want to do, and it'll do it.

Joe Rogan 15:56 So, you were saying that you're one of the first people to do this, and there's gonna be more people in the trial-

Noland Arbaugh 16:02 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 16:02 ... and that maybe they'll learn like the things that are going wrong with yours. Can they do yours again? Can they-

Noland Arbaugh 16:08 Like-

Joe Rogan 16:08 ... redo it?

Noland Arbaugh 16:08 Yeah, they could. Um, it was something that, you know, when the thread retraction had happened, I was obviously pretty broken up about it. I thought that ... So like when they told me I didn't have very good control of the cursor anymore, it was really hard for me to get the cursor to go where I wanted it to go. I thought my time in the trial was coming to an end, and that's really hard. It's something t- something hard to come to terms with, because, uh, they had just shown me this whole new world, uh, like all these new capabilities that I had, and they had introduced so many things. Like, before that point, I had played video games for, you know, 10 hours without needing any sort of help, and it, it was hard to, you know, internalize that it could all be coming to an end. Um, I know that it will s- at some point because I'll be out of the study, and I won't be able to use it anymore. So, my first thought was, "Can you guys go in and fix it? Like, go in, take it out, put in a new one." Um, and they w- basically said, "We're not at that point yet. We're gonna see if we can fix it. We're gonna see if we can do things on the software side to fix it," which they ended up doing. It works better than it did before now, um, even with like fewer threads. So, um, I'm glad we didn't because they learned a lot. Um, if we would've just gone in and taken it out and put a new one, they wouldn't have learned the last, like anything that they had learned over the last three months. Um, they could go in and do it. They're not going to. I don't think that they need to, um, but at some point, um, I know that the whole point of Neuralink is to be upgradeable, so at some point, they're gonna go in hopefully and take it out and give me a better one.

Joe Rogan 17:53 W-Wow.

Noland Arbaugh 17:54 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 17:54 Now, what is the extent of your injury?

Noland Arbaugh 17:58 Hmm. Sorry. Um-

Joe Rogan 18:04 No worries.

Noland Arbaugh 18:06 ... I dislocated my C4, C5, um, in a ... People keep calling it a diving accident. It wasn't really a diving accident, it was just sort of like a freak accident while I was swimming in the lake. Um, so I dislocated my C4, C5, which they told me was good because I didn't sever my spinal cord. It was just kinda like my spinal cord like bounced outta place for, you know, a split second then hopped right back, um, where it was supposed to be. And so I cannot move, uh, anything. I have no control or sensation below my shoulders. I got a little bit back, like I can move my hand a little bit, but not enough to do anything. Like I couldn't control a joystick or anything. Um, so yeah, no- no movement or sensation below my shoulders.

Joe Rogan 18:50 I- Is there anything that ... Have you looked into what they do with stem cells for-

Noland Arbaugh 18:54 Yeah. Yeah. I'm ... So I applied for studies, um, before Neuralink and I never got asked to be in any of them. I never- never even heard back from anyone, um, which is kind of what I assumed would happen with Neuralink, honestly. Um, but I had applied for things because I obviously don't wanna be paralyzed anymore, I don't wanna be a quadriplegic. So, um, it would be great if I could get into something and have them fix as much of me as possible. I mean, even if I had more control over my hands, the amount of things that I could do would like skyrocket, like in order of magnitude, um, better. And my life would be better. My independence would be better. Everything.

Joe Rogan 19:33 Yeah, I don't ... I mean, I don't think it would hurt to try.

Noland Arbaugh 19:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:37 And I- ... Are you familiar with a lot of these clinics, like the Cellular Performance Institute in Mexico?

Noland Arbaugh 19:42 Uh, no. No.

Joe Rogan 19:44 They do a lot of UFC fighters. Um, uh, they do ... Like you can do things in other countries that you're not allowed to do in America-

Noland Arbaugh 19:51 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:51 ... because of, you know, regulations.

Noland Arbaugh 19:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:53 But what they're able to do down there is they're- they're going right into disks and they're re- alleviating people's disk problems, where they're actually making the disks grow larger-

Noland Arbaugh 20:04 Oh, wow.

Joe Rogan 20:04 ... and heal people with back injuries.

Noland Arbaugh 20:07 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 20:07 And I know I've read things about spinal cord injuries and improvements, but I would love to connect you with them and they ... You know, they're the experts on this. They'd be able to tell you like what- what the state of the art, in terms of like what the research shows that stem cells can and can't do.

Noland Arbaugh 20:22 Yeah. Y-

Joe Rogan 20:23 I- I don't think it could hurt. I mean, it's-

Noland Arbaugh 20:24 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:24 ... just a healing thing, right? If you're-

Noland Arbaugh 20:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:26 ... getting some sensation, a little bit better movement, maybe they could accelerate that.

Noland Arbaugh 20:30 Yeah, that would be great. Um-

Joe Rogan 20:31 I'll connect you with them.

Noland Arbaugh 20:32 Cool. I don't know if I'm allowed to at this point, 'cause I'm-

Joe Rogan 20:34 Oh, really?

Noland Arbaugh 20:35 ... 'cause I'm in the Neuralink study. I'm not sure that-

Joe Rogan 20:37 Maybe you should lie.

Noland Arbaugh 20:38 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 20:41 (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 20:41 I mean, it would be-

Narrator 20:42 Yeah, he said lie.

Noland Arbaugh 20:42 ... it would be great. It would be great.

Joe Rogan 20:43 You should lie. But that would suck to get out of the study too. Both things would suck.

Noland Arbaugh 20:46 Yeah. Yeah. I mean-

Joe Rogan 20:48 Maybe they would allow it.

Noland Arbaugh 20:49 Yeah. I mean, we'll see. We'll see.

Joe Rogan 20:51 I mean, it's only something that would help you heal.

Noland Arbaugh 20:53 Yeah. Yeah. I know. I just know that like in a lot of studies, um, something like that even-

Joe Rogan 20:58 Right.

Noland Arbaugh 20:59 ... they might not want to take on like the added risk.

Joe Rogan 21:02 Understandably.

Noland Arbaugh 21:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:03 Also, it would kinda mess up their- their control.

Noland Arbaugh 21:06 Exactly.

Joe Rogan 21:06 Like what happens-

Noland Arbaugh 21:07 Exactly.

Joe Rogan 21:07 ... you juice somebody up with stem cells and-

Noland Arbaugh 21:09 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 21:10 ... does the brain pulsate more? Does the-

Noland Arbaugh 21:11 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:11 ... fibers come out more?

Noland Arbaugh 21:13 Yeah. How does it interplay with any sort of device-

Joe Rogan 21:14 Right.

Noland Arbaugh 21:14 ... that someone has implanted yet.

Joe Rogan 21:16 Right. Yeah. I get it.

Noland Arbaugh 21:17 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 21:17 I get it. Um, is there, uh, a hope in the future of utilizing this technology to help people regain movement?

Noland Arbaugh 21:26 Yeah. Yeah, that's one of the plans. Uh, I don't know if you've seen anything on it. Basically, they do something similar to what the stem cell ... um, a lot of the stem cell research is. A lot of the stem cell stuff is, you know, implant stem cells above and below the level of injury, and those stem cells will migrate basically and create a bridge. Um, some of them have even, uh, talked about injecting right into the level of injury. So, um, with the Neuralink, the plan is to implant one in the brain and then implant one below the level of injury and then the Neuralinks will just talk right to each other. Um-

Joe Rogan 21:59 Wow.

Noland Arbaugh 21:59 ... all the brain signals that are ... that it's picking up in the brain, wherever, you know, it's implanted, motor cortex in this point, um, in this scenario, would go straight to the other one and it would send it right through your body like it should.

Joe Rogan 22:12 And are they ... Do they have a plan on when to try this?

Noland Arbaugh 22:16 They're already trying it in animals. Um, they have one in a pig, you can watch the video of it, where basically, um, they have an implant in the pig's brain and an implant in the pig's spinal cord, I think, in the thoracic section of the spinal cord, and they have been moving the pig's like legs, um, on its own. The pig's not paralyzed or anything, but basically they like tell the pig, "Come to this section of ..." You know, they like grid off the floor and they put food in a section of the grid and they're like, "If you're okay with us testing on you, pig, come over here," basically. And the pig will go in there and then they will take control of the pig's leg and they will like start playing around with it, like m- making the pig ... Yeah, so this right here. Um, so all those movements right there, the pig's leg are them. Um, they're doing it. So, um, and this is just the beginning, obviously.

Joe Rogan 23:10 So this is flexor movement it's saying. It's saying-

Noland Arbaugh 23:12 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 23:12 And the pig is lifting its leg up unconsciously.

Noland Arbaugh 23:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:15 It's not doing it on-

Noland Arbaugh 23:16 Yep.

Joe Rogan 23:16 ... its own.

Noland Arbaugh 23:16 Nope. They're- they're doing it all.

Joe Rogan 23:20 Dude, how long before they can hijack people?

Noland Arbaugh 23:23 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 23:23 How long before the CIA can hack into you?

Noland Arbaugh 23:25 Yeah, I know, right?

Joe Rogan 23:26 That's like ... I mean, uh, that is the ultimate fear of human beings becoming cyborgs, is that we're- we're gonna be subject to all the problems that our computers and our phones have, with malware-

Noland Arbaugh 23:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:37 ... and spyware and-

Noland Arbaugh 23:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:38 ... hacking.

Noland Arbaugh 23:38 I mean, people- people ask me all the time if this thing can be hacked and short answer is yes. Um, but at this point at least, hacking this wouldn't really do much. Um, you might be able to see, like some of the brain signals. You might be able to see some of the data that Neuralink's collecting, and then you might be able to control my cursor on my screen and make me look at weird stuff, but that's about it.I mean-

Joe Rogan 24:04 Hmm.

Noland Arbaugh 24:04 ... I guess you could go in and, like, look through, look through my, like, messages, emails, something like that. But I'd also have to be, like, connected already. So, if I'm not connected to my computer or anything, you can't get in there on your own. Um, so it'd have to be a time when I am on it and you are able to hack it, and then-

Joe Rogan 24:21 You're giving it, basically, a guidebook on how to ruin your life.

Noland Arbaugh 24:24 Yeah. Yeah, I know. I know. It, it's fine, like- (laughs)

Joe Rogan 24:25 It's gonna crank up the volume and put gay porn on full blast.

Noland Arbaugh 24:28 It... I think... Yeah. (laughs) meatspin.com.

Joe Rogan 24:30 (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 24:31 Um, yeah. I mean, it, it, it is what it is, I think.

Joe Rogan 24:35 It is what it is.

Noland Arbaugh 24:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:36 Yeah.

Noland Arbaugh 24:36 I think if it happens, it happens. I've... It's something that they had to tell me about before I got into the study, like, "This is possible," but I'm not worried about it.

Joe Rogan 24:43 What kind of a piece of shit would they be to hack your brain?

Noland Arbaugh 24:46 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:46 Get the fuck out of here, people.

Noland Arbaugh 24:47 Yeah, I know, right?

Joe Rogan 24:47 There's, there's plenty of bankers out there stealing money.

Noland Arbaugh 24:50 Yeah, I know, right? (laughs)

Joe Rogan 24:50 Go concentrate on them. (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 24:52 (laughs) I've... You know, a- along that line, it's something I've thought a lot about, um, with, like, doing interviews and stuff, is, like, some of the people that I've done interviews with, interviews with, I'm like, "Are they gonna try to attack me to get to, like, Elon Musk or something? Are they gonna say things about me, um, or, like, you know, try to do, like, a 'getcha' on me, gotcha sorta thing?"

Joe Rogan 25:14 Hmm. Yeah.

Noland Arbaugh 25:14 Um, and everyone that I've talked to about that, they were just like, "They would have to be the scum of the Earth to try to do that to you." But we'll see. Hasn't happened yet. Maybe, uh, maybe someone will.

Joe Rogan 25:23 Oh, there's some scummy people out there. They'll give it a go.

Noland Arbaugh 25:26 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:26 Especially if they think it can go viral.

Noland Arbaugh 25:28 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:29 Yeah. It's, uh, it's become i- in fashion to criticize Elon Musk.

Noland Arbaugh 25:34 Yeah. Yeah. I've already had some people who just, the way that they're interviewing me is just so... I don't know. It gives me, gives me the heebie-jeebies. Like, I can tell they're trying to get me to say things and I'm just like, "No."

Joe Rogan 25:46 So, what do you think they're trying to do? Are they just trying to attack... Well, see, here, here's the thing that, about interviewing that's kind of, that a lot of people don't know. When you're used to talking to people, like I talk to a lot of people.

Noland Arbaugh 25:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:58 I'm used to talking to people if I just meet them.

Noland Arbaugh 26:00 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 26:00 This is me if I was at w- a store buying food.

Noland Arbaugh 26:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:04 This is me everywhere. I can be me. But I'm... It's because I'm used to it.

Noland Arbaugh 26:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:08 But a lot of people, when they sit down, they know they're gonna be on camera. They've never been on camera before, and they get very nervous. And I... That's why I like to talk to people before the show-

Noland Arbaugh 26:18 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 26:18 ... just to kinda hang out a little, get you chilled out. I'm just a person, you're just a person.

Noland Arbaugh 26:23 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:23 We're gonna just talk. It's gonna be easy, man.

Noland Arbaugh 26:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:25 I'm, I'm your friend. We're gonna have a good time.

Noland Arbaugh 26:27 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 26:28 Some people don't wanna do that. They wanna do the opposite.

Noland Arbaugh 26:30 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:30 So they wanna sit there with a clipboard and they wanna, like, look at you in a condescending way, and they're, they... It's a, like a little bit of a power move.

Noland Arbaugh 26:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:38 And what they're trying to do is make salacious content. That's all they're trying to do.

Noland Arbaugh 26:43 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:43 That's their job. Their job is different than a person who just wants to have a conversation and ask questions, which is my job.

Noland Arbaugh 26:49 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 26:49 Their job is to make something dramatic happen that's gonna be shared on TikTok.

Noland Arbaugh 26:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:55 You know? That's the-

Noland Arbaugh 26:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:56 They're barely in the news business anymore.

Noland Arbaugh 26:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:59 What they're kind of in, in is the clip business.

Noland Arbaugh 27:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:02 Viral clip business.

Noland Arbaugh 27:04 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 27:04 They're just f- they're farming viral clips. So if they can say something-

Noland Arbaugh 27:07 Yep.

Joe Rogan 27:07 ... ridiculous and maybe you'll say something back and that'll-

Noland Arbaugh 27:10 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 27:11 ... become the gotcha. "Oh, he claps back."

Noland Arbaugh 27:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:14 (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 27:14 Yeah. It's something like, like I'm not nervous talking to people. I've, I never have been. I've never had stage fright. I think people are people. I think I'm pretty good with people. I am not weird about interacting with others. Um, I think it's because of my mom. My mom's like the friendliest person in the world. So I grew up just being able to walk up to someone on the street and start a conversation if I wanted to. Um, and so then I can obviously tell things when people are interviewing me, like what they're trying to get from me.

Joe Rogan 27:44 Right.

Noland Arbaugh 27:44 Um, uh, like just the way that they ask questions, the tone of their voice.

Joe Rogan 27:49 Yeah.

Noland Arbaugh 27:49 Like, "Hey, I'm your friend." Like, "Open up to me."

Joe Rogan 27:52 (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 27:53 And it's, it's like...

Joe Rogan 27:54 So s- insincere.

Noland Arbaugh 27:55 I know, I know. Uh, it's just not, it's not great.

Joe Rogan 27:58 Well, you know, that's the business they're in, you know?

Noland Arbaugh 28:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:01 If you work for a tire store, you're trying to sell tires.

Noland Arbaugh 28:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:03 That's their business, you know?

Noland Arbaugh 28:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:04 "You need new tires." "Do I really?" You know?

Noland Arbaugh 28:07 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 28:07 Their business is talking shit and making things, you know... It's just, it's a bad format. Most of those-

Noland Arbaugh 28:14 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 28:14 ... media interviews are bad formats because it's a very limited amount of time and you have to have a clip that fits in between commercials.

Noland Arbaugh 28:21 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 28:22 And also, they, they're not free. They have executives and pr- there's too many people that get in there and just-

Noland Arbaugh 28:29 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 28:29 ... y- the person talking to you should just be talking to you and they should have an understanding of what you do and how it happened and what this is all about. What is, what this means for future people.

Noland Arbaugh 28:38 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 28:38 You know? It shouldn't be, like, going after Elon Musk. Everyone's so goddamn political right now.

Noland Arbaugh 28:44 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 28:44 It's so weird. They're even making apolitical people political.

Noland Arbaugh 28:47 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 28:48 It's just, uh... So to connect you to that, it's just so stupid.

Noland Arbaugh 28:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:53 What, what you are is, like I said, I think if there's a movie about the future-

Noland Arbaugh 28:57 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 28:58 ... one of the very first people that has used this kind of technology and we're learning that these people are getting better at it and they're... And now with the use of AI...

Noland Arbaugh 29:09 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 29:09 (sighs) I mean, who knows what's gonna be possible with you just in a few years?

Noland Arbaugh 29:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:14 It's very exciting.

Noland Arbaugh 29:15 It is very exciting. I know a lot of people are really nervous about it. Um, and understandably so in some ways.

Joe Rogan 29:21 I'm one of them. I'm nervous.

Noland Arbaugh 29:22 Yeah, yeah. (laughs) I, I've heard, I've heard a little bit of what you've said about it, and, like, I don't have, like, good arguments against it. And like, I can come on here and be like, "Joe, don't worry, man."

Joe Rogan 29:33 (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 29:33 Like, I'm, I'm here to help. Don't worry about it. Uh, let-

Joe Rogan 29:35 I would say that's the computer in your brain talking to you, man.

Noland Arbaugh 29:37 Yeah. I was gonna say, "L- let me, let me into your, into your computer or your phone."

Joe Rogan 29:40 (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 29:40 "I'll show you that there's no big deal. I'm your friend, Joe." Um, no, but I, I get it. At the same time, the way I look at it is, like, how much it's gonna be able to help people? How much can it be able to help people like me at the beginning, at least? Like, I know a lot of this is, like, down the road stuff. Like, you know, what it's going to do f- to normal people who, um, who get this. They're gonna be able to be hacked or controlled or something. Um, but for me, I think about it like...... how many people who are paralyzed don't have to be paralyzed anymore? How many people with disabilities, ALS or, um, you know, Alzheimer's, or any of these, who are blind, how many people are gonna be able to live their lives again? And that's my goal at the beginning. I know that ... I feel like people are gonna look at me and say, like, I really need to be more concerned about a lot of the, like, things coming down the road. And it's something that I'm trying to think more about because at some point people are gonna ask, and I don't have good answers for it. Because all I'm thinking about is, you know, like, I wanna help people and I feel like this is gonna help people, and that's what I'm focused on. So ...

Joe Rogan 30:48 Well, I think your perspective is probably the right one because no one knows what's coming.

Noland Arbaugh 30:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:53 No one. And you can be freaked out about it like I am. (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 30:58 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 30:58 B- I'm sometimes freaked out about it, but o- other times, I've just sort of resigned to the fact that this is just the existence that we find ourself in.

Noland Arbaugh 31:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:04 This is our timeline. We, we live in a very strange timeline.

Noland Arbaugh 31:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:08 And it's, it's happening at a very, very, very rapid rate. And no one, uh, has a map of the future. It's not possible. It's just all guess. It's completely ... Uh, it, it is like an ant trying to figure out how to operate an iPhone. There's-

Noland Arbaugh 31:22 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 31:22 It's not ... We don't have it.

Noland Arbaugh 31:24 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:25 Whatever it is, whatever it's gonna be, it's gonna be, and-

Noland Arbaugh 31:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:28 ... you're not gonna stop it now.

Noland Arbaugh 31:29 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 31:29 It's ... We are a runaway train.

Noland Arbaugh 31:31 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:31 Let's just hope we're going to a cool spot. (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 31:33 Yeah. Right? I mean, you look at 100 years ago, like, there's no way they could have imagined what our world would be like now.

Joe Rogan 31:40 No.

Noland Arbaugh 31:41 So ...

Joe Rogan 31:41 And I have a feeling the next five to 10 years is gonna be a lot bigger than that.

Noland Arbaugh 31:45 Yeah. I mean, exponential growth.

Joe Rogan 31:47 Yeah.

Noland Arbaugh 31:47 So ... So it's crazy.

Joe Rogan 31:48 Well, it's just once this stuff goes live-

Noland Arbaugh 31:51 Mm.

Joe Rogan 31:51 It's just ... It's gonna be really weird. It's gonna be really weird.

Noland Arbaugh 31:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:55 But a- along the way, we're gonna solve a lot of the problems.

Noland Arbaugh 32:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:00 That ... I mean, look, if ... I have, uh, I've had three, uh, knee surgeries, two ACL reconstructions.

Noland Arbaugh 32:07 Mm.

Joe Rogan 32:07 If I lived 100 years ago, I'd be a cripple.

Noland Arbaugh 32:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:09 You know? Just how it is.

Noland Arbaugh 32:11 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:11 My knees would be destroyed. I wouldn't be able to walk good.

Noland Arbaugh 32:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:14 And now I can do anything. It's-

Noland Arbaugh 32:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:16 It ... That's just medical technology-

Noland Arbaugh 32:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:18 ... and understanding of the human body. Implementation of this kind of device that can allow you to move your body and can-

Noland Arbaugh 32:25 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 32:25 As you were saying earlier, um, you can bring back eyesight to some people.

Noland Arbaugh 32:29 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:30 This is something that they really are hopeful for.

Noland Arbaugh 32:32 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 32:32 Have they done any of that on animals yet?

Noland Arbaugh 32:34 Um, I'm not sure. I know that what, uh, the plan is. Like, they did a talk about it a while ago, um, on, like, a show and tell. They basically show how, um, like, the ... how the Neuralink works in my brain would be very, very similar. You would just, uh, take ... You would ... You would, like, activate certain parts of the brain or, um, behind the eye, uh, the part of the brain, the part of the eye that, um, dictate sight and stuff. You would activate certain things in order to display what's going on around the world to someone, to the back of someone's eye, to their retina, whatever it is. I don't know much about it. But they have done it. Um, oh, they did it with, uh, monkeys actually. Yeah. So there's a video of, um, them lighting up parts of a screen and, uh, they have, like, basically an eye tracker in the monkey. And so the monkey will look to different parts of the screen and, um, uh, like wherever they've lit up on the brain basically. So whatever is going ... What- whatever implant they have in the brain, they will, like, light up somewhere on the brain and it ... then they'll light it up on the screen and the monkey will look there. And then at some point, they stop lighting it up on the screen and they're just lighting it up in the monkey's brain and the monkey still looks there.

Joe Rogan 33:51 Wow.

Noland Arbaugh 33:52 So yeah. So they know that they can do these sorts of things. Um, uh, yeah. It, it's, it's amazing. I know that there are other companies that have done something similar to this too, um, with, like, giving people, uh, like helping people with their eyesight. I know one of them, like, went under, which was ... it was just a wild story of basically about a company who had implanted things in people and the company went under, and then the people in the study were like, "Well, what do we do now?" Um, and they didn't know if they were just gonna, like, continue. That's one of the things about, like, Neuralink.

Joe Rogan 34:23 Whoa.

Noland Arbaugh 34:23 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:24 Yeah. I should mention that-

Noland Arbaugh 34:26 There you go.

Joe Rogan 34:26 ... the Blindsight implant is already working in monkeys. The resolution will be low at first, like early Nintendo graphics, but ultimately may exceed normal human vision. Holy shit.

Noland Arbaugh 34:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:35 Also, no monkey has died or been seriously injured by a Neuralink device.

Noland Arbaugh 34:39 Oh, look at that. March 21st.

Joe Rogan 34:41 By a Neuralink device.

Noland Arbaugh 34:43 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:43 Right. But they did have to kill the monkeys that they or- originally did studies on, right?

Noland Arbaugh 34:49 L- yeah. Do you know much about, like, studying with animals-

Joe Rogan 34:52 Yes.

Noland Arbaugh 34:52 ... and stuff like that?

Joe Rogan 34:53 Yeah, you have to kill them to find out-

Noland Arbaugh 34:54 Just-

Joe Rogan 34:54 ... what damage you've done to them.

Noland Arbaugh 34:56 Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Well, like-

Joe Rogan 34:57 Yeah.

Noland Arbaugh 34:58 Basically all, all animals that, um, are in studies at some point get ... I think they have a really terrible term for it. I think they call them ... call it sacrifice.

Joe Rogan 35:07 Whoa.

Noland Arbaugh 35:07 So they, like, sacrifice animals.

Joe Rogan 35:08 That's satanic.

Noland Arbaugh 35:09 Yeah. (laughs) It's, it's crazy.

Joe Rogan 35:10 Come up with a new word, guys.

Noland Arbaugh 35:11 Yeah. I know, right?

Joe Rogan 35:12 Right? (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 35:12 I know, right? Um, but-

Joe Rogan 35:14 In this day and age-

Noland Arbaugh 35:15 Yeah. Right.

Joe Rogan 35:15 ... there's a lot of fucking-

Noland Arbaugh 35:16 It's not-

Joe Rogan 35:17 ... fear of Satan.

Noland Arbaugh 35:17 It's not a great, it's not a great, um, term-

Joe Rogan 35:20 Yeah.

Noland Arbaugh 35:20 ... for their cause.

Joe Rogan 35:21 We could have worked on that one.

Noland Arbaugh 35:22 Yeah. I know, right? Just put a little bit more thought into it. Um, so yeah. Uh, they do that. They have to, like you said, learn-

Joe Rogan 35:29 Right.

Noland Arbaugh 35:29 ... something from the monkeys, um, from the animals that they're testing on. So some of them, they will, um, you know, let live longer. Some of them they'll, uh, implant something in and then sacrifice almost immediately to see ... 'Cause they have to know what it's doing short term, medium term, long term. Um, so basically all animals and all animal testing get sacrificed at some point. I don't know how true that is because obviously a lot of them, um, once they're done with the study that they're in, they let go live if it wasn't too invasive. If they don't need to, like-

Joe Rogan 36:00 Mm-hmm.

Noland Arbaugh 36:00 ... study any part of them that would need to be killed for. Um ...

Joe Rogan 36:04 But if you're gonna study the brain.

Noland Arbaugh 36:05 If you're gonna study the brain, then-

Joe Rogan 36:06 Yeah.

Noland Arbaugh 36:06 ... there's really no other way.

Joe Rogan 36:07 You gotta get it now.

Noland Arbaugh 36:08 Um, so then ... And then the ... there was the whole, like, um, report that came out about all the terrible things that Neuralink was doing to monkeys. I've talked to the people. Uh, I got to meet them, um, the people who were working directly with the monkeys. Those monkeys have the best animal facility in the world. Someone, like, came in and built it, um, like-... basically, they're going around now, that person is going around and changing how other, um, like, labs treat their monkeys, like, for the better. So, they're going, they're, like, revolutionizing the world of, like, animal testing basically. So, Neuralink treats their animals better than anywhere else. And then the report that came out and said, like, all these terrible things that were happening with animals, it- it's- it's skewed. Because all the things that they brought up were just, um, it was all of the bad. Like, basically anything bad that happens to, um, uh, the monkey has to be repor- or any of the animals, has to be reported and gets reported in this, um, like, you know, XYZ format of, "This is what's going on with the monkey. This is what happened. This is what we think happened. We had to kill the monkey. Yes or no?" Um, but none of the other things get reported at all. None of the time between. Like, if it's five years that the monkey's alive and one bad thing happens, then there's a report about that one bad thing happening to the monkey. And you compile all of that and you're like, "Look at all these terrible things that are going on with the monkeys."

Joe Rogan 37:35 Hmm.

Noland Arbaugh 37:35 But it's just not really true. Um ...

Joe Rogan 37:37 Interesting.

Noland Arbaugh 37:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:39 Well, it's a tough one because some people don't think any studies should go on with animals at all.

Noland Arbaugh 37:43 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:44 And so for them, everything that happens to an animal in captivity for scientific purposes is evil. You know?

Noland Arbaugh 37:51 Yeah. I get it.

Joe Rogan 37:52 I get it. I get it from their perspective.

Noland Arbaugh 37:53 Yeah. I get it.

Joe Rogan 37:53 You know, they call us speciesists-

Noland Arbaugh 37:55 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 37:56 ... because we're willing to do things to monkeys that we-

Noland Arbaugh 37:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:58 You know? Aren't there, like, a lot of evil people in the world we could practice on?

Noland Arbaugh 38:02 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 38:03 You know? I mean ...

Noland Arbaugh 38:04 I mean, I don't wanna give anyone any ideas, but ...

Joe Rogan 38:07 Right. It's terri- ... That's a terrible thing to say. Shouldn't do that. But an innocent monkey, it's fine.

Noland Arbaugh 38:11 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 38:12 Very weird.

Noland Arbaugh 38:13 I mean, monkeys do terrible things to us too.

Joe Rogan 38:15 Ah, they do if provoked, you know, or if they live in urban neighborhoods where they rely-

Noland Arbaugh 38:20 Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 38:20 ... on tourists and they steal their phones for food-

Noland Arbaugh 38:23 Yeah (laughs) .

Joe Rogan 38:23 ... and attack people.

Noland Arbaugh 38:24 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 38:24 Yeah. They're- they're fuckers.

Noland Arbaugh 38:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 38:26 They can be fuckers, but ...

Noland Arbaugh 38:27 I mean, I saw- I saw a story of a monkey who basically tore some kid's face off with his ... I think he was, like, outside of the village or in his village. And, uh, the whole story was about how they were doing reconstructive surgery on the kid and, like, making him look a bit more normal again. But that's terrifying.

Joe Rogan 38:44 Monkeys are unbelievably strong. There's a video of a guy, uh, sitting on the ground cross-legged and a monkey hops on his shoulder and then the guy's, like, he's thinking it's cute and smiling and then the monkey just decides to take a massive chunk of his scalp off.

Noland Arbaugh 38:57 (gasps)

Joe Rogan 38:58 Just bites down on his head and just-

Noland Arbaugh 39:00 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 39:00 ... takes, like, a football-sized chunk of scalp-

Noland Arbaugh 39:03 What?

Joe Rogan 39:03 ... off this dude's head. It is horrible. Just decided for no reason, unprovoked.

Noland Arbaugh 39:08 Wow.

Joe Rogan 39:09 You know. This monkey lives in a rough neighborhood.

Noland Arbaugh 39:11 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 39:12 He had a hard, he had a hard life.

Noland Arbaugh 39:14 He had a hard life. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:14 He's not out there just, you know, picking fruit. This is it. So, this dude is just sitting here with his monkey. It's, like, sitting on his lap and he's, like, talking to the monkey.

Noland Arbaugh 39:23 He's saying something to him.

Joe Rogan 39:23 He's like, "Hello, Mr. Monkey."

Noland Arbaugh 39:24 Saying something bad about his mom?

Joe Rogan 39:25 Look, he doesn't seem like he's bummed out about the monkey. Now watch what the monkey does.

Noland Arbaugh 39:30 Oh, jeez.

Joe Rogan 39:32 Yo. Ouchie wawa.

Noland Arbaugh 39:35 Is that his skull? I hope that wasn't-

Joe Rogan 39:37 Yeah.

Noland Arbaugh 39:37 Okay, I was-

Joe Rogan 39:37 That was his skull.

Noland Arbaugh 39:38 I hope that wasn't his brain.

Joe Rogan 39:39 No, not that. I mean, that would have to be a chunk of skull, right? It was-

Noland Arbaugh 39:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:42 But it was the skin. It pulled-

Noland Arbaugh 39:44 Yeah. Ooh.

Joe Rogan 39:44 I mean, that's gone. That's gone forever.

Noland Arbaugh 39:46 Sh-

Joe Rogan 39:46 Yikes.

Noland Arbaugh 39:47 No thanks.

Joe Rogan 39:48 Ouch. Yeah. Gross. But, you know, that monkey, again, probably had a hard life.

Noland Arbaugh 39:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:54 You know?

Noland Arbaugh 39:54 Yeah. For sure.

Joe Rogan 39:54 We need monkey life reform (laughs) .

Noland Arbaugh 39:56 Yeah. I know, right? (laughs)

Joe Rogan 39:58 I think, um, when we're looking at, uh, these kind of scientific experiments on animals, a lot of people are gonna have a problem with.

Noland Arbaugh 40:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:06 But I- I won- I wonder through, with new technology, if that's even gonna be necessary anymore. If they'll, in the future, particularly with the leaps that are gonna be made with AI, I wonder if they're gonna be able to just be able to map out a study. You know, like, understand the interactions between human beings and these devices and be able to map out the possibilities and probabilities without having to do that.

Noland Arbaugh 40:30 Yeah. You would think so. I ...

Joe Rogan 40:32 Yeah. But who knows?

Noland Arbaugh 40:33 Yeah. It makes sense. It makes sense. I feel like at the beginning they would probably need to do, like, that, um, along with a study on a human. So, they might run, say, simulations a million times-

Joe Rogan 40:47 Hmm.

Noland Arbaugh 40:47 ... on what, you know, an AI simulation on what, how this would interact with a human, but then they would have to go in and do it to see how true the, like, simulations are and then depending on how accurate they are, then maybe they could just go fully to that. But if it ends up being different, then ...

Joe Rogan 41:04 Yeah. I have a feeling they're gonna be able to replace parts with artificial parts too.

Noland Arbaugh 41:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:08 Like- like the eyeball itself.

Noland Arbaugh 41:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:09 I was just thinking about that the other day, like, how complex. Like, look at how small these little cameras are on phones.

Noland Arbaugh 41:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:16 Little, tiny-ass cameras. But one of these can do 100X zoom.

Noland Arbaugh 41:20 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:20 You know? And one of these is 200 megapixels. It's a little, tiny, thin thing. Like-

Noland Arbaugh 41:24 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 41:25 What's to say that they wouldn't be able to come up with something that works way better than the human eye?

Noland Arbaugh 41:30 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 41:30 Where you could zoom in.

Noland Arbaugh 41:31 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:32 Just like a phone. Just, like, zoom into something. Like, but have, like, a real optical zoom.

Noland Arbaugh 41:37 Yeah. I just hope they don't give them red retinas.

Joe Rogan 41:41 (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 41:42 (laughs) That's just ...

Joe Rogan 41:44 That would be creepy.

Noland Arbaugh 41:45 Yeah. I know, right?

Joe Rogan 41:45 Terminator style.

Noland Arbaugh 41:46 Yeah. I know, right?

Joe Rogan 41:46 Yeah.

Noland Arbaugh 41:47 It just seems like they could do better.

Joe Rogan 41:50 Yeah. It would be very weird talking to someone with two fake eyes.

Noland Arbaugh 41:52 Yeah. It'd be- it'd be weird if you couldn't even tell.

Joe Rogan 41:55 You probably wouldn't trust them anymore, right? Because you kinda, like, look into someone's eyes, you know, and you find out if they're cool.

Noland Arbaugh 42:00 (laughs) Yeah. Right?

Joe Rogan 42:01 Like, if you're just looking into these lenses-

Noland Arbaugh 42:03 Windows to the soul.

Joe Rogan 42:03 ... you're like, "Are you even in there anymore?"

Noland Arbaugh 42:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:05 What the ... I'm just trusting that you're still there.

Noland Arbaugh 42:07 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 42:08 It's like talking to someone with sunglasses on forever.

Noland Arbaugh 42:10 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 42:11 You know? You ne- ... What's going on there, man?

Noland Arbaugh 42:13 Yeah. Yeah. What are you looking at?

Joe Rogan 42:15 That is a weird thing that we look through the eye. You know, it's the old expression, "The window's at- to the soul."

Noland Arbaugh 42:20 Yeah. I mean, you can- you can tell, right?

Joe Rogan 42:23 Yeah.

Noland Arbaugh 42:23 Sometimes looking at people, you look in their eyes, you're like, "I don't wanna get too close to."

Joe Rogan 42:25 Yeah. "You're a little angry, dude."

Noland Arbaugh 42:26 Like, "You got crazy eyes."

Joe Rogan 42:27 Yeah. "Little sketchy."

Noland Arbaugh 42:28 Or something.

Joe Rogan 42:28 Yeah.

Noland Arbaugh 42:29 Yeah. Something like that.

Joe Rogan 42:30 But-

Noland Arbaugh 42:30 Yeah. Like I was saying, maybe at some point you wouldn't even be able to tell, which is also something to think about. Like-

Joe Rogan 42:35 Ooh.

Noland Arbaugh 42:36 Like, if you wouldn't be able to tell someone had robot eyes, like, just looked like a normal person and ...

Joe Rogan 42:40 Right.... but that's a real part of how we interact with each other. It's like facial expressions-

Noland Arbaugh 42:45 Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 42:45 ... and like figuring each other out just by like how your eyes are looking at me.

Noland Arbaugh 42:49 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 42:49 Oh, man.

Noland Arbaugh 42:50 Well, it's not like you distrust someone because they have like a glass eye or something.

Joe Rogan 42:55 (warbling sound) No, not a glass eye, but (warbling sound) .

Noland Arbaugh 42:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:56 (warbling sound)

Noland Arbaugh 42:56 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 42:57 If they got like (warbling sound) little red lights-

Noland Arbaugh 43:00 Hopefully, it doesn't make those sounds either, yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:00 ... moving around inside their head. Maybe that's the only way it works.

Noland Arbaugh 43:03 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 43:03 It has to make a little noise, especially when you're alone with them, you know (warbling sound) .

Noland Arbaugh 43:08 (warbling sound) Oh, man.

Joe Rogan 43:08 (warbling sound)

Noland Arbaugh 43:08 All through the night.

Joe Rogan 43:09 Yeah. What are you, what are you looking at?

Noland Arbaugh 43:10 A little movement during rapid eye movement in the night.

Joe Rogan 43:12 Yeah.

Noland Arbaugh 43:12 Just like (warbling sound) .

Joe Rogan 43:14 While you're sleeping?

Noland Arbaugh 43:14 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 43:15 Yeah. (warbling sound) I mean, I'm sure they've worked... Wasn't there some sort of a study where they were trying to develop an artificial eye?

Narrator 43:23 I got a, uh, whether or not this is... I'm trying to find out how real it is. I got one guy who has a 3D printed eye.

Noland Arbaugh 43:30 (laughs) 3D printed eye.

Narrator 43:31 It's got a camera in it or something that I'm trying to find.

Joe Rogan 43:33 And it... Oh, doesn't it hook up to his tooth?

Narrator 43:35 That... I don't... That... There's two things I'm seeing here.

Joe Rogan 43:38 They figured out a way to allow people to see things through their teeth.

Noland Arbaugh 43:41 Yeah, I've seen that. Yeah. I don't get it. I don't get it.

Joe Rogan 43:45 Yeah.

Noland Arbaugh 43:45 But...

Joe Rogan 43:46 I'm not gonna get that one.

Noland Arbaugh 43:47 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 43:49 (laughs) There's not enough time in the world for me to figure that out.

Noland Arbaugh 43:51 Yeah. Not for me though.

Joe Rogan 43:52 Thank God for smart people.

Noland Arbaugh 43:53 I know, right?

Joe Rogan 43:54 I mean, uh, how are they getting it through the tooth?

Narrator 44:00 I don't know. I'm, uh, I'm trying to...

Noland Arbaugh 44:01 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 44:02 Both of them, the 3D printed eye?

Narrator 44:03 Well, here's the one guy, first guy. He's a director. He shot himself in the eye on accident.

Noland Arbaugh 44:08 Oh.

Joe Rogan 44:09 Yo.

Narrator 44:10 I guess he's got a camera in there, it says.

Joe Rogan 44:12 And he sees through the camera?

Narrator 44:14 That I was trying to get to. Yeah, it's got a transmitter. I don't know if it's going to someone's brain, but he can see it on a ca... He...

Joe Rogan 44:19 Oh, so he can see it on a phone.

Narrator 44:20 Yeah.

Noland Arbaugh 44:21 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 44:21 That's kind of weird.

Narrator 44:22 Maybe that's the first step and they need to-

Joe Rogan 44:24 That guy would make the weirdest POV porn.

Noland Arbaugh 44:27 Is this made in like the '90s?

Narrator 44:30 It's not new and I'm... Yes, 12 years ago.

Noland Arbaugh 44:32 Uh-huh.

Joe Rogan 44:33 So, then-

Noland Arbaugh 44:34 It looks like he's playing that on a Game Boy.

Joe Rogan 44:35 Yeah.

Narrator 44:35 I'd say about through a 2.

Joe Rogan 44:36 It's not a Game Boy, but it's some sort of a-

Noland Arbaugh 44:38 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 44:38 ... proprietary little electronic video player.

Narrator 44:43 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 44:44 Hmm.

Noland Arbaugh 44:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:44 Amazing times.

Noland Arbaugh 44:45 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:46 So, what is next in terms of like, how long does this study that you're on?

Noland Arbaugh 44:51 I think it...

Joe Rogan 44:51 Oh, Blind Woman Sees with Tooth in Eye Surgery. Doctors in Florida restore a woman's sight by implanting a tooth in her eye.

Narrator 44:59 All right. That's different. (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 45:00 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 45:00 No, but I think that's how they do it.

Narrator 45:01 Okay.

Joe Rogan 45:02 That is, that is the thing. That's... I was saying like through your teeth, but I mean, that's-

Narrator 45:06 Okay. Okay.

Joe Rogan 45:06 ... that is how they do it. Uh, a team of specialists at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine announced Wednesday that they're the first surgeons in the United States to restore a person's sight by using a tooth. The procedure is formally called modified osteodontokeratop- kerata- keratoprosthesis. Sorry. Uh, Sharon Kay Thornton, 60, went blind nine years ago from a rare disorder called Steven Johnson Syndrome. The disorder left the surface of her eye so severely scarred she was legally blind, but doctors determined that the inside of her eyes were still functional enough that she might one day see with the help of this thing. Uh, this is a patient where the surface of the eye was totally damaged. No wetness, no tears. Dr. Victor L. Perez, the ophthalmologist at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami who operated on Thornton, "So we kind of recreate the environment of the mouth in the eye."

Noland Arbaugh 46:00 What? I don't get that.

Joe Rogan 46:02 Three-phase operation started with the University of Miami dentist Dr. Yo Sawatari, who removed the tooth from Thornton's mouth and prepared an implant of her own dental tissue for her most severely damaged eye. The tissue would be used to make a new cornea to replace the damaged one. The doctors then removed a section of Thornton's cheek that would become the soft mucus tissue around her pupil. Whoa. Finally, Perez and his team implanted the modified tooth, which had a hole drilled through the center to support a prosthetic lens. "We used that tooth as a platform to put the optical cylinder into the eye," explained Perez. Perez said doctors often use less risky and less invasive techniques to replace corneas, but the damage from Thornton's Steven Johnson Syndrome ruled those out. Whoa. Using a tooth might sound strange, but it also offers an advantage because doctors used Thornton's own cheek and tooth tissue. She faces less risk that her immune system will attack the tooth and reject the transplant.

Noland Arbaugh 47:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:01 Patients getting a cornea transplant from a deceased donor, on the other hand, face chances that their immune system will reject the new tissue. Wow.

Noland Arbaugh 47:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:09 Wow.

Noland Arbaugh 47:10 Yeah. I... For some reason, I thought they were using that tooth to like, well, I don't know, use it as a replacement for like her vision in some way, but it's literally just a placeholder for like, you know, different, different things, like the tissue in different places to like, like they said, hold that lens and stuff. That makes more sense.

Joe Rogan 47:27 Yeah, I thought it was that too. I thought they were seeing through the teeth. (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 47:30 Yeah, yeah, Yeah. I was like, that doesn't... I don't get that.

Joe Rogan 47:32 No. That makes more sense.

Noland Arbaugh 47:33 Like, why can't we see through our teeth all the time? Be looking at what's going on in my mouth.

Joe Rogan 47:38 Right. Yeah. Um, all this stuff is... It- it's- it's just mind-blowing to imagine where this is gonna be in 100 years.

Noland Arbaugh 47:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:46 And with you, uh, do you have the... Like, if they start doing the range of motion studies or the, uh, being able to recreate motion or restore motion, are you gonna be available for those studies? Can they... Can you do that too? Are you only like locked into this one study?

Noland Arbaugh 48:06 Yeah, I don't know. Uh, I imagine I'm locked into this, uh, for now at least. But at the same time, um, I'm not sure. I'm really not sure. You would have to do it with someone who already has the implant in their brain. So, I don't know if it'll be a separate Neuralink that they would need, um, like a different one specifically for, um, like the two implants interacting together. I don't see why that would be the case. Um, just like same thing with people who... They're gonna have to test to see if the surgery to replace a Neuralink is, uh, safe at some point. They're gonna have to go through-

Joe Rogan 48:42 Hmm.

Noland Arbaugh 48:42 ... a whole thing. So, they're gonna have to do it on people who already have it in. Um-So, I imagine, like, that sort of study might be something I would be involved in if they're planning on implanting one in someone's spinal cord and then seeing how they interact and seeing if it works. I don't see why I couldn't be in that, um, but we'll see. Hm, it's kind of a long way off, I think.

Joe Rogan 49:02 How big is the- the Neuralink implant?

Noland Arbaugh 49:05 It's about the size of a quarter. Um, uh, it's mu-... It's thicker than a quarter. Um, I don't know, maybe half an inch, something like that, thick.

Joe Rogan 49:14 And does it-... Y-... It's on the surface? So like-

Noland Arbaugh 49:18 Yeah, it's implanted on my skull. So, they cut out a chunk of my skull. Uh, I think it's called a craniectomy, and then they left that chunk out and just replaced it with the Neuralink.

Joe Rogan 49:27 Do they take that chunk and, like, put it in a freezer so they can put it back in you someday?

Noland Arbaugh 49:30 Yeah, I-... I'm not sure. I don't think so. I-... Oh, talking about it, yeah, talking about it afterwards, um-

Joe Rogan 49:36 That's it?

Noland Arbaugh 49:37 Yep.

Joe Rogan 49:38 Yo, that's ahead.

Noland Arbaugh 49:39 Yeah. Uh, I was talking about it with my buddy afterwards and I was like, "I should have asked them for my chunk of skull." That would have been sweet.

Joe Rogan 49:45 Yeah, I don't think they're allowed to give that to people.

Noland Arbaugh 49:49 Yeah, they can-

Joe Rogan 49:49 I think that's, like, bio-waste or something like that.

Noland Arbaugh 49:53 It's bio-waste.

Joe Rogan 49:53 I think it's, like, biohaz-... No.

Noland Arbaugh 49:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 49:55 It should, it definitely should be.

Noland Arbaugh 49:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 49:56 But I think people-

Noland Arbaugh 49:57 They give, they give people their testicles back, so.

Joe Rogan 49:59 Right, but it has to be in, like, formaldehyde or something.

Noland Arbaugh 50:02 Okay.

Joe Rogan 50:02 So just take your skull and put it into formaldehyde, I guess.

Noland Arbaugh 50:04 Yeah, that's fine by me. As long as I can have it.

Joe Rogan 50:07 Um, th-... How many versions did they go through before they got to the one where they were willing to do it on people?

Noland Arbaugh 50:12 Uh, a lot. I saw, like, from their very first, uh, idea of Neuralink through this one, I don't know. I- I don't know how-... exactly how many there were. I would say at least, um, one or two dozen, uh, different, like, iterations.

Joe Rogan 50:30 Hm.

Noland Arbaugh 50:31 Yeah, and then, like, the version I have is, like, thousands in-... Like, the thousandth or two thousandth iteration of, um, this one. So, like, they're constantly changing stuff. So, like, even the next person that gets it, they've probably made, I don't know, a thousand more modifications to it. Um, little things-

Joe Rogan 50:53 Wow.

Noland Arbaugh 50:53 ... just like if they've seen certai- certain things in my implant, they could improve on. Um, obviously, they're gonna change how the threads, uh, work. Um, they're gonna add more electrodes. They're going to maybe update the battery. They might update a lot of things. They're looking at updating what signal it uses instead of Bluetooth. Um, they're looking at different things like that. So, the next one that comes in is probably gonna be much different. Maybe the same design. Maybe they found a better design. I don't know.

Joe Rogan 51:21 Wow. And I know in the future, they've talked about putting this into people that don't have any issues medically.

Noland Arbaugh 51:31 Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 51:32 What are they planning on doing? Like, how are they planning on that, do you know?

Noland Arbaugh 51:35 What do you mean how? Like-

Joe Rogan 51:36 In terms of, like, is that gonna just be offered for... Are y- y- you gonna get... What- what-... What are the long-term goals? Is it to get the internet on that? Is it so people communicate te- telepathically?

Noland Arbaugh 51:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 51:46 Is it gonna be, like, a slow build-up to the idea that everyone is gonna wanna get one of these things?

Noland Arbaugh 51:51 Hm, I think once it's proved... So, like, this- this study is to prove whether or not it's safe and if it works, basically. I think once that's proven, then they're gonna get into a lot more of what it's actually capable of, and then once it's released to the public, I think, I think people are gonna rush to get it, honestly. Um, at least a group of people who have been following it, at the very least. 'Cause once we know that it's safe, then that's one of the big things that people are gonna, like... Once that's lifted, once you're like, "Okay, it's safe," now we can go through and start talking about being able to communicate with people and being able to, you know, possibly download information or have it be available to you, um, using AI and stuff like that. I'm not sure if that's gonna happen. I don't see why it's not possible, at the very least. And then they-... I know Neuralink's talking about opening up a clinic in Austin basically where you would go in and get a surgery and, like, walk out, um, so it's not like... Like, my surgery was, like, I don't wanna say not invasive 'cause obviously they did brain surgery, but, um, it was-... They were expecting it to be, you know, s- something like three to six hours, and my surgery took under two hours. It went super, super fast. Uh, there were no complications at all. It was not, um, like, obviously invasive in the brain, but there was no damage done really. So, uh, and this was the very first time. So, once they get this even better, even more tuned in, then I imagine people going to this clinic and going in and come out in a few hours with a Neuralink, and then they can chat with all their friends online or something like that.

Joe Rogan 53:26 Jesus. (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 53:27 Yeah. It'd be pretty cool. It'd be pretty cool. Again, I'm not, I'm not here to talk about, like, the ethical ramifications of that or, like, how- how-... It's fun to think about, like, the things that, um, might go wrong or could go wrong, and it's probably something that people much smarter than me should think about, whether or not it should be done, but, um, I think there are so many things that, uh, you could do with it.

Joe Rogan 53:52 I think it's going to be done no matter what.

Noland Arbaugh 53:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 53:54 And if it's not done by Neuralink, it's gonna be done by someone in another country.

Noland Arbaugh 53:59 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 53:59 It's going to be done. Technology always-

Noland Arbaugh 54:02 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 54:02 ... moves forward. It never stops over concerns of what could possibly go wrong.

Noland Arbaugh 54:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:06 Hence the nuclear bomb.

Noland Arbaugh 54:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:08 Yeah, it's not gonna stop.

Noland Arbaugh 54:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:10 It's just not what we do. We- we- we always try to come up with greater things, and if someone does figure out a way to connect human beings to some form of wireless internet or wireless data or some completely new thing instead of thinking it as the internet as we know it, being these devices that go to websites, it might be a completely different invention that uses a completely different type of technology to sync all the information and all the minds-

Noland Arbaugh 54:38 Hm.

Joe Rogan 54:39 ... in the world together. You know, it might not-

Noland Arbaugh 54:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:42 ... be as dopey as going to a website. Like, going to a website is probably, like, an archaic way to do it.

Noland Arbaugh 54:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:48 You know?

Noland Arbaugh 54:49 It'll be like-... It'll be like the cloud or the met-... the Metaverse or something. You can just hop in and-... everyone will be there. You can go chat with whoever you want around the world.

Joe Rogan 54:57 And they can just upgrade your operating system and make you woke. (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 54:59 Yeah. (laughs) Exactly, right?

Joe Rogan 55:02 You sign up for the wrong one-

Noland Arbaugh 55:03 Like you can ... yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:03 ... the next thing you know, you got some way, way crazy ideas.

Noland Arbaugh 55:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:06 (inhales deeply)

Noland Arbaugh 55:06 Propaganda will take new leaps and bounds.

Joe Rogan 55:08 Right. But then-

Noland Arbaugh 55:09 Like it could-

Joe Rogan 55:09 ... who's running it? Like that, what are the, is it one person and everybody else is a robot? Like that doesn't make any sense.

Noland Arbaugh 55:14 I'm sure that's what they'll do. They'll, they'll try. S- I'm sure someone's gonna wanna run it all. Uh-

Joe Rogan 55:18 Someone is gonna h- wanna run it.

Noland Arbaugh 55:20 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 55:20 Yeah.

Noland Arbaugh 55:21 It's gonna need to be, hopefully, they, by that point, they will regulate it, but as we've seen with like, you know, things like AI art even, they're trying to catch up with that. It's like-

Joe Rogan 55:31 Yeah.

Noland Arbaugh 55:31 ... "Oh, should we, should we have, like, thought about this before all this was released?" And they're like, "No. Government will figure it out." Yeah. Good luck with that.

Joe Rogan 55:39 Right.

Noland Arbaugh 55:39 It's like, yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:40 Well, they're able to scour the internet for every artist's work-

Noland Arbaugh 55:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:44 ... and then sort of take pieces of that and create-

Noland Arbaugh 55:47 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 55:48 ... art. And these, these artists are like, "Hey, you know-"

Noland Arbaugh 55:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:50 "... that took me fucking forever to paint that like-"

Noland Arbaugh 55:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:52 "... and you just stole it-"

Noland Arbaugh 55:53 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 55:54 "... and did a version of it in 13"-

Noland Arbaugh 55:55 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 55:56 "... seconds."

Noland Arbaugh 55:56 Yep. Like-

Joe Rogan 55:57 It's weird.

Noland Arbaugh 55:58 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:59 And that's just one problem.

Noland Arbaugh 56:00 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 56:00 Another problem is deepfakes and songs. Like there's-

Noland Arbaugh 56:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:04 They, they made a Drake song that became a hit, and Drake had-

Noland Arbaugh 56:06 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 56:06 ... nothing to do with it. (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 56:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:08 It's like, it's not that-

Noland Arbaugh 56:09 I mean, yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:09 Not that far away from-

Noland Arbaugh 56:11 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 56:11 ... it being out of the barn where you're-

Noland Arbaugh 56:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:13 ... not gonna be able to ever stop, you're not gonna be able to s-, you, you're gonna be able to do whatever you want in terms of, like, creating videos, audios-

Noland Arbaugh 56:21 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 56:21 ... and it'll look indistinguishable from a real video, real audio.

Noland Arbaugh 56:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:25 They're already gonna take this podcast and translate it into different languages without me being able to speak, speak them.

Noland Arbaugh 56:31 Oh.

Joe Rogan 56:31 Just through AI.

Noland Arbaugh 56:32 Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think they did the same thing with the deepfake like you were just saying.

Joe Rogan 56:36 Mm-hmm.

Noland Arbaugh 56:36 I think they did something with, like, Trump recently, where it was, like, a deepfake of Trump, and after a while, he had to be like, "Hey, guys, that wasn't me." Like-

Joe Rogan 56:42 Wasn't there a, was there a football player that was saying some wild shit that turned out to be fake or a basketball player?

Noland Arbaugh 56:48 Oh, yeah. That too.

Joe Rogan 56:49 Did you hear about this, Jimmy?

Narrator 56:50 Depends on which, exactly what you're talking about, but there's a bunch of fake press conferences-

Joe Rogan 56:54 But-

Narrator 56:54 ... that go viral.

Joe Rogan 56:54 Yes, that's what I'm talking about.

Noland Arbaugh 56:55 Yeah.

Narrator 56:56 It's just like a thing someone's doing. I don't know what it is, but-

Joe Rogan 56:59 (laughs) Yeah, but apparently, it was just barely wacky enough for people to go, "That looks fake."

Noland Arbaugh 57:04 Yeah.

Narrator 57:04 Yep.

Noland Arbaugh 57:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 57:04 You have to be very sophisticated. If you saw this-

Noland Arbaugh 57:07 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 57:07 I mean, we're getting used to looking for things being fake, whereas 20 years ago, you would say, "That's real."

Noland Arbaugh 57:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 57:13 I see it. It's a video.

Noland Arbaugh 57:14 Yep.

Joe Rogan 57:14 It's real.

Noland Arbaugh 57:15 It's something that I was actually just talking with my buddy about the other day. I think it's going to be something similar to, you know how, like, we get emails from Nigerian princes.

Joe Rogan 57:23 (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 57:24 And we're like, we're like, "Yeah."

Narrator 57:26 (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 57:26 Like, "Grandma, don't open that. Don't send the money."

Narrator 57:28 (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 57:28 "It's not real." Uh, I think it's going to be something that people are able to do, like, the next generations-

Narrator 57:34 Mm-hmm.

Noland Arbaugh 57:34 ... where they look at something online and they're like, "Oh, yeah. That's AI."

Narrator 57:37 Yeah.

Noland Arbaugh 57:37 "Oh, yeah. That's fake." But I, I'm-

Narrator 57:38 Yeah. I think you're right.

Noland Arbaugh 57:39 Yeah. They're, they're just, they're gonna grow up with it, so they're gonna be able to figure out, but maybe not. This stuff looks so real that I don't know, but maybe they're gonna have to be required to do, like, watermarks or something on it every time it's-

Joe Rogan 57:51 I don't think they're gonna be able to stop it.

Noland Arbaugh 57:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 57:53 I think we're just gonna get into a real weird, blurry place.

Noland Arbaugh 57:56 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 57:57 I think the one thing that might help, (exhales deeply) and this sounds crazy, but-

Noland Arbaugh 58:03 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 58:04 ... I think ultimately what technology does is closes- it makes things more accessible. It gets you more information. It connects people more. It's, uh, with translation, it's connecting people-

Noland Arbaugh 58:18 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 58:19 ... from different cultures and different countries-

Narrator 58:21 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 58:22 ... more. I think ultimately what it's gonna do is it's going to be some sort of a mind interface. I don't think it's gonna be as simple as language.

Narrator 58:29 Mm-mm.

Joe Rogan 58:29 I think it's gonna be a next level mind interface, and if it's something through a technology akin to, to Neuralink or maybe future versions of Neuralink, I think we're, we're gonna be able to know what someone's actually thinking. I think-

Narrator 58:43 Mm-mm.

Joe Rogan 58:43 ... you're, you're not gonna be able to lie anymore is what I'm saying.

Noland Arbaugh 58:45 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:45 I don't, I, I don't think lying is going to be possible 100 years from now.

Narrator 58:49 Mm-mm.

Joe Rogan 58:49 Which would be a really good thing.

Narrator 58:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:50 And if you're a person right now that lives your life without lying, you know this.

Narrator 58:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:54 This is way better.

Narrator 58:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:54 As a person who used to lie and doesn't lie ever now-

Narrator 58:57 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 58:57 ... I'll tell you right now, it's great.

Noland Arbaugh 58:59 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:59 I love it.

Noland Arbaugh 59:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:00 It's, it's a good thing to not lie.

Narrator 59:01 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 59:01 And if you live your life in this manner where there cannot be deception, how much more would, would we get done?

Narrator 59:10 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:10 How much more would we understand each other in, in relationships and in, and if you're bullshitting, you'll understand that you're bullshitting by the way another person sees your thoughts, and then you'll be forced to handle those and go, "You know what? I'm trying to put this off on other people, and it's really me."

Narrator 59:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:28 "I'm the problem."

Noland Arbaugh 59:29 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:29 You'll be able to see it. Everyone will-

Noland Arbaugh 59:31 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:31 ... be able to see reality instead-

Noland Arbaugh 59:33 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 59:33 ... of these sort of manufactured narratives that people have-

Noland Arbaugh 59:37 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 59:37 ... with this very selective view of memory and the-

Narrator 59:40 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 59:40 ... their thoughts of the past, and "You know, my boss did me wrong." "No, you're a fuck up. You showed up late every day."

Narrator 59:45 (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 59:45 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 59:45 Like, you know, and, "Well, fucking, they fucking hated me." No, you were super insecure-

Narrator 59:49 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 59:49 ... and real shitty around people.

Noland Arbaugh 59:50 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 59:50 You know, it's like you'll see-

Narrator 59:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:52 We'll, we'll, we'll be able to solve a lot of our social issues that seem insurmountable because of poor communication, but-

Narrator 1:00:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:00:00 ... poor under- and, and lack of honesty, a lack of, like, real, honest conversations-

Narrator 1:00:05 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:00:05 ... instead of just people trying to win arguments.

Noland Arbaugh 1:00:08 Yeah. Yeah. That'd be great, uh, until people realize that, you know, maybe you don't need to lie exactly. Maybe you can find ways to work around having to lie with this thing. If you can't lie anymore, if you're not allowed to, I mean, people find ways to kinda sorta lie all the time.

Joe Rogan 1:00:25 Yeah.

Noland Arbaugh 1:00:25 And then also, if you can hack it and then you're able to lie and no one else is, then that becomes kind of an issue too. If in some way you are able to, like, jailbreak your Neuralink, so you can't lie anymore and then you're the only one lying, everyone's gonna believe you. Uh, they think that you can't lie and then that brings up a whole new world of problems.

Joe Rogan 1:00:45 Hmm. My, in my, my eyes, you're seeing right into the thoughts.

Noland Arbaugh 1:00:49 Oh, I see what you mean.

Joe Rogan 1:00:49 I don't think you have a chance to lie.

Noland Arbaugh 1:00:51 Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Joe Rogan 1:00:51 I don't think there's any, there's noth- it doesn't exist anymore. I think-

Noland Arbaugh 1:00:54 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:00:55 ... I think it goes away. And hence liars go away. That's gonna be-

Noland Arbaugh 1:00:59 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:00:59 ... a real problem. We're gonna have-

Noland Arbaugh 1:01:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:01:00 ... to have actual understanding of all the different processes that are in play, whether it's environment or resources-

Noland Arbaugh 1:01:07 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:01:07 ... or-... you know, inter-country conflicts, whatever the fuck is going on, we're gonna have a, we're gonna have to have a real understanding of it without politicians bullshitting us on, as to why we're gonna do something. That won't exist anymore. That would be wild.

Noland Arbaugh 1:01:21 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:01:21 They would be the ones that would resist it the most.

Noland Arbaugh 1:01:24 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:01:24 Be like, "We have this dangerous-"

Noland Arbaugh 1:01:26 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:01:26 "... mind-reading technology." Like if fucking Nancy Pelosi would have a press conference.

Noland Arbaugh 1:01:31 (laughs) I mean, I, I just think if something like that ever came about, they would never let it happen.

Joe Rogan 1:01:36 I don't think they have a choice.

Noland Arbaugh 1:01:38 Hm.

Joe Rogan 1:01:38 'Cause China will do it, Russia will do it, everyone will do it. Someone's gonna do it. Th- all these eggheads out there that are willing to push that button, they're not gonna listen to the government. Shut the fuck up. The government is just a bunch-

Noland Arbaugh 1:01:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:01:48 ... of people. The, the super nerds out there are the ones who are really in charge of this stuff, because even we're seeing this w- with technology and some of these hearings on AI, the people that are asking the questions don't know what the fuck is going on.

Noland Arbaugh 1:02:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:00 You know, and I'm sure you saw that with, uh, some of the Facebook hearings and some of the other hearings.

Noland Arbaugh 1:02:05 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:02:05 The people that are actually asking about the tech t- How much time do you have to get into the understanding of this?

Noland Arbaugh 1:02:11 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:11 How much time between worrying about water rights in your district-

Noland Arbaugh 1:02:16 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:02:16 ... and this and that, and all these other problems that you have-

Noland Arbaugh 1:02:18 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:02:18 ... as a politician, how much time are you actually spending trying to figure out how social media works?

Noland Arbaugh 1:02:23 Yeah, probably none. They just have aides that are giving them-

Joe Rogan 1:02:25 Right.

Noland Arbaugh 1:02:26 ... all this stuff, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:26 That's why they have pieces of paper, and they're-

Noland Arbaugh 1:02:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:28 ... looking down with their reading glasses. "Now, Mr. Zuckerberg, my phone doesn't go to Google right."

Noland Arbaugh 1:02:33 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:02:33 "Why is that?"

Noland Arbaugh 1:02:36 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:02:36 (laughs) They got these, these like grandpas who argue on Facebook.

Noland Arbaugh 1:02:39 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:02:39 Like, they're, they're not going to be the people that control AI, and they're not-

Noland Arbaugh 1:02:43 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:43 ... gonna be the people that are gonna be able to figure out how to stop mind-reading technology. I think when mind-reading technology comes, it's gonna come so fast that it's gonna be just like all these other things, like the internet. It came so fast, they couldn't control it. 'Cause if you looked at the internet, if you looked at what, what the internet has done for, like, a distrust in mainstream media, a distrust in politicians-

Noland Arbaugh 1:03:03 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:03:03 ... exposing corruption, all the different things that-

Noland Arbaugh 1:03:05 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:03:06 ... we know about now that are a fact, that just 20 years ago, you would've thought had been crazy conspiracy talk. If they knew that that was gonna happen and make life so much more difficult for them, they would've regulated the internet from the jump. They would've stopped-

Noland Arbaugh 1:03:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:03:19 ... stepped in, took over like China did, took over like North Korea did, and you would get their version of the internet forever, and that's it.

Noland Arbaugh 1:03:26 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:03:26 And there's no growth, and there's, and they'll silence dissidents. And that's how they would've done it if they had ever known that it was gonna be what it is now.

Noland Arbaugh 1:03:33 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:03:34 I think that's ex- exactly what's gonna happen with mind-reading software and mind-reading technology. I think it's gonna happen. They're gonna be, "But, oh, oh, oh, Jesus Christ."

Noland Arbaugh 1:03:42 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:03:43 I don't think, you know... And also, look, they're just human beings too. They're gonna want that.

Noland Arbaugh 1:03:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:03:49 If they find out there's a technology that allows you to communicate with people in a completely new way, and it's much more fulfilling, and we understand each other much better, and we really-

Noland Arbaugh 1:03:59 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:03:59 ... do realize that we are all one.

Noland Arbaugh 1:04:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:04:02 Imagine we can communicate with this technology and it ends war overnight.

Noland Arbaugh 1:04:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:04:08 It makes war literally impossible. You realize that these people you're about to bomb are you, and that we're all the same thing. We're all one consciousness experiencing itself through different-

Noland Arbaugh 1:04:18 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:04:18 ... bodies and different lives and different experiences and different genes-

Noland Arbaugh 1:04:21 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:04:21 ... in different parts of the world, but we're all genuinely the same thing.

Noland Arbaugh 1:04:26 Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. It brings up a lot of questions, like where we would go from there though, like how it's gonna change, uh, humans-

Joe Rogan 1:04:33 That's when the aliens land.

Noland Arbaugh 1:04:35 (laughs) Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:04:35 The aliens land, we figure it out.

Noland Arbaugh 1:04:36 Oh, man.

Joe Rogan 1:04:37 Ah, finally.

Noland Arbaugh 1:04:37 Oh, man, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:04:38 We were waiting.

Noland Arbaugh 1:04:39 If that, if that's what it takes to bring aliens down, then I'm all for it. If that, if that's what it takes to really get us to be face to face... The only thing I keep telling my buddy is like, I, I am all down for the whole, like, aliens come in, us interacting with them and everything, as long as they're not the mantids. If they're-

Joe Rogan 1:04:56 Right.

Noland Arbaugh 1:04:56 ... the mantis people, I, I don't want anything to do with them. I think that, no, I just don't want it.

Joe Rogan 1:05:02 I'm with you, bro.

Noland Arbaugh 1:05:03 Yeah, uh-

Joe Rogan 1:05:04 Fuck the mantis people.

Noland Arbaugh 1:05:05 Dude-

Joe Rogan 1:05:05 Can you imagine mantises were, like, the size of a dog? We would be so fucked.

Noland Arbaugh 1:05:09 Ch- yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:05:09 We'd be so fucked.

Noland Arbaugh 1:05:10 Yeah, my-

Joe Rogan 1:05:11 One of the most gangster videos I've ever seen online is like a gecko, and the gecko's trying to eat the mantis.

Noland Arbaugh 1:05:17 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:05:17 And the gecko walks up to the mantis and, and tries to get it, and the mantis is like, "Not today, bitch."

Noland Arbaugh 1:05:21 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:05:21 "I'm gonna eat you."

Noland Arbaugh 1:05:22 Oh my gosh.

Joe Rogan 1:05:23 And the gecko's like, "What is happening?" And like, you'd see it. Look at its face. It's like so confused.

Noland Arbaugh 1:05:28 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:05:28 And it's got its claws, these fucking, these giant things-

Noland Arbaugh 1:05:32 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:05:33 ... wrapped around it, controlling it. It just starts eating its face.

Noland Arbaugh 1:05:36 Yeah, yeah. Mantises are... Like, insects themselves, like, you look, really get up close to an insect, and you're like, "That thing is ugly. I do not like it one bit." Now, imagine that, and the things I've heard about the mantis is they're not the size of a dog. They're like the size of, like, multiple people, and no thanks. Like, absolutely-

Joe Rogan 1:05:54 So-

Noland Arbaugh 1:05:54 ... not.

Joe Rogan 1:05:55 ... the mantis aliens, I'm not too familiar with. I've seen, like, a couple of things online. How many people have seen the mantis aliens?

Noland Arbaugh 1:06:01 Yeah, I know of one story where there was a hunter, um, just walking around, and, um, it, it got, like, dark over him or something, and he looked up, uh, and there was just, like, a ship over him, and he looked through his scope, and he looked right into some, like, mantis people. And, um-

Joe Rogan 1:06:18 Dun, dun, dun.

Noland Arbaugh 1:06:19 Yeah, and I'm not okay with that. Like, that's the, that's the one alien story I think I'll stay far away from and hope it's something else.

Joe Rogan 1:06:26 Well, you gotta think that insects have some kind of bizarre intelligence because that's... If you've ever seen leaf-cutter ant colonies when they-

Noland Arbaugh 1:06:35 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:06:35 ... they pour the cement in them, and you realize, like, how sophisticated they are, like-

Noland Arbaugh 1:06:38 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:06:39 How'd you guys do this?

Noland Arbaugh 1:06:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:06:40 Like, how do you figure this out? There's like-

Noland Arbaugh 1:06:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:06:42 They have channels where the air can pass through that, so they can s- ferment leaves. So, they have, like, a fermentation factory-

Noland Arbaugh 1:06:50 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:06:50 ... inside their ant colony, and the colony's huge.

Noland Arbaugh 1:06:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:06:55 It's so big, and you're like, "You little tiny fuckers built a city-"

Noland Arbaugh 1:06:59 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:06:59 "... underground right here." There's gotta be some sort of intelligence. Now, if ants evolved to the point where they developed that kind of intelligence, who's to say-... that in a different environment, where ants have more accesses to food, more access to resources, and more competition, that they don't evolve to the point where that intelligence, it keeps getting scaled up and they get to, like, a human.

Noland Arbaugh 1:07:24 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:07:25 Human-level intelligence prov- from an insect.

Noland Arbaugh 1:07:27 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:07:28 Or beyond.

Noland Arbaugh 1:07:29 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:07:30 Why not?

Noland Arbaugh 1:07:30 Yeah. They just need some psychedelics or something to really get that brain to grow.

Joe Rogan 1:07:34 Or a Neuralink.

Noland Arbaugh 1:07:36 Yeah, right? (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:07:36 That's what I have a feeling. I have a feeling that in the future everyone's going to be some sort of a cyborg and everyone else is going to be artificial, that they'll be complete life forms that were developed just with computers.

Noland Arbaugh 1:07:51 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:07:52 Just comp- like, computers, technology, whatever form of chips, and, and they'll put together things that are more intelligent than us, can communicate with us, can work with us, but that's gonna be one of those things. It's not gonna be one of us, and that'll be a, a different life form that exists alongside with us.

Noland Arbaugh 1:08:11 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:08:11 But I don't think there'll be very many people like me, no chip, no nothing, just a person. Like, like-

Noland Arbaugh 1:08:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:08:18 ... "What is that moron doing?"

Noland Arbaugh 1:08:20 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:08:20 "You're running around with no chip?"

Noland Arbaugh 1:08:22 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:08:22 You know, I think in the future it's gonna be everyone's gonna have something that enhances them.

Noland Arbaugh 1:08:27 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:08:28 We already do with our phones.

Noland Arbaugh 1:08:29 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:08:29 You know?

Noland Arbaugh 1:08:30 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:08:31 It's g- it's going to be something, like, beyond that where it's gonna be so compelling that everyone's gonna wanna do it.

Noland Arbaugh 1:08:36 Mm-hmm. So you're not gonna get it if it comes out?

Joe Rogan 1:08:39 I'm not saying I'm not gonna get it. I might get it.

Noland Arbaugh 1:08:43 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:08:44 I might have... I don't wanna be alone.

Noland Arbaugh 1:08:46 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:08:46 Don't wanna be the only person who can't read minds. Um, I probably wouldn't wanna be the first adopter, you know?

Noland Arbaugh 1:08:53 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:08:53 I wanna wait a little bit.

Noland Arbaugh 1:08:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:08:55 You know?

Noland Arbaugh 1:08:55 That was, that was an argument that I had with doing this was, "Do I really wanna be the first?" I mean, who knows what kind of problems there's gonna be, but I-

Joe Rogan 1:09:03 But-

Noland Arbaugh 1:09:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:09:03 ... for a guy like you, I would say, like, uh, they, they're pretty sure it works.

Noland Arbaugh 1:09:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:09:09 And they were right.

Noland Arbaugh 1:09:10 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:09:10 You know? And how cool was it the first day to be able to play video games?

Noland Arbaugh 1:09:16 Yeah, it was awesome. (laughs) It was really, really cool.

Joe Rogan 1:09:18 What did you play?

Noland Arbaugh 1:09:19 Um, uh, Civilization VI.

Joe Rogan 1:09:21 (laughs)

Noland Arbaugh 1:09:22 I don't know, I don't know if you've heard of it. It's a massive game. It's something I've been wanting to play for a long time. I was able to kinda sorta play it with some different assistive technology over the last few years, but not really. And I played it, like, all night. I didn't sleep. It was freaking awesome. Um, man, I just love... I mean, I grew up being a gamer. I grew up in kinda this age. So the last eight years, I've watched all of my friends play games that I've wanted to play, and the fact that I might be able to play some of them, like, some of them are still, uh, too far out of reach for the Neuralink at this point, but not for much longer. In the next few years, I think I'll be able to play anything anyone else plays, so.

Joe Rogan 1:09:58 Halo.

Noland Arbaugh 1:09:59 I love Halo. I'm a big Halo guy.

Joe Rogan 1:10:01 (laughs) Are you gonna be able-

Noland Arbaugh 1:10:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:10:02 ... to play that?

Noland Arbaugh 1:10:02 Yeah, I hope so.

Joe Rogan 1:10:03 Wow.

Noland Arbaugh 1:10:03 I really hope so. Yeah, that would be sick.

Joe Rogan 1:10:06 So you'll be able to play shooters like Call of Duty?

Noland Arbaugh 1:10:07 Yeah, yeah. That's, that brings up another thing. Like, I basically have an aim bot in my head, so.

Joe Rogan 1:10:13 Oh.

Noland Arbaugh 1:10:14 Yeah, so.

Joe Rogan 1:10:14 That's crazy.

Noland Arbaugh 1:10:15 They'll probably, yeah, they'll probably have, like, different leagues, uh, for people like me because it's just not fair. Um...

Joe Rogan 1:10:23 Wow. Is it that accurate?

Noland Arbaugh 1:10:25 It's that accurate and-

Joe Rogan 1:10:26 Wow.

Noland Arbaugh 1:10:26 ... it's, and it's faster. One thing that I found with the Neuralink is something that, uh, kinda blew my mind too, is that when I'm attempting to do stuff sometimes or I'm thinking it to, like, move in a certain place, sometimes it's so good that it's moving before I even, like, think it to move. It's almost like if you think about moving your hand, um, the signal is basically already being sent before you move your hand. Like, your, your mind is saying, "Okay, he's about to move his hand," basically. So the signal needs to be sent all the way down and back up in order for y- for you to move your hand. So the speed that all that happens, and it's almost a little preemptive, I saw that with the Neuralink where it was moving the cursor before I was actually moving my hand, say.

Joe Rogan 1:11:16 Wow.

Noland Arbaugh 1:11:17 So with video games, stuff like that, you just need to think for it to move somewhere and it is that accurate and it's quicker than you can even think. So there's no way it's gonna, like, no one else is gonna be able to keep up with it.

Joe Rogan 1:11:31 That's gonna be wild for something like Quake.

Noland Arbaugh 1:11:34 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:11:34 Like a, a first person, like a fast first-person shooter.

Noland Arbaugh 1:11:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:11:37 You're running down hallways and you're just catching people-

Noland Arbaugh 1:11:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:11:39 ... and shooting them instantaneously.

Noland Arbaugh 1:11:41 Yeah. Elon Musk-

Joe Rogan 1:11:41 Wow.

Noland Arbaugh 1:11:42 ... will have a field day. Wasn't he, like, one of the best Quake players in the world?

Joe Rogan 1:11:45 Was he?

Noland Arbaugh 1:11:46 Yeah, I think.

Joe Rogan 1:11:46 I didn't know that.

Noland Arbaugh 1:11:47 Yeah, I think he was, like, one of the top Quake players in North America at one