Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - 212: Our Camping vs. VR Weekends | Ear Biscuits Ep. 212

Episode Date: October 14, 2019

From walking amongst 100 giants to getting immersed in virtual reality, Rhett and Link discuss their polar opposite weekends on this episode of Ear Biscuits! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is Mythical. Welcome to Ear Biscuits, I'm Link. And I'm Rhett. This week at the round table of dim lighting, we are exploring our polar opposite weekend. We went to each pole of the Earth. Well, we both went on an adventure. Yeah. And the adventures couldn't have been more different.

True. And you know what? We're both wearing coordinated adventure outfits today. We're both wearing camo. Yeah, camo sweats. I got a camo sweat on the inside. Right, camo sweats on the outside. With a jacket over it.

And you've got a black shirt with a camo jacket on the outside. Polar opposite but the same. Do you have a lightning bolt? I do not have a lightning bolt. I win. You probably paid 40 more dollars for that. And look what Kiko's got on. Kiko's got on camo pants.

Camo sweatpants. No hold on, this isn't just the fact that we've got camo on. It's that we've all got camo sweats on. Yeah, man. That's different. We're vibing. That's better. If you don't have camo, get the hell out of here. Jacob, Jenna, Feldman. I think that Jacob, hold on,

I think Jacob's could be camo. That's not camo. If he were to go inside like a cave where there was like paintings, and then Jenna could be camo. It's like a cave painting shirt. If she went into like a denim factory, she could be camo. It's like a cave painting shirt. If she went into like a denim factory, she could be camo.

I got a mythical shirt on. And then felt like you just Okay, you're wearing merch so you can stay. Yeah, you stay. Yeah, so we went on these adventures. I went on a camping adventure that I would love to tell you about. And you went on an adventure,

how would you describe it as a polar opposite? It wasn't outdoors, it was very, very indoors. Tell the people. I purchased a VR headset. You know what I actually did? I actually traveled the world but I never got out of my underwear. And I am, whoo buddy, I'm excited about this.

Now, I brought it with me. I have it. You have it? I'm gonna put it on your head and my head at some point. What is it? What's it called? It's the Oculus Quest, which is the standalone, not a sponsor, standalone Oculus headset. Now we've played with the Oculus Rift on GM More,

I guess, before. But that's the one that has to be hooked up to some sort of PC or whatever. And then you've got. Every time they hook me up to that thing on Good Mythical More, it's just to scare the crap out of me. Yeah and you know what, I'll talk more about that about how I feel like my experience differed

from my previous experience with VR and also. I need a positive VR experience. This one, well I don't know if I'm gonna give you that but I'm not gonna give you any wires. That's one positive, I'm gonna just give you no wires. It's all right here, it's just boop, all one thing. And I think I've changed my life and changed my family's life.

So I'll talk about that. But you know, I woke up this morning, the reason why I put on camo is because it's finally getting at least cooler here. You know, if I get up early to go to the gym. Camo cool. It's not to make you cooler, it's to make you not be seen. Well. Do I need to

clean camo? This is sweats though. Okay. Like wearing a layer of sweats. Well you just don't have on sweats, you have on sweats and a jacket, which by the way, we went out on a double date the other night with our wives, and it had been a little bit cooler than it has been. It was like 66 degrees.

Link shows up at my house, he has on a shirt, a sweater, and then a jacket over the sweater. I was like, what is wrong with you? And I got my bandana in my jacket pocket in case I need to really get my neck warm. It may have gotten down to 63 degrees. We went down to a place called Eataly where it's all these different markets and places

that are, it's all Italian food. And Christy and I love Italian food and you and Christy love novelty foods. Novelty foods. And you had been, you'd scoped this place out, you told her about it in passing and then she never forgot about it. She's like we gotta go to this place.

And I thought since it was, I mean, I thought it was on the west side and I'm like, whoa, once you leave the valley, it's liable to get cold over there, ocean breeze. I gotta be prepped, man. Well, you're not wrong. I could have left it in the car, I could have left the sweater in the car. It was hot, it was too hot.

You could have gone to like Oregon, the way that you were dressed. I just, you know, it just felt inappropriate. But I'm ready for it to get cold, man, because I'm gearing up for it, you know? It's like, speaking of gearing up, it's the middle of October. Oh, we're about to do the Bleak Creek Conversations.

We got some stuff coming up, yeah. At least we're traveling to places. I mean, Boston. That's gonna be cold. This is my sly promotion of Bleak Creek Conversations in the midst of conversation. Yep. I mean, it's gonna be cold in Boston,

New York City, Chicago. I don't think it's gonna be cold in Dallas or Winston-Salem, and then we're gonna be a massive conversation. I mean it's gonna be cold in Boston, New York City, Chicago, I don't think it's gonna be cold in Dallas or Winston-Salem and then we're gonna be back in Los Angeles. Yeah, it's kinda fell apart there as we moved into a warmer region. But yes, those are the Bleak Creek Conversations. We'll be talking about the book. You get a book just by getting a ticket

and we're gonna premiere the documentary there that we shot in Buies Creek and the Los Angeles show is going to feature all your favorite Mythical crew members if you wanna glad hand some of them. When you're coming out to Dallas, wear your Halloween costume. I'm only using the term glad hand because I know that you like using the word so I just was trying to throw you a bone.

Now that you started using it, I don't even think I use it anymore. Oh, you stop? But I'm just, I think fall, like the precipice of fall is my favorite time of year just because I love jackets. Yeah. And I like layers, man.

Well, I've noticed both of these things. I love it. And that's what's gonna make the Bleak Creek Conversations most special is my layers. How many layers are you gonna bring on stage? Maybe three, four maybe. We've also got the Rhett and Link Live, four more shows coming up in November.

If you wanna see us, this is the time. Guys, we're tired of traveling, you know what? And now that I got this VR headset, I'm not gonna leave my home. So in 2020, you ain't gonna get a chance to see us. And so if you wanna see us, come to one of these shows. Rhettandlinklive.com. So to get into my camping excursion,

we did two nights camping in Sequoia National Forest. Things had just gotten so busy for us over the years. We used to go camping, we used to go off roading. We used to do things. And a lot of times with our friend Nick. And so Nick texted me and he was like, hey, Allison, his wife's out of town, he's taking his girls camping.

And they're pretty young. I'm not good at estimating ages. How old are they? They're probably five and seven, maybe eight. I'd say it's seven and four. Yeah, because Lando's only nine. And we only had this one weekend, but it kinda worked out perfect that it was open.

I mean, when your kids get to be 16 and 14 and 15 like Locke is, they start making all these plans and they don't even tell you until it's like, hey I need you to take me to so and so or I'm doing so and so or all my friends are coming over. And it's like, my weekend is just planned because I just have to be around to make sure they don't do something stupid.

Right. But lo and behold this week. Guardian. This week, guardian. This weekend, it wasn't anything and I really wanted to go camping. I really wanted, I was pining to take them camping. That's good.

I felt sure they wouldn't be up for it but I was like hey you wanna go camping? They got that look on their face they get whenever I mention the word camping, hiking, or just anything involving activity outdoors, not a screen. But then I said, with Nick's girls, Avonlea and Aria. And they all lit up and they were like, yeah.

And I was like, whoa, this is great. Yeah, let's do this. So we went camping with them and on our way in, one main thing happened that I wanna tell you about but just as a preamble, of course all over the state of California, they've got these fire towers that have been built as like lookout locations from like high vantage points in mountains all over.

I'm sure, this is not limited to California, but it's very important here, especially with the fires and whatnot. And you know, you stand up on this really tall tower and you look out to see if there's a sign of a fire and it's kinda like the opposite of Lord of the Rings where somebody would light a fire and then, oh, you could see it from the farthest mountaintop

and then you would light your fire and then the next mountaintop at the horizon would see it. And it was a very efficient, long distance signaling system. They have a signaling system for when they see fire because the fire needs to go out. I'm drawing a comparison but it's probably way different. Maybe the opposite. They don't use them that much anymore.

So it turns out, Nick had this idea to go see a few of them and we, on the way in, we went to the first one. I wonder why that is though. I think because of helicopters and different ways that they surveil. Drones. Perhaps. I can't say but I do know that they don't use many of the fire towers anymore.

Some of them have been burned by fires. Yep. You know, well that's sad. It makes sense, yeah it's made out of flammable material. Well you put a tower in a place that there might be fires, eventually it's gonna burn down. Well that's the spirit. in a place that there might be fires, eventually it's gonna burn down.

Well that's the spirit. So we get to this tower and there's a car park there because someone has rented the fire tower to camp in it. How freaking cool is this? That sounds like something I'd be into. So we look up there, I mean this thing is freaking tall, man. How many feet?

Oh gosh, are you trying to make me look stupid? No, just give me an estimate. Well I'm six feet tall. Oh gosh. That's not a good place to start. Yeah, I can't eye a tower and know how tall it is. Well is it 1,000 feet tall? 35 feet.

Or is it 100 feet tall? Is 35 feet tall, so it's as tall as jumping off the cliff at Lake Acapulco? Yeah, it might be a little taller than that. I don't think it's 55. It's gotta be taller than 35 feet tall, so it's as tall as jumping off the cliff at Lake Acapulco? Yeah, it might be a little taller than that. I don't think it's 55. It's gotta be taller than 55 feet. Well I'll show them a picture in the video version. How many steps did you go up to get to it?

I didn't count the steps because the girls. How many flights of stairs did you go up? It was one really straight flight a long ways up. What, there was no switchbacks? No switchbacks, straight up the, very steep too. And they were like poured concrete steps, very very steep. We were able to go up there because the two women who were camping up there, right when we got there,

Nick was like, hey can we come up? They were like, uh, sure. So we go up there, two women and a dog up there. We start looking around, this place is surrounded by. Sounds like a sitcom. Surrounded by glass. Just filing away ideas over here. You have to go on the website exactly six months

in advance of when you wanna book this place and it's like you gotta be on, it's like getting tickets. High demand. It's like getting tickets to see Billie Eilish. You know, you gotta be all over it. Right, right. Like, oh my gosh, it's selling out. And that's how it is with a lot of these camping places.

But it's pretty cool, it's very windy up there. Of course, a great view. You know you're gonna get a good view in a fire tower. You're above the trees, right? But above everything. You're on a mountain top. You're on a mountain top. Okay. Then on a tower top. That's why it doesn't have to be super tall.

Which is at least 75 feet in the air. It doesn't have to be, yeah, that makes more sense. I've been picturing like a long stretch of trees and then just like a giant tower that's looking over them. But yeah, it makes sense it's on a mountain. You gotta be careful coming down and if you gotta use the bathroom, it's a long way to go down to get to that outhouse

down there. Oh, there's no like tube or anything up there at the top? And they had a pulley system to pull up all their crap. Well surely you can just pee off the side. So that was pretty cool. I mean, we just camped on the ground. And then we go to the Trail of 100 Giants where they don't have 100 sequoia trees,

but there's a lot of sequoia trees growing. You and I went there with Mike probably seven years ago, five years ago. And it's a very accessible path. If you're thinking about going in that area, I definitely recommend going to the Trail of 100 Giants because you get to see all these sequoia trees up close and even if you're not great at hiking,

it's right off the road. Right. You may remember when we went that a double sequoia grouping had fallen. Like there's two sequoias that grew basically right beside each other. And I mean, these are the largest living things on the planet by mass.

Like more massive than a blue whale, the sequoia trees. So and pictures don't do it justice but it's amazing just to be there, I mean seeing the redwoods is awesome, redwoods are taller but sequoias are fatter, bigger around and stumpy but still freaking huge and tall. You may remember that two of them fell at once across a path.

Somebody caught one on, there's another one. There is a YouTube video during. They don't fall very often. During the winter of some falling, of one being caught falling, which is crazy. I mean, if one of the largest things on the planet is falling and you're there for it. Well, not just that. You're gonna pull out your phone and record that stuff? I mean, one of the largest things on the planet is falling and you're there for it. Well not just that.

You're gonna pull out your phone and record that stuff? I mean they're what? What are you a freaking war journalist? They're like a thousand years old or something so the chances of you catching it falling, I mean it's just a very very slim chance but I guess people are always there walking around. Well not when it's like really snowed in.

They tend to fall under the weight of the snow. But when we went in the summertime, they had started to rebuild the path that the sequoia had fallen across, so that now you could, and we climbed on it. They leave, of course they leave it all there because it's amazing to be able to walk on. Yeah, they don't really, I don't know

that they want you to walk on it, they build the path around it. Oh, they didn't build the path through it, like a tunnel? No. Missed opportunity, call me next time. Well, update since we've been, another huge sequoia tree fell this past winter. What's happening?

And it fell. Mites? They said it was from the weight of the snow. You know, we had a lot of snow last winter. Not only did it fall, it fell diagonally across the two that you and I saw. Oh, it's like we're starting a Lincoln Log situation. Yeah, they're stacking up.

They're building themselves the largest cabin ever. We are, so that whole part is closed down. You can't walk over there, except for the fact that everybody still walks over there and climbs on all of it. So we're climbing on these three sequoia trees that are basically stacked on each other. I mean, when it's laying on its side,

it's still like eight feet tall. They're big. So you're having to climb up on this thing. So I'm climbing up there and Lily and Lincoln are in front of me at this point and I just see Lily as I'm climbing up, she's standing looking down, she's like, oh no, oh no. There's no way.

I can't believe this. And she's staring down, she says, my phone fell out of my pants. She was wearing some sweatpants, not unlike the ones that Kiko got from mythical.com. Dude, you gotta be careful hiking and doing activities with your electronics in a pocket of a sweat pant. Right.

And of course I'm immediately like wanting to go into dad lecture mode. But then I thought, you know what? This is the moment that heroes are made of. Because she looked down and I get up there and before I even saw where the phone was or whatever, I was just like okay, it fell down there, we'll go get it. I'll get it.

How big is this hole? I'll be the hero. But then I got up there and I looked and it had fallen, it had bounced Plinko style in between the stack of three sequoia trees down into a hole. And the hole was, of trees down into a hole and the hole was, I could put my head and one arm through it.

Like it was about that big around, that's all it was. But how far were you from the hole? You had to go down into it. I crawled down, I was like listen, let's not panic. She was like, Dad, it went in that hole. It's like. Probably like 700 phones in there. There's something about, I just have this belief whenever you're losing something,

it's like if you believe that you can find it, it drastically increases the chances that you will find it. Like because if you don't actually believe you could find it but you still look, it's really, you're just kinda half-assed looking. You know, like subconsciously, you know you're just going through the motions just to say you did.

Yeah. And I believe this. This is one of my deeply held beliefs, right? How many deeply held beliefs do you have? Probably, probably. This is one of them. Probably this and like that layering is good, when in doubt, layer out. There's not a lot.

Yeah, those are my main ones. So I get down on my belly, I crawl down over the first tree and then lay down on the second tree, the older tree that had fallen and then I look in this hole and then when I look in the hole and I'm holding on to my phone, putting it all the way into the hole with the flashlight on. Risky business.

And I'm looking down, I'm like, I could freaking, I had a vice grip on this thing. The shakiest man in the world is holding his phone over a phone hole. I'm like, a phone hole. And I'm like, I cannot lose my phone. That would make me really angry. So far I just find this amusing and a good occasion

just to lecture my daughter when it's over. And I look down in there and it splits into two holes. Oh gosh. And there's sawdust and sprinkles and shards and all types of sequoia carnage down in there. Sawdust, so somebody was trying to cut a hole through them. No, I just think the more people walked on it, the more debris went down in the hole. Oh, okay.

And Lily, I said, Lily, you go down, she goes down below the second set, and she's, I can hear her, but I can't see her, and we're at opposite ends of like different accesses to this hole, and I'm thinking, if these things shift, we're gonna get crushed by freaking Sequoia. The largest thing on the planet is gonna smush me and my daughter.

It'll be worth it though. But we gotta find this phone because that's all that matters. Did you ever say, I will find it. I will find you. Did you ever say that? No, I didn't say anything. Because you believed it so deeply though.

I thought maybe you would have done that. Okay. So I'm looking down in there. I'm pulling debris out and I'm like, if it went to this hole to the right, you're never seeing it again, but there's a hole to the left that sounds like it's closer to you

and then Lily's like, I can, she starts crawling in there and I'm getting really nervous that she's gonna get crushed. Well they haven't shifted yet. I don't think that a couple of people on them is gonna cause them to shift. At some point, everything shifts, man.

Yeah, what are the chances though? It's worth it, you need your phone. You got your contacts in there. Lily had been in kind of a grumpy mood before this. She's a teenager. You chalk it up to that. Teenagers and big trees, that all makes. Or hiking.

She's like, I got it! And I'm like, what, you got it? She's like, I got it. And it's like, I stood up, she comes out from under these sequoia trees, she's like, I have it, I have it! And she was, it was like, it was so worth it. Yeah.

Like that's the key to making teenagers happy. Take something they love and make them find it. Let them have a near phone death experience. She was exasperated. I mean she rode this emotional wave for the next 17 minutes. It was amazing. I even vlogged about it. It was amazing. I even vlogged about it.

I missed that. I didn't post it anywhere. Oh, okay. I'll post it on the video version of this. Okay. Released on the Ear Biscuit YouTube channel. I did vlog though. Cause I was like, I was so relieved.

It's like, it feels so good to find something. You know that time that we went boating and then Chris threw, who threw the keys? And they went in the water and then I was like, you can find them and he waded out into the water. As I recall it, you threw the keys. Yeah, okay. And they went low and they hit the side of the boat

and dropped directly into the lake. And without hesitation. And then the boat drifted away. Without hesitation, like, Chris dove down and came up with the keys, which never happens. Crazy. Never happens. If you drop keys in a lake, they're always lost. I think that's the root of my faith.

Oh. In the believing you can find stuff. You should tell Chris that. Yeah, Chris formed the bedrock of my faith in finding things. And that's why I found that Skittle on LTAT so quickly because I believed I could find it. I think you found it because you were closest to it.

But I mean, I was. I believed I could find it. And I did find it. So there's not really any arguing with that. I found it very quickly. You did. 1600 M&Ms I found the Skittle in 20 seconds. Belief, man.

Belief is a beautiful armor. Makes for the heaviest sword. Like punching underwater. You never can hit what you're aiming for. I don't think he says aiming. There it is. Yeah, these 41 year old white boys know some John Mayer. Nothing like, Lily knows some John Mayer too.

Yeah. It felt good, man. It felt good to be in the outdoors finding a phone, maintaining a lifeline. I'm proud of you. But teetering on the edge of being isolated from an electronic. Well, ironically, your entire, I will say, I must point out that your entire story about camping

and being in the outdoors centers around you recovering an electronic device. It does, doesn't it? Which I think is a great lead into, I just didn't go camping at all. I just found the electronic device and enjoyed it for the weekend. Shop Best Buy's ultimate smartphone sale today.

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Wherever you go, we'll go together. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamx. Benefits vary by card, terms apply. Okay Rhett, let us have this VR thing. You didn't tell me you were getting this. This is. Well it was a spur of the moment. Oh. It was impulse buy. Which I haven't done in a while.

Gosh, I gotta take off my jacket. Yeah why don't you de-layer since we're actually in shelter. we're actually in air conditioned shelter right now. Getting hot in here. You could be naked and be comfortable in this particular room. So this is how this happened.

I was listening to a podcast and the guy who, I think he's like a video game guy, I can't remember his name, who's currently heading up or at least intimately involved with this Oculus Quest program. This is how out of the loop I am when it comes to this stuff. I didn't even know this thing existed.

It's been out since the spring. Okay. And if you're any sort of follower of this type of thing, you already knew this, but I'll hold it up for you, Link. Okay, so it basically looks like an Oculus. This is the whole system. There are no cords. So it's a true standalone system,

which it's not the only standalone system, but it is the best standalone system as far as I can tell based on the research that I've done because most of the reviews said that for the uninitiated, if you were, unless you were playing a game on this and then playing it side by side with something on the Rift which uses PC power, you wouldn't really know. Oh really? The difference.

It's not like there's like a latency issue or anything like that in some of the things that plague VR. Now the resolution I think is a little bit lower, but depending on the game that you're playing, the resolution, you quickly adjust, you quickly adjust to the resolution, which is not great, but it'll definitely get better in the future,

but it's more than adequate. So he's talking about this thing, and by the way, I see that you're smelling that. This is a washable guard that I got that you change out because I got my kids' faces going in this thing. Yeah, have you washed it? My kids stick their faces in so many. Oh, so this actually, this cover was just installed

this week, so Shepard has worn this a little bit and I've worn it a little bit, but that's it. But just like once or twice. So I don't know exactly what came over me in order to make this purchase, but he was just talking about it and it just hit me, when they began talking about this is really a turning point for VR now that the systems are standalone

and you don't need a PC or a console. You could wear this on a bus. It felt like a prescription for me. It was like, oh, this is a turning point for you, Rhett. This is when you, this is when you, a guy who doesn't wanna have a PC at home and hook it all up and have wires and we don't even have a place for that.

Yeah. This is when you can get in this game. Cause you've been wishing you were on the inside for a while. I just like feeling like I'm on the cutting edge, man. Even though I'm not as is evidence by the fact that I didn't even know that this existed. I don't like go to CES and stuff like that.

But I just like the idea of feeling like, one of my deeply held beliefs is the idea of feeling like I'm on the cutting edge. Okay, how quickly did you get it? Because you wanna get it. Same day. Really? Welcome to America, man. 2019. You got it the same day? I ordered this thing.

Because I was gonna say. On Amazon. It would wear off. And it came the same frickin' day. Like, it's such a reward for an impulse buyer where you can get something delivered to your door the day you make a decision to buy it. Did they know you were gonna order it or something? I just think that they.

Was he out there just waiting for his ding-a-ding? I don't know how the ding-dings work, but I just know I got it. I got it on a Friday night. And then everything else stopped. This is the Friday night that I was camping. Yeah, put that in perspective. So to give you an idea of how this all went down,

now I've got some VR experience having played on Good Mythical More along with you, and because I feel like you're getting distracted. I'm listening. You can't think about two things at once. I'm listening. So just don't, just pay attention. I'll hold this over here.

I feel like every previous experience, now the experience we had at Sundance a couple years ago where we went into this, we did that, we did the VR and we were like walking on the plank and like we were working with each other. Full body, haptics. That was pretty amazing. That was crazy. And we weren't doing it for,

we were kind of thinking about the fact that these people were watching us and so we're still trying to play it up like we do. But obviously when we do it on Good Mythical More, I know that I'm on a show so I never know that I'm on a show, so I never forget that I'm on a show, and so my brain is focused in two different places, inside the headset and the world that is being broadcast to me,

but also the world that is being broadcast to you. You know you're being watched. And so it changes the experience, and I didn't really have a mind-blowing experience. It didn't feel like a pivotal thing for me because I haven't, you know we've got an. At Sundance or at Moore? In Moore. Okay.

We have an Oculus Rift here. Have I ever said hey I'm coming in for the weekend to play it? No. Have I ever asked anybody here can I get on the Rift? No. No. So why would I buy something to have at the house? Because I can have it at the house.

Because I can make it my own personal thing. And there's no wires. Now. So what does it do? Do you remember, what does it do? I mean what did you do on it? You know what it does. So do you remember, did you get a Nintendo

right when they came out? I got one for Christmas when they were selling them with the power pads but I did not get the power pad. I have to think it was around that same time. I don't remember not having one. Well, I guess it was. When everyone was talking about it. I think Nintendo came out in 87.

I don't know if it was Christmas of 87 or 88 when people in Buies Creek got word. I think it was 86 actually. 86, okay, so the next year, so it must have been Christmas 87 because there's no way that we were that on top of the trends. No, no.

But so by the time Nintendo was being sold at Brendles, it's like when my parents were in the game. And we had an Atari and I played Atari. Yeah sure, I played some. Yeah. But I specifically remember sitting down and playing Super Mario Brothers in 1987 and feeling like something had shifted,

that my life was going to be different. And I remember going to bed that night and thinking about Super Mario Brothers, like it was the line between reality and dreams had been disintegrated. Do you know what I'm saying? It was like, it was. It's interesting, I remember getting that feeling

when I first got cable and I watched Nickelodeon. Like I couldn't stop thinking about what else I was gonna get to watch on Nickelodeon. But I didn't have that reaction to video games. Well, you know. Finally programming just for me. Yeah. It's always on.

You know, just think. I'm missing something. It's difficult to emphasize just how different it felt and how big of a leap it felt like. Now, that was pretty much, that was the biggest leap for me and then I never got Super Nintendo. We got a Sega Genesis around like a year later or whatever.

Those are really the only two gaming systems that I ever had. I didn't, my life changed and I got busy with sports and stuff and then we just never ended up having consoles. I just wasn't a video games guy and of course I haven't been as an adult. But putting this on and I was playing the game, the two games that I downloaded were Beat Saber,

which is one that everybody says you gotta have, you gotta have it, it's an essential game on the Quest, which is essentially. Dance Dance Revolution with a light saber? You're basically sitting there with two sabers, yes, and you're chopping the saber, chopping these blocks, a red and blue block, but depending on which side it's on, to a beat, and you're doing it in all different ways

and you're dodging things or whatever. Pretty awesome. But I also downloaded a game called Superhot. Now it sounds like it might be a little. Racy. It's not. A little slinky dinky. It has nothing to do with dinkies or slinkies. It is, it's a game that's been out for a while,

a console, it's been on consoles, I guess it's been on PCs as well, but essentially it is a first person shooter game where you are, your motion determines the speed at which time moves. So if you stand still, you're not moving, time stands still. And in every level, there's an array of weapons in front of you that are all kinds of different things,

things you can throw or things you can shoot. And there are these completely red dudes, almost look like they're made out of red glass who are coming at you and shooting things at you. Okay. Trying to kill you. And multiple ones coming at you. And you have to stop them, but they'll shoot like a bullet at you

and it's coming at you and you can see it coming, you can stop, you can see where it's going and then you can move out of the way. But you gotta make sure you don't move into another bullet or whatever. So if you freeze, the bullet freezes. Everything freezes. Time moves as fast as you do.

Now. So it's kinda like the matrix. You're going to experience it in a second. Oh. Just be forewarned. Like when time would slow down and he would do a back bend and the bullets would fly over. Exactly, same thing.

Okay. So I'm playing this game in my living room and basically it gives you the opportunity to mark off a playing space and we moved the, I moved the, you know, the coffee table out of the way. I made a giant, like a 10 by 12 space, which is pretty big for VR. Okay.

And I- Right next to a pool? Nope, I was inside. Good. And so then I'm playing this game and I'm just having, I'm having that feeling that I haven't had since 1987. Oh yeah? I'm like, this changes things, man. Were you tearing up? No, I probably looked had since 1987. Oh yeah? I'm like this changes things, man.

Were you tearing up? No, I probably looked like an idiot. I was in my underwear, in my living room with a headset on, dodging invisible bullets. Now no shirt? Are you talking like under t-shirt? No shirt, man, I don't sleep with a shirt on. Boxers?

Yeah. Or briefs? Not briefs, boxers. Boxer briefs? Possibly, why do you care? Because this is disturbing to me and I wanna make sure I've got it right. Because if there's an opportunity for me

to be less disturbed, okay there was a shirt and it were boxers, I feel better. So I play and then I do a couple other things. I also got a game called. You're like dodging bullets like Matrix, like you're doing a back thing. You don't, no I'm not hurting, I do a couple other things. I also got a game called. You're like dodging bullets like Matrix, like you're doing a back thing. You don't, no, I'm not hurting, I'm not gonna hurt myself.

You're doing Tai Chi, basically. You're slow motion. That would be, we'll see how it looks in a second. I'll do it first to demonstrate and then let you get in on it. I also did something called, there's not a game but an app called Wander. Okay.

And this basically is every single thing that has been mapped with Google Maps on the, like Google Street View basically in the entire world, you have access to it and you can enter into it. So you can say go to my old address in Fuquay where I used to live and you'll be on the street at your old house. You can see full 360 view because the 360 camera captured all this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you can also go to like amazing locations that they've mapped around the world. I went to the frickin' island that we were, the Fiji, when we went to Castaway Island in Fiji. Oh yeah? And his voice activated, he said, go to Castaway Island, Fiji. Oh yeah? And his voice activated, he said, go to Castaway Island, Fiji,

and all of a sudden you're on the freaking beach at the resort that we stayed at. What? You go to the Trail of 100 Giants, probably walking. I don't know, some people have mapped this stuff and it's like user generated, like I think you probably have to have some sort of special application or whatever,

but you can go to a remote location and then send it into the system. I don't know how, it's a crowd sourced kind of thing. Anyway, that was super cool. But I still have done all this. Knock on the door? You can't do that yet. So I did all this and I'm doing this by myself.

I haven't, my kids haven't even done this yet because I'm like dad's gonna figure this stuff out for you guys. Which is code for this is my toy. Yeah and I also did say that I was like this is going in my room because I want it to be cared for and you can use it at my discretion. Oh yeah.

Also I don't want the kids to like get addicted because case in point. So I put the thing on lock and the only thing that, so there's a first, it's called first steps and it's basically an orientation to how everything works. And so you've got these controllers, you know, that have a few functions on them, like there's a grip and there's a trigger

and there's this thing. Basically they replicate pointing and gripping, all kinds of hand motions with this simple controller. And in the orientation, you're in this room, first of all, just when the room and the world is sort of generated around you and then this desk comes up in front of you and there's all these things on it and you pick these things up and it's showing you

how to interact with things by telling you what buttons to press and there's all these things on it and you pick these things up and it's showing you how to interact with things by telling you what buttons to press and there's like a rocket thing that you pull a string and then it flies away and then you actually, there's a drone like inside the orientation and you're controlling it with a fake controller that you're holding but you're holding a controller in VR controlling a thing but you're just using it.

So it's pretty mind blowing. So the best way to introduce somebody to it, which I'm gonna skip past that for you because it takes too long, you've also been in VR before, is to use this program, this first step. So I put the headset on lock. It's kind of like brain mapping. Yeah, you're adjusting to how you're going to interact

with this world. So I put the thing on lock. He's going through and he's doing these different little experiments. And then he's standing there in the middle of the living room and he says, dad, because you feel like you have to talk louder because the people are outside of the world, you know? Dad, this is. Are you there?

Dad, this is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Really? And I felt like that made me a proud dad. I'd sent my son into VR and he realized that that's where all his dreams come true. Oh gosh. He literally felt like it was the best thing that ever happened to him.

To me, that's what reminded me of that Nintendo moment. I was like, this is his Nintendo moment because he's a kid that, he's a kid in 2019 in LA in a family that can afford to get him stuff like an Xbox. This kid, you can't blow his mind. You can't blow his mind. He's a cynical teenager. It blew his mind.

It blew his mind. And of course- Now if he took this thing to 100 Giants and dropped it in a hole and then found it. That would be even better. We might have to arrange that. If he begins to take it for granted, I'll definitely do that. Same thing with Shepard.

Shepard had this incredible time playing this thing. So what I'll do. It is mind blowing and you never get a second chance to have that feeling, that VR virginity. Right, which you're technically not a virgin. Right. It's like you've experimented a little bit. But you didn't know what you were doing, you were young.

Right, I do need practice. You're gonna get the real thing. So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to set up, I'm gonna get into super hot. And then I'm gonna stand up and I'm gonna do just a little bit and then I'm gonna get out of it. You're gonna have to come over here because I've got the Guardian kind of set up on this side.

All right, but maybe there's still, you know, there's still some, pardon the euphemism, there's a little cherry to pop, I don't know. Maybe this is still gonna be a formative experience. I'm in a room right now that has a bunch, now that I've completely beat this game, I can go into any, there's all these disks and I can put them in different computers

to access different levels. Okay. Now I have to. Oh, there's a freaking light there, man. I have to reach up here and grab this. You're gonna bust a light. You've lost total contact with the real world, man. This is not healthy.

Here's what I'm gonna do, Link. I'm gonna give this to you. This is gonna be great. There is a black ball in front of you when you're gonna have this on and you're gonna reach down and you're gonna grab that and that will start the action. Okay? Okay.

So stand exactly where I was standing. Oh yeah, I'm in a white room! Okay, here you go. Boom! Boom! Oh, buckshot! What did I just knock over? It's a microphone. I just died. Die! Oh!

I'm glad you got camo on. I just threw the gun at a guy. And it killed him, right? Okay. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom! You don't have to say boom. Oh, he shot me! Okay, all right. Okay.

Okay. We can do this more later. My heart rate is freakin' through the roof, man. The one thing I gotta say is it's just a white room of red guys. There's not a lot of graphics happening. Like, TurboGrafx-16 just blows out of the water. I'll show you, you know, even just the beginning. My whole body was tense.

You can justify this as a workout. Oh, easy. Like, my core was engaged. Well. I felt like I was in a squatting position for most of the time, and I learned how to kill people. So like I'm like, you know? They're not really people.

I'm comfortable killing. It's like robots. Red robots. Okay, so that was just a little taste. Now one of the things that happened to me after playing that game was. Got a stretch. It changed the way I was moving.

I was literally eating cereal for breakfast. You're talking about the real world now. Yeah, I was eating cereal for breakfast and I found myself getting ready to take a bite and then stopping, taking a bite and looking around and seeing if any red men were coming after me. And I was like, and then I would eat this.

I thought I could make everyone else slow down by stopping. It's kinda like. So the way that your brain adapts, because everything in your brain is telling you that you are there. This is how the world works now. This is now the world. This is your world and so you could train,

there's so many different applications for it, I'm sure people are already doing this, but in the way that in just a couple of sessions of playing that game, I changed my actual interaction in the real world. If there was something I was struggling with, you could definitely train somebody to address some kind of problem in that.

Like a surgeon or an EMT simulator. Would you buy a super realistic EMT simulator? Because you know. I'm sure there probably is such a thing. You don't wanna roll up on an accident and then be totally paralyzed. When my mom was EMT certified, I was in middle school and I'd stroll through the room where they were

getting their training and they'd be showing some graphic images of nasty. Well okay so. But this is a step further. You're right that the graphics that you saw, this is like one of the most simple graphic games that there is now. There's other games that are much more vivid

and lots of different colors and you know. Cool gameplay though. One of the things I also did with this was because, I heard the guy talking about it, he was like, you know, not everybody has a great home theater but this can basically replicate a home theater. So there's actually, I've got Netflix on here. And so you are in, I gotta show it to you, man.

Can you just wanna put it on and see what Netflix looks like? Yeah, yeah, I wanna see. I also wanna eat cereal in VR. If that's, when you were referring to that earlier, I got excited. But I totally know what you're talking about as you're getting ready,

that your brain starts to think things in the real world work that way. Like there's many times when I'm looking at like a brochure or something with fine print, and I will find myself reaching down to then zoom in on it. You know, like, oh, let me make that bigger. And at least the thought will cross my mind and then I'll realize, oh no, this is, that can't happen.

Come sit down in my living room. Talk about disappointment. Come sit down in my living room. When you can't zoom in on a brochure. Oh wow, okay so. Look around, look outside. Oh dude, you live in a ski lodge. Yeah, it's snowing outside.

Vaulted ceilings, you got a big chandelier. And then look at Netflix. That is a freaking huge screen. Look at the size of my television. That's the biggest, dude, you didn't tell me you had such a big chandelier. And then look at Netflix. That is a freaking huge screen. Look at the size of my television. That's the biggest, dude, you didn't tell me you had such a big television. Yeah. And I love how your mantelpiece

has the word Netflix burned in it. Yeah, not a sponsor. What asshat would burn the word Netflix into his mantelpiece in his ski lodge home? I'm just in a lodge. I mean, it's like... Yeah, but where would you be if you were watching Netflix? When I'm watching shows, I tend to just watch the show. I don't look around my room. Yeah, don't look around. Just watch the show.

All right, here, take it off. Before you go... I was trying to pick out the... I don't wanna take it off! Take it off! I wanna be in your lodge! Get out of my lodge! I'm watching the screensaver on Netflix, and be in your lodge! Get out of my lodge! I'm watching the screensaver on Netflix

and it's pretty awesome. Get out of my lodge. I don't think that's something you'd wanna keep doing. Well not in 2019, not now. Now I will say that I watched that show Mindhunter. Okay. Oh gosh. Almost fell. I watched a full episode of that in.

So you can't even sit in a chair in the real world anymore. Inside that. And I gotta say that this is where the resolution becomes frustrating because if I were to just take the headset off and watch on my television or on my phone, the resolution would be significantly higher. But that's just a matter of time

before they get that straightened out. But I do have a few critiques, Oculus people, if you're watching. It's too heavy. Because it's a standalone thing, well first of all, All of the weight is in front of your eyes. Potentially this is a good thing because

It seems like they can put weight on top of your head. Well, yeah. So it feels like it might limit your, and there's a two hour battery life, which is not a lot, but now you can just plug it in. It's got a pretty long cable, so you can kind of stay tethered if you want to have it being powered as you're playing.

If you're doing that, you might as well plug it into a PC. Right, but then you're just defeating the whole purpose of the thing. But also, the Rift has a lot less weight because you're not using all the computing power is offloaded to an actual computer, where this is basically like having a cell phone in your face, you know.

So I feel like they could have offloaded some of the weight to like a different place, like you're saying, like if it was a little, I don't know, I'm sure, I'm not telling you anything you don't, you didn't try probably. But if there was like, Fix it for them. Some battery or the CPU power was offloaded

to another spot on your head to make it a more even thing. Like it was a little bit more helmet-y. I think the playability and the comfortability, if that's a word, would have gone up. Probably be safer if it was a helmet too. But, so I feel like, and listen, again, we sound like a couple of old guys talking about something that's been around for a long time

because that is exactly what's happening right now. But I think that it's just hit me what this is going to turn into. You know, obviously. What's the future? I've read and watched Ready Player One so everybody knows that there's what that whole dystopian future looks like and people are living

their lives in VR. You definitely begin to understand how when they work out the ergonomics of this thing and they get the physicality right and they continue to enhance the haptic quality of this, it gets to a place where you could definitely get lost in this world. Now one of the things I didn't show you

is that this thing, the way that this thing works is there's four cameras in it, see that? I was wondering if those are cameras. So when you're just walking around with this thing works is there's four cameras in it. See that? I was wondering if those are cameras. So when you're just walking around with this thing, it replicates your world and I could just walk around with this thing on. Really? It's a black and white kind of grainy representation

of the world so I could sit here and see you and everything is exactly where it needs to be based on these four cameras. Yeah. So the moment that they get to a place where you don't look like an asshat wearing this thing, Yeah. So the moment that they get to a place where you don't look like an asshat wearing this thing, which I don't know when that's gonna happen.

But if they're able to. I mean they might as well just go all the way and put a crack in the middle of it. So again, I believe that this is necessarily going to require some offloading of the CPU and the battery power somewhere else. We're not gonna get to a place, unless technology changes significantly,

where battery power and CPU power capable of creating the types of graphic experiences that would replicate actual reality can be housed in a very small space besides of glasses. I mean, maybe eventually eventually but there's limitations to computing that are like, have to do with physics. You can't just keep getting smaller and smaller and smaller. They're already getting close to reaching the end

of Moore's Law with how small they can make a processor. So given that there's some limitations that they're gonna run up on, we're probably gonna get to a place where you're offloading the CPU and the battery power into some other part of your body where it's like on your shoulders or your back. Or in your mouth.

Or just, yeah, it's just like a Snickers bar. I don't know why you put it in your mouth. Like a mouth guard. But the other thing that's happening is, in fact, just today when I was looking up some stuff about the latest in VR technology, there's a company that has developed the second skin

that is gonna represent a true touch-like experience where they'll be able to soon make a glove out of the second skin that some Swiss company or somebody developed where when you touch something, it will give you feedback that feels exactly like touch, sort of like the haptic glove dream that we've always had. Now. Yeah, so when I grab that black ball or that.

You'll feel it. Firearm, you can use the haptic response. Well, and a thing that they've actually already rolled out, they haven't rolled it out for everyone on the Quest but they just introduced it recently but they're rolling it out next year is hand tracking. So you can set the controllers down and you can play games with just your hands

and it's using the four cameras to track your hands. Apparently that's coming. Wow. So you combine really awesome hand tracking with really awesome haptics. You get the situation so that you basically, all you need on your face is a visual interface. That's all you need.

So if we could get to a place where it kind of looks like sunglasses and then you've got other stuff on your back or whatever, at that point. You can operate on people. You're getting to a place where switching between AR and VR becomes this just like effortless thing. So the AR, the augmented reality, where you're gonna be able to be given information

about everything that you're seeing, to have your experience enhanced. RoboCop. That just feels like, I mean, that's already happening some places if people use their phones or whatever, but that's gonna be something that everyone who has one of these contraptions will have.

And then the moment you start kinda getting annoyed with the real world, you'll voice activate to go into VR and you'll be, and it'll be so comfortable that you will literally be able to get lost in it because you won't be stopping to think about, ah my face hurts, which is what happens with this thing. Ah, I gotta adjust the balance on the back of my head. When that goes away and you're not worried

about battery power, you can do this for long periods of time, it's gonna change society very significantly. Everywhere you go will be like a tourist attraction because there'll be a filter that'll turn off all the ads which will inevitably be on everything. Oh this microphone, you can buy it now and it'll be a filter that'll turn off all the ads which will inevitably be on everything. Oh this microphone, you can buy it now and it'll be delivered tonight and here's the specs on it and this table, well you can buy a table just like this

from Target, you know, you block all of that stuff and then you turn on fun facts and augmented talking heads. Well what was the name of that show? on fun facts and augmented talking heads. Well what was the name of that show? Where they introduced that pop-up TV thing? The very first show to do that. Where it's like you'd be watching something on VH1. The pop-up TV. Pop-up video. Pop-up video? Pop-up video.

Pop-up life. The way that video games work currently where there's like a username above somebody's head and details about them, we will get to a place where that's happening with people that you're just interacting with. And then, I don't know, it's just the potential, I'm not saying anything that a thousand science fiction

books haven't already written about but. But now you've experienced it. Because I have understood it personally and experienced it, it hit me like whoa, okay, this could be problematic for society. Like this is something that we're going to have to address. I mean just think about it. Like you know, we're already in,

some societies are moving to a place where like kids are, you know, like teenagers and young adults are not, they're not dating, they're not having sex. You've got populations where they're not replacing themselves and of course, we've got a population issue but ultimately, you want our species to be active and replacing itself.

Right. And what this is going to do is when the haptics get good enough, if you know what I mean, you're not going to need a partner for sexual gratification. That is something that is going to be happening in these headsets. And that is going to change society significantly

and is something that we need to be thinking about. Well, yeah, you just made me think about it. I'm pretty distracted. I'm just saying that's gonna happen, man. The way that experiences can be replicated in the second skin and all this stuff that's coming, coming is probably not the best word to use, that's on its way.

I mean, every technology has been exploited for either, is pornography and military, right? Pornography and military, explain. Well, I'm just saying that you got, that's how things are developed. You talk about, think about space travel. The technologies will be exploited. Exploited first because that's where either the money is,

like all this money funneled into military is how like, okay, VR is gonna be advanced because for militaristic purposes and then it's gonna be co-opted for pornographic purposes. But then it's gonna make its way into mainstream society. I completely agree with you. What I'm specifically saying is that in the way that phones and cell phone use has already contributed

to people being kind of isolated in one sense, very connected but also lonely and isolated. Unhappy. The moment you can replicate the most intimate human experiences with technology is the moment in which those human intimate experiences will be replaced with technology.

And so that's all I'm saying. And then there'll be a movement of, there'll be a retro realness movement where it's like, you know, the silver lining is it's an opportunity to draw into sharp focus what really matters. You know, just to have a great experience, be that pleasurable or a learning experience

or just something unforgettable, like an amazing hike through VR or something like that, there's gonna be an entire movement of yes, but we've forgotten, you can be made to feel really good, but there's something, you can't match the reward of vulnerability with another person and the dance of that. We'll be making those arguments towards young people who don't wanna hear them.

But the other. Let me say, tell it to my relational bot. Yeah, the other. Whose only purpose is to be vulnerable to me. The other alarming thing that I think this represents is that because the experiences by design, by design are to your liking, right? Yeah.

They're designed to be. You're the center of the universe. Catered to you. Yeah. That is not how life works. That is the sum up of the danger right there. If you. You become the center of the universe.

If you are constantly in this world in which everything is catered to you and so when you have your experiences in this, however intimate those experiences might be. You never leave it. Everything is exactly the way that you want it. The person is behaving exactly the way that you want, doing exactly what you want.

Your wish is my command. You are basically a slave is what would be in here. Now you're trying to take that experience and map it onto an actual interaction with another human that has its own interests and does not care about your interest to the way that you do. We have to think about this.

Like from, and listen, I'm just a guy who makes internet videos, but, and I'm sure people are already think about this. Like from, and listen, I'm just a guy who makes internet videos, but, and I'm sure people are already talking about this, but it's just hit me. Don't sell yourself short, you're also an impulse buyer. Just having worn this thing and owned it for like a month, the potential, it's like I've got this very scary thing. Now thankfully.

And you're hooking it up to your children and saying. Well you know what, to speak to that. Interestingly, and I think I just got lucky with this, my kids are, Locke is just busy. He's busy with school and basketball. He hasn't asked me to play on this thing. Probably like once in the past month after his initial interaction.

And Shepard has asked me a few more times because he's younger, he's got more time, he uses screens more often. But because I've kind of got it in the room and I've got it kind of sealed away, they can't just go get it whenever they want to, the amount of actual time that they've spent in this is very minimal.

What about you though? I got it, I had that weekend, and it was a kind of a special weekend because we didn't have anything else going on. I wasn't there. And then- I was in the great outdoors. A few weeks have passed since that point, and I'd say I'm not over it.

Every time I get in it, I'm like, man, this is so cool. I gotta get more games and I've gotten a couple of more games but I am, there's like a cool puzzle game which reminded me of the escape room. It's basically you're in an escape room situation but you're in an abandoned nuclear facility and you're walking all around and you're playing with things and trying to unlock codes and stuff. very similar to like an escape room in Florida,

but better because you're- In your underwear. In your underwear. But no, thankfully I don't have an addictive personality when it comes to stuff like this and I don't think my kids do, but it's just hitting me that if I wasn't so busy, if I didn't have so many other things to distract me,

you could just sit in this thing all day. It's gonna happen, it's probably already happening. Can I borrow it? No, you can rent it, you can lease it. Gotta pay this thing off. Is this your wreck, baby wreck, baby one, two, three, four, check, baby check, baby wreck it. I have another wreck but I'm gonna go, I'll save that for later.

Yes, this is my wreck. Oh, you're gonna wreck it. If you want to. After all that danger. Again, this is not a sponsor. Maybe we can work that out in the future. How much this thing costs? I got the, it's 399, 399 for everything that you need. It's console-ish price range. And I gotta say, for somebody who's not an aficionado,

but it was just kinda like a little bit familiar with it, it was the doorway for me, man. It's the gateway into VR. I highly recommend it and get you one of these things. Get lost in the world. See the potential for the doom of the human species. It cost me $400 less to gain access to the Trail of 100 Giants.

Yeah, but you can't just be at home getting ready to go to bed and think, hmm, I'd like to go to Idaho. I can. Idaho, huh? I can go to Idaho. Hashtag Ear Biscuits. Go to any state you want.

Let us know how alarmed you are. We'll talk at you next week.