TrueLife - Bioengineering, Billionaires, and Magic Beans: The Future of Power, Innovation, and Human Evolution

Episode Date: August 3, 2021

One on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US🚨🚨Curious about the future of psychedelics? Imagine if Alan Watts started a secret society with Ram Dass and Hunter S. Thompson… now open the door. Use Promocode TRUELIFE for Get 25% off monthly or 30% off the annual plan For the first yearhttps://www.district216.com/Billionaires are no longer just investing — they’re tinkering with life itself. In this episode, George Monty examines the intersection of bioengineering, high-stakes innovation, and the mythic allure of “magic beans” — the promises and perils of manipulating biology on a planetary scale.From genetic engineering to speculative futures, this conversation unpacks how wealth, science, and imagination converge — and what it means for ethics, evolution, and society.In this episode:The role of billionaires in advancing bioengineering and biotechPromises and dangers of genetic manipulationHow innovation blends with myth, storytelling, and cultural aspirationEthical and societal implications of controlling life itselfSpeculative visions for the future of human evolutionTranscript:Speaker 0 (0s): Hello, my friends. And welcome back to another edition of the TrueLife podcast. I've been on vacation for a little bit, but I'm bad. I was thinking about you guys. I hope everything is going well. I hope your COVID free care-free and free to do what it is you think is right. I'm going to start off with a quick joke today. I hope it makes you laugh and that makes you smile. There's a businessman and he has started a company in his garage. He's been working hard on it for the last six months. And lo and behold, he gets a call from an investment banker in the big apple, New York city. The investment banker says, I have noticed your product and I would like to make you an offer. Can you come and meet me and my team in New York to hear that offer a gentleman says sure, a day of the, he exits off the plane. The day of the meeting, he's there pretty early. However, he finds his flight was delayed. And now as he's exiting the airport, he's beginning to scramble. He realizes that he is supposed to meet these investment bankers in front of Carnegie hall. However, he's never been in New York city. And so he is beginning to worry. As he comes out of the airport, he sees a young woman exiting a cab and she is carrying a violin case. So he runs up, she's dressed nice. And he says, maybe she'll know. And so he runs up to her and he says, ma'am do you play in the symphony? And she says, well, yes, I do. He says, fantastic. Could you tell me how to get to Carnegie hall? And she pauses for a minute. She looks him up and down and she says, practice, practice. I thought that was kind of funny. I'm so fascinated by all the things that are happening in our lives today. And it has been such a, a culture shock. It has been such a cultural divide, a natural disaster or a man-made disaster, or maybe both. If man has in fact part of nature, then maybe it's both. And that's kind of a subject that I wanted to get in today. I've been revisiting this book called the master in his emissaries, and it's about left right brain lateralization. And what goes on in between those two hemispheres, they've done plenty of research on victims that have had lesions in their left brain, in lesions, in their right-brain. And for those of you who have done some research on it, I'm sure you're aware of this. And for those of you who have yet to do some research on it, I hope to peak your interest. Let me just give you a couple examples of what happens when there's trauma on each side of the brain. So when there's trauma on the left side of the brain, it tends to cause people to forget how to speech or ruin their speech patterns or makes it very difficult for them to communicate via their speech. They can be paralyzed on the right side of their body. However, if the stroke or the trauma victim can overcome this, they can teach themselves how to speak again. And they can at times learn how to walk again or gain mobility in the side of their body. That is paralyzed, which would be the right side. If indeed the trauma's on the left, a lesion on the right side is completely different. It, it causes someone to no longer be able, excuse me, to no longer be able to understand the in implicitness has that a word. It causes people to be that changes their worldview. You see the right brain, the right hemisphere of the brain holds all the context and concepts, the underlying meaning what the situation is telling us, the body language, the, the humor, the, all these parts of communication that aren't words are done in the right hemisphere of the brain. And there's been some fascinating, fascinating experiments done. One area that I wanted to talk about, and this is just kind of coming off of that book and kind of my own theories about what's happening again. The guy that the book that I'm referencing is the master in his Emissary, in his, by Ian McGilchrist. It's a fascinating read. He's actually got another book coming out pretty soon. I highly suggest that you get an opportunity to check it out. I think you'll enjoy it. The right hemisphere of the brain has these just beautiful notions of an art and seeing the world in a way that is not hyper analytical. It may help to see it may help to follow this conversation. If you think of the left hand or the left side of the brain is a scalpel. That's constantly dissecting. It's constantly criticizing. It's constantly making sense of it's kind of crazy, but I like to think of it as like this arrogant, cocky, no, at all. And I know that seems kind of hard. Like, you know what to think about yourself like that, but it's necessary and it's necessary for the left side of the brain to act that way. Like it needs to be able to categorize stuff so that you can function in this world. It needs to be able to say like, okay, is that a, is that something I could eat? Or does it not? You know, what has to be a definitive? Whereas the right hemisphere of the brain is trying to see things the way they've never been seen before and say, why not? It's constantly looking for a little idiosyncrasies or looking for little bits of detail that are very difficult to describe. And in fact, when you even talk about the right hemisphere of the brain, it's difficult because you have to translate it in the left side of the brain. The right side is the master. That left side is the Emissary. It's another good way to think about it. Any type of a metaphorical thinking is usually done on the right when you find yourself, here's a, here's a, here's an interesting thing. If you find yourself grasping for language, see the term grasp to reach out on the left side of the brain. That means to actually pinch something or grab it, or to reach out, to get something. But on the right side of the brain, the grasp means to get a hold of and understand in reaching out can mean more than just extending your arm. It can mean trying to connect with something else beside yourself. Okay? So that's kind of a little bit of a background now that I'm going to try to tie this into another thought, a couple of thoughts I've been having, esp...

Darkness struck, a gut-punched theft, Sun ripped away, her health bereft. I roar at the void. This ain't just fate, a cosmic scam I spit my hate. The games rigged tight, shadows deal, blood on their hands, I'll never kneel. Yet in the rage, a crack ignites, occulted sparks cut through the nights. The scars my key, hermetic and stark. To see, to rise, I hunt in the dark, fumbling, fear. Fearers through ruins maze lights my war cry born from the blaze.

The poem is Angels with Rifles. The track, I Am Sorrow, I Am Lust by Codex Serafini. Check out the entire song at the end of the cast. Friends, welcome back to another edition of the True Life podcast. I've been on vacation for a little bit, but I'm back. I was thinking about you guys. I hope everything is going well. I hope you're COVID-free, carefree, and free to do what it is you think is right.

I'm going to start off with a quick joke today. I hope it makes you laugh. I hope it makes you smile. There's a businessman. He has started a company in his garage. He's been working hard on it for the last six months. And lo and behold, he gets a call from an investment banker in the Big Apple. New York City.

The investment banker says, I have noticed your product and I would like to make you an offer. Can you come and meet me and my team in New York to hear that offer? The gentleman says, sure. Day of the... He exits off the plane

the day of the meeting. He's there pretty early. However, he finds his flight was delayed and now as he's exiting the airport, he's beginning to scramble. He realizes that he is supposed to meet these investment bankers in front of Carnegie Hall. However, he's never been to New York City, and so he is beginning to worry. As he comes out at the airport, he sees a young woman exiting a cab, and she is carrying a violin case.

So he runs up, she's dressed nice, and he says maybe she'll know. And so he runs up to her. And he says, ma'am, do you play in the symphony? And she says, why, yes, I do. He says, fantastic. Could you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall? And she pauses for a minute. She looks them up and down.

And she says, practice. Practice. I thought that was kind of funny. You know, I'm so fascinated by all the things that are happening in our lives today. And it has been such a culture shock. It has been such a cultural divide, a natural disaster, or a man-made disaster, or maybe both. If man is in fact part of nature, then maybe it's both. And that's kind of the subject I wanted to get in today.

I've been revisiting this book called The Master and His Emissary. And it's about left, right brain lateralization. And what goes on in between those two hemispheres? They've done plenty of research on stroke victims that have had lesions in their left brain and lesions in their right brain. And for those of you who have done some research on it, I'm sure you're aware of this.

And for those of you who have yet to do some research on it, I hope to peak your interest. Let me just give you a couple examples of what happened, when there's trauma on each side of the brain. So when there's trauma on the left side of the brain, it tends to cause people to forget how to speech or ruin their speech patterns or it makes it very difficult for them to communicate via their speech.

They can be paralyzed on the right side of their body. However, if the stroke or the trauma victim can overcome this. They can teach themselves how to speak again and they can at times learn how to walk again or gain mobility in the side of their body that is paralyzed, which be the right side, if indeed the trauma's on the left. Elision on the right side is completely different. It causes someone to no longer be able to no longer be able to understand the implicitness. Is that a word?

It causes people to be, it changes their worldview. You see, the right brain, the right hemisphere of the brain holds all the context and the concepts, the underlying meaning of what the situation is telling us, the body language, the, the humor, The, all these parts of communication that aren't words are done in the right hemisphere of the brain. And there's been some fascinating, fascinating experiments done. One area that I wanted to talk about, and this is just kind of coming off that book and kind of my own theories about what's happening. Again, the guy, the book that I'm referencing is, the master in his emissary, and it's by Ian McGilchrest. And it's a fascinating read.

He's actually got another book coming out pretty soon. I highly suggest if you get an opportunity to check it out. I think you'll enjoy it. Right hemisphere of the brain has these just beautiful notions of art and seeing the world in a way that is not hyper-analytical. It may help to see, it may help to follow this conversation if you think of the left hand, but the left side of the brain is a scalpel that's constantly dissecting,

it's constantly criticizing. that's constantly making sense of. It's kind of crazy, but I like to think of it as like this arrogant, cocky, know it all. And I know that seems kind of harsh. Like you don't want to think about yourself like that, but it's necessary. And it's necessary for the left side of the brain to act that way.

Like it needs to be able to categorize stuff so that you can function in this world. It needs to be able to say like, okay, is that a, is that something I can eat or is it not? You know, it has to be definitive. Whereas the right hemisphere of the brain is trying to see things the way they've never been seen before and say, why not? It's constantly looking for the little idiosyncrasies or looking for little bits of detail that are very difficult to describe. And in fact, when you even talk about the right hemisphere of the brain, it's difficult because you have to translate it in the left side of the brain.

The right side is the master, the left side is the emissary. It's another good way to think about it. Any type of metaphorical thinking is usually done on the right. When you find yourself, here's an interesting thing. If you find yourself grasping for language, see, the term grasp to reach out on the left side of the brain, that means to actually pinch something or grab it or to reach out to get something.

But on the right side of the brain, the grasp means to get hold of and understand. And reaching out can mean more than just extending your arm. It can mean trying to connect with something else beside yourself. Okay, so that's kind of a little bit of a background there. I'm going to try to tie this into another thought, a couple of thoughts I've been having, especially since this pandemic is, you know,

you should really, if you can do this, just a strategy I've been using. If you can try to see yourself in everybody around you, if you can't begin to understand that the person you're talking to is a different version of you, right? And I promise you, regardless of how different that person is, you can see something in them that you recognize. And if you can't, then here's one for you to have.

everybody can learn everybody can learn everybody can learn everybody can learn that is a good first step if you're having difficulties identifying yourself in someone or something else you can start there but once you begin looking at it that way you can see yourself in anybody else you can see yourself in a tree You can see yourself in the ocean. You can see yourself in a porcupine. And if you can begin doing that, I think it's a great exercise to understand where we're going wrong in life.

I'm not saying I think we're all equal because we're not. We're not. That's the noble lie. We're not born equal. That's all bullshit. But there is parts of us in everything else around us. And that, to me, is the uniform. That is that is a very good beginning building block in order to build back better.

Right? There's a great quote my wife told me and I forgot where she picked it up from. But it says last year I was, how does it go? He says last year I was very coy and I thought I could change the world. As I've grown older, I've become wise and realize I can change myself. And that quote is everywhere. That's Gandhi and be the change you want to see in the world. And this is a good start to it.

Seeing yourself in the other is a great way to start. And once you do that, at least for me, like I've begun to and I'm beginning to have new ideas open to me. Or maybe these ideas have always been there, but it's becoming more easy. to see like the scales falling from your eyes. Like it's it's all fractal. It's all fractal. And let me give you, let me try to, let me try to tie this together a little bit. So the left side of the brain is analytical.

The right side of the brain is conceptual. Look at all the debates we're having in our society. You know, it seems that on one half, we are, this, it seems to me you can make an argument that there's like this technocratic bureaucracy that has been evolving and growing and becoming ever more assertive. And you think of the way Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Ellison

and this new class of oligarchs are beginning to emerge as the world leaders. People from like the World Economic Forum CEOs, these large multinational corporate CEO types. You know, not all, because I would never say all, but a large percentage of these people for whatever reason, be it they were born to a good family, be it they're smarter than everybody else, whatever reason it is that they find themselves in this position,

they have begun to see the world in a similar way. And since they control the authority and the money, they're able to, well, I think that they're trying to look at the world the way they look at their company. And when they do that, the way they make sense of the world, the way they make sense of their country or their company is, and even their country, is to see it from an analytical point of view. They're using this left brain, break it down to a common denominator, and, you know, move from there, right? Believe the science. Trust the science. If we can harness all the resources, we can make things even for people. You know, it's this, it's this analytical, broken down formula that makes sense on paper. You know, that's why employees, at large corporations, employees have employee numbers. And they've, they've extrapolated the theory of

interchangeable parts and they've applied that to the human being kind of making us a instead of a human being we've become a human appearing and they've they've broken down our society and our world on the left hemisphere of the brain it's this rep rep representation representation think about that word re present represent represent re present when they look at the world's problems, they represent them, they try and find a solution. They look at the problem,

and then they apply their potential solution to a representation of the problem. That's basically what an experiment is, right? But let me tell you why that's wrong. Anytime you represent, anytime you re-present something, It's no longer the actual thing you're trying to solve. Instead of solving the issue, you're solving a representation of the problem.

And that's different. If I see two people fighting and then I go, wow, how can I say next time I see that, how can I stop it? Or let's say if I see two people fighting and I run over and I say, hey, you dummies, stop fighting. Or let's say I don't do anything and I go home and then I draw two people fighting. How could I stop that? You see, I'm representing the problem. But that's not the actual problem. That's just a drawing of the problem.

If I do that drawing, I could come up with ten different ways to solve it. I could run over there and stop it. I could yell at them. I could throw a rock at them. I could do all these things to try to stop those people from fighting. However, I am unable to map out or come up with a solution. because I can't factor in the unknown. In reality, if I went over there and tried to stop it,

one of those guys could pull a knife and stab me. That's not in my drawing. You see, so when you come up with a solution to represent a problem, you're leaving out all the unknowns. That is, in a nutshell, the whole problem with our world. Like we have these people in positions of authority that are pretty smart, but they're using this analytical scalpel of the left hemisphere of the brain to solve problems via representation.

And the more we go down this road, the more the people in positions of authority use this analytical left hemisphere scalpel, the further we get away from the truth. Right. The right hemisphere of the brain is taking so much information. And it seems that, at least in our society, the problems that we, we see are due to the atrophy of the right hemisphere. And it might not be a literal atrophy in that it's getting smaller, but it seems to me that it's being applied less to the actions of our world.

And, okay, I'm going to kind of go out here. I'm going to, I know this might be a little bit crazy already, but what if, what if, like, what we are seeing right now, if you think about our planet, the whole globe, if you think about our planet and our globe as a brain and a large percentage of the people are left hemisphere like our or make like this the technocratic CEO political class is like the left hemisphere and all the people on the right are like the right hemisphere it's very easy to say all all these people he's working people all these people in third world countries they're dumb they're stupid, they're useless eaters.

But that's not true. The truth is they're not being allowed. They don't have a seat at the table. They're not being allowed to apply solutions that they have thought of. It's as if the left hemisphere

has caged the right hemisphere. This political CEO class, this technocratic class has decided to put a cage around all the working people, to try to enslave the working people so that it doesn't have to face the fact that it is wrong.

All these protests around the world is like the right hemisphere exploding. And the left hemisphere has no idea what to do. And so it's constantly making up excuses for the reasons that the world is so shitty. And that's what our politicians, the bankers, the technocratic class, the World Economic Forum,

the trilateral, mission. That's what all these fucking dummies are doing. They're sitting around making excuses so that they don't have to change the world in which they live. They refuse. They flat out refuse. Every person in that class seems to be tainted by this desire to never lose anything, to never give up anything they have. Instead, they want to steal it and rape and pillage people that work for a living. And they indoctrinate people through schools and they indoctrinate their kids. And they sit around and lie to themselves about how they're not privileged, but they're

smarter. And that's what this internal struggle is. So in a way, it just goes back to what I was saying as far as if you can see yourself in the other. And if you can see the microcosm as. the macro and the macro has the micro. If it is fractal, I think you can make the case for us

as individual human beings being a lot like individual thoughts. Some of us are on the right hemisphere, some of us are on the left hemisphere. And that if both hemispheres, the brain are fighting, if the left is struggling for dominance because it doesn't want to face the truth

that it doesn't know everything. It's afraid it'll, if it, if it admits that it doesn't know everything, it's going to lose everything. If it's, if we're unable to come together and, and work as a whole, then we're unable to grow as an organism. I think we're running from the very thing that would free us. It's this unwillingness to admit that we're different. It's this unwillingness to admit that everybody,

should be able to do the same thing. It's this soft tyranny of equality. It's not true. It's not true. And it's a painful truth to know, but it's a liberating truth to know. And the more we allow our kids, the more we allow our colleagues,

the more we allow people we love to believe these lies that we live in this, world where there should be equity and equality, maybe there can be more equality and equity, but it can't be forced. You know, you can't create policies that say, these people all have to be the same and they have to have the equality of outcome. You can have the equality of opportunity, but not the equality of outcome. And it's just becoming so perverse. that I don't see how we can continue to move forward without collapsing. It's like we're a big giant game of Jenga.

And the only way that we've grown so fast, economically, socially, is by pulling the blocks from the foundation and placing them on top. And anybody who's ever played Jenga knows that the higher you build, the more you use that strategy of pulling from your foundation to put on top, the more unstable the tower becomes. On another note, it kind of scares me to think that maybe the only way to really transition out of this

is to have a collapse. Maybe the foundation has been so undermined that the only way to move forward is to start over. And it's a scary thing to think about. But there's a lot of evidence that that's exactly what's happening. And if you look at how many trillions of dollars have been printed and given out to the biggest institutions. If you look at the financial system,

especially in the United States where I'm from, you know, you can see that the government, the Federal Reserve is not supposed to loan directly to the government, but they just give money to their own banks, and then the banks give money. You know what I mean? Like it's just this big circle jerk. And it blows you.

my mind to think about how many trillions of dollars we're spending and how little of that money really trickles down to the individual. Where is it all going? Like, we're printing trillions of dollars. You know, and it makes me think for every person that earns a dollar, for every person that gets a dollar that doesn't deserve it, that means there's somebody who deserves it that doesn't get it. You know, that's the, that's this predator class that's just pulling from the foundation and putting it right on top and then taking the spoils and putting it in their pocket. I'm going to try to do some more research on the left, right brain hemispheres and break it down. I really think that it's a really good metaphor for our world.

You know, it's a really interesting idea that can at least, help people begin to try and reestablish a connection with beauty. And another, as I talk about it, I begin thinking more. You know, if you look at some of the like Agenda 30 or Agenda 21 or the Great Reset, what you see from the master class of people or the people who have been born into prestigious authority, you know, they would like to push people into smart cities. They want to track people. They want to get them away from nature.

And the more you do those things, the more you strengthen the analytical left hemisphere. You know, it's only in nature that we begin to have these ideas about how the world really works. It's only when you're in nature, that you're surrounded by beauty and you can feel this connection to the earth.

And that's the right hemisphere. That's this conceptual thinking. These are these ideas that at first are very difficult to explain. And rightfully so, because the left hemisphere has the speech centers. And I think being away from nature. Most people, you know, they live in a box, then they get in their box car and drive to work. Maybe they have a box lunch.

And then they get back in their box and they drive back to the box in which they live. And maybe, just maybe, they have a cylinder to change their state. of mind. You know, we can be creatures of habit. We can be creatures that are stimulus response. And that's the left hemisphere. But what we really are is creatures of creativity. That's when the world's the best. When you think about the Renaissance and the artwork and the sculpture and the beauty and the poetry and the language, like this is the dominant right hemisphere. This is a society that's healthy, a society that is creating beauty and is not just creating for creating alone. Right? When you begin creating just for the sake of financial procurement, then that

which you begin creating becomes meaningless. It becomes a habit, strictly. for the habit's purpose alone. Does that make sense? Like we're building. Right now it seems to me there's no goal except for the goal of expanding. And that is pretty much cancer, right? This is uncontrollable growth that continues to growth for growth's sake. If we can just draw that down and take a look at ourselves in the mirror as a world, what the fuck are we doing? What are we doing? Just stop and think about that for a minute. Like, what the fuck are we doing?

We just get up, go to work, consume, come home. Like, what the fuck are we doing? And there's all this crazy rhetoric about these billionaire oligarchs. Like Jeff Bezos, his company didn't make a fucking dime until he got a contract from the government. Don't tell me this guy's the fucking smartest man on the planet. Like, okay, how about this? Here's a paradigm shift. Look at all these fucking billionaires.

And they're, they're presented, they're represented to us as if some, there's some sort of savior, as if there's some sort of Godlike creature that they've created all these things. They've created all these jobs. But what I see, when I see Bezos, when I see Elon Musk, what I see is the parable of the prodigal. son. What I see is this story of a man who wished he could have everything and made a deal with the devil and didn't realize he's going to lose everything. Look at him. Look at Jeff Bezos. That guy is so, he looks like a fucking, the saddest child I've ever seen in my life. Look at pictures of him before he got money and then after he had money. It's like he rubbed a magic lamp And he got all his wishes.

But he didn't understand what he was going to give up. When you look at him prior to the government contract, he was like this skinny kind of nerdy guy that had this fascination with books and loved all this stuff. And then all of a sudden he gets a government contract. And he starts taking testosterone. He starts fucking kind of bulking up a little bit. And then he loses his wife.

I mean, you fucking lose. control of your relationships, you lose your wife, you lose your kid. Same thing with Musk, right? How many times that guy's been married? How many kids does he have? Like that guy's not a hero. These are stories. These are ideas and they're being shown to us of what not to do.

Let's say that they are incredibly intelligent. I'm sure that they are. But what lesson are they teaching the world? Hey, look at me. I can buy everything. And while the world around me fucking crumbles, I'm gonna fucking try to go into space. But they're not even going into space.

They're going 50 miles into the air. It's like a really expensive hot air balloon ride. Hey, congratulations, fuckheads. You've spent billions of dollars on a fucking giant carnival ride. Congratulations. Meanwhile, the mental horsepower, the, all the money and love and Everything that was given to you to build a better future, you spent on a fucking carnival ride.

You got magic beans. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, the Rothschild, all these fucking billionaires. The people of the world have given you everything. And you gave us magic beans. No wonder your kids are fucked up. No wonder Bezos is divorced. No wonder Bill Gates is divorced. their fucking wives hate them.

Think about that. The woman you love more than anything in the world fucking hates you. Like you took a wrong turn, fuckheads. Look at these ruling families. What pieces of garbage they are. All they have is money. All they have are these intrinsic fucking pieces of paper than in reality you don't mean shit.

They're nothing. They're fucking up our planet. I think that there's got to be a way for us to change the channel. Like, I truly believe, like, what if we just all stop using Amazon for one day? What if everybody just tweeted at Bill Gates? You are a horrible person. We gave you everything and you gave us magic beans. If you guys read this, just start tweeting magic beans to all the billionaires.

Elon Musk, magic beans. Bill Gates, magic beans. Jeff Bezos, magic beans. We don't want your magic beans. Politicians, magic beans. You get it? Trump, Pelosi, Clinton, Obama, magic fucking beans, man.

That's all you got. You got nothing. You got nothing. We trusted you with everything and you gave us magic beans. Macron, President Z, fucking magic beans, man.