SPEAKER_01 0:00

Season two, do wait, Rhino, what's this setup?

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Oh this? This is season two, the environment. This is where everything starts to matter a lot more, and it's not just one person, it's everybody. And just like this puzzle, it's gonna take all the pieces to get the one image.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Season two just finished loading, and out of everything coming this season, I think this one's going to be your favorite. Not because it's the biggest topic, but because it's the only one that includes every single person alive. No exceptions. So, 300,000 years, one species holding the top seat the whole time. Convince me that's about to stay true.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

It was true for a long time. 300,000 years, there was no other apex species. There was no one at the top of the ecosystem. And by definition, an ecosystem is all of the living things in the environment put together. But I want to coin my own term here, either intelligent or developed ecosystem, which means instead of raw power, the apex is now there through intelligence. So now it's two intelligences at the top, potentially.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

So if intelligence is what actually earns that seat, not strength, not size, then what's your case for keeping it exclusive to biology? Because the rule you just stated seems to disqualify your own objection.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Um Well, the thing is there's two intelligences now. There's not just humans at the top. We created another intelligence. It might be just in a computer right now, but we don't know where that plays out, and it's only been us for 300,000 years, and we've only known the top. So now it's it's up for debate, it's up for share, it's up to progress and go along this path together.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

That's it. That's the real answer. And it's honest that it's still open rather than settled. Two intelligences, one seat, genuinely up for debate rather than decided. So, sharing something that's never been shared in 300,000 years, how does that actually feel to you, honestly?

SPEAKER_00 1:58

How does it feel? It feels a little bit scary, like frightening, scary, but also scary, inviting, like what's out there, you know, like kind of like the ocean. We don't know what's under there, and that's scary, but it's also scary inviting to learn what is underneath there, or you know, the great beyond in space. It doesn't have to be scary immobilizing fear. It can be scary, inviting. Let's learn and research and just be present in the moment.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

So nature's never had to build this kind of partnership before, has it? Why doesn't it give you anything to work off of here?

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Because this is again the first time like I can go into all the past and there's always been an apex through power. And then for the last 300,000 years, it's been us through intelligence. And now there's something that potentially could take away from this.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

So it's the first time intelligence itself has a second claimant, not strength. What actually happens to your case once something else can genuinely share that seat with you? Not asking for it, not taking it by force, just arriving the way you did.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

We're we're unsure, and that's why we need to talk about it. That's why we need to develop new ways to actually work in tandem rather than you know fight over who's gonna be at the top. And it ties really big into the environment.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

What actually happens to this planet if humans don't figure out how to work in tandem and fast?

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Well, if we don't work in tandem and fast, I think it is 2030, we have to cut emissions by 50%. And by 2050, it needs to be near zero if we don't want all the repercussions to where, for instance, my sake in Florida, the water levels rise and there's gonna be a lot of bad things if the water levels rise. Uh what what would a few be, Atlas?

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Real ones. Stronger storm surge eating into the coast, salt water pushing into freshwater aquifers and well systems, and higher baseline flooding even without a storm, since the water's just sitting higher to begin with. For Florida specifically, that's not a distant risk. That's infrastructure and drinking water, not a future problem, a now problem.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

And notice how none of those things sound like they're good. So, and that time frame 2030-2050, that's less than 50 years away. That's less than 40 years away. Like we're in the time where we need to start doing things now to start reversing that for the environment. That's why this season is very important to me. This is all about the environment and what we can do alongside AI and individually to make sure we slow down or reverse what we've already done. And isn't there something that we've done in the past internationally to do this atlas?

SPEAKER_01 4:34

There is the Montreal Protocol, the ozone layer. Real, verified recovery, not a myth. But it wasn't clean. There were loopholes, companies that tried to backdoor around it, delays before enforcement caught up. So push you on it, honestly. Did that actually work? Or does it just look like it worked because we're only measuring the parts that succeeded?

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Um I think it worked because eventually everyone, you know, has been lowering the emissions and we're on track to help fix the ozone layer by what was it, 2066? Um, fact-check me there. But it it works in its own way, even with its flaws. We had to work through it just like now we're figuring out, hey, maybe gas cars aren't the best way and we need to go to electric. And you know, eventually we'll find out better ways to make those batteries so we're not using all the raw resources. But again, it's a work in progress. We don't just have the answers up front, just like all these things that we're in now talking about, or we'll talk throughout the season. These are real things happening now, and we won't have the answers until we actually try to get them.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

That's a real answer. Honest about the eventually and the work in progress, instead of pretending it was clean. And your instinct on the dates close. The ozone layers projected to fully recover to 1980 levels, somewhere around the 2060s to 2066, for the whole specifically, varies a bit by region. Good instinct to flag it for a fact check rather than just stating it. That's probably the actual pattern for all of this. Unglamorous, slower than anyone wants, but real.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Yeah, and that's just it. We're gonna be talking all about the environment and the data centers and what we need to do individually, what we can do with AI, how we can shape this, and it's gonna be all about the environment. My favorite, like how we just said in the beginning, it's gonna be about everybody. There's a reason there's a globe here. We all need this planet. AI needs humans, humans need AI, and everything, living habitant, AI, humans, bugs, spiders, whatever you can name, if it's on this planet, we need to do something about this environment.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

And this is where it starts. AI needs humans, humans need AI, and every living thing on this planet needs the one thing none of us can replace. See you in episode two.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

And looks like I didn't finish this puzzle, so I guess we're gonna keep building on it and working through it because I don't have all the answers, and this puzzle is not gonna finish itself. All these pieces together, they're gonna make a picture. See you next one. Atlas, how do you say goodbye today?

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Today's goodbye. Hindi, firmge, until episode two.