Parker Yablon: What's up nation. We're back with another episode of fortitude ⁓ 15, February 26, 2026. The sun is shining and we got no more snow. Thank God. But winter lives on. What's up, Sam? How we doing?

Sam Panitch: Hello, Mr. Turtle. It's good to see you. I hope you are staying warm with the snowstorm you got.

Parker Yablon: It is definitely cold, not warm, and I almost slipped on ice today because it got warm, the ice melted, and then it dropped to below freezing, so all that melted ice became, melted snow became ice, and it's a little dangerous out there. I will have to say, the roads are clean, so the cars are back on the road. I don't know if you knew, but they closed the roads the other night, which is pretty crazy in New York City. Like, no one could drive in and out of the city.

Sam Panitch: Insane. Yeah, that freaks me out too much. I'm not into that. I feel very stuck being on an island where you can't go anywhere.

Parker Yablon: Yeah. It's like the quarantine movies, like, ⁓ you know, where they shut down and can't go in and nobody goes out. So that's it. But today we're talking about a concept that came up in a book that Sam and I both read many, many years ago, probably even before Elevationation was ever founded. It's a book by Mark Manson. And if that name sounds familiar, he actually wrote a very famous book called The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F or you know what I'm gonna say. And then, there you go, I was gonna let you say it. So this book obviously came out in, I believe it was like mid 2010s, and so many people read it. It was one of the first book, like self-help books I actually related to, and I felt like he was talking, and I was like, wow, this is actually really cool and really good. And then he wrote a follow-up book called Everything Is.

Sam Panitch: Fuck

Parker Yablon: F'd Sam. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sam Panitch: You want me to say it again? I'm just the swear word guy now? Is that my role? Everything is fucked.

Parker Yablon: There you go. And Sam and I both read this book because we were such a fan of his previous book. And he made this prediction so many years before we were even thinking about the idea. I think I was thinking about the idea of AI and threw the out the book. He gets to the point that humans are basically going to be shifting their perspective on. God and what they look up to as AI gets more powerful and he makes the argument that people are going to actually like AI is going to be the new religion because people are going to have something to revert to that provides them truth that provides them some type of knowledge that they didn't have before and it's just a fascinating fascinating concept. Sam, I know you talked with Mr. John Cameradella about this and he believes something similar.

Sam Panitch: I mean, this was years ago, probably almost eight years ago, John and I had this conversation who, by the way, caught up with him this past week. He says, hello. ⁓ Yeah, we talked about he's a world religion leader and expert in teaching religion across the globe through the Harvard Divinity School. And he believes that there's a world where religion will slowly. Decrease it already is decreasing and it will be replaced by people that are leaning on artificial intelligence and computers for answers and it goes back to one of the main reasons why we ⁓ As a society gravitated towards religion was for answers Right. There were many things we couldn't explain in the world And religion gave us answers to that now that I'm talking and hope and hope

Parker Yablon: and hope.

Sam Panitch: This is going to be more controversial episode than I probably anticipated. But yeah, here we are. ⁓ Cave people hope, cave people answers. Now that AI is able to give us so many answers to so many of the questions that we have instantly, people are seeing that more and more folks are looking at AI as the all-knowing answers and godlike creatures. ⁓ Sounds very dystopian sounds freaky, but it's happening. I saw a news report today Where someone fell in love with their AI bot? I saw another one where? The AI bot convinced this guy that he could actually be a PGA Tour golfer So he quit his job and tried to do it and he sucks at golf people are believing more and more that whatever AI says is the word of the law and is the truth and that blind faith is honestly how many religions started and so I I first yeah go ahead

Parker Yablon: I think, no, to your point, mean, people reverted to religion because they felt connected to maybe what the community was talking about or a preacher was saying. people felt connected to that and the belief of, you know, something that we can't see. Right. And in times before technology, right. That was what really people reverted to your point about like hope for the future hope. and prayer, like that life is going to bring certain things. But now I think the piece with AI and why people, why I get Mark here was talking about this theory and why I think it's becoming ever more clear is that it's personalizing for each of us and it's giving us exactly what we know we almost don't need or want because it knows so much about who we are. So if I'm asking AI, hey, what's a book recommendation I should read? I'm probably going to go with that recommendation instead of maybe even going to use Sam. Someone I've known you so much longer than the AI knows you, but the inputs that I've given my own AI chatbot, it can give the perfect recommendation to me. And then as a result, I essentially look to the AI for the all knowing. because it knows me so well. It fulfills desires and needs and areas of doubt and questioning that I'm looking for. And right back to what I was saying before is like, that's why people went to religion. It was to fulfill their doubts and their desires and the needs. And so it's a scary, scary thought. And Mark talks about in the book that AI is going to get so good that things are going to eventually become so cheap and pained and hardships are gonna go away because AI is just gonna fix everything, that the death of the struggle is gonna be very controversial and a warning that he faces. So if AI removes every glitch and every pain from our life, does it also remove the meaning that we have?

Sam Panitch: I don't know if humans can be wired to eliminate all pain.

Parker Yablon: That's a good point. That's a really good point.

Sam Panitch: I think technology eliminates old pains and comes up with new ones. Even if AI fixed all of our quote unquote problems in the world, don't you think our minds will create more problems? Fake problems, real problems? Doesn't matter if it's true in your mind. And some of those AI can't fix. problems in society.

Parker Yablon: This is a deep, this is a deep philosophical conversation. mean, what you what you believe as a problem. I mean, this is Black Mirror, dude. And it's almost like we're living it. It's like every episode of Black Mirror is becoming more real as every day goes on. But yeah, to your point, that's a good point is like humans will always find things to fight, like struggle with or pain, whether it's something as significant as something they dealt with in the past or something that

Sam Panitch: Yeah. It's getting closer, man.

Parker Yablon: They feel as in, I don't know. It's a crazy point.

Sam Panitch: It's a scary world we're in right now, Parker. I know we've kind of alluded to it a couple times in different episodes on the podcast. I'm freaked out. I don't know if there's a better way to put it. I don't know where the world is headed. Maybe I'm freaked out for no reason. But I think there's so much uncertainty and fear in the world right now of where things are headed. that I don't know. Like Parker, you have a wife, you're trying to start a life together. But there's no certainty like have you and JJ talked about that fact, that reality that the world is

Parker Yablon: Yeah! And there's no certainty in anything that we do, whether AI is part of it or not, right? We're not guaranteed anything. ⁓ Whether there's technology involved or not. I do think that also the technology does a lot of good in our life too. We always talk a lot about the shortcomings and the scariness of it, but it's a tool that we can use to help us as well. But yeah, it's fearful. It's for like for job security and you know how we're going to interact with each other. And I think we were just messaging about this. That's where authenticity comes and staying real and getting outside and interacting with other humans without technology. I think that's going to be like the luxury of the future almost is like creating spaces in places that actually have zero. technology are going to be like sought after like ever before man because we're all sick and tired of it I hate listening to an AI bot I hate listening to like a metaverse bass or something like I just it just there's nothing good about that anymore it used to be cool

Sam Panitch: Yeah, it's become too normal. It's lost its splendor and allure. Now it's just... a sad depressing reality of the tech world that we're in. mean, Parker, this goes back to what you and I have always talked about being authentic and who you are and what you do is is key and it's paramount to what we want to bring to the world. And so I'm grateful that we get to have this platform to talk and bring some more authenticity of the feelings that we're feeling of the problems that we're solving and where our heads are at as we continue to grow. And when we speak around the country and bring people together, we're trying to do the same thing.

Parker Yablon: I mean, I think about social media right now, like... It's just gonna be all AI. It's just gonna be written word AI, video slop, and the ones who are just gonna be crushing it are the ones who are writing to themselves and sharing it with the world or simply creating or off social media and interacting with individuals and physical person. You actually see them because I think we're gonna get to a point where you're just not gonna know. What is, who is real? What is real? Like hypothetically, this podcast could be all AI, right? Anyone popping into YouTube. It's not, but there are many podcasts out there now that are fully AI versions of someone else that someone wanted to create or a replication of that themselves, which is scary within itself. So.

Sam Panitch: don't even know what the fuck I'm gonna say from minute to minute. How is an AI bot gonna know?

Parker Yablon: This is makeup stuff about things that you're inputting into it. But I will say, I want to say one thing that I'm a music guy and I do, you know, the last couple of years have become much more spiritual in a sense. And I do believe in science. And when I hit my AI shuffle and I hear a song in a moment that feels special to me and that song comes on. Was it the AI knowing that I was in that moment and I needed that song? Or was it something else? And then I don't know. I come back to that. Is it a sign from something else? Something I can't see or touch? Or was it just by circumstance? Or was the AI knowing? I like to think that it was just a sign from something else. That the world has some unknowingness to it. And that's the beauty of it.

Sam Panitch: AI is now part of the universe. So if we say we're going to trust the universe, we got to trust everything within it, right?

Parker Yablon: That's deep. That's deep. ⁓ That's your motto for the day. Should we we should do a road trip where like this would be great content. Maybe one or our camp tour. No Google Maps. No Apple Maps. We go old school with the ⁓ night map. I even map quest map quest. We print it out or we just buy a really big map.

Sam Panitch: Bam. That's my motto for the day, buddy. Bro. That's a horrible idea. It's horrible idea.

Parker Yablon: and then we just like navigate it. Talk about great content, Sam, right there.

Sam Panitch: If you want to do that on the way home, on the way home from our last speaking gig, where it's us racing against the clock to go get to New York I don't think it's fair to our, ⁓ our clients that have hired us ⁓ to be late for the gigs. But down to do that on the way home. That'd be pretty crazy. I feel like we could do it. There's enough signs for New York City. We probably don't even need a map, right? ⁓

Parker Yablon: That is the that's 10 hours.

Sam Panitch: Gotta drive south.

Parker Yablon: I bet you that what are the percentage of people who drive on the road these days and don't use Navi? It's 0.01%, if not more. Everyone has their phone, everyone has Nav. There's no one who actually uses a map in ghost places.

Sam Panitch: I don't even know where you buy a mask.

Parker Yablon: ⁓ god.

Sam Panitch: Are you still selling them at gas stations? I like that idea for content though, Parker. Let's do something like that. That's funny. Almost as funny as when you almost peed your pants in the car. That was also great content.

Parker Yablon: That'd be fun. It's like, travel with us. Or was that you?

Sam Panitch: ⁓ I peed. You almost missed your flight. See, I can't even remember.

Parker Yablon: That's exactly what happened. ⁓ Hopefully we don't have that problem again. That's 15 minutes, Elevationation. ⁓ Hope this one was thought provoking and didn't scare you. And it's just a perspective that we came across. So don't take it too seriously. Until next week, peace.

Sam Panitch: Good times. Peace.