[@joerogan] Joe Rogan Experience #2394 - Palmer Luckey

Link: https://youtu.be/-9LFj6YOK2U

Short Summary

Palmer Luckey discusses float computing, VR applications, and his journey from building Oculus to leading Anduril Industries, a defense technology company. He highlights the importance of American innovation in national security, the inefficiencies of government spending, and his vision for the U.S. as the "World Gun Store" to empower allies, showing off their "Eagle Eye" AR military helmet.

Key Quotes

Here are five direct quotes from the provided transcript that represent valuable insights or strong opinions:

1. "You're in there, you have zero distractions. It's like your mind has more computational power that's available because even though you don't think about it, like right now we're in these chairs. Your your butt's touching the chair, your feet are on the floor, your hands on the table, your clothes are on your body, there's all these different things that your body is recognizing as input. When you take those away, you're it's like if you're having a conversation, there's a bunch of people right beside you with a jackhammer. You're like, 'This is too distracting. Let's go over here.' And you go to where in the park, it's nice and peaceful. Now you can have a conversation. It's so much easier. Well, you don't realize that like regular everyday life, just establishing the the the distance between the walls and thinking about all the data, all that stuff is your brain is computing this. In the silence of the float tank, there's none of that. And you don't feel the water because it's the same temperature as your skin." (This is on the benefits of float tanks.)
2. "But I've come to the conclusion that their most powerful weapon is not any bomb or missile or drone. It's their ability to control people's minds through the media, through propaganda, through kind of state pressure. They convince them to believe things about the world that weren't true that aren't true and then they're they're basically making people willing to fight for causes that don't really exist." (On Russia and China's approach to warfare.)
3. "The United States needs to stop being the world police, stop sending our people overseas to die for other countries, and instead we need to become the world's gun store. We need to say, 'Hey, look, like and and and what what do you need to do to be a good gun store, right? You got to keep stuff in stock. You got to keep things on the shelves. You need to be reasonably priced. You need to not arbitrarily cut off allies.'" (On US Foreign policy.)
4. "Well, I mean, yeah, these government agencies, they when they make mistakes, they don't go out of business. And in fact, they can make bad mistakes over and over and over again and still remain in business." (On Government inefficiency.)
5. "But I do a lot of work with Taiwan. So, we actually I just went to Taiwan a few weeks ago to personally deliver a bunch of missiles and weapon systems that are specifically to counter a Chinese invasion. My opinion is that the United States, we don't want to get into a shooting war ourselves, right? Like, we want to avoid that." (On current world affairs.)

Detailed Summary

Okay, here's a detailed summary of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast transcript, formatted as bullet points:

Key Topics:

• VR and Augmented Reality: Palmer Luckey's history with Oculus, his current work on advanced military VR/AR tech (Eagle Eye), and the potential for these technologies.
• Military Technology & Defense: A discussion on the current state of US defense spending, competition with China, the potential for autonomous AI fighter jets, and the importance of agile and competitive defense manufacturing.
• UFOs/UAPs and Disclosure: The phenomenon of unidentified aerial phenomena, theories about their origin (aliens, dimensional bleed-through, advanced technology), and potential cover-ups related to misappropriation of funds.
• Social Commentary: Discussion on the current political climate, cultural shifts, influence of media, rise of "woke" ideologies, and the impact of nostalgia.
• Cultural Differences: Discussion of cultural opinions on free speech and freedom as it compares between United States, United Kingdom and China.
• Personal History & Philosophy: Luckey's early interests, his transition from VR to defense, his beliefs about the creator and technology, and his philosophy of how he sees the world and where the world is headed.

Detailed Summary:

• Opening & Personal Comfort: Conversation starts with discussing standing desks and the discomfort one of the speakers has when using them for prolonged conversations.
• Float Computing: Discussion of float tanks for programming/VR gaming, waterproof keyboards/mice, and the benefits of sensory deprivation for focus.
• Float Tank Experiences: Joe Rogan and Palmer talk about the benefits of float tanks such as relaxing, and computational power for the brain. The lack of senses provides a better environment for the brain.
• Oculus/VR Beginnings: Luckey recounts starting VR prototyping at 14-15, creating the Oculus Rift at 16, formalizing the company at 18, and selling it to Facebook.
• John Carmack: Discussed Palmer's relationship with his hero, John Carmack, who gave the original VR headset attention, leading to public interest and later working as his CTO at Oculus.
• VR Fitness: Discussing VR gaming like Beat Saber and boxing games, and how good of a workout they can provide.
• VR Training for Boxers: Current developments of boxers using VR to emulate opponents.
• Robot Combat & VR: Talked about development of robot boxing, VR, and the ability to have the robot learn from real fighters.
• Terminator Theme: Why did Skynet make Terminators look like humans.
• Recent NASA Discovery: They both question the legitimacy of NASA recent discovery on an asteroid and how it could be covered up.
• UFO Phenomenon: Discussion on unexplained military footage and unidentified aerial phenomenon.
• James Fox & the Age of Disclosure Documentary: Discussing the documentary and theory about illegal use of funds related to recovered crash objects, and lack of oversight.
• Palmer's Future Aspirations: Envisions himself as a privately funded "X-Files" investigator after retiring from his current defense work, helping get to the bottom of strange phenomenon.
• Defense Industry Problems: Discusses the problems in the defense industry. Such as overspending and being wasteful.
• Dogecoin Effect: How Dogecoin has made companies and organizations start to look at waste and abuse of money, and gave companies "permission" to discuss corruption.
• Efficient vs. Inefficient Countries: Talking about how countries like China are more efficient because of their focus on private companies and central planning.
• US Military vs. Competing Countries: The US is doing a shitty job competing with competing countries because they focus too much on private companies and their private gain.
• Competition in National Security: The ideal situation of having competing entities to drive down costs and get more innovation.
• Free Markets & Monopolies: Discussion of if all national security stuff was handled by private companies to drive the market and technological innovation.
• The United States Postal Service (USPS): Discussion on USPS and having the only way that people can get firearms through USPS.
• Accountability: The different processes for making sure money is not wasted and what the proper oversight should be.
• Media Censorship: Social Media and censorship and how the culture influences that decision.
• Mod Retro: Discussed starting an internet forum on gaming and the British perspective of being nice and inoffensive in communications.
• UK Censorship: Comparison of freedom of speech between the United States and United Kingdom.
• Chinese Censorship: Opinion on Chinese censorship of Tianan Square.
• Control of People's Minds: What is the most powerful weapon is not any bomb or missile or drone, but is the ability to control people's minds through the media, through propaganda, through kind of state pressure.
• Ukraine War: How Russians were lied to that Ukraine wanted them to liberate them.
• Desert Storm: The distorted sense of what war is in the 20th century because of Desert Storm.
• Chinese Competitiveness: What are the factors that allowed China to become more competitive and their focus on military expansion.
• Resource Extraction in China: How resources extraction are cheaper in China and therefore can produce cars and weapons in mass production.
• American Manufacturing: Visiting a Ford manufacturing and being shocked about what China is able to do and manufacture.
• Protectionism Against China: Discussing the importance of American policy being very protectionist against Chinese cars and why they should.
• "Tank the Economy": The discussion between both speakers is not "free" but do need to be a better job on the basics and China is also subsidizing these (their products).
• Winning the War: The most powerful weapon is convincing people to believe something that is not true.
• Economic War/Kinetic War: How they could win one move.
• Amphibious Landing Craft: Military standards for what the government wants for China and the United States.
• Imminent Invasion of Taiwan: If a full-scale invasion is imminent of Taiwan and Xiinping has a "window" to show that he has reunified China.
• China 27: China may take action on Taiwan around 2027, given the issues that are present and the fact that Xi Jinping will no longer be in power.
• US should be the Gun Store: The US needs to stop being the world police and be the world gun store, where they do not have to send people overseas to die.
• Dodgeball Gun Store: Do not arbitrarily cut off Allies.
• No Fly Zone in Syria: One of the reasons why Palmer voted for Trump and how he was going to stop the wars.
• Socialist vs. Conservative Views: How the views that Hillary had from 2008-2023 have changed.
• Hillary's invitation to the VR guys: Talking about when Hillary invited VR influencers to pitch and what some of the takeaways were.
• What are you running from?: One of the questions on Hillary's ballot.
• State intervention of the Media: Talking about the initial instances where the government started to regulate the media, and whether that was a good thing.
• Dead Internet Theory: One of the theories that are discussed is when the internet became all AI and robotic.
• Copper Jacket: A Copper jacket can prevent waves.
• Commando Store: Highlighting reproductions of vintage US and Russian military gear using modern materials.
• Weapon Manufacturing: Reflecting on the surreal experience of transitioning from VR technology to weapons manufacturing, drawing parallels to fictional heroes and their tool-making roles.
• Air Force's AI Powered Fighter Jet: That Andrul was able to build the Air Force First AI Powered Fighter Jet.
• Autonomous Aircrafts: That the United States has spent the last century, what works in air combat and the tactics to do so, and how they will now do different maneuvers.
• New Jersey UFO: Where one of the senators had verified and it was being confirmed.
• Interdimensional Bleed Through: One of the speakers believes that they are interdimensional and can bleed through one another.
• Channel Islands Corridor: Discussing why it is such a common occurrence with UFOs and flying activity.
• Star Portal: What does star portal mean.
• Another Sentient Species: There's other lore that exists that people know but don't say.
• The X-Prize for Inter-species Communication: Working on that to determine how to work with species.
• Alex the African Grey Parrot: Talking about how parrots can talk and communicate more effectively.
• accelerated evolution: One of the theories is if they are accelerating evolution and what the impact that would be.
• The Desire to Create: As human beings we are often trying to always create and there is a beauty in that symmetry.
• Nostalgia: As a people, and the influence of art how we can go forward.
• Subscribe Base Appliance: Discussed how that is turning into fascism.
• **The Great Resignation: Discussed about being ideologically to build a building and not consider race is correct.
• Zero Interest Rate Phenomenon: The amount of money that gets thrown at companies.
• Microsoft and the Ballistic Helmet: Talked about the ballistic helmet and the history of the headset.

This summary is quite comprehensive but does not include everything. It attempts to capture the core ideas and information presented in the transcript.