I will never forget that strange sensation I felt when my bus arrived at my home station. I felt a bit dizzy, I guess. I had ridden the bus to work that day from Loveland, Colorado, in our bus station out here, to downtown Denver, where I typically rent an electric scooter and go to the IBM facility downtown. Then at the end of the day, I do the reverse and return home. Well, when I boarded the bus for home at the end of the day from Denver's Union Station, I put on my earbuds and I opened my Instagram app on my iPhone and I began scrolling. It was when I finally looked up for the very first time since finding my seat on that bus, and I saw that we were arriving back at the Loveland station. That's when it hit me. That's when I felt so weird, just dizzy. It's the best way I can describe it. How is it that I sat there riding the bus down Highway 25 with the bus making two stops along the way to drop off passengers? Then finally, 50 minutes later, just sitting there scrolling, I finally looked up for the very first time in the entire trip. Wow. For that 50 minutes, 100% of my attention had been captured looking at my phone. I guess I felt dizzy because my brain couldn't comprehend that passage of time without my awareness of it. How is it that I stayed entertained? Again, completely captured for 50 minutes with no visual or audible connection with the outside world. Sure, I must have enjoyed it, I guess. I guess I was entertained, but what puzzles me so deeply was the fact that I was scrolling from one thing to the next on my phone, and I was falling deeper and deeper into its grip. I was totally absorbed into a world largely driven, as I know, by AI-based algorithms that have learned my scrolling habits and know how to feed my brain with one screen view after another that it knows I'm really, really gonna like. Wow, that was so strange. But again, with an attitude of gratefulness, I'm so grateful I had a bike to ride, something that I have enjoyed for a lifetime, and it was there to straighten out my head that day. Have you ever experienced the same thing? Well, let's talk about it. Thank you for joining me today! Welcome to Peace Love Moto, the podcast for motorcyclists seeking that peaceful, easy feeling as we cruise through this life together. Are you ready? Let's go. I rode to a local coffee shop where when I was getting off my bike and grabbing a book from my top case, a man on a beautiful Italian motorcycle parked right next to me. We had the nicest conversation, first admiring each other's motorcycles, then talking about where we like to ride, and then we exchanged phone numbers. It was a very real, genuine conversation between two motorcycle riders. We were strangers for about 30 seconds, then friends in our common motorcycling world, likely for a long time. You know, on this podcast we talk about it a lot. How easy it is to connect with another person who is also on a motorcycle. We have so much in common. How fortunate we are to have those connections that are so easy to make because of what we like to do for fun. And in contrast to my experience on the bus, scrolling non-stop through Instagram, here and now is a very real world. And that world is wonderful. I think we need to, I think we have to. Specifically, the future of where developments in artificial intelligence are taking us, and how that future stacks up against the one thing it can never replicate, the very real-world experience of motorcycling in the great outdoors and making friends along the way. So just start. Just look around, right? In any public space, the screens are winning. We are living in a digital paradox, it seems. More connected than any humans in history, yet so many are suffering from loneliness. Connected but lonely. How can that be? I just read that the U.S. Surgeon General has described it as an epidemic. As we speak, tech firms are flooding the market with so-called companion AI. Chatbots designed to fill an emotional void that so many people are suffering from. But it's not a fix. This so-called companion or companion apps, they're patient, always available, and make no demands on you. And they are built to provide an illusion of social presence. The illusion of having a friend. Oh man, that's just sad. I went on to read further about what happens when you get so invested in one of these companion apps. You get used to companionship, let's say, with your artificial friend, without any demands on you at all, no requirement to listen to what someone else has to say, and no need to take time to consider their perspective, a perspective that may be very different than your own. A perspective that you may learn something from. They say that these companion apps actually dull your ability to handle the imperfect part of the real human world, a real human connection. It leads to something that researchers are calling empathy atrophy. Wow. All natural, no side effects. As pure as a deep breath of fresh mountain air. The simple act of riding a motorcycle forces us to be present in the real, in the now. It's like this sensory awareness that technology can't simulate. I'm sure it never will. I believe that. That shift in focus is why studies have shown that a ride on a motorcycle, for example, can drop your stress levels, your cortisone, as much as 30%. And it sharpens your focus along the way. It's this genuine, full-bodied mindfulness where the views and the stakes are all real. And that realness, my friends, is what makes our community so potent. You can't simulate the spontaneous, simple connection that you get at a gas station conversation or outside a coffee shop just like I experienced this past week. That 10-minute chat with a stranger who just happens to be on the same stretch of road as you. And you can't replace the companionship of a group ride. The shared experience of riding through a storm together are simply the joy of sitting across a table at a coffee shop with your friends, sharing a wonderful meal, and a great story about where you rode that day. AI can give us facts, it can generate images and videos, but it cannot give you the smell of a fresh-cut pasture, the cool air, the feeling of being truly seen and supported by another human being. And I think that motorcycling is our antidote to this modern AI world that keeps us inside and in a shell emotionally. I think that motorcycling makes us better people. Leave your phone in your saddlebag or in your top case, or better yet, leave it at home. Come on, be brave, forget your phone for once, and find yourself lost on your motorcycle, not lost in a screen, but lost in the beauty that's all around you. The joy of riding machine that you love, the joy of having real friends who care about you, and you come to realize that without a shadow of a doubt, just being alive is wonderful. Hey, I thank you so much for listening, and I wish you peace, and I wish you love.