>>Hello, and welcome to the cube unstoppable Doneen showcase. I'm John furrier, host of the cube. We got a great discussion here called the influencers around what's going on in web three and also this new sea change cultural change around this next generation, internet web cloud, all happening, Jeremiah yang industry analyst, and founding part of the cleaner insights. Share my great to see you. Thanks for coming on. Appreciate it. Uh, registered vice-president of marketing at unstoppable domains in the middle of all the actions. Gentlemen, thanks for coming on on the cube for this showcase. >>My pleasure. So I think it was done >>At Jeremy. I want to start with you. You've seen many ways, but fallen all of your work for over a decade now. Um, you've seen the web 2.0 wave. Now the web three's here. Um, and it's not, I wouldn't say hyped up. It's really just ramping up and you're seeing real practical examples. Uh, you're in the middle of all the action. What is this web three? Can you frame for us that mean you've seen many waves? What is web three mean? What is it? What is it all about? >>Well, John, you and I worked in the web to space and essentially that enabled peer to peer media where people could, could upload their thoughts and ideas and videos, um, without having to rely on centralized media. And unfortunately that distributed and decentralized movement actually became centralized on the platforms or the big social networks and big tech companies. And this has caused an uproar because the people who are creating the content did not have control, could not control their identities and could not really monetize or make decisions. So web three is what is, which is a moniker of a lot of different trends, including crypto blockchain. And sometimes the metaverse is to undo the controlling that has become centralized. And the power is now shifting back into the hands of the participants again, and then this movement, they want to have more control over their identities, their governance, the content that they're creating, how they're actually building it and then how they're monetizing it. So in many ways, it's, it's changing the power and it's a new economic model. So that's web three without really even mentioning the technologies. Is that helpful? >>Yeah, that's great. And ran. We were talking about, on the cute many times and one notable stat, I don't think it's been reported, but it's been more kind of a rumor. I hear that 30% of the, um, Berkeley computer science students are dropping out and going into crypto or blockchain or decentralized startups, which means that this there's a big wave coming in of talent. You seeing startups, you're seeing a lot more formation. You're seeing a lot more, I would say, kind of ramping up of real people, not just, you know, people with a dream it's actual builders out here doing stuff. What's your take on the web three, moving with all this kind of change happening, uh, from people and also the new ideas being refactored. >>I think that the competition for talent is extremely real. And we start looking at the stats. We see that there is an draft of people that are moving into this space. People that are fascinated by technology and are embracing the ethos of web three. And at this stage, I think it's not only engineers and developers, but we have moved into a second phase where we see that a lot of supporting functions know marketing, being one of them, sales, business development, uh, are being built up quite rapidly. It's not without actually reminding me of the mid two thousands. You know, when I started, uh, working with Google at that point in time, the walled gardens rightly absorbing vast, vast cohorts of young graduates and more experienced professionals that are passionate and moving into the web environment. And I think we are seeing a movement right now, which is not entirely dissimilar, except >>Yeah, Jeremiah. You've seen the conversations over the cloud. I call the cloud kind of revolution. You had mobile in 2007, but then you got Amazon web services changed the application space on how people developed in the cloud. And again, that created a lot of value. Now you're seeing the role of data as a huge part of how people are scaling and the decentralized movement. So you've got cloud, which is kind of classic today. State-of-the-art, you know, enterprise and or app developers and you've got now decentralized wave coming. Okay. You're seeing apps being developed on that, that architecture data is central in all of this, right. So how do you view this? As, as someone who's watching the landscape, you know, these walled gardens are hoarding all the data. I mean, LinkedIn Facebook, they're not sharing that data with anyone they're using it for themselves. So as they can control back, comes to the forefront, how do you see this market with the applications and what comes out of that? >>So the thing that we've seen and out of the five things that I had mentioned that are decentralizing, the ones that have been easier to move across have been the ability to monetize and to build. But the data aspect has actually stayed pretty much central. Frankly. What has decentralized is that the contracts to block blockchain ledgers to those of decentralized. But the funny thing is often a big portion of these blockchain networks are on Amazon 63 to 70%, same thing with Stelara. So they're still using the web 2.0 architectures. However, we're also seeing other farms like IPFS, where the data could be to spread it across a wider range of folks. But right now we're still dependent on what we're to point out. So the vision and the problem with 3.0, when it comes to full de-centralization is not here by any means. I'd say we're at a web 2.2, five, >>Pre-web 3m, no actions there. What do you guys, how do you guys see the, um, the dangers? Cause there's a lot of negative press, but also is a lot of positive press. You seeing, you know, a lot of fraud, we've seen a lot of the crypto fraud over the past years. You've seen a lot of now positives, it's almost a self-governance thing and environment, the way the culture is, but what are the dangers? How do you guys educate people? What should people pay attention to? What should people look for to understand, you know, where to position themselves? >>Yes. So we've learned a lot from web one, we to the sharing economy and we are walking into two and three with eyes wide open. So people have rightfully put forth a number of challenges, the sustainability issues with excess using of computing and mining, the, um, the excessive amount of scams that are happening in part due to unknown identities. Um, also the architecture breaks down in certain periods and there's a lack of regulation. Um, this, this is something different though in the last, uh, uh, periods that we've gone through, we didn't really know what was gonna happen. And we walked in big, this is going to be great. The sharing economy, the gig economy, the social media is going to change the world. Hurrah is very different. Now people are a little bit jaded. So I think that's the big change. And so I think we're going to see that, uh, you know, soar it out and suss out just like we've seen with other prints. It's still very much in the early years, >>Right. I got to get your take on this whole, uh, should influencers and should people be anonymous or should they be doxed out there? You saw the board eight guys that did, that were kind of docs a little bit there and that went, went viral. Um, this is an issue, right? Because we, we just had a problem of fake news, uh, fake people, fake information, and now you have a much more secure environment. Immutability is a wonderful thing. It's, it's a feature, not a bug, right. So how is this all coming down? And I know you guys are in the middle of it with, uh, NFTs as, as authentication tickets. What's your take on this because this is a big issue. >>Look, I think first I am extremely optimistic about technology in general. Uh, so I'm super, super bullish about this. And yet, you know, I think that while crypto has so many upsides, it's important to be super conscious and aware of the downsides that come with it too. You know, if you think about every fortune 500 company, there is always training required by all employees on internet safety reporting of potential attacks. And so on in web three, we don't have that kind of standard reporting mechanisms yet, uh, for bad actors in that space. And so when you think about influencers in particular, they do have a responsibility to educate people about, uh, the potential, but also the dangers of the technology of web three, uh, of crypto basically, uh, whether you're talking about hacks online safety, the need for hardware impersonators on discord, uh, security, uh, storing your, your seed phrase. >>So every actor in France or ELs has got a role to play. I think that, uh, in that context, to your point, it's very hard to tell whether influencers should be, uh, anonymous, opposite inverse or footy dogs. The decentralized nature of web three will probably lead us to see a combination of those anonymity levels, um, so to speak, um, and the, uh, movements that we've seen around some influencers, identities becoming public are particularly interesting. I think there's probably a convergence of web two and web three at play here. You know, maybe a on the notion of 2.5 for, I think in way to all business founders and employees are known and they're held accountable for their public comments and actions. Um, if web three enables us to be anonymous, if dials have 14 control, you know, what happens if people make comments and there is no way to know who they are basically, uh, what if the dowel doesn't take appropriate action? I think eventually there will be an element of community self-regulation where influencers will be, uh, acting in the best interest of their reputation. And I believe that the communities will self regulate themselves and we'll create natural boundaries around what can be said or not. >>I think that's a really good point about, um, influencers and reputation because Jeremiah doesn't matter that you're anonymous. I have an icon that could be a NFT or a picture, but if I have an ongoing reputation, I have trust there's trust there. It's not like a, you know, just a bot that was created just to spam someone. It was just, you know what I'm saying? They getting into you getting into this new way. >>You're right. And that, that word you said, trust, that's what really, this is about. But we've seen that public docks people with their full identities have made mistakes. They have pulled the hood over people's faces in and really scammed them out of a lot of money. We've seen that in it that doesn't change anything in human behavior. So I think over time that we will see a new form of a reputation system emerged even for pseudonyms and perhaps for people that are just anonymous that only show their a potential, a wallet address, a series of numbers and letters. Um, that form might take a new form of a web 3.0 FICO score, and you can look at their behaviors. Did they transact? You know, how do they behave? Do they, were they involved in projects that were not healthy? And because all of that information is public on the chain and you can go back in time and see that we might see a new form of, of, of a scoring emerge. >>Of course, who controls that scoring that's a whole nother topic, gong on control and trust. So right now, John, we do see that there's a number of projects, new NFG projects, where the founders will claim and use this as a point of differentiation that they are fully docs. So you know who they are and their names. Secondly, we're seeing a number of, um, uh, products or platforms that require KYC, know your customer so that self-identification often with a government ID or a credit card in order to bridge out your, your coins and turn that into a Fiat. In some cases that's required in some of these marketplaces. So we're seeing a coalition here between, uh, full names and pseudonyms and being anonymous. >>That's awesome. And that, and I think this is the new, again, a whole new form of governance ran. You mentioned some comments about Dow. So I want to get your thoughts again, you know, Jeremiah, we become historians over the years. We're getting old, I'm a little bit older than you, but we've seen the movie war. You know, I remember breaking in the business when the computer standards bodies were built to be more organic, and then they became much more of a kind of an anti-innovation environment where people, the companies would get involved the standards organization just to slow things down and muck things up a little bit. Um, so you know, you look at Dallas like, Hmm, is a Dal, a good thing, or a bad thing that the answer is from people I talked to, is it depends. So I'd love to get your thoughts on getting momentum and becoming defacto with value, a value proposition. Vis-a-vis just adapt for the sake of having a doubt. This has been a conversation that's been kind of in the inside the baseball here, inside the ropes of the industry, but there's trade-offs, can you guys share your thoughts on when to do a Dow and when not to do a Dow and the benefits and trade-offs of that? >>Sure. Maybe I'll start off with a definition and then we'll go to rent. So a Dao, a decentralized autonomous organization, the best way to think about this. It's a digital cooperative and we've heard of worker cooperatives before the differences that they're using blockchain technologies in order to do the three things, identity governance, and rewards and mechanisms. They're relying on web 2.0 tools and technologies like discord and telegram and social networks to communicate. And there's a cooperative they're trying to come up with a common goal, um, Ren, but what's your take, that's the setup? >>So, you know, for me, when I started my journey into crypto and web tree, I had no idea about, you know, what that actually meant and, uh, an easy way for me to think of it and to grasp the nature of it was about the comparison between a dowel and perhaps a more traditional company structure. Um, you know, in a traditional company structure, you have a Yorkie, the company is led by a CEO and other executives, uh, that that was a flat structure. And it's very much led by a group of core contributors. So, uh, to Jeremiah's point, you know, you get that notion of a co-operative, uh, type of structure. The decision-making is very different. You know, we're talking about a hot, super high level of transparency proposals getting submitted and, and voting systems, using applications, as opposed to, you know, management, making decisions behind closed doors. >>I think that speaks to a totally new form of governance. And I think we have hardly, hardly scratched the surface. We have seen recently, uh, very interesting moments in web tree culture. And we have seen how that was suddenly have to make certain decisions and then come to moments of claiming responsibility, uh, in order to, uh, put his behavior, uh, of some of the members. I think that's important. I think it's going to redefine how we're thinking about that, particularly new governance models. And I think he's going to pave the way for a lot of super interesting structure in the near future. >>That's a great point, ran around the transparency for governance. So John, you posed the question, does this make things faster or slower? And right now most dowels are actually pretty slow because they're set up as a flat organization. So as a response to that, they're actually shifting to become representative democracies. Does that sound familiar where you can appoint a delegates and use tokens to vote for them? And they have a decision power, almost like a committee and they can function. And so we've seen actually there are some times our hierarchies, except the person at the top is voted by those that have the tokens. In some cases, the people at the top had the most tokens, but that's a whole nother topic. So we're seeing a wide variety of governance structures, >>You know, rent. I was talking with Matt G the founder of, and I was telling him about the domain name system. And one little trivia note that many people don't know about is that the U S government cause unit it was started by the U S the department of commerce kept that on tight leash because the international telecommunications union wanted to get their hands on it because of ccTLDs and other things. So at that time, because the innovation yet wasn't yet baked out. It was organically growing the governance, the rules of the road, keeping it very stable versus meddling with it. So there's certain technologies that require Jeremiah that let's keep an eye on as a community. Let's not formalize anything like the government did with the domain name system. Let's keep it tight. And then finally released it, I think multiple years after 2004, I think it went over to the, to the ITU, but this is a big point. I mean, if you get too structured, organic innovation, can't go, what you guys' reaction to that. >>So I think to take a stab at it, um, we have as a business, you know, thinking of unstoppable domains, a strong incentive to innovate, uh, and this is what is going to be determining longterm value growth for the organization for, uh, partners, for users, for customers. So, you know, that degree of formalization actually gives us a sense of purpose and a sense of action. And if you compare that to Dows, for instance, you can see how some of the upsides and downsides can pan out either way. It's not to say that there is a perfect solution. I think one of the advantages of the Dow is that you can let more people contribute. You can probably remove bias quite effectively, and you can have a high level of participation and involvement in decisions and all the upside in many ways. Um, you know, as a company, it's a slightly different setup. We have the opportunity to coordinate a very, uh, diverse and part-time workforce in a very, uh, you know, different way. Um, and we do not have to deal with the inefficiencies that might be, you never run to some form of extreme decentralization so that those are balanced from an organizational structure, uh, that comes, uh, either side >>Sharon. I want to get your thoughts on, on, on a trend that you've been involved in. We both been involved in, and you're seeing it now with the kind of social media world, the world of a role of an influencer it's kind of moved from what was open source and influencer was a connect to someone who shared graded content, um, enabled things to much more of a vanity that the photo on Instagram and having a large audience. Um, so is there a new influencer model with web three or is it, is it the, I control the audience I'm making money that way. Is there a shift in the influencer role or, or ideas that you see that should be in place for what is the role of an influencer? Because as web three comes, you're going to see that role become instrumental. We've seen it in open source projects, influences, you know, the people who write code or ship code. So what's your take on that because there's been a conversation with people who have been having the word influencer and redefining and reframing it. >>Sure. The influence model really hasn't changed that much, but the way that they're behaving has when it comes to at three, this market, I mean, there's a couple of things. Some of the influencers are in investors. And so when you see their name on a project or a new startup, that's an indicator, there's a higher level of success. You might want to pay more attention to it or not. Secondly, influencers themselves are launching their own NFC projects. Gary Vaynerchuk, a number of celebrities, Paris Hilton is involved and they are also doing this as well. Steve Aoki, a famous DJ launched his as well. So they're going head first and participating in building in this model. And there are communities are coming around them and they're building economies. Now the difference is it's not, I speak as an influencer to the fans. The difference is that the fans are now part of the community and they hold, they literally holding own some of the economic value, whether it's tokens or the NFTs. So it's a collaborative economy, if you will, where they're all benefiting together. And that's a, that's a big difference as well. Lastly, there's, there's one little tactic we're seeing where marketers are airdropping in FTS, branded NFTs influencers with wallet. So you can see it in there. So there's new tactics that are forming as well. Yes. >>Super exciting. Ren, what's your reaction to that? Because he just hit on a whole new way of, of how engagement's happening, how people are closed, looping their, their votes, their, their votes of confidence or votes with their wallet. Um, and some brands which are artists now, influencers. I mean, this is a whole game-changing instrumentation level. >>I think that's what we are seeing right now is super re invigorating as a marketeer who has been around for a few years, basically. Um, I think that the shift in the web brands are going to communicate and engage with our audiences is profound. It's probably as revolutionary and even more revolutionary than the movement for, uh, brands in getting into digital. And you have that sentiment of a gold rush right now with a lot of brands that are trying to understand NFTs and, and how to actually engage with those communities and those audiences, um, dominate levels in which brands and influencers are going to engage. There are many influencers that actually advanced the message and the mission because the explosion of content on web tree has been crazy. Part of that is due to the network effect nature of crypto, because as Jeremiah mentioned, people are incentivized to promote projects, holders of an NFTA, also incentivized to promote it. So you end up with a flywheel, which is pretty unique of people that are hyping the project, and that are educating other people about it and commenting on the ecosystem, uh, with IP rights, being given to NFT holders, you're going to see people pull a brand since then of the brands actually having to. And so the notion of brands, again, judging and delivering, you know, elements of the value to their fans is something that's super attractive, extremely interesting. And I think, again, we've hardly scratched the surface of all that is possible in that. >>It's interesting. You guys are bringing some great insight here, Jeremiah, the old days, the word authentic was a kind of a cliche and brands like tried to be authentic and they didn't really know what to do. They called it organic, right? And now you have the trust concept with aura authenticity and environment like web three, where you can actually measure it and monetize it and capture it if you're actually authentic and trustworthy. >>That's right. And because it's on blockchain, you can see how somebody is behave with their economic behavior. In the past, of course, big corporations. Aren't going to have that type of trail on blockchain just yet. But the individuals and executives who participate in this market might be, and we'll also see a new types of affinity. Do you executives, do they participate in these NFT communities? Do they purchase them? We're seeing numerous brands like Adidas to acquire, uh, you know, different MTV projects to participate. And of course the big brands are grabbing their domains. Of course, you can talk to rant about that because it's owning your own name as a part of this trust and being >>That's awesome. Great insight guys. Closing comments, takeaways for the audience here. Each of you take a minute to give, share your thoughts on what you think is happening now, where it goes. All right, where's it going to go, Jeremy, we'll start with you. >>Sure. Um, I think the vision of web three, where full decentralization happens, where the power is completely shifted to the edges. I don't think it's going to happen. I think we will reach web 2.5 and I've been through so many tech trends where we said that the power is going to shift completely to the end. It just doesn't, there's two reasons. One is the venture capital are the ones who tend to own the pro programs in the first place. And secondly, the, the startups themselves end up becoming the one percenters. We see Airbnb and Uber are one-percenters now. So that trend happens over and over and over. Now with that said, the world will be in a better place. We will have more transparency. We will see economic power shifted to the people, the participants. And so they will have more control over the internet that they are building. >>Right. And final, final comments, >>Um, fully aligned with Jeremiah on the notions of control, being returned to users, the notion of ownership and the notion of redistribution of the economic value that is created across all the different chains, uh, uh, that we are going to see. And, and all those ecosystems. I believe that we are going to witness to palliate movements of expansion, one that is going to be very lateral. When you think of crypto and web three, essentially you think of a few hundred tribes. Uh, and I think that more projects are going to appear more, uh, coalitions of individuals and entities, and those are going to exist around those projects. So you're going to see an increase in the number of tribes that one might join. And I also think that we're going to progress rapidly from the low hundred millions of people and an FTE holders into the billions perfectly. Uh, and that's going to be extremely interesting. I think that the next wave of crypto users and Ft fans are going to look very different from the early adopters that we had witnessed in the very early days. So it's not going to be your traditional model of technology, adoption curves. I think the demographics going to shift and the motivations are going to be different as well, which is going to be a wonderful time to educate and engage with new community members. >>All right, Ron, Jeremy, thank you both for that great insight, great segment, uh, breaking down web three or web 2.5 as Jeremiah says, but we're in a better place. This is a segment with the influencers as part of the cubes and the unstoppable domain showcase. Um, John for your hosts. Thanks for watching.

>> Narrator: Live from San Fransisco, it's theCUBE covering Samsung Developer Conference 2017. Brought to you by Samsung. >> Okay welcome back everyone here live in San Fransisco at Moscone West, is theCUBE's exclusive coverage of Samsung Developer Conference #SDC2017. I'm John Furrier co-founder of SiliconANGLE media, co-host of theCUBE. My next guest is artist, director, and producer Rob Prior, at Robprior.com. Great to have you, thanks for spending time. >> It's good to be here. >> Alright. Great to have you. You're super impressive. I was amazed by the work behind me on the wide shot. Can we go to the wide shot? You can see the work you've done. You were just here behind us on the main Disruptor studio with Stan Lee who was Marvel Comics, legend in the industry. >> Legend. >> I mean absolutely legend. And he's here promoting, you know, the edge of the network with Samsung. Games and all that good stuff, part of the developer conference. >> Yeah. >> But you were up there painting with both hands in real time. And did this art. >> Yeah, it was less than an hour, I think this one was. I don't know I don't even keep track anymore. I'm just like... >> So you do both hands. So how did that come about? How did you get to the two hands? >> When I was about, alright, I was going to be an artist no matter what. My entire family line were artists, but none by profession. So, I was kind of not even given a choice. So I got to be about 10 years old and I thought the same thing that every 10 year old thinks, "what if I loose my right hand?". No 10 year old thinks that. So I switched at 10. I switched to, you know I was born a righty, I switched to be a lefty. I switched everything. I switched, you know, baseball, how I threw a balls, playing guitar. I switched everything over. So for two years, no mater how much any one begged me, to like, my grades were going down, cause no one could read my writing, cause I'm like... >> Cryptic. >> Yeah it was weird, and so at that point I made my left hand as good as my right hand. And I was published very young. I was published at 13, internationally at 15. And 13, when I got published, I had math homework due, and I had a painting, a cover due. And I'm like oh my god how am I going to do, I mean. >> Screw the homework, I'm going to do the painting. >> Yeah, so I picked up two brushes and I'm was oh yeah I can do this. Then I actually figured out that I could do my math homework and paint simultaneously. I shut my eyes apparently, when, I don't know when I do it, but when I paint, my eyes are shut a lot of the time. >> Wow, that's awesome. So great skills, so it gets it done faster, but it's also creative. Talk about your work, your artistry, cartoons. You started doing, what did you get into first? And how did your career evolve? Take us through the evolution of your career, because now in the tech scene, you're doing some awesome art, but we live in a digital world. >> Yeah. >> How's that? You're doing cartoons, covers. >> When I first started out, I was doing interiors. Like just pen and ink interiors. And then I started moving into color painted covers, and, you know, sort of gradually went from, you know from black and white work to full color work, to being, doing a lot of different magazine covers, book covers. You name it. I worked heavily with TSR, which is Dungeons and Dragons at the time. >> Yeah. >> And I just sort of moved forward and kept... >> And you got then you got to Hollywood started with movies. What movies did you work on? >> Oh my god, I've worked on a lot of low budget movies. I worked on TV series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Angel. God, so many. I mean, like literally that whole era of TV shows. You know, movie wise I've done stuff with Fast and the Furious. Wow, it's amazing, when you get asked, when you have a giant body of work. When you ask that question all I see are ducks going across. >> Well you just came off stage, so you're really in painting mode now, and you just did this painting. >> Yeah. And how long did it take you do this one? >> I'm sorry? >> This art, how long did it take you to do this one? >> This was a little under an hour. I painted one earlier as well on the main stage during the keynote speech. And that one took me 45 minutes or something like that. >> So they're giving their talk, and you're painting away. >> Yep. >> And you've done this at concerts? >> Yeah >> Tell us what other venues have you done? >> Things like this. I've done it with concerts. People like Tech N9ne, Linkin Park, you know, Steve Aoki, Flo Rida, just to name a few. So I do it while they're performing. So I'll do a full, like, four foot by eight foot painting in about an hour and a half. But when I'm doing gallery work it takes me about a day, maximum two days a painting. >> Yeah. Well you're considerable talent. You mentioned before we came on camera, you're going to do the Linkin Park memorial at the Hollywood Bowl. >> I am, I'm going to be painting there on the 27th, at the Hollywood Bowl. You know, there's going to be a lot of people there, just, you know I think they said the tickets sold out in, like, 39 seconds, or, it was crazy. >> Yeah. >> But I'm fortunate to be able to do that. >> Yeah. >> And pay my respects as well, so. >> Well great work you're doing. I'm really inspired by that because one of the things we're passionate about at SiliconANGLE and theCUBE here is social science, arts, and technology coming together. That's clearly a trend that's happening. I start see the younger generation too coming into this world, and certainly, you have four kids, I have four kids too. We talked about that earlier, but, they're getting immersed in this digital culture and might miss out on some of the analog art. >> Absolutely. >> And what's your thoughts on that, because, this is like, you do both right. >> Yes. >> So you get your hands dirty, I see your hands are dirty. >> Yep they're filthy. >> Good job, you really roll up your sleeves, little pun intended. So, this is the key to success. Share your thoughts and vision for the younger generation and other artists out there, because art will be the front and center piece of technology inspiration, user interface, gaming, augmented reality. >> No, absolutely, you know what, here's the thing. And this is something that you and I were talking about just a little bit ago. I think the, we as humans have a choice. You know, especially kids nowadays they can go and they can be fully immersed, but then they miss all the other things, you know. I've seen kids at tables texting each other instead of talking. But I think if you take the analog era, the thing, like the live painting. Cause I use, I'll take a picture of this I'll pour it into the computer, ill clean it up, and I'll do that. I think mixing the two worlds is vital, you know, in advancing forwards as humans. I mean that's just my opinion, I try to teach my kids that as well. >> Yeah. >> You can't forget about the real world. >> Yeah. >> Because the real world's going to be here no matter what. >> Yeah. >> So, you know- >> And then game developers are out there right now working on a lot of ideas, inspiration, you've drawn monsters before. >> Absolutely >> Some of the characters here from Marvel with Stan Lee. There is, do you need the creative spark? >> Oh absolutely. And look there are, creative spark, anything can be a tool. You know, so, the computer, doing computer art is an amazing opportunity to explore a new kind of tool, right? To invent and create new creatures or new things. It's all on how you use it. And then you get the people, I said this on stage the other day, you get people who are taking photos and then pressing 27 filters and calling it art. I think you have to go backwards and, once again, be able to do the analog. Write your story, create your idea and take any tool that's available and make it happen. Whether it's to picking up a paintbrush, whether it's getting on a computer on a Wacom tablet. >> So you think that's practice from a young artist standpoint is get down and dirty, get analog. >> Absolutely. >> And that's your inspiration sandbox, if you will. >> Absolutely, you know, and I think, here's an example. It's hard to have a gallery show of all digital stuff. Beause then it's just prints of things that you've done. There's no brush strokes, there's nothing there. And a lot of art collectors want to see the stroke. They want to know it's one-of-a-kind, that's it. >> Yeah the prototype. >> Yeah >> Or whatever the inspiration was. It's inspiring. >> Absolutely. So I tell all artistes, and even to the best computer artists, I'm like, go analog, get your hands dirty, paint. And let that speak as well. >> I've been lucky at my age to see a bunch of waves of innovation in technology. It's super exciting. I'd love to get your thoughts, from your perspective, and the artistry community, and you've been in L.A., over the past 10 years, maybe even 20, but say 10 an easier number. 10 years ago the Iphone wasn't even out, right? >> Oh god. >> So actually, 10 years ago it was the Iphone, but let's say 11 years ago. There was no Iphone, there was, YouTube just hit the scene. So this whole digital culture has just shifted. >> Oh absolutely. >> Apple was a no name company in 2000, right? Micheal Dell once said, " They should give the stock back to stockholders". (laughter) So Steven Jobs proved them all wrong. What is the scene like in your world around the last 10 years? What's been the disruptive change? Where's the enablement? What's been bad? What's been good? What's your thoughts? >> You know, in the art world itself, it's something I just mentioned, what's disrupted the art world, is people coming in and literally just being, what I call, a button pusher artist. You know, they figure out a filter or a tan, or whatever, they make art on their phone, and they're like. And that disrupts a lot of things. Because then it shows, or can teach, kids or artists, or anybody. People our age, whatever, it doesn't matter. That it's okay to do that and skip all of the steps, and I think that's the biggest point is the technology has allowed people to think they can skip steps, but you can't. You can never skip the step- >> What's the consequences of those steps skipping. What's the consequence there? >> So, if that's what you are, and you've figured out filters, and you get hired to do a job, because maybe you're the greatest filter button pusher in the world. But then all of the sudden your computer goes out. What do you do? >> Call Apple Care. >> Yeah, there you go. >> Cheese bar appointment. >> I know, I konw You're screwed basically. >> You are. I mean, I knew way back in the 20 years ago, if you were versed in drawing cars, and you got a job doing storyboards for a commercial, and all of the sudden they said, "Hey we're changing everything. Now we're taking out all the cars and now it's real people". If you're not good at drawing real people, you lost your job. Same basic concept. >> Yeah. >> You have to take it all in, you know, in a giant ball. And for the people who are like, "I don't want to touch a computer". Man, that's- >> So it works both ways. >> Absolutely works both ways. >> So what you're saying, if I get this right, is the computer's a great enable and accelerant of a finished product. >> Rob: Absolutely. >> So you use it, you'll take this print you did behind us, you'll touch it up, and you'll turn it into posters, you'll sell it, you'll syndicate it. >> Yep. >> Etcetera, etcetera, but you did the work here in an hour. With both hands. You did it just on the fly, total creative, creativity. >> Yeah, I mean, today's world, I think, if we let things go too much then the computer takes over and we loose a part of ourselves. >> And what about your social friends. Like musicians, you know? >> Oh my god. >> So what's the musician vibe, same thing? I mean tools are out there now, my son's doing some stuff on Ableton live, he loves that software suite, but he's still laying some guitar licks down. >> Absolutely, and you know, the great thing about in the music scene, I heard this a lot when Pro Tools first came out. Everybody was like, "That's the death of the producer". No, that was the beginning of a different kind of producer. And if you can do things at home and you're good, then it's great. >> What's the culture like in L.A. right now in terms of the creative producer, creator? Cause you've got like a maker culture on the geek side. Robotics, maker culture put stuff together, build some new things. Now you got a creator culture which builds off the maker culture, then you got the builder culture all kind of coming together. What's the success formula in your mind, besides the managing the tools. What's the mindset of the new producer, the new director, the new artist? What do you see as success points? >> These are some of the best questions I've ever been asked. Like, literally in every interview I'm answering the same ones. No, this is great. I think, I think it's a little bit of the wild west out in L.A., you know, and all over. Because, you're forming amalgamations. The director of a movie is no longer, possibly, just a director. He's also working on some of the cinematography. Maybe he's an editor, you know, it's a jack of all trades thing. And I think a lot of the people that had one trade going in, and were really good at it, are finding that they're getting passed up sometimes by the person who can do four or five different things including being able to be versed at technology >> Yeah we're seeing a lot of the things happen in the computer industry, just to share on my side of the table. Data scientist is the hottest job on the planet. Doing data. Some of the best data scientists are anthropologists. >> Really? >> Like weird majors in college. But they have a unique view of the data. They're not parochial in their thinking. They're looking at it differently. Or they have a math background, and obviously math is pretty important in data science, but also, it's not just prototypical, you got to be this spec. It's a little bit of a different artsy kind of a feel, cause you got to be, look at things differently. You got to be able to rotate around 360. >> And that's exactly it. That you've got to have, you got to be thinking outside of the box at all times nowadays. >> Well Rob what's next for you? What' going on? You got a lot of things going on. >> Rob: Oh wow. >> You got a lot of business ventures, you make a lot of money on your prints, you're famous. You're exploring new territory. What are some of the boundaries you're pushing right now creatively, that's really getting you excited? >> Well, I'm going to be directing a movie coming up. Which I find great because it allows me to take every bit of all the things I know and put it into a package, that's fun. I've got several gallery shows coming up. I've got a gallery show that I'll be doing with Stan, which will be New York and L.A. And, just getting on stage with more and more bands. You know, I think- >> You're a cult of personality, what's it like working with Stan? He's a cult of personality. >> Oh my god, Stan is, Stan's great. >> People yelling stuff at him, "hey what do you think about that". I mean there's a lot of culture in the Marvel Comics world. >> Oh man he, you know, and look he's like what, 95. And he's got more energy than I do. Literally last night, we're all out to dinner and I left before everybody else did. Stan outlast me. A 95 year old guy, and I'm like, "I'm too tired, I got to go to bed". And Stan's still going, you know. >> The energizer bunny. >> He's an animal. >> Well great for coming on. Thanks for the inspiration. Great art, got amazing art right here >> Thank you so much for having me man. >> Great job, congratulations. >> Thank you >> Good to see the arts. Analog and the digital worlds connecting. This is the key to success in the technology business. Bringing an artisan mindset to great technology for vital benefits. That's what theCUBE believes, we believe it. And so does Mr. Prior here. Check out the art, robertprior.com. Check it out. Robprior.com. It's theCUBE live from San Francisco. More after this short break. >> Thanks for having me.