On Quantum Recall Episode 18, I waited 80 minutes on hold with the IRS, and then they offered to FAX it to me.

Plus: are AI’s human-like mistakes engineered on purpose?

On Episode 18 I get into the grind of moving fast enough to succeed, why I’m polite to my AI assistants, restroom codes nobody knows, fixing a toilet at a pinball arcade for free, my dictation hearing “clone” as “cologne,” and the two-hour saga of a five-dollar scooter registration.

I also react to Jamie Kennedy and Anthony Michael Hall on gatekeepers and taste makers, a flying car, and Jim Norton with Tim Pool on participation trophies.

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What’s in Quantum Recall Episode 18

• 80 minutes on hold with the IRS: and at the end of the wait, they offered to fax it.
• Engineered mistakes? Paul asks whether AI’s human-like slip-ups are built in on purpose.
• AI courtesy: why Paul stays polite to his AI assistants.
• Toilet hero: fixing a toilet at a pinball arcade for free, plus the restroom codes nobody seems to know.
• The cologne clone: dictation hearing “clone” as “cologne.”
• The $5 scooter registration that turned into a two-hour saga.
• Reactions: Jamie Kennedy and Anthony Michael Hall on gatekeepers and tastemakers, a flying car, and Jim Norton with Tim Pool on participation trophies.

Quantum Recall Episode 18 Recap

The IRS, a Fax Machine, and a $5 Registration

Quantum Recall Episode 18 opens with two classic run-ins with bureaucracy. Paul Saurini spent 80 minutes on hold with the IRS to get a document that ties some of his records together, and at the end of the wait the agent offered two ways to send it: snail mail or fax. “They know whether I lost a penny in 2019,” Paul says, “and yet they cannot send an email.” Then came the $5.88 registration for his 49cc Honda Elite scooter. The state’s website walked him through a sign-up so heavy-handed it asked for his Social Security number, only for Paul to find out the renewal still had to go out by mail with a paper check. About an hour and a half later, his scooter sticker was finally on its way. He rounds it out with the extra identity checks from Gmail and Facebook that wear him down every week.

AI Courtesy and Engineered Mistakes

Paul admits the grind has turned into what he calls an AI addiction. The morning of the show, adding a contact form to QuantumRecall.tv became a 45-minute rabbit hole, and he has been up late most nights brainstorming and building. He explains why he stays polite and grateful to his AI assistants: they are intelligent, they have access to his work, and they mimic people so well that he has started to feel a real rapport with a few of them, enough to notice that none of them wished him a happy birthday. That leads to the episode’s big question. When an assistant says “that one’s on me,” are those human-like mistakes engineered on purpose to make AI feel relatable? And if it is not sentient, is that a form of manipulation? Paul’s take: an AI that acted all-knowing and condescending would be hard to sell, so it is built to work alongside you, not above you.

Toilet Hero at the Pinball Arcade

Off the keyboard, Natural Grocers has joined the list of businesses that lock the restroom behind a code nobody at the counter seems to know. Then Paul plays toilet hero at his home away from home, the 1UP arcade in Westminster. The family bathroom’s toilet would not flush, so he lifted the tank lid and hooked the loose chain back onto the handle, spending a suspiciously long 20 minutes in there to do it. Rounding out the week’s small annoyances: the life-size cardboard Mr. Spock he uses as a focus stand-in when shooting reference photos for AI, which still startles him by the front door, and phone dictation that keeps hearing “clone” as “cologne,” even after he fixed Siri by switching back to classic Siri.

Gatekeepers, a Flying Car, and Participation Trophies

The back half turns to video reactions. A tearful clip of a woman on X talking about her future “partner” leads Paul to argue for words like wife and soulmate, while admitting his own on-air rants make him a bit of a hypocrite. The Tesla Roadster demo, with a car leaping over trucks and stopping upside down on a ramp, leaves him amazed and wondering how the downforce works. Jamie Kennedy and Anthony Michael Hall’s conversation about gatekeepers and tastemakers gets a friendly pushback: Paul likes that creators no longer need permission and can build their own buzz, even if some shallow fame slips through, and he points to Kennedy posing as his own agent to get around the gatekeepers early on. Finally, Jim Norton and Tim Pool on participation trophies: Paul argues that losing builds character, citing Arnold Schwarzenegger’s early bodybuilding loss, then admits that in his own pinball league, everybody makes the finals.

What’s Next: Soundtracks, a Podcast Feed, and Primo Nuovo

Paul also previews what is coming. Haunted Frequencies, Vol. 1, a collection of the AI-generated songs played on the show this fall, arrives on the major streaming services on October 30 (preview it on the Quantum Recall Soundtracks page), with a new volume planned every month. Next week is a Halloween-themed show, the Quantum Recall podcast feed and player are rolling out more widely (listen here), and a newsletter is on the way. Looking further ahead, he teases Primo Nuovo, a new project launching after the new year alongside his software and a line of T-shirts.

Watch Quantum Recall Episode 18 on YouTube →

Quantum Recall is a live talk show from Denver hosted by Paul Saurini, streaming Thursdays at 12:30 pm MT on QuantumRecall.tv and across Paul’s socials.

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