Category: AI

  • Who Am I This Time?

    New developments in Generative AI promise that we’ll all have digital BFFs to help us live our best lives, but is this really possible?  Last week, I read an intriguing Psychology Today piece about the next wave of Generative AI powered digital assistants. In “The Emergence of Private LLMs,” John Nosta argues: The role of Large Language…

  • What is Real?

    Generative AI makes it effortless to create photorealistic images (and soon videos), but sometimes the question is more complicated than whether something is fake. I belonged to a fraternity in college. This often surprises folks until they learn that the house in question was a co-ed literary society that fans of the Revenge of the Nerds…

  • The End of Filter Failure?

    How soon will technology start working for users rather than big tech companies when it comes to information overload? Last time, I shared a microfiction (1,000 words or less), a short science fiction story called “Fleeing the Emerald City,” about Calvin, a man who uses advanced filtering technology to lose weight but doesn’t much enjoy…

  • Fleeing the Emerald City, a Microfiction

    What happens when you sign up for a hi-tech digital behavior modification program to get healthy, but you don’t much enjoy the experience? I’ve been experimenting with microfictions, short SF stories (1,000 words or less) that help me explore and illustrate aspects of how our lives might evolve within digital transformation. Here, then, is another microfiction.…

  • Wendy’s, Google, and Instagram

    Three times the media missed important context in the last week. I read a lot of High Quality News and avoid the Low Quality variety (see the helpful way that Ad Fontes Media defines these categories). Even topflight news can be so focused on short term events that they forget to ask context questions, by which I…

  • Retro Futures: “Wag the Dog” and Deep Fakes

    A classic 1997 movie about technology-fueled misinformation shows how democratized deception has become in 2024, and why we shouldn’t call them “deep fakes” in the first place. Typically, when I write about retro futures I’m exploring what a classic work of science fiction got right and wrong about the future and what that says about life today.…

  • Experience Stacks and Matthew Perry (R.I.P.)

    When social media surfaced a clip of the late “Friends” star on “The West Wing,” it activated crashing contexts that explain how Experience Stacks work and why they can be powerful. I am more aware of Matthew Perry after his premature death last October than I ever was while he was still alive. In part…

  • 20 Years of Innovation!

    This week, I share a new infographic tracking two decades of transformational companies and products. Plus, “13 Ways of Looking at Las Vegas.” (Issue #101) I had a ball leading StoryTech tours of the show floor at CES in Las Vegas last week. This year’s distinct theme was AI. My favorite exhibit was Timekettle from China: it’s one of…

  • Dueling Intelligences

    How realistic is the idea that flesh and blood actors will soon find themselves performing alongside long-dead movie stars? Image created by DALL-E. Last time, I shared a microfiction (1,000 words or less), a short science fiction story called “The Only Living Boy,” about an actor, Tom, who is the only flesh and blood performer…

  • The Only Living Boy, a Microfiction

    What happens when real and virtual actors join forces in a new production of Shakespeare’s “Othello” on Broadway? As regular readers already know, I’ve been experimenting with microfictions, short SF stories (1,000 words or less) that help me explore and illustrate aspects of how our lives might evolve within digital transformation. Here, then, is another microfiction. Next…