Future Now

Dr. Shira Chess is a professor who is having a lot of fun investigating the intersections of video games, gender,  digital culture, and the occult.  Being digital pioneers and spiritual explorers ourselves, we were very curious about her latest findings, discussed in this interview and with great detail in her latest book, “The Unseen Internet - Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse.”   One of...

Dr. Shira Chess is a professor who is having a lot of fun investigating the intersections of video games, gender,  digital culture, and the occult.  Being digital pioneers and spiritual explorers ourselves, we were very curious about her latest findings, discussed in this interview and with great detail in her latest book, “The Unseen Internet - Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse.”   One of...

First up on this week’s  radar is the  world of health and ultrasonics, featuring Midjourney’s pivot from AI image generation to building sci-fi-esque sonic body scanners that use ultrasound to precisely map your organs while you chill in a San Francisco luxury spa. We then check out how scientists are using optogenetics to give awake mice the restorative, brain-cleaning benefits of deep sleep, po...

First up on this week’s  radar is the  world of health and ultrasonics, featuring Midjourney’s pivot from AI image generation to building sci-fi-esque sonic body scanners that use ultrasound to precisely map your organs while you chill in a San Francisco luxury spa. We then check out how scientists are using optogenetics to give awake mice the restorative, brain-cleaning benefits of deep sleep, po...

This week we dive deep  into the battle for our digital souls, comparing Google's massive NotebookLM upgrade to the rising, rebellious "local AI" movement, where users are urged to run models locally to maintain total privacy and stop feeding energy-hungry corporate cloud servers. Things get both deeply personal and more philosophical as they discuss Apple’s new beta super Siri indexing every sing...

This week we dive deep  into the battle for our digital souls, comparing Google's massive NotebookLM upgrade to the rising, rebellious "local AI" movement, where users are urged to run models locally to maintain total privacy and stop feeding energy-hungry corporate cloud servers. Things get both deeply personal and more philosophical as they discuss Apple’s new beta super Siri indexing every sing...

We kick things off by diving into WWDC 2026, where Apple announced a revamped, locally processed "Siri AI" that promises to understand human tone, pauses, and emotion, paving the way for truly natural conversations with robots. This inspires us to imagine using  AI agents to revive and automate our vintage "Party Projector" app in hopes of striking it rich as the sole product of our new AI-powered...

We kick things off by diving into WWDC 2026, where Apple announced a revamped, locally processed "Siri AI" that promises to understand human tone, pauses, and emotion, paving the way for truly natural conversations with robots. This inspires us to imagine using  AI agents to revive and automate our vintage "Party Projector" app in hopes of striking it rich as the sole product of our new AI-powered...

It appears we are now leaving the information age and diving headfirst into an “intelligence age” . But what powers this transition? Chips? Beliefs? Noble Gas? And hyperlocal? WTF AL!” In this jam-packed podcast episode, the hosts geek out over Nvidia’s massive announcements at Computex, highlighting how new hardware like the Vera Rubin data centers and Jetson Thor chips are bringing agentic AI an...

This week’s show kicks off with the hosts untangling the literal and figurative wires of modern podcasting before nerding out over “Edge AI” running locally on smartphones to save energy and protect privacy. The banter takes a wonderfully weird turn when Al brainstorms an AI assistant specifically designed to intentionally repeat sentences not heard properly in a soothing voice to hearing-impaired...

This week's show kicks off with the hosts untangling the literal and figurative wires of modern podcasting before nerding out over "Edge AI" running locally on smartphones to save energy and protect privacy. The banter takes a wonderfully weird turn when Al brainstorms an AI assistant specifically designed to intentionally repeat sentences not heard properly in a soothing voice to hearing-impaired...

Now this episode was a milestone in so many ways, from consciously using the latest AI tools for illustrating our guest's amazing commentary, to breaking up Craig's stream of consciousness into digestable chunks of tasty info. Yum.. AL In this interview, researcher and author Craig Sim Webb discusses the profound utility of lucid dreaming and its role in human creativity. He shares his experiences...

In this interview, researcher and author Craig Sim Webb discusses the profound utility of lucid dreaming and its role in human creativity. He shares his experiences working with Stanford dream projects and designing the Nova Dreamer, a technological tool used to help people achieve consciousness while asleep. Webb highlights how famous musicians like Paul McCartney and Billy Joel have used dreams...

Buckle up for a wild ride across the cosmos as we dive into the latest space shenanigans.. NASA is gearing up to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will peer deep into our galaxy’s chaotic bulge to hunt down exoplanets and isolated black holes. We take a peek into the Galactic Bulge, the center of our galaxy. We also take a virtual tour of L98-59D, a molten “hell world” covered in...

Buckle up for a wild ride across the cosmos as we dive into the latest space shenanigans.. NASA is gearing up to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will peer deep into our galaxy’s chaotic bulge to hunt down exoplanets and isolated black holes. We take a peek into the Galactic Bulge, the center of our galaxy. We also take a virtual tour of L98-59D, a molten “hell world” covered in...

As the  AI/ET singularity approaches, it brings  with it an army of quirky robots and slightly unhinged AI companions. Whether it is humanoid robots being trained as conscientious baggage handlers to cope with Japan’s aging workforce, or a chunky android that had to buy a passenger seat on a flight just to have its heavy lithium battery confiscated at boarding, our mechanical friends are making qu...

As the AI/ET singularity approaches, it brings with it an army of quirky robots and slightly unhinged AI companions. Whether it is humanoid robots being trained as conscientious baggage handlers to cope with Japan’s aging workforce, or a chunky android that had to buy a passenger seat on a flight just to have its heavy lithium battery confiscated at boarding, our mechanical friends are making quit...

Have you ever wondered what happens when the boundaries of theoretical physics and the  realities of AI  collide? This episode dives headfirst into a scientific breakthrough where physicists have observed “voids” of darkness mathematically moving faster than the speed of light.  As Mr. Spock would say, “fascinating..”    But a real digital shocker this week is the latest on  “Mythos,” an unprecede...

Have you ever wondered what happens when the boundaries of theoretical physics and the  realities of AI  collide? This episode dives headfirst into a scientific breakthrough where physicists have observed “voids” of darkness mathematically moving faster than the speed of light.  As Mr. Spock would say, “fascinating..”    But a real digital shocker this week is the latest on  “Mythos,” an unprecede...

In this delightfully chaotic episode of What the Future, the hosts dive headfirst into the weird and wonderful, kicking things off with a recap of the multi-generational New Living Expo. It is a wild ride through reports of impending ET contact, channeling dragon energy, “walk-in” aliens treating human bodies like cosmic Airbnbs, and a surprisingly talented rapping event producer.   However, the m...

In this delightfully chaotic episode of What the Future, the hosts dive headfirst into the weird and wonderful, kicking things off with a recap of the multi-generational New Living Expo. It is a wild ride through reports of impending ET contact, channeling dragon energy, “walk-in” aliens treating human bodies like cosmic Airbnbs, and a surprisingly talented rapping event producer.   However, the m...

Video podcast: https://youtu.be/vAat0adwnnE or https://futurenowshow.podbean.com/ Audio only: https://futurepeak.net/audio/005_WTFuture_v1.0_audio.mp3 The “What the Future” podcast crew dives straight into the “spaghetti brain” chaos of setting up their new home studio equipment before launching into a whirlwind of mind-bending technological leaps. They explore how “neuro-symbolic AI” is finally t...

The “What the Future” podcast crew dives straight into the “spaghetti brain” chaos of setting up their new home studio equipment before launching into a whirlwind of mind-bending technological leaps. They explore how “neuro-symbolic AI” is finally teaching robots to break problems down logically like humans do, which slashes energy consumption a hundredfold while significantly boosting accuracy. ...

Welcome to the wildest, weirdest week so far, where a 4.6 magnitude California earthquake literally shook up our hosts’ “synchronicity filing system,” turning their massive media archive into an obstacle course of decapitated Bambi ornaments and long-lost chakra DVDs. While internet trolls might call them “hoarders beyond borders,” the crew prefers to view the chaos as a brilliant way to uncover b...

Welcome to the wildest, weirdest week so far, where a 4.6 magnitude California earthquake literally shook up our hosts’ “synchronicity filing system,” turning their massive media archive into an obstacle course of decapitated Bambi ornaments and long-lost chakra DVDs. While internet trolls might call them “hoarders beyond borders,” the crew prefers to view the chaos as a brilliant way to uncover b...