Thought Leadership: What if most people have the political situation wrong? What if the true threat to American jobs is not human immigrants pouring across borders but rather the accelerating advances in artificial intelligence? To better understand this possibility, think of AI bots as “digital immigrants” and then think of these bots as “amassing” along the border, where they are poised to soon pour into the country and displace millions of workers. The analogy only works to an extent because AI will not just invade one country–everyone from coders in Silicon Valley to call center workers in India to bankers in the United Kingdom will be impacted. It is my opinion that the political parties that correctly diagnose the problem and then offer the most comprehensive plan for addressing the issue will be best positioned for electoral success in 2026 and beyond.
Think in Questions: Can you control culture by lying, manipulation or owning the major platforms? In the short term, the answer is yes. In the long run, the answer is less clear–and, arguably, more optimistic. This article, Can You Fool the Audience, was recently referred to me by a friend. It offers an insightful critique on the future of culture and outlines why today’s major media and entertainment platforms may soon be replaced by “the rising indie culture.” The author paraphrases Ernest Hemingway to remind us that major changes occur “gradually and then suddenly” and then explains why this is the case.
Think Again: Today’s rapidly changing world can be disorienting, and it can cause some unexpected changes in behavior. One of today’s more unexpected trends centers around the theme of nostalgia. In a fragmented cultural landscape, familiar, trusted symbols can be reassuring, and this is why a growing number of companies are returning to old brand mascots. Another unexpected source of nostalgia: Returning to non-digital habits. As a futurist, I have been fascinated by the growing number of people–both young and old–who have been returning to everything from “dinners without phones” to board game nights and social media cleanses.
Think Cheaper: In my 2007 book, Jump the Curve: 50 Strategies to Help Your Company Stay Ahead of Emerging Technologies, I encouraged business leaders to “bet on cheap.” The idea I was conveying is that technology often makes luxury items more affordable over time. To this point, advances in nanotechnology have caused lab-grown diamonds to become 74 percent cheaper since 2020, and, due to this competitive pressure, natural diamonds have dropped by 26 percent during the same time period.
Thoughts from Beyond: What is the direction of the future? It is too easy to say it will be either forward or backward. What if the direction of the future is “spiritward?” Spiritward is not an official word, but I recently came across it in a book entitled The Infinite Way. The author provided no formal definition of “spiritward,” but the term has resonated with me at a level I can’t quite explain and I’ve become captivated by its power. I continue to believe that today’s accelerating advances in artificial intelligence, gene-editing technology, brain-computer interfaces and quantum computing will challenge many people’s understanding of what it means to be human. This question will, in turn, cause many people to search for meaning in both old and new places–and many of these places will be spiritual in nature. (I say this because while most of us can’t easily define matters of heart, soul and spirit, we intuitively understand their deep importance). This intuition is one of the reasons I believe that the future will be spiritual, and I am now excited to have a way to describe the direction I want to see–and believe–the future is headed: Spiritward.
Afterthought: “Truth is not a reasoning process; therefore it must be discerned spiritually.”–Joel Goldsmith
