Fantasy is important to creativity and innovation. First, you have to dream or envision something before you can build it. But how often do we get carried away with what the future holds? Plus, do you have a soundtrack to your life? To your day? Is making a playlist "art?"
Welcome to the March 19 Edition of The Digest.
Space seems awesome but the tech isn't there.
"Between 1960 and 2020, spacae probes improved by something like six orders of magnitude, while the technologies of long-duration spaceflight did not. Boiling the water out of urine still looks the same in 2023 as it did in 1960, or for that matter 1060." Even if you love space and the dream of flying through it, this entire essay is worth moment of second guessing it may cause. Link.
With myriad predictions of how many jobs AI will wipe out, let's take a gut check on just how much we get right, and wrong, about how quickly technology changes and how it impacts us. In the 90s, people fantasized that by 2020(!) there would be hydropowered cars and humans would be walking on Mars. Emboldened by PCs and feeling the recent effects of Moore's Law, it seemed this was our destiny. But, there are no hydropower cars. No self driving cars. Space travel is hard. Ok, this actually is not a doom-and-gloom link! It's an incredible reminder of the power of irrational exuberance and a very fun look back on historical progress and predictions. Go deeper by taking a look at this easy from 1997. Link.
Is there one that perfectly encapsulates every moment of your day? Also, is making a playlist an act of nostalgia or a wish for something that might be? Music is deeply embedded within our lives, linked forever to memories and moments, big and small. So, maybe creating a playlist is an act of art. Something to be felt later by an audience (even an audience of one). Something to make you think more, work harder, run faster. If music is your jam, here's an ode to the act of making a playlist. Link.