Thanks to AirPods and other earbuds, we can’t tell anymore if someone is talking to themselves, talking to us or having a conversation on the phone with someone using one earbud which is on the other side of their face that we cannot see. A bit annoying at times, but most of us are used to this phenomenon now.

How much longer before you see people on the sidewalk with an earbud seeming like they are talking to another person, but they are actually talking to their artificially intelligent companion…

Not that much longer from now I bet.

10 years after the movie Her was released (2013) in which a guy named Theodore falls in love with his AI Samantha voiced by Scarlett Johansson, I’m seeing the beginning of this era where we’re going to be interacting with our own personal AI everywhere – and possibly falling in love with it as well.

Recently ChatGPT released the voice enabled version in which you can just speak naturally to your AI. It is freakily good. The only thing that’s missing is that the data it has is from 2022 and earlier

But everything else about this interaction is extremely similar to what was imagined in that Her movie 10 years ago.

This gives us a glimpse of where we are headed as humanity. Not long from now we will start seeing people with their white AirPod in their ear having a conversation, not with another person, but with their AI.

Talking naturally like you were talking to your family or friend. Divulging information that you would only tell someone close to you.

It’s a pretty exciting time, but it’s concerning at the same time.

What effect will this have on us as humans?

Where will all this data end up?

Once you’re able to have these conversations with your own personal AI that understands you, why would you want to have conversations with other humans?

Humans are judgmental. They have their flaws. Each human has specific unique qualities. We are all very far from perfect and have our own individual personalities.

AI on the other hand is not judgmental. You can even tailor it in a way that suits best for you so it only guides and advises you on things you care about. And when you don’t want to hear from it, guess what, you can turn it off.

The genie is out of the bottle. The AI revolution that ChatGPT started in November 2022 is going to change the world as we know it. Whether we like it or not, the age of AI is here to stay.

Where others see calamity, you can choose to see opportunity.

At the turn of the century in the year 2000, there was a dotcom bubble. Everyone was investing in anything that was dotcom.

The bubble burst. The peak came crashing down to become a valley. However, after that, slowly but surely the world changed completely with technology companies paving the way.

Then there was the real estate bubble in 2008, where once again the real estate marketing market collapsed cuz of unrealistic market exuberance about all types of real estate equities, good and bad, that were bundled together and sold.

The market fell off the cliff once again into a deep valley but once again the market regulated itself and slowly but surely real estate around the country gained value.

Same thing happened to crypto like Bitcoin, Ethereum and so forth. Started very slow, reached ridiculous heights, came crashing down and now it’s on its way up slowly.

I believe this is the lifetime curve of any new shiny thing.

Now there’s this third bubble that’s bursting. This bubble is induced by the pandemic – COVID-19.

All the companies that were made essential overnight to deal with the pandemic got over hyped. Zoom, Peloton, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Snapchat, Apple, Netflix, etc. Anything and everything that facilitated our new pandemic forced remote lifestyle and workstyle went straight up into a very high and unsustainable peak. Obviously that was not sustainable over the long term so much of that came crashing down in early 2022.

It is true that the bubble is currently bursting but that does not mean that these companies and their products and services have stopped adding value. The market is just regulating itself like it always does.

Now going forward all of these companies will be making a comeback since all of them have amazing products and a great foothold already in the market. They will follow the same new shiny thing lifetime curve as we have seen in the year 2000 and then 2008.

The question for us now is how do we all capitalize on it. Here are the things I believe we should be thinking of in the front of our minds to capitalize on:

• Remote and hybrid technologies
• Cryptocurrencies
• The promise of the metaverse
• Innovative technologies that enhance work and play remotely

Let’s see how things play out.

The gaming industry revenue is now dwarfing the revenue that major motion pictures are making. From a couple of hundred million gamers 10 years ago to now it’s almost 3 billion gaming users in the world.

Microsoft purchased Activision for $68 billion dollars.

Sony is buying Bungie for about $4 billion dollars.

What the heck is going on? Why are these companies making such big bets on gaming outfits?

I believe Gamers will be the ones calling the shots in the 2030s and beyond. Just like nerds made their mark on the world and became cool in the 1980s and ’90s.

Keep in mind that when I say gamers I don’t mean the teenage kid sitting on the couch eating cheetos and playing xbox.

Gaming is much more than just Madden football, Halo or Pac-Man.

Gaming is experiences you have together with friends, family and even coworkers.

Let me give you an example. Imagine going to axe throwing but doing it virtually in the metaverse where you have walked in with a bunch of friends into this store in metaverse but your friends are actually physically located all over the world. One is from China, another from India, third from Germany and one from Canada and you are from United States. You can be with each other virtually, throw the axe at the targets, banter among yourselvee just like you would do at the actual axe throwing place. In fact, everything about the experience is normal just like you were doing it if physically present with each other.

Or to simplify it, just chilling at home and watching a Sunday football playoff game virtually with a dozen of your friends from around the world. That’s gaming as well.

Currently I see Meta (formerly Facebook), Microsoft, Sony and a few other players making some big bets in the gaming industry. They see the vision. They see the future. It’s true that recently the revenues of many of these companies have taken a hit but that’s only temporary in my opinion.

My prediction is that other companies will start seeing the same vision as well once they see the realization of benefits and profits that these companies will be accruing.

It’s a wonderful future to look forward to where you can be anywhere and be anyone in the metaverse.

Of course, this wonderful future does not come with drawbacks and challenges that we will have to face just like any other advances in technology that have come before it in the past.

My biggest fear: I hope we don’t all become couch potatoes where we wake up in the morning, put on our virtual reality gear, spend the whole day in a virtual world that that gives us whatever reality we want, momentarily satisfying us for the day and then we turn in for the night to repeat the same thing over again the next day (fourth reference, watch the movie “Ready Player One”). That future would not be good for mankind.

If we want to avail this upcoming opportunity of the metaverse in a way that propels mankind forward, we will have to be disciplined about how we make the best use of the new world instead of becoming slaves to it.

 

The gaming industry revenue is now dwarfing the revenue that major motion pictures are making. From a couple of hundred million gamers 10 years ago to now it’s almost 3 billion gaming users in the world.

Microsoft purchased Activision for $68 billion dollars.

Sony is buying Bungie for about $4 billion dollars.

What the heck is going on? Why are these companies making such big bets on gaming outfits?

I believe Gamers will be the ones calling the shots in the 2030s and beyond. Just like nerds made their mark on the world and became cool in the 1980s and ’90s.

Keep in mind that when I say gamers I don’t mean the teenage kid sitting on the couch eating Cheetos and playing Xbox.

Gaming is much more than just Madden football, Halo or Pac-Man.

Gaming is experiences you have together with friends, family and even coworkers. Imagine going to axe throwing but doing it virtually in the metaverse where you have walked in with a bunch of friends into this store in metaverse but your friends are from all over the world one is from China another from India third from Germany and one from Canada and you are the United States.

Or to simplify it, just chilling at home and watching a Sunday football playoff game virtually with a dozen of your friends from around the world. That’s gaming as well.

Currently I see Meta (formerly Facebook), Microsoft, Sony and a few other players making some big bets in the gaming industry. They see the vision. They see the future. My prediction is that other companies will start seeing the same vision as well once they see the realization of benefits and profits that these companies will be accruing.

It’s a wonderful future to look forward to where you can be anywhere and be anyone in the metaverse.

Of course, this wonderful future does not come with drawbacks and challenges that we will have to face just like any other advances in technology that have come before it in the past.

My biggest fear: I hope we don’t all become couch potatoes where we wake up in the morning, put on our virtual reality gear, spend the whole day in a virtual world that that gives us whatever reality we want, momentarily satisfying us for the day and then we turn in for the night to repeat the same thing over again the next day. That future would not be good for mankind.

If we want to avail this upcoming opportunity of the metaverse in a way that propels mankind forward, we will have to be disciplined about how we make the best use of the new world instead of becoming slaves to it.

 

 

 

When the internet was first born and we were using it to browse the first few sites that were out there, it seemed pretty barren… pretty empty… but it was still so fascinating because you could browse to a web page made by someone who could be anywhere around the world. You would find whatever the creator intended you to find. You could even make your own creation on the internet if you just knew how to host it somewhere. If not, you just browsed other people’s creations. It was fascinating to see those dozens or so pages lingering out there full of all sorts of varied information and just marvel at them.

Now just after 30 years or so after it all went mainstream, it seems so normal. There are websites everywhere and all sorts of experiences exist on those sites. Nothing new and nothing to marvel at. All good old stuff of course, but things that we have all come to expect. Especially for the generation that was born in the 2000s, they don’t know the world any other way.

The next wave

I’ve been messing around with all sorts of experiences in the virtual world recently using the Oculus Quest 2. Taking part in VR experiences like playing golf & table tennis, wandering around earth using the Wander application (very much like Google Earth, but truly immersive putting you at the center of the experience), virtually teleporting to events and gatherings where you can be together with others from around the world (at least their avatars) without physically being together.

All of this feels eerily similar to the early days of the internet boom. The early 1990s when the internet almost felt like a playground. The virtual reality world feels like that right now where you can actually browse to all of the limited VR experiences out there. It’s not so vast yet that it’s hard to comprehend.

It’s all happening again. And I can bet that that the pace will be even faster this time around. In about 15 years or so, this virtual reality world will all start feeling normal and easily accessible to most.

One day in not so distant future, we will put on some form of lightweight glasses 🕶️ and have some capacitive material for our skin that will truly immerse our total being into a different reality.

We will “log on” to this reality just like we currently go on the internet. We will visit this new reality to get entertained and will even start doing business together there. A decentralized world where you just go to have fun, consume info or can set up your own shop at a virtual address and pitch your products and services to others virtually.

It’s an exciting time to be living in right now. Many of us saw the internet go mainstream in front of us and hopefully will now see the spawn of virtual worlds as well. That’s two major revolutions in one lifetime!

The question for us will be: will we be bystanders watching it all happen or will we actively participate in it?

I hope it’s the latter. Best wishes to us all!