What an exciting time to be alive! I am turning 53 this month and in my lifetime I have gone from landlines and rabbit-eared TV all the way to Quantum Computing. The internet is buzzing now with talk about Artificial Intelligence, life-extending technology and the total lifestyle shift that is on the horizon.

ChatGPT and other large language models are accessible to everyone now and I have had some fascinating conversations with it about all sorts of things I am curious about. The internet gave us access to almost all the information in the world, but it was much more labor-intensive to find the specific nugget of information you need amongst a long list of links provided by Google. Now the needle in the haystack is just a well-crafted question away. Soon, paying experts to give you advice may not be necessary at all. Information will no longer be a luxury that only those with money can afford. You can use AI for everything from tarot readings to medical procedures.

Happening simultaneously but getting much less press coverage are medical breakthroughs using technology like CRISPR and nanotechnology. Experts are saying these, and other medical breakthroughs will extend our lifespans to roughly 120 years. This means if we can manage to live 5 to 10 more years we will get to see this reality in our lifetime. Better start saving and investing for a much longer period of retirement!  

Artificial Intelligence is also stealing headlines from the growing field of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. We already have cool-looking smart glasses made by Ray-Ban and META that can be used for phone calls, photos and more. Soon we won’t need our phones at all and all the information will be available to us both visually and audibly. We will be able to escape reality no matter where we are and visit strange new worlds while waiting in line for coffee without ever getting on a plane.  

It’s likely that in the future we will be living longer lives, knowing all the things and doing a lot less busy work. I won’t miss busy work I can tell you that much. My hope is that instead of us losing jobs, we will gain back our lives. Instead of doing repetitive tasks, we can explore all new activities and lead much more well-rounded lives. As an artist, musician and writer I am not bothered by AI-generated art, music, writing or videos. I don’t see it as a threat to creatives. I think it will only increase the value of art created by humans and make creating art more accessible to people who haven’t had the benefit of years of training. I think of it like training wheels on a bicycle. Cameras, Photoshop and even the printing press were all once considered a threat to creatives but then we just adjusted to it as another art form. It’s just another way to reach more people with our ideas. I can’t wait to see all the animations and homemade movies that anyone with a good story will be able to share.

Weekly Volcano will continue to be the signal not the noise. We will continue to show you real people doing incredible things in our community and real voices telling you how they think and feel. We will continue to document what is happening so future generations know exactly what it was like living in this era and we think that is a pretty cool responsibility. We hope you will support us in these endeavors by supporting the small businesses that support us.