• GET READY! WITHIN THE NEXT THREE YEARS, AI WILL BECOME UBIQUITOUS, always on, always enabling, something we stop noticing (just as the telephone was invisible by 1950 and the internet was ambient by 2010) and will become the largest shift in daily experience of being alive since the smartphone. Personal AI will stop becoming a chatbot and instead become a personal Chief of Staff, with disclosure of all personal data, interactions and desires, dissolving privacy concerns because the value is simply too enormous to refuse. AI will listen to every phone conversation/ access all emails, texts, meeting notes & cameras/ monitor body sensors, data feeds from smart glasses, blood work, calendar entries & preferences, financial transactions, spending patterns, even sleep architecture. Beyond knowing your schedule and priorities for the day, AI will become an invisible layer that anticipates you – making decisions on your behalf that you didn’t even know needed to be made and before you even think to ask, including tweaking your environment to adjust to your desires. AI will become the invisible foundation of our lives. Start thinking about positioning yourself accordingly. [PETER DIAMANDIS – METATRENDS]
• PEOPLE SYSTEMATICALLY UNDERESTIMATE HOW OFTEN THINGS GO WRONG, in a bias called the ‘Failure Gap.’ Since failures are less frequently discussed than successes (because they are uncomfortable, embarrassing or socially costly to communicate), people develop systematically skewed impressions of reality based on incomplete information. Latest research study involved 3,000 participants analyzing mega-millions of news articles, social media, and online consumer reviews relating to national issues (crime, healthcare), global problems (poverty, pollution), and personal experiences (product returns, relationship breakups). The testing focused on (1) whether reduced stigma increases awareness, and (2) how correcting misperceptions influences real-world attitudes and decisions. On average, failures occurred far more frequently in reality which linked to how info is shared, particularly when failures were consistently downplayed. [PSYPOST.ORG]
• LATEST STUDY ON ‘PURPOSE IN LIFE’ queried over two-thousand participants in America, Japan, India, & Poland as to how their perceived Purpose stimulated their goals, managed behavior, and provided their sense of a “Good Life — measured by Happiness, Meaning, and Psychological Richness.” The analysis found that across cultures, people are remarkably similar in the degree to which they endorsed distinct sources of Purpose, with measures being: Self-improvement/ Family/ Relationships/ Religion & Spirituality/ Recognition/ Self-sufficiency/ Material Wealth/ Positive Impact/ Mattering/ Occupational Fulfillment/ Perseverance/ Physical Health/ Inner Peace/ Service/ and having Internal Standards. [PSYCHOLOGY TODAY]
• DEMENTIA IS PROJECTED TO DOUBLE OVER THE NEXT FOUR DECADES to around a million cases. But latest research suggests that Brain Aging, Brain Fog and the effects of cognitive aging in humans now appears reversible. Scientists have shown that a simple nasal spray can restore the ‘power plants’ that live inside the brain’s cells by rewiring from the inside out, also helping stroke survivors rebuild lost brain cells and decreasing risk to disorders like Alzheimer’s disease. “While the brain’s engine may sputter with age (a process called neuroinflammation), scientists have essentially learned how to reignite it, sparking a new era of cognitive health and showing that the clock on brain aging might actually be turned back.” [TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY]
• THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK: The American Heart Ass’n ‘State of the Air’ pollution lists released last month rank ten California cities in the “most dangerous” categories. Los Angeles is worst city in the country for Ozone pollution and Bakersfield worst for particle pollution. Other cities which made the Top 10 lists were Sacramento, San Diego, Fresno, Visalia, and San Jose. Countrywide, nearly four of every ten people live in a place where pollution is now considered bad enough to put their health at risk, with extreme heat, drought and wildfires continuing to increase the dangers each year. [CBS NEWS]
• FYI: Bacteria from ‘toilet plumes’ can travel over six feet to your toothbrush, depending on design of the toilet and ventilation of the room. Flushing triggers a fluid dynamic event which releases pathogens into the air, including ‘splashing’ droplets which can produce a lot of contamination in the vicinity of the toilet, and ‘air bubbles’ which rupture on the air water surface and can remain suspended for hours, contaminating whatever they land on. Keeping your brushes covered is certainly a good idea. [ZMESCIENCE]
• Paranoid ‘Preppers’ who anticipate collapse of society from climate change, covid concerns and political battles fueling doomsday are now spending billions of dollars yearly preparing for emergencies – including Survival Shelters as guards against pandemic outbreak and malicious mobs, as well as nuclear fallout. Current prices range up to $10M to own a shelter, or $55K up front plus $1,100 annual payment on a 99-year lease. [ECONOMIST]