obsolete bionic eyes, Snoop Dogg in the Metaverse, and Tech Shabbats
Hello my fellow futurists!
This last weekend I did my first Tech Shabbat.
From Friday night through Saturday night I didn't use the internet or screens. We did an actual Shabbat dinner Friday night; candles, chicken and all, with the kids. Then no phone or movies after putting the kids to bed.
I realized just how often I reach for my phone by actively not using it for 24 hours.
During my tech Shabbat I started reading a novel. With the time I'd normally be on my phone I nearly finished it in 24 hours.
1 life update 👆
On the topic of fiction, I published a short children's story on my website. Super off topic for this newsletter, but it was a ton of fun.
I had been telling a version of this story to my kids at night, as a bedtime story. I then recorded myself telling them the story and edited it.
Shoutout to my editors, including some of the readers of this newsletter!
I'm thinking of turning the story into an actual children's book with illustrations.
2 crazy things ✌
👀 Obsolete bionic eyes
In a horrifying story, a company that had been implanting bionic eyes in blind patients has failed, leaving their patients literally in the dark.
Interestingly, if bionic implants were commonplace this wouldn't be as big an issue. They'd just swap their eyes out for a better company's product, or the latest Apple iEye.
We're early in this, and obsolescence is a risk that pioneering patients are taking.
🚁 Autonomous Black Hawks
The Black Hawk is the workhorse helicopter of the US Army. Now with no crew required.
Just a really big, heavy drone. Even though this is the first such flight, it seems overdue. I'm not surprised by this, and maybe that's the surprising thing.
3 Metaverse things ✌+👆
💸 JPM 1̵s̵t̵ 2nd bank in the Metaverse
JP Morgan recently made headlines for being the first bank in the Metaverse, except a South Korean bank did it like 6 months ago. I'd know, because I wrote about it in this newsletter back in September.
I have no idea what banks are doing in the Metaverse right now except as a marketing stunt. In the future, sure. Right now, it's embarrassing if this is what they're going with.
🌐 Mars, Metaverse, or Meatspace?
Daily Caller, Tucker Carlson's news blog, is an unlikely link in this newsletter, but they recently published an interesting piece on the future of humanity and our exploration of both outer space and cyberspace.
🎵 Snoop Dogg and Decentraliens
In the latest NFT / Crypto / Web3 news Snoop Dogg bought Death Row Records — the label that launched his career back in the 90s — and plans to turn it into a Metaverse powerhouse.
"Just like we broke the industry when we was the first independent to be major, I want to be the first major in the metaverse." - Snoop Dogg
~
If your head still spins around when you think about Crypto, NFTs, or Web3 a new community from some internet friends of mine has launched
Decentraliens is an NFT project from invisiblecollege.xyz
They're looking to teach people about Web3 through their learning DAO.
If you've been looking to dabble in this world, it's a nice first project to get into. Great people, easy video tutorials for getting started, they use Solana instead of Ethereum, so minting your first NFT with them is fast and cheap.
Check them out: invisiblecollege.xyz
I don't know what's weirder obsolete bionic eyes or Snoop Dogg getting into crypto
What do you think? Let me know. Just hit reply, I read and respond to everyone!
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Have an awesome week!
Daniel
If every person counts, and a machine can do it, then let the machine do it
James McConville, Army Chief of Staff