Happy Tuesday!
​I’m writing this again from Starbucks, this time I’m back in San Francisco visiting my wife’s family. We’ll spend the second half of this week in Calistoga relaxing and catching up after over a year of not seeing each other.

Being back in San Francisco is a bit strange for me. I spent the better part of the last 10 years here in SF, and only moved (back) to San Diego earlier this year.

Some quick observations, San Francisco has a diversity and edginess to it that’s hard to find elsewhere. It’s just a cool place with cool people. You realize it when you're here, but maybe don't notice that's missing when you're elsewhere.
But….. it’s August and I’m freezing my ass off. San Diego has the best weather in the continental United States, and top 10 weather in the world. Working from home during a pandemic I’ll take the nicer weather 10/10 times.

Post-pandemic, I’m not sure. I’ve lived a number of places in the world, each at different points in my life and I’ve felt like a different person in each of those places.

The nature vs nurture debate doesn’t go far enough, the environment plays a role too. Are we different people in different cities? Maybe.

As the weather warmed while I was sitting in Starbucks, the afternoon sun coming in through the window, for a second I reconsidered the move to San Diego.

Then a homeless dude walked in ranting and swearing at everyone…. ahhhh I forgot about that.
​

The future is tan?

I write about the technology and trends most likely to impact us in the next 20 years. Technology is a massive lever that changes society, but there are other major levers too.

My ongoing series on the fracture of the United States is largely exploring political trends in the US, the future of governments, and how (where?) we’ll live. Start here if you’ve been meaning to read the series.

Another lever is population growth and the changing ethnicity of the United States.

In the latest census results the United States has grown more diverse racially, with mixed-race people having experienced significant growth. Part of this is due to how this is being tracked.
But I also think it largely reflects how the US is increasingly more diverse.

​
I’ve read many articles going back years about how we’ll all be mixed in the future.

• ​http://thehigherlearning.com/2014/04/13/national-geographic-predicted-what-americans-will-look-like-2050/​
• ​https://www.livescience.com/34228-will-humans-eventually-all-look-like-brazilians.html​
• 1998 article - https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/dec98/melt29.htm

If my predictions on remote work and global society pair up with migration trends and humans just plain falling in love with each other, then I believe that the future is indeed a mostly mixed-race human population.

The upside is that we’ll be genetically stronger that way, less population specific genetic diseases like sickle cell anemia or Tay-Sachs. Likely a mixed-race population is a more open and connected world too.

The downside, potentially we’ll lose some culturally specific traditions. We'll make new ones though, as human populations have been migrating and mixing since our origins.

The upside here pretty heavily outweighs the downside.

Look for a more mixed future of tan people.

the future is crazy

​
😔 VR firings

In the weirdest thing I found this week, your boss might be practicing how to fire you with a VR simulator. Workplace VR simulations are a fast growing segment, so not surprising someone would put together a sim of how to fire someone.
​Source​

🤔 Space Ads

A Canadian company is launching a satellite on a SpaceX rocket that will have a small display screen and a selfie stick, the satellite will stream to youtube itself playing ads out in space. Maybe the aliens will watch. Source​
​

Will future humans be mostly mixed-race?

Let me know. Just hit reply, I read and respond to everyone!

As always, if you think a friend would like Tuesday Trends, just forward them the email.

If you were forwarded this email and want to subscribe just go here.

Have an awesome week and see you next Tuesday!

Daniel
​

Our future will be shaped by the assumptions we make about who we are and what we can be.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter

‍