This episode explores the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and nanotechnology across various aspects of society and the economy. The hosts share insights on how AI tools like Python are revolutionizing fields such as education, comparing these developments to past technological advancements and contemplating their future impact. A significant focus is placed on the theoretical integration of nanofabricators in homes, which could enable an age of abundance by addressing key challenges such as energy, health, food scarcity, and waste management. The conversation also touches on the evolution of internet usage, with an emphasis on the trend towards re-bundling services to create comprehensive ecosystems. Moreover, the hosts conceptualize ‘P Utopia’, a visionary society where technology resolves fundamental human problems, prompting a re-evaluation of capitalism and societal values with scarce resources like space and land gaining prominence. The discussion ultimately raises critical questions about the societal implications of such advancements and the role of AI in shaping a future oriented towards abundance and technological innovation.

00:00 Welcome to The Futuristic: Catching Up

00:40 Diving into the World of AI: A Crazy Few Weeks

02:25 Coding Adventures and Audio Leveling Breakthroughs

05:36 Exploring AI’s Impact on Education and Personal Projects

09:49 Meta AI: Facebook’s Game-Changing Tool

22:40 The Future of AI Content and Its Implications

25:37 Microsoft’s VASA 1: A Leap Towards Lifelike Virtual Characters

37:41 Exploring Groundbreaking Tech: The Carbon Negative Nanogenerator

39:12 The Power of AI in Conversations and Research

39:58 The Future of Nanotechnology and AI’s Role

41:17 Debunking Net Zero: A Critical Look at Carbon Credits

43:45 The Potential of AGI: Transforming Research and Society

51:32 Navigating the Complexities of Global Media and Censorship

54:44 The Degenerative Potential of Generative AI

56:19 Reimagining the Internet: The Future of Content Curation

01:03:34 The Return of the Tech Time Warp: Bundling vs. Unbundling

01:06:42 Nanofabricators and the Future of Production

01:14:25 Envisioning a Post-Capitalist Society with Nanofabrication

FUT 24

[00:00:00 ] Cameron: Welcome back to The

[00:00:09 ] Cameron: Futuristic. It’s been a long time between drinks, Steve

[00:00:14 ] Cameron: Sammartino. How are you, buddy?

[00:00:17 ] Steve: Hi, I’m well. Hearing your voice just puts a smile on my face. You’re so erudite and articulate that I feel like every time I’m going to learn something.

[00:00:29 ] Cameron: All my podcast hosts feel that way, man. Talking to me is the best. Uh, part of their week, they all tell

[00:00:35 ] Steve: This is definitely the best part of my day so far. Not even close.

[00:00:38 ] Cameron: I’m just that kind of guy. Uh, Hey, uh, it’s been, uh, I know we say this every episode, Steve, but it’s just been a crazy few weeks. I mean, I’ve got so many stories that we could talk about. We don’t have time. We’re going to pick the top few, but it’s been

[00:00:58 ] Cameron: a crazy couple of weeks in the world of AI, uh, in particular.

[00:01:04 ] Cameron: Uh, at least that’s how I felt. How about you? Have

[00:01:06 ] Steve: Yeah, same again. Yeah, same again. It just doesn’t

[00:01:09 ] Steve: stop. And I think

[00:01:12 ] Steve: it feels like each of those little

[00:01:16 ] Steve: periods of time when you get a technology shift, like a little fork in the road, this is one of those, you know, I felt that way when the smartphone first came out and different gadgets and things you could do.

[00:01:26 ] Steve: And when social first started coming back, it’d be like, Oh, this is website Reddit and there’s, um, yeah, delicious. Yeah. Get all your, all your sharing, your links and these different sites, everything web 2. 0. Yeah. You know, I felt like that when the internet, we were just talking offline about when people first started getting online with their dial up, you’d go out and buy a magazine, the top sites to visit, which, when was yours from, Cam?

[00:01:50 ] Steve: You just said. A book!

[00:01:51 ] Cameron: Mine’s not a magazine. It’s a book, like a published

[00:01:54 ] Cameron: book. I think it’s the top websites.

[00:01:57 ] Steve: to research, publish, do a book, and these sites will be fine. No books for 404s there.

[00:02:06 ] Cameron: O’Reilly or one of those publishers back from the

[00:02:09 ] Steve: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,

[00:02:10 ] Cameron: think it’s like 1994, the top 100 websites of 1994 or something like that.

[00:02:16 ] Steve: That’s great.

[00:02:18 ] Steve: Yeah, so it definitely feels like that. Yeah, it feels like it.

[00:02:23 ] Cameron: I’ve

[00:02:24 ] Steve: Continues.

[00:02:25 ] Cameron: I have been, uh, let’s talk about what we’ve done. I have been, um, you know, coding and scripting my ass off for the last couple of weeks. Quite often in the wee hours of the morning because I’ve also had a bout of insomnia. And I’m like, okay, screw it. I’m just going to code, get up at 2am and just code.

[00:02:45 ] Cameron: Do the stuff that I don’t, I can’t really justify spending too many hours on during the day because of, you know, there’s a, there’s a sunk time cost aspect to it. But what else am I going to do at 2am? So a lot of coding. Um, I won’t, uh, just one thing, which is a really stupid, simple thing, but. It was kind of a revelation to me.

[00:03:08 ] Cameron: So, um, when I’m doing podcasts, I have a sound library of things like this. I don’t believe those figures. Please explain. That, you know, and for my history podcast, I’ve got hundreds of these and some of them are Clips from shows that I’ve done that I’ve pulled out with my other co host Ray and others are movie soundbites and that kind of stuff But the audio levels on them are all over the place and it’s been bugging me because you know when I capture them off of YouTube or whatever the audio levels are right now.

[00:03:39 ] Cameron: I’ve never had the Wherewithal, well, couldn’t be bothered to go and fix all the audio levels. I suddenly thought, I wonder if I can just write some code that’ll just fix all the audio levels. Boom! Jumped into one of the tools. Um, said, hey, can you write me some Python code that’ll do this? It’s like, piece of cake, man.

[00:03:57 ] Cameron: We write this Python code, just pointed it at a directory of hundreds of mp3. Files and a second later or 60 seconds later, they’re all audio balanced. Um, done. Boom. Oh, there you go. What else? And I actually. After that, I, I, one of the websites, I’ve got about 50 websites I read every morning. I have a little iOS shortcut that, um, I click and it opens up 50 web pages in Chrome and the same 50 pages.

[00:04:31 ] Cameron: And then I just,

[00:04:32 ] Cameron: you know, I just, some of them, I’m just seeing if they like, they’re like Russian news sites and Chinese news sites and blogs and different things,

[00:04:40 ] Steve: Barak, you are a communist sleeper. You, I mean, you are, I mean, we know. Red is under the bed and there’s a bed in the background.

[00:04:46 ] Steve: Red’s under the bed.

[00:04:48 ] Cameron: There’s nothing sleeping about it. I’m very openly, very openly a communist. Um, but yeah, I’m reading all these things and you know, sometimes I’ll just glance at the headlines and then click, click, click, click, click. Anyway, what are the, what are the blogs that I read? A guy mentioned a guy, mentioned a guy, mentioned a guy.

[00:05:06 ] Cameron: And it led me to a