All cooks have the same ingredients, but some chefs make Michelin quality food and others don’t.

The ingredients of tech will all be well known.

But some will do wondrous things with these ingredients, and others will use them to escape the responsibility of being a human.

The most important thing we can all do right now is expand our concept of what’s possible.

Well, we don’t yet have Star Trek’s food replicator, but many of the things our science fiction writers talked about decades ago are coming true today.

2001: A Space Odyssey has many relics of the 60s, but the overarching point: What do you trust when two infallible, superhuman AIs disagree with each other? When one of two AIs, each incapable of making a mistake, makes a mistake?

That question is as relevant today as it was half a century ago.

Carl Sagan’s 1990 keynote is no less true now than when he gave it.

Sure, some of our predictions haven’t come true, like pretty much anything from the Jetsons.

But what’s amazing is how much has.

It’s a testament to how far in advance humans can see things.

What do you know for sure is going to happen in the next 20 years? Can you work on that today?

Will be something like this:

Hey Ross!

Too bad your grandma died recently—man, Alzheimer’s really is rough! I also love speed-solving Rubik’s Cubes as much as you do (Fridrich method, anyone!?). I think it’s great how you got your hair cut two days ago, it looks really cool, and way to go buying that ice cream on sale at Ralph’s—smart move saving the extra dollar by clipping that coupon!

Your latest podcast episode in which you juxtaposed the excitement of humanity’s greatest period of technological advancement ever against the strong dystopian undercurrent of resource depletion really got me thinking:

We sell white-label marketing services to marketing firms like yours, and I was wondering if…

Trillionaires: Holy crap! Look what AI can do for humanity!

Billionaires: Holy crap! Look what AI can do for my company!

Millionaires: Holy crap! Look what I can build with AI that I couldn’t have before!

Enthusiasts: Holy crap! Look what I can do with AI!

The Environment: Holy crap! Where did all my resources go?

Like tiny little bank-account-draining demons, the dozens of software subscriptions we all have chip away at us over time.

But here’s a secret:

Try to cancel as many of them as you can name today, and many will say “WAIT DON’T GO! HOW ABOUT 80% OFF FOR THE NEXT 3 MONTHS INSTEAD?”

Set a calendar reminder, and take the discount, saving you a bunch for the next several months.

Not enough for you?

Cancel 5 of them right now.

You’ll feel better.