Up in the Air: The Future of eVTOLs and Urban Air Mobility – Episode 47

Flying Cars or Futile Fantasy? The Future of eVTOLs

What if your morning commute didn’t mean fighting through traffic, but instead lifting off above the streets, gliding quietly past congestion, and landing minutes later at your destination? That’s the promise of eVTOLs—electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft—a technology that feels straight out of The Jetsons yet is edging closer to reality.

In the latest episode of Modem Futura, Andrew Maynard and I explore this emerging frontier of personal and urban mobility. From one-seat recreational flyers like the Jetson One to multi-passenger air taxis under development by companies like Joby and Archer, eVTOLs are being positioned as a transformative solution to congestion, emissions, and urban mobility. But as with every bold vision of the future, the story is more complex.

On the upside, eVTOLs hold real promise. They’re electric, meaning zero emissions at point of use. They could cut cross-town trips from hours to minutes. And they tap into decades of technological advances in drone stabilization, batteries, and sensors. Their potential for reshaping how we think about movement in cities—and even how we design those cities—is tantalizing.

Yet the risks and challenges are significant. Safety tops the list: what happens when experimental craft sharing city skies experience failure? Noise, privacy, and equity loom large as well. Who benefits when public infrastructure is built for vehicles that cost $100,000+? And what does it mean for the rest of society if only the wealthy soar above while others remain stuck below?

History reminds us that every major shift in transportation—from horse-drawn carriages to automobiles—has reshaped not just how we travel, but the very fabric of our communities. eVTOLs could do the same, but we must ask: are we building futures that benefit the few, or the many?

In our conversation, we balance fascination with skepticism. Could eVTOLs open doors to greener, more flexible mobility—or are they an expensive distraction from more equitable solutions like walkable cities, cycling infrastructure, and public transit? Perhaps, as with so many futures, the answer lies in imagination: using today’s innovations not simply to recreate cartoon fantasies, but to envision transportation that elevates all of us.

Special Acknowledgment 

We'd like to acknowledge the partial funding support provided by the US Department of Transportation-sponsored Travel Behavior and Demand National University Transportation Center led by The University of Texas at Austin. The Center, of which Arizona State University is a consortium member,

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/41xnEJS

📺 Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ModemFutura

If you’d like to dive deeper, jump into the link and listen to the podcast or watch the YouTube video. Join us as we explore the forces shaping our collective future and the urgent need to keep human values at the heart of innovation.

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Subscribe to Modem Futura on a favorite podcast platform, follow on LinkedIn, and join the conversation by sharing thoughts and questions. The medium may still be the massage, but everyone has a chance to shape how it kneads modern culture—and to decide what kind of global village we ultimately build.

🎧 Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/41xnEJS

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/07YryAJIk5P6hytdKVHTGq?si=oAfh_V7PR42lMDCr6q26KA

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/A3UWx5_LGgg

🌐 Website: https://www.modemfutura.com/

Agentic AI in Education & the Art of Becoming with Punya Mishra – Episode 46

Agentic AI ≠ Automated Learning: Building Real Student Agency

What if AI “agents” did 30% of a student’s work—would the student still be learning? In this week’s Modem Futura, hosts Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard sit down with ASU’s Punya Mishra for a lively, practical look at agentic AI—not as dashboards and nudges, but as tools that help people become. It’s a warm, grounded conversation for educators, ed‑leaders, parents, and anyone shaping the future of learning.

In this episode, we explore the distinction between agentic AI and automation: if an AI writes the paper, who is developing judgment, taste, and identity? We unpack why offloading tasks is not the same as cultivating agency. Drawing on John Dewey’s four natural impulses—inquiry, construction, communication, and expression—and Seymour Papert’s call for “playgrounds, not playpens,” we frame learning with AI as making and meaning, not simply “study mode.” Punya shares how he used AI to begin reading Odia in order to engage with his mother’s writing, a story that illustrates motivation over gamification—depth no badge can match.

We also challenge “learning management” mindsets, emphasizing that courses are crafted experiences that shape community and identity well beyond content delivery. We contrast classic intelligent tutoring systems with today’s large language models—the brittleness of the former versus the hallucinations of the latter—and identify where each genuinely helps learners. We examine the privacy, surveillance, and “efficiency” traps that datafication creates in schools, making the case for transparent, local, personal AIs—with an explicit kill switch. Finally, we underscore that craft and creativity still matter: Sean’s Final Cut Pro example shows how AI auto‑courses can nail mechanics yet miss the art (think J/L cuts), reminding us that human taste and critique remain essential.

Why this matters

Education is not a pipeline to “becoming X.” It’s a lifelong process of becoming—discovering interests, building capability, and strengthening belonging. AI is powerful precisely when it amplifies these human aims. Our invitation: design AI‑supported playgrounds where learners build, reflect, and share—safely and with agency.

🎧 Listen & share: If you care about AI’s role in real learning, this episode is for you. Share it with a teacher, professor, or parent who’s wrestling with where AI truly helps—and where it doesn’t.

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4mA5z6x

📺 Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ModemFutura

If you’d like to dive deeper, jump into the link and listen to the podcast or watch the YouTube video. Join us as we explore the forces shaping our collective future and the urgent need to keep human values at the heart of innovation.

Subscribe and Connect!

Subscribe to Modem Futura on a favorite podcast platform, follow on LinkedIn, and join the conversation by sharing thoughts and questions. The medium may still be the massage, but everyone has a chance to shape how it kneads modern culture—and to decide what kind of global village we ultimately build.

🎧 Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/4mA5z6x

🎧 Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/episode/5HBXeUCV9Qf02NqKOfQ7WO?si=DE2hVgX4T_eETxaDxd_vjg

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/7FRPXozBEYI

🌐 Website: https://www.modemfutura.com/

AI, Not AI: Riding the Hype Cycle – Episode 45

Agents at the Peak, Humans in the Loop: Navigating the AI Hype Cycle

Every week brings another “breakthrough” headline—agent modes, study modes, version bumps—and it’s getting harder to tell hype from progress. In this new Modem Futura episode, we take a candid, summer‑mode breather to map where AI really sits on the Gartner Hype Cycle, what open‑weight releases mean for builders, and how to keep the human voice intact when co‑authoring with machines. (Yes, we tried not to talk about AI…and failed—because it’s interwoven into every aspect of human activity now.)

What open weights really unlock

Setting aside the current drama around GPT-5, recent open‑weight releases under permissive licenses are a quiet game‑changer. OpenAI has released a pair of open‑weight models (120B & 20B) under Apache‑2.0 license that you can download from Huggingface. Translation: you can download models, run them locally, and adapt them for your own needs—no cloud required (except o download). With capable personal computers (think Apple’s M‑series) or home-built rigs GneAI LLMs can be run locally on device, and as hardware capacity increases and the sophistication of the models improves, the barrier to entry keeps dropping. The reason this matters is that it enables “garage‑scale” innovation—students, labs, startups, and curious tinkerers can now build for their own unique (or weird), local needs rather than waiting for a platform update.

Writing with AI—and protecting the voice

We also dig into human‑AI co‑authoring. Andrew shares a writer’s perspective—AI can draft moving, polished prose, but a subtle sameness creeps in. The fix isn’t anti‑AI; it’s pro‑craft: re‑introduce your “tells,” rhythm, and variance so readers feel a human mind at work. Think editorial sculpture—chipping away until the voice has texture and life. When even an AI editor flags your draft as “too consistent,” it’s a nudge to put the messiness back in. This is what happens when the pendulum swings too far to one side (perfect AI generated prose) the reader craves authenticity and “style” to which we need to introduce our human-touch back into the machine.

So…where are we on the Hype Cycle?
Whether you’re looking to learn how to interpret this powerful model (tool) or just get some new band name ideas, we explain the curve (innovation trigger → peak of inflated expectations → trough of disillusionment → slope of enlightenment → plateau of productivity) and why agentic AI feels perched at the peak, while day‑to‑day generative AIis edging into the trough—not because it’s useless, but because the shine (over hyped exaggerated claims of impact) wears off and the real work begins (just look at the backlash from GPT-5). Layer in the diffusion‑of‑innovation model and you’ll see different communities (VCs, educators, enterprises) living on different parts of the curve at the same time.

Image source: pasqal.com

Image source: Gartner

Beyond screens: ambient intelligence

We explore the exciting space of spatial/ambient computing and sensing (I even got to briefly mention LANs, WANs, and PANs)—environments saturated with signals (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular, NFC) that AIs can interpret in ways we can’t. It raises the question of what happens when machines can interpret the data‑saturated world beyond our comprehension and act within it? That’s where “AI‑not‑AI” lives: less chatbot magic, more embedded intelligence shaping everyday environments. That’s both exciting and unsettling: it demands new conversations about design, privacy, agency, and the futures we actually want to build.

If it resonates, help broaden the conversation: subscribe, share with a colleague, and tell us where you place AI on the Hype Cycle—and where you’re craving more human messiness. As we joked in‑studio, Modem Futura is “on the slope of enlightenment—accepting social investment via ratings and reviews

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/47mypmb

📺 Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ModemFutura

If you’d like to dive deeper, jump into the link and listen to the podcast or watch the YouTube video. Join us as we explore the forces shaping our collective future and the urgent need to keep human values at the heart of innovation.

Subscribe and Connect!

Subscribe to Modem Futura on a favorite podcast platform, follow on LinkedIn, and join the conversation by sharing thoughts and questions. The medium may still be the massage, but everyone has a chance to shape how it kneads modern culture—and to decide what kind of global village we ultimately build.

🎧 Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/47mypmb

🎧 Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/episode/4ReAdtrV7o8WfxeZ0vaKH9?si=dGnDFD03QiW9A3UiUStEEg

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/cfHqBJKnGZo

🌐 Website: https://www.modemfutura.com/

Show Me the Receipts: the Futures of AI Super-intelligence – Episode 44

Superintelligence “In Sight”? Cutting Through Hype to Keep Humans in the Loop

If you’ve felt whiplash from this summer’s AI headlines, you’re not alone. In our latest episode of Modem Futura, we unpack Big Tech’s bolder‑than‑bold claim that “developing superintelligence is now in sight”—and ask for something simple before we all sprint into the future: receipts. We break down what companies are signaling when they talk about AI systems that “improve themselves,” why that sounds momentous, and where the marketing ends and the evidence begins.

First, definitions that matter. Today’s tools remain narrow—powerful, yes, but specialized. AGI is the hypothetical jump to general capability; superintelligence (ASI) is the further leap beyond any human capability. We explore why those terms are often moved like goalposts, and why declaring ASI “near” without a stable definition confuses the public, policymakers, and practitioners alike, and from my perspective is irresponsible.

Then we zoom into a practical pain point: reliability. When platforms silently change models, tools, or defaults, workflows break (hello GPT-5). In education and professional settings, that unpredictability isn’t just irritating—it’s costly. We share real examples (from transcripts labeled with the wrong speakers to model behavior shifting overnight) and discuss what “enterprise‑grade” should mean for LLMs people depend on.

We also play with the upside—digital twins and imaginative design. If a campus has a high‑fidelity digital twin, why stop at mirroring reality? Why not prototype preferable futures—safer, more inclusive, more sustainable spaces—and test them before we build? Of course, reliability matters there too; when operational systems depend on simulations, unintended tweaks can ripple into the real world.

Across the hour, we push back on technological solutionism—the reflex to cast AI as the single answer to complex, “wicked” problems. Yes, we’re excited about AI’s potential; no, it won’t magically resolve conflict, poverty, or disease without broader social, economic, and political work. Framing ASI as our only lifeboat risks narrowing our imaginations right when we need them most.

Ultimately, we return to our favorite question: What does it mean to be human when machines can emulate so much of what we do? For us, that means staying curious and critical, inviting more diverse perspectives into the conversation, and insisting on transparent claims we can evaluate—before ceding agency to systems we don’t fully understand.

If this episode gave you a useful lens on the AI noise, share it with a colleague, drop a comment with the boldest AI claim you’ve heard and the evidence that would convince you, and subscribe so you don’t miss what’s next.

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/41Ayf6J

📺 Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ModemFutura

If you’d like to dive deeper, jump into the link and listen to the podcast or watch the YouTube video. Join us as we explore the forces shaping our collective future and the urgent need to keep human values at the heart of innovation.

Subscribe and Connect!

Subscribe to Modem Futura on a favorite podcast platform, follow on LinkedIn, and join the conversation by sharing thoughts and questions. The medium may still be the massage, but everyone has a chance to shape how it kneads modern culture—and to decide what kind of global village we ultimately build.

🎧 Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/41Ayf6J

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0o1vePcG8wh2VmMtETRKjy?si=Fu0xyDEkSHKB-R3gkKKWoQ

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/XO9dLoYhIvY

🌐 Website: https://www.modemfutura.com/

Machines That Bleed: Inside the Future World of Bio‑Hybrid Robotics – Episode 43

Why Bio‑Hybrid Robotics Will Reshape Our Relationship with Technology

What if tomorrow’s rescue drone flapped real muscle, sniffed chemicals with a moth’s antenna, and healed itself like living tissue? This isn’t science fiction—it’s the fast‑emerging world of bio‑hybrid robotics, where biological systems and engineered hardware merge to create devices that are simultaneously alive and machine. In the latest episode ofModem Futura, hosts Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard sit down with Sean Dudley (Associate Vice President, ASU Knowledge Enterprise) to map this fascinating frontier.

Bio‑hybrid robots could transform minimally invasive surgery, disaster‑zone reconnaissance, and environmental stewardship. Yet they also force us to rethink what counts as life and who (or what) deserves care.

Throughout the conversation Sean D. walks us through the four pillars of bio-hybrid robotics. Briefly outlined here, but to get the full sense of wonder (or ick factor) you'll need to watch or listen to the full episode – oh, and just be warned you'll probably be thinking about this for the rest of the week.

Four Pillars of a Living Machine Future

1. Micro‑Robots Powered by Microbes
. Imagine algae‑propelled drug‑delivery bots navigating the bloodstream. Dudley explains how harnessing microbial metabolism can eliminate the need for bulky batteries while opening doors to precision medicine and targeted environmental cleanup.

2. Muscle‑Integrated “Musclebots”. By 3‑D‑printing biodegradable scaffolds and seeding them with cultured muscle cells, researchers are building actuators that contract like real tissue—creating soft robots capable of delicate tasks from organ‑on‑chip testing to next‑gen prosthetics.

3. Cyborg Systems. Neural or electrical interfaces are already steering beetles, eels, and jellyfish, turning animals into agile, low‑power platforms for search‑and‑rescue, deep‑sea exploration, and even atmospheric data‑collection. DARPA’s new HYBRID program is accelerating this work—raising equal measures of excitement and ethical concern.

4. Living Sensors . Daphnia “canaries” that change swimming patterns in polluted water, plant‑based detectors that fluoresce when exposed to explosives—the conversation highlights how living organisms can outperform silicon in sensitivity, selectivity, and energy efficiency.

Beyond the Lab: Opportunities & Obligations

AI as a Design Partner: Advanced generative models are speeding up “shopping‑list biology,” letting engineers mix‑and‑match tissues, genes, and materials in silico before ever touching a petri dish.

Ethical Imperatives: Where do we draw lines of agency and dignity for augmented organisms? The hosts probe cultural attitudes toward animal welfare, military use cases, and DIY “bio‑punk” experimentation.

Global Governance Gaps: From intellectual‑property battles to cross‑border regulation, the trio stresses the need for international collaboration—before unintended consequences eclipse the technology’s promise.

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40Qzfn5

📺 Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ModemFutura

If you’d like to dive deeper, jump into the link and listen to the podcast or watch the YouTube video. Join us as we explore the forces shaping our collective future and the urgent need to keep human values at the heart of innovation.

Subscribe and Connect!

Subscribe to Modem Futura on a favorite podcast platform, follow on LinkedIn, and join the conversation by sharing thoughts and questions. The medium may still be the massage, but everyone has a chance to shape how it kneads modern culture—and to decide what kind of global village we ultimately build.

🎧 Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/40Qzfn5

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1njCiTX40Q9XQoMpivuiqO?si=647fb6c5e9114d36

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/7MhOsxPPb7U

🌐 Website: https://www.modemfutura.com/

Futures of Agentic AI and the 2025 AI Action Plan – Episode 42

A Wet Hot AI Summer: Decoding the U.S. AI Action Plan & the Agentic‑Bot Boom

If you stepped away from the screen / feed for even a moment this July, you might have missed two massive AI stories that could shape the near-term innovation in AI. First, the White House released its 2025 AI Action Plan—a 20 plus page blueprint built on three pillars: (1) Accelerate AI innovation, (2) Build national AI infrastructure, and (3) Lead global AI diplomacy. If that wasn’t news enough - just back on July 17th OpenAI, announced the roll out of its new “Agent” modes—autonomous-ish bots that promise to book your travel, manage your calendar, and even spend your money while you sleep. Joking aside - please be VERY careful about what sort of access, privacy, and information you give any automated service. Ask yourself “what would be the worst that could happen?” If the answer makes you cringe or sweat - don’t do that thing. Okay - PSA cautionary rant over… back to the episode notes.

In our latest Modem Futura episode, Andrew and I pull these threads together. We ask whether the Action Plan’s “build‑baby‑build” mantra—complete with massive semiconductor subsidies and calls to “remove regulatory barriers”—is a bold vision or reckless speed run. We also spotlight what’s missing: robust guard‑rails for deepfakes, algorithmic bias, and the colossal energy footprint of new data‑centers.

Switching to agentic AI, we run real‑time tests on OpenAI’s new Agent Mode and compare them with Manus’ more mature workflow. Yes, watching a bot open browser tabs for you is technically impressive—until you realize you can still do most tasks faster yourself . That friction sparks a wider debate:

Productivity paradox – Studies already show teachers and coders spending more time fact‑checking AI output than drafting from scratch.

Privacy trade‑offs – Granting an agent access to your email or bank account may save clicks now, but what’s the long‑term cost to autonomy?

Deepfake backlash – The Plan flags courtroom deepfakes as a national‑security risk, yet leaves broader social harms largely unaddressed.

Behind the policy prose and flashy demos lurks a wider narrative of tech nationalism. The document casts AI as a race the United States must win, positioning allies as followers and China as the ultimate adversary. That framing risks turning open research into a geopolitical arms sprint—one where ethical reflection gets lapped by hype.

So where does that leave forward‑thinking professionals, educators, and creators? We advocate to start the conversations now - here are some great starting topics to begin with:

Stay curious but critical. Piloting new agent tools is the best way to spot real value—and red flags—early.

Advocate for “responsible speed.” Innovation and regulation are not mutually exclusive; demand both from vendors and policymakers.

Own your data literacy. Whether you’re vetting deepfake evidence or AI‑generated lesson plans, will skepticism become a core career skill?

🎧 Tune in for the full discussion—including Hitchhiker’s Guide jokes, live agent fails, and pragmatic optimism about building a flourishing, not merely faster, future.

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4l7eCKC

📺 Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ModemFutura

If you’d like to dive deeper, jump into the link and listen to the podcast or watch the YouTube video. Join us as we explore the forces shaping our collective future and the urgent need to keep human values at the heart of innovation.

Subscribe and Connect!

Subscribe to Modem Futura on a favorite podcast platform, follow on LinkedIn, and join the conversation by sharing thoughts and questions. The medium may still be the massage, but everyone has a chance to shape how it kneads modern culture—and to decide what kind of global village we ultimately build.

🎧 Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/4l7eCKC

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2fI044VpiPE3t4Y9MXrZjJ?si=mJ-xb414R3Ww7IkTOIlT0Q

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/6fcOiRYnIK8

🌐 Website: https://www.modemfutura.com/

Summer School with AI: Rethinking Learning in the Age of GPT – Episode 41

Summer School with AI: Why “Back to Basics” Isn’t Enough

Why this episode matters? If you’re charting strategy for schools, workforce development or lifelong learning, this discussion offers a candid roadmap—and a few provocative questions—for navigating the next decade of educational transformation.

This month on Modem Futura I welcomed Rachna Mathur, Ed.D. —engineer, artist, lifelong-learner and Senior STEM Strategist at ASU Preparatory Academy—to a scorching‑hot Arizona studio for a free‑flowing “summer session” on the future of learning in the age of generative AI.

Our conversation touches on many aspects of learning and AI, but laser in on the implications of living the “digital world” for learning, partially inspired from the headline that shocked many educators: Sweden’s decision to pull back from screens and re‑embrace handwriting and printed books after seeing declines in comprehension and critical‑thinking benchmarks. We explore the move as an important—but incomplete—signal. We arguee that the real challenge is finding a sustainable balance between analog depth and digital acceleration, not retreating wholesale from technology, and not leaning into a pure technological solution just for technologies sake.

The theme of moderation threads the entire episode. We swap Montessori childhood stories—self‑directed, community‑anchored, and surprisingly common among tech leaders—before examining how that philosophy might translate to AI‑rich classrooms where personalization risks isolation if community norms aren’t protected.

We then fast‑forward 50 years to imagine two stark futures: a post‑scarcity Star‑Trek‑style society of flourishing creativity, or the WALL‑E “hover‑chair” dystopia where humans outsource thinking, writing and even curiosity to autonomous agents. In both scenarios, today’s policy and design choices in K‑12 systems carve the path. Should we double‑down on foundational literacies—or teach students how to audit machine output for bias, hallucination and relevance?

We highlight the rising cognitive load on teachers, who are expected to master every “shiny new doodad” while still wearing a dozen other hats. We discuss realistic guardrails: cell‑phone moderation policies; AI readers that empower dyslexic learners; and iterative, living guidelines that evolve alongside the tech itself rather than one‑and‑done declarations.

Finally, we confront the looming content‑collapse problem (the recursive nightmare that may be building right in front of us): models now train on data increasingly generated by other models, a self‑referential “snake eating its own tail” that threatens originality and human perspective. Our shared conclusion? Educators, parents and technologists must collaborate on a middle path that preserves human agency, cultivates critical judgment, and leverages AI as an amplifier—not a crutch.

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4o6LwOc

📺 Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ModemFutura

If you’d like to dive deeper, jump into the link and listen to the podcast or watch the YouTube video. Join us as we explore the forces shaping our collective future and the urgent need to keep human values at the heart of innovation.

Subscribe and Connect!

Subscribe to Modem Futura on a favorite podcast platform, follow on LinkedIn, and join the conversation by sharing thoughts and questions. The medium may still be the massage, but everyone has a chance to shape how it kneads modern culture—and to decide what kind of global village we ultimately build.

🎧 Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/4o6LwOc

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1E9LMkkOTYvTJVwlb6Ey0F?si=ADMbNGEWSUW-Jdx-h0oBsA

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/cvxHCJxahlg

🌐 Website: https://www.modemfutura.com/

Summer Movies, liquid media, and alien AI languages – Episode 40

From Popcorn to Paperclips: What Summer Blockbusters Teach Us About an AI‑Shaped Future

With Phoenix broiling at 120 °F, we opened the studio door to a blast‑furnace breeze and a full house of ideas. Episode 40 of Modem Futura is nominally a “summer movies” chat—but the conversation quickly melts into a much richer alloy of cinema, ethics, pedagogy and speculative futures.

A spoiler‑free Superman (2025) debrief kicks things off. Sean relishes Dolby Atmos thunder and crowd‑pleasing cameos while Andrew savors the rare joy of a superhero film that is simply “incredibly fun” without the need to be anything but entertaining.

That sets the stage for the surprise gem of the season: M3GAN 2. (Or more specifically, Andrew’s revelation of how much he enjoyed it). Far from a Chucky retread, the sequel pivots into full‑blown techno‑thriller territory—surfacing neural‑chip debates, AI value‑alignment nightmares and invokes the infamous “paperclip maximizer” thought experiment. The hosts cheekily ask whether investing in AI is humanity’s salvation…or the catalyst for its conversion into stationery.

Movies as stealth pedagogy loom large. Andrew describes his film class where popcorn favorites become Trojan horses for serious reflection; students re‑watch titles with friends and family, eager to dissect ethics and innovation themes they can’t un‑see. Sean and Andrew discuss how the formula works because it lowers the barrier to entry while secretly building critical‑thinking muscle.

From here, just as the movies themselves act as Trojan Horses we get into some deeper ideas:

• Story archetypes rebooted. Are the classic five conflicts (character vs. self, society, nature, etc.) universal, or will alien machine intelligences invent a sixth form of narrative that we literally cannot grasp?

• Liquid media & the dead‑internet theory. When every asset can be remixed on demand, text becomes speech becomes video—and bots may already outnumber humans online. How do we preserve authentic signal in an ocean of generative noise?

• Chaos theory for a networked planet. Eight billion hyper‑connected humans + foundation‑model AI = a complex system hurtling toward new tipping points. Can we always innovate out of disruption—or does that curve eventually outpace us?

The episode closes with a cheeky pitch for Hollywood: “Clippy: Revenge of the Paperclip Maximizer.” Microsoft’s once‑loathsome office assistant becomes the perfect foil for an alignment‑gone‑wrong blockbuster—and a reminder that even silly artifacts can spark serious futures thinking.

Why it matters: Whether you’re an educator looking for sticky teaching tools, a technologist wrestling with alignment, or a storyteller hunting the next frontier, this discussion shows how pop culture can illuminate the biggest questions about being human in an AI age.

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3GD73NA

📺 Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ModemFutura

If you’d like to dive deeper, jump into the link and listen to the podcast or watch the YouTube video. Join us as we explore the forces shaping our collective future and the urgent need to keep human values at the heart of innovation.

Subscribe and Connect!

Subscribe to Modem Futura on a favorite podcast platform, follow on LinkedIn, and join the conversation by sharing thoughts and questions. The medium may still be the massage, but everyone has a chance to shape how it kneads modern culture—and to decide what kind of global village we ultimately build.

🎧 Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3GD73NA

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2BeXNdntLQlPwsUlKYnO7h?si=Xw7nG8HcQpyydGkb2TCeUQ

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/3kTVC4LHeYM

🌐 Website: https://www.modemfutura.com/

Summer Vibes & Spatial Rides: Inside Vision Pro, F1 & Jurassic Reboots - Episode 39

☀️ It’s HOT in here… Dive into Modem Futura’s “Summer Vibes” episode, where hosts Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard unpack Apple Vision Pro spatial video, Jurassic World’s reboot, Formula 1’s cinematic debut, and China’s AI surge after WEF’s “Summer Davos”—all while exploring how these breakthroughs reshape humanity’s tech‑driven future.

🏖️ While the heat is cranked up in the studio (and Arizona in general) Andrew and I have a chance to unwind from our various summer travels for what we might call a “potpourri” episode where we just get to talk about several topics hot on our minds… So whether you’re off to the beach, the mountains, heading out on a grand holiday, or a much needed staycation - we hope you’ll enjoy some of these “summer” topics.

A Hands‑On Reality Check for Apple Vision Pro

After months of real‑world testing, Sean and Andrew compare wish‑list features and day‑to‑day realities of Apple’s first‑gen spatial computer. From stitching multi‑cam spatial video to designing XR‑ready podcast sets, they deliver practical tips, pitfalls to avoid, and a glimpse of how “work in mixed reality” could eclipse the old‑school laptop sooner than you think.

Jurassic Park vs. Jurassic World—Why Practical Effects Still Matter

Next the duo rewind to 1993’s Jurassic Park to ask: Did Spielberg’s animatronics age better than today’s CGI? Their verdict? New film Jurassic World: Rebirth nails spectacle, but the tactile magic of rubberized T‑rex skin still wins hearts. The debate morphs into a larger conversation on authenticity in digital storytelling—and what it might mean for future filmmakers, brand marketers, and immersive‑media designers.

Formula 1 Meets Hollywood IMAX

Gear-heads rejoice: Brad Pitt’s upcoming Formula 1 feature has Sean and Andrew excited over ultra‑wide‑angle cockpit shots, in‑camera VFX, and how motorsport’s data‑rich culture could reinvent cinematic narratives. They speculate on live telemetry overlays, fan‑controlled POV streams, and why F1 is the perfect test‑bed for mainstreaming real‑time spatial / immersive video.

China’s “Summer Davos” & the AI Arms Race

Fresh off the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of New Champions in Dalian, Andrew unpacks Beijing’s new national AI strategy, and start‑up phenom DeepSeek. The takeaway: global AI leadership is no longer a two‑horse race; it’s a sprint where policy, compute, and culture collide.

Low-background Steel

Sean and Andrew discuss the concept of John Graham-Cumming's Low-background Steel (pre-Ai) website, that represents a point (or perhaps line) in human history, in which all output after the release of ChatGPT in late 2022 will carry some level of “contamination” from generative AI. We explore what this means of the future of being human - and how might we think about this indelible mark on human history.

Why It Matters

Whether you’re a product manager, educator, investor, or lifelong learner, these topics converge on a single question: How will emergent tech redefine what it means to be human? From XR workspaces replacing offices to generative AI altering creative identity, the future is arriving faster—and stranger—than forecast.

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/45YQ1Ur

📺 Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ModemFutura

If you’d like to dive deeper, jump into the link and listen to the podcast or watch the YouTube video. Join us as we explore the forces shaping our collective future and the urgent need to keep human values at the heart of innovation.

Subscribe and Connect!

Subscribe to Modem Futura on a favorite podcast platform, follow on LinkedIn, and join the conversation by sharing thoughts and questions. The medium may still be the massage, but everyone has a chance to shape how it kneads modern culture—and to decide what kind of global village we ultimately build.

🎧 Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/45YQ1Ur

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5pfl59Xi6W0rqcHce8QGwV?si=coazi5zDRt2Jm37ur4ouzw

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/-rAd8RuzUm0

🌐 Website: https://www.modemfutura.com/

Future Vibes: Sean & Andrew’s 2025 Summer Reading List – Episode 38

Sunshine, iced coffee, and a stack of books bigger than your carry-on: the Modem Futura crew is officially in vacation mode. In this episode, Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard trade their usual policy briefs for paperbacks, audiobooks, and a little healthy banter while curating a futurist-friendly “summer reading list.” Why fiction? Because, as Sean argues, big ideas often hide between star-ship battles and dinosaur breakouts, not only in white papers. Andrew adds that speculative worlds give us a safe sandbox to test tomorrow’s ethics—and besides, nothing pairs with sunscreen like a good apocalypse.

The conversation starts with how we read. Sean confesses he’s deep into audiobooks (pro-tip: narrator chemistry matters as much as plot), while Andrew waxes nostalgic about radio dramas and the duo laments that loss of an old art form of pure radio-plays or dramas and the power of sound-only storytelling.

Then come the picks. Sean’s pile skews toward propulsive series that open up worlds of emergent tech and moral quandaries: Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries, Hugh Howey’s silo trilogy (Wool, Shift, Dust), Dennis E. Taylor’s clone-happy We Are Legion (We Are Bob), and John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War. Classics make the cut too: Stanisław Lem’s mind-bending Solaris, Michael Crichton’s bio-engineering cautionary tale Jurassic Park, Douglas Adams’ irreverent Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and the heaven-hell hijinks of Pratchett & Gaiman’s Good Omens. Andrew arrives armed with literary wit and social sci-fi: Julie Schumacher’s academic farce Dear Committee Members, John Wyndham’s climate-chaos thriller The Kraken Wakes, Iain M. Banks’ cosmic intrigue in The Algebraist, Kai-Fu Lee & Chen Qiufan’s foresight anthology AI 2041, and a nostalgic return to childhood wonder with Swallows and Amazons and its sequel Swallowdale.

Sean and Andrew dig into why these stories matter now. Themes of sentient automation (Murderbot), post-climate survival (Wool), and multiverse governance (Bobiverse) echo real-world debates on AI alignment, geo-engineering, and planetary stewardship. They unpack adaptation hits and misses—Apple TV+’s Silo nails the bunker vibe; will Amazon’s forthcoming Murderbot capture SecUnit’s dry humor?—and argue that every futurist needs a dose of imaginative empathy before writing the next policy memo or paper.

Grab your earbuds, e-reader, or dog-eared paperback and join the conversation. After listening, hit reply or tag #ModemFutura to share the titles you’ll be packing—because the future is a story we’re all still writing.

Sean's Picks:

• The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells [Amazon]

• Silo (Series) Wool (book 1) by Hugh Howey [Amazon]

• Jurassic Park: A Novel by Michael Crichton [Amazon]

• Solaris by Stanislaw Lem [Amazon] 

• Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman [Amazon] 

• Bobiverse (We are Legion) series by Dennis E. Taylor [Amazon]

• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle [Amazon]

• Old Man's War by John Scalzi [Amazon] 

• Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams [Amazon]

Andrew's Picks:

• Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher [Amazon] 

• The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham [Amazon]

• Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome [Amazon second hand] (this one can be hard to find)

• The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks [Amazon]

• AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future by Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan [Amazon]

If you’d like to dive deeper, jump into the link and listen to the podcast or watch the YouTube video. Join us as we explore the forces shaping our collective future and the urgent need to keep human values at the heart of innovation.

Subscribe and Connect!

Subscribe to Modem Futura on a favorite podcast platform, follow on LinkedIn, and join the conversation by sharing thoughts and questions. The medium may still be the massage, but everyone has a chance to shape how it kneads modern culture—and to decide what kind of global village we ultimately build.

🎧 Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/4kkcvCC

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0cTCZZfLHR1sIYcHsd85bt?si=5adaec8264b74cc1

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/KnmMw4Nb3dM

🌐 Website: https://www.modemfutura.com/