Future of Being Human

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Summer Reading List 2026: The Books That Inspired Our Imagination (Part 1)

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Reading Backwards to Understand the Future
There's a particular kind of book list that shows up every summer — the one that seems designed mostly to signal how serious and well-read its author is. This isn't that. In the first part of our annual Summer Reading List, the guiding instinct was the opposite: lasers, space ships, escapism, the kind of book you genuinely can't put down. What we discovered while recording is that the most escapist reads on the list turned out to be some of the most useful lenses on the present.


The cyberpunk classics anchored the conversation. Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash (1992) coined "metaverse" and imagined a digital overlay on the physical world years before anyone could plausibly build one. William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984) did the same for "cyberspace." Both have been mined relentlessly by the technology industry — and both, the hosts argue, are routinely stripped of their context. Snow Crash is a satire and a warning; it's frequently read as a roadmap. That gap, between fiction written as caution and fiction adopted as ambition, is one of the more revealing dynamics in how Silicon Valley tells its own story.

The deeper thread is about cognition. Snow Crash turns on a virus that crosses from the digital realm into the human mind. In an era of AI systems that engage directly with how we reason and feel, that premise reads less like science fiction and more like a description. Iain M. Banks extends the inquiry in Surface Detail, imagining civilizations that construct virtual heavens and hells so immersive that the line between real and simulated experience dissolves — and asking who, if anyone, has the right to govern what happens inside them. His The Player of Games offers a gentler entry point to the same Culture universe, and a sly meditation on whether a frictionless utopia is something humans actually want. We also dive into some of the amazing and seemingly timeless work of Douglas Adams, whose original Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy radio scripts Andrew counts among his prized possessions and whose wit, he insists, anticipated our anxieties about AI with personality long before the chatbots arrived.


The list closes on firmer ground with Cory Doctorow's Enshittification, a nonfiction account of how convenient, delightful platforms decay once users are locked in. It opened onto a question that runs through the whole episode: what do we actually own in a digital age? A printed book from 1980 still works, unconditionally. A digital one comes with terms that can change beneath you. And when the historical record itself becomes editable without a trace, reliability becomes something we can no longer take for granted.


None of these tensions get resolved here — they aren't meant to. The takeaway is quieter and more durable: stories written decades ago remain among our best instruments for thinking clearly about technologies their authors never lived to see. Part 2 continues the list next week.


Subscribe and Connect!

Subscribe to Modem Futura wherever you get your podcasts and connect with us on LinkedIn. Drop a comment, pose a question, or challenge an idea—because the future isn’t something we watch happen, it’s something we build together. The medium may still be the massage, but we all have a hand in shaping how it touches tomorrow.

🎧 Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/444V3ws

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5TXSx0QgY4CxUhWsJSF5wm?si=lHeVVcWHS5qE3wd5lFJl5w

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/KN8iEA5tfiQ

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




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When the Definition of Life Gets Blurry: Synthetic Cells and the Care They Demand

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We tend to imagine that scientists know exactly what they're making. So it's oddly reassuring — and a little head spinning — to learn that one of the first challenges facing a National Academies committee on synthetic cells was simply agreeing on what a synthetic cell actually is.

That was the starting point for our conversation with Emma Frow, an associate professor at Arizona State University whose work sits at the intersection of bioengineering, science and technology studies, and the governance of emerging biotechnology. Emma served on the committee behind a recent consensus report on the responsible innovation of synthetic cells, and she described spending months wrestling with definitions before any other questions could even be asked.

A spectrum, not a thing

The reason is that "synthetic cell" isn't one technology, is because it is a spectrum of different variations and combinations. At one end is a simple membrane enclosing a handful of enzymes — something that may not be alive in any conventional sense, and that exists in a genuine regulatory gray zone between chemical and biological oversight. At the other end is the long-standing scientific ambition of building a living, replicating cell more or less from scratch. In between are the practical applications driving much of the field: programmable cells for drug delivery, biomanufacturing in bioreactors, and biological substitutes for agricultural chemicals.

Emma offered two clarifying questions that help locate any given creation on that spectrum: Does it contain genetic material? And can it replicate? Those answers shape everything about how seriously, and in what way, we ought to pay attention.

The mirror in the lab

The conversation's most striking turn concerned "mirror life" — organisms built from the reversed molecular handedness of all known biology. Every living thing we've found uses left-handed amino acids and right-handed DNA. A mirror organism would invert that. For years this was framed as a potential safety feature: something so alien it couldn't interact with existing life. But the scientific community has since questioned that assumption, and in late 2024 a group of leading researchers called for restraint, warning that a self-replicating mirror cell could pose risks we'd have no evolutionary defense against.

Care as an ongoing practice

What gives the episode its center of gravity isn't the specter of catastrophe. It's Emma's insistence that care isn't a box you check once. It's a posture you maintain throughout the work — and one the biotech community, by necessity, has cultivated more deliberately than some faster-moving fields. Biology resists the move-fast ethos. There is no perfect containment, and some experiments can't be undone.

The result is a conversation less about prediction than about practice: how thoughtful people decide what's worth building when the old categories no longer hold.




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What an AI Hallucination Tells Us About First Contact

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Space Fiction - Astronaut looks onto an alien world in the cosmos

There's a thought experiment that keeps surfacing in futures work, and it goes something like this: if a genuinely alien mind tried to communicate with us, would we recognize the signal, or would we just call it noise?

On the latest episode of Modem Futura, we play another round of Futures Improv — a format where an AI-generated scenario lands cold on the table and the two of us have to think our way through what it might mean. This time the scenarios kept pulling us back to one question: what counts as a mind, and what do we do with the ones we don't recognize?

The first scenario — a riff on Stanislaw Lem's Solaris — imagines first contact with a moon-sized organism that communicates only by generating vivid hallucinations inside our astronauts, drawn from their own repressed memories. It isn't hostile or friendly. It may not even know we exist as separate beings. The premise sounds outlandish until you notice that we already struggle to have a real conversation with an octopus.

The second scenario hands humanity a single question to ask a time traveler from the year 8,002,701, who carries one piece of verified information — humanity survived — and a sad expression. What do you ask, and what do you deliberately choose not to ask? It's a thought experiment about scarcity, priorities, and the difference between surviving and flourishing.

The third — the one that sticks with you — imagines a service that backs up your consciousness to the cloud every night while you sleep. Ten years in, the backups begin to diverge. They dream differently than you do. Who, then, has the right to your name, your relationships, your sense of self? And the question that arrives quietly behind it: how would you know you weren't the backup already?

None of these scenarios resolve, and that's the point. Futures Improv isn't about predicting which of these worlds will arrive. It's about practicing the kind of imaginative attention we'll need for the technologies that already are — embodied AI, longevity research, neural interfaces, the slow erosion of the line between physical and digital selves.

The conversations get weird. Occasionally they get genuinely strange. And sometimes, in the middle of joking about Elon Musk being reconstituted as a banana, we land on something serious about what it means to be human in an age that keeps redrawing the edges of mind.

🎧 Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts, or watch on YouTube.

Subscribe and Connect!

Subscribe to Modem Futura wherever you get your podcasts and connect with us on LinkedIn. Drop a comment, pose a question, or challenge an idea—because the future isn’t something we watch happen, it’s something we build together. The medium may still be the massage, but we all have a hand in shaping how it touches tomorrow.

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

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1242zwOf2ZsHgpN1UnF5OM?si=dLiVkWUjTv2f-XdAHS8x3A

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/4vCILufh2RU

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

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Modem Futura Year in Review: What 2025 Taught Us About Being Human

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As we step toward 2026, we recorded a “Year in Review” episode of Modem Futura to pause the treadmill, look back, and ask a bigger question: what did this year reveal about the future of being human?

This wasn’t a victory lap. It was a reflection on what resonated, what surprised us, and what it means to build a future-focused show while the future keeps moving.

metrics matter… and they don’t

Yes, growth matters — it helps ideas travel. But podcast analytics are often incomplete and inconsistent, and they rarely capture what impact actually looks like. The most meaningful signals are still human: messages, emails, thoughtful disagreement, and reviews that help someone new discover the show.

“If you want to support the show: subscribing, sharing, and leaving a rating/review are still the most helpful actions.”
— Modem Futura

The themes that defined our year:

AI, beyond the hype: We kept returning to the same tension — generative tools are everywhere, but “AI” isn’t just a feature set. It’s a cultural force that shapes identity, agency, creativity, and values. We try hard to avoid both the hype machine and the doom loop, and instead stay in the messy middle where the most useful questions live.

Education and learning: We lean into what learning actually is (not just schooling), including John Dewey’s idea that humans are wired for inquiry, communication, construction, and expression. When AI arrives in every document and device, what does it do to those impulses — especially for kids?

Technology in the physical world: From autonomous‑vehicle safety systems that quietly drift out of calibration, to EVs and the persistent “flying car” dream, we explore what happens when shiny promises meet real‑world constraints.

Big questions, no apologies: Yes, we go there — simulation hypotheses, black holes, de‑extinction, space travel, and the edges of what science can (and can’t) explain. These episodes aren’t about “being right.” They’re about expanding the space of possible futures we can imagine.

If there’s one takeaway, it’s this: the future isn’t something that happens to us — it’s something we build together.That’s why we keep showing up each week: to create a shared space for curiosity, skepticism, wonder, and responsible imagination.

If you’ve been listening, thank you. If you’re new here, welcome. And if an episode sparked a thought you can’t shake — share it with a colleague, a student, a friend, or your community. As we step into 2026, we’re excited to keep exploring the possible, probable, and preferable futures — with you.

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Why Human Creativity Still Matters in an Age of AI

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What a Year in Review Tells Us About the Future of Creativity

Why Human Craft and Creativity Still Wins in an Age of AI – Episode 63

What Spotify Wrapped and a Holiday Ad Reveal About the Future of Creativity

As the year winds down, many of us find ourselves reflecting—not just on what we’ve done, but on how we’ve spent our attention. In this holiday episode of Modem Futura, Andrew Maynard and I leaned into that instinct, using Spotify Wrapped as an unexpected entry point into a deeper conversation about creativity, technology, and what still matters in an AI-accelerated world.

Wrapped experiences are playful by design, but they’re also revealing. They quietly surface patterns of listening, engagement, and community—reminding us that culture is shaped not just by algorithms, but by millions of individual choices. For us, seeing how Modem Futura resonated globally wasn’t about vanity metrics; it was a reminder that thoughtful, exploratory conversations still find an audience, even in an oversaturated media landscape.

From there, the conversation turned to Apple’s 2025 holiday Ad (but feels like a short film) A Critter Carol—a whimsical, puppet-driven production that feels almost rebellious in its insistence on visible human labor. In a moment when AI can generate polished video in seconds, Apple chose puppeteers, practical effects, and intentional imperfection. The result isn’t just charming; it’s instructive.

The ad works because you can feel the human care embedded in every frame. It’s not anti-technology—far from it. It’s pro-human. Advanced tools are present throughout the production pipeline, but they serve imagination rather than replace it. That distinction matters.

You can read a more detailed breakdown of this Ad and the care and craft that goes into it in a previous blog post: Apple’s 2025 Holiday Ad and the Power of Human-Made Creativity in an AI World.

We’re at a cultural inflection point. As generative tools remove friction from making things, the temptation is to settle for what’s “good enough.” But creativity has always lived in resistance—iteration, constraint, failure, and craft. When those disappear, so does much of what gives creative work its soul.

One hope we shared on the episode is that 2026 becomes the year of “behind the scenes”—a renewed appreciation for process, labor, and the messy human work that makes meaningful outcomes possible. Whether in education, media, or design, showing how something is made may soon matter as much as the finished product itself.

If the future is being shaped right now, then choosing care, intention, and humanity in how we use our tools may be one of the most important creative acts we have left.

Subscribe and Connect!

Subscribe to Modem Futura wherever you get your podcasts and connect with us on LinkedIn. Drop a comment, pose a question, or challenge an idea—because the future isn’t something we watch happen, it’s something we build together. The medium may still be the massage, but we all have a hand in shaping how it touches tomorrow.

🎧 Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/48Sdx6r

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4TVwLBfncHjPs4kDKbLz5t?si=QFYyZuq9R-WtgoEPTeWOlw

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/N1vTfDPSusY

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

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The Hidden Costs of “That Was Easy”: AI Slop, Creative Friction, and the Future of Human Craft

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In this Modem Futura episode, hosts Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard examine the rise of “AI slop” and the growing cultural pressure to accept frictionless creation as the norm. Drawing on examples from coding, design, futures thinking, and psychology, they unpack how satisficing, homogenization, and inherited power threaten to erode human craft and understanding. The article explores why creative friction is essential for mastery, agency, and meaning — and offers futures-oriented insights into how we can use AI intentionally without losing what makes us human.

ChatGPT Illustrated version of Modem Futura YouTube Thumbnail

Generative AI has ushered in an era where producing text, images, video, and code is no longer a challenge — it’s a button press. And in this week’s episode of Modem Futura, Andrew and I wrestle with a growing cultural tension: if everything is easy, what happens to the things that matter?

It began with a shared frustration. Both of us have noticed an explosion of what we call AI slop (content that is technically competent but devoid of care, intention, and personality). You’ve seen it too: the LinkedIn posts with identical emojis, the slide decks that all look like NotebookLM, the essays with no point of view. These things aren’t wrong, they’re just empty. And the emptiness is the point.

We discuss a concept called satisficing: the act of choosing something “good enough” rather than something excellent. In the age of AI, satisficing has become an increasing default mode of creation. Why craft an idea when you can generate one? Why wrestle with a blank page when you can autocomplete your way to the finish line?

But here’s the problem: friction is where learning happens. It’s where creativity lives. It’s the sanding that polishes the stone. When you remove friction, you remove the struggle — and without struggle, there is no mastery, no depth, and no meaning.

Throughout the episode, we explore how this plays out across domains. Coders relying on AI-generated code they can’t understand. Designers accepting images that are “close enough.” Writers sharing posts they didn’t write. And organizations flirting with a future where expertise is replaced by button-pressing.

We draw on Michael Crichton’s concept of inherited power from Jurassic Park: the idea that wielding abilities you never earned leads to carelessness, overconfidence, and danger. AI gives us power we didn’t work for — and without wisdom, that power is hollow.

But this isn’t a pessimistic episode. We explore how AI can amplify creativity when used intentionally, how friction can be designed back into workflows, and why people may ultimately push back against frictionless living. Humans crave meaning, not efficiency. And meaning takes work.

If you’re navigating how to use AI thoughtfully — in your craft, your teaching, your leadership, or your creative life — this episode offers a grounded, futures-focused lens on what we stand to lose and what we still have time to protect.

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Modem Futura — and join the conversation on what we should preserve in an age that wants to eliminate every struggle.


Subscribe and Connect!

Subscribe to Modem Futura wherever you get your podcasts and connect with us on LinkedIn. Drop a comment, pose a question, or challenge an idea—because the future isn’t something we watch happen, it’s something we build together. The medium may still be the massage, but we all have a hand in shaping how it touches tomorrow.

🎧 Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/48WCGgh

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1BajA2SvDWVyY0mRSQ9Flk?si=wvCFhWlgQtC2kye3bGz5Kg

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/1V9PD7j8iu8

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

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Tech or Treat: Exploring the Haunted Side of Future Tech

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Are you ready for some Tech or Treat?

Modem Futura’s Halloween special transforms speculative futures into eerie fun. Hosts Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard use AI-generated scenarios to imagine haunted algorithms, sentient mirrors, and neural nightmare modes — revealing how emerging technologies can both thrill and unsettle us. This episode continues the show’s mission to explore how science, technology, and society intersect to shape the future of being human.

This episode grew out of our playful Futures Improv series, where we use AI to generate speculative prompts about the future — but this time, the prompts got a little… haunted. We explore “The Haunted Algorithm,” a defunct social-media AI that resurrects old user posts every October 31 — a digital séance that’s equal parts sentimental and unsettling. Then we look into “The Mirror That Remembers,” a smart-mirror concept that doesn’t just show your reflection, but who you might have been in another timeline. Finally, we enter “Neural Nightmare Mode,” imagining what could go wrong when brain-computer interfaces merge immersive gaming with fear response.

Each vignette uses humor and imagination to surface deeper questions: What does it mean when our digital selves outlive us? How do we ensure psychological safety in immersive tech? And at what point does innovation slip from magical to menacing?

Our goal isn’t to predict the future — it’s to provoke curiosity about how technology is reshaping what it means to be human. And if we can have some fun (and a few chills) along the way, even better.

You can stream the Halloween special wherever you get your podcasts or watch the illustrated episode on YouTube. If any of these scenarios inspire your own “Tech or Treat” ideas, share them with us — we’d love to feature the best ones in a future episode.

Subscribe and Connect!

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

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/47nWrjvBW3ASjMuJUip8o1?si=96d8062d029a4834

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZmZ46sHgMZY

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

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We Turned One - plus Liquid Media, Work Slop, and the Road Ahead – Episode 53

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Year One, Human First: How We’re Building a Relational Future Podcast

When ChatGPT thinks you run a podcast gameshow - this is how it draws you ;)

Fifty‑two straight weeks, many guests, and countless “aha” moments later, Modem Futura just turned one. Instead of a victory lap, we used this episode to do what we always do: invite you into the studio while we make sense of the future—together.

From day one we set out to be relational rather than transactional. That means no polished lectures and no sugar‑coated takes. It means showing our work, making space for genuine curiosity, and trusting that a community grows when people feel like they’ve pulled up a chair at the table. Over the past year, that approach has taken us everywhere—from AI and AGI to bio‑hybrid robots, simulation hypotheses, autonomous mobility (including a Waymo ride‑along), space futures, and media theory, just to scratch the top of the list. Listeners have told us they’re using episodes to kick off team discussions, and yes, we’re even astronaut approved! (Thanks Cady). That’s rocket fuel!

This anniversary episode isn’t just about reflections we also look ahead. We probe “liquid media”—from tools like NotebookLM to Huxe’s 24/7 AI‑generated radio—and ask where convenience ends and exhaustion begins. We talk about “work slop,” the plausible‑sounding but soulless output AI can slip into workflows, and the hidden cognitive tax leaders pay to verify it. And to keep futures thinking playful, we run a “Futures Improv” lightning round: AI pets smarter than real ones? Brain‑to‑brain headbands at work? Meditation‑mandated robotaxis? Jurassic Park on the Moon? The point isn’t to predict perfectly—it’s to stretch how we think so we can exercise our radical creativity. (Maybe this should become a reoccurring segment? - I’ll need to craft up a quick theme song I think… )

What’s on the calendar for next year? Expect deeper dives into human‑centered AI, experiments with spatial and wearable interfaces (Vision Pro, Meta’s glasses), and conversations that foreground care—for people, institutions, and futures worth having. And as Andrew’s new book AI and the Art of Being Human lands, we’ll keep exploring how technology can amplify, not erode, what makes us…us.

Join us:

  • Listen to the anniversary episode and subscribe on your favorite app

  • Comment with one idea we should explore next—or what we should put in the “empty chair” on non‑guest weeks

  • If the show sparked a conversation where you work, tell us how. We’ll highlight examples in a future episode.

If you believe better futures are built through candid, caring conversation, you’re in the right place.

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/48oB1QS

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1H29Q1LnP8oL7LER1gS6wa?si=5j97IKzGSjGJFlZSQMS-hg

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/FX0DmYgIe0w

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

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Futures Thinking: Foresight You Can Use – Episode 49

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We don’t predict the future, but we prepared for the uncertainties the futures will bring

Ever been stuck in traffic and thought, “Where’s my eVTOL button?” We open this episode right there—and quickly flip the fantasy into a lesson on systems: technologies don’t fix congestion (or most complex problems) unless policy, behavior, equity, and infrastructure evolve with them. From that launchpad, Sean Leahy and Dr. Andrew Maynard unpack futures thinking as a mindset—distinct from prediction—that helps people and organizations navigate uncertainty with agency. They walk through the classic triad of possible, probable, and preferable futures, then translate it into practice: horizon scanning (signals, trends, megatrends), scenario building, and backcasting from a desired 10‑year outcome to concrete actions today. Along the way, they surface guardrails like avoiding “used futures” (inherited visions of someone else’s desired future) and stress‑testing for unintended consequences, especially for vulnerable communities and the planet.

The conversation ranges widely—think SimCity lessons and Mars‑city thought experiments as mirrors for Earth’s complexity; protopian (step‑by‑step better) versus utopian/dystopian frames; and why foresight shouldn’t be a bolt‑on consultancy only, but a capacity embedded across teams. Educators will appreciate a practical take on bringing futures thinking into K–12 and higher ed without “one more thing”: weave foresight into existing subjects to build creativity, inquiry, and resilience. Pop culture helps, too—using films (à la The Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future) creates a low‑stakes, high‑insight space to explore tough issues together. And for those tracking AI’s breakneck pace, the episode doubles as an antidote to future shock—a way to slow down, widen perspective, and choose well‑considered next steps.

Why it matters: Futures Thinking is for everyone - all humans poses the qualities needed to engage in thinking about our collective futures. Whether you lead a product team, a classroom, or a community, cultivating a futures mindset helps you spot weak signals earlier, align around preferable outcomes, and take action that nudges the world toward human flourishing.

Join the conversation:

What “used future” have you noticed in your field? If you were backcasting from a 2035 future you’d be proud of, what’s the first move you’d make this quarter? Drop your thoughts—and feel free to borrow this episode in your class, team meeting, or strategy offsite.

🎧 Listen to the full episode to dive deeper into how films shape our futures: https://apple.co/4nrAIci

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

🎬 What film has changed the way you think about the future? Drop a comment — we’d love to hear.

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/4nrAIci

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1OmUyc6fYdMIZ8thORheOJ?si=ZTQ-ZI7hQzSjNTy3jhjgfQ

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/85cTuht_a8k

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