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/

Designing Learning Futures: Navigating Toward the Next Normal

On March 17, 2021 I had the pleasure to co-present the closing keynote for the OLC Innovate K-12 Summit with my trusted colleague Ben Scragg. In this presentation we explore the challenges of creating a new “normal” as it relates to educational futures - and explore a set of strategic foresight tools and methodology that can assist leaders in creating an intentional “next normal” for their organization.

Below is the extended abstract from the event website.

Extended Abstract:

We are certainly living through a volatile, complex, uncertain, and ambiguous (VUCA) world at the present moment, and its impacts have been felt perhaps more deeply and tangibly in K12 education than anywhere else - both at global level and within our local schools and communities. Given the rapid disruption and changes brought on by COVID-19, we know that there will be no returning “back to normal.” While schools, educators, students and families have all navigated the past year in different ways and with different degrees of hardship, challenge, and even success - we still look forward to establishing a future sense of normalcy, however the new normal takes shape.

In this session, we want to explore some of the ways in which educators and leaders can begin to design and give shape to this new normal, despite all the uncertainty of now. Given all that educators and communities are facing, it’s worth exploring how we might re-imagine our teaching and learning environments - particularly online and digital learning environments - by addressing and harnessing the plausible outcomes and impacts of our collective uncertainty.

We will invite participants to learn about and experiment with emergent design and strategic foresight tools that can reveal risks and opportunities, helping us prioritize the work needed to build the next normal. The goal of this session is not to predict what will happen in the future, but to stretch the imagination (and ourselves!) to think about what we would like to have happen, using a framework and tools for how it might happen. The maxim “we cannot predict the future, but we can invent it “ is often cited as a call to design and use strategic forecasting tools and methodologies. Join us as we create a studio space to explore a set of tools and reflective prompts that we’re describing as Learning Futures.

An Invited Talk: Futures Thinking & Strategic Foresight

It was a lot of fun to join the panel of invited speakers on July 14, 2020 for the first Learning Futures Leadership Studio, hosted by Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College and Arizona State University.

Learning Futures Leadership Studio Speakers

Learning Futures Leadership Studios
For full program details and information.

“The events of the past few months have demonstrated that we live in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. Whether the global shutdown of schooling due to COVID-19 and the sudden move to remote learning, or the more recent protests against systemic, recurring inequities in our society, it is clear that we as educators need to do a better job.

This summer, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College hosts Learning Futures Leadership Studio, a series of four online action-oriented studio sessions that are designed to engage teams of education leaders in creating pathways for leading systems in a time of change.

You will be immersed in provocative questions and ideas through interactive studio experiences. With your colleagues and others, you will reflect on these ideas and experiences. And you will develop action steps to pursue in your own context.

This is a BYOC (Bring Your Own Challenges) experience intended to allow you, in a team, to explore new angles and perspectives on the issues that you face today and expect to face in the future.
”

— https://learningfutures.education.asu.edu/

As the first studio to kick off the event, I focused on a topic that is not only contemporary, but one that I feel is critical to the collective needs of our society, Futures Thinking and Strategic Foresight.

Official tagline of my studio:

It is clear today that there will be no return to “normal” or to a pre-COVID-19 world. As a result, leaders must be prepared to forge ahead – with courage and efficacy – in a policy and bureaucratic context where there may or may not be clear guidance or feasible policy mandates. In this context, leaders cannot simply wait for guidance; rather, they must design and lead for the futures of learning.

In this session, we will introduce leaders to practical and creative tools of scenario planning and strategic foresight for leaders to explore new ways to think about strategically planning for uncertainty. Participants will learn how to forecast future trends and develop strategic plans to identify possible, plausible, and preferable futures.
(https://learningfutures.education.asu.edu)

In other words, the main objective of this studio is to demonstrate the need for organizational leaders (especially those in the educational system), to actively engage in futures thinking and strategic foresight. To create an organizational culture that allows for this type of thinking, planning, and strategy. I covered a handful of foresight methodological tools developed and open sourced (via Creative Commons) by the Future Today Institute.

The aim of this talk was to start an ember of futures thinking in educational systems leadership, with the hope that this will be the first of many subsequent explorations into the realm of strategic foresight.

Invited Lecture: Principled Use of Technology in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

On February 22, 2020 I delivered an invited presentation on the “Principled Use of Technology in the Fourth Industrial Revolution” as part of the Principled Innovation: Leadership for today, tomorrow and the future conference held at Arizona State University.

The main objective of this particular talk was to provide a general ‘provocation’ or ‘call to action’ for educational systems leadership to take note of the emerging Fourth Industrial Revolution, and to understand the implications of the potential systems-disrupting innovations and convergence of physical, digital, and biological technologies.

This talk also presented the audience with a cursory exploration of the need for organizational leadership to engage in strategic foresight and futures thinking.

To help illustrate the complexities of future uncertainty I also explored the Black Swan Theory and model used to demonstrate the potential peril or promise from new or converged technological advancements in society.

Overall it was a fun and engaging presentation with a lively group of participants that drove an enriching conversation throughout the session.