Speaker 1: Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to
Speaker 1: forward Thinking Grievings. Everyone, Welcome to the very first episode
Speaker 1: of Forward Thinking. I am your host, Jonathan Strickland, and
Speaker 1: I am joined by two phenomenal people, two of my
Speaker 1: favorite people the whole wide world. And I'm going to
Speaker 1: have the first one introduce herself to you right now. Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm Lauren Vokebon. I am the co host of another
Speaker 1: technology podcast called tech Stuff. I am Joe McCormick, and
Speaker 1: I'm a writer for the Forward Thinking video series Excellent
Speaker 1: and so this audio podcast is a companion piece to
Speaker 1: that video series that Joe was talking about. And in
Speaker 1: case you haven't had a chance to check it out,
Speaker 1: what Forward Thinking is. It's a video series that takes
Speaker 1: concepts that are going to become really important to us
Speaker 1: in the future. They may be important to us right now,
Speaker 1: but we're trying to kind of project our minds out
Speaker 1: to the future and think, how are these things going
Speaker 1: to all over time and what does it mean as
Speaker 1: far as our daily experience goes? So, uh kind of
Speaker 1: thinking about, well, well, what what's the bright shining promise
Speaker 1: of the future? Right right? Sort of? I mean the
Speaker 1: concept is that we are currently living in the incredible
Speaker 1: future right now, So what does the actual future hold? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's it's kind of one of those fun brain
Speaker 1: teasers that you put yourself through because no one really
Speaker 1: has the answer to this. I mean, these are things
Speaker 1: that are possibilities that could become a reality down the road,
Speaker 1: but right now, of course, we can't definitively say what
Speaker 1: the future is going to be like. So we get
Speaker 1: to kind of play prognosticator, which is turns out to
Speaker 1: be a lot of fun, it could be a lot
Speaker 1: of work. To Joe, you've written some of these episodes already,
Speaker 1: so you've kind of had this experience of all right,
Speaker 1: here's the information I have about this topic, how could
Speaker 1: this develop in the future. What's your experience like so
Speaker 1: far doing that kind of thing. Well. With each episode
Speaker 1: so far, we've tried to break it down and talk
Speaker 1: about a few things. First of all, um with each
Speaker 1: concept or technology to discuss sort of where we've come
Speaker 1: from the history leading up to this point, in the
Speaker 1: state of technology today, or of how humanity deals with
Speaker 1: this particular difficult concept or whatever it is. And then
Speaker 1: we tried to extend into the future a little bit
Speaker 1: and say, how's this going to work in theory when
Speaker 1: we have, you know, greater capabilities than we do today.
Speaker 1: And that part can be a lot of fun because
Speaker 1: I can't remember who it is now. It was it
Speaker 1: Arthur C. Clark who said, any you know, sufficiently advanced
Speaker 1: technology is indistinguishable from magic um and and that's what
Speaker 1: makes it kind of magical to think about how far
Speaker 1: we can go and how far we've already come. Sure,
Speaker 1: And then of course in each episode we also want
Speaker 1: to imagine, well, if if these crazy unthinkable advances really
Speaker 1: do manifest in in the way we live, what's it
Speaker 1: going to mean for us? And how is it going
Speaker 1: to change what it means to be human? What This
Speaker 1: is one of my favorite sort of topics and of
Speaker 1: all topics that I've covered in various podcasts and articles,
Speaker 1: this idea of the human experience and what it means
Speaker 1: to be human in this changing world, this era of
Speaker 1: technology we live in that is changing so rapidly it
Speaker 1: becomes a challenge to even describe it. Uh kind of
Speaker 1: ties into that concept of the singularity where it's literally
Speaker 1: impossible to describe the situation because it changes constantly. To
Speaker 1: the point where one moment is different from the next.
Speaker 1: We're not there yet, clearly. But one of the wonderful
Speaker 1: things and sometimes challenging things about writing about technology, or
Speaker 1: podcasting about technology or doing a video series is that
Speaker 1: by the time you're finished, it's already changed a little bit.
Speaker 1: So that's one of the things. Yeah, right, it's like
Speaker 1: buying a computer and taking it home and it's obsoletely
Speaker 1: before you can get it out of the box. But
Speaker 1: that's one of the things that's exciting about tech. It's
Speaker 1: not something that we shy away from. It's something we
Speaker 1: embrace because this means that our future is going to
Speaker 1: be phenomenal, and we're trying to project our minds and
Speaker 1: to get a grasp on what that might be. Knowing
Speaker 1: as we start out that our vision of what is
Speaker 1: going to come and what actually will happen may not
Speaker 1: measure up in a one to one ratio, but but
Speaker 1: you know, it's still an interesting experiment. No, you're right,
Speaker 1: there are going to be things that we cannot even
Speaker 1: take into account right now that are going to play
Speaker 1: into our future. But that's what's so awesome about this.
Speaker 1: So I'm really genuinely excited about working on this project
Speaker 1: with you guys. Yeah, absolutely, So I thought it might
Speaker 1: be fun to talk about a couple of the topics
Speaker 1: that we're already looking at in these early episodes of
Speaker 1: forward thinking on the video series. So one of those
Speaker 1: topics that that we we tackled was this idea of
Speaker 1: the Internet of things. And Joe, do you want to
Speaker 1: give kind of a kind of a top level look
Speaker 1: what the Internet of things is? Sure? Well, uh, the
Speaker 1: Internet of things is in a way, we're already there. Um,
Speaker 1: it's a way of looking at what the Internet is
Speaker 1: now and what it's going to become. Um. Basically, when
Speaker 1: we think about the Internet, we usually think about it
Speaker 1: as something that interfaces with a human At some point.
Speaker 1: You know, you are using your laptop, or you are
Speaker 1: using your tablet, or you are using your smartphone. In
Speaker 1: any case, you're you're connecting to the Internet to get
Speaker 1: information or to upload information, and at some point it's
Speaker 1: routing through you. The Internet of Things is a world
Speaker 1: in which, um, so many objects around us become connected
Speaker 1: to the Internet and they both upload and download information independently.
Speaker 1: That our entire environment is sort of it's transformed, um, right,
Speaker 1: that we have there's this sort of ecosystem of technology
Speaker 1: that's in a lot of cases doing stuff without any
Speaker 1: input from us at all. Sure. Yeah, So this idea
Speaker 1: of inswers and some form of actuator, whether it's a
Speaker 1: physical actuator or a digital format of an actuator, are
Speaker 1: are taking measurements about the environment, about us and how
Speaker 1: we interact with the environment and making changes dynamically on
Speaker 1: the fly. It's a really exciting concept and we're going
Speaker 1: to really dive into that in a future episode. But
Speaker 1: other episodes will involve things like three D printing, which
Speaker 1: involves using a printer to create actual three dimensional objects.
Speaker 1: That's manufacturing. Yeah, and we've got one of those here
Speaker 1: at our office, so we've been able to play with them.
Speaker 1: We've been making toys because you know, we're all kids
Speaker 1: at heart. So while we probably could be making prototypes
Speaker 1: of the next future technologies, most of us are thinking,
Speaker 1: I want an action figure of myself. But that's totally
Speaker 1: valid and as far as I'm concerned, yes, yes, because
Speaker 1: I like to have my action figure stand in for
Speaker 1: me for meetings. Uh, most people haven't picked up on it,
Speaker 1: which I don't know if that's a compliment or an insult.
Speaker 1: But then we also have things like autonomous cars. We're
Speaker 1: talking about the future of space travel. And what's really
Speaker 1: exciting to me is that what we hope to do
Speaker 1: down the road is involve you, the audience, in helping
Speaker 1: us decide which topics we should talk about in this series.
Speaker 1: We want to really understand what people are really excited about.
Speaker 1: What what is it that they dream about for the future.
Speaker 1: I mean, besides jet packs and food and pill form
Speaker 1: and you can include those two, we'll talk about that
Speaker 1: as well. But we want to have all those topics
Speaker 1: come in from the audience so that we can respond
Speaker 1: to them and make this not just a presentation but
Speaker 1: a conversation, because I think it's just as important that
Speaker 1: we hear their input and and really make this a
Speaker 1: full dialogue. Uh. And that way we all start to
Speaker 1: shape the future together, and that to me is truly exciting.
Speaker 1: So guys, if you are interested in this show, well
Speaker 1: here's what you need to do. On March one, we
Speaker 1: are launching the website Forward thinking dot com. Now that's
Speaker 1: f W Thinking dot com and that's where you're going
Speaker 1: to be able to find our videos are podcasts. You're
Speaker 1: going to find blog posts. Who knows what other stuff
Speaker 1: is going to pop up there over in the future.
Speaker 1: And really, we're going to tackle the future in a
Speaker 1: way that has never been done before, and we need
Speaker 1: your help to do it. So join us on this adventure.
Speaker 1: We're looking forward to it. And well, I think that
Speaker 1: wraps up our introduction. Guys, we are really looking forward
Speaker 1: to this. Join us on our journey, and we will
Speaker 1: see you soon. For more on this topic in the
Speaker 1: future of technology, visit forward thinking dot Com, brought to
Speaker 1: you by Toyota. Let's Go Places