Some of you who have followed me for a while might remember that once upon a time, I used to be kinda a big deal on YouTube. Then my much-loved channel with nearly 15,000 followers was terminated by YouTube without clear reason. To my surprise, last week I got an email from YouTube—7 years later, they decided I should get to have the Limitless Mindset YouTube channel back. My first reaction was pure nonchalance; I've rebuilt an audience on my own terms, speaking freely on the YouTube alternatives. I asked, do I really want to be a YouTuber again? But then I thought about it more deeply, and my mission demands I interface with the mainstream as opposed to publishing just for the relatively small audience on the alt-tech platforms. Also, I was the original "Limitless guy," and since my YouTube suspension, other Limitless Mindset channels have appeared there (guess I should have copyrighted it!), which are... pretty lame. So I need to reclaim that keyword!

Book Review: The Age of Abundance is for the Avaricious

In the current year, it certainly feels like we're all hurtling into a Dystopian cyberpunk future. Doesn't it? 

Being chauffeured through a decaying urban center in a self-driving taxi is no longer an unsettling novelty. Your smartwatch vibrates as you doomscroll videos of soldiers fleeing drones across a forlorn battlefield, warning you that your heart rate variability is non-optimal. You take Nootropic cognitive enhancers for the edge you desperately need at work; hopefully the soulless megacorporation you work for won't replace you with AI agents. An ad pops up for the exact thing you mentioned to your girlfriend, in bed last night, while you thought your phone was off.
It's not just you; it's getting weirder out there—we're just a few holidays away from your socially awkward cousin bringing a robot girlfriend home. (Yes, I just em-dashed—UNAPOLOGETICALLY—I em-dashed before AI did and will continue to dose my hyphens with Viagra whenever I damn well please).

For decades, science fiction has issued us a warning: Don't succumb completely to the siren song of technology. A warning we've collectively failed to heed. That siren song serenades us with the promise of abundance. Abundant energy, food, information, and health. Abundance that might just be... for all of us.

I certainly hope not, but if Deep Impact in real life were to happen in our lifetimes, I’d bet on the next 7 days…

Every year between September 10th and November 20th, the Earth crosses the northern Taurid Meteor Stream in space. During this time, astronomers sleep fitfully as all seven billion of us are metaphorically dashing blindfolded across a 4-lane freeway.

Every cell in your body demands Iodine--all 30 trillion of them. And when you're negligent and deny them this essential fuel, they protest. But when cells protest, we, too often, ignore their dire need.

Their protest is not polite; it manifests as: fatigue, hair loss, dry skin, frequent seasonal illness, weight gain, increased sensitivity to cold, languid libido, and/or persistent brain fog. And slowly, like 90% of Western populations who are at least subclinically Iodine deficient, you succumb to what seems like a natural decline in vivacity, while your doctor tells you that your endocrinology results are "within the healthy range" and recommends getting better sleep. Is reversing this decline as simple as dropping a dose of Iodine daily? 

A revolution is upon us, and whenever a revolution occurs, a new aristocracy is minted. The new aristocracy will be an aristocracy of intelligence.

Intelligence has always been the human resource--from the first flight on Kittyhawk beach to footsteps on the moon; from humans living in a state of stark barbarism and despotism for millennia to universal human rights so close to our grasp today--it was intelligence that got from there to here.

In the velocopdic era of modernity, we have built digital gods that would make our ancestors tremble; with omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence that would rival nearly any mythological deity. I'm talking about artificial intelligence, of course.
Thanks to AI, the resource our species needs to thrive is now seemingly limitless. With intelligence unlimited, we can build an economy of abundance, make governments sane again (if we need them at all), cure disease, and make death an option instead of the inevitability. With intelligence inexhaustible, our descendants can sprinkle the cosmos with human brilliance. And I, for one, plan to one day swing dance with my wife on the peak of Olympus Mons!

But is that all direly naive?
Will AI instead take all our jobs? And usher us into a cyberpunk dystopia that the greatest science fiction writers of the past century could scarcely fathom, chain-smoking at 2 AM on their seventh cup of coffee? With the invention of general artificial intelligence within sight, with this revolution, have we instead summoned the demon, opened the last Pandora's box, and birthed "the Borg?"

I think that comes down to the question we've all asked: is AI conscious?