Lewis: You know, Joe, for decades we’ve been sold this bill of goods. The Jetsons, Blade Runner... every vision of the future had flying cars. But here we are, stuck in traffic, staring at the back of a Prius. Where is my flying car? Joe: That is the classic complaint, isn't it? The venture capitalist Peter Thiel famously said, "We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters." It’s become a meme for technological disappointment. Lewis: Exactly! It feels like we aimed for the stars and ended up with... better cat videos. Joe: Here's the fascinating, counter-intuitive twist, though. The reason we're finally on the verge of getting flying cars is precisely because we got all that other supposedly disappointing tech first. The smartphone in your pocket, the AI that recommends your movies, the batteries in a Tesla—they are the secret ingredients. Lewis: Hold on, you’re telling me my Twitter addiction is somehow responsible for building a flying machine? I’m going to need you to connect those dots. Joe: I’d love to. It’s the central argument of a mind-bending book, The Future Is Faster Than You Think, by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler. And we have to remember who Diamandis is. This isn't just some pundit. He's the founder of the XPRIZE Foundation, the organization that literally pays people to achieve science-fiction-level breakthroughs. He's in the business of making the impossible happen. Lewis: Okay, that does add some weight. So this isn't just wishful thinking. What's the big idea? Joe: The big idea is a single word: convergence. It’s the notion that progress isn't happening in neat little silos anymore. Multiple, powerful technologies are crashing into each other, and in that collision, they're creating things that were simply impossible before. The flying car is the perfect poster child for this.

Lewis: I'm still skeptical. The dream of a flying car is over a century old. The first patent was filed in 1917. What makes today any different from all the other failed attempts? Joe: That's the perfect question. The book kicks off with this incredible story from 2018. Uber hosted this massive event in Los Angeles called the Uber Elevate conference. And the setting is key: LA is the most gridlocked city on the planet. Drivers there lose, on average, over a hundred hours a year just sitting in traffic. It costs the city billions. Lewis: I can believe it. I’ve been in that traffic. It’s a soul-crushing experience. Joe: Exactly. So, Uber's Chief Product Officer at the time, a guy named Jeff Holden, gets on stage. And he doesn't just propose a small fix. He lays out this audacious plan for a network of aerial ridesharing vehicles. Essentially, Uber in the sky. He calls it their mission to solve urban mobility. Lewis: Right, which sounds great on a PowerPoint slide. But what’s the tech? Are we talking about tiny helicopters? Because those are loud, dangerous, and ridiculously expensive. Joe: That's what everyone thought. But Holden explains that this is a new category of vehicle altogether: the eVTOL, which stands for electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle. Think of a large drone, quiet enough to land on a rooftop, powered by batteries, and eventually, flown by an AI. Lewis: Okay, that sounds cool, but also like a dozen different miracles have to happen at once for it to work. Joe: And that’s the point! It’s not one miracle. It’s a convergence of several technologies that have all been quietly getting exponentially better and cheaper. First, you have material science. We can now build vehicles out of carbon composites that are stronger and lighter than anything before. Second, battery technology. The energy density has finally reached a point where you can lift a vehicle with passengers, fly it for a decent range, and recharge it quickly. This is a direct descendant of the work done for electric cars. Lewis: So the EV revolution on the ground is enabling a revolution in the air. Joe: Precisely. Then you have the brains of the operation: AI and sensors. The same LiDAR, GPS, and machine learning that powers a Waymo self-driving car on the street can be adapted to navigate the skies, arguably an easier environment with fewer obstacles. And finally, you have the network—the 5G and satellite connectivity that allows these vehicles to talk to each other and to a central air traffic control system, preventing collisions. None of these technologies alone could create a flying car. But when they converge… Lewis: The impossible becomes possible. I see the logic. But what about the cost? A helicopter ride costs something like nine dollars a mile. My Uber on the ground is a couple of bucks. How does this ever become a mainstream reality? Joe: The book addresses this head-on. Holden’s ultimate goal, his exact quote was, "we want to make it economically irrational to own and use a car." In the beginning, yes, it’ll be a premium service. But their long-term target cost is 44 cents per mile. Lewis: Wait, 44 cents? That's cheaper than owning a car, which the book says is around 59 cents a mile when you factor in gas, insurance, and repairs. How is that even possible? Joe: Demonetization and scale. Electric vehicles have far fewer moving parts, so maintenance is cheaper. AI pilots don't need salaries or breaks. And once you have a fleet of thousands of these things operating, the cost per trip plummets. It’s the same economic force that made a supercomputer from the 1980s, which cost millions, available to everyone for free in their smartphone. Lewis: That’s a powerful analogy. It’s a bit jarring to think that the solution to traffic jams might be to just… fly over them. It feels like we’re finally catching up to the future we were promised. Joe: We are. And what’s so fascinating, and this is the core of the book, is that this same force of convergence isn't just for building futuristic toys. It's about to make your entire daily life unrecognizable.

Lewis: Okay, you’ve sold me on the flying car. But bring it back down to Earth for me. How is this convergence of AI, sensors, and networks changing something mundane, like my trip to the grocery store? Joe: It’s not just changing it; it’s on the verge of eliminating it. The book paints a picture of retail becoming increasingly automated, personalized, and eventually, invisible. Think about the Google Duplex demo from a few years ago. Lewis: Oh, I remember that! Where the AI called a hair salon and a restaurant to make appointments, and the people on the other end had no idea they were talking to a robot. It was incredibly realistic, right down to the little "umms" and "ahhs." Joe: Exactly. Now imagine that AI isn't just booking your appointments. It's your personal shopping assistant. It knows your preferences, your budget, your calendar. It sees you’re out of milk and eggs through sensors in your smart fridge, and it just orders them. It knows your daughter’s birthday is next week, cross-references her wish list, finds the best price, and has it delivered. You don't "go shopping" anymore. Shopping just… happens. Lewis: That sounds both incredibly convenient and, I have to say, a little creepy. This is where the book’s optimism, which some critics call a bit "starry-eyed," starts to feel like a double-edged sword. Do I really want an AI knowing that much about me? And what happens to the millions of people who work in retail? Joe: You've hit on the central tension of this whole revolution. The authors are unabashed optimists, but these are absolutely the right questions to ask. The book gives an example that pushes this even further: a Boston-based clothing company called Ministry of Supply. They use 3D printing to create custom-fit blazers for customers, on-demand, right in the store. Lewis: So, zero waste. No inventory. Just raw materials and a printer. Joe: Exactly. Now, combine that with your AI assistant. Your AI knows your exact measurements, your style preferences, and it designs a custom blazer for you. It sends the blueprint to a local 3D printing hub, and the blazer shows up at your door the next day. The entire industry of mass-produced clothing, with its sweatshops and massive carbon footprint, gets completely upended. Lewis: Wow. That’s a world-changing idea. But it also feels like it accelerates us toward a future with fewer and fewer traditional jobs. Joe: It absolutely does. And the book argues that this same technological convergence is also poised to transform our most important industry: healthcare. And here, the shift is even more profound. We’re moving from what the authors call "sick care" to true "healthcare." Lewis: What’s the distinction? Joe: "Sick care" is our current model. You feel sick, you go to a doctor, you get a diagnosis, you get treatment. It’s entirely reactive. True "healthcare" is proactive and predictive. It stops you from getting sick in the first place. Lewis: And how does convergence enable that? Joe: The book has this incredible futuristic scenario set in 2026. A person wakes up feeling a little off. They ask their home AI, "Am I getting sick?" The AI, in seconds, analyzes data from the smart toilet, which has been checking their microbiome; the smart toothbrush, which has been analyzing their saliva; and sensors in their bedding that have been tracking their core temperature and heart rate all night. Lewis: So my toilet is now my primary care physician? Joe: In a way, yes! The AI cross-references all this data and says, "Your vitamin levels are fine, but your core temperature is up, and your IgE levels indicate you’re fighting a virus. Based on your location data, you were likely exposed at the birthday party you attended two days ago." It diagnoses you before you even have a full-blown symptom. Lewis: That is… mind-blowing. The potential to catch something like cancer at stage zero instead of stage four is life-altering. But again, my privacy-alarm is ringing off the hook. This means Google or Apple or Amazon knows the most intimate details of my biology, in real-time, 24/7. Joe: That is the ultimate trade-off, isn't it? And it’s a conversation we are not having nearly enough as a society. The technology is developing at an exponential pace, but our legal and ethical frameworks are moving at a linear, governmental pace.

Lewis: It seems like that’s the real takeaway here. The future described in this book isn't a single, monolithic thing. It’s this collection of incredible, world-changing opportunities, each one bundled with a massive ethical question mark. Joe: That's a perfect way to put it. The authors, Diamandis and Kotler, are fundamentally technologists who believe in the power of innovation to create abundance. They see a future where flying cars make our cities more livable, where AI shoppers free up our time, and where predictive medicine dramatically extends our healthy lifespans. They see technology solving the world's grand challenges. Lewis: But what we, the users and citizens, have to grapple with is the cost of that abundance. Is the convenience of an invisible butler worth the loss of autonomy? Is the promise of a longer life worth giving corporations the keys to our genetic code? The book is a fantastic guide to what is coming, but it leaves us with the much harder question of how we should manage it. Joe: It does. It paints a picture of a future that is arriving far faster than we think, and it forces us to confront these choices now. The technologies are converging, whether we're ready or not. The real question the book leaves you with is, what kind of future do we want to build with them? Lewis: A future that is not just faster, but wiser. That seems to be the challenge. Joe: I couldn't agree more. And it's a challenge for all of us. We'd love to know what you think. Which of these futures excites you the most? A world with flying cars? Or a world where your home is your doctor? And which one gives you pause? Let us know in the comments. We read every single one. Lewis: This is Aibrary, signing off.