I write this newsletter because I’m scared. I’m terrified. The nature of the future is to be uncertain, and I know that I can’t change that. All I can do is prepare myself. All I can do is get better at coping with surprise. I want to be able to tackle a world based on different underlying assumptions. Maybe I won’t figure out how to do it.

I was born in the mid-1990s. When I came of age, computers were already ubiquitous and the internet was well-populated and lively. My first experience with online discourse came from the forums on Neopets. I’ve been addicted ever since. There is something incredibly intoxicating about the power to command and give attention based solely on ideas.

I didn’t witness or participate in the sea change from a world of paper to a digital universe. Sure, I lived an analogue life until about eleven, but omnipresent connection has always been available during my conscious personhood, and it started to scale up with the spread of smartphones in 2008. A world of stories and data in which you can immerse yourself whenever you wish — that seems natural to me.

What will be the next paradigm shift? The next communication medium that devastates incumbents, or the next layer of infrastructure that obviates the current stack? Virtual reality? Artificial intelligence? Wearable computers? A combination of all three? Or something that hasn’t occurred to me, something the mainstream tech companies aren’t working on?

My explicit intention with Exolymph is to explore possibilities — to evaluate trends and propose twists and turns in the human condition. I do this for selfish reasons. Sure, it’s entertaining, but as a person with last-century skills (writing), I’m desperate to anchor myself in the future. I’m hoping to build an advantage today that I can leverage tomorrow.