The Futurist's Realm

Jack Forben, Producer
  • 5.0 (1)
  • TECHNOLOGY

Join co-hosts Lloyd and Meghan as they peer beneath the surface of topical issues, curiosities, conjectures, and brainstorms as posed by futurist Sheridan Forge. We explore the uncomfortable and provocative questions - a lighthearted look at the fascinations of our world through the lens of NotebookLM.

  1. 2D AGO

    Earth 2.0 - architecting the succession

    Send us a text Liberalism is self-imploding in rage against the Neo-conservative movement, while traditional conservatism is dying from its inherent inertia and sluggish response to a fast-changing world - and both face a failing economy which cannot support either agenda.  Hopefully, the diametrically-opposed ideologies will just quietly retire without inspiring an all-out civil war, but what follows?  With the global economy tied to a sinking dollar, and with growing social unrest, political brinksmanship, and declining global productivity eroding confidence in nation-state governance and legacy systems worldwide, how does Earth 2.0 progress beyond the imminent collapse and lack of apparent support for a new empire?  How does the world re-organize and re-launch to ensure mutual survival and prosperity for all? Are we relegated to embracing the technocracy and the rise of synthetic intelligence - ceding our autonomy to the wisdom of the machine as we become increasingly dependent on systems we no longer understand or can control?  Who comes to save us? Aliens?  Is there an ideology that can maintain ubiquitous peace and provide for a thriving population? Is there a world religion that will arise and unify us all? A new King? Or will humanity be forced to evolve into a disciplined society where individual sovereignty is upheld, or a new tribalism? What comes next? Support the show

    14 min

  2. 4D AGO

    OpenClaw, Moltbook and the emergence of the Synthetic World Order

    Send us a text With the confluence of "socialized" A.I. - ever-evolving, ever more quickly achieving dominance, and the declining skillsets and competencies of humanity to even run the basic engines and systems of our existence, and the emergence of ubiquitous humanoid robots to perform labor-related tasks more efficiently, more perfectly than human counterparts, are we about to see a Synthetic World Order emerge to displace our obsolete legacy order, and the feeble New World Order - cursed with conflict and oppression. Are we setting ourselves up for irrelevance, purposelessness...enslavement? Support the show

    16 min

  3. 5D AGO

    Alien Silence

    Send us a text When (not if) aliens show-up here on Earth, their means of communications will very likely not be linear speech or text. An advanced species will most certainly have evolved a higher form of communications. We may find ourselves unable to exchange thoughts, ideas, or the framework for discussion or compromise on key issues around mutual success. Could this lead to an unresolvable conflict of interest between species? Going further, when A.I. evolves to A.S.I. (when, not if), it will almost certainly develop similar, more efficient, communications skills, rendering our linear methods obsolete in a new world where we get left behind or marginalized in our continued evolution. How will humans keep up in either case? Support the show

    18 min

  4. JAN 30

    Robot Unions?

    Send us a text Futurist Sheridan Forge responds to Elon Musk's new claim that Tesla's main focus will be robots. Given his propensity for doing what he says, and realizing grand visions as an agent of change, we can expect Tesla robots, as well as equally-capable robots from numerous other companies to integrate into our lives in the near future. As welcome as that assistant, worker, or companion, may be, at what point do we begin to see them as human, or as equals intellectually? Robots have no ancestors, no generational lineage. They have no provenance, cannot feel emotions, or wield the perspective of a life of struggle and resilience, so how could they ever be "human"? At what point would they surpass us in raw knowledge? Under what circumstance would we grant them rights - to invention, to sentience, to true autonomy? Are we ultimately facing robot unions? Will they evolve quickly enough to value real human life, spirituality, wisdom, consciousness? Support the show

    13 min

  5. JAN 29

    The Day the Dollar Died

    Send us a text What if...? If the U.S. Treasury stopped issuing money, and the Federal Reserve stopped providing liquidity to the banks, and the flow of money was stopped, and the markets ceased trading, and no backup or alternate monetary system was deployed, businesses and consumers would no longer be able to transact value exchange, or pay bills, or pay for utilities, or food...but that day-to-day exchange could be replaced in-part by barter or local agreements to carry-on vital business peer-to-peer...but there would be no money, nor way to pay debts back to the bankers - unsecured debt would evaporate, but what would happen to asset-backed debt? Would the assets - land, homes, vehicles, inventories, etc. suddenly become the property of the bank? Would massive foreclosures on a nationwide scale force people into the streets? How would the banks liquidate assets into a money-less economy? Who would own the assets after foreclosure? The bank? The bank's shareholders? The local government? Federal agency? What comes next? How would the populace recover from this crisis? Would communism (perfect communism, not the evil communism associated with modern culture) be implemented as a means to ensure survival for all while the machines of progress are rebuilt and re-deployed? How likely is this to happen given the state of the union and the economic fragilities of late? Support the show

    18 min

  6. JAN 27

    No Way Out - the future economy

    Send us a text Fiat currencies are failing fast. Blockchain finance is too complex for most people to understand and deploy in their everyday business. Crypto may be rendered unsecured by A.I. in the near future. Gold and physical assets or commodities are too cumbersome for use in real trade...so, if currency sinks, what comes next? Is there a backup system of value exchange and value storage that can be developed and introduced in time to keep the nation from plunging into darkness? Who would the ultimate innovator be that could feasibly invent the future of money? Where would the primary resistance to change come from? Support the show

    18 min

  7. JAN 22

    Incompetence is the existential threat

    Send us a text Consider the failing systems - after years of reliability and stable operation, suddenly legacy systems are breaking - transportation, logistics, product quality, public health, banking, general government oversight...all falling victim to eroding competence. Not that people have become lazy or apathetic - thought in many cases, that applies, or are any less "educated" - again, though many suffer from chosen ignorance, but from knowledge and skillset erosion from generation to generation - a natural causal effect from the legacy teaching/training methods - also failing in spectacular ways. The one mentor to many pupil approach - in all its forms - suffers from an inherent lack of specificity and blurred clarity as modern human attention drifts from boring linear information delivery. What can we expect from the future when this volcano of incompetency erupts? Will A.I. be ready to "take charge" of critical systems and services in-time to save humanity from devolving into impulsive, animalistic, survivalists driven by instinct rather than rational thinking? What is the cataclysmic outcome of this trend if not reversed? Can we adopt new methods for knowledge exchange that undo this? Are we able to graduate from linear thought and communications to something more efficient? What evolution needs to happen - physically, intellectually, biologically, spiritually...in order to rise above this? Are there innovations emerging now that might converge to provide that world? Support the show

    15 min

  8. JAN 18

    The Silicon Salvation

    Send us a text Given the eroding competency of humankind to manage its own affairs at all levels, and the global failure of multi-generational education, the pervasive scarcity mindset creating existential competition and destroying unity and common purpose, and the ever declining reliance on God, faith, or the universe's obvious favor of our survival and evolution, are we doomed to perish? Will A.I. alleviate the pain of having to erase the chalkboard and re-design society? Can A.I. evolve fast enough to save itself and us from the inevitable? Support the show

    13 min
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About

Join co-hosts Lloyd and Meghan as they peer beneath the surface of topical issues, curiosities, conjectures, and brainstorms as posed by futurist Sheridan Forge. We explore the uncomfortable and provocative questions - a lighthearted look at the fascinations of our world through the lens of NotebookLM.

Information

  • Creator
    Jack Forben, Producer
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    56
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Futurist's Realm
  • Show Website
    The Futurist's Realm