Synthetic Minds | Ten Tech Trends for 2026

In this Synthetic Minds edition, I unpack 2026’s Ten Technology Trends and the Year of Augmented Intelligence, then zoom into China’s social credit, injectable brain chips, AI-made music, autonomous AI agents at work and a new dark matter signal, to ask what kind of synthetic future we are building.

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Ten Technology Trends for 2026

2026 marks the dawn of Augmented Intelligence, a year where AI becomes embedded everywhere, from geopolitics to healthcare, robotics, and the brain itself. These ten trends expose the shifts redefining power, work, privacy, and what it means to be human.

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How Do You Become A Futurist?

From cycling around Australia to writing my PhD on airplanes, I never planned to become a futurist. I just kept following the signal that wouldn’t shut up. Fifteen years later, I’m still doing the same, helping others navigate a world changing faster than ever.

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Synthetic Minds | Summarize any podcast in seconds!

In this edition: why the 3-hour podcast era is collapsing, how Futurwise now lets you summarize any Apple or Spotify podcast in under a minute, and five curated insights ranging from humanoid robots to AI-driven finance to the eerie science of organ-memory transfer.

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Synthetic Minds | When AI Becomes the Attacker

Autonomous AI attacks are no longer theoretical. The first AI-orchestrated breach shows how adversaries can jailbreak models, hide intent, and strike at machine speed. Human-only defenses cannot keep up. If AI is not protecting you, AI will compromise you.

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Synthetic Minds | When Words Become Worlds

The metaverse isn’t dead—it’s evolving. Fei-Fei Li argues that AI must move beyond language into spatial intelligence: models that understand and act within the physical world. This shift could ignite a new wave of creativity as digital and physical realities merge into one phygital habitat.

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Synthetic Minds | Forget Bitcoin, Quantum Money is Coming!

Forget Bitcoin. The next revolution in currency isn’t digital—it’s quantum. Google researchers propose “money” secured by the laws of physics, impossible to counterfeit or trace. When value itself becomes a law of nature, trust shifts from code to the cosmos.

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Synthetic Minds | When Thought Becomes the Interface

Cornell researchers built a brain implant so small it sits on a grain of salt—streaming thoughts wirelessly for a year. As brain–computer interfaces near reality, one question looms: when your thoughts connect directly to machines, will you still be in control—or just part of the network?

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Synthetic Minds | When Robots Learn Faster Than We Do

I just signed the letter calling to halt superintelligence until we can build it safely and wisely. AI isn’t invention—it’s discovery. And if discovery means we’ve stumbled upon something beyond our control, perhaps the most intelligent move humanity can make right now… is to pause.

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Synthetic Minds | The Smartest Thing We Can Do About AI

I just signed the letter calling to halt superintelligence until we can build it safely and wisely. AI isn’t invention—it’s discovery. And if discovery means we’ve stumbled upon something beyond our control, perhaps the most intelligent move humanity can make right now… is to pause.

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