Illustration: LinkedIn/Imane El Khalfi

Artificial Intelligence (AI) was, for a while (In early 2022), seen as the next in a series of fads concocted by the ever-disconnected set of technology/software-based entrepreneurs we as a collective referred to as the ‘tech bros,’ a group who had only just recently managed to (barely) recover from the absolute demolishment of their reputation ascribed to the rise (and subsequent, painful fall) of various cryptocurrency programs which had involved conspicuously screenshot-able PNGs of desiccated monkeys with outrageous prices attached to them (with a terrible sense of fashion, attributed to their being generated on a random algorithm uncaring of visual finesse) and the attempted purchase of an island to host supporters of their scheme in an act only too reminiscent of the esoteric cults of yore.

Technology is fantastic, yes. It is how we prevailed above all else in nature, after all. Flexible yet dangerously capricious in both direction and growth – it has outpaced natural evolution in speed by multiple orders of magnitude. If I had told someone living a mere 65 years ago so much as half of what the humans of the future do daily, I would be outed by them as mad and promptly ostracized, and for good reason. The device I am typing all this into right now is a sleek, portable version of the house-sized clunker of a glorified toaster that the engineers had only recently invented to work as a calculator that not only works at 5 million times the efficiency (3) of the said toaster but is also intrinsically connected to a global network of billions of devices that is an eternally expanding vortex of information, entertainment and faux nihilism (A topic for another day) that has become linked to our daily lives to a degree previous thought impossible.

Frustrating, however, is the unpredictability. The speed and volatility at which new, revolutionary technologies are being developed leave some unable to adapt to major, life-altering changes properly, the failure in doing so resulting in merely being considered out of touch by those more ‘in the know’ in the best case and losing one’s job, prospects and hope in the worst. There isn’t a real way to prepare beforehand, either; we, as human beings, have demonstrated an unparalleled ability to be terrible at predicting things – examples include gambling, stocks(gambling), or even tomorrow’s weather, for crud’s sake – Once again providing the need to bring out the ancient yet ever-relevant adage of a group of humans in the 1900s predicting the mass production and usage of flying automobiles in the ‘near future’ (#50 years? 100? Something something the ancient library of Alexandra). Quite nonsensical, retrospectively, when considering the gut-wrenching scenarios that would emerge upon their actual implementation, of course – On the subject of private, flying vehicles, even the loosest of Google searches sing of the cataclysms that would transition from mere campfire tales into reality upon them ever reaching the mainstream – But the idea of the invention itself felt semi-reasonable, surprisingly. The early 1900s were reeling from the sudden rise in popularity of motorized transportation as it slowly began taking over niches originally reserved for carriages driven by horses. At the same time, the first-ever airplane decided that it just really wanted to get invented. With both life-changing inventions under their belt, the denizens of the 1900s began to speculate about what was to come, and naturally, their sights drifted to what they had now: ‘Cars and airplanes. Cars + Airplanes. Flying…… Cars. Flying Cars! It makes perfect sense!’ They thought. It’s intuitive. Only ostensibly, of course, but cut them some slack.

We all know what happens next. The prediction managed to slip itself into memetic relevance wherein its story is used by many to mock/satirize the same vein of futurology that spouted said prediction in the first place – Often to prove the theory of a declining rate of technological progress as more effort seems to be directed towards the peripheral and irrelevant as opposed to something more cohesive or useful, which is ironic, considering the nature of the actual explanation for such a phenomenon. Technology isn’t a monolith – the invention/development of the ‘cool new thing’ doesn’t funnel all technological effort and funding towards it, nor does it terminate the growth of dissimilar technologies. As such, new, emerging technologies from all facets of science take their turn in the spotlight, diversifying and thus greatly limiting the extent to which we can predict their growth.

We may see something so revolutionary in the coming months that dwarfs even the towery waves raised by generative AI. We do not know, and we’ll unfortunately never be able to until such a day arrives… Or it doesn’t.

So, just what does all that have to do with AI?

The whole spiel right then with the unpredictability of rising technologies serves to disprove the idea that technology is somehow stagnating just because what comes next isn’t built off of the mainstream norm, explain the reasons as to why the nature rising technologies are nigh impossible to account for before their launch and conveniently create a segway for the revelation that generative AI isn’t actually at all something hidden that wasn’t being developed until recently. In fact, generative AI has existed for at least longer than you may have expected from something that feels so suddenly influential – that it’s not a fad that emerged out of nowhere.

The more inquisitive readers may realize what at first glance reads to be a contradiction and ask: Dear author, whom I know already to be quite the pain when trying to have a normal conversation with, how could you possibly make a claim for the technology’s unpredictability only to follow that up with a prominent ‘Not out of nowhere’? Does he even know what he is saying?

Everything makes sense when looking retrospectively – even the most ‘random’ of events bears an explanation. The internet, for instance, had its first appearance all the way back in the 1960s, funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Defense. This prototype allows for communication between multiple functioning computers. Looking back, it made sense for this to be ground zero for the birthplace of the modern internet – but for the people back then, it was only yet another esoteric piece of tech that had not the slightest chance of ever becoming relevant in the lives of the common citizen. Therefore, the development of the internet wasn’t out of nowhere, as we could track down the exact steps it took to become what it is today. Still, it wasn’t predicted to become such for those back then – they were too hyper-fixated on the invention of the laser, I suppose – and, therefore, still intrinsically unpredictable. The two qualities are not mutually exclusive.

This is even more relevant when it comes to AI. With the power of said internet, its development is fully documented. Still, as it exists alongside everything else being made and promised to become the next big thing, its rise wasn’t at all expected (at least, not by the mainstream). However, its rise made sense when looking back and seeing the rate at which it continues to grow. The unpredictability of the power of emerging technologies and the recounting of their success are taken at two differing points in time – one before its rise and one during and after. The claims are not mutually exclusive, not because they fundamentally contradict each other, but because they’re made at two separate junctures.

With that cleared up, my painfully lengthy introduction of a good five or so minutes has finally concluded. The next part will see my attempts at summarizing the development of AI across the years to an extent that I will be personally fine with – and yes, this will be a multi-parter for sure. AI is FAR too interesting of a topic for me not to fully cover, to the greatest of my ability. If you think I sound mildly negative now, premonitions most foreboding of its inevitable growth and thus potential harm from yours truly would become the norm as I disassemble the very nature of AI and bring proper light to what it has already managed to achieve in these few years, and how the few jobs already being replaced are only the appetizer for what’s to come.

…Or, and this is still a possibility, despite all that will eventually be said, it would fail to do anything worth mentioning (sans the already replaced jobs, of course), existing forever as only a goofy commodity for us all to poke fun at and occasionally enjoy when bored beyond belief. The impact of developing technologies is unpredictable, and it always will be. Maybe.

Cont. In part 2.

Symbolic image of a future battery. Computer-generated image.

The development of technology never stagnates. Whether it be something as simple as a patch for a technology/product in desperate need of repair or something truly innovative and game-changing for generations, there will always be SOMETHING on the horizon for SOMEONE. Something, in this context, is the electric batteries, an intrinsic part of our daily lives. They are also taking part in this dramatic metamorphosis towards a more developed future, undergoing changes at a rapid pace – and yet, it is rarely brought up when discussing the development of technology. In truth, electric batteries have improved immensely since their inception all the way back in the 1800s and will continue to do so for decades. This article will be an exploration of just where they are headed as a technology, and what to expect of them 50 years in the future.

Cheaper Batteries, Cleaner Energy.

As a counter to the purveyors espousing the inevitable and total collapse of society due to an overuse of coal/oil-based energy sources and that nothing could alter that course, cheap, powerful batteries are being used in grid storage, making renewables more and more viable as an energy source by the day. According to Reuters reporting, “Giant batteries that ensure stable power supply by offsetting intermittent renewable supplies are becoming cheap enough to make developers abandon scores of projects for gas-fired generation world-wide.”

This isn’t just a fluke, either. Recent news regarding the state of energy production has brought up an influx of never-before-seen developments in renewable energy (and the distribution and storage of said energy) that, in perfect union with the decreasing cost and increasing storage of batteries, renewables have been made much easier to invest time and money into, which would greatly assist in the production and storage efficiency of said energies.

Batteries, in a way, are catalysts to whatever technologies utilize them. The better the battery, the more effective the technology that utilizes it becomes. As batteries continue to lower in cost, so would the expense of producing such technologies. As productivity and investment continue to increase, it’s fair to suggest even cheaper batteries in the future.

Growing Popularity/Image.

Battery sales are growing almost exponentially – 33% more per year, in fact. This is due to an entire array of factors – including but not limited to – increased sales of electronics, increased effectiveness of stationary storage, and an explosion of growth for electronic vehicles of all kinds. As mentioned before, batteries act as catalysts for the storage of energy. An increased demand for them strongly implies an increase in battery-synergistic technologies, which would only further the demand for more batteries, increasing its overall effectiveness.

With such a massive increase in sales, people will inevitably be looking into them.

They are the perfect middle ground between the differing types of energies, storing them all with relatively stable efficiency. Higher sales = More investment = Better quality and even more production in the near and far future.

The Strengthening of Battery Volume Despite Lowering Prices

As prices for batteries continued to plummet, one might assume the quality to fall along with it, but the opposite has happened. As battery prices fell, the strength and capacity for batteries only grew to a staggering 500Ws per kg at the end of 2023. There doesn’t seem to be any slowing to this process, either; in fact, battery-based technologies only seem to increase in development speed. We were BEHIND in terms of estimation for what batteries will become.

Their growth doesn’t seem to be thinning out or stopping in any way. The s-curve trend of batteries implies something massive about our knowledge of how this tech works on a fundamental level – we aren’t even close to fully maxing out its potential with what we have. This is fortunate, as with the increased investments in batteries and renewable energies come changes that can work to seal the wound humanity has dealt with the environment. We will likely see more exponential growth in the future, and therefore, batteries are more powerful than we could ever hope to imagine today.

In conclusion, batteries have never stagnated in growth. They are and always will be something in the background—something that helps yet never takes the central stage. Despite that, and despite the heavy emphasis I’ve put on their role as catalysts, their role in the development and growth of humans as a collective cannot be understated. Because of this, we could expect cheaper and much more powerful batteries than we have today, embedded within your phone, walls, or even car.

A piece of GOOD Meat’s cell-cultivated chicken cooks on a grill at the company’s California office in July 2023. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

There is a common thread amongst surveyors of technology that manages to unite them all despite differences in ideology and identity – we have very little object, or in this case, ‘news’ permanence. We forget developments in technology just as quickly as we read the articles. This has been the case with solar-powered generators (something that most people seemingly forgot about only to be reminded of once more once it had reached mainstream media a few months back), developments in drone technology that makes them accurate and stable enough to serve in armies across the world, and of course, in what’s relevant to the topic at hand, lab-grown meat. I’m sure many of you may have picked up on the phenomenon of lab-grown meat a few years before from the miscellaneous articles lining the shelves of convenience stores and supermarkets alike, ruminated for five minutes on the massive implications, and forgot completely about it until seeing the title above. I don’t altogether blame you for it, surprisingly.

Lab-grown meat years ago was incredibly out of reach for commoners. Its price was nothing short of obnoxious (around $300k for a single patty produced by a Dutch scientist back in 2013. This “achievement” was and was thus seen as nothing more than a vain display of technical gene-spicing (however inaccurate that may be) expertise that provides little to nothing to the grand scheme of actually solving the unfortunately very real climate bushwacking and moral depressions caused by the meat industry at large (The meat industry alone is responsible for around 17% of all of humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions, coming from a horrific mixture of animal gases and massive machines that wouldn’t look out of place out of a 90s horror flick) – and that was the impression left to many upon reading of the news all those years ago.

Fortunately for the bored and inattentive, there hasn’t been a single instance of technological progress wherein it has proven itself completely resistant to the waves of change – and change it did. From the sky-high prices effectively barring all but the elite from ever having a taste to the much more affordable (though arguably still overpriced) burgers costing upwards of 15 dollars from restaurants in Singapore, developments in the lab-grown industry had effectively reduced costs thousands of times per burger, a trend that came to be once the original tech became more widespread, and results became more consistent across labs. It’s fascinating to watch as it all becomes an actual option for those unwilling to take part in the traditional meat industry.

Unfortunately for those in parts of America looking forward to a meat-industry-free future, such innovations have proven too competitive, potentially harming the large and influential traditional meat industries there. This confirms two things: That lab-grown meat is mature enough to be both sold somewhat commercially and at a cheap enough price threaten the longevity of the meat industry, and that, despite the good that this could potentially do, it is being challenged on account of that alone. Southern states like Tennessee have legislated major fines to those selling cell-cultured meat upwards of one million dollars in an act of defiance against the rising technology. Tennessee wasn’t the only state acting up. According to a report in Vox, “Florida state Rep. Tyler Sirois, another Republican who introduced a similar bill late last year, stated a different — and perhaps more honest — motivation for banning cell-cultivated meat: to protect the state’s farmers from competition. ‘Farming and cattle are incredibly important industries to Florida,’ Sirois said in an interview with Politico in November.”

Some have even claimed the very practice of producing meat from cells to be an affront to nature—despite humanity’s current state being so much more of a mutation of “nature’s interests” than a new piece of technology that builds from predetermined principles of cellular reproduction could ever hope to be.

Strangely, however, this isn’t the first time politics revolving around meat have managed to cause real damage to nascent technologies. Meat and protein substitutes had always been under fire from politicians unwilling to fully shift from one to another in fear of damaging large industries. It is then somewhat fortunate that only a few states in America have passed this bill, and they will stand as constant reminders of how ever-prevalent ties with politics and economics technologies that, to most of us, are only positive additions to our lives and the ecosystems of the planet on which we reside can be.

Recommended Reading:

Inside the effort to cut the cost of cultivated meat (acs.org).

Why the media ignores meat’s role in climate change – Vox.

What is cell-cultivated meat, and why do Republicans want to ban it? The political crusade against lab-grown meat, explained. – Vox.