Yippee Ki-Yay! — It’s difficult to turn on the news without hearing dark and cynical stories about the fallen Gods of modern society. Think corporations, celebrities, and politicians — former icons whose reputations are tarnished or ruined, typically because of some illegal or otherwise dreadful behavior. We live in a world where a…

We need more creative geniuses. — “How was your day?” I try to avoid this question as much as possible. There may be no wrong questions, but some are more depressing and frustrating than others. And “How was your day?” is definitely one of them. The answer to the question makes clear that every day is…

Ironically, we may need a bigger problem — It’s 8:30 a.m. already, and I’m stuck in traffic. Again. My class starts in 15 minutes. I just called my colleagues to inform them that I am running late. I can see unhappy, irritated, and impatient faces in the cars around me. It seems nobody is enjoying today’s sunny Monday…

What if we lose our ability to be smart about the future? — Friday, April 25, 1969. The day I was born. As a teenager, I was proud of being born in the 1960s — the flickering embers of the 1960s, but still the sixties. I don’t have a good explanation for my pride in this fact. But I guess it has something…

Uhura was right to doubt joining Starfleet in “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.” — We have got ourselves some problems. They may look harmless at first glance, but they cause ripple effects across our lives that slowly transform the world into a ridiculous, cartoonish dystopia. I waited in line to check in for my domestic flight to Fukuoka in Japan. I had plenty of…

What makes a meme a meme, and what can it teach us? — I know what you did this summer. At least, if you are one of the tens of millions of people watching short videos featuring animated talking heads in a toilet — Skibidi Toilets. Unless you are a Gen Alpha teen roaming the Internet, you are probably wondering what’s so fascinating…

Imagine you have been away for almost fifty years. — Here’s a thought experiment. Imagine you were able to leave our world behind in the mid-1970s and only returned one week ago — almost fifty years later. All this time, you have been far away without any Earthly problems on your mind. You still have your memories from the seventies…

Music, our first love, offers a cure for “hurry sickness.” — This is the story about a music genre that became most popular in the 1970s, suddenly went underground, saw an uplift in 2020, and now gained supremacy on the radio again. The genre is called disco. It’s August 2025. Technology controls our lives. Le Freak is topping the music charts…

There is no escape. We are hurtling toward a cyberpunk future. — The shrill sound of the cry of the polar bear cub sliced through marrow and bone. He was hungry and had not eaten for days. My wife teared up when she saw the young bear struggling to follow his mother. Mother Bear was searching for whatever food she could find…