Brands opening up and showing ingredients are great. The real change has been that consumers are okay with artificial ingredients. This may be correlated with technological innovation and leaps in science, but we're generally wrong when we tag it as transparency.

Soylent, for example. Or Amazon 'simple' foods. While Brandless does in fact have an organic aesthetic, the question of ethical sourcing remains for all of these modern day D2C nutrition.

Our first digital pilgrimage, the 2017 Eclipse, just passed. Be interesting to see how people react.

Self-driving car technology will eventually be cheaper, simpler, and more integrated into our day to day lives. The value produced by a 24/7 autonomous vehicle is tremendous. Given that the rideshare market is valued at $000B, the impending future of automation will upend this industry with much cheaper and more efficient ways to get people from A to B. If transforming a human operated car into a self-driving car is perceived as quick, easy, and accessible, then consumers will value the cost of a ride much lower as they acquire ability to create their own fleet of autonomous vehicles. Wide-spread access to 'overlay' automated car technology is going to pull the carpet from underneath the rideshare profit structure. Effectively bursting the bubble.

A few things could happen:

• Uber and Lyft (i.e., self-driving fleet-holders) will have to innovate around the ridesharing experience and differentiate from their peer-to-peer competition.

• Cities will place stringent regulations 'masked' as security measures but in reality they're just gatekeeping the marketplace.

• A hybrid where fleets will be regulated but differ in distance, capabilities, interiors, forcing big brands to innovate (similar to budget airline discourse)

• A flood of new players may join (think family owned car dealers), opening up new niche's of rides (soccer mom vans) and developing new dimensions of community (preferred commuter pool).

• With new players, comes new platforms. A common language that consumers can access to hail a ride. This would look much like a new type of 'public infrastructure' but in digital form. — who will build dis?

What's the big deal with AI speakers?
In all reality, they don't do much and ultimately represent the first wave craze around smart products. It'd be great to pick this apart and see where this could be headed moving forward.
Where are there avoidable innovations?
How can we implement new technology in the most impactful manner?

Facebook has made handing over information to the digital a common behavior. Simply put, we're willing to give it all up to the digital. Pledging digital allegiance because the tools give back.

“Great self-destruction follows upon unfounded fear.
—Ursula K. Le Guin”