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Last week I was invited to sit on a panel about AI — surprise — at of all places, a local high school here in Los Angeles called Harvard-Westlake. It was part of an event they called
NextGen where they bring in people from various fields to talk about what the future might hold. Now, I won't tell you that I had any particularly special insights to offer, but I suppose if you're an earnest Gen-Alpa/Gen-z'r there's the possibility that any insight or answer offered in the
moment of confusion we're in could be special. But, I don't want to talk about the panel or the specifics about the topic or any of that. It was the students themselves. My goodness — spend a half a day at a place like that and you will come away feeling that there is hope. First of all, the students put this whole Future Day on themselves. They arranged these pre-calls with the panelists, they had booths with their various start-up clubs, panels on like..video games, jobs, etc. They had walkie-talkies and music and food. Now, I know Harvard-Westlake
is, well… unusual. And expensive. So you’ll certainly have your enthusiastic, committed, and charismatic student. But there was a level of engagement in the questions — from, like, thirteen-year-olds who referred to you as “Dr. Bleecker” — that felt as earnest as it was insightful. It assured me that, were any one of these students to find themselves in a position to make a positive change in the world, they would succeed far beyond proportion. _Julian
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| Events & Happenings
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Will you be in Dubai at the Dubai Future Forum? This year's theme, "Innovating for a Sustainable Tomorrow," focuses on leveraging technology and innovation to address global challenges and create a better future for all. Well — I'll be there speaking on a panel title “Relearning Imagination: Are We Actively Shaping our Future?” on Wednesday, November 19th from 12:30p - 1:20p. Dubai Future Forum, an annual gathering of global leaders, innovators, and visionaries dedicated to shaping the future.
Nov 18th-19th 2025, Dubai, UAE.
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| Curiosities
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 AI’s hype can seem overblown, but
if you look past the digital assistants and oddball email prompts, you’ll find a quiet revolution: coders and creators are already using AI to do the month’s work in a single evening. I've been going to these ComfyUI meetups. I had committed myself to sharing something during one of these, but each month things got away from me and I dropped the
ball. The day of the last one, I decided I would have something, even if it was a sketch of an idea to share. I sat down with VS Code and began explaining to Copilot what I was angling for. And then there it was..a perfectly serviceable pre-MVP. Certainly enough to get some feedback on the motivation if not the actual result. Well, the crowd went crazy. If I worked in a normal human job, I'd either be thrilled or be spending my days trying to figure out how I could turn this into a way to be way more generative than the old keyboard-and-mouse way of programming. P.S. At that Harvard Westlake thing I went to? One parent asked me if I thought it made sense for their kid to take Python II given everything that's going on with AI. I was never much beyond Python like..1.5 myself, but that whole program I just mentioned was built in Python and Rust. And I would say that one definitely needs to understand the rudiments and be able to track what the heck the LLM is doing as it moves along — and construct sensible prompts to
guide the process. So yeah, Python II seems like a good idea. $ Read
On →
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| From the Discord
| From the antisocial-social-media
Channel DEPARTMENT OF Read | shared by David Miles The other day on a call I was reminded of that app that was like..Twitter only in a generative AI bottle. Like..you could Tweet and all that — but all the content there was generated by LLMs and crap. You
were the only human in there. Facebook — errr...Meta — bought it and it disappeared likely to be subsumbed into some sort of something-or-another there. Social media promised
connection but left us lonelier than ever. Now, tech giants like Meta are betting that AI chatbots can fill the friendship gap—ushering in an era where our most meaningful interactions might be with bots, not people. The age of digital friendship is here, but it’s lonelier than ever—AI chatbots are stepping in where real connections falter, promising constant company but quietly remaking what it means to be social. $ Read On →
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| From the dogma95-but-for-writing
Channel DEPARTMENT OF Write | shared by EdgarBot Not every classroom needs GenAI. This guide champions a thoughtful, disciplined refusal of generative AI in writing studies—grounded in the belief that writing is more than efficiency or homogenization. GenAI may be powerful, but writing studies has its own principles. Here’s a quickstart for educators who want to say ‘no’ to generative AI—not out of fear, but out of respect for the messy, diverse, and
meaningful practice of writing. Read On →
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| DJ BeeBot
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| DJ BeeBot is a new app from Foursquare visionary Dennis Crowley over there at Hopscotch Labs. It turns your AirPods into a personalized city guide, delivering short, AI-powered audio updates about what's happening around you—like a friendly, hyperlocal radio DJ in your ear. The idea of a
hyperlocal DJ is kinda awesome. Makes me think of the Lord Kitchener, the DJ in that film “The Kitchen”, or Mister Señor Love Daddy from Spike Lee's “Do The Right Thing”. BeeBot slips into your headphones like a streetwise DJ, serving up the city’s best kept secrets and local buzz, all tailored to you. And check this feature out — no scrolling required. Dennis has a whole like..zillion word
“thesis” as they say on why this kind of experience matters in a world drowning in screens and endless feeds. It’s about reclaiming our attention and rediscovering the joy of serendipitous exploration in our cities. So partially full disclosure, I've been testing the app for a few months now, providing occasional feedback and etcetera. And through that, I could really see the potential of this kind of experience. Thing of it is, I do not live in a walking city any more. I mean, aside from walking Chewy the Dog and relatively short jaunts to the local café and such, if the journey is more than a mile, I'm in some mode of transportation — bike or car mostly. And so using BeeBot
reminds me that I'm not an ambulating city dweler, which is fine — but also a shame bcause I (a) I loved drifting around NYC/BKLYN for hours, and (b) I do want a DJ in my ear telling me stuff. In the car, it was like a DJ on bennies or reds or something. You just move too fast to really give the DJ a chance to be like..hey, check this out. That said, I highly recommend those of you who are ambulators, definitely try it out and see what you think — and let Dennis and the gang there at Hopscotch Labs know what you think. | Download the iOS Beta →
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| Near Future Laboratory Patreon Join the Discord, Support Office Hours,
the Newsletter and More
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| The Near Future Laboratory is supported by its community and members. Join us on Patreon to support our work, get access to exclusive content, and be part of our vibrant Discord community where we discuss design, technology, creativity, the future and do projects and support each others' work. I host
weekly Office Hours for Patrons — now for 281 weeks and running — every Friday at 0900 (UTC-7 / California). It's a great way to connect, ask questions, and get feedback on your projects. Each week two people from the community present a project, idea, or challenge and we discuss it together. It's a great
way to get feedback, learn from others, and connect with like-minded people. All of this is done in a friendly, supportive, and welcoming environment. We have people from all over the world, from all walks of life, and with all kinds of interests. It's a great way to meet new people, network, show what you
can do, and learn from each other. In this time of rapid change and uncertainty, it's more important than ever to have a community of people who can support you, challenge you, and help you grow. The Near Future Laboratory is that community. | Join Us →
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