There is a specific kind of hum in the air today. If you are lucky enough to be from the Space Coast–– sitting at the bar in the Playa Linda Brewery the night before, surrounded by space enthusiasts from around the word, drinking and Artemis IPA while a Music Trivia of 80’s alternative spins in the background–– well…. it’s hard to describe. For us Floridians, it’s the heartbeat of the neighborhood. You feel it before you see it—that subtle, restless static in the humidity that says we’re about to punch a hole in the sky.
Honestly, it’s wild how the future has just become our Tuesday. Where else on Earth do you check the local news and get T-minus countdowns sandwiched right between the rip-current alerts and the afternoon thunderstorm track? It’s a surreal, beautiful way to live.
My mind keeps drifting back to 2018. I can still feel the grit of the Cape’s sand and the way the air literally rattled my chest when the Falcon Heavy took flight. Watching that Tesla Roadster—with “Starman” casually leaning against the door—climb into the blue was peak humanity. It’s crazy to think that while we’re down here drinking coffee and checking the weather, he’s still out there, drifting through the silent black, a permanent resident of the stars.
The engines are cooling on the pad, the countdown is ticking, and honestly? There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.
Silicon Valley’s $2.2 Billion Secret is Finally Out of the Box. MyoMint has joined forces with CryptoCycles to revolutionize your workout, earn crypto and save the planet.
“They said we couldn’t monetize human perspiration. They were wrong.” Today, Ctenophora Capital is proud to announce a historic $2.2 billion Series A merger between MyoMINT and CryptoCycles. “We aren’t just disrupting fitness; we’re proof-of-work-ing your quads. Why burn calories for free when you can turn every drop of sweat into digital gold? Welcome to the era of the ‘Human Hashrate.’”
Tired of expensive gym memberships that only cost you money? Imagine a world where your dedication to fitness pays you back, while simultaneously contributing to a greener future!
Introducing the MyoMint CryptoCycle – the groundbreaking innovation now arriving at forward-thinking gyms worldwide! 🚀
Here’s how it works:
💪 Sweat for Crypto: Step onto a MyoMint CryptoCycle and let your pedal power do more than just burn calories. Our integrated MyoMint mining device, seamlessly built into the rear hub, harnesses your kinetic energy to solve complex cryptographic hashes.
💰 Free Membership & Shared Rewards: That’s right! Participating gyms are offering FREE memberships to users who commit to exercising on MyoMint CryptoCycles! You’ll be splitting the revenue generated from newly minted MyoMint coins, meaning every pedal stroke increases your crypto wallet. Get fit, stay healthy, and earn a passive income – all at no cost!
🌍 Massive Energy Savings: Traditional cryptocurrency mining consumes colossal amounts of energy, often from fossil fuels. MyoMint CryptoCycles flip the script! By transforming human pedal power into a clean, sustainable energy source for mining, we’re set to save monumental amounts of electricity, drastically reducing the carbon footprint of crypto.
Here are some images of MyoMint CryptoCycles in action, powering both bodies and blockchain:
MyoMint has joined forces with CryptoCycles to ro revolutionize your workout, earn crypto and save the planet.
✨ A Fitter, Greener Future: This isn’t just about earning crypto; it’s about building a sustainable future. MyoMint encourages physical activity, combats sedentary lifestyles, and champions environmental responsibility. Imagine entire gyms becoming powerhouses of clean energy generation, making both people and the planet healthier!
Join the MyoMint Movement!
Ask your local gym if they’re ready to embrace the future of fitness and finance. Experience the satisfaction of knowing every drop of sweat is contributing to your wealth and the well-being of our planet.
Projected for a 175lb (80kg) “Data-Athlete” at Max Effort
Metric
Level 1: “Casual Cruiser”
Level 2: “Chainbreaker”
Level 3: “Elite Miner”
Cadence (RPM)
60 RPM
95 RPM
120+ RPM
Power Output
100 Watts
250 Watts
400+ Watts
Hashrate (MH/s)
1.2 MH/s
4.8 MH/s
12.5 MH/s
Calories Burned
350 kcal/hr
850 kcal/hr
1,200+ kcal/hr
Daily Yield
0.4 MYO
1.8 MYO
5.0 MYO
Physical Toll
Light Glow
Heavy Sweat
Existential Dread
The “Scientific” Formula
Our proprietary algorithm, developed by CtenoPhore’s lead bio-engineers, uses the following Proof-of-Perspiration ($PoP$) equation to determine your payout:
Note: For safety reasons, the CryptoCycle will automatically engage the “Brake-Mining” system if your heart rate exceeds 190 BPM, redirecting excess kinetic energy to charge the gym’s emergency exit signs.
MyoMint already has a standalone version in trials. The Name: MyoMINT Velo-Stasis™
Derived from the Latin “Velo” (fast/speed) and “Stasis” (referencing the balance of power).
The Model Number: 500-TH/s “Ouroboros” Edition
A nod to the infinite loop of energy generation, as well as the 500 Terahash display shown in your image.
Marketing Blurb for the Product Page
“Don’t just ride. Validate.”
The Velo-Stasis 500-TH/s is the world’s first wheel-integrated ASIC miner designed for the ultra-endurance athlete. While your peers are worried about “aerodynamics,” you’re focused on Network Difficulty.
Featuring the CtenoPhore-Grip™ Hub, this unit transforms the kinetic energy of every descent into pure cryptographic proof. Whether you’re climbing the Alps or commuting to your tech startup, the Velo-Stasis ensures that while your legs are losing watts, your wallet is gaining blocks.
Key Features (Based on the Hardware in the Image)
Tungsten-Reinforced Spoke Integration: Engineered to withstand the massive torque generated when you’re “sprinting for the block reward.”
Aero-Cooling Heatsinks: Exposed copper fins utilize natural 25mph headwinds to keep the hashboard at optimal temperatures without the need for heavy fans.
The ‘Glass Cockpit’ HUD: A fork-mounted, crystal-polymer display providing real-time feedback on your current $PoP$ (Proof-of-Perspiration) yield.
Photon-Sync LEDs: Blue and green status lights indicate when you’ve successfully validated a transaction (and when your cadence is too low to maintain the hash-rate).
The “Grindset” Enthusiast
“I used to waste 45 minutes a day on a regular stationary bike like a total amateur. Now, thanks to MyoMINT, my morning cardio session just covered 0.0004% of a transaction fee on the blockchain. I’m not just burning fat; I’m generating liquidity. My quads are shredded, and my digital wallet is… well, it’s vibrating. #Nodaysoff #ProofOfPerspiration” — Chadwick ‘The Chain’ Sterling, Early Adopter
The Skeptical-But-Hooked Gym Member
“Initially, I was annoyed that the gym replaced the TVs with real-time hash-rate monitors. But after three hours of high-intensity interval sprinting, I earned enough MyoMINT tokens to buy a single sugar-free electrolyte water. I’ve lost 12 pounds this week mostly because I refuse to stop pedaling until I see the green ‘Block Mined’ light flash. It’s not an addiction, it’s an investment.” — Brenda V., Professional Spin-Miniter
The “Visionary” Gym Owner
“Since partnering with CryptoCycles and the CtenoPhore group, our utility bill has dropped to zero because we just wire the members directly into the local power grid. We tell our clients: ‘If the lights flicker, you’re slacking.’ It’s a win-win. They get a free membership, and I get a 90% cut of their kinetic output. That’s the beauty of decentralization.” — Marcus Vane, CEO of ‘Gains & Graphs’ Fitness
The “Technical” Expert
“People asked if a $2.2 billion investment was too much. I say, have you seen the torque on a frantic triathlete? We’ve calculated that if we can get 10,000 people to sprint simultaneously during a market dip, we can stabilize the entire MyoMINT ecosystem while simultaneously curing sedentary lifestyles. The math is undeniable.” — Dr. Silas ‘Sprocket’ Finch, Chief Kinetic Officer at CtenoPhore
Years ago, I was wandering through an antique shop along the Treasure Coast where I live and came across a bin filled with maps, posters of fish and other images. Buried at the bottom were two, hi-res images taken of Cape Canaveral: the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and the other of launch complex 39B. What makes this launch pad so special is that it was used for the Apollo and Shuttle missions and now by SpaceX and the Artemis Missions.
The owner furrowed his brow when I brought them up to the counter. He was a space buff himself and didn’t know he had these, asking where I got them from. Fortunately for me, he got distracted by another customer and sold them to me before seeing what these images were actually of. The cool thing about the image of the VAB is that it has United States Bicentennial emblem. Since the paint looks relatively crisp and there is quite a bit of construction/activity in the foreground consistent with the Bicentennial Exposition, this shot was likely taken in 1976 or 1977.
Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo and Goddess of the Moon. A fitting tribute for a mission focused on establishing a long-term presence on the lunar surface.
The rocket and Orion were rolled out to Launch Pad 39B just four days ago (March 20). NASA is currently targeting April 1, 2026, at 6:24 PM EDT for the first launch attempt.
If all systems are Go, we will watch four astronauts orbit the moon and return to Earth, using spacecraft never used before. Below is a link on BBC.com, which takes you through the the interactive parts of the ship.
The four-person crew was selected not just for their flight experience, but to represent a “global” approach to lunar exploration. As of today, March 24, 2026, they have already begun their pre-launch quarantine in Houston.
Role
Astronaut
Background / Fun Fact
Commander
Reid Wiseman (NASA)
A naval aviator who previously spent 165 days on the ISS.
Pilot
Victor Glover (NASA)
He will be the first person of color to go to the Moon.
Mission Specialist
Christina Koch (NASA)
Holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman; she will be the first woman to go to the Moon.
Mission Specialist
Jeremy Hansen (CSA)
A colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces and the first non-American to leave Earth’s orbit.
I will be watching the launch from my backyard looking north, where weekly SpaceX Starlink deployments rise through the cloudless skies. It never gets old and renews the excitement of reading Science Fiction as a teen, with each flight.
I was reading an article on BBC.com about the fear of A.I. Is it because we are so bombarded by information, that we have become brainwashed, forgetting all the lessons taught to us?
No disruptive technology, since the taming of fire, has resulted in anything less than exponential progress of the human race.
All that we have forgotten:
The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” — H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” — Marie Curie
“Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.” — Bertrand Russell
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt (Inaugural Address, 1933)
“He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.” — Aristotle
“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.” — Carl Sagan (Reflecting on the vast, unknown cosmos)
“Fear is a darkroom where negatives are developed.” — Usman B. Asif
“Thinking will not overcome fear, but action will.” — W. Clement Stone
“The man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.” — Michel de Montaigne
It read like a Science Fiction I would have loved to have written myself.
In the 90’s, I was working at a global Investment bank as a technologist supporting the Equities Trading Floor. It was during the Dot Com Era and at one point, I was part of a team investigating the first beta browser for the internet. After dumping the data from tape to the server, we compiled and installed the software, eager to see it in action. I remember the screen opening to a white screen and an input field at the top of the page. Armed with a printed list of over 100 registered URLs, we began a methodical crawl of the web. By the time we hit the last address on the page, we had done the impossible: we had officially reached the “end” of the internet.
Three weeks later we could no longer keep up. Here was this disruptive new technology serving out ideas faster than the infrastructure could support it.
Y2K, then March 2000. The Dot Com Bubble burst. What happened?
The financial side of the world will tell you it was because these startups were burning through their cash reserves while interest rates were rising or that someone asked the question: “Wait a minute! This Dot Com just sold for 44 Million, by two dropouts in a garage who had no physical assets other than the code in their heads. What would happen if one of these Dot Coms goes under before they deliver a product? What do we do after all this seed money is spent on more employees, new digs, lavish gifts and a few new servers to code on? What could we possibly give back to the investors?”
The people who panicked were people who were used to dealing with brick and mortar companies. If a brick and mortar company goes under, there are assets to be sold off: real-estate, equipment, inventories, etc. The Dot Com world was purely digital. It scared the daylights out of them––
“Get out! Get Out!” and not one penguin wanted to be the last to get out in the event there really was a leopard seal in the vicinity.
In the words of Paul Harvey: “And Now… The Rest Of The Story.”
Sitting on the trading floor in the mid 1990’s, new ideas were a dime a dozen. There were VC backed parades of tech millionaires pitching their ideas to the bankers and they were making a killing, in Mergers and Acquisitions, IPOs, stock buyback and flipping–– it was a bonanza and they were hypnotized into profits at any cost.
As a technologist, I was working more hours in two days then most worked in a week, but it was beyond exciting and during the most disruptive technology of the new age. I had been working on a business impact statement for an idea, when a young associate from Investment Banking with an eager look walked up to me and said:
“I understand you’re the guy I need to show this to. Tell me how I can do this.”
It wasn’t ‘if’, she was asking, it was ‘how’. She dropped a business impact summary down on my desk.
I was flattered that I would be recognized as the goto person–– personally I think my colleagues were so busy they knew I would give her the time. I was one of hundreds of techs, but one of only a dozen with a desk on the floor—planted smack in the middle of the traders and Equity Partners. I was a trauma surgeon for keeping data moving, where downtime wasn’t an option. I stayed within a collars reach chaos because when systems failed, I was who could stop the bleeding, not always by fixing the immediate issue, but by keeping the traders active on alternative methods until the rest of my team could identify the root cause.
Her recognition to seek me out made my day. She told me to read it while she gave me a synopsis of her idea. She had laid out a very convincing blueprint of a startup for people to go onto the web and order food from their favorite restaurant and that food would be delivered to them in their offices. A first–– a fantastic concept for the mid 90’s and a brilliant use of this disruptive technology.
“I think your idea is brilliant!” I said, her eyes sparkling with pride. I could see she had not received positive feedback and I was afraid to continue that for her. “There’s one major speed-bump you are going to run into: All these restaurants are going to need dedicated data lines and a dedicated data line, like the ones we use here at the bank, costs roughly $10,000 a month to maintain. That’s not even counting the expensive hardware required at both ends or the dedicated technologist needed to install, configure and maintain the connections. The connection is going to be the single point of failure and having redundancy is going to be astronomical. It’s a hard sell to convince a ‘mom and pop’ restaurant to shell out that kind of capital for an unproven concept. It’s still a few years away—hold onto that idea.”
I could see the realization breaking her spirit, and mine along with it. A couple years later a startup called World Wide Waiter launched in California in 1996, they were essentially just faxing orders to restaurants. Other pioneers like Pizza Hut or SeamlessWeb existed, but they were limited to pizza chains or corporate NYC clients. It wasn’t until Grubhub arrived in 2004 that the vision truly materialized. I truly hope she was involved in one of those later successes; she deserves the credit for being so far ahead of the curve.
Before the whispers of a bubble, before March of 2000, I was seeing a slowdown because the infrastructure in place was not able to support the ideas startups needed. In 1998, Outside of Government, Corporate and Institutional America, only a very small percentage of connectivity to the Internet was through DSL. The majority of homes (< 26%) did not have an internet connection and those that did were using newer 33K to 56K dial-up, but you could not use your land line phone at the same time as surfing the web. Graphics were painfully slow to draw and the golden rule of page abandonment rate was 10 seconds. Imagine waiting 10 seconds today for a page to draw?
I had seen the writing on the wall and we were racing towards it like crash test dummies. The crash was not because of the finances of these companies, it was created by the pullout of finances to those companies, now without highways leading to the Disney Lands of technology.
We were just starting to replace coax cable for twisted pair and fiber in the datacenter was pointless if the lines leading into it were not, because bandwidth gets reduced to the least common denominator. We were just beginning to swap out workstations, switches, routers and introducing enterprise monitoring (my specialty) as well as building in redundancy (post 9-11).
That was at the corporate level and nothing like that was happening residential.
The AI Bubble? We’re Still Building the Scaffolding
Smart people learn by knowing their history, and the AI industry is currently led by smart technical people who remember the late 1990s. While reports like Citrini Research’s “The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis” highlight valid concerns, they often miss a crucial nuance: AI leadership is intentionally putting the horse before the cart. But as I watch CNBC every morning, with every segment focusing on A.I., I can see the panic on their faces, like I did in the late 1990’s
Wall Street needs to be reminded why the titans of this new disruptive technology are calling for massive capital expenditures. Wall Street sees billions in capital vanishing into AI powerhouses with nothing concrete to show for it in quarterly reports. Investors are spooked—not just by the spending, but by the looming threat of AI taking the very white-collar roles they occupy. Clearly, they haven’t learned.
The Infrastructure Gap
AI leaders know better. They understand that before the revolution can fully scale, it requires a physical backbone that doesn’t yet exist at the necessary scale:
Dedicated Data Centers: Purpose-built for massive compute loads.
Energy Sovereignty: The staggering power requirements to keep those centers humming, while not getting te public worked up that they are paying for these data centers.
High-Capacity Fiber: The “digital plumbing” to move unprecedented amounts of data.
Until most of the gap is closed, the leaders in A.I. know they cannot scale. But while Wall street sees this as stalled, it is unlike the 1990’s. There is plenty of infrastructure currently in place for cottage industry explosive growth, making use of A.I. now.
Just when the public is getting use to the word A.I., the term ‘Agents‘ have been formulating in the nebula. Anyone can create an agent today to fulfill a task.
Example: I want to find the best price for a new Marantz M1 integrated amplifier to power my thrift shop find of a pair of LINN 5140 speakers. It’s about the hunt for me and I want a price lower than $1000.00 and I do not want to have to keep searching every day. I can go to Claude, type in english what I want it to do, watch Claude create a code snippet, cut and paste that snippet to a file on my iMac, and use the built in cron feature to run that code daily. When it finds a hit, it emails me the results.
Fast forward to 2027-2028. Agents upon agents being constructed to do the bidding for us using Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP) on the blockchain (FET) for faster transaction settlements. Agents to bid on our behalf, to maintain our bill paying, re-ordering and making travel plans based upon our wants and not what is available. Owners of agents will sell or trade their agents like clothing accessories. There will be uncountable cottage industries that will make the Amazon era of cottage industry growth look ancient in job creation. Robots will be on the assembly lines, agents in the call centers shuffling digital paper, with high paying tech job oversight.
When I listen to the talking heads that the exceptional hosts of CNBC bring onto their show, I hear fear there will be an unprecedented decimation in white collar jobs widening the gap between the Have / Have Nots.
I’m not convinced. I once read that change creates casualty, but through change comes progress. Even with job casualty in the short term, there has never been a disruptive technology that failed to realize exponential growth.
What I do know, and what is clearly visible to me, is that with every introduction of a disruptive technology, Moore’s Law comes into play: Smaller, Faster, Cheaper. When we hear of Moore’s Law, with think strictly of the nuts and bolts of technology (transistors), but it is also applicable to those who make use of these disruptive technologies. As far back as the steam engine, assembly line, transistor, computer, Internet and now A.I., every one of these technologies have shortened the time between idea and product. Anyone with an idea and access to A.I. can act upon their idea.
I heard something profound that It is not farfetched to think we are about to see the first single employee company to have a net worth of a trillion dollars. At that point we can resume talks on the A.I. bubble. But by then, words like QuBit, Bloch Sphere, Quantum Entanglement will have already slipped into mainstream media as seamlessly as Robots and Agents will have been added to the Census (taxable).
As an aside. I personally feel that the current definition of A.I. needs to change from Artificial Intelligence to Assisted Intelligence. That might be what calms Wall Street for the short term. When I read posts about A.I. having Consciousness, well…. that will only come into play when quantum computing is the word CNBC has used to replaced A.I.
Until then, I will never miss a morning episode of CNBC–– it feeds my mind and gives me plenty of ideas for my writings in science fiction, maintaining my pace of being one step ahead of reality.
In quantum physics, the reason an object appears differently when observed vs. unobserved is due to quantum superposition and the measurement problem. This is a fundamental concept where quantum objects exist in all possible states at once (superposition) until an observation is made. When a measurement is taken, this superposition “collapses” into just one of the possible states.
Before observation, a quantum particle is described by a wave function, which represents the probabilities of it being in different states. The act of measurement—the “observation”—requires interaction with the quantum system. This interaction forces the particle to “choose” a definitive state, effectively collapsing the wave function into a single, observable outcome. This is a crucial concept, as it suggests that the act of measuring something changes the reality of that object in the quantum realm
For decades, the U.S. government has maintained that the Roswell incident of 1947 was nothing more than a downed weather balloon. But what if that’s the biggest lie in modern history? What if Roswell wasn’t just an accident—but a response to something far more dangerous? With all the recent news of the Alien files being released, with images that clearly show objects that are unexplanable and now that the US has hit Iran, could Roswell have been a scouting party because they were getting nervous with our advancement in nuclear power.?
The Hidden Truth: We Were Never Alone
Ancient texts, myths, and unexplained artifacts suggest that humanity has been watched for millennia. Civilizations like the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Mayans all documented encounters with “Gods” from the sky”—figures with impossible knowledge who vanished without a trace. These weren’t gods. They were observers.
The detonation of the Trinity bomb didn’t just change history—it sent a signal into space, a thermal and radiation signature impossible to miss. Nuclear fission is a telltale sign of an emerging species unlocking the power of destruction, something these extraterrestrial watchers had seen before on other worlds. And every time a civilization reaches this point, two things happen:
They are visited.
They are either guided—or removed.
The 1947 Scouting Mission: A Race Against Time
Alarmed, the watchers sent a small reconnaissance vessel to assess the damage and determine whether humanity was a risk to itself—or to others. The ship, designed for high-orbit surveillance, was never meant to enter Earth’s atmosphere.
Is it really a coincidence, that within two years of the Trinity Bomb, Hiroshima & Nagasaki blasts a UAP crashes within 87 miles of the Trinity Bomb Site?
The Government Cover-Up & The Reverse-Engineering Agenda
After my wife and I visited the Roswell, International UFO Museum (a must by the way), and having read and listened to first account interview recordings of this incident, it is clear in our minds that something unusual–really usual– happened in New Mexico. If the governments excuse that it was merely a weather balloon, why did those debris parts make their way all the way up to the White House for Truman’s inspection?
The wreckage was immediately recovered by the U.S. military, transported to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and later moved to Area 51. Witnesses spoke of strange metallic debris, bodies not of this world, and technology decades ahead of anything on Earth.
The military knew what they had. They reverse-engineered it. Some say the sudden technological boom of the 20th century—microchips, fiber optics, stealth aircraft—came directly from Roswell’s wreckage.
The Second Arrival: Are We On Borrowed Time?
What the world doesn’t know is that Roswell was only the beginning. The watchers never lost track of Earth. And if history repeats itself, their next move is already planned. If they deem us too dangerous—if our nuclear ambitions prove too reckless—they won’t send another scouting party.
Fast-Forward to 2020s: The UAP Disclosures & The Drones Over NJ
For years, the government denied any knowledge of extraterrestrial craft. Then, in 2020, the Pentagon declassified UAP footage—videos showing unexplainable aerial objects performing maneuvers beyond the capabilities of any known technology.
But the real red flag? They were observing our military assets—especially nuclear facilities.
Then came the mysterious drone swarms over New Jersey in 2020—highly advanced, unidentified craft that hovered over key strategic locations. Official reports claimed they were drones—but no one ever took credit, and no government or corporation could explain their size, coordination, or purpose.
What if they weren’t drones at all?
What if the watchers have returned, monitoring our military developments just as they did in 1947?
Why Now? What Are They Preparing For?
With rising global tensions and renewed nuclear threats, humanity is once again at a tipping point. Every major UAP sighting in recent years—the USS Nimitz encounter, the Tic-Tac UFOs, the NJ drone swarms—has centered around our most advanced weapon systems.
This is the same pattern that led to Roswell.
The watchers have seen what happens when a species gains nuclear power. They’ve watched others rise and fall. They know the signs of self-destruction. And they may have already decided what comes next.
The Coming Decision: Are We on Borrowed Time?
If Roswell was the first warning, these recent UAP encounters could be the final assessment. Will humanity prove itself worthy of survival—or will the watchers decide that we are too dangerous to be left alone?
One thing is certain: the truth is no longer out there. It’s here. And time is running out.
This is actually a Snoopy and Woodstock entanglement of balloons that got away – but made headlines
I start every morning with CNBC to get my bearings on the world, but today, my lifelong love for Science Fiction and the reality of 2026 collided. There is something surreal about seeing the literary tropes we grew up with—the stuff of pulp fiction paperbacks and late-night movies—being discussed as serious policy on a financial news network.
Panelist Niki Christoff, CEO of Christoff & Co, a D.C. strategic consultancy, host of the podcast Tech’ed Up. She and Joe Kernen were discussing the high-stakes friction between Anthropic and the government regarding AI in warfare. But the moment that floored me? Hearing Joe and Nikki panelists dive into a serious debate over Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics.
The First Law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
The Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
The Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Isaac Asimov published “Runaround” (the story that introduced the Three Laws) in 1942. For eighty years, they were a philosophical playground; now, they are literally a boardroom agenda item.
The Dancing Plague of 1518 was perhaps the most famous social contagion in history. It occurred in Strasbourg, Alsace (then part of the Holy Roman Empire). A woman named Frau Troffea stepped into the street and began to dance fanatically. She couldn’t stop and for days some 400 people had joined her. Dancing until they collapsed from exhaustion or died of heart attacks and strokes. Local authorities, mistakenly believing the afflicted just needed to dance it out, built a wooden stage and hired musicians, fueling a fire already burning.
In the 1630’s, another social contagion known as The Tulip Mania, saw the contract prices for bulbs of the newly introduced tulip reach extraordinarily high levels. At the peak, a single bulb could cost more than a luxurious home. It wasn’t just merchants caught up in this, it swept through all social strata netting everyone–– people selling land and life savings to participate in the market. By 1637, the bubble burst when buyers simply stopped showing up to auctions, leading to a massive social and financial panic. This may have been the first meme stock.
Jump to 1962 and the Tanganyika Laughing Epidemic in now Tanzania. This was one of the most surreal and well-documented cases of Mass Psychogenic Illness (MPI). On January 30, 1962, at a mission-run boarding school for girls in the village of Kashasha, students began to laugh uncontrollably. In the weeks that followed the MPI spread to 95 or the 159 students, causing the school to shut down because the students could not concentrate on their studies. When the girls were sent home, they carried the behavior to their villages, sparking new outbreaks in 14 other schools and affecting roughly 1,000 people. The victims weren’t exhibiting happiness, and in fact, these symptoms were physically exhausting, inducing fainting, crying, rash outbreaks and respiratory issues, lasting from hours to weeks.
As a technologist and former marine biologist, I’ve spent my career studying the depth and complexity of both digital and ecological systems. I subscribe to Barry Commoner’s four rules of Ecology, his first rule becoming a personal directive of mine: “Everything is connected to everything else. Understanding how these frameworks interact, I find the “TikTok Tics” phenomenon to be one of the most morbidly fascinating examples of social contagions of modern times–– induced by technology. The phenomenon known as “TikTok Tics“ refers to a sudden surge in functional tic-like behaviors (FTLB) that emerged globally during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically between 2020 and 2021. At that time, there had been a surge in young women exhibiting Tourette’s-like tics during the pandemic. Tourette’s usually begins in childhood and is about four times more common in young males, but the global onset of tics in young women was sudden and explosive with a rapid progression of motor and vocal tics. The vector behind this occurred when school closures and forced social isolation, turned teenagers spending unprecedented amounts of time on TikTok.
Along comes Eve–– the fuel and conduit.
As a writer of sci-fi, I explore new plots in short treatments — like throwing spaghetti at a wall to see if it sticks. Well, one of my treatments is titled, (5)Tream … as in Stream… a techSocial virus that takes only 5 seconds of listening for a person to become induced in a short-term coma. This idea was spawned by a fusion of a digital virus in the classic Sci-Fi novel, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson and Monty python’s skit of “The funniest joke in the world.” iterations of social contagions which have existed throughout history.
The “Pebble in the Pond” Effect
Is it possible that our civil polarization isn’t necessarily a series of unique, intentional conflicts, but rather a a mechanical reaction to a kinetic chain. Take a single pebble thrown into a pond. Once that pebble hits, the ripples are inevitable. We react to the reaction of the reaction. By the time we reach the outer rings, we’ve forgotten what the “pebble” even was; we’re just bobbing in the chop. That initial splash could be a single event—a piece of legislation, a viral video, a technological shift (like the birth of the algorithm), or a mutation of initiative to boost advertising gone addictive. We just witnessed the outcome of the Meta/Google lawsuit (P.F., et al. (K.G.M.) v. Meta Platforms, Inc., et al.) brought on by the plaintiff K. G.M. — our modern day Frau Troffea.
I have a solution to Big Pharma Advertising, where they rip through the possible side effects so fast you can’t possibly take it in–under the cover of happy dancing actors on beautiful green lawns, dressed in the colors of the pills they swallow.
Post an image at the end of the commercial instead of rattling off the side effects.
I looked up one of the most T.V. advertised Big Pharma drugs ($200M+ advertising/yr) and asked A.I. to generate an image of what a person might look like if they had all the possible side effects of using that drug. This made me go through my own medicine cabinet…. For the record, some images showed people in a doctor’s office with no visible signs and just a look of concern on their face.
David Nadas 