Time for a change… Introducing, Dream Machines
A life update and new chapter
Change is in the air! On multiple fronts...
The first? A warm, wiggling, cooing bundle of joy, currently in the pouch of my new kangaroo shirt.
Her name is Chloe :)
Yes, fatherhood recently arrived (hence the lack of content... and sleep).
It's been both beautiful and jarring, all at the same time. Needless to say, my world will never be the same, in all the best ways.
Our collective world is also changing and in a similar fashion; with equal intensity and equal pace.
Hence the reason for this announcement/post: I'm re-branding this newsletter and podcast.
Medium Energy is now Dream Machines, narrowing the focus on the most powerful force in technology today: the convergence of spatial computing and AI.
These tools are two sides of the same coin. Problem is... most people don't realize how and why. Nor do they realize what it means for their business, their careers, their children, their relationships, the list goes on.
This newsletter/pod will change that.
Now, after a decade on the spatial computing front lines, I’ll be the first to admit... spatial computing has been either 'too early' or just a 'nice to have'. Us industry vets have the scar tissue to show for it. Yet here we remain, patiently waiting for its breakout moment while staring longingly towards that trillion dollar TAM stuck on a perpetual horizon.
Amidst the hype cycles, spatial has also been misunderstood.
It's far more than just AR/VR headsets and the 'metaverse'.
Spatial computing is about any machine/device that can see, interact, and localize itself in the real world: this includes AR glasses, robots, drones, and self driving cars.
It also includes data, of an incredibly important kind... spatial data, i.e. data with an X-Y-Z coordinate, or what I like to call... 'world data' representing people, places, and things.
For decades, much of this data has lied dormant. Despite being immensely valuable, it's been woefully hard to access and to use. This ranges from 3D data (CAD, point clouds), to sensor data (IoT), to visual data of all types (photos, videos, scans)
But now, the terrain is shifting, and this data has an all new raison d'être...
AI is now supercharging spatial computing, and spatial is returning the favor — giving AI a body (robots), a perspective (3D computer vision), and a way to hear, navigate, and interact with the world (AR glasses).
Of most importance, it will give AI real world agency, and ultimately, the feedback loop needed to unlock the holy grail: AGI (artificial general intelligence).
At which point, the machines will dream, while helping humanity realize many of its dreams along the way.
As such, Dream Machines isn’t just a nod to the power of spatial + AI. It’s your window into all the ways the boundary between imagination and reality is about to collapse.
This convergence will unlock human potential in ways we can barely imagine. But it's also going to challenge everything we know about the human experience—about the self, identity, presence, and connection.
Which is why Dream Machines isn’t just about where technology is going—it's about where it’s taking us, fully devoted to a singular, existential question: how do we take full advantage of these tools, while staying grounded in the real world?
If that resonates, you’re in the right place, at the right time.
This convergence is happening now— from Meta's Project Orion and Llama, to Google's AndroidXR and Gemini, to NVIDIA's Omniverse and robotics, to 'large world models' like World Labs and Niantic's Geospatial World Model. Not to mention, a whole new bevy of startups in between.
The result? I’ll pull from this essay I wrote on the Apple Vision Pro…
AR’s arrival is going to shift people’s relationship with technology while reducing the afflictions born of abstracted, ‘flat computing’. Or the afflictions born of boxes tethered to a wall and TV (aka Xbox or PS5). These current form factors are what keep kids/people stuck inside, isolated, and socially inept.
In contrast… AR, in its ultimate form, will free kids from the confines of a screen and a living room with an outlet, thrusting them back into nature, back into face-to-face contact, and back into a world longed for by prior generations. A world of scratched knees from a treasure hunt in the park, of youthful pride from a fort forged in the woods, or of confidence from winning an argument while playing make-believe in the backyard.
Except for this time, the treasure becomes real, the forts become labyrinths, and the figments of make belief become not so make belief…
If this vision compels you, subscribe to both the newsletter and podcast below! We'd love to have you as part of our growing community of thinkers, builders, and doers.
And if you know anyone else who might also find this newsletter of use, please do send it their way :)
The new content plan is as follows:
Weekly insights into our industries progress
Monthly deep dives on companies and big ideas
Monthly podcasts with the greatest minds in Spatial + AI
Some other random smatterings along the way (I will get to more sci-fi stuff, one of these days, I swear!)
If you want a preview, here are my most popular essays:
Lastly, if you’ve been a part of this journey to date, thank you… I beyond appreciate your interest and attention to date (as there are few things less scarce!)
See y’all on the front lines.