The media world was abuzz with rising prices and talk of inflation, while the collective conversation shifted towards corporate greed and how company success is driving the cost of goods for the status quo. The most fascinating aspect of watching the world through a digital lens is how quickly we can notice and document discrepancies of inequity and egregious abuse of humanity. One insight, and a strong argument for universal income is, the more wealth one accrues, the more negative impact the individual will have on the planet and the poorest communities. While this perspective isn’t entirely new, the number of perspectives we have access to, regarding this, is unprecedented. We can now see the discrepancies in wealth and wellbeing as it relates to one another through infinite, undeniable data points.
There is a pattern of diminishing returns in wealth gain that should be considered as a factor in determining universal value and the quality of our individual and collective lives. Rather than a single, exponential monetary figure, Wealth (W), being the equivalent of Value (V); we can see there are more factors than solely capital that contribute to how we experience wealth and value. Social and ecological components create as much or more leverage as cash, and because of their nuanced nature, are shifting the meaning of Power (P). Wealth data illustrates an imbalanced system and shows where Responsibility (R), or impact, becomes a factor of integrity and determines whether there is a +/- V.
Business as Usual Value W=P
Contemporary Networked Value V=P, where V = W/R
These are the things to ponder as we move forward with emerging industrial and commercial opportunities. Ask yourself what holds more value long-term, a sky full of stars or a sky full of satellites?
Psychedelics
From cultivation through assisted therapy, psychedelics are here to stay. We are just trying to figure out what that looks like. If you are in the United States, you can access them easily. Ketamine therapy is covered by Kaiser Permanente; and if you are looking for mushrooms you probably know someone who can hook it up. Culturally, psilocybin has been making appearances in television shows as an acceptable way to explore mental health. Check out the latest season of Ramy on Fx to see how they normalize a lot of stigmatized topics.
Psilocybin is being decriminalized and corporatized, not really, but kinda. In the state of Oregon, you must be a non-profit organization to facilitate the training of psychedelic therapists. You also must gain approval from the state health authority, and have your curriculum okayed by the trade school commission. Some are responding to this as a rush and registering and operating prematurely to be first to market. This market segment is new, and most compare mushrooms to cannabis flower because of their alignment in the unregulated sector. This is going to be an interesting space to watch as cultivators and retailers begin to operate in a regulated space, we could see a very big departure, culturally.
One last note about therapy. We support the right to support and integrate your psychedelic experiences with professional therapists. We also support the right to not need a therapist for accessing psychedelics and cultivating your own medicine. If you are an aspiring psychedelic facilitator, vet your program thoroughly. Make sure the program is going to give you critical support as you develop your practice and facilitate professional development for a successful career; not just take your money and run.
Cannabis
Woo! Some beautiful plants were cultivated this year! Despite a drier season and intense wildfires towards the end of summer, harvest signs pointed to abundance. While most markets are experiencing a glut in product, they also consistently demand new options in products. The 2022 harvest brought us more landrace or heirloom genetics. A lot of Haze crosses popping up as we see the exotic crosses fade to the background.
The New York market is taking longer than expected to launch access to licenses and operating facilities, that hasn’t stopped ambitious entrepreneurs from opening mobile dispensaries and speakeasy lounges. While cannabis continues to be a pawn in the political sphere, we can’t help but wonder when the culture will start to evolve beyond a prohibition aesthetic and celebrate in a contemporary style. Personally, we are excited about the cultural centers that will create more access to interacting with cannabis.
Speaking of politico… There are 3 acts of note as we get closer to closing out this mid-term year. MORE is going to decriminalize the plant, reallocate resources, and expunge records on a federal level and will be voted on by the Senate 10/27. SAFE is another act that claims to allow cannabis companies to engage in federal banking and loan programs. The caveat here is that banks are already capable of providing this service to cannabis companies, they simply don’t as an operating procedure. Passage of SAFE will not guarantee banking for cannabis, overall. Status on SAFE is TBD. The SHIP
act was one amongst the other more labor and product centric acts that were passed by Gov. Newsom (CA) this summer that would allow for small businesses to ship cannabis products direct to consumer. The only issue here is that it is only effective in California, and not across state lines because of federal laws. Still, this models what could be a solution for the future of craft cannabis and psychedelic products.
Interface
Adobe acquires Figma and stocks fall 33%. As an interface designer you know you will be working in Adobe at some point or working with assets that were created with Adobe products. Figma was a rising star of interface and wireframe prototyping. Will the features be rolled into Adobe’s XD prototyping product or become a satellite for immersive prototyping? Moore’s law is a concept that illustrates how technological industrialization creates smaller and more powerful computing power over time. This is in context to microchip capabilities, and we can also see feedback of this culturally. As tech companies get more powerful, they always downsize.
Organizations like AWE (Augmented World Expo) keep up on the major shifts in the immersive tech space. They are a great resource to philosophical and ethical questions that come up while creating in the virtual space. When you are creating in an actual vacuum with endless possibilities, it brings back the question of value. How do we create, and why?