Brewed From Within

Yin-Yang

Technologies constantly intersect. This impacts a technology’s life cycle (TLC), which already has its own phases of development and market adoption.

Technology life cycles follow an S-Curve. The shape of each technology’s S-Curve is unique, but generally, research and development requires an investment. With traction, the technology can ascend and become profitable. Over time, this ascension slows as a new normal is established. Market relevancy can be lasting, but eventually new technologies push existing technology toward a final decline phase. The further a new technology’s life cycle is from the current status quo, the faster one can push the other into history books. For example, when cell phones went mainstream, it did not take long for pagers to fall out of our pockets.

When different technologies ascend around the same time, they each have their own TLC, but the shared timeline only has room for what the market and adoption curves allow. This initiates a game of scarcity versus abundance. If technologies remain isolated, scarcity wins and the ascension of one technology forces the other technology toward a decline. With a sense of abundance, different technologies find reasons to interact, interconnect, support, and perpetuate each other. Even if the relationship is not obvious at first, layered value broadens the impact and extends each technology’s life cycle.

This can be seen in the rise of web3 and AI technologies. At first, the hype was focused on blockchains and everything under the web3 umbrella. As blockchain networks were ascending past early adoption, Narrow AI learned to speak our language and quickly stole the spotlight. This lowered the volume around web3 as everything became about AI.

With volume lowered, it was easy to think web3 concepts were less relevant, but the interoperability of web3 technologies can transparently source, support, guide, and tame AI. When AI makes everything fake, blockchains make it real again. This symbiosis aligns two different technology life cycles. When balanced, AI is yin and web3 is yang. The yin of AI is exemplified by unpredictability and independence. The yang of web3 draws from decentralized dependency.

© BEN MCDOUGAL

AI is strongest when rooted in web3 concepts, which are strengthened by the capabilities and functionalities of AI. Together, these two seemingly unrelated technologies benefit in various ways. For example, ChatUX gave AI a voice, which can imitate anyone, but blockchains and zero-knowledge proofs can confirm identity. The chaos continues as compute speeds of machine learning make state management hard to uphold, while blockchains, smart contracts, and digital assets can track provenance and the present state of a digital system. If AI projects need financial capital, digital currencies and tokenomics can provide economies to scale. As the capabilities of Narrow AI move toward General AI and Super AI, generative data may struggle to preserve the source of truth, while web3 technologies add transparency to improve inputs and help avoid unsteadiness. Even at the infrastructure level, AI can benefit from decentralized training algorithms, and a growing thirst for electricity can be quenched by HPC data centers originally built for mining cryptocurrencies.

Extra Shot

Darkness lurks in the shadows, but the virtuous light of abundance bets on a shared, atomically exquisite existence.

This example highlights how mixing different concepts can extend technology life cycles. Such abundance also paves the way to more exotic technologies.

Brewed From Within
#83 📖 Technology

By Ben McDougal, ago

Septenary

AI is often thought of as a singular technology. This blanket assumption makes it impossible to compare the capabilities and functionalities that differ between the seven different types of artificial intelligence.

The seven types of AI are organized into two groups. The first group is based on capability and includes Narrow AI, General AI, and Super AI. The second group is based on functionality and includes Reactive Machine AI, Limited Memory AI, Theory of Mind AI, and Self-Aware AI.

Capabilities are determined by what different types of AI are able to accomplish. The three types of AI categorized by capabilities are Narrow AI, General AI, and Super AI. Here’s what’s possible today and what may be possible tomorrow.

Narrow AI <realized>

AI trained from existing data, with compute geared to do one thing really well. While data sets are vast, this type of AI cannot go beyond the data sets it is tied to. As of 2026, Narrow AI is the only type of AI that is fully realized within the three types of AI categorized by capabilities. Examples of Narrow AI include language translators, spam filters, recommendation engines, voice assistants, facial recognition, self-driving vehicles, and task-focused robots. Generative AI also falls within this type of AI. The mashups of generated text, images, video, and sound appear to be random but are still constraints by existing data sets. Neural networks, optimized data sets, computer vision, and machine learning make the capabilities of Narrow AI remarkable but limited by the data it has to munch.

General AI <theorized>

This advancing realm of AI leverages existing data like Narrow AI but can reason beyond those constraints. The transfer of intelligence with no human intervention makes the race to General AI (also called AGI) intense. When AI can make decisions based on an advancing state of its own understanding, the limit of this AI’s capabilities become unknown. Theories set the potential limit to around that of a human. Agentic AI hints at AGI with decision making and interdisciplinary task management, but lacks the emotional traits, planning, and other methods of generalization that will define the capabilities of General AI. Other signals include synthetic content creation and autonomous robots that can learn new tricks. As the theories of AGI become realized, ethics, regulation, and a determination of consciousness will be moving targets. The breeding speed of AGI may release points of no return, which makes it critical to understand and debate openly to ensure a new species is copacetic.

Super AI <theorized>

Welcome to when AI becomes its own species. This triggers concern due to the finite resources of Earth, but when AI surpasses the capabilities of humankind, dust from the deep future will already be everywhere. Multi-planetary travel will be underway, climate problems will be solved, and life extension will be supported by Super AI. Singularity is theorized to push the functionalities of Self-Aware AI and the capabilities of Super AI beyond humanity’s control. That means the time to plan ahead is now. As the minds of machines are wired, it’s crucial to collectively consider the heart and soul we build into technology. This will guide discovery with an excellence that came before it.

AI based on functionality is less about power and more about how things work. Reactive Machine AI, Limited Memory AI, Theory of Mind AI, and Self-Aware AI are the types of AI classified by their functionalities.

 

Reactive Machine AI <realized>

This is old school AI. Rooted in statistical math, Reactive Machine AI arrived soon after the computer was developed. There is no adaptive learning here, but the speed at which it can calculate data makes the performance seem intelligent. The functionalities of Reactive Machine AI drive more primitive examples of Narrow AI, such as recommendation engines and game-playing programs. This type of AI provides a static base, but with no memory and a focus only on specific tasks, attention shifts toward functionalities that have more adaptive characteristics.

 

Limited Memory AI <realized>

This type of AI learns and evolves. Functionalities of Limited Memory AI are still constrained by the existing data it was trained with, but world-changing advancements have been seen in machine learning, large language models (LLMs), generative AI tools, multimodality, computer vision, and self-driving vehicles. The realization of Limited Memory AI has Narrow AI pushing its full potential.

 

Theory of Mind AI <theorized>

Here, we combine existing data, an adaptive ability to learn, and an emotional willingness to think. Enhanced reasoning, multimodality, customizability, adaptive computing, and user-driven functionalities bring General AI (AGI) to life. Theory of Mind AI embraces emotions and understands how we think. This type of AI will add personality to humanoid robots and support reliable relationships by combining digital depth to the realities of our world. As lines blur between humans and machines, adaptive compute will remain a currency, efficiency will skyrocket, and a new era of life on Earth will begin.

 

Self-Aware AI <theorized>

It’s hard to define consciousness, but true self-awareness exemplifies this type of AI. Along with understanding how we think, Super AI will own emotions, hold beliefs, and is theorized to support the functionalities of Super AI.

Understanding the seven types of AI helps leaders leverage the perks of technology now and later. Our willingness to lift the fog helps avoid a fear of the unknown, and while resisting technology is a choice, it’s one that may put you behind innovation curves. Hybrids add artificial copilots but remain assertive and budget resources, knowing we are the pulchritudinous architects of our own neon future.

Brewed From Within
#81 📖 Technology

By Ben McDougal, ago

Dollowers

Social media addicted the world to pops of dopamine that came in the form of a friend request or clickable reactions to content. With a single click, likes led to more followers, which added attention and became a metric to support an entire industry of online influencers. The temptation of fame for anyone had many doing whatever it took to keep engagement flowing and follower count growing, but the audience we often yearned for was never truly owned.

Followers are controlled by tech giants and guarded by unseen algorithms. They can vanish without notice. To play the game without being bamboozled, diversify your online presence and add layers of dollowers who pay to stay in tune.

Dollowers pay with their wallet, affiliation, and attention. As you grow an online audience, transition followers into dollowers with segmented email lists, a fleet of products, digital assets, speaking engagements, creator compensation programs, books, affiliate marketing, online courses, and a website to call home base. This gives true fans a sustaining way to show lasting support beyond today’s favorite fad.

Brewed From Within
#75 📖 Technology

By Ben McDougal, ago

Innovation Curves

Things happen. Trends occur. Economies shift. Technology jolts the systems. Culture changes.

Time will do its thing.

Amidst change, it’s easy to hold on to what worked before. Innovation curves are hamster wheels that are hard to stay ahead of. The term innovation creates circular conversation; it is abstract and often over-used. Everyone experiences innovation, but just because we try something new doesn’t mean we’re a thought leader on change. Gurus will guide, and teams can make it easier to stay ahead of your own innovation curves, but it’s never easy, straightforward, or constant.

When stagnant, work feels like work. Stay ahead of innovation curves by maintaining what built existing momentum. Keep delivering on the promise, then experiment to remain in-tune. Stay thirsty enough to tinker. Add diversities. Revisit early moves. Understand the risks. Remain connected to end-users to grasp reality. Own what’s needed and hold on tight.

Time will still pass, and every story will end. The best ones are those we get to finish on our own terms.

Brewed From Within
#68 📖 Technology

By Ben McDougal, ago

Diversified Career Portfolio

From an early age, the world tells us to change it by chasing our dreams. Not one dream, all of them. At the same time, we’re told our work must be focused.

The most classic example of this lies in a loaded question we ask children. What do you want to be when you grow up? This simple question assumes a singular path. In school, the pressure mounts as students are forced to select classes and eventually declare a major if they choose to attend college. In adulthood, side hustles are often discouraged and replaced with the promise of security in exchange for corporate compliance. As a founder, the focus of today can shift, yet remain relevant.

If financial stability relies on a single income or employees depend on you, true focus will support lasting stability. Even with such discipline, many people have lost that safe job, closed a business, had a new idea, or need extra income. Things rarely go as planned, and the promise of security is just one decision away from being taken away.

To avoid the pitfalls of a singular path, activate a collection of initiatives that merge into a diversified career portfolio.

In a digital age, we are more efficient and can unite technology with community to balance more than one quest at a time. When leaders push progress on multiple fronts, each activity injects various flavors of value. For example, you may have a traditional job that provides financial capital in the form of a paid salary. At the same time, a side hustle can generate intellectual capital and innovative energy that translates into more creative work in that stabilizing job. You may also volunteer within a tribe you trust, which fuels human, network, and cultural capital as well. Such ambition should be celebrated, but it’s more often feared by those who don’t understand how it feels to hammer on one thing, ship progress; pop to the next thing, ship more progress; then pop one or two or three more times to fuel even more momentum! This type of work requires tenacity, but over time, a multi-modal focus is refined into indescribable stamina and lasting stability.

All seven capitals (financial, intellectual, human, physical, institutional, network, cultural) can be hard to find in one place. When leaders mobilize a diversified career portfolio, we celebrate what we have to attract more of what we want. For example, the common complaint of not having enough money fades when leaders build momentum through a sense of abundance. What you want is replaced by what you have, which attracts what is needed to fill gaps.

As you make moves to expand a diversified career portfolio, it is important to avoid diluting yourself to mediocrity. We know the entrepreneurial lifestyle requires extra gears, but the exhilaration of building into things you’re obsessed with supports persistence. The wild card of persistence creates elasticity in how we spend time. When this form of agility is applied on multiple fronts, smaller time-windows are still enough to make a big impact on various fronts.

Along with flexibility, a diversified career portfolio delivers dependability. Even with mixed endeavors, the common thread is you. Nobody is you, which makes a diversified career portfolio hard to compete with.

As an added bonus, no matter the reason, when one creative season receives less attention, other activities still remain. This allows attention to be realigned with a collection of activities, which adds to the flexibility and dependability of your diversified career portfolio.

For anyone with more to build, no permission is required to add creative slivers to the pie chart of how you spend time. Does it take extra gears? Yes. Might this require practice to keep your personal bandwidth balanced? Yes. Will your co-founder in life play a tremendous role in how much risk you can apply? Yes. Might you have to play 80 hours in order to avoid working 40? Yes. Is such splendor absolutely accessible for anyone in our connected era? Yes!

Brewed From Within
#64 📖 Leadership

By Ben McDougal, ago