The FutureNotes on technology, design, product, and culture. By Chuka Chase.https://wearethefutu.re/Bowie Had an Exit Planhttps://wearethefutu.re/essays/bowie-had-an-exit-plan/https://wearethefutu.re/essays/bowie-had-an-exit-plan/Bowie killed Ziggy and kept going. The artists who built a character got second acts. When life is the stage, there's no exit.Wed, 14 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTcultureIs AI really costing us all this water?https://wearethefutu.re/essays/is-ai-really-costing-us-all-this-water/https://wearethefutu.re/essays/is-ai-really-costing-us-all-this-water/The water panic around AI went viral before anyone agreed on the units. Plastic straws, almond milk, and what scale actually changes.Sun, 27 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTcultureEvery music marketing meta dies the same way.https://wearethefutu.re/essays/every-meta-dies-the-same-way/https://wearethefutu.re/essays/every-meta-dies-the-same-way/Twelve years of chasing channels: direct to fan, paid ads, TikTok, creators, and now the email list. One sound once turned into half a billion streams. Run the same play today and it doesn't. The fan never changed. Where we rented access to them did.Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTcultureYour AI assistant forgets everything. More memory won't fix it.https://wearethefutu.re/essays/memory-is-two-problems/https://wearethefutu.re/essays/memory-is-two-problems/Two hours working something out. You close the window, it's gone. Everyone calls this a memory problem. It's two problems, and they want opposite designs.Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTtechnologyYour company already has an AI portfolio. Nobody can see it.https://wearethefutu.re/essays/you-cannot-see-your-ai-portfolio/https://wearethefutu.re/essays/you-cannot-see-your-ai-portfolio/95% of company AI pilots show no measurable return. Not because the technology failed, but because nobody ever counted what got built. Here's how to count it.Sat, 29 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTtechnology