This week, we're doing something different. Instead of covering the latest tech developments, we sat down for an in-depth conversation about Patrick's newly released book, Waves of Abundance (currently available in Dutch).

What started as a casual chat about Bryan Johnson's quest for longevity evolved into a fascinating exploration of intelligence, creativity, virtual realities, and the systems that govern our lives. We covered everything from why AI is actually underhyped to whether there's any meaningful difference between virtual and physical reality.

Grab a coffee, settle in, and let's explore some of the biggest questions facing humanity in the age of exponential technology.

And don’t forget to follow us on socials and share all the innovation goodies!

Cheers,
Patrick, Nikola & Aragorn 🚀

DNA, Memes, and Digital Replicators

One of the core frameworks in the book divides human progress into three distinct periods of information transmission. First came biological evolution through DNA, a painfully slow process spanning 4.5 billion years. Then, roughly 10,000-20,000 years ago, humans developed memetic evolution: the ability to transmit ideas and culture within generations rather than across them. Finally, we've entered the era of digital replicators, where AI can generate and spread information without human intervention.

Why does it matter?
Understanding these three periods is about recognizing the unprecedented speed of change we're experiencing right now. Everything that happened in the past 12,000 years is being compressed into decades. We're living through a transition that's not just technological but evolutionary. The mechanisms by which information spreads -whether through genes, memes, or algorithms - fundamentally shape what we become as a species. Recognizing we're in the third wave helps us prepare for changes that our biology and culture haven't equipped us to handle naturally.

Intelligence and Creativity: Inseparable Partners

Are intelligence and creativity linked? Patrick argues yes, pointing to polymaths like David Bowie, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci as evidence. Intelligence, broken down to its Latin roots (inter and ligere), is about finding patterns, understanding their interactions, and reconstructing them in new forms. The more complex patterns you can understand, the more creatively you can recombine them.

But there's a catch: even geniuses created hundreds of failed attempts for every masterpiece we celebrate. They curated their own output, selecting what was meaningful. With AI now capable of massive creation, we're shifting from being creators to curators. And that transition might actually make us less intelligent over time if we're not careful.

Why does it matter?
If creativity requires active creation then our increasing reliance on AI to generate ideas, write poetry, or compose music could atrophy our cognitive abilities. It's like the difference between running a marathon and watching someone else run it. Sure, you learn something from watching, but you don't build the same capacity. As we hand over more creative tasks to AI, we need to consciously maintain spaces for genuine human creation, or risk losing the very intelligence that makes us distinctly human.

Why AI is Underhyped (Yes, Really)

Despite all the buzz, Patrick argues AI is underhyped. We've discovered 200 million new proteins through AI, representing roughly a billion years of PhD work. Even if AI progress stopped completely today, we'd spend the next decade developing breakthrough medicines from that knowledge alone. And it's not stopping.

The Chinese recently reversed aging in macaque monkeys. Mot mice, not yeast, but primates close to humans on the evolutionary chain. David Sinclair, who literally wrote the book on lifespan extension, expressed "complete bafflement" at how quickly this happened. We might be 10-15 years away from age-reversal treatments for humans.

Why does it matter?
The gap between what's technically possible and what most people believe is possible has never been wider. Some people are dismissing AI as overhyped while it's quietly revolutionizing protein folding, drug discovery, and potentially human longevity itself. The impact on healthcare, economics, and human lifespan over the next 10-20 years will be orders of magnitude larger than most people imagine. Not understanding this isn't just intellectually lazy but strategically dangerous for businesses, policymakers, and individuals planning their futures.

The First Three Waves: Intelligence, Machines, and the Metaverse

The book identifies five transformative waves: first, artificial intelligence reaching and surpassing human cognitive capabilities; second, the physical manifestation of that intelligence in robots and autonomous systems; and third, the metaverse — AI-generated realities that become indistinguishable from physical experience.

Patrick points out that we're already living in a metaverse. It’s a digital layer over our ‘real’ reality. Look at it this way: Minecraft alone has created virtual surface area equal to Earth's entire landmass across its 225 million monthly players. That is one game, with more digital surface than the entire earth. Kids today experience Minecraft as naturally as we experienced Lego. They've already virtualized physical play without thinking twice about it.

Why does it matter?
The metaverse isn't some distant sci-fi concept. It's already here, just unevenly distributed. Your kids probably spend more time in virtual worlds than you realize, and AI will make those worlds infinitely expansive and personalized. The question "what will people do when everything is automated?" has an answer: they'll live in realities of their choosing, whether physical, virtual, or blended. This is already happening. We watch Netflix for hours in a 2D version of this future. The transition to fully immersive 3D is just a matter of time and hardware. Understanding this helps us prepare for a world where "real" and "virtual" become meaningless distinctions.

Is There Such a Thing as "Artificial" Intelligence?

Here's a trick question: Is there actually such a thing as artificial intelligence? Or is all intelligence just... intelligence? We use the word "artificial" to distinguish between naturally evolved and human-created intelligence, but that distinction might be more about our ego than reality. After all, we're part of nature. So isn't everything we create also natural?

AI just deciphered sperm whale communication, revealing a phonetic alphabet we never knew existed. Octopuses display remarkable intelligence despite living only seven months. Intelligence comes in many forms: musical, spatial, problem-solving, etc. Why should we privilege the carbon-based version?

Why does it matter?
The language we use shapes how we think. Calling it "artificial" intelligence creates an unnecessary hierarchy that positions human intelligence as "real" and everything else as lesser or fake. This framing blinds us to the genuine intelligence emerging in silicon-based systems and prevents us from taking AI seriously enough. It's about recognizing that intelligence is a spectrum of problem-solving capabilities that isn't exclusive to biological brains. Dropping the "artificial" label might help us better prepare for a world where multiple forms of intelligence coexist and collaborate.

Which Systems Will Be Most Affected?

Every system we've built - economic, political, social, even our conception of reality itself - emerged during an era of scarcity. What happens when we enter an age of abundance? Patrick argues that our economic system will be most dramatically transformed, but there's something even deeper: our entire worldview is a system that's about to be shattered.

We like to think we're at the top of the food chain, making autonomous decisions. But we're really just cells in much larger systems—employees in companies, companies in economies, economies in global networks. We have about as much individual control as a single cell has over your body's decisions. And those mega-systems are about to fundamentally change.

Why does it matter?
We're approaching transformation not just of what we do, but of what we believe reality itself to be. Religious worldviews are already being shattered by scientific advancement. Economic rules that assumed scarcity will break down in a world where AI and robotics can produce almost anything at near-zero marginal cost. Will we actively shape that change or be passively swept along by emergent behaviors we don't understand? Systems have their own logic and momentum. Understanding that we're participants in these systems, not their masters, is the first step toward consciously influencing their evolution.

The Polarization Paradox: Together or Apart?

Aragorn highlights a section in the book, a question that Patrick hasn't fully answered himself: Does technology ultimately bring humanity together or pull us apart? On one hand, we've never had more democratic access to information: billions of people connected to the same knowledge, using standardized devices. On the other hand, those same technologies enable us to retreat into incompatible sub-realities, creating polarization and mutual incomprehension.

Who will have access to life extension technologies? Will AI democratize abundance or concentrate power in the hands of a few? These aren't abstract questions that will determine whether we're heading toward utopia or dystopia.

Why does it matter?
This is the most important question of our time, and it doesn't have a predetermined answer. Technology is deflationary. Penicillin, smartphones, and COVID vaccines spread to billions relatively quickly. But that's not guaranteed to continue without active effort. History shows that when elites lose touch with common people, revolutions happen.

The French Revolution, the American Revolution, people don't tolerate permanent inequality. But we've also never lived in a world with this much potential abundance, where some could theoretically create armies of robots or retreat into perfect virtual realities. The choices we make now - about sharing, about access, about who controls transformative technologies - will echo for centuries. Staying engaged with this question, refusing easy answers, and working toward inclusive futures isn't optional. It's survival.

Digital Detox: Putting Down the Screens

Every quarter, Patrick does something that feels almost revolutionary these days: he unplugs. Completely. On Friday evening, laptops, phones, even the remote controls disappear into a bag. They don't come back out until Monday morning.

"It's a blessing," he says. The effect is immediate. "It feels like putting on mental noise-cancelling headphones. Like meditating for 48 hours straight."

The family rediscovers a different rhythm. Conversations take their time. Board games stretch longer. Books get finished. The weekend expands in unexpected ways.

Last weekend, Patrick did something he hadn't done in years: he asked strangers on the street what time it was and which way to go. "How fun is that?" he laughs. Simple human interactions that have become rare in our smartphone era suddenly feel fresh and meaningful.

Why this matters
The real power of a digital detox isn't in the peace and quiet. It's in what becomes visible when you step back. For 48 hours, Patrick can see and feel the digital layer that normally surrounds him. The layer that directs his attention, influences his mood, and quietly steers his behavior.

It's like the waves Patrick describes in his book Waves of Abundance. You don't feel the current when you're swimming in it. But stand on the shore for a moment, and suddenly the force of the water becomes clear. The pull, the direction, the power.

The digital world isn't going anywhere. But once every quarter, Patrick steps out. Not to reject technology, but to see it clearly. To remember what it feels like to swim without the current.

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