Imagine Telling Someone in 1999

Imagine telling someone in 1999… The year is 2026. The President is Donald Trump in his second non consecutive term. The richest man in the world is PayPal cofounder Elon Musk… but not because of fintech or Paypal. Because of rockets, electric cars, AI, satellites, brain chips and something called “Boring Company”. Apple is worth trillions but its main business isn’t computers… its selling glass rectangles everyone stares at for 9 hours a day. People don’t watch TV. They watch teenagers explain geopolitics, finance, and relationship advice in ~60 second videos. The biggest taxi company owns no taxis. The biggest hotel company owns no hotels. The most powerful media companies are social networks where everyone argues with strangers for free. Kids are making millions filming themselves playing video games. AI Robots write emails, code, legal memos, songs, essays, and breakup texts. The internet is mostly bots arguing with humans who are trying to prove they aren’t bots. You can summon a car, groceries, a doctor, a date, a private jet, or a dog walker from your phone. People pay real money for invisible currencies, digital monkeys, AI girlfriends and pictures that disappear after 24 hours. The richest companies in the world don’t sell oil, steel, or cars. They sell attention, compute, data, and addiction. And somehow, after all of that everyone is still using Excel.