Technology, time and creativity, the perfect mix for a new Renaissance.

It is pretty easy to get lost in dark thoughts as soon you start thinking about where the current technological evolution is taking us. I even got a comment that the last newsletter on humanoids made the reader “f’ing terrified and depressed”. SO! This is why this week I want to lay out the opposite side of it, because I think we will eventually get to an incredible world that is (once again) better than where we are now. Especially for you reader, no need to freak out, the future is f’ing exciting 😉.

There are many different sides of life we can look at and how it could turn out to be. For this piece I want to focus on the following aspect: ideas and where this could lead us.

Before we go in, let’s first start with a quick history lesson. I asked GPT to describe what the renaissance was: The Renaissance (14th–17th century) was a cultural and intellectual movement that began in Italy and spread across Europe, marking a transition from the Middle Ages to the modern era. It was characterized by a revival of classical art, literature, and philosophy, inspired by ancient Greek and Roman texts. This period saw groundbreaking advancements in science, humanism, and exploration, with figures like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Galileo shaping new ways of thinking. The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg accelerated the spread of knowledge, fueling education and reform. Ultimately, the Renaissance laid the foundation for the Enlightenment and the scientific revolution, profoundly shaping Western civilization.

Let’s dive in topic by topic and I will try to explain how they each benefit my stance that a new renaissance is upon us.

The fascinating thing about AI, is that it is a accelerator for every other industry. AI is a general technology, it is not one thing we use via a service or app. It is underpinning everything we will use eventually, although you might not see/feel it on the front end. There are a couple of things that the AI revolution will unlock for humanity, that will create space for all the new, resulting in a new renaissance.

Lowering the barrier to entry into, everything?
The only limitation for your craft will be your own imagination and creativity. We already see it now with generative AI tools, video, voice, image, text. Now fast-forward a bit, anything you can think of you can have Gen AI create for you. This means the barrier to entry for film, art, design, videography, whatever creatively, is practically non-existent. You can look at this with a negative lens, as some creatives might loose their jobs because of this, or you feel AI generated things can’t be considered art. I don’t agree with either. When digital animation became a thing, it probably took over jobs of traditional hand-drawn animators. Maybe some took their craft into the digital world and continued, other’s remained negative and lost. (This is something that I already alluded to end of 2023 in conversation with the Mountain Collective Podcast).

As I argued in edition 12, I do think “human crafted” stuff will have value (and/or even rise in value). That is not the point of the conversation we are having now. In the next few years, more than ever, it will be a battle of great ideas and art. I see this as positive progress. More people who are able to create (because maybe before this they lacked the technical knowledge or resources to get the right software/learn the right skill) means more ideas / art, more ideas and art will result in new exciting things.

When I say more = more, I mean: innovation is a numbers game. Imagine you currently have the resources to try just 10 ideas, your chances of hitting something exciting are pretty limited, right? Now picture having the ability to test 5000 ideas at almost no cost. You’ll fail quicker, sure, but you’ll also learn faster and iterate very rapidly. With that much experimentation, the chances of hitting something groundbreaking explode. So I don’t see quantity diluting quality, I see dramatically boosting our odds by turning creativity and experimentation up to the max. The end result? The world gets more exciting things to experience, use, and ultimately benefit from.

But it is not only art. We are heading into a world where it will become practically free to test ANY idea you might have. For a product, an app, a service, whatever it might be. How?

We are already seeing the signs of it with the new trend called “vibe coding”. Vibe coding is an AI-assisted programming approach where people describe whatever they like to see in natural language, allowing AI tools to generate the corresponding code. This method makes it possible for people with minimal coding experience to create functional software by talking with AI. The term was first used by computer scientist Andrej Karpathy, co-founder of OpenAI and former AI director at Tesla, who described it as surrendering to the “vibes” of AI, embracing its exponential power, and overlooking the nuances of the generated code. Some great tools such as Cursor and Replit (which we discussed in the 1 billion dollar - 1 person company newsletter) are seeing enormous usage stats because of this. Cursor is reportedly raising another new investment round, valueing the company at ten billion.

The ultimate internet hustler Pieter Levels (yes he is Dutch) already made 60k USD+ with a game he “vibe coded” into existence.

Yes it helped that Musk retweeted him, yes it looks like shit, but still, don’t look at what this means NOW, look at what this means for the future. (also highly suggest checking out Pieter’s interview with Lex Fridman, incredible stuff haha).

Why am I sharing this? It goes back to the possible impact, same as for creativity. In 2024 there were approximately 28.7 million software developers world wide. Now let’s double that number because maybe people who aren’t actual software developers still have the skills to build such a game. Now what happens if we 10 or 100x that number because the barrier to entry will become so low?

This is exactly the point that I am trying to make. Technology will make it, just like in art, possible for (almost all) people to test any idea they want for almost zero dollars. All you need is your creativity, vision, an internet connection and you are ready to go. The result will be, in my humble opinion, that more people will try out their ideas. More people try, more people succeed = a net positive for the world because we can all enjoy the results of that.

It will only become easier and easier. When AI Agents will be ready, you just tell your agent your idea, it will build it while you work your 9-5 job and it is ready to test when you get home (highly suggest looking at the Manus video at the bottom of the newsletter). For the last 10 years we have seen a rise of people who work freelance. The “gig economy” became hot, referring to short-term, flexible, and freelance work rather than traditional full-time employment. I think this will change even more, but not by an increase in freelancers but by an increase in solo entrepreneurs. I think most people will need to start looking at their own work/life as an entrepreneur pretty soon. In some industries it is already a necessity:

So until now we have more art, more creativity, more people who can create apps, businesses or any other idea. More = more = improvement. You can’t tell me that if there is 10 or 100 times more stuff being created/tested that we won’t find new groundbreaking things that can help our planet.

There there is the other, very important, factor that will be unlocked thanks to AI/innovation and that is: time. The most valuable currency in the world.

Let me start by saying; humans are not meant to work 40-hour per week in order to enjoy two days off. I don’t want to get too spiritual here but you only have to look at the world where we came from. Nobody should live to work, we should work to live. What if that world can become a reality? As discussed in our humanoid robotics newsletter, we are possibly heading to a world in which almost all work will be done by robots or AI.

Yes, that will result in a lot of people loosing their jobs and there needs to be a solution (universal basic income? robot tax? AI tax?). But if we look at the positive side, what if this will unlock that millions, if not billions, of people can finally do the things they enjoy to do? Or work on things they really care about with all the tools at their disposal as just discussed?

Summing up again what we have until now: the only limit is your creativity, the barrier to create art, stories, businesses, apps, products is almost completely gone and we will have more free time than ever before in our modern society.

THERE IS MORE POSITIVITY! haha YES!

Let’s talk about business models. Currently a lot of creators have to pay enormous fees to find distribution. Spotify is always the best example. On average, artists receive between $0.003 and $0.005 per stream on the platform. This means that an artist needs 500.000 plays per month, with an average value of $0.004 per stream, to make a small 2000 USD per month. An amount that is not enough to live in most big(ger) cities considering you still need to pay for equipment, maybe managers and so forth.

This is another great example of how blockchain can make our world a bit more honest. Not only because it is much easier to setup safe payments with your fanbase and a way to digitally verify the digital art you possibly want to sell. It also, for the music industry for example, unlocks a new way of crowdfunding. Example: you find a new artist on Youtube, or TikTok that you love. They are small, starting out from their bedroom. You then find out that you can buy/invest in their music. Meaning you not only support the artist but you can also earn some money yourself if the artist becomes successful. How?

Introducing: Royal. A blockchain enabled music platform that you can use to buy “shares” of new music. As a marketing example they collaborated with Nas, three years ago, to release some of his new songs there. In short. You buy a “share” of an album or song and you get a certain % of royalties this song makes thanks to its popularity aka actual dollars. This means a new artist can sell shares to an album he/she/they wants to make, use that funding to pay for a recording studio/equipment or whatever and give back to the fans as soon as the album is actually released. All on chain, completely automatically and honest.

If the current business model for creators will be disrupted once again, resulting in that there will be more money to earn for creators, this means more people could potentially live of off their craft. More creators, more creativity = (again) more new breakthrough and exciting ideas/art/craft etc.

The last factor I will mention shortly is that there will also be an increasing need for digital things. For current platforms but also for new platforms such as AR/VR/MR, which could open up a whole new spectrum for creators to work on / make money with.

Summing up once again:

• More people are able to create: your imagination is your only limit

• More people are able to build: any business idea you have you can test basically for free

• People will have more freedom & time: maybe forcefully due to loosing a job, but the positive is that people can finally focus on things they actually like

• New ways of making money online: making it possible for more people to live of off their craft and creations

• New platforms / increase in digital demand: more opportunities to create and make a living from

Combining all the above trends, how can you NOT see this as a super exciting time?

I understand that it is all hard to imagine how the world is going to look like in five years. It is for everyone (including me), you are not alone. But I urge you to look at the positive instead of overly focusing on the negative. We all know how media and social media’s algorithm work, negativity gets more clicks so is spread way more often and further than anything positive.

The above shows a fictional trajectory of what we are about to witness.

Moore’s Law (1965) says that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles approximately every two years, leading to exponential growth in computing power while reducing costs. This prediction fueled decades of innovation in personal computing, mobile devices, and the internet. Hence the uptick in growth of progress from that point on.

Huang’s Law (2025) says that GPU performance, especially for AI workloads, is improving even faster than Moore’s Law. Named after NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, it suggests that advancements in chip architecture, parallel computing, and AI acceleration are driving a more-than-doubling of performance roughly every 1.2 years.

Together, these trends highlight why we are entering an era of hyper-acceleration, where computing power is scaling at unprecedented speeds, enabling breakthroughs in AI, and therefore any other industry.

Now interestingly enough, there is another part of the renaissance comparison that could potentially align with our future. It is not a very nice one but I do want to mention it as I don’t want you to think that I am ignorant to the possible negative impacts. The Renaissance emerged after Europe recovered from the devastation of the Black Death, which shook established beliefs and created opportunities for fresh thinking. It reshaped European society, forcing major changes in labor, economics, and culture.

I do believe that the speed of change in technology and the fact we are creating something that is so much more intelligent than we are, will challenge all our collective ideas and thinking. From economic, cultural, work, societal perspectives. All of it.

It is very hard to grasp, how our world will be when there is actually something that is a billion times smarter than all of us combined? Some compare to the level of intelligence we will face to our level of intelligence vs the intelligence of a fruit fly. Although in this case we are the fruit fly and AI is us 😅.

Now I do want to end this with some positivity, of course!

Let me introduce you to David Deutsch. Deutsch is a British physicist and philosopher, best known for pioneering the field of quantum computing and for his books in which he explores the nature of knowledge, progress, and the limitless potential of human problem-solving. His core argument in The Beginning of Infinity is that progress and knowledge creation are limitless, and the only thing that constrains us is our ability to generate and improve explanations—in other words, intelligence. Aka, any problem is solvable as long as it isn’t forbidden by the laws of physics. We just currently lack the intelligence to do so. Well, to end on a positive note, guess what we are currently developing on a whole new level? Exactly, intelligence.

While the level of intelligence of AI is increasing rapidly, the application of that intelligence is only just beginning. To go back to my earlier point that negative news reaches more people then positive, let me highlight two things. First is the below tweet by professor Derya Unutmaz, biomedical scientist & human immunologist who researches aging and cancer immunotherapy. He stated the below, exciting?

And then last but not least, I am not sure everyone knows but last year Google Deepmind’s Demis Hassabis and John Jumper won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their development of AlphaFold, an AI system capable of accurately predicting protein structures. This breakthrough addressed a longstanding challenge in biology, enabling rapid and precise modeling of nearly all known proteins. Proteins are like tiny Lego pieces inside your body, and each one has a special shape that helps building muscles, fighting germs, or making your heart beat.

Before AlphaFold it would take months, or even years, to structure just one protein and until AlphaFold was created the Protein Data Bank (PDB) had experimentally determined structures for approximately 180,000 proteins. AlphaFold has now structured approximately 200 million proteins.. resulting in the Nobel Prize.

By providing detailed insights into protein folding, AlphaFold has accelerated drug discovery and disease understanding, allowing scientists to develop targeted treatments more efficiently. The widespread accessibility of AlphaFold’s predictions has democratized structural biology, accelerating research across various scientific disciplines.

Protein mapping is the key to truly personalized health and nutrition, helping us move from general solutions to tailor-made treatments that fit each person like a glove.

There is so much positive breakthroughs already because of these new innovations, so again stay positive and don’t let the negative overwhelm you too much.

We are heading towards a world of abundance, a world where anything will be possible, we will live healthier and longer, maybe even a full utopia. But yes, we need to be mindful and work hard to get there and not loose track of it in the process. The way to get there will be rocky, scary and shaky, but man it will be worth it. Intelligence at a level we have never had will become a commodity for everyone, now it is just a matter of what YOU are going to do with it.

LFG! 🚀 

Here are some of the latest announcements and other things that I found interesting this week (underscore means clickable!):

• I am a Wu-Tang Clan fan but the reason why I am sharing their latest music video with you is only because it is FULLY generated by AI, using Google’s Veo2. I think it looks sick, do you agree? #wutangisforever

• A very impressive AI Agent demo video from China hit the internet by storm this week. Have a look at how AI Agent’s will work on your behalf soon.

• Unitree’s latest video is a fun (or scary?) one showing their robot “mastered” kung-fu haha 😅 

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^{Who am I and why you should be here:}

^{Over the years, I’ve navigated industries like advertising, music, sports, and gaming, always chasing what’s next and figuring out how to make it work for brands, businesses, and myself. From strategizing for global companies to experimenting with the latest tech, I’ve been on a constant journey of learning and sharing.}

^{This newsletter is where I’ll bring all of that together—my raw thoughts, ideas, and emotions about AI, blockchain, gaming, Gen Z & Alpha, and life in general. No perfection, just me being as real as it gets.}

^{Every week (or whenever inspiration hits), I’ll share what’s on my mind: whether it’s deep dives into tech, rants about the state of the world, or random experiments that I got myself into. The goal? To keep it valuable, human, and worth your time.}