"We all crave more humanity, more tactility, more contact with the real world. And AI done in the right way can be agentic and behind the scenes and be this kind of laid intelligence that sits underneath everything but doesn't need to shout for your attention."
David Sheldon-Hicks and his team at
Territory Studios build the future for a living, from the interfaces in
Dune,
The Martian,
Guardians of the Galaxy to the real screens in Audis and Cadillacs. So I was excited to have him, and Perry Mason, Territory's head of digital, on the show to explore what's coming next.
David expects the future will be less like Marvel (maximalist, everything screaming for your attention) and more like Dune (analog, tactile, with deep intelligence sitting quietly underneath). He calls this "quiet tech" and thinks it's exactly what we're starting to crave.
We also explore:
- What it takes to build near-future interfaces for Hollywood films that are believable in context, yet just out of reach in today's reality
- Why exploring dystopian fears can lead to better product design
- Building a live 3D map of the entire planet — and the moment they realized they were designing the plot of a Bond film
- Why anything genuinely valuable stays hard to make: David's pushback on "Hollywood is cooked" and the wave of AI hype promising $10 blockbusters
- Humanoid robots as universal adapters: Why the world being built for human-shaped things might be the whole case for human-shaped machines
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What is Future Around & Find Out?
* Winner of the 2026 Webby Award for Best Technology Podcast *
Future Around & Find Out helps builders think clearly about AI and emerging technologies, grapple with the implications, and decide what to build next.
Independent technologist and former NPR journalist Dan Blumberg speaks with founders, makers, and you to celebrate breakthroughs, call BS on the hype, explore how things might go sideways — and how we can steer the future in the right direction.
On Tuesdays, we interview the builders changing how we work, live, and play.
On FAFO Fridays, futurist Kwaku Aning joins Dan for a playful recap of the week in tech, including the amazing, the scary, and the strange.
You’ll also hear about innovations that too often get overshadowed by AI, including in deep tech, biotech, fintech, quantum computing, robotics, blockchain, and more.
Across it all, you’ll hear sharp takes on what comes next and what builders need to know now.
So let’s Future Around & Find Out together!
https://www.FutureAround.com