Future, Actually Podcast

In December 1981, OMNI magazine introduced a bold idea: computers built partly from the same biological materials found in living things. Smaller circuits, enormous possibilities, and a prototype supposedly just a few years away. So—how did that work out?

Tara Lyn revisits the promised biochip revolution, checks the predictions, and explores what happened to that future.

Same people. Different future.

Source: OMNI magazine, December 1981 (Internet Archive): https://archive.org/details/omni-archive/OMNI_1981_12/

In 1994, OMNI magazine asked whether computers could be creative. In 2026, that question has escaped the laboratory and wandered into practically every argument on the internet.

In the first episode of Future, Actually, Tara Lyn revisits OMNI’s predictions about artificial creativity and compares them with today’s AI. What did they get right? What did they miss? And does producing something creative mean a machine has imagination?

A trip back to yesterday’s tomorrow—with research, a Gen X perspective, and a healthy dose of snark.

Same people. Different future.