Over the past few years I’ve tried a bunch of options – here is what I’m using today to look professional on Zoom and when recording Acquisitions Anonymous.

Camera / Video

Most webcams aren’t designed to produce great video, they’re designed to be small and portable. The sensor in your webcam (whether it’s built into your laptop or sitting on top of your monitor) is tiny, which means it doesn’t capture a lot of light. The lens is small and plastic, which means it can’t produce the bokeh effect (aka “blurry background”) that is the signature of great looking video. If you want your video to look good, you need to upgrade your camera.

If you want to look as legit as your favorite video podcasters, you need a camera with a large sensor (to let in more light), plus a lens with a low f-stop (again, more light) and short focal length (to get that beautiful blurry background aka “bokeh”).

Top of the Line / Professional (this is the setup I use): Sony ZV-E10 Camera ($698 new, or ~$550 used on Ebay) and the Sigma 16mm f1.4 DC DN Lens ($394 new, or ~$300 used on Ebay)

The Sony ZV-E10 hits the sweet spot of all the modern features you need, none you don’t, and not too pricey (you can easily spend thousands on a camera body). The Sigma lens linked above is perfect for streaming and will give you a great natural look with nice bokeh. You will need an inexpensive HDMI capture card + cable to get the video stream out of the ZV-E10 and into your computer – see below.

Best for the Pro-sumer: Sony ZV-1 Camera ($648 new, or ~$400 used on Ebay)

If you’re not quite ready to spring for the Professional setup above, this camera will get you 85% of the way there for about half the price. The ZV-1 is designed specifically for streaming and it will seriously upgrade your video quality (especially when paired with good lighting, see below). It has a built-in zoom lens that helps create the portrait-style bokeh effect, plus tons of pro-level settings to tweak your video. Or just set it on auto and you’ll look great right out of the box. You will need an inexpensive HDMI capture card + cable to get the video stream out of the ZV-1 and into your computer – see below.

Best Enhanced USB Webcam: Lumina Webcam ($175)

If you don’t want to bother with a “real” camera, Lumina’s webcam is pretty impressive for such a small package. It has AI built-in that mimics your phone’s “portrait-mode” setting to create video that really stands out on Zoom. I’ve gotten multiple compliments when using the Lumina on group calls – people think I have a much more expensive camera. It’s not high enough quality for content creation or YouTube (in my opinion) but it’s a great upgrade for video conferencing (especially if you dial in your lighting). I use this for travel.

Best Traditional USB Webcam: Logitech Brio 4K ($140)

If the Lumina is out of stock or you don’t want a webcam that requires special software, Logitech’s Brio 4K is the best quality webcam you can buy. It’s plug and play on every OS, and will “just work” on any computer. It won’t create any portrait-style bokeh, but you will look as good as a traditional webcam can make you.

Lighting

We can’t talk about video without talking about lighting. If your lighting is terrible, even a high quality camera won’t be able to help you. In fact, I’d suggest upgrading your lighting even before upgrading your camera – great lighting can help you get the most out of whatever camera you already have.

Best for Most People: Elgato Key Light Air ($109)

Elgato’s Key Light series are very cool because they are temperature adjustable and wifi-controlled, meaning you can tweak your light’s brightness and color temperature using an app on your computer or phone. They’re also compatible with Elgato’s nifty Streamdeck Mini.

I find the “Air” model is in the sweet spot for most people, but they also have the brighter regular Key Light ($159) and the battery powered Key Light Mini ($79).

Best on a Budget: Any non-wifi key light from Amazon (~$40)

You can find tons of off-brand key lights on Amazon that probably use exactly the same LEDs as the Elgatos. Some even offer wifi control with their own app. Just look for color temperature adjustability and at least ~1400 lumens. I’ve seen good products from Viltrox and Neewer. But I like the Key Light series better because they are compatible with the Streamdeck ecosystem, but if that doesn’t matter to you you can save a bit of money and choose a different brand.

Microphone / Audio

The microphone built into your laptop or webcam is terrible and makes you sound like you’re calling into a radio show from 1980. A dedicated USB mic will go a very long way to making your voice sound like it belongs on a podcast – even if you’re just doing a Zoom call.

Best Quality Mic for Most People: Audio-Technica ATR2100x-USB ($49)

Absolutely incredible bang for your buck. This is a dynamic microphone, which means it naturally ignores background noise and room echo, focusing just on your voice. I’ve recorded hundreds of hours of audio on the ATR2100x and people always compliment me on my audio quality. Grab a cheap pop filter and get close to the mic – you’ll produce great audio.

I recored over 200 hours of Acquisitions Anonymous with this microphone – it’s fantastic and perfect for all but the most nerdy audiophiles.

Upgrade Mic for Audiophiles and Nerds: Shure MV7 ($249)

If you’re the type of person that can appreciate high end audio equipment, you may be interested in the MV7 by Shure. It’s designed specifically for podcasting, and is modeled on Shure’s iconic SM7B microphone. It has a USB port so you don’t need to buy a dedicated audio interface.

This is the mic that I use, and I think it’s barely, almost imperceptibly better than the Audio-Technica, but it’s 5 times the price. Nearly all of the most popular podcasts are recorded on the MV7 or SM7B, but it’s probably overkill unless you’re producing a big time podcast.

Teleprompter Setup (Optional)

If you really want to create the “sitting across the table from you” look, you can put your camera inside a teleprompter, which creates perfect eye contact with your video conferencing counterparts. It’s also great if you are a content creator and want to read a script into the camera, or if you’re running for president.

Teleprompter: Neewer Teleprompter X14 ($128 after coupon)

This is the teleprompter I have, and it is a great balance between size and price. It’s big enough to use with an up to 11″ monitor or iPad, but is barely above $100. The glass is super clear, and it comes with a nice hard carrying case. Note that the included remote is garbage, but you won’t need it.

Tripod for Teleprompter: Neewer Portable Desktop Mini Tripod ($49)

The teleprompter above is meant to be mounted on a tripod, so you’ll need something to hold it up to your eye level. This tripod is super adjustable and sturdy, so you can use it on your desk and play with the height to get it exactly to eye level.

Dedicated Teleprompter Monitor: 10.5″ Portable Monitor 1920×1280 ($70)

This is the real trick to making the teleprompter work. Just drag your Zoom window (or any other window you want to see or read while making eye contact) right onto the external monitor, and you’ll see it in the teleprompter. This specific one is high resolution so faces look great, and is the perfect size to work with the X14 teleprompter.

USB Adapter for Second Monitor: Plugable USB 3.0 to HDMI Video Adapter ($49)

Chances are, your computer only has one HDMI port for an external monitor, and you’re probably already using it. Additionally, if you have an M1/M2 Mac, it only supports one native external monitor without using this adapter.

This adapter allows you to connect the teleprompter monitor via USB 3.0 instead of HDMI. I’ve tested it and it works great with the above monitor and my M1 Mac.

Accessories

HDMI Capture Card (for ZV-E10 / ZV-1): Papeaso Video Capture Card ($19)

As long as your laptop has a USB 3.0 or USB-C port (nearly all PCs/Macs products in the last 5 years), there is no need to buy the expensive Elgato Cam Link. The USB 3.0 spec supports HDMI natively, so you really just need an adapter. This one has worked great for me and several other people I know.

Micro-HDMI Adapter (for ZV-E10 / ZV-1): Twozoh Left Angled Micro HDMI Adapter ($10)

The ZV-E10 and ZV-1 have a micro-HDMI port, so you’ll need an adapter. I like this L-shaped one so the cord doesn’t stick straight out the side of the camera. The left-angled version is the one you need based on the orientation of the ZV-1’s micro-HDMI port. If you get the ZV-E10, get the “straight” variant of this adapter.

Monitor Camera Mount (for ZV-E10 / ZV-1): Mokose Webcam Mount ($10)

Before I moved to a teleprompter setup, I had my ZV-1 sitting on top of my monitor, where a traditional webcam would go. This mount has a standard 1/4″ thread that will screw into the bottom of the ZV-1 (or the baseplate I recommend below) and allow you to mount it on top of your monitor if you’re not going with a full teleprompter setup.

Dummy Battery: DK-X1 DC Coupler USB Adapter Kit for ZV-1 ($18) or NP-FW50 Dummy Battery Coupler for ZV-E10 ($21)

You don’t want to worry about keeping batteries charged when you’re trying to run a Zoom meeting. This “fake” battery goes into the camera’s battery compartment and feeds constant power to the camera so it never runs out of juice. Just make sure you plug it into a power source that provides enough amperage (your USB hub probably does not, use a USB wall plug or powered hub like the one I recommend below).

Camera Base Plate (for ZV-1 only): Tosicam Base Plate for Sony ZV-1 ($19)

If you use the dummy battery above, you will have a cable snaking out of your ZV-1’s battery door, which means it won’t be able to close all the way. This base plate attaches to the bottom of your ZV-1, is specifically designed to create clearance for the battery door, and also gives you multiple 1/4″ screw holes to use when mounting the ZV-1. You do NOT need this if you go with the ZV-E10.

Microphone Boom Arm: InnoGear Microphone Arm Stand – Large ($47)

This is a nice to have. I like having the microphone up off my desk and able to be pushed away when I’m not using it. Get the large/long version – you always need more reach than you think you do.

Pop Filter for Mic: Anything from Amazon (~$4)

Also known as a “foam ball” or “clown nose” – this helps reduce the breathy mouth sounds (aka “plosives”) that can be captured when you’re close to your microphone (as you should be to get good audio).

Desk Mount for Lights: SmallRig Selection 19″-39″ Desk Mount ($44 for two)

I didn’t like the large base that the Key Light Air came with, so I bought these stands that clamp to the edge of my desk and give me some desktop space back. They have standard sized screw mounts that are compatible with almost any light, and also with the teleprompter I mentioned above. Very versatile.

Powered USB 3.0 Hub: Anker 10 Port 60W USB 3.0 Hub ($39 with coupon)

If you’ve followed my recommendations above, you’re going to need lots of USB 3.0 ports. You absolutely need a powered hub (that plugs into your computer but ALSO a wall outlet). Anker is a quality brand, which is important because it’s going to be powering your camera (via dummy battery) and your Key Light, while also handling 4k HDMI video from your camera and high quality audio from your microphone. All that can be plugged into this hub, giving you just one cable to plug into your computer.

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One of the best ways for a dropshipping business to expand margins is to do the one thing they’re all scared to do – take on inventory. Although it seems scary, taking on inventory is actually one of the easiest and lowest risk ways to make more profit quickly. In this post, I’ll break down some of the reasons why carrying inventory is a no-brainer home run for most established dropshippers:

• You already know which products move. You have months or years of sales data gleaned from dropshipping these products from your store. You can say with nearly 100% confidence that if you buy X units of your top 10 bestsellers, they will sell in Y months – because they’ve been moving at that rate historically.
• Your margins will double overnight. Standard dropship margins are 20% and sliding toward 15%. And that’s before you pay credit card fees and all your other fixed costs. When you buy a product wholesale, you’ll typically get 40-50% off retail price – on the exact same products you’re already selling.
• You already know all the vendors. You don’t need to spend days researching to find a good and trustworthy vendor, because you’re buying from them already – they’re your existing dropship partners. Simply call them up and say “we are interested in buying wholesale in addition to the existing dropship business we do together.”
• Outsourced fulfillment is easier than ever. It used to be that carrying inventory required a warehouse, staff, and losing several fingers to a tape gun. In today’s world, you can outsource all of that to a 3rd party fulfillment provider like Shipwire. That means your suppliers will ship inventory directly to your outsourced warehouse, and as the orders come in you simply tell the warehouse to ship them out. And that’s the beauty of it – with outsourced fulfillment, carrying inventory feels like dropshipping (with better margins).

Put all of the above together, and you’ll realize that your life and business don’t actually change that much – you’re still selling the same products from the same vendors, except now you’re “dropshipping” from your own warehouse instead of someone else’s.

Once you make the decision to start carrying inventory, there are a few questions you’ll probably end up asking yourself:

• Which products should you carry? It’s easy to think of carrying inventory as an all-or-nothing proposition, but in reality, beginning to carry inventory does not mean abandoning the dropshipping model entirely. My rule of thumb is that you should start by carrying the products that make up the top 10-20% of your revenue, but cap it at 5 items to start. Continue dropshipping the rest as you do today. That lets you capture the largest opportunity for margin improvement, with the least complexity as you get used to carrying inventory. The easiest way to manage this is to simply set yourself up as a dropshipper in whichever software you’re currently using to manage your orders.
• How much inventory should you buy? This will depend on several factors, mostly each item’s velocity (how fast it sells) and the minimum wholesale order required by your vendor. Most vendors require that you purchase at least a certain amount of product to get wholesale pricing – so try to balance that against each item’s velocity and take no more than 6 months of inventory into stock if possible.
• How much will it cost? The biggest drawback to carrying inventory is that you have to “tie up” money in the inventory on your shelves. That’s typically money you will never get back, because you’ll have to buy the next round of inventory while your current inventory is still selling so you don’t run out of stock – there will always be inventory on your shelves. You can estimate how much cash your inventory will tie up by calculating your average inventory value. If an item costs you $100 at wholesale and you must buy 100 pieces – that’s $10,000 total of total upfront investment to buy the inventory. That means your average inventory value will be $5,000 for that item (because you’ll be at an average of 50% in-stock all the time). So you’ll have to pony up $10,000 upfront, and $5,000 of that will be sitting on your shelves for as long as you carry that product. Note also that if your sales volume increases and you start buying 200 units at a time (a $20,000 order), you will require an additional $5,000 of capital because your average inventory value has increased to $10,000.

The last point is the most common reason dropshippers shy away from carrying inventory – it requires capital upfront. Still, it’s an investment that pays back very quickly, because your margins instantly more than double from 15-20% to 40-50%. Almost all of that drops straight to your bottom line. If you’re having trouble coming up with the money for inventory, call your local bank and ask their business banker about an inventory loan. You’ll be surprised at the generous terms they’ll offer, and the interest will be more than covered by your increased margin.

Obviously there are a ton of strategies for expanding your dropship business, but it’s my opinion that adding inventory is one of the highest leverage and lowest risk strategies you can implement. If you own a dropship store, give yourself a Christmas present this year and ask your suppliers about buying wholesale.

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I’ve tried in the past to use the “batching” technique and only check emails every so often, but I found that this just leads to email procrastination, while important messages go unanswered (for further thoughts on my attempts to prioritize email, read “The Urgent vs. Important Matrix”).

A CEO friend of mine emailed recently asking for my best tips for dealing with too much email, and below are the tips I shared with him. I continue to struggle with email overload, but here are a few things that have worked for me to lighten the load a bit.

Push as much to the phone as possible

I know this is counter-intutitive, but when you’re drowning in email, it helps. I train all my employees and folks I work with outside the company that if you can wait 1-2 days for a response or it’s just an FYI, email is OK. Anything more urgent than that should be communicated by phone.

This way, there’s nothing urgent in your inbox and you can put it aside to get work done. Urgent things interrupt you with a ringing phone and you can deal with them. You’ll also find that people tend to solve their own problems when they know that they’d have to speak to the boss live (oh the horror) instead of just dropping an email. This is probably my best hack for dealing with too much email.

Signup for an outsourced personal assistant service

Signup for Fancy Hands (referral link – gets you 50% off the first month) and use them to take care of all the time sucking “life” tasks that you don’t want to deal with – call Comcast to fix my bill, make a doctor appointment, order flowers and arrange for pickup on Valentines Day, check Yelp to find a good mechanic, etc. I just use their “Starter” package ($30/mo for 5 tasks), which is plenty of tasks and more than worth the money. They’ll also rollover any unused tasks.

The biggest thing here is to train yourself to think to use Fancy Hands before doing a task yourself (or simply not doing it). Never waste 45 minutes of your life on hold again.

Track all your open loops

Use task management software (I love Trello) to create 3 lists – “Today”, “Waiting on Me”, and “Waiting on Others”.

• “Waiting on Me” – this is the full list of stuff I have to do or handle before the project or task can move forward. Examples of tasks on this list might be “compile monthly financial statements”, “run payroll”, or “decide on supplier for new product”.
• “Waiting on Others” – anytime I send an email that requires a response, I create a card on the “Waiting on Others” list. That gets it off my mental plate, but prevents me from forgetting that I’m awaiting a response from someone else on that issue. Out of inbox, out of mind.
• “Today” – each night I review the “Waiting on Me” list and move the most pressing issues to the “Today” list. The next morning I wake up and know exactly what to do. Nothing else gets done until I knock off the “Today” list. The key is not to be too ambitious, so you can clear the list each day. Over several days, your “Waiting on Me” list should dwindle to zero.

Enable your out-of-office reply on vacation AND on weekends

…even if you’re going to respond anyway. This sets an expectation that you can later exceed (or not) if you choose. Important emails can still be responded to, but most people will expect to wait until your return for a response – and often solve the problem on their own before then.

Use a “Sent from my mobile” signature

I add “Sent from my mobile, please excuse my brevity” to the bottom of my cell phone email signature, and sometimes my desktop signature too. This gives you a social acceptable response to be brief, which lets you bang out responses faster and without feeling compelled to include “filler” language.

Above all, manage expectations

I find that handling email overload is as much about tempering expectations on the other end of the email as actually responding. You’ll find that if people think they’re not going to get an immediate response from you, they often try to solve their own problems and move the ball forward on their own – meaning you never have to reply at all. There’s nothing better than getting a second email that says “never mind, I figured it out”.

What are your tips for managing email?

Email overload is a problem we all have, so I’d love to hear from you – what are your best tips for handling email overload? Leave ’em in the comments section below – anyone that can improve upon my system wins a prize.

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Yes, Thailand is gorgeous. It’s an incredible spot for a vacation, it’s comparatively cheap when you earn in USD, and you can post pictures on Facebook that will make all your friends ultra jealous. But for most, Thailand isn’t a permanent lifestyle – you’re going to land in Bangkok, go sit on a beach, and two weeks later you’re going to realize that you’re still you. All your challenges, your aspirations, your demons – your life is sitting right there next to you on that beach.

I think as an entrepreneurial community, we are selling people a dream that’s partially hollow. “You too can create an affiliate website and then move abroad and be happy forever! Just buy my e-book…” And for sure, the digital nomad lifestyle is FUN! A lot of fun. Thailand is fun. Globetrotting is fun. But I think it’s about time for some real talk about the difference between fun and happiness. As my friend Dave Craige says, “Happiness and contentment do not come from external things like parties and beaches. They come from the inside.”

Last year, I spent 3 weeks traveling through Italy with my family. It was easy to do – I brought my Macbook Air, grabbed wifi where I could, and the business continued to run without a hiccup. But by the end of those 3 weeks, I was ready to be back home. Not ready in a homesick way, ready in an excited way. I had meetings scheduled with other awesome entrepreneurs, had a factory visit planned, and dinner with my friends at our favorite local sushi joint. These are things you don’t get when you’re a digital nomad.

For me, I’ve realized that you don’t need to move abroad in order to be “doing it right” as a location independent entrepreneur. Being location independent for me is becoming more about having the freedom to do the things I want to do and go the places I want to go, while still having a home base here in the USA.

I feel like the digital nomad community dramatically undersells the US as a place to live. Beyond the basic amenities like unlimited clean drinking water and excellent hospitals, we have some of the most incredible geography in the world. In just the past year, I have: spent three weeks on a remote beach in South Carolina with 4 entrepreneur friends, hiked to the top of Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park, skied some of the best terrain in the world at Telluride, listened to live jazz in New Orleans, climbed to the top of the Empire State Building, and sipped wine in the hills of Sonoma. No passport needed, and I’m still around enough to nurture relationships with my family and my friends. And it’s hard to put a price on that.

So to all the current and aspiring digital nomads and 4 hour work weekers out there – let’s shift the conversation and weave “happy” into our aspirations together with “fun”. Let’s stop chasing ghosts around the globe, and give ourselves permission to build lives in addition to just lifestyles.

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There are plenty of ways to improve your customer experience as an online retailer, but nothing touches your customer quite as strongly as the experience they have when they first open their shipping box and find the products they ordered inside. Is there a better feeling in the world? You research a purchase, order it online, and wait days (or weeks) for it to arrive. You track the package online. You wait by the door for the UPS guy.

Most online stores neglect the first (and usually only) physical interaction they have with the customer – their shipping and unboxing experience.

That doesn’t just mean shipping speed, I’m talking about the unboxing experience. The unboxing is the first experience they have with your product after they’ve paid you for it. Before they even hold it in their hands, they’re experiencing your brand – what kind of box does it come in? When they open the box, what do they see first? What does the packing slip look like? You can really delight a customer with a great unboxing experience, and it adds so much value to their entire interaction with your brand. Yet it’s overlooked by so many e-commerce stores.

Amazon Gets It

Jeff Bezos (founder/CEO of Amazon.com) created the most successful e-commerce retailer of all time, and he intimately understands the value of the tactile customer experience. He says:

“The physical world is the best medium ever invented and betting against it has always proved wrong.”

That’s why you see Amazon investing millions into their Amazon Prime program to give customers a delightful and fast shipping experience. That’s why everything you get from Amazon comes in a custom printed box with custom printed Amazon packing tape. Amazon has even forced some companies (like Logitech) to redesign their entire packaging to be easily unboxed (Amazon calls it “Hassle Free Packaging”). This has been so successful that a Prime customer spends about 10x as much as a normal customer – and the primary marker of the Prime experience is an excellent shipping experience.

So many e-commerce store owners out there obsess over A/B testing their websites, they optimize their email campaigns, but they totally ignore the way the customer experiences their product once they actually get it. Follow up drip email campaigns are great, but a package is tactile.

So how do you do the unboxing experience well? Let’s look at a few examples of people who are doing it right.

Bonobos

Bonobos is an online brand of tailored mens pants and shirts that are really stellar. They’re a pioneer in e-commerce all around, but specifically, they also have a great shipping experience. Fast and free shipping, a branded box, product wrapped in tissue paper sealed with a sticker, and an included return label, just in case you want to return anything.

In fact, the Bonobos unboxing experience is so good that people are literally posting Bonobos unboxing videos on their blogs. Unboxing videos for pants. Not a new iPhone – pants!

Dollar Shave Club

Everyone knows Dollar Shave Club for their viral videos, but what you wouldn’t know unless you were their customer is that they extend their irreverent brand all the way down to their packing materials. I’ll include a photo here, but click through to read an (unsolicited) blog post written by one of their customers – “The Dollar Shave Club’s Unboxing Experience is F***ing Great”.

A Personal Example

As a final example, I want to show you the way we handle unboxing at one of my companies.

We sell high quality, highly organic skin care products to a discerning customer base. Our customers do their research and then willingly pay more for a high quality product. They’re treating themselves, and we want to remind them of that. So every box we ship comes wrapped inside with gold tissue paper, and is sealed with a branded sticker and a sprig of lavender. When you open the box, it looks like there’s a present inside – a present to you. People LOVE it, and it gets mentioned in our online reviews all the time.

Bonus example: Whipping Post

Whipping Post makes beautifully designed leather goods. They’re high end products that are a bit pricier than most, but they make up for it with an awesome unboxing experience. You can click here to see the full gallery, or I’ve included a sneak peek below:

For the skimming crowd, here are a few easy ways you can create an awesome unboxing experience at your own store:

• Make custom shipping boxes. They’re typically almost the same price as generic brown, and add a ton to the experience. My friend Taylor Llewellyn is the founder of Tucker Blair (needlepoint belts) and Kona Kase (goody box for runners). Both times he’s done an excellent job of making beautiful, branded custom boxes.
• If you do your own fulfillment, write a handwritten note on your packing slip. This takes 10 seconds to do and people LOVE it, especially if you address the customer by name and the packer signs their own name. It can be as simple as “Annie – I hope you enjoy our stuff! – Bill” or a seasonal message like “Happy Easter Annie! – Bill”. It creates a great personal feel.
• Rewrite the copy on your packing slip – take something boring and include some on-brand copy. Dollar Shave Club does a great job of this (see the link above).
• Include a freebie – a free sample or a small/cheap tchotchke. If you’re in food or personal care, samples can also be a great way to give a customer something for free while also introducing them to a logical add-on purchase for next time.

I want to close with an awesome quote from Andy Dunn, the CEO of Bonobos. Andy says:

“At the end of the day, you’re not building an e-commerce company, you’re building a brand that has e-commerce as its core distribution channel.”

I love that because it means you have to think about your brand overall – you’re not running a website, you’re running a brand that has a website. And the unboxing experience is as much a part of your brand as the website.

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I had a great conversation today with my friend Will Nathan about investing for the long term. And I don’t mean the long term like retirement, I mean the very long term in the sense of hundreds of years. Enough time for countries to rise and fall, and entirely novel technologies to take over the world. At the risk of sounding Kurzwelian, I want to discuss the potential for radical change in our future that might warrant such an extended investment horizon.

Over the past 25 years, nobody will argue that we have seen an incredible explosion in information and communications technology. Consider the iPhone that so many of us have in our pockets – more storage, more processing power, and exponentially faster connectivity than almost any computer that existed in 1985. Consider that the internet hardly existed outside the government in 1985, yet now the answer to any conceivable question is available within 0.27 seconds on Google. Consider all the ways that cheap, widely available microprocessors and wireless connectivity has changed business, our inter-personal lives, and even politics (witness Twitter-fueled revolutions in Iran, Tunisia, and Egypt in just the past year). The rate of change and progress is mind boggling. Today’s world was inconceivable just 25 years ago.

It is my belief that over the next 25 years, we will see that same type of transformative change in medicine, genetics, and biology. Synthetic organs, genetically tailored therapies, cognitive enhancement through drugs or implanted technology, and more may be as widespread and seemingly “normal” as that iPhone in your pocket. Diseases like Alzheimer’s, cancer, heart disease and more may be cured. Life expectancy could increase by 25% or more. In 50 years, it’s not totally inconceivable that some type of immortality or near-immortality may be within the grasp of the rich.

On Immortality

On the surface, it sounds like a bright future. However, I think the concept of “immortality” or greatly increased life expectancy has the potential to radically restructure our society and break down a lot of things we take for granted. Consider how much about society is predicated on the fact that humans live approximately 80 years. When people stop dying, the world population will explode overnight. The birthrate will increase as people remain fertile longer. Where will we put all the people? Will our food supply be able to handle it? Our water? Our cities? Our hospitals? What happens to the traditional concept of retirement at 65 if you suddenly have to support yourself for another 65 years after that? Consider the implications for our social programs and our economy.

Cognitive Enhancement

Let’s take another example and consider the extrapolation of cognitive enhancers like Adderall and modafinil. Consider that one day, it’s very likely that humans might never forget anything, or anything that we do forget could be instantly accessible through some sort of neural internet link. Sounds great right? Take a few more seconds and consider the societal implications. What would it be like if “time heals all wounds” didn’t hold true anymore – if you could remember every word of that vicious fight with your wife like it was yesterday? If the pain of a family member’s death never faded? If every participant in every business deal could remember everything that was ever promised? If consumers remembered all the different ways they’d been advertised to? The implications are far broader than just having an encyclopedic knowledge of art history at cocktail parties. Perfect human memories would remake society dramatically.

It’s coming sooner than you think

This isn’t speculation. The timeframe may be a guess, but I don’t think anyone will deny that one day the science will arrive. It’s not just about remaking your own body – as our race begins to transcend biology, it’s going to radically alter our interpersonal relationships, our governments and institutions, and society as we know it.

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