Synthetic Minds | Imagination Over AI

Dr Mark van Rijmenam, CSP -

'Synthetic Minds' continues to reflect the synthetic forces reshaping our world. This week’s Synthetic Minds covers choosing imagination over AI, decoding dolphin gossip, AI neglect, gamer brain-hacks, and China’s edge.

Did you know that I have been recognized as the world's best futurist by Global Gurus and that you can WhatsApp my digital twin 24/7 via +1 (830) 463-6967?

The Secret Weapon of Top Futurists? It’s Not AI. It’s Imagination

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Forecasting is dead. In a world moving too fast to predict, the smartest strategy might be to imagine the future you want and reverse engineer your way there. Most leaders still plan for the future as if it’s a straight line. But I’ve learned the smarter play is to treat the future like a design challenge.

Futures thinking replaces prediction with preparation, using signals, scenarios, and storytelling to guide strategy. This mindset helps you spot early indicators of change, simulate disruption before it hits, and shape outcomes rather than react to them.

I use this every day to make sense of exponential change, and I believe it’s a leadership superpower we should all build. After all, our best decisions today depend on the stories we tell ourselves about tomorrow.

Synthetic Snippets from the World's Best Futurist

Quick, curated insights to feed your quest for a better understanding of our evolving synthetic future. The below is just a small selection of my daily updates that I share via The Digital Speaker app. Download and subscribe today to receive real-time updates. Use the coupon code SynMinds24 to receive your first month for free.

1. OUTSOURCING LOVE: WHEN AI CALLS YOUR MUM SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO

This one is utterly depressing: When AI calls your mum because you’re “too busy,” it’s not care, it’s emotional outsourcing. inTouch automates check-ins with elderly relatives, logging moods and sending app updates. It works, but should it? As mood summaries replace real conversations, we risk industrialising neglect in the name of convenience. Connection isn’t just data, it’s presence. Are we building a caring future, or offshoring our humanity? (404 Media)

2. TALK FLIPPER TO ME: GOOGLE’S AI IS LEARNING DOLPHIN

Google’s DolphinGemma model is decoding decades of dolphin chatter, aiming to predict and one day speak their language. Trained on whistles and clicks, this 400M-parameter AI may help build a shared human-dolphin vocabulary. But as we translate non-human voices, are we truly listening, or just hearing echoes of ourselves? If you could talk to any species, would you ask, or assume, you understand? (ArsTechnica)

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3. STOP PLAYING CHECKERS: CHINA’S WINNING CHESS

America’s, and Europe's, China policy is stuck in the past, and it’s costing us the future. While Washington obsesses over tariffs, China leapfrogs ahead with AI supercampuses and autonomous factories. Tom Friedman urges a pivot: drop zero-sum fear, embrace selective openness, and partner smartly. In a world racing toward exponential change, isolation is a losing bet. The real question: can we collaborate instead of compete? (NY Times)

4. WHEN REALITY GETS GLITCHY: IS YOUR BRAIN LAGGING?

Gaming doesn’t always end when you log off. Over 80% of players report Game Transfer Phenomenon, seeing health bars, twitching hands, or racing-game impulses in real life. The more immersive the game, the more blurred the boundaries. Mostly harmless, sometimes dangerous, GTP raises a deeper question: as digital worlds seep into our minds, should developers warn us, before the pixels start bleeding into reality? (BBC)

5. OPENAI’S SAFETY GAMBLE: RUSH TO RELEASE OR RECIPE FOR DISASTER?

OpenAI slashed safety testing for its latest model “o3,” from months to mere days, in a race to outpace rivals like Meta and Google. Insiders warn this rush risks unleashing powerful, poorly understood systems with hidden dangers. When innovation moves faster than oversight, accidents aren’t hypothetical, they’re inevitable. Are we engineering brilliance, or building a black box we can’t control? (FT.com)

Bring the World's Best Futurist to Your Next Event – Let’s Talk!

We’re entering a world where intelligence is synthetic, reality is augmented, and the rules are being rewritten in front of our eyes. In Synthetic Minds, I dive deep into these shifts, and I can bring these thought-provoking insights and actionable strategies to your next event. Recognized as the world's top futurist by Global Gurus and a Leading AI Voice by Salesforce, I help audiences think bigger, adapt faster, and embrace the future with confidence. Let’s talk. Just hit reply to book me for your next event!

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— Mark