DRONE WARS: U.S. FINALLY WAKES UP TO CHINA’S DRONE THREAT. Welcome to the future—where your neighborhood drone might just be the latest geopolitical chess piece.
Drones over New York and New Jersey? Yeah, we’ve seen this movie before, and it’s not sci-fi. The Commerce Department is finally addressing what feels like the plot of a sci-fi thriller: Chinese-made drones buzzing through U.S. skies.
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER? Officials are mulling bans or restrictions on Chinese drones, warning they could spy, hack, or manipulate critical U.S. systems.
OPEN COMMENT PERIOD (BECAUSE WHY NOT DRAG THIS OUT?) The public has until March 4 to weigh in on protecting the U.S. drone supply chain. Who would be against this?!?
SERIOUSLY, WHAT TOOK SO LONG? While China races ahead, the U.S. is playing catch-up in the tech cold war. Meanwhile, Beijing has already slapped export bans on U.S. defense giants like Raytheon and Boeing. Sources: Reuters; New York Post; South China Morning Post.
hello, future. it’s me, kev.
…and this is a dispatch from the digital frontier. Your one-stop shop for markets, tech, and the future. The day is 2. The year is 2025. The planet is Earth. My name is Kevin Cirilli —> LinkedIn.
We’ll see you back here Sunday night. We publish Sunday through Thursday.
Back to the future...
FUTURES
MARKET FUTURES: WALL STREET STARTS 2025 IN THE RED. U.S. stock futures are holding steady after a rocky kickoff to the new year. Dow futures dipped 16 points, with S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures nudging lower by 0.04% and 0.03%, respectively.
U.S. stocks slipped Thursday, extending last year’s weak finish into the new year. The S&P 500 fell 0.2%, marking its longest losing streak since April, while the Dow dropped 151 points (0.4%) after an early rally faded. The Nasdaq also lost 0.2% as concerns about overvalued stocks weighed on sentiment.
TESLA TAKES A HIT. Tesla shares tumbled 6.1% after the company reported weaker-than-expected vehicle deliveries for Q4 2024, its first annual sales decline since 2011. Despite a massive rally post-Trump’s election victory, fueled by optimism over Elon Musk’s ties to the president-elect, Tesla is grappling with slowing EV demand and rising competition from rivals like Hyundai and China’s BYD. Source: AP News; CNBC.
NVIDIA BILLIONAIRE BOOM. Nvidia’s blockbuster year didn’t just elevate CEO Jensen Huang—it also catapulted three of the company’s longest-serving board members into the billionaire club, showcasing a rare feat in corporate wealth creation.
THE BILLIONAIRES:
Tench Coxe: Worth $5.4 billion, holding more than 32 million shares as Nvidia’s third-largest individual shareholder.
Mark Stevens: Ranked as the 298th-richest person globally with a $9.3 billion fortune.
Harvey Jones: Holds a $1 billion position and has sold over $300 million in shares.
WHY YOU CARE: Nvidia’s explosive growth highlights the revolutionary impact of AI and semiconductor innovation, shaping the future of technology and creating unprecedented wealth. Source: Bloomberg.
CRYPTO
ELON MUSK, DOGE, AND THE ETF HYPE: IS DOGECOIN HEADED TO THE BIG LEAGUES? Elon Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin, is making waves again as speculation builds around its potential for a government-approved ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund).
DOGE VS. BITCOIN: THE BASICS. Dogecoin started as a meme in 2013 but has since grown into a $50 billion market cap crypto known for fast transactions and low fees. Unlike Bitcoin, which serves as a digital gold standard, DOGE is transactional, lightweight—and often playful.
WHAT’S AN ETF, AND WHY DOES IT MATTER? An ETF lets investors trade Dogecoin on traditional stock markets without holding the coin directly. Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs have already legitimized those assets, and a DOGE ETF could spark similar mainstream interest.
THE SPECULATION GAME. Chatter about a DOGE ETF ties directly to optimism around Trump’s crypto-friendly administration. With the SEC’s potential for more flexible rulings, investors are betting on Musk's influence and DOGE’s growing role in the crypto ecosystem. While the odds of approval remain slim — currently at 26% — in the fast-moving world of crypto, nothing is off the table.
DOGE IN GOVERNMENT? Some speculate Dogecoin could find its way into government systems or institutional frameworks, further fueled by Musk’s ability to turn bold ideas into real-world applications.
WHY IT MATTERS. A DOGE ETF could legitimize a once-dismissed meme coin and open the floodgates for mainstream investment.
Sources: Cryptopolitan; Crypto.news; ZyCrypto.
SPACE
ASTEROIDS INCOMING: JANUARY'S CLOSEST CALLS. January kicks off with cosmic flybys—but no risk to Earth. 2024 YN7 will pass on Jan. 2 at just 0.4 Lunar Distances, closer than many satellites. 2025 AB follows on Jan. 3, also skimming by at 0.4 LD—barely outside the Moon’s orbit.
—> WHY YOU CARE: These harmless close calls highlight the need for robust asteroid monitoring as we expand satellite networks and build out space infrastructure. Source: SpaceWeather.com.
SPACE TECH GOES WILD: Engineers are channeling nature’s chaos—think bones and coral—to create self-assembling, shapeshifting materials. Picture this: simple payloads that transform into habitats or telescopes mid-orbit, revolutionizing space missions with adaptability straight out of sci-fi. Source: Space.com.
QUANTUM // ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
IS CONSCIOUSNESS THE NEXT QUANTUM FRONTIER? Google’s quantum mastermind Hartmut Neven—yes, the guy who cracked quantum supremacy—thinks our brains might work like quantum computers. His latest creation, the Willow chip, is already solving problems classical machines can’t touch.
Now, Neven’s diving into the big one: consciousness. What if your thoughts, dreams, even your sense of self, aren’t just brain chemistry—but quantum mechanics in action? Skeptics roll their eyes, but groundbreaking studies, like those on microtubules and anesthesia, suggest there’s more to the story.
WHY YOU CARE: If quantum computers crack the code of consciousness, the possibilities are endless: AI that thinks like us, treatments for Alzheimer’s, or even devices that sync with our minds. It’s not just sci-fi—it’s your future.
Source: New Scientist; Techno-Science.
NO MORE BREATHALYZERS—AI'S GOT YOU. New AI cameras are taking over, spotting impaired drivers by analyzing their erratic moves and alerting police instantly. The future of catching drunk and drugged drivers just got a high-tech upgrade. Source: The Sun.
GEOPOLITICS
TREASURY BREACH: CHINA HACKERS STRIKE AT TREASURY DEPARTMENT. The U.S. Treasury has confirmed a major cybersecurity breach, calling it an attack by a "China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat actor."
—> WHAT HAPPENED: Hackers infiltrated the highly sensitive Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which manages U.S. sanctions, potentially exposing the identities of sanction targets and evidence tied to ongoing investigations.
—> WHY YOU CARE: This breach isn't just about stolen data—it’s about giving China a potential edge in understanding and countering U.S. sanctions strategy. With access to how America builds its economic defenses, the attack could undermine disrupt key tools used to hold adversaries accountable. Sources: Engadget.com; Washington Post.
ONE MORE THING
CARTER’S VOICE IN THE COSMOS. President Jimmy Carter’s voice is still out there, traveling through the cosmos on the Voyager Golden Record, carrying a message of peace and hope to civilizations we may never meet. It’s aboard the Voyager 1 and 2 — which are rocketing billions of miles from Earth. Voyager 1 is the first spacecraft to ever reach interstellar space… aka space outside of our solar system.
We cast this message into the cosmos. It is likely to survive a billion years into our future, when our civilization is profoundly altered and the surface of the Earth may be vastly changed. Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some–perhaps many–may have inhabited planets and spacefaring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message:
This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts, and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe.
While Voyager 1 and 2 rocket billions of miles from Earth, Carter’s legacy in space endures—not just in the record, but in the NASA programs he championed. His funding saved the shuttle program, a move that kept America dreaming of the stars.
As we build the next era of space exploration, Carter’s words remind us of what truly matters: surviving our time so we may live into someone else’s.
With gratitude,
Kev
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