Happy Friday, I hope you get to enjoy a nice soup or stew this weekend.

Speaking of soup, ever been weirded about by 3D printed meat?

Roll with me here because it’s been a topic of interest of mine since covid. Ever since I found out that you could get cricket protein into a protein bar I knew we were in for a wild ride with the advent of new food production.

I haven’t been as diligent with my uptake on where we are at with lab grown proteins and personally I’m agnostic on the process until we have proven data about it’s effects. So I was surprised when I saw a video talking about eggs being sold in Walmart and target that were lab grown and my brain immediately went, “wow that’s crazy” (scroll, scroll, scroll) but then my conscience said, you no damn well that’s not real right? So I scrolled back up and noticed the image had AI artifacts and also it was a reaction video from a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist… and she asked a very simple question.

Why would they repackage the eggs into shells if they were lab-grown?

How come I didn’t think of that and I just was willing to accept this new reality? Was my discernment meter really that far off? These questions riddled my mind as I recognized the doom scrolling really did captivate what I was allowing myself to perceive… brain rot.

From the trends that we’ve anticipated seeing in Gen-AI social media accounts, our requirement for information literacy will only continue to grow in our society. Just as the fundamental skill of writing can help discern one’s own thoughts from unnecessary yapping, social media discernment can become fundamentally valuable to the critical consumption of sources online.

If you can go back to the basic principles of trust, intention, and reputation you often can gain massive insight into what a source is trying to accomplish. All three of these can be synthesized into one question, “what does the source gain by telling me this?”

We can assume money for most brands online, even mine! Regardless of whether or not I like talking about tech I believe my time is valuable so I desire to exchange my skills for monetary gain. Most of us have this desire in the marketplace. But hopefully by now you see my intention as I laid out in my discussion as AI being either a curse or a blessing.

By telling the truth and communicating who I am to individuals through a personal brand, you begin to know me as someone who wants you to gain information of value and that means more to me than getting In-N-Out cash.

But if a brand is hiding that information from you and the only thing that you can see is a quick way to buy an app and a really hard way to unsubscribe… I think you learn whether they are trustworthy.

Until next time, get a 3×3 with animal fries.