13 Emerging Tech Reflections from 2025 ⋆ Emerging Tech Mastery

It’s hard to believe 2025 has come to a close and Technology is more interesting than ever.

We, like many of you, have watched in excitement, disgust, horror and disdain as Technology rapidly oscillates from being ultra useful and valuable to onerous and downright extractive. (Not to mention not as good as the old stuff in many cases)

Here are our Top 13 Reflections on Tech for 2025:

Social Media is now a fragmented, curated and controlled global market of platforms divided by nations, culture, language and the law – As users divide into online tribes, marketers scramble to keep up with audiences and gatekeepers selling advertising access. Web 3.0 offers an escape from this with a new paradigm of community owned (platform) infrastructure and user owned data policies.
The public rejection of cloud subscriptions and renting assets in favor of local access and outright ownership – People are finally getting fed up with financial burdensome subscriptions and policies removing digital ownership in favor of granting licenses. Many are going back to owning physical media like DVDs and old console systems and games.
People are waking up to the importance of the right to repair – This means repairing and maintaining our own equipment. It seems like this should be something inherit in ownership but it’s sadly not. Planned obsolescence removes our chance to maintain physical hardware we bought in favor of centralized service providers.
Smaller user groups, meetups, events and gatherings will supersede big budget conferences – Many big events are not surviving the recent years market downturns due to health department restrictions and lack of consumer demand. The good news of this is that smaller “meetups” and user groups are getting a revival as a result.
The gig economy is a sleeping giant, quiet safety net and bridge from jobs into free agent nation – This means a world of independent owners and operators. This unprecedented boom of flexible, independent work is a stark contrast to the rigid, archaic nature of most 9-5 jobs which are rapidly declining and not being replaced as lay offs continue
Single Board Computers (SBC) and Micro controller lines blending – As hardware and software improve, smaller and smaller form factors and components can do more things. Qualcomm recently bought Arduino which is now competing with Raspberry Pi, the original single board computer maker, who are also making microcontrollers like the Pi Zero.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) fatigue is kicking in – People are starting to see beyond the dubious promises and vague language, not to mention environmental impacts and moral hazards. Between the over zealous marketing, lack of concrete results and centralized control of software, people are fed up.
Robots are the new boogie man, not AI – As the dystopian fear mongers and technology pundits find a new shiny object to scare us with, there will be a whole new wave of scary robots that are going to either save the world or kill us all. Just look at the guy being kicked in the nuts, robot dogs, and streamers beating up their purchased robot.
Free Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) driven by passionate communities, will save our butts – The crowd is usually smarter than a single user or builder. That’s why communities around FLOSS are building an escape hatch from the surveillance state, corporate, government overreach and degradation of quality (enshitification). The challenge is many (if not most) work for free which slows down development and has taken decades to mature.
Regulation (as usual) will greatly slow down or even halt tech hype visions – If you follow the Crypto and Blockchain space you might remember Security Token Offerings (STOs) being touted as revolutionary yet, in the 10+ years of the industry it has yet to happen to scale. Some may claim its the investors who are nervous but they often look to regulation certainty before investing.
Dutiful, thoughtful and practical users and builders will rise to the top as our leaders – They will replace carnival barkers, shills and charismatic promise makers. Charismatic people like the WeWork founder have taken even seasoned investors for a ride with failed promises. But look at people like Gabriel Lord, a Meshtastic user that trained National Guard on how to use a mesh network during the Western NC flood disaster.
Computing Pioneers, Dystopian Pundits, Cipherpunks, Activists, Phreaks, and Hackers’ Philosophies will return to the mainstream tech discussion – These valuable tomes (like the Cypherpunk Manifesto) will be read, re-read and meditated on. For future growth, development and evolution of technology we will learn from our past mistakes and prepare to make future ones.
The Maker movement, hobbyists and other DIYers are filling in the gaps when government fails – During Western NC flood, Meshtastic, Starlink, tradespeople, tech nerds to the rescue helping rebuilding roads, establishing alternate emergency communication. Regular capable humans, not the government, not corporations not big brother were the ones to be the unsung heroes who leap into action helping fellow residents wholeheartedly, rapidly and consistently until the work was done.

Final Thoughts for 2025

While the future may look grim, challenging and ugly, there are lots of tools, philosophies and other breadcrumbs left from the past.

These brave, committed and relentless leaders, whistle-blowers and those “in the know” who have left lots of not only written philosophies but actually hardcore code and tech we can use now.

It is now up to us to digest this information, consider the best ideas and course of action and build from there.

Transitioning into this next evolution away from the surveillance state, corporate control and Venture Capital (VC) ownership will undoubtedly be difficult.

However, with a little bit of effort from us collectively, we can build a more fair, free and open world for all.