Welcome back from the holiday weekend, FutureParty people. If you were celebrating Independence Day in Texas, you may have been one of the first people to witness Sky Elements’ pyro drones. They’re officially the first company to receive FAA approval to launch fireworks from flying drones, giving people the best of both worlds. America!

In other news… Costco brings apartments to wholesale, time travelers come for your favorite memes, and the Boston Celtics look for a big deal after winning the NBA Finals.

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• YouTube – “Not Like Us” - Kendrick Lamar

• X (Twitter) – F1

• Google – Jon Landau

• Reddit – John Cena

• TikTok – “Party In The U.S.A.” - Miley Cyrus

• Spotify – “Lithonia” - Childish Gambino

.HOUSING.

Costco plans to stock apartments

The Future. A new Costco coming to South Los Angeles will be the site of an experimental residential complex — a project that could help ease the housing crisis in the city. If demand from both renters and shoppers is high, the mixed-use building could be a blueprint for similar projects in other major metros… and may inspire other retailers like Walmart and Target to get in on the action.

Shelter on the shelf
Only at Costco can you pick up a new TV, a hot dog, and an affordable home.

• The upcoming Costco, situated on a five-acre lot, will be outfitted with 800 residential units, with 184 specifically set aside for low-income residents. It’s already been approved by the city.

• The apartments will be made from prefabricated modules for easy transportation and construction, courtesy of developer Thrive Living and architects AO.

• The layout is like a “small-scale Barcelona,” per SF Gate — the apartments are stories of layered rings around a central open courtyard sitting on top of the retail store.

• The complex will also have a fitness center, a rooftop pool, gardens, walking paths, and other community spaces.

As for the Costco itself, the Los Angeles Times says it would likely be a “state-of-the-art store” with fresh produce, a pharmacy, and even an optical center.

In other words, everything a resident would need is just an elevator ride away.

61.3% of you voted Yes in Wednesday’s poll: Do you want to see the US adopt a “smart” highway system ASAP?

“We, who are old enough to remember driving without the ubiquitous Interstate Highway System, remember driving on two-lane roads for much of a long trip, with the intermittent ease of nearly vacant, divided highways. Now, those 60-year-old, four-lane interstates are overburdened and overcrowded. Our highway system is quickly becoming inadequate as we really do need six-lane or eight-lane highways in most places. We really do need a robust improvement to our basic infrastructure. We really can do better.”

“While a majority of ‘connected’ cars may not be plausible for the near term, if highway safety can be enhanced by such a system as a ‘smart’ highway, then I’m all in.”

“I’d rather see high-speed train transit made a priority.”

Media, Music, & Entertainment

• The Boston Celtics, after winning the NBA Finals, may be put up for sale by the Grousbeck family… which could be one of the biggest sports deals in history. [Read More]

• Disney CEO Bob Iger and his wife, USC dean Willow Bay, are set to take control of the women’s soccer team Angel City FC in a deal worth around $50 million. [Read More]

• Paramount is in negotiations to sell BET to the network’s CEO, Scott Mills, and CC Capital founder, Chinh Chu, for close to $1.7 billion. [Read More]

Fashion & E-Commerce

• Louis Vuitton will be all over the Olympics, with LVMH announcing that the medals will be presented on Louis Vuitton trays and the medal-bearers will be outfitted in a branded uniform. [Read More]

• Glossier is becoming the USA Women’s Basketball beauty sponsor — the team’s first full-time sponsor since Tampax in 1996. [Read More]

• Uber is expanding its boat service across Europe, including yacht tours in Ibiza. [Read More]

Tech, Web3, & AI

• Of the $56 billion spent on startup financing last quarter, $27.1 billion was spent in the AI industry. [Read More]

• Failed EV start-up Fisker found a buyer for its remaining stock at $14,000 per vehicle — a major discount from its $70,000 sticker price. [Read More]

• Google will now issue automatic disclosures when political advertisers use AI or any digital manipulation on their content. [Read More]

Creator Economy

• Threads officially hit 175 million users a year after launching… still far below X’s 556 million. [Read More]

• Telegram is allowing creators on its platform to paywall content that’s accessible using the platform’s native cryptocurrency. [Read More]

• Mastodon is introducing a new feature that shows authors’ bylines when an article is posted and connects the post to the journalist’s fediverse account. [Read More]

.MEDIA.

AI “time traveling” is disrupting classic memes

The Future. Digital creators, mostly on TikTok, are using the free tier of a tool called Luma Dream Machine to remix old memes with generative AI. As the technology improves, expect the next era of memes to feature some complicated storytelling.

Meme back
Classic memes are getting a modern makeover.

• The remixes can be a person coming alive from a still image to play out a still-image meme as a video, as in the case with “Distracted Boyfriend.”

• Another popular edit is inserting a “time traveler” to stop a viral moment from happening, as with the haunting figure stopping the kid from answering incorrectly in “What’s nine plus 10?”

• The AI generations are pretty wonky, but that technological limitation is part of the appeal — they create a body-horror effect that’s fun and hilarious.

Phillip Hamilton, editor of the popular meme database Know Your Meme, told Wired the charm of the trend is that the remixed videos are iconic and everyone knows their context. Additionally, building on memes is inherent to meme culture to begin with, so using new tech only expands the jokes capable within the art form (yes, we believe memes are art).

As far as the time travelers go, though… The internet truly can be a scary place.

• Listen: Pivot, hosted by journalist Kara Swisher and marketing professor Scott Galloway, discusses the innovations coming to commercial aviation and how they’ll upend our future vacations.

• Learn: Harvard English professor Stephanie Burt talks with Vanity Fair about the thesis behind her new class on Taylor Swift.

• Read: Wired goes behind the scenes of private equity giant a16z’s crypto bootcamp for startup founders.

In the wise words of Nike, “Just Do It.”

LATEST PODCAST EPISODE

Today, on an extra special bonus episode of Future Forecast, our hosts Boye and Chris sit down with Larry Fitzgibbon, the co-founder and CEO of Tastemade. Tastemade is an independent media company that creates award-winning video content and original programming in the food, travel, and home & design space.