New technology has a remarkable way of showing us invisible human weaknesses. In this month’s roundup of Brands & Outliers, we see a few interesting patterns where great potential is also mirrored by great limitation.

This is perhaps most apparent in AI, where generative porn and emotional infidelity between humans and chatbots is already exploding. Yet what’s more telling is a new wave of sexting scams aimed at exploiting teen boys, both emotionally and financially.

It begs a big question: can moral trespass only happen between humans, or can it happen between humans and their machines? We are literally writing the new moral code as we live into this future.

Meanwhile, changing values and medical interventions are creating wholesale evolution of the American lifestyle. We’ve started drinking a lot less, eating a lot less, sleeping a lot more, and keeping earlier schedules.

Michael Pollan has famously observed that throughout history, our drugs of choice have determined how we gather. It seems today we are trading in the substances that numb us (alcohol) for the ones that make us more aware (psychedelics).

What the beverage industry seems to miss is that this trade is not just about health, it’s about people craving something more conscious in their gatherings.

But one of my favorite parts of this discussion was a brand called Future Society which has just launched “six scents created using sequenced DNA from extinct flowers, formulated by prestigious perfumers”.

Another moral code is asking to be rewritten here. What happens when nature becomes limitless? Just because you can resurrect that which has become extinct, should you? And did we all just pick up this moral baggage from watching Jurassic Park as kids?

There’s lots of other good brand and culture insight in this discussion. Links and notable timestamps below.