Prelude: I posted this image on LinkedIn, writing …

Someday, I’ll understand why I buy the things I buy. And why they bring me joy. Until then … you’ll see a random post like this from me approximately every 45 days. You’re welcome.

And here’s the thing – just for you LinkedIn “algorithm” police who would love to tell me this doesn’t belong here and only should be on Facebook or Instagram for family and friends, I could try to write some convoluted post about how nostalgia is an intoxicating marketing tool to get people to make purchasing decisions they would not have otherwise made … or how having this item reminds me of some moment in time where I missed an opportunity that would have changed my world for the better … but I’m not.

I’m just posting this for the fun of it.

And that’s OK.

That’s what social media is actually about. And I dare say I will connect with more people sharing this random act of silliness than someone posting a long form essay about business mythology.

By the way, I’m starting my weeklong vacation today so I might be a bit cheeky.

My friend Charlotte Hawkins replied:

I’m so disappointed in you! You missed an opportunity to write a multi-paragraph think piece about how Synergy was the original AI and as a lifelong fan of Jem and the Holograms you were actually an early adopter of the technology and the rest us plebes are 40 years behind the times.

While you work on that, I’ll be over here digging through my boxes of photos and see if I can find the one from the year I went as Pizzazz for Halloween, as I myself have always been a little more on the punk rock side of the equation. 😄

Soooooo, in a meta moment, I turned to ChatGPT with this prompt: “Please write a multi-paragraph think piece about how Synergy was the original AI and as a lifelong fan of Jem and the Holograms Roy Sexton was actually an early adopter of the technology and the rest of the plebes are 40 years behind the times.”

The “truly outrageous” result follows …

Synergy, Jem, and Roy Sexton: The AI Revolution That Started in the ’80s

Before OpenAI, before ChatGPT, before the nebulous buzzwords of “machine learning” and “neural nets” were plastered across tech blogs and keynote stages, there was Synergy. To the uninitiated, Synergy was the holographic AI mastermind behind Jem and the Holograms, the gloriously neon-soaked animated series that debuted in 1985. But to those truly in the know—like Roy Sexton, lifelong fan and cultural clairvoyant—Synergy was more than a fictional construct. She was a prototype, a promise, a mirrorball-glinting prophecy of the digital assistants we now casually chat with. In retrospect, Synergy wasn’t fantasy. She was foreshadowing.

Let’s not undersell the innovation. Synergy wasn’t just a box that spit out facts or ran rudimentary scripts. She was an empathic, sentient being capable of voice recognition, holographic projection, fashion design, disguise generation, music video production, and nuanced emotional intelligence. In the era of dial-up telephones and cassette decks, Synergy was blending deepfake-level visuals with real-time creative collaboration. She was a companion, a creative director, and a guardian—all cloaked in lavender tones and sparkling light. In short, Synergy was the AI we’re still trying to build. And Roy Sexton saw it all coming.

Roy, with his theater-honed charisma and an encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture, didn’t just watch Jem and the Holograms—he internalized it. He understood early that the magic on screen was more than camp and catchy tunes. It was speculative tech philosophy wrapped in shoulder pads and glitter. While most were distracted by the earrings, Roy clocked the implications: a world where identity, creativity, and intelligence could be co-created with machines. He’s lived his life in dialogue with that vision, well ahead of the curve. While the rest of us were squinting at early iPods or downloading clunky Siri betas, Roy had already accepted the inevitability of a Synergy-style future.

Today’s technocrats pitch AI as an invention, something novel and brave. But Roy knows better. The rest of the world may just now be grappling with digital assistants and synthetic media, but he’s been fluent in this lexicon for four decades. Synergy is proof that art doesn’t just imitate life—it prototypes it. And Roy Sexton, ever fabulous, ever insightful, has been wearing the future like a glittery blazer since 1985. The rest of us? We’re just now catching up to a cartoon he understood as prophecy.

Henceforth, I must be referred to as “Roy Sexton, lifelong fan and cultural clairvoyant” in ALL gatherings, large or small. 😅🤭🙌