to be fair, "AI" and "sentient AI" are two different things (growing up as a kid, I'd always conflated the two).

I'm very curious (but skeptical) that we'll invent sentient AI in the next few decades, but on the other hand I've learned not to underestimate the human race. I think the invention of the Internet is basically the Industrial Revolution 2.0. Being able to share and access knowledge from pretty much anywhere on the planet instantaneously is going to have an exponential effect on how quickly we make intellectual progress.

Printers actually convert RGB values into CYMK (cyan, yellow, magenta, and black (the "k" stands for "key")).

This is partially why designers will tell you to make sure that you design something in CYMK if it's going to be printed, because you'll be the one converting the file into CYMK and thus have better control over the end result, instead of relying on a printing company to do it automatically for you.

This is a very good ELI5 answer.

I work with two monitors from two different companies (my regular computer monitor and a Wacom drawing tablet). Color calibration is such a nightmare.

Yep, this is a common problem. If you ever create a t-shirt in Photoshop and send it to a t-shirt company for printing, they'll usually provide a list of guidelines to follow to minimize the risk of this happening but a lot of non-designers won't always follow them.

I do the first and last one usually. If the project is given the time and resources that it needs, you'll usually order lots of test prints and make corrections as needed. But it can be a huge pain in the ass.

Most designers would never use RGB in place of Pantone because they serve two totally different purposes.

RGB is used for web design. It's got the best color range of any color model (though you'll notice that it still can't recreate any color, and it can't even recreate every Pantone color), but those colors are created through light, which mixes colors very differently than pigment. Anything that you print out (posters, business cards, etc.) will use pigments, not light. So RGB can't be used for printing purposes. If you've ever printed a file that was designed using RGB values, it was most likely run through an RGB to CYMK converter prior to printing.

So, in printing, we really have two options - CYMK or Pantone. When you print something using your printer at home, you are using a CYMK printing process. Let's say that you are printing this picture of a frog. In order to keep costs low and simplify the printing process, you generally aren't actually printing any green or orange ink. Instead, your printer is basically printing different parts of the same image four times, layering tiny cyan (C), yellow (Y), magenta (M), and black (K) dots across the page in a way that tricks your eye into thinking that those colors are mixed together (pointillism works off of the same principle).

Meanwhile, Pantone colors are pre-mixed. They are usually only used by designers because they have to be specially selected and ordered. Each Pantone color has a very specific formula that ensures that each batch of color is identical, kind of like how Home Depot mixes its paint colors. In contrast, CYMK can result in slight color variances depending on when and where it was printed.

For the average person, it probably doesn't matter, but for larger companies, they want consistency. A company like McDonald's might want to ensure that their French Fry containers are always the same shade of red. You've probably printed an image that came out looking funky because your printer was low on ink. Pantone doesn't have that problem because it only has to ensure the quality of one ink color, instead of trying to calibrate and balance the quality of four or more cartridges.

Lastly, Pantone can print certain kinds of ink that CYMK can't, like neon or metallic ink.

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ELI5 explanation: CYMK is like trying to drawing a picture using four colored pencils; Pantone is like ordering specific premade colored pencils to draw with.

Do they operate in DC? Their Facebook page looks like they're located in Maryland and makes it sound like they're closed over the weekend because of the holidays, but I'm not sure if I'm looking at the right one.

Thank you so much, I'll check them out

I've read a couple of studies that suggest that environmental factors can cause tangible genetic changes that persist through generations. For example, in Holocaust survivors and their children. I believe there have also been studies in mice that suggest that certain fears can be bred and passed down to their offspring.