Tag Archives: Futurism

Uploading Our Consciousness

May 19, 2023 tremendousblog 1 Comment

The year is 2166. I am 180 years old and my body is beginning to fail. Time to upload my memories.

Advancements in biology could soon have us living much longer than ever before. But even if our bodies can’t reach immortality, perhaps our minds can.

Imagine a future in which an LLM trains on everything we see, do or say.

It reads all my blog posts. It hears me comfort a friend after a breakup.

My life is the training data.

In time, it would begin to reason and speak like me. The better the model and the more data it digests, the closer to me it would become.

After it had some time to practice, I could sit down alongside it. You could ask me a question then ask FrankGPT the same question.

When there are differences, we correct FrankGPT. Soon, the answers would be the same.

What we’ve created is a model of my consciousness.

And if it knows what I know, sees what I’ve seen, and thinks what I think — is it not me?

Perhaps uploading our consciousness sounds fanciful.

But even today, a startup called Rewind can record all your online activity. You can then ask the AI questions, simulating a perfect memory.

Attach this to the AR headset Apple is about to release, then pipe the data into GPT-4. You now have a basic model of consciousness.

If this is possible with 2023 technology, what will be possible in 2166?

Not everyone wants to live forever. But I do — and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.

Existing as a consciousness on a chip is not the same as our current life. But it could be a fascinating and rewarding existence.

From our position in the cloud, we could watch humans with bodies conquer the most remote parts of the solar system. And in time, maybe they’d even figure out how to get us a new body.

If I’m lucky, my next one might even have hair!

Do you want to upload your consciousness? Leave a comment and let us know!

Have a great weekend everyone!

If you enjoyed this post, subscribe for more like this!

Let’s Double the Human Population

March 3, 2023 tremendousblog 3 Comments

Sounds crazy, right? But doubling our population is the goal of one of the hottest new startups, Figure. The catch: half will be robots.

Get the blog before anyone else…subscribe!

Figure emerged from stealth yesterday, unveiling a humanoid robot. It plans to build one for every person on earth, doubling our productive capacity.

💫 WE’RE LIVE 💫

Today, Figure emerges from stealth.

We’re building autonomous humanoid robots.

One robot for every human on the planet.

Here's what the future will look like: pic.twitter.com/McEXbHtRpo
— Brett Adcock (@adcock_brett) March 2, 2023

Figure is addressing a very real problem: slowing population growth. Worldwide human population is expected to peak in 2100.

Some countries are already shrinking, including China and much of Western Europe. For countries like Japan and Russia, deaths outnumber births by 2:1 or more.

But whether population is rising or falling, jobs must be done. For many countries, the solution may be robots.

Figure’s robot mimics a small human. It’s 5’6”, 132 pounds and walks about the same speed we do. Being shaped like a human lets it operate smoothly in an environment built for mankind.

Is this creepy?

Yeah kinda. But unless humans decide to have more babies, it’s hard to see an alternative.

In the near term, human workers (just the need to specify tells us something) are likely to view Figure as a threat. Indeed, Figure aims to drastically cut labor costs.

From the company’s website:

Today, manual labor compensation is the primary driver of goods and services prices, accounting for ~50% of global GDP (~$42 trillion/yr), but as these robots “join the workforce,” everywhere from factories to farmland, the cost of labor will decrease until it becomes equivalent to the price of renting a robot, facilitating a long-term, holistic reduction in costs.

This means much lower wages for manual laborers.

But I’m optimistic that humans will find safer, more creative and better paid work. After all, YouTubers and yoga instructors barely existed 10 years ago.

Regardless of desirability, making 8 billion of anything is incredibly hard.

Let’s take another big, complicated product: cars. Global automobile production is only about 80 million per year — just one percent of the number of robots Figure hopes to build.

Whether Figure succeeds or not, I’m certain about one thing. VC’s are going to eat this up. I can practically hear the armored cars pulling up in front of Figure HQ now, ready to dispense billions.

There’s no down market for stuff like this. It’s a giant opportunity and involves the current hot thing, AI.

I just wish I had a slice!

Do you think Figure’s robots are creepy, awesome, or creepy and awesome?

Big Investors Are on Zoom and They’re Not Going Back

March 18, 2021 tremendousblog Leave a comment

I’ve been listening to an interesting podcast this morning with two major investors in early stage start-ups: Jason Calacanis and Paul Judge of Panoramic VC. They discussed meeting founders purely through Zoom, rather than in person, and how that’s changed the way they invest.

Both said they found it far more efficient to meet people remotely. Each remote meeting might take only half an hour, while an in person meeting might take several hours of commute time, chit-chat, etc.

The bottom line is they can meet way more founders and expand their “deal funnel,” or the number of companies they can pick from to invest in. Neither plans to return to in person meetings when this ends, given the huge efficiency jump they’ve experienced.

As a much smaller investor, I can relate. I’m meeting with an advisor in a couple of weeks, and it’s going to be remote. Even if COVID didn’t exist, I’d keep it remote, since he’s near Philadelphia and I’m in the NYC area. An in person meeting is a day trip, whereas a phone meeting is an hour tops. In terms of productivity per hour, the choice is clear.

Expect to see a continuation of virtual meetings after COVID. Many are finding the efficiency gains over in-person can’t be beat. People may still wish to get together from time to time and socialize, but I think much more business will be conducted remotely in the future, and we’ll be better off for it.

For more on start-ups and business, check out these posts:

If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/LinkedIn/email using the buttons below. This helps more people find the blog! And please leave a comment at the bottom of the page letting me know what you think and what other information you’re interested in!

Check out the Stuff I Use page for some great deals on products and services I use to improve my health and productivity. They just might help you too!

Photo: “Jason Calacanis” by Joi is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Books, Business

What I Learned From an Investor Who Turned $100,000 into $100,000,000

January 22, 2021 tremendousblog 3 Comments

Above: Angel investor Jason Calacanis

The angel investor Jason Calacanis got in on the ground floor of Uber, Thumbtack, and other highly successful software companies, multiplying his $100,000 investment into $100,000,000 in just 6 years. With results like that, you know I had to read his book!

The idea of helping, even in a very small way, to build the future appeals to me a great deal. And if my investment multiplied many times over, well, I wouldn’t mind! 🙂 In this superb and brief book, Calacanis lays out a detailed game plan on how to achieve results like his.

He suggests beginning with syndicate deals, in which an angel investor invests alongside more experienced angels. You can begin with as little as $1,000 per investment, and such syndicates can be found at AngelList, SeedVest, and elsewhere. In fact, the author has his own syndicate, here. Unlike most investment managers, the syndicate lead only gets paid if he scores for you. There is no management fee at all, but the lead does keep 20% of any profits for his/her trouble.

You can build your skills, experience and connections in those syndicate deals, and then move on to deals on your own. Calacanis explains that you have to evaluate the founder himself/herself more than the product. It’s the person behind the company that will make or break it. Products can change a lot more easily than people can. What are is the founder’s chances of suceeding in this business, and in life?

I was struck by how similar the approach to finding investments is to podcasting, journalism, or for that matter, blogging. Calacanis advises asking short questions and writing down the founder’s answers at length. Then, you write deal memos when you invest, to lay out the thinking behind the investment. These could help remind you of your reasoning if times get tough for the company, and also guide future investments.

There’s a ton of actionable details in this book, and I won’t get into all of them here. But if you’re even remotely considering investing in early stage companies, I strongly suggest giving this entertaining and highly readable book a look!

Business, Health

I Just Went to a Meeting With Two Experts on Gene Editing. Here’s What I Learned

January 19, 2021 tremendousblog Leave a comment

Photo: Shengfang Jin, PhD, Vice President and Head of Discovery Biology, Editas Medicine

This morning, I attended an online presentation by two experts on gene editing and CRISPR. Shengfang Jin, VP of Editas Medicine, and Andrew Lin, who heads the Rare Disease Center at WuXi AppTec, presented a lot of great info, but what stuck out to me most was the trial Editas is doing to cure a rare eye disorder.

Leber congenital amaurosis type 10 generally causes people to be born blind or lose their sight by age 10. I can only imagine how difficult it must be. A new therapy from Editas targets this disease with a one-and-done treatment. This therapy is the first use of CRISPR in a human being, as opposed to a cell culture, and is currently in Phase 1/2 clinical trials.

Listening to Dr. Jin speak, I was put in mind of this passage from the Bible:

“the blind can see, the lame can walk, those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are brought back to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor. “
Matthew 11:5

I increasingly suspect we are at the dawn of a golden age in medicine. The rapid pace of COVID vaccine development or this first in vivo use of CRISPR may be the first signs of things to come.

P.S. The presentation should be up on the website of Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News here soon.

Tremendous