Core Memory

• Max Hodak Loves Brains

  Few figures in Brain Computer Interface Land can match Max Hodak’s output over the past decade.He helped start Neuralink in 2016 and then went on to start Science Corp. in 2021. Science has been working on implants to help restore vision and has clinical trials underway with the technology. The company has also built out a line of brain computer interface products for others to use and is exploring some very weird and promising technology around lab-built neurons that can be infused into brains.Hodak has done relatively few interviews over the years and there’s not much about his background available online. I recently paid a visit to Science’s headquarters in Alameda, Calif. to rectify this situation and speak with Hodak about his science journey, his philosophies around tech and business and where BCI technology is heading as humans and machines join forces . . . possibly for good. Also, we discuss the Jennifer Aniston neuron, if you’re into that sort of thing. As ever, you can subscribe to the Core Memory podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and all other fine podcast purveyors, and you can find past episodes here. Do us a solid and leave some ratings and reviews. Thanks! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribe

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• Consciousness in the Quantum Realm

  For the past decade, the scientist Suzanne Gildert has been working to imbue robots and AIs with new skills. She co-founded a pair of start-ups - Kindred and Sanctuary AI - that strove to add intelligence to robotic arms and bodies. The results were robotic arms that could do factory work at Kindred and then an upscaled, much weirder version of the technology at Sanctuary.In the background, Gildert spent much of her time longing to really bring robots and AIs to life. She’s been an advocate of a very sci-fi future where humans and androids go about the world alongside each other and share in their day-to-day lives. Gildert has pined for a future in which our metal companions have thoughts and feelings that resemble ours.Her latest start-up - Nirvanic Consciousness Technologies Inc. - is an attempt to bring those hopes and dreams to fruition. Gildert contends that current AI systems based on large language models are likely too limited to result in consciousness (or something like it) arising. Her theory is that the roots of consciousness may actually come from AI models derived from the quantum realm where physics gets funkier.Gildert will forever be better than I am at explaining her hypothesis. So get comfy, open your mind and have a listen. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribe

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• On Steve Jobs, Drugs, AI, Risk and the Enduring Magic of Silicon Valley

  Don’t meet your heroes unless your hero is John Markoff. For he is as good as billed.No one has broken more stories about the technology industry or documented more of Silicon Valley’s most crucial moments than Markoff, the longtime scribe for The New York Times. He was the journalist I most wanted to model my career after, and I will remain forever jealous of all the things he witnessed first hand from the rise of semiconductors and the PC industry, to the arrival of the internet and the robotics and AI revolutions. John has always brought technology and Silicon Valley culture to life for the masses and done so with style, smarts and integrity.Beyond his work for The Times, Markoff has written a number of seminal books about Silicon Valley. My favorites might be What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry and Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand. But you should go ahead and read them all.I tried to use this conversation to get Markoff’s thoughts on topics old and new, ranging from the early days of the PC right on up to LLMs. The man remains as insightful as ever, and I remain an unabashed admirer.Enjoy. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribe

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• Because Sometimes a Chicken Sandwich Needs to Get to Space

  Several years ago, KFC did something ridiculous. It hired a giant, stratospheric balloon maker called World View to put its Zinger Chicken sandwich into space. Or at least near space. This was an expensive, showy endeavor and no less than Rob Lowe came on as a new Colonel Sanders-cum-Mission Control Lead for the stunt. Ultimately, the sandwich did not go quite as high as KFC wanted, but, still, I was entertained. A young man named Andrew Antonio helped drive much of World View’s marketing for the space sandwich. And he became something of a stratospheric balloon guru in the process. He’s now the CEO of Urban Sky, a maker of smallish balloons that can be launched in a matter of minutes and, just as impressively, the guest on this episode of the Core Memory pod. We, of course, talk about the KFC happening and about putting humans, cameras, sensors and all kinds of things into the stratosphere. Antonio’s dream is to have the stratosphere filled with balloons performing useful tasks. As you might expect, China and Russia share in these ambitions. Enjoy the show. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribe

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• The Start-up Making IVF and Egg Freezing Faster and Less Awful

  Dina Radenkovic has set out to reshape women’s health.Gameto, her start-up based in Austin, has spent the last four years working on stem cell engineering technology that it expects to aim at things ranging from fertility treatments to menopause. On the fertility front, Gameto already has a product called Fertilo that reduces the time women must go through painful, hormonal injections from two weeks down to a couple of days. It’s been approved for use in several countries and is being studied now in a clinical trial in the U.S.Fertilo works by replicating ovarian cells in a lab and using those cells to mature eggs outside of the body. It’s another example of the iSPC, or induced pluripotent stem cells, technology that has the bio-tech world so excited.Radenkovic hopes that similar technology can be applied to menopause in the future and lessen the dramatic hormonal shifts women experience.Born in Serbia, Radenkovic is a doctor and has raised $73 million in venture funding for Gameto to date. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.corememory.com/subscribe

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