I’ve got a new Reason Interview up, with Pablos, cypherpunk, hacker, inventor, investor, and one of my favorite people in the world. In an age when techno-pessimists are ascendant, his slogan is ‘boycott dystopia’ and he spends his days finding companies and entrepreneurs that are building the sorts of businesses that will define and expand our future.
He’s got a new book out, called Deep Future (as is his investing fund), and we talk about why he thinks we’re moving way too slow in AI, the ‘walled garden’ model of the internet and tech (think Facebook but also Apple and Amazon and Netflix and Google and more) is destined to fail, and why he’s bullish on the future.
Here’s the Reason writeup, followed by links to video and audio versions.
The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie goes deep with the artists, entrepreneurs, and oddballs who are making the 21st century more libertarian—or at least more interesting—by challenging old, worn-out ideas and orthodoxies.
Today's guest is Pablos Holman, a legendary hacker and cypherpunk who holds over 100 patents and has worked with Bill Gates to cure malaria and with Jeff Bezos to get Blue Origin off the ground.
Pablos also runs a venture fund called Deep Future, which is committed to "creating technology that matters." In his new book—also called Deep Future—he exhorts the reader to "boycott dystopia" and describes companies that are saving bee colonies by using mushroom spores to inoculate bees against pests; recovering ancient Roman secrets to make concrete that lasts for thousands of years; and launching solar panels into space to deliver a constant, uninterruptible supply of clean energy.
He and Nick Gillespie talk about the need to move faster with AI, why hardware ultimately matters more than software, and why decentralization will eventually triumph over the Facebooks, Apples, and Googles of the world.
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0:00–Intro
1:53–Evaluating our technology
3:55–Deep tech and Holman's innovation investments
7:36–Energy demand, consumption, and production
15:09–Nuclear energy adoption
20:05–AI and creating better hardware
27:31–Holman's introduction to computers and hacking
33:06–Who were the cypherpunks?
37:30–BitTorrent, Bitcoin, and decentralization
43:41–Can RSS feeds solve tech pessimism?
49:28–The origin of Holman's eyewear
Producer: Paul Alexander
Audio Mixer: Ian Keyser
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