What should 2035 with AI look like? We have launched a new online course to engage more people in thinking about, and shaping, our future with advanced AI! In the course, you will learn tools used by futurists and policymakers – like scenario planning, worldbuilding, stress testing, and backcasting – and how to apply them to design positive futures with AI. The course is free, and features guest lectures from Hannah Ritchie, Glen Weyl, Helen Toner, Ada Palmer, Anton Korinek and other great thinkers.
Share your ideas from the course – the “Best Overall World” wins $1,000. We also give out four $500 prizes for “Best Institution” and “Best Image or Video”. Submit here June 30th latest.
Our upcoming AI x Bio Workshop together with Vitalism and Longevity Biotech Fellowship is less than two weeks away! Join fellow scientists, software engineers, entrepreneurs, and funders to explore how we can use AI to advance research in longevity and biology. We will cover areas like drug development, research automation, analyzing complex datasets, finding new biomarkers, creating biosimulations, and more.
The workshop will feature short presentations from leading experts like Morgan Levine (Altos Labs), Sam Rodriques (FutureHouse), Joe Betts-LaCroix (Retro Biosciences) and many others, as well as working groups to come up with projects to leverage progress in longevity biotechnology with AI. The winning proposal gets a $10,000 grant to work on the idea.
Join us at the Progress Conference in October! This event connects people and ideas in the progress movement, and is organized by Roots of Progress Institute in partnership with Abundance Institute, The Foundation for American Innovation, Human Progress, Institute for Humane Studies, Institute for Progress, Works in Progress and us.
Application deadline: May 15th.
Join us for a Bio Salon together with Fauna Bio and Longevity San Juan! Fauna Bio’s CEO & co-founder Ashley Zehnder will kick off the event with a presentation on Beyond Human Limits: Lessons in Longevity from Earth’s Most Resilient Creatures. This will be followed by group discussions on topics like designing resilient systems, ethical horizons of radical longevity and AI for longevity biotech and drug design.
Earlier this year we launched fast grants in longevity biotechnology and molecular nanotechnology. These are smaller grants of around $10,000, designed to quickly test promising ideas. We are excited to share the first round of projects we have decided to fund!
Manuel Collado & Liam McNamara
Testing Chemicals for Improving Hallmarks of Aging | Manuel Collado | CNB-CSIC, CIMUS-USC
Partial reprogramming using defined genetic elements has been shown to improve key markers of aging. Data from Collado’s team suggests that a combination of two small chemicals can produce similar effects in vitro. In this project, Collado will test whether these effects can also be observed in vivo in mice.
Home Test for Biomarkers | Liam McNamara
McNamara will work on a home-testing solution which can detect and quantify 103 biomarkers, using COVID-19-like test strips and smartphone cameras. The test will be 50 times cheaper than the next competitor, offer instant results, and all data will be stored locally on the individual’s phone.
Enhancing Cell Therapies for Brain Aging | Sean Simonini | University of Massachusetts Lowell / Harvard University
Simonini is working to enhance cell therapies for the brain by expanding non-invasive control of gene expression with light. Through this, he hopes to bring us closer to a world where neurodegenerative diseases could be cured by functional replacement of lost cells.
Producing Better 3D Printed Tissues and Organs | Dylan Yeo | BioWeave
Yeo is developing a new way to 3D print human tissue to create replacement parts. By using 3D weaving techniques, he believes it is possible to create a scalable method to 3D print strong, implantable human tissues for the musculoskeletal, vascular, and cardiac systems.
Dean Thomas & Brent James Fielden
Machines Making Autonomous Decisions | Dean Thomas | The Cronin Group, University of Glasgow
In this project, Thomas will use a Turing-complete programming language for chemistry to create machines that can make autonomous decisions to build and test molecular machines.
Autonomous Biomolecular Motors | Brent James Fielden | Biomolecular Nanotechnology Lab – Prof. Hendrik Dietz
This project aims to create the world’s first synthetic, autonomous, rotating biomolecular motors built from DNA origami and powered by enzymes. If successful, this would enable programmable nanoscale motion, with profound applications in molecular manufacturing, nanorobotics, and artificial cells.
The next application deadline for our bio-and nano grants is June 30th.
The presentations from our latest Vision Weekend conference in Puerto Rico are now available on our Youtube channel! Explore topics like embryo selection, fusion energy, brain rejuvenation and more.
The Foresight Fellowship is a one-year program designed to support scientists, engineers, and innovators to advance their work and become leaders of their fields. Each month, we share updates from our brilliant Fellows!
Gustavs Zilgalvis and his team have built an AI platform which can jailbreak frontier models.
Nirosha J. Murugan and her team have published a new paper, exploring how light may serve as a marker of brain function. “The human brain emits light – faint, spontaneous photons arising from metabolic and electrical processes. These light emissions not only pass through the skull but also reflect changes in cognitive state, pointing to a new biophysical layer where light may carry information. Their distinct spectral and entropic signatures suggest light may serve as a label-free, non-invasive marker of brain function.”
Maxx Yung is working on a “biological chip”, and has received a $20,000 grant for the project.
Dean Thomas has received one of our nanotech grants! Together with his Cronin group, he has also published work related to the Drexler concept of “Machines making molecular machines”. ”The precise assembly of molecular machines can revolutionize nanotechnology by creating structures with unmatched complexity and functionality. However, current synthetic methods are time and labor intensive, limiting scalability and innovation. In this work, we address this challenge using the Chemputer, a universal chemical robotic platform.”
Abhinav Singh has run two AI security workshops, including one at RSAC, the largest cybersecurity conference.
Apply to become a Fellow in our next cohort! We provide Fellows with a strong network, knowledge exchange and a platform to share their work. During the program, we offer:
Introductions to relevant funders, senior scientists, and other mentors
Attendance at one of our technical workshops, and one of our Vision Weekend conferences, with paid travel
Membership in one of our technical seminar groups, and the option to present your work
Optional career counseling calls
The application for our 2026 cohort closes July 31st.
Our latest podcast guest is Aaron Stupple! Aaron is a physician and the author of The Sovereign Child. In this episode, we explore what it means, in practice, to take David Deutsch’s idea that children are “full-status people” seriously.
Aaron’s children can eat whatever they want, sleep whenever they want, use iPads whenever they want, and they do not go to school. From the outside, it might just look like lazy parenting. But his reasons go deeper. Aaron argues that parents should focus on creative problem-solving rather than enforcing rules, and help children understand the world so they can manage things on their own.
We discuss common objections – what if the kids make bad choices? Is this only for rich parents with a lot of time? – and what it would mean for society to embrace these ideas at scale. Aaron envisions a future where school is not compulsory, and children and teenagers could instead spend their time on what he deems more productive activities, for example learning digitally from the best teachers and tools, or early job experience for teenagers.
Watch the latest presentations from our seminar groups! Apply here to join the discussions live next time.
Our Feynman Prizes award exceptional contributions to nanotechnology, and come in three categories: Theory ($5,000), Experiment ($5,000) and Student ($1,000). We also have the Grand Prize of $250,000 for the first team who manages to design, construct, and demonstrate both a functional nano-scale robotic arm and a functional nano-scale computing device with specified features.
James Chelikowsky (Theory Prize, 2022) has been awarded the 2025 Hill Prize in Physical Sciences, receiving $500,000 to accelerate his work. Congratulations!
Longevity.Technology recently published an article about ThirdLaw Molecular – the company founded by Christian Schafmeister (Experiment, 2005). The company recently launched a DNA-encoded library containing 4.5 billion spiroligomer macromolecules.
Yuanning Feng (Student, 2021) visited California and met the other winners from 2021 – Kendall N. Houk (Theory) and Anne-Sophie Duwez (Experiment). He also visited William A. Goddard III, who won the Theory Prize in 1999.
The nominations for the 2025 Feynman Prizes closes on July 31st.
Our Norm Hardy Prize awards important work in usable security – making it easier for people to make secure choices when using systems. We accept both academic and practical work. Last year’s winners ran experiments showing that people are more likely to change their compromised passwords when given the option to delay and committing to do it later. The 2023 winners created an app which allowed contact tracing during COVID-19 without compromising users’ privacy.
The deadline for applying with your work, or nominating someone, is July 31st.
Explore events, open roles and other opportunities from our community!
Astera Major Science Residency Program | Deadline May 7
Astera accepts applications for the second cohort of their residency program. This is a one-year, fully funded program centered on the creation of public goods. Residents are provided a salary of $125,000-$250,000 to explore an important problem of their choosing. Apply here May 7th latest.
Edge Esmeralda | Healdsburg, California | May 24- June 21
Edge Esmeralda is a monthlong popup village, gathering over 1,000 people to live, build, and experiment together. It’s a temporary town for people working on frontier ideas – from climate and AI to governance and new cultural systems. You can attend for the whole month or just a week. There will be talks, dinners, co-working, residencies, outdoor adventures and lots of serendipitous connections. Read more.
The Aging Code Summit | Cambridge & Boston | June 11-12
At The Aging Code Summit, AI and biotech experts are coming together to challenge everything we know about human lifespan. Over two days, in the Boston area, leading scientists, AI pioneers, and biotech innovators will share age-defying discoveries that could reshape our lives and lifespans. This Summit will also feature a high-stakes pitch competition, where cutting-edge biotech companies will present the latest breakthroughs in tackling longevity. Use the code FORESIGHT2025 for 20% off any ticket type. Read more.
Crypto Cities Month | Roatán, Honduras | June 1-30th
A month-long June event bringing crypto to life. Read more.
Rat Fest 2025 by Conjecture Institute | Philadelphia | September 26-28
Rat Fest is an informal ideas festival with talks, good food, new friends, old friends, philosophizing, and conversations. Join to learn about humanity’s deepest ideas in physics, artificial general intelligence, epistemology, and other fundamental subjects. Tickets here.
ICONIP 2025: “Toward Safe Brain-Inspired AI” | Okinawa, Japan | November 20
Join the “Toward Safe Brain‑Inspired AI” session during the ICONIP 2025 conference to explore interpretable, brain‑inspired AI with an international community.
Read more and express your interest here.
Call for paper: submit your cutting‑edge work on interpretable, brain‑inspired AI paper for the session here on May 15th latest.
Próspera are hiring for multiple positions, including: Senior Engineering Lead, Real Estate Development Lead and Entrepreneur: New Próspera L2 Partner
age1 are hiring a Principal
Speculative Technologies are hiring a Brains Program Associate
Upward Spiral are hiring a Head of Operations
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