Summary
Adam Marblestone Bio and Summary
I am working to roadmap and launch science and technology moonshot projects that call for novel organizational and funding models. I am a Schmidt Futures Innovation Fellow and affiliated with the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). Previously, I was a research scientist at Google DeepMind studying connections between AI and neuroscience, Chief Strategy Officer of the brain-computer interface company Kernel, a research scientist in Ed Boyden’s Synthetic Neurobiology Group at MIT working to develop new technologies for brain circuit mapping, a PhD student in biophysics with George Church and colleagues at Harvard, and a theoretical physics student with Michel Devoret at Yale working on quantum information theory. My work has been recognized with a Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35 Award (2018), a Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Fellowship (2010) and a Goldwater Scholarship (2008). I have also helped to start companies like BioBright, and advised foundations such as the Open Philanthropy Project. {mit page}
Benjamin Reinhardt Bio and Summary
I’m working on how to enable more amazing sci-fi things to become reality. I also host the Idea Machines Podcast where I have long form conversations with experts in different innovation systems. In the past I was an EIR at Entrepreneur First in Singapore where I helped ambitious people build teams and companies. Before that I was a different kind of EIR Susa Ventures and tried to use robots to help older adults stay at home longer. Deeper in the past, I taught computers to understand the world at Magic Leap. I used to build tractor beams for space robotics at Cornell. I’ve, been a plumber, an archer, a waiter, a nazgul, and an oregano salesman. I’m one of the few people in the world with a Bachelor of Science in History. {personal website}
Presenters
Adam Marblestone
Adam Marblestone is a Schmidt Futures Innovation Fellow and a Senior Fellow with the Federation of American Scientists. He was previously a research scientist at Google DeepMind, was the Chief Strategy Officer of the brain-computer interface company Kernel, and co-founded BioBright LLC. He has been recognized with a Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35 Award. He received a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Harvard University as a Hertz Foundation Fellow...
Ben Reinhardt
Ben Reinhardt is setting up a private ARPA (www.benjaminreinhardt.com/parpa-2-pager) to go after things that are too researchy for startups, too engineering-heavy for academia, and too weird for the government. In the past he was an EIR at Entrepreneur First in Singapore where he helped ambitious people build teams and companies. Before that he was a different kind of EIR Susa Ventures and tried to use robots to help older adults stay at home longer. Deeper in the past, he taught computers to understand the world at Magic Leap. He used to build tractor beams for space robotics at Cornell…
Presentation: FRO & PARPA: Innovating in Scientific Innovation
- Focused Research Organizations (FROs) are being spearheaded by Convergent Research. These organizations are targeted research groups that exist outside of academia. https://convergentresearch.org/
- Private Advanced Research Project Agency (PARPA) is a concept of taking the ARPA model and applying it to a specific subcategory of projects that falls between the cracks of other organizations. https://astera.org/parpa/
- The research models now would not allow things like the transistor to be invented, it required too much cross collaboration which is not incentivized correctly today.
- FROs are low-overhead timebound projects aimed at coordinating several groups to work together with funding to focus on specific problems.
- PARPA can bring together nanotech groups to combine various molecular machines into larger coherent structures. One example of a higher order structure is an artificial ribosome. Going further, generalizing the mechanical concepts of the ribosome leads us to a molecular 3d printer.
- Tunable wood is an interesting application
- There is a FRO inspired project being launched on longevity called Rejuvenome, in collaboration with Astera and the Buck Institute. It is looking at whole body interventions for aging.
- In terms of motivating people, more money isn’t always the primary goal.
- Roadmaps and workshops are going to be useful tools for collaboration, both for PARPA and FRO structures. Coordination among various disparate research groups is an important factor for success.
- Competitive pressure may be useful for driving progress.
