We’re about to connect 8 billion people on the planet, everywhere, all the time, at near zero cost. This is a future of gigabit connection speeds at the top of Mt. Everest or in the Gobi desert.
5 min read
Gigabit bandwidth EVERYWHERE, ALWAYS
By Peter H. Diamandis on Oct 30, 2019
Topics: 3D Printing Materials Science food agriculture materials automation future of food agtech vertical farming Plenty Inc. hydroponics aeroponics food tech food production digital agriculture RIPE Project Apeel Sciences Anrich3D Aerofarms RedefineMeat
7 min read
Future of Transport (Part 1): Flying Cars & Aerial Ridesharing
By Peter H. Diamandis on Oct 27, 2019
In 2018, for the sixth straight year, Los Angeles earned the dubious honor of being the most gridlocked metropolis in the world, where the average driver spends 2.5 working weeks per year trapped in traffic.
Topics: 3D Printing Materials Science food agriculture materials automation future of food agtech vertical farming Plenty Inc. hydroponics aeroponics food tech food production digital agriculture RIPE Project Apeel Sciences Anrich3D Aerofarms RedefineMeat
6 min read
The Future of Food: Protein in 2030 (Part 2)
By Peter H. Diamandis on Oct 20, 2019
Could a hamburger grown in a lab from Kobe beef stem cells be cheaper, better tasting and healthier for you?
Topics: 3D Printing Materials Science food agriculture materials automation future of food agtech vertical farming Plenty Inc. hydroponics aeroponics food tech food production digital agriculture RIPE Project Apeel Sciences Anrich3D Aerofarms RedefineMeat
6 min read
The Future of Food: 3D Printing, Vertical Farming & Materials Science (Part 1)
By Peter H. Diamandis on Oct 13, 2019
Food… What we eat, and how we grow it, will be fundamentally transformed in the next decade.
Topics: 3D Printing Materials Science food agriculture materials automation future of food agtech vertical farming Plenty Inc. hydroponics aeroponics food tech food production digital agriculture RIPE Project Apeel Sciences Anrich3D Aerofarms RedefineMeat
12 min read
Abundance Insider: August 9th, 2019
By Peter H. Diamandis on Aug 9, 2019
In this week's Abundance Insider: Samsung's 'smart' contact lenses, gamified tree-planting, and this week's virtual conference experiment.
P.S. Send any tips to our team by clicking here, and send your friends and family to this link to subscribe to Abundance Insider.
P.P.S. Want to learn more about exponential technologies and home in on your MTP/ Moonshot? Abundance Digital, a Singularity University Program, includes 100+ hours of coursework and video archives for entrepreneurs like you. Keep up to date on exponential news and get feedback on your boldest ideas from an experienced, supportive community. Click here to learn more and sign up.
One chip to rule them all: It natively runs all types of AI software
What it is: A team of researchers primarily based in Beijing has developed a hybrid chip that can natively run all types of AI software. Dubbed Tianjic, the chip has been engineered to combine two distinct architectural approaches to AI (machine learning and artificial neural networks), which each require fundamentally different coding schemes. In effect, Tianjic’s processing units can shift between spiking communications and binary, allowing it to perform a broad range of calculations. To demonstrate Tianjic’s versatility, the team even built an autonomous Tianjic-operated bicycle, which could successfully detect and avoid obstacles, maintain balance, perform voice command recognition, make navigation decisions under varying road conditions, and run conventional software to boot.
Why it’s important: While sometimes conflated under the umbrella term AI, machine learning and artificial neural networks have developed along different branches and enable distinct types of calculations. For this reason, today’s field is considered one of Artificial Narrow Intelligence, as most contemporary AIs are “super-intelligent” within the constraints of highly specialized problems, like pattern recognition or strategy games. However, by combining distinct AI architectures in a single chip, Tianjic and its future successors might be the vanguards of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), birthing multi-skilled machines geared to tackle any computation problem, motor skill, or pattern analysis. | Share on Facebook.How Alipay Users Planted 100M Trees In China
What it is: Alibaba’s Alipay (one of China’s two dominant mobile payment platforms) has enabled users to plant 100 million trees to date via its “Ant Forest” mini-program. Since the program’s launch in 2016, over 500 million Alipay users have joined, earning “green energy” points in exchange for eco-friendly decisions, such as walking to work, using Dingtalk to hold video conferences (instead of commuting to meetings), or recycling old possessions on Alibaba’s secondhand marketplace Idle Fish. Trackable through leaderboards, these green energy points can then be used to plant trees in China’s most arid regions. So far, Alipay’s partner NGOs have revegetated 933 square kilometers of land — the rough equivalent of 130,000 soccer fields. Alipay even allows users to track satellite images of their trees in real-time and collaborate with friends.
Why it’s important: Announced in 1978, China’s “Green Great Wall” project aims to plant 400 million hectares of new forests (spanning 42 percent of China’s landmass) by 2050. Alipay’s ‘crowd’-planted trees not only comprise a growing carbon sink, offsetting China’s high emissions, but also aid in building this 4,500-kilometer ecological barrier to combat land degradation. Over the past 20 years, China and India have contributed one-third of the planet’s increased foliage, and crowd-leveraging programs like Ant Forest are fast reducing the barrier to participation. By gamifying “green” behavior and offering real-world prizes, mobile platforms hold an extraordinary power to incentivize sustainable decision-making, reshape communal mindsets, and catalyze climate solutions. | Share on Facebook.
This Week’s Virtual Conference In VirBELA
What it is: Early this week, Peter Diamandis and the Abundance Digital team partnered with virtual coworking company VirBELA to run an immersive, virtual conference experiment. Uniting over 100 participants from around the world, the summit featured embodied avatar speakers (including a keynote by Peter and exclusive XPRIZE updates), an interactive auditorium, and social recreational activities — from boat tours to seaside group conversations. Iterating on its software for next-generation remote collaboration, VirBELA strives to dematerialize and democratize the traditional office, allowing anyone to engage in team projects regardless of geography. Currently, VirBELA’s software is home to eXp Realty, a $620 million+ real estate company with over 20,000 agents and zero staffed, physical offices.
Why it’s important: The future of work — and social interaction, for that matter — will soon make physical distance immaterial. As virtual reality hardware and low latency rendering improve dramatically in the coming years, digital and delocalized work environments will begin to decimate travel costs, company carbon footprints, and wasted time. Validated this week, people can increasingly experience all the benefits of conventional conferences from the convenience of a living room, at zero cost. Perhaps even more exciting, platforms like VirBELA are vastly enhancing the accessibility of today’s brightest minds, industry leaders, and cutting edge content.
Researchers Say This AI Can Spot Unsafe Food On Amazon Faster Than The FDA
What it is: Researchers at Boston University School of Public Health have successfully trained an AI to spot unsafe food items potentially in need of recall. Aggregating nearly 1.3 million Amazon food product reviews, the team’s neural network found matches between a subset of these products and prior U.S. FDA-recalled items. The researchers’ deep learning AI, a Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformations (dubbed BERT), was then taught to identify language in online reviews that could confirm a food’s safety status and aid in risk stratification. Using crowd-sorted reviews, BERT AI consequently distinguished which food products had been officially FDA-recalled with 74 percent accuracy, and even managed to predict a similar fate for 20,000 additional products, now candidates for recall.
Why it’s important: Predicting and mitigating risk before losses are incurred is one of the most profitable business opportunities of the next decade. Leveraging e-commerce data, BERT’s ability to scour massive databases and classify products by risk serves as a prime example, unlocking countless implications. Regulatory processes (think: FDA recalls) can now become much more efficient as products are instantaneously flagged, bypassing a recall’s costly research phase. Within supply chain monitoring, AIs might continuously analyze real-time employee and user feedback to identify supply chain bottlenecks and inefficiencies. For end consumers, future iterations of BERT could even crowdsource decisions for quality control and assurance, as well as concise supplier feedback. Knowing your customer and listening to the data will never have been easier. | Share on Facebook.
Samsung's Patented ‘Smart’ Contact Lenses
What it is: Samsung has just been granted a U.S. patent to develop smart contact lenses capable of streaming text, capturing videos, and even beaming images directly into a wearer’s eyes. Given their multi-layered lens architecture, the contacts are designed to include a motion sensor (for eye movement tracking), hidden camera, and display unit. Current lens designs would even theoretically allow users to control their devices remotely, possibly administering commands by blinking or navigating a user interface with eye movements alone.
Why it’s important: While still immersed in the R&D phase, smart contact lenses are projected to comprise a $7.2 billion market by 2023. Perhaps one of the most promising candidates for a future of ubiquitous augmented reality, smart lenses are also increasingly feasible thanks to advances in sensor technology. Riding implications of Moore’s Law, smart sensors (and what some have dubbed “smart dust”) have shrunk dramatically in size, and could one day record and transmit everything from lens-wearers’ audiovisual experiences to auto-populated contextual information. Keep an eye out (no pun intended) for Google’s response as it works on its own smart lens revamp of the Google Glass. | Share on Facebook.
Tokyo Offers $1 Billion Research Grant For Human Augmentation, Cyborg Tech
What it is: The Japanese government has just set aside roughly 100 billion yen (or $921 million) to fund projects spanning cyborg technologies, industrial waste solutions, and augmentation for aging individuals. Planning to fund teams for the first 5 years of a 10-year support agreement, Tokyo will soon invite researchers and academics (both domestic and international) to submit proposals in 25 key problem areas. One source reports that portions of the research grant will be channeled towards "cyborg technology that can replace human bodily functions using robotics or living organisms by 2050." In light of a declining birth rate and a shrinking workforce to follow, Japan might rely heavily on such solutions to bolster economic productivity.
Why it’s important: Similar to the U.S. government's $2.5 billion+ SBIR/STTR grant and seed funding program, Japan’s government is issuing a powerful clarion call to private industry and academics: an invitation to not only tackle some of the nation’s most pressing challenges, but to invest in long-term, experimental technologies set for commercialization between 2025 and 2060. As OECD nations begin to witness a dwindling birth rate, resulting labor shortages will require converging advancements in AI, robotics, and additional human augmentation technologies. Whether in pursuit of longevity extension or cyborg construction, Japan’s initiative might soon birth solutions that allow us to work longer or replace certain human labor altogether. | Share on Facebook.
What is Abundance Insider?
This email is a briefing of the week's most compelling, abundance-enabling tech developments, curated by my team of entrepreneurs and technology scouts, including contributions from standout technology experts and innovators.
Want more conversations like this?
At Abundance 360, a Singularity University program, we teach the metatrends, implications and unfair advantages for entrepreneurs enabled by breakthroughs like those featured above. We're looking for CEOs and entrepreneurs who want to change the world. The program is highly selective. If you'd like to be considered, apply here.
Abundance Digital, a Singularity University program, is an online educational portal and community of abundance-minded entrepreneurs. You’ll find weekly video updates from Peter, a curated newsfeed of exponential news, and a place to share your bold ideas. Click here to learn more and sign up.
Know someone who would benefit from getting Abundance Insider? Send them to this link to sign up.
Topics: Abundance Insider Future of Work AR/VR AI food Artificial Intellegence virtual reality environment capital Augmented Reality China computation future of food
9 min read
Abundance Insider: July 27th, 2019
By Peter H. Diamandis on Jul 27, 2019
In this week's Abundance Insider: IBM's open-source cancer-fighting AI tools, India's Moon-bound Chandrayaan-2, and a newly approved driverless parking system.
P.S. Send any tips to our team by clicking here, and send your friends and family to this link to subscribe to Abundance Insider.
P.P.S. Want to learn more about exponential technologies and home in on your MTP/ Moonshot? Abundance Digital, a Singularity University Program, includes 100+ hours of coursework and video archives for entrepreneurs like you. Keep up to date on exponential news and get feedback on your boldest ideas from an experienced, supportive community. Click here to learn more and sign up.
IBM Just Made its Cancer-Fighting AI Projects Open-Source
What it is: IBM has just decided to make open-source three newly developed AI tools that could assist medical researchers in the battle against cancer. Now available for widespread use, IBM’s tools range from predicting the efficacy of new drugs to treatment personalization. While PaccMann, for instance, uses deep learning to predict the viability of certain compounds for anticancer drugs, INtERAcT can parse tomes of medical journals to identify critical updates in the field, and PIMKL helps doctors tailor care regimens to individual patients’ needs.
Why it’s important: Intended to streamline cancer drug development, IBM’s tools will be far more powerful in the hands of many, allowing medical practitioners and scientists to keep up with newly published research and develop treatments far more quickly. Part of a larger open-source movement, the release of IBM’s AI tools and similar others is poised to multiply innovation in a number of medical fields, accelerating iteration rates, algorithm feedback and improvement, and the development of highly effective drug therapies. Welcome to an era of AI- and crowd-driven medical discovery.
India’s Space Research Organization (ISRO) has just successfully launched its first Moon-bound spacecraft.
What it is: Early this week, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) — India’s equivalent of NASA — confirmed its successful launch of Moon-bound Chandrayaan-2. A 142-foot-tall rocket, Chandrayaan-2 is set to achieve the first-ever soft landing near the Moon’s South Pole, making India the fourth country to achieve a successful lunar landing. Beyond breaking records, however, Chandrayaan-2 is remarkably cost-efficient, with a mission budget of just $141 million (less than half the budget of the most recent Avengersmovie, for reference). This follows India’s previous launch of its Mars orbiter on a mere $74 million budget (compared to NASA’s $671 million budget for a Mars mission the same year).
Why it’s important: Next up: India is now planning its first manned mission to space, set for 2022, and construction of the nation’s own space station. By honing low-cost space exploration, the ISRO could spur a wave of development in democratized, affordable spaceflight, equalizing opportunity for developing nations, young engineers and future astronauts, regardless of geography. As explained by ISRO’s Chairman Dr. Sivan, “[It] is missions such as Chandrayaan [...] that excite the youth, unite the nation, and also pave a technological seed for the future.” | Share on Facebook.
In a bid to achieve Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), Microsoft is investing $1 billion in OpenAI.
What it is: This week, Microsoft announced a $1 billion investment in startup OpenAI. While part of a parent non-profit organization dedicated to research in safe AGI, the company’s for-profit arm has developed AIs such as Dactyl (optimizing robot dexterity) and the Dota 2 AI gaming champion. In partnership, Microsoft provides OpenAI the needed capital to scale its R&D, while OpenAI offers a competitive edge in the popular pursuit of complex, brain-like machines. In effect, their partnership involves the joint development and training of new Azure AI supercomputing technologies, whereby Microsoft serves as OpenAI’s exclusive cloud provider.
Why it’s important: Co-founded by Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Greg Brockman, and Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI aims to promote A(G)I’s responsible and inclusive development while avoiding the technology’s ethical and existential risks. Beyond its research and long-term stewardship role, however, OpenAI has made tremendous strides in both AI-driven hardware and new software applications. Now boosted by Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure and new capital availability, OpenAI’s mission could play a vital role in our collective design, regulation and risk mitigation of AI development over the next decade. | Share on Facebook.
Bosch and Daimler’s driverless valet service has now received a green light for automated parking use.
What it is: Over the past two years, Bosch and Daimler have collaboratively developed a push-button, fully automated, and newly approved parking system. Achieving Level 4 automation (meaning true hands-off functionality in controlled environments), the parking system has just been implemented at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. Entering the sensor-laden parking deck, drivers can simply pull into the garage, exit their vehicles, and initiate autonomous parking remotely through a smartphone. Sensors embedded in the garage then help to guide self-driving cars to open spots, around detected obstacles, and back to initial drop-off spots at the end of a driver’s visit.
Why it’s important: Legal approval of autonomous parking systems such as that of Bosch and Daimler helps to validate the safety of tomorrow’s proliferating driverless networks. Whether in valet parking, interoffice delivery, household cleaning appliances, or in-home aid to the elderly, we are quickly witnessing the addition of an intelligence layer to countless environments via sensors and AI. At a fundamental level, this shift will soon allow all our transportation vessels — whether for passengers or goods — to communicate instantaneously with their environment and make far more efficient routing decisions in real time, independent of human input. | Share on Facebook.
Microsoft used mixed reality and AI to build a personal hologram that can speak any language in any voice.
What it is: Just last week, Microsoft executive Julia White presented at the company’s Inspire conference with a nearly indistinguishable full-size hologram. Most remarkably, however, White’s hologram presented her speech in fluent Japanese while maintaining the executive’s voice tones and inflections. To achieve this groundbreaking demo, Microsoft harnessed two key technologies: (1) a mixed reality capture studio that recorded White’s speech in English and (2) neural text-to-speech AI that established her “personalized voice signature.” Viewers wearing Microsoft HoloLens 2 glasses could then experience White’s speech with vocal translation in real time, no intermediary translators needed.
Why it’s important: Translation AIs and next-generation hologram technologies will soon enable the next world leaders, influential executives, and performers to connect with global audiences in real time, rendering distance and language barriers immaterial. Renowned professors will be able to teach any classroom. Executives will address international company offices directly. Local broadcasters will share their stories globally. As AR headsets like the HoloLens 2 and AI translation become increasingly mainstream consumer products, we are about to witness a surge in information access across newly web-connected users. | Share on Facebook.
Facebook will release its AI tool to the OpenStreetMap community, allowing anyone to add unmapped areas across the globe.
What it is: Aiming to map the world’s millions of miles of uncharted roads, Facebook has just announced the release of its Map with AI tool to the OpenStreetMap (OSM) community. Currently, Facebook relies on computer vision to spot roadway patterns in satellite imagery. The company’s deep neural network model can even distinguish unpaved roads and pedestrian walkways from walls or riverbeds in satellite images with a resolution of two square feet per pixel. Yet it is volunteers on OSM’s platform that will now be able to verify AI-mapped roads, collaboratively cataloguing uncharted areas across rural and infrastructurally developing regions. In one instance, local Thai and Indonesian communities worked with Facebook and its AI tool to map all of Thailand and 90% of Indonesia in under just 18 months.
Why it’s important: While often taken for granted, digitized mapping is an unsung hero of today’s hyper-connected world. Mobile maps and instantaneous routing provide us freedom of movement and — perhaps most importantly — ease of access to nodes of opportunity. Yet millions of miles of roads remain obscured from mobile users. While satellite imagery can assist in digital mapping efforts, AI-crowd collaboration has often proved the most robust method of achieving high-accuracy, low-cost, and rapid-fire results. As Facebook aims to “map the entire world,” identifying areas for rural internet access expansion, we are quickly approaching an era of eight billion web-connected minds. | Share on Facebook.
What is Abundance Insider?
This email is a briefing of the week's most compelling, abundance-enabling tech developments, curated by my team of entrepreneurs and technology scouts, including contributions from standout technology experts and innovators.
Want more conversations like this?
At Abundance 360, a Singularity University program, we teach the metatrends, implications and unfair advantages for entrepreneurs enabled by breakthroughs like those featured above. We're looking for CEOs and entrepreneurs who want to change the world. The program is highly selective. If you'd like to be considered, apply here.
Abundance Digital, a Singularity University program, is an online educational portal and community of abundance-minded entrepreneurs. You’ll find weekly video updates from Peter, a curated newsfeed of exponential news, and a place to share your bold ideas. Click here to learn more and sign up.
Know someone who would benefit from getting Abundance Insider? Send them to this link to sign up.
Topics: Abundance Insider Energy Robotics AI food Artificial Intellegence robots future of food lab grown meat
10 min read
Abundance Insider: July 20th, 2019
By Peter H. Diamandis on Jul 21, 2019
In this week's Abundance Insider: "Smart" glass, an "EpiPen" for spinal cord injury, and the first-ever image of quantum entanglement.
P.S. Send any tips to our team by clicking here, and send your friends and family to this link to subscribe to Abundance Insider.
P.P.S. Want to learn more about exponential technologies and home in on your MTP/ Moonshot? Abundance Digital, a Singularity University Program, includes 100+ hours of coursework and video archives for entrepreneurs like you. Keep up to date on exponential news and get feedback on your boldest ideas from an experienced, supportive community. Click here to learn more and sign up.
AI Beats Professionals In Six-Player Poker
What it is: Achieving the next frontier in AI game-playing prowess, an AI system developed by Carnegie Mellon researchers has now defeated the most skilled professional players at Texas hold ‘em poker. Developed in collaboration with Facebook AI, Pluribus’ core was constructed through competition against copies of itself. In success, five copies of Pluribus then played 5,000 hands of poker, proving formidable against both World Poker Tour record-holder Darren Elias and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, six-time winner at the World Series of Poker.
Why it's important: Having graduated from chess to the complex game of Go, AI has just hit an extraordinary new milestone. Particularly given poker’s involvement of complex human interactions and expression, Texas hold ‘em has been a far more challenging coup for AI than any previous game. Take chess, for instance. It has now been 21 years since IBM’s Deep Blue beat then-world chess champion Gary Kasparov in a six-game series. According to Moore’s Law, Pluribus’ victory therefore required 2^23 times the amount of computing power to achieve the same world record in poker. As AI continues to thrive on this surge in computing power, what other games or strategic mazes might AI overcome? Share on Facebook
A new immersive classroom uses AI and VR to teach Mandarin Chinese
What it is: Introducing VR to the classroom, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) is now using a 360-degree virtual environment to teach its summer students Chinese. Partnering with IBM Research, two RPI faculty members initiated the project to replicate the benefits of language immersion in social interactions and role-playing games, maximizing language retention. In VR restaurant simulations, for instance, students can order food, ask about a dish’s history by pointing at it, or pose culinary questions to the narrative-generating AI. While integrating various commercially available products into the experience, the researchers have even developed their own tone analysis algorithm that detects student pronunciation and provides audiovisual correction in real time.
Why it's important: In a 2017 pilot of the program, researchers noted a significant qualitative improvement in engagement, inducing students' social investment in linguistic mastery. Beyond language learning, however, immersive virtual experiences could teleport students to the inside of a cell, the surface of the Moon, or hyper-realistic historic events. As AI simulations explode in quality — responding to user inputs from sensors, microphones and cameras — learning by doing will become an educational norm through personalized AI output and VR immersion. From professional skill sets, to language fluency, to engineering prowess, the love of learning will be available to all. Share on Facebook
Scientists Create An AI From A Sheet Of Glass
What it is: Engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have created “smart” glass that can recognize images without any sensors, electrical circuits, or even a power source. The researchers first placed tiny bubbles and light-absorbing impurities into a piece of glass, causing light to bend in association with specific images. Their first iteration, for instance, was designed to identify handwritten numbers. In this case, the glass’s impurities scattered lightwaves reflected off of written numbers onto one of 10 spots on the other side of the glass, each corresponding to an individual digit. Aiming to scale the technology beyond number identification, the researchers even posit “smart” glass’s potential in facial recognition and security applications.
Why it's important: While incredibly powerful, today’s facial recognition systems (powered by AI and its subset deep learning) consume massive computational and energy resources. If scaled in complexity, however, “smart” glass might one day become embedded in your personal cybersecurity system, no battery or power source required. Moreover, “smart” glass could multiply the speed of recognition, from traditional computing timeframes to (literally) the speed of light. Whether in quantum computing, optical computing, or even more peripheral biological computing schemes, “smart” glass and its coming successors could render failsafe and lightning-fast information transfer across countless use cases. Share on Facebook
Scientists Capture First-Ever Image Of Quantum Entanglement
What it is: By rigging a camera to capture 40,000 frames per second at -30 degrees Celsius, physicists at the University of Glasgow have now captured the first-ever image of two photons linked through quantum entanglement. A bizarre and fundamental phenomenon, quantum entanglement allows particles to remain connected, responding to each other’s physical properties and changes, even if separated by vast physical distances. While physicists have tested and confirmed quantum entanglement, applying the phenomenon in applications like quantum computing and cryptography, photographic proof has been a long-awaited feat.
Why it's important: Far beyond validating quantum entanglement with visual evidence, this breakthrough could serve to advance numerous emerging fields, from quantum computing to new imaging methods. As explained by senior author Miles Padgett, the experiment “shows that quantum effects do change the types of images that can be recorded.” As quantum mechanics continues to birth novel technologies, our ability to photograph underlying phenomena could prove a boon for new discoveries and computational platforms. Share on Facebook
This solar-powered device produces energy and cleans water at the same time
What it is: Scientists have constructed a water purification system that utilizes heat waste from solar panels to distill clean water. As solar cells generate electricity, solar panels’ otherwise unused heat drives evaporation in the water distiller below. This vapor then travels through several porous polystyrene membranes, resulting in the condensation of drinkable water on the other side. Working in symbiosis, the distillation system thereby solely exploits wasted heat, leaving solar panels’ electrical production capacity untouched.
Why it's important: Some of the world’s most brilliant minds, investors, and engineers have invested decades of R&D, capital, and energy to crack the code of clean water abundance. Yet the question still remains: how can we deliver low-cost, excess drinkable water to those who need it? By deriving value from waste, this low-cost contraption helps meet two vital human needs at once — energy and clean water — in a single elegant solution. Share on Facebook
An 'EpiPen' for spinal cord injuries
What it is: Our immune system’s response after spinal cord injury can be the difference between walking ability and paralysis. Now, a team of researchers at the University of Michigan has developed an “EpiPen” of sorts, capable of preventing paralysis in the aftermath of trauma to the central nervous system. The injection uses nanoparticles to reprogram aggressive immune cells — thereby preventing the immune system from overreacting — to reduce inflammation and promote a therapeutic response.
Why it's important: Rather than attempting to overcome the body’s immune response, the researchers’ novel approach reprograms this response to aid in the healing process. By co-opting the immune system, this treatment marks a tremendous improvement over prior methods that attempt to offset the effects of inflammation (across the blood-brain barrier) after the fact. Given the immune system’s critical role in countless age-related diseases and chronic conditions, future iterations of this treatment could prove invaluable in mitigating immune response and managing disease. What applications would be most consequential? How might this impact our human healthspan? Share on Facebook
What is Abundance Insider?
This email is a briefing of the week's most compelling, abundance-enabling tech developments, curated by my team of entrepreneurs and technology scouts, including contributions from standout technology experts and innovators.
Want more conversations like this?
At Abundance 360, a Singularity University program, we teach the metatrends, implications and unfair advantages for entrepreneurs enabled by breakthroughs like those featured above. We're looking for CEOs and entrepreneurs who want to change the world. The program is highly selective. If you'd like to be considered, apply here.
Abundance Digital, a Singularity University program, is an online educational portal and community of abundance-minded entrepreneurs. You’ll find weekly video updates from Peter, a curated newsfeed of exponential news, and a place to share your bold ideas. Click here to learn more and sign up.
Know someone who would benefit from getting Abundance Insider? Send them to this link to sign up.
Topics: Abundance Insider Energy Robotics AI food Artificial Intellegence robots future of food lab grown meat
9 min read
Abundance Insider: July 12th, 2019
By Peter H. Diamandis on Jul 12, 2019
In this week's Abundance Insider: AI-powered "aging clocks," VR in professional testing, and the first "solar sailing" spacecraft.
P.S. Send any tips to our team by clicking here, and send your friends and family to this link to subscribe to Abundance Insider.
P.P.S. Do you meditate? I do. I use Sam Harris’ Waking Up app, and think of him as my meditation coach. He’s also a neuroscientist, philosopher, author, blogger, and podcast host. On July 17th at 2:00pm PDT, Sam and I will be sitting down for a LIVE conversation about meditation, the brain, and how to improve your productivity. You can register for the live conversation at this link.
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Is Set To Launch The First-Ever 'Solar Sailing' Spacecraft Powered Purely By Light
What it is: Just last month, SpaceX launched its third Falcon Heavy rocket, deploying 24 satellites into orbit and unleashing a novel type of spacecraft: the LightSail 2. The first successfully deployed “solar sailing” spacecraft, LightSail 2 leverages tiny amounts of force exerted by the Sun’s emitted photons, which transfer some of their momentum upon contact. While far more negligible than forces on Earth, this “solar radiation pressure” adds up in the zero gravity of space, providing continuous acceleration without any pre-loaded fuel.
Why it's important: One of the most significant obstacles for the future of long space missions is the (seemingly) insurmountable constraint of fuel. LightSail 2 and its upcoming iterations, however, could soon change how vehicles propel themselves through space, capable of self-orienting and driven by the Sun’s constant beams at zero cost. Now that the Planetary Society’s mission is proving successful, we are fast approaching an era in which spacecrafts will set sail on cross-galactic journeys or pursue nearby solar systems, guided indefinitely by the “fuel” of our own star. Share on Facebook
With Little Training, Machine-Learning Algorithms Can Uncover Hidden Scientific Knowledge
What it is: Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have now developed an AI algorithm that can learn outside its training parameters. Scanning scores of articles, the AI system analyzes the relationships between words, effectively teaching itself the subject. In application, the algorithm “read” 3.3 million abstracts of research articles within materials science, successfully learning complex concepts, from the periodic table of elements to the crystal structure of metals. The AI even demonstrated an unprecedented ability to identify gaps in materials science research, accurately predicting the discovery of entirely new thermoelectric materials.
Why it's important: In success, algorithms such as this one could soon plug into any subject material, instantaneously becoming an expert, identifying existing research limitations, and proposing new ideas for expansion. Over a lifetime, human researchers can probe only a tiny fraction of what AI is now capable of devouring in a day. Streamlining the time-intensive process of cross-referencing articles, however, AIs could free human scientists to pursue open gaps and outstanding research questions. Driven by a newfound ability to digest tomes of research spanning decades and disciplines, scientific knowledge and resulting innovation are about to explode in scale. How can you use AI to ride this wave of data-driven innovation? Share on Facebook
Cooling/Heating Window Film Captures And Releases Solar Energy
What it is: A research team led by Professor Kasper Moth-Poulsen at Sweden’s Chalmers University has developed a window film capable of absorbing solar energy during the day and releasing it as heat into building interiors at night. A novel iteration on the same team’s MOlecular Solar Thermal (MOST) system, developed a few years ago, the clear film adapts the technology whereby solar energy is stored in a liquid medium, embedding a norbornadiene-quadricyclane molecule. When exposed to sunlight, this incorporated molecule absorbs the majority of solar energy emitted by the rays that bathe it, soon releasing the energy as heat once no longer in direct daylight.
Why it's important: Beyond the obvious application of energy-efficient materials to skyscraper exteriors and home windows, similar materials science breakthroughs stand to transform the energy industry in numerous other settings. Moreover, while popular debate often targets solar energy in the context of the environment, innovative films and coating materials could have tremendous economic impacts, meeting global demands at a fraction of current prices. Long-term, how might we utilize energy-efficient materials in spacecrafts, clothing, or even smart city infrastructure? Share on Facebook
South Korean Tech Breakthrough Could Change Biofuels Forever
What it is: Scientists at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have engineered a novel method of more efficiently (and abundantly) producing biofuels. As standard biodiesel requires the transistorizing of vegetable oils or animal fats, a key obstacle to production is the need for large amounts of organic material and agricultural products. The KAIST team may have largely nullified this problem, however, developing an engineered bacterium that can produce greater volumes of fatty acids than ever before — a potential boon for biofuel cultivation.
Why it's important: Fuels from biomass could one day surpass petroleum-based fuels as the world’s most ordinary combustible fuel source. To achieve this, however, significant innovations are needed to make biodiesel cost-competitive with petroleum-based fuels, and the ratio of biomass to cultivated energy has proved a major barrier (i.e., optimal efficiency = deriving the maximum amount of energy from as minimal an amount of biomass as possible). By dramatically reducing the amount of biomass needed to achieve the same fuel density, KAIST’s breakthrough could chart a new future for biofuels, unleashing energy abundance renewably and more cheaply than ever before. Share on Facebook
Deep Aging Clocks: The Emergence Of AI-Based Biomarkers Of Aging And Longevity
What it is: Advances in deep learning have now begun to converge with a renaissance in longevity research, helping us identify new biomarkers of age and pharmaceutical discovery methods. By treating age as a dataset feature correlated with other biomarkers, deep learning algorithms can now glean much more from photographs, population-level blood chemistry, transcriptomic data (such as RNA sequencing), and wearables-tracked activity. When probed correctly, these new markers of aging — dubbed “deep aging clocks” — are now manifesting tremendous value in pharmaceutical applications. A new form of deep neural net architectures, generative adversarial networks (GANs) can now create synthetic patient data sets, age-specific immunotherapies and vaccines, or even the bases of novel, life-saving drug therapies.
Why it's important: Countless AI startups are now rushing to leverage today’s renaissance in longevity research, while others, like Y Combinator, jump on the bandwagon to provide seed funding. Among new contenders, AI methods such as GANs can vastly accelerate progress in target identification and drug discovery for a broad spectrum of age-related diseases. As a result, personalized medicine and low-cost drug development could soon add an additional 20 to 40 healthy years on our lifespan — what are the implications as 100 becomes the new 60? Share on Facebook
Walmart Is Using VR To Help Decide Who Should Get Promotions
What it is: Walmart is now employing virtual reality to assess its employees and identify outstanding candidates most qualified for management promotion. Already, 10,000 of Walmart’s 1.5 million employees have undergone the VR assessment, testing their knowledge of the store’s departments and how they react in simulated sales scenarios. A key component of the company’s initiative to enhance employee efficiency, VR’s roll-out at scale aims to identify high performers from the crowd and reduce management overstaffing across store branches.
Why it's important: As simulated virtual environments and VR hardware skyrocket in quality, this technology is rapidly permeating the professional training and hiring sphere. We might still be years away from AI simulations of human-like virtual customers, or brain-computer interfaces that augment our management and communication abilities. Yet Walmart’s wide-scale deployment of VR is a testament to its extraordinary present-day value in dematerializing and democratizing professional (and even psychological) skills training. What problems could you solve right now by deploying virtual simulation in your business? Share on Facebook
What is Abundance Insider?
This email is a briefing of the week's most compelling, abundance-enabling tech developments, curated by my team of entrepreneurs and technology scouts, including contributions from standout technology experts and innovators.
Want more conversations like this?
At Abundance 360, a Singularity University program, we teach the metatrends, implications and unfair advantages for entrepreneurs enabled by breakthroughs like those featured above. We're looking for CEOs and entrepreneurs who want to change the world. The program is highly selective. If you'd like to be considered, apply here.
Abundance Digital, a Singularity University program, is an online educational portal and community of abundance-minded entrepreneurs. You’ll find weekly video updates from Peter, a curated newsfeed of exponential news, and a place to share your bold ideas. Click here to learn more and sign up.
Know someone who would benefit from getting Abundance Insider? Send them to this link to sign up.
Topics: Abundance Insider Energy Robotics AI food Artificial Intellegence robots future of food lab grown meat
10 min read
Abundance Insider: July 6th, 2019
By Peter H. Diamandis on Jul 6, 2019
In this week's Abundance Insider: A 3D bioprinter goes to space, this year's World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers, and an AI that can simulate the universe.
P.S. Send any tips to our team by clicking here, and send your friends and family to this link to subscribe to Abundance Insider.
P.P.S. Want to learn more about exponential technologies and hone in on your MTP/ Moonshot? Abundance Digital, a Singularity University Program, includes 100+ hours of coursework and video archives for entrepreneurs, like you. Keep up to date on exponential news and get feedback on your boldest ideas from an experienced, supportive community. Click here to learn more and sign up.
Happy July 4th weekend to our U.S. readers!
A BFF In Space! Bioprinter Will 3D-Print Human Tissue On The Space Station
What it is: Just this month, a new bioprinter will be launched aboard a SpaceX cargo mission, bound for the International Space Station (ISS). Dubbed the 3D BioFabrication Facility (or BFF), the 3D printer will initially use human cells and adult tissue-derived proteins (amino acid chains) as its source material for viable tissue. Eventually, BFF is intended to pave the way for spacefaring 3D printers that can create entire human organs for use on Earth and, perhaps, beyond. For now, BFF’s next planned phase will involve manufacturing heart patches in space for performance evaluation in small animals on Earth.
Why it's important: It might seem laughably expensive to bioprint human tissue in space just so that it can be put to use back on Earth. However, tissues produced on Earth typically collapse under their own weight as a result of our planet’s gravitational pull, rendering them unusable. In microgravity, on the other hand, 3D-printed tissues can remain highly stable, growing far stronger in a cell-culturing system than they would if Earthbound. As microgravity conditions enable BFF and its future iterations to generate healthy tissue in space, today’s severe shortage of donor organs might soon give way to an abundance of personalized, printed ones. While still years away, assembling fully functional human organs is now a dream within reach. Share on Facebook
Machine Learning Has Been Used To Automatically Translate Long-Lost Languages
What it is: Researchers from MIT and Google’s AI Lab have now developed a machine learning system capable of deciphering lost languages. While machine translation between even obscure languages has been commonplace for some time, accurate output typically requires massive, annotated data sets. By instead targeting the ways in which languages evolve, however, the team has achieved successful translations using far less data. To do so, the researchers applied a constraint to their translation system, setting “rules” by which languages change over time (such as the order of characters). Provided an earlier progenitor language is known, the system can then decipher a successor language without annotated data. When applied to the long-lost language of Linear B (which encodes an early version of ancient Greek), for instance, the team’s translation system achieved 67.8 percent accuracy.
Why it's important: This new machine translation approach marks a major victory on two fronts. Helping us decipher and restore long-lost languages with decimated data requirements, the team’s system could one day give way to a universal translator, à la Star Trek. Within the humanities, however, this development could be invaluable in helping us quantify and better understand our own communication methods and the way language maps our complex psychology. By addressing the evolution and methodology of our scripts, AI is now empowering us to read between the lines and even better glimpse our own humanity. Share on Facebook
New Analysis Techniques Unearth a Trove of Unusual Minerals
What it is: Rapid advances in imaging technology have given rise to a boom in new mineral discovery, enabling researchers to log previously unidentified minerals at an unprecedented rate. According to a database affiliated with the International Mineral Association, over 100 new minerals have been reported every year since 2009, on average. To offer perspective: of the 5,477 known minerals, more than 1,000 were discovered in the past decade alone. Much of this increase can be credited to technologies that enable observation of increasingly small specimens. As seen in some cases, today’s pure mineral chunks can be as miniscule as 50 microns wide and still be studied by new techniques such as x-ray Laue microdiffraction.
Why it's important: Not only are exponential technologies enabling the creation of countless new synthetic materials, but they are helping us unearth an abundance of naturally occurring minerals long hidden from view. As exclaimed by geologist Isabel Barton, “There are, gosh, nearly an uncountable number of possible combinations of elements, in a variety of different structures [...] We’ve barely scratched the surface at this point.” The age of Earth minerals discovery is far from over; quite the contrary, it is only speeding up. Share on Facebook
Physicists Use Light Waves To Accelerate Supercurrents, Enable Ultrafast Quantum Computing
What it is: Led by physics and astronomy professor Jigang Wang, a research team has just discovered that light waves can be used to tune some of the quantum properties of superconducting states. Superconductivity is the movement of electricity without resistance, which most typically occurs at extremely low temperatures (below -400 degrees Fahrenheit for “high-temperature” superconductors, for instance). Using terahertz light, the researchers have shown that such high-frequency light can control properties like macroscopic supercurrent flowing, and access high-frequency quantum oscillations once thought forbidden by symmetry.
Why it's important: As the researchers note, terahertz light-wave tuning of supercurrents is a universal tool, “key [to] pushing quantum functionalities to reach their ultimate limits in many cross-cutting disciplines.” Applications range from new sensors, quantum computing, modeling, and communications. More fundamentally, this discovery unlocks the possibility of controlled quantum manipulation with potentially far less energy required. As we edge ever closer to quantum supremacy, new tooling could soon extend the benefits of quantum control to use cases beyond supercomputers and modeling. What opportunities might this create? Share on Facebook
AI And Machine Learning Dominate World Economic Forum’s List Of 2019 Technology Pioneers
What it is: Early this week, the World Economic Forum (WEF) announced its selection of 56 Technology Pioneers, targeting everything from natural disasters and cybersecurity to smart cities and the legal system. A true testament to AI’s applicability in any industry, at least 20 of the WEF’s Technology Pioneers heavily employ AI or machine learning.
Highlighted Pioneers: While Bright Machines applies machine learning and computer vision to newly intelligent manufacturing facilities, ImpactVision leverages AI in food supply chains, using hyper-spectral imaging technology to improve food quality and reduce waste. Democratizing medicine, DabaDoc connects millions of patients with doctors across Africa, employing machine learning in health education alongside its telehealth initiative. Addressing mental health, 7 Cups uses adaptive machine learning for smartphone-based emotional support, while Holmusk works to build today’s largest real-world evidence (RWE) platform to research and reform best practices. Or take the legal realm: on the back end, Luminance Technologies utilizes machine learning for legal language understanding, while Marinus Analytics uses AI to guide law enforcement in better protecting our most vulnerable community members. Showcased by this range of pioneers, AI can empower any firm with acute perception and smarter decisions. Share on Facebook
World’s First AI Universe Simulator Knows Things It Shouldn’t
What it is: A team of international research scientists has created an AI system capable of constructing three-dimensional simulations of the universe. Dubbed the Deep Density Displacement Model (D3M), the technology was originally developed to model the ways in which gravity has shaped our universe. In a groundbreaking feat, D3M produced its own simulated model of a cube universe 600 million light-years across in a mere 30 milliseconds. Even more notable, however, D3M demonstrated the ability to create simulations within parameters on which it was not even trained. As explained by researcher Shirley Ho, “It’s like teaching image recognition software with lots of pictures of cats and dogs, but then it’s able to recognize elephants.”
Why it's important: The monumental impact of D3M is two-fold: holding scientific significance in its understanding of our universe’s evolution, and technological import through the “learning capability” of its AI. Given its grasp of gravity’s role in shaping the universe, D3M could help chart numerous discoveries regarding the origins of our universe through sheer simulation. In the software realm, D3M’s ability to learn outside of a granted training set loosely resembles the human ability to make inferences, indirect connections, and extrapolate across disciplines. As AI grows increasingly independent in learning capacity and decision-making, this exponential technology could play ever more consequential roles across business, healthcare, policy, and now, space exploration. Share on Facebook
What is Abundance Insider?
This email is a briefing of the week's most compelling, abundance-enabling tech developments, curated by my team of entrepreneurs and technology scouts, including contributions from standout technology experts and innovators.
Want more conversations like this?
At Abundance 360, a Singularity University program, we teach the metatrends, implications and unfair advantages for entrepreneurs enabled by breakthroughs like those featured above. We're looking for CEOs and entrepreneurs who want to change the world. The program is highly selective. If you'd like to be considered, apply here.
Abundance Digital, a Singularity University program, is an online educational portal and community of abundance-minded entrepreneurs. You’ll find weekly video updates from Peter, a curated newsfeed of exponential news, and a place to share your bold ideas. Click here to learn more and sign up.
Know someone who would benefit from receiving Abundance Insider? Send them to this link to sign up.
Topics: Abundance Insider Energy Robotics AI food Artificial Intellegence robots future of food lab grown meat
12 min read
Abundance Insider: June 29th, 2019
By Peter H. Diamandis on Jun 29, 2019
In this week's Abundance Insider: Breakthroughs in energy storage, a noninvasive mind-controlled robotic arm, and SpinLaunch’s new way of launching rockets.
P.S. Send any tips to our team by clicking here, and send your friends and family to this link to subscribe to Abundance Insider.
P.P.S. Want to learn more about exponential technologies and hone in on your MTP/ Moonshot? Abundance Digital, a Singularity University Program, includes 100+ hours of coursework and video archives for entrepreneurs, like you. Keep up to date on exponential news and get feedback on your boldest ideas from an experienced, supportive community. Click here to learn more and sign up.
New mind-controlled robot arm first to work without brain implant
What it is: A team of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) has made extraordinary headway in the field of high-tech prosthetics, creating a bionic arm that functions smoothly without a brain implant. Previous robotic prosthetics required a patient to undergo high-risk, invasive surgery for a brain implant to achieve maximum robotic mobility. This arm, however, bridges the gap between seamless function and non-surgical bionics. In one instance, it was shown capable of following a computer screen cursor in real time without exhibiting the jerky motions and intermittent delays typical of other non-surgical mind-controlled prosthetics.
Why it's important: This innovation represents a fundamental leap in the age-old mission to enhance the quality of life and autonomy of individuals who have lost a limb. By improving prosthetic quality at significantly diminished risk, non-invasive bionics no longer require patients to risk their health to enjoy long-term use of a high-functioning, mind-controlled limb. As brain-computer interface (BCI) technology continues to surge forward, we are quickly charting the path to a future wherein responsive prosthetics will serve countless uses, from limb replacement to assistive aids in any number of industries and professions. | Share on Facebook
Siemens Gamesa Unveils World's First Electrothermal Energy Storage System
What it is: Siemens Gamesa is now leveraging the Earth’s surface for a future of energy abundance. The large-scale renewable energy technology manufacturer has just begun operations of what it claims is the world’s first electrothermal energy storage system. Already, Siemens Gamesa has turned a section of volcanic rock into a massive organic battery, capable of storing up to 130 megawatt-hours of energy for a week. The company additionally reports that its electrothermal energy storage system is significantly less expensive than conventional storage solutions. If we can begin to harness organic material for energy storage, how would this influence the modern-day power grid and storage solutions?
Why it's important: Renewable energy has long been promoted as an alternative solution to fossil fuels and other contemporary sources of energy. However, their oft-cited limitation is that of energy storage. If Siemens Gamesa demonstrates the successful scale-up of its sustainable solution to the storage problem, pervasive implementation of renewable energy sources would become a much more feasible option, and long-term implications would abound. If communities could soon store energy beneath their homes for extended periods of time, how might this influence real estate values and opportunities for expansion? What new microgrid networks and local economies would arise? | Share on Facebook
This fully biodegradable “leather” is welded together from waste
Story submitted by Steve Pierz, Chief Innovation Officer at Fastbrick Robotics.
What it is: An innovative player in the cow-free leather market, Natural Fiber Welding has developed a new plant-based product called Mirum. Fully biodegradable, Mirum entirely eschews the synthetic glues and plastics typically employed by other plant-based leather products. As explained by Founder and CEO Luke Haverhals, “We figured out ways to get 100 percent natural composites that are bonded together using clever, controlled chemistry.” Coconut fiber can be blended with (bottle) cork powder, for instance, to create strong “leathers” at low cost. Mirum is moreover price-competitive, as Natural Fiber Welding plans large-scale rollout of its product in 2020 and will soon produce millions of square feet of the low-cost, sustainable leather.
Why it's important: While numerous startups have pursued plant-based, zero-footprint leathers, the majority of these products are either difficult to scale or contain harmful synthetic materials like polyurethane. Yet nature offers a treasure trove of complex material candidates, which, when leveraged correctly, can yield vastly scalable, low-cost, compostable products. As high-tech welding processes and natural materials data continue to progress, materials like Mirum could profoundly disrupt the future of manufacturing, birthing closed-loop systems. | Share on Facebook
Fake blood pumps life into this robotic fish
What it is: Exponential progress in sensors and AI has led to remarkable advancements in autonomous robotics, but battery weight remains a stubborn obstacle to designing more nimble and long-lasting robots. Similarly, hard exoskeletons have proved a challenging barrier to safe interaction with humans, particularly in industrial settings. Enter Robert Shepherd and a team from Cornell University, who have created a soft robotic lionfish that pumps an electrolyte solution through synthetic blood vessels. When the solution passes over electrode stations, electricity is generated in what is commonly known as a flow battery. As hydraulic systems can account for 90 percent of a robot’s volume, combining these systems with the power source poses sizable advantages for design. The lionfish robot can consequently swim for up to 36 hours upstream, completely untethered.
Why it's important: By providing electrical energy with part-liquid, part-solid battery components, the researchers have proved that synthetic circulatory systems can serve a dual purpose: powering soft robots and controlling their movement. This breakthrough could be leveraged for countless multifunctional iterations, heralding a new era of low-risk, direct human-robot interaction. Use cases abound, from autonomous robotic surgeons to robotic search-and-rescue teams. | Share on Facebook
Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs unveils its high-tech ‘city-within-a-city’ plan for Toronto
What it is: Long in the works, Sidewalk Labs’ plan to build out a high-tech utopia on Toronto’s waterfront is now out. While still subject to a thorough public vetting process — principally by government-appointed, non-profit partner Waterfront Toronto — the plan outlines an urban model for integrated smart cities of the future. Dubbed “the most innovative district in the world” by Sidewalk Labs CEO Dan Doctoroff, the pitch’s most pioneering components include autonomous vehicle networks, ubiquitous public Wi-Fi, an 89 percent reduction in greenhouse gases, and countless sensors for collection of “urban data” to optimize civil engineering decisions.
Why it's important: Already, Sidewalk Labs’ comprehensive plan has been projected to help create 44,000 jobs and generate $4.3 billion in annual tax revenue. Sidewalk Labs has additionally stated it will spend $1.3 billion on the project with the aim of spurring $38 billion in private sector investment by 2040. Beyond the targeted district, however, a materialized smart city plan could become an ideal testing ground for next-generation breakthrough technologies and automated ecosystems that provide seamlessly delivered public services and predictive routing. | Share on Facebook
Secretive Startup SpinLaunch Gets 1st Launch Contract for US Military
What it is: Since entrepreneur Jonathan Yaney founded SpinLaunch in 2014, the alternative space launch company has raised $40 million. Now, the company has just received its first “launch prototype contract” from the U.S. Department of Defense under a deal with the Defense Innovation Unit, and aims to launch its first test flights in early 2020. SpinLaunch’s system employs a giant centrifuge as its orbital rockets leverage kinetic energy during launch, as opposed to chemical energy. While details about SpinLaunch’s technology have been kept largely under wraps, the company previously stated its intentions to launch small payloads as frequently as five times per day. At a cost of $250,000 per flight, these would be conducted at the company’s $7 million Spaceport America launch site.
Why it's important: SpinLaunch serves as an ideal example of the entrepreneurial deployment of first principles thinking to disrupt preconceived cognitive biases, transform an industry, and pursue a moonshot. By distilling the complex problem of launching things into space to a fundamental physics question, Jonathan Yaney and his team may soon drive space launch costs down by an order of magnitude. How can you use first principles thinking to make a 10X gain by disrupting your industry’s heritage processes and creatively deploying technology? | Share on Facebook
What is Abundance Insider?
This email is a briefing of the week's most compelling, abundance-enabling tech developments, curated by my team of entrepreneurs and technology scouts, including contributions from standout technology experts and innovators.
Want more conversations like this?
At Abundance 360, a Singularity University Program, we teach the metatrends, implications and unfair advantages for entrepreneurs enabled by breakthroughs like those featured above. We're looking for CEOs and entrepreneurs who want to change the world. The program is highly selective. If you'd like to be considered, apply here.
Abundance Digital, a Singularity University Program, is an online educational portal and community of abundance-minded entrepreneurs. You’ll find weekly video updates from Peter, a curated newsfeed of exponential news, and a place to share your bold ideas. Click here to learn more and sign up.
Know someone who would benefit from getting Abundance Insider? Send them to this link to sign up.
Topics: Abundance Insider Energy Robotics AI food Artificial Intellegence robots future of food lab grown meat
15 min read
Abundance Insider: June 21st 2019
By Peter H. Diamandis on Jun 21, 2019
In this week's Abundance Insider: New plant-based meat alternatives, Cadillac’s 200,000 miles of hands-free driving, and a spacecraft 3D-printing hub.
P.S. Send any tips to our team by clicking here, and send your friends and family to this link to subscribe to Abundance Insider.
P.P.S. Want to learn more about exponential technologies and hone in on your MTP/ Moonshot? Abundance Digital, a Singularity University Program, includes 100+ hours of coursework and video archives for entrepreneurs, like you. Keep up to date on exponential news and get feedback on your boldest ideas from an experienced, supportive community. Click here to learn more and sign up.
Facebook Announces Libra Cryptocurrency: All You Need To Know
What it is: Earlier this week, Facebook released details of its new cryptocurrency, Libra. With a public launch set for 2020, Libra is backed by more than a dozen companies, including Visa, MasterCard, Western Union, PayPal, Stripe, and Uber. Having invested at least $10 million USD to fund development of the coin, each backer is part of the Libra Association, an independent entity of founding members tasked with governing the coin. Libra will be what is known as a stable coin, backed by a basket of government currencies to offset volatility.
Why it's important: This is the first major operation by a large, multinational platform to develop its own digital cryptocurrency, not to mention an accompanying programming language. As founding backers pursue businesses' acceptance of Libra for payment and even provide customer rewards, Libra's growth is newly elevating the "crypto" conversation in both profile and potential long-term economic significance. Watch how this conversation unfolds, not only in the U.S., but also in nations like India that have historically remained hostile to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. How will regulators and users respond? Could this be an inflection point in the adoption curve? Share on Facebook
Cadillac Super Cruise Expansion Means 200,000 Miles Of Hands-Free Driving
What it is: Cadillac just announced the addition of 70,000 miles to its Super Cruise hands-free driving system on the auto manufacturer’s CT6 Sedan. Currently the only semi-autonomous system that offers hands-free driving at maximum highway speeds, Super Cruise will now be fully functional on 200,000 miles of roads. While only programmed to work on mapped roadways, Cadillac’s system draws from vehicle sensors, cameras, and a compiled database of LIDAR-mapped roads for its robust hands-free functionality. To ensure continuous driver attention, Cadillac additionally uses sensors to monitor the position of a driver’s head, so sleeping behind the wheel is not an option!
Why it's important: Autonomous vehicles have arrived, and they will dramatically impact the structure of our days, not to mention the way we work. Riding advancements in machine learning and sensor technologies, self-driving cars will soon surpass the driving skills of any human. Lengthy commutes to work will become time-abundant opportunities: to get an extra hour of sleep, collaborate remotely on a project, or watch a movie. Eliminating transition times and travel interruptions enables a more seamless and productive day, courtesy of today’s numerous converging technologies. As autonomous driving multiplies our most precious resource, time, how will you maximize your efficiency? What new projects will you take on? Share on Facebook
Beyond Meat Upgrades Its Burger With Better Marbling And Complete Protein
What it is: Just last week, plant-based meat substitute producer Beyond Meat released its new and improved Beyond Burger. Now available in major grocery stores — Whole Foods, Safeway, Target, Sprouts, among others — the upgraded patty is now a source of “complete protein,” containing all nine amino acids required in a human diet. One of the burger’s most widely lauded feats, however, is its impressive “marbled” texture, leveraging coconut oil and cocoa to imitate the richly flavored, fatty specks in real meat. Nonetheless, while stocked with 20 grams of protein (comparable to that of a beef burger), Beyond Meat uses pea, mung bean, and rice protein in lieu of a cholesterol-laden beef base.
Why it's important: As growing evidence reveals the health hazards and environmental footprint of meat consumption and animal agriculture, plant-based alternatives are beginning to play in the big leagues. Having enjoyed this year’s most successful IPO to date, Beyond Meat tripled its sales last quarter. Meanwhile, competitor Impossible Foods is now selling its plant-based burgers in Burger Kings nationwide, not to mention its patty's appearance on countless other restaurant menus. While both struggling to meet demand, these two players are part of a nascent but powerful new market, one poised to revolutionize the future of food and decimate its ecological impact. Share on Facebook
Meet Endel: The First-Ever Algorithm To Sign A Music Distribution Deal With A Major Label
What it is: Endel, a music-generating AI, is now the first-ever algorithm to sign an album distribution deal with a major label conglomerate. One of the “big three” labels, Warner Music Group has agreed to distribute Endel’s AI-generated soundscapes. As part of the deal, Endel will generate twenty new albums for the label, in addition to the five it has already produced. Endel creates personalized meditation music for relaxation and focus. Thanks to its innovative music software, the startup has already attracted high-profile investors, from Amazon’s Alexa Fund to Japanese entertainment giant Avex Group.
Why it's important: From Neolithic cave paintings to today’s contemporary montages, art represents an evolutionary leap from base intelligence to complex, self-aware, and abstract thought. Many believe that our ability to create art corroborates humanity’s elevated position above other species. For this reason, some experts speculate that art will be the last industry disrupted by AI, if at all. Endel’s (and other softwares’) ability to create music thereby serves as an early indication that art is no longer a domain exclusive to human creatives. Just as IBM’s Deep Blue beat the world’s greatest chess player, Gary Kasparov, in an historic 1997 chess match, moments like these demonstrate just how quickly and multifariously AI is accelerating. Share on Facebook
Relativity Is Building A 3D-Printing Rocket Manufacturing Hub In Mississippi
What it is: 3D-printed spacecraft manufacturer Relativity Space has now sealed its agreement with NASA to open a $59 million manufacturing facility at NASA’s John C. Stennis Space Center in Hancock, Mississippi. While Relativity already runs four proprietary 3D printers at its Los Angeles operations base, the startup will build twelve larger, second-generation printers at Stennis. With 220,000 square feet newly at its disposal, Relativity initially plans to use this Stennis infrastructure for construction of its Terran1 rocket. As affirmed by Stennis Space Center Director Dr. Rick Gilbrech, the collaboration reinforces NASA’s commitment to expand “commercial access to low Earth orbit.” Meanwhile, Relativity is given free rein to fully leverage the power of additive manufacturing.
Why it's important: Rockets are some of the most complex machines humankind has ever invented, constantly iterated upon and requiring extreme precision. 3D printing can simplify much of this complexity, requiring fewer parts, delivering a more seamless manufacturing process, and minimizing risk of human error. In the near future, additive manufacturing will be a key catalyst for exploration of and expansion throughout our solar system. Imagine shipping one of Relativity’s printers to Mars to manufacture critical components in situ, needed for return to Earth. Relativity's methods demonstrate a prime example of converging technologies that together decimate costs and open the floodgates for new industries. Share on Facebook
Tyson Foods Unveils Plant-Based Nuggets As It Moves Into Meat Alternatives
What it is: Signaling a fundamental shift in today’s meat industry, Tyson Foods — the U.S.’s largest meat processor — has announced its upcoming debut of plant-based nuggets. Slated to hit shelves this summer, the product is part of Tyson’s new brand, Raised & Rooted, focused on plant-based protein. Yet unlike competitors Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, Raised & Rooted will include both pure plant-based substitutes and blended products, such as a burger consisting of pea protein and Angus beef. With an eye to consumer trends, Tyson has even revealed future plans to enhance its range of plant protein alternatives.
Why it's important: By 2040, traditional meat supply is projected to fall by over 33 percent, according to a recent A.T. Kearney analysis. Already, consumer meat-eating habits (particularly in the U.S.) are changing at a staggering rate. While Mintel reports that almost 60 percent of U.S. consumers are interested in eating less meat, Euromonitor forecasts a $22.9 billion global market for meat alternatives by 2023. As fast-growing startups rush to capitalize on this hot new market, the entrance of corporate incumbents like Tyson is perhaps the most compelling validator of an underlying shift towards plant-heavy protein consumption. Whether overtaken by lab-grown meat or plant-based alternatives, the meat industry faces disruption of epic proportions. What do you envision on your plate in 2045? Share on Facebook
Say Hello To Dot, An Autonomous Farming Solution
Guest contribution by Robert Saik, CEO of Dot Farm Solutions.
What it is: Based in Regina, Saskatchewan, Dot (named after its inventor’s mother) is the largest autonomous agriculture robot in the world. Dot’s patented, U-shape design enables the 173 Hp Diesel Power Platform unit to connect with a wide variety of Dot Ready implements, such as seed drills, planters, sprayers, fertilizer, spreaders and grain carts. Dot’s initial market is broad-acre agriculture, whereby farmers need to rapidly cover thousands of acres. Once farmers load perimeter and obstacle GIS field maps into Dot, the robot navigates using path-planning software at sub-inch GPS accuracy. This enables Dot to autonomously apply crop inputs like seed, fertilizer, or pesticides with 100% precision. Geared with LIDAR, radar and photometrics, Dot then leverages machine learning to increase real-time field analysis, efficiency and safety. As additional Dot-certified crop sensors are added to the platform, these will be further tethered to Dot’s Data Cloud, enabling deep analytics.
Why it's important: Most broad-acre farming operations suffer from acute shortage of qualified machinery operators. With the Dot Farming Solution, one operator can tender several Dot autonomous systems to multiply efficiency and dramatically reduce farmers’ time spent in tractor cabs. Highly versatile, Dot offers a path to autonomous agriculture for short-line manufacturers, expanding beyond broad-acre farming into small vegetable farms, vineyards, and even sectors like forestry, mining or construction. Today’s farmers additionally face exorbitant operational costs. A fraction of the cost of a self-propelled, high-clearance sprayer, Dot further reduces both soil compaction and operational costs by “cradling” (rather than “pulling”) its Dot Ready Implements. The world needs to produce 10,000 years worth of food in the next 30 years. Empowered by a wave of new tools, tomorrow’s farmers will need to rapidly adopt autonomous AgTech solutions, like Dot, to address agricultural constraints and unleash global food abundance. Share on Facebook
What is Abundance Insider?
This email is a briefing of the week's most compelling, abundance-enabling tech developments, curated by my team of entrepreneurs and technology scouts, including contributions from standout technology experts and innovators.
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At Abundance 360, a Singularity University Program, we teach the metatrends, implications and unfair advantages for entrepreneurs enabled by breakthroughs like those featured above. We're looking for CEOs and entrepreneurs who want to change the world. The program is highly selective. If you'd like to be considered, apply here.
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Topics: Abundance Insider Energy Robotics AI food Artificial Intellegence robots future of food lab grown meat
15 min read
Abundance Insider: April 12th, 2019
By Peter H. Diamandis on Apr 12, 2019
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Topics: Abundance Insider Energy Materials Science Sensors food health agriculture healthcare materials Amazon trillion sensor economy voice assistants wearables future of food voice
14 min read
Abundance Insider: March 15th, 2019
By Peter H. Diamandis on Mar 15, 2019
In this week's Abundance Insider: Noise-cancelling metamaterials, algorithms for early Alzheimer's diagnosis, and CRISPR's convergence with lab-grown meat.
Cheers,
Peter, Marissa, Kelley, Greg, Bri, Jarom, Joseph, Derek, Jason, Claire and Max
P.S. Send any tips to our team by clicking here, and send your friends and family to this link to subscribe to Abundance Insider.
P.P.S. Join Peter Diamandis in Dubai, the City of the Future, for the inaugural Abundance 360 Dubai Summit on March 26 - 27, 2019. Hosted by the Dubai Future Foundation and the Crown Prince of Dubai, this two-day experience offers exponential leaders an immersive look into how technology will transform every industry. Read more about the program and apply here to join.
Topics: Abundance Insider Robotics Materials Science Finance food healthcare materials biotech fintech future of food lab grown meat
1 min read
Live Webinar with Peter Diamandis & XPRIZE - Disaster Prediction
By Peter H. Diamandis on Jul 16, 2018
Today, we all have unprecedented power to make a positive impact on the planet.
Topics: food agriculture XPRIZE poverty
5 min read
My Top 3 Tips for Designing an XPRIZE
By Peter H. Diamandis on Jul 9, 2018
Let me start with a big congratulations to those of you who have already thrown your hats into the ring for the XPRIZE Visioneering 2018 Design Challenge.
Topics: food agriculture XPRIZE poverty
3 min read
I’m hiring… 4 positions open
By Peter H. Diamandis on May 17, 2018
I am on a global search to find four key hires to join my personal team.
- A new Strike Force Member
- A Head of Global Community
- A Head of Sponsorship & Sales
- A Full Stack Hacker/Developer
If any of these positions interest you, or you know someone who is amazing and wants to join my personal team, send them the links below.
The Strike Force is my Entrepreneur-In-Residence program where you will work alongside me as my business strategist, developing new initiatives and problem-solving across my various ventures. You fly with me around the world, attend my board meetings, and play a critical role in my decision making across my business ventures.
My previous Strike Force members have been cognitive neuroscientists, rockstar roboticists, venture capitalists and have worked at companies like Google and Tesla. In success, I will personally back you to start your own company! Interested? Go HERE.
Head of Global Community: I’m working on building a million+ person global community of Abundance-minded individuals. Have you ever scaled a community >100,000? Are you a social media Rockstar? Do you want to help incentivize people to change the world? If yes, then learn more and apply HERE.
Head of Sponsorship & Sales: Probably the most important training ground for becoming a successful entrepreneur is SALES. Success here requires the ability to understand the value proposition and communicate it in an impactful fashion. If any superpower has made me successful, it is my ability to authentically, passionately and fearlessly sell a vision. If you are a naturally born salesperson, and are the best of the best, come join me! Learn more and apply HERE.
Full Stack Hacker/Developer: We’re looking for a generalist developer who can be our in-house hacker, optimizing technology used across the Abundance Group business units. Initially, you will directly oversee the Abundance Digital iOS app and the membership portals used for Abundance 360 and Abundance Digital. You’ll also play a pivotal role in supporting new business units deployed from Summer 2018 on. Learn more and apply HERE.
Click on any of these links, and you’ll learn more about each of the position, roles and responsibilities and how to apply.
In success, you'll be working alongside tremendous company. My organization, the Abundance Group, is filled with an extraordinary group of rockstars. They are amazing and make life a joy.
Best,
Peter
Topics: food
9 min read
Tech - Future of Food
By Peter H. Diamandis on May 14, 2018
From a first-principles perspective, the task of feeding 8 billion people boils down to converting energy from the sun into chemical energy in our bodies.
Traditionally, solar energy is converted by photosynthesis into carbohydrates in plants (i.e. biomass), which is either eaten by the vegans amongst us, or fed to animals, for those who with a carnivorous preference.
Today the process of feeding humanity is extremely inefficient.
If we could radically reinvent what we eat, and how we create that food, what might you imagine that “future of food” would look like?
In this blog we’ll cover:
- Vertical farms
- CRISPR engineered foods
- The alt-protein revolution
- Farmer 3.0
Let’s dive in.
Vertical Farming
Where we grow our food…
The average American meal travels over 1,500 miles from farm to table. Wine from France, beef from Texas, potatoes from Idaho, etc.
As a result, nearly half the cost of today’s meals is the travel cost.
Imagine instead, growing all of your food, in a 50-story tall vertical farm in down-town LA, or off-shore on the Great Lakes where the travel distance is no longer 1,500 miles, but 50 miles.
Delocalized farming will minimize travel costs at the same time that it maximizes freshness.
Perhaps more importantly, vertical farming also allows tomorrow’s farmer the ability to control the exact conditions 24x7 of her plants.
Rather than allowing the vagaries of the weather and soil conditions to dictate crop quality and yield, we can now perfectly control the growing cycle.
LED lighting provides the crops with the maximum amount of light, at the perfect frequency, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
At the same time, sensors and robots provide the root system the exact pH and micronutrients required, while fine-tuning the temperature of the farm.
Such precision farming can generate yields that are 200% to 400% above normal.
Next let’s explore how we can precision-engineer the genetic properties of the plant itself.
CRISPR & Genetically Engineered Foods
What food do we grow?
A fundamental shift is occurring in our relationship with agriculture. We are going from evolution by natural selection (Darwinism) to evolution by human direction.
CRISPR (the cutting edge gene editing tool) is providing a pathway for plant breeding that is more predictable, faster and less expensive than traditional breeding methods.
Rather than our crops being subject to nature’s random, environmental whim, CRISPR unlocks our capability to modify our crops to match the available environment.
Further, using CRISPR we will be able to optimize the nutrient density of our crops, enhancing their value and volume.
CRISPR may also hold the key to eliminating common allergens from crops. As we identify the allergen gene in peanuts, for instance, we can use CRISPR to silence that gene, making the crops we raise safer for and more accessible to a rapidly growing population.
Yet another application is our ability to make plants resistant to infection, or more resistant to drought or cold.
Helping to accelerate the impact of CRISPR, the USDA recently announced that genetically engineered crops will not be regulated -- providing an opening for entrepreneurs to capitalize on the opportunities for optimization CRISPR enables.
CRISPR applications in agriculture are an opportunity to help a billion people and become a billionaire in the process.
Protecting crops against volatile environments, combating crop diseases and increasing nutrient values, CRISPR is a promising tool to help feed the world’s rising population.
The Alt-Protein/Lab-Grown Meat Revolution
Fully 33% of the Earth’s non-ice landmass is used for raising livestock -- a massive amount of land -- and global demand for meat is predicted to double in the coming decade.
Today, we must grow an entire cow -- all bones, skin and internals included -- to produce a steak.
Imagine instead, if we could start with a single muscle stem cell and only grow the steak, without needing the rest of the cow? Think of it as cellular agriculture.
Imagine returning millions, perhaps billions of acres of grazing land back to the wilderness? This is the promise of Lab Grown Meets.
Lab-grown meat can also be engineered (using technology like CRISPR) to be packed with nutrients, and be the healthiest, most delicious protein possible.
We’re watching this technology develop in real time. Several startups across the globe are already working to bring artificial meats to the food industry.
JUST, Inc. (previously Hampton Creek) run by my friend Josh Tetrick, has been on a mission to build a food system where everyone can get and afford delicious, nutritious food. They started by exploring 300,000+ species of plants all around the world to see how they can make food better, and now are investing heavily in stem-cell grown meats.
Backed by Richard Branson and Bill Gates, Memphis Meats is working on ways to produce real meat from animal cells, rather than whole animals. So far, they have produced beef, chicken and duck using cultured cells from living animals.
As with vertical farming, transitioning production of our majority protein source to a carefully cultivated environment allows for agriculture to optimize inputs (water, soil, energy, land footprint), nutrients and, importantly, taste.
Farmer 3.0
Vertical farming and cellular agriculture are reinventing how we think about our food supply chain and what food we produce.
The next question to answer is who will be producing the food?
Let’s look back at how farming evolved through history.
Farmers 0.0 (Around 9000 BCE, Neolithic Revolution): The hunter-gatherer to agriculture transition gains momentum, and man cultivated the ability to domesticate plants for food production.
Farmers 1.0 (until circa 19th century): Farmers spent all day in the field performing backbreaking labor, and agriculture made up 82 percent of U.S. jobs.
Farmers 2.0 (mid 20th century, Green Revolution): From the invention of the first farm tractor in 1812 through today, transformative mechanical biochemical technologies (fertilizer) boosted yields and made the job of farming easier, driving the U.S. farm job rate down to less than 2 percent today.
Farmers 3.0: In the near future, farmers will leverage exponential technologies (e.g. AI, networks, sensors, robotics, drones), CRISPR and genetic engineering, and new business models to solve the world’s greatest food challenges and efficiently feed the 8-billion-plus people on Earth.
An important driver of the Farmer 3.0 evolution is the delocalization of agriculture driven by vertical and urban farms. Vertical farms and urban agriculture are empowering a new breed of agriculture entrepreneurs.
Let’s take a look at an innovative incubator in Brooklyn, New York called Square Roots.
Ten farm-in-a-shipping-containers in a Brooklyn parking lot represent the first Square Roots campus. Each 8 ft x 8.5 ft x 20 ft shipping container contains an equivalent of 2 acres of produce and can yield more than 50 lbs of produce each week.
For 13 months, one cohort of next-generation food entrepreneurs takes part in a curriculum with foundations in farming, business, community and leadership.
The urban farming incubator raised a $5.4 million seed funding round in August 2017.
Training a new breed of entrepreneurs to apply exponential technology to growing food is essential to the future of farming.
One of our MTP’s at the Abundance Group is to empower entrepreneurs to generate extraordinary wealth while creating a world of abundance. Vertical farms and cellular agriculture are key elements enabling the next generation of food and agriculture entrepreneurs.
Conclusion
Technology is driving food abundance.
We’re already seeing food become demonetized, as the graph below shows.
From 1960 to 2014, the percent of income spent on food in the U.S. fell from 19 percent to under 10 percent of total disposable income -- a dramatic decrease over the 40 percent of household income spent on food in 1900.
(Graph depicts the dropping percent of per-capita disposable income spent on food. Source: USDA, Economic Research Service, Food Expenditure Series)
Ultimately, technology has enabled a massive variety of food, at a significantly reduced cost, and with fewer resources used for production.
We’re increasingly going to optimize and fortify the food supply chain to achieve more reliable, predictable, and nutritious ways to obtain basic sustenance.
And that means a world with abundant, nutritious and inexpensive food for every man, woman and child.
What an extraordinary time to be alive.
Join Me
(1) A360 Executive Mastermind: This is the sort of conversation Peter explores at his Executive Mastermind group called Abundance 360. The program is highly selective, for 360 abundance and exponentially minded CEOs (running $10M to $10B companies). If you’d like to be considered, apply here.
Share this with your friends, especially if they are interested in any of the areas outlined above.
(2) Abundance-Digital Online Community: Peter has also created a Digital/Online community of bold, abundance-minded entrepreneurs called Abundance-Digital.
Abundance-Digital is Peter’s ‘onramp’ for exponential entrepreneurs – those who want to get involved and play at a higher level. Click here to learn more.