Juan Enriquez—We produced our first zetabyte of data in all humanity by 2007; by 2015, will produce a zetabyte per hospital. “All life is imperfectly transmitted code,” Enriquez began, “and it is promiscuous.” Thus discoveries like the one last month of an entire bacterial genome inside the DNA of a fruit-fly is exploding the old tree-of-life models of evolution. The emerging map replaces gene lineages with gene webs. First step was reading life code (sequencing). The next part is writing life code. We’re designing software that will build our own hardware. A cell can be anything for the first 16 divisions. Synthetic Genomics created the first programmable cell and booted it. Rules for controlling genetic engineering: 1. a terminator gene, 2. a nutrient shutoff, and 3. engineering something that kills it. If you can design and boot “life,” this will challenge religion and conceptions of the world…what does it say about life, about resurrection, about reincarnation? Revolutions are by definition challenging things you believe to be true.
Jack Hidary—“The Prius got traction first through rentals—pathway for wide adoption of electric cars.” A Giga-Buck, also known as a billion dollars.
Drew Endy—Open-source biology is coming. There is a shortage of tools for bioengineering and biomanufacturing. Tools needed = Synthesis, Abstraction, Standardization. Biology is a compelling technology to build things in. Biology works not in binary but in 2^2 ATCG.
Richard Florida—Annual venture capital investing represents 0.2% of GDP but creates 11% of the jobs and is responsible for 21.0% of overall GDP. We are entering the 5th major revolution, and it is a world of “postindustrial economics.” The genius of America is that it can attract talent…when this is gone, we’re in trouble. A good city has technology, talent, and tolerance. There is an amplifier effect around the best cities. It will be cities not companies that are the organizational unit going forward. All major economic rebalances have fundamentally changed the way we live… suburbs, cities, etc. We need to rethink the “Housing-Energy-Auto Complex.” 55% of our income goes to houses, cars, and energy, none of which provide long-term value for the world. 40 Mega-regions worldwide account for 18% of people, 66% of the output, and 90% of the ideas/creativity. Will be important for these areas to be able to integrate multi-locational people. Nationwide, home ownership is 70%; 80% in economically depressed areas; 50% in Silicon Valley. The only way to stop the red state/blue state class war is to make service jobs attractive in the US (Zappos, Best Buy, Trader Joes, Wegmans, Container Store). In the 1870s, the US focused on mass public education; the New Deal funded colleges and universities; what’s next in education?
Sir Ken Robinson—Do you work with your imagination? Do you cultivate it daily? Weekly? The state of California spends more money on prisons than schools. Is this humane? Our education system needs transformation, not reformation. A degree used to be a passport, but now it’s a visa. We view education as a linear, algorithmic program—we’re obsessed with standardization. In your element, when you are being “who you are” not what you do, you are the most authentic, genuine version of yourself. Aesthetic pleasure is defined as times or things that heighten the intensity of being alive (sight, sounds, etc.). Human life is not linear, it’s organic. Element model = 1. natural aptitude (you’re good at what you do), 2. love it (if you find what you love to do, you “never work again”), 3. attitude, and 4. opportunity.
Amory Lovins-McDonough quote: “Now that you know, negligence begins tomorrow.” China has an 11-point core energy plan to transition—will lead us out of this (Energy Secretary Chu is Chinese—smart partnership). 2007—peak US gasoline, 2005—peak industrialized oil use, 2016—peak world oil use = demand is not supply-driven. Half of all energy is pumps and fans!
Bill Gates—Germany has 1 specialist for every 1 GP where the US has 3 specialists to 1 GP…this is the incentive system of our healthcare system. The progress of civilizations is a story of cheap energy. Ways to reduce innovation in the US: raise tuition at top universities (check—rising quickly), deny high-IQ immigrants (check—limiting H1Bs into the US), don’t invest in basic education (check—failing public school system). Philanthropic pledge idea—start younger, give more, and build a network. 1946 was the height of US Relativism—what do you really care about, the the well-being of the majority of people in the world or the power of the US?
Geoffrey Canada—“Education is a civil right.”
Miscellaneous—How can capitalism improve the human condition? For the first time we can engineer the natural world into the solution rather then just extract it. Those who waste less, win. The banking system needs to look much more like a utility. Epi-genomics = real-time genetics (epi-genome). Sits above your genome and is altered in real time based on nutrition and environment, and these changes are passed on genetically!
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Nate – This is all so interesting! Great post!