Dave Asprey is perhaps the most well-known biohacker (he's even referenced in Merriam-Webster's definition of biohacker) and the founder of Bulletproof. For those that don't know, a biohacker is someone who uses drugs and technology to make their body/mind function better.
Dave and I shot a video where he discusses life and provides an interesting take on algorithms.
It's not surprising that biohacking has become as popular as it has. In a society that encourages (maybe even necessitates) an impossible balance between work, responsibilities, and self-care – it makes sense to want to increase efficiency.
Biohacking helps you do more with less. Biohacking is popular because you're trying to get peak performance via the path of less resistance.
Having trouble with sleep, but don't want to stop using your phone before bed? Wear blue-light blocking glasses.
While biohacking started as tricks like that – nootropics to help your mind, light and sound machines to decrease stress – it's becoming increasingly tech-centric and augmentation based.
Several months ago, I shared Gartner's hype cycle for 2018. Do-It-Yourself Biohacking was one of 5 encompassing trends for the year.
The future is bringing implants to extend humans past their perceived limits and increase our understanding of our bodies; biochips with the potential to detect diseases, synthetic muscles, and neural implants. – Howard Getson
It's estimated that over 100,000 people already have various types of implants. In Sweden, thousands of Swedes are inserting chips under their skin to speed up their daily routines. They use chips to open locked doors, to store contact information, and to get on to the train. Currently, chips are limited to simple tasks like unlocking doors, holding personal data, and tracking simple to record data.
Longterm, it's likely you'll see it moving toward exoskeletons, AR/XR experiences, and unsurprisingly to sex toys. It's also being used to create artificial organs and counteract memory loss. The two companies that are leading this movement are Neuralink, Biohax International and Digiwell. While it's currently being adopted primarily by fast-movers and technocrats, it's pragmatic to think there will be more widely-adopted versions of this as technology gets standardized and protections are put in place.
For all the excitement, it's necessary to remain skeptical and patient. DIY biohacking raises various ethical issues, especially around data protection and cybersecurity. As a reminder, when it comes to cybersecurity, you "the user" are the biggest weakness.
There's no stopping this train, but there is time to make sure it stays on tracks!
Fake news was scary enough … but now it is going to a new level. Technology is going to make it harder to find the “signal” in the “noise”.
Here is a preview of tech solutions (which already exist) that are likely to create a new set of problems and challenges for us in the future.
Replica is a company whose goal is to replicate celebrity voices. They see this as enabling creative applications of their voices without the commitment of the celebrity – of course the owner of the voice that's being replicated would control when/where it could be used.
Combine that ability to simulate voices with deepfake technology (which can alter video in many ways, including to look like the mouth in the video is is saying the words that were simulated) and the potential for confusion or deception skyrockets.
My guess is that you will hear a lot more about this soon because of upcoming elections. It will also become increasingly relevant in everyday life, business, trading, and legal situations.
A picture used to be worth a thousand words, but this may change that equation forever.
Most people don't spend money on freemium games. These games rely on a small subset of "whales" to survive – players that spend absurd amounts of money on their games. Gacha games let players pay to "roll the dice" to unlock rare characters and collectibles similar to a "Loot Box" mechanic.
Now, the US is trying to make this mechanic illegal for taking advantage of children with their "pay-to-win" mechanics.
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.
I'm a big fan of picking a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (sometimes called a "BHAG") and taking actions that move you in that direction.
I'm also a big fan of Strategic Coach'sBigger Future exercise. It is a 20-year planning exercise where you plan out your commitments and goals to yourself, your family, your career, and your legacy.
While doing this, I realized that my ideal next 20 years involves taking Capitalogix to the next level (and beyond).
As a result, I recently held a two-hour town hall session with everybody in Capitalogix. You'll find a 5-minute compilation of highlights at the end of this article.
Before I share with you, I want to take time to bring you up to speed on Capitalogix's history. Some may know the story, but many of you are new. It's important context for the video and for Capitalogix's future.
A Brief History of Capitalogix
Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future. – Walt Disney
In the 90's, I left a corporate securities law practice to start a company that was an early pioneer in automation, intelligent agents, and rule-based processing.(it is almost embarrassing to compare that to AI today). Nonetheless, we ended up on the Inc. 500 list, won lots of awards and had a great time. Little did I know how important that would be to what we are doing now.
Life intervened … and 1999 was a rough year for me. My dad died of cancer, I got divorced, and I sold my company. That year inspired my TED Talk on the Time Value of A Life Worth Living, and has inspired the past 20 years of my life.
I threw myself into trading. At first, I was a fundamental trader. But I quickly threw myself into Elliott Wave theory, technical analysis, quantitative analysis, and everything else I could get my hands on. I spent hours on end marking up charts and creating early algorithmic trading systems – predecessors to how we trade today.
I also hired my first two employees – Gabriel and Sean. My dining room became their office. I started to view trading as a business, rather than a hobby. The thought forms that would become our framework for understanding markets were starting to gel.
By 2015, we had 20+ employees working out of my house, and I realized we'd outgrown my home. Here is a picture from the dining room before the move.
After a brief time with employees in three different offices (including one of our partner's offices) we found our current office.
Moving in to our new office represented a positive shift in culture and focus – and another step toward our goals.
Where We Are Today
The power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment: You create a good future by creating a good present. – Eckhart Tolle
We are committed to revolutionizing decision science (making better decisions faster). We're creating the future we've envisioned.
Yet, for all we've accomplished, we're driven every day to be better than we were yesterday. That drive comes from that big hairy audacious goal and that 20-year vision.
It comes from knowing who we want to be tomorrow.
Committing To The Future
It means that we're going to have to have new people and new ways of doing things because the recipe for getting here isn't the recipe for getting there. As much as I respect and love you for "here." I respect and love you enough to hold you accountable for "there." – Howard Getson
It hasn't always been easy – but building Capitalogix has been an intensely rewarding passion.
Over the next 20 years, there are a ton of people I want to impact and a lot of goals I want to accomplish. Capitalogix is the way I intend to do that.
I look forward to you all being a part of it as well.
This year, I spent some extra time thinking about my father – and his influence on me and countless others. It's been 20 years since my last Father's Day with him.
My Dad was incredibly loving and demanding. I recognize how much his vision of what I could become helped shape me.
For example, after winning the State Championship in the shot put, my dad came down from the stands onto the field. He hugged me and told me that he knew I could do it. Then, he looked deeply into my eyes and asked whether I was a little disappointed? "Disappointed?" I asked. "But, Dad, I won." He looked at me and said, "Yeah, winning is great … but you didn't throw a personal best." He was proud and he loved me. He recognized that winning was important … but he wanted to remind me that the other throwers weren't my real competition.
In life, to be and do your best, the competition is really with yourself; and we both knew I could do better.
My Dad believed in setting high standards. He taught me that most people's lives are defined by their minimum standards. Why? Because once those standards get met, it is easy to get distracted and complacent.
One of his favorite sayings was "The difference between good and great is infinitesimal." This applies to many things. For example, people who are good take advantage of opportunities; people who are great create them. The point is that setting higher standards is one of the best ways to ensure a better life.
As time goes on, I recognize how much of him is inside me.
Many of the lessons he taught me became the lessons I taught my children – and my company. It's easy to focus on the big stories and the big lessons – but as I look back and consider what had the biggest impact, it was what happened in between … It was his incredibly consistent and unconditional love and his focus on what was possible.
The standards I hold people to are high, and it can be tough for them to meet those standards. Hopefully, they understand that it's because I love them (as my dad loved me) and that I see the greatness in them and available to them.
I'm surprised how often I see people who are bearish on Artificial Intelligence. Many are stuck in science fiction's depictions – sentience, personification, etc.. Modern AI is very different from science fiction predictions, but is still exciting. (Here's an infographic debunking 8 common AI myths)
Modern AI does many things and has many applications, but ultimately it's relatively faceless. It works in the background, impacts everything it touches, and silently collects vast lakes of data. AI may not be Star Trek's "Data," but it is transforming our economy at warp speed.
TechJury has put together an infographic on the history of AI until today. It highlights a number of key inflection points, AI's impact on today's economy, and which countries and companies are leading the pack.
