TTT028 Season Preview - Exploring Oceans, Quantum Realms, and Machine Intelligence
2:31AM Jan 9, 2024
Speakers:
Jonathan
Forrest Meyen
Announcer
Keywords:
fusion
technologies
themes
space
great
season
quantum
ai
tech
forrest
cool
listeners
tdk
type
ventures
tough
talked
sensing
applications
built
Welcome to Tough Tech Today with Meyen. and Miller. This is the premier show featuring trailblazers who are building technologies today to solve tomorrow's toughest challenges. I
welcome all of you to Tough Tech Today, this forest and I want to do a preview of our newest season season four. But first, yeah, of course, when we do a little review of of the show to date, particularly season three, it was I had a great time with these episodes we released. Yeah,
it was. It was a great season.
Yeah, we covered a lot of a lot of topics, and not lightweight stuff, either. You know, what, what were some of those topics that we went through?
Yeah, sure. So we tried something new this last season was to focus on particular themes, so that people could really get into a topic and kind of get immersed into it for about a quarter. So the first theme we kicked off the year was with biotech. And we talked to three companies, new equilibrium, biosciences, LLVM and conservative bias Biosciences. So it really gave us some time to get really, really immersed. Next we we went into space. And that was, that was a great, great chance to kick off more who'd we talked to in space J male
voice so yeah, we kicked off with space capital. Chad gave us such a great overview of the landscape of of why space matters for all of us Earthlings. And so that was cool. Then we mithril technologies led by Scarlett, her work. And as an early stage entrepreneur coming out of MIT, really fascinating, and how it could have implications on space weather, and many other forms of sensing. And then, you know, as a capstone of the the space quarter was Preston, who talked to Kim coming from the US Air Force, US Space Force on, you know, the behind the scenes look at how he and so many members of the defense community were standing that up. It's quite incredible. And now he's, you know, leading work with Arkenstone ventures, our space quarter, I think, was just delightful.
It was a great mix, too. You know, we had, we had a startup, we had someone from the venture capital community and someone from government. So I think it was a, it was just a really good mix that kind of encapsulated, all all aspects of that ecosystem, which is really being supported strongly by venture capital and government to help it help it thrive.
It's totally such a sort of, like, dual use aspect of that, and as well as just the public private partnerships, how important that is for for a field or domain like space, where we're like, now you forest a with lunar outpost, how, as a commercial entity, can benefit from and also advanced the capabilities of like, governments who are looking to the private sector for for help and making this a reality? It's an incredible.
Yeah, I mean, private private markets, private businesses can help help make things fast, because you got really motivated people that want to move fast and create the future.
And that's something that, you know, maybe we'll, we'll see, see some of that playing out with on a longer timeline with fusion energy, which was our, our final theme for season three. And so for us, you know, walk us through some of the conversations we had about fusion because this was a this was a this is a deep topic that I think very few of us feel comfortable in that realm. But uh, but we learned a lot.
Yeah, I mean, I learned a ton of fusion about fusion. Our, you know, our guests, we had proximate fusion. So we had Francesco Sortino. And his company is building a special type of reactor. We also had TDK ventures, which was an investor in type one energy and other fusion company, and then focused energy. We we had two of the founders, Thomas foreigner and provision Patel and, and all of those, I think, you know, what, I learned all the different types of fusion and all the different approaches, you know, where there's the tokamak type approach. There's laser impingement, methods of fusion and I'll What was the third one? JML? With
magnetic confinement?
Yes, I
think that yeah, I think Tina is from TDK ventures like her, her sort of synopsis across the different approaches to like grid scale fusion was just really beneficial. And so, you know, listeners and viewers, if you do want to, you know, get started on fusion, I think Tina's work with TTK ventures, that episode would be a good starting point, because it just, it's kind of like a 360 view, on on where we are as a almost as a civilization in terms of being able to get abundant clean energy, to, to to the grid. And in a serious way, that's not just say, solar, which the sun goes down, wind, sometimes it's not windy. And those can all be complemented with a really sort of robust sort of baseload power that, that these fusion technologies, we hope we'll be able to provide. You know, in however many years, this was really amazing.
Yeah, that was great, great season. Every every single trio of episodes, just kind of built upon each other, too. So it was it was a great, great show. And we've got really good season for 2024 planned. So I hope all of our listeners are going to be really excited to hear these these new themes. Jay, Mel, you want to kick us off? And tell everyone what we're what we're gonna talk about?
I am, I am. Yeah, it's an honor. So, you know, all of you, we, you know, our allies, we listened to you, comments, your feedback. And so keep that coming. What we have planned are several themes over this year, we would like to delve into the world of, quote unquote, Blue Technologies. So like marine water, oceans, think about that, the different kinds of technologies that that would be applied to the maritime industry, or were drawn from the maritime industry. And this would be things that that promote what we call like, sort of sustainable innovation across different parts of the economy associated with, with water life. So this can this could touch into robotics, it can touch into the future of food, it can touch into climate changes, there's a lot there. So Blue Technologies is one of those themes. That another theme that we are sinking our teeth into are the quantum sciences, which the quantum sciences will be composed of things like quantum computing, many of us have heard of that. But then also quantum sensing and quantum communications. And so that trio computing, sensing and communication, we intend to, to give you a good 360 view across that. And then a third theme that we want to bring our own sort of unique, sort of Tough Tech Today approach to is, is an artificial intelligence, thinking machines, if you will, how applications of this growing set of capability can solve the tough tech challenges that that just are incredible for our society to to address really scary problems that AI can solve in a way that's more meaningful, perhaps then improving our, our recommendation systems for like, what movie to watch next. Useful. Sure. But we're looking to move the needle in other ways. So you know, for us that you know, you and I put this this this this list together. What's your perspective on on the themes that we have on the docket?
Well, I think I think they're both they're all going to have different fields for it. So I think, I think blue Tech's exciting because it's, you know, from a technical standpoint, it's, it's very broad, right, so we'll see different types of technologies using different types of physical principles, all as they relate to, using our ocean as part of the economy to you know, sustain us as humans and also to improve sustainability of the planet. And so there'll be, you know, broad different sorts of technologies. For for quantum this is where, you know, for the nerds in us, I think we're gonna get really into the nitty gritty of science. So, you know, come with come with an open mind to think about things that most people never kind of imagined. So it'll be maybe a little more technical, but it's, it's cool how unlocking these quantum technologies could really change the face of these Three areas computing sensation and communication. And then ai ai is very hot right now, who knows, maybe it won't be as hot in, you know, at the end of the year. So we're kind of making a gamble here. But I think that, you know, our focus on AI will be to select the really impactful applications of it, for applying AI to tough technologies to really help the betterment of humanity. So it's not going to be just an AI program that, you know, does your homework or generates a cool cartoon, we're really going to be focusing on these kind of deeper tech applications of it. And so I think we'll we'll see some applications that maybe you weren't aware of. And so I think the listeners are going to have a great time with that section as well. Yeah,
I agree. And something also is that we've we've, though, where we are sort of premeditating several different themes, we also have built in some slack into the schedule, because we, you know, with the intention of having some special guests who, who we wouldn't necessarily fit in any one particular theme and opportunistic as well, in terms of some of the folks that that would be really great to come on the show that we think would be important for you to hear from so that's all in plan and wheels in motion for season four, something that helps make this show possible as it's a labor of love that forrest and I, you know, run to to conduct this, but it's also a community that each of us is a part of. So we, this past season, we opened up the pay, if you can pay what you want membership tiers, in thank you so much to through our paid subscribers, it it means so much to us to have to see your commitment that way. And so will will will link you know, if you're interested in 2024 and supporting the show in a monetary way. Thank you, we just we appreciate your your your attention and sharing it with folks who you think would be able to benefit from from this content to force, you know, closing words for our tough tech community?
Well, just make sure that you share the show. I think that's that's really the important thing here. It's going to grow with referral and word of mouth. And we have so many different ways to access the show, whether it's on YouTube, any of your podcast apps, and Gmail writes, wonderful blog post, if you prefer that, and we have a listserv that you can sign up for. So there's lots of ways the to enjoy the content that we make for our listeners. So I just recommend you find the format that you enjoy and share it. And I think that's, that's about it, I think. I think we have one more thing we'd probably like to say to at the end of every episode. All right, I'm Forrest Meyen.
