Advertise on podcast: Deep Future

Chris Kantrowitz and I get into the hidden technology of language: what remote work strips out of company culture, what his non-speaking son taught him about communication, and why telepathy, dreams, and the brain deserve serious experiments.

Chris Kantrowitz and I compare pre-deal venture investing with music lawyers and Hollywood agents, then get into hacker-advising WarGames, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and the CAA machine Andreessen Horowitz borrowed.

Byron Reese and I trace how stories shape what people fear and build—from biased machine learning and Hollywood’s dystopian AI to Star Trek, Agora, and the fight for a more optimistic technological future.

Byron Reese and I follow the invention of probability into computer chips, then ask how stories, simulations, spreadsheets, sensors, and shared machine learning can help us choose a better future.

Byron Reese chases a weird question—why are there no Bronze Age beavers?—through Homo erectus, cave art, language, and the human superorganism he calls Agora.

Byron Reese and I unpack Infinite Progress, The Fourth Age, and Wasted—then chase recycling’s perverse incentives back to the real technical problem: building clean, cheap energy.

Spiros Michalakis and I explore The Telepathy Tapes, extraordinary claims, and the limits of what we know — then return to empathy, storytelling, and the challenge of connecting with other people.

Spiros Michalakis and I explore the Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer, AI tutors, game engines, and personalized stories — and how to help people go on adventures rather than spoon-feed them an education.

Spiros Michalakis walks me through the quantum Hall effect, topology, entanglement, and his picture of a holographic universe. I test the ideas against jumping beans, scratch holograms, and a light bulb.

Spiros Michalakis walks me through a thought experiment linking gravity and time. We explore consciousness, entropy, and what rock climbing and salsa dancing reveal about perspective.

Spiros Michalakis and Pablos examine what the best and brightest miss when they only talk to one another. They move from access, mentorship, hackers, and useful outsiders to empathy as a form of intelligence and the power of changing your point of view.

Mike Winter tells me how a 1994 Wired Robot Wars call pulled him out of an Alaska winter — flipper bots, a million fans, warehouse humanoids, and a Cannonball Run rule: never be bored.

Mike Winter and I go from local AI tools and gritty real props to childhood computers, Super 8 stop-motion, and why working with your hands still beats living only in your head.

Mike Winter and I argue fasteners, DJI-grade mechanics, and a no-screws design challenge — then widen out to what manufacturing is for and what still makes a person fulfilled.

Mike Winter walks me through his first CAD startup, the secret wish to make film monsters, offline research contests, and why Dollar Tree dioramas beat sitting around watching TV.