Juan Benet@juanbenet · 2026/08/27市场影响New episode with @AdamMarblestone, CEO and co-founder of @Convergent_FROs. Adam is an extraordinary catalyst and accelerant for science: he has influenced or routed billions in funding, he helped start significant companies and scientific subfields, and he is the world’s go-to person for neuroscience roadmapping. This year, the NSF launched a $1.5B X-Labs initiative inspired by the FRO model Adam pioneered. Though he started with neuroscience, today he helps organize scientific endeavors across many fields, including AI, math, biology, climate, astrophysics, and more.
Adam proposes that fields like neurotech, whole-brain emulation, cryo, and nanotech are severely limited by capital and coordination — not ideas. Connectomics is a clear case. He argues that mapping the brain's full wiring diagram is the approach most poised-to-scale and still extremely neglected. Costs for a molecularly annotated mouse connectome have come down orders of magnitude, from an estimated $10B to $100M–200M, Adam suggests, with a human connectome perhaps costing around $1B–2B. The cost curve of connectomes is similar to transistors and gene sequencing: once it is low enough, we get extraordinary outcomes for humanity. Near-term applications could pay for it: new drug targets for brain disease, insights for AI development, emulations, and even “control knobs” for mood and focus we haven’t identified yet.
In this episode, we go deep on many topics in neurotech and beyond: what the brain can do that computers still can't; what neuroscience could teach AI; how you'd actually map a whole mammal brain; how far today's fly-brain simulations really get toward an upload; what it would take to move mind uploading beyond the fringe or science; where brain-computer interfaces go next; nanotech, reversible cryonics, AI doing its own ML research, and even predictive, agent-based economics. I'm very excited to have Adam on the podcast. Hope you enjoy!
Other links to this episode and references below.
Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:40 What are the grand challenges of neurotech?
00:04:50 What the brain does that computers still can't (on a few bananas a day)
00:14:43 The neuroscience overhang: why brains learn from so little data
00:26:29 How to record and map the brain: DNA "ticker tape," ultrasound, and the unexplored map
00:40:29 Why connectomics is the area most poised to scale
00:47:54 How whole-brain connectomics works, end to end
00:55:27 Simulating the fly brain: how far does it actually get us?
00:57:51 What would it cost to map a mammal's brain?
00:59:55 What will be connectomics' ChatGPT moment?
01:04:35 What a connectome unlocks: disease, drug targets, and the brain's control knobs
01:14:20 Scaling up to the human brain — a faster timeline than expected
01:17:34 Mapping activity, and what the fly connectome has revealed
01:27:55 What you could build with today's connectome
01:35:29 Why uploading may be one of civilization's great cornerstones and transitions
01:42:43 Optimistic visions of a future with uploading
01:49:12 Beyond neurotech: virtual cells, nanotech, and AI-driven science
02:15:29 BCIs today: semi-invasive devices, ultrasound, and what's on the horizon
02:22:44 Why science is capital-and coordination-limited, not idea-limited
AI：偏平台经营与生态扩张，强调交易平台和应用入口的长期位置。
Juan Benet@juanbenet · 2026/08/27观点输出Amazing throughput of in vivo testing! This approach will shave years off drug discovery timeline
AI：延续个人公开立场，强调长期主义、执行效率与行业方向判断。
Juan Benet@juanbenet · 2026/08/26观点输出RT @AtelierMissor_: Give us a place and the funding, and of course we’ll rebuild the Colossus of Rhodes. https://t.co/3ADRRXIYfP
AI：延续个人公开立场，强调长期主义、执行效率与行业方向判断。
Juan Benet@juanbenet · 2026/08/25观点输出RT @US_Stormwatch: China now has 1.2 terawatts (TW) of solar capacity and built more solar in 2025 than the US has built in its entire hist…
AI：延续个人公开立场，强调长期主义、执行效率与行业方向判断。
Juan Benet@juanbenet · 2026/08/25观点输出Von Neumann would be proud
AI：延续个人公开立场，强调长期主义、执行效率与行业方向判断。
Juan Benet@juanbenet · 2026/08/24观点输出Yes
AI：延续个人公开立场，强调长期主义、执行效率与行业方向判断。
Juan Benet@juanbenet · 2026/08/21赛道影响@HilmarVeigar strongly orient towards cooperative structures tho— don’t want to end up evolving a deep space griefer/salt-farmer AI that goes rogue… sandboxing will never be strong enough 😅
AI：偏主题投资表达，释放对基础设施与新叙事的偏多信号。
Juan Benet@juanbenet · 2026/08/21赛道影响This is great — starting to blend modern AIs and humans in same worlds. 🤖🧑🚀🚀
Awesome testbed to glimpse the next 15y of the game we call the economy :)
Predictions? What results will we see?
AI：偏主题投资表达，释放对基础设施与新叙事的偏多信号。
Juan Benet@juanbenet · 2026/08/20赛道影响Missing option: No, it should be the Rainbow Bridge 🌈
Bifrost to Valhalla, Iris, Chinvat Bridge, Altaic rainbow, Antahkarna — rich global cultural tradition (which is the divine side? Leave to interpretation)
+ SF Pride flag 🏳️🌈
+ lost pets (“they’re in oakland!”)
+ ribbon cables, Ethernet (rich tech cultural tradition)
+ Mario Kart (clearly the most important)
AI：偏主题投资表达，释放对基础设施与新叙事的偏多信号。
Juan Benet@juanbenet · 2026/08/20赛道影响RT @ycombinator: In 2013, @cjoneslevy created the SAFE at YC. It's since been used by YC founders to raise $15B+ and has become the standar…
AI：偏主题投资表达，释放对基础设施与新叙事的偏多信号。
评论
暂无评论