Author: rob-reid

An Insider’s View of Bitcoin, Blockchain, and the Future of Money

By

Insights from Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam

Just another year of up and to the right.

I host a podcast which takes deep dives into science, tech, and sociological topics. I do this via interviews with world-class experts who have the patience to engage in truly unhurried discussions of their fields. My episodes are untethered from the headlines, as they’re meant to resonate with future as well as present-day listeners, ideally over a span of years.

Occasionally, though, things happen to line up with current events. And was that ever the case this week — as today’s episode is about cryptocurrencies, which have been repeatedly dashing price records, even as Bitcoin debuted on the futures markets this past Sunday.

Read More

Medium Targets 10 Million Paying Members in 5 Years

By

After On Podcast Episode #13

And no, I DON’T think Ev has lost his mind

Photo by Helena Price/Courtesy of Medium

Incumbents who dominate vast markets for decades and then lose their grip echo Hemingway’s depiction of sliding into bankruptcy: they do so gradually, then suddenly. Major network dominance of programming was an eternal fact of life when Netflix launched its first original show in 2013. But next year, the streaming leviathan’s $8 billion content budget will dwarf that of any broadcast network. Similarly, just a few years after launching in San Francisco, Uber eclipsed the revenues of the cab companies which had jointly monopolized that market for decades by a factor of 350%.

Shifts this big only happen when network effects are in play. Which is to say, that virtuous cycle in which more users make a platform more valuable, which draws more users, who make the platform more valuable still, which summons still more users, etc. In the digital era, we’ve seen network effects fuel the rise of messaging apps, social networks, and dating sites; as well as two-sided markets for Beanie Babies, handicrafts, and (of course) short-haul rides, to name but a few.

Read More

Audiocast: Humanity’s Final Invention

By

“After On” Audio Series: Episode 7 of 8

Discussing the super AI debate with a man who helped start it

I recently recorded a wide-ranging interview with documentary filmmaker and author James Barrat about the actual risks a super AI could pose to humanity. His book, Our Final Invention, first rocketed to prominence after Elon Musk tweeted approval of it in the summer of 2014.


To access our interview, either:

  1. Type “After On” into your podcast app’s search field, or . . .
  2. Click the “play” button at the top of this page, or . . .
  3. Click here, then click the blue “View on iTunes” button in the upper left corner of the page (requires iTunes, of course),
Read More

Audiocast: Two Hours with Sam Harris

By

“After On” Audio Series: Episode 6 of 8

Terrorism, super AI risk, and how Sam Harris became Sam Harris


I recently recorded a luxuriously unhurried conversation with author, neuroscientist, and public intellectual Sam Harris. Sam first entered the public eye with the release of his 2004 bestseller The End of Faith. A rumination on 9/11 and an endorsement of atheism (though that word is used precisely once in its text), The End of Faith peaked at #4 on the New York Times bestseller list. Sam’s subsequent bestsellers have included Letter to a Christian Nation, Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion, and the collaboration Islam and the Future of Tolerance.

To access our interview, either:

  1. Type “After On” into your podcast app’s search field, or . . .
  2. Click the “play” button at the top of this page, or . . .
  3. Click here, then click the blue “View on iTunes” button in the upper left corner of the page (requires iTunes, of course),
Read More

The Dizzying Potential of Quantum Computing

By

“After On” Audio Series: Episode 5 of 8

In-depth with venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson

Quantum computing is the wild card in technology’s deck

I recently recorded a wide-ranging conversation with venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson on the weird, even spooky topic of quantum computing. Steve is a long-serving board member at D-Wave Systems — the world’s oldest and largest quantum computing company. He and I go back a ways. We overlapped as undergrads at Stanford, then worked together in our first post-college jobs at Bain & Company. Our paths have crossed and re-crossed ever since, in and around the tech scene.

To access our interview at your leisure, either:

  1. Type “After On” into your podcast app’s search field, or . . .
  2. Click the “play” button at the top of this page.
  3. Click here, then click the blue “View on iTunes” button in the upper left corner of the page (requires iTunes, of course),
Read More

A New Podcast of Unhurried Interviews with Thinkers, Founders & Scientists

By

The “After On” Podcast

Launching Now . . .

Your correspondent’s Titan-Class Podcasting Contraption

I’ve been previewing my new podcast in the “members only” section of Medium for the past three weeks. Its goal is to bring listeners from a passing familiarity of a subject to a top-percentile understanding of it in the course of a single episode featuring a deep interview with a relevant expert.

Each episode is accompanied by an article that contextualizes and introduces it. The first of those articles was made available to Medium non-members and members alike. Its companion audiocast surveys the current state of augmented reality, and features a long interview with the CEO of AR pioneer Meta. While the article has been available to anyone, the audio was initially only available to paying Medium members.

Read More

I Run the Earth’s Smallest Startup

By

I’m now the CEO of a book. Yes, a book.


My second novel comes out today. Set in an imaginary Bay Area startup, it’s steeped in tech and science. The plot deals with the toxicity of social media, the perils of government hacking, the ethics of near-future augmented reality, and more. I poured about 7,500 hours of my life into it, as I mentioned in a post three weeks back. A long-time entrepreneur, I’ve now spent more time writing fiction than running companies, and am a novelist from tip to toe.

But I don’t feel like one this morning. I feel much more like a jittery CEO launching his understaffed startup into a dense market. Because that’s what novelists are these days. My startup is called After On, and my venture backer is Random House. They funded my launch and will support me for as long as it makes sense. Like all good VCs, they’re a great font of advice and contacts, and they earnestly wish me success. Also like good VC’s, they have a portfolio to manage. They’ve diversified their risk across it, whereas I’m frantically all-in on my lone creation.

Read More

The Good Lawyers vs. the Parasites!

By

“After On” Audio Series: Episode 3 of 8

Three Cheers for EFF and for Cindy Cohn

I recently recorded an unhurried and wide-ranging interview with Cindy Cohn, who defends your digital privacy and free speech full time — along with that growth-causing, job-forming force we call “innovation.” She does this in her role as Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. To access it, either:

  1. Type “After On” into your podcast app’s search field, or . . .
  2. Click the “play” button near the top of this page on Boing Boing or . . .
  3. Click here, then click the blue “View on iTunes” button in the upper left corner of the page (requires iTunes, of course),

Anyway, meet Cindy:

EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn.
Read More

Could Video Games Cure Alzheimer’s?

By

“After On” Podcast: Episode 2 (first published to Medium member July 21)

One of the world’s top peer-reviewed journals thinks it’s possible

I recently recorded a 90-minute interview with a man who might one day cure dementia by using that classical clinical tool: the video game. Seriously! Originally available just to Medium members, it’s now available to everyone as part of the After On podcast. To access it, either:

  1. Type “After On” into your podcast app’s search field, or . . .
  2. Click the “play” button near the top of this page on Boing Boing or . . .
  3. Click here, then click the blue “View on iTunes” button in the upper left corner of the page (requires iTunes, of course),

Anyway, meet my interviewee, Adam Gazzaley:

>Dr. Adam Gazzaley of UCSF

Adam runs a giant research lab at UCSF, and is emerging as one of the top neuroscientists of his generation. This Nature cover about his agenda-setting work started cementing his reputation a few years back:

Read More

The Future of Augmented Reality Ain’t Pokemon Go

By

“After On:” Audio Episode 1 of 8

Meta’s Meron Gribetz on the present & future of AR

Five years back, Google Glass’s famous launch video trained us to think of augmented reality as a flat translucence. It would be a bunch of wee announcements slapped on our field of view like Post-Its on ski goggles. The world beheld this daring vision and hit the snooze bar. AR’s next major milestone, Pokémon Go, is also all about simple superimposition (for now, anyway). So I was surprised to find the faithful at last month’s AR in Action conference almost wholly focused on holograms and photorealism. It’s a big step forward — and it’s actually starting to work.

I attended the New York City event to meet up with Meta CEO Meron Gribetz. Meta is racing Microsoft for the early lead in commercial AR. Florida-based Magic Leap is also allegedly in the hunt, having raised over a billion dollars. But having yet to ship a product, they came in for some sharp criticism back in December, followed by bemused head-scratching, which continues to this day.

Subsequent to the conference, I sat down with Meron in Meta’s Silicon Valley HQ to record a long interview — which now is part of an eight-episode audio series I’m producing to accompany my new novel, After On. I set the novel nine seconds into the future, as this let me feature all kinds of present-tense science and technology. I figured this would also let me stuff my book full of 20-page digressions on how cooooool AR, synthetic biology, quantum computing, and other fields are (or rather, will be. You know — nine seconds from now).

Read More