Aeon in Motion
The theme of this issue is Community, and with much more on that in the next section, this will be brief. A big thank you to our community for a number of recent new introductions and connections, including:
- A New York Times bestselling author
- The head of research for a nationally-renowned health-focused foundation
- A senior advisor to the FDA
- The Executive Director of an entrepreneurship center at a major US research university
- A biology researcher whom colleagues identified as a star on campus
- A venture capital fund focused on supporting policy-impacted & adjacent initiatives
- A venture capital fund focused on the future of work & education
If you think you know someone who might be passionate about our work, please let us know!
From the Roundtable
This week's Roundtable discussion centered on our continued efforts to build the Community of Practice. In summary: Our immediate goal is to build a small community that is passionate about Project Aeon—one that brings credibility, reach, and insight to our broader effort. Our current focus is on two target audiences:
Distinguished Sponsors: People with name recognition who, if they champion Project Aeon, provide immediate credibility and access to a broad network of influence and wealth.
Movement Builders: People who want to actively help build the movement; while they are successful in their field, they may lack "name recognition," but they make up for it in energy, passion, and a willingness to roll up their sleeves to help build the community.
Ultimately, we are curating a strategic portfolio of 25 – 40 individuals who embody the values of scientific freedom, long-range thinking, scientific impact, and the belief that a new institutional model is needed to accelerate transformative breakthroughs. We aim for diversity across seven functional archetypes:
- Scientists (10 - 16): Researchers who want to be part of the Aeon movement. Demonstrate scientific credibility. Provide insight to process, investment thesis, etc. Should represent a diverse portfolio of scientific disciplines.
- Distinguished Sponsors (2 - 4): Individuals who have eminent reputations, global connections, and shout legitimacy. Aid in connections, funding conversations, etc.
- Technologists (4 - 5): Tech executives, tech transfer specialists, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists. Help build partnership ecosystem, inform commercialization and venture studio approach.
- Philanthropic Catalysts (3 - 5): Foundation leaders or practitioners, or donor advisors aligned with long-termism and systems change. Inform impact thesis and thinking, connections to other non-profits, connections to funders.
- Movement Builders (3 - 5): Writers, podcasters, educators, celebrities, community catalysts. Engage community, create thought leadership, increase the feeling that Aeon is a movement, not a small startup.
- Policy & Experts (3 - 5): Legal, IP, policy, or institutional reform experts. Help with policy, navigating bureaucracy, engaging community at the national and global scale.
- University & Ecosystem (2 - 3): University administrators (active, or more likely, recently retired), leaders of a Sponsored Research Office, Tech Transfer Officer Leaders.
The Idea Garden
When do girls fall behind in maths? Gigantic study pinpoints the moment
A core aspect of our investment thesis at Aeon is that due to structural factors we are missing out on good ideas—including some with the power to transform our world for the better. This groundbreaking study suggests that implicit factors are massively impeding half of the world's population from contributing their full potential to the universe of STEM (and likely others)—and offers grounds for a renewed clarion call for its rectification.
Humanoid Robots in Manufacturing - by Ben Reinhardt
Here is a fun read from our friends over at Speculative Technologies. As artificial intelligences become more and more powerful, the visions of sci-fi writers of the past—i.e., ubiquitous humanoid robots—seem closer and closer to coming to fruition. But, as is often the case, these imaginings suffer from anthropocentrism: in a world where machines are made fit for purpose, what is the human form actually optimized for?
Are Ideas Getting Harder to Find? | NBER
In each issue, we include one research paper that informs our thesis. This paper is one we've referenced in the past, but never included, and is critically important: in a world where existential problems are multiplying, we are in need of more good ideas, not less. Sadly, the current state of affairs is the opposite: good ideas appear to be getting harder to come by.
New Details of Trump’s Budget Cuts Alarm Researchers
When work first started on Aeon, we coalesced on a number of genesis statements—reasons why we exist. One of those was that the long-horizon future of humanity and our planet should not rely on the vacillations, whims, and budgetary games of government alone. Sadly, one year later that statement rings truer than ever before. Even while we aggressively note that changes are needed in the greater scientific ecosystem, the proposed (n.b.: not yet ratified) cuts to US science are catastrophic and heedless.