Also can we get a profile on Michael Levin in 2026? The man literally just published a paper challenging and adding substantial rigor to the Theory of Evolution / Natural Selection with his Natural Induction theory. His Platonic Spaces symposium is some of the most interesting content to come out in a long time
Heck yea, it’s so applicable to business too. I’ve been building out a mind map on how it applies to business and using it internally at Levver (Levver.io) and externally with our clients. It’s been a profound shift , especially around integration of tech and humans and process and through hierarchy of Cognitive Light Cones
I fully second that. Michael Levin is rethinking our categories of reality in truly fascinating ways. Plus, SynBio is the most dynamic frontier in deep tech right now.
Loved how the idea of "means vs meaning" cuts through all the noise around tech progress. That tension between having better tools but still needing to figure out what to do with them is somethingI've seen play out at companies obsessed with efficiency gains but still not getting the deeper engagement stuff right. The Vertical Integrator frmaework from Cable Caballero feels especially relevant now when so many startups just want to stay horizontal and hope for the best. I dunno if building with joy will become the norm but it's definitely more memorable than the grind culture everyone defaults to.
Have no doubt 2026 will be gang busters, NB just keeps getting better and differentiating itself. In my head I was think “The Return of Magic” was going to be on here and then realized it was a 2024 essay 🤦🏼♂️
In re The Electric Slide. China has a significant surplus of data centers running at 20-30% of capacity. Don’t think China is capable of networking those data centers? Don’t think China is capable of designing/introducing a much cheaper version of AI? An American startup is likely to IPO and bring a purpose-built transformer chip to market in 2026. This chip provides 20x the compute, greatly reduces legacy. Given most of data center energy is consumed via latency, the energy savings will be significant.
Given the demand assumptions provided by OpenAI and NVDA, any one of the above scenarios will be a credible threat to OpenAI and NVDA.
Legacy & Latency:
A game of musical chairs would begin, with the usual suspects sitting in the chairs when the music stops: GOOG, AMZN, MSFT, APPL, META.
Also can we get a profile on Michael Levin in 2026? The man literally just published a paper challenging and adding substantial rigor to the Theory of Evolution / Natural Selection with his Natural Induction theory. His Platonic Spaces symposium is some of the most interesting content to come out in a long time
This is in my top ~3 that I want to write.
Heck yea, it’s so applicable to business too. I’ve been building out a mind map on how it applies to business and using it internally at Levver (Levver.io) and externally with our clients. It’s been a profound shift , especially around integration of tech and humans and process and through hierarchy of Cognitive Light Cones
I fully second that. Michael Levin is rethinking our categories of reality in truly fascinating ways. Plus, SynBio is the most dynamic frontier in deep tech right now.
Helen Keller said, "Christmas Day is the festival of optimism."
Merry Christmas!
https://www.centreforoptimism.com/blog/christmas
Long live DFW👏
Loved how the idea of "means vs meaning" cuts through all the noise around tech progress. That tension between having better tools but still needing to figure out what to do with them is somethingI've seen play out at companies obsessed with efficiency gains but still not getting the deeper engagement stuff right. The Vertical Integrator frmaework from Cable Caballero feels especially relevant now when so many startups just want to stay horizontal and hope for the best. I dunno if building with joy will become the norm but it's definitely more memorable than the grind culture everyone defaults to.
Have no doubt 2026 will be gang busters, NB just keeps getting better and differentiating itself. In my head I was think “The Return of Magic” was going to be on here and then realized it was a 2024 essay 🤦🏼♂️
it laid the groundwork for a lot of 2025!
Electric Slide was my favorite... regardless, thanks for making my 2025 more interesting and thought provoking
Thanks for reading this year, Iggy!
In re The Electric Slide. China has a significant surplus of data centers running at 20-30% of capacity. Don’t think China is capable of networking those data centers? Don’t think China is capable of designing/introducing a much cheaper version of AI? An American startup is likely to IPO and bring a purpose-built transformer chip to market in 2026. This chip provides 20x the compute, greatly reduces legacy. Given most of data center energy is consumed via latency, the energy savings will be significant.
Given the demand assumptions provided by OpenAI and NVDA, any one of the above scenarios will be a credible threat to OpenAI and NVDA.
Legacy & Latency:
A game of musical chairs would begin, with the usual suspects sitting in the chairs when the music stops: GOOG, AMZN, MSFT, APPL, META.