Things That Will Blow Your Mind

Session Context & Theme

• The "Things That Will Blow Your Mind" session at the Milken Global Conference, moderated by Accenture's Paul Daugherty, focuses on navigating a "world in transition" driven by the acceleration of technology and science.
• Daugherty cites a survey indicating 68% of adults check their smartphones before getting out of bed, with an average of 2,617 touches per day (double for Millennials), though he argues smartphone dependency will diminish as AI-driven virtual agents emerge.
• The panel identifies a shift from the "Silicon Age" and "Information Age" toward a "Hydrocarbon Age" evolving into an "Age of Biology" and enhanced human cognition.

Dr. Hyunjun Park (Catalog Technologies): DNA Data Storage

• Problem Statement: Global data creation is projected to reach 160 zettabytes by 2025, yet current storage capacity (hard drives, flash, tape) will only cover 12.5% of this volume, with 40% deemed critical for enterprise operations.
• Current Limitations: The cloud is described as energy-intensive, occupying "acres of land" and costing billions, with the market expected to reach $100 billion annually while demand outstrips supply.
• Technical Solution: Catalog Technologies proposes encoding digital information in synthetic DNA, which offers a density of 200 petabytes per gram—approximately one million times denser than flash drives.
• Economic Shift: Unlike previous methods requiring custom synthesis for every data write (similar to building a new hard drive each time), the company has developed a "blank hard drive" approach using enzymatic assembly to reduce costs, targeting economic viability by next year.
• Future Applications: Potential uses include portable personal health records (MRI, blood tests), decentralized blockchain backups, and preserving human knowledge for space colonization.
• Clarification: The DNA used is a synthetic biopolymer, not derived from human cells, and is fully biodegradable.

Josh Hoffman (Zymergen): The Age of Biology

• Strategic Pivot: Zymergen positions itself as 50% life sciences and 50% technology, aiming to replace petroleum-based materials with biologically engineered alternatives through industrial fermentation.
• Market Disruption: Hoffman argues the current chemical sector faces stalled innovation because the "juice has been squeezed" from hydrocarbon processing; his goal is to unlock new material properties impossible with petrochemicals.
• Process Innovation: The company uses machine learning to search genomic spaces (described as more complex than the AlphaGo game space) to reprogram microbes, avoiding manual hypothesis testing by employing parallel robotic experimentation.
• Commercial Timeline: The company targets scaled market deployment by 2020 (with potential early wins in 2019) by focusing on products with immediate functional and economic value over purely environmental missions.
• Near-Term Products:
  • Flexible OLEDs: Developing materials for bendable phone screens.
  • Agricultural Solutions: Bio-engineered proteins to combat invasive pests like stink bugs that resist traditional pesticides.
  • Reusable Plastics: Creating materials that can be melted down in vinegar and recast, enabling true circularity for packaging.
• Long-Term Vision: Aiming to create materials that combine the strength of steel with the flexibility of fabric, printable circuits that adhere to skin, and self-regulating drug delivery systems.

Dr. Vivian Ming (Socos Labs & others): Cognitive Neuroprosthetics

• Core Objective: Ming advocates for "building better people" by using technology to enhance fundamental cognitive traits, specifically targeting working memory span, which is linked to longevity, education, and earnings.
• Current Efficacy: Existing non-invasive technologies, such as alternating current transcranial stimulation paired with EEG, have demonstrated a 15% increase in working memory performance in lab settings.
• Projected Impact: A 15% advantage in working memory is estimated to equate to roughly one additional grade level of academic performance and a 15–30% increase in lifetime earnings.
• Timeline for Adoption: While motor neuroprosthetics (e.g., BrainGate) are already operational, cognitive enhancements are expected to see initial specialized adoption in high-stakes fields like e-gaming within five years.
• Funding Sources: Significant research is funded by the CIA, DARPA, and the Chinese military, with e-gaming identified as a major private driver for cognitive enhancement tech.
• Ethical Risks: Ming warns of a potential "human divide" where cognitive enhancement becomes a privilege of the wealthy, potentially creating a permanent biological caste system.
• Regulatory Environment: A regulatory vacuum currently exists for non-medical cognitive enhancement, leading to self-experimentation by "biohackers" and the rise of "tyranny tech" for political manipulation.

Panel Q&A: Transition & Integration

• Hybrid Storage Models: Hyunjun Park envisions DNA storage initially integrating as a "colder tier" to supplement existing silicon infrastructure rather than replacing it immediately.
• Data Editability: While currently "write-once," Park notes that future enzymatic methods or CRISPR technology could enable data editing and re-sequencing within DNA storage.
• Business Viability: Josh Hoffman emphasizes that biological disruption requires building viable business models that fit into existing supply chains to achieve economic viability against entrenched petrochemical industries.
• New Material Frontiers: Hoffman predicts the ability to engineer materials with properties currently impossible to conceive, such as super-porous materials as hard as steel or electronics that fade onto skin.
• Ethical Contrast: Vivian Ming frames the ethics of enhancement against the "passive" cognitive degradation caused by childhood stress and social isolation, suggesting active enhancement could be a moral imperative for human potential.
• Unintended Consequences: Ming warns that technology must be evaluated by whether users remain "better" after discontinuing use, citing automated navigation systems as an example of technology that may accelerate cognitive decline by removing the need for spatial memory.