Things That Will Blow Your Mind | Global Conference 2025

Panel Overview

• Theme: "Towards a Flourishing Future," focusing on present advancements driving future capabilities in space, energy, health, and immersive media.
• Moderator: Richard Sandler, Executive Vice President of the Milken Family Foundation and partner at Marin and Sandler.
• Core Objective: Discuss technologies enabling human settlement on other planets, the transition to fusion energy, AI-driven healthcare, and scalable immersive experiences.

Crystal Johnson: NASA & The Artemis Program

• Mission Architecture: Artemis is a global coalition of 53 countries using the Moon as a proving ground to achieve the ultimate destination of Mars.
• 2040 Vision: The goal is sustainable human habitation on the Moon by 2040, requiring self-sufficiency in oxygen, water, energy, and food.
• Technological Enablers for Deep Space:
  • Digital Twins: Creating virtual replicas of human patients to diagnose and mitigate health issues (e.g., cancer, vascular blockages) before treating the physical patient.
  • Advanced Farming: Integration of drones and AI to manage pest infestations and optimize crop yields for off-world food production.
  • Inflatable Habitats: Utilizing subterranean lava tubes on Mars, which contain ice, to house pressurized habitats for protection against radiation and temperature extremes.
  • Circadian Management: Development of immersive "holodecks" with haptic sensors and vitamin D injection systems to simulate sunlight and regulate sleep cycles during the nine-month transit to Mars.
• National Security Implications:
  • Geopolitical Race: China is actively launching rapid missions; US leadership in space governance is critical to prevent adversarial dominance.
  • Investment Gap: Government funding alone is insufficient; the panel calls for structured public-private partnerships and long-term policy incentives to accelerate private capital injection.
• Next Floor 2040 Challenge: NASA is offering up to $4 million to university teams winning cross-disciplinary proposals that solve the 187 identified technological shortfalls required for future missions.

J.C. Bache: FUSE & Fusion Energy

• Fusion Primer: Combining light atoms (hydrogen) under extreme temperature and density releases massive energy (E=mc²); the process is inherently safe with no risk of meltdown or chain reaction.
• Commercial Viability Milestone: The National Ignition Facility (NIF) recently achieved net energy gain, proving fusion is physically possible, though commercialization remains a decade away.
• FUSE's Approach:
  • Technology: Leverages Z-machine technology from Sandia National Lab to create "lightning in a bottle," delivering energy with up to 89% efficiency.
  • Titan Machine: First-of-its-kind commercial device fired at full scale in March 2025, capable of delivering high-intensity radiation pulses.
  • Business Model: "Radiation as a Service" targeting the $95 billion annual US nuclear arsenal modernization budget, aiming for software-like margins.
• Energy Density: One liter of hydrogen fuel in a fusion reactor replaces 8.7 million liters of oil; energy density is approximately one million times greater than current rocket fuels.
• Timeline & Urgency: J.C. estimates a need to prove commercial feasibility within the next decade to meet the energy demands of AI and national security, specifically to survive the lunar night.

Dr. Roland Illing: AWS & AI in Healthcare

• Cloud Utility: AWS transforms computing into a utility like electricity; cloud infrastructure offers 50% fewer outages and 66% less downtime than on-premises systems.
• Data Scale: Healthcare organizations generate ~50 petabytes of data annually, surpassing the entire collection of the National Library of Congress.
• Generative AI Shift:
  • Multimodal Models: Evolution from language-only models (LLMs) to models processing genetic, imaging, and text data simultaneously.
  • Agentic Workflows: Autonomous software agents that can orchestrate tasks (e.g., drug discovery) without human intervention.
• Case Study (ESM3): An evolutionary scale model generated a new green fluorescent protein, accelerating biological discovery by an estimated 500 million years.
• Live Demonstration:
  • Diagnostic Accuracy: A foundation model correctly identified a 6x3 cm cerebellar mass (likely glioma) in a brain scan, matching radiologist-level analysis.
  • Democratization: AI successfully translated complex medical findings into language understandable by a seven-year-old.
  • Global Reach: Models demonstrated language agnosticism, functioning seamlessly in Arabic.

Jeb Terry: Cosm & Shared Reality

• Core Concept: "Shared Reality" provides immersive, venue-based experiences without headsets, leveraging planetarium technology and 360-degree screens to transport crowds to digital environments.
• Business Structure: Three integrated divisions:
  • Cosm Technology: Proprietary rendering engines, domes, and software.
  • Cosm Media: Production of immersive sports and entertainment content (e.g., NFL, Cirque du Soleil, Matrix experiences).
  • Cosm Venues: Physical locations featuring hospitality, social seating, and high-end F&B.
• Current Operations:
  • Venues: Opened locations in Hollywood Park (LA) and Frisco (Dallas); announced expansions to Atlanta and Detroit.
  • Global Scale: Powering nearly 800 institutions worldwide, including Griffith Observatory and the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum.
• Revenue Drivers: Syndication of single live feeds to hundreds of global venues; rights partnerships with all major US sports leagues and broadcast networks.
• Human Element: Focus on the "experience economy" where technology amplifies authentic human connection and communal energy rather than replacing it.

Strategic Synthesis & Future Outlook

• Interdependency: Space missions require fusion energy for propulsion and life support; healthcare AI requires massive cloud computing; entertainment requires high-bandwidth data centers.
• Investment Thesis: All panelists agree that government funding is necessary but insufficient; private capital must be incentivized through long-term policy frameworks and public-private partnerships.
• Jevons Paradox: Despite cloud computing reducing costs by 80% and increasing efficiency 3.6x, total energy consumption continues to rise due to increased adoption.
• Collective Hope:
  • Fusion: A world free from energy scarcity and nuclear existential threats.
  • Health: A "golden age" of personalized medicine and biological discovery.
  • Space: A secure, democratic future for humanity on other planetary bodies.
  • Media: A future where technology preserves and enhances authentic human connection and shared joy.