The inflection team spent a few days in the Bavarian countryside last week, planning the next 6 months and reflecting on our work so far. As a fully remote team, itās paramount to meet at regular intervals to calibrate and appreciate each others work. Itās also a lot of fun. Our neighbors were very fluffy (see below)
Two of us in the team are currently reading the recent Elon Musk biography and itās highly recommended if you want to understand the person behind some of the most interesting companies in the last 20 years.
š¤¼Ā People
Jonathan Edwards - Researcher at University of York
We chatted with Jonny about his idea for ātemporal computingā. The idea being that information can be encoded in the time intervals between the āticksā of a clock. Itās not a binary system but unary. While very early, and without implementation today, if it works it could be very efficient and only limited by clock speed.
Ryan Heartfield - Co-founder of exalens
Ryan has been working in cyber security for the last decade, across government and private sector. With exalens heās unifying sources across cyber-physical systems to improve efficiency and protect critical industrial infrastructure.
šĀ Companies
Navier AI - AI-driven physics simulations
Status: YC
Source: CAVI
Founders: Evan Kay, Cameron Flannery
Why itās cool:
Navier AI is making CFD 1000x faster.
Watney Robotics - Embodied AI, today
Status: 20,486B SAMPLES COLLECTED
Source: CAVI
Founders: Sean Cheong, Ryan Gannon
Why itās cool:
Some say we can only make it to AGI through embodiment. If you donāt give robots the possibility to experience reality through every aspect of humanity, sensory inputs, proprioception, even emotions, then how can they understand human intelligence?
Telepath Technologies - Communicate through thought
Status: Very early (tm)
Source: CAVI
Founders: Ellery Buntel, Noah Shamus
Why itās cool:
Communication at the Speed of Thought - not only Neuralink who can do it. Itās non-invasive even!
š”Ā Ideas & Science
šĀ The Internet of Agents
The crypto/AI theme has been growing hotter than the inside of an oven tomato, set to explode and get your tongue burnt any second. This article by Davide Crapis and collaborators (some of which were part of our hackathon last summer) outlines the idea of how blockchains will be the backend for the internet of agents. Weāre moving from useful assistants to agents, to general purpose systems of agents, to at some point self-improving agents. While the high-level is attractive, once we get down to implementation details, itās clear we still have a long way to go for blockchains to be the best deployment method.
š”Ā How to start Google
āyou can start a company that has as much chance of being Google as Google had of being Google.ā
Paul Graham writes about what it takes to start Google, as explained to 14-15 year-olds. Two things: get great at some technology and find a co-founder. The idea will be cheap.
šŖ¢Ā Magnetic Knots Could Open New Path to 3D Computing
Magnetic knots, such as skyrmions and merons, are being explored for their potential in advancing computing towards 3D capabilities. These magnetic structures, created by spinning electrons in specific compounds, offer promise for enhancing computing efficiency. Researchers have successfully demonstrated these magnetic swirls in thin layers of synthetic crystalline compounds like iron, germanium, and tellurium at room temperature, a significant advancement from the cold conditions typically required.
In this weekās news of pseudoscience aka ātechnical analysisā:
šĀ Bitcoin and the moon
Since thereās a lunar eclipse happening (cool) of course someone thought about looking at the correlation between bitcoin price movements and the moon (please donāt).