AI is accelerating the pace of progress for benevolent scientists and nefarious actors alike. We discuss how DARPA is preparing to defend agriculture & civilians from novel biological threats, and why such defense requires training foundation models for biology. We also dive into why DARPA is betting on blood as the operating system for the body, lessons from GLP-1s for human enhancement, how to create computers out of neurons, and much more.

Dr. Michael Koeris directs DARPA's Biological Technologies Office (BTO), the group that leverages biological properties and processes to revolutionize our ability to protect the nation’s warfighters. Prior to DARPA, Dr. Koeris was a highly successful biotech entrepreneur, holds over a dozen patents, and was a professor of bioprocessing.

DARPA is a research & development agency within the Department of War. Created in response to the launch of Sputnik in 1957, DARPA represents America’s commitment to never again face a strategic technical surprise. The agency has funded many transformational technologies, including mRNA vaccines which were pivotal during COVID.

Kris Borer is an entrepreneur, angel investor, and author of the new book Radical Life Extension.

We discuss why Kris rejects incrementalist approaches to radical life extension, and his argument that supplement, lifestyle interventions and small-molecule "geroscience" drugs offer only minor improvements at best to life span.

We cover the four part plan to cure aging spanning traditional drugs, advanced bioengineering, tissue/organ replacement, and biostasis (cryopreservation), and we dive deep for the first time on the podcast into replacement: body transplants, lab-grown organs, chimeric organ donors and even... brain replacement.

Resources & Links:

• Kris’s Book: Radical Life Extension

• Longevity Biotech Fellowship

• Repair Biotechnologies

• The Economic Laws of Scientific Research

• Tomorrow Biostasis
  

Jonathan Anomaly is a co-founder of Herasight and former PPE professor. Herasight is pioneering polygenic screening for embryos, to help parents undergoing IVF select embryos for health, intelligence, height, and other traits people care about.

We discuss the ethics of embryo selection and radical life extension. Jonathan has a Nietzschean view of humanity: within each of us we have the opportunity to either envy greatness in others, or seek to cultivate it within ourselves and in the world. In an era of total biological control, humanity can transcend its limitations and become something better.

Watch on YouTube. Read the transcript.