YouSaid · the spoken record

James D. O'Shaughnessy

lines on the record: 17
first: 2017-02-28
most recent: 2017-02-28
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Than us talk about how great radar technology is to consumers, we work with our partners, with our growers to say, here's some new things that you could do with your harvest practices to improve the quality of fresh produce that you're harvesting and delivering to your customers so that you're able to advertise a more nutritious, better tasting tomato to the end consumer. We think that's something that's general interest and not just to a niche audience. I think that's a really good question. Part of it boils down to how do you get people to care about sustainability as a company that we do sell directly to consumers, asking someone to pay more for a more sustainable product is a long shot. Most of the market is probably not going to be up for that. I think you have to confer some benefit directly to the consumer. I think that's entirely possible because if something is more sustainable, then the resource costs are lower and you have more control over its design. So I think you need to combine the sustainability factor with things that confer a consumer benefit such as lowering the cost or putting more work into the design and making”
2017-02-28 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: The Future of... You · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, the way that we think about it is that we don't really want to market our products. We want to market the benefits that growers receive by using our products. So one little antidote I'll just tell is that most of you probably have had the complaint, you know, my tomatoes don't taste like anything anymore. They taste like water. And the reason for that is that the tomatoes harvested at a stage three, in a color index of three, which means it's green. And you really want to consume it at a color index of five or six when it's that deep red. And the reason for that is that the fruit will continue to ripen on the vine. But if you pick it early, you'll end up with something that has only one-fifth of the nutrient density that it would is if you let it mature all the way to that state of five. But for transportability reasons, you will choose to harvest at a three, let it mature during transit, and just sell that tomato that still looks like a great tomato, but it's only got one-fifth of the nutrient density. And so rather than...”
2017-02-28 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: The Future of... You · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, cognition is such a complicated notion, right? You can break that cognition into certain measurable psychometrics like reaction time, working memory capacity, et cetera. And there's so many different pathways that attack each of these and outputs. Part of the notion of stacking different compounds or different devices is figuring out synergies. I think that's a ripe area of research because most studies are focused on single compounds. It's simpler. But I think in the future, there will be just systems perhaps something that's like automating a bunch of different variables being inputted to find optimal outputs.”
2017-02-28 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: The Future of... You · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Centuries seaweed, if you like, sushi, spirulina is a well known superfood. We're going to see more adoption of single-celled organisms. Yeast has, of course, been part of the food system for a very, very long time. But just recently have we gotten the tools to engineer these organisms. So I think we're going to use single-celled organisms to produce the same proteins and fats and carbohydrates that we used to weight an entire growing season for, that we can have organisms that double within hours. And I think we can use the front end techniques, we can use texture modifiers, synthetic flavors to make meats that are much more convincing and much more sustainable and efficient to produce. I think that a lot of food is going to be grown in giant steel vats rather than fields. But that means that we're never going to run out of arable land because all you really need to make food is sunlight and air and water. So if you lose less energy at every step, you're going to produce food a lot more efficiently. You're going to feed”
2017-02-28 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: The Future of... You · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Of how to reconstruct nature's molecules into clever structures that will ultimately allow us to deliver produce that last twice as long for the consumer and has grown without pesticides. Rob, the future of Future Food, I think you're going to see more technology, both in agriculture and in food products. Food production is still intrinsically inefficient, especially animal products. You just lose so much energy. You lose so many resources at every step from the sun to grow the corn to feed the animal, to process the meat. Of course, unconscionable amounts of fresh food gets thrown away. I think you'll see greater adoption of preservation technologies that aren't in mass adoption today, such as irradiation. I think you're going to see more genetic modification, not less. We're not going to be genetically engineering soy and corn anymore. It's much too slow. It's much too inefficient. We're going to grow more basic organisms, basically the most basic plant, which is algae. Algae has been eaten for...”
2017-02-28 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: The Future of... You · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Structural approach. It's given reptile scales. It's given plants a cuticular layer. And so the way we look at the future is to actually use those same building blocks from nature and basically use our knowledge of how to make those things, build the structures that we want, and build these microstructures that will give us crop protection. And right now we focus predominantly on post-harvest preservation of fresh produce because 40, 50, up to 80% in the developing world of produce just being lost. But that long term, we really have an opportunity to also start employing some of these strategies in field. It's not a pesticidal agent that's cytotoxic to some life form. But to use these molecules to form barriers that act as forms of molecular camouflage in the field and use this cloaking mechanism, which some organisms in nature already use. So we view the future as really an opportunity to use this knowledge of material science and knowledge.”
2017-02-28 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: The Future of... You · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Say are chemicals. And the distinction in my mind between a chemical and a molecule is that a chemical is something that humans have created that hasn't existed before in nature and that a molecule is something that nature reuses all the time. There are the kind of the fundamental building blocks of nature that get reused and recycled. And that up till now we've been able to kind of deal with the negative externalities that are associated with crop production that result from these quote unquote chemical and pesticide usage. But we're starting to bump up against those negative externalities actually impacting our lives and maybe not even becoming externalities anymore. They're getting internalized. And what we look at and say, well, nature has really done a hell of a job without us on this planet utilizing these molecules. And the way that nature does it is not by selecting a specific molecule to do one thing, the approach that nature has taken has been to use a microstroke.”
2017-02-28 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: The Future of... You · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, everything from skill acquisition to strength and explosion to endurance, all of these things can be sort of like there's a neurologic component to all of those things. So how can we use neurostimulation in temporary states of hyperlearning? Combine that with physical training to enhance athletic capabilities, really any sorts of movement. We've had neurosurgical teams reach out to us asking if they could use this technology to train the next generation neurosurgeons. We've had artists reach out to us to see if they could more gracefully move a brush over canvas. We've had musicians to help with the technical aspects of, say, playing a biolin. So, you know, sort of anything movement-based, we could accelerate the rate at which you learn. Can you talk about sort of where you see your technology going and what you see as the future of food production? Up until now, we have utilized what I”
2017-02-28 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: The Future of... You · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Just got what it lose. So Daniel, can you tell us more about the technology and kind of what exactly you guys do? Yeah, so we build a wearable neurostimula. Actually, Sean, do you mind bringing that up? So this is a motor cortex-specific neurostimulator. So these, we call them primers, but that's a fancy word for electrode for us. This is where the electricity comes out of. And when you put this on like a regular set of headphones, the neuroanatomy works out such that these guys, these primers, will cover the part of the brain, motor cortex, that controls movement in our bodies.”
2017-02-28 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: The Future of... You · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Hobbyists, a bunch of tinkerrs around computer parts in the 70s, 80s. I feel like that's. One of my big theses on interesting applications are built on top of available sensors out there. If you look at mobile devices, a lot of the sensors have stagnated, but where sensors have really exploded in terms of availability and cost is sensors on the human body. So I think we can finally now start quantitatively tracking performance improvements on different things that you can consume. It's two sides of the same coin, right? Inputs, if you're not measuring your outputs, well, you're just sort of holistically guessing, and let's bring engineering sort of first principle of thinking to measuring humans, and then close that loop to enhance ourselves.”
2017-02-28 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: The Future of... You · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. I think geographically people that are looking to enhance themselves cognitively physically before the internet, right, you're basically constraining our geographic proximity. Online communities really allow people to connect from people that wanted to live forever in Ohio, could talk to people that wanted to live forever in San Francisco. Sootropics is this notion of cognitive enhancement. We have alcohol that push your cognitive state in a certain direction. You have marijuana that's pushing in a different direction. It stands to reason there are compounds in the universe that can push your mental state in a more positive, more productive state. The community has really drawn from off-label use of different supplements, different research chemicals, and really just trading tips, trading sort of hobbies, tactics. One thing I like to think about is if the homebrew computing club was a group of”
2017-02-28 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: The Future of... You · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Cycle that never would have been possible before e commerce in the internet. We can tolerate a higher degree of risk. We can take bigger chances, we can move faster with new technologies and techniques and test things online if people like them, then we can push them through our national distribution channels. If something fizzles, then we can go back to the drawing board. So using the internet as well as recent food processing technologies have recently enabled us to make the kind of products we can at the price we can too. Having this degree of sophistication in engineering and still ending up with a product that costs a few dollars is really fascinating. I mean, it's easy to make something expensive, but making something on spec by the millions at such a low cost that the typical American can afford takes a lot of technology and engineering.”
2017-02-28 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: The Future of... You · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We so exclusively Absolutely. We would not exist without what we've been able to do online, launching with crowdfunding, building an online community, Reddit, our own forums, having this degree of intimacy unlocked by the internet is just something that would not have been possible before. Bringing the consumer into our product development lifecycle, listening to them, asking them what they want, and then incorporating it into our products, releasing version numbers, food, version 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.0. It's something that would never have been possible before you make a product, you hope people like it, you put it on shelves, you see if they buy it. We've been able to have this build measure, learn, adopt.”
2017-02-28 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: The Future of... You · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, I think a lot of advancements have been unlocked in both agriculture, food production, and food processing out of the eyes of the common consumer. It is staggering the amount of efficiencies that have been unlocked in both agriculture and food processing. The food processing technique that can ship a product that is maximally nutritious and neutral pH and store it at ambient temperatures, this took advancements in material science in terms of packaging, process engineering, in terms of filling liquid that is incredibly prone to spoilage. Honestly, a lot of people have become disillusioned with the products that the larger traditional food companies have been able to create. A lot of the big traditional CPGs of the world just became slow to innovate, risk averse, slow to adopt new technologies. E-commerce has been an enormous tool of ours. It's something that we were able to do.”
2017-02-28 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: The Future of... You · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I see a future where food is healthy by default. We started with a nutritionally complete powdered meal replacement, more recently released a line of beverages, flavored beverages, functional beverages, including caffeine and theanine. So there's an element of not just nutrition, but enhancement, a bar as well. We're also investing in research in the food system, in the food supply chain, and with the end goal of reducing the resource cost of food production as far as possible. My name is James Rogers. We're trying to improve the efficiency which we're growing and producing food by reducing spoilage. And so our company does that by taking uneaten plant material, so things like stems, leaves, grapeskins, orange peels, banana leaves, whatever's not being eaten. We blend those things up, and then from those blends, we extract very particular subsets of molecules. We turn those into a powder. We then dip fresh produce into that solution and allow it to dry. When it dries, it leaves behind this imperceptibly thin barrier of plant material on the outside of the”
2017-02-28 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: The Future of... You · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My name is Jeffrey Wu, and we started off in this hardcore biohacking community where people were tinkering with Russian Alzheimer's drugs, different powders. I had a submilligram drug scale, mixing different ratios of different powders and different compounds. And tens of thousands of people were doing this in their kitchens, in their home labs.”
2017-02-28 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: The Future of... You · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So maybe since you guys all do interesting stuff, maybe we should go down and just describe kind of what your product is and a little bit about it, what it does. Yeah, sure. I'm happy to start. My name is Daniel Chow. I'm the founder and CEO of Halo Neuroscience. We're a human performance company and specifically Build technologies that use electricity to stimulate the brain and produce temporary states of hyperlearning.”
2017-02-28 · a16z Podcast · a16z Podcast: The Future of... You · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source