Episode: Roadmapping Science with Adam Marblestone [Idea Machines #26]
Pub date: 2020-04-20
In this episode I talk to Adam Marblestone about technology roadmapping, scientific gems hidden in plain sight, and systematically exploring complex systems. Adam is currently a research scientist at Google DeepMind and in the past has been the chief strategy officer at a brain-computer interface company and did research on brain mapping with Ed Boyden and did his PhD with George Church. He has a repeated pattern of pushing the frontiers in one discipline after another – physics, biology, neuroscience, and now artificial intelligence. I wanted to talk to Adam not just because it’s fascinating when people are able to push the frontier in multiple disciplines but because he does it through a system he calls technological roadmapping.
Most of our discussion is framed around two of Adam’s works – a presentation about roadmapping biology and his primer on climate technology. The conversation stands on its own, but taking a glance at them will definitely enhance the context. Links below.
Key Takeaways
- Technological roadmapping enables fields to escape local maxima
- It might be possible to systematically break down complex technical disciplines into basic constraints in order to construct these roadmaps
- Figuring out these constraints may also enable us to reboot stalled fields
Links
- Road-mapping Biology presentation
- Architecting Discovery paper
- Adam’s Website
- Adam on Twitter
- The Longevity FAQ
- The Longevity FAQ – Making of
- Hypothes.is
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