The Orthogonal Bet

In this episode of The Orthogonal Bet , host Samuel Arbesman speaks with Niko McCarty , the founding editor of Asimov Press . With a background in biology and science journalism, McCarty now leads Asimov Press, a publication dedicated to deep, thoughtful articles at the frontiers of biology and its history. Arbesman, a longtime admirer of McCarty’s writing, was eager to explore his insights for ma...

In this episode, host Samuel Arbesman speaks with ⁠Dave Jilk⁠ . Dave is a tech entrepreneur and writer. He’s done a ton: started multiple companies, including in AI, published works of poetry, and written scientific papers. And he’s now written a new book that is an epic poem about the origins of Artificial General Intelligence, told from the perspective of the first such entity. It’s titled ⁠ Epo...

In this episode, host Samuel Arbesman speaks with the writer ⁠Henry Oliver⁠ . Henry is the author of the fantastic new book ⁠Second Act⁠ . This book is about the idea of late bloomers and professional success later in life, and more broadly how to think about one’s career, and Sam recently reviewed it for The Wall Street Journal. Sam really enjoyed this book and wanted to have a chance to discuss...

In this episode, host Samuel Arbesman speaks with Dominic Falcao , a founding director of Deep Science Ventures (DSV), which he created in 2016 after leading Imperial College London’s science startup program. Deep Science Ventures takes a principled and problem-based approach to founding new deep tech startups. They have even created a PhD program for scientists specifically geared towards helping...

In this episode, host Samuel Arbesman speaks with writer, researcher, and entrepreneur ⁠ Max Bennett⁠ . Max is the cofounder of multiple AI companies and the author of the fascinating book ⁠A Brief History of Intelligence⁠ : Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains. This book offers a deeply researched look at the nature of intelligence and how biological history has led to t...

In this episode, host Samuel Arbesman speaks with novelist ⁠Lev Grossman⁠ . A longtime fan of Lev’s novels, the host delves into his works, including ⁠The Magicians trilogy⁠ —a splendid set of books about a university for magic, fantastical worlds, and much more. These books are amazing. Lev’s newest book is the novel ⁠The Bright Sword⁠ , a retelling of the legends of King Arthur, particularly foc...

In this episode, host Samuel Arbesman   speaks with ⁠ Alex Miller⁠ , a software developer and artist known for his work on a project called ⁠Spacefiller⁠ . This project exemplifies generative art, where computer code is used to create art and imagery. Spacefiller itself is a pixelated form of artwork that feels organic and biological, but is entirely crafted through algorithms. Sam invited Alex to...

In this episode, host Samuel Arbesman speaks with ⁠J. Doyne Farmer⁠ , a physicist, complexity scientist, and economist. Doyne is currently the Director of the Complexity Economics program at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School and the Baillie Gifford Professor of Complex Systems Science at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxfor...

In this episode, host Samuel Arbesman speaks with ⁠Tarin Ziyaee⁠ , a technologist and founder, about the world of artificial life. The field of artificial life explores ways to describe and encapsulate aspects of life within software and computer code. Tarin has extensive experience in machine learning and AI, having worked at Meta and Apple, and is currently building a company in the field of Art...

In this conversation, host Samuel Arbesman speaks with ⁠Omar Rizwan⁠ , a programmer currently working on ⁠Folk Computer⁠ . Omar has a longstanding interest in user interfaces in computing and is now focused on creating physical interfaces that enable computing in a more communal and tangible way—think of moving sheets of paper in the real world and projecting images onto surfaces. Folk Computer is...

In this episode, host Samuel Arbesman Sam speaks with ⁠Eli Altman⁠ , the managing director of A Hundred Monkeys, a company that specializes in the art of naming. ⁠A Hundred Monkeys⁠ works with clients to come up with the perfect name for a company, product, or anything else that requires a name. The art of naming is a fascinating subject. Throughout human history, the power of names has been a rec...

In this episode, host Samuel Arbesman Sam speaks with ⁠⁠Alex Komoroske⁠⁠ , a master of systems thinking. Alex is the CEO and co-founder of a startup building at the intersection of AI, privacy, and open-endedness. Previously, he served as the Head of Corporate Strategy at Stripe, and before that, spent many years at Google, where he worked on the Chrome web platform, ambient computing strategy, Go...

In this episode, host Samuel Arbesman speaks with ⁠Adrian Tchaikovsky⁠ , the celebrated novelist of numerous science fiction and fantasy books, including his Children of Time series, Final Architects series, and The Doors of Eden. Among many other topics, Adrian’s novels often explore evolutionary history, combining “what-if” questions with an expansive view of the possible directions biology can...

In this episode, host Samuel Arbesman speaks with John Strausbaugh, a former editor of New York Press and the author of numerous history books. John’s latest work is the compelling new book ⁠“The Wrong Stuff: How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned.”⁠ The book is an eye-opening delight, filled with stories about the Potemkin Village-like space program that the Soviets ran. Beneath the achi...

In this episode, Samuel Arbesman speaks with ⁠Michael Levin⁠ , a biologist and the Vannevar Bush Professor at Tufts University. Michael’s work encompasses how information is processed in biology, the development of organismal structures, the field of Artificial Life, and much more. Sam wanted to talk to Michael because of his pioneering research in these areas. Biology, as Michael’s work reveals,...

In this episode, Samuel Arbesman speaks with ⁠Laurel Schwulst⁠ . Laurel operates within many roles: designer, artist, educator, and technologist. She explores—among other things—the intersection of the human, the computational, and the wonderful. Sam wanted to talk to Laurel because of this intersection and particularly because of how Laurel thinks about the internet. As part of this, she helps to...

In this episode, Samuel Arbesman speaks with ⁠Eliot Peper⁠ . Eliot is a science fiction novelist and all-around delightful thinker. Eliot’s ⁠books⁠ are thrilling tales of the near future, exploring many delightful areas of the world and the frontiers of science and technology. In Eliot’s most recent novel, Foundry , he takes the reader on a journey through the world of semiconductors, from their g...

In this episode, Samuel Arbesman speaks with Hilary Mason, co-founder and CEO of Hidden Door , a startup creating a platform for interactive storytelling experiences within works of fiction. Hilary has also worked in machine learning and data science, having built a machine learning R&D company called Fast Forward Labs, which she sold to Cloudera. She was the chief scientist at Bitly and even...

In this episode, host Samuel Arbesman speaks with ⁠Amy Kuceyeski⁠ , a mathematician and biologist who is a professor at Cornell University in computational biology, statistics, and data science, as well as in radiology at Weill Cornell Medical College. Amy studies the workings of the human brain, the nature of neurological diseases, and the use of machine learning and neuroimaging to better unders...

In this episode, host Samuel Arbesman delves into the recent CrowdStrike/Microsoft outage, providing insights on how to understand this event through the lens of complexity science. The episode was inspired by Sam's very timely post in the Atlantic: ⁠"What the Microsoft Outage Reveals"⁠ Join us as Sam answers Producer ⁠Christopher Gates⁠ ’ questions, exploring the intricate web of factors that led...

In this episode, host Samuel Arbesman speaks with Kristoffer Tjalve . Kristoffer is hard to categorize, and in the best possible way. However, if one had to provide a description, it could be said that he is a curator and impresario of a burgeoning online community that celebrates the “quiet, odd, and poetic web.” What does this phrase mean? It can mean a lot, but it basically refers to anything t...

In this episode, host Samuel Arbesman speaks with ⁠Alice Albrecht⁠ , the founder and CEO of ⁠Recollect⁠ , a startup in the AI and tools for thought space. Alice, trained in cognitive neuroscience, has had a long career in machine learning and artificial intelligence. Samuel wanted to talk to Alice because of her extensive experience in AI, machine learning, and cognitive science. She has studied b...

In this episode, Samuel Arbesman speaks with ⁠Philip Ball⁠ , a science writer, and formerly a longtime editor at the science journal Nature. Philip is the author of the fantastic new book ⁠“How Life Works: A User’s Guide to the New Biology.”⁠ Samuel wanted to talk to Philip because he loved this book. It’s fascinating and deeply provocative, even for someone with a PhD in computational biology—tho...

In this episode, Samuel Arbesman speaks with ⁠Ben Reinhardt⁠ , an engineer, scientist, and the founder of a new research organization called ⁠Speculative Technologies⁠ . Ben is obsessed with building an open-ended and exciting future for humanity. After spending time in academia, government, startups, and even venture capital, he set out to build a new type of research organization—Speculative Tec...

In this episode, Sam speaks with game designer and researcher ⁠Chaim Gingold⁠ ⁠, the author of the fantastic new book Building SimCity: How to Put the World in a Machine .⁠ As is probably clear from the title, this new book is about the creation of SimCity, but it’s also about much more than that: it’s about the deep prehistory and ideas that went into the game — from system dynamics to cellular a...