NOTES

PART ONE: THE POWER OF CONVERGENCE

Chapter One: Convergence

Flying Cars

  1. In 2018, for the sixth straight year: Inrix, “Global Traffic Scorecard,” available here: http://inrix.com/scorecard/.
  2. ground zero for Uber Elevate: See: https://www.uber.com/us/en/elevate/summit/2018/.
  3. “We’ve come to accept”: You can find Holden’s original speech at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmW2Y2nEW1U&feature=youtu.be.
  4. In the late 1990s: Sarah Perez, “Groupon Product Chief Jess Holden to Depart, Is Heading to a Bay Area Tech Company,” TechCrunch, February 11, 2014. See: https://techcrunch.com/2014/02/11/groupon-product-chief-jeff-holden-departs-is-headed-to-a-bay-area-tech-company/.
  5. 100 million Prime members later: Dennis Green, “A Survey Found That Amazon Prime Membership Is Soaring to New Heights—But One Trend Should Worry the Company,” Business Insider, January 18, 2019, p. 1.
  6. a series of unlikely wins: For Holden’s full bio, check out his Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffholden/.
  7. By mid-2019, over $1 billion: Tim Fernholz, “Are There Bubbles in Space,” Quartz, July 30, 2018. See: https://qz.com/1343920/investors-have-pumped-nearly-1-billion-into-aerospace-start-ups-this-year/.
  8. Larry Page: Mark Harris, “Larry Page Is Quietly Amassing a ‘Flying Car’ Empire,” Verge, July 19, 2018. See: https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/19/17586878/larry-page-flying-car-opener-kitty-hawk-cora.
  9. 59 cents per passenger mile: AAA, “AAA Reveals True Cost of Vehicle Ownership,” August 23, 2017. See: https://newsroom.aaa.com/tag/driving-cost-per-mile/.
  10. For comparison, a helicopter: This comparison was made by Uber, as part of their internal feasibility study. See: https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/will-you-be-able-to-afford-uberairs-flying-car-service/.
  11. For its 2020 launch: Ibid.
  12. eVTOLs are being developed: Ibid.
  13. They’ve also teamed up with: For a full breakdown of Uber’s partners, see: https://www.uber.com/us/en/elevate/partners/.
  14. Vehicles capable of flight: “Vimana” is the name of the mythological flying chariots describe in early Hindu texts. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vimana.
  15. Even the more modern incarnations: Steven Kotler, Tomorrowland (New Harvest, 2015), pp. 97–105.

Converging Technology

  1. Moore’s Law: See: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/silicon-innovations/moores-law-technology.html.
  2. as a human brain: Ray Kurzweil, How to Create a Mind (Viking, 2012), pp. 179–198.
  3. “Law of Accelerating Returns”: Ray Kurzweil, “The Law of Accelerating Returns,” March 7, 2001. See: https://www.kurzweilai.net/the-law-of-accelerating-returns.
  4. we use the term “disruptive innovation”: Clayton Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma (HarperBusiness, 2000), pp. 15–19.
  5. Enter distributed electric propulsion, or DEP for short: Mark Moore, “Distributed Electric Propulsion Aircraft,” Nasa Langley Research Center. See: https://aero.larc.nasa.gov/files/2012/11/Distributed-Electric-Propulsion-Aircraft.pdf.
  6. These electric engines are 95 percent: Technically, the full range is between 90 percent and 98 percent, but for a breakdown and comparison to a gas motor, see: Karim Nice and Jonathon Strickland, “Gasoline and Battery Power Efficiency,” How Stuff Works, https://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/alternative-fuels/fuel-cell4.htm.
  7. To achieve this lift: Holden interview, Ibid.
  8. still unbroken record: Staff at Henry Ford, “Willow Run Bomber Plant.” See: https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/expert-sets/101765/.
  9. Put it this way, in “The Law of Accelerating Returns,”: ibid.

More Transportation Options

  1. Model T: History.com editors, “Ford Motor Company Unveils the Model T,” History, August 27, 2009. See: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ford-motor-company-unveils-the-model-t.
  2. Just four years later: Elizabeth Kolbert, “Hosed,” New Yorker, November 8, 2009.
  3. radio-controlled “American wonder”: Fabian Kroger, “Automated Driving in Its Social, Historical and Cultural Contexts,” Autonomous Driving, May 22, 2016, pp. 41–68.
  4. Many date the pivotal breakthrough to 2004: See DARPA’s website for the full breakdown of events: https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/timeline/-grand-challenge-for-autonomous-vehicles.
  5. dozens of vehicles had logged millions: Alexis Madrigal, “Waymo’s Robots Drove More Miles Than Everyone Else Combined,” Atlantic, February 14, 2009, See: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/02/the-latest-self-driving-car-statistics-from-california/582763/.
  6. Waymo purchased that fleet: Andrew Hawkins, “Waymo and Jaguar Will Build Up to 20,000 Self-Driving Electric SUVs,” Verge, March 27, 2018. See: https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/27/17165992/waymo-jaguar-i-pace-self-driving-ny-auto-show-2018.
  7. To compete with Waymo, General Motors: See GM’s original press release: https://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2018/may/0531-gm-cruise.html.
  8. “Faster than anyone expects”: Author interview, 2019.
  9. 80 percent cheaper than individual car ownership: Ibid.
  10. average U.S. roundtrip commute: U.S. Census Bureau, “Average One-Way Commuting Time by Metropolitan Areas,” December 7, 2017. See: https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/travel-time.html.
  11. there were a hundred plus automotive brands: You can find an aggregated list of car brands, both in service and retired, at this Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_car_brands.
  12. the average car owner: Donald Shoup, The High Cost of Free Parking (Routledge, 2011), p. 624.
  13. America has almost half-a-million parking spaces: Richard Florida, “Parking Has Eaten American Cities,” CityLab, July 24, 2018.
  14. MIT professor of urban planning: Eran Ben-Joseph, ReThinking a Lot (MIT Press, 2012), pp. xi–xix.
  15. Hyperloop is the brainchild: For the original whitepaper: https://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/hyperloop_alpha.pdf.
  16. Robert Goddard: Malcolm Browne, “New Funds Fuel Magnet Power for Trains,” New York Times, March 3, 1992.
  17. RAND corporation: Robert Salter, “The Very High Speed Transit,” Rand Corporation, 1972. See: https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P4874.html.
  18. In January 2013: For the full story of Hyperloop One development, see: https://hyperloop-one.com/our-story#partner-program. (Author note: Peter’s VC firm is an investor.)
  19. Josh Giegel: Author interview, 2019.
  20. It also gave him time to tweet: See: https://twitter.com/elonmusk.
  21. with $113 million of Musk’s own money: Dana Hull, “Musk’s Boring Co. Raises $113 Million for Tunnels, Hyperloop,” Bloomberg, April 16, 2018, See: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-16/musk-s-boring-co-raises-113-million-for-tunnels-and-hyperloop.
  22. a three-stop subway: Aarian Marshall, “Las Vegas Orders Up a Boring Company Loop,” Wired, May 22, 2019.
  23. electric boring machines: Ed Oswald, “Here’s Everything You Need to Know About the Boring Company,” Digital Trends, February 26, 2019.
  24. the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia: For the full address, check out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdUX3ypDVwI.
  25. Musk announced his intentions to retire his current rocket fleet: Darrell Etherington, “SpaceX aims to Replace Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon with One Spaceship,” Techcrunch, September 28. 2017. See: https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/28/spacex-aims-to-replace-falcon-9-falcon-heavy-and-dragon-with-one-spaceship/.
  26. LA mayor Eric Garcetti: See: https://twitter.com/mayorofla.
  27. the very first test flights: See: https://spacenews.com/spacex-begins-starship-hopper-testing/.
  28. Sears was worth $14.3 billion: Each of the data points (company, year, and market cap) was taken from https://www.macrotrends.net. We use peak market cap values for the given year.
  29. Target $38.2: Ibid.
  30. Walmart a whopping $158 billion: Ibid.
  31. Amazon was at $17.5 billion: Ibid.
  32. Hard times hit Main Street: For all of the company data points in this paragraph, likewise refer to: Ibid.
  33. Studies done with fMRI: For example, see: Arnaud D’Argembeau, “Modulation of Medial Prefrontal and Inferior Parietal Cortices When Thinking About Past, Present and Future Selves,” Social Neuroscience, May 2, 2010, pp. 187–200.
  34. The convergence of AI and robotics could threaten: For an overview of most of the major studies, see: Jill Lepore, “Are Robots Competing for Your Job?,” New Yorker, March 4, 2019. For a different overview: Marguerite Ward, “AI and Robots Could Threaten Your Career Within 5 Years,” CNBC, October 5, 2017, https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/05/report-ai-and-robots-could-change-your-career-within-5-years.html.
  35. McKinsey Global Research: Matthieu Pelissie due Rausas, “Internet Matters: The Net’s Sweeping Impact on Growth, Jobs, and Prosperity,” McKinsey Global Institute, May 2011.
  36. Yale’s Richard Foster: Richard Foster and Sarah Kaplan, Creative Destruction (Crown Business, 2001). As this original research was conducted with Innosight, see their executive summary for a quick overview: https://www.innosight.com/insight/creative-destruction/.
  37. In 2018, All Nippon Airways: For the official announcement, see: https://avatar.xprize.org/prizes/avatar.

Chapter Two: The Jump to Lightspeed: Exponential Technologies, Part One

Quantum Computing

  1. The coldest place in the universe: Author interview with Chad Rigetti, 2018.
  2. Back in 1995, astronomers in Chile: Public Information Office, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, “Boomerang Nebula Boasts Coolest Spot in the Universe,” June 20, 1997. For the official NASA/JPL release, see: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/releases/97/coldspot.html.
  3. IBM’s Deep Blue: Luke Harding and Leonard Barden, “Deep Blue Win a Giant Step for Computerkind,” Guardian, May 12, 2011.
  4. Transistor power: Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, The Second Machine Age (W.W. Norton and Co., 2014), p. 49.
  5. Moore’s Law has been slowing down: Lieven Eeckhout, “Is Moore’s Law Slowing Down? What Next?, IEEE Micro 37, no. 4: 4–5.
  6. “Moore’s Law was not the first”: Kurzweil, “Law of Accelerating Returns.”
  7. Apple’s recent A12 Bionic: See: https://www.apple.com/iphone-xs/a12-bionic/.
  8. Rose’s Law: Tim Ferriss does a good job overviewing this idea and its history here: https://tim.blog/2018/05/31/steve-jurvetson/.
  9. a fifty-quibit computer: Rigetti, author interview.
  10. Oxford’s Simon Benjamin: This came from a talk he gave at the Oxford Martin School, February 2016. See: https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/videos/the-dawn-of-quantum-technology-with-prof-simon-benjamin/.
  11. over 120 million programs: Rigetti, author interview.
  12. twenty-six websites online: See: https://www.internetlivestats.com/total-number-of-websites/.

Artificial Intelligence

  1. Her name was Xiaoice: Geoff Spencer, “Much More Than a Chat: China’s Xiaoice Mixes AI with Emotions and Wins Over Millions of Fans,” news.microsoft.com, November 1, 2018. See: https://news.microsoft.com/apac/features/much-more-than-a-chatbot-chinas-xiaoice-mixes-ai-with-emotions-and-wins-over-millions-of-fans/. See also: https://blogs.microsoft.com/ai/xiaoice-full-duplex/.
  2. “Yeah, magnets”: This and the below example about my girlfriend being mad at me are taken from author interviews with Zo, the American version of Xiaoice that was released on Twitter in 2018.
  3. Dragon TV: Matt McFarland, “What Happened When a Chinese TV Station Replaced Its Meteorologist with a Chatbot,” Washington Post, January 12, 2016.
  4. consider the service economy: John Ward, “The Services Sector: How Best to Measure It?,” International Trade Organization, October 2010.
  5. forty-three different types of traffic signs: To track the progress in machine learning, Wikipedia has a useful chart here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_machine_learning. See also: Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson, Machine Platform Crowd (Norton, 2017), pp. 66–86.
  6. AI-piloted drone: For a demo, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsfkGlSajHQ.
  7. AI assistant named Duplex: See: https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/05/duplex-ai-system-for-natural-conversation.html.
  8. Google’s Talk to Books: See: https://experiments.withgoogle.com/talk-to-books.
  9. Japan’s national literary: Chloe Olewitz, “A Japanese AI Program Just Wrote a Short Novel, and It Almost Won a Literary Prize,” Digital Trends, March 23, 2016.
  10. Google’s AlphaGo: For a great breakdown of the difference between chess and Go, see: Danielle Muoio, “Why Go Is So Much Harder for AI to Beat Than Chess,” Business Insider, March 10, 2016. For information on Lee Sodol’s defeat, see also: Jon Russell, “Google AI Beat Go World Champion Again to Complete Historic 4–1 Series,” Techcrunch, March 15, 2016.
  11. an AI build another AI: Aatif Sulleyman, “Google AI Creates Its Own Child AI That’s More Advanced Than Systems Built by Humans,” Independent, December 5, 2017.
  12. Facebook relies on AI: Megan Dickey, “Facebook Brings Suicide Prevention Tools to Live and Messenger,” TechCrunch, March 1, 2017.
  13. the Department of Defense: Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal, Stealing Fire (Harper Collins, 2018), pp. 100–102.
  14. AI ran for mayor: Paul Withers, “Robots Take Over,” Express, April 17, 2018. We choose this references because it has the best video. See: https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/947448/robots-japan-tokyo-mayor-artificial-intelligence-ai-news.

Networks

  1. Change came on May 24, 1844: Library of Congress staff, “Invention of the Telegraph,” Samuel F. B. Morse Papers at the Library of Congress, 1793–1919. See: https://www.loc.gov/collections/samuel-morse-papers/articles-and-essays/invention-of-the-telegraph/.
  2. Alexander Graham Bell: See: https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/march-10/.
  3. In 1919, less than 10 percent of U.S. households: For a great history of mass communications development, see: https://www.elon.edu/e-web/predictions/150/1870.xhtml.
  4. Today it’s around 28 cents: See: https://www.verizon.com/personal/info/international-calling/.
  5. In 2010, around a quarter of the Earth’s population: The World Bank keeps good numbers here: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL.
  6. By 2017, penetration had reached: Ibid.
  7. network evolution: G. Smilarubavathy, “The Survey on Evolution of Wireless Network Generations,” International Journal of Science, Technology and Engineering 3, no. 5 (November 2016).
  8. Project Loony: See: https://loon.com/.
  9. launching OneWeb: Sarah Scoles, “Maybe Nobody Wants Your Space Internet,” Wired, March 15, 2018.
  10. Amazon joined this satellite competition: Alan Boyle, “Amazon to Offer Broadband Access from Orbit,” GeekWire, April 4, 2019. See: https://www.geekwire.com/2019/amazon-project-kuiper-broadband-satellite/.
  11. SpaceX: For the FCC’s original press release, see: https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-authorizes-spacex-provide-broadband-satellite-services.
  12. In 2014, at an infectious disease lab in Finland: Author interview with Oura CEO Harpreet Singh, 2018. (Author note: Peter’s VC firm is an investor.)
  13. the Oura ring: See: http://ouraring.com. (Author note: Peter’s VC firm is an investor.)
  14. John Romkey: Ryan Nagelhout, Smart Machines and the Internet of Things (Rosen Publishing, 2016).
  15. Neil Gross: Neil Gross, “The Earth Will Don an Electronic Skin,”BusinessWeek, August 29, 1999.
  16. In 2009, the number of devices connected to the Internet: Dave Evans, “The Internet of Things,” Cisco.com, April 2011. See: https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en_us/about/ac79/docs/innov/IoT_IBSG_0411FINAL.pdf.
  17. By 2015, all this progress added up to 15 billion: Louis Columbus, “Roundup of Internet of Things Forecasts and Market Estimates, 2016,” Forbes.com, no. 27 (2016). See: https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2016/11/27/roundup-of-internet-of-things-forecasts-and-market-estimates-2016/#32a1a5ba292d.
  18. Nor will we stop there: For a full breakdown of the Accenture report, see: https://newsroom.accenture.com/subjects/management-consulting/industrial-internet-of-things-will-boost-economic-growth-but-greater-government-and-business-action-needed-to-fulfill-its-potential-finds-accenture.htm.
  19. Steven Sasson: Steven Kotler and Peter Diamandis, BOLD (Simon & Schuster, 2015), pp 4–6.
  20. LIDAR sensors: Sean Higgins, “Livox Announces $600 Lidar for Autonomous Vehicles,” Spar3-D.com, January 23, 2019. See: https://www.spar3-D.com/news/lidar/livox-announces-600-lidar-for-autonomous-vehicles-uav-mapping-and-more-an-its-shipping-now/.
  21. The first commercial GPS: For a great graphic breakdown of the full history of GPS, see: https://onlinemasters.ohio.edu/blog/the-evolution-of-portable-gps/. See also: https://web.mit.edu/digitalapollo/Documents/Chapter6/hoagprogreport.pdf.
  22. smart dust: Brendan Koerner, “What Is Smart Dust Anyway,” Wired, June 1, 2003. See also: https://news.berkeley.edu/2018/04/10/berkeley-engineers-build-smallest-volume-most-efficient-wireless-nerve-stimulator/.
  23. The data haul from these sensors: For a great overview, see: https://newsroom.intel.com/news/2018-ces-keynote-intel-brian-krzanich/#gs.yzs68u.

Robotics

  1. In March 2011, an earthquake in Tokyo: For the full International Atomic Energy Commission report on Fukushima, see: https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Pub1710-ReportByTheDG-Web.pdf.
  2. The disaster hit Honda: Evan Ackerman, “Honda Halts Asimo Development in Favor of More Useful Humanoid Robots,” IEEE Spectrum, June 28, 2018. Also try: https://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/04/20/the-little-robot-that-couldnt/.
  3. DARPA launched their Robotics Challenge: Katie Drummond and Noah Shachtman, “Darpa’s Next Grand Challenge,” Wired, April 5, 2012.
  4. Gill Pratt: For Gill Pratt’s quote on the Challenge, see: https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/darpa-robotics-challenge-amazing-moments-lessons-learned-whats-next.
  5. Boston Dynamics’ robot Atlas: See: https://www.bostondynamics.com/atlas.
  6. Honda also got in on the action: Evan Ackerman, “Honda Unveils Prototype E2-D2 Disaster Response Robot,” IEEE Spectrum, October 2, 2017.
  7. Softbank: Ingrid Lunden, “Softbank Is Buying Robotics Firm Boston Dynamics and Schaft from Alphabet,” TechCrunch, June 8, 2017.
  8. After decades of rising life expectancies: See: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/07/09/japans-pension-problems-are-a-harbinger-of-challenges-elsewhere. See also: this article in the Japan Times: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/06/04/business/financial-markets/japans-pension-system-inadequate-aging-society-council-warns/#.XWayvi2ZOWY.
  9. robo-mason: Check out the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiOkXKb1DBk.
  10. The UR3: See: https://www.universal-robots.com/products/ur3-robot/.
  11. Amazon’s also been driving the drone segment: See: https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Prime-Air.
  12. Hurricane Sandy: Edward Baig, “Cell Service Can Mean Life or Death After a Disaster. Can Drones Help?,” USA Today, March 16, 2018. See also: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/nyregion/drone-cellphone-disaster-service.html.
  13. Boeing’s heavy-lifting drones: Alex Davies, “Boeing’s Experimental Cargo Drone Is a Heavy Lifter,” Wired, January 14, 2018.
  14. Zipline: See: https://flyzipline.com.
  15. tree-planting drones: https://www.biocarbonengineering.com.

Chapter Three: The Turbo-Boost: Exponential Technologies, Part II

Virtual and Augmented Reality

  1. Jeremy Bailenson: Author interview, 2019.
  2. the concept of VR has been around since the sixties: Patent - US2955156A, “Stereoscopic-Television Apparatus for Individual Use.”
  3. you could purchase the EyePhone: Simon Parkin, “Virtual Reality Startups Look Back to the Future,” March 7, 2014, Technology Review. See: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/525301/virtual-reality-startups-look-back-to-the-future. See also: “A Whole New Universe,” New York, August 6, 1990, p. 32.
  4. $2 billion to acquire the VR company Oculus Rift: “Facebook to Acquire Oculus,” March 25, 2015.Facebook Newsroom, See: https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/03/facebook-to-acquire-oculus/.
  5. By 2015, Venture Beat reported that a market which typically saw only ten new entrants a year, suddenly had 23: Dean Takahashi, “The Landscape of VR Is Complicated—with 234 Companies Valued at $13B,” Venture Beat, October 12, 2015.
  6. The year 2017 was a banner one for Samsung, when they sold 3.65 million headsets: Shanhong Liu, “Worldwide Virtual Reality (VR) Headset Unit Sales by Brand in 2016 and 2017 (In Millions),” Statista, August 9, 2019. See: https://www.statista.com/statistics/752110/global-vr-headset-sales-by-brand/.
  7. Apple: Jeremy Horwitz, “Apple Lists AR/VR Jobs, Reportedly Taps Executive Who Finalizes Products,” Venture Beat, August 1, 2019.
  8. Google: See: https://vr.google.com/.
  9. Cisco: Jens Meggers, “Virtual Reality, Meet Cisco Spark,” September 18, 2017, Cisco.com. See: https://blogs.cisco.com/collaboration/cisco-spark-in-virtual-reality.
  10. Microsoft: Adi Robertson, “Microsoft Says It’s No Longer Planning VR Support on Xbox,” Verge, June 20, 2018. See: https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/20/17485852/microsoft-xbox-one-no-vr-headset-support-windows-mixed-reality-e3-2018.
  11. Phone-based VR showed up soon afterward: Google Cardboard. See: https://vr.google.com/cardboard/.
  12. By 2018, the first wireless adaptors, standalone headsets, and mobile headsets had hit the market: “Introducing Oculus Quest, Our First 6DOF All-In-One VR System, Launching Spring 2019,” September 28, 2018, Oculus.com, See https://www.oculus.com/blog/introducing-oculus-quest-our-first-6dof-all-in-one-vr-system-launching-spring-2019/?locale=en_US. See also: “HTC VIVE Unveils VIVE Focus Plus Pricing, Availability, Improved Connectivity, and Enhanced Lenses,” March 25, 2019, HTC.com, https://www.htc.com/us/newsroom/2019-03-25/.
  13. Google and LG doubled: Carlin Vieri, “An 18 Megapixel 4.3‚Ä≥ 1443 Ppi 120 Hz OLED Display for Wide Field of View High Acuity Head Mounted Displays,” Society for Information Display, May 9, 2018, pp. 314–324. See also: Stefan Etienne, “Google and LG Show Off Their High-Res VR Display for Future Headsets,” Circuit Breaker, May 23, 2018, https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/5/23/17383990/google-lg-vr-display-high-res-headsets.
  14. HEAR360’s “omni-binaural” microphone suite captures 360 degrees of audio: Hear360. See: https://hear360.io/#8ball.
  15. Touch has also reached the masses: Sarah Needleman, “Virtual Reality, Now with the Sense of Touch,” Wall Street Journal, April 3, 2018.
  16. Scent emitters, taste simulators: For example, see: the Feelreal sensory mask: https://feelreal.com/.
  17. brainwave readers: For example, see: Neurable: http://www.neurable.com/.
  18. eMarketer study: Victoria Petrook, “Virtual and Augmented Reality Users 2019,” eMarketer, March 27, 2019. See: https://www.emarketer.com/content/virtual-and-augmented-reality-users-2019. See also: “Forecast for the Number of Active Virtual Reality Users Worldwide from 2014 to 2018 (in Millions),” Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/426469/active-virtual-reality-users-worldwide/.
  19. VR market around $35 billion or so: “Profiles in Innovation: Virtual and Augmented Reality,” January 13, 2016.GoldmanSachs.com, See: https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/pages/technology-driving-innovation-folder/virtual-and-augmented-reality/report.pdf.
  20. He’s developed first-person VR experiences: Author interview with Bailenson. See also: Jeremy Bailenson, Experience on Demand: What Virtual Reality Is, How It Works, and What It Can Do (W. W. Norton & Company, 2018).
  21. 2010 speech at NYU law school: “The Virtues of Virtual Reality: How Immersive Technology Can Reduce Bias,” April 26, 2019 (video). See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXxfkkINq8M.
  22. In 2016, when Nintendo’s Pokemon GO was downloaded almost a billion times: Lauren Musni, “Pokémon GO Surpasses the 1 Billion Downloads Milestone,” Nintendo Wire, July 31, 2019.
  23. coming out with an AR developers suite that lets anyone design apps for their platform: You can find details about Apple’s AR development suite here: https://developer.apple.com/augmented-reality/.
  24. purchasing Akonia Holographics: Lucas Matney, “Apple Buys Denver Startup Building Waveguide Lenses for AR Glasses,” TechCrunch, August 29, 2018.
  25. eighteen hundred different AR startups: You can run your own search with this URL: https://angel.co/companies?markets[]=Augmented+Reality.
  26. a market in excess of $133 billion: “Global Augmented Reality (Ar) Market Will Reach USD 133.78 Billion by 2021,” Zion Market Research, November 24, 2016.
  27. $100 will get you an entry-level Leap Motion headset: Jeremy Horwitz, “Leap Motion Shows Crazy-Looking $100 North Star AR Headset with Hand Tracking,” Venture Beat, April 9, 2018.
  28. $3000 covers a top-shelf Microsoft HoloLens: Mariella Moon, “Microsoft HoloLens 2 Will Go On Sale in September (Update),” Engadget, August 29, 2019. Learn more about the Hololens here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/hololens.

3-D Printing

  1. The most expensive supply chain in the universe extends only 241 miles: Remy Melina, “International Space Station: By the Numbers,” Space.com, August 4, 2017. See: https://www.space.com/8876-international-space-station-numbers.html.
  2. It costs $10,000 per pound to get an object out of the Earth’s gravity well: “Advanced Space Transportation Program: Paving the Highway to Space,” National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), April 12, 2018. See: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/background/facts/astp.html. See also: Robert Dempsey, “The International Space Station Operating an Outpost in the New Frontier,” National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), April 13, 2018, https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/iss-operating_an_outpost-tagged.pdf.
  3. a significant portion of ISS’s precious real estate is taken up by the storage of replacement parts: Ibid.
  4. Made In Space: See: https://madeinspace.us/.
  5. Well, it’s a few years later and Made In Space is now in space: Quincy Bean, “3-D Printing in Zero-G Technology Demonstration,” National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). See: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1039.
  6. Which is why, on a 2018 ISS mission, when an astronaut broke his finger: JY Wong, “On-Site 3-D Printing of Functional Custom Mallet Splints for Mars Analogue Crewmembers,” Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance, October 2015, doi: 10.3357/AMHP.4259.2015, pp. 911–914. See also: “3-D Printing the First Medical Supplies on the Space Station,” January 12, 2017, http://www.3-D4md.com/blog/2017/1/12/3-D-printing-the-first-medical-supplies-on-the-space-station.
  7. The original 3-D printers showed up back in the eighties: Dana Goldberg, Autodesk.com, “History of 3-D Printing: It’s Older Than You Are (That Is, If You’re Under 30),” April 13, 2013. See: https://www.autodesk.com/redshift/history-of-3-D-printing/.
  8. hundreds of different materials: Author interview with Avi Reichental, CEO of Exponential Works, 2018.
  9. jet engines: Matthew Van Dusen, “GE’s 3-D-Printed Airplane Engine Will Run This Year. General Electric,” June 19, 2017. See: https://www.ge.com/reports/mad-props-3-D-printed-airplane-engine-will-run-year/.
  10. apartment complexes: Brittney Sevenson, “Shanghai-Based WinSun 3-D Prints 6-Story Apartment Building and an Incredible Home,” 3-DPrint.com, January 8, 2015. See: https://3-Dprint.com/38144/3-D-printed-apartment-building/.
  11. circuit boards: Nano Dimension Inc.. See: https://www.nano-di.com/.
  12. prosthetic limbs: For a database with examples of 3-D printed prosthetics, see: “3-D-Printable Prosthetic Devices,” National Institutes of Health, https://3-Dprint.nih.gov/collections/prosthetics.
  13. $12 trillion manufacturing sector: Eric Gjovik, “Additive Manufacturing and Its Impact on a $12 Trillion Industry,” May 14, 2019. See: https://www.manufacturing.net/2019/05/additive-manufacturing-and-its-impact-12-trillion-industry.
  14. Until the early 2000s, 3-D printers were exceptionally pricey: Blake Griffin, “New Report Shows Manufacturing Output Hit $35 Trillion in 2017,” Interact Analysis. See: https://www.interactanalysis.com/new-report-shows-manufacturing-output-hit-35-trillion-in-2017-growth-forecast-to-continue/.
  15. for under $1000: B.T. Wittbrodta, “Life-Cycle Economic Analysis of Distributed Manufacturing with Open-Source 3-D Printers,” Mechatronics, September 2013, 713–726. See: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0957415813001153.
  16. performance has increased: Avi Reichental, author interview.
  17. Nano Dimension converged: Lucas Mearin, “3-D Printer Presages the Future of Multi-Layer Circuit Board Design,” ComputerWorld. See: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3195839/desktop-3-D-printer-presages-the-future-of-multi-layer-circuit-board-design.html.
  18. batteries: “3-D-Printed Lithium-Ion Batteries,” American Chemical Society, October 17, 2018. See: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2018/acs-presspac-october-17-2018/3-D-printed-lithium-ion-batteries.html.
  19. wind turbines: Jon Fingas, “3-D-Printed Wind Turbine Puts 300W of Power in Your Backpack,” Engadget, August 17, 2014. See: https://www.engadget.com/2014/08/17/airenergy-3-D-wind-turbine/. See also: “Transforming Wind Turbine Blade Mold Manufacturing with 3-D Printing,” https://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/videos/transforming-wind-turbine-blade-mold-manufacturing-3-D-printing.
  20. solar cells: Santanu Bag, “Aerosol-Jet-Assisted Thin-Film Growth of CH3NH3PbI3 Perovskites—A Means to Achieve High Quality, Defect-Free Films for Efficient Solar Cells,” Advanced Energy Materials, July 14, 2017. See also: Corey Clark, “Air Force Research Laboratory Creates 3-D Printed Solar Cells,” 3-D Printing Industry, July 19, 2017.
  21. GE’s advanced turboprop: Tomas Kellner, “Fired Up: GE Successfully Tested Its Advanced Turboprop Engine with 3-D-Printed Parts,” General Electric, January 2, 2018. See: https://www.ge.com/reports/ge-fired-its-3-D-printed-advanced-turboprop-engine/.
  22. The first 3-D printed prosthetics arrived in 2010: See this history of 3-D printing: https://3-Dinsider.com/3-D-printing-history/.
  23. In 2018, a Jordanian hospital: Hanna Watkin, “Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Jordan 3-D Print Prostheses for War Victims,” All About 3-D Printing, December 10, 2018. See: https://all3-Dp.com/4/doctors-without-borders-hospital-jordan-3-D-print-prostheses-war-victims/.
  24. Unlimited Tomorrow: See: https://www.unlimitedtomorrow.com/product/.
  25. Open Bionics: Retrieved from https://openbionics.com/.
  26. 3-D-printed multi-grip bionic prosthetics at non-bionic prices: Jelle ten Kate, “3-D-Printed Upper Limb Prostheses: A Review,” Assistive Technology, February 2, 2017, pp. 300–314.
  27. first kidney tissue capable of filtering blood and producing urine: Anthony Atala, “Printing a Human Kidney,” TED, 2018. See: https://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_printing_a_human_kidney?language=en. See also: Kate Yandell, “Organs on Demand,” Scientist, September 1, 2013, https://www.the-scientist.com/features/organs-on-demand-38787. See also: Patent - US6673339B1, “Prosthetic Kidney and Its Use for Treating Kidney Disease.”
  28. In 2010, Organovo, a San Diego-based bioprinting outfit: Vanesa Listek, “Organovo: Bioprinting Could Be the New Solution to Organ Transplantation,” 3-DPrint.com, August 27, 2019. See also: Kena Hudson, “First Fully Bioprinted Blood Vessels,” Business Wire, December 8, 2010, https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20101208006587/en/Fully-Bioprinted-Blood-Vessels. See also: Karoly Jakab, “Tissue Engineering by Self-Assembly and Bio-Printing of Living Cells,” IOP Science, June 2, 2010, https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1758-5082/2/2/022001.
  29. Prellis Biologics: See: https://www.prellisbio.com/. See also: Scott Claire, “Prellis Biologics Reaches Record Speed and Resolution in Viable 3-D Printed Human Tissue,” 3-DPrint.com, https://3-Dprint.com/217267/prellis-biologics-record-speed/.
  30. Iviva Medical is doing the same with 3-D printed kidneys: Author conversation with Iviva Medical CEO Dr. Brock Reeve. See also: https://ivivamedical.com/. (Author note: Peter’s VC firm is an investor.)
  31. 3-D printed organs are predicted to hit the market by 2023: Ibid.
  32. WinSun 3-D printed ten single-family homes in under twenty-four hours: “3-D Printers Print Ten Houses in 24 Hours” (video), April 16, 2014. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SObzNdyRTBs. See also: “China: Firm 3-D Prints 10 Full-Sized Houses in a Day,” BBC News, April 25, 2014, https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-27156775.
  33. each costing less than $5000: Leo Gregurić, “How Much Does a 3-D Printed House Cost in 2019?,” February 12, 2019. See: https://all3-Dp.com/2/3-D-printed-house-cost/.
  34. In 2017, a different Chinese company: “Chinese Construction Firm Erects 57-Storey Skyscraper in 19 Days,” Guardian, April 30, 2015.
  35. In 2019, the California-based Mighty Building: Author interview, 2019. (Author note: Peter’s VC firm is an investor.)
  36. Brett Hagler: Author interview, 2018. For more background on Brett Hagler’s company, New Story, see: Adele Peters, “There Will Soon Be a Whole Community of Ultra-Low-Cost 3-D-Printed Homes,” Fast Company, March 11, 2019, https://www.fastcompany.com/90317441/there-will-soon-be-a-whole-community-made-of-these-ultra-low-cost-3-D-printed-homes.
  37. In the fall of 2019, in Mexico: Ibid.

Blockchain

  1. were first proposed in 1983: David Chaum, “Blind Signatures for Untraceable Payments,” Advances in Cryptography (Springer 1998), pp. 199–203 See: http://blog.koehntopp.de/uploads/Chaum.BlindSigForPayment.1982.PDF.
  2. Satoshi Nakamoto: Satoshi Nakamotoe, “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.” See: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf.
  3. In 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz solved that problem: Nick Bilton, “Disruptions: Betting on a Coin with no Realm,” New York Times, December 22, 2013.
  4. By 2019, they were just shy of $15,000: Data retreived from: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/.
  5. $308 billion: “Billion Reasons to Bank Inclusively.” See: https://www.accenture.com/us-en/_acnmedia/accenture/conversion-assets/dotcom/documents/global/pdf/dualpub_22/accenture-billion-reasons-bank-inclusively.pdf#zoom=50.
  6. is worth $600 billion: “Mitigation and Remittances,” World Bank Group, 2018. See: https://www.knomad.org/sites/default/files/2018-04/Migration%20and%20Development%20Brief%2029.pdf.
  7. All of that money is being skimmed off the top: Katie Lobosco, “Walmart Offers Less Costly Money Wire Service,” CNN, April 17, 2014. See: https://money.cnn.com/2014/04/17/news/companies/walmart-money-transfers/index.html. You can also find Western Union’s Fee Table here: https://www.westernunion.com/content/dam/wu/EU/EN/feeTableRetailEN-ES.PDF.
  8. they also lack an official identity: Desai Vyjayanti, “The Global Identification Challenge: Who Are the 1 Billion People Without Proof of Identity?” World Bank, April 25, 2018. See: https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/global-identification-challenge-who-are-1-billion-people-without-proof-identity.
  9. peer-to-peer ridesharing: Paul Vigna, The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything (Macmillan Publishing Group, 2018), p. 7.
  10. validate any asset: Elizabeth Paton, “Will Blockchain Be a Boon to the Jewelry Industry?,” New York Times, November 30, 2018.
  11. Sports betting is one example: Gerald Fenech, “Blockchain in Gambling and Betting: Are There Real Advantages?,” Forbes, January 30, 2019.
  12. J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America: Goldman: Alastair Marsh, “Goldman Sachs Explores Creating a Digital Coin like JPMorgan’s,” Bloomberg, June 28, 2019. J.P. Morgan: Hugh Son, “JP Morgan Is Rolling Out the First US Bank-Backed Cryptocurrency to Transform Payments Business,” CNBC, February 14, 2019. Bank of America: Hugh Son, “Bank of America Tech Chief Is Skeptical on Blockchain Even Though BofA Has the Most Patents for It, CNBC, March 26, 2019.
  13. a market value of almost $10 billion as of 2018: “Funds Raised in 2018.” See https://www.icodata.io/stats/2018.
  14. grow to $176 billion by 2025, and could exceed $3.1 trillion in 2030: “Gartner Predicts 90% of Current Enterprise Blockchain Platform Implementations Will Require Replacement by 2021.” See: https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-07-03-gartner-predicts-90--of-current-enterprise-blockchain.
  15. Vatom, Inc.: See: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/vatomic.

Material Science and Nanotechnology

  1. “materials science” problem: “History of the Light Bulb,” Department of Energy, November 22, 2013. See: https://www.energy.gov/articles/history-light-bulb.
  2. fourteen months testing over sixteen hundred materials: Joyce Bedi, “Thomas Edison’s Inventive Life. Lemelson Center,” April 18, 2004. See https://invention.si.edu/thomas-edisons-inventive-life.
  3. creating a bulb capable of twelve hundred hours: “Edison Files,” http://edisonmuseum.org/content3399.html.
  4. Much brighter and longer lasting tungsten filaments: “Incandescent Lamp with Ductile Tungsten Filament.” Americanhistory.edu, See: https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_704238.
  5. Materials Genome Initiative: President Barack Obama, “Remarks by the President at Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center,” Office of the Press Secretary: The White House, June 24, 2011. See also: “The First Five Years of the Materials Genome Initiative: Accomplishments and Technical Highlights,” https://mgi.gov/sites/default/files/documents/mgi-accomplishments-at-5-years-august-2016.pdf.
  6. Jeff Carbeck, the head of Advanced: Author interview, 2018.
  7. carbon fiber composites for lighter-weight vehicles, advanced alloys for more durable jet engines: Adrian P. Mouritz, “Introduction to Aerospace Materials,” Introduction to Aerospace Materials (Woodhead Publishing Limited, 2012), pp. 1–14.
  8. biomaterials to replace human joints: Kalpana S Katti, “Biomaterials in Total Joint Replacement,” Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, 2004, pp. 133–142.
  9. energy storage: Yayuan Liu, “Design of Complex Nanomaterials for Energy Storage: Past Success and Future Opportunity,” Accounts of Chemical Research, December 5, 2017, pp. 2895–2905,
  10. quantum computing: “Nanotechnology for Quantum Computers, Industry Skills for Physics Students, Technologies That Make Physics Happen,” Physics World, August 1, 2019. See: https://physicsworld.com/a/nanotechnology-for-quantum-computers-industry-skills-for-physics-students-technologies-that-make-physics-happen/.
  11. Omkaram Nalamasu: Author interview, 2019.
  12. Right now, the “conversion efficiency”: Ran Fu, “U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System Cost Benchmark: Q1 2018,” National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 2018. See: https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy19osti/72399.pdf.
  13. Perovskite: Brian Wang, “First Commercial Perovskite Solar Late in 2019 and the Road to Moving the Energy Needle,” Next Big Future, February 3, 2019. See: https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2019/02/first-commercial-perovskite-solar-late-in-2019-and-the-road-to-moving-the-energy-needle.html.
  14. Richard Feynman’s 1959 speech, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”: Richard P. Feynman, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom,” Engineering and Science, 1960.
  15. K. Eric Drexler’s 1987 book: Eric Drexler, Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology (Anchor Library of Science) (Anchor Books, 1987).
  16. Researchers at Harvard built a nanoscale 3-D printer: Dan Ferber, “Printing Tiny Batteries, Wyss Institute,” June 18, 2013. See: https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2013/06/printing-tiny-batteries.
  17. smart contact lenses with a resolution six times greater: Author conversation with Steve Sinclair, SVP, Mojo Vision, 2018. (Author note: Peter’s VC firm is an investor.)
  18. drug delivery nanobots: Suping Li, “A DNA Nanorobot Functions as a Cancer Therapeutic in Response to a Molecular Trigger in Vivo,” Nature Biotechnology, 2018, pp. 258–264.
  19. seven hundred terabytes of data in a single gram of DNA: Megan Molteni, “The Rise of DNA Data Storage,” Wire, 2018. See: https://www.wired.com/story/the-rise-of-dna-data-storage/. More recently, “Catalog Successfully Stores All 16GB of Wikipedia Text on DNA,” Verdict, July 9, 2019. See: https://www.verdict.co.uk/dna-data-storage-2019/.
  20. a system 10 percent the size of the Sahara Desert: Author conversation with Bill Gross, CEO, Idealab, 2018.

Biotechnology

  1. The 1970s were good for John Travolta: “John Travolta,” IMDb. See: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000237/.
  2. 1975 TV show Welcome Back, Kotter: “Welcome Back, Kotter,” IMDb. See: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072582/.
  3. made-for-TV movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble: “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble,” IMDb. See: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074236/.
  4. an article in Science argued: Theodore Friedmann, “Gene Therapy for Human Genetic Disease?,” Science, March 1972, pp. 949–955. See: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/175/4025/949.long.
  5. In 1999, an eighteen-year-old boy named Jesse Gelsinger: Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “The Biotech Death of Jesse Gelsinger,” New York Times Managzine, November 28, 1999. See: https://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/28/magazine/the-biotech-death-of-jesse-gelsinger.html.
  6. in a gene therapy trial in France aimed at treating Bubble Boy disease: “Why Gene Therapy Caused Leukemia in Some ‘Boy in the Bubble Syndrome’ Patients,” Journal of Clinical Investigation, August 10, 2008. See: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080807175438.htm.
  7. Bubble Boy disease had been cured: “Gene Therapy Cures Babies with ‘Bubble Boy’ Disease,” Genetic Engineering & Biotechnoogy News, August 19, 2019. See: https://www.genengnews.com/topics/gene-therapy-cures-babies-with-bubble-boy-disease/.
  8. With over fifty gene therapy drugs in the final phases of clinical trials: “Gene Therapy Phase 4.” See: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?term=gene+therapy&age_v=&gndr=&type=&rslt=&phase=3&Search=Apply.
  9. human body, which is a collection of 30 to 40 trillion cells: Rose Eveleth, “There Are 37.2 Trillion Cells in Your Body,” Smithsonian Magazine, October 24, 2013. See: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/there-are-372-trillion-cells-in-your-body-4941473/.
  10. This was the goal of the Human Genome Project: “Humane Genome Results.” See: https://www.genome.gov/human-genome-project/results.
  11. Since then, though, the price has plummeted: “DNA Sequencing Costs: Data.” Genome.gov, See: https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/DNA-Sequencing-Costs-Data.
  12. Today, sequencing a human genome takes a few days: Ibid.
  13. CRISPR-Cas9, for example: “CRISPR 2.0: Genome Engineering Made Easy as A-B-C,” November 5, 2017. Hardvard.edu, See: http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/crispr-2-0-genome-engineering-made-easy-b-c/.
  14. scientists at Harvard unveiled CRISPR 2.0: Eric S. Lander, “The Heroes of CRISPR,” Cell, January 14, 2016, pp. 18–28. See: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(15)01705-5?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0092867415017055%3Fshowall%3-Dtrue.
  15. David Liu, the Harvard chemical biologist who led the work, told the LA Times: Deborah Netburn, “New Gene-Editing Technique May Lead to Treatment for Thousands of Diseases,” LA Times, October 25, 2017. See: https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-dna-gene-editing-20171025-story.html.
  16. Human germline engineering is another CRISPR application: Antonion Regalado, “EXCLUSIVE: Chinese Scientists Are Creating CRISPR Babies,” MIT Review, November 25, 2018. See: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612458/exclusive-chinese-scientists-are-creating-crispr-babies/. See also: Heidi Ledford, “CRISPR Babies: When Will the World Be Ready?,” Nature, June 19, 2019, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01906-z.
  17. There’s also stem cells to consider: “Stem Cell Information,” National Institutes of Health. See: https://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/1.htm.

Chapter Four: The Acceleration of Acceleration

Force #1: Saved Time

  1. In “The Original Macintosh”: Andy Hertzfeld, “Saving Lives,”Folklore.com, August 1983. See: https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Saving_Lives.txt.
  2. University of Michigan behavioral economist Yan Chen: Yan Chen, “A Day Without a Search Engine: An Experimental Study of Online and Offline Searches,” Experimental Economics 17, no. 4 (December 2014): 512–536. See: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10683-013-9381-9.
  3. Over the past hundred years, labor-saving devices: University of Montreal, “Fridges and Washing Machines Liberated Women, Study Suggests,” Science Daily, March 13, 2009. See: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090312150735.htm. Original paper can be found here: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/423-D/28062802774c5687bd2545c4024a4961085e.pdf.
  4. New York to Chicago was four weeks by stagecoach: “Maps of the Day: Travel Times from NYC in 1800, 1830, 1857 and 1930.” AEI.org, See: http://www.aei.org/publication/maps-of-the-day-travel-times-from-nyc-in-1800-1830-1857-and-1930.

Force #2: Availability of Capital

  1. Sputnik 1 into orbit: Tim Wallace, “How Sputnik 1 Launched the Space Age,” Cosmos Magazine, October 4, 2017. See: https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/how-sputnik-1-launched-the-space-age.
  2. Edward Teller: Ibid.
  3. Senator Mike Mansfield: Paul Dickson, Sputnik (Walker, 2001), p. 116.
  4. Yuri Gagarin: Ibid., p. 215.
  5. pouring 2.2 percent of the US GDP into the aerospace industry: Deborah D. Stine, “The Manhattan Project, the Apollo Program, and Federal Energy Technology R&D Programs: A Comparative Analysis,” Congressional Research Service, June 30, 2009. See: https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL34645.pdf.
  6. The very first crowdfunding project: Mike Mettler, “Prog Legends Marillion Have Mastered Crowdfunding, High-Res Rock,” Digital Trends, December 2, 2016. See: https://www.digitaltrends.com/music/interview-mark-kelley-of-marillion/.
  7. by 2015, a worldwide total of $34 billion: Ben Paynter, “How Will the Rise of Crowdfunding Reshape How We Give to Charity?” Fast Company, March 3, 2017, See: https://www.fastcompany.com/3068534/how-will-the-rise-of-crowdfunding-reshape-how-we-give-to-charity-2.
  8. Kickstarter: See: https://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats.
  9. Pebble Time: John McDermott, “Pebble ‘Smartwatch’ Funding Soars on Kickstarter,” Inc., April 20, 2012. See: https://www.inc.com/john-mcdermott/pebble-smartwatch-funding-sets-kickstarter-record.html.
  10. $300 billion: Massolution/Crowdsourcing.org, 2015 CF Crowdfunding Industry Report. See: http://reports.crowdsourcing.org/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=54.
  11. crowdfunding as “potentially the most disruptive of all the new models of finance.”: The Future of Finance, the Socialization of Finance (Goldman Sachs Report, March 2015). See: https://www.planet-fintech.com/downloads/The-future-of-Finance-the-Socialization-of-Finance-Golman-Sachs-march-2015_t18796.html.
  12. $8.1 billion in 1995 to: See: https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/issuebrf/sib99303.htm#nsb.
  13. $61.4 billion in 2016: PwC | CB Insights MoneyTree™ Report Q4 2018, p. 6, found here: https://www.pwc.com/us/en/moneytree-report/moneytree-report-q4-2018.pdf.
  14. investments reached $99.5 billion: Ibid., p. 10.
  15. Asia, a relatively new player, peaked at $48 billion: Ibid, p. 85.
  16. European VCs set an all-time high: $21 billion: Ibid, p. 82.
  17. $5.4 billion in 2017 to $9.3 billion in 2018: Ibid, p. 20.
  18. $11.8 billion in 2017 to $14.4 billion in 2018: 3Q 2018 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor Report, found here: https://files.pitchbook.com/website/files/pdf/3Q_2018_PitchBook_NVCA_Venture_Monitor.pdf.
  19. Filecoin: For this and all below references to biggest ICOs, please see Oscar Williams-Grut, “The 11 Biggest ICO Fundraises of 2017,” Business Insider, January 1, 2018. See: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-biggest-ico-fundraises-of-2017-2017-12.
  20. $8.5 trillion in assets: Data aggregated from this wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_wealth_fund, by way of the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute database at https://www.swfinstitute.org.
  21. forty-two SWF deals valued at around $16.2 billion: Claire Milhench, “Sovereign Investors Hunt for ‘Unicorns’ in Silicon Valley,” Reuters, May 11, 2017.
  22. “I totally believe [in] this concept,”: Sam Shead, “The Japanese Tech Billionaire Behind Softbank Thinks the ‘Singularity’ Will Occur Within 30 Years,” Business Insider, February 27, 2017. See: https://www.businessinsider.com/softbank-ceo-masayoshi-son-thinks-singularity-will-occur-within-30-years-2017-2.
  23. The Vision Fund got started: “Masayoshi Son Prepares to Unleash His Second $100bn Tech Fund,” Economist, March 23, 2019. See: https://www.economist.com/business/2019/03/23/masayoshi-son-prepares-to-unleash-his-second-100bn-tech-fund.

Force #3: Demonetization

  1. Ilumina’s latest generation sequencer: Sarah Buhr, “Illumina Wants to Sequence Your Whole Genome for $100,” TechCrunch, January 10, 2017. See: https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/10/illumina-wants-to-sequence-your-whole-genome-for-100/.
  2. a 2019 report by the International Renewable Energy Agency: See full IRENA press release: https://www.irena.org/newsroom/pressreleases/2019/Apr/Renewable-Energy-Now-Accounts-for-a-Third-of-Global-Power-Capacity.

Force #4: More Genius

  1. It was signed S. Ramanujan: Robert Kanigel, The Man Who Knew Infinity (Washington Square Press, 1992).
  2. the standard distribution of the Stanford-Binet scale: For a good overview, see Duke University intelligence researcher Jonathon Wai’s piece for Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/201207/brainiacs-and-billionaires.
  3. In a study run at the University of Sydney: Richard Chi and Allan Snyder, “Brain Stimulation Enables the Solution of an Inherently Difficult Problem,” Neuroscience Letters 515, no. 2 (May 2, 2012): 121–124.
  4. Neuralink: See: https://neuralink.com.
  5. Kernel: See: https://kernel.co.
  6. as Johnson explains: Author interview with Bryan Johnson, 2018.
  7. 2017, USC neuroscientist Doug Song: Eileen Toh, “USC Researchers Develop Brain Implant to Improve Memory,” USC Daily Troject, November 19, 2017. See: http://dailytrojan.com/2017/11/19/usc-researchers-develop-brain-implant-improve-memory/.
  8. the full cyborg to the middle 2030s: Jillian Eugenios, “Ray Kurzweil: Humans Will Be Hybrids by 2030,” CNN, June 4, 2015. See: http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/03/technology/ray-kurzweil-predictions/.
  9. 86 percent success rate: Dominic Basulto, “Why Ray Kurzweil’s Predictions Are Right 86% of the Time,” Big Think, December 13, 2012. See: https://bigthink.com/endless-innovation/why-ray-kurzweils-predictions-are-right-86-of-the-time.

Force #5: Communications Abundance

  1. as author Matt Ridley: Matt Ridley, Rational Optimist (HarperCollins, 2010), p. 1.
  2. Santa Fe Institute physicist Geoffrey West: West wrote a great piece on all this work for Medium. Find it here: https://medium.com/sfi-30-foundations-frontiers/scaling-the-surprising-mathematics-of-life-and-civilization-49ee18640a8.
  3. roughly one-quarter of the Earth’s population, some 1.8 billion people, were connected to the internet. By 2017, that penetration had reached 3.8 billion people: “Individuals Using the Internet (% of population),” World Bank. See: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.net.USER.ZS. See also: “Population, Total,” World Bank, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL.

Force #6: New Business Models

  1. a 2015 article in the McKinsey Quarterly: Marc de Jong, “Disrupting Beliefs: A New Approach to Business-Model Innovation,” McKinsey Quarterly, July 2015. See: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/disrupting-beliefs-a-new-approach-to-business-model-innovation.
  2. “bait and hook”: Randal C. Picker, “The Razors-and-Blades Myth(s),” University of Chicago Law Review, February 6, 2011. See: https://lawreview.uchicago.edu/publication/razors-and-blades-myths.
  3. “franchise models”: Kerry Pipes, “History of Franchising: Franchising in the Modern Age,” Franchising.com. See: https://www.franchising.com/guides/history_of_franchising_part_two.html.
  4. In his excellent book The Inevitable: Kevin Kelly, The Inevitable (Viking, 2016), p. 33.
  5. Decentralized Autonomous Organizations: Christoph Jentzsch, “Decentralized Orgnizations to Automate Government.” See: https://archive.org/stream/DecentralizedAutonomousOrganizations/WhitePaper_djvu.txt.
  6. the multimillion-dollar economy: Maria Korolov, “Second Life GDP Totals $500 Million,” Hypergrid Business, November 11, 2015. See: https://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2015/11/second-life-gdp-totals-500-million/.
  7. The Experience Economy: Joseph Pine and James Gilmore, “Welcome to the Experience Economy,” Harvard Business Review, July-August 1998.
  8. Harvard’s Clayton Christensen: Mark Johnson, Reinvent Your Business Model (Harvard Business Press, 2018), back cover.

Force #7: Longer Lives

  1. Ada Lovelace: Walter Isaacson, The Innovators (Simon & Schuster, 2014) pp. 7–33.
  2. the average caveperson hit puberty: For a great review of lifespan through history, see: https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy.
  3. cardiac disease and cancer: Author interview with Robert Hariri, MD, PhD, 2018.
  4. “Google’s New Project to Solve Death”: Harry McCracken, “How CEO Larry Page Has Transformed the Search Giant into a Factory for Moonshots. Our Exclusive Look at His Boldest Bet Yet—to Extend Human Life,” TIME, September 30, 2013.
  5. “Google Wants to Cheat Death”: Connor Simpson, “Google Wants to Cheat Death,” Atlantic, September 18, 2013.
  6. Jeff Bezos–backed Unity Biotechnology: See: https://unitybiotechnology.com.
  7. middle-aged mice these same medicines: Jan M. van Deursen, “Senolytic Therapies for Healthy Longevity,” Science 364, no. 6441: 636–637.
  8. Back in 2014, Stanford researchers: Saul A Villeda, “Young Blood Reverses Age-Related Impairments in Cognitive Function and Synaptic Plasticity in Mice,” Nature Medicine 20 (2014): 659–663.
  9. Elevian, for example, a Harvard University spinoff: See: https://www.elevian.com. (Author note: Peter’s VC firm is an investor.)
  10. When injected into older mice: For hearts: Francesco Loffredo, “Growth Differentiation Factor 11 Is a Circulating Factor That Reverses Age-Related Cardiac Hypertrophy,” Cell 153, no. 4 (May 9, 2013): 828–239. For brains: Lida Katsimpardi, “Vascular and Neurogenic Rejuvenation of the Aging Mouse Brain by Young Systemic Factors,” Science 344, no, 6184 (May 9, 2014): 630–634. For muscles: Manisha Sinha, “Restoring Systemic GDF11 Levels Reverses Age-Related Dysfunction in Mouse Skeletal Muscle,” Science 344, no. 6184 (May 9, 2014): 649–652. For lungs: Katsuhiro Onodera, “Decrease in an Anti-Ageing Factor, Growth Differentiation Factor 11, in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease,” Thorax 72, no. 10 (April 28, 2017). For kidneys: Y. Zhang, “GDF11 Improves Tubular Regeneration After Acute Kidney Injury in Elderly Mice,” Nature Scientific Reports 6 (October 5, 2016).
  11. Samumed, LLC, for example: Ibid.
  12. $13 billion valuation: Lydia Ramsey, “Samumed, a $12 Billion Startup That Wants to Cure Baldness and Smooth Out Your Wrinkles, Just Raised Even More Funding as It Plots an IPO,” Business Insider, August 11, 2018. See: https://www.businessinsider.com/samumed-raises-438-million-at-12-billion-valuation-2018-8.
  13. Celularity: See: https://www.celularity.com.
  14. placental-derived stem cells can extend life 30 to 40 percent: Hariri, author interview.
  15. “longevity escape velocity”: Ray Kurzweil, author interview, 2018. For a video, see: https://singularityhub.com/2017/11/10/3-dangerous-ideas-from-ray-kurzweil/.

PART TWO: THE REBIRTH OF EVERYTHING

Chapter Five: The Future of Shopping

The First Platform Play

  1. Richard Warren Sears was born on December 7, 1863: Vicki Howard, “The Rise and Fall of Sears,” Smithsonian Magazine, July 25, 2017. See: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/rise-and-fall-sears-180964181/. See also :
  2. “Richard Warren Sears: Biography & Sears, Roebuck, & Company,” https://schoolworkhelper.net/richard-warren-sears-biography-sears-roebuck-company/, and “Richard W. Sears,” https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-W-Sears.
  3. Back then, every city tracked time by its own clock: “Why Do We Have Time Zones?” TimeandDate.com, See: https://www.timeanddate.com/time/time-zones-history.html.
  4. But in 1896, Congress passed the Rural Free Delivery Act: “Rural Free Delivery,” August 2013. See: https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/rural-free-delivery.pdf.
  5. “Within 10 years,” wrote journalist Derek Thompson in the Atlantic: Derek Thompson, “Sears Is Not a Failure,” Atlantic, October 15, 2018. See: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/end-sears/573070/.
  6. Author Jeremy Rifkin points out that all major economic paradigm shifts share a common denominator: Elena Holodny, “A Key Player in China and the EU’s ‘Third Industrial Revolution’ Describes the Economy of Tomorrow,” Business Insider, July 16, 2017. See: https://www.businessinsider.com/jeremy-rifkin-interview-2017-6.
  7. After a 132-year run, in the autumn of 2018, Sears filed for bankruptcy: Thompson, “Sears Is Not a Failure.”
  8. Amazon, a company founded about the same time Walmart was disrupting Sears: Marisa Gertz, “How One of America’s Oldest Retailers Unraveled,” Bloomberg, October 12, 2018. See: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/photo-essays/2018-10-12/how-sears-got-left-behind-as-walmart-amazon-took-over-retail. See also: Matt Day, “The Enormous Numbers Behind Amazon’s Market Reach,” Bloomberg, March 27, 2019. https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-amazon-reach-across-markets/.
  9. in 2017 alone, the total was 6,700: “Global Powers of Retailing 2018,” Deloitte. See: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/tr/Documents/consumer-business/cip-2018-global-powers-retailing.pdf. See also: Jackie Wattles, “2017 Just Set the All-Time Record for Store Closings,” CNN, October 25, 2017, https://money.cnn.com/2017/10/25/news/economy/store-closings-2017/index.html?sr=twCNN102517economy0528PMStory.
  10. All one needs to do is look at the following table: Data from https://www.macrotrends.net; we report the peak value for each company during the listed year.
  11. Even though online sales increased from $34 billion in Q1 of 2009 to $115 billion in Q3 of 2017: Census.com, “Monthly Retail Trade.” See: https://www.census.gov/retail/index.html. See also: “Retail E-Commerce Sales in the United States from 1st Quarter 2009 to 2nd Quarter 2019 (In Million U.S. Dollars),” Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/187443/quarterly-e-commerce-sales-in-the-the-us/.
  12. this growth spurt only accounted for 10 percent of total retail sales: “Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales 3rd Quarter 2017,” U.S. Census Bureau. See: https://www2.census.gov/retail/releases/historical/ecomm/17q3.pdf.
  13. 3.8 billion in 2017: “Individuals Using the Internet (% of population),” World Bank. See: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.net.USER.ZS. See also: “Population, Total,” World Bank, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL.
  14. 8.2 billion in 2025: Daniel Goodkind, “The World Population at 7 Billion,” U.S. Census Bureau, October 31, 2011. See: https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2011/10/the-world-population-at-7-billion.html.

AI and the Retail Experience

  1. Nokia was the world leader in cell phones, but when smartphones showed up, they ended up out of business: James Surowiecki, “Where Nokia Went Wrong,” New Yorker, September 3, 2013. See: https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/where-nokia-went-wrong. See also: Haydn Shaughnessy, “Apple’s Rise and Nokia’s Fall Highlight Platform Strategy Essentials,” Forbes, March 8, 2013, https://www.forbes.com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2013/03/08/apples-rise-and-nokias-fall-highlight-platform-strategy-essentials/#575a41346e9a.
  2. Captain Kirk talk to the Enterprise’s computer on Star Trek: “Star Trek,” IMDb. See: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060028/.
  3. $2 billion today to $8 billion by 2023: “Digital Voice Assistants in Use to Triple to 8 Billion by 2023, Driven by Smart Home Devices,” Juniper Research, February 12, 2018. See: https://www.juniperresearch.com/press/press-releases/digital-voice-assistants-in-use-to-8-million-2023.
  4. $1,700: Eugene Kim, “Amazon Echo Owners Spend More on Amazon Than Prime Members, Report Says,” CNBC, January 3, 2018. See: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/03/amazon-echo-owners-spend-more-on-amazon-than-prime-members.html.
  5. 2018 demo of Google Duplex: “Google Duplex: An AI System for Accomplishing Real-World Tasks over the Phone,” Google AI Blog, May 8, 2018. See: https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/05/duplex-ai-system-for-natural-conversation.html.
  6. Google I/O conference, seven thousand developers: Abner Li, “Googler in Charge of I/O 2019 Says It Takes 6-9 Months to Plan,” 9To5Google, May 6, 2019.
  7. the soft-spoken Google CEO Sundar Pichai may have stolen back the crown: “Keynote (Google I/O ’18).” See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogfYd705cRs.
  8. According to a recent Zendesk study: “The Impact of Customer Service on Customer Lifetime Value 2013.” See: https://www.zendesk.com/resources/customer-service-and-lifetime-customer-value/.
  9. Beyond Verbal: See: https://beyondverbal.com/.
  10. Based on research conducted on more than seventy thousand subjects in more than thirty different languages: Ben Woods, “Emotion Analytics Company Beyond Verbal Releases Moodies as Standalone Ios App.” TheNextWeb.com, See: https://thenextweb.com/apps/2014/01/23/beyond-verbal-releases-moodies-standalone-ios-app/.
  11. New Zealand’s Soul Machines: Greg Cross, author interview, 2018. See also: https://www.soulmachines.com/.
  12. Powered by IBM’s Watson: “Soul Machines.” IBM.com, See: https://www.ibm.com/case-studies/soul-machines-hybrid-cloud-ai-chatbot.
  13. Software manufacturer Autodesk now includes a Soul Machine avatar named AVA: Kari Johnson, “How Autodesk’s Assistant Ava Attempts to Avoid Uncanny Valley,” Venture Beat, May 18, 2018. See: https://venturebeat.com/2018/05/18/how-autodesks-assistant-ava-attempts-to-avoid-uncanny-valley/.
  14. For Daimler Financial Services: “Hot Off the Press: Emotional Intelligence Daimler Financial Services Invests in Soul Machines,” Soul Machines, October 17, 2018. See: https://www.soulmachines.com/news/2018/10/17/hot-off-the-press-emotional-intelligence-daimler-financial-services-invests-in-soul-machines/.

Go, Go, Gone are Cashiers

  1. By 2025, according to research done by McKinsey: See: https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/mckinsey%20digital/our%20insights/the%20internet%20of%20things%20the%20value%20of%20digitizing%20the%20physical%20world/unlocking_the_potential_of_the_internet_of_things_full_report.ashx.
  2. Automatic checkout: “Beyond Amazon Go: The Technologies and Players Shaping Cashier-Less Retail,” CB Insights, October 9, 2018. See: https://www.cbinsights.com/research/cashierless-retail-technologies-companies-trends/.
  3. the initial Go store opened for business in Seattle: Nick Wingfield, “Inside Amazon Go, a Store of the Future,” New York Times, January 21, 2018. See: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/21/technology/inside-amazon-go-a-store-of-the-future.html.
  4. The following year Go opened seven more stores and have plans for three thousand more by 2021: Brad Stone, “Amazon’s Most Ambitious Research Project Is a Convenience Store,” Bloomberg Businessweek, July 18, 2019. See: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-07-18/amazon-s-most-ambitious-research-project-is-a-convenience-store.
  5. New York Times describes passing through the store’s turnstiles: Wingfield, “Inside Amazon Go.”
  6. McKinsey estimates automated checkout will save retailers: “The Internet of Things: Mapping the Value Beyond the Hype,” McKinsey & Company, June 2015. See: https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Business%20Functions/McKinsey%20Digital/Our%20Insights/The%20Internet%20of%20Things%20The%20value%20of%20digitizing%20the%20physical%20world/The-Internet-of-things-Mapping-the-value-beyond-the-hype.ashx.
  7. the San Francisco startup v7labs: “This AI Startup Wants to Automate Every Store Like Amazon Go,” Fast Company, November 9, 2017. See: https://www.fastcompany.com/40493622/this-ai-startup-wants-to-automate-every-store-like-amazon-go. See also: https://www.v7labs.com/retail.
  8. Alibaba’s cashier-less Hema stores were tested in China: Rebecca Fannin, “Alibaba Beats Amazon to New All-Digital Retail Trend,” Forbes, September 21, 2018. See: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccafannin/2018/09/21/alibaba-beats-amazon-to-new-all-digital-retail-trend/#6b7660436653.
  9. Smart shelf technology: “The Future of Retail: Shopping and the Smart Shelf,” Intel. See: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/retail/digital-retail-futurecasting-report.html.
  10. Back in 2015, a Cisco study found that IoT solutions: Andrew Meola, “How IoT Logistics Will Revolutionize Supply Chain Management,” Business Insider, December 21, 2016. See: https://www.businessinsider.com/internet-of-things-logistics-supply-chain-management-2016-10.

The Robots Are Coming, The Robots Are Coming

  1. The Robots Are Coming, The Robots Are Coming: Daniel Faggella, “Artificial Intelligence In Retail—10 Present and Future Use Cases,” Emerj.com, March 28, 2019. See: https://emerj.com/ai-sector-overviews/artificial-intelligence-retail/.
  2. Domino’s Robotic Unit: Introducing DOM (video). See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb0nxQyv7RU&feature=youtu.be.
  3. Already, it’s been rolled out in ten countries: Mariella Moon, “Domino’s Delivery Robots Are Invading Europe,” Engadget, March 30, 2017.
  4. A dozen or so different delivery bots are currently entering the market. Starship Technologies: Kayla Mathews, “5 Ways Retail Robots Are Disrupting the Industry,” Robotics Business Review, August 2, 2018. See: https://www.roboticsbusinessreview.com/retail-hospitality/retail-robots-disrupt-industry/.
  5. Starship has carried out fifty thousand deliveries in over one hundred cities in twenty countries: Luke Dormehl, “The Rise and Reign of Starship, the World’s First Robotic Delivery Provider,” Digital Trends, May 22, 2019. See: https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/how-starship-technologies-created-delivery-robots/.
  6. Along similar lines, Nuro, the company cofounded by Jiajun Zhu: Mark Harris, “Softbank’s $940 Million Smaller Robots Could Leap from Driverless Vehicles to Complete Last-Yard Deliveries,” TechCrunch, March 23, 2019. See: https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/23/how-nuro-plans-to-spend-softbanks-money/.
  7. which it’s been doing for select Kroger stores since 2018: Kyle Wiggers, “Nuro Expands Kroger Driverless Deliveries to Houston,” Venture Beat, March 14, 2019. See: https://venturebeat.com/2019/03/14/nuro-expands-driverless-delivery-partnership-with-kroger-to-houston/.
  8. in 2019, Domino’s also partnered with Nuro: Alex Davies, “Nuro’s Pizza Robot Will Bring You a Domino’s Pie,” Wired, June 17, 2019. See: https://www.wired.com/story/nuro-dominos-pizza-delivery-self-driving-robot-houston/.
  9. Prime Air: “First Prime Air Delivery.” See: https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Prime-Air/b?ie=UTF8&node=8037720011.
  10. 7-Eleven: Nicole Lee, “7-Eleven Has Already Made 77 Deliveries by Drone,” Engadget, December 20, 2016. See: https://www.engadget.com/2016/12/20/7-eleven-has-already-made-77-deliveries-by-drone/?guccounter=1.
  11. Walmart: Mary Hanbury, “There’s a Way Walmart Could Beat Amazon When It Comes to Speedy Delivery, and New Data Shows It’s Going All In,” Business Insider, June 18, 2019. See: https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-invests-in-drones-as-amazon-delivery-war-heats-up-2019-6.
  12. Google: Mihir Zaveri, “Wing, Owned by Google’s Parent Company, Gets First Approval for Drone Deliveries in U.S.,” New York Times, April 23, 2019. See: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/technology/drone-deliveries-google-wing.html. See also: “Transforming the Way Goods Are Transported,” https://x.company/projects/wing/.
  13. Alibaba: “China Is on the Fast Track to Drone Deliveries,” Bloomberg, July 3, 2018. See: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-03/china-s-on-the-fast-track-to-making-uav-drone-deliveries.
  14. head of the FAA’s drone-integration department: “Drone Deliveries Really Are Coming Soon, Officials Say,” Drive, March 14, 2018. See: https://www.thedrive.com/tech/19239/drone-deliveries-really-are-coming-soon-officials-say.
  15. SoftBank introduced Pepper: Erico Guizzo, “How Aldebaran Robotics Built Its Friendly Humanoid Robot, Pepper,” IEEE Spectrum, December 26, 2014. See: https://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/home-robots/how-aldebaran-robotics-built-its-friendly-humanoid-robot-pepper.
  16. Over twelve thousand Peppers: Bill Streeter, “Seriously Successful Results from HSBC Bank’s Branch Robot Rollout,” Financial Brand, June 5, 2019, See: https://thefinancialbrand.com/84245/hsbc-banks-branch-robot-pepper-digital-transformation-phygital/. See also: Parmy Olson, “Softbank’s Robotics Business Prepares to Scale Up,” Forbes, May 30, 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2018/05/30/softbank-robotics-business-pepper-boston-dynamics/#2579283e4b7f.
  17. Walmart uses shelf-stocking robots: Sarah Nassauer, “Walmart Is Rolling Out the Robots,” Wall Street Journal, April 9, 2019. See: https://www.wsj.com/articles/walmart-is-rolling-out-the-robots-11554782460.
  18. Best Buy uses a robo-cashier: Kavita Kumar, “Best Buy Tests Robot at New York Store,” Star Tribune, September 26, 2015. See: http://www.startribune.com/best-buy-tests-robot-at-new-york-store/329583301/.
  19. LoweBot: “LoweBot.” See: http://www.lowesinnovationlabs.com/lowebot.
  20. out $775 million for Kiva Systems: Evelyn M. Rusli, “Amazon.com to Acquire Manufacturer of Robotics,” New York Times, March 19, 2012. See: https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/amazon-com-buys-kiva-systems-for-775-million/?mtrref=undefined&gwh=A926616EBBF3A219E03216397142BB8B&gwt=pay&assetType=REGIWALL.
  21. Kiva robots: Sam Shead, “Amazon Now Has 45,000 Robots in Its Warehouses,” Business Insider, January 3, 2017. See: https://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-robot-army-has-grown-by-50-2017-1.
  22. 306 items per second: Jay Yarow, “Amazon Was Selling 306 Items Every Second at Its Peak This Year,” Business Insider, December 27, 2012. https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-holiday-facts-2012-12.
  23. Order jeans from the Gap: Bob Trebilcock, “Resilience and Innovation at Gap Inc.,” Modern Materials Handling, November 12, 2018. See: https://www.mmh.com/article/resilience_and_innovation_at_gap_inc.
  24. Kindred robot: “Kindred Robot.” See: https://www.kindred.ai/. (Author note: Peter’s VC firm is an investor.)
  25. the House of Representatives already passed the bill: Nandita Bose, “House Passes Bill to Raise Federal Minimum Wage to $15 An Hour,” Reuters, July 18, 2019. See: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-minimum-wage/house-passes-bill-to-raise-federal-minimum-wage-to-15-an-hour-idUSKCN1UD2DV.

3-D Printing and Retail

  1. Ministry of Supply: “Ministry of Supply.” See: https://ministryofsupply.com/. See also: Richard Kestenbaum, “3-D Printing In-Store Is Very Close and Retailers Need to Address It,” Forbes, April 6, 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardkestenbaum/2017/04/06/3-D-printing-in-store-is-very-close-and-retailers-need-to-address-it/#4ba78ea333b4.
  2. As TechCrunch summarized: Rip Empson, “With Tech from Space, Ministry of Supply Is Building the Next Generation of Dress Shirts,” TechCrunch, July 1, 2012. See: https://techcrunch.com/2012/06/30/ministry-of-supply/.
  3. Danit Peleg’s: “Danit Peleg.” See: https://danitpeleg.com/.
  4. Reebok: Brian Lord, “Reebok’s 3-D Printed Shoe Line Dashes into Production,” 3-D Printing Industry. August 3, 2018, See: https://3-Dprintingindustry.com/news/reeboks-3-D-printed-shoe-line-dashes-into-production-137497/.
  5. New Balance: Tyler Koslow, “New Balance Announces 3-D Printed Midsoles in New Running Shoe Line,” 3-D Printing Industry, November 19, 2015. See: https://3-Dprintingindustry.com/news/new-balance-announces-3-D-printed-midsoles-in-new-running-shoe-line-62313/.
  6. Staples, the office supply company: Scott J. Grunewald, “Staples’ New Sculpteo-Powered Online 3-D Printing Service Launches,” 3-D Print.com, September 17, 2015. See: https://3-Dprint.com/96380/staples-sculpteo-launched/.
  7. Leroy Merlin: Beau Jackson, “Interview: How ZMorph 3-D Printers Are Helping the Leroy Merlin Bricolab Movement in Brazil,” 3-D Printing Industry, January 28, 2019. See: https://3-Dprintingindustry.com/news/interview-how-zmorph-3-D-printers-are-helping-the-leroy-merlin-bricolab-movement-in-brazil-147975/.

Retail’s Last Hope

  1. “Welcome to the Experience Economy”: B. Joseph Pine II, “Welcome to the Experience Economy,” Harvard Business Review, July-August 1998. See: https://hbr.org/1998/07/welcome-to-the-experience-economy.
  2. group’s ten-year vision for the future of retail: Christophe Cuvillier, “Destination 2028,” The URW 2018 Report. See: https://report.urw.com/2018/.
  3. there are over eleven hundred malls and forty thousand shopping centers: “Shopping Center,” Encyclopedia.com. See: https://www.encyclopedia.com/reference/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/shopping-center.
  4. spanning 2.5 million square feet and housing five hundred stores: “Mall of America by the Numbers.” See: https://www.mallofamerica.com/upload/FactSheets_2016.pdf.
  5. China’s biggest mall: “The Largest Shopping Malls in Asia,” World Atlas. See: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-largest-shopping-malls-in-asia.html.

No More Shopping Malls

  1. Levi’s: Pamela Kokoszka, “Is 3-D Body Scanning the Future Of Fashion?”: Verdict. See: https://www.verdict.co.uk/3-D-body-scanning-fashion-future/.
  2. Bloomingdales: Marc Bain, “Could 3-D Body Scanning Mean Never Entering Another Dressing Room Again,” Quartz, September 9, 2015. See: https://qz.com/497259/could-3-D-body-scanning-mean-never-entering-another-dressing-room-again/.
  3. Boss: Lydia Mageean, “3-D Technology: A New Dimension for Fashion,” whichPLM, November 22, 2018. See: https://www.whichplm.com/3-D-technology-a-new-dimension-for-fashion/.
  4. Armani: “Bodi.Me.” See: http://bodi.me/.
  5. Bombfell: Ryan Lawler, “500 Startups-Backed Bombfell Helps Nerds Get Stylish, for Just $69 a Month,” TechCrunch, June 14, 2012. See: https://techcrunch.com/2012/06/14/bombfell/.
  6. Amazon acquiring the 3-D body-scanning startup Body Labs: Natasha Lomas, “Amazon Has Acquired 3-D Body Model Startup, Body Labs, for $50M-$70M,” TechCrunch, October 3, 2017. See: https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/03/amazon-has-acquired-3-D-body-model-startup-body-labs-for-50m-70m/.
  7. Alibaba’s FashionAI: Christine Chou, “New Alibaba Concept Store Teases Future of Fashion Retail,” July 4, 2018. See: https://www.alizila.com/new-alibaba-concept-store-teases-future-of-fashion-retail/.
  8. Amazon’s shopping algorithm: “Real-Time Product Recommendations,” Amazon. See: https://aws.amazon.com/mp/scenarios/bi/recommendation/.
  9. Hololux: Matt Brown, “How Microsoft Is Shaking Up Fashion with Mixed Reality, AI, and IoT,” Windows Central, June 9, 2018. See: https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-fashion-mixed-reality-ai-iot.

Chapter Six: The Future of Advertising

Madder Men

  1. the disruption it would bring to advertising: Ryan Avent, The Wealth of Humans: Work, Power, and Status in the Twenty-First Century (St. Martins, 2016), p. 3.
  2. In 2017, Google’s ad campaign revenue: See: https://www.statista.com/statistics/266249/advertising-revenue-of-google/.
  3. Facebook’s reached over $39 billion: See: https://www.statista.com/statistics/271258/facebooks-advertising-revenue-worldwide/.
  4. In 2018, the global advertising industry surpassed $550: See: https://www.statista.com/statistics/236943/global-advertising-spending/.
  5. Google’s valuation: Matthew Lynley, “Google Joins the Race to $1 Trillion,” TechCrunch, July 23, 2018. See: https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/23/google-joins-the-race-to-1-trillion/.
  6. Facebook’s above $500 billion: Matt Egan, “Facebook and Amazon Hit $500 Billion Milestone,” CNN, July 27, 2017. See: https://money.cnn.com/2017/07/27/investing/facebook-amazon-500-billion-bezos-zuckerberg/index.html.

The Spatial Web

  1. A partnership between Snapchat and Amazon: Josh Constine, “Snapchat Lets You Take a Photo of an Object to Buy It on Amazon,” TechCrunch, September 24, 2018. See: https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/24/snapchat-amazon-visual-search/.
  2. Pinterest, meanwhile, has a multitude of visual search tools: See Pinterest’s original announcement: https://newsroom.pinterest.com/en/post/introducing-the-next-wave-of-visual-search-and-shopping.
  3. Google Lens: See: https://lens.google.com.
  4. IKEA: Arielle Pardes, “Ikea’s New App Flaunts What You’ll Love Most About AR,” Wired, September 20, 2017. See: https://www.wired.com/story/ikea-place-ar-kit-augmented-reality/.
  5. visual searches above a billion queries a month: Yoram Wurmser, “Visual Search 2018: New Tools from Pinterest, eBay, Google and Amazon Increase Accuracy, Utility,” eMarketer, September 26, 2018. See: https://www.emarketer.com/content/visual-search-2018.

Sure That Sounds like Mom, But Can You Prove It?

  1. Montreal-based startup Lyrebird: Partner Content, “How Lyrebird Uses AI to Find Its (Artificial) Voice,” Wired. See: https://www.wired.com/brandlab/2018/10/lyrebird-uses-ai-find-artificial-voice/. See also: https://lyrebird.ai/.
  2. Thirty sentences is all it takes: Greg Allen, “AI Will Make Forging Anything Entirely Too Easy,” Wired, July 1, 2017. See: https://www.wired.com/story/ai-will-make-forging-anything-entirely-too-easy/.
  3. Leo Zou, a member of Baidu’s communications team: Luke Dormehl, “Baidu’s New A.I. Can Mimic Your Voice After Listening to It for Just One Minute,” Digital Trends, February 28, 2018. See: https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/baidu-ai-emulate-your-voice/.

Deeper Fakes

  1. 2018, a YouTube video: David Mack, “This PSA About Fake News from Barack Obama Is Not What It Appears,” BuzzFeed News, April 17, 2018. See: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/davidmack/obama-fake-news-jordan-peele-psa-video-buzzfeed.
  2. the dangers of deepfakes: Technology, “The Real Danger of DeepFake Videos Is That We May Question Everything,” NewScientist, August 29, 2018. See: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23931933-200-the-real-danger-of-deepfake-videos-is-that-we-may-question-everything/. See also: Oscar Swartz, “You Thought Fake News Was Bad? Deep Fakes Are Where Truth Goes to Die,” Guardian, November 12, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/12/deep-fakes-fake-news-truth.
  3. Carnegie Mellon University: See Carnegie Mellon’s original article: https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2018/september/deep-fakes-video-content.html.

Goodbye Advertising, Hello JARVIS

  1. Shopping JARVIS: Vala Afshar, “How AI-Powered Commerce Will Change Shopping,” ZDNet, December 21, 2018. See: https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-ai-powered-commerce-will-change-shopping/.

Chapter Seven: The Future of Entertainment

Going Digital

  1. In 1999, the year Netflix launched, they had 239,000 subscribers: Reed Hastings, “How I Did It: Reed Hastings, Netflix,” Inc. Magazine, December 1, 2005. See: https://www.inc.com/magazine/20051201/qa-hastings.html.
  2. his 2007 choice: Miguel Helft, “Netflix to Deliver Movies to the PC,” New York Times, January 16, 2007. See: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/technology/16netflix.html.
  3. subscriptions had rocketed to 137 million: Mansoor Iqbal, “Netflix Revenue and Usage Statistics (2018),” Business of Apps, February 27, 2019. See: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/netflix-statistics/.
  4. Fifty-one percent of all streaming subscriptions: Ibid.
  5. $4.5 billion in annual revenue: Anthony Ha, “Netflix Added 9.6M Subscribers in Q1, with Revenue of $4.5B,” TechCrunch, April 16, 2019. See: https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/16/netflix-q1-earnings/.
  6. $150 billion in market cap: “Netflix Market Cap 2006-2019 | NFLX.” Macrotrends.com. See: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/NFLX/netflix/market-cap.
  7. $6.2 billion on original: Arne Alsin, “The Future of Media: Disruptions, Revolutions and the Quest for Distribution,” Forbes, July 19, 2018. See: https://www.forbes.com/sites/aalsin/2018/07/19/the-future-of-media-disruptions-revolutions-and-the-quest-for-distribution/#5a2ca52d60b9.
  8. Netflix’s doubled their spend to $13 billion: “Netflix Is Moving Television Beyond Time-Slots and National Markets,” Economist, June 30, 2018. See: https://www.economist.com/briefing/2018/06/30/netflix-is-moving-television-beyond-time-slots-and-national-markets.
  9. Netflix’s war chest produced eighty new features and over seven hundred new TV shows: Todd Spangler, “Netflix Eyeing Total of About 700 Original Series in 2018,” Variety, February 27, 2018.
  10. Blockbuster passed up the opportunity to buy Netflix: Marc Graser, “Epic Fail: How Blockbuster Could Have Owned Netflix,” Variety, November 12, 2013. See: https://variety.com/2013/biz/news/epic-fail-how-blockbuster-could-have-owned-netflix-1200823443/.
  11. Apple spent over $1 billion on original programming: Tripp Mickle, “Apple Readies $1 Billion War Chest for Hollywood Programming,” Wall Street Journal, August 16, 2017. See: https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-readies-1-billion-war-chest-for-hollywood-programming-1502874004.
  12. Amazon dropped $5 billion: Adam Levy, “Here’s Exactly How Much Amazon Is Spending on Video and Music Content,” Motley Fool, April 30, 2019. See: https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/04/30/heres-how-much-amazon-is-spending-on-video-music.aspx.
  13. TV ad sales and box office revenue produce just shy of $300 billion a year: For global TV revenues see: “Global TV Revenues Grow to $265 Billion,” Broadband TV News, October 22, 2018, https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2018/10/22/global-tv-revenues-grow-to-265-billion/. For global box office revenues see: Pamela McClintock, “Global Box Office Revenue Hits Record $41B in 2018, Fueled by Diverse U.S. Audiences,” Hollywood Reporter, March 21, 2019, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/global-box-office-revenue-hits-record-41b-2018-fueled-by-diverse-us-audiences-1196010.

The Rise of the Uber-Creator

  1. Jawed Karim posted “Me at the Zoo,”: “Me at the Zoo” (video), April 23, 2005. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw.
  2. Brazilian soccer phenom Ronaldinho: “Ronaldinho Nike Ad” (video), August 2, 2006. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_JS1YG8H2c.
  3. $3.5 million investment from Sequoia Capital: Miguel Helft, “Venture Firm Shares a YouTube Jackpot,” New York Times, October 10, 2006. See: https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/10/technology/10payday.html.
  4. $1.65 billion to purchase YouTube: Ibid.
  5. billions of people watch billions of videos on the site: “Over One Billion Users.” See: https://www.youtube.com/about/press/.
  6. shows like Binging with Babish: “Binging with Babish” (video). See: https://www.youtube.com/user/bgfilms.
  7. Or Cooking with Dog: “Cooking with Dog” (video). See: https://www.youtube.com/user/cookingwithdog.
  8. in to My Drunk Kitchen: “My Drunk Kitchen” (video). See: https://www.youtube.com/user/MyHarto.
  9. And these new stars are bringing in big bucks: Natalie Robehmed, “Highest-Paid YouTube Stars 2018: Markiplier, Jake Paul, Pewdiepie and More,” Forbes, December 3, 2018. See: https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2018/12/03/highest-paid-youtube-stars-2018-markiplier-jake-paul-pewdiepie-and-more/#22c2828e909a.
  10. Bambuser: “Bambuser.” See: https://bambuser.com.
  11. short film Sunspring: “Sunspring” (video). See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY7x2Ihqjmc.
  12. upcoming thriller Morgan: “BM Creates First Movie Trailer by AI [HD] | 20th Century FOX,” August 31, 2016. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJEzuYynaiw.
  13. an AI that creates Choose Your Own Adventure–style stories for video games: Matthew Guzdial, “Crowdsourcing Open Interactive Narrative.” See: https://www.cc.gatech.edu/~riedl/pubs/guzdial-fdg15.pdf. See also: “Artificial Intelligence System for Crowdsourcing Interactive Fiction” (video), September 1, 2016. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=znqw17aOrCs.

From Passive to Active

  1. Video games with user-generated gameplay content: “Category: Video Games with User-Generated Gameplay Content,” Wikipedia. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_games_with_user-generated_gameplay_content.
  2. MashUp Machine: “Mashup Machine.” See: http://mashupmachine.io/.
  3. researchers at the University of California, Berkeley: Caroline Chan, “Everybody Dance Now,” Arvix.org, August 22, 2018. See: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1808.07371v1.pdf.
  4. Robbins teamed up: Tony Robbins, author interview, 2018.
  5. Lifekind: “AI Personas Based on Real People.” See: http://www.rivaltheory.com/.

The Holodeck Is Here

  1. Jules Urbach went to high school with Rod Roddenberry: Jules Urbach, author interview, 2018. See also: Fotis Georgiadis, “The Future Is Now: ‘Now We Can Effortlessly Interact with Digital Holographic Objects That Naturally Blend into Everyday Life’ with OTOY CEO Jules Urbach & Fotis Georgiadis,” Thrive Global, January 16, 2019. See: https://thriveglobal.com/stories/the-future-is-now-now-we-can-effortlessly-interact-with-digital-holographic-objects-that-naturally-blend-into-everyday-life-with-otoy-ceo-jules-urbach-fotis-georgiadis/.
  2. Otoy: “Otoy.” See: https://home.otoy.com/.
  3. Light Field Lab: “Light Field Lab.” See: https://www.lightfieldlab.com/. See also: https://variety.com/2018/digital/features/light-field-lab-holographic-display-demo-1203026693/.
  4. High Fidelity: “High Fidelity Raises $35m to Bring Virtual Reality to 1 Billion People,” High Fidelity, June 28, 2018. See: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/high-fidelity-raises-35m-to-bring-virtual-reality-to-1-billion-people-300673807.html.
  5. NeoSensory: “NeoSensory.” See: https://neosensory.com/?v=7516fd43adaa. See also: David Eagleman, “Can We Create New Senses for Humans?,” TED Talk, https://www.ted.com/talks/david_eagleman_can_we_create_new_senses_for_humans.
  6. Dreamscape: “Dreamscape.” See: https://dreamscapeimmersive.com/. See also: Bryan Bishop, “Dreamscape Immersive Wants to Bring Location-Based VR to the Masses, Starting with a Shopping Mall,” Verge, January 15, 2019. See: https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/15/18156854/dreamscape-immersive-virtual-reality-los-angeles-walter-parkes-bruce-vaughn. (Author note: Peter’s VC firm is an investor.)

This Time It’s Personal

  1. affective computing: Geovany A. Ramirez, “Color Analysis of Facial Skin: Detection of Emotional State.”, University of Texas, See: http://www.cs.utep.edu/ofuentes/papers/emotionSkin_final.pdf.
  2. Affectiva: “Affectiva.” See: https://www.affectiva.com/. See also Samar Marwan, “Rana El Kaliouby CEO of Affectiva Is Training Robots to Read Feelings,” Forbes, November 29, 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/samarmarwan/2018/11/29/affectiva-emotion-ai-ceo-rana-el-kaliouby/#7d5f8c5c1572.
  3. thriller game Nevermind: “Finding the Essence of Fear in Nevermind,” July 21, 2016. See: https://blog.affectiva.com/finding-the-essence-of-fear-in-nevermind.
  4. Lightwave: Tom Foster, “Ready or Not, Companies Will Soon Be Tracking Your Emotions,” Inc. Magazine, July 2016. See: https://www.inc.com/magazine/201607/tom-foster/lightwave-monitor-customer-emotions.html.
  5. Ubimo: “Ubumo.” See: https://www.ubimo.com/.
  6. Cluep: “Cluep.” See: https://cluep.com/.
  7. they were turning the 1980s Choose Your Own Adventure: Ricardo Lopez, “ ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ Interactive Movie in the Works at Fox,” Variety, April 26, 2018. See: https://variety.com/2018/film/news/choose-your-own-adventure-interactive-1202788741/.
  8. Hollywood Reporter called it: Josh Spiegel, “Does a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ Movie Sound Appealing?,” Hollywood Reporter. See: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/choose-your-own-adventure-movie-does-it-sound-appealing-1106999.

Here, There, and Everywhere

  1. Magic Leap: Rony Abovitz, author interview, 2018. See also: “Magic Leap,” https://www.magicleap.com/, and Peter Yang, “The Untold Story of Magic Leap, the World’s Most Secretive Startup,” Wired, https://www.wired.com/2016/04/magic-leap-vr/.
  2. OLEDs (organic light emitting diodes): “OLED Lighting Products: Capabilities, Challenges, Potential,” U.S. Department of Energy, May 2016. See: https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2016/08/f33/ssl_oled-products_2016.pdf.
  3. Chinese researchers to develop a smartphone: “Bendy Smartphone Made of Graphene Displayed at China Tech Fair” (video) April 27, 2016. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwuQXfHXsa4. See also: Jon Porter, “Nubia’s New Wearable Puts a 4-Inch Flexible Smartphone on Your Wrist,” Verge, https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/2/25/18240370/nubia-alpha-release-date-price-features-wearable-smartwatch-flexible-display-mwc-2019.
  4. AR is projected to create a $90 billion market: “For AR/VR 2.0 to Live, AR/VR 1.0 Must Die,” Digi-Capital, January 15, 2019. See: https://www.digi-capital.com/news/2019/01/for-ar-vr-2-0-to-live-ar-vr-1-0-must-die/.
  5. I regard [AR] as a big idea like the smartphone: David Phelan, “Apple CEO Tim Cook: As Brexit Hangs over UK, ‘Times Are Not Really Awful, There’s Some Great Things Happening’,” Independent. See: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/apple-tim-cook-boss-brexit-uk-theresa-may-number-10-interview-ustwo-a7574086.html.
  6. Nintendo released Pokémon GO: Lauren Munsi, “Pokémon GO Surpasses the 1 Billion Downloads Milestone,” Nintendo Wire, July 31, 2019. See: https://nintendowire.com/news/2019/07/31/pokemon-go-surpasses-the-1-billion-downloads-milestone/.
  7. With 5 million daily users, 65 million monthly users, and over $2 billion in revenue: Mansoor Iqbal, “Pokémon GO Revenue and Usage Statistics (2019),” Business of Apps, May 10, 2019. See: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/pokemon-go-statistics/.
  8. Mojo Vision: See: https://mojo.vision/. See also: Dean Takahashi, “Mojo Vision Reveals the World’s Smallest and Densest Micro Display,” Venture Beat, https://venturebeat.com/2019/05/30/mojo-vision-reveals-the-worlds-smallest-and-densest-micro-display/. (Author note: Peter’s VC firm is an investor.)
  9. we’ve seen EEG-based BCI devices start to invade gaming: Ahn Minkyu, “A Review of Brain-Computer Interface Games and an Opinion Survey from Researchers, Developers and Users,” Sensors, August 2014, pp. 14601–14633, doi: 10.3390/s140814601. See: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4178978/.
  10. BrainNet: Jiang Preston Linxing, “BrainNet: A Multi-Person Brain-to-Brain Interface for Direct Collaboration Between Brains,” Human-Computer Interaction, May 22, 2019. See: https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.08632.
  11. short film entitled The Moment: Richard Ramchurn, “Now Playing: A Movie You Control with Your Mind,” MIT Technology Review, May 25, 2018. See: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611189/now-playing-a-movie-you-control-with-your-mind/.