Speculative Technologies 2023 Year in Review

2023 has been quite a year at Speculative Technologies. ICYMI, here’s a quick recap:

Launch – We officially launched Speculative Technologies itself! Previously we’d been operating under the radar (not particularly on purpose) as PARPA. Sometimes it’s useful to mindfully plant a flag in the ground and acronyms are terrible. 

Programs

Nanomodular Electronics – Michael Filler’s program to transform how we make microelectronics hit several milestones. We published a detailed roadmap for the work to unlock the ability to manufacture transistors from many materials at massive scale, send them anywhere in the world, and create on-demand electronics with them. We also began executing on the derisking experiments to show that this new paradigm isn’t impossible!

The nanomodular electronics program contributed to creating transistors in Atlanta, moved them to a new substrate, and mailed them to Ann Arbor where they were wired together to create a fully-functional circuit.

Macromolecular Additive Manufacturing – Chris Wintersinger’s program to create a platform for multi-component, modular, functional proteins ran a successful workshop and published a roadmap. 

Cell-free enzyme cascades – Quentin Dudley joined us at the beginning of the year. He created a program to unlock our ability to turn atmospheric carbon dioxide into complex, carbon-based molecules using cell-free enzyme cascades in scalable, modular continuous flow systems. A workshop in October laid the groundwork for the major pillars of the program and lined up several labs that we will work with to execute on them. We will be releasing the program’s roadmap soon!

Stimuli-responsive manufacturing – Tim McGee joined us in July to create a program focused on harnessing the mechanisms that spiders use to create silk in order to create fibers and other materials with powerful properties that we can’t achieve otherwise.  

Brains

We launched an accelerator for pre-commerical research. The goal is to gather ambitious people with ideas for impactful research that doesn’t have a clear institutional home, give them mentorship and training in the skillsets they need to make those ideas into reality, and help them find a place to execute on them, whether it’s in a government ARPA, an FRO, a foundation, or some esoteric other thing. Think YC for researchy ideas that don’t fit into either academia or startups.   

The first class of fellows have accepted admission offers and will be starting in January! They are all badasses. 

We have an amazing roster of mentors, advisors and partner organizations – if you would be interested in joining that list, please reach out. 

Other Stuff

ARIA Collaboration. Spectech created a soon-to-be-public library of resources on how to run coordinated research programs, in collaboration with the UK’s ARIA (Advanced Research + Invention Agency). We believe that it’s possible to make this career more accessible by codifying the critical skills and mindsets that go into leading these programs. We are also creating a complementary 1:1 mentoring program for ARIA’s programme directors.

Jessica Joined! Jessica Alföldi joined as Spectech’s COO – in past lives, she was a director at the Broad Institute and led partnerships and R&D at several science-based startups. 

Eileen Joined! Eileen Nakahata joined us as a project manager for the Brains program. 

Roadmapping Workshop. We ran a workshop on the (lost?) art and science of technical roadmapping. The report will be out soon!

Onsites. The Spectech team gathered in NYC in the spring and Salt Lake City in the fall to conspire, hike, and visit factories that made diamond drill bits and plastics derived from microorganisms.

Doing all of these things inevitably came along with many broader lessons and updates to our institutional hypotheses (remember: Spectech is an institutional experiment!) Keep an eye out for those the first week of 2024. 

(Non-money) Asks

• We still have some slots open for Brains Partners – these are organizations that are on board to enable Brains Fellows to execute on the coordinated research programs they design during the program (eg. by hiring or funding them). If your organization would be interested, please email brains@spec.tech. 

• If you would like to be an advisor for the Brains program (eg. be on a list of people for fellows to reach out to) please email brains@spec.tech. 

• In the coming year, we’re looking to talk to organizations that have R&D problems in materials and manufacturing that might generalize more broadly. If that describes you or someone you know, please reach out! info@spec.tech. 

Thank yous

We’re incredibly grateful to everybody who has provided us with financial support: 

• Patrick Collison

• Protocol Labs

• Schmidt Futures

• Malcolm Handley

• Survival and Flourishing Fund

• Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

• Calvin French-Owen

• X, The Moonshot Factory

• Tyler Cowen and Emergent Ventures

• The Institute

• Anonymous Donors

• Erika and Peter Reinhardt

• Grantham Foundation

• Robert Figueiredo

• Elle Griffin

• Daniel Haller

• Michael Kaye

• Shawn McGaff

• Michael McCormick

• Cody McMahon

• Maryrose Milkovich Ewing

• Adam Millsap

• Mark Tushnet

• Brian Vaughn

• Ian Wineman

• Advanced Research + Invention Agency

Here’s to a wonder-filled and abundant 2024!