Guest Post by John Stossel
There’s so much negative news these days. I was glad to see that a new podcast, “American Optimist,” features good things that are coming.
It’s hosted by Palantir founder and venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale. He interviews entrepreneurs like Sal Churi, who funds companies like Icon, which found a way to 3D print homes in just one day.
The process is cool to watch. You can see it in my new video.
Fast home-building is such a good thing for poor people who want an affordable house! Unfortunately, Churi has to struggle to get past the government’s rigid zoning and safety regulations.
“It’s actually impossible to do 3D printing of homes with modern technology because government regulation is making it impossible,” says Lonsdale.
“That infuriates me,” I tell him. “I keep seeing these wonderful new things we can’t have … because of regulations that don’t matter.”
“We’d probably have twice as big of an economy if we didn’t have bad regulations,” he replies.
If innovators finally do get past the regulators, we’ll get lots of cool things.
People predicted flying cars for years. Now it may actually happen because Lonsdale’s friend Paul Sciarra (Pinterest’s co-founder) invested in Joby Aviation, which built a small helicopter that looks like a flying car. He hopes it will be used as an air taxi.
“It’s about 100 times quieter than a helicopter,” says Lonsdale. “Goes about 200 miles on a charge – safer, much quieter. The idea is to use this as a commuting vehicle. I’m pretty excited as we start to scale this out.”
Another Lonsdale friend is Elon Musk, whose Boring Company hopes to create faster ways to move traffic by building tunnels.
But again, it’s hard to get such new transportation past the bureaucrats’ rules. Digging tunnels today actually often costs more( and takes longer – even though construction equipment is much better!
“The EPA is going to insist you do these studies that take four or five years,” complains Lonsdale. “It’s almost like they delight in delaying you.”
Musk is the rare entrepreneur who triumphs over regulations – sometimes by ignoring them.
Thankfully, in new fields, like neurotechnology, innovators sometimes escape stupid rules because regulators don’t understand what they’re doing.
Musk’s company Neuralink invented technology that may let us control things with our minds. Our Stossel TV video on Lonsdale includes a Neuralink video clip showing a monkey playing a video game just by … thinking.
Soon this technology will help paralyzed people do new things. It may someday even help us communicate without speaking. We’ll just … think … to each other.
Lonsdale’s podcast includes Rick Klausner, a scientist who founded Grail, which designed a blood test that detects 50 types of cancers. But it’s not available to us yet because the Federal Trade Commission blocked a merger with the company that would be selling it.
“This could be saving over 1,000 lives a month right now by detecting early cancers!” complains Lonsdale.
He interviews Maureen Hillenmeyer, founder of Hexagon Bio, which turns fungi into drugs that fight cancer. But of course, those drugs may need 10 years to get approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
“It definitely does not need to be 10 years!” says Lonsdale. “Competition of ideas is very important. When I am in charge of the federal government, I’m going to have the FDA compete against itself and have multiple competing agencies.”
Will he be in charge of the government? Probably not. Would competition make bureaucrats less slow and sleepy? Probably yes.
“We’re living in one of the most exciting times,” concludes Lonsdale. “The quality of life we have even during COVID is so much higher than anything humanity experienced, and it’s only going to get better.”
I’m glad such optimists exist.
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Palantir? Isn’t that precrime company that organizes stalking and targeting individuals to effect ‘positive outcomes’ on possible future crimes? Yes, I believe it is. Didn’t read the whole article but don’t forget there are so many optimistic things about Raytheon, too.
“Thankfully, in new fields, like neurotechnology, innovators sometimes escape stupid rules because regulators don’t understand what they’re doing.”
You mean like they didn’t see Fauci spending money on gain of function virus stuff?!?
while i firmly believe in the premise of this article that we are over-regulated; some regulation is needed.
Did Stossel mean things like Starlink, where Elon is to going to flood low orbit with satellites – as there are no rules (yet) to prevent him from doing so without any beforehand review? /facepalm
A 3D printed home is a return to mud huts. Enjoy your cicada burger, Stossel
3d printed homes? What a bunch of BS.
I saw one of those 3D printed homes that was actually nice, not large but nice. You might be surprised it was printed if you did not know and it was substantial.
Exciting times for who? What does technology matter and innovation if you end up with blood clots, stroke or abnormal menstrual bleeding that is causing damage to the uterus & ovaries threatening fertility as well as the violation of the Nuremburg code.
I’m sure you glee for joy every time DeBlasio utters a new Covid oppressive rule.
3D printed houses, Palantir, Neuralink. Is this Stossel shilling for the WEF’s agenda as detailed in another article here on TBP?
He thinks that all science is good and fuck you if you object to it. That’s his position on GMOs.
Government is the enemy of life. Government is the greatest evil ever created by man.
Amen on that one Liberty.
Maybe they should start another new podcast “American Pessimist.”
Stossel is a douchebag. Once people who have been vaccinated, and now have no immune system after 20 weeks start dying, there will be plenty of housing at great prices!!
A helicopter car that gets 200 miles per charge. Your at 195 miles, and 10 miles from the airport. Fucken awesome!
Tens of thousands of Beautiful People in southern CA flying around wherever the hell they want. Again, fucken awesome!
Stossel is digging deep up his anus to find something to write about.
Yep–Take a look at an aeronautical chart for SoCal-it’s a maze of different airspace with controllers who are easily overloaded on nice weekend when everyone and his Uncle Duck is out flyin’ around for burgers (yep I’m part of that crowd in the air). I’ve been to aviation seminars led by local controllers who encourage us to contact them for what is called ‘Flight Following’ when out and about so we can all have separation, but they can get overloaded in a matter of minutes and then ‘you’re on your own’. Not a big deal since we all know what to do to fly safe, but when thousands of jokers in ‘flying cars’ get thrown into the mix the Air Traffic Control system will crash. There’s just not enough controllers to be able to manage. Not going to happen with the current system.
Gee whiz, more machines and more money, just what we need. That’s what life is all about.
I’m also an optimist that the US (or it’s pieces) will rise again, after the total collapse. That’s just a given.
Just not sure I will live long enough to see it.
How or why will the US rise again? Or anywhere for that matter. Energy, resources, consumer buying power may not recover from a crash. Every man for himself looks more likely in the near future. Unless we get a miracle.
Was that pessimistic enough? Or should I talk about irreversable economic and supply chain collapse because we have reached peak everything and we’ve been running on hot air for the past decade?