Forecast 2050

Nebular
  • 4.6 (19)
  • Technology
  • Updated Weekly

Interviewing the thinkers and doers shaping the world of 2050. Hosted by Nebular General Partner, Finn Murphy.

  1. 6d ago

    Why This Astronomer Thinks Aliens Are Out There | Laura Kreidberg

    Laura Kreidberg believes there is life out there in the universe. An astrophysicist and director at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, Laura is one of the youngest directors ever appointed to a Max Planck Institute. Her work uses the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes to explore the atmospheres of planets orbiting distant stars. I sat down with Laura to discuss how astronomers study worlds too far away to photograph, why intelligence may not be evolutionarily favorable, and why Laura thinks we'll discover life on other worlds in the next 30 years. Extended Show Notes: https://finnmurphyirl.substack.com/p/the-hunt-for-alien-life-on-distant Chapters: 00:00 Intro 03:10 The Atmospheres of Other Worlds 08:14 In Astronomy, Bigger is Better 10:50 Earth-like Planets 20:04 The Huge Variety of Exoplanets 26:03 Science Communication 27:30 Intelligence is Not Evolutionary Favorable 33:30 Signs of Life on Exoplanets 40:19 Discovering Aliens in 30 Years 45:44 Science as Soft Power Laura Kreidberg is the Director at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, where she studies the atmospheres of exoplanets for signs of life. Laura on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-kreidberg-3a08581b7 Laura on X: https://x.com/lkreidberg Max Planck Institute for Astronomy Profile: https://www.mpia.de/en/laura-kreidberg Forecast 2050 is a series about the next 25 years—and the builders, thinkers, and leaders shaping what comes next. Finn on X: https://x.com/FinnMurphy12 Finn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finn-murphy-16160465/ Nebular is a venture capital firm based in New York City. Head to nebular.vc for more info.

  2. Oct 15

    Why China Is Baffled by America’s AI Race | Yi-Ling Liu

    Silicon Valley frames AI as a race against China to reach AGI. In China, almost nobody thinks that way. Journalist Yi-Ling Liu, author of The Wall Dancers and journalist in residence at the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, joined me on Forecast 2050 to explain how China actually sees AI, the “permanent underclass” that predates automation, demographic collapse and the Chinese silver economy, and the Christian origins of the transhumanist movement. Extended Show Notes: https://finnmurphyirl.substack.com/p/why-is-silicon-valley-obsessed-with Chapters: 00:00 Intro 02:58 Superintelligence Is Not China’s Goal 08:06 The Pre-AI Permanent Underclass 11:00 The Tech-Government Revolving Door 17:05 Lying Flat 19:57 Christian Singularity vs. Daoist AI 26:06 Overcoming Censorship 32:10 The TikTok Ban 36:58 Chinese Perceptions of the West 46:16 The Silver Economy Yi-Ling Liu is a journalist in residence at the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, former China editor at Rest of World, and author of The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet. Yi-Ling on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yi-ling-l-89799783/ Yi-Ling on X: https://x.com/yilingliu95 Website: https://www.yi-lingliu.com/ Forecast 2050 is a series about the next 25 years—and the builders, thinkers, and leaders shaping what comes next. Finn on X: https://x.com/FinnMurphy12 Finn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finn-murphy-16160465/ Nebular is a venture capital firm based in New York City. Head to nebular.vc for more info.

  3. Oct 8

    We Need Revolutionary Military Change | Ex-CIA Chief David Petraeus

    General David Petraeus believes we need draconian change to prepare for the age of autonomous warfare. A retired four-star general, Gen. Petraeus commanded U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and led U.S. Central Command before serving as director of the CIA. I sat down with Gen. Petraeus to discuss the conflicts in Ukraine and Iran, how autonomous drones and weapons will fight the wars of the future, and the new big ideas we need to keep the world stable for the next 25 years. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:57 Commanding Autonomous Systems 04:55 Revolution, Not Reform 11:21 Inside the Death Zone 19:17 America Is Unprepared for Future Wars 23:41 A New AI Military Service Branch 35:12 The UK Will Lead Military Innovation 42:02 The War for Truth 49:19 The Big Ideas for the Next 25 Years 54:15 The Leaders of the Future David Petraeus is a former CIA Director who commanded U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is now a partner at KKR and the Chairman of its Global Institute. General Petraeus on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidpetraeus/ Thanks to the Institute for the Study of War and AEI’s Critical Threats Project for the maps in the interview: www.understandingwar.org and www.criticalthreats.org. Forecast 2050 is a series about the next 25 years—and the builders, thinkers, and leaders shaping what comes next. Finn on X: https://x.com/FinnMurphy12 Finn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finn-murphy-16160465/ Nebular is a venture capital firm based in New York City. Head to nebular.vc for more info.

  4. Oct 1

    Can AI Talk To Whales? | Project CETI Founder David Gruber

    The real reason AI was given to humans is to communicate with animals, according to David Gruber. A marine biologist and National Geographic Explorer, he is the founder of Project CETI, a global effort of more than 50 scientists across eight disciplines working to decode the communication of sperm whales. In this episode of Forecast 2050, I sit down with David to discuss the prospect of an interspecies dialogue and the seismic implications it will have for all of us, whales included. Extended Show Notes: https://finnmurphyirl.substack.com/p/can-ai-talk-to-whales-project-ceti Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:48 David's Journey 12:30 An Interspecies Dialogue 17:14 Sperm Whale Language & Culture 23:48 The Breakthroughs Yet to Come 27:49 The Whales Are Yappers 31:03 Sperm Whales Have Accents 39:47 Verifying a Whale Translation 42:13 What Success Looks Like 47:32 Saving the Whales David Gruber is a marine biologist and National Geographic Explorer who founded Project CETI, a team of more than 50 scientists using AI to decode how sperm whales communicate. David on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-gruber-b003871/ Project CETI on X: https://x.com/ProjectCETI Project CETI on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/projectceti/ Project CETI Website: https://www.projectceti.org/ Forecast 2050 is a series about the next 25 years—and the builders, thinkers, and leaders shaping what comes next. Finn on X: https://x.com/FinnMurphy12 Finn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finn-murphy-16160465/ Nebular is a venture capital firm based in New York City. Head to nebular.vc for more info.

  5. Sep 24

    'Claude's Priest': Fr. Brendan McGuire on Shaping AI for the Common Good

    Fr. Brendan McGuire believes that we still have an opportunity to align AI for the common good, though time is running out. A Silicon Valley executive turned Catholic priest, Fr. Brendan has spent decades as a confidant to the people building frontier technology, and was one of the external contributors to Anthropic’s Claude Constitution. In this episode of Forecast 2050, Nebular General Partner Finn Murphy sits down with Fr. Brendan to discuss Pope Leo XIV's encyclical about AI, Magnifica Humanitas, why AI needs to learn forgiveness, whether AIs have souls, and why we probably have less than a year before recursive self-improvement to ensure these models benefit humanity. Extended Show Notes: https://finnmurphyirl.substack.com/p/father-brendan-mcguire-claudes-priest Transcript: https://finnmurphyirl.substack.com/p/forecast-2050-episode-11-fr-brendan Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:45 Silicon Valley Tech Exec to Man of the Cloth 08:10 We Need Smart AI Regulation 11:46 The Pope's Warning: Don't Build a New AI Tower of Babel 19:10 Why AI Needs to Learn Forgiveness 27:26 What Hugging Face Shows About AI Morality 31:56 Do AIs Have Souls? Would We Baptise An Alien? 40:06 Watching Others Die Puts the AI Doomers In Perspective 44:20 Why Anthropic Asked the Church for Help 53:39 AI Doesn't Have to Be Winner-Takes-All 58:23 We Have Less Than a Year to Shape AI's Morality before RSI 01:02:23 Tolkien Morality vs Game of Thrones Brutality Fr. Brendan McGuire is an engineer turned Silicon Valley executive turned Catholic priest at St. Simon Parish in Los Altos, CA. He is an external contributor to Anthropic's Claude Constitution. Fr. Brendan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frbrendanmcguire/ St. Simon Parish: https://stsimon.church/ Forecast 2050 is a series about the next 25 years—and the builders, thinkers, and leaders shaping what comes next. Finn on X: https://x.com/FinnMurphy12 Finn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finn-murphy-16160465/ Nebular is a venture capital firm based in New York City. Head to nebular.vc for more info.

  6. Season 2 Trailer

    Forecast 2050 Season 2 Trailer

    Forecast 2050 Season 2 has arrived with a brand new set of conversations with the thinkers, founders, and investors shaping the next 25 years. Hosted by Nebular General Partner Finn Murphy. Guests: Fr. Brendan McGuire David Gruber Gen. David Petraeus Walter Goodwin & Sir Robin Saxby Yi-Ling Liu Laura Kreidberg Patrick McGee Francesco Sciortino Adrian Woolfson Francis Fukuyama Finn on X: https://x.com/FinnMurphy12 Finn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finn-murphy-16160465/ Forecast 2050 on X: https://x.com/forecast2050 Nebular is a venture capital firm based in New York City. Head to nebular.vc for more info.

  7. May 6

    Enveda's Radical Vision for the Future of Medicine | Viswa Colluru & Pablo Lubroth

    Enveda Founder and CEO Viswa Colluru believes we have been looking for new medicines in the wrong places for decades. In the Season 1 finale of Forecast 2050, I sat down with Viswa and Pablo Lubroth, VP of Special Projects at Enveda, to discuss why 9 in 10 drugs fail in clinical trials despite Big Pharma spending $276 billion in annual R&D, how AI is finally unlocking 99% of nature's chemistry that we've haven't been able to read, why the incentive structure of biotech capital markets is actively bad for patients, why insisting on understanding how a drug works actually slows down drug discovery, why aging may not be inevitable, and why mental health is going to be the defining medical crisis of the next 25 years. Extended Show Notes: https://finnmurphyirl.substack.com/p/3dc95f79-4a7e-4c80-9630-970c1e6e2117 Transcript (with helpful links!): https://finnmurphyirl.substack.com/p/beb7222d-efd1-472b-85be-09d7a7faf1a5 Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:09 The Quintessential Problem With Drug Discovery 04:57 Pablo’s Journey to Enveda 06:29 Insisting on Understanding Biological Mechanisms Slows Down Drug Discovery 09:39 Science Has Been Divorced From Human Experience 12:22 Scientific Reductionism Has Not Led to Better Drugs 19:31 Lessons Learned From Big Pharma Missing Out On GLP-1s 22:11 Capital Markets Disinventivize Risk-Taking and Harm Patients 28:12 How to Prioritize Which Illnesses to Cure 33:38 Prediction and Prevention is a Better Strategy Than Treatment 38:27 Drugs to Make Us Limitless Like Bradley Cooper 42:53 Aging is Not Inevitable 43:34 Everyone Has a Chinese Peptide Guy 50:13 The Loon Shots for 2050 52:39 Mental Health Will be The Biggest Challenge for 2050 54:46 The AI Revolution in Medicine Viswa Colluru is the Founder & CEO of Enveda, a clinical-stage biotech company using AI to discover new drugs from nature. He built Enveda from $55K of personal savings into a unicorn with over $500M raised and multiple assets in clinical trials. Before founding Enveda, Viswa was the first Innovation Scientist and Product Manager at Recursion Pharmaceuticals. He holds a PhD in immuno-oncology from UW-Madison. Pablo Lubroth is a VP of Special Projects at Enveda and the Co-Founder & Editor of Decoding Bio. He previously built and led the biotech practice at Hummingbird Ventures and co-hosts the annual AI x Bio Summit at the NYSE. Pablo holds degrees in Neuropharmacology and Biochemical Engineering from UCL and an MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise from the University of Cambridge. Viswa on X: https://x.com/viswacolluru Pablo on X: https://x.com/pablolubroth Enveda: https://enveda.com Decoding Bio: https://www.decodingbio.com Forecast 2050 is a series about the next 25 years—and the builders, thinkers, and leaders shaping what comes next. Finn on X: https://x.com/FinnMurphy12 Finn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finn-murphy-16160465/ Nebular is a venture capital firm based in New York City. Head to nebular.vc for more info.

  8. Apr 29

    Building the Next Great American City | Esmeralda CEO Devon Zuegel

    Devon Zuegel believes America has been building cities wrong for decades. She grew up spending summers in Chautauqua, an intellectual community in western New York where four generations of her family shared a household and she knew her neighbors better than the ones at home in California. Now she's building a village called Esmeralda 90 minutes north of San Francisco to prove that formula can be replicated. I sat down with Devon in San Francisco to talk about harnessing urban planning as a powerful technological force for good, age-segregation in America and the impending population crisis, and why we need more incredible cities popping up across the country over the next 25 years. Extended Show Notes: https://finnmurphyirl.substack.com/p/8bcb1293-d2f5-4c6c-a133-8a6d0826b839 Transcript (with helpful links!): https://finnmurphyirl.substack.com/p/forecast-2050-episode-7-devon-zuegel?r=25ihqz&triedRedirect=true Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:07 Chautauqua Inspires Esmeralda 03:02 Cities Are A Technology 06:33 The Autonomous Vehicle Takeover 10:02 The New Multigenerational Society 13:29 American Colleges Make the Economy Dynamic, but Break Up Families 17:39 Remote Work and the Expansion of the Metropolis 19:55 A Real Alternative to the Suburb/City Dilemma 22:21 Real Life Is The Classroom 26:04 Esmeralda’s Open Door Policy 27:59 Making Cities Worth Living In 32:51 The NIMBY Problem 35:10 The Digital-Physical Divergence 38:29 The Cities That Have Gotten It Right Before Devon Zuegel is the founder and president of the Esmeralda Institute, where she is building Esmeralda, a village of the future just 90 minutes north of San Francisco envisioned as a Chautauqua for Silicon Valley. Devon on X: https://x.com/devonzuegel Devon’s Personal Site: https://devonzuegel.com/ Esmeralda Institute: https://esmeralda.org/ Forecast 2050 is a series about the next 25 years—and the builders, thinkers, and leaders shaping what comes next.  Finn on X: https://x.com/FinnMurphy12 Finn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finn-murphy-16160465/ Nebular is a venture capital firm based in New York City.  Head to nebular.vc for more info.

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4.6
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About

Interviewing the thinkers and doers shaping the world of 2050. Hosted by Nebular General Partner, Finn Murphy.

Information

  • Creator
    Nebular
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    17
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Nebular
  • Show Website
    Forecast 2050

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