Foresight Institute is a research organization founded in 1986. With a track record of supporting Nobel Laureates decades before their acclaim, we focus on areas that are too ambitious or interdisciplinary for legacy institutions. Through grants, prizes, fellowships, and events, we back pioneering scientists and innovators advancing technologies that benefit the future of life.
$10,000 – for a meme!
P(doom), the paperclip maximizer, Black Mirror, Brave New World, and 1984 are common references for dystopian futures. But where are the hopeful ones? For abundant clean energy, infinite knowledge, no infectious disease, no poverty, solved aging, and effective global coordination?
Today, we’re excited to launch the Meme Prize: a $10k award for the best new meme that conveys a positive future.
Submit your meme: https://lnkd.in/dcD8Wy4e
Vision Weekend returns to Puerto Rico!
Our flagship event is back in the Caribbean, gathering futurist researchers and builders to celebrate frontier science and tech. From cypherpunk and brain–computer interfaces to fusion and longevity biotech, connect over big ideas with fellow entrepreneurs and scientists during sunset drinks, beach picnics, and island adventures.
📍 Old San Juan, Puerto Rico | Feb 6–8, 2026
Speakers include:
• Jean Hebert, ARPA-H
• Robin Hanson, George Mason University
• Lauren Wagner, Abundance Institute
• Konrad Kording, University of Pennsylvania
• Neha Narula, Digital Currency Initiative
• Ashley Zehnder, Fauna Bio
Get early-bird tickets before prices rise on Dec 10: https://lnkd.in/dTZgSmuJ
Sponsors: Vitalik Buterin, Herasight, Mount Sinai Health System, Longevity San Juan, and Scryer.
Vision Weekend is only three weeks away! Here is all you need to know – program, speakers and VIP events👇
📍 Dec 5–7 | Bay Area
We only have 13 general tickets left, get yours now: https://lnkd.in/eKinMhJv
–– FRIDAY ––
VIP pre-party at Altos Labs with our speakers, grantees, Fellows, sponsors, and attendees with All Access tickets.
–– SATURDAY ––
Main event at the Internet Archive:
• Talks on “AI for X”
• Speaker meet-and-greets
• Topical group discussions
• 1-1s with fellow futurists
In the evening, dress as your future self for the VIP cypherpunk party!
–– SUNDAY ––
VIP breakfast and lab tour at Science.
Main event at Lighthaven:
• Talks on funding and innovation mechanisms for unlocking frontier science and tech
• Office hours with your favorite sci-tech orgs
• Participant lightning talks
• $10,000 project pitch contest
The weekend ends with an after party – celebrate with new and old friends!
–– SPEAKERS ––
AI for Better AI
• Adam Goldstein, Softmax
• Andrew Trask, OpenMined
• Greg Wayne, Google
• Gwern Branwen
AI for Bio
• John Hallman, OpenAI
• Erika Alden DeBenedictis, Pioneer Labs
• Laura Deming, Until
AI for Neuro
• Andrew Payne, E11
• Ed Boyden, MIT
• Viren Jain, Google
• Alan Mardinly, Science
• Diana Saville, BrainMind
• Catalin Mitelut, Netholabs
AI for Space & Physics
• Adam Brown, Google DeepMind
• Ariel Ekblaw, Aurelia Institute
• Chiara Marletto, University of Oxford
• Creon Levit, Planet Labs
Existential Hope
• David Eagleman, Stanford University
• Beatrice Erkers, Foresight Institute
• Jason Clinton, Anthropic
Non-Profit Funding
• Eli Dourado, Astera Institute
• Molly Mackinlay, Protocol Labs
• Joshua Elliott, Renaissance Philanthropy
• Anastasia Gamick, Convergent Research
• Matthew Cullinen, Tertiary Impact Capital
For-Profit Funding
• Steve Jurvetson, Future Fund
• Juan Benet & Sean Escola, Protocol Labs
• Brandon Goldman Lionheart Ventures
• Ela Madej, 50 Years
Government & Policy
• Ant Rowstron & Ilan Gur, ARIA
• Jim O'Neill, United States Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services
–– OFFICE HOURS ––
• Adam Gries, Vitalism
• Austin Chen, Manifund
• Jocha Bach, CIMC
• Brenda Eap PhD, A4LI
• Cecilia Tilli, Cooperative AI Foundation
• Nico McCarty, Asimov Press
• Rachel Altman, Foundation for American Innovation
• Daniel Barcay, Center for Humane Technology
• Andrea Cipriano, Biomarkers of Aging Consortium
• Christine Peterson, Foresight Institute
• Jason Crawford, Roots of Progress Institute
• Rachel Shu, Mox
• Vehbi Deger Turan, Metaculus
• Brooke Bowman, VibeCamp
• Sam Rowe Sam Rowe, Aethos
• Emilia Javorsky MD, MPH, Future of Life Institute
• Karl Berzins, FAR AI
• Mark Lutter, Charter Cities Institute
• Rose Bloomin, Plurality Institute
• Lou Viquerat, Shift Grants
Full program and tickets: https://lnkd.in/eKinMhJv
Partners: Astera Institute, Netholabs, Protocol Labs & Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA)
Deadline coming up! Submit your entry for the $10K Existential Hope Meme Prize by November 23.
We’re looking for memes that make people believe in humanity’s future again — creative, grounded, and genuinely hopeful.
Submit your vision of a thriving civilization → https://lnkd.in/dcD8Wy4e
New AI Nodes + important grant updates!
2026 marks our 40th anniversary, and we are entering an exciting new chapter by launching two physical hubs – one in Berlin and one in San Francisco.
With the nodes, we want to support ambitious researchers and builders who use AI to advance science and safety. The hubs combine grant funding with office and community spaces, programming, and in-house compute to help teams build faster.
The AI Nodes will open in early 2026, and we’re now inviting applications for:
• Grants: Funding, office space, in-house compute (for eligible projects), and invitations to relevant workshops and events.
• Office & event spaces: Free access to our nodes.
• Compute: Free compute for your project.
We are also making important updates to our grants – they will now be connected to the nodes, have an AI-first approach, and monthly deadlines instead of quarterly.
Come shape a future where AI progress remains open, secure, and aligned with human flourishing. Learn more and apply by Dec 31: https://lnkd.in/d94UbKu7
🎙️Super excited to share *my first ever solo podcast!*🎙️
I had a lovely time chatting with Beatrice Erkers on Foresight Institute's Existential Hope podcast.
This is probably the most comprehensive discussion I've had of how I think about the neurotech/brain health space: Precision Neurotechnologies, how to massively scale neurotech and how I ended up in this field — pivoting from quantum physics into neuroscience. Super pleased with how it turned out! Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA)
check it out here: https://lnkd.in/e_9S8akM
Join us for Vision Weekend USA, our annual flagship event bringing together leading researchers, entrepreneurs, and funders at the forefront of science and technology!
This year’s theme – “AI for X” – explores how AI can accelerate breakthroughs in longevity biotech, neurotech, and other transformative fields.
📍 Dec 5–7 | Bay Area
Confirmed speakers include:
• Ed Boyden (Boyden Lab)
• Laura Deming (Until)
• Andrew Trask (OpenMined)
• Viren Jain (Google)
• Liv Boeree (Win-Win Podcast)
• Chiara Marletto (University of Oxford)
• Alan Mardinly (Science)
• Cate Hall (Astera Institute)
• Adam Brown (Google DeepMind & Stanford University)
• Greg Wayne (Google DeepMind)
• "Joe Betts-LaCroix" (Retro)
Get tickets: https://lnkd.in/eKinMhJv
Modeling brains to understand ourselves and the world.
Books (sci-fi novels): Lessons of History; Age of Cindy.
Do you care about
🧠 Brain simulation/emulation?
🧩 How the brain really works?
💾 Maybe even mind uploading?
Then the State of Brain Emulation Report 2025 is for you:
https://lnkd.in/dhNvd88d
The human brain is the most complex object we know.
Simulating it? Incredibly hard.
This report dives into where we are today — and what’s missing:
🔹 Brain data
🔹 Biological knowledge
🔹 Simulation approaches
In recent years, the field of neuroscience advanced on all fronts, including
1️⃣ Recording brain activity
2️⃣ Mapping brain structure
3️⃣ Building working emulations
Each area has seen breakthroughs — but also limits that keep true emulation out of reach (for now).
Brain recording tech has exploded.
We’ve gone from ~100 neurons to ~million recorded simultaneously. Whole zebrafish brain can be imaged almost neuron-by-neuron. Mouse experiments reach ~1 million neurons.
Still, no one can yet record an entire brain at full spike precision.
Mapping connections — “connectomics” — is the other frontier.
We now have complete connectomes for worms and flies, with those for zebrafish are coming soon.
But scaling to mammals is wild:
🐭 A mouse brain = ~1 exabyte
🧍♂️ A human brain = ~2 zettabytes!
Simulations are catching up.
Worm and fly simulations from connectomes can now mimic some features of behaviors.
GPU clusters can simulate human-scale networks — though simplified.
The main limits? Memory, bandwidth, and not enough bio data to feed the models.
Three big challenges stand out:
⚙️ We lack standard ways to test emulations
🔬 We don’t yet know which biological details really matter
📊 We can map structure faster than we can record function
The proposed roadmap:
🪱🪰🐟🐭🐒 Go deep with small brains (worm, fly, zebrafish) and parts of bigger ones
🧠 Explore better tech for full mammalian emulation
This two-pronged path could de-risk and accelerate future whole-brain models.
Great effort led by Maximilian Schons, MD and Niccolò Zanichelli, with Philip Shiu and Isaak Freeman.
It was fun and a much appreciated opportunity to participate with you all in this stimulating exercise.
Thanks to Glenn Clayton, Foresight Institute, and many others listed in the paper.
This is the event I most look forward to every year. It's unlike any other conference and brings together some of the most interesting, curious, out-of-distribution people I've ever met, each working on frontier technologies across disciplines. Excited to be joining again this year. Thank you, Allison Duettmann and team for putting on these events!
How about combining a frontier conference in biotech, neurotech, and AI with intimate gatherings alongside the experts leading these fields? The “All Access” pass is our most comprehensive ticket for Vision Weekend – offering exclusive events with our speakers, grantees, Fellows, and sponsors.
From private tours of two of the most exciting labs to a soirée and a cypherpunk party, this ticket offers a curated program designed for deeper connections with the people shaping the future of science and technology.
It includes:
• Friday: Soirée and lab tour
• Saturday: Dinner and cypherpunk party
• Sunday: Lab tour and breakfast
Get your ticket: https://lnkd.in/eKinMhJv
Prices increase Nov 1 – get your tickets now!
Our flagship event Vision Weekend is fast approaching! Join for talks on the frontiers of science and technology, office hours with leading experts, 1-1s, tech demos, unconference discussions, mentorship hours, a $10k project pitch contest, lab tours, biohacking sessions, a cypherpunk party, and much more.
📍 Dec 5–7 | Bay Area
Speakers include Ed Boyden, Viren Jain, Laura Deming, Steve Jurvetson, Chiara Marletto, Liv Boeree, and Alan Mardinly.
Get tickets: https://lnkd.in/eKinMhJv
