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Who are the visionaries, what helps them find new business opportunities; how to test an idea and hold a foresight session. Read to find out.
Table of Contents
Ideas that lack technology
Lado Okhotnikov is a visionary in the field of personalized medicine
Dara Ladjevardian “brings people to life” with one sentence
Sam Altman is a creator of the global human recognition system
How to become a visionary and what is a foresight session
Who are visionaries and how does their approach change the deep tech market? We’ll find out what helps Lado Okhotnikov, Sam Altman and Dara Ladjevardian discover new business opportunities. And we’re going to talk about how to test your idea and conduct a foresight session to find a path to the future.
Visionaries are people who see the future where most people only notice the present. They anticipate trends, set the direction, and find opportunities that are not yet obvious.
Of course, there are inventions like the “thinnest smartphone” or the “lightest shoes”, which are interesting, but this is not about visionaries.
For example, Nick Szabo is often called a visionary for his “Bit Gold” concept, which explained how to create money on the Internet that does not depend on banks or the state. Satoshi Nakamoto, who has become an idol for modern crypto visionaries, not only developed Szabo’s idea, he created a working system, described in his article Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.
Jaron Lanier is considered a visionary in the field of virtual reality: he coined the term “virtual reality.” Subsequently, Neil Stephenson refined this concept and introduced the term “metaverse.”
The Metaverse is not just a game. It is a virtual space that lives its own life. People communicate there, create projects, build businesses and have fun. And even if you are not there, something is still happening there.
Alan Turing is another bright example of a visionary. The Turing Machine laid the foundations of the theory of computing and became the forefather of modern computers. But if we talk about the personal computers we are used to, Don Estridge also deserves the title of a visionary. He was the one who led the team that developed the IBM PC in 1981.
Thus, it is difficult to say for sure who is a visionary in a particular field.
Suppose someone today declares that in the near future people will be able to teleport, and even describes the process very plausibly. But until this technology is implemented, this person is more of a dreamer than a visionary. But the one who is really the first to invent a working teleport will undoubtedly deserve this title.
Ideas that lack technology
Just a few years ago, it was almost impossible to complete a whole human genome sequencing without machine learning, that we call artificial intelligence now. Artificial intelligence has expedited this process many times over.
Gene sequencing is needed to understand how our genetic code works; it helps identify hereditary diseases, predict disease risks, select personalized treatments, and develop new drugs.
Until the sequencing was completed, no one said that AI was used in this process — and this is understandable. But if you think about it, the task was, as they say, “extra credit question.” It would have taken decades to manually study 200 million “letters” of the genetic code out of 3 billion.
It turns out that the Human Genome Project, officially completed in 2003 and covering 92% of the DNA sequence, was only totally finished when artificial intelligence reached the required level.
The same story is now with the metaverse. It seems that everything is ready: peer-to-peer networks have been mastered (the blockchain works), devices for immersion in virtual reality have been created, the Internet has become fast enough. But for metaverses to work at full capacity, there is not enough computing power.
So until a supercomputer is invented — based on quantum computing, metaverses will not be able to show what they are really capable of.
Lado Okhotnikov is a visionary in the field of personalized medicine
There was a time when genome sequencing seemed unrealistic. This development took 15 years of work, 2.7 billion dollars, and the price of one analysis exceeded $4,000. With the advent of AI, everything has become simpler, faster and cheaper. Now you can decode your genome for only $300.
“Affordable sequencing opens up new possibilities for personalized medicine. In the Holiverse metaverse, we plan to create a digital avatar that will help predict how training, nutrition, or medications will affect you before you start changing anything in your life,” shares his plans Lado Okhotnikov, founder of the deep tech company. He is confident that this will help everyone understand their body better and manage it without wasting the most precious thing — time.
The idea of a digital avatar started with medicine. Genome sequencing, data analysis, and the use of AI made it possible to look at health from a different angle.
But why limit yourself to just health? A digital avatar can become a universal tool that analyzes more than just the body. For example, it can help you choose a school for your child — with an emphasis on mathematics or the humanities.
Lado Okhotnikov claims that a digital avatar can become your personal assistant. It can advise you how to allocate your time well, what to focus on, and what might be better to give up. And this is in no way a replacement for real life, but a tool that helps you make more accurate and informed decisions.
If you doubt that such technology will ever come to our home, then remember how a couple of years ago most of us did not even hear of ChatGPT or similar models. And now millions of people use them, solving routine tasks in minutes that used to take half a day or more.
Dara Ladjevardian “brings people to life” with one sentence
Using Delphi, you can create a virtual reflection of anyone — yourself, a friend, or even a person who is no longer alive.
To create your digital double, Delphi only needs four texts. These can be letters, instant messaging, YouTube videos, or even audio recordings. Based on them, the system will train AI that will write and speak exactly like you. Dara Ladjevardian, one of the founders of the company, says that thanks to a partnership with ElevenLabs, an expert in voice cloning, your chatbot will also be able to speak like you.
However, opponents of AI panicked: what if soon we will completely stop understanding who is talking to us — a living person or their “avatar”, while the real one is lying in bed?
In fact, the idea with a clone is cool, but this is not a visionary idea. Further, you will understand why we used this startup as an example.
Sam Altman is a creator of the global human recognition system
With the development of artificial intelligence, it is becoming increasingly difficult to understand who is a real person and who is a bot. Bots already can write texts, draw pictures, and deepfakes can fake faces and voices, as in the case of Delphi. World Network (formerly Worldcoin) wants to solve this problem by creating a database of verified people.
The idea seems logical. Artificial intelligence is already creating a huge amount of content, and we need more tools to distinguish people from machines.
Sam Altman in this case is a real visionary who not only came up with a system, but also managed to launch it and make the whole world talk about it. Few people are ready to come up with a proposal like, “Let’s scan the irises of billions of people.” However, Sam really got down to it, as the problem of fakes has become more acute.
How to become a visionary and what is a foresight session
Let’s start with the fact that visionaries do not just fantasize. How to understand that your idea is not fiction?
An idea solves a real or predictable problem. Remember how the growth of data volumes pushed the development of cloud computing. In 2014, Microsoft focused on remote servers, noticing that the demand for local servers was falling. This decision brought the company more than $60 billion in revenue.
An idea is aimed at the future and offers long-term solutions. For example, quantum computing — for now it seems like science fiction, but it is already clear that it will revolutionize medicine, space exploration, cryptography.
An idea is feasible. Even if your thoughts are too ambitious for today, it is important that there is at least a theoretical path to their implementation.
Want something specific? Try a foresight session.
A foresight session is a way to look into the future and understand how to get ready for it
If you have a goal, for example, to develop a company strategy for several years ahead or find new business opportunities, here is how you can organize it.
Gather a team and data
First, determine what exactly you want to get. Strategy? Ideas for new products? Responses to market challenges?
Then invite people with different experience: managers, analysts, experts from related fields. Prepare as much information as possible: data on trends, market reports, examples of successful cases, even expert forecasts. This will become the basis for discussions.
Understand what influences the future of the company
Start the discussion. What factors are already changing your industry? What may become key in 5 —10 years? These can be technologies, politics, ecology, economics, social trends. For example, for an IT company, this may be the development of AI, changes in customer demand, or the emergence of new competitors.
Come up with scenarios for the future
Now comes the most interesting part. Brainstorming: let everyone express their ideas about what the world may be like in 5, 10, 20 years.
For example, if we talk about technologies: one scenario is that AI will automate almost everything, another is that human resistance will slow down its development. Both options need to be considered. How will the first one affect the labor market? How will the second one leave room for a person?
Identify priorities
When there are many ideas, they need to be organized. Which scenarios seem most probable? Which ones can bring the company the largest profit?
For example, in 2007, Netflix organized a foresight session to understand how video viewing priorities would change. Trend analysis prompted them to switch from DVDs to streaming.
Develop a strategy
Based on the chosen scenario, create an action plan. For example, if the world is moving towards full automation, this could be training employees in new skills, implementing AI in business processes, or creating products using new technologies.
Review the plan regularly
The world is changing quickly, so the strategy needs to be updated. Periodic monitoring will help you stay flexible.
Foresight sessions are not just a tool for predictions, but a real way to prepare a business for change. People who can look into the future and act ahead of the curve become visionaries and set trends while others are catching up.
Read more: Sam Altman’s Worldcoin debuts ID verification services in Austria
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