What do James Bond and Lipitor have in common? Why do traffic jams appear out of nowhere on highways? What can we learn about human nature and world history from a glass of water? On April 9th 2019 XLabs hosted a private evening with Safi Bahcall. Today we are happy to bring you behind closed doors to the fascinating Q&A from that event. Physicist and biotech entrepreneur Safi Bahcall, author of Loonshots, discusses with XLabs CEO Dr. Radhika Dirks a surprising new way of thinking about the mysteries of group behavior that challenges everything we thought we knew about radical breakthroughs. Bahcall shows why groups will suddenly change from embracing wild new ideas to rigidly rejecting them, just as flowing water will suddenly change into brittle ice. Mountains of print have been written about culture. Learn the small shifts in structure that control this transition, the same way that temperature controls the change from water to ice.

“Don’t pretend like you have control over this situation, because you don’t.” – Kent Beck

Welcome to the XLabs “Breaking the Code” series in which we interview key experts in moonshot technologies. Today we are happy to welcome Kent Beck, the creator of extreme programming and the first signator of the Agile Manifesto, the founding document for agile software development. A conversation with Kent is never boring. Stay on you toes!

Enjoy this lively and entertaining podcast with Kent and learn about

Kent’s obsession with powerlaws - how they lurk everywhere in all the code you write, their inevitability, and how to work with them.

the addiction that unites music, poker and software development. (Reproduction of Kent's Whiteboard during conversation below)

why Putrescent might have been a better name than Agile

what Waterfall Development has to do with Sauron and the rise of Mordor

What comes after Agile and Kent’s current efforts in the next revolution in how we work – Limbo.

Welcome to the first episode in the XLabs "Breaking the Code" series in which we interview key experts in moonshot technologies. Today we are happy to welcome Professor Bharath Chandrasekaran, Associate Professor of Auditory Neuroscience at UT Austin and soon to be Vice Chair of Research at the University of Pittsburgh. We have known Bharath for over 15 years now and there has never been a dull conversation. Join us in today's episode to learn about:

the future of Neurotech

direct read and write to the brain

how vagal nerve stimulation can significantly increase the speed of learning a second language

why he believes the childhood "window" for language acquisition is a myth and

why we may see something as Sci-fi as see-through skull replacement in our lifetime

About Bharath:

Bharath Chandrasekaran, Ph.D., joined the CSD faculty in Fall 2010. He received his bachelor's degree in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences from Sri Ramachandra University, and his master’s degree in Speech Sciences from Purdue University. He completed his Ph.D. in Integrative Neuroscience from Purdue University in 2008 and a postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University in the Communication Neural Systems Research Group and the Auditory Neurosciences Lab. His research interests uses functional neuroimaging and electrophysiological techniques to examine neural bases of speech perception, neural plasticity, and learning. He teaches a course on Language and the Brain (CSD 350, LING 350). Bharath has published articles in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Neuron, Brain and Language, Ear and Hearing, Journal of Acoustical Society of America, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, among others. He has presented his work at National and International meetings and his research work has been featured in various print and television media.

Welcome to the first episode in the XLabs "Breaking the Code" series in which we interview key experts in moonshot technologies. Today we are happy to welcome Professor Bharath Chandrasekaran, Associate Professor of Auditory Neuroscience at UT Austin and soon to be Vice Chair of Research at the University of Pittsburgh. We have known Bharath for over 15 years now and there has never been a dull conversation. Join us in today's episode to learn about:

the future of Neurotech

direct read and write to the brain

how vagal nerve stimulation can significantly increase the speed of learning a second language

why he believes the childhood "window" for language acquisition is a myth and

why we may see something as Sci-fi as see-through skull replacement in our lifetime

About Bharath:

Bharath Chandrasekaran, Ph.D., joined the CSD faculty in Fall 2010. He received his bachelor's degree in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences from Sri Ramachandra University, and his master’s degree in Speech Sciences from Purdue University. He completed his Ph.D. in Integrative Neuroscience from Purdue University in 2008 and a postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University in the Communication Neural Systems Research Group and the Auditory Neurosciences Lab. His research interests uses functional neuroimaging and electrophysiological techniques to examine neural bases of speech perception, neural plasticity, and learning. He teaches a course on Language and the Brain (CSD 350, LING 350). Bharath has published articles in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Neuron, Brain and Language, Ear and Hearing, Journal of Acoustical Society of America, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, among others. He has presented his work at National and International meetings and his research work has been featured in various print and television media.

This is an Overheard@X short with Dr. Radhika Dirks, CEO of XLabs. It’s a brief dive into the deep roots of AI. David Hilbert in 1900 gave an address in Paris to the International Congress of Mathematicians that inspired much of the world we live in today. We believe that understanding the roots of the concepts others take for granted allows us to see new routes to technology. Jump on board an intellectual roller coaster as David Hilbert, Hermann Minkowski, Kurt Godel, Alan Turing, Mathematics, Quantum Computing and AI all come together in just over 12 minutes!

This is an Overheard@X short with Dr. Radhika Dirks, CEO of XLabs. It’s a brief dive into the deep roots of AI. David Hilbert in 1900 gave an address in Paris to the International Congress of Mathematicians that inspired much of the world we live in today. We believe that understanding the roots of the concepts others take for granted allows us to see new routes to technology. Jump on board an intellectual roller coaster as David Hilbert, Hermann Minkowski, Kurt Godel, Alan Turing, Mathematics, Quantum Computing and AI all come together in just over 12 minutes!

Mental Model Arbitrage(MMA) is an important fuel for Moonshots here at XLabs. By building in one field with assembled structures from elsewhere we are able to make fantastic leaps.

At it's heart, MMA is about getting very good at making analogies, then using those analogies to transfer knowledge and know how from one place to another. Douglas R. Hofstadter, author of Godel Esher Bach argues that "analogies are the fuel and fire of thinking". We could not agree more. In fact we have been practicing this skill intentionally for nearly a decade now and encourage you to do it as well. It is truly a mental super power.

Mental Model Arbitrage(MMA) is an important fuel for Moonshots here at XLabs. By building in one field with assembled structures from elsewhere we are able to make fantastic leaps.

At it's heart, MMA is about getting very good at making analogies, then using those analogies to transfer knowledge and know how from one place to another. Douglas R. Hofstadter, author of Godel Esher Bach argues that "analogies are the fuel and fire of thinking". We could not agree more. In fact we have been practicing this skill intentionally for nearly a decade now and encourage you to do it as well. It is truly a mental super power.