Sam Harris speaks with Rob Reid about biosecurity, pandemic risk, and the alarming fragility of our defenses against biological catastrophe. They discuss the controversial USAID program DEEP VZN, the dangers of gain-of-function research, open science norms that could arm bad actors, the role of AI in accelerating bioweapon development, biosurveillance tools, lone wolf bioterrorists, chaos agents, and other topics.
Rob Reid is a venture capitalist, sci-fi author, science writer, and podcaster; he was also a long-time tech entrepreneur. Rob is the Managing Director at Resilience Reserve, a venture fund he runs with Chris Anderson of the TED Conference. Resilience backs companies that are making the world more resilient in some important way. Rob’s After On podcast features conversations with world-class thinkers, founders, and scientists on subjects including synthetic biology, generative and super AI, neuroscience, astrophysics, and oceanography. His science fiction novels include the New York Times bestseller Year Zero and After On. As an entrepreneur, Rob founded and ran Listen.com, which created the Rhapsody music service. He speaks solid Arabic with a thick Egyptian accent.
Website: https://after-on.com/
X: https://x.com/Rob_Reid
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