Well-known American entrepreneur & founder of Online & mobile electronic commerce payment provider Braintree, Bryan Johnson has announced the setting up of a US $100 million fund dedicated to investing in “inventors & scientists who aim to benefit humanity through quantum leap discoveries at the operating system, or OS, level.”
Before the IT guys out there jump in delight, Bryan’s reference to OS is not like Windows or Android or stuff like that. As you continue to read this report, it will become clear what this entrepreneur really means.
Announcing the fund today, Bryan explains: In order to affect real change for humanity at a global scale, we need to think and operate on a fundamental level: the operating system.
In the same way that computers have operating systems at their core – dictating the way a computer works and serving as a foundation upon which all applications are built – everything in life has an operating system (OS). It is at the OS level that we most frequently experience a quantum leap in progress.
Historically, germ theory, American democracy and the Internet rewrote the operating systems of healthcare, governance and our societal infrastructure.
Today, we want to use OS-level thinking to redefine medical discovery and cure aging; recreate the biological toolset of our existence; become a multi-planetary species; reinvent global transportation infrastructure; enhance our minds; safely create advanced machine intelligence; and produce abundant clean energy.
Bryan further writes: In the race toward profits, easy money and incremental gains, we have lost sight of what really matters to the future of mankind. It is time for a fresh reckoning of our unique time in history, the tools at our disposal and the real opportunity at hand.
Science and technology can help us tackle many of our most pressing challenges and opportunities, but the most ambitious inventors have few sources of capital or support to help them realize their vision. Many traditional venture capital firms and government organizations resist investing in high risk, long-term plays that promise a quantum leap in progress.
In 2013, technology startups saw $24 billion in capital infusions from venture capitalists. Of that total, $7.1 billion, or 30%, went into the Internet; $3.75 billion, or 16%, went to finance mobile startups; $3 billion, or 13%, went into media and entertainment. Artificial intelligence, $580 million, or a little over 2%. Robotics saw just $250 million — about 1%.
Clearly, Bryan is aiming big. Explaining who the fund was meant for, he says,” With the OS fund, we want to support those who see what others cannot, who chart their own course toward the future and who have the courage and determination to pursue their vision.
“We want to help them turn their most audacious ideas into real, sustainable businesses that scale by providing capital, support, advice and an interdisciplinary network of like-minded people who are there to help each other.”
So, if you out there are working on a “quantum-leap discovery” that promises to rewrite the operating systems of life, maybe Bryan is your man.
Image Credit: https://medium.com/the-os-fund/rewrite-the-os-68fb43ddc95f
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