“Soon you’ll be able to join a VR world, and earn virtual currency in virtual reality,” says Silicon Valley entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan. “Which means that, for a good chunk of people in the world, the majority of their waking hours are going to be spent in the Matrix.”
Srinivasan believes that new technologies—mobile devices, cloud computing, cryptocurrencies—are rapidly taking us into an era when geography, nationality, and other limitations on our labor and freedom fade away. He says that this evolution will empower individuals and erode the authoritarian capabilities of the state.
Srinivasan is a modern-day polymath who venture capitalist Marc Andreessen has called the person with “the highest output per minute of new ideas of anybody I’ve ever met in my life.” A Ph.D. in electrical engineering, a co-founder of the genetic testing firm Counsyl, and a Stanford computer science lecturer, Srinivasan was also on Donald Trump’s short list to head up the Food and Drug Administration.
In a wide-ranging discussion, Reason‘s Nick Gillespie spoke with Srinivasan about his current ventures; how the FDA and other regulatory bodies should adapt to new technologies; the controversy over genetic testing and “designer babies;” how the 1997 book The Sovereign Individual has influenced his thought; his intellectual heroes; and how he’s contributing to “Silicon Valley’s ultimate exit.”
Click here for full text, a transcript, and downloadable versions.
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