Sunny Bates

@TEDchris Loved this evening of deliciousness +Uma's vision of a future without animal suffering for all of us conflicted carnivores

Last night I was lucky to be among the first group in New York to get to taste chicken grown from a droplet of muscle cells. It was.... DELICIOUS. Succulent, moist, the right texture. Chicken as it should be. Even though full commercialization is a way off, it made me excited for the future. It also made me even more frustrated with a tiredly cynical article in the NYT at the weekend "the revolution that died on the way to dinner". As if it were ever going to be easy to transform the way 8 billion humans feed themselves. This chicken came from Upside Foods, whose founder and CEO @UmaValeti is one of the most inspiring and impressive entrepreneurs I've met. The beautiful facilities he's building will allow this next-gen meat to start to become cost competitive. Let me tell you something about those facilities. They're housed in glass. Nothing to hide. Inside are large, clean metal containers for growing this meat, and growing it in half the time it takes for modern, artificially inflated chickens to grow. Those chickens, by contrast, are not grown behind glass. They're shielded inside closed-off massive meat factories. And for a reason. If we could see the hell-hole of cages, feathers, beaks, chickenshit, bird-flu, antibiotics and, worst of all, brains tortured with a short but horrifying life of suffering, we'd throw up before downing our next drumstick. To imply as the NYT did that next-gen meat will be slowed by some kind of ick factor is a woeful under-estimation of human adaptability. When the truth will out - and it will when there's actually an alternative available - the ick factor will run the other way. This technology really matters. It will probably be impossible to lure humans away from our meat addiction. I personally love meat. I want it to be part of my future. And last night I saw a glimpse of how that can happen in a way that will be both delicious and kind -- to our fellow creatures, and to the planet. I'm not an investor in Upside. But I wish I was. I certainly would not bet against them. When you peel back to the fundamentals, a system in which you're using your nutrients only to grow meat, instead of bone, brain, feathers, claws and beaks, and to do so in a shorter time horizon, has every chance to become cost competitive. I predict the New York Times will be proved embarrassingly wrong on this one. Just because a better future is hard to build, doesn't mean we should stop. For me, I'll throw my lot in with the determined, the visionary. Uma, an honor to meet you.

My book The Coming Wave is out today: amazon.com/Coming-Wave-Te… It's about technology, AI, society and the future. Getting to this point has been the culmination of more than a decade of building AI and thinking about its impact. I’ve tried to confront the extraordinary moment of change before us by taking an honest look at the enormous risks, but also the immense benefits, of the new technological revolutions that are underway. We’re drowning in headlines about AI. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking only about the short term—the next product release, the next headline etc. But in doing so I feel like sometimes we fail to confront the bigger picture of technological waves unfolding over many decades and what this means for the future of the nation state and for humanity itself. This book is my attempt to change that. I genuinely appreciate anyone who takes the time to read it, and hope you find a useful and stimulating book. Look forward to discussing it with you all!

Pussy Riot and the Psychology of Freedom | Psychology Today psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/happ… Great piece on the culture of fear we are cultivating -

I am Chair of the Board of Around the World in 80 Fabrics and could not be more proud of all their great work festival.si.edu/blog/around-th…

Great new article from the amazing @amy_brand medium.com/authority-maga…

Love this @Kickstarter project - Who goes into space and who gets left behind. Funded it ... So should you! kickstarter.com/projects/alegr…

Finally -touch--I love these founders and their cool new project on @Kickstarter kickstarter.com/projects/emerg…

SO excited for this powerhouse duo and their new book! great work @amywebb & @andrewhessel

I had the very best experience possible with MHV-- everyone was so helpful and friendly, Margaret Hill, especially could not have been a better advocate. I would not hesitate to work with them for any banking needs.

love @triciawang 's Fast Company article -twitter.com/triciawang/sta…

Do you work in or around design? Read my @fastcompany article on the toxic overuse and abuse of HMW, a popular #designthinking technique that I think needs to be retired fastcompany.com/90649969/the-m…

I'm so excited to support The Walk -an epic art project @Kickstarter kickstarter.com/projects/goodc…

Love this project #backeditbecause to let everyone know kickstarter.com/projects/jbiss…

If you were to create a "personal cap table" of your relationships, who would be your biggest shareholders?

@binajv @the_emancipator @AntiracismCtr @GlobeOpinion Thank you Bina. I couldn't imagine a more extraordinary team and a more important project.

Honored to be an advisor to this new project: @the_emancipator a collaboration between @AntiracismCtr and @GlobeOpinion to reimagine the 19th-century antislavery newspaper and reframe today's national conversation on racial justice. Learn more at theemancipator.org

Listen to @GlobeOpinion editorial page editor @binajv and @antiracismctr director @DrIbram discuss @the_emancipator, a new media venture reimagining of the first antislavery newspapers in the United States, on @NPR’s @MorningEdition. trib.al/WNnEr8i

We're grateful to the extraordinary journalists & thinkers who agreed to serve on our inaugural advisory board: @JoyAnnReid @sewellchan @esglaude @mitrakalita @eramshaw @PenielJoseph @sunnybates to name just a few. Find the full list + full intro video: theemancipator.org

The new venture’s advisory board includes @SunnyBates, @eramshaw, @sewellchan, @jelani9, @esglaude, @agordonreed, @IanHaneyLopez, @nhannahjones, @PenielJoseph, @hmcghee, @mitrakalita, @jnoisecat, @joyannreid, and @joseiswriting. bos.gl/vRoNiBM

Stay up to date on all things #TheEmancipator by signing up for Unbound, a bi-weekly newsletter authored by @KimberlyEAtkins at globe.com/unbound