Four For Friday | Nov 3, 2023
Four For Friday | Nov 3, 2023
LF92 | Pillars of a new capitalism, agetech investors list, Startup Spotlight: Akin and the downsides of interspecies sex
Welcome to a Looking Forward’s Four For Friday. Four things that have piqued my interest this week. Enjoy!
Pillars of a new capitalism
The Seeding Futures for Wellbeing report by Griffiths University is a response to a challenge earlier this year by the Australian Treasurer to develop "values based capitalism’. Four of the themes will be familiar with Looking Forward readers, and I’d recommend exploring them in more detail:
Accounting for the future. How do we build a true picture of the nation’s books – one that reveals more than the bottom line?
Intergenerational Wellbeing of Places & Communities. How do we nurture positive futures in place, caring for Country, protecting our diverse ecosystems and ensuring that future generations will thrive in vibrant, healthy communities?
Systemic Capital. How do we enable the flow of the vast resources needed to enable coherent, collective effort, and shared pursuit of bold, holistic goals?
A Diverse Care Economy that Really Cares. How do we cultivate a care economy that genuinely values and supports caregivers, promotes wellbeing for care recipients, and builds a more compassionate and equitable society?
List of AgeTech investors
AgeTech Atlanta has released a comprehensive list of agetech investors - covering both venture capital and incubators / accelerators.
Startup Spotlight: Akin
An intriguing new AI-for-the-home startup worth watching: Akin. Founder and CEO Lee Yiersley has a storied pedigree in AI, and has now built a human+AI platform as a public benefit corporation that’s focused on ‘what comes after generative AI’.
It’s got various use cases, including as a smart home helper that claims: to be an “AI that cares about your personal life journey, wellbeing, and the ecosystem you live in”. They’ve partnered with LG to make home helpers for those living with disability, inspired by Lee’s own lived experience.
‘Sex Between Humans And Denisovans Continues To Mess With Our Mental Health’
This article’s title really couldn’t be improved upon. A fascinating vignette of how your longevity trajectory doesn’t just start when you’re born, it’s impacted by the primordial philandering of your great,great (2,000 times) grandparents.
60,000 years ago, migrating Homo sapiens mated with the now-extinct ‘Denisovans’ (sounds like Game of Thrones but they were another human species, like the Neanderthals). The genes they contributed to our gene pool might have helped us adapt to the cold, but they also “increased our susceptibility to schizophrenia and other mental health disorders”. Something to do with zinc apparently, but either way, definitely good dinner party fodder.
That’s all for this week. As always, feedback welcome. Feel free to share insights or links of interest.
- Stephen