quantum computing

The Whale's Dream (a short story)

Last weekend started with a provocative share from Joshua Baer, CEO and co-founder of Capital Factory, to Mark Gober, author of some of my favorite books, and me about how whale’s dream. Whales are in a half-awake state when they sleep, as described here by ChatGPT:

“Whales are voluntary breathers — they must consciously surface to breathe, even when asleep. To do this, they experience unihemispheric slow-wave sleep (USWS), where only one half of the brain sleeps at a time while the other half remains awake to maintain vital functions and awareness of surroundings.
• One hemisphere sleeps (deep rest, reduced awareness)
• One hemisphere stays awake (controls breathing, navigation, predator awareness)
• After a period, the sides switch.”

This sparked the idea to continue Dr. Alexander Bliss’s saga of awakening humanity, as I described in The Lattice (a science-fiction novella based on my short-story series, starting with God’s Final Exam).

2024 New Year's Eve Letter

Dear family and friends,

I’m writing this letter from Cochin, Kerala in India, where I’m about to depart on the long journey back to Austin.  Cochin, or more commonly called Kochi today, is an appropriate place for me to close out the year as a Jew.  It’s home to the oldest synagogue in India, founded in 1568, and is a symbol for the deep ties between the Jewish community and Indian community for thousands of years.  India is now the largest country in the world with 1.46 billion people, surpassing China in 2023 as the most populous country on Earth.  And Indian Americans form the most financially successful minority group in the US, with many giants such as Satya Nadella (CEO of Microsoft) at the helm of some of the most important companies in tech that will set the pace for humanity’s ultimate invention of AI.  

What drew us to India?  Our first Indian wedding - in Mumbai.  It was a three-day event and did not disappoint!  There were over 1,000 people in attendance to see Sanjana and Ishaan wed and the preparations were absolutely extensive and beautiful.  Rachel and I will never forget it (Debra and Levi stayed home for an easier, no travel stress, end to 2024.)

Wow, what a year 2024 has been!  From the re-election of Trump to the breathtaking pace of AI to the historic military achievements of Israel over terrorists throughout the Middle East.  It’s been dizzying, to say the least.  To be clear, we didn’t campaign for Trump and thought Harris would be a competent choice but I get it at the same time.  From our economic and border challenges to Biden’s cognitive decline and the last-minute candidate switch, the people have now spoken.  Republicans will control the Senate, Congress, the White House, and even the Supreme Court (which hopefully will do their best to not politicize that last bastion of independence).  Debra and I remain committed to our independent political views, finding policies to like in both parties and looking for common ground.  And we’ve doubled-down on No Labels going into 2025, which will continue to work for that path with the Problem Solvers Caucus and more.  No Labels’ CEO, Nancy Jacobson, is a true force of nature and has become a friend over the years.

On the family front, our big highlight of the year was our summer trip to Japan.