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Trailblazer List – 125 deep-tech companies making science fiction a reality

27 points by minafahmi 5y ago

minafahmi 5y ago
I grew up inspired by sci-fi. But tech in real life seemed boring by comparison. It turns out, I wasn’t looking hard enough. Over the past decade, I’ve kept a list of deep-tech companies building the future. Today, I’m sharing it so more people can explore something different Trailblazer List includes teams working across the cutting edge, such as: Bionaut Labs (Treating brain disorders with microbots) Spinlaunch (Lowering the barrier to orbit with rocket catapults) Commonwealth Fusion Systems (Building towards limitless, clean energy) This is a living, growing project. If you have suggestions for additional companies or any comments, please reach out @ https://twitter.com/minafahmi_ https://twitter.com/minafahmi_
- geoah 5y ago
  I was wondering what are the sci-fi books, series, or films that have either inspired you the most, or you found the most interesting and intriguing? ps. Thank you for sharing this list. It will present many weeks of interesting scrolling!
  - minafahmi 5y ago
    Thanks for reading! I added a link to books that I found inspiring in the "Criterion" section, beside each industry. And I particularly loved Neuromancer, The Nexus Trilogy, Blade Runner, and Deus Ex.
- pveierland 5y ago
  Nice list! SpaceX is listed twice - not sure if intentional. Would nominate Lillium as an entry: https://lilium.com/ https://lilium.com/
cardosof 5y ago
Very nice, thanks for creating this! Out of curiosity, I've noticed that most neurotech startups are developing minimally invasive hardware, instead of invasive. Is there a particular reason for that? Solution efficacy, public acceptance, regulatory compliance, investor preference?
- Mumps 5y ago
  Mostly around safety and pragmatics, which leads to regulatory compliance and investor preference. Invasive hardware means implanting into the brain, potentially deep brain work. This is, risky, expensive, and requires some serious expertise. If you can get past the low signal quality of external (non-invasive) devices, then you open up a way cheaper, way safer, avenue. Hope that helps. Can give detail if you'd like. source: two research degrees in neurosci, and did some almost-startups in brain-computer interface hardware.
  - pjbeam 5y ago
    Makes sense, thank you. I do figure elective brain surgery will be a thing at some point but we seem a ways off from that today.
  - nrat 5y ago
    As someone looking to tinker with this kind of thing at home, would you recommend OpenBCI? Are there any more "consumer friendly" projects out there (i.e. off the shelf) that are affordable at a hobbyist level?
    - Mumps 5y ago
      hey! sorry to get back late - don't get HN notifications. OpenBCI is a really solid start! Though, I'd suggest it's too expensive for most people to start tinkering with it. It also has/had some reaaallly basic featuring, like writing out information as txt, instead of any other signal output datatype. But that's all fine! (just unsophisticated) You can start off [way cheaper](https://www.instructables.com/Mini-Arduino-Portable-EEG-Brain-Wave-Monitor-/ https://www.instructables.com/Mini-Arduino-Portable-EEG-Brai...), and even make an [electrode out of a penny](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yglqbxYBC7Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yglqbxYBC7Q). Spend some time planning what you want your first project or two to be, and then get the cheapest, lowest-feature thing from there. If you want to *really* learn some stuff, I'd suggest you focus more time on computationally processing eeg signal (you can get [an insane amount](https://sccn.ucsd.edu/~arno/fam2data/publicly_available_EEG_data.html https://sccn.ucsd.edu/~arno/fam2data/publicly_available_EEG_...) of sample data for free). What you get from hardware yourself will just have the cool-factor of being your own :)

27 points by minafahmi 5y ago

I grew up inspired by sci-fi. But tech in real life seemed boring by comparison. It turns out, I wasn’t looking hard enough. Over the past decade, I’ve kept a list of deep-tech companies building the future. Today, I’m sharing it so more people can explore something different Trailblazer List includes teams working across the cutting edge, such as: Bionaut Labs (Treating brain disorders with microbots) Spinlaunch (Lowering the barrier to orbit with rocket catapults) Commonwealth Fusion Systems (Building towards limitless, clean energy) This is a living, growing project. If you have suggestions for additional companies or any comments, please reach out @ https://twitter.com/minafahmi_ https://twitter.com/minafahmi_

geoah 5y ago
I was wondering what are the sci-fi books, series, or films that have either inspired you the most, or you found the most interesting and intriguing? ps. Thank you for sharing this list. It will present many weeks of interesting scrolling!
- minafahmi 5y ago
  Thanks for reading! I added a link to books that I found inspiring in the "Criterion" section, beside each industry. And I particularly loved Neuromancer, The Nexus Trilogy, Blade Runner, and Deus Ex.
pveierland 5y ago
Nice list! SpaceX is listed twice - not sure if intentional. Would nominate Lillium as an entry: https://lilium.com/ https://lilium.com/

cardosof 5y ago

Very nice, thanks for creating this! Out of curiosity, I've noticed that most neurotech startups are developing minimally invasive hardware, instead of invasive. Is there a particular reason for that? Solution efficacy, public acceptance, regulatory compliance, investor preference?

Mumps 5y ago
Mostly around safety and pragmatics, which leads to regulatory compliance and investor preference. Invasive hardware means implanting into the brain, potentially deep brain work. This is, risky, expensive, and requires some serious expertise. If you can get past the low signal quality of external (non-invasive) devices, then you open up a way cheaper, way safer, avenue. Hope that helps. Can give detail if you'd like. source: two research degrees in neurosci, and did some almost-startups in brain-computer interface hardware.
- pjbeam 5y ago
  Makes sense, thank you. I do figure elective brain surgery will be a thing at some point but we seem a ways off from that today.
- nrat 5y ago
  As someone looking to tinker with this kind of thing at home, would you recommend OpenBCI? Are there any more "consumer friendly" projects out there (i.e. off the shelf) that are affordable at a hobbyist level?
  - Mumps 5y ago
    hey! sorry to get back late - don't get HN notifications. OpenBCI is a really solid start! Though, I'd suggest it's too expensive for most people to start tinkering with it. It also has/had some reaaallly basic featuring, like writing out information as txt, instead of any other signal output datatype. But that's all fine! (just unsophisticated) You can start off [way cheaper](https://www.instructables.com/Mini-Arduino-Portable-EEG-Brain-Wave-Monitor-/ https://www.instructables.com/Mini-Arduino-Portable-EEG-Brai...), and even make an [electrode out of a penny](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yglqbxYBC7Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yglqbxYBC7Q). Spend some time planning what you want your first project or two to be, and then get the cheapest, lowest-feature thing from there. If you want to *really* learn some stuff, I'd suggest you focus more time on computationally processing eeg signal (you can get [an insane amount](https://sccn.ucsd.edu/~arno/fam2data/publicly_available_EEG_data.html https://sccn.ucsd.edu/~arno/fam2data/publicly_available_EEG_...) of sample data for free). What you get from hardware yourself will just have the cool-factor of being your own :)