Dialectic 60: Patrick Hsu! @pdhsu & @arcinstitute are combining biology, engineering, and AI to turn a sci-fi future into reality. Patrick got expelled from college at 13, returned at 15, later worked on early CRISPR breakthroughs, and teamed up with @SKonermann & @patrickc to found Arc. He works 3 jobs: core investigator at Arc, professor at Stanford, and venture partner at @thrivecapital. For all his intensity and ambition, he carries a lightness and boldness that is contagious. We discuss: - why research is 99% failure and even your best ideas kind of suck - infinite games and speedrunning school - the reach of GLP-1s and power laws in biotech - what makes a good biologist - Arc’s bet on people over projects - lab robots that finally work - AI-designed organisms and new forms of life - why heart disease could go the way of infectious disease - bro science, peptides, and biofuturism - research taste in the age of AI Timestamps: (0:00) Opening Highlights (1:39) Intro: Patrick Hsu (4:29) Start: Boldness, Infinite Games, & Ambition (12:54) GLP-1s and Power Laws in Biotechnology (20:17) Expelled at 13 and Falling for Biology (25:51) What Makes a Good Biologist, Research Taste, and Biology's Data Challenges (37:58) The Arc Model: Full-Stack Science (52:01) Betting on People, Style, & Learning to Simplify (57:22) Perturbation, World Models, and Evo (1:03:27) Virtual Cell Models (1:09:56) Designing Life: From Stem Cells to Genome Writing (1:18:39) Testing, Bro Science, and Human Data (1:24:26) Can It Exist vs. Will It Exist: Science Meets Markets (1:29:59) Biofuturism: Interoception, Peptides, Muscle Modulation, Sleep, and New Forms of Life (1:43:47) Fun, Obsolescence, Going Slow, and the Future @dialecticpod 60: Patrick Hsu - Speedrunning the Infinite Game - is available on all platforms, including X. Links below.