Technology

Forecast 2050

Interviewing the thinkers and doers shaping the world of 2050. Hosted by Nebular General Partner, Finn Murphy.

Latest Episodes:

Space AI, Moon Resorts, and Interstellar Calamity | Starcloud CEO Philip Johnston on 2050 Mar 30, 2026

Show notes

Starcloud Founder and CEO Philip Johnston believes data centers in space are the first step to becoming a Kardashev level civilization. I caught up with Philip at Starcloud’s HQ to talk about his vision for the next 25 years. The conversation covers everything from luxury space tourism, whether Tesla’s Optimus robot will become a self-replicating galactic probe, the hard problem of consciousness, whether the world is a simulation, Mars becoming the next America, and Philip’s greatest concern for our long-term future.

Extended Show Notes: https://finnmurphyirl.substack.com/p/data-centers-in-space-moon-resorts

Transcript: https://finnmurphyirl.substack.com/p/forecast-2050-episode-iv-transcript

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

00:59 Why the Space GPU Skeptics are Wrong

03:12 Elon Will Bring Launch Costs Down with Starship

06:50 The 2050 Space Economy: Moon Hotels, Asteroid Mining and Manufacturing

16:37 The 2050 Martian Colony: A Stepping Stone for Exploring the Universe

26:32 The Kardashev Scale of Civilization

28:44 We Live in a Simulation: The Fermi Paradox & The Great Filter

34:52 Cracking the Hard Problem of Consciousness

37:46 There is a Calamitous Event Waiting for Us

39:04 Mars is the Next America

Philip Johnston is the co-founder and CEO of Starcloud, a space technology company building orbital data centers powered by solar energy to run AI and compute infrastructure in space.

Philip on X: https://x.com/PhilipJohnston

Philip on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-johnston/

Forecast 2050 is a series about the next 25 years—and the builders, thinkers, and leaders shaping what comes next.

Finn on X: https://x.com/FinnMurphy12

Finn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finn-murphy-16160465/

Nebular is a venture capital firm based in New York City.

Head to nebular.vc for more info.

Conflict and Diplomacy in an Era of Recklessness | Sir Malcolm Rifkind on 2050 Mar 25, 2026

Show notes

Sir Malcolm Rifkind served as Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom from 1995 to 1997 and as Defence Secretary before that. He has sat across from Soviet ministers while a KGB double agent secretly briefed both sides, watched the Berlin Wall fall when nobody saw it coming, and has been banished from Russia by Putin personally for his criticism of the invasion of Crimea. I sat down with Sir Malcolm in London this January to talk about the next 25 years of conflict and diplomacy, and how to navigate a world where nobody cares about the old rules anymore.

Extended Show Notes: https://substack.com/home/post/p-192033568

Transcript: https://substack.com/home/post/p-192033862

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:05 Why Politicians Can’t Predict the Future

03:37 The Power of Double Agents in Spycraft

04:38 Social Media Diplomacy Was Inevitable

12:46 Soft Power is Dead

16:25 The Cult of Youth in Global Leadership

18:54 The West Must Think Long-Term to Survive

27:43 Technological Innovation Will Hurt Old People

30:58 The Chinese Will Eat Their Rich

38:11 Meeting Gorbachev and His Philosopher Wife

44:32 There Are No Good Guys and Bad Guys

46:46 Ukraine will Freeze Up like Korea, Kashmir, and Cyprus

47:55 Taiwan is More Important than Iran

53:23 How Smaller Countries Operate without Pax Americana

55:09 “The Chinese and the Russians Cannot Believe Their Luck” - on NATO Collapse

59:59 America May Not Be the Main Character in the Future

Sir Malcolm Rifkind is a British statesman who served as Defence Secretary and then Foreign Secretary under Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and later chaired the UK Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee.

Forecast 2050 is a series about the next 25 years—and the builders, thinkers, and leaders shaping what comes next.

Finn on X: https://x.com/FinnMurphy12

Finn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finn-murphy-16160465/

Nebular is venture capital firm based in New York City.

Head to nebular.vc for more info.

Artificial Wombs, IVF & Robot Nannies | Noor Siddiqui on Family in 2050 Mar 18, 2026

Show notes

Noor Siddiqui is building a future free of inherited disease. As Founder & CEO of Orchid, she has developed embryo screening technology that reads 99% of an embryo's DNA - 100 times more information than legacy tools. In this episode of Forecast 2050, Nebular General Partner Finn Murphy sits down with Noor in San Francisco to discuss why embryo screening and artificial wombs may become the default way humans reproduce, what's really driving falling birth rates, the moonshot nobody is funding, and why a generation of young people with world-changing energy has been left with nowhere to put it.

Extended Show Notes: https://finnmurphyirl.substack.com/p/sex-is-for-fun-orchid-ivf-is-for

Transcript (with links): https://finnmurphyirl.substack.com/p/forecast-2050-transcript-episode

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

00:50 Rolling the Dice No More: The Embryo Screening Revolution

05:27 Artificial Wombs Are the Tech Challenge of Our Time

07:47 Why Aren't We Having Kids?

17:03 The Broken Generational Contract

18:56 Nature Beats Out Nurture

21:45 AI & Genetic Technology Could Give Us Superhuman Powers

30:54 Noor’s Plan for 2050

37:10 What We Lose When Old People Run Everything

Noor Siddiqui is the Founder & CEO of Orchid, the world's first whole genome embryo screening company.

Noor on X: https://x.com/noor_siddiqui_

Orchid: https://www.orchidhealth.com/

Forecast 2050 is a series about the next 25 years—and the builders, thinkers, and leaders shaping what comes next.

Finn on X: https://x.com/FinnMurphy12

Finn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finn-murphy-16160465/

Nebular is a venture capital firm based in New York City investing in early-stage companies.

Head to nebular.vc for more info.

Quantum, Superintelligence, and Reality's Ultimate Nature | Scott Aaronson on 2050 Mar 11, 2026

Show notes

Scott Aaronson thinks that the time to prepare for a post-quantum world isn’t years away - it was yesterday. In the second episode of Forecast 2050 with Nebular General Partner Finn Murphy and Entrepreneur in Residence Tom McCarthy, we explore whether classical AI might eclipse quantum computing, how post-quantum cryptography will upend global security, and why the rise of superintelligence both excites and deeply unsettles Scott.

We also debate whether a quantum teleporter would actually be a suicide machine, how advanced AI might help us uncover the fundamental nature of reality, and the disturbing possibility that future superintelligences may compete with one another for dominance, treating humans as collateral.

Extended Show Notes: https://finnmurphyirl.substack.com/p/breaking-the-internet-scott-aaronsons

Transcript (with links): https://finnmurphyirl.substack.com/p/forecast-2050-episode-ii-transcript

Chapters

00:00 Intro

02:04 How AI & Quantum Computing Interact Today

10:36 Why Scott Thinks Classical Computing Might Outdate Quantum

18:24 The Post-Quantum World of 2050

27:43 Quantum Computing & Biology

35:46 The Quantum Teleporter as a Suicide Machine

38:52 Superintelligence & The Ultimate Nature of Reality

45:00 The Battle Between Superintelligences

Scott Aaronson, the Schlumberger Centennial Chair of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin, is widely recognized as a top researcher in the fields of quantum computing and computational complexity.

Thank you to Matt Johnson of Q2B Sillicon Valley and QC Ware for helping us film at the conference!

https://q2b.qcware.com/

Scott’s blog, Shtetl-Optimized: https://scottaaronson.blog/

Forecast 2050 is a series about the next 25 years—and the builders, thinkers, and leaders shaping what comes next.

Finn on X: https://x.com/FinnMurphy12

Finn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finn-murphy-16160465/

Tom on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-mccarthy-41144779/

Nebular is an early-stage venture capital firm based in New York City.

Head to nebular.vc for more info.

The surprising truth behind collapsing birthrates | Tyler Cowen on 2050 Mar 04, 2026

Show notes

Tyler Cowen believes we are woefully unprepared for the next 25 years.

In the first episode of Forecast 2050 with Nebular General Partner, Finn Murphy, we discuss the real reason behind falling birthrates, what the last human job might be in an AI-dominated economy, how conflict and war could evolve in the next 25 years, whether we will have a "viagra for the mind," why we are experiencing the fastest technological revolution in human history, why humans love stasis and hate change, and why we need faith in long-term thinking.

Extended Show Notes: https://finnmurphyirl.substack.com/p/humans-love-stasis-and-hate-change

Transcript (with helpful links!): https://substack.com/home/post/p-189726563

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:03 The real reason behind low birthrates

04:50 Transitioning to a majority-old society

07:49 The future of worldwide immigration

14:55 The 2050 economy will be healthcare dominated

19:23 Corporations have never been so powerful

26:25 There is life on the moons of Saturn

27:07 Elon is wrong: We won't settle other planets

30:00 AIs Will Take Over Society By Trick

30:58 We need faith for long term thinking

32:47 There will be many, many fake jobs

36:29 The future of the UN and global conflicts

40:56 The AIs will build their own superintelligent institutions

45:18 Tyler's greatest concern

47:50 The last profession standing in the AI era

Tyler Cowen is an economist, author, and professor known for his work on growth, innovation, and the future of technology.

Tyler on X: https://x.com/tylercowen

Tyler's Blog: https://marginalrevolution.com/

Forecast 2050 is a series about the next 25 years—and the builders, thinkers, and leaders shaping what comes next.

Finn on X: https://x.com/FinnMurphy12

Finn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finn-murphy-16160465/

Nebular is an early stage venture capital firm based in New York City.

Head to nebular.vc for more info.

Introducing Forecast 2050 Mar 03, 2026

Show notes

Forecast 2050 is a series about the next 25 years, and the builders, thinkers, and leaders shaping what lies ahead. Hosted by Nebular General Partner Finn Murphy.

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