Eric Matzner / Selected frontiers
Eric has worked to raise awareness and develop solutions across frontiers required for long-term human flourishing, including longevity/human cognitive enhancement, mitigating global warming, and now for safe deployment and uptake of AI.
Innovation / Preparedness
Many of humanity’s technological achievements come as reactive innovations from problems reaching a tipping point. The DARPA robotics competition came in response to no robot being able to turn a valve to prevent the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant’s meltdown.
When it comes to tipping points for climate, or the irreversible escape of misaligned AI, we cannot wait until after that point has occurred to act. We must take direct action now, before it is too late, to make sure humanity is on the right track and to actively pull that better future forward.
Eric is considered an autodidact and in his advocacy for human cognitive enhancement, he focuses on optimizations to increase his input and output (I/O) speeds. He is able to type at over 150 WPM and read at over 1,000 WPM.
Typing speed
150+WPM
On a Kinesis Pro split keyboard & is ranked in the top 0.1% fastest typists on TypeRacer.com
Reading speed
1,000+WPM
Utilizing Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) reading tools
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“Eric Matzner is a nootropics pioneer.”
“As though Wikipedia sprang to life and got a fade haircut.”
“We're talking about... a new type of biology where we're taking these things into our own hands... to try and proactively go from baseline to above.”
“Look to how you can optimize yourself,” Matzner said, using one of his favorite verbs. “The body offers plenty of weaknesses that can potentially be overcome.”
“I am trying to make a smarter, better populace to solve all the problems we have created.”
“Matzner is more than a hobbyist in human perfection.”
“Matzner opened his eyes, slid off his headband, and smiled. Optimization accomplished. He’d won...”
Media archive
Field records, prototypes, interviews, and moving images organized by the part of the work they illuminate.
An AI lab dedicated to researching, measuring, and counteracting sycophancy in AI models.
Eric stepped down as CEO and is serving as CTO, focused on R&D.
Metalplant is developing a method to produce green nickel through phytomining. Hyperaccumulator plants recover the nickel released as olivine weathers, pairing nickel production with enhanced rock weathering for carbon dioxide removal.
Paused / Eric is on long-term sabbatical.
Nootroo grew from Eric’s personal research into nootropics and the broader biohacking movement. The company developed cognitive-enhancement products while its talks and archives traced the compounds, researchers, and ideas that shaped the field.
Think Do-tank
Eric exited Project Vesta. The post-exit team continued as Vesta PBC, which remains active.
Project Vesta developed coastal enhanced weathering through early research and lab work. After Eric’s exit, Vesta carried that work into a permitted field deployment in Southampton, New York. Vesta’s field studies found no detectable adverse effects under the conditions tested, including no evidence of nickel accumulation.
The work also sharpened a practical question: what happens to the nickel released as olivine weathers? Metalplant spun out to address the terrestrial version, using hyperaccumulator plants to recover valuable nickel that could otherwise limit use of olivine in fields.
Dormant; the crew may be interested in one-offs.
Meditation Battle League turned an internal practice into a live test: can you stay focused while being watched, judged, and actively distracted? It made the value of meditation under pressure visible.
Eric’s forecasting archive is back online. It includes earlier predictions, lookbacks on what happened next, and new posts returning soon.
Eric’s old generalist blog is being restored from backups, with new random thoughts and a place for posts that do not fit anywhere else. The goal is to get back to the informal spirit of blogging.
