Ep. 69 - Breaking Out of the Virtual Machine w. Illia Polosukhin (NEAR Protocol, NEAR AI)

Conversation with Illia Polosukhin (co-founder @nearprotocol) also known on the streets as The Black Dragon, recorded live during [Redacted] Bangkok 2024. Illia does A LOT of public appearances and interviews. On this interview we break norm and rather than focus of the tech (the WHAT) we focus instead on Illia's journey (Who and Why). Even though we only had 1 hour, the result has far exceeded our expectations. Some of the highlights: * Illia reads in Megabytes. How his life changed when someone gave him a CD ROM loaded with 700mb of .txt books fuelling his imagination. * Wild imagination and builder more from a young age. Not only did Illia start writing his own science fiction books when he was young, he also built a publishing platform to distribute them! Only catch - he never finished any of them as he got bored after he knew how things played out in his head. * Learning how to code at age 10; importance of family and supportive teachers in school. Building games and keeping cheat codes in summer camp and more! * Growing up poor, building character. How Ukraine has shaped VALUES. * Broken internet and role of MATHs, formal verification, and AI agents. * So much more! Enjoy