Max Hodak

Founder/Executive at Science, a company developing advanced medical technologies including neural interfaces and organ perfusion systems.

Claims

As speaker

Mentioned in

Key positions and views

The brain-computer interface market will not be a monopoly but a diverse ecosystem of many companies and products, analogous to the pharmaceutical industry [5].

A key motivation for developing advanced human-computer interfaces, as exemplified by Elon Musk's Neuralink, is to ensure humanity can merge with AI to avoid being dominated by superintelligence [16].

The future of neural interfaces may lie in 'bio-hybrid' devices that integrate living, engineered human neurons with electronic implants to create a more seamless and stable connection with the nervous system [21].

The flow of innovation has reversed, with artificial intelligence research now providing more insights to neuroscience than neuroscience provides to AI [13].

Significant business opportunities exist in improving the affordability and portability of existing, expensive medical support systems, such as ECMO and organ perfusion machines [15, 17].

Podcast consensus on Hodak

Points of consensus

▶Max Hodak's company, Science, is systematically advancing its retinal prosthesis toward commercialization, having completed a large European clinical trial, published results in the New England Journal of Medicine, and submitted the device for market approval [22, 25, 28].Apr 2026

▶Hodak advocates for a multi-faceted approach to neurotechnology, simultaneously developing hardware like retinal implants and bio-hybrid interfaces alongside complementary biological tools like a state-of-the-art optogenetic gene therapy [21, 23, 29].

▶He identifies significant business opportunities in addressing the economic and logistical bottlenecks of advanced medicine, such as the high cost of organ perfusion systems and ICU care, which his 'Vessel' project aims to solve [3, 4, 15, 17].Apr 2026

▶He believes the advancement of implantable neurotechnology was significantly enabled by the 'smartphone dividend'—the development of small, low-power electronics for the consumer market [26].

Points of debate

▶Hodak contrasts his company's retinal implant, which stimulates 100 million bipolar cells, as a superior approach to the prior Second Sight device that stimulated only 1.5 million ganglion cells after significant data compression [14, 24].Apr 2026

▶He posits that the BCI field will evolve into a diverse ecosystem of many specialized companies, similar to the pharmaceutical industry, which contrasts with a potential future where a single company dominates the market [5].Apr 2026

▶Hodak argues that the direction of influence has reversed between AI and neuroscience, stating that neuroscience has learned more from AI in the last decade than the other way around [13].Apr 2026

▶He contrasts the high cost and marginal benefit of an existing million-dollar gene therapy for blindness with the potential of device-based solutions like his company's retinal prosthesis [8].Apr 2026

Key themes

▶The Commercialization of Advanced Vision Restoration

Hodak is intensely focused on bringing a retinal prosthesis to market to treat blindness from conditions like geographic atrophy. He details a clear business and clinical path, from acquiring the core technology and running a large European trial to publishing in a top journal and submitting for regulatory approval, while also developing next-generation optogenetic therapies [9, 20, 22, 23, 25].

Hodak's strategy of acquiring, iterating, and rapidly commercializing a proven technology de-risks the deep-tech venture, providing a potential revenue stream to fund more ambitious, long-term projects like bio-hybrid interfaces.

▶The Future Landscape of Brain-Computer InterfacesApr 2026

Hodak envisions the BCI field not as a single-product market but as a diverse industry akin to pharmaceuticals, with many companies and applications. He discusses the philosophical motivations for BCI development, such as Elon Musk's goal of merging humanity with AI, and explores novel future technologies like bio-hybrid interfaces and ultrasound-based brain stimulation [5, 16, 21, 27].

This perspective suggests the BCI market will likely fragment into specialized verticals (e.g., motor restoration, sensory prosthetics, cognitive enhancement), creating opportunities for multiple successful companies rather than a single 'winner-take-all' platform.

▶Solving the Economic Bottlenecks of Advanced HealthcareApr 2026

Hodak repeatedly highlights the prohibitive costs of modern advanced medical care, from million-dollar gene therapies to half-million-dollar monthly ECMO bills and expensive organ transport systems. His company's 'Vessel' project, aimed at creating portable and affordable perfusion technology, is a direct attempt to solve these economic and logistical challenges [4, 8, 15, 17].

By targeting the high ancillary costs of advanced medicine, Hodak's company is building a business model around enabling technologies that could make currently unscalable treatments economically viable and widely accessible.

▶Technological Acceleration and Speculative FuturesApr 2026

Hodak operates with a strong sense of rapid technological progress, noting his personal predictive 'event horizon' is only the year 2035. He makes bold predictions about achieving near-native vision restoration within a decade and speculates on radical possibilities, such as 1,000-year lifespans for people alive today, driven by the accelerating interplay between fields like AI and neuroscience [1, 13, 18, 30].

Hodak's speculative but technologically-grounded futurism likely informs his company's high-risk, high-reward R&D strategy, justifying investment in moonshot projects that could redefine medicine and human potential.

Source episodes

Sentiment over time

Not enough data for timeline

Changes over time

A few years ago

Science acquired a small European company to obtain the core technology for its current retinal prosthesis, which was originally invented at Stanford University [20].

Previous Year

Science completed a large clinical trial for its retinal implant across 17 sites in Europe [22, 28].

Last Fall

The results of the retinal implant clinical trial were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. In the same period, Science also published a paper on its development of the world's most sensitive optogenetic proteins [22, 23].

Current Year

Science is submitting its retinal implant for market approval and expects to receive it later in the year [25].

Next 5-7 Years

Hodak estimates this is the timeframe for the clinical translation of Science's in-house optogenetic gene therapy [29].

Next 10 Years

Hodak predicts that retinal prosthetics will be able to achieve near-native acuity, comparable to 20/20 vision with color and a full field of view [1].

2035

Hodak identifies this year as his personal 'event horizon,' beyond which he feels the pace of technological change makes the future unpredictable [18].

Suggested prompts

How does Hodak's strategy of acquiring and iterating on existing technology (the retinal prosthesis) inform his company's risk tolerance for more speculative, ground-up R&D like bio-hybrid interfaces? &nearr;What are the commercial and ethical implications of Hodak's vision for a diverse, 'pharmaceutical-like' BCI market versus a future dominated by a single, integrated platform? &nearr;Given Hodak's focus on the high costs of ancillary medical services (e.g., organ perfusion), what other areas of healthcare might be ripe for disruption through similar logistical and economic innovations? &nearr;How does Hodak's belief that AI now teaches neuroscience more than the reverse likely impact his company's R&D priorities and approach to solving complex biological problems? &nearr;

Key concepts

Retinal Prosthesis 10 ep Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) 6 ep Healthcare Economics 4 ep Organ Perfusion & ECMO 4 ep Future Speculation 4 ep Neuroscience 3 ep Clinical Trials 3 ep Optogenetics 2 ep Artificial Intelligence (AI) 2 ep Bio-hybrid Interfaces 1 ep

Notable quotes

“[0:01:03 -> 0:01:07] So we finished a big clinical trial last year, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in the fall.”

Max Hodak · The Future Of Brain-Computer Interfaces

“[0:13:15 -> 0:13:27] I mean I do think that you can get close to native acuity so kind of like your normal 2020 vision We definitely not there yet but I see a path to get there and be able to get color and fill in a lot of the field of view... [0:13:29 -> 0:13:31] but in the next 10 years, I think that that's possible.”

Max Hodak · The Future Of Brain-Computer Interfaces

“[0:46:22 -> 0:46:29] And so that was the genuine motivating factor of like, how do we make it so that this allows us to upgrade humanity rather than get left behind.”

Max Hodak · The Future Of Brain-Computer Interfaces

“A pair of conjoined twins in Canada, connected by a biological cable between their thalami, can share meaningful elements of their conscious experience, including seeing through each other's eyes to some degree.”

Max Hodak · The Future Of Brain-Computer Interfaces

Report last updated: Apr 21, 2026

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