Michael Backes

Brainstormer, Concerned citizen, Connector, Consultant, Designer, Entrepreneur, Foodie, Global soul, Idea generator, Inventor, Parent, Single, Startup, Student, Technologist, World traveler, Writer/Editor

As a boy I loved books, rocks, mountains and lakes. Studied biology and literature in college. Married pioneering film director, Martha Coolidge. Supported myself with Jeopardy winnings, until Martha kindly shoved me into the film business, just as I discovered technology with the introduction of the Macintosh. Could not decide which I liked more: movies or tech, so I did both, which proved fortuitous as they were on a collision course. Joined a small movie company, where I convinced the team to make John Huston’s film of my favorite short story, The Dead. Dragged Macs into the production of James Cameron’s The Abyss. Co-founded the AFI/Apple Computer Center for Film and Videomakers, where I worked with Harry Marks (co-founder of TED) on the first digital media curricula. Met Michael Crichton and convinced him to stop writing his novel about Ben Franklin in favor of an old idea he had about resurrecting dinosaurs. He named a cameo character in Jurassic Park after me, which led to me supervising the control room sequences of the film. Worked with Crichton on most of his subsequent books doing minor editing and proofing. Worked on two of his screenplays. Joined the advisory board of the Japan Electronics Show in its go-go years. Brought Snow Crash to Kathleen Kennedy and tried for several years to make a film. Sat on boards of several tech companies. Co-founded Rocket Science, an infamous game company, with Steve Blank, Peter Barrett and Ron Cobb, where one of our programmers was a kid named Elon Musk. Hired by Laura Ziskin and Marvel to work with their writers to design tech and archvillains on four Marvel films. Invited by some buddies at Disney Imagineering and IBM Watson to join a team at USC that used software to manipulate and predict societal and internal narratives, a project funded by all the three-letter agencies. After 9/11, my neurologist recommended that I use cannabis to treat my migraines, since conventional medication was raising the likelihood of stroke. Cannabis worked. This triggered the oddest career shift. I started to research plant medicines and how they work. In 2010, I started a research program to breed cannabis that contained CBD, then a rare cannabinoid. For this work, I was granted the first utility patents by the US Patent Office for cannabis plants. Wrote a bestselling book about medical cannabis. Joined Dr. Andrew Weil to guide the first Hawaii dispensary. Today, I design cannabis products for Perfect, a truly perfect job for me. My goal is to understand everything about the science of how cannabis works to ensure that it becomes the safest social drug. I love the speed at which I can iterate my products to improve them in response to consumer reaction. I am incredibly happy doing this work and that's saying something, previously having designed Hollywood supervillains and conspiracy theory-worthy software for a living.

the power of gratitude, Maui, Dzogchen, basketball , Vija Celmins, economic botany, Peter Zumthor, Asilomar, the night sky, Demel, phytochemical entourages, Wim Hof, Criterion, Biblioctopus, Neri Oxman, kaiseki, Long Now, Lake Ohrid, R.H. Blyth, Twin Farms, James Turrell, mountains, Vincenzo Di Marzo, euphoria as wellness, The Plan of St. Gall, José Andrés, fungal & plant networks, Dennis Severs House, Christopher Alexander, The Idler, Richard E. Schultes, R. Gordon Wasson, rhetoric, Ferran Adria, big forests, Katsura Imperial Villa, Welles, Kurosawa, Kubrick, Miyasaki, the Coens, Adam Curtis, Debra Granik and Christopher Nolan, Bach, Mahler, Vaughn-Williams, Louis Armstrong, Rachmaninoff, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, The Beatles, Kate Bush, Radiohead, Fiona Apple, Madlib & Burial, David E. Nichols, pharmacology, Jean Gebser, Pynchon audiobooks, Kamei puzzles, minimalist design, Ibn Sina, Beckett, LeGuin, Michael Lewis, and Joyce, terroir, Da Vinci, book collecting, Apple.

Aging is a treatable metabolic disease.

film, narrative design, plant medicines, teaching, writing

Introduced to TED by my dear old chum, Tom Rielly, just in time for TED 2020. It's been love at first sight.

propaganda - how to create it and how to break it.