On the importance of Hype

This post provides a reminder of the importance of healthy scepticism in a world where technologies and companies are founded on little more than hype. The revelation that scientists have been making the same predictions about the potential for predictive medicine for the last 100 years is particularly sobering.
I believe, however, that hype has a place and is probably necessary – in tech and biotech.
The promise of huge outsized rewards for present risk has enabled companies to be funded, new technologies to be commercialised and, ultimately, technological progress. While the promise of technologies like CRISPR Cas9 may not be realised in full, these technologies (and countless others) have, to a certain extent, been made possible by hype.