内容来源：https://www.geekwire.com/2025/uncommon-thinkers-hope-for-the-future-from-our-2025-honorees/

内容总结：

在近日举行的极客连线庆典上，本年度五位“非凡思想者”接受了后台专访。这些来自西雅图地区的发明家、科学家和企业家，正以其突破性工作推动行业乃至世界的变革。

门户空间系统的杰夫·索恩伯格正复兴美国宇航局数十年前的构想：研发利用聚焦太阳光推进的航天器。他展望道：“成功之日，我们将成为地月物流体系的支柱”，进而守护商业轨道、支持月球驻留，最终向木星卫星进发。

莉莉亚生物科技的阿宁迪亚·罗伊运用人工智能从头设计自然界从未存在的抗癌蛋白质。他坦言：“若在几年前听说能用计算机设计抗体，我绝不会相信。”如今成功率已从不足1%提升至5%-20%。

蓝天的杰伊·格拉伯正打造去中心化社交网络协议。她将平台比作“集体有机体”，强调自己的角色是“生态引导者而非控制者”，认为行业领袖应更多扮演引导者而非独裁者。

维瑟普特的基亚娜·埃萨尼以极少资源在AI智能体领域与科技巨头竞争。她建议初学者“从简单任务起步，逐步见证奇迹”，并提醒行业尚处早期阶段，“应以三年前ChatGPT的视角看待当前发展”。

阿奎加的布莱恩·平卡德采用极端热压技术将全氟化合物分解为惰性盐。这位自称“怀疑论者”的科学家表示，其更大愿景是彻底改变危险废物处理方式，终结当前“热力学荒谬”的焚烧处理模式。

（注：第六位获奖者汀坎公司联合创始人切特·基特尔森的专访将于后续播出。）

中文翻译：

在本周的极客之夜晚会上，我们有幸在后台与五位"非凡思想者"进行了深入交流——这些发明家、科学家和企业家与大西雅图合作伙伴组织联合推选，因其推动行业变革、改变世界的成就而获此殊荣。

完整对话内容已收录于本周的《极客连线》播客节目。正如我在节目结尾所言，这次交流让我意外地收获了一种乐观信念。

门户空间系统的杰夫·索恩伯格曾在SpaceX为埃隆·马斯克、在平流层发射系统为保罗·艾伦打造火箭引擎。如今他与团队正重启美国宇航局数十年前的概念：利用聚焦太阳光推进航天器。当我问及"若门户系统成功，世界将如何改变"时，他展现了典型的企业家思维转向："当我们成功时，我们将成为地月物流体系的支柱。"他进一步阐述，这关乎保护商业轨道、支持人类月球驻留，最终向木星卫星进发。

丽拉生物科技的阿宁迪亚·罗伊正运用人工智能从零设计自然界从未存在的蛋白质分子来对抗癌症。他曾在华盛顿大学大卫·贝克教授荣获诺贝尔奖的实验室受训，亲眼见证了机器学习给该领域带来的颠覆性变革：过去成功率不足1%，需筛选数十万种设计才能找到有效方案；如今成功率提升至5%-20%，仅需数百种设计即可锁定候选药物。"若几年前告诉我能用计算机设计抗体，我绝不会相信。"他感慨道。

蓝天的杰伊·格拉伯运营着去中心化社交网络，已成为X平台的主要替代选择。当多数科技公司忙于构筑护城河时，她和团队却致力于构建帮助用户自由迁移的底层协议。她将蓝天及其AT协议比作"集体有机体"，将自己的角色定义为生态系统的引导者与守护者而非控制者。"若领导者更多以引导者、守护者自居，而非他们热衷扮演的独裁者或帝王形象，行业与世界将变得更加美好。"

来自伊朗的韦尔塞普特创始人基亚娜·埃赫萨尼赴西雅图攻读博士学位，在艾伦人工智能研究所深耕四年，如今正以极少的资源在AI智能体领域与OpenAI和谷歌展开竞争。她的终极愿景是让人摆脱鼠标、键盘和触摸屏，实现如同与同事交谈般自然的计算机交互。她提醒道，AI智能体仍处早期阶段，"请回想三年前的ChatGPT，而非今日的版本"。关于AI智能体入门，她建议："从小处着手，从那些你不愿处理的简单任务开始，逐步构建，方能见证奇迹。"

阿奎加公司的布莱恩·平卡德正致力于解决永久性化学物质PFAS的难题——这类化合物已渗透我们的水体、食物链和血液系统。行业常规做法是过滤后填埋或焚烧，但这并未真正解决问题，只是转移了污染。阿奎加采用原本设计用于销毁化学武器的技术，在超高温高压下将PFAS分解为惰性盐类。平卡德坦言自己曾持怀疑态度："我天性多疑，作为科学家更要求实证，直到亲眼看到数据才相信其可行性。"他的宏大愿景是彻底革新危险废物处理方式，将当前大量废水运往焚烧处理的模式称为"热力学谬误"。

未来我们还将对话第六位获奖者——锡罐公司联合创始人兼首席执行官切特·基特尔森，这家初创企业通过研发支持WiFi的座机电话，帮助儿童实现无屏幕社交。

"非凡思想者"系列由大西雅图合作伙伴组织联合呈现。

欢迎通过苹果播客、Spotify等平台订阅《极客连线》。

音频剪辑由科特·米尔顿完成。

英文来源：

At the GeekWire Gala this week, we spent time talking backstage with five of this year’s Uncommon Thinkers — the inventors, scientists, and entrepreneurs who were selected in partnership with Greater Seattle Partners for their work transforming industries and the world.
You can hear the full conversations on this week’s episode of the GeekWire Podcast. As I mentioned at the end, I came away with an unexpected sense of optimism.
Jeff Thornburg of Portal Space Systems spent years building rocket engines for Elon Musk at SpaceX and Paul Allen at Stratolaunch. Now he and his team are reviving a NASA concept from decades ago: spacecraft propelled by focused sunlight.
When I asked what the world will look like “if Portal succeeds,” he made a classic entrepreneurial pivot: “When we’re successful,” he said, “we become the backbone of Earth-Moon logistics.”
From there, he said, it’s about protecting orbits for commerce, supporting human presence on the moon, and eventually pushing out to Jupiter’s moons.
Anindya Roy of Lila Biologics is using AI to design proteins from scratch — molecules that have never existed in nature — to fight cancer. He trained in David Baker’s Nobel Prize-winning lab at UW, so he saw the before and after of machine learning’s impact on the field.
Before: success rates below 1%, ordering hundreds of thousands of designs to find one that worked. Now: 5-20% success rates, ordering a few hundred designs to find a drug candidate.
“If you told me a couple of years ago that we can design an antibody from a computer, I would not believe you,” he said.
Jay Graber of Bluesky runs the decentralized social network that has become a leading alternative to X. But while most tech CEOs build moats, she and her team are building a protocol designed to help users leave.
She talks about Bluesky and the underlying AT Protocol as a “collective organism,” and describes her role as guiding and stewarding the ecosystem rather than controlling it.
The industry and the world would be better off, she says, if leaders would think about their role “more as guides and stewards, rather than just dictators or emperors as they like to style themselves.”
Kiana Ehsani of Vercept came to Seattle from Iran for her PhD, spent four years at the Allen Institute for AI, and is now competing with OpenAI and Google in the AI agent space with a fraction of their resources.
The ultimate vision is to help people move beyond mouse, keyboard, and touchscreen, letting them interact with computers the way they’d talk to a coworker.
AI agents are still early, she cautions. “Think of ChatGPT three years ago. Don’t think of it today.” Her advice for getting started with AI agents: “Start small, start with simple tasks that you don’t want to do, and then slowly build on top of it to see the magic.”
Brian Pinkard of Aquagga is tackling forever chemicals, the PFAS compounds that have spread through our water, food chain, and bloodstreams. The industry standard is to filter them out and then landfill or incinerate the waste, approaches that don’t truly solve the problem and can simply move it elsewhere.
Aquagga uses technology originally designed to destroy chemical weapons to break PFAS down into inert salts under extreme heat and pressure. Pinkard didn’t believe it was possible until he saw the data. “I’m a skeptic, I’m cynical, I’m a scientist,” he said. “I wanted to see proof.”
His bigger vision is to transform hazardous waste processing entirely. Today, huge volumes of wastewater are trucked to incinerators and burned — which he calls “thermodynamic insanity.”
We’ll speak on a future episode with our sixth honoree, Chet Kittleson, co-founder and CEO of Tin Can, the startup making WiFi-enabled landline phones to help kids connect without screens.
Uncommon Thinkers is presented in partnership with Greater Seattle Partners.
Subscribe to GeekWire in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
Audio editing by Curt Milton.