Meet the Writer: HackerNoon's Contributor Ralph Benko, Digital Tech and Policy Entrepreneur

So let’s start! Tell us a bit about yourself. For example, name, profession, and personal interests.

Ralph Benko, based in Metro DC, is an entrepreneur in digital startups, a policy advocate, and a writer. I was honored to be recognized as HackerNoon contributor of the year last year in six verticals: politics, economics, art, science, philosophy and scaling.

I am the co-founder and the general counsel to the newly fledged think tank Washington Power and Light, to the startup F1R3FLY.io, to the Celestial Metaverse LLC, and senior counselor to the American Blockchain PAC whose advisory board is chaired by Dr. W. Scott Stornetta, co-discoverer of the blockchain.

On the policy side, I’ve worked in or with three White Houses, two Congresses, two executive branch agencies, and innumerable think tanks and political committees.

It’s a special pleasure to be able to work with brilliant people like Jeff Garzik, core dev with Satoshi of Bitcoin, with Greg Meredith, math wiz and computer scientist, inventor of the rho calculus and pioneer of OSLF, among other breakthroughs, with Drs. Buzz and Anca Aldrin, with Dr. Stornetta and the PAC’s founder, Todd White, and with my life partner, Dr. Laura Kuhn, executive director of the John Cage Trust.

Interesting! What was your latest Hackernoon Top story about?

The goodness of technology.

Do you usually write on similar topics? If not, what do you usually write about?

I write a weekly column at Newsmax on politics and policy. I generally publish my tech writings and tech policy writings, both on the enterprise and policy side, at HackerNoon.

Great! What is your usual writing routine like (if you have one?)

I write my weekly political column over the weekends and upload it to Newsmax on Monday morning. I write my tech and tech policy works when the spirit moves and time can be made.

Being a writer in tech can be a challenge. It’s not often our main role, but an addition to another one. What is the biggest challenge you have when it comes to writing?

I'm widely recognized as good at being able to translate technology concepts into language that a Member of Congress (meaning no disrespect at all, most are admirably strong on street smarts) can understand. A nontrivial challenge!

What is the next thing you hope to achieve in your career?

I was one of the OGs who birthed supply-side economics. It raised the Dow, over time, from 814 to over 34,000; doubled US real per capita GDP, nominal American and world GDP by a factor of 10 bringing over a billion people out of abject poverty. All the while we were ridiculed. (Voodoo Economics! Trickle Down!) Yet we prevailed. I would like to make another contribution to raising world equitable prosperity, again, in consequential, and, of course, ecologically significant, ways.

Wow, that’s admirable. Now, something more casual: What is your guilty pleasure of choice?

Writing.

Do you have a non-tech-related hobby? If yes, what is it?

As an avocation, I am professionally recognized as one of the top 100 nonclinical hypnotists in the world by the profession’s oldest, largest, and most respected professional association, the National Guild of Hypnotists. Don’t gaze too deeply into my eyes and you will be perfectly OK.

What can the HackerNoon community expect to read from you next?

More pieces on pragmatic energy policy for Washington Power and Light.

And stand by for the debut of the Celestial Metaverse, next year

Expect more pieces explaining the coming impact of F1R3FLY.io, for example, in hyperdimensional computing to produce exponentially faster AGI at a tiny fraction of the current cost and power consumption.

Among other implications -- when F1REFLY’s lead cofounder and CEO Greg Meredith takes it from whiteboard to metal, as he is now in the process of doing, it portends the potential to take cloud processing from million-plus server data centers (at AWS) to a desktop computer tower.

Can't blame you for being incredulous. We were too.

But the math checks out. By the end of the year, or soon thereafter, we will demonstrate that it works in practice as well as in concept.

What’s your opinion on HackerNoon as a platform for writers?

It’s just terrific. It’s hard to be both informative and witty about tech. HackerNoon sets just the right tone.

Thanks for taking time to join our “Meet the writer” series. It was a pleasure. Do you have any closing words?

Thank you for making this great platform available.