“I can point to things. But is that a systemic explanation? Surely people need love, but then there’s this risk of just devolving into platitude.” — David Sussillo

David Sussillo is a big time neural reverse engineer. Stanford brain scientist, Google Brain veteran, now at Meta Reality Labs. What distinguishes him is not his Silicon Valley good luck, but the bad luck of his origins. In his memoir Emergent, Sussillo begins at the Albuquerque Christian Children’s Home — a modern-day orphanage — and the Milton Hershey School. Both parents were addicts. His mom died young. His dad preached to homeless people on the streets of Albuquerque while managing a lifelong heroin habit.
The book’s thesis borrows from his science: “emergence” — simple things interacting to produce complex behaviour none of them could produce alone. His life is both proof of and a challenge to this concept. He made it out. Most kids he grew up with didn’t. The Sussillo quilt has patches, not a pattern.
Twenty years of therapy, he confesses, taught him something most authors never learn: understanding your story doesn’t mean you’ve explained it. The man who reverse-engineers neural networks can’t reverse-engineer himself. Would having kids have been harder than writing the book? Yes. With the book, you can take a break. He says he’s happy, claiming to have found peace with his past. But he still carries the baggage. Who wouldn’t? Emergent, not emerged.

Five Takeaways
• From Orphanage to Google Brain. Both parents heroin addicts. Grew up in group homes. Now at Meta Reality Labs and Stanford. Most kids he grew up with didn’t make it.
• Emergence as Autobiography. Simple pieces, complicated outcomes. His life is the proof of concept and the counter-example simultaneously.
• The Dirty Secret of Neuroscience. “We don’t really understand much.” Twenty years of therapy taught him more than the science.
• Would Kids Have Been Harder? Yes. With the book you can take a break. With kids you relive trauma through a specific way of relating.
• Emergent, Not Emerged. He’s found peace. He still carries the baggage. He’s learned to manage it. The emergence is ongoing.

About the Guest
David Sussillo is a research scientist at Meta Reality Labs and consulting professor at Stanford. His memoir Emergent is out now.
References
Emergent by David Sussillo: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=emergent+david+sussillo

About Keen On America
Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States.
Website: https://keenon.tv/ Substack: https://keenon.substack.com/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@KeenOnShow

Chapters:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:30 The Albuquerque Christian Children’s Home and Milton Hershey School
00:03:30 Why write a memoir? Five years and twenty years of therapy
00:05:00 Heroin-addicted parents: the origin story
00:08:00 A father as untrained preacher on the streets of Albuquerque
00:10:00 Which parent had more impact?
00:12:00 The gifted-and-talented test that changed everything
00:15:00 From Milton Hershey to Carnegie Mellon: the jump
00:18:00 Life falls apart at 23: panic attacks and psychotherapy
00:21:00 Neural networks, Google Brain, and the dirty secret of neuroscience
00:25:00 Would having kids have been harder than writing the book?
00:28:00 The Albanian friend and the beach: what America gets right
00:31:00 Silicon Valley and drugs: a complicated relationship
00:33:00 Happiness, peace, and the baggage you learn to manage