Packy McCormick delivers a rare convergence of high-stakes hardware and genuine optimism, arguing that we are finally exiting an era of software-only dreams and entering a phase where physical reality is being rewritten by computation. The piece stands out not for predicting the future, but for documenting a specific, accelerating present where companies are moving from prototype to production at speeds previously thought impossible in heavy industry.
The Hardware Renaissance
McCormick opens with a striking pivot from his usual focus on digital tools to a medical device that defies conventional categorization. When Midjourney, the AI image generator known for art, announced a hardware product, the assumption was a VR headset or a digital canvas. Instead, they unveiled the Midjourney Scanner, a whole-body ultrasound device designed to be as casual as a spa visit. "Today we're gonna announce something a little weird and a little crazy," the company wrote, "but also spectacular and filled with hope."
The vision is audacious: a 60-second scan in a shallow pool of water that uses ultrasonic waves to create a millimeter-precise 3D map of the human body. McCormick notes that this isn't just a new gadget; it's an attempt to solve the problem of preventative health by making advanced imaging invisible and routine. He connects this to his previous writing on Ezra, envisioning a 2050 where mirrors run daily MRIs. "Most days – 99.9% of days – you don't even remember you're being scanned," he paraphrases the ideal outcome.
Critics might note that moving from an announcement to regulatory approval and mass deployment in healthcare is a minefield of safety standards and clinical validation that software companies often underestimate. However, McCormick highlights a crucial enabler: Midjourney's profitability allows them the freedom to take risks without VC pressure, partnering with Butterfly Network to leverage chip-level ultrasound technology.
"It's not related to anything you've seen from us so far. But... we feel an obligation as people standing on the frontier to look at the foundations of the human experience and ask: 'What do we want to be different?'
Seeing the Unseen
The commentary shifts to a breakthrough in microscopy that could fundamentally change how we understand disease. McCormick explains that for decades, scientists have been blind to most proteins inside living cells because electron microscopes either destroy samples or lack contrast. The solution comes from a partnership between CZ Biohub and UC Berkeley: a laser phase plate that uses a Fabry-Perot cavity to amplify light intensity by 100 million times.
The result is the ability to see protein interactions in real-time within intact cells, rather than just static images of purified samples. McCormick emphasizes the scale of this leap, noting that while Fritz Zernike solved the contrast problem for light microscopes in 1942, electron microscopy had remained stuck until now. The new device allows for cryo-electron tomography, which "builds three-dimensional reconstructions of structures inside intact cells – revealing not just protein shapes, but how proteins interact with their neighbors." This capability is the missing link between observing a disease and understanding its mechanism well enough to fix it.
Energy and Defense at Speed
The most jarring, yet compelling, part of McCormick's analysis concerns the timeline of industrial execution. He details how Valar Atomics' reactor in Utah went critical just two years after the company was founded by Isaiah Taylor, a founder without traditional nuclear credentials. "He didn't have a traditional background – no college degree, let alone nuclear physics PhD," McCormick writes, noting that Taylor's outsider status allowed him to approach systems with first-principles thinking rather than industry dogma.
Simultaneously, the executive branch and the Air Force are accelerating defense procurement in ways that break historical precedents. Anduril Industries was selected for a production contract for its FQ-44 "Fury" autonomous fighter jet, beating out legacy contractors like Boeing and Lockheed Martin. McCormick points out the significance: "Anduril went from prototype award in 2024 to a production contract this June, which is the fastest any fighter has gone from prototype to production in more than half a century." This marks the first time since the 1970s that a new company has won a major fighter program.
These developments are not isolated; they reflect a broader shift discussed at the Reindustrialize conference. McCormick observes that while earlier iterations of the event focused on arguing why we should build things in America, the latest gathering was filled with examples of companies actually doing it. "Reindustrialization is happening," he asserts, citing the rapid progression from panel discussions to tangible milestones like reactor criticality and public filings for nuclear startups.
"It's time to produce now, lots to prove, but it's a great step on the way towards saving western civilization by saving taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars a year as we make tens of billions of dollars a year."
Bottom Line
McCormick's strongest argument is that the bottleneck for American reindustrialization was never a lack of ideas, but a culture of risk aversion and slow execution, both of which are now being dismantled by first-principles founders and a government willing to bet on new entrants. The piece's greatest vulnerability lies in its optimism bias; it assumes that technological feasibility will translate seamlessly into economic viability and regulatory approval, particularly in healthcare and nuclear energy where the margin for error is zero. Readers should watch closely over the next 24 months to see if these rapid prototypes can survive the grueling realities of mass manufacturing and clinical trials.