What The Experts Are Saying About AI, Longevity, and Consciousness

In this episode, Robert and Jonathan recap their recent whirlwind tour through Sidebar (a product leadership conference) and Vitalist Bay (a longevity and biotech forum), where they stress-tested Epistemic Me’s product positioning, and made key partnerships.

This is a big Build In Public update + talk on Consciousness.

Key Takeaways:

* Epistemic Me’s positioning—“cohorts by belief, not by click”—resonated deeply with product leaders. It reframes personalization by focusing on the why behind user actions, not just the what.

* Robert and Jonathan used Sidebar and Vitalist Bay as live learning labs to refine positioning, messaging, and collect real-time feedback. Conferences weren’t just networking—they were epistemic wind tunnels.

* The idea of belief systems as UX primitives bridges deep philosophy with product design. Epistemic Me offers a toolkit for self-modeling, which can be applied to health, AI coaching, product growth, and more.

* Robert shares the powerful origin story of wanting to model his brother’s belief system to help treat his mental illness. This human angle grounds the tech in empathy and urgency.

* If AI is to understand us, we must first understand ourselves. Epistemic Me sees belief mapping as foundational to building aligned, ethical AI—and it’s inviting a community of builders to co-create that future.