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Nail one thing at a time
The Hyperpod vision
The long-term vision is a canopy bed called the Hyperpod, with regulated air and bed temperature, blackout curtains, and controlled oxygen, like an altitude tent. You would sleep in clean mountain air, in what its designer imagines as the supercar of sleep. He first laid the vision out in a 2017 memo, written in about twelve hours and sent on a Saturday.
Why not all at once
Many tech companies jump to the final solution and try to build everything at once. Nailing oxygen alone is very complicated, and getting oxygen, light, noise, and air all right together is where most attempts fail.
The step-by-step roadmap
So the roadmap goes in steps. Temperature came first with the bed cover, then temperature for the head, then for the blanket. Managing air is next, then a new form factor, and only after that oxygen.
How do altitude tents change the body?
Air at altitude holds less oxygen per breath, and the body responds by releasing the hormone erythropoietin, which prompts bone marrow to make more red blood cells. Tents that lower the oxygen in the air let athletes imitate that effect at home. Researchers Benjamin Levine and James Stray-Gundersen helped popularize the approach in the 1990s with their live high, train low studies. Air at sea level is about 21 percent oxygen.
Why do big products fail when built at once?
John Gall, in his 1975 book Systemantics, argued that every complex system that works grew out of a simpler system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch, he wrote, never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. The principle is now often called Gall's law.
Why is controlling oxygen in a room hard?
A sleeping person breathes out carbon dioxide, which builds up in a closed space. Any enclosure that adjusts oxygen has to remove carbon dioxide and manage humidity at the same time. Oxygen sensors also drift over time and need calibration. Fresh air is about 21 percent oxygen and about 0.04 percent carbon dioxide.
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