Despite the dearth of studies, Silverbrook’s rationalist peers were excited about the possibilities of Lumina. The buzz spread from group chats to the Less Wrong message board to the hyperpopular Astral Codex Ten newsletter and other rationalist substacks, which led to posts on social media and, eventually, mainstream news stories.
Cremieux Recueil, a Bay Area philosopher, wrote a whopping 7,600-word blogpost that closed by endorsing the toothpaste to his more than 18,000 subscribers. “The scourge of poor dental health that has wracked humanity for 10,000 years might soon be behind us,” he wrote. “We now have the tool to make a long-time human plague disappear. Let’s use it.”
Microbiologist Devon Stork, cofounder of Pioneer Labs, a San Francisco startup engineering microbes to terraform Mars, was all in. “Looking through the literature,” he commented on Astral Codex Ten’s substack post, “this is ready for human testing, where I expect it to have precisely zero side effects.”
Recueil’s essay inspired a New York Times op-ed about the growing embrace of DIY medicine. “The pandemic experience does seem to have … given way to a new age of medical libertarianism,” wrote science journalist David Wallace-Wells, who was intrigued by Lumina’s promise yet worried about what it could portend for the future of medical care. “It is nevertheless disorienting to find myself, reading about Lumina, in the position to decide, on my own, whether it’s worth it or safe to give a novel bacterium a permanent home in my microbiome.”
To some, the risks of an untested treatment are too great. Trevor Klee, president of Highway Pharmaceuticals, wrote a Substack warning about Lumina. “At the very least, this is a great way to give yourself the digestive equivalent of continually taking antibiotics (i.e. diarrhea and indigestion),” he wrote. “There are scientific reasons to believe that Lumina’s product can be unsafe and ineffective in humans.”
Manifund CEO Austin Chen, who has invested in both Lumina and Highway Pharmaceuticals, defended the toothpaste. “I think you’re jumping the gun here,” he commented on Klee’s post. “You’re imputing motives to Aaron/Lumina, which make it harder for both you and them to think clearly about the issue.”
Chen was among the first people to try the toothpaste last spring, along with Yishan Wong, the former CEO of Reddit and an investor in Lumina, and Patri Friedman, founder of The Seasteading Institute.
“Lantern Bioworks isn’t really claiming that this thing cures cavities, but they can sure make all the research available and let you decide for yourself,” tweeted Wong. “I literally put my money where my mouth is.”