>> 1. Create a single language that incorporates the best of functional and imperative programming. Both offer distinct advantages, and we envisioned marrying the two.
Imperative/Functional hybrid are nothing new. C#, Ruby, Python, Javascript, Scala, and Groovy all fit that bill.
>> 2. Codify and statically enforce common shared-memory state patterns, such as immutability and isolation, with minimal runtime overhead (i.e., virtually none).
"Statically enforcing variable immutability...." Isn't that just a fancy word for "constant"?
>> 4. Do all of this while still offering industry-leading code quality and performance, rivaling that of systems-level C programs. Yet still with the safety implied by the above mentioned goals.
He wants to allow for "pockets of imperative mutability tied together with functional tissue". That's not a bad thing but it's not exactly a "safe" feature if put in the wrong hands. Lots of people have written function objects with bad imperative code and side effects. Lots of people have fed them to their language's equivalent of the map function. That can cause bugs.