Explore the intricacies of zero-cost async I/O in Rust with this insightful conference talk from RustLatam 2019. Delve into the world of async/await syntax, futures, and non-blocking I/O as presented by a senior Rust language designer. Learn about the evolution of async programming in Rust, including the challenges faced and solutions developed. Discover the advantages of pull-based abstractions, state machines, and heap allocation optimizations. Examine benchmarks, futures combinators, and the impact of async/await on code readability and error handling. Gain a deeper understanding of borrowing issues, future references, and the Pin API. Conclude with insights into the stabilization of futures and the potential for futures streams in Rust's ecosystem.