Inspired with Alexa von Tobel
00:38:56 · Dylan Taylor
[00:38:56] S1: Well, my vision for space is very Pollyanna ish. It's very Star Trek. Let's all get along. Let's be better humans. My goal in life, get Starlab built, and let's have a G7 meeting up there, let's have a national security council meeting up there, I think you would get a different outcome, I really do, if people had that perspective. That's kind of my passion. The reality is you know, there's a military posture in space. We have a space force now. You know, we have a space force in reaction to other threats that other countries are projecting, so I do worry about the militarization of space, and I have a thought experiment I ask audiences sometimes when I speak to them is, here's the way I frame it. Said, The future of humanity in space will be determined by the answer to a single question, and that question is, what will happen first? The first human born in space, or the first combat fatality in space? I in think many respects will define what humanity's future in space is, right? Obviously, I'm working towards the former and not the latter, but a lot of our issues here on earth are projected into space, whether we like it or not. Think we've really... So am I worried about it? Yes, but I also think, as you and I talked about earlier in the conversation, you can't just sit back and say, okay, well that's someone else's problem. It's like, no, I'm gonna help shape that. I'm gonna help talk about it. I'm gonna help people understand the potential for space to be good and bad, and you have to be actively involved in helping people understand this, I think. I'm optimistic that we'll have a human born in space before we have a war in space.
00:40:49 · Alexa von Tobel, Dylan Taylor
[00:40:49] S2: That's amazing. That's such a nice, simple thought experiment of how to think about how do we show up in space. Dylan, question I have to ask because you have been such a prolific angel investor and investor, and I think it's more than 50 companies and many of those touch outer space and space. What other innovations are you seeing that maybe Voyager doesn't necessarily touch, but that you're paying a lot of attention to because they're profound. And and, you know, just to kind of summarize what you've said, which is we now have the elevator to get up and down the space. That's gonna get cheaper and faster and easier. We have more satellites than ever. The data up there is coming back down in real time. And it's the eighth continent. It's not this very far away world that we don't get to go to often, and you made it very real. What other innovations are you seeing or have you invested in that are worth giving a shout out to? [00:41:50] S1: Yeah. Think quantum is becoming realer. Cubits, believe it or not, appear to be more stable. [00:41:55] S2: Dylan, I just did a year long thesis on quantum, so I'm like, you've got a good audience here.
00:41:55 · Alexa von Tobel, Dylan Taylor
[00:41:55] S2: Dylan, I just did a year long thesis on quantum, so I'm like, you've got a good audience here. [00:42:02] S1: I love it. Well, as you may know from your research, qubits are actually more... Appear to be more stable in microgravity than here on Earth because... For obvious reasons. Right? So quantum timing in space is a really important thing. Back to positioning yourself in space, timing, and having a precision quantum clock is really important. Post quantum encryption is a big deal. Yep. And, as I'm sure you studied as well, and so that's being worked on, quantum keys, things like that, quantum handshakes. So that's a big, thing. The other thing, it's not really leaning into the future as much as you would think, but it's important, which is a lot of helium three is on the moon, and of course, we're running out of helium three here on earth. If fusion works, which I think we all think it will eventually, we're gonna need more helium helium three. There's a ton of helium three on the month, or or on the moon, literally and figuratively. [00:43:03] S2: The former president of Blue Origin is working on this project.
00:43:03 · Alexa von Tobel, Dylan Taylor
[00:43:03] S2: The former president of Blue Origin is working on this project. [00:43:07] S1: Yes, Rob. I know him well. Yeah. Know. And and it's an important, and by the way, teacup of helium-three would power LA for a year. Wow. So you don't need much of it, but we need more than what we have, we think. So these are some of the things I'm interested in. Deep space, of course, I mean, Elon's really focused on Mars. I think Mars will happen probably first with humanoid robots before humans, but that's coming down the pike, and so we've got a big human factors, you know, do we... So here's an interesting thing to think about, Alexa. Do you focus on making humans immune to radiation, which is the big issue in space, you know, with technology to protect us, or do you hack your biology and make your biology more radiation resistant? It's interesting, the longevity community, I know. A lot of this is frontier tech convergence, but the longevity community and the space community are very aligned on a lot of these things. Because if you want to do deep space, you've got to figure out how to live longer, or put people under stasis, or hack your biology in some way. So I find all these things fascinating, but these are some of the topics that are a little bit on the edge of the industry right now.
00:44:38 · Alexa von Tobel, Dylan Taylor
[00:44:38] S2: Dylan, just, first of all, what's fun for me is what's casually rolling off your tongue, which is you're like, well, the first humanoid will go to Mars, and maybe we make ourselves radiation resistant. I'm like, those are two wildly big ideas separately, and you think of them as everyday course of potential action, which is so interesting. Dylan, I wanna talk to you for another five hours. I'm gonna force you to get a meal with me next time you come to New York City. I wanna just end on a few quick fire rounds because there's something about all of this that is so clear to me, which is just who you are, which is a very purposefully focused leader who's focused on glowing other human beings in their life rather than collecting your own glory. That's very clear. And I would love just to get a sense of a few things that have helped you get there. So I'm going to ask a few questions. The first is, is there a motto or a saying that you kind of live by that is sort of burned into your soul? [00:45:41] S1: Less talk, more do. [00:45:43] S2: Yeah, it's a good one. Is there a book that you read that you want to pay it forward to people? It doesn't have to be a business book, just a book that changed your life in some way. [00:45:51] S1: For sure. Yeah, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. [00:45:55] S2: The Last Lecture. I'm gonna pick that one up. I have not read that one. The Last Lecture. Or [00:45:59] S1: you have an option to watch the YouTube lecture itself. Oh. So one of the... Yeah.
00:45:59 · Dylan Taylor, Alexa von Tobel
[00:45:59] S1: you have an option to watch the YouTube lecture itself. Oh. So one of the... Yeah. [00:46:05] S2: I will be watching that today. The Last Lecture, I will find it. Everybody out there, make sure you find it too. What is one space fact that kind of has blown your mind? [00:46:15] S1: Stick with me on this. If you took something the size of the space shuttle, and you wanted to go to the next star system, Alpha Centauri, and you had ten thousand years to do it, the amount of rocket fuel you would need would weigh more than the mass of the universe. What that shows you is how inefficient chemical rockets are. Wow. Right? Yeah. Chemical rockets are the most inefficient, but it's the only thing we have at this point, until nuclear or something else comes along. But that's one fact that just blows my mind. [00:46:47] S2: That's wild. What is one lesson that you hope your daughters take from your journey to outer space? [00:46:54] S1: Follow your passion. I remember talking to my youngest daughter about this. She was very nervous. She's like, You you could die. I said, Well, Morgan, everyone dies. Very few people actually live passionately their life. So hopefully they took that away. [00:47:10] S2: That's a pretty good one, Dylan. That's a pretty great one, which maybe we'll end on this one, which is, What is your boldest, wildest hope or innovation that you're, like, paying attention to to see if it happens in your lifetime for outer space? Your biggest, most ambitious thought.