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Reviving Forgotten Technologies: How Airships, Supersonic Flight, and Geothermal Energy Could Transform Our World | Eli Dourado (Head of Strategic Investments at Astera Institute)
From supersonic flight to massive airships: how one "regulatory hacker" is reviving forgotten technologies that could transform transportation and energy.
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Eli Dourado is Head of Strategic Investments at Astera Institute, a foundation funding transformative science and technology across energy, aerospace, AI, and other frontier sectors. Before joining Astera, he worked as a "regulatory hacker" at Boom Supersonic, where he helped navigate complex aviation regulations to make supersonic flight viable again.
In our conversation, we explore:
How Eli's refusal to be pigeonholed led to a career reviving forgotten technologies
How lifting the 1973 ban on supersonic flight could reshape aviation, after decades of stagnation and regression
Why airships need to be massive to be economical, and how they could transform global logistics
The untapped potential of geothermal energy and why drilling economics are the key bottleneck
Why titanium could be the next material to undergo a manufacturing revolution
How reading regulatory fine print can unlock trillion-dollar industries
Why AI might not automatically solve our productivity problems
The relationship between technological stagnation and potential civilizational collapse
The fascinating possibility of harvesting antimatter in space
Explore the episode
Timestamps
(00:00) Intro and Eli's background
(04:11) Eli’s work at Astera Institute
(07:53) The frontier sectors Astera is betting on
(08:57) Eli’s path from academia to tech investing
(13:06) How Eli became involved with supersonic flight
(15:42) Why the airline industry entered “the great regression”
(18:38) The origins of the overland supersonic flight ban
(20:37) Working as a "regulatory hacker" at Boom Supersonic
(27:30) The current state of supersonic flight technology
(30:40) Eli’s cargo airship research
(37:20) What sparked Eli’s interest in airships
(40:23) Why airships fell out of favor as a way to travel
(42:53) How Jim Coutre found a path to profitable airships
(47:00) The pros, cons, and profit potential of airship travel
(50:08) A case for geothermal energy
(55:37) Understanding the “idiot index” and scaling titanium production
(58:36) Thoughts on AI and avoiding complacency
(01:02:00) The risks fueling a potential societal collapse
(01:06:10) Final meditations
Follow Eli Dourado
Newsletter: https://www.elidourado.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elidourado/
Resources and episode mentions
Books
Elon Musk: https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1982181281
The Collapse of Complex Societies: https://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Complex-Societies-Studies-Archaeology/dp/052138673X
Finite and Infinite Games: https://www.amazon.com/Finite-Infinite-Games-James-Carse/dp/1476731713
People
Jed McCaleb on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jed-mccaleb-4052a4/
Cate Hall on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cate-hall-9a81a35/
Ian McKay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-mckay-850332100/
Jim Coutre on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-coutre-b224b812/
Robert Metcalfe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Metcalfe
Jamie Beard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geothermal-jamie-beard/
Other resources
Astera Institute: https://astera.org/
Mercatus Center: https://www.mercatus.org/
Make America Boom Again: https://www.mercatus.org/research/research-papers/make-america-boom-again
Concorde: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde
Airbus: https://www.airbus.com
Boeing: https://www.boeing.com/
Hermeus: https://www.hermeus.com/
Astro Mechanica: https://www.astromecha.co/
Cargo airships could be big: https://www.elidourado.com/p/cargo-airships
The Center for Growth and Opportunity: https://www.thecgo.org/
Hindenburg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ_129_Hindenburg
Graf Zeppelin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ_127_Graf_Zeppelin
Metcalfe’s law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe%27s_law
The state of next-generation geothermal energy: https://www.elidourado.com/p/geothermal
Fervo Energy: https://fervoenergy.com/
Value from Elon Musk’s ‘Idiot Index’?: https://therrinstitute.com/value-from-elon-musks-idiot-index
A beginner’s guide to sociopolitical collapse: https://www.elidourado.com/p/collapse
Antimatter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimatter
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