Q&A Part 2 | Christianna Taylor

So you were talking about one of the difficulties in, I guess, AI is machines can't really design. What do you think about the evolutionary algorithm approach as a way to find solutions?

I think that— so when I say design, I'm saying that what's going to be aesthetically pleasing to someone versus what is the aerodynamics of your car, right? That's what I mean. Like, is it aesthetically pleasing versus Is it more efficient and has a better value— value— a value objective function? So that's what— that's what I mean when I say, can it really design versus can it just make my objective better?

Right.

It can't subjectively learn, but you could train it on other people's subjective learning.

And you can—

you can absolutely do that. And I think that that is where AI is going, especially when it comes to social media and where it comes to online commerce. Absolutely. I think that the evolutionary side, the reinforcement learning, all of that is where we're going so that it can train itself to do new things. I personally think that you still need a person in the loop to actually still have the right design. So when I say that it can't design, I'm saying that it can't be aesthetically as appealing to someone versus— yeah, that's what I mean by it. Now, no offense to any neural network out there right now that's churning away trying to design something. You know, keep on churning. I'm just saying that your neural network's not going to have the empathy that a human's going to have. That's what I mean by that. Yes?

I'm curious about these unused satellites. What are the ownerships? Like, is it still blocked to these countries that they send them?

Oh, you want to go down that rabbit hole?

Okay.

Or like, how will you use them? Or if there's an accident, who's responsible? Or are they taking responsibility? This kind of stuff.

You don't understand the rabbit hole you just opened. All right, there are 5 major treaties that govern space. There is the Outer Space Treaty, which basically states that anything you put up, you own. There's a liability treaty. You own it, you're liable for it. There's the Astronaut Treaty, which basically said that if something happens to one of our astronauts, that every other country will get together and try to save them. This was during the Cold War, so when Russia was sending up cosmonauts versus the US sending up astronauts, in general, if there's anything that happens, if there's an emergency that happens, we will save each other's astronauts. There is liability ownership. There's the War Treaty. So there are no weapons in space, period. There's no weapons in space. If I don't have permission to touch your spacecraft, I'm— You're not allowed to. You're literally violating an international treaty. So you don't do that. And then there is— it didn't come back to me— liability, ownership— oh, no one owns space. So no one can own the moon. No one can own asteroids. Now that said, what we're doing going with asteroid mining, we now have a special amendment, I believe it is, so that whatever you mine, you actually have ownership and control over. But those are the 5 major treaties in space. They matter because it's really hard to work in space. It translates into don't touch my toys. That's what it all translates into. If I own it, don't touch it. If I let you touch it, you're liable for it, but I'm not going to tell you what it is because I don't want you to know it. If I'm liable for it, I'm going to fight you tooth and nail for it. Like, it is a crazy, crazy red tape issue. It is a very important one because rightfully so, space is a little bit contentious. It is the means for greater good, but you're still talking about surveillance. talking about understanding what other countries are doing. So rightfully so, it is a contentious space, even if it is used for the greater good. So when— oh God— when the tsunamis hit Japan, when those huge underground earthquakes hit Malaysia— was it Malaysia? Indonesia? Malaysia.

It was in Malaysia.

When Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita— so Hurricane Katrina in particular, the first satellite that actually looked at it was actually a Nigerian satellite that gave us information on it, gave us information. So it's contentious. whether it can be used for the greater good or otherwise. I am not in that debate. I am not here for that debate. But to answer your question, it means that A, you have to get permission from that country, whoever owns it. B, you have to have an understanding and liability agreement as to what happens if something goes wrong. C, are they selling it to you or are they just allowing you to service it? These are new areas when it comes to law as to what they're trying— well, as to— these are new areas when it comes to law on where it's going to be written and what people agree to. So it's a very new, big, open field, and it's definitely a big ball of red tape. So hopefully that answers your question, but I spent a very long time reading a lot of random UN treaties, and that's a very interesting pastime if you're ever looking for something to do, reading UN treaties. Any other questions?

You said GPU now has a lot of computing power and we're all using GPUs. Do you have any other alternatives for GPUs because computing is way more expensive than before because of a lot of mining and everything coming at GPUs, so like more price than before?

Yeah, I'm not gonna answer that one only because A, I don't know, and I feel like there's a computer scientist in here who knows much better than I. I will say the prices have been going down. I will say that it's changing the game, especially with the NVIDIA and the Nvidia-Baidu collaboration they're looking at. I know China just want just almost a year ago, so launched it on a computer. So it's changing, but I'm not in that space enough to be able to tell you that. I'm in the space of how do I just utilize the hardware. So I don't want to step on anyone's toes who knows better than me. Yeah.

So who's going to pay you for cleaning up the space?

This is why there's not a salvage operation in space. There are a few scenarios here as to what happens. The one I do not want to see is something major happens, i.e., we lose the ISS, we lose the GPS satellite, we lose an entire orbit. I don't want to see that because then we'll get to the point where, yes, we're going to spend as much money as we possibly can, but at what cost? At what price? That is the first where it becomes a UN issue. The UN does have an orbital debris office. It's called the UN United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs is located in Vienna, and they're the ones actually drafted all treaties, drafted the interlives, whatnot. There, that's one way, which I absolutely hope and pray it does not come down to. The other way is what Native Space is doing and Deep Space Industries Planetary Resources is doing with the manufacturing side, where they're looking at How can I charge other people to manufacture and do satellite servicing for their satellites? Um, Astralscale is looking at doing— I believe they're supposed to be doing a demonstration later this year of their adhesive technology and deorbiting a satellite. So they'll have the option of being able to say, all right, you have a non-working satellite, I will come and move it for you. Um, the deorbiting side. I'm interested in the salvage operation. So I'm looking at, hey, you have a dead satellite, you want to sell that part to somebody else? So that's what I'm looking at. Do they have a record of their satellites? Yes. And I want to— there's every now and then you have an interesting case online where like someone, hey, I found that satellite you launched in like the 1970s. Who knew? But there's a launch manifest. And in general, we do have deep, deep, deep records of like where things are. The military as well as the UN, basically every major agency has a different manifest of what's what and who owns what because you're liable for it. So if your satellite goes and hits somebody else, you're liable. liable for that leak, you know, who owns it. So there is a difference.

So I'm not in steel, I'm in genetics, but I've got a sillier question. So as space— as space becomes cheaper, would it ever become feasible for us to launch nuclear waste into the sun, like just throw it out there so we don't have to worry about it?

I'm like, where do you start with that question? Nuclear waste to the sun.

Or just how far out enough that this is no longer a problem for us.

I mean, the short answer is yes. I mean, we send things to Venus. We send things to Mars. I think we'd do better just not making nuclear waste, personally. I'm trying to think of what implications that would have. The only implication I can think, like, possibly think of is if it, like, got in the Oort Cloud somehow and, like, hit something that we didn't know was out there or harm some other, like, living, like, life as we know it. Um, I don't think it would harm, like, our— the space weather or our gravitational fields or the Van Allen belts. But, um, short answer is possible. I don't know how economical or useful that is, but— Short answer is possible. We did send Curiosity, which is powered by our RTG, which is a nuclear power source. We do have other nuclear power sources in space as well. I want to say one of the satellites on the Jupiter had a nuclear power source, so it's possible. I don't know exactly.

So would it—