38: Austin Vernon - Energy Superabundance, Starship Missiles, & Finding Alpha

Austin Vernon is an engineer working on a new method for carbon capture, and he has one of the <a target="_blank" href="http://austinvernon.site">most interesting blogs</a> on the internet, where he writes about engineering, software, economics, and investing.<br/><br/>We discuss how energy superabundance will change the world, how Starship can be turned into a kinetic weapon, why nuclear is overrated, blockchains, batteries, flying cars, finding alpha, & much more!<br/><br/>Watch on <a target="_blank" href="https://youtu.be/YSgfu7XprIM">YouTube</a>. Listen on <a target="_blank" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lunar-society/id1516093381">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://open.spotify.com/show/4JH4tybY1zX6e5hjCwU6gF">Spotify</a>, or any other podcast platform.<br/><br/>Subscribe to find out about future episodes!<br/><br/>Read the full transcript here.<br/><br/>Follow <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/Vernon3Austin">Austin on Twitter</a>. Follow <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/dwarkesh_sp">me on Twitter</a> for updates on future episodes.<br/><br/>Please share if you enjoyed this episode! Helps out a ton!<br/><br/>Timestamps<br/><br/>(0:00:00) - Intro<br/><br/>(0:01:53) - Starship as a Weapon<br/><br/>(0:19:24) - Software Productivity<br/><br/>(0:41:40) - Car Manufacturing<br/><br/>(0:57:39) - Carbon Capture<br/><br/>(1:16:53) - Energy Superabundance<br/><br/>(1:25:09) - Storage for Cheap Energy<br/><br/>(1:31:25) - Travel in Future<br/><br/>(1:33:27) - Future Cities<br/><br/>(1:39:58) - Flying Cars<br/><br/>(1:43:26) - Carbon Shortage<br/><br/>(1:48:03) - Nuclear<br/><br/>(2:12:44) - Solar<br/><br/>(2:14:44) - Alpha & Efficient Markets<br/><br/>(2:22:51) - Conclusion<br/><br/>Transcript<br/><br/>Intro<br/><br/><strong>Dwarkesh Patel</strong> (00:00:00):<br/><br/>Okay! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Austin Vernon who writes about engineering, software, economics, and investing on the internet, though not that much else is known about him. So Au