#17: Casey Handmer - Terraform, solar, space, Hyperloop, and how to think

Casey Handmer is the founder and CEO of Terraform Industries and a physicist, immigrant, pilot, dad, solar enthusiast, Caltech physics PhD and former Hyperloop One levitation engineer and NASA JPL software system architect.

0:00 - Intro

1:40 - Why don’t other people do what Terraform does?

2:51 - Why is solar better than nuclear fusion?

5:27 - Could carbon emissions actually be good?

8:38 - Why isn’t anyone stopping global warming with sulfur?

13:20 - Can America build something like Terraform?

20:53 - Solar and nuclear

23:10 - Why not terraform Venus instead of Mars?

30:47 - Why did Casey work at NASA instead of SpaceX?

37:18 - Why is Elon the only person with multiple huge companies?

39:59 - Why didn’t the Hyperloop work?

42:26 - Tile the desert with solar

46:03 - How does solar change geopolitics?

48:30 - How does Casey manage his time?

53:24 - How do you develop first principles thinking?

56:28 - Favorite place Casey has traveled to

59:21 - Outro

Casey’s Blog: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/

- You Should Be Working On Hardware: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2023/08/25/you-should-be-working-on-hardware/

- The solar industrial revolution is the biggest investment opportunity in history: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2024/05/22/the-solar-industrial-revolution-is-the-biggest-investment-opportunity-in-history/

- Future of Energy Reading List: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2023/10/19/future-of-energy-reading-list/

- Elon Musk Is Not Understood: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2024/01/02/elon-musk-is-not-understood/

- Why High Speed Rail Hasn’t Caught On: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2022/10/11/why-high-speed-rail-hasnt-caught-on/

Casey’s Website: http://caseyhandmer.com/

Casey’s Twitter: https://x.com/cjhandmer

Terraform Industries: https://terraformindustries.com/

Terraform Blog: https://terraformindustries.wordpress.com/

- Scaling Carbon Capture: https://terraformindustries.wordpress.com/2022/07/24/scaling-carbon-capture/

- Terraform Industries Whitepaper: https://terraformindustries.wordpress.com/2022/07/24/terraform-industries-whitepaper/

- Terraform Industries Whitepaper 2.0: https://terraformindustries.wordpress.com/2023/01/09/terraform-industries-whitepaper-2-0/

- Permitting Reform or Death: https://terraformindustries.wordpress.com/2023/11/10/permitting-reform-or-death/

Transcript: https://www.theojaffee.com/p/17-casey-handmer

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