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

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Transcript: https://www.generalist.com/p/reviving-forgotten-technologies-eli-dourado

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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

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Follow Eli Dourado

Newsletter: https://www.elidourado.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elidourado/

X: https://x.com/elidourado

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Resources and episode mentions: https://www.generalist.com/p/reviving-forgotten-technologies-eli-dourado⁠

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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)

The Generalist

Reviving Forgotten Technologies: How Airships, Supersonic Flight, and Geothermal Energy Could Transform Our World | Eli Dourado (Head of Strategic Investments at Astera Institute)