Space Lasers
Power at night. From space.
Space lasers. If you are anything like me, that may be enough to get your interest in my newest piece for Arena Mag:
For those that need a little more, this article is a profile of Overview Energy. Overview is a startup based on the fancy idea that it is now economical to collect sunlight in space and use lasers to beam it to Earth.
Max at Arena asked if I had any thoughts on contributing to Issue 007 with a James Bond space opera theme, and I knew it had to be space lasers. Growing up, Bond movie marathons were the background noise for most of my Thanksgivings. Goldeneye 64 was one of the seminal games that my brothers and I could play together (I crushed, but we all grew to hate my younger brother’s tactics with proximity mines). Space lasers are one of those topics that existed at the periphery of Bond’s plausibility. Real tech, for sure, but it’s easy to mistake reality for Star Wars.
I wanted to spend time on the messy reality, and it was a good excuse to spend the time with my friend. Marc is a brilliant pioneer in his field, who now has the chance to do something special. The piece is less an stress-test of his economics and more an examination of what must I believe to be true for this thesis to make sense?
Ultimately, the article is a labor of love. My wife was super pregnant when Max asked for ideas (our first baby is now here), and we had been intentionally reducing our commitments. This article was my reach goal, because it has the kind of people I want to see succeed, the kind of tech I want to exist, the kind of writing I like the most (see if you can spot the Tom Wolfe and Incautious Optimism inspirations), and the kind of magazine I want to support.
Now go enjoy some space lasers.