00:08:00.520So, I studied physics and economics in college, which is a good foundation for understanding how the economy works and how reality works.
00:08:08.040And then was going to do a PhD at Stanford in advanced ultracapacitors, actually, as a potential means of energy storage for electric transport.
00:08:27.280I put that on hold to start an internet company.
00:08:34.600I essentially came to the conclusion that the internet was one of those rare things, and I could either watch it happen while a grad student or anticipate.
00:08:42.540And I figured I'd always go back to grad school.
00:08:44.440You know, grad school is going to be kind of the same.
00:08:45.980But I couldn't bear the thought of just watching the internet happen.
00:08:50.860So, I wanted to be a part of building it.
00:12:39.420So, I think you have to start with some sort of philosophical premise in order to have, in order for the, in order to be highly motivated, you have to have some philosophical foundation.
00:12:55.620In my case, it was that we want to expand the scope and scale of consciousness to better understand the nature of the universe.
00:13:11.280And in order to expand consciousness, we need to go beyond one planet.
00:13:17.080If we're on one planet, there's too much risk.
00:13:20.000You know, hopefully Earth civilization prospers very far into the future, but it may not.
00:13:24.640There's always some risk that we are, we self-annihilate through nuclear war or that there's a big meteor that takes us out like the dinosaurs.
00:13:33.280There's always some risk if all your eggs are in one basket.
00:13:35.500So, it's going to be better if we're a multi-planet species.
00:13:39.300And then, once we're a multi-planet species, the next step would be to be multi-stellar and have civilization among, on many different star systems.
00:13:50.060So, in 2001, I didn't think that I could, I didn't think I could sell a rocket company.
00:13:54.820So, I thought I'd take some of the money from PayPal.
00:14:00.820In that case, I think it was about $180 million after tax, something like that.
00:14:06.500And, I thought, you know, I don't need $180 million, so I'll spend a bunch of it on a philanthropic Mars mission to get the public excited about going back to Mars.
00:14:40.700Like, there would be incomprehensible that we've not been to Mars by now, if you told people this after landing on the moon in 1969.
00:14:48.620Why do you think in 50 years, America never went back to the moon?
00:14:52.380Well, we destroyed the Saturn V rocket that was, that could take people to the moon, and had the space shuttle, which could only go to low Earth orbit.
00:14:58.920And then, there really hasn't been anything to replace, no vehicle has been made since then that can go to the moon or to Mars until the SpaceX starship rocket.
00:15:43.260But, you were down in the basement office, and I remember you were coming and sitting down with SpaceX, and at the time, the Air Force was not letting y'all bid to launch satellites.
00:16:05.100It's hard to believe that this is all real.
00:16:08.080Because, originally, if it's consistent with my belief that we need to become a multi-planet species, I thought the only way to do that would be through NASA.
00:16:16.360So, and I think, I thought, well, if I can just get the public excited about Mars, then they'll do a mission to Mars.
00:16:23.340And, so initially, my thought was to have, to send a small greenhouse with seeds and dehydrated nutrient gel, then land the greenhouse, hydrate the seeds, and you'd see these, the sort of money shot.
00:16:37.300The money shot would be green plants on a red background.
00:16:51.540But, what I'm trying to say is, the captivating shot would be the green plants on a red background.
00:16:59.420And then, hopefully, that would, if we did something like that, that would get the public excited about Mars, that would increase NASA's budget, and then we could send people to Mars.
00:17:05.920So, your original dream was NASA to do this?
00:17:10.000No, the original plan was literally to take a bunch of the money from PayPal, and, I guess, by some people's definition, waste it with no profit on a non-profit thing.
00:17:24.660I wanted to spend a whole bunch of my money for free to get NASA's budget to be bigger so we could go to frigging Mars.
00:19:01.460So, it gets slightly less insane when you understand that the Russians had to demolish a bunch of their ICBMs because of, you know, salt talks.
00:19:22.120Russia was actually obligated to scrap a bunch of their ICBMs.
00:19:25.820So, if you're talking to the very biggest ICBMs, you could convert those into a rocket, add an additional stage, and send something to Mars.
00:19:32.900So, those are big enough with one more stage to get to Mars?
00:19:36.420To send a small payload to Mars, yeah.
00:20:17.700But, I was like, man, if the price is increasing this much before the contract signed, I'm really going to get fleeced after the contract signed.