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Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change

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Re: Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change

#11

Post by blindman100 »

akshatrathi wrote: post #6
drited wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious about why you included this sentence: 'The startups announced by BEV so far are all North American, and most of their leadership is also largely white and male' I mean, isn't it enough for BEV to help fund a small sample of companies tackling some of the most challenging problems on earth? Probability of success in such an endeavour is already vanishingly small without adding further constraints. Aren't i…

It's ludicrous to think good ideas only come from North America and white males. Carmichael Roberts agreed with me. His words were that my question felt "piercing" because he was not at liberty to tell me about some of the companies outside the US with diverse leadership, but he said he will soon say more. Rodi Guidero agreed and said to look at the BEV team. It's very diverse: http://www.b-t.energy/ventures/team/ We…

Since when have we tried to be gender or race blind? Martin Luther King preached that, but policy has never been toward gender and race blindness. Gender and race blindness is an untried concept. It would be nice to try.

Re: Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change

#12

Post by drited »

akshatrathi wrote: post #6
drited wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious about why you included this sentence: 'The startups announced by BEV so far are all North American, and most of their leadership is also largely white and male' I mean, isn't it enough for BEV to help fund a small sample of companies tackling some of the most challenging problems on earth? Probability of success in such an endeavour is already vanishingly small without adding further constraints. Aren't i…

It's ludicrous to think good ideas only come from North America and white males. Carmichael Roberts agreed with me. His words were that my question felt "piercing" because he was not at liberty to tell me about some of the companies outside the US with diverse leadership, but he said he will soon say more. Rodi Guidero agreed and said to look at the BEV team. It's very diverse: http://www.b-t.energy/ventures/team/ We…

'It's ludicrous to think good ideas only come from North America and white males'

That's a straw man argument because I did not assert that (and obviously wouldn't because it would be a stupid thing to think).

Maybe he thought your question was piercing because it implied you suspected he was racist or sexist or not concerned with gender and race bias.

Fwiw I'm from one of the excluded categories. I think they should just focus on tackling carbon reduction as they see best fit. If they achieve their mission it'll benefit every man, woman and child on earth. It's unreasonable to expect them to be omniscient. They are a small fund with a small sample of investments. Skew doesn't necessarily mean they have gender or race bias.

Elevating isn't their goal. Reducing carbon is. If we don't do that, there may be no races left to worry about equalising.

Re: Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change

#13

Post by akshatrathi »

blindman100 wrote: post #11
akshatrathi wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's ludicrous to think good ideas only come from North America and white males. Carmichael Roberts agreed with me. His words were that my question felt "piercing" because he was not at liberty to tell me about some of the companies outside the US with diverse leadership, but he said he will soon say more. Rodi Guidero agreed and said to look at the BEV team. It's very diverse: http://www.b-t.energy/ventures/team/ We…

Since when have we tried to be gender or race blind? Martin Luther King preached that, but policy has never been toward gender and race blindness. Gender and race blindness is an untried concept. It would be nice to try.

We've tried in some ways. What do you think no-discrimination policy is at work is about?

Re: Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change

#14

Post by akshatrathi »

drited wrote: post #12
akshatrathi wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's ludicrous to think good ideas only come from North America and white males. Carmichael Roberts agreed with me. His words were that my question felt "piercing" because he was not at liberty to tell me about some of the companies outside the US with diverse leadership, but he said he will soon say more. Rodi Guidero agreed and said to look at the BEV team. It's very diverse: http://www.b-t.energy/ventures/team/ We…

'It's ludicrous to think good ideas only come from North America and white males' That's a straw man argument because I did not assert that (and obviously wouldn't because it would be a stupid thing to think). Maybe he thought your question was piercing because it implied you suspected he was racist or sexist or not concerned with gender and race bias. Fwiw I'm from one of the excluded categories. I think they should…

I think you can do both. If anybody has the resources to do that, BEV does.

Re: Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change

#15

Post by drited »

akshatrathi wrote: post #14
drited wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'It's ludicrous to think good ideas only come from North America and white males' That's a straw man argument because I did not assert that (and obviously wouldn't because it would be a stupid thing to think). Maybe he thought your question was piercing because it implied you suspected he was racist or sexist or not concerned with gender and race bias. Fwiw I'm from one of the excluded categories. I think they should…

I think you can do both. If anybody has the resources to do that, BEV does.

It would certainly be laudable if they could. The article was fascinating, thanks for answering questions!

Re: Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change

#16

Post by bufbupa »

akshatrathi wrote: post #6
drited wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious about why you included this sentence: 'The startups announced by BEV so far are all North American, and most of their leadership is also largely white and male' I mean, isn't it enough for BEV to help fund a small sample of companies tackling some of the most challenging problems on earth? Probability of success in such an endeavour is already vanishingly small without adding further constraints. Aren't i…

It's ludicrous to think good ideas only come from North America and white males. Carmichael Roberts agreed with me. His words were that my question felt "piercing" because he was not at liberty to tell me about some of the companies outside the US with diverse leadership, but he said he will soon say more. Rodi Guidero agreed and said to look at the BEV team. It's very diverse: http://www.b-t.energy/ventures/team/ We…

"It's ludicrous to think good ideas only come from North America and white males."

Sure, not what gp said, but agreed.

"but if you want to elevate those that don't come from privileged backgrounds"

Just some unsolicited feedback, the original race/gender quote from the article and this statement leads me to interpret that you either value equality of outcome (EG: all of these startups should have proportional distributions of gender and race in all positions) over technological advancements, or that you suspect the organization is biased to some detrimental degree.

This feedback isn't meant to insinuate that you actually believe either, just that it was my interpretation from the seemingly out of context nod to race/genders of the startup founders.

For example, if you'd have included a quote along the lines of "The startups announced by BEV so far are all above 6' tall". The statement would seem to insinuate that there's either something wrong with being 6' tall (analogous to something wrong with being white/male), or that the organization seems to unfairly favor tall people.

Re: Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change

#17

Post by perfunctory »

> These startups progress slowly and at great expense, earning them the moniker “tough tech” because they work on difficult problems that require fundamental breakthroughs.

I am genuinely curious if for-profit startups is the right setting for "fundamental breakthroughs". Could the current nuclear power technology have been invented by a startup for example?

Re: Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change

#18

Post by stcredzero »

debatem1 wrote: post #10
stcredzero wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead, they use a sophisticated absorbent to selectively capture water, heat it to release the water, then sterilize and add minerals. So it's using a dessicant? Heating a saturated dessicant in an enclosed environment can produce a hot, high humidity environment where dehumidification is easy. That said, it will still produce the most water someplace like San Francisco, where the humidity is high. There are places…

Stupid question, is this targeted at producing water or is it targeted at producing clean water where contaminated water is available?

It's targeted at producing water by extracting it from the air.

Re: Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change

#19

Post by philipkglass »

perfunctory wrote: post #17

> These startups progress slowly and at great expense, earning them the moniker “tough tech” because they work on difficult problems that require fundamental breakthroughs. I am genuinely curious if for-profit startups is the right setting for "fundamental breakthroughs". Could the current nuclear power technology have been invented by a startup for example?

If a self-sustaining nuclear fission reaction had not been previously demonstrated, could you build a proof-of-concept in 2018 on a startup budget? I would say yes. It is conceivable that you could build a modern equivalent of Chicago Pile-1 on a startup budget, assuming that you didn't implement any more safety features than the original CP-1. And if nuclear fission had never been demonstrated before this hypothetical startup probably wouldn't have much in the way of safety regulations to consider.

The more difficult question: how would a startup come to experiment with ways to build a self-sustaining fission reaction if the basic concept hadn't been demonstrated before? Something would have to be very different about history. As an improbable hand-wave, let's say that academic scientists had only ever experimented with fast-neutron fission, and didn't realize that natural uranium could sustain a chain reaction if the neutrons were moderated. We're probably deep into alt-history "World War II never happened, also the world has been surprisingly peaceful" fiction with that hand-wave.

Finally, if you really mean current nuclear power technology, e.g. one of the actual Generation III reactor designs currently operating, plus supporting infrastructure -- no, a startup could not invent all of that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_III_reactor#Generat...

You could easily blow through 100 million dollars just trying to prototype the enrichment process for the uranium that your reactor needs as fuel. Never mind actually sourcing enough natural uranium in a world where uranium has previously been a niche material like rubidium, building a uranium enrichment plant, fabricating fuel elements, forging a huge pressure vessel, developing the whole field of nuclear engineering...

Re: Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change

#20

Post by DennisP »

perfunctory wrote: post #17

> These startups progress slowly and at great expense, earning them the moniker “tough tech” because they work on difficult problems that require fundamental breakthroughs. I am genuinely curious if for-profit startups is the right setting for "fundamental breakthroughs". Could the current nuclear power technology have been invented by a startup for example?

I guess the answer depends on which country you're talking about. The U.S. government pioneered nuclear power but has done very little with it over the past several decades, and has impeded private efforts. Canada has a regulatory system friendlier to reactor startups than the U.S., and at least one molten salt reactor company (Terrestrial Energy) is making good progress there. China has an aggressive government program developing every type of GenIV reactor, and Terrapower moved there after giving up on the U.S.

This article mainly covers the MIT fusion effort. For years they struggled to keep their government funding, despite their tokamak having the most powerful magnetic field of any in the world. They finally lost that battle, and now private investors are stepping in. It doesn't appear that there was an alternative.

Government can obviously throw more money but it tends to be more conservative about what it funds. And private funding can go pretty far; it was interesting to see that TAE (Tri Alpha Energy, an aneutronic fusion effort) is up to $800 million in funding. They started work in 1999, so long-term fundamental research does seem to be achievable in a startup setting.

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