I spent yesterday 'particupating' in Day 1 of this year's FiRe conference, an annual conflab that is often praised as 'the best futures conference' on the globe, according to the Economist. I've attended on occasion (I've been a speaker, and I'm certainly an enthusiast, but seldom an actual attendee: the fee is usually a stiff $6K per attendee). https://www.futureinreview.com/
Pattern Computer was 'born' at this conference in 2015, and I've been privileged to be on Pattern's Advisory board since 2018, which this year earned me a Virtual Seat at the conference. https://www.patterncomputer.com/about-us/
This is quite a privilege in its own right--access to leading-edge talks, if not the side-rooms and chat sessions, and in that connection, there were multiple spectacular talks yesterday, and I anticipate that today and tomorrow wil feature more of the same.
One that I was especially taken by yesterday was by Dave Andermann, CEO of Sovera Inc,, a company spun out of Elon Musk's Starlink and SpaceX endeavors. Andermann has a pedigree that well suits him for work in this arena, having served as General Counsel for Space X for seven years, and for Lucas Film for 16 years prior to that. Here's his LinkedIn profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidanderman/details/experience/
His talk focused on How to Build Low-Orbit Satellite Systems for sovereign nations, what that means, and how you go about it--including the Perils of Pauline. He started from the premise and observation that StarLink was the first global network for the world, despite the size and goals of major network corporations over the years. He described the ongoing battle for sovereign control by every (major) nation, and what it has taken to counteract that. Fascinating 150 year old 'history' of government control of information flow, and what that means for geopolitical issues.
The Blue Origins launch pad explosion last week came up, in the context of how constrained are the number of launch sites. He said, contrary to what I knew, that more than a dozen new launch companies exist, and the 'common' expectation is that in a decade, the world will see 10,000 launches per year, somewhat analogous to how many planes fly worldwide daily. So launch pads and launch vehicles, and the costs (now that, ala Musk, launch vehicles are 'recoverable') are 'easy issues' to surmount.
That puts his answers to questions at the end into perspective. The most telling answer to me was his retort about the brouhaha now surrounding the enormous drag on water for communities where these humongous data centers are being constructed for AI centers. He pointed out that two things are true in space--solar power is 'free' and 'cold' is free. So the huge cooling requirement for water to cool these centers is obviated by the coldness of space, and the huge energy demand is answerable by solar energy.
Ergo, why not launch satellite data centers? Easy to beam data to the earth, compared to the savings in energy and cooling needs demanded by a planet-bound data center. Oh, and costs? Why not beam infra-red energy at night to all of the 'dark' solar farms, and render them two to three times more efficient? Fascinating talk!
This has been in 'the press' but not in a clear way. Here's one phrase, gleaned from a Google search: "Musk's space and AI ventures are aggressively pursuing off-Earth computing thorugh 'orbital data centers'. SpaceX has filed an FCC application toluanch up to 1 million satelliees dedicated to running AI workloads in orbit, even when his terrestrial AI firm, xAI, is building massive data centers on the ground." Well, duh--of course, a both-AND strategy.
But the pushback to such a novel idea is almost predictable. Forbes for example couldn't wait to predict a dire future, a bankrupt futre, for Musk if he follows such a ridiculous plan. Kevin Platt, May 31, 2026 in Forbes: "SpaceX Vow to launch 1 million AI Satellites could spark a Doomsday Dive." https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinholdenplatt/2026/05/31/spacex-vow-to-loft-1-million-ai-satellites-could-spark-doomsday-dive/
Andermann closed his talk by describing this possibility, and said: He then went on to say, "Never bet against Elon Musk's crazy ideas".
Other talks were equally stimulating. I might post some more stories from that conference.
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