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Alex Fielding

CEO and Chairman, Privateer · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutiveengineer@Alex__Fielding ↗LinkedIn ↗privateer.com ↗Wikipedia ↗

Alex Fielding co-founded Privateer alongside Steve Wozniak and Dr. Moriba Jah to track orbital debris and build geospatial intelligence infrastructure. Earlier in his career, he worked as an engineer at Apple and Cisco, co-founded Wheels of Zeus, and served as CEO of robotics digitization company Ripcord.

18statements → 13claims → 6claims resolved → 67%fully supported → 4/5average certainty → 2.53/5average debate potential → 3.9/5argument clarity · the sources →

4 supported 0 partly supported 2 contradicted 6 not checkable as stated how the 13 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

4 predictions · 9 assertions · 3 opinions · 1 insight · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 13 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 7 are resolved, and 6 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Alex argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Prediction Held up
Fielding: Privateer plans to offer space tracking tools for free
“We aim to democratize the space situational awareness market. By bringing these tools to humankind for free, by enabling and empowering the community so that we have a single source of truth and knowledge, and we're not aiming to own it.”
Alex Fielding Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 47:34 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Fielding: Over 40% of registered space objects violate international space treaties
“Where they looked at how many objects in space are in or out of compliance with the Space Act and treaties. And the number out of compliance is over 40% of those registered objects are out of compliance.”
Alex Fielding Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 32:54 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above

Argument clarity: do they answer the question? how? →

3.9 / 5 directness 3.9 · coherence 4.1 · precision 3.7 · compression 3.4

redirected or did not address 3 of 22 assessed questions (14%). Watch them ▸

This is a score against a rubric. It is not a rank. Every host question → answer exchange is scored with names hidden on directness, coherence, precision and compression, 1–5 each, on meaning alone: disfluencies are ignored, and only raw unedited episodes count. This is the score that measures thought. Every scored exchange, scores shown → · The rubric and its checks →

How they sound: speaking style how? →

253 words/min while actually speaking · 8.8 um and uh per 1k words · 17.4 false starts per 1k · 27.6% of pauses land inside a clause

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 6,244 words across 2 episodes of raw-level tape, transcribed verbatim with every um and uh kept, each one attributed only where the alignment onto our timed stream is unambiguous. These are measurements of speaking style. We do not rank them: across this corpus, fluency and argument quality are nearly uncorrelated (ρ≈0.2), and smooth talking does not signal clear thinking. How it's measured →

Everything Alex Fielding said on the a16z Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Contradicted
Fielding: Over 40% of registered space objects violate international space treaties
“Where they looked at how many objects in space are in or out of compliance with the Space Act and treaties. And the number out of compliance is over 40% of those registered objects are out of compliance.”
Alex Fielding Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 32:54 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Fielding: Putting a satellite in space costs less than attorney paperwork fees
“I can put a satellite in space for less than I can pay our attorneys to do the paperwork.”
Alex Fielding Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 45:49 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Prediction Held up
Fielding: Privateer plans to offer space tracking tools for free
“We aim to democratize the space situational awareness market. By bringing these tools to humankind for free, by enabling and empowering the community so that we have a single source of truth and knowledge, and we're not aiming to own it.”
Alex Fielding Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 47:34 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Opinion
Fielding: Space traffic control should be a government service
“Space situational awareness and domain awareness and traffic management and ultimately traffic control. Becoming services that actually should be provided by governments that have traditionally only been provided by private industry.”
Alex Fielding Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 48:49 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Opinion
Fielding: Space situational awareness is not a true commercial market
“If you look at this marketplace that some people would put privateer in the bucket of space situational awareness and domain awareness and traffic management, I would argue it's not a market. Because the commercial companies that are there, they don't make a g…”
Alex Fielding Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 1:04:40 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Fielding: Space traffic control will soon resemble air traffic control
“And ultimately if enforcement does occur, which I think it's bound to occur soon, it has to occur soon. You'll start to see space traffic control be very akin to air traffic control.”
Alex Fielding Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 1:11:37 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Fielding: Commercial space spending will surpass government spending very soon
“Now, the dollars haven't shifted yet, right? The government's still outspending the commercial sector because of all of those things, the war machine and intelligence gathering and defense. But that's gonna change very, very, very soon. It's bound to, because …”
Alex Fielding Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 1:21:26 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Fielding: Space insurance policy riders routinely exclude space debris damage
“Many insurance policies in space on the riders exclude space debris from a covered loss.”
Alex Fielding Dec 27, 2022 ▶ 33:41 a16z Podcast: Best Clips of 2022
Assertion Supported
Fielding: US GPS constellation has stayed at roughly 30 satellites for 22 years
“We haven't really grown that constellation in 22 years. It's still about a 30 GPS satellites that give us the, that are United States assets.”
Alex Fielding Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 44:41 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Prediction Didn’t hold up
Fielding: Privateer is launching its own satellite constellation
“For that we're putting up a constellation of our own satellites, which I hope doesn't sound too hypocritical.”
Alex Fielding Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 47:54 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Fielding: Roscosmos cosmonauts were unaware of 2021 Russian ASAT test
“The cosmonauts from Roscosmos that were aboard the space station at the time, they had no damn idea that their government was going to blow up an asset and put them and the world in peril.”
Alex Fielding Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 58:01 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Assertion Supported
Fielding: 80% of space launches in 2021 were commercial, not government
“Now that we are in a commercial space environment where 80% of the things that went up last year were commercial versus government, that's a flip. Most of my lifetime, the things that went up most years were 80% government, and you'd be lucky to find 20% comme…”
Alex Fielding Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 1:21:11 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Assertion Partly supported
Fielding: Ground radar misses over one million centimeter-sized space debris pieces
“So we're talking about over a million pieces of debris that are smaller than a centimeter. But the only thing we can really see from ground-based radar is stuff that's bigger than the size of a softball.”
Alex Fielding Dec 27, 2022 ▶ 31:26 a16z Podcast: Best Clips of 2022
Insight
Fielding: Space governance derived from maritime law lacks basic right-of-way rules
“These things were based in maritime law. And I guess that kind of made sense for the time because we needed a framework for how we interoperate in space, but that is actually creating the challenge because we don't have even the simplest notions of like right …”
Alex Fielding Dec 27, 2022 ▶ 34:12 a16z Podcast: Best Clips of 2022
Opinion
Fielding: Humanity has turned Earth's orbit into a giant ball of trash
“We've made a giant ball of trash.”
Alex Fielding Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 0:17 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Assertion Supported
Fielding: Space insurance policies frequently exclude damage from space debris
“Many insurance policies in space on the riders exclude space debris from a covered loss.”
Alex Fielding Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 30:48 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Disclosure
Fielding: Privateer launches satellites because operators refuse open data sharing
“If everyone wanted to share in space and wanted to do what we were doing, we wouldn't have to launch any of our own satellites. We could just ask them, why don't you just give us access to your stuff and we'll give access to the entire community. But it doesn'…”
Alex Fielding Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 56:06 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Fielding: Privateer's space map uses live data, not simulation
“These are live data. This is not a simulation.”
Alex Fielding Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 0:14 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above Nov 9, 2022 29m

Played on the show (1)

Episodes where a recording of Alex Fielding was played rather than Alex taking part, or where the tape carries an address with nobody putting questions to them. Listed because the words are on the record, kept out of every score on this page because they were not said on this show. We read this off the tape: who was spoken to, who was asked something, who answered whom.

EpisodeDateOn tapeWhat it is
a16z Podcast: Best Clips of 2022 Dec 27, 2022 2m clip played
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