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Dr. Moriba Jah

Chief Scientist & Co-Founder, Privateer · 2 appearances on the record.

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

scientistacademicfounder@moribajah ↗LinkedIn ↗sites.utexas.edu/moriba ↗Wikipedia ↗

Dr. Moriba Jah is an astrodynamicist and MacArthur Fellow renowned for pioneering space environmentalism and orbital debris tracking solutions. He co-founded the space data company Privateer alongside Steve Wozniak and Alex Fielding to monitor orbital traffic.

9statements → 8claims → 6claims resolved → 67%fully supported → 4.56/5average certainty → 1.89/5average debate potential → 4.3/5argument clarity · the sources → 1said about them ↓

4 supported 2 partly supported 0 contradicted 2 not checkable as stated how the 8 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

2 predictions · 6 assertions · 1 opinion · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 8 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 6 are resolved, and 2 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 Dr. 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

Assertion Supported
Jah: 96% of objects launched into space become non-functional garbage
“96% of the stuff that we put in space to turn out To be garbage.”
Dr. Moriba Jah Dec 27, 2022 ▶ 30:56 a16z Podcast: Best Clips of 2022

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
none yet certainty 3
100% certainty 4
67% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

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

4.3 / 5 directness 4.5 · coherence 4.6 · precision 4.1 · compression 3.8

answered every one of 14 assessed questions directly

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: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. We have 2,455 words of Dr. Moriba Jah, and that is not enough to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

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

Prediction Not checkable as stated
Jah: Inferring intent from satellite capability risks escalatory space conflict
“People are using prejudice to just get rid of that uncertainty. And they're saying, Hey, if the opportunity and the capability is there, if I'm a U S satellite and there's a Chinese satellite that is in the same orbit, not even close in the same orbit as me an…”
Dr. Moriba Jah Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 55:07 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Assertion Supported
Jah: 96% of objects launched into space become non-functional garbage
“96% of the stuff that we put in space to turn out To be garbage.”
Dr. Moriba Jah Dec 27, 2022 ▶ 30:56 a16z Podcast: Best Clips of 2022
Assertion Supported
Jah: 96% of all objects humans launch into space become garbage
“How is that, how is it okay for, like, 96% of the stuff that we put in space to turn out To be garbage.”
Dr. Moriba Jah Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 28:03 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Assertion Supported
Jah: SpaceX operates nearly 3,000 satellites at a 500-kilometer altitude
“Elon has almost 3000 satellites at 500 kilometer altitude, and it would be wise for you to talk to Elon before you try to go through the orbital shell that he has.”
Dr. Moriba Jah Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 35:37 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Jah: Unchanged behavior will saturate orbital highway capacity
“I predict with absolute certainty, if our behavior doesn't change, there will be orbital highways whose capacity will be saturated, and we'll, we're just gonna see an increasing amount of undesirable outcomes occur.”
Dr. Moriba Jah Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 40:14 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Assertion Partly supported
Jah: In 2006, orbit had 1,200 satellites and 26,000 pieces of debris
“At that time in 2006, there were only 1200 working satellites and 26,000 pieces of garbage.”
Dr. Moriba Jah Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 27:43 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Assertion Supported
Jah: Governments, not private companies, bear international liability for space damage
“In terms of international law, all the responsibility for liability, damage, harmful interference, doesn't fall on the shoulders of companies. It's on governments that give them license and authorize them to actually operate in space.”
Dr. Moriba Jah Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 34:30 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Opinion
Jah: Expecting space to remain free of malicious behavior is ridiculous
“I mean, to think that if you see on lands with banditry and on the seas with piracy and all this other stuff even planes get hijacked to think that space is this benevolent, everybody's having pillow fights and tickling each other is ridiculous.”
Dr. Moriba Jah Nov 9, 2022 ▶ 54:38 Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above
Assertion Partly supported
Jah: Earth orbit contained 1,200 working satellites and 26,000 debris pieces in 2006
“At that time in 2006, there were only 1200 working satellites and 26,000 pieces of garbage.”
Dr. Moriba Jah Dec 27, 2022 ▶ 30:30 a16z Podcast: Best Clips of 2022

The other half of the tape: Dr. Moriba Jah's own voice is left out of every number here. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Statements about Dr. Moriba Jah, by other people (1)

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

Appearances (2)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
a16z Podcast: Best Clips of 2022 Dec 27, 2022 1m
Privateer’s Steve Wozniak, Alex Fielding, and Dr. Moriba Jah on the Data Highway Above Nov 9, 2022 12m
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