The Exchanges

Q How, how deep do your vehicles go? Do they go to like the bottom of the ocean where these pipes are?

A So for the Baltic Sea, I mean, it's one, it's one of the shallower seas, and this is like a major, the major kind of like, um, you know, uh, activity, area of activity where this is going right now. Um, so our, our vehicle works in that sea, uh, you know, at all depth profiles in that sea. So for the Baltic Sea part of it, it is, uh, it, it, it works. When you get into like gnarlier parts of the ocean, like some of the Pacific where you're getting down to like 8000 meters, right? Like Mount Everest, you know, levels of depth. We can't go there yet. Um, It just started getting difficult, but like, yeah, or we will be adding future vehicles to the fleet.

AI assessment note: “our vehicle works in that sea, uh, you know, at all depth profiles”

Q Why is it dying? Is it because pollution or what's the cause?

A Yeah, there's like a few, um, there's a few, few, few things. I mean, water quality is like a very common, uh, you know, cause for loss. Uh, other things are just like construction, construction, um, around like coastlines, digging it up, dredging, uh, you know, changing, uh, ocean temperatures, uh, changing like ocean currents, these sorts of things impact it. And, uh, And, and, and basically, you know, the, the kind of context there is there's a lot of governments in around all over the world, like really, really panicking around this. Like if they lose their seagrasses, they lose their fish stocks. If they lose their fish stocks, you have the one billion people who rely on it and three billion people who, um, you know, rely on it for food and, and the billions for income. And, you know, they're, they're in a, they're in a tough situation and basically restoring it, um, i.e. bringing it back, uh, is currently a very manual process.

AI assessment note: “water quality is like a very common, uh, you know, cause for loss.”

Q Are they actually underwater or are they on top of the water just out in the ocean?

A The plan is for it to be subsea. Um, and again, like these are the sorts of businesses that like Ulysses, we want to be the kind of servicing partner for in the future when they need maintenance, when they need like inspections done, when they like, it's like us, they're coming to And we're selling them, like, a kind of in the box solution to, I think the biggest opportunity in this, like, you know, paradigm in the future where more and more data cables are being laid subsea is actually in the protection of them, right? So I don't know if you guys are familiar what's going on in, like, the Baltic Sea and places, but, like, I think in the last year about 11 cables have been cut by foreign actors and, like, you know, basically the kind of

AI assessment note: “The plan is for it to be subsea.”

Q And, ah, Will, did I kind of frame your argument right as to like the potential that you see as far as, you know, the business opportunity of, of building startups that are, are focused on, on the ocean?

A Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, yeah, I think, like, yeah, the framing is, like, you know, something like this. It's like, you know, you know, everyone is, like, here standing on Earth, like, looking, looking towards, um, the stars, and, and absolutely, we, we, you know, we should be doing that, and we should be going, like, you know, full pelt with, like, trying to go interplanetary, trying to put a base on the Moon, and take, you know, take the, take the dark side of the Moon, and then, you know, go, ah, from there, and use that as a lion coin to go to Mars, and we should be trying to fly supersonic as well, but then, look, if you're, If you're trying to build a startup, like, you're always asking yourself, like, where, you know, what is everyone else looking to do? And like, what, where, where is everyone else going? And where is like underrated? And I suppose, uh, you know, I grew up by, by the seaside and like the, in the, in the Southwest of Ireland, I've always been obsessed with the ocean. If I wasn't like on it, in it or near it growing up, um, you know, there was, there was, there was something, something wrong in the same way that you're, you're afraid some of it. Um, Um, yeah, I'm, I'm kind of like, when I'm, when I'm away from it, I, I feel something wrong with me. And, um, so I've always been, been thinking about it. And I mean, if you just like look at it in like, yo…

AI assessment note: “Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, yeah, I think, like, yeah, the framing is”

Q run or whatever, you feel free, but I just got to ask you about these. So, um, I want to do the fun one and then the spiritual one. The fun one is conspiracy theories. You're a big conspiracy. You're a fan of conspiracy theories, I believe. And you like people who like conspiracy theories. So can you just give me a rant? On why conspiracy theories are underrated here?

A I think, um, well, I think it's like, ah, you know, a lot of the traits of, like, conspiracy theorists are, like, those of, like, a, like, a great, like, uh, founder. I think, like, someone that, like, believes in something that everyone else tells them is, like, not real, um, or, like, you know, that they shouldn't believe in, or, like, you know, people that are, like, able to see patterns that others can't see, and, you know, they, they just, like, go down these, like, rabbit holes, uh, and I think, like, just, like, this contrarian spirit, I think is, like, Very, very good. And I think it's just like a very important, you know, the default is like doing things that other people do. And so I think it's very important to cultivate, uh, an ability to see the world differently, I think.

AI assessment note: “a lot of the traits of, like, conspiracy theorists are, like, those of, like, a, like, a great, like, uh, founder.”

Q or three, but I was listening to while I was going to sleep and I just had some like wild, wild nights there. So I decided, all right, I need to only listen to this, you know, not falling asleep if I'm going to do this right. By the way, Will, did you walk away from that, you know, half convinced, three-fourths convinced, totally convinced? What did you walk away?

A I was going into it already with some sort of like priors that I thought that like consciousness, consciousness isn't local to the brain. Like we like to think that like our brain is this kind of like DVD player. Um, where like consciousness is playing, and it's like being played to us, and that's how we experience things. I think we're more like, I always kind of thought, and for different reasons, that we're more like a radio antenna. You know, you have these stories of people like their, their son dies in an accident, and they just know something's wrong, right? They just like know, right? Like there's like, you know, everyone, every family has these stories of like death, or like something bad happened, and they just like knew. They woke up in the middle of the night, and they're like, I couldn't sleep then after that, and then they wake up the next day, they hear about this awful accident, or something like that. Or you have like, There's, like, knowingness, and these other things, like, just, like, telepathy, twins, telepathy, and stuff, and there's, like, this world of parapsychology, which is, like, the study of these kind of psi phenomena. There's, like, a few very reproducible experiments in it, like the Ganzfeld experiment, which, if you allow me to go on this, like, very short rabbit hole, but, like, the most reproducible experiment in this field is, basically, you …

AI assessment note: “I was going into it already with some sort of like priors that I thought”