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Episode 4: Augustus Doricko isn’t trying to play God with his weather-modification company, Rainmaker, but he does admit that quelling hurricanes or creating atmospheric rivers would be pretty based. By using cheap drones to disperse ice nucleation agents, Augustus will literally make it rain — and save the American West in the process.

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(00:00) - Intro

(00:41) - What Rainmaker Technology is Building

(01:27) - Augustus' Background

(03:58) - Why Cloud Seeding and Water Scarcity are Important Problems

(07:07) - The Dialectic on How to Solve Water Scarcity 

(10:08) - How Weather Modification and Cloud Seeding Work

(13:20) - How Rainmaker Identifies Suitable Clouds for Seeding

(17:27) - How Rainmaker Delivers Seeding Agents to Clouds

(20:12) - Rainmaker's Nucleation Agent Dispersion Mechanism 

(23:05) - Rainmaker's Search for Alternative Nucleation Agents

(26:37) - Attribution of Precipitation to Cloud Seeding 

(31:10) - Rainmaker's Initial Target Market and Value Proposition

(37:14) - Extending Rainfall Benefits with Cloud Seeding 

(41:37) - Rainmaker's Pricing Model

(44:49) - Government Interest and Spending on Weather Modification

(47:53) - China's Leadership in Weather Modification   

(50:51) - The Need for Pro-Human, Pro-Environment Climate Engineering

(52:52) - Technical and Business Challenges for Rainmaker

(54:49) - Advice for Aspiring Engineers in Weather Modification

(57:22) - Positive Sum Aspects of Cloud Seeding

(01:01:27) - Government Contracting Potential for Rainmaker

(01:04:02) - Identifying Easy vs. Challenging Components of Rainmaker's System

(01:07:07) - Conclusion and Advice for Aspiring Weather Modification Engineers

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Links:

• Christian Keil – https://twitter.com/pronounced_kyle
• Augustus Doricko – https://twitter.com/ADoricko
• Rainmaker – https://www.makerain.com/

First Principles:

• Ice Nucleation – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_nucleus
• Drainage basins – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drainage_basin
• Nucleation via Drone – https://asr.science.energy.gov/news/program-news/post/14630
• Weather Modification – https://libguides.library.noaa.gov/weather-climate/weather-modification-project-reports

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Production and marketing by The Deep View (https://thedeepview.co). For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email team@firstprinciples.fm

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