Kavli Institute of NanoscienceDelft University of TechnologyUniversity of AmsterdamInternationale AkademieTraunkirchen Austria
Awards:
Fulbright fellowshipGuinness Book of World RecordsRSA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government PolicyDoD-DoE High-Performance Computing Fellowship
Christopher Altman is an American physicist, quantum technologist, international diplomat and NASA-trained commercial astronaut who began his scientific career with a Guinness world-record-holding artificial intelligence project and a NASA/USAF-supported time travel division at multidisciplinary, “Deep Future” research institute Starlab.[1]
As Director of the Board and Chief Science Officer for the world's first commercial astronaut corps[2] and Director with Tau Zero Interstellar Foundation, successor to the NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program,[3][4] Altman's research spans quantum technology and next-generation spaceflight. His inaugural keynote address as a candidate with the commercial astronaut corps was broadcast live to 108 sister cities around the world.[5] NASA allocated funding to the corps for its first manned spaceflights the following spring.[6]
Overview Institute: The Overview Effect is a cognitive shift in awareness reported by astronauts and cosmonauts during spaceflight that leads to a more holistic spiritual perspective of mankind and our place in the universe. Common features of the experience are a feeling of awe for the planet, a profound understanding of the interconnection of all life, and a renewed sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment.Planetary Human: The noosphere, as envisioned by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, envisions the emergence of a planetary consciousness.
Altman has held positions at advanced research and development centers including multidisciplinary, Deep Future research institute Starlab, NASA Ames Research Center and Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, as Chairman for the UNISCA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, as senior scientist at an astronaut training base on a volcano in Hawai‘i, and as part of the US Government's fast-track QuIST Program in the global race[7] to reach quantum supremacy.[8] His present roles include serving as Chief Scientist for renewable energy cryptocurrency SolarCoin; Cofounder and Chief Scientist for open source nonprofit blockchain and SolarCoin affiliate, ElectriCChain; Director with Tau Zero Interstellar Foundation; as an active Flight Member with the Association of Spaceflight Professionals, on the Board of Advisors for the Overview Institute of Australia and Planetary Human, as Ambassador Extraordinary at Large for Peace, Human Rights, Space and Next-Generation Technologies and Special Envoy to the United Nations and the European Union.[9][10][11][12]
His contributions have been recognized with honors and awards including the AIEJ Japanese Fulbright Fellowship[13] the Guinness Book of World Records, the annual RSA Information Security Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Policy, a joint US Department of Defense–Department of Energy Salishan High-Performance Computing graduate fellowship, consecutive Templeton fellowships in theoretical physics with the Zeilinger group at Internationale Akademie Traunkirchen, appointments to diplomatic and humanitarian aid missions worldwide as Extraordinary Ambassador at Large for Peace, Human Rights, Space and Next-Generation Technologies, Special Envoy to the United Nations and the European Union.[8][1]
Physicist and philosopher by training, Altman's research interests include breakthrough physics,[14][15] quantum technology,[16] next-generation spaceflight, quantum entanglement and teleportation,[17][18] ER=EPR, retrocausality[19] and the future of the Quantum Internet.[20] He is a glider pilot,[21] motorcyclist racer and enthusiast,[22] SCUBA diver and rock climber, speaks Japanese, Dutch, and basic French, is proficient in Muay Thai kickboxing, judo, Gracie jiu jitsu and kendo. In Japan, he attained the rank of shōdan, or first-degree black belt in Kyūdō, traditional Japanese archery.[23]
Japanese Fulbright
In Japan, Altman trained in kendo and judo, attaining rank shōdan (black belt) in kyudo, traditional Japanese archery,
As an undergraduate Altman was selected as recipient of a Japanese national Fulbright fellowship[13] by the Association of International Education, Japan—one of three awarded annually worldwide—attending the Reconnaissance Program for international leadership[24] at the J.F. Oberlin University School for International Studies in Tokyo. He trained in bushidō, simultaneously practicing judo (柔道), kendo (剣道) and kyūdō (弓道), or traditional Japanese archery, attaining the rank of shōdan (初段), or first-degree black belt, at Meiji Shrine.[25]
Federal Bureau of Investigation
As a part of his Japanese fellowship Altman worked in collaboration with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation through East Asia liaison and legal attaché, FBI Special Agent Clark Frogley,[26] Embassy of the United States, Tokyo, and J.F. Oberlin University Vice President Yutaka Morohoshi, professor and frequent television guest with host and anchor, actor and film director, yakuza expert Takeshi Kitano.
Altman's research focused on the historical development, cultural evolution and organization of the Japanese criminal underworld through its most feared and effective branch: the Yamaguchi-gumi, tracing the organization's activities in Japan and abroad, mapping current trends to predict societal dynamics going forward. Morohoshi went as far as to extend the invitation for an interview between Altman and oyabun Yoshinori Watanabe, acting godfather of the organization.[27][28][29]
Historically, the esoteric culture of the yakuza has been seen as expressly forbidden to outside inquiry. English-language literature was sparse at the time of writing, so Altman's research is a popular and oft-cited reference.[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] Altman maintains correspondence with Agent Frogley and the Bureau to date.[40][41]
“...a place where 100 years means nothing.”
Starlab “Time Traveler Party” · (L to R): Hugo de Garis (artificial intelligence), Serguei Krasnikov (time travel), Roman Zapatrin (quantum topology) Christopher Altman (physicist, astronaut) May 2001.
Starlab
In 2001, Altman was recruited to multidisciplinary, Deep Future institute Starlab. As an incubator for long-term and basic research in the spirit of Bell Labs, MIT Media Lab, Xerox PARC, and Interval Research, the lab focused on advanced research offering significant potential for long-term impact to humanity. The lab was established as a “Noah's Ark,” a “utopian scientific environment to bring together some of the world's most brilliant and creative researchers,” and to have them work on far-ranging projects “with the potential for serendipity—to spark an impact on the generations to come.” [42]
Starlab's academic research partners included MIT, the University of Oxford, and Ghent University. The lab employed over 130 scientists from thirty-six nationalities. Projects ranged from artificial intelligence, biophysics, consciousness, DNA databases, genetics, materials science, microtubules, nanoelectronics, neuroscience, new media, protein folding, robotics, stem cell research, theoretical physics—e.g., the possibility of time travel—quantum computation, communications, teleportation, and wearable computing. Research lines were grouped under the acronym “BANG,” or Bits, Atoms, Neurons, Genes, a combination later adopted by MIT Media Lab in 2002.[43] The lab sponsored and collaborated with other labs, organizing open research symposia to stimulate cross-pollination between scientists and encourage collaboration across disciplinary boundaries.
At the lab, Altman worked with scientists including cofounder Walter de Brouwer, nanotechnologist Ed Reitman, biophysicist Jack Tuszynski, artificial intelligence researcher Hugo de Garis, and physicist and program manager Sergeui Krasnikov, Starlab's resident expert in retrocausality and closed timelike curves, traversable wormholes and hyperfast travel.[44][45][46]
Krasnikov's research, jointly funded by NASA and the US Air Force, set out to assess the viability of closed timelike curves—time travel—under realistic physical conditions. The program is one of several outlined in a Discovery Channel Special on the lab. While living and working at Starlab, Altman took up discussions with Krasnikov and colleague quantum topologist Zapatrin in collaborations that continue to present-day,[47] yielding novel results such as the development of adaptive quantum networks.[48][49][50][51]
Guinness Book of World Records
At Starlab, Altman contributed to the design and functional specifications of a custom-built supercomputer that employed genetic algorithms to evolve massively-parallel artificial neural network modules grown directly in silico using field-programmable gate array (FPGA) evolutionary hardware.[52][53] The project was recognized in the 2001 Guinness Book of World Records as the “World's Most Complex Artificial Brain,”[54][55][56][57][58] featuring prominently in worldwide press. Altman led the project as managing director and global coordinator of the international CAM-Brain Teams and was interviewed for a Discovery Channel Special on the project.[57][42][59]
In April 2001, Altman was selected as recipient of a joint US Department of Defense–Department of Energy Salishan High-Performance Computing graduate fellowship[60][61] with MIT postgraduates H. Shrikumar and Bill Butera. The work of the former allows for delayering and translation of billions of nodes into coherent networks; that of the latter enables any paintable surface to become a distributed computer—inclusive fault-tolerant, self-configuring sensory networks. Altman took up collaborations with computer scientist Horst Simon, Deputy Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)[62] and National Security Agency (NSA) fellow, senior physicist Fernand “Doc” Bedard—early pioneer in high-performance computing systems,[63][64] and the Hybrid Technology Multi-Threaded (HTMT) petaflops computing program.[65] Both were formative influences in Altman's early career.[60][66][67]
Notwithstanding revolutionary hardware breakthroughs, the next generation of high-performance computing systems will continue their reliance upon low-temperature superconducting nanoelectronics. Moore's Law ensures their dimensions will shrink rapidly. As we enter the era of quantum information processing, this is sure to be an exciting and transformative area of research.
— at the DoD-DoE Salishan High-Performance Computing Conference
Drawing inspiration from Bedard, Altman investigated the behavior of these systems in the quantum regime in what is now considered the early days of superconducting quantum computing, presenting on quantum state engineering at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) on Quantum chaos in Como, Italy,[68] attending select senior administrator briefings at national security agency headquarters outside Washington, DC and the International Conference on Coding Theory and Quantum Computing in Vienna.[69] He was invited to the World Technology Summit Awards at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London,[70] the International Conference on High Energy Physics[71] in Amsterdam, and submitted testimony to the French Sénat[72] in the world's first Senate hearing[73] on the future of robotics and artificial intelligence in Paris.[8]
Chairman, First Committee on Disarmament and International Security
File:RSA Information Security Award.jpgBurt Kaliski, RSA Chief Scientist (left) and Art Coviello, RSA CEO (right) present the annual RSA Information security Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Policy to Altman.
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Altman volunteered, then was elected to serve as Chairman for the UNISCA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, a UNESCO funded graduate and postgraduate program wherein he led several hundred upcoming diplomats to provide collective intelligence assessments and essential policy decision-making advice to political leaders on long-term issues of stability and importance.[74] Under his tenure, the international security committee submitted four resolutions to the General Assembly addressing the challenges of global[75] and regional[76] Nuclear nonproliferation, the factors leading to the escalation of international terrorism,[77] and raising a call of attention to industrialized society's increasing vulnerability to information warfare.[78]
RSA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Policy
Altman's Chair Report was selected as recipient of the 2004 RSA Information Security Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Policy[79] in recognition for its impact on public policy in the wake of rapid growth in the technology industry[80][81] and for raising the collective awareness of the field. His final report, “Converging Technologies: The Future of the Global Information Society,”[82][83] was widely circulated, commented on by futurists Alvin and Heidi Toffler, and distributed to senior government officials and policymakers, moving political momentum in the direction of founding the United States Cyber Command.[84]
An omnilinked world populated with intelligent artifacts will bring sweeping changes to virtually every facet of modern life—from science and education to industry and commerce—leaving no segment of society unaffected by its advance. How will civilization change in response to a world saturated with embedded intelligence? How can these technologies be best applied to improve the human condition? These issues will become increasingly important as advances in science and technology bring us closer to unveiling the mysteries of the mind.
— as Chairman, First Committee on Disarmament and International Security
DARPA Quantum Information Science and Technology Project
Roppongi Tower, Tokyo—home of the ATIP Quantum Information Science and Technology Project (QuIST)A quantum mechanical resonator placed into a superposition of physical states. Several advances in quantum technology have been funded through the QuIST program.
As part of the US Government's fast-track Quantum Information Science and Technology Program, Altman relocated to Japan for a postdoctoral-level fellowship to provide technology reports and forward-looking national roadmaps to principal US policy and funding agency directors. As part of the fellowship, he was tasked to universities, corporate research centers and national laboratories in the region to interview prominent researchers, traveling to attend meetings such as the Gordon Conference, where he began correspondence with physicists including Howard Brandt, Jonathan Dowling, Lev Levitin, Seth Lloyd and Jaewan Kim. With offices in Tokyo and a focus on East Asia, the ATIP QuIST project was funded by grants through Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR-N00014-03-1-0726), among others.[90][91]
US Quantum Technology Roadmap
The end product of Altman's QuIST reports,[92] submitted to directors at each of the seventeen members of the US intelligence community[93] and US national labs[94] through the Advanced Research and Development Activity, then distributed to USG scientists around the country, served as the prototype for the US Government's first ever top-level national Quantum Roadmap—an accolade conveyed directly by the program's chairman, Richard Hughes,[95][96] Director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Quantum Institute, in their first meeting at the IEEE Summer Topicals in 2013.[97][98][99]
Kavli Institute of Nanoscience
While at Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Altman took up collaborations with Martin Tajmar, whose research includes spaceflight, gravitomagnetic frame dragging, and breakthrough propulsion physics.
Under support from a Kavli Institute of Nanoscience graduate fellowship in applied physics and nanoscience at Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands, Altman conducted experimental work in quantum entanglement and secure communications, international fieldwork in optical fabrication technology, metrology, microlens array and coherent optics research applications,[100] attending opening ceremonies[101][102][103] for the 2005 World Year of Physics at UNESCO headquarters. At the 25th Triennial Conference on Low-Temperature Condensed Matter Physics, he took up collaborations with Austrian breakthrough propulsion physicist Martin Tajmar, whose shared research includes advanced space propulsion systems, gravitomagnetic frame dragging,[104][105] and breakthrough propulsion physics.[106]
In collaboration with colleague and advisor, NSF Program Manager Paul Werbos, recipient of the IEEE Neural Network Pioneer Award for his 1974 discovery of backpropagation in artificial neural networks, Altman and coauthors introduced backpropagation to superposed adaptive quantum networks.[48] The most recently published results appeared in the International Journal of Theoretical Physics,[48][49] preceded by the NATO Advanced Study Institute in Italy.[51][50][107] In February 2009, Discover Magazine interviewed Altman for a cover story on quantum biology.
New experiments keep finding quantum processes at play in biological systems. With the advent of powerful new tools like femtosecond lasers and nanoscale precision positioning, life’s quantum dance is finally coming into view.
— interview for Entangled Minds, Discover Magazine[108]
Altman is a type-rated glider pilot. In Delft he was an active member of the Delft Student Aeroclub, a glider and sailplane association founded in 1931 under joint sponsorship from TU Delft and the Royal Netherlands Air Force (Koninklijke Luchtmacht). His lead flight instructor, Mark de Jonge, veteran F-16 pilot with the Royal Netherlands Air Force, twice deployed to Afghanistan flying one of four F-16 Fighting Falcons assigned to Operation Enduring Freedom as part of the 1st Netherlands-Norwegian European Participating Forces Expeditionary Air Wing (1 NLD/NOR EEAW). In the heat of combat, de Jonge's wingman was shot down—not once, but twice by surface-to-air (SAM) missiles—the same pilot narrowly ejecting to safety on both occasions.[109] In a post-flight debriefing, Altman notes the incident as “a poignant example for maintaining situational awareness at all times—when just a split second can mean the difference between life and death.” Altman trained with the Dutch flight corps for several years conducting overland long-distance flights and attending training camps at military airfields in neighboring countries.[110]
In 2008, Altman was recruited to Silicon Valley’s NASA Ames Research Center to help design the architecture for a course that selected forty of the top candidates from more than 1600 applicants worldwide. The inaugural program aimed to assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders—the presidents, chancellors, and national agency directors of tomorrow—to facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies, and to “apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity’s grand challenges to positively impact the lives of one billion people over the course of ten years.”[8][1]
As teaching fellow and faculty advisor in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (AIR), Networks and Computing Systems (NCS), Space and Physical Sciences (SPS), then as department Chair for the executive session of the program, Altman worked full-time on the project until tasked to Hawai‘i by astronaut training mentor and NASA Ames Director, USAF Brigadier General and former Commander, 50th Space Wing, astrophysicist Pete Worden, to represent Ames on assignment to space and security interests on the Big Island.[8][66][1][111]
Altman completed Zero G and High-Altitude Physiological Training under the Reduced Gravity Research Program at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, then served as representative to the Japan-U.S. Science, Technology, and Space Applications Program (JUSTSAP), the Pacific International Space Alliance (PISA) and the founding conference for an astronaut training facility, the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) on the slopes of Mauna Kea on the Big Island. He regularly returns to the Big Island and to Mauna Kea to maintain spaceflight readiness.[1][66][8]
Austrian Templeton fellowship
Quantum mechanics in higher-dimensional Hilbert spaces
Altman (front and center) at International Academy Traunkirchen with the Anton Zeilinger group. Quantum Mechanics in Higher-Dimensional Hilbert Spaces
In 2010 Altman was awarded two consecutive Templeton fellowships to explore the foundations and future of quantum mechanics at the International Akademie Traunkirchen with physicists Daniel Greenberger, Michael Horne and Anton Zeilinger—the trio responsible for the discovery and first experimental demonstration of GHZ multipartite entanglement, the first example of experimental quantum teleportation, the long-distance record for free-space quantum communications, and the first quantum-encrypted intercontinental video call—as well as being the founders of the American Physical Society Topical Group on Quantum Information.[112][113][114] Altman took part in discussions on theoretical and experimental aspects of quantum information science, describing the future applications potential of quantum-enhanced remote sensing and metrology as a “Hubble telescope through which we may reveal the extended structure and dynamics of the quantum wavefunction.”[115]
Association of Spaceflight Professionals
The following spring, Altman was selected as a commercial scientist-astronaut candidate with the world's first commercial astronaut corps,[116][117] the Association of Spaceflight Professionals, established to train highly qualified[118][119] astronaut candidates for the next generation of space missions.
Soon after his selection, Altman received an invitation to keynote European technology conference Mobile Monday: Amsterdam,[120] an international technology gathering with chapters spread across 108 sister cities around the world, in what was to be the last meeting of its Amsterdam chapter. The morning of his planned call to his father to share the news, Altman was appraised of his unexpected death the night before. Following three days of deliberation, he dedicated the event as a lasting tribute to his father's early inspiration.
Reflections gained through nighttime sojourns in rolling pastures near my grandparent's family home in the lush, forested countryside—with its rhythmic pulse of crickets and cicadas, watching fireflies flicker by—or on camping trips with friends, surrounded by the crimson majesty of snow-capped mountains, all ensured that vision continued to grow every year. Every time I looked out to the sky, my eyes took in the reflection of the heavens, the cosmos, the constellations whirling about—a song of stellar synchrony, a symphony of light.
Musician Kenji Williams, founder of musical group Bella Gaia,[121] which layers hyperspectral NASA satellite imagery with live musical performances to convey the fragility of our environment and the power of the Overview Effect—the “profound spiritual transformation experienced by astronauts on seeing the Earth from space,” contributed footage towards the keynote, which in turn was broadcast to 108 sister cities around the world.
With a focus ranging from the looking glass of childhood recollections on nature to the importance of belief and ideals in shaping the future, the speech “integrates science, technology and spirituality into a coherent whole,” and “seamlessly conveys a transformational shift in global human consciousness, interlacing physics and technology with consciousness and spirituality to catalyze the next shift in human evolution.”[122]
Belief—like fear, or like love—is a profound and powerful force. It’s one of the most powerful motivating forces in our universe. Belief has fundamentally shaped the course of world history all around us. Look no further than the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, to the Japanese pilots of the kamikaze attack waves and their belief in the divine wind—or to the forces that drove forward those who led the attacks on the Twin Towers in September of 2001. Look to the Stasi of Hitler’s Third Reich, to the Gestapo, the secret state police of East Germany—to the dictators of the Cold War, Stalin and Mao in Communist Russia and China —or to the deep roots of belief that drive the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to this day.
Belief can give birth to movements that arise as a powerful wave sweeping over and wholly transforming communities, cultures and societies: the Indian fight for independence under the leadership of its first national revolutionary, Gandhi—the suffrage movement that gave women the right to vote or the equal rights movement unified and carried forth under Martin Luther King. Look to the 1960’s sexual revolution, the end of South African Apartheid, or to the Arab Spring movements that erupted like wildfire, sweeping ’cross the world in 2010.
Belief can fuel a singular vision to channel the collective drive of our most talented scientists and engineers, propelling their best efforts forward—pooling them together to harness the powers of the Sun itself, to demonstrate mass-energy equivalence in a single blinding flash that transformed the modern landscape of world history: the Manhattan Project’s Trinity Test. Belief can make a reality of our very first footsteps on the Moon, only a few short years after Kennedy's impassioned call mobilized our collective will to beat the Soviets to that same goal—the Apollo missions.
Belief can call us forwards, to rise up together as one.
Belief can lead nations.
File:NASTAR High G Centrifuge Training.jpgSuborbital launch profile: High-G centrifuge training at the US National Aerospace Training and Research CenterFile:AGSOL Spaceflight Training — Christopher Altman.jpgMulti-Axes Rotation and Tilt Device (MART). 3 g, 800deg/s2 rotation capability. Space Motion Sickness (SMS) adaptation, Sirius Astronaut Training, Ashton Graybiel Spatial Orientation Laboratory [123]Full-speed MART SMS sequence at 3 g, 800deg/s2 maximum multi-axis rotation and tiltFile:Commercial astronauts SCUBA training East Coast.jpgSCUBA diving during inaugural spaceflight trainingAssociation of Spaceflight Professionals flight members conduct research in a NASA Zero G parabolic flight
As commercial adjunct to the NASA Astronaut Corps, candidates selected for the commercial corps are held to exacting standards.[124] Applicants are vetted through a rigorous evaluation process modeled after that of the NASA corps, incorporating guidance and direction from a selection panel of veteran astronauts, astronaut trainers, and experienced spaceflight professionals.[125]
Several members have interviewed as finalists in national astronaut candidate selection campaigns;[126][127][128][129] one has completed an orbital mission conducting scientific experiments aboard the International Space Station. South Korean Astronaut Soyeon Yi, the first Korean to fly in space, is an active member of the corps and serves on its board of directors.[130]
Flight members have lived, worked and trained together with NASA and government astronauts from other countries, as well as serving as astronaut instructors themselves—training both NASA astronauts and Astronaut Candidates in specialist areas such as Space Exploration Vehicles (SEV), Extravehicular Activity (EVA) and critical space mission operational tasks.[131][132][125][133][134][135][136]
In 2011, the organization's inaugural class of four commercial astronaut candidates: Altman, Reimuller, Seedhouse and Shiro completed suborbital research scientist training, underwater emergency egress and sea survival training, and spatial orientation-disorientation testing and acclimation,[137][138] surpassing performance standards designed in strict adherence to meet or exceed FAA Commercial Astronaut certification and licensing guidelines as defined by the Office of Commercial Space Transportation under 14 CFR 460, Human Spaceflight Requirements,[124] 14 CFR 460.5, Crew qualifications and training,[139] and the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act, Public Law 108-492, 118, Statute 3978.[140][141][142][143]
Director of the Board, Chief Science Officer
As Director of the Board and Chief Science Officer, Altman led collaboration on forward-looking proposals to NASA's Flight Opportunities Program through the Institute for Advanced Concepts Office (NIAC), the Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT) and DARPA's Quiness Macroscopic Quantum Communications program, helped develop and expand the corps training program and continued as advocate for widespread access to space.[144][145][146][147]
NASA-funded Manned Spaceflight Missions
The organization's first manned spaceflight missions were funded by NASA through the Flight Opportunities Program in 2012. Several million in funding has been allocated for detailed spectroscopic analysis of high-altitude noctilucent cloud formations on suborbital flights using a new rapidly reusable, task-and-deploy spaceplane.[148][149][150]
The NASA Commercial Crew program, with official industry partners Boeing and SpaceX, is ramping up to launch its first manned test flights in the second half of 2018. SpaceX maintains an expected launch date of August 2018 for its first flight, followed by a second manned test in December for its Dragon 2.0 capsule, which both NASA and commercial astronauts will use together to access the International Space Station. Commercial space stations under development include Bigelow Aerospace and Axiom Space.[151][152] Each will enlist commercial crew once testing is complete. Robert Bigelow, of Bigelow Aerospace, has already set out plans for lunar bases.[153][154][155][156]
Pentagon Field Operations for Disaster Relief and Humanitarian Aid
At Black Rock City, National Defense University and The Pentagon, Altman provided operational support[157][158] to STAR TIDES[159] and Synergy Strike Force—the former, a US interagency working group composed of US Department of Defense and intelligence community leaders including linguists, special forces operatives and technical experts; the latter, a group of analogue volunteers with the same skill set.[160][161]
Operating under mandate of DoD Directive 30.005[162] the group conducts field tests of next-generation humanitarian aid and disaster relief technologies for stressed populations in austere environments around the world. Technologies incorporated include extensive geospatial mapping by satellite, aircraft, aerostat and remote camera; solar panels, recyclable water; solar-powered, self-organizing, fault-tolerant mesh configuration dynamic micro-grid cellular networks; voice over internet protocol (VOIP) phones, text-based reporting and 3G cellular apps, social network development among disparate camps, renewable energy resources; resilient power, water, and communications.[163][164][165]
Next-generation government leadership in a post-scarcity economy
A recurring theme of interest has been the role of next-generation government leadership in a post-scarcity economy and the capacity for governance to adapt and evolve to meet the novel features of this new environment.[166] Black Rock City provides the sole large-scale experimental test-bed on the planet for this question for two weeks per year—transforming from empty desert into analogue posthuman, post-scarcity society.[167]:
The collective of Black Rock City itself serves as a large-scale technology, behavioral psychology and social network test bed, providing the world’s only experimental incubator for the study of a post-scarcity economy, a subject of intense scrutiny to government leadership and intelligence organizations around the world who would seek to justify their continued existence through the wake of the transitions enabled by this technological convergence—as concurrent advances such as those in nanotechnology and three-dimensional printing make such antiquities of currency and corporations wholly obsolete.
Why go to the store to buy a computer, electronics, or pharmaceutical drugs when the open-source plans to manufacture and print them at the molecular scale with a nanoscale three-dimensional printer are widely available on the Internet? Witness the contemporary impact to the music and movie industries. In the 1990's major industry associations such as the RIAA and MPAA were embroiled in a losing power struggle to counter an existential threat to their foundations and their very existence—the threat of rampant music and Hollywood film piracy—enabled by widespread internet use and the advent of file sharing technologies. The spread of mature nanoscale manufacturing capabilities presents the same kind of existential threat to any producer of material goods—and by proxy, to the governments regulating that market.
NASA Quantum Future Technologies
PISCES· Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems · Next-generation lunar rover testing on Mauna KeaSunset from the summit of Mauna Kea
Following the inaugural program launch conference, Altman accepted a position as senior research scientist with the University of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES). PISCES is an international alliance between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), working together on a remote operations site near the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi where the Apollo astronauts trained prior to the Moon missions.[168][169][170] On location, next-generation spacesuit prototypes and lunar rovers, augmented reality interfaces, in-situ resource utilization and robotics field tests are used to train astronauts and test new prototypes for the next series of manned lunar and Mars missions.[171][172]
On invitation from Ames Director Pete Worden, Altman attended the inaugural NASA Quantum Future Technologies conference in January 2012.[173] In collaborations stemming from the gathering, Altman led a team of collaborators to submit a grant proposal for the development and deployment of a novel quantum communications prototype at PISCES. After correspondence with the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Office and its Office of the Chief Technologist, the team contributed an invited proposal to DARPA through its Quiness Macroscopic Quantum Communications initiative.[147][174][175][7]
Astronaut Development and Deployment of a Secure Quantum Space Channel
The team's joint proposal was the first time the two leading European groups—Rupert Ursin, Deputy Director at the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, responsible for the first demonstration of quantum communications over a 144-km free-space optical path, and Paolo Villoresi, first to achieve quantum communications over an Earth-to-space transmission channel—joined with the fiber optics communications experience of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Boeing's PhantomWorks, the continuous variable expertise of Quintessence Labs,[176] and the lunar and astronaut training facilities of the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems.[177]
The fully deployed network architecture called for satellites linked to intercontinental fiber optics, free-space, point-to-point laser ground stations, underwater blue-green lasers between US Navy submarines extending to Boeing unmanned aerial drones and high-altitude blimps—forming a comprehensive, globally linked macroscopic quantum teleportation network.[178][179]
Satellite downlink to fiber-optic and free-space communications links called for routing through the PISCES next-generation astronaut training facility on Mauna Kea, where a free-space continuous variable quantum communications prototype would be installed and calibrated by an astronaut on analogue lunar terrain in homage to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's Apollo astronaut placement of the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment on Apollo 11.
Tau Zero Interstellar
Altman serves as director for the Tau Zero Foundation for Interstellar Spaceflight,[180] the successor to the NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program. The space agency established the program to study proposals for revolutionary methods of spacecraft propulsion that would allow for interstellar spaceflight, including those that might require substantive physics breakthroughs before they could be realized.
Frontiers of Propulsion Science
In 2009, the organization published Frontiers of Propulsion Science,[181][182] a comprehensive summary of research advances to date. In April 2017, NASA awarded the organization a USD $500k grant to conduct a comprehensive review of the field: Interstellar Propulsion Review.[183][184]
Commercial crew partners Boeing and SpaceX are testing new spacecraft for launch in Q3–Q4 2018Emergency egress spacesuit (ACES) developed for the NASA Commercial Crew programFile:BFR ISS Spacex 3840 x 2160.jpgCurrently under development for future commercial crew missions: the SpaceX BFR, seen here docking with the International Space Station, and Axiom Station (below), commercial successor to the ISS (Concept art)
SolarCoin
Our mission in founding SolarCoin—to accelerate our societal transition from petroleum-dependent, war-scourged, scarcity economics to a renewable-energy based, peaceful, post-scarcity economy—is now shared with Elon Musk.
—as Chief Scientist, SolarCoin; Cofounder and Chief Scientist, ElectriCChain
Altman serves as Chief Scientist[185] for renewable energy cryptocurrency SolarCoin with the mission of “accelerating our transition towards a post-scarcity economy“ by encouraging solar energy to initiate the “energy singularity”—the transition from fossil fuels to a sustainable, renewable energy-based economy.[186] The project counts more than seven million real-time solar monitoring stations around the world, a number expected to grow to more than 200 million over the coming decade.
SolarCoin is the lowest carbon currency, the largest environmental monitoring experiment, and the largest private renewable energy project in the world. The currency is granted as an incentive to solar producers, functioning as both a digital asset and a solar power production reward. A white paper released by the SolarCoin Foundation calls upon governments, international organizations, NGOs and the solar industry to help “accelerate the global energy transition to a sustainable, renewable energy-based economy.”[187][188]
As a reward for renewable solar energy, SolarCoin is earned at the rate of 1 § (SLR) per MWh, with 97,500 terawatt-hours of generation to be distributed over the next 35 years following annual growth projections for solar energy production. This figure places the value of SolarCoin's total market supply in the number three position behind cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ripple.[9]
SolarCoin has been formally recognized by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), establishing it as the world's first cryptocurrency to be recognized by an international intergovernmental organisation.[189][190][191]
SpaceBelt
In September 2016 SolarCoin partnered with Cloud Constellation,[192] a space-based data storage company scheduled to launch a network of data storage satellites to provide high-speed global cloud storage satellites as a space-based data center designed for the secure transfer and storage of sensitive information. The organization will store its blockchain vault on the satellites[193][194]SolarCoin Selects Cloud Constellation’s SpaceBelt for Secure Space-based Storage and Transaction. ElectriCChain.[195] making it the “first orbital currency.”[196][197] In September 2017 Cloud Constellation[198] entered into an agreement[199] with Virgin Orbit through its LauncherOne program to deploy twelve of its cloud constellation satellites to low-Earth orbit. Satellite deployment has been scheduled for 2018.[200]
SkyGold
The future development of a robust economy in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and beyond calls for a currency capable of supporting both ground-to-orbit and orbit-to-orbit transactions. SolarCoin presents an ideal candidate through both its global humanitarian mission and international footprint in congruence with the virtually unlimited abundance of solar energy in orbit.
—as Cofounder and Chief Scientist of SolarCoin and ElectriCChain
SolarCoin's space-based expansion initiatives include negotiations through the NASA Space Portal[201] to develop a space-based application, SkyGold,[202] setting the framework in place to claim SolarCoin from orbital solar panels―the International Space Station's (ISS) 80 KW of solar panels being the quintessential example―and through operational satellites in real-time via a locally installed SolarCoin space node.
ElectriCChain
Altman is Cofounder and Chief Scientist of SolarCoin affiliate ElectriCChain, a distributed ledger and self-organizing, decentralized swarm Internet of Things (IoT) blockchain forming SolarCoin's blockchain backbone.[185][203] ElectriCChain's initial focus is to monitor open solar energy generation data from the seven million and growing solar generators installed worldwide. The initiative was launched at an MIT press conference in 2016 and has since expanded operations to 56 countries around the world, distributing more than 3,330,000 SolarCoin to date while forging alliances with NASA, Accenture, IBM, the Microsoft/Ethereum BaaS Platform, Xerox PARC, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among others.[204][205]
Ambassador Extraordinary for Space and Next-Generation Technologies
Through global policy, advocacy and outreach efforts, I aim to raise awareness, open up access, break down hierarchies and remove barriers—to encourage active participation so that others are equally empowered to explore their dreams, to harness their creativity and imagination, and play an active role in the collective creation of a brighter tomorrow.
In 2015, the International Human Rights Organization recognized Altman for continuing long-term contributions to government policy, humanitarian initiatives, scientific research, spaceflight and global security with an appointment as Extraordinary Ambassador at Large for Peace, Human Rights, Space and Next-Generation Technologies. Under the umbrella of United Nations nongovernmental organizations and in accordance with Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the organization is tasked with the formal mandate “to work towards the creation of a better world for the future of humanity and the generations to come,” echoing the mission of alma mater Starlab. In 2018, Altman was appointed to the additional role of Special Envoy to the United Nations and European Union.[206][207][208]
Further distinctions
Books
Altman has appeared in several biographies and derivative works featuring aspects of his background and career highlights including the 2015 sequel to !nnovation: How Global Leaders Think, Act and Change Our World,[209] which conducted in-depth interviews of industry pioneers and innovators like Vint Cerf, “Father of the Internet.” For the sequel, Flat World Navigation: Collaboration and Networking in the Global Digital Economy,[8] author Chandler-McDonald focused on “the important work of individuals who—like Altman—are the epitome of connectors, communicators, and collaborators transforming our world.” [8][210][211]
He has been featured in publications authored by suborbital researcher, astronaut trainer and Canadian Space Agency Top 30 finalist astronaut candidate, Erik Seedhouse, nominated by GQ Magazine as “World's Fittest Man” in 1997.[212] As an editor and author with Springer, Seedhouse has published nearly sixty publications on the spaceflight industry, several featuring Altman and his work.[66][213][214][215][216][216][217]
Public outreach
Global Leadership Forum
Following his closing speech at the 2014 Global Leadership Forum in San Francisco, Altman was interviewed for photojournalism weblog and later book Souls of Society, previously known as Souls of San Francisco—the West Coast counterpart to Humans of New York.[47][218] The article was simultaneously published to the Souls website and to Facebook, where it received tens of thousands of impressions before being republished in the Souls compilation, a hard-copy print edition book.[219]
Live Two-Hour Radio Interview
In February 2016, Altman conducted a live two-hour radio interview[220][221] brainstorming on the present and future of science and technology, exploring topics such as quantum entanglement and teleportation, CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, artificial intelligence and Elon Musk's Open AI initiative, magnetic thorium nuclear plasma drives, warp drives and wormholes for deep space exploration, ER = EPR, interstellar flight and the expansion of humanity to the stars, multidisciplinary research institute Starlab, time travel and retrocausality, Pentagon field operations for the next generation of government leadership in the post-scarcity economy, “outer space, inner space, and a myriad of other future trends.”
Quantum Astronaut
Logo for Quantum Astronaut training and research timeline, chronicling ongoing spaceflight and quantum technology advances. The suit itself is an AX-5 hard-shell spacesuit developed at NASA Ames to negate the potential for decompression sickness. Hard shell suits can be maintained to a higher atmospheric pressure, which allows for a pressure acclimatization delay reduction to zero.
Altman maintains an official Facebook training and research page: Quantum Astronaut, curated with quantum technology experts and disruptive technology analysts including:
Jonathan Dowling – Founder of the US Government program on quantum information processing, inventor of quantum lithography, principal organizer of the first NASA-NSA-DARPA Symposium on Quantum Technology and Hearne Chair in theoretical physics, Louisiana State University and Beijing Computational Science Research Center
Ivette Fuentes – Space-based quantum technology applications at Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology and University of Nottingham[222]
Ian Durham – Director of Saint Anselm-Notre Dame ESTEEM Program, theoretical physicist and aeronautical engineer at Saint Anselm College[223]
Adam Rasheed – MIT 35 Under 35 at GE Global Research for his work in hypersonic pulse detonation engines[224]
On a long-term timeline, Altman is an advocate for the transformative potential of quantum technology, the future of manned spaceflight[225] and the potential of recursively sophisticated converging technology advances such as artificial intelligence, genetics, nanotechnology and neuroscience under progress enabled by Moore's Law to improve the quality and longevity of life for the constituents of the biosphere.[226] Since the turn of the century, he has collaborated with British utilitarian philosopher David Pearce, cofounder of Humanity+, an international organization advocating the ethical use of emerging technologies to enhance human capacities.
Altman has been an invited speaker,[227] keynote speaker, committee and conference chair at federal government hearings, science and technology conferences, attending space, security and leadership summits including UNESCO, UNISCA, the French Senate, the Global Leadership Forum,[47] the Gordon Research Conferences, the National Security Agency, the IoT Security Summit,[228] the Global Space and Technology Convention,[229] Internet of Things World,[230][231] Further Future: TED Meets Burning Man, TEDxBeaconStreet[232][233] and Mobile Monday Amsterdam.[5]
He has been featured in film documentaries including a two-part Discovery Channel Special on Starlab and filming that followed the inaugural spaceflight training program with the world's first commercial astronaut corps.[234][235]
Since 2004, Altman has served as an academic referee for scientific journals including the International Journal of Theoretical Physics, the Journal of Biological Physics, the Journal of Nanomedicine Research, and as a member of the Editorial Board for Symmetry. He was an official judge for the Department of Energy National Science Bowl hosted at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2012.[236]
“We stand on the shores of a vast cosmic ocean, with untold continents of possibility yet to explore. Rapid advances in fields such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, molecular nanotechnology, neuroscience, renewable energy, spaceflight, supercomputing and quantum technologies—enabled by the rapid technological progress of decades of Moore’s Law doublings in computer processing power, speed and complexity—will converge to confer radical changes to our society over coming decades as we move forward in the collective transition towards the dawn of a post-scarcity economy. The future is unbounded. The responsibility falls upon us to ensure that its limitless potential is filled with dreams of hope, happiness, freedom and fulfillment.”
— Global Leadership Forum, Interview for Souls of Society
↑Tau Zero Foundation Newsletter: Into the Second Decade. March 2016. “New Board member: Christopher Altman, a scientist, diplomat, and NASA-trained commercial astronaut, is joining the Tau Zero Foundation Board of Directors.”
↑ 5.05.15.25.3Keynote on The Future of Space Exploration. Altman, Christopher, May 30, 2011 “Inner Space, Outer Space: Inspire, Connect, Empower” The Overview Effect, the long-term future of spaceflight, and the future of the human race as we expand outwards to become a multiplanetary species, gaining reflection, maturity and wisdom, growing to embrace our role as the rightful stewards of our fragile biosphere.
↑Quantum Astronaut· Future holds key to quantum physics—Obama awards National Medal of Science to Aharonov “The future is affecting the past—all the time, on the quantum level—allowing physicists to effectively select the future they want their particles to have, and amplifying the results for a desired outcome. We are close to a second revolution in physics as big as the one a century ago. We are only beginning to free existing quantum theory and to do so, we must think of time in another way.” (2018-03-01).
↑“The purpose of the school of International Studies at Obirin University is a simple one—to produce internationalists—that is, broad-minded men and women who can play a positive international role as leaders in today's increasingly complex and interconnected world. Meaningful participation in global society requires a sound understanding of other societies.” — Reconnaissance Japan Program, J. F. Oberlin University. Casimir Institute for Applied Physics, Archive.org. January 14, 2018.
↑Toward a Traversible Wormhole. American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings, Vol. 504, Issue DOI: 10.1063/1.1290915
↑Krasnikov, S. V. 1998-04-15. arxiv:gr-qc/9511068 Hyperfast Interstellar Travel in General Relativity. Physical Review D. Vol 57, Issue 8. Pages 4760–4766 DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.57.4760 ISSN: 0556-2821
↑Krasnikov, S. September 2000. arxiv:gr-qc/9909016 A traversable wormhole. Physical Review D. 62, 084028 DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.62.084028 ISSN: 0556arxiv=gr-qc/9909016
↑ 48.048.148.2Altman, C., Pykacz, J. & Zapatrin, R.R. International Journal of Theoretical Physics (2004) 43: 2029. Superpositional Quantum Network Topologies. October 2004, Volume 43, Issue 10, pp 2029–2040. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:IJTP.0000049008.51567.ec
↑ 49.049.1Altman, C. & Zapatrin, R.R. International Journal of Theoretical Physics (2010) 49: 2991. Backpropagation Training in Adaptive Quantum Networks. December 2010, Volume 49, Issue 12, pp 2991–2997. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10773-009-0103-1
↑Altman, Christopher, Design and Functional Specifications of the CAM-Brain Machine. Casimir Institute for Applied Physics and Superconductivity. See also: Guinness Book of World Records, “World's Most Complex Artificial Brain.” New York: Bantam Press, 2001, p. 126. “Genobyte CAM-Brain Machine (CBM), a large-scale evolutionary hardware research platform.” Cellular Automata Update Rate: 131 billion cells/second; Number of Supported Cellular Automata Cells: 893 million; Number of Supported Neurons (max., per neural module): 1152; Number of Supported Neural Modules: 64,640; Number of Supported Neurons (max. per brain): 74.5 million; Neural Module Chromosome Length: 91,000 bits; Number of FPGAs: 72 (Xilinx XC6264BG560); Number of FPGA Reconfigurable Function Units: 1,179,648; Phenotype/Genotype Memory: 1.18 GB; Power Consumption: 1.5 KWatt (5V, 300A); Computational Power: 10,000 Pentium III 500 MHz PCs.”
↑ 57.057.1THE CAM-BRAIN PROJECT: A 75-Million Neuron Cellular Automata Based Artificial Brain. World CAM-Brain Team Members. “Christopher Altman: Global Coordinator, Research Scientist. Management/direction of international brain building project researchers.” Starlab website backup at Archive.org (Accessed 2018-03-01).
↑World CAM-Brain Team Starlab (Archive.org). “Global Coordinator: Christopher Altman, Managing Director Global CBM Teams.” Accessed 2018-03-01.
↑2004 Information Security Awards – RSA Conference Europe in Barcelona. “Awarded to Christopher Altman of UNISCA for his paper on Converging Technologies, where he considers the issues of convergence, conflict, and complexity and reviews discoveries in the still relatively immature areas of biotechnology and nanotechnology.”
↑Future shock. Alvin Toffler, 1971. Bantam Books. ISBN 0808501526. New York. 26598617
↑UNISCA Book of Results. Chair Report by Christopher Altman, Chairman, First Committee on Disarmament and International Security. UNISCA. Amsterdam, Netherlands (2002).
↑Overseen and centrally coordinated by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the seventeen members making up the US Intelligence Community are the 25th Air Force, United States Army Intelligence and Security Command, the Central Intelligence Agency, Coast Guard Intelligence, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Department of Energy's Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, theHomeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis, the State Dept Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the US Treasury Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, the DEA Office of National Security Intelligence, the FBI Intelligence Branch, Marine Corps Intelligence Activity, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, National Security Agency/Central Security Service and the Office of Naval Intelligence.
↑The seventeen members of the US Department of Energy National Laboratories are the National Energy Technology Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (California), Los Alamos National Laboratory (NM), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Tennessee), Argonne National Laboratory (Illinois), Ames Laboratory (Iowa), Brookhaven National Laboratory, (New York), Sandia National Laboratories (New Mexico and California)Idaho National Laboratory (Idaho), Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (New Jersey), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (California), Savannah River National Laboratory (South Carolina),SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (California), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Washington), Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Illinois), National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Colorado), and the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Virginia).
↑CFR 1214.11 - NASA Astronaut Candidate Recruitment and Selection Program US Code of Federal Regulations/ United States Government Publishing Office. §1214.1104: US Government. Evaluation and ranking of highly-qualified candidates. “... A rating panel composed of discipline experts will review and rate qualified applicants as “Qualified” or “Highly Qualified.” (e) Those rated “Highly Qualified” may be required to obtain a Class I or Class II physical. 54 FR 37940, Sept. 14, 1989, as amended at 68 FR 19948, Apr. 23, 2003 — NASA Astronaut Candidate Recruitment and Selection Program. §1214.1104 Evaluation and ranking of highly qualified candidates. 14 CFR 1214.11, Chapter V, Part 1214, Subpart 1214.11. US Government.
↑Memorandum for the Record: Lessons learned from Black Rock City. Wells, II, Linton. (11-09-07) Accessed 2018-03-01.
↑SSF Information Sharing in Afghanistan: A Model for USG, IC, Military. Research and Analysis Project: UNCLASSIFIED Information Sharing in Afghanistan: A Model for U.S. Military and Coalition Commanders, the U.S. Intelligence Community, and U.S. Homeland Security. Prepared for The Center for Technology and National Security Policy (CTNSP) at the National Defense University (NDU) on behalf of the Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance Task Force (ISR TF). Contract# SP4705-10-C-005 (2011-01-28).
↑SolarCoin has just been added to IRENA. It's officially the first cryptocurrency to be recognized by an International intergovernmental organization. — Steemit.
↑Solar Energy Blockchain Currency in Space. SolarCoin Foundation seeks to make its global cryptocurrency program that rewards owners of solar power systems the first Blockchain currency wallet in space.
↑Space-based Cryptocurrency coming in 2018Archived 2018-01-23 at the Wayback Machine. Solarcoin, a currency that rewards users for generating solar electricity, has just signed a deal to house its multibillion dollar cold storage treasury in data centers orbiting the earth.
↑Facebook: Quantum Astronaut. Training and research page, edited by Jonathan Dowling (founder of the US Government program on quantum information processing, inventor of quantum lithography principal organizer of the first NASA-NSA-DARPA Symposium on Quantum Technology, Hearne Chair in theoretical physics, Louisiana State University and Beijing Computational Science Research Center), Ivette Fuentes (space-based quantum technology applications at the Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology and University of Nottingham), Stefano Pirandola (theoretical physicist at MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics and University of York), Ian Durham (Director of Saint Anselm-Notre Dame ESTEEM Program, theoretical physicist and aeronautical engineer at Saint Anselm College) and Adam Rasheed (MIT 35 Under 35 at GE Global Research, hypersonic pulse detonation engines).