We're all familiar with the tragedy of OceanGate: the tragedy of the imploded Titanic submersible: the tragedy that could have been prevented if not for CEO Stockton Rush's equitable hiring practices and disdain for 50-year old white guys with their "safety" recommendations.
But Stockton Rush wasn't alone in founding OceanGate, his partner in the endeavor was one Guillermo Söhnlein.
Söhnlein made his money in the tech boom of the 1990s with a speech recognition software called Milo, which he sold to Voxeo, just before the big tech bust in 2000.
Ever since then, he's had his sights set on exploring outer space.
So why OceanGate?
"[Rush and I] both saw underwater exploration — and especially using crewed submersibles — as the closest thing that we could do to go into space and further that vision without actually going into space," said Söhnlein.
In particular, deep sea submersibles might survive the dangerous pressures of a planet like Venus, which is Söhnlein's ultimate goal.
He wants to send 1,000 people to Venus by 2050.
Now, keep in mind, Venus makes Dante's vision of hell look like a vacation in the tropics. The planet's surface runs at about 900 degrees Fahrenheit, the clouds are made of sulfuric acid, and the pressure is equivalent to about 3,300 feet deep in the ocean.
The record for one of our spacecrafts surviving on the surface is just over two hours, and it was designed to withstand the grueling environment.
But if OceanGate is any indication, Söhnlein isn't interested in things like keeping people alive, and he doesn't want you to be either:
"Forget OceanGate. Forget Titan. Forget Stockton. Humanity could be on the verge of a big breakthrough and not take advantage of it because we, as a species, are gonna get shut down and pushed back into the status quo," he said.
His new idea is to create a colony in Venus' atmosphere.
He claims that 50km above the surface of the planet there are similar conditions to earth. It's between 86 and 122 degrees Fahrenheit, the gravity is only 1G, and there's some protection against the sun's radiation (never mind the carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid in the air).
But without Stockton Rush, who's going to lead the expedition?
Maybe he could find a suave, handsome rogue to manage his Cloud City?
Heaven knows, he'll need a Lando Calrissian to convince 1,000 people to commit mass suicide in the hellish clouds of Venus.
