I'm a big fan of Joe Rogan. A few months ago I wrote an article in praise of the excellent work that Joe Rogan is doing to bring exciting science and technology closer to little people like us.
Rogan is willing to tackle controversial topics, and give a platform to new science or technology that the public is not yet aware of. Even if not all the information presented is always correct, his ability to influence culture can stimulate public enthusiasm and support for science and emerging technologies.
The enormous cultural influence of Joe Rogan is described in the recent book "The Intellectual Dark Web" (2025), by Jamie Roberts.
Crazy tech
I've been watching one of the last episodes of Joe Rogan's podcast. It is an interview with physicist and aerospace engineer Harold "Sonny" White.
We can go to the Moon and to Mars with current space propulsion technologies. But to reach the outer planets of the solar system we'll need to find ways to go faster. To reach the stars, we'll need to go even faster. And to build an interstellar civilization, we'll need to go faster than light. White illustrates the need to go faster and ways to go faster and then even faster, all the way up to beyond the speed of light, with a nice video.
One often hears White's name in connection with "crazy" space propulsion ideas like the Alcubierre warp drive or the much maligned EmDrive. White also researches creative ways to extract energy from the "zero point field" of quantum fluctuations in the vacuum.
For a technical presentation of all these things, see for example the last chapter of "Future Spacecraft Propulsion Systems and Integration" (2017) by Paul Czysz, Claudio Bruno, and Bernd Chudoba.
The bureaucrats of science don't want the little people like us to listed to these things. But we, the people, want to listen. Thank you Joe!
I've known about White for years but this has been the first time I've listened to him speaking. He is a very articulate and clear speaker with a knack for explaining complex things simply.
"White is a physicist and aerospace engineer specializing in advanced propulsion, particularly warp drive physics," reads the presentation of the interview. "Formerly leading NASA’s Advanced Propulsion Team at Johnson Space Center, he is now the founder and CEO of Casimir." Casimir is "a deep-tech startup focused on developing breakthrough power-generating nanotechnology." This could transform sustainable energy on Earth and lay the groundwork for future advancements in interstellar propulsion systems.
Energy from the quantum vacuum
White spent 20 years at NASA, where among many other things he received the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal. Then he left NASA at the end of 2019 and started a nonprofit called Limitless Space Institute.
He also started a commercial company called Casimir. This company wants to build nanotechnology able to leverage the Casimir effect to extract zero-point energy from the quantum vacuum. The Casimir effect was first theorized by physicist Hendrik Casimir and then confirmed in the laboratory. When two parallel metal plates are very close to each other in the vacuum, there is a force that pulls them closer. White explains that this force comes from fluctuating fields in the quantum vacuum.
"At Casimir, we are on a mission to transform the energy landscape through the innovative application of nanotechnology interacting with quantum fields," reads the company's presentation. "Our primary focus is to advance nanotechnology for power generation, storage, and distribution."
Casimir wants to build "chips that are about the size of your pinky nail that generate one and a half volts and 25 micro amps," White says. Many of those chips working together could generate a lot of energy. The chips don't have to be recharged. "So we're like a solar panel that works in the dark," White says.
The Alcubierre warp drive
General relativity is surprisingly friendly to faster than light transportation. Miguel Alcubierre proposed a warp drive that would allow to shrink space in front of the starship. This would transport the starship like a surfer carried by a wave of space that moves faster than light. This is allowed by Einstein's physics.
White, who has made important contributions to Alcubierre propulsion theory, explain this with a simple analogy. When you are in an airport and walk on one those conveyor belts, you move faster than your speed. So the space in front of you effectively shrinks. In Alcubierre's theory, empty space acts as a conveyor belt.
To build an Alcubierre warp drive we wold need exotic stuff that we don't know how to create. But here is where the physics of the quantum vacuum could help. So there's an important and motivating link between the devices that the Casimir company is researching, and future warp drives for interstellar expansion.
Tic Tac UFOs and UAPs
Rogan, who understand what the public is interested in, piloted the conversation toward UFOs and UAPs like the "tic tac" objects. Those objects, recorded on video, seem to move in ways that defy our understanding of propulsion physics. White is, at the same time, skeptical and open minded. "I tend to be agnostic to the topic," he says, adding that he tends to "try and always keep a squinty eye" towards it. The stuff that survives that filter, he thinks, could well be high quality stuff.
Time will tell
How much of what Rogan and White discussed is or will come true? The only answer is that given at the end of the space propulsion book mentioned above: time will tell.
But these "crazy" topics have a unique potential to motivate brilliant young people to advance the frontiers of knowledge and technology. Some of them will certainly do important things, and perhaps build warp drives. Again, time will tell.
At the end of the interview, White says that he suspects that the deep physics of the quantum vacuum could be related to the nature of consciousness.
