Hamlet Yousef, Managing Partner at IronGate VC, on the VatorNews podcast

IronGate VC is a firm investing in dual-purpose technology that strengthens national security

8:40 -- Yousef talks about investments gaining traction, such as their earlier investments: Red 6 Aerospace and Sayari Analytics. We’re dual-use investors. We want to make sure the tech not only enhances our national security but also has significant applications in the private sector. IronGate is also a fund of funds. To be clear, IronGate doesn't invest in weapons systems. The tech that they invest in has significant applications in the civilian sector. 

14:10 -- Yousef talks about the environment we live in today, and if Israel would have already defeated Hamas if there weren't so much political pressure on them. He first starts with an eye-opening view that Covid nor 9/11 or the now Middle East war somehow changed the trajectory of the direction the world has been going in. He says there's been an underlying act of subversion happening to destabilize Western societies. Iran didn't wake up a year ago and give Hamas the green light to start the war in the Middle East. The conflict has been brewing for some time.

18:00 -- Call-to-action time. It's a wake-up call. It's time for a new wokeness where people realize the world we're living in. You could say it's a Cold War 2.0 or a continuation of the first one. "The conflict now isn’t about capitalism or communism, it’s about what kind of society we will live in. Is it authoritarian and centralized control? Or do you want to go back to the foundation of western ideals - still central government as referee, but everyone free to function the way they want." With regards to Israel, in Iran, there is a small percentage that believe in the Islamic Republic, which is an anti-Western religious theocracy. How do you fix this? Yousef believes technology can help shape the narrative. "If you’re not paying attention to the nuances, your understanding of the world changes substantially."

25:00 - Yousef talks about how we need to change the post-Geneva Convention humane war policies if the two sides don't want the same thing. e have to balance morality, ethics with warfare. But if you’re in a fight for your life, what rules apply? To use Israel example, if you’re sitting in your house, and you have a beef with neighbor and a couple bad actors break your door down and slaughter your family, what are you supposed to do? Are there laws you need to follow? When you talk about having restraint, there’s a conversation to have. 

31:00 How can technology fight modern warfare: disinformation and misinformation to influence the way people think. We Over Me's mission is to cut through the noise of propaganda and "interpret the times" as it says in Luke 12:56. Hamlet explains how he cuts through the noise and it starts by being well-informed. "This disinformation warfare campaign we’re in is full-fledge. Cold War 2.0 is understand where the narratives are and where the truth is. How do we solve for that?"

37:48 - How does national security safeguard our free will? That question is hard to ask when there are different views of what people should be free to do. Hamlet believes  U.S. politics is an archaic way of looking at governance. The continuum of where voters arise is not a Left or Right continuum. What the discussion should be around is should there be a central authority to dictate what we can do or more individual freedom? This takes us down a path of faith of religion.  

43:00 -- The different search engines and their models showcase how technology enables a more centralized control vs more individual control. This concept of individual self-rule is new. For thousands of years, dictatorship, emperor - style of government has been centralized command. Since enlightenment, it’s going toward more decentralized western society. China wants to go back. They don’t want to give them freedoms, but we’ll control how things are run through a centralized government. How does this relate to technology? See the social credit system to force change, manage and influence behavior? This can’t happen without alliance with the tech community to hand over that info to the government. We can't have that.

47:45 - We're more aligned than we think. People are throwing out the concept of civil war. We’re not in a civil war. We’re so intertwined as a society, no one will want to give that up.  Best way to sort this out is to realize that as different as we are, we’re probably 80-90% on the same page. The problem is if there is an adversarial power that wants to control us; they want us to divide us, they won't allow us to see how alike we are. They want us divided. If you look at Marxism, that is what it is: dividing society into so many different classes, break us into different sub-classes (culturally driven). If we can be easily divided, we can be controlled. 

51:00 -- Hamlet gives some color about his panel at the October event. The role tech will play in national security and defense.