"But he’s different: he’s a manufacturing magnate—moving metal, not bytes. His rockets, built from scratch on an autodidact’s mold-breaking vision, have saved taxpayers billions, reinvigorated America’s space dreams and are launching satellites to expand Internet access across the globe. If Tesla delivers on its pledges, it has the potential to strike a major blow against global warming. The man from the future where technology makes all things possible is a throwback to our glorious industrial past, before America stagnated and stopped producing anything but rules, restrictions, limits, obstacles and Facebook. 'He is a humanist—not in the sense of being a nice person, because he isn’t,' says Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society, who met Musk in 2001, when the young, newly minted dot-com millionaire sent a large unsolicited check to the organization. 'He wants eternal glory for doing great deeds, and he is an asset to the human race because he defines a great deed as something that is great for humanity. He is greedy for glory. Money to him is a means, not an end. Who today evaluates Thomas Edison on the basis of which of his inventions turned a profit?'"
From "TIME/2021 Person of the Year/Elon Musk."
I didn't spend any time this year wondering about who the person of the year would be. This one just snuck up on me. I'll just say, I'm always glad to see someone other than a political leader getting the honor. Elon Musk genuinely looks like the greatest human being on earth right now. So... good.
Posts
54 comments:
Two gripes with Mr. Musk. (1) He has failed to get away from traditional rockets and develop a new propulsion system that cam offer a controlled flight to the moon or the planets. (2) he has failed to figure out a way to develop gravity. Any trip to the moon or the planets will be a huge ache literally. Musk is a serious bigot and in time he will defeat his best efforts. He clings to Lithium rather than try new battery ideas. He deserves credit but it should be tempered by a realistic understanding of how limited he really is.
He actually gets stuff done.
Kind of like Howard Hughes in a way.
Plus he's African American, which is a big bonus!
"He is greedy for glory."
And tax subsidies. I made him a billionaire.
"and are launching satellites to expand Internet access across the globe."
But the Democrats can't take credit, so they want to spend hundreds of billions to get internet to people whom Musk has already provided for. Give rural people subsidies on Musk's service, problem solved.
But wait, Musk is a super villain who is outside of their sphere of control.
How did the editors let that government waste crack slip? The private sector saved the taxpayers billions?
Oh yah, they fired tue editors…or is that NYT? I forget…
Tagline tryout:
TIME. I’d buy that for a dollar…
For less than the cost of a subscription you could buy TIME.
Wow. What the hell happened at Time Magazine?
Musk is a doer. He plays by rules that are driven by integrity that is other than the garbage dictats created by the aristocracy and he is getting results the aristocracy is actively trying to foil.
That Time Magazine went out and did this is actually quite shocking.
Timelines are being advanced faster than I thought.
Yes! One of my neighbors works-in a small way-on the Starlink project. Even though she and her husband have BLM and Strike/fist signs in their yard, she fervently agreed with me when I commented that long after the politicians have been forgotten, EM will be remembered and celebrated. (Unless something goes very, very wrong, of course).
My only quibble is that electric cars are coal powered (at least in the northeast), so I'm not quite sure how that helps with carbon footprints, to say nothing of dealing with hazmat disposal when the batteries no longer work.
We are looking at moving in the next year or two, and I'll likely go with starlink for the new internet connection, being away from a backbone will make for much worse internet.
If Tesla delivers on its pledges, it has the potential to strike a major blow against global warming.
you know How you can tell someone is a lying Shill? (you KNOW HOW)
It's when they say sh*t like
If Tesla delivers on its pledges, it has the potential to strike a major blow against global warming.
Musk is bringing Heinlein's D. D. Harriman to real life.
If not stopped Musk is going to eliminate Comcast. Starlink and Spacex are going to be much more disruptive than Tesla.
He is selling Tesla stock to fund that now. Tesla is massively overinflated and even Musk knows that.
Giving anyone with access to the sky access to relatively free information via the internet is going to be just as disruptive to regimes like China as it is to the rest of the globalist agenda.
I anticipate a "war" where China blows up Musk's satellites and the Biden Regime surrenders Taiwan and the United States is absolutely humiliated and degraded as much as possible.
The Biden Regime and the CCP are getting desperate. They are dependent on their cronies at Google and Facebook and Apple and the other tech oligarchs to control the flow of information for them but it isn't working.
If Tesla delivers on its pledges, it has the potential to strike a major blow against global warming.
To do that Musk needs to focus on power generation.
Althouse: “ Elon Musk genuinely looks like the greatest human being on earth right now.”
Really? Aren’t you forgetting about that comment I made in September that blew everyone away?
I’m hurt.
First time in a long time that I have agreed with Time.
This is clearly correct. If civilization exists in 2,000 years, practically no on on Earth will remember that Joe Biden (or Donald Trump) ever existed. (Well, if history remembers Joe Biden that would be a very bad sign for us, because it won't be because he did something historically great.)
But I do believe that history will remember Musk the way we remember Magellan or Galileo or Archimedes.
We have a friend, a mechanical engineer, who was with SpaceX almost from the beginning, and talks about how it was back then: part Wild West, part HP-in-the-garage. He talks about building their first rockets, basically strapping together a bunch of smaller ones to see what they could do. It sounds as if it was like something straight out of the Golden Age of science fiction.
Awesome. There is literally no one else in the world who gets the big stuff done, except him.
He's not The Person of the Year. He's, The Person, period.
Fromm CNN:
Time has grown the "Person of the Year" tradition into a larger franchise by introducing additional categories in 2019. This year, pop star Olivia Rodrigo was named Artist of the Year and four-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles was selected as Athlete of the Year. The title of Heroes of the Year, previously known as "Guardians," went to the scientists behind the mRNA covid-19 vaccine specifically Katalin Kariko, Barney Graham, Kizzmekia Corbett and Drew Weissman. Time named them "The Miracle Workers," saying they "achieved a breakthrough of singular importance, introducing an innovative and highly effective vaccine platform, based on mRNA, that will impact our health and well-being far beyond this pandemic."
I had expected it to be the covid vaccine scientists, but I see they also got recognition.
Wow! Time got it right for once.
For once I agee with the Times choice.
If I am counting correctly, Althouse and Meade have each been named Time’s person of the year at least three times. Althouse in 1966 (The Inheritor), 1975 (American Women), and 2006 (You). Meade in 1966 and 2006, and 1969 (Middle Americans).
I agree with Althouse's comment. I think Elon earned the honor with being the leader of the first venture that put private individuals in orbit. Musk has also done amazing things in previous years and will do more amazing things in the years to come.
I’ve not only lost my distaste for Musk, but I’ve come to admire him. He really is a man who changes the world. The comparison to Edison seems quite apt.
I agree. And while I do business with two space-oriented moguls (Amazon Prime and Musk's Starlink satellite internet), I've noticed this year that Blue Origin keeps sending celebrities into low-Earth orbit while SpaceX keeps launching meaningful payloads into permanent orbit and ferrying astronauts to the ISS. I'm not sure what this means, but it belies the dilettante rocketeer image the media likes to label both with.
Musk's selection is especially noteworthy because he is not a flagbearer for leftist activism as are most of the tech billionaires. He even went as far to run sway from California to a more hospitable place!
Celebrating the space exploits of Elon Musk (or Bezos) is an interesting choice.
We're constantly told that the private sector always does things faster and better than the government ever will. But we're cheering private industry for accomplishing something the government did 60 years ago.
On one hand, color me impressed.
On the other hand, who cares about Time's Person of the Year? Their choices in the past several years have for the most part been jokes.
Yeah, high-priced cars that require mostly gas-fired power plants to deliver their electric "fuel".
Cars that will require billions to build the charging stations for their fuel. Where the request to "fill'er up!" will take hours. Where you house will have to be rewired in order to meet the wiring requirements for such stations.
Employing lithium batteries that burn for a week when they catch fire (because they can't be put out with water or other common extingishers), and cost thousands to replace when they no longer can retain a charge.
Quite an accomplishment!
Interesting that Beiden seems to hate Musk (and love the UAW.) But Beiden is still living in the 70’s. Time did not vet their pick with the democrats.
Elon Musk genuinely looks like the greatest human being on earth right now.
I agree. Last night, my wife and I wandered into the Tesla exhibit on the 3rd St Promenade in Santa Monica, and I mentioned to her how remarkable an achievement it was that a single man, in today's age, was able to start a car company from scratch and move it to the point where (in California, at least) no street can be traveled for any distance without seeing at least one of his vehicles.
And while I am certainly no global warmist, his 4 yr $100M contest to develop a carbon capture technology is remarkably direct and likely to be effective.
- Krumhorn
(my preferred adjectives: brilliant/awesome)
Blogger David said...
Two gripes with Mr. Musk. (1) He has failed to get away from traditional rockets and develop a new propulsion system that cam offer a controlled flight to the moon or the planets. (2) he has failed to figure out a way to develop gravity. Any trip to the moon or the planets will be a huge ache literally. Musk is a serious bigot and in time he will defeat his best efforts. He clings to Lithium rather than try new battery ideas. He deserves credit but it should be tempered by a realistic understanding of how limited he really is.
So, Musk has failed to completely transform rocketry by reinventing propulsion, failed to "develop gravity" (whatever that might mean), and he is still constrained to using the current state of the art in useful rechargeable batteries. What a loser he really is. Thanks for pointing out his failings.
Today’s WSJ has an interview with Musk. He is interesting in a pleasantly unconventional way. He thinks that the government is spending far too much money, that this excess spending will have serious negative consequences, and that his EV company does not need government
subsidies to be successful.
Today’s WSJ has an interview with Musk. He is interesting in a pleasantly unconventional way. He thinks that the government is spending far too much money, that this excess spending will have serious negative consequences, and that his EV company does not need government
subsidies to be successful.
David said...
Two gripes with Mr. Musk. (1) He has failed to get away from traditional rockets and develop a new propulsion system that cam offer a controlled flight to the moon or the planets. (2) he has failed to figure out a way to develop gravity. Any trip to the moon or the planets will be a huge ache literally. Musk is a serious bigot and in time he will defeat his best efforts. He clings to Lithium rather than try new battery ideas. He deserves credit but it should be tempered by a realistic understanding of how limited he really is.
*************
1. Your gripe seems to be that Musk hasn't performed miracles that YOU want performed. Why not go out and perform them yourself? Or it it YOU who are "limited"?
2. What the hell does "develop gravity" mean?
3. What's with the "bigot" bullshit?
Despite my jaundiced views about Tesla and EVs it is undeniably true that EM has greatly moved forward space technology. Landing and reusing first-stage rockets numerous times has reduced the cost-per-kilogram needed to get into orbit by huge factors, as well as shortened flight turnaround times. NASA and Blue Origin are still way behind him and his top-notch team.
Give credit where it is due.
Musk is good, but Isambard Kingdom Brunel had the better name.
There's one thing Time's choice means for sure: short Tesla stock, currently 966.
Some 10 years ago or so my young son ran into Musk one night in a girl friends kitchen. Not recognizing him my son asked what he did. Musk replied that he was an engineer. The conversation continued for some time before awareness dawned on my son, who came home vowing never to wash the hand that had shaken Musks. Possibly false humility but it sounded real on the telling and I have always thought well of Musk since.
Time has not been relevant in quite some time. At this point, it is basically the equivalent of some random YouTuber making a Top 10 list. The YouTuber may have more sway at this point. The bulwarks of a decade ago have corrupted themselves into irrelevance.
At least it isn't Newsweek.
Is Time trying to get their credibility back?
"Two gripes with Mr. Musk. (1) He has failed to get away from traditional rockets and develop a new propulsion system that cam offer a controlled flight to the moon or the planets. (2) he has failed to figure out a way to develop gravity. Any trip to the moon or the planets will be a huge ache literally. Musk is a serious bigot and in time he will defeat his best efforts. He clings to Lithium rather than try new battery ideas. He deserves credit but it should be tempered by a realistic understanding of how limited he really is."
1. There is no evidence that such a propulsion system is possible. Why not demand a time machine, so you can travel to the future and back where there may be people who can tell us how to do it? For that matter, isn't "propulsion" thinking small? Why not teleportation?
2. The only meaning I can extract from "develop gravity" would be something like a space elevator (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator ). Although the physics of a space elevator are sound, material science is not close to producing cables with the required tensile strength.
3. If "battery" refers to using (reversible if rechargeable) chemistry to store electricity then all that's available in potential improvement is incremental rather than revolutionary. Because, you're just not going to find many chemicals that are more reactive than lithium, and therefore you won't find many chemical reactions that can yield much more energy. Whereas if "battery" means something like using energy from nuclear decay, such batteries already exist but are not about to become consumer products.
Musk clearly exists well outside the paradigm of the aggressive but otherwise not-all-that-creative-or-imaginative CEOs at the head of most of the world's larger corporations. What this difference will mean in lifetime achievement remains to be seen, but the contrast in achievement is stark.
'What this difference will mean in lifetime achievement remains to be seen, but the contrast in achievement is stark.'
Like I said, the man gets shit done, simple as that.
2. The only meaning I can extract from "develop gravity" would be something like a space elevator
I believe the original poster meant some form of artificial gravity so that interplanetary flights don't have to be taken in zero G.
We're constantly told that the private sector always does things faster and better than the government ever will. But we're cheering private industry for accomplishing something the government did 60 years ago.
Now explain NASA's progress with the SLS as compared to SpaceX's progress with Starship. Not only is the development of Starship occurring much more rapidly, in the end it will produce a far more capable vehicle that is incredibly cheaper to operate.
To do that Musk needs to focus on power generation.
Perhaps he could begin with something like solar panels and energy storage? Maybe begin by building the world's largest battery in Australia and creating a division of Tesla that does nothing but make solar panels?
“I had expected it to be the covid vaccine scientists”
LOL it was fast but literally required changing the definition of “vaccine” to convince people this unproven application of mRNA technology was effective. They should give Ivermectin a second Nobel prize for its prophylactic efficacy.
"But we're cheering private industry for accomplishing something the government did 60 years ago."
And can't actually do today.
That's why they are buying flights from Musk and were forced to buy them from the Russians before that. The private sector is now doing what it took the resources of a super power to do. They are doing it cheaper than NASA ever could and are able to innovate in ways NASA isn't able to.
"I believe the original poster meant some form of artificial gravity so that interplanetary flights don't have to be taken in zero G.
Interplanetary vehicles won't have o worry about aerodynamics for the main vehicle. So a wheel shaped vehicle rotating should suffice.
Just a weeeee bit more "shovel ready" than artificial gravity.
Side note: the Build Back Better plan emphasizes the "urgent" need to combat climate change. But Musk's vehicles would not get subsidies because his plants are non-union. Tell me again how unions profiting is more important than climate change...
Starlink and Spacex are going to be much more disruptive than Tesla.
Everything Musk does is towards one end goal. Mars.
SpaceX is obvious. To get to Mars you need to lift a lot of material off the planet.
Tesla is about developing electric vehicles for Mars (think cybertruck). Oh and it helps to fund the other endeavors.
Starlink is about funding the other endaevors, plus it gives you communication ability (but not internet) on Mars.
Hank Reardon only had Reardon Metal..... Elon has developed a lot more and will continue to.
My daughter is a big fan of Elon. She had me buy her a tee shirt one Christmas of a quote by Elon: "I want to die on Mars, just not on impact."
Everything about our (humans) involvement in the solar system is about to change. SpaceX's Starship will launch massive amounts of cargo into orbit at a much, much cheaper price than has ever been done before. Kudos dude.
I would have waited until Musk actually got us to Mars.
Interplanetary vehicles won't have o worry about aerodynamics for the main vehicle. So a wheel shaped vehicle rotating should suffice.
Exactly. You don't need "artificial gravity," spin will do. Ignore the Golden Age of Science Fiction at your peril. Those writers did their homework - they weren't just anthropologists. (Not to disrespect anthropology unduly - a fascinating field. But it doesn't solve problems like, "How do you maintain muscle mass in microgravity?")
"I do not recognize anyone’s right to one minute of my life.” - Howard Roark
Post a Comment