Said an unnamed person, quoted in "ELON MUSK’S TOTALLY AWFUL, BATSHIT-CRAZY, COMPLETELY BONKERS, MOST EXCELLENT YEAR/In 2020, the COVID-doubting, media-hating Twitterholic CEO became the third-richest man alive, SpaceX launched two astronauts into orbit, and Tesla became the most valuable car company on the planet. Inside the mind of Silicon Valley’s most vainglorious villain" by Nick Bilton (Vanity Fair).
Musk has a plan to colonize Mars to "save humanity, given that we will likely destroy Earth through climate change, or artificial intelligence, or some other cataclysmically awful human-inspired event." He thinks he can get 1 million people living there by 2050. Bilton envisions disaster because "Musk will be there too, and he will bring his extremes with him.... If Twitter works on the red planet, Musk will still be blocking people who don’t agree with him."
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110 comments:
If Elon isn't a corruptocrat or part of the new world order of corruptocrats - they will be gunning for him.
"Climate Change" is the latest catastrophic justification used to take control of the economy and the government. They've been predicting doom since the 1930s. The climate models are grossly simplified and are incapable of predicting when dinner will be, let alone what the temperature would be in 10 years.
Musk has a history of doing things.
True, he uses all the Big Government largesse he can.
So did Lech Walesa.
The Solidarity Movement suggested that every right-thinking person should subscribe to every government program and then some.
I would wait a bit before buying my ticket to Mars.
Ha,
As I was reading this post I got to the word “sociopathy.”
And then, I jumped out of the text to the bottom this post (the tags) to see if Althouse was referencing a piece from Kara Swisher.
I think that Kara has sorta said this stuff on the record. Close to it at least. Although not really for Elon, just Zuck.
Elon’s mom was on Kara’s show a while ago and Maye was fussy because of some fairly mild stuff (far short of sociopathy accusations) that Kara had written about Elon.
Anywho, Elon’s mom was a model. So that’s cool.
Gets important things done.
BTW,
Am I a crazy person because I prefer the fake hair on Biden and Trump more than the (seemingly) less fake thing on the top of Elon?
Nothing says "saving humanity" that going to a dead planet with no atmosphere. I'll take my chances on earth.
It is worth reflecting on the possibility that this is how humanity has survived, with a few of these crazed individuals activating us, both to follow him to make money and conquer territory, or to band together to defend ourselves against them. A whole lot of the current world population is descended from Genghis Khan. We have proof of that in his direct y-haplogroup (Rib-M343), but that is only a fraction of his overall descent. And those he extracted tribute from along the way developed defensive military adaptations so that it wouldn't happen again.
We likely had guys like this - I am fairly certain it is a male-variant - since we were hunter gatherers.
A lot of people are trying to take Musk down.
He is a very disruptive force. A positively disruptive force.
I find it particularly interesting that he stole the electric car market from the aristocracy.
He needs to focus on near earth orbit.
Mars sucks.
They notion of saving the human species by moving to Mars is absurd. Earth, in whatever fucked up state in may be in the future, will be a much more suitable place to live in than Mars.
Is this because Musk said some nice things about Trump a month or two ago?
(Wow. It took three different puzzle games to prove I'm not a bot this time!)
I don't like the way he got rich(er) sucking off the government teat.
But, like Trump, at least he gets shit done.
Most successful entrepreneurs have a screw loose...take Steve Jobs.
In tech that's a feature, not a bug.
@Amexpat -- The notion of saving the human species from global warming by moving to Mars is absurd, yes.
But having colonies on other worlds is a good backup in case of a dinosaur-killer striking the Earth, or an engineered plague, or runaway nanotechnology, or any of a number of similar apocalyptic scenarios.
Clint,
Try hitting “publish” while completely ignoring the captcha. Don’t check the box. Skip it completely.
My stuff always gets through that layer of evaluation.
"All of these guys, I’ve spent time with them, Musk, Zuck, all of them; they all exhibit tendencies of total and complete pathological sociopathy. They don’t at their core give a flying fuck about you or me as individuals."
If that's the case, why single out Musk?
Elon's mom is the 72 year old fashion model in the Covergirl commercials, so of course he's messed up. But really, aren't all the big-time earth-shakers messed up?
More anonymous sources. We are being destroyed by anonymous sources, lying. Not worth linking.
Mars has pretty much the opposite climate conditions we are told the Earth will have if we don't stop the climate change crisis, like, immediately, right? You know, melting ice caps, rising oceans, more or less Kevin Costner's Waterworld. Which was really just Mad Max on an endless sea. But I digress.
Musk is a visionary. From what I've observed all such people are nerdy, quirky, self-regarding assholes. Maybe sociopath is a better description.
I'm okay with him being craycray just don't take the public money.
Pathological sociopathy is a Tom Swifty.
No oxygen on Mars. No atmosphere. Horrible temperatures. Lower gravity. Radiation. Etc.
Sounds dubious.
But a good way to make money....sounds like sci-fi movie--How do you get people off of a dying (?) planet and make them pay big bucks to leave....
BTW, I now have two electric cars, from two manufacturers (though the Tesla is mostly used by someone else in the family, so I really only use one of the EVs), and I will never go back to ICE vehicles unless there’s a reason such as capacity (I have two F450s) and/or range (got highway cruisers) or cause I love the thrill of driving and vintage to vintage-ish cars (fun/don’t depreciate like falling rocks).
IMHO.
It's a good thing he's ineligible to be President of the United States.
If Twitter works on the red planet, Musk will still be blocking people who don’t agree with him.
So somebody writing in Vanity Fair is afraid of Elon Musk canceling people he disagrees with. Hmm.
Pathological sociopathy is a Tom Swifty.
HA!
But does Musk pound his pud during staff meetings like Toobin did?
Beware "The Marching Morons" as described by Kornbluth. Just had to be said.
yes their atmosphere was thinned out, hence the radiation, the water might be trapped in the polar ice caps,
"But does Musk pound his pud during staff meetings like Toobin did?"
He's a billionaire.
He has hot women under his desk for that sort of thing...as one would.
nti-de Sitter space said...
BTW, I now have two electric cars, from two manufacturers (though the Tesla is mostly used by someone else in the family, so I really only use one of the EVs), and I will never go back to ICE vehicles unless there’s a reason such as capacity (I have two F450s) and/or range (got highway cruisers) or cause I love the thrill of driving and vintage to vintage-ish cars (fun/don’t depreciate like falling rocks).
***********
Get back to us when you have to pay $5,000 each to replace your batteries. That will eat into the subsidies you got FROM US when you bought those fossil-fuel powered vehicles.
Monomaniacal people get a lot done. Glad we have them in the world!
Elon Musk probably belongs on Mars.
The guy (Musk) has really really good taste in women - for a liberal.
By the way, leaving Grimes out of it , there are at least two great "pop" songs in the last two years
AVA MAX - Kings and Queens,
and a song called "You" by "A GREAT BIG WORLD" (This is like the fiftieth song to be called YOU, I like it a lot).
Also, there are a few really good colognes with a musk scent in them ----- but to tell the truth, let's say you really like good whisys, and your favorite tastes like real whisky, but if someone asked what were the flavors you would say either who cares or, let's say, cherrywood, caramelized plums, a touch of wheaty horseradish and a hint of the flavor of THOUSAND YEAR OLD beer, stored at the bottom of the ocean ---- well, the best colognes, if they do have a touch of musk to them, are good enough to stand on their own while the musk, like the beer in the ancient tales, only reminds you it is there the way a spice that has spent a thousand years stored away on the floor of the salty winedark ocean reminds you it is there.
Anyway, the guy is young enough to be my grandson, so I can't really criticize him without reminding people he is still younger than he thinks he is. That is just how I roll.
By the way, the two songs I mentioned, which came out in 2018 and 2020 ---- have some awesome chord changes, and lots of room for the vocalists to be what Falstaff and Rosalind were, in real life, back in the day.
The problem with Mars is it doesn't have a magnetosphere. Everything else, water, O2, temperature, can be jury rigged, but not that.
Like Trump, you have to get past his personality, but they get shit done. If they weren't like they are they wouldn't.
clint said...
@Amexpat -- The notion of saving the human species from global warming by moving to Mars is absurd, yes.
But having colonies on other worlds is a good backup in case of a dinosaur-killer striking the Earth, or an engineered plague, or runaway nanotechnology, or any of a number of similar apocalyptic scenarios.
**********
why couldn't any or all of those things also happen on Mars? We watched a comet break apart and hit Jupiter with Earth-sized explosions , so why not Mars?
Everyone seems to forget that "terraforming" Mars is idiotic, since Mars lacks a magnetic field, which on Earth prevents the solar wind from scouring off the upper atmosphere, and also keeps biologically-destructive cosmic rays from raining down on humans.
I firmly believe we ought to get all our eggs out of this basket, because of Yellowstone and asteroids. And maybe Musk is the guy who can get that done.
But I'd like to see him or someone like him address the issue of climate on Earth - or, more properly, of plate tectonics, magnetic switcheroos, and cosmic collisions, since these are things that really really do have the potential to affect seriously or even destroy human and/or all life. Creating Ark habitats where humans, plants, and animals could wait out the effects of an asteroid hit that doesn't split the planet but does cause mass extinction, for instance. Or a real, effective asteroid shield. Or real, effective prediction of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. I threw in climate because it definitely does have strong effects (interior temperatures of Pangaea would have been basically unsurvivable for humans, for instance - but Pangaea is a plate tectonics issue) - but we've been adapting to those since we were knuckle-walkers, so I'm not worried.
Oh, and I am instantly skeptical of armchair diagnoses of sociopathy - thank you very much, Sherlock...
"They don’t at their core give a flying fuck about you or me as individuals."
Why should they? They have a business to run.
Do you give a ff about them as individuals? I mean, like, you'd work for them just because you care?
WholeSplain,
The servicing on the EVs is a great bargain.
I have several quite new ICE AMGs (and Porsches, that aren’t as bad) that have regular scheduled maintenance that is completely and totally insanely expensive. The massive savings (and lack of hassle (especially when you live in a lot of rural places)) associated w/ not having an engine snuck up on me. Going in, it hadn’t registered in my mind that there would be a substantial difference. But it’s huge. This is one of the reasons I will never go back to ICE (for the situations I detailed above). IMHO,
A couple of weeks ago I read an article at thefederalist about Musk colonizing Mars because he could legally set up any kind of government he wanted. Mars wouldn't be connected politically to the US. He could be Emperor Elon. It was an interesting read.
This article sounds like sour grapes with some Mean Girl backstabbing added in. Not nearly as interesting.
Musk is no more a humanitarian than Steve Jobs was. Like Jobs though, his personal obsessions are driving technological development that will benefit the rest of us. Yes going to Mars to live isn't everyone's idea of a great get away. The thing is, in order to get there from here, you have to open up the rest of the solar system first. Being able to access the resources of an entire solar system sounds like it be of some use.
Left-wing journalists, which is to say most of them, hate Musk. They want to take him down and that's been obvious for years. And this is just more of the same.
Of course, Elon Musk is a human being with flaws. This shouldn't be news. If you expect something different then your perception of people is not grounded in reality.
But I'm pretty sure much of the animus that this writer displays towards Musk is actually motivated not by Musk's flaws but is instead primarily driven by the suspicion or even the certainty of the author that Musk doesn't share his politics.
I was thinking the earth has a better climate than Mars. But - what do I know?
@wholelottasplainin'
Sure. Any of those things could happen to a Martian colony -- plus a bunch of things that could wipe them out that we'd barely notice on Earth.
It's about having the eggs in two baskets.
"I was thinking the earth has a better climate than Mars. But - what do I know?"
Sure it does. The earth is at least one hundred times more interesting and more enjoyable a place for people to live than Mars is. But having a civilization on Mars (and with all the attendant ramifications and implications that has for people living even more places) probably raises the odds of human survival over the next 3,000 or 100,000 years, or whatever number you want to pick, by more than one hundred fold.
That's a good sci fi novel and movie adaption right there. Lets get Ridley Scott on this. Before Elon heads out to Mars with Joe Rogan.
If your willing to do your work under the desk, you dont need to be hot.
Looks like Musk isn’t the only crazy one.
"If your willing to do your work under the desk, you dont need to be hot."
Can't leave them there forever.
Besides, he can afford 'hot' even if he never sees them, so no biggie : )
Not one Elton John reference. It’s like I don’t even know you people.
Also do you think it would upset Mr. Anonymous to know that I don’t give a fuck about him either?
The Mars colony business is still at the "because it's there" stage.
Is Mars as harsh a mistress as the moon?
mandrewa said...
"I was thinking the earth has a better climate than Mars. But - what do I know?"
Sure it does. The earth is at least one hundred times more interesting and more enjoyable a place for people to live than Mars is. But having a civilization on Mars (and with all the attendant ramifications and implications that has for people living even more places) probably raises the odds of human survival over the next 3,000 or 100,000 years, or whatever number you want to pick, by more than one hundred fold.
********
You assume that Mars humans living under unbelievably harsh conditions over all that time will bear any resemblance to those living HERE today, AND that the conditions they will live under could be called a "civilization". You further assume that Earth humans will somehow have fewer means technologically to deal with crises--economic, climatic, or whatever--than Mars humans hunkering in caves with virtually no margin for error.
Enjoy your diet of potatoes.
Arrogant young tycoon upsets convention, exploits opportunities, promises yuge results and gets some, and pisses off journalists, pols, and intellectuals . . .
Hmmm. I'm sure Carnegie and Vanderbilt and Rockefeller and Ford would be quite upset by how uncouth Musk is.
If Mars is actually uninhabitable (as I suspect it is for good reasons already mentioned), then it will become clear soon enough. I don't think humanity can afford the expense even if it is feasible, and it would probably take so much money to accomplish that the citizens and serfs on Earth just might refuse to pay.
As the Europeans began to dominate the globe, utilizing advancements like improved vessel design and armament, improved navigational technique, and secularism, no European monarch or country had to invest that much from public funds to get into the game. I'm not sure if the same could be said of ambitious Mars settlement!
OTOH, IMO we need to find the limits to human adaptation to space, and only letting people do risky stuff at a reasonable price will work for that, even as we concentrate on unmanned research and exploration.
Narr
I would have no respect for my Race if we didn't at least try
You could listen to this moron tell you about Musk, or you could listen to Musk speak for himself on Joe Rogan. I don't read magazines anymore.
Rather than go all the way to Mars, why don't do a test case here on earth? Maybe in southern Arizona. We could it the Biosphere?
Just consider the differences in gravity between Mars and Earth, and tell me that "humans" who live their lives on Mars will not ultimately be very, very different from those left here on Earth.
Consider how people living in caves, tunnels or even domes will be anything like us, given that "outside" will be colder than Antarctica most of the year, dimly lit at best, barren, and poisonous.
Shit, most of us under House Arrest over Covid are chafing at Our Masters' decrees that we not go to the beach, or football games, or congregate.
The Martian version of "cabin fever" would be eternal...and horrendous.
"I'm gonna colonize Mars!"
Maybe. Maybe not. But in the process of working toward that goal, he's funding development of technologies that will allow human beings to reach other parts of the solar system. And as a wise man once said, "Once you're in orbit, you're halfway to anywhere."
If he can help drive the price/pound to orbit down to a reasonable amount, even if he never gets his Mars colony, we'll all benefit from the vastly increased access to space. Orbital manufacturing, orbital habitats, lunar exploration/habitats/manufacturing, access to asteroids that we KNOW contain megatons of valuable metals and other goodies.
Leftis always whinge about how the rich don't do anything for the public (and never mind that they GOT rich by doing things for the public, as evaluated by the public that voluntarily handed over billions to them)--well, Musk is doing just that.
I wish I could find a link to an article written by Ray Bradbury titled 'Tanquility Base to Stonehenge' where he lays out the argument that mankind must go to the stars and beyond or we will fall back to stonehenge levels. We are meant as beings to strive and reach out, not always successful, but we must continue to try. Elon Musk may be a lot of things, but he is correct as to the necessary expansion of mankind off this planet, as great as it is here, as if we dont' we are doomed to regress backwards - and that is not something we want to experience.
We are meant to go there. Not all of us, but as a species our destiny lies in the universe. So if Elon goes a bit full of himself to get a colony on mArs - good for him and the folks who volunteer to go.
Humperdink said...
Rather than go all the way to Mars, why don't do a test case here on earth? Maybe in southern Arizona. We could [call] it the Biosphere?
**********
Yeah. I think you mean Biosphere 2. And how did THAT turn out?
Not pretty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2
Remember: that was a mission of limited duration. Not forever.
Read the whole thing.
You could listen to this moron tell you about Musk, or you could listen to Musk speak for himself on Joe Rogan. I don't read magazines anymore.
Has Vanity Fair published any truth since 2016? A wise person wouldn't even trust the pagination without counting them first.
Mark Jones - Nice post.
the expanse suggests the differences between polities on earth, vs mars and the asteroid belt,
Nick Bilton imagines disaster, because while Bilton couldn't design a car, much less build the most valuable car company in the world; little Nick still thinks he is a smarter and better person than Elon.
Mars probably isn't where you want to plant your colony in order to insure the continued existence of the human race. It's even more vulnerable to asteroids than the Earth. Much thinner atmosphere and that pesky nearby asteroid belt. In addition, Martian soil is toxic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_soil#:~:text=Martian%20soil%20is%20toxic%2C%20due%20to%20relatively%20high,has%20been%20confirmed%20by%20Spirit%2C%20Opportunity%20and%20Curiosity.
If you're going to be living in a completely artificial environment anyway, why not hollow out some asteroids to protect you from radiation? You might even be able to impart a rotation to it to simulate gravity. And there's plenty of minerals in asteroids that can be mined. And there is no shortage of water available in the solar system beyond the earth if you can get to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udTOCn-GNQc
Don't get me wrong. I have a life-long interest in astronomy and cosmology. I have a 10" Celestron sitting my basement, largely unused now due to suburban light pollution. For years I've been a subscriber to "Astronomy" and "Sky and Telescope" magazines. I follow all sorts of stuff on Youtube. I think what Musk is doing with the reusable launch vehicles is simply FANTASTIC.
I am simply pointing out that the pollyanna-ish goals of Martian colonization face stupendous obstacles. We would be moving a tiny fraction of our population to a place where Antarctica would be a relative paradise, in large part because the air is still around 30% oxygen, breathable, and not largely CO2.
If anyone thinks that a Mars colony would consist of ordinary people, and not political/social elites, I have an asteroid I'd like to sell them.
Can anyone imagine any crews of Mars missions being anything BUT high-level scientists or engineers, or just politicians with clout? Ordinary people need not apply.
Or just look at politicians like "Barfin' Jake" Garn, the aged John Glenn, or the Saudi Crown Prince who somehow wangled their way into space.
Do you think YOU or your average-guy-or-gal would EVER have a chance to go?
SNORT
Can anyone imagine any crews of Mars missions being anything BUT high-level scientists or engineers, or just politicians with clout? Ordinary people need not apply.
Or just look at politicians like "Barfin' Jake" Garn, the aged John Glenn, or the Saudi Crown Prince who somehow wangled their way into space.
Do you think YOU or your average-guy-or-gal would EVER have a chance to go?
"Send all our politicians to another planet" is an argument FOR colonization of Mars.
Ron Winkleheimer said...
If you're going to be living in a completely artificial environment anyway, why not hollow out some asteroids to protect you from radiation? You might even be able to impart a rotation to it to simulate gravity. And there's plenty of minerals in asteroids that can be mined. And there is no shortage of water available in the solar system beyond the earth if you can get to it.
********
Problem is, the deeper inside the asteroid you would live, the less net gravitational pull you would experience. And you would have to generate your entire atmosphere...forever.
As for "minerals", you can't live off them or grow food. You need organics, lots of them.
But I agree about Mars.
anti-de Sitter space ????
what do you do about tire rotation? do you just ignore doing it?
i get my oil changed when i rotate my tires (every 6,000 miles);
even though the oil doesn't need it. . .
I guess i could go every other rotation, but that seems weird to me . . . so, i splurge
Other than the tire rotation (and the oil changes(and new tires)), the ONLY other thing i've done (in 3 cars @35,000miles/yr for 10 years)... is; the new car (2019 dodge caravan with 80,000 miles (so far) needed tire alignment
so, again; what Do YOU Do about tire rotation? just ignore it?
He thinks larger and faster than the typical human he is surrounded by. And anyone surrounding him could potentially be an anchor pulling him down. So he's skeptical about other humans right off the bat. Add in that most people are jealous of him and constantly picking him apart from afar (magazines, newspapers, twitter, etc.). And toss in a bit of non-typical, sometimes anti-social behavior present in many geniuses, and you have Elon Musk.
He accomplishes more in a year than most have done in a lifetime. And not small things.
He reminds me of Joe Biden.
Ha! Just kidding. A sack of potatoes reminds me of Joe Biden.
Gilb,
It is true that comparing the recommended maintenance schedule for AMGs to other cars (even inc other Mercedes) is a distorted metric. They seem to be especially engineered to make dough for dealerships after the sale.
But they’re so F-ing fun and good at transportation (even if they can be more than a bit gimmicky re styling and fake exhaust back-firing). IMHO.
@Amexpat -- The notion of saving the human species from global warming by moving to Mars is absurd, yes.
The idea that we have a Global Warming problem is almost as absurd.
I like that he is a free thinker. There have been suggestions and plans to get us out of our gravity well for a number of decades now. There is immense wealth to be had in space. It just needs to be done at a pride that we can afford. Our government wasn’t going to be able to accomplish it, because they were trying to do it with a bureaucracy. Under Obama we were in the strange place where NASA was prioritizing Muslim outreach over manned space flight. That is what happens when you have a government bureaucracy trying to accomplish something useful, and esp one as old as NASA.
Reusable space vehicles is not that complex of an engineering problem. But pursuing that would have taking money away from the Space Shuttle, and then such things as the aforementioned Muslim Outreach. Several of these billionaires have read the same speculative science articles and books as I have, and can see the possibility of massive wealth accruing to those first able to get into space economically.
I don’t see a real advantage to living on Mars. More, I think that it would be the bragging rights, and getting the public behind the endeavor. Much better in my mind to go back to the Moon and build permanent habitations there. Why? Because it has a much smaller gravity well, and doesn’t have an atmosphere that costs to launch trough due to its friction. A lot of what we would need for permanent space habitation can be put into space far more cheaply from the Moon, than from the Earth.
One reason to go to space is to put much of our heavy industry up there, leaving the surface of the Earth for humans and our pets. With the massive wealth that could possibly accrue, we could possibly end up with a utopia where most could live well, without having to work (which is not without a lot of problems...).
Problem is, the deeper inside the asteroid you would live, the less net gravitational pull you would experience. And you would have to generate your entire atmosphere...forever.
As for "minerals", you can't live off them or grow food. You need organics, lots of them.
There is plenty of organic material in the solar system.
https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Ancillary_Materials/Exemplars_and_Case_Studies/Exemplars/Physics_and_Astronomy/Organic_Compounds_in_The_Solar_System
And given access to water, generating an atmosphere is not difficult. Yes, I know that the atmosphere is not just oxygen, it is mostly nitrogen with some other gases mixed in, but supplying and maintaining an atmosphere is possible.
As for gravity, I'm thinking of something like this.
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-are-investigating-how-to-fit-a-space-station-inside-a-giant-asteroid
“I don’t see a real advantage to living on Mars.”
If you could automate service work and such, you’d end up w/ a very effective moat between you and envious/jealous losers who are not filthy rich.
"they all exhibit tendencies of total and complete pathological sociopathy. They don’t at their core give a flying fuck about you or me as individuals." Heh. Could be Elon Musk cares about you, but doesn't really respect your opinion.
This annoys you.
Musk would have been a great character in “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress."
"Consider how people living in caves, tunnels or even domes will be anything like us, given that "outside" will be colder than Antarctica most of the year, dimly lit at best, barren, and poisonous."
Funny how, at least in the case of the moon and Mars, mankind will likely end up back in caves.
"the expanse suggests the differences between polities on earth, vs mars and the asteroid belt,"
'The Expanse' (Amazon Prime I think) starts great but gets really messed up as it goes...a lot of mumbo jumbo writing and a ton of politics.
But the 3 factions; earth, mars, and the asteroid belt, are depicted in an interesting manner.
Each population has different political agendas and different physical limitations, mostly because of gravity or lack thereof.
Good special effects for a TV show...
I read maybe half of this article, and noticed two obvious factual errors:
This one is perhaps forgivable, we can assume you don't need scientific literacy to earn a journalism degree: "A mission to transport people from Los Angeles to San Francisco in giant air tubes." This can only be referring to the hyperloop idea, the whole point of which is that the tubes have all the air removed. They aren't air tubes, they are vacuum tubes.
This however, is ridiculous: "Musk, at the time, was constantly irked by the fact that Wall Street was shorting Tesla stock by more than a quarter billion dollars, with more people betting against Tesla (and, in turn, Musk) than any other company in the United States, according to financial technology and analytics firm S3 Partners LLC."
I have no idea where they came up with a quarter of a billion dollars, but that would represent about the volume of tesla stock during 15 minutes of a typical trading day. Maybe they meant a quarter of a trillion? But that sounds too way too high. I remember the short interest being between 10 and 20 billion, and I was following fairly closely at the time, trying to time a short squeeze.
If Musk can build a colony on Mars, he could build one on on an Uninhabitable Earth much more easily.
The government subsidizes this guy’s projects. Half of them are pipe dreams.
To be fair most of us are annoyed when others do not respect our opinions.
Not me, but most of us.
Grimes is hot, but I could do better.
"If anyone thinks that a Mars colony would consist of ordinary people, and not political/social elites, I have an asteroid I'd like to sell them."
Could *all* of the political elites go establish a colony on Mars? Please?
I think to a certain degree insanity and creativity go hand in hand. Insanity may not quite be the right word, but I can't think of a better one. Anyway, I think medicating away every neurological difference will have a high cost.
> “I don’t see a real advantage to living on Mars.”
Depends how many hookers hang out at the local bars
If he can help drive the price/pound to orbit down to a reasonable amount, even if he never gets his Mars colony, we'll all benefit from the vastly increased access to space.
SpaceX is already 20% the cost to LEO than its competition, and nearly 10% to GTO using a Falcon Heavy. And that information is fairly old, when reuse was still being developed. Now they are very good at recovery vehicles down range (meaning more mass to orbit) and capturing the fairings (saving $3 million per fairing half successfully caught). More importantly, none of his government competition is even attempting these cost saving technologies. Further, none of them could without significantly higher development costs. Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule were developed for less than half of just one year's budget for NASA's SLS.
Falcon Heavy cost $500 million to develop and can put 64 tons in LEO for $150 million. SLS will cost between $500 million to $2 billion per flight and may, at sometime in the next 5 years, prove it can put 95 tons to LEO. Elon's Starship may fly before SLS with an estimated cost of $2 million per flight (fuel is only $900K, but refurbishment may drive the cost a little bit higher) lofting 100 tons to LEO.
Nick Bilton's article, if printed, may support the weight of a leg of a diner table, if folded a few times and printed on magazine gloss stock and not newspaper stock.
Jaime, I agree.
Looked at another way:
I think a lack of being unlike other people and a lack of creativity go hand in hand.
Look, we all want to be good parents, to be good friends, to be good citizens.
From that point of view, it is kind of selfish not to want to be at least a little creative, even if we have to risk a little (very little, if you trust God) of what JK Rowling thinks the muggles (her bigoted word, not mine) think of as insanity.
Just saying, YMMV.
It is so so easy to only care about yourself and about people who help you out and make you happy, but that way lies UTTER MEDIOCRITY and an inability to be helpful WHEN YOUR HELP IS NEEDED.
I didn't think about the descriptor "degenerate" at first. I've used it here myself to describe, for instance, the system of chattel slavery that spread over much of the New World after 1500, and the centuries-long trade that followed. THAT'S degenerate in a lot of senses.
OTOH, unable to use drug-addiction, violence, molesting baby badgers, or some other substantive problem as a cudgel, all the whiny writer has is, "Musk is icky."
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There are plenty of people in my life I'd walk out of a room for
But what about the children?? Colonies on Mars sound ok, but I have it on good authority that it’s not the kind of place to raise your kids. And, in addition, there’s no one there to raise them.
for boatbuilder @ 5:35
Ya know, Mars ain't the kind a place to raise your kids.
In fact, I hear that it's cold as hell...
Cold at night, hot as blazes in the day,
That VF article was a poorly written hatchet job. I can’t help but feel sad that Christopher Hitchens is no longer around to write for VF. He wrote things I never regretted reading.
Mars is not “hot as blazes in the day.” At the height of summer, near noon, close to the equator, outdoor temperatures may get close to what we think of as “room temperature” (25°C) or a little beyond.
Perhaps you're thinking of the Moon.
Mars is a lot like central Nevada in January, but a little colder: same scenery, same number of people, less voter fraud... for now.
Mars already had its catastrophic climate change. Escaping the Earth to live there would be like jumping off the Titanic shortly before it hit the iceberg, and not even knowing if there was an iceberg.
Anybody but me read Farmer In the Sky? Obscure but fun Heinlein juvie? It has lots to say about terraforming... I don't know if the solar system body he chose to represent as sufficiently earthlike (was it Ganymede?) would hold up today, but still a fascinating read. My science teacher-mother assigned it when she was doing her Earth science units.
Like all Heinleins, it's at least as much about human relationships as it is about the mechanics of (in this case) terraforming, but because I've heard so much modern sci-fi substitutes wokeness for science, I do wish the Golden Age writers would return to prominence.
"He's a billionaire.
He has hot women under his desk for that sort of thing...as one would."
Willie Brown was no billionaire.
Why do people like Musk want to colonize Mars?
It isn't really because he wants to "save humanity, given that we will likely destroy Earth through climate change, or artificial intelligence, or some other cataclysmically awful human-inspired event."
Mars is already a worse environment for human survival than any conceivable
human-inspired event would make the earth.
If the people of this planet are mad enough to destroy the earth using weapons of war, his little colony won't be forgotten and remain un-targeted for destruction.
The tech billionaires are capitalists, first and foremost. They did not make their money by being technical geniuses and bold visionaries. Technical geniuses and bold visionaries are a dime a dozen. They made their money by luck and by exploiting the rules that govern finance.
You know, I just don't think you get the huge dreamer/doer without the cray. I think they've always gone hand-in-hand, because the really big things need people not constrained by the usual boundaries.
Oh dear, late again. But I agree. I think of it as the CEO type. They're all Bill Gates underneath.
I worked for one as house counsel. He taught me a lot about negotiation but boy you didn't want to play devil's advocate with him. I don't pay you to give me THEIR side of this!
Lol. Still, he's rich and I'm not.
Not even Musk has the money to fund a Mars colony. SpaceX is a provider of services to the US gov't. It gets paid. Who's paying for Mars?
Who's the degenerate, that's our new national game. I don't think it's Musk.
Creative genius like that of Musk's is to be encouraged and admired but should never be allowed to make important policy decisions.
Anybody but me read Farmer In the Sky?
Yes. The colony on Ganymede in that novel had a "heat trap" that made it warm enough to live on, and it apparently also stopped the high level of radiation one would get from Jupiter (or Heinlein applied handwavium to the problem). There were fusion-powered spacecraft that could get there from Earth in months rather than the years it takes us. The colony was officially set up as a relief valve for overpopulation, but it seemed clear the real reason was "don't keep all your eggs in one basket", as their models showed an inevitable world war.
None if this is very relevant to Mars colonization, of course.
Is it just me or does anyone care what Elon Musk thinks of us as individuals? Why is he supposed to care? I assumed he was busy making more money.
Why do people like Musk want to colonize Mars? It isn't really because he wants to "save humanity, given that we will likely destroy Earth through climate change, or artificial intelligence, or some other cataclysmically awful human-inspired event."
Because of science fiction movies and TV shows. We've all seen Total Recall, so it must be possible...
The environmental impact statements required by our future prog government will prevent him from accomplishing anything.
He'll have to set up the whole project in some 3rd world shithole where they don't care about that stuff.
He should go! Get him off this planet.
Projection. I want my babyback, babyback, Fetal-American ribs.
Podkayne of Mars was pretty good until the last few chapters, which were total trash
Not that Musk is Columbus or Magellan or anything, but there might have been idle sailors and hookers in the dockside bars and brothels sneering and wishing disaster as they set out.
Not because they understood anything, but because some people are like that.
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Same as it ever was
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