You might want to say: If it's my money, why are they billionaires? The answer would be: But that money they have is really your money. They need to give it back. This crazy flying-cars bullshit is taunting you. It's saying: Look at the nonsense we're throwing your money into, and we never asked if you wanted these toys we built for ourselves.The Tesla roadster is not okay https://t.co/10Z2AjVvxe
— Damien Slash (@damienslash) October 16, 2026
But don't be confused! The guy in the video, Damien Slash, is a comedian. He's doing satire. It's good enough satire and the world is weird enough that I think there are many people who believe everything he said.
And here's a little poll where I ask you to vote for the most intriguing machine of the week:
Posts
139 comments:
That idiot is a communist. or a democrat.
Satire? I doubt it. he sounds like very leftist out there.
May I vote "present?"
The model why
We were promised flying cars and all we got was clickbait.
Knight Industries did this in the 80s. And it was bulletproof, had ejector seats, and advanced reasoning AI came as standard.
Hard to believe there's a comedian behind all that fishing tackle. But that whole 'billionaires' thing, that class envy tactic. If it's satire, then he needs to make it a bit more biting. Envy, such an evil thing to foment, but the absolute basis for what they're trying on in this cycle. The 'affordability' shtick, then 'look at all those billionaires'. Then it's, 'It could be yours, Comrade, your Fair Share'.
You can see it happening right here. All that's missing is the payroll function.
May I vote "present?"
I was going to say I'm not intrigued, but my diffident disposition won out. Until I saw another likeminded intrepidus soul.
Bald Titania McGrath with a nose ring, but Doyle's parody is funnier.
God DAMN that Blogger does not play nice with Safari — though it used to.
“You might want to say: If it's my money, why are they billionaires? The answer would be: But that money they have is really your money.”
Having an IQ above 100 I realize that it’s THEIR money and they warned it. This is by contrast with politicians, who get rich by accepting bribes and insider trading.
Peachy+2 said...
That idiot is a communist. or a democrat.
embrace the power of "AND"
What about that was satirical? He sounded entirely earnest to me. Earnest, if inexplicably convinced that his opinion about "what life is about" is a more valid read on "what life is about" than that of Elon Musk, who has famously and repeatedly said that what *his* life is about is getting some humans off Earth and onto or into some sustainable place beyond the reach of an extinction-causing asteroid, so that consciousness and intelligence may not pass from existence.
He IS a Titania figure? Then I guess he's doing it way better(?), because he sounded exactly like every. Progressive I'm hearing on the subject of Musk these days... which, to me, means that his satire is failing.
How can it be satire with no turn, where the person who has been nodding along and growing ever more indignant, suddenly realizes that SHE is the butt of the joke? There's no turn in this.
"They don't have health care!"
And the alleged comedian sounds like he’s channeling Abdul El-Sayed. Althouse may find him funny but I do not.
rehajm must have taken a timeout so I'll say it:
"Late-stage capitalism!" "Everybody knows this is nowhere! Bring on National Socialism for Somalis and their servants, I can't wait for my life to have more meaning than it has now after Trump took mine all awaaaay!!"
I skimmed the post, which is bad form. The good Prof already pointed out the satire.
Not enough over the top. He forgot to include something about how it contributes to the global warming that will eventually commit genocide against the underaged ketamine-selling transmen of Venezuela. See? Doyle is funnier.
No it's a PR stunt. I just wonder who is impressed by it. Nice weekend project for some of his engineers.
Capitalism always involves waste by "the capitalists", generally the second generation who have control of the resources but don't have the imagination to do anything useful with it.
“Late stage capitalism”? This guy is pumped full of fear and envy.
And, apparently, we ain’t seen nothing yet!! Not late stage by about a gazillion interplanetary miles…
It should be satire, but it is too invisible, too inaudible, too unknowable, to me. Maybe it's his appearance that tipped my scales; but his righteous indignation did not have any winks behind it.
"He could give everyone on Earth $2M and still be a billionaire."
That's RCOCEAN level math there.
Fuck that guy with a hot poker.
A few years ago, on the anniversary of the moon landing, the New York Times reminded us that the US government spent tens of billions of dollars on the space program, money that could have been sent to African Americans as reparations. The Times also snarled that the hundreds of thousands of top scientists and technicians working on the program were overwhelmingly "mediocre White men" (or, even worse, Jews).
I wonder if Queen Isabella of Spain was confronted with similar criticism when she financed Christopher Columbus' trip to the Americas?
Musk upstaged Molly.
"beyond the reach of an extinction-causing asteroid"
Sweet meteor of doom, come thwack us immediately but please just kill only this guy.
Pseudo psatire. A nose-ring liberal. Pay me because you have stuff and I don’t.
I don't listen to people with nose rings that can't do the math.
Why's it satire? But not insane ranting!
I do object to Althouse’s characterization of the store clerk as “snooty.” The only video of the incident has no audio. Clarkson asserts, without evidence, that the clerk took an attitude because she was dressed casually. The store owner, who might know something about the item, says it is not for sale.
“ It's good enough satire and the world is weird enough that I think there are many people who believe everything he said.”
It doesn’t work as satire unless you go far enough beyond what people believe that they recognize it as satire. This guy seems completely sincere.
I liked the crank-powered bird. It seemed like a satire of some of the ludicrous energy-saving gimmicks that now infest the world.
Huey P. Long did this much better in the 1930's. And he came close to becoming president.
Huey's "barbecue" speech:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UtXnxLbgv7I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX5ZtbY-gj4
The book "Huey Long" by Williams is very good. Huey was extraordinarily energetic, like Napolean, and overcame very big obstacles because of it. One of the best populist politicians ever.
It's a completely believable character. There are millions of people exactly like that, and they vote. I've seen them online; I've met some. They are everywhere, and they believe every crazy thing they hear from other crazy people. Unfortunately, some believe enough to get violent about it. The stupid are more dangerous to democracy and freedom than the evil.
It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of how human interaction works, clever only because so many people lack the knowledge to recognize what a con it is…
@Gerda Sprinchorn, I second that nomination. It was a very good book and a fascinating figure who transformed politics, innovated, and was responsive to the voters.
…wealth is created. It isn’t just a big pile of money and we humans compete to hoard the biggest pile. In kindergarten terms- it isn’t competing to get a bigger slice of cake it is making more cake…
A much longer clip of Huey P. Long that pretty much duplicates what the guy with the ring in his nose was saying:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF6kFpnf4H4
“But Morgan and Rockefeller and Mellon and Baruch have walked up and took 85% of the vittles off the table.”
Q.Will this be the first day of my life when I follow the advice of of someone sporting a nose septum ring?
A. No.
…the stupid is in the relativism too- take a look at percent of the human population that would rant ‘he can afford to have someone else make his nose ring?’ if they had internet access and a device to see the video…
…if we’re ranking Elon indulgences the flying car doesn’t hold a candle to the flamethrower idea. Because of people like the guy in this video that product alone would have made Elon a trillionaire…
If you thought Althouse was satire-impervious, wait til you meet her dopey commenters.
The guy looks like he’s been led by the nose through severe TDS.
The nose ring is on the nose, but the rest of the glibliberish is so subtle as to be indistinguishable from the real thing. He should have talked about the millions in California without access to high speed rail or give some other indication that it's a put on. Same problem with that woman yesterday......Nose rings look like metallic snot and detract from the speaker's gravitas. On the other hand, a man who can produce a flying car that drives on upside down surfaces and do back flips in the air has created his own field of gravity and does not need gravitas. I'd take Musk seriously even if he wore a nose ring.
If his math were correct (it’s not) exactly what does he think he could buy with $2 million? Probably less than before everyone else also had 2 million.
I heard that a variant of this product will be on the market for $200,000 in 2028. I don't think the moves are street legal though. It can probably only be used in Fast and Furious movies right now. Maybe they can equip medical or fire vehicles. But the honest reaction is Wow. If Steve Jobs were alive, he'd eat his heart out.
Seems like vaporware. I'll believe it when I see it on the market.
Well, I'm a dopey commenter, almost as dopey as you, Earnest Prole! Satire has to be clever to work as satire. Just reproducing someone's wacky rant isn't clever, to me. There has to be one extra degree of something, to help the witty lift off from the merely wacky. This guy, if attempting satire, is content with reproducing stupidity. Not good enough.
I looked at some of his other "work" on X, and the other posts are a bit more sublime and funnier. Also, the nose ring only appears in this post, therefore, it's supposed to be funny.
How close to actual sincere things should satire be? Nothing really depends on the definition of satire. If being exactly like the thing you think you're making fun of falls outside of some strict meaning of the word "satire," then find some other word for it. It's still good if it's good, funny if it's funny. I think this is very funny. Reminds me of "Portlandia" which often seems to be actors improvising being people they are familiar with. I like this kind of humor. I find it funny even if I find myself agreeing with the made-fun-of person. Like with this video, I personally agree that people don't really want flying cars and that the car in the video is ridiculous. I don't want a flying car anywhere near where I live. I consider them hellish.
"I personally agree that people don't really want flying cars...."
I realize some people think they do, but they would not like it if they were flying about in real life.
Fully automated straight luxury capitalism. Sleek, sexy, airborne capitalism.
Can someone do the math on $2B for every person on earth and "he" would still be a billionaire? LOL
“Flying car” is marketing. It’s really a “jumping car”. The jets can only provide sufficient thrust for short-duration maneuvers. Their primary purpose is to dramatically improve cornering and launch maneuvers. But when you’ve added powerful jets to your car, it’s hard not to show off a bit.
Damien Slash is hilarious. He's always mocking progressives and I think he does it well. Not everyone's cup of tea I guess.
Slash is English as well, which to me makes his stuff funnier. I think he's just mocking your average Reddit soy nerd. This one is more his original style.
I've flown airplanes, hang-gliders, and couple intoxicants in my life (not at the same time), and I am most certain that I would like a flying car. Not this one, because it really can't fly anywhere. The only caveat is that I don't want too many other people to have them. But flying direct to places over traffic and obstructions would be awesome, and save a lot of time, and I could open the window and drop beer cans on the hoi poi.
The biggest problem and difference between flying and driving is that with flying you can't just pull over and stop. It's like an ice cream cone. If you start it, you can't do anything else until you finish it.
Any sufficiently heated or pointed political rant will be indistinguishable from satire.
The he could give everyone a million dollars or a billion dollars thing refers to a memorable MSNBC gaffe involving Brian Williams, Mara Gay, and Mike Bloomberg.
𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑑 𝑎 𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑡 𝑜𝑛 𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑀𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑒𝑙 𝐵𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑔 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑡 $500 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑛 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑎𝑑𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦, ℎ𝑒 "𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝐴𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛 $1 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 $173 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑙𝑒𝑓𝑡 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟." 𝐵𝑜𝑡ℎ 𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑚𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐺𝑎𝑦 𝑝𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑡, 𝑗𝑎𝑤-𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑡ℎ 𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦
******
Seems like vaporware. I'll believe it when I see it on the market.
******
"Vaporware" is not how I'd describe it. Have you ever done any software development? Vaporware is a PowerPoint simulation of what the interface will look like. The analogy would be an AI simulation of what this multi-ton object of metal and glass and plastic actually did yesterday.
Call it a prototype or a demonstration model if you like, or find some other nitpicky avenue for sour sneering and sniping at the achievements of the greatest man of the new millennium, but what we saw his car do was sure as hell not vaporware.
Give everyone 2 million? The drug cartels couldn't possibly keep up with the demand, but prices would skyrocket.
I am shallow. I see a guy with a nose ring and I stop and go no further.
*****
I realize some people think they do, but they would not like it if they were flying about in real life.
*****
You could not possibly be more wrong, madame.
We might ask Musk to slow the roll rate for comfort, and perhaps there is no reason to go inverted at all in ordinary usage, but I have been waiting for something like this vehicle my whole life.
You have to be retarded (not that anything is wrong with that) to minimize the accomplishments of this guy's work. It's the most impressive development and speed of them seen since the heyday of the Industrial Revolution. If you lived from the 1890s through 1970 (a normal lifespan), you would have seen us go from horses to the moon. That's gonna be tough to beat, but this generation may see some great stuff happen.
I sincerely doubt that that animated rocket car will be built any time soon, or ever. It reminds me of that jet pack gadget that was popular in the 1960s and 70s. It's cool looking, but impractical. It's a novelty invention for James Bond movies and grand openings of places.
If James Bond's car did those things in a movie it would be too much. The audience wouldn't be able to suspend their disbelief.
Now here comes Musk with a real one.
And I assume there was no driver in it when it performed the feats.
Back in the day, if a fella wanted a car that would shoot into the air and do a barrel roll, it came with a Confederate flag painted on the roof like it should.
Political Junkie said...
"I am shallow. I see a guy with a nose ring and I stop and go no further."
I would advise people against getting a septum ring if they ever want to be taken seriously, but for a comic, it works. I realize that it's just the internet, but almost all the people I see online with septum rings are not rational people. This phenomenon is so consistent that it's actually called, "septum ring theory." Plus, I spent a lot of time on my uncle and aunt's ranch growing up, so when I see a septum ring, it instantly reminds me of livestock. (living beings designated as property to be taken care of)
Once Elon Musk bought twitter than libtards in the press and "entertaiment" world suddenly discovered that Billionaires had too much power and there was something called "excessive wealth".
You can't hate their fakery too much.
Poe’s Law.
Flying cars would turn "fender benders" into crash sites. Are we going to have traffic cops in the air along with stop signs? every flying car would have to come with a parachute.
Indefinitely Extended Excursion™️ said...
"Knight Industries did this in the 80s. And it was bulletproof, had ejector seats, and advanced reasoning AI came as standard."
Have you seen those AI, Knight Rider videos on the Lampoonery channel at YouTube? They're getting pretty good now.
Nobodies funnier or smarter than a bald guy with a nose ring and a half-shaven face.
All the money Musk has was given to him voluntarily by people who want what he makes. Can the anti-capitalist say the same. My belief is that most anti-capitalists are receiving checks from the taxpayers without producing anything but damage that hurts the poor most.
Jake said...
"Fuck that guy with a hot poker."
"Fuck me gently with a chainsaw." - Heather
“Like with this video, I personally agree that people don't really want flying cars and that the car in the video is ridiculous. I don't want a flying car anywhere near where I live. I consider them hellish.”
I’d love one, as long as nobody else has one. Talk about a chick magnet.
“If being exactly like the thing you think you're making fun of falls outside of some strict meaning of the word "satire," then find some other word for it.”
Boring. This guy didn’t say anything a dozen DSA clowns haven’t said in complete sincerity. Sincere or not, it’s a stale shtick by now.
One impressive thing about this car is how much power they fit into that small package. I'm sure it can't do that stuff for long. That demo might be all she had.
So many snowflakes, so easily triggered.
Having flown airplanes and helicopters, it would be interesting to have a flying car. However, the CARnage would be insane if the average driver gets hold of them.
I doubt the production Roadster, when it arrives, will be equipped with the reaction motors demonstrated in the video. Does anuone know the projected selling price?
I dunno, I saw the video of the car and it doesn't look real to me. But I see absolutely no comments about it being fake. I've got a lot of experience with gravity, and the way that car goes up the ramp, hangs, and then slo-mo comes down - that doesn't look like real gravity in action, to me. Gravity is fast when it's a 2 ton car.
The new Tesla Roadster is like the Mach 5. All it is missing is the foldout saws to quickly cut down rain forests. What’s not to like?
Howard said...
So many snowflakes, so easily triggered.
2/10. It has been all poor effort from you lately.
The problem with his satire is he is indistinguishable from Elizabeth Warren. If he actually doesn't believe it fine.
But people who believe in socialism and communism should be given a choice between death or exile.
Fauxcahontas and all of her supporters as an example should be removed from our country one way or another.
They are evil violent shitheads and thieves who belong in Somalia with people like them.
There are a multitude of steps between concept, prototype, testing and final products. This is simply a proof of concept vehicle, what space and engineers and car engineers dreamt up. What actually reaches the market will be dramatically different. It’s an exciting time to be alive, isn’t it?
*****
I sincerely doubt that that animated rocket car will be built any time soon, or ever. It reminds me of that jet pack gadget that was popular in the 1960s and 70s. It's cool looking, but impractical. It's a novelty invention for James Bond movies and grand openings of places.
*****
You sound like Bill Gates back in 1981, sneering that "640K of RAM ought to be enough for anyone."
But we don't need to go back that far to show how short-sighted people are about technological innovation. It was just a decade or so ago that people like you were confidently telling us there'd never be a practical self-driving car, and now I see 50 Waymos a day on my commute, and privately-owned fully autonomous vehicles are within a hair's breadth of being here too.
And two decades ago, how many people were sneering at the iPhone and shitting on Steve Jobs in language indistinguishable from what they are using on Musk, except with perhaps slightly less venomous hatred and greedy eagerness to loot his self-made fortune?
But, if true, who wouldn't want one? You could have more fun driving to Six Flags than you will, at Six Flags.
E ticket ride. Love the car.
*****
But people who believe in socialism and communism should be given a choice between death or exile.
*****
I'd happily live under a Franco or Pinochet who dealt with the leftist locusts as they deserve. They are mankind's most dangerous and evil enemy. After the blood-soaked gulag they made of the 20th century, there should be no tolerance or forgiveness or understanding for collectivists.
The video is presented too earnestly to be satire. There are many people who believe these ideas and express them every day. It is really a simple collection of reddit comments that appear daily and needs to push more boundaries to be considered satire these days.
*****
Gravity is fast when it's a 2 ton car.
*****
Gravity accelerates all objects from feathers to Tesla roadsters at the very same rate.
*****
All the money Musk has was given to him voluntarily by people who want what he makes. Can the anti-capitalist say the same. My belief is that most anti-capitalists are receiving checks from the taxpayers without producing anything but damage that hurts the poor most.
*****
Exactly. Bagoh2o has the thread-winner here. That is the very essence of the difference between them and us.
God, I hate the leftist enemy scum so much and am so tired of sharing a country with them. Hope I live long enough to see the national divorce, by any means necessary.
I would spend half of my 2mm on liquor and fast women. Seriously though, this technology might be very useful in a place without roads, like the moon or Mars.
" this technology might be very useful in a place without roads, like the moon or Mars."
Exactly, which is why it was worth Musk's money and his engineers' time to create it. He builds thing to achieve his goal, living on another planet. He makes things that others want to help fund that goal.
"I dunno, I saw the video of the car and it doesn't look real to me."
Some shots you may have seen are in slow-motion. The ramp scene looks impossible, but -
"The ~46-second clip shows the new Roadster driving up a tall curved ramp (half-pipe style), clinging upside-down via its fan/suction system, then launching off, using cold-gas thrusters (SpaceX collaboration) to control orientation/flip, and landing."
That might be a comedian doing comedy but I just watched a guy on Instagram interviewing a group of White Liberal women voters — wearing Abdul El Sayed T-shirts. They gave the exact same reasons for voting for him. Not funny.
And if you click on the annoying nose ring guy's name in the link you'll see that over the top parody of the left is his game.
You'll also see that the oversized nose ring is a prop.
"One impressive thing about this car is how much power they fit into that small package. I'm sure it can't do that stuff for long. That demo might be all she had."
Grok:
"Rocket version (the flying “air-ready” single-seater with 10 thrusters): ~600 liters total tank capacity in two carbon-fiber overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs), holding roughly 250 kg of compressed gas.
Thrust version (rear thrusters only, two seats): 200-liter tank.
Independent analyses based on the stated ~80 kN thrust and tank figures estimate:
Full-thrust duration of roughly 1.5–2 seconds before the tank is largely depleted.
Maximum useful hover/flight time of about 4–5 seconds (thrust drops as pressure falls)."
If you go on X and read comments for the video, there are a lot of people saying exactly what this guy does, and they are not comedians nor using satire. There is a reason why most people are not highly successful - imagination limited by negativity, the dream crushers among us, those who never let their dog run off leash, never risk anything because the bad possibilities block out the good ones every time.
Tesla Rollster
It’s not a car…it didn’t even have a driver it was full to capacity with compressed air tanks..
"It's good enough satire and the world is weird enough that I think there are many people who believe everything he said."
People with no concept of basic math or economics. Or reason, for that matter.
"Musk could give $2Million to every person on earth." Not even that moron believes that. Musk's entire net worth wouldn't even fund the U.S. Government for 8 months.
Also--are gold nose rings strictly necessary to improve everyone's life?
Flying cars would quite quickly solve most traffic problems (and create some others).
No, I don't think that qualifies as a "flying car." But hell, the Wright brothers didn't fly very far. Gotta start somewhere.
I don't get the satire. He sounds like a Democrat.
"I realize some people think they do, but they would not like it if they were flying about in real life."
Why?
If the flying cars were confined to the vertical spaces defined by existing roads, you would have multiple levels upon which to distribute traffic. (OK a big "if"--but we currently require automobiles to travel within the roadways defined by the government (mostly).
Maybe it's not that big an issue in Wisconsin, but try driving on I-95 anywhere on the east coast, any time other than 2 to 5 AM.
@Hassayamper Quibble about the semantics if you must, but this looks like an overhyped product that will never make it a past prototype. Like the Hyperloop before it.
It's a cool carnival stunt though.
I say this as a Telsa owner (and I love my Model Y) and a Tesla shareholder (and those shares have been very good to me). Trust me, I'm rooting for Tesla. It's just that my cheers are muted by my bullshit detector.
"but we currently require automobiles to travel within the roadways defined by the government (mostly)."
Regardless of the law, it's not practical to travel outside the roadway. Flying cars would not have that restraint.
As long as there are Democrats satire may not work. Remember Snopes fact checking Babylon Bee?
True flying cars could work very well provided they were fully autonomous. With humans at the controls it would be carnage.
It would be simple to make flying cars automatically avoid each other, obstacles, and maintain spacing and course. They would separate by unlimited vertical lanes and exit to the ground all on their own. It would be much safer than a road where the vehicles are closely clumped together barreling past each other inches apart like you are trying to make them collide. The problem with flying is the energy cost of fighting gravity. The only solution so far is lighter-than-air vehicles. We all need a blimp in the garage.
Its really not funny satire because what he says is too close to reality. If Musk did invent "flying cars" this is exactly what libtards in Hollywood and the MSM Would say.
Satire needs to cut. And to cut, it has to an exaggeration or twist that is unreal.
Its like satrizing the libtard hatred of Trump by having a libtard say Trump should be shot at, or put in jail.
Given that flying cars can be made safe at a snap of a finger, can someone do that with cars that drive on the road? Thanks in advance.
I dunno who's going to be flying these "flying cars" but if its the same people I meet on the freeway, I doubt it will be safe. But y'know who knows.
Michael Chrichton, on your future:
Let's think back to people in 1900 in, say, New York. If they worried about people in 2000, what would they worry about? Probably: Where would people get enough horses? And what would they do about all the horseshit? Horse pollution was bad in 1900, think how much worse it would be a century later, with so many more people riding horses?
But of course, within a few years, nobody rode horses except for sport. And in 2000, France was getting 80% its power from an energy source that was unknown in 1900. Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Japan were getting more than 30% from this source, unknown in 1900. Remember, people in 1900 didn't know what an atom was. They didn't know its structure. They also didn't know what a radio was, or an airport, or a movie, or a television, or a computer, or a cell phone, or a jet, an antibiotic, a rocket, a satellite, an MRI, ICU, IUD, IBM, IRA, ERA, EEG, EPA, IRS, DOD, PCP, HTML, internet. interferon, instant replay, remote sensing, remote control, speed dialing, gene therapy, gene splicing, genes, spot welding, heat-seeking, bipolar, prozac, leotards, lap dancing, email, tape recorder, CDs, airbags, plastic explosive, plastic, robots, cars, liposuction, transduction, superconduction, dish antennas, step aerobics, smoothies, twelve-step, ultrasound, nylon, rayon, teflon, fiber optics, carpal tunnel, laser surgery, laparoscopy, corneal transplant, kidney transplant, AIDS... None of this would have meant anything to a person in the year 1900. They wouldn't know what you are talking about.
Now. You tell me you can predict the world of 2100. Tell me it's even worth thinking about. Our models just carry the present into the future. They're bound to be wrong. Everybody who gives a moment's thought knows it.
“Howard said...So many snowflakes, so easily triggered”
…are you gonna be okay, honey or do we need to drag out your vapors couch again?
If satire is indistinguishable from reality the artist has lost his way. What is the point. Intent does not change effect. The only way satire works is if it sucks you in and in the last 1/3 or so of the performance it becomes so extreme that the viewer finally gets the idea, as in Swift’s “Modest Proposal”. Otherwise it is pointless.
$1x 10^6 / (360 x 10^6) =$2777.00 per US person.
“I like this kind of humor.”
I think you’ve got a thought provoking comment there but does anyone believe Portlandia is anything but over the top? As others have correctly noted bull by the nose ring guy sounds EXACTLY the way earnest leftie voters sound re: Musk and the social order they live under../
The post above posited itself while I was typing, ignore, I can’t delete posts.
I lived in Portland for a while and while I recognize where the humor originates I never think that’s exactly the way they sound/act/are…
“No it's a PR stunt. I just wonder who is impressed by it. Nice weekend project for some of his engineers.”
“Capitalism always involves waste by "the capitalists", generally the second generation who have control of the resources but don't have the imagination to do anything useful with it.”
Musk is really 1st Gen wealthy, despite what the left wants you to think. But what does someone like him, do with all the money he essentially has? I remember when Bill Gates and Michael Dell had a contest to build the biggest monstrosity of a house they could. My memory is that Gates won, but only because he included a theater that Microsoft could use. Something like that. Musk has little interest in that. He happily spent the Trump Transition in a casa at MAL. And apparently is a frequent guest in the Lincoln Bedroom. A couple hundred square feet. He could easily afford several several hundred THOUSAND sq ft houses. But why?
As I understood this some Tesla and SpaceX engineers brought this to him as a lark. His response was “Cool!” This is how he spends his many billions - on stupid engineering projects that he can show off. And you could tell that he was having the time of his life doing so. It’s really little different from my partner’s ex building the Great Room with massive beams, etc, by himself, or laying the irrigation pipe for the fields there (so he could just flip a switch to water his half section) at their ranch, or my VBasic programming of Word to automate my job as a patent attorney. Unnecessary, but fun. It’s a fun hobby, and most guys have them. It’s a fun hobby for a super wealthy ultra geek. Nothing more. And he got to show it off to the world!
…it’s kind of like with horror- the appeal is in knowing it’s safe, it is fiction. Once the line is erased it becomes something else. Yo don’t get to cop out with ‘I work to a level’ either…
"With humans at the controls it would be carnage."
Chill out scrote! Lots of tards out there are living really kickass lives! My first wife? Was tarded. She flies a Tesla now!
$1x 10^12 / (360 x 10^6) =$2777.77 per US person so Elon could pay for a root canal for everyone in the US. But not really, because if he had to sell all his stock to give money away it would only bring some number like 20 cents on the dollar because no one could pay full price for it. So not even a root canal.
"If satire is indistinguishable from reality the artist has lost his way."
Depends on who is doing the distinguishing. For some the difference is always tough to see.
See above.
“No it's a PR stunt."
Is the spaceman in the red convertible that's currently orbiting the Sun and is roughly 60 million miles from Earth a stunt too?
Disappointing if true.
It's a cool carnival stunt though.
Wait. That's what people thought about his self landing rockets.
You'd probably need a pilots license to operate a flying car. So I don't think the airways will be quite as crowded as you think.
Automata have been around for two hundred years or more so a singing, moving bird you have to crank isn't that impressive.
When you watch the roadster jump over the other Teslas, you are looking at a vehicle Bill Gates said was impossible.
RCOCEAN II said...
Given that flying cars can be made safe at a snap of a finger, can someone do that with cars that drive on the road? Thanks in advance.
Tesla has already effectively done this. The danger comes from the humans at the wheel. In 20 years I expect that human drivers will be all but non-existent, and very expensive to insure.
* I see a guy with a nose ring and I stop and go no further.*
I see ANYONE with a nose ring and I stop and go no further.
I find the phrase “late stage capitalism” to be inadvertantly hilarious. It implies that capitalism is headed towards its ending. To be replaced with … what? Some system that has failed each and every time it has been tried? Oh, I forgot — THIS time it will be done right! Yeah, riiiiiiiiiight.
Musk’s toy is a cheap price to pay for the jobs he’s created, especially if it means that the likes of Damien Slash (alleged without evidence to be a comedian) is forced to learn how to work for a living.
Anybody besides me remember all those NYT articles Althouse dutifully republished on this blog predicting the downfall of X thanks to his aggressive trimming of deadwood in the legacy Twitter corporate ranks. Instead the company offers a better product with vastly increased profits. But Musk is dumb — just ask AOC (and Damien Slash).
Yeah, right now we have 30000 deaths every year due to auto accidents. But nice to know its all going to be fixed and brought down to zero - in the future.
Due to science or something.
And the pol is not really informative because the two items are so different, comparing never before seen tech with a wonderful craft object is not possible. I like both things so I just figuratively flip a coin and answer, so my answer has no new information in it.
It took thousands of great minds to create this car. The mechanical bird was likely made by one guy with a beard and a glass of whiskey.
“The mechanical bird was likely made by one guy with a beard and a glass of whiskey.”
…what was her name?
I cried because I had no nose ring, until I met a man who had no nose.
AOC: “This dude is probably one of the most unintelligent billionaires I have ever met or seen or witnessed.”
https://x.com/mazemoore/status/2110929305169785054?s=20
How do you know where the limits are unless you push them?
Don't worry RCO2.
Someone with more intelligence and more of a love of humanity will figure it out. We always do.
Mueller
Bill Gates is gross. MS NOW.
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