Comment by WalterBright
18 days ago
And yet we still have a solar system, empty of life other than Earth, we can expand to. Why try to cross an ocean when everything we could want is across the river?
Two things baffle me:
1. The idea that Terran life is toxic and must not be allowed on other planets in the solar system.
2. The one person who is advancing our space faring abilities by leaps and bounds is routinely vilified and excoriated on HackerNews.
2. I’m a big fan of the guy, except he went completely off the rails on political stuff… It’s hard that both can be true at the same time.
There are a lot of ethical issues surrounding Neuralink and how it would be used. It might be good for certain medical stuff but I can see how it can be abused.
> There are a lot of ethical issues surrounding Neuralink and how it would be used
Like what? (There are always ethical issues with new medical technology.)
> It might be good for certain medical stuff
Yes, like giving sight to the blind! What a monster Musk is!
P.S. two of my largest medical fears are becoming paralyzed or going blind. Neuralink has promise in making these treatable. I'm all for it!
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I remember Musk being much more popular hereabouts and in my IRL circles 10 years ago.
That things moved from that to outright vilification is entirely due to how he behaved since then.
>Why try to cross an ocean when everything we could want is across the river?
That "river" is still vast and nothing we want is on the other side.
>1. The idea that Terran life is toxic and must not be allowed on other planets in the solar system.
It's less the idea that Terran life is toxic and more that we're still hoping to find some forms of primitive life elsewhere in the solar system, and don't want those efforts thwarted by cross-contamination. You decided the rest of the solar system is dead, not the scientific community.
>2. The one person who is advancing our space faring abilities by leaps and bounds is routinely vilified and excoriated on HackerNews.
If you really can't comprehend the reason why Elon Musk is villified by people then there's no point in trying to explain it to you.
Suffice to say that owning a rocket company doesn't absolve a person of their sins to everyone, even on Hacker News.
> nothing we want is on the other side
Wow.
> You decided the rest of the solar system is dead, not the scientific community.
The odds are heavily stacked against other life existing, and get worse with every probe. Of course, nobody can prove there is no other life. And it's not very credible that Terran life will out-compete locally evolved life.
And the idea that preserving some slime mold on Pluto justifies us constraining ourselves to Earth is just sad.
> If you really can't comprehend the reason why Elon Musk is villified by people then there's no point in trying to explain it to you.
I once asked another Musk-hater on HN why? All he could come up with is Musk called a diver a pedo-boy. I pointed out that Musk only did that because the diver went on national TV and told Musk to shove his submarine up his backside.
If you've got a better reason, I'd love to hear it!
Notwithstanding the other myriad of reasons to not like Elon Musk (of which there are many)…
You’re equivocating a childish insult with insisting that a person is a pedophile and hiring a private investigator to prove so and then writing scathing emails to reporters because they refuse to repeat claims uncritically. This is an appalling failing of morality on your part.
I’m frankly not inclined to dive into why I, previously a big fan of Elon Musk, find him personally repugnant because I expect you to apply the same standards to everything he does. That doesn’t take away from SpaceX, but we shouldn’t overlook his failings just because rockets are cool.
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Musk said in 2019 that Epstein was “obviously a creep” and claimed that Epstein “tried repeatedly to get me to visit his island. I declined.”
Hmm..
> “Do you have any parties planned? I’ve been working to the edge of sanity this year and so, once my kids head home after Christmas, I really want to hit the party scene in St Barts or elsewhere and let loose. The invitation is much appreciated, but a peaceful island experience is the opposite of what I’m looking for,”
Hmm..
> “Will be in the BVI/St Bart’s area over the holidays. Is there a good time to visit?”
Hmm..
> “What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?”
Hmm..
> The emails between the two moguls come years after Epstein was convicted in 2008 of soliciting prostitution from a minor in Florida.
Yup, sounds like a "better reason" to me.
Ironically, thanks to the recent releases of the Epstein files,now we know that Musk is a pedo–boy.
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1) There may well be other biospheres in the solar system. There is some indirect and inconclusive evidence of microbial life on Mars, and even in the Venusian atmosphere. This dates back to results from the Viking and Venera, as well as more recent research. Earth life could be destructive to native life in these places, and vice versa (since they would likely be extremophiles) resulting in invasive species.
2) Musk is putting a lot of money into these things but he is still heavily subsidised by US government money and facilities (a loophole in the Outer Space Treaty allows individuals and corporations to claim other planets but not countries.)
> There is some indirect and inconclusive evidence of microbial life on Mars, and even in the Venusian atmosphere. This dates back to results from the Viking and Venera, as well as more recent research.
Yes, I've been hearing that forever. Every probe shrinks the envelope on the possibility.
> Earth life could be destructive to native life in these places,
Better us than slime mold.
> and vice versa (since they would likely be extremophiles) resulting in invasive species.
Perhaps. If anyone was transporting things back from there, there'd be a long space voyage where any such toxicity to the astronauts would be pretty clear.
2. Musk is not getting subsidies. He does get government contracts, where he exchanges rockets for money. That is not a subsidy, like if I make boxes and sell them to the government I am not getting a subsidy.
2. How do you define loans, tax credits and other subsidies then? You claim it’s this person specifically advancing space faring capabilities- which literally would not be possible without the US government. So please elaborate, as you’re not making sense.
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There are possibilities of invasive species either way. Think of how Australia etc have struggled with various plants and animals that have taken over. We may find that some Earth life likes Mars too much and becomes an uncontrollable pest there (after some mutation), or that some microbe etc from Mars finds the Earth environment more hospitable and starts being invasive here. (Already predicted by HG Wells' "Red Weed".) That would not be unlikely as if Mars used to be more habitable then there could be life hibernating or waiting for a break, and Earth might offer it all the things it needs to reproduce quickly...
I don't really see anyone complain about Jeff Bezos these days?
1. It is, until proven otherwise
2. Which guy?
> The one person who is advancing our space faring abilities by leaps and bounds
The overwhelming amount of the work is done by NASA, ESA, CNSA (China, going to the Moon), and other space agencies. Musk has built orbital rockets.
> routinely vilified and excoriated on HackerNews.
That's disingenuous and you know it. Why make such claims?
> Musk has built orbital rockets.
Musk has built lots of cheap orbital rockets. That changes everything.
> That's disingenuous and you know it. Why make such claims?
See the other responses in this thread.
> lots of cheap orbital rockets
It's valuable for sure. It's nothing like, "The one person who is advancing our space faring abilities by leaps and bounds". There are many others, and many are doing more (again, NASA, etc.). JPL's homepage says "Our missions have flown to every planet and the Sun ...", and that they've been on Mars for four years, so let's be serious and not throw wild absurd claims at the wall (very Musk-like, though!).
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It changes the price and speed of satellite internet. Apart from that...?
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