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Comment by ericd

1 month ago

I guess we'll see if their idea warrants your ludicrous comparison soon. Google is putting out a lot of real resources to test theirs out, so presumably it wasn't obviously insane to them when they ran the numbers.

I do not presume that. Plenty of projects that happen don't actually make economic sense.

  • That's usually in hindsight? And I said it wasn't obviously insane to them, not that it would pencil out in the end.

    Can also just be an asymmetric bet - relatively small outlay with low chance of working, but massive upside if it does, such that it's still positive expected value.

    But mostly, I think all these armchair quarterbacks should not have very strong opinions about something that they almost certainly don't know much about compared to the people who build these. The person I responded to cited a random blog that ran some numbers, and includes such gems as "In space, a broken fan or a fried motherboard is a crisis." Just... lol

    • Or it's just a media project to further increase the hype around the topic, or to show how "future proof" google is.

      I guess no one dares calling out that the emperor is naked.

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    • There are lots of motivations other than "this could be a profitable project". Something can be completely insane in a monetary way while not being insane in other ways. A pilot project being built is pretty weak evidence of larger practicality.

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