Liveinadive wrote:

Musk is doing it in a way that fits today's America.
Corporate trumps (pun intended) state. If space wasn't corporate it simply wouldn't  be happening beyond satellite launches.

Easy to forget that the reason Armstrong and friends went to the moon was because it was the only thing left to compete on during the scariest time in modern history. The space race happened because Russia and America couldn't go to war with each other directly. Their adventures were underwritten with the fear of billions of people.

I'm not particularly interested in mythologising any of that era myself either.

Tesla could be the most significant contribution to the post industrial age anyone has ever done. It's arguable if the current cars are environmentally friendly, but by making them cool is not to be underestimated, and they're cool because of the engineering. Musk is great at forging ahead, and where others have battled with congress and the oil industries, not to mention the car makers, he's simply gone ahead and done it.

Now that the electric car is desirable, there's going to be better environmental solutions to the cars currently available as the tech improves and other companies compete. The space thing is another example of great engineering. Nasa's version of a heavy lifter is estimated to cost $1 billion per launch vs $90 million for the Falcon Heavy. This is largely down to the tremendous waste that occurs when using single-launch rockets. 

What we've been missing is the daring to do it, and Musk has that in spades. If capitalism is going to continue to be so one-sided, I'd rather see the billions risked on this kind of thing rather than the stock market.

Medicine is a bottomless pit though. And most of us alive today will be dead in 100 years. I'm over simplifying but a lot of money is already going that way.

There are plenty of empty bellies to feed too.

This stuff is looking a bit further ahead than that.

Gates is fixated on eradicating malaria before he dies. That seems noble and potentially within reach.

That thinking where people are almost judging because this was 'a car in spaaaaace' and not directly philanthropic probably should take a look at how many jobs are currently being advertised on the Space X website right now, let alone the ancillary companies that support it.

As a species, we need the Musks of the world. If Elon Musk never gave a penny to charity I would be hard pressed to criticise his contributions to our development as a whole, even if he is only motivated by money, the byproduct of that will potentially be the majority of the worlds elrctrical power generated locally instead of centrally and moving mankind closer to space becoming an accessible place for humanity.

Bill Gates is the fucking don, but Bill Gates was also the richest guy in the world. By the time he is done, by the time the foundation gets through $40bn plus interest, hopefully some amazing things like the eradication of malaria will come from it.

Diluted Dante wrote:

It is, but you could possibly do something like Jimmy Carter and pick something like Guinea worm disease and work to eradicate that. He's switched to River Blindness now btw.

Agree with that OK.

The threat of antibiotics becoming useless is a huge threat too - need to work on that one.

I'm also broadly in favour of Musk, whilst still recognising there are problematic elements to him.

Were I one of these billionaires, I'd absolutely have fun with my money like Musk has for sure. But I'd also want to fuck up some diseases. It amazes me that we managed to eradicate smallpox in the space of 30 years. Polio is nearly there as well.

poprock wrote:

Tempy wrote:

Don't forget Musk won't let any of those people he's employing Unionise

Also, he’s a bit shit at making cars. Great basic engineering etc but terrible detailing and quality control.

American cars innit.

When boJo is PM we're gonna send that goddamned NHS advert bus into space.

Its all well and good eradicating disease but the outcome is a population increase

Only to a point live.

Yup. Course correction tech next.

Yeah but Musk was all like "Please, I think I know the way to Mars, it's fine"

g.man wrote:

I'd have thought a Tesla would come with built in sat-nav?

Looking at the photos, the satnav actually said ‘DON’T PANIC’ in big, friendly letters. So there’s that.

There is a towel on board yes?

As much as I admire what Musk is doing, this Tesla union thing is upsetting. I understand the need, at least initially, to keep the business self-sufficient. It's not about pumping your own money in to keep it afloat, it needs to stand on it's own, and this reliance on electricity over oil as the main transporter is absolutely crucial.

Still, it's not great. Up the workers and all that. What he should be doing, especially now all the businesses seen to be working out, is make it better. Lessons need to be learnt and reparations paid.