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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
I have no opinion on Musk, myself. I barely know who the guy is. So my only comment will be to ~Charles Phipps, because, dude, I think you're setting yourself up for another round of "I'm the only person on this board prepared to defend so-and-so". So you should be prepared to defend your case thoroughly or drop it like a hot potato.
Still strikes me as an argument that's potentially more trouble than it's worth.
Edited by sgamer82 on Jul 15th 2018 at 10:33:31 AM
Wrong. I'm also willing to defend Musk. His companies advance technological progress, which is quite good. I do think he's overhyped, though.
Technology like self-driving cars, improved batteries for electric cars, and advances in spaceflight are technologies that could vastly improve humanity's potential. Self-driving cars alone could save a mind-boggling amount of lives.
Edited by Protagonist506 on Jul 15th 2018 at 9:28:39 AM
Leviticus 19:34Republicans are not particularly bent on dismantling NASA. Take Ted Cruz for example.
Politicians on virtually all sides of politics are generally apathetic toward NASA. Hillary Clinton wouldn't have shown a lot of interest in a major manned space flight project.
Hence why I think private space flight is a necessary boon, as I don't have faith in our government to do it.
Self-driving cars already exist. I would be greatly surprised if they didn't become more popular in our lifetime.
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This, the technological advances are very nice but they aren't intrinsically tied to Musk and the bad stuff is. So I don't see him as someone who's especially worth defending, especially not from a technical perspective.
Frankly that seems somewhat circular, the reason the government isn't likely to care about spaceflight is because people don't trust them to handle it well or care about. If there was more public support for government led space initiatives then I can bet you it would happen.
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Jul 15th 2018 at 12:46:13 PM
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang![]()
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Uh, no not really. Self-driving cars have gotten pretty damn advanced in the last few years. The only accidents they've ever been in have been due to human error. I wouldn't be surprised to see them go on the market within the decade and become mainstream in the next 30 years.
Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Jul 15th 2018 at 9:49:12 AM
There's an American narrative of a single accomplished, talented wealthy person being better at what they do and accomplishing more on their own than the government ever will. Elon Musk, regardless of his actual accomplishments or talent, has sold himself on that myth.
See also Ayn Rand.
Edited by Raptorslash on Jul 15th 2018 at 12:54:19 PM
Eventually, I fully believe we'll reach the point where almost all vehicles are self-driving, and there won't even be the option to override their controls and drive. Like, they won't have steering wheels, pedals, or a gear shift. There's, of course, going to be some old people ranting about how driving your own car is the only proper way to drive, meanwhile, the number of car crashes has dropped to below 0.01% of what it used to be.
Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Jul 15th 2018 at 10:18:21 AM
While I agree that the future of cars will be mostly driverless, I don't think we'll ever do away with driving gear; mostly in case of emergencies where the self-driving software is malfunctioning or can not properly function.
It's a shame to hear that Musk is basically a more useful Trump (technological progress>hotels after all), though. The man is doing so much to advance technology, but I guess that's given him a head just as large as Trump's. So here's hoping he never gets a chance to run for President anytime soon. He should stick with Space ships and Hyperloops.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/15/politics/donald-trump-european-union-foe/index.html
Sounds like the US is running out of friends, if this keeps up.
Meanwhile, his tone on Putin and Russia is strangely softer.
"Maybe he'll be a friend someday
."
But Trump has an uncommon faith in his abilities to wing it on the global stage. When he departed Washington, Trump said meeting with Putin may be “the easiest” part of his trip. And as in last month’s Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, he is banking on his personality to forge a lasting bond with Putin that could improve U.S.-Russia relations and solve some of the world’s intractable problems.
“He’s been very nice to me the times I’ve met him,” Trump told reporters last week in Brussels, previewing his Putin tête-à-tête. “I’ve been nice to him. He’s a competitor . . . He’s not my enemy. And hopefully, someday, maybe he’ll be a friend. It could happen.”
In an indication of his friendly posture, Trump said he “hadn’t thought” of asking Putin to extradite the 12 Russian agents indicted by the U.S. Justice Department when prompted in an interview with CBS News anchor Jeff Glor.
Trump went on to blame his predecessor for Russia’s election interference, telling Glor, “They were doing whatever it was during the Obama administration,” and adding that the Democratic National Committee “should be ashamed of themselves for allowing themselves to be hacked.”
Having a car drive down a straight street: Easy. Have it drive through a city, with intersections, unpredictable traffic, street signs which might be partly hidden for one reason or another - yeah don't see this happening anytime soon. Remember, computers aren't actually able to see. You would basically have a bunch of cars navigating off the same principle bats do in an environment which was created for a seeing driver.
Not to mention the basic ethical questions of letting a car make the decisions for you. Just a simple example: What happens if the decision is to either avoid an accident to protect the driver but then risking the live of someone else (someone else being possible a child). Most drivers would instinctively avoid the child and take the accident, which can either cause an even bigger catastrophe or rescue the child while the driver gets away with light injuries. But how do you program a computer to react in a situation like this? I mean, who wants to drive a car which might decide that your life is expendable because some math in its has decided that you dying should be the best outcome in any given situation? But then, who wants to sacrifice a child?
"Caused by human error" and "Self-driving car" are fundamentally incompatible. Musk blamed the "driver" of the accident for not paying attention to the road and keeping her hands on the wheel, but why the f*ck would I buy a self-driving car if there was no reasonable expectation that the car would drive itself?
That's like saying, "The reason your microwave exploded was because of human error. The microwave was never designed to heat food. There should not have been a burrito inside of it."
If your car cannot sufficiently drive itself, then do not advertise it as a self-driving car.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.![]()
Now I'm picturing a cynical cyberpunk world where you can buy an optional software upgrade (or maybe download an illegal mod, if the society is a bit less grim) for your car that makes it always prioritize your life, no matter what.
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What is meant by
"caused by human error" is "Human driver in another car does something stupid and drives into the automated car". Most of the examples of self-driving car accidents are literally other people tailgating them while they are stopped at intersections or stoplights. No level of skill would have saved a human driver from that, either.
Edited by Izeinsummer on Jul 15th 2018 at 11:30:47 AM
My take on Elon Musk is not to attempt to make him Tony Stark or some other awesome billionaire tech mogul savior of the human race like Jobs tried to portray himself as (and Bill Gates deserves credit for being as few people have given away the majority of their fortunes like he has).
However, the fact is that he took technology which wasn't being worked on and tirelessly has promoted it and done an amazing job of advancing it. Electric cars, self-driving cars, open source technological development, and commercialized spacecraft.
I'm not talking about the man's personal habits or personality, just what he's done and that it is worthy of kudos.
As for being the Donald Trump of Silicon Valley—again, that's not fair because Musk actually has contributed meaningfully to technological development. He has, yes, sold bullshit like Mars colonies and the Expanse in our lifetime but it takes more than that to equal the kind of horrible business practices of The Criminal in Chief.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Jul 15th 2018 at 11:33:14 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.I won't say he's Trump level because that's quite an extreme level to drop down to reach, but he reminds me of Keiji Inafune when it comes to being primarily a businessman but acting like the research is entirely his own doing (it's a collaborative effort and he's basically their patron). He's still an asshole and I won't be surprised if we see a Theranos bombshell from him down the line.
I don't know, I would say insulting the British diver who saved the Thai kids by calling him a pedophile is pretty Trumpish. Musk is awful and rude in a way that absolutely harkens back to Trump, alongside the same type of habitual showmanship without actual substance.
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Jul 15th 2018 at 2:46:05 PM
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang

I also find it annoying when people hold Musk up as some sort of technical genius, when he only handles the business and PR aspects of the organization.
Also, Trump called the European Union a foe, the same terminology he also applied to Russia and China.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/15/politics/donald-trump-european-union-foe/index.html
Sounds like the US is running out of friends, if this keeps up.
Edited by Rationalinsanity on Jul 15th 2018 at 1:20:15 PM
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.