Elon Musk

[Thumpalumpacus]

Lying liar is lying again.

Buttigieg counters Musk claim of Fema blocking Starlink from hurricane relief

Musk had spent several hours on Friday raging on X against Fema over what he called “belligerent government incompetence”. Posting texts allegedly received from “a SpaceX engineer on the ground”, he accused the federal agency of blockading the disaster area and preventing private helicopters from delivering Starlink terminals, which connect to satellite internet service, and other supplies.

Musk wrote, “SpaceX engineers are trying to deliver Starlink terminals & supplies to devastated areas in North Carolina right now and @FEMA is both failing to help AND won’t let others help. This is unconscionable!!”

Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, shot down criticism by Elon Musk on the government’s handling of Hurricane Helene relief efforts.

“No one is shutting down the airspace and FAA doesn’t block legitimate rescue and recovery flights. If you’re encountering a problem give me a call,” Buttigieg wrote. Musk replied that he had seen hundreds of such reports and would phone.

Fema issued a statement similar to Buttigieg’s: “The claims about FEMA confiscating or taking commodities, supplies or resources in North Carolina, Tennessee, or any state impacted by Helene are false.

Still, Donald Trump amplified Musk’s claims on his app Truth Social. Musk said he would join the former president at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2...ane-helene

Musk is the poster-child for someone having more dollars than sense. Disinformation should not be empowered by moneyed, interested individuals.

[Fake Messiah]

He's also a poster child that there shouldn't be billionaires.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I'm fine with guardrails. Fine the promulgation of false info. Hit 'em where it hurts.

[Pat Mustard]

My guess is that Tesla is about to collapse so he is trying to force his foot into politics as the only way to bail himself.

The thing about Galaxy Brain's companies is that every single one of them has been dependent on heavy government subsidies (at both federal and state levels) to be viable for years. Without these subsidies, Galaxy Brain would have been a homeless bum years ago.

[HappySkeptic]

Humans are not going to go to Mars and back on Musk's Starship anytime soon. That is fantasy. He will require many refueling rockets, and hasn't even thought about radiation protection (water around the surface would add to the weight) or the food requirement.

When humans do go to Mars, there is no reason to stay beyond some billionaire's fantasy.

Okay, Elon, let's say Skynet destroys humanity, or a planet killer asteroid hits. Your colony of a few hundred people have no way of sustaining their technology without help from Earth. You would need mining, smelting, and heavy manufacturing, energy and air creation facilities, high tech food growing facilities. Literally every piece of important technology will break down and have to be replaced with something that does a similar job.

Even if you had a population of millions to make an economy viable, and had figured out natively-viable low-tech methods of surviving, the environment is so hostile that even a single problem would doom everyone to death.

Musk would be better off working out terraforming technology. Without water, an atmosphere, non-poisonous soil and protection from Solar radiation, there is no way for Mars to be more than a curiosity for Nations or billionaires to visit.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Humans are not going to go to Mars and back on Musk's Starship anytime soon.  That is fantasy.  He will require many refueling rockets, and hasn't even thought about radiation protection (water around the surface would add to the weight) or the food requirement.

When humans do go to Mars, there is no reason to stay beyond some billionaire's fantasy.

Okay, Elon, let's say Skynet destroys humanity, or a planet killer asteroid hits.  Your colony of a few hundred people have no way of sustaining their technology without help from Earth.  You would need mining, smelting, and heavy manufacturing, energy and air creation facilities, high tech food growing facilities.  Literally every piece of important technology will break down and have to be replaced with something that does a similar job.

Even if you had a population of millions to make an economy viable, and had figured out natively-viable low-tech methods of surviving, the environment is so hostile that even a single problem would doom everyone to death.

Musk would be better off working out terraforming technology.  Without water, an atmosphere, non-poisonous soil and protection from Solar radiation, there is no way for Mars to be more than a curiosity for Nations or billionaires to visit.

(Bold mine)

He hasn’t got the resources. If it’s expensive to send humans to Mars - even for a looky-loo and an immediate return - terraforming would be orders of magnitude pricier. 

Boru

[Thumpalumpacus]

Musk would be better off working out terraforming technology.  Without water, an atmosphere, non-poisonous soil and protection from Solar radiation, there is no way for Mars to be more than a curiosity for Nations or billionaires to visit.

There's no terraforming tech that nowadays can provide anything. Any Mars colonists must rely upon resources from Earth for the next few centuries and probably beyond. There simply isn't enough water or atmospheric pressure there.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Musk would be better off working out terraforming technology.  

I'm glad that this project would be well beyond the lifetime of Musk.

[Fake Messiah]

This photo from the latest Trump rally sums up Musk's Mars grift:

[AFTT47]

Okay, Elon, let's say Skynet destroys humanity, or a planet killer asteroid hits.  Your colony of a few hundred people have no way of sustaining their technology without help from Earth.  You would need mining, smelting, and heavy manufacturing, energy and air creation facilities, high tech food growing facilities.  

Yes, this is the crux of the problem. You may be able to maintain a database with the sum knowledge of humankind up to the present but to actually implement all of that knowledge, to manifest it into a civilization equal to the present one would be a herculean task.

On the other hand, SpaceX has advanced the state of the art in rocketry to a point most engineers thought was impossible just 15 years ago. That's just Falcon 9. Starship is an order of magnitude beyond that. That tech could be used for much more realistic endeavors such as establishing a space-based infrastructure which will eventually lead us to become a true space-fairing civilization. Barring radical life extension tech, it won't give us huge rotating space settlements in any of our lifetimes but it'll allow us to build the foundation for that.

For that reason, many of us support Musk's Mars efforts even while we acknowledge and agree that they are ridiculous. He is building the tools we need to expand into space realistically - when nobody else has the vision, resources and courage to do so.