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Elon Musk - SpaceX version
- Thread starter Grendal
- Start date
Agreed, but the amount of conflict of interest paperwork would be huge, and may actually hurt SpaceX with NASA.
I would rather someone a bit less industry tied, but able to make clean sane unbiased decisions.
-Harry
At the risk of getting someone all bunched up again, Elon is walking back his walk-back. 
https://pagesix.com/2020/07/13/elon-musk-on-why-hes-still-backing-kanye-west-for-president/
Apparently qualification--or even a basic capacity to at least make it appear as though you care about America and Americans--is no longer a prerequisite for high elected office...
It's a bit of a unicorn.
You want someone strong enough to actually drive change, someone progressive enough for that change to be material, someone cognizant enough to provide positive leadership and clear vision through an inevitably difficult period, someone patient enough to build the critical mass necessary (both in culture and policy) for the change to actually grow lasting roots, and someone with the temperament to deal with the reality of a congressionally funded public agency.
And since you don't want to pull someone from the private sector who's trying to revolutionize [in their own way] the space industry from within their current organization, also add 'out of work' to the job description.
https://pagesix.com/2020/07/13/elon-musk-on-why-hes-still-backing-kanye-west-for-president/
Apparently qualification--or even a basic capacity to at least make it appear as though you care about America and Americans--is no longer a prerequisite for high elected office...
It's a bit of a unicorn.
You want someone strong enough to actually drive change, someone progressive enough for that change to be material, someone cognizant enough to provide positive leadership and clear vision through an inevitably difficult period, someone patient enough to build the critical mass necessary (both in culture and policy) for the change to actually grow lasting roots, and someone with the temperament to deal with the reality of a congressionally funded public agency.
And since you don't want to pull someone from the private sector who's trying to revolutionize [in their own way] the space industry from within their current organization, also add 'out of work' to the job description.
Youtube or Joe Rogan took down the podcast. Here is a site that covers the bullet points of the 3 hour conversation. The SpaceX/Starship/Starlink info is relevant here.
Elon Musk on The Joe Rogan Experience #1609 • Podcast Notes
Elon Musk on The Joe Rogan Experience #1609 • Podcast Notes
For information junkies, reading the cliff notes version is fine. The three hour discussion was long and rambling and kinda went downhill after they started drinking straight whisky.
It went off the rails a few times with Rogan bringing up aliens (in the Universe sure) and alien craft on Earth.
Yeah, although I thought Elon's demeanor and replies were illuminating. To me, and probably to a lot of people, Elon is the kind of guy who believes six impossible things before breakfast. And then tweets about them. So it was a bit of mind bend for me to hear him say "BS" on the whole aliens on earth thing. And his point is valid. His point being that if there were aliens on earth, he would have heard about it. He is too well connected, and has too many resources at his disposal for people who had alien technology to not contact him.
And Elon went on to say that if aliens were on earth, they are subtle in that no one has actual proof.
And his other point, that there is nothing in the archeological record pointing to alien artifacts, is also compelling.
And finally, and this is depressing, is that he said it would only take about a million years for humans to spread across the entire galaxy once they had interstellar technology. Given that our galaxy is like 13 billion years old, one wonders why we haven't been wiped out by a galactic alien race by now. The obvious answer is that there aren't any alien races, and we are the solitary candle flame of consciousness in the galaxy.
Hence Elon's preoccupation with Mars (today).
All of which are obvious results of understanding the Fermi Paradox (which Elon mentions) and the Drake Equation (which Elon does not mention - but surely knows about). Up until recently, humanity didn't even know if there were other Earth-like planets in existence. Now we know there seems to be plentiful planets in the habitable zone. So we have that going for us. I liked that Elon mentioned that even if we are limited to science we know now - humanity could still expand throughout the galaxy. I heard a science fiction writer, James Hogan, say the same thing about thirty years ago.
Wouldn’t the first interstellar ships sent from earth be robotic? Hundreds of years of travel, inhospitable interstellar cosmic rays. I’m imagining that we would build robotic ships that would carry the raw materials to recreate humans from organic building blocks on distant worlds.
In this galaxy maybe. But there are maybe a 100 billion galaxies in the universe, so still plenty of opportunities for life elsewhere.
Florafauna
Member
People forget just how small our little galaxy actually is. This quote might give you an idea :
“Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
I hope that makes it clear...
“Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
I hope that makes it clear...
Nikxice
Active Member
This recent 9 minute clip from Sandy Munro shares insight into Elon's rocket engineering knowledge and his remarkable work ethic. Sandy and his partner also briefly discuss the SpaceX Boca Chica tour they received prior to meeting Elon. That separate interview focuses mainly on Tesla vehicles.
mspohr
Well-Known Member
Elon Musk’s Shadow Rule
How the U.S. government came to rely on the tech billionaire—and is now struggling to rein him in.
But Musk’s influence is more brazen and expansive. There is little precedent for a civilian’s becoming the arbiter of a war between nations in such a granular way, or for the degree of dependency that the U.S. now has on Musk in a variety of fields, from the future of energy and transportation to the exploration of space. SpaceX is currently the sole means by which nasa transports crew from U.S. soil into space, a situation that will persist for at least another year. The government’s plan to move the auto industry toward electric cars requires increasing access to charging stations along America’s highways. But this rests on the actions of another Musk enterprise, Tesla. The automaker has seeded so much of the country with its proprietary charging stations that the Biden Administration relaxed an early push for a universal charging standard disliked by Musk. His stations are eligible for billions of dollars in subsidies, so long as Tesla makes them compatible with the other charging standard.
In the past twenty years, against a backdrop of crumbling infrastructure and declining trust in institutions, Musk has sought out business opportunities in crucial areas where, after decades of privatization, the state has receded. The government is now reliant on him, but struggles to respond to his risk-taking, brinkmanship, and caprice. Current and former officials from nasa, the Department of Defense, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration told me that Musk’s influence had become inescapable in their work, and several of them said that they now treat him like a sort of unelected official.
Yes, and? It isn’t only in the US. Elon is second only to whoever is the current President of the US in being able to pick up the phone and talk to any world leader. China has to touch him with kid gloves lest he turn on Starlink in their country. Russia sees him as enemy #1. Worldwide, leaders court him to land a big production plant or resource deal. Meanwhile all powerful leaders see X as an uncontrollable thorn in their side.
And you ain’t seen nothing yet. When Teslabot starts being cranked out in the millions, ALL worldwide leaders will be having powwows with Elon wondering how their entire freaking economy is going to fare in the transition to a robotic workforce.
Elon is just getting going, really.
And you ain’t seen nothing yet. When Teslabot starts being cranked out in the millions, ALL worldwide leaders will be having powwows with Elon wondering how their entire freaking economy is going to fare in the transition to a robotic workforce.
Elon is just getting going, really.
mspohr
Well-Known Member
Should Musk make US government policy?
Musk even appeared to express support for Vladimir Putin. “He was onstage, and he said, ‘We should be negotiating. Putin wants peace—we should be negotiating peace with Putin,’ ” Reid Hoffman, who helped start PayPal with Musk, recalled. Musk seemed, he said, to have “bought what Putin was selling, hook, line, and sinker.
The Financial Times reported that outages affected units in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk. American and Ukrainian officials told me they believed that SpaceX had cut the connectivity via geofencing, cordoning off areas of access.
But Musk’s influence is more brazen and expansive. There is little precedent for a civilian’s becoming the arbiter of a war between nations in such a granular way, or for the degree of dependency that the U.S. now has on Musk in a variety of fields, from the future of energy and transportation to the exploration of space. SpaceX is currently the sole means by which nasa transports crew from U.S. soil into space,
Musk even appeared to express support for Vladimir Putin. “He was onstage, and he said, ‘We should be negotiating. Putin wants peace—we should be negotiating peace with Putin,’ ” Reid Hoffman, who helped start PayPal with Musk, recalled. Musk seemed, he said, to have “bought what Putin was selling, hook, line, and sinker.
The Financial Times reported that outages affected units in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk. American and Ukrainian officials told me they believed that SpaceX had cut the connectivity via geofencing, cordoning off areas of access.
But Musk’s influence is more brazen and expansive. There is little precedent for a civilian’s becoming the arbiter of a war between nations in such a granular way, or for the degree of dependency that the U.S. now has on Musk in a variety of fields, from the future of energy and transportation to the exploration of space. SpaceX is currently the sole means by which nasa transports crew from U.S. soil into space,
He isn’t making policy, but he has a voice in it. He is treading a fine line though. The US government can pass laws restricting or appropriating various pieces of his companies. China too. Or do the equivalent through regulation. Elon isn’t stupid and is well aware of this. Like all modern day worldwide actors, he doesn’t have absolute power.
mspohr
Well-Known Member
From the same article.
Elon Musk has long touted ketamine as an alternative to antidepressants—but some of his associates suggested to The New Yorker that his personal use of the drug has been on the rise recently, perhaps contributing to his erratic behavior. “A little bit of ketamine has an effect similar to alcohol. It can cause disinhibition, where you do and say things you otherwise would not,” a leading ketamine researcher Amit Anand told the magazine, adding: “You can feel grandiose and like you have special powers or special talents. People do impulsive things, they could do inadvisable things at work.” Musk has apparently become more isolated, too, as his relationship with the press and some members of the public becomes more combative. “His life just sucks,” one colleague told The New Yorker. “It’s so stressful. He’s just so dedicated to these companies. He goes to sleep and wakes up answering e-mails. Ninety-nine per cent of people will never know someone that obsessed, and with that high a tolerance for sacrifice in their personal life.”
Elon Musk has long touted ketamine as an alternative to antidepressants—but some of his associates suggested to The New Yorker that his personal use of the drug has been on the rise recently, perhaps contributing to his erratic behavior. “A little bit of ketamine has an effect similar to alcohol. It can cause disinhibition, where you do and say things you otherwise would not,” a leading ketamine researcher Amit Anand told the magazine, adding: “You can feel grandiose and like you have special powers or special talents. People do impulsive things, they could do inadvisable things at work.” Musk has apparently become more isolated, too, as his relationship with the press and some members of the public becomes more combative. “His life just sucks,” one colleague told The New Yorker. “It’s so stressful. He’s just so dedicated to these companies. He goes to sleep and wakes up answering e-mails. Ninety-nine per cent of people will never know someone that obsessed, and with that high a tolerance for sacrifice in their personal life.”
It’s a solid piece, careful and fair.
This is a democracy. Kind of. So of course someone who hasn’t been elected shouldn’t have this level of influence, but it’s not exactly unprecedented.
The questions about this level of influence on national and international affairs by the ultra wealthy has of course been around along as wealth has... Vanderbilts, Rockefellers... Hearst ginning up the Spanish-American war.
Tech though has given Musk substantially more reach, as have his savvy moves about which businesses to get into.
This is a democracy. Kind of. So of course someone who hasn’t been elected shouldn’t have this level of influence, but it’s not exactly unprecedented.
The questions about this level of influence on national and international affairs by the ultra wealthy has of course been around along as wealth has... Vanderbilts, Rockefellers... Hearst ginning up the Spanish-American war.
Tech though has given Musk substantially more reach, as have his savvy moves about which businesses to get into.
This is a hit piece, plain and simple, it literally compares SpaceX launches - which has not harmed a single person - to 737 MAX which killed hundreds of people.
And Musk's influence is nowhere near the influence of the head of Blackrock, who can force companies worth trillions of dollars to do ESG crap, or the influence of Soros who can change the US justice system.
And Musk's influence is nowhere near the influence of the head of Blackrock, who can force companies worth trillions of dollars to do ESG crap, or the influence of Soros who can change the US justice system.
