patrick.net

richwicks says

Goran_K says

I don’t think Musk is a “genius” but he does get things done. He basically revamped the US space program single handedly, made electric cars cool again, and is going to allow internet access from basically anywhere on the globe.

The other billionaires are basically trying to take away your gun rights, sell your personal info, and practicing eugenics on your kids. Musk ain’t that bad.

15 years ago Google did no evil, and we believed them. Takes a few years to see what is behind the mask.

I'd have to say in my opinion the space program is pretty pointless - we really don't do anything on the ISS, it's all just PR nonsense. Also Starlink has one problem it requires a TON of energy to run and speeds are comparable to a DOCSIS modem. Might be better to have an electrical drone plane flying constantly as a "satellite" - having it swapped out 3-4 times in a 24 hour period...

Well what’s the trouble in giving the guy a pass until he starts doing evil billionaire shit?

As for space, it’s a personal dream of Musk to create a multi-planet society. The benefit? Short term, the technologies developed which will include automated construction modules, advances in AI, material sciences, etc. Just like the lunar program at NASA created many technologies we still use today.

The long term benefits? Immeasurable. Musk may terraform Mars creating another livable biosphere friendly to human life. Earth is great. But one lunatic with a nuclear weapon, and this whole place becomes an irradiated waste land. Or maybe an asteroid wipes us out. Who knows?

For all the people that say “but Musk should be saving Earth”. Sure, why don’t those people use their own money and resources and get right on that? It seems like the people most critical of Musk and his plans are trying to impose their ideology on Musk instead of pursuing their own dream themselves.

Goran_K says

For all the people that say “but Musk should be saving Earth”. Sure, why don’t those people use their own money and resources and get right on that?

Not to mention Musk is doing plenty to help the planet by making EV's a viable market and massively improving battery storage technology.

Goran_K says

Well what’s the trouble in giving the guy a pass until he starts doing evil billionaire shit?

He's already doing evil shit. Teslas, for example, are made not to be user serviceable. They are entirely proprietary.

Goran_K says

The long term benefits? Immeasurable. Musk may terraform Mars creating another livable biosphere friendly to human life. Earth is great. But one lunatic with a nuclear weapon, and this whole place becomes an irradiated waste land. Or maybe an asteroid wipes us out. Who knows?

Let's say you could terraform Mars tomorrow by snapping your fingers. Here's what you'd actually get once humans were settled there.

You'd end up with a race of human beings that grew up in 1/3rd gravity who wouldn't be compatible with Earth gravity. You'd have a whole new race in a matter of just a few generations.

I've been reading up in advances in neural networks. It was once thought humans were entirely digital, we're not - we're a combination of analog and digital. With this knowledge, it's conceivable we can make a machine analog to a human mind. The problem with doing this is that if this is done, it will become the singularity - i.e. make a mind that can understand how to build itself, and it can improve itself. As a result it does, and it constantly gains intellect, until it's a perfect intellect. There's this interesting company that is using NAND flash memory to simulate neural networks, instead of storing a 0 or 1 is can store between a 0 and a 1 - basically, it uses V=IR to do multiplication where R is proportional to the charge on the gate, and with a constant current, the voltage gives you the multiplication of the resistance and current. It's analog so it's no precise, there's some variation in exactly how much current you're feeding it, but it's "generally" right - close enough.

If we try to build AIs, general AIs to create a livable off planet location, they will rapidly combine, and just end up being a god - we'll be pets, at best. I doubt we'll become a nuisance though, an AI wouldn't have any of our restrictions, and it's likely to just leave the planet, and MAYBE keep us as treasured pets. Musk has a 1950's idea of space travel to me and the "adventure" that would be. It would be nothing like the comic books or films. It's all kinds of childish to me now that I know more.

WTF is going on. When I hopped on YouTube last night there was a supposed "livestream" from ARK Investment (Cathie Wood) interviewing Elon and Jack! (yes, Twitter & Square Jack) about crypto. Looks like the stream is still (?) going. Or is it on an infinite loop? If so, I hope some sues Utube for false advertising.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf54P1-77yc

Revolver News - Article written just before Elon's buy of Twitter:

Creating an alternative platform could be interesting, though several of these exist already. Twitter remains, by Elon’s own admission, the de facto public town square. Despite its severe censorship, it is still the only major digital public space where anonymous accounts can interact with celebrities, journalists and business titans (including Elon), where world leaders engage in spirited public diplomacy, and where dominant cultural and political narratives incubate and spread.

The most exciting possibility is therefore the most obvious one: Musk should simply buy a controlling stake in Twitter itself. He could certainly afford it. At $31 billion, Twitter’s market cap is less than 15 percent of Musk’s current net worth. Even if one regards Twitter stock as entirely worthless, Musk could theoretically buy a controlling stake in it and still be the world’s richest man by fifty billion dollars, and free speech would be restored to the “land of the free.”

But in practice, it’s not that easy. In fact, one would be hard pressed to imagine a project more dangerous and difficult than restoring free speech to a major tech platform like Twitter. At the same time, it’s hard to imagine a more worthwhile project. Restoring genuine free speech would do more for patriotic Americans than the GOP taking back the White House in 2024, and it would pose a greater threat to the ruling Regime than anything Russia, China, or Iran might plausibly do.

Free speech online is what enabled the Trump revolution in 2016. If the Internet had been as free in 2020 as it was four years before, Trump would have cruised to reelection. Massive censorship and suppression are the tools needed to prop up Covid tyranny, the Ukraine war fever, and the idea that Lia Thomas is a “woman.” America’s decrepit and illegitimate ruling class intuitively understand this: Absolute freedom of speech, or even the speech norms that prevailed a mere decade ago, would instantly cause the American regime as we know it to crumble.

https://www.revolver.news/2022/04/elon-musk-buy-twitter-free-speech-tech-censorship-american-regime-war/?source=patrick.net

I thought this didn't pass the sniff test...
Fake Cathie Wood Video Scamming Users
A YouTube channel started livestreaming a video of ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood talking about cryptocurrencies in the early hours of Friday. Also included in the video were Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Block CEO Jack Dorsey. ... At the time of writing, there have been over 150 transactions on both wallets provided with about $400K already siphoned off unsuspecting investors.
Looks like its running under an Elon Musk account now...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3QzyD9GZ6k

Patrick says

I agree. I don't see any good reason to object to Musk yet.

Do u think 5G is safe? He's putting up low orbit 5G sats. Just curious. 5G danger is now on the NIH.gov site.

Mars is probably a mistake. There’s nothing there we can’t get elsewhere, there’s hardly any atmosphere, little water, and the soil is extensively contaminated with heavy metals and chromium. You can’t grow anything in it fit for human consumption. So you’d have to import all your soil and that would be prohibitively expensive. Mars is a trap. The next steps should be to establish a Moon base and start mining local asteroids for mineral, carbon, and water. It’s all worth trillions up there more than it would be down here. And in raw metal value, they’ve already found asteroids fairly near us that have 40 trillion in precious metals. Space is the next big boom, and there won’t be an end to that one.

Shaman says

Mars is probably a mistake. There’s nothing there we can’t get elsewhere, there’s hardly any atmosphere, little water, and the soil is extensively contaminated with heavy metals and chromium. You can’t grow anything in it fit for human consumption. So you’d have to import all your soil and that would be prohibitively expensive. Mars is a trap. The next steps should be to establish a Moon base and start mining local asteroids for mineral, carbon, and water.

Yeah - but if he was just targeting the moon or local asteroids, Musk would have no incentive to invent a massive interplanetary rocket like he is making with Starship.

Having such a big massive goal of Mars is driving innovation like I haven't seen in my entire lifetime.

socal2 says

Shaman says

Mars is probably a mistake. There’s nothing there we can’t get elsewhere, there’s hardly any atmosphere, little water, and the soil is extensively contaminated with heavy metals and chromium. You can’t grow anything in it fit for human consumption. So you’d have to import all your soil and that would be prohibitively expensive. Mars is a trap. The next steps should be to establish a Moon base and start mining local asteroids for mineral, carbon, and water.

Yeah - but if he was just targeting the moon or local asteroids, Musk would have no incentive to invent a massive interplanetary rocket like he is making with Starship.

Having such a big massive goal of Mars is driving innovation like I haven't seen in my entire lifetime.

Ain’t that the truth. I got to see the return of the first boosters in real life (I was about 20 miles away). It was like something out of Star Wars seeing them jet back from the upper atmosphere and land, totally automated, back on ground. That’s when I jumped on the Elon train.

Asteroids, not planets, will be the shit.

Why fight G-force? Many asteroids are heavily water ice, others full of Precious Metals.

Sci-Fi has prepped people for the wrong thing. It'll be asteroids and low G satellites.

AmericanKulak says

Many asteroids are heavily water ice, others full of Precious Metals.

I always hear claims like this, but I have never seen any scientific data to support it.

Asteroids are mainly big balls of dust, that are loosely held together by a gravitational field. Why it's said "oh, they are filled with X" I have no idea. They are probably all light elements but who knows? I know it's speculated that gold is largely from asteroid bombardment, but that might be complete BS as well. The idea is that because it's so dense, that all the gold that was here when the Earth formed is in the core. Well, wouldn't uranium and lead be as well then?

richwicks says

AmericanKulak says

Many asteroids are heavily water ice, others full of Precious Metals.

I always hear claims like this, but I have never seen any scientific data to support it.

Asteroids are mainly big balls of dust, that are loosely held together by a gravitational field. Why it's said "oh, they are filled with X" I have no idea. They are probably all light elements but who knows? I know it's speculated that gold is largely from asteroid bombardment, but that might be complete BS as well. The idea is that because it's so dense, that all the gold that was here when the Earth formed is in the core. Well, wouldn't uranium and lead be as well then?

The most common method is infrared spectroscopy. Different "minerals" absorb different wavelengths of light differently. Based on the surface composition, and a few rotational scans, you can come up with a fairly accurate spectra of minerals compared to what we would expect on Earth. No it's not 100% accurate because the surface could have a thin layer of say lead, but underneath could be just a bunch of water and ice. you never know until you actually get out to the asteroid and dig into it. They are beginning to use radar now which gives you a slightly more accurate surface picture as well.

Good thing is Elon is already working on automated mining robots that will do exploratory digs on various asteroids. See? Elon rocks right?

Musk will also have a seat at the board and is looking forward to making "significant improvements" at Twitter.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/05/elon-musk-to-join-twitters-board-of-directors.html?source=patrick.net

He should move fast and the first thing he should get done is reinstating Trump and all of the doctors who questioned COVID policies.

socal2 says

Musk will also have a seat at the board and is looking forward to making "significant improvements" at Twitter.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/05/elon-musk-to-join-twitters-board-of-directors.html?source=patrick.net

He should move fast and the first thing he should get done is reinstating Trump and all of the doctors who questioned COVID policies.

I can't wait for Trump's return tweet.

Fuck Twitter, I dont use social media. It'a a shit show with face robot accounts all over the place, pretend reality.

I bet Musk is about to find out that 1/2 of twitter are government propagandists and PR trolls. I bet he has no idea how the company is funded either. If he reforms Twitter, it will crater because I think over 50% of the users, are fake and if there's a crackdown on that, the company will shrivel.

It's a PR / propaganda site and censorship is being done at the behest of some backroom deals. If those deals are ended, the money will stop flowing.

richwicks says

I bet Musk is about to find out that 1/2 of twitter are government propagandists and PR trolls. I bet he has no idea how the company is funded either. If he reforms Twitter, it will crater because I think over 50% of the users, are fake and if there's a crackdown on that, the company will shrivel.

Yeah - but if he gets people like Trump reinstated, it will bring back alot of Conservatives and Libertarians who have abandoned (or have been banned) from the site which will make up for some of the bot losses.

Like it or not. Twitter drives alot of the narrative and public discussion. So we need to reform or nuke it and can't just ignore it.

Musk is the perfect person for this mission as he is crazy smart, not woke and has enough F-U money to make this happen.

socal2 says

Like it or not. Twitter drives alot of the narrative and public discussion. So we need to reform or nuke it and can't just ignore it.

Twitter is constantly brought up, but I've never seen any reason to use it. I'd disagree. The purpose of Twitter was to court celebrities and politicians as a platform for public relations, at their CORE was censorship, because it's public relations. It's to give politicians a place where they are protected and a place where celebrities are free of criticism. It's never been a news source.

Facebook is primarily for businesses to advertise without having to put up a website and they'll do what they have to do in order to give a good face on anybody that has a presence there.

socal2 says

Musk is the perfect person for this mission as he is crazy smart, not woke and has enough F-U money to make this happen.

I disagree with him being "smart", but we'll see. Time will tell. Some of his ideas were dead in the box, he just didn't do some simple calculations to find out if what he was pushing for made sense. He didn't check Queuing Theory for the "Boring company" (notice that's off the radar), and he didn't consult any geologists about the Hypertube. These were both dead on arrival. The Boring company especially, even if tunnels cost the same as highways, I think it would have been a close call on viability but you have all this other stuff to worry about - the structures over the tunnels, them filling with water, circulation of air, egresses to the surface. I remember the Big Dig in Boston. It... works... NOW, but that was WAY over budget and could have been handled much better than it was maybe.

My sister is a civil engineer, she was quite skeptical (but also appreciative) of the Big Dig in Boston, but she knew it was going to blow out budgets and have all sorts of problems.

Musk's claim to fame is Tesla, which isn't a good solution, it's just an over-priced electric car, which gets government subsidies and electric cars may not be a very good idea at all and he's just displacing NASA and defense contractors, but we really don't know what the actual budget is, or how much is really being spent. Our government misleads other governments all the time. Remember in the 1970's the whole ESP bullshit thing and how the CIA was SUPPOSEDLY working on remote viewing and other garbage? It was just to mislead the Russians. The military buildup in the 1980's MIGHT have been fake just to goad Russia into overbuilding their military to bankrupt them. We already had enough ICBMs to destroy Russia, and the entire world before SDI.

Musk also has security clearance, is exempt from making misleading statements about Tesla's stock (remember he secured funding to bring Tesla private - TOTAL lie - no repercussions), I suspect he might be a front man. Not really running the company, but is the face of them. Zuckerberg is suspected to be a front man. That's why he can lie to Congress.

Anyhow, we'll see.

richwicks says

I always hear claims like this, but I have never seen any scientific data to support it.

Ice is one of the most common compounds in the solar system, esp. the outer solar system starting in the asteroid belt.

They can detect it from the offgassing of volatiles using infrared.

richwicks says

it's just an over-priced electric car, which gets government subsidies and electric cars may not be a very good idea at all and he's just displacing NASA and defense contractors, but we really don't know what the actual budget is, or how much is really being spent.

Tax incentives juiced Tesla’s recent sales. But now those incentives are gone
In the U.S., for instance, buyers of a Tesla, or any other electric vehicle, could once get a whopping $7,500 rebate on their tax bill. The argument was that the subsidy helped get fuel-burning cars off the road, thereby reducing pollution.
But the U.S. credit began phasing out after Tesla sold 200,000 cars, dropping first to $3,750 on Jan. 1, 2019, then to $1,875 in July 1, 2019. Since Jan. 1 of 2020, U.S. Tesla buyers haven’t qualified for any tax credit.

Free The Bee
Hopefully that will be his first action upon taking a board seat...

richwicks says

it's just an over-priced electric car, which gets government subsidies

Once you’ve owned one, let us know if it’s over-priced.

By the way, no more government subsidies on Tesla for years now, and their sales haven’t slowed down. The wait for a new $115k starter Model X is over a year now. Apparently, others don’t think it’s over-priced.

Booger says

She can always quit you know. No one is forcing her to stay.

Substack is hiring, but there's a catch...

Eman says

Once you’ve owned one, let us know if it’s over-priced.

By the way, no more government subsidies on Tesla for years now, and their sales haven’t slowed down. The wait for a new $115k starter Model X is over a year now. Apparently, others don’t think it’s over-priced.

These sales are even more impressive when you consider Tesla doesn't do a lick of advertising or marketing. All of these sales are the result of word of mouth from obnoxious fanboys like me. I have personally converted at least 3 people to order Teslas in the last 2 months by giving test rides in my Model Y.

socal2 says

These sales are even more impressive when you consider Tesla doesn't do a lick of advertising or marketing. All of these sales are the result of word of mouth from obnoxious fanboys like me. I have personally converted at least 3 people to order Teslas in the last 2 months by giving test rides in my Model Y.

The car sells itself once someone has experienced it. A few family members and friends are also Tesla car owners now. In fact, my business partner just got his Model X Plaid delivered last week. It’s tax deductible too.

socal2 says

Eman says

Once you’ve owned one, let us know if it’s over-priced.

By the way, no more government subsidies on Tesla for years now, and their sales haven’t slowed down. The wait for a new $115k starter Model X is over a year now. Apparently, others don’t think it’s over-priced.

These sales are even more impressive when you consider Tesla doesn't do a lick of advertising or marketing. All of these sales are the result of word of mouth from obnoxious fanboys like me. I have personally converted at least 3 people to order Teslas in the last 2 months by giving test rides in my Model Y.

Model 3 is one of the best cars I’ve owned. Can’t wait for my Cybertruck delivery.

If Musk starts positively influencing twitter, especially in terms of platform free speech, the woke attacks on him will surge. I can see the "news" articles already:

"Should a billionaire who made their money making cars be able to use their money to buy influence over our democratic speech platforms?"

"Elon should stick to space"

"How Elon Musk is hindering and even reverting democratic progress"

"Why Elon Musk is problematic"

"Is Elon Musk racist? Ex-employees share their horror stories."

...

Goran_K says

Model 3 is one of the best cars I’ve owned.

I presume you have a Level 2 charger at home. Do you ever use a commercial level 3 charger? Or on trips do you have enough Tesla sites for charge stops? Around here commercial Level 3 chargers are 30 cents per minute, so an hour "fill-up" is $18.

HeadSet says

Level 3 chargers are 30 cents per minute

@HeadSet, I believe you meant 30 cents/kWh.

Eman says

@HeadSet, I believe you meant 30 cents/kWh.

Nope, 30 cents per minute:

HeadSet says

Eman says

@HeadSet, I believe you meant 30 cents/kWh.

Nope, 30 cents per minute:

Then it really depends how fast it can charge. If it can give you 300 miles in an hour, then it’s not bad

Eman says

Then it really depends how fast it can charge. If it can give you 300 miles in an hour, then it’s not bad

They are Level Three chargers, so that as fast as you can get so far. They will charge a Leaf or similar in about 45min - 60 min, which is about 250 miles. I do not know how long an extended rage car like a Tesla would take, but I would guess about 1.5 hours for the 400 mile range Model S.

https://nitter.net/elonmusk/status/1507907130124222471?source=patrick.net#m




Go Elon.

Eman says

Once you’ve owned one, let us know if it’s over-priced.

They are over priced for sure. Having driven one I don't think they're bad cars. But I would never pay the price for any model Tesla to be honest. They simply have no utility besides driving short distances. Basically a commuter car.

I just hauled an electric golf cart 70 miles on my trailer. Not a chance in hell any full EV could do that without a charge on the way. Deciding on a battery for the golf cart and best case I'm looking at 70 miles range and 5 hours to full charge. Fortunately it's a golf cart and not a daily driver. Take the batteries out and you can pick the thing up and you only get 70 miles on a 5 hour charge. EV's have a long way to go. They're fun, but they're basically a toy at this point.

It's not green either. If you account for just the extraction of minerals for the lithium batteries, you've put more CO2 into the atmosphere for one battery than you would an ICE vehicle. That's before you've even charged it. Musk isn't a moron. He built a "cool" golf cart now that I'm researching batteries. I also don't trust Teslas safety. My wife and 3 kids were rear ended in our Sequoia. Totaled. It didn't look bad, but my kids and wife could literally be dead today if they drove a Tesla.

EV's are hitting a wall in my opinion. Can't tow. They're small. Poor range. Long charge time. Hybrids are likely the future and not 100% EV. Even hybrids have massive shortcomings unless you're a straight up commuter driver. They're fun to drive, that legit is the only selling point for me. There is no other redeeming quality about them though.

Hircus says

If Musk starts positively influencing twitter, especially in terms of platform free speech, the woke attacks on him will surge. I can see the "news" articles already:

"Should a billionaire who made their money making cars be able to use their money to buy influence over our democratic speech platforms?"

"Elon should stick to space"

"How Elon Musk is hindering and even reverting democratic progress"

"Why Elon Musk is problematic"

"Is Elon Musk racist? Ex-employees share their horror stories."

...

So it begins.

WaPO is just Jeff Bezos cry diary anyway. No one considers WaPO a serious news source anymore.