Excellent. I wonder if we’ll finally hit a critical mass over there.

Was wondering how long it would take to roll something like this out. Bout time.

I mainly see space exploration as an end itself as opposed to being “for” anything. It’s not so much a place to live and colonize, but something to further explore. No matter how bad the Earth gets, it’s going to be nicer than any of the other solar bodies, which are already pretty terrible for human habitation in pretty much every way.

Main advantage of a moonbase or orbital base would be cost and accessibility. It’s a lot easier to launch from the moon, if we did some of our construction and industry there. A lot of which could be automated eventually, you wouldn’t need a whole population there. More an outpost than a colony.

I’m sure colonies would appear eventually, but not in our lifetimes. But simply trying to put anything substantial up there would drive further advancements in the field.

I’m willing to give him credit where credit is due. I am not willing to simply give him the benefit of any doubts though.

He does deserve credit for speeding innovation in the electric vehicle arena, no question. Battery technology was also pushed forward by this. You cannot say it wasn’t inevitable simply because entrenched interests were resisting though. This implies that A: big companies cannot change, and B: no other individuals were ever going to make a play with a new company. This is giving him the benefit of doubt. This positive is also colored by the fact that electric vehicles are a good and important step, but not really a solution to anything. You have to be careful that your electricity generation is clean, otherwise you simply move emissions from the tailpipe to the power plant.

Similarly, I do give him credit for spurring advances in re-useable rocketry. A Mars base, however, is a pretty terrible idea that is still many decades away from even the planning phase. A Moonbase or an orbital base, now that’s a better idea. I would go into why, but many, many people have already done this, and it’s a long, science-filled discussion.

These things granted, they do not exist in a vacuum. I also weigh them against any negatives Musk creates for the world. His gigafactory in Shanghai, his purchasing of twitter, his support for strongmen, pushing pro-Russian narratives etc.

When this weighing is done with as much neutrality and objectivity as I can, personally I find him wanting. On top of this, having formerly been a very big fan of his, this strikes as a betrayal. He used to be a positive impact on the world, but in the final balance, is no longer. I don’t quite hate him, but I am certainly no fan any more.

If you want to see things accurately, try to avoid bias both for, and against. Nobody actually deserves benefit of doubt. Make sure you understand the arguments both sides put forward. Then you can weigh. While we can never be perfectly objective and know all the factors, this will at least get a person closer to actual fairness.

When I personally do all this, I arrive at Elon simply being a major corporation, no different from the rest of them. Mainly resting on a bed of marketing bullshit. I treat him as such.

Very weak article, giving him credit as a free speech absolutist. Is he really, or does he ban people that attack him? Alludes to us having self-driving due to his innovations. Really? Other automakers seem neck and neck with him, with Mercedes having passed a major milestone before him, quite recently.

Does he really have hyperloops to dream up and Mars colonies to plan, or is that just marketing drivel to appeal to certain types?

This is almost fanboying in disguise. If you simply read it through the lens of being pro-racism, it’s suddenly a praise piece.

edit: Oh, and it doesn’t even try to answer the question it asks in its own headline.

tbf, before Oct 7th, things were a lot easier.

But I thought AI was just magic, and could do anything…

No, it’s “shunning” when they do it. It’s “cancel culture” when other people do it.

Proper manipulation of language is key to fighting a culture war.

…we should put more junior-high science posters above urinals.

I would disagree. I think if we go back even a few centuries, we find that virtually nobody had a firm grasp on historical fact, due to the printing press not being invented yet, alongside archeological techniques not existing.

Probably just because some people really like Stalin, and have become convinced his accounts are the truthful ones and everyone else lies about him.

It’s not really a new problem, people were doing it with their imaginations and stories long before AI came around. The tools of the digital age simply amplified the effect. Healthy skepticism is still the solution, that hasn’t changed.

It’ll never actually go away, though. Of all the possibile ways of looking at any given situation, the vast majority will always be inaccurate. Fiction simply outnumbers nonfiction. Wrong answers outnumber correct answers.

So, the adjustment has to be inside of us, and again, it’s always been necessary. This isn’t fundamentally new.

I’m going to go a little unpopular here, and say Paradox Interactive.

Their milking of their properties with DLC is the stuff of legends, but at the end of the day, nobody else is even close at modeling rich, complex and hugely broad historical simulation the way they do. They’re everything I ever wanted when I was a kid, playing Koei strat games. When you’re that good at what you do, fine, make money. Whatever.

Oh, look. Another DLC… sigh

But China never wants to hurt anyone, I read it on the internet. So, if they collect our data, it must be to help us be better people, because that’s all China wants. Everyone to be happy, with sunshine and rainbows all day long. I bet they’ll make unicorns too, and we can all be happy together.

Small, weak people need an excuse for why they feel so small. One that deflects the blame from where it truly belongs–on them, for lacking the strength and courage to be better than they are. For lacking the spine to take a more difficult, more noble road.

So just believe it’s not your fault, it’s some mighty shadowy conspiracy thing of great darkness. Not just you being a coward and weakling. Much more preferable.