This Twitter thread condenses very well what I think about Musk:
I used to compare him with the monorail guy from the Simpsons, but I’ve come to realize he is something much worse: he is a parasite. A parasite that’s good at identifying ideas that are important for the humanity and inserting himself as the solution, effectively absorbing the resources that should go into solving the problem into his own pocket without really giving anything in return.
See Tesla: Musk reply guys keep repeating how he is the single individual doing most against climate change. This is a pile of bullshit of the size of the Mont Blanc. Electric vehicles still use energy, and that energy needs to be produced somewhere. In some cases, depending of the energy pool of your country, a Tesla could produce about a half of the emissions a modern hybrid car produces per km. In some particularly non-green countries or US states, a Tesla can actually be more polluting.
Mobility is an important cause of the climate change. But moving to use electric vehicles barely solves anything: moving two tons of metal and rubber so an 80kg human can displace themselves three km to buy some milk is an absurd waste of energy, no matter if that energy is produced by the car or by a nearby power plant.
Same for space-x. Space exploration was one of the last collective efforts of the humanity, and Musk is just playing the neo-liberal ideas to make that effort private and for-profit. He just gave neo-liberal govs what they want: a way to take something that used to belong to everyone and remove it from the public sphere and into private hands.
And… Should I really need to talk about the non sense of the boring company or Hyperloop? Both are just dumb media stunts whose only purpose is to disrupt any attempt to develop and improve US mass transit systems.
Elon Musk is, actually, the best example of why Silicon Valley’s meritocracy is as fake as an idea could be. The fact that someone that barely has done anything helpful for anyone can become the richest person in the world tells you everything you need to know about the current system.
Elon Musk speaks out about plans for all-civilian SpaceX mission
NBC News’ Tom Costello talks to Elon Musk about SpaceX’s newly announced plans to send civilians into space, and tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who will lead the crew. The mission is part of a fundraising effort for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Click here for the full interview.
The Atomic Rocket Ship Luna, humanity’s first ship to reach and land on the moon. Well, at least according to 1950’s Destination Moon, one of the rare serious science-fiction movies of the era. The Luna was a single stage rocket, was 150 long and used a solid core nuclear thermal rocket, using water as it’s main propellant. In the film the ship lands back on Earth, nose-up, on it’s tail. Pretty impressive since in reality it took another 68 years to figure out how to pull that off.
Shirt of the day for March 6, 2018: Space Road found at Snorg Tees from $12.00
So recently Elon Musk and his company Space X hurled a Tesla into space. If the trajectory in any way is right you got a vehicle there waiting for you on Mars already so you would just need some means to recharge and enjoy a cruise on the red planet.
