Shockingly, I’d actually agree with him on this one. It’s about time narcotics get decriminalised and treated like the public health problem it is, instead of the pointless masturbatory moralising that goes on around it.
Sure lots of innovation spun out of the space race 50 years ago……I don’t disagree.
Context is important. At the time US was spending a huge percentage of GDP on NASA. The other is we need to go back 50 years to find equivalence 
.
Whilst SpaceX did not invent 3D printing. Huge amounts of innovation is required to use the technology in a new setting. Imagine the material development. You want a material that flows as a liquid when printing but does not melt in your engine. A material that provides strength and is light, but able to be printed to the precise level that failure won’t cause a multiple billion cost or loss of life. Different parts requiring different properties.
Lots of risk, but the upside disrupting in terms of how manufacturing is performed. Allowing agility speed and quicker development.
Take their star link technology. They spent billions developing the satalites. We are actually on generation 3. There was lots of failures. The success today took lots of innovation.
Take the batteries. Tesla has 290 patent families on batteries alone. That’s lots of innovation. Making batteries smaller, lighter, cooler and made from different materials.
Sure they are standing on shoulders of giants. But they are using technologies in new ways, overcoming real barriers, and developing huge improvements. An analogy is in the 90s we all had digital cameras, maybe a Garmin, and perhaps a Nokia 3310. You could say Apple has done nothing new. Not that special. But that ignores innovation in usability, miniaturisation, photo processing, processing power etc.
2 Likes
But that’s precisely my point! Tesla, SpaceX, and Musk by extension, are doing nothing special because all this innovation goes on anyway. There’s so much hero worship over the fact that he just had money and he was obsessed with certain things, that people mistake for vision. Just because he made the right bets or had the right obsessions, does not equal vision.
I’m not saying he’s not smart by any means, or that those companies have not innovated, I’m simply saying that in the absence of Tesla, or SpaceX, as long as someone sought to funnel money into those resources, these developments would have happened anyway. To credit it to a single person is very short-sighted.
1 Like
The thing is, whatever the merits of his companies or ventures, there’s something wrong with a system where anyone has that much wealth and power. Not only Musk, but any of them. The world does not need multi-billionnaires.
It will inevitably lead to megalomania and tragedy.
It is not good for the human race.
3 Likes
One of the reasons I love SpaceX so much is they seem to adopt my golfing mantra. If it doesn’t go straight, have another can and hit it harder. SpaceX continue to design and develop their rockets literally on the pad. That’s absolutely the way I work. Just for reference, they stuck their 42nd consecutive falcon 9 booster landing yesterday. That’s 42 times on the trot achieving something that the space experts said could never be done. Granted he’ll probably get eaten by the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Trall for this achievement but at lest the mice will have their answer.
So tell me about the free capitalist economy in Russia that’s doing so well for world peace. The beauty of our society is that it encourages people to strive for power and wealth. That’s what drives society forward. The world needs people who create employment because when governments do it, you end up in 1984.
What an extraordinary answer. I never said anything about Russia or communism as you suggest. In fact, Russia is a great example of the kind of rampant inequality that I was criticising.
I just do not believe that innovation and job creation are byproducts of obscene individual wealth. This doesn’t mean that I support state control of the economy. There are many other possibilities. A fair, equitable and functional tax system would be a start.
3 Likes
Bunch of reports that he is pulling out of the purchase now.
1 Like
I was reading summaries of the deal agreement and there is supposedly a $1b exit clause should he not go through with it.
1 Like
If he doesn’t go through with it, why?
Is he being blocked? Are the finances being pulled? (the part he wasn’t putting up for himself).
Or has he had a change of heart for some reason? (Which raises questions of his stability).
Back in 2018 the SEC found him guilty of violations related to publicly claiming (on twitter) he had a deal in place to take Telsa private. He didn’t and the punishments from the SEC included a $40m penalty, his removal from board chairmanship, and a requirement that his communications about investments be pre-approved so that he can no longer partake in market manipulation. Importantly, this included his tweets. He recently has tried to get this agreement annulled. I have no idea how owning twitter would influence any of this, but it is notable that yesterday a federal judge ruled against him in that case.
1 Like
Market analysts have been speculating for days that he might drop out of the takeover as the cost for doing so is relatively small to him but the cost of the takeover going ahead is pretty high (his offer is at a 50% premium to the market usual pemium is around a third), he cant find other investors to join him and Twitter isnt a company that generates a lot of spare cash and might not cover the interest on the loan It would also be a distraction for him.
He is using Tesla stock as collateral for loans but if they fall in value he has to stump more cash. Despite banks saying the stock is worth 1500 dollars, they are treating it as if they are worth half that. He would then probably have to sell more shares for the cash (fear of which led to the recent 12% fall).
1 Like
But he’s a brilliant genius so he can do whatever he wants!
There’s a point where it just becomes stupid and in fact amateurish. Difficult from the outside but I’m kind of glad that Cern didn’t blow up 5 LHC’s or NASA destroying 3 James Webb’s.
You have been following SLS? It’s stone age tech fused to tens of billions of dollars wasted in the face of SpaceX. You might not like their methods but they work at a fraction of the cost.
Had Musk been given the insane budget of the JWST, there’d be 8 of them in space now. 2 wouldn’t work, one would be out of focus, 2 would work perfectly and 3 would be operating at 200% the original spec. 10 years ago.
I think people like the Space X work and definitely see the innovation and value. I’m not sure what the argument is there.
Many people don’t like Musk because he is a cock/narcissist/thin-skinned/self-promoter. With regard to Twitter, it would be another key platform for communication in the hands of a billionaire, which is a worrying trend. He is saying it is about free speech, but in all likelihood it will mean his own free, unaccountable speech, leveraged to increase his power. The likely outcome is that Twitter will become even more of a shitshow, but I suppose in the interest of fairness, let’s see what happens.
If he follows through with the purchase, that is.
He might be a bit short on the dough. In which case, when he recently payed just a small amount of tax as a publicity stunt for the Twittersphere, ironically it might have hurt him!
3 Likes
Notable also that yesterday was the official launch of the F150 lightening, a potentially paradigm busting electric truck from one of the established car giants. Would he really spend $1B to ruin a rival’s coming out party? Probably.
1 Like
US customers will always want a truck. The all electric F150 is a huge step for Ford. Will it ween the truckists off petrol? Time will tell. Not Tesla’s market though, they go for the higher hanging and wealthier fruit.
So you’d never give him that budget and the failure would be a lot more likely.
His company, his approach. You find it refreshing , while I admire boundaries being pushed I would certainly love to be a fly on the wall in their design offices. I am not convinced on some of their risk procedures.
1 Like