Funny Twitter Exchange

I admit it does sorta land differently when the speaker has an actual space exploration company pic.twitter.com/blxZ6argBg

— David ???? (@evil_diad) March 22, 2021

Thanks to Prof. Glenn Reynolds (InstaPundit) for the pointer.

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

I’m with Marianne on this.

Look at what Elon actually said. Being able to finance doesn’t give him godlike powers.

[Kristian H.]

Not godlike powers, but skin in the game. And that has a gravitas that being 'just' a politician or commentator on events doesn't.

[Brett Bellmore]

Not "godlike", but being a multibillionaire owner of a rocket company gives him a certain degree of credibility when he talks about doing things in space.

[Sasha Volokh]

Extending the light of consciousness to the stars doesn't mean making the stars conscious.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Is he going to the stars?

[Sasha Volokh]

It indicates a direction.

[Eugene Volokh]

To infinity and beyond!

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

Never give up. Never surrender.

[Krychek_2]

This is not my area of expertise, but I've read several pieces by people who are experts in the relevant disciplines, and they all seem to think that Musk is on a fool's errand and it can't happen. Maybe he will prove them wrong. See here for an example:

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2021/03/02/how-many-people-lined-up-to-live-on-devils-island/

[Brett Bellmore]

I'm an engineer with training in biology, and a life long interest in space. I think the idea of colonizing Mars is feasible, but some specific details of Musk's plans don't look very good.

That dome, for example. Looks bright and shiny, but that's the sort of crazy thing a wealthy already established society might do to show off their wealth. Colonists would never do that. That's the sort of shiny you get from salespeople, that makes the engineers cringe.

Mind, he's been modifying his plan as he goes along. Gave up on round trips for the rockets, for instance, instead now agrees that it's more sensible to just leave them on Mars as usable building material.

Why would people go there? Chiefly so that people HERE couldn't tell them what to do. That is the biggest attraction by far.

[Per Son]

Basically, what you are saying is that any potential colonists are not just being sold a monorail.

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

Why would people go there? Chiefly so that people HERE couldn’t tell them what to do.

I've been watching that ongoing documentary-from-the-future on Amazon Video. Just remember to not piss off Amos.

[Armchair Lawyer]

It depends on how much they're paid/can make. In many ways, it's like the early American colonies were.

The true money is in asteroid mining. The potential to fly up to an asteroid, melt it down for gold, platinium, and other precious metals, drop those resources on Earth, and walk away a millionaire for life is quite tempting to people. Much like the importation of gold and silver were to the Spanish.

Mars, in this context represents a relatively nearby gravity well, which has less than 1/2 the escape velocity compared to Earth. All those asteroid miners need to go somewhere to refuel, get food, get repairs, and so on. And a lot of stuff is easier in a gravity well. Plus, no immigration laws.

If you tell a Nigerian or an Indian they can make $200,000 a year by serving on Mars for 5 years, you think they won't jump at the option?

[Kristian H.]

S/Musk/Columbus/g and that could have been the commentary 630 years ago.

[Josh R]

I'm against using "actual" (or "actually") which both @evil_diad and captcrisis are guilty of.

[DaivdBehar]

This is a waste and a mistake. I agree, Musk should spend his money any way he wants. Money is far better in his hands than in the black hole of government rent seeking, doing nothing well.

Machines are 100 times better at any task than humans. They cost one tenth to support in space. Human travel to Mars is a vanity at this point. You have to ship an entire second Cape Canaveral unless the astronaut has agreed to not return. There, he will die a slow, painful, horrible death from radiation exposure. He will waste away in the 1/3 gravity of earth.

[Per Son]

You said: "Machines are 100 times better at any task than humans."

You might want to think about what you just said.

[Jimmy the Dane]

One of the better arguments on why aliens, wherever they exist, would never venture into space is because the time/energy/resources it takes to merely conduct a 'feasibility study' into intergalatic or intragalatic expansion is so immense it is not feasible in of itself.

We are going to find out sooner rather than later if that is true for humans.

[Nige]

Hard to make life multiplanetary if the one planet we know for sure holds life is having all its life--nurturing properties thoroughly degraded.

[jdgalt1]

One of the best reasons to colonize space and/or other planets is that if it works, industry and pollution start to happen there instead of here.

[Armchair Lawyer]

Capability is key here...

If Joe Six Pack says he's gonna invade Iran and wipe out all the nuclear weapons factories...people laugh.

If the POTUS says the same thing...suddenly it's not a laughing matter.

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

It also doesn't help that Williamson has already well established herself as being bat guano crazy. Once you do that people tend to not take much of anything you say seriously.