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I've had a casual curiosity on why these billionaires like Musk who seem to care about world wide problems such as AI aren't working to solve the imminent issu

by jameslk 10y ago

I've had a casual curiosity on why these billionaires like Musk who seem to care about world wide problems such as AI aren't working to solve the imminent issues with global warming. I'm not talking about reducing fossil fuels, but perhaps coming up with solutions with their resources that addresses a world that isn't so habitable by life in the future. I don't know enough about global warming to know why this might be the case (hence why it's a casual curiosity). Or perhaps there are grand efforts and I just haven't heard about them yet. Edit: I'm not condemning Elon Musk or downplaying his efforts. This was just an honest question I was hoping someone more knowledgeable than me might comment on.

andrewclunn 10y ago
Logistics. Can the problem be solved with engineering and invention alone, or do they need to get governments and political movements involved in order to accomplish anything? Why would anyone with any real ability or drive want to bother with that shit?
- JabavuAdams 10y ago
  It's empirically easier to start an orbital rocket company than to convince hundreds of millions of people to do things they don't want to.
20100thibault 10y ago
He's founded tesla and SolarCity with that objective in mind and almost went bankrupt in the process...
- jameslk 10y ago
  My point was more around addressing global warming from the perspective of mitigation rather than prevention. There seems to be a lot of reports that indicate our opportunity for preventing global warming has passed or will soon pass[0][1][2]. So if that's the case, it seems like it would be pretty important to work on solutions to survive the effects of global warming instead. 0. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99888903 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9988890... 1. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/climate-change-may-be-irreversible-2016-9 https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/climate... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_climate_change#Current_risk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_climate_change#Current...
  - swagasaurus-rex 10y ago
    I've been seeing studies since the release of the Inconvenient Truth claiming that the point of no return has been reached. I don't doubt climate change, but I'm very skeptical of studies positing a slippery slope of catastrophic proportions. It's true we don't know the cascading effects of increased CO2 and methane emissions, but that doesn't mean it the unknown is apocalyptic.
    - FeepingCreature 10y ago
      And hey - maybe we won't all die!
      - always_good 10y ago
        Humanity could use some thinning out. Unfortunately we'll take a lot of innocent fora/fauna down as well.
baq 10y ago
tesla is musk's response to global warming, at least kind of.
mongmong 10y ago
Elon Musk talks about global warming all the time. He even says Tesla is just a means to an end of saving the planet from global warming.
atarian 10y ago
Musk's goal for SpaceX is to help move humanity to other planets like Mars. In fact, he actually wants to die on Mars: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/tech/2013/03/elon-musk-die-mars http://www.vanityfair.com/news/tech/2013/03/elon-musk-die-ma...
bitwize 10y ago
Because the solutions to these problems are unconscionable to tech nerds, whose entire life style is dependent on the happy belly of Western resource and energy profligacy. The solutions involve powerdown, a rollback of technological progress and refocus on survival and sustainability at a global scale, and quite possibly a significant reduction of the human population.
- JBReefer 10y ago
  I'm fairly sure that more than just "tech nerds" are against large scale democide, especially when the alternatives are pretty reasonable (bike lanes and wind power, the horror!)
TeMPOraL 10y ago
Forget about AI, which is something Elon realized to be an issue only relatively recently. Tesla Motors and SolarCity exist as his response to exactly the problem of climate change - the stated goal of Tesla is not "fast and sexy cars of the future", but "electrification of all transportation", exactly because the latter is an important way to fight climate change. As for other grand efforts - I haven't heard of them either, and I'd damn love to hear about them. We need to praise and support people who're doing good work.

by jameslk 10y ago

andrewclunn 10y ago

Logistics. Can the problem be solved with engineering and invention alone, or do they need to get governments and political movements involved in order to accomplish anything? Why would anyone with any real ability or drive want to bother with that shit?

JabavuAdams 10y ago
It's empirically easier to start an orbital rocket company than to convince hundreds of millions of people to do things they don't want to.

20100thibault 10y ago

He's founded tesla and SolarCity with that objective in mind and almost went bankrupt in the process...

jameslk 10y ago
My point was more around addressing global warming from the perspective of mitigation rather than prevention. There seems to be a lot of reports that indicate our opportunity for preventing global warming has passed or will soon pass[0][1][2]. So if that's the case, it seems like it would be pretty important to work on solutions to survive the effects of global warming instead. 0. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99888903 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9988890... 1. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/climate-change-may-be-irreversible-2016-9 https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/climate... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_climate_change#Current_risk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_climate_change#Current...
- swagasaurus-rex 10y ago
  I've been seeing studies since the release of the Inconvenient Truth claiming that the point of no return has been reached. I don't doubt climate change, but I'm very skeptical of studies positing a slippery slope of catastrophic proportions. It's true we don't know the cascading effects of increased CO2 and methane emissions, but that doesn't mean it the unknown is apocalyptic.
  - FeepingCreature 10y ago
    And hey - maybe we won't all die!
    - always_good 10y ago
      Humanity could use some thinning out. Unfortunately we'll take a lot of innocent fora/fauna down as well.

baq 10y ago

tesla is musk's response to global warming, at least kind of.

mongmong 10y ago

Elon Musk talks about global warming all the time. He even says Tesla is just a means to an end of saving the planet from global warming.

atarian 10y ago

Musk's goal for SpaceX is to help move humanity to other planets like Mars. In fact, he actually wants to die on Mars: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/tech/2013/03/elon-musk-die-mars http://www.vanityfair.com/news/tech/2013/03/elon-musk-die-ma...

bitwize 10y ago

Because the solutions to these problems are unconscionable to tech nerds, whose entire life style is dependent on the happy belly of Western resource and energy profligacy. The solutions involve powerdown, a rollback of technological progress and refocus on survival and sustainability at a global scale, and quite possibly a significant reduction of the human population.

JBReefer 10y ago
I'm fairly sure that more than just "tech nerds" are against large scale democide, especially when the alternatives are pretty reasonable (bike lanes and wind power, the horror!)

TeMPOraL 10y ago

Forget about AI, which is something Elon realized to be an issue only relatively recently. Tesla Motors and SolarCity exist as his response to exactly the problem of climate change - the stated goal of Tesla is not "fast and sexy cars of the future", but "electrification of all transportation", exactly because the latter is an important way to fight climate change. As for other grand efforts - I haven't heard of them either, and I'd damn love to hear about them. We need to praise and support people who're doing good work.