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I can't wait until I have a talk with my kids when they realize the significance of this day: Kid: Daddy, ou mean when you were growing up, they threw away roc

by SEJeff 10y ago

I can't wait until I have a talk with my kids when they realize the significance of this day: Kid: Daddy, ou mean when you were growing up, they threw away rockets each time? Me: Yes Kid: Doesn't that make them expensive? Me: Yes. And then not long after will be the other talk: Kid: Daddy, you mean people used to be in charge of driving themselves in cars? Me: Yes Kid: Did people ever die? Me: Millions Good job Elon and SpaceX, get some rest, and then focus on the Model 3! Elon: We have proven what can be done, that many said was impossible. drops mic after SpaceX lands flawlessly

Flame 10y ago
The real-time streaming made me really excited for the future. Elon is truly a genius... SpaceX will save so much money. I can't wait to see what comes next. Honestly, the rate at which technology is growing is truly absurd if you think about it.
- beamatronic 10y ago
  I think a lot of it comes from the fact that (almost) every literate human being can communicate (almost) instantly around the planet with (almost) every other literate human being, and the fact that with machine translation, language is less of a barrier all the time.
  - jacquesm 10y ago
    Illiterate people can too using Skype and such. Instant planetwide communication between any party of humans sharing a common language is now pretty much a given.
    - sqeaky 10y ago
      While you are correct for the most part, I would point out that text services have wider distribution even if only for bandwidth reasons. But there are other reasons, there are good (enough) and widely distributed text standards (SMS), but not yet for video. But maybe we are both over thinking it, does the old voice network reach even further?
      - jacquesm 10y ago
        You can use Skype and similar services without video.
        sqeaky 10y ago
        You can but it doesn't fundamentally change my points. The old analog audio network and the text systems have much larger reach. Laying out enough digital network fabric to have skype and its kind everywhere is an admirable goal though.
      - Florin_Andrei 10y ago
        Audio-only is a little better that way.
      - ooqr 10y ago
        Writing is reusable and presumably most of the learning going on behind rapid technological expansion requires literacy. Even just to navigate around Khan Academy.
    - Cerium 10y ago
      Totally agree on this. I can video and audio chat with my grandma since apps like WeChat are designed for illiterate usage. Photos of participants, easy audio button, inline small videos.
  - bvm 10y ago
    If you think about it, rapidly reusable suborbital rockets are like a physical version of the communication you describe here. It's plausible to physically be anywhere in the world (if you burn enough fuel) within 30 minutes. Ditto up to 10 tonnes of cargo.
JshWright 10y ago
>I can't wait until I have a talk with my kids when they realize the significance of this day https://goo.gl/photos/7rT5rxvsP9AxVZxn6 https://goo.gl/photos/7rT5rxvsP9AxVZxn6 My four year old daughter, watching the launch with rapt attention. When we watched the Echostar 23 launch two weeks ago, she asked why it didn't land... Crazy that rockets landing is already totally normal for her.
- jacquesm 10y ago
  Priceless :) I was 4 when the Apollo launches happened and I still remember them today, they're probably my oldest memories (others I can't date so accurately so that may be off by a bit). Very beautiful picture, thank you for posting.
  - atotic 10y ago
    Wow. That's my first memory too. I was almost 3.
- alashow 10y ago
  Your backyard is a forest? Looks awesome :) btw, I suggest disabling sharing geo location of photos (https://photos.google.com/settings https://photos.google.com/settings - Remove geo location in items shared by link).
  - JshWright 10y ago
    Yeah, it's pretty awesome (I actually grew up in the house across the street, and that large wooded area is a big part of why we picked this neighborhood when looking to buy a house). Fair point about the geo location (I actually assumed Google would have stripped all metadata by default, like any real image sharing service...), I'm not super concerned about it though. I use my real name on HN, my employer and other details are pretty trivial to find. If someone wanted to find me, they wouldn't have to work too terribly hard as it is. If they do... well, I'm an American who likes to spend time in the woods. Draw whatever conclusions from that you will...
monk_e_boy 10y ago
I pretty much have this conversation with my students. I love it when a teacher is observing me so I start with 'do you ever remember a time before the internet?' of course none of them do, but the teacher does. Then I ask 'do you remember a time when you couldn't talk to a computer' nope, all of them have grown up being able to talk to computers. Haha. Makes me feel old. People drove busses?! What? And flew aeroplanes?! With other people in them? What if a pilot went mad and flew one out over the sea? Would it disappear forever?
- Frogolocalypse 10y ago
  Which is obviously quite a sad footnote.
rimliu 10y ago
> Kid: Daddy, you mean people used to be in charge of driving > themselves in cars? A few generations will pass till this question will be asked. There might be self-driving cars sooner than that, but it will be a looooong time till manual driving is a very rare thing. Also, why wait for fully self-driving cars to prevent fatalities? Why not to implement collision-avoidance subsystem into the cars which are controlled by humans. In any case, most deaths on the road are because of stupid and deliberate actions by drivers (or pedestrians): insane speeding, overtaking where is limited visibility, crossing on red, etc.
- the8472 10y ago
  > Why not to implement collision-avoidance subsystem into the cars which are controlled by humans. It's already seeping into production cars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collision_avoidance_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collision_avoidance_system
- SEJeff 10y ago
  Most everything in capitalist societies is based on economics. If you consider less accidents and fatalities due to self driving cars as an inevitability, then you should consider insurance premiums to reflect that once they're out in the general population. Given enough level 4-5 autonomous vehicles on the roads, you can also eventually expect premiums for non-autonomous vehicles to rise. Then you'll see a shift towards them that continues exponentially. Thinking the shift towards autonomous vehicles happens linearly is a mistake.
- vkou 10y ago
  "What do you mean, cars were allowed drive faster then 60 MPH, when the speed limits were all 60 MPH?" "Yes, they were. You could drive a car as fast as it could go." "Did people ever die from going too fast?" "Oh, yes." "And you could start your car without breathing into a breathalyzer?" "Yes, you could." "Did people ever die from driving drunk?" "Oh, yes." We don't need to wait for the distant future to save millions of lives. Breathalyzers and speed regulators already exist. For some reason, though, they aren't mandated on our roadways...
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by SEJeff 10y ago

Flame 10y ago

The real-time streaming made me really excited for the future. Elon is truly a genius... SpaceX will save so much money. I can't wait to see what comes next. Honestly, the rate at which technology is growing is truly absurd if you think about it.

beamatronic 10y ago
I think a lot of it comes from the fact that (almost) every literate human being can communicate (almost) instantly around the planet with (almost) every other literate human being, and the fact that with machine translation, language is less of a barrier all the time.
- jacquesm 10y ago
  Illiterate people can too using Skype and such. Instant planetwide communication between any party of humans sharing a common language is now pretty much a given.
  - sqeaky 10y ago
    While you are correct for the most part, I would point out that text services have wider distribution even if only for bandwidth reasons. But there are other reasons, there are good (enough) and widely distributed text standards (SMS), but not yet for video. But maybe we are both over thinking it, does the old voice network reach even further?
    - jacquesm 10y ago
      You can use Skype and similar services without video.
      - sqeaky 10y ago
        You can but it doesn't fundamentally change my points. The old analog audio network and the text systems have much larger reach. Laying out enough digital network fabric to have skype and its kind everywhere is an admirable goal though.
    - Florin_Andrei 10y ago
      Audio-only is a little better that way.
    - ooqr 10y ago
      Writing is reusable and presumably most of the learning going on behind rapid technological expansion requires literacy. Even just to navigate around Khan Academy.
  - Cerium 10y ago
    Totally agree on this. I can video and audio chat with my grandma since apps like WeChat are designed for illiterate usage. Photos of participants, easy audio button, inline small videos.
- bvm 10y ago
  If you think about it, rapidly reusable suborbital rockets are like a physical version of the communication you describe here. It's plausible to physically be anywhere in the world (if you burn enough fuel) within 30 minutes. Ditto up to 10 tonnes of cargo.

JshWright 10y ago

>I can't wait until I have a talk with my kids when they realize the significance of this day https://goo.gl/photos/7rT5rxvsP9AxVZxn6 https://goo.gl/photos/7rT5rxvsP9AxVZxn6 My four year old daughter, watching the launch with rapt attention. When we watched the Echostar 23 launch two weeks ago, she asked why it didn't land... Crazy that rockets landing is already totally normal for her.

jacquesm 10y ago
Priceless :) I was 4 when the Apollo launches happened and I still remember them today, they're probably my oldest memories (others I can't date so accurately so that may be off by a bit). Very beautiful picture, thank you for posting.
- atotic 10y ago
  Wow. That's my first memory too. I was almost 3.
alashow 10y ago
Your backyard is a forest? Looks awesome :) btw, I suggest disabling sharing geo location of photos (https://photos.google.com/settings https://photos.google.com/settings - Remove geo location in items shared by link).
- JshWright 10y ago
  Yeah, it's pretty awesome (I actually grew up in the house across the street, and that large wooded area is a big part of why we picked this neighborhood when looking to buy a house). Fair point about the geo location (I actually assumed Google would have stripped all metadata by default, like any real image sharing service...), I'm not super concerned about it though. I use my real name on HN, my employer and other details are pretty trivial to find. If someone wanted to find me, they wouldn't have to work too terribly hard as it is. If they do... well, I'm an American who likes to spend time in the woods. Draw whatever conclusions from that you will...

monk_e_boy 10y ago

I pretty much have this conversation with my students. I love it when a teacher is observing me so I start with 'do you ever remember a time before the internet?' of course none of them do, but the teacher does. Then I ask 'do you remember a time when you couldn't talk to a computer' nope, all of them have grown up being able to talk to computers. Haha. Makes me feel old. People drove busses?! What? And flew aeroplanes?! With other people in them? What if a pilot went mad and flew one out over the sea? Would it disappear forever?

Frogolocalypse 10y ago
Which is obviously quite a sad footnote.

rimliu 10y ago

> Kid: Daddy, you mean people used to be in charge of driving > themselves in cars? A few generations will pass till this question will be asked. There might be self-driving cars sooner than that, but it will be a looooong time till manual driving is a very rare thing. Also, why wait for fully self-driving cars to prevent fatalities? Why not to implement collision-avoidance subsystem into the cars which are controlled by humans. In any case, most deaths on the road are because of stupid and deliberate actions by drivers (or pedestrians): insane speeding, overtaking where is limited visibility, crossing on red, etc.

the8472 10y ago
> Why not to implement collision-avoidance subsystem into the cars which are controlled by humans. It's already seeping into production cars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collision_avoidance_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collision_avoidance_system
SEJeff 10y ago
Most everything in capitalist societies is based on economics. If you consider less accidents and fatalities due to self driving cars as an inevitability, then you should consider insurance premiums to reflect that once they're out in the general population. Given enough level 4-5 autonomous vehicles on the roads, you can also eventually expect premiums for non-autonomous vehicles to rise. Then you'll see a shift towards them that continues exponentially. Thinking the shift towards autonomous vehicles happens linearly is a mistake.
vkou 10y ago
"What do you mean, cars were allowed drive faster then 60 MPH, when the speed limits were all 60 MPH?" "Yes, they were. You could drive a car as fast as it could go." "Did people ever die from going too fast?" "Oh, yes." "And you could start your car without breathing into a breathalyzer?" "Yes, you could." "Did people ever die from driving drunk?" "Oh, yes." We don't need to wait for the distant future to save millions of lives. Breathalyzers and speed regulators already exist. For some reason, though, they aren't mandated on our roadways...

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