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If there's one billionaire on the world I'd have no second thoughts about it's Elon Musk. I know I'll probably regret having said that in 20-30 years :) Honest

If there's one billionaire on the world I'd have no second thoughts about it's Elon Musk. I know I'll probably regret having said that in 20-30 years :) Honestly, if there's one person on this planet which is furthering human future it's Elon Musk and his vision to have human habitats on other planets. Facing climate change, wars, overpopulation etc.pp, if we had at least one other place other than earth - as hostile as it may be - and we start to sustain life there, all life on earth would suddenly be only one bet out of two (or more).

martythemaniak 6y ago
Yeah, it seems to me like the classic artist-vs-the-art debate. Let's be honest, the guy IS rather brilliant in multiple fields and he's built large, effective organizations whose output is head and shoulders above everyone else. He's can also be an obnoxious ass with a juvenile sense of humour. If he were to turn out to be <insert vile thing here> tomorrow, the rockets will still land the Model3s will still be safer and more efficient than their competition. FWIW, I fall on the "art" side of this debate. I didn't think highly of Jobs, but I still got the OG iPhone, MBPs, etc. I often wish Musk would STFU, but I still love driving my Model 3 and I'm saving up to buy a ticket on Starship.
- travisoneill1 6y ago
  "brilliant in multiple fields and he's built large, effective organizations" vs. "obnoxious ass with a juvenile sense of humour" I'm shocked at how often I see people put these on an equal level. We forgave our last rocket guy for being a literal nazi.
  - Zenst 6y ago
    > I'm shocked at how often I see people put these on an equal level. We forgave our last rocket guy for being a literal nazi. Put like that, it does somewhat raises the bar for Mr Musk. Though the 60's compared with today's social standards would yield many difference for the better. Heck, many in the 60's would be in for one heck of a culture shock if they suddenly time jumped into today. That all said - "We forgave our last rocket guy for being a literal nazi." is just begging for a Farside cartoon. Made me laugh.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
- chrisjarvis 6y ago
  Why can't Elon Musk be as uncharismatic and uninteresting as Mark Zuckerberg, sometimes I don't like his tweets! :__(
  - vidanay 6y ago
    Musk is chaotic neutral. Zuck is neutral evil. http://easydamus.com/alignment.html http://easydamus.com/alignment.html
    - chrisjarvis 6y ago
      lmao I agree completely
heimatau 6y ago
You had me until 'facing...overpopulation'. To boot, Elon Musk has talked about this [1]. We are not facing overpopulation. Population is contracting currently and will continue for at least a few decades. [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s_4VnXHF64 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s_4VnXHF64
- vidarh 6y ago
  Worldwide population is still projected to grow for many decades. Birthrates are dropping.
- snarf21 6y ago
  Respectfully, I'd argue we are already overpopulated. The contraction will take a while to really take hold. Eventually we will no longer be overpopulated. I just don't think the Earth can sustainably support more than 2 billion people. But it will take quite a long time for us to fall that far and it will come with other issues. Additionally, it will take far longer for the oceans and atmosphere to recover but it eventually will. I also don't understand how we think we'd do better on Mars than on Earth. We have near infinite resources and advantages here and we trashed it. We have none of those on Mars.
  - mschuster91 6y ago
    > I just don't think the Earth can sustainably support more than 2 billion people. Of course Earth can sustainably support way more people than that. The problem is waste. The US alone loses 30-40% of the food it produces, worldwide it's something to ~1/3rd.
    - bserge 6y ago
      Centralized food and energy production (and other things tbh, but these two stand out) is certainly a lot cheaper, but it's obvious it was not the right move. If everyone had to maintain their local food/energy production at the county, neighbourhood or even household level, there would be much less waste and more responsibility (something a lot of people need). Fewer out of season products means less waste and pollution, as well.
graham_paul 6y ago
> we start to sustain life there Then you just have WW4 and we all die. Wars have been started for far worthless things (when you compare it to the game changing thing that would be to have a place in Mars), something like Mars would cause a lot of deaths way before humans get there and it would probably remove any motivation to actually fix human-caused problems in Earth because hey, thanks to Musk we can just leave to Mars. All those rich people that are now building bunkers could collectively purchase Mars (whatever that means) and leave Earth when it is beyond repair (right after squashing every resource out of it). I don't think humanity is anywhere ready for it even if the technology was ready right now. Our social systems are fragile and tend to centralization and authoritarian forms of governance
- headsupernova 6y ago
  Life on Mars will always suck hopelessly compared to life on Earth. It's a terrible cold desert where you can't breath.
  - graham_paul 6y ago
    I was thinking of a terraformed Mars
- simonh 6y ago
  Rich people building bunkers sounds like a conspiracy theory. No billionaires are going to go to Mars for the lifestyle. Country estates, super yachts, fur coats and Rolexes on one side, and a plastic bubble habitat and nylon jumpsuit in a freezing airless desert on the other. How many of the elite are really going to go for the second? It just seems like fantastical thinking.
  - graham_paul 6y ago
    I wish it was. https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/doomsday-luxury-bunkers/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/doomsday-luxury-bunker... https://www.latimes.com/business/real-estate/story/2020-03-23/rich-are-running-from-coronavirus https://www.latimes.com/business/real-estate/story/2020-03-2... By the way, by Mars I meant a terraformed Mars
cma 6y ago
For someone running a backup colony on another planet I wouldn't choose someone with as bad a pandemic policy as Musk.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

martythemaniak 6y ago

Yeah, it seems to me like the classic artist-vs-the-art debate. Let's be honest, the guy IS rather brilliant in multiple fields and he's built large, effective organizations whose output is head and shoulders above everyone else. He's can also be an obnoxious ass with a juvenile sense of humour. If he were to turn out to be <insert vile thing here> tomorrow, the rockets will still land the Model3s will still be safer and more efficient than their competition. FWIW, I fall on the "art" side of this debate. I didn't think highly of Jobs, but I still got the OG iPhone, MBPs, etc. I often wish Musk would STFU, but I still love driving my Model 3 and I'm saving up to buy a ticket on Starship.

travisoneill1 6y ago
"brilliant in multiple fields and he's built large, effective organizations" vs. "obnoxious ass with a juvenile sense of humour" I'm shocked at how often I see people put these on an equal level. We forgave our last rocket guy for being a literal nazi.
- Zenst 6y ago
  > I'm shocked at how often I see people put these on an equal level. We forgave our last rocket guy for being a literal nazi. Put like that, it does somewhat raises the bar for Mr Musk. Though the 60's compared with today's social standards would yield many difference for the better. Heck, many in the 60's would be in for one heck of a culture shock if they suddenly time jumped into today. That all said - "We forgave our last rocket guy for being a literal nazi." is just begging for a Farside cartoon. Made me laugh.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
chrisjarvis 6y ago
Why can't Elon Musk be as uncharismatic and uninteresting as Mark Zuckerberg, sometimes I don't like his tweets! :__(
- vidanay 6y ago
  Musk is chaotic neutral. Zuck is neutral evil. http://easydamus.com/alignment.html http://easydamus.com/alignment.html
  - chrisjarvis 6y ago
    lmao I agree completely

heimatau 6y ago

You had me until 'facing...overpopulation'. To boot, Elon Musk has talked about this [1]. We are not facing overpopulation. Population is contracting currently and will continue for at least a few decades. [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s_4VnXHF64 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s_4VnXHF64

vidarh 6y ago
Worldwide population is still projected to grow for many decades. Birthrates are dropping.
snarf21 6y ago
Respectfully, I'd argue we are already overpopulated. The contraction will take a while to really take hold. Eventually we will no longer be overpopulated. I just don't think the Earth can sustainably support more than 2 billion people. But it will take quite a long time for us to fall that far and it will come with other issues. Additionally, it will take far longer for the oceans and atmosphere to recover but it eventually will. I also don't understand how we think we'd do better on Mars than on Earth. We have near infinite resources and advantages here and we trashed it. We have none of those on Mars.
- mschuster91 6y ago
  > I just don't think the Earth can sustainably support more than 2 billion people. Of course Earth can sustainably support way more people than that. The problem is waste. The US alone loses 30-40% of the food it produces, worldwide it's something to ~1/3rd.
  - bserge 6y ago
    Centralized food and energy production (and other things tbh, but these two stand out) is certainly a lot cheaper, but it's obvious it was not the right move. If everyone had to maintain their local food/energy production at the county, neighbourhood or even household level, there would be much less waste and more responsibility (something a lot of people need). Fewer out of season products means less waste and pollution, as well.

graham_paul 6y ago

> we start to sustain life there Then you just have WW4 and we all die. Wars have been started for far worthless things (when you compare it to the game changing thing that would be to have a place in Mars), something like Mars would cause a lot of deaths way before humans get there and it would probably remove any motivation to actually fix human-caused problems in Earth because hey, thanks to Musk we can just leave to Mars. All those rich people that are now building bunkers could collectively purchase Mars (whatever that means) and leave Earth when it is beyond repair (right after squashing every resource out of it). I don't think humanity is anywhere ready for it even if the technology was ready right now. Our social systems are fragile and tend to centralization and authoritarian forms of governance

headsupernova 6y ago
Life on Mars will always suck hopelessly compared to life on Earth. It's a terrible cold desert where you can't breath.
- graham_paul 6y ago
  I was thinking of a terraformed Mars
simonh 6y ago
Rich people building bunkers sounds like a conspiracy theory. No billionaires are going to go to Mars for the lifestyle. Country estates, super yachts, fur coats and Rolexes on one side, and a plastic bubble habitat and nylon jumpsuit in a freezing airless desert on the other. How many of the elite are really going to go for the second? It just seems like fantastical thinking.
- graham_paul 6y ago
  I wish it was. https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/doomsday-luxury-bunkers/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/doomsday-luxury-bunker... https://www.latimes.com/business/real-estate/story/2020-03-23/rich-are-running-from-coronavirus https://www.latimes.com/business/real-estate/story/2020-03-2... By the way, by Mars I meant a terraformed Mars

cma 6y ago

For someone running a backup colony on another planet I wouldn't choose someone with as bad a pandemic policy as Musk.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]