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It seems humans need a sense of competition to make progress towards any goal beyond the day-to-day. If I have to choose between this and nuclear-armed superpo

It seems humans need a sense of competition to make progress towards any goal beyond the day-to-day. If I have to choose between this and nuclear-armed superpowers intimidating each other with super-accurate rockets - I'll take the billionaires. To be honest I think it's awesome. We need people who are able and willing to push for something beyond the everyday, and it doesn't really matter why they're doing it.

krisoft 5y ago
> it doesn't really matter why they're doing it. I disagree with that. Why they are doing what they are doing is very important. Elon is a set of flaws walking on two legs but his plans make sense: Humanity has all their eggs in one basket by being a single planet species. To change that we need to make space travel much, much cheaper than it was. To do that we need reusable and economical spacecrafts. He works alongside this plan. Branson made people build him the adult version of a coin operated mall kiddie ride. You give it money and it shakes you around and later you can tell people that you are now an astronaut. Two people, both have a ton of money and both used some of their wealth to assemble a team to build a spacecraft. The difference between them is the “why” they did this. One if suceeds has changed the history of humankind. If he fails at the grand goal misserably he still made a vastly succesfull space company. The other if he succeeds has a funfair ride with bragging rights. Meh. The why is all that matters, because it affects the how and the what fundamentally.
achenet 5y ago
> It seems humans need a sense of competition to make progress towards any goal beyond the day-to-day. No, you're overgeneralizing. As counter-examples: - fitness goals - financial freedom goals (eg the FIRE communities) - altruistic goals - romantic goals (impress a potential partner) are all proof that humans can be motivated by health/desire for physical well-being, kindness, compassion and personal comfort to progress to goals beyond the day-to-day. Competition motivates some progress, but there are other sources of motivation as well :)
- jlawson 5y ago
  Fitness goals are generally related to romatic goals. Romantic goals are inherently competitive - if you succeed, you're taking the partner from whoever else would have gotten her had you never existed. Financial freedom isn't competitive really, you're right. Altruism is borderline, given how much of "altruistic" activity is really about social signaling and competitive status games through conspicuous giving. Even if subconsciously. All the above are day-to-day goals though, except perhaps altruism. By not day-to-day I mean something beyond satisfying the desires of your physical body to feel good, fuck, eat well, be safe, be admired, etc. Goals about species, deep time, eternal questions, the fate of the environment or the planet.

krisoft 5y ago

> it doesn't really matter why they're doing it. I disagree with that. Why they are doing what they are doing is very important. Elon is a set of flaws walking on two legs but his plans make sense: Humanity has all their eggs in one basket by being a single planet species. To change that we need to make space travel much, much cheaper than it was. To do that we need reusable and economical spacecrafts. He works alongside this plan. Branson made people build him the adult version of a coin operated mall kiddie ride. You give it money and it shakes you around and later you can tell people that you are now an astronaut. Two people, both have a ton of money and both used some of their wealth to assemble a team to build a spacecraft. The difference between them is the “why” they did this. One if suceeds has changed the history of humankind. If he fails at the grand goal misserably he still made a vastly succesfull space company. The other if he succeeds has a funfair ride with bragging rights. Meh. The why is all that matters, because it affects the how and the what fundamentally.

achenet 5y ago

> It seems humans need a sense of competition to make progress towards any goal beyond the day-to-day. No, you're overgeneralizing. As counter-examples: - fitness goals - financial freedom goals (eg the FIRE communities) - altruistic goals - romantic goals (impress a potential partner) are all proof that humans can be motivated by health/desire for physical well-being, kindness, compassion and personal comfort to progress to goals beyond the day-to-day. Competition motivates some progress, but there are other sources of motivation as well :)

jlawson 5y ago
Fitness goals are generally related to romatic goals. Romantic goals are inherently competitive - if you succeed, you're taking the partner from whoever else would have gotten her had you never existed. Financial freedom isn't competitive really, you're right. Altruism is borderline, given how much of "altruistic" activity is really about social signaling and competitive status games through conspicuous giving. Even if subconsciously. All the above are day-to-day goals though, except perhaps altruism. By not day-to-day I mean something beyond satisfying the desires of your physical body to feel good, fuck, eat well, be safe, be admired, etc. Goals about species, deep time, eternal questions, the fate of the environment or the planet.