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We need to push hard for Musk to be the first person to stick his BlueTooth chip onto his brain. That would be a poetic test of his sincerity. In any case, I

We need to push hard for Musk to be the first person to stick his BlueTooth chip onto his brain. That would be a poetic test of his sincerity. In any case, I think we all know he shoots his mouth off (/ to the moon) to suck up money for his various ponzis.

jackmott 4y ago
plenty of accurate ways to critique elon, no need to make yourself look foolish by suggesting tesla and spacex and other ventures are just ponzi schemes.
- DennisAleynikov 4y ago
  Yeah, as if musk isn't going to put his "BlueTooth chip" in his own brain. What is this critique its just low quality anti-musk sentiment
  - TigeriusKirk 4y ago
    It won't be Musk, but I would not be at all shocked if one of the people there gets an implant with no official or public record of it very early on in this process.
    - kjksf 4y ago
      What kind of public record do you expect for a private medical procedure?
- slimebot80 4y ago
  Confidence tricks, then. The scheme collapses if people above you on the pyramid stop believing. Tax funded, also.
  - kjksf 4y ago
    Do you mean that Model 3 and Model Y will disappear when people stop believing they are real?
    - slimebot80 4y ago
      Nope.
  - chroma 4y ago
    SpaceX launches more payload to orbit than the rest of the world combined. They're the only ones who have managed to land orbital boosters. Tesla has manufactured over 3 million cars. They are so successful that the majority of electric vehicles in developed countries are Teslas. Since Tesla is a publicly traded company, you can look at their SEC filings and see that less than 2% of their revenue comes from subsidies.[1] 86% of their revenue is from selling and leasing cars. 8% is from services related to those cars, and 5% is from energy generation and storage. In Tesla's accounting, regulatory credits are a rounding error. I have a hard time figuring out how either of these businesses are a confidence trick. 1. https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000095017022019867/tsla-20220930.htm https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/0000...
    - slimebot80 4y ago
      They won contracts to launch rockets, yes. NASA could of also taken on those contracts and launched more rockets than they are currently are doing. Elon isn't launching them on is lonesome as some great misunderstood innovator. He's the public face to a lot of investment, which could easily go elsewhere and be more or less successful, who knows.
      - pseudo0 4y ago
        Feel free to have whatever opinion you want of Elon Musk, but SpaceX has been wildly successful by just about every metric. In terms of cost, they are launching payloads at 1/44th the cost per kg of the Space Shuttle and at a fraction of the cost of their private sector competitors. Also, there's the fact that we were bumming rides off the Russians for a decade because of NASA's issues... https://medium.com/geekculture/spacex-vs-nasa-cost-4fae454823ac https://medium.com/geekculture/spacex-vs-nasa-cost-4fae45482...
        slimebot80 4y ago
        Agreed, SpaceX is successful. Disagree that this excludes an alternative where public funds were spent elsewhere with similar success. More or less success, who knows. Feel free to maintain your bias, but it's a fact that smart engineers can achieve success under more than just one single showman.
fnordpiglet 4y ago
He has never been to space, I don’t think he’ll be an early adopter of his other ventures either.
- chroma 4y ago
  He used an early Tesla Roadster as a daily commuter for years. Then he launched it into space on the first flight of the Falcon Heavy. He uses prerelease versions of the FSD software in his Model S. Musk wouldn't get a Neuralink early on because the current implants are designed to help people with disabilities. Even if everything goes according to plan, it'll be quite some time before there are implants that enhance healthy adults.
  - fnordpiglet 4y ago
    You don’t find it odd his dream is to go to mars but despite having access to his own personal rocketship he’s never seen space?
    - fastball 4y ago
      To me that just makes his claims about wanting to move humanity forward as a whole (rather than just doing stuff out of personal ambition) ring more true.
concordDance 4y ago
Why are such low quality consensus-building posts starting to show up on hackernews? Wouldn't have seen this a few years ago.
- hackinthebochs 4y ago
  Social media has turned the internet into a consensus enforcing, group signaling machine that overwhelms reasoned opinion and moves against dissent like an immune system. Nowhere on the internet is safe from this monster.
- slimebot80 4y ago
  Maybe Twitter is the "town square" you seek?

jackmott 4y ago

plenty of accurate ways to critique elon, no need to make yourself look foolish by suggesting tesla and spacex and other ventures are just ponzi schemes.

DennisAleynikov 4y ago
Yeah, as if musk isn't going to put his "BlueTooth chip" in his own brain. What is this critique its just low quality anti-musk sentiment
- TigeriusKirk 4y ago
  It won't be Musk, but I would not be at all shocked if one of the people there gets an implant with no official or public record of it very early on in this process.
  - kjksf 4y ago
    What kind of public record do you expect for a private medical procedure?
slimebot80 4y ago
Confidence tricks, then. The scheme collapses if people above you on the pyramid stop believing. Tax funded, also.
- kjksf 4y ago
  Do you mean that Model 3 and Model Y will disappear when people stop believing they are real?
  - slimebot80 4y ago
    Nope.
- chroma 4y ago
  SpaceX launches more payload to orbit than the rest of the world combined. They're the only ones who have managed to land orbital boosters. Tesla has manufactured over 3 million cars. They are so successful that the majority of electric vehicles in developed countries are Teslas. Since Tesla is a publicly traded company, you can look at their SEC filings and see that less than 2% of their revenue comes from subsidies.[1] 86% of their revenue is from selling and leasing cars. 8% is from services related to those cars, and 5% is from energy generation and storage. In Tesla's accounting, regulatory credits are a rounding error. I have a hard time figuring out how either of these businesses are a confidence trick. 1. https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000095017022019867/tsla-20220930.htm https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/0000...
  - slimebot80 4y ago
    They won contracts to launch rockets, yes. NASA could of also taken on those contracts and launched more rockets than they are currently are doing. Elon isn't launching them on is lonesome as some great misunderstood innovator. He's the public face to a lot of investment, which could easily go elsewhere and be more or less successful, who knows.
    - pseudo0 4y ago
      Feel free to have whatever opinion you want of Elon Musk, but SpaceX has been wildly successful by just about every metric. In terms of cost, they are launching payloads at 1/44th the cost per kg of the Space Shuttle and at a fraction of the cost of their private sector competitors. Also, there's the fact that we were bumming rides off the Russians for a decade because of NASA's issues... https://medium.com/geekculture/spacex-vs-nasa-cost-4fae454823ac https://medium.com/geekculture/spacex-vs-nasa-cost-4fae45482...
      - slimebot80 4y ago
        Agreed, SpaceX is successful. Disagree that this excludes an alternative where public funds were spent elsewhere with similar success. More or less success, who knows. Feel free to maintain your bias, but it's a fact that smart engineers can achieve success under more than just one single showman.

fnordpiglet 4y ago

He has never been to space, I don’t think he’ll be an early adopter of his other ventures either.

chroma 4y ago
He used an early Tesla Roadster as a daily commuter for years. Then he launched it into space on the first flight of the Falcon Heavy. He uses prerelease versions of the FSD software in his Model S. Musk wouldn't get a Neuralink early on because the current implants are designed to help people with disabilities. Even if everything goes according to plan, it'll be quite some time before there are implants that enhance healthy adults.
- fnordpiglet 4y ago
  You don’t find it odd his dream is to go to mars but despite having access to his own personal rocketship he’s never seen space?
  - fastball 4y ago
    To me that just makes his claims about wanting to move humanity forward as a whole (rather than just doing stuff out of personal ambition) ring more true.

concordDance 4y ago

Why are such low quality consensus-building posts starting to show up on hackernews? Wouldn't have seen this a few years ago.

hackinthebochs 4y ago
Social media has turned the internet into a consensus enforcing, group signaling machine that overwhelms reasoned opinion and moves against dissent like an immune system. Nowhere on the internet is safe from this monster.
slimebot80 4y ago
Maybe Twitter is the "town square" you seek?