4 ms·

The Americas and Africa would probably like to have a word about the legacy of Spain and Portugal's decision to "explore new worlds"...

klyrs 4y ago
- mlindner 4y ago
  The ride home is free because the vehicles need to come back anyway to carry more people. And not within our lifetimes will we be in a situation where people stop being the citizens of the country on Earth they are from.
  - ben_w 4y ago
    The vehicles have to come back, but the people have to eat and breathe on the way. And right now, I’m more than a little worried he’s heading the same way as the French royal family, even if "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" predates Marie Antoinette.
    - mlindner 4y ago
      I'm not sure where you see any indication that he doesn't care about people. If anything he seems to care quite a lot about people. Most of the reason for what he's doing is based on the reasoning of caring for people. You may not agree with him, but that's one of the driving things that's been consistent his whole life.
      - ben_w 4y ago
        "Not caring" is not where I was going with that. It's the lack of alignment with normal people that makes me think of "let them eat cake" — it's very easy to be blind to someone else's economic realities with a mere x2 change in income, let alone when you're so rich your debt is the bank's problem if you mess up. That said, there also seems to have been a set of significant personality shifts in the last 12 months, starting with Twitter being "yeah, I can afford it *shrug*" and him not even doing due diligence (he used to be cautious and signal risk of e.g. rockets exploding), to trying to back out of the purchase and saying the bosses were defrauding advertisers, to saying the purchase is a perfect opportunity for an "everything app" and comedy was ok now, to complaining about the advertisers who started leaving right after he let anyone blue tick themselves and some jokers got a blue tick and names suspiciously close to advertisers and memed away in various high-profile brand damaging satirical retorts against them. I don't know if that's a mid-life crisis, side effects of prescription medication, experimentation with nootropics, recreational drugs, or something else, but he doesn't seem stable right now.
  - klyrs 4y ago
    > And not within our lifetimes will we be in a situation where people stop being the citizens of the country on Earth they are from. Sounds like you aren't familiar with maritime law. Slavery is still a common practice on this planet, due to a lack of jurisdiction. https://www.humanrightsatsea.org/news/eradication-modern-slavery-sea https://www.humanrightsatsea.org/news/eradication-modern-sla...
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
  - moloch-hai 4y ago
    The Cans don't have to come back. It is overwhelmingly cheaper to leave them there and build more. (Scrap value of a Can on Earth is somewhere <$50k. On Mars, probably rather more.) You might gather up the Raptor engines and ship them home (with their bells cut off). It is the only export from Mars that could conceivably be worth the bother, and then only if you had a Can returning for other reasons.
TEP_Kim_Il_Sung 4y ago
While I in no way disagree, I would like to note that some of the bad activities attributed to foreigners in Africa, have been practiced for millennia by the locals, and the World over.
yrgulation 4y ago
Unfortunately the only thing to motivate most people is greed. I am aware of the legacy, but the way to sell this is by highlighting the profit that can come out of it. And fortunately there is nothing to kill on mars in the process. It’s a win win.

klyrs 4y ago

mlindner 4y ago
The ride home is free because the vehicles need to come back anyway to carry more people. And not within our lifetimes will we be in a situation where people stop being the citizens of the country on Earth they are from.
- ben_w 4y ago
  The vehicles have to come back, but the people have to eat and breathe on the way. And right now, I’m more than a little worried he’s heading the same way as the French royal family, even if "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" predates Marie Antoinette.
  - mlindner 4y ago
    I'm not sure where you see any indication that he doesn't care about people. If anything he seems to care quite a lot about people. Most of the reason for what he's doing is based on the reasoning of caring for people. You may not agree with him, but that's one of the driving things that's been consistent his whole life.
    - ben_w 4y ago
      "Not caring" is not where I was going with that. It's the lack of alignment with normal people that makes me think of "let them eat cake" — it's very easy to be blind to someone else's economic realities with a mere x2 change in income, let alone when you're so rich your debt is the bank's problem if you mess up. That said, there also seems to have been a set of significant personality shifts in the last 12 months, starting with Twitter being "yeah, I can afford it *shrug*" and him not even doing due diligence (he used to be cautious and signal risk of e.g. rockets exploding), to trying to back out of the purchase and saying the bosses were defrauding advertisers, to saying the purchase is a perfect opportunity for an "everything app" and comedy was ok now, to complaining about the advertisers who started leaving right after he let anyone blue tick themselves and some jokers got a blue tick and names suspiciously close to advertisers and memed away in various high-profile brand damaging satirical retorts against them. I don't know if that's a mid-life crisis, side effects of prescription medication, experimentation with nootropics, recreational drugs, or something else, but he doesn't seem stable right now.
- klyrs 4y ago
  > And not within our lifetimes will we be in a situation where people stop being the citizens of the country on Earth they are from. Sounds like you aren't familiar with maritime law. Slavery is still a common practice on this planet, due to a lack of jurisdiction. https://www.humanrightsatsea.org/news/eradication-modern-slavery-sea https://www.humanrightsatsea.org/news/eradication-modern-sla...
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- moloch-hai 4y ago
  The Cans don't have to come back. It is overwhelmingly cheaper to leave them there and build more. (Scrap value of a Can on Earth is somewhere <$50k. On Mars, probably rather more.) You might gather up the Raptor engines and ship them home (with their bells cut off). It is the only export from Mars that could conceivably be worth the bother, and then only if you had a Can returning for other reasons.

TEP_Kim_Il_Sung 4y ago

While I in no way disagree, I would like to note that some of the bad activities attributed to foreigners in Africa, have been practiced for millennia by the locals, and the World over.

yrgulation 4y ago

Unfortunately the only thing to motivate most people is greed. I am aware of the legacy, but the way to sell this is by highlighting the profit that can come out of it. And fortunately there is nothing to kill on mars in the process. It’s a win win.