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Elon has long been on record saying that he wanted to create the "Everything App" -- he wants to turn X into the WeChat of the rest of the world (starting with

by mikece 3y ago

Elon has long been on record saying that he wanted to create the "Everything App" -- he wants to turn X into the WeChat of the rest of the world (starting with the US). The cynical side of me thinks that if he pulls it off he will have created a tool of perfect surveillance as well as convenience.

ldjkfkdsjnv 3y ago
Rather the surveillance tool is in Elons hands than someone else
- willsmith72 3y ago
  he's done some really impressive things by pushing the bounds of what's possible/legal i absolutely don't trust him to put user privacy/protection over product development. he thrives off outlandish predictions and aggressive deadlines. user protection is the first thing to go when that's the case
  - izzydata 3y ago
    Has Elon actually done anything? It seems like he just buys stuff then takes credit for things that happen to do well. I am not sure he even does things in the traditional sense of a CEO directing work towards an intended vision. The most successful companies that Elon happens to be a CEO at are the ones that do the best at managing Elon and working in despite of him. The only thing he has been good for is spending money and generating hype by himself being outlandish. So the more money he spends and the more money he generates through investments with the least amount of personal involvement is going to create the most successful company that he happens to be a CEO at.
    - try_the_bass 3y ago
      Not this drivel again. The man deeply understands his rockets, and is heavily involved in the design of them. And no, he doesn't take credit for all the work, either. For example, find any NASA post-launch conference and the first words out of his mouth are always "I'd like to thank the SpaceX team and our NASA partners...", usually followed by the anecdote about how the company wouldn't exist today if not for NASA's willingness to believe in SpaceX after their first successful launch. Ya'll really need to lay off the haterade, or at least dilute it with a little bit of reality. The dude gets a lot of (arguably well-deserved) hate, but that doesn't justify flat out inventing reasons to hate him.
    - ceejayoz 3y ago
      > Has Elon actually done anything? I mean, conclusively proving this either way requires A/B testing with a time machine, but I think it's hard to argue SpaceX would've managed to get Falcon 9s reusing their first stage without Musk's driving it. Reusable spacecraft does genuinely to be his thing, even if he's not doing the technical work.
    - IshKebab 3y ago
      Rubbish. He's clearly driving the engineering culture at both Tesla and SpaceX and has a fantastic knack for getting people to try new things and push boundaries. Is he actually designing rocket engines himself? Of course not. Is he directing workers towards his vision? 100%. He may be an arsehole with an ego the size of Mars but the idea that he is stupid and doesn't "do" anything is naive and wrong.
      - runnerup 3y ago
        You figure he’s driving the culture at SpaceX more than Gwynne Shotwell is?
        IshKebab 3y ago
        Yes. I used to work at a huge company owned by one man. He may not have run the day to day business but he still had enormous cultural influence because he could override any decision.
- mikece 3y ago
  The largest customer of SpaceX is the US Government; the largest customer of Starlink is the US Government; what makes you think the largest customer of X data mining and analysis won't also be the same as the above?
  - starik36 3y ago
    It might the largest customer, but I am not sure it's a majority customer. According to SpaceX, several months ago they had 1 million paying customers. Assuming the cheapest price they are bringing in $100 million a month. Is US govt paying them $100 million a month?
    - ceejayoz 3y ago
      > Is US govt paying them $100 million a month? https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-tesla-government-money-npr https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-tesla-government-money-... "SpaceX alone got a whopping $2.8 billion in government contracts last year, according to The Information, and has gotten a total of $15.3 billion from the government since 2003." $2.8B in a year is $233M/month, and I'd wager it's gone up since then with SpaceX's ever-increasing launch cadence.
      - try_the_bass 3y ago
        Isn't this confounding Starlink and launch capacity?
      - starik36 3y ago
        You are confusing it with Starlink. SpaceX has all sorts of contracts with NASA and the Space Force. But we are talking about Starlink customers. It's definetely not 100 million a year or even close.
  - scottyah 3y ago
    If you are bundling "the US Government" as one entity, then you already have absolutely 0 hope of any privacy. If you think the US Government teams in charge of purchasing space transport are concerned with your data, you're pretty mistaken.
- itishappy 3y ago
  Why?
- kelnos 3y ago
  I'd rather no one has any surveillance tools on that scale. It's weird, though: I supremely dislike Musk, but I do think he might be a less-bad steward of that kind of tool than a lot of people/corporations. Then again, he also throws a bunch of tantrums, so I expect he'd eventually weaponize that kind of view into everyone's lives. Probably in childish ways, not your garden-variety discrimination.
  - scottyah 3y ago
    I think he would approve of a mostly open-sourced system that removes anyone's ability to manipulate data where most other people would see dollar signs for selling data
  - from-nibly 3y ago
    The problem isn't "who is the steward" but that there is a steward other than yourself, over stuff that you are supposed to be in charge of. Your priorities are not someone else's priorities. Besides you don't have to trust Elon Musk, you have to trust Elon and everyone else he trusts, and also everyone that he and they accidentally let in.
- onetokeoverthe 3y ago
  [dead]
- JohnFen 3y ago
  I disagree. I think Musk is right up there in the group of entities that absolutely should not have that power.
snowwrestler 3y ago
The "everything app" can mean an app that does everything, an app that everyone uses, or both. It's totally possible that X expands its feature set while its audience and cultural relevancy continue to decline. I would not be surprised if it stabilizes at some point as a moderately profitable medium-sized tech company. But it's never again going to be the global phenomenon it was a decade ago.
- nicky0 3y ago
  I'm confused. You're comparing Twitter's audience today to 10 years ago and you think it has _declined_? How confident are you on that?
  - snowwrestler 3y ago
    That’s not what I wrote.
    - nicky0 3y ago
      Old Twitter had that "relevancy" because it was was blessed by the regime. It toed the line and supported the messaging that those in power wanted to be put out. Now it doesn't do that, so it's become even more important, even if seemingly less relevant to those still worshipping inside the church.
      - snowwrestler 3y ago
        Which regime? Keep in mind that Twitter was a huge factor in Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign. One reason it mattered so much is that no other platform could do what it did. Now, many can (including Truth Social).
        nicky0 3y ago
        Don't play dumb. I mean the regime, the one with its hands on all the levers. The one that wants you to pay attention elsewhere. I still think no other platform can do what Twitter does. None other has the same reach and cultural relevance. Now it's been purged, it's positioned to be a real force for good. Niche alternatives like Truth are sideshows.
iamacyborg 3y ago
Facebook wanted to do this with Messenger too. If they couldn’t do it, I see no reason to believe that X can.
- Brybry 3y ago
  But doesn't WhatsApp basically do this? Just not yet in most of the world.
  - iamacyborg 3y ago
    What does it do beyond messaging?
    - jowea 3y ago
      I'm not familiar with WeChat but whatsapp has some business features and also payment integration at least in some countries. Not that far from this description of WeChat: "WeChat provides text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, video conferencing, video games, mobile payment, sharing of photographs and videos and location sharing. "
      - iamacyborg 3y ago
        As far as I know, the business features it has are just messaging related. You might want to read the Wikipedia article you’ve quoted to understand just how broad of a feature set Wechat actually has.
    - Brybry 3y ago
      Payments: https://faq.whatsapp.com/1293279751500598 https://faq.whatsapp.com/1293279751500598 (people and businesses) Microblogging (Channels): https://faq.whatsapp.com/549900560675125 https://faq.whatsapp.com/549900560675125 I think Status is sort of like Snapchat with ephemeral microblogging? All the typical voice/video/group video/screen share stuff.
  - mikece 3y ago
itomato 3y ago
...on his satellite network?
tensor 3y ago
I mean, WeChat is a great surveillance tool. I guess he was just more literal than we expected when he said he wanted Twitter to be WeChat.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  I don't know. That's pretty much exactly what I expected when he said that.
r00fus 3y ago
Given X's trajectory it's more likely to become the "nothing app".

by mikece 3y ago

ldjkfkdsjnv 3y ago

Rather the surveillance tool is in Elons hands than someone else

willsmith72 3y ago
he's done some really impressive things by pushing the bounds of what's possible/legal i absolutely don't trust him to put user privacy/protection over product development. he thrives off outlandish predictions and aggressive deadlines. user protection is the first thing to go when that's the case
- izzydata 3y ago
  Has Elon actually done anything? It seems like he just buys stuff then takes credit for things that happen to do well. I am not sure he even does things in the traditional sense of a CEO directing work towards an intended vision. The most successful companies that Elon happens to be a CEO at are the ones that do the best at managing Elon and working in despite of him. The only thing he has been good for is spending money and generating hype by himself being outlandish. So the more money he spends and the more money he generates through investments with the least amount of personal involvement is going to create the most successful company that he happens to be a CEO at.
  - try_the_bass 3y ago
    Not this drivel again. The man deeply understands his rockets, and is heavily involved in the design of them. And no, he doesn't take credit for all the work, either. For example, find any NASA post-launch conference and the first words out of his mouth are always "I'd like to thank the SpaceX team and our NASA partners...", usually followed by the anecdote about how the company wouldn't exist today if not for NASA's willingness to believe in SpaceX after their first successful launch. Ya'll really need to lay off the haterade, or at least dilute it with a little bit of reality. The dude gets a lot of (arguably well-deserved) hate, but that doesn't justify flat out inventing reasons to hate him.
  - ceejayoz 3y ago
    > Has Elon actually done anything? I mean, conclusively proving this either way requires A/B testing with a time machine, but I think it's hard to argue SpaceX would've managed to get Falcon 9s reusing their first stage without Musk's driving it. Reusable spacecraft does genuinely to be his thing, even if he's not doing the technical work.
  - IshKebab 3y ago
    Rubbish. He's clearly driving the engineering culture at both Tesla and SpaceX and has a fantastic knack for getting people to try new things and push boundaries. Is he actually designing rocket engines himself? Of course not. Is he directing workers towards his vision? 100%. He may be an arsehole with an ego the size of Mars but the idea that he is stupid and doesn't "do" anything is naive and wrong.
    - runnerup 3y ago
      You figure he’s driving the culture at SpaceX more than Gwynne Shotwell is?
      - IshKebab 3y ago
        Yes. I used to work at a huge company owned by one man. He may not have run the day to day business but he still had enormous cultural influence because he could override any decision.
mikece 3y ago
The largest customer of SpaceX is the US Government; the largest customer of Starlink is the US Government; what makes you think the largest customer of X data mining and analysis won't also be the same as the above?
- starik36 3y ago
  It might the largest customer, but I am not sure it's a majority customer. According to SpaceX, several months ago they had 1 million paying customers. Assuming the cheapest price they are bringing in $100 million a month. Is US govt paying them $100 million a month?
  - ceejayoz 3y ago
    > Is US govt paying them $100 million a month? https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-tesla-government-money-npr https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-tesla-government-money-... "SpaceX alone got a whopping $2.8 billion in government contracts last year, according to The Information, and has gotten a total of $15.3 billion from the government since 2003." $2.8B in a year is $233M/month, and I'd wager it's gone up since then with SpaceX's ever-increasing launch cadence.
    - try_the_bass 3y ago
      Isn't this confounding Starlink and launch capacity?
    - starik36 3y ago
      You are confusing it with Starlink. SpaceX has all sorts of contracts with NASA and the Space Force. But we are talking about Starlink customers. It's definetely not 100 million a year or even close.
- scottyah 3y ago
  If you are bundling "the US Government" as one entity, then you already have absolutely 0 hope of any privacy. If you think the US Government teams in charge of purchasing space transport are concerned with your data, you're pretty mistaken.
itishappy 3y ago
Why?
kelnos 3y ago
I'd rather no one has any surveillance tools on that scale. It's weird, though: I supremely dislike Musk, but I do think he might be a less-bad steward of that kind of tool than a lot of people/corporations. Then again, he also throws a bunch of tantrums, so I expect he'd eventually weaponize that kind of view into everyone's lives. Probably in childish ways, not your garden-variety discrimination.
- scottyah 3y ago
  I think he would approve of a mostly open-sourced system that removes anyone's ability to manipulate data where most other people would see dollar signs for selling data
- from-nibly 3y ago
  The problem isn't "who is the steward" but that there is a steward other than yourself, over stuff that you are supposed to be in charge of. Your priorities are not someone else's priorities. Besides you don't have to trust Elon Musk, you have to trust Elon and everyone else he trusts, and also everyone that he and they accidentally let in.
onetokeoverthe 3y ago
[dead]
JohnFen 3y ago
I disagree. I think Musk is right up there in the group of entities that absolutely should not have that power.

snowwrestler 3y ago

The "everything app" can mean an app that does everything, an app that everyone uses, or both. It's totally possible that X expands its feature set while its audience and cultural relevancy continue to decline. I would not be surprised if it stabilizes at some point as a moderately profitable medium-sized tech company. But it's never again going to be the global phenomenon it was a decade ago.

nicky0 3y ago
I'm confused. You're comparing Twitter's audience today to 10 years ago and you think it has _declined_? How confident are you on that?
- snowwrestler 3y ago
  That’s not what I wrote.
  - nicky0 3y ago
    Old Twitter had that "relevancy" because it was was blessed by the regime. It toed the line and supported the messaging that those in power wanted to be put out. Now it doesn't do that, so it's become even more important, even if seemingly less relevant to those still worshipping inside the church.
    - snowwrestler 3y ago
      Which regime? Keep in mind that Twitter was a huge factor in Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign. One reason it mattered so much is that no other platform could do what it did. Now, many can (including Truth Social).
      - nicky0 3y ago
        Don't play dumb. I mean the regime, the one with its hands on all the levers. The one that wants you to pay attention elsewhere. I still think no other platform can do what Twitter does. None other has the same reach and cultural relevance. Now it's been purged, it's positioned to be a real force for good. Niche alternatives like Truth are sideshows.

iamacyborg 3y ago

Facebook wanted to do this with Messenger too. If they couldn’t do it, I see no reason to believe that X can.

Brybry 3y ago
But doesn't WhatsApp basically do this? Just not yet in most of the world.
- iamacyborg 3y ago
  What does it do beyond messaging?
  - jowea 3y ago
    I'm not familiar with WeChat but whatsapp has some business features and also payment integration at least in some countries. Not that far from this description of WeChat: "WeChat provides text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, video conferencing, video games, mobile payment, sharing of photographs and videos and location sharing. "
    - iamacyborg 3y ago
      As far as I know, the business features it has are just messaging related. You might want to read the Wikipedia article you’ve quoted to understand just how broad of a feature set Wechat actually has.
  - Brybry 3y ago
    Payments: https://faq.whatsapp.com/1293279751500598 https://faq.whatsapp.com/1293279751500598 (people and businesses) Microblogging (Channels): https://faq.whatsapp.com/549900560675125 https://faq.whatsapp.com/549900560675125 I think Status is sort of like Snapchat with ephemeral microblogging? All the typical voice/video/group video/screen share stuff.
- mikece 3y ago

itomato 3y ago

...on his satellite network?

tensor 3y ago

I mean, WeChat is a great surveillance tool. I guess he was just more literal than we expected when he said he wanted Twitter to be WeChat.

JohnFen 3y ago
I don't know. That's pretty much exactly what I expected when he said that.

r00fus 3y ago

Given X's trajectory it's more likely to become the "nothing app".