Elon Musk

seems like we should have a thread on this guy, idk

Who he?

It's really an anagram of "Nole Skum."

Suk Lemon

ahe's kinda like tony stark, so i gather from ten mins research, but without the weapons and with clean energy and space

it's kinda surprising he isn't more well known all things considered

seriously. if wiki is even half-accurate shouldn't he be a fixture on Time mag or something?

His family sound really annoying. Was married to, uh, somebody who was in that St Trinians film, uh, the one with Russell Brand.

You realise that if he was ever to become involved in some sort of scandal and subsequent cover-up, newspapers could use the headline, "Elongate"

if he was caught cheating he'd be THE MUSKRAT

dude owes his company's survival to gov programs but
says it's no big deal if Romney wins and makes good on his promise
to obliterate them all.

lots of companies do well out of govt contracts/programs, i'd imagine.

so hyperloop huh

people on twitter so mad. trying to understand why. i guess it boils down to:

1) shouldn't we fix BART / buses / systems that working class people use before building toys for rich people

2) LA-to-SF only is ridiculous, there's like a whole state in there

3) nobody wants to hear half-baked plans from an arrogant rich dude

still, i mean, it's pretty cool, right?

1) shouldn't we fix BART / buses / systems that working class people use before building toys for rich people

There are lots of problems everywhere all the time. Can't let it stop technology from moving forward.

2) LA-to-SF only is ridiculous, there's like a whole state in there

There's a whole country, even! LA-to-SF sounds like a perfectly fine beta test.

3) nobody wants to hear half-baked plans from an arrogant rich dude

Not all rich dudes are arrogant. Elon Musk has never struck me as anything close to that.

people on twitter so mad.

who do you follow?

i'm not getting that impression from all the tech ppl i follow

unveiling this while CA is deep in the hole with it's bullet-train project (something I support wholeheartedly btw) is pretty arrogant

You might be right, Johnny, dunno. I was just trying to figure out why there was this explosion of contempt all over my twitter feed after the announcement.

markers, here are some of the people that were entertainingly scathing: kalebhorton, quartzcity, tcarmody, mikesonn

i do follow tim but i guess whatever he said didn't stick

cool monorail bro

lol

i have a plan for a train that goes from boston to atlanta in 10mins, its called lasertrain and ill give you some cool drawings of it in a couple weeks, its ridiculous no one is building it btw it only costs $10

im not gonna build it tho cause im kinda busy

even i can afford that

unveiling this while CA is deep in the hole with it's bullet-train project (something I support wholeheartedly btw) is pretty arrogant

isn't his point that hyperloop would be fraction of the cost and twice as fast?

the douchey thing is that he made a big ol deal abt something thats not at all real

Which is how 70% of architecture and urban planning works.

sure 70% that sounds totally realistic too

I meant 94% sorry.

To me, it really sounds like a kickstarter project... but from a billionaire.

i mean who knows maybe its revolutionary technology but its so preliminary its p comical to call a press conference abt it

maybe this is the best way to convince someone else to give it a shot idk

LOL "elon musk"

This should keep us occupied for a while: http://www.spacex.com/hyperloop

markers, here are some of the people that were entertainingly scathing: kalebhorton, quartzcity, tcarmody, mikesonn

I wasn't scathing about Musk (I am about futurism in general) - if anything, he has a good track record on quixotic tech quests. I hope he's successful with this. I also hope there's a state left that can use it.

unveiling this while CA is deep in the hole with it's bullet-train project (something I support wholeheartedly btw) is pretty arrogant

Knowing how CA politics works (and the CA rail projects are amazingly political), how would you expect a non-arrogant to even get traction with this?

I have no doubt that Musk will solve the Hyperloop technical issues. I very much have doubts about him navigating Sacramento.

I was describing this to my wife today and kept calling it Supertube.

Bad connotations...

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/supertrain-1_7696.jpg

lol @ the "open source" pdf proposal. build a section of the thing and then get back to us when you have it working.

Musk says the Hyperloop is best for distances of 900 miles. Beyond 900 miles, he thinks you're better off in a supersonic jet.

Lol

I never use my supersonic jet anymore as parking is always a total bitch

I have to say I rather like Elon Musk. He's made a massive pile of money and rather than sitting on it or managing it in mundane ways; he's making risky bets on thinks he's passionate about: Cars, Rockets, vacuum tubes.

Hyperloop seems a bit ridiculous to me, vacuum tube powered trains and trains in evacuated tubes are an old chestnut, almost as old as railways themselves. However, he's built a commercially viable private space programme and a car company* in the last ten years so anything is possible.

*Tesla isn't really a car company it's a power train company and if it is still making cars in 5 years I'll be surprised.

ya i'm kinda ll for crackpot genius billionaires actually doing interesting stuff, up until they become str8 up supervillains obv

lol @ the "open source" pdf proposal. build a section of the thing and then get back to us when you have it working.

― wk, Tuesday, August 13, 2013 2:23 AM

he might do this

is this dude one of the crazy silicon valley libertarian types or is he just beloved by them?

iirc he has liberal tendencies mixed in w the libertarianism

xp I heard him speak and he seemed not crazy and to have some kind of social or at least environmental conscience, unlike the usual libertarian types, but maybe he's just better at hiding it

(I like him too fwiw and right now he seems one of the most likely "crackpot genius billionaires" to solve some hard problems which are overdue for solving, so I hope he carries on with that. Also hoping that one day I'll get to see/read his computer game that appeared in some 8-bit micro type-in listings mag in the 80s)

he's not as bad as some of the other silicon valley libtards, I'll give him that.

nonetheless, this is a stupid proposal

He is saying if we lower New York completely to the depths of its highest building all the original streets become low level tunnels that we can build upon without needing flying Teslas.

Elon's tweets work better in the context of imagining he just took a massive bongrip prior to posting.

"imagining" the "take stock private at 420" guy taking a bong rip

https://i.imgur.com/Vf3Hw8r.gif

the height of buildings matters because the only other viable alternative - flying cars - would be obstructed by them.

how you gonna get down to these tunnels? 600 laps down a corkscrew ramp? car lifts?

if only there were some preexisting system for transiting rapidly through cities, in tunnels

Yeah, but that approach is so modest. They should just scoop out the rest of the rock and dirt and make one *big* tunnel. Big problems deserve big solutions!

Did he ever finish his submarine? That, for those who don't know, is a machine that tunnels through *water.*

Can't wait to use the tunnels in New Orleans and Miami.

he just skip the prologue and just get straight to his tunnel from NYC - Shanghai project

just drop people in, fast commute!

what about a pneumatic tunnel that shoots people around without a vehicle

Or better yet, shoot people out to space!

shoot them to mars

seems like all of this could be done more easily with rope and elbow grease

a sling shot

I was thinking a rope and pulley system, but that could probably be enhanced with sling shot modules

a paternoster lift, but for cars

(i didn't mean paternoster, did i. what's the one where you step on and off every floor?)

That’s just a standard pre-bedtime routine to ward off spirits, I think

a paternoster lift, but for cars

― koogs, Wednesday, September 16, 2020 9:14 AM (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

(i didn't mean paternoster, did i. what's the one where you step on and off every floor?)

― koogs, Wednesday, September 16, 2020 9:19 AM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

that's a paternoster

i called him a dumb fuck yesterday and it kinda blew up, had to mute the convo before the stans got there

Elon Musk-rats are some weird fucks

Kinda wish he'd get hit by a truck and have Guy Fieri bake him into some new Flavortown concoction

i called him a dumb fuck yesterday and it kinda blew up, had to mute the convo before the stans got there

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, September 16, 2020 12:35 PM (forty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

You’re not going to solve the problem by insisting that people use a form of transportation that is objectively less convenient than cars.

— Regyptian Slut (@RegyptianStrut) September 16, 2020

markets determine correctness; if there are enough rich people who want to drive, they should be allowed to turn the city into a honking traffic sewer for everybody else, there are no other options

The car is so convenient there must be tunnels under other tunnels to conduct them.

(a cursory glance at google was giving me a doorless lift that moved in a continuous loop and went over the top as a paternoster. not what i was after. which they used in mines...)

fuck cars. yeah, now and then I like going for a drive, but one of the things I love about visiting NYC is that I don't gotta rent one, the subways are easy to navigate, cheap, and hey, it's part of the experience.

all we have in Florida is the terrible Lynx bus system and the very limited SunRail. I wish I didn't have to drive.

but it's more important to get somewhere at 1:18 pm than a subway getting you there at 1:25 pm

lmao i love the idea that we can tackle climate change without any sacrifice convenience

clearly the best way to combat climate change it to keep pumping out $80,000 luxury sedans

serious question: is Tesla as a company even carbon neutral??

the car is so convenient, all it asks of us is the melting of the polar ice caps by its byproducts, decades of murderous imperialist policy to provide its fuel, the complete transformation of landscapes at a continental scale to create markets for it, and ongoing mass death caused by its operation by barely-trained amateurs. until you can answer to that unprecedented level of convenience, then *shrug* i guess there's a reason they call elon a genius and YOU'RE a nobody!!

I really believe that people who think “cars are convenient” have literally never had the chance to live anywhere that’s walkable, with limited parking and decent public transportation. Cars are astoundingly inconvenient and expensive to boot.

cars are in almost every way a huge pain in the ass

Cars are fun to drive, that’s about it

most of the time theyre not even fun youre just trying to get somewhere in a deadly machine that you control and theres a ton more deadly machines around too, and dont even get me started on parking!!

I own a car I bought before moving to a city, and when I even remember that it exists I mostly hope someone steals it

h8 cars so fkin much
h8 car culture
h8 how everyone in a car culture intense place talks about cars

h8 old cars, new cars
h8 car shows
also driving is so painful and hard on your body

last point so otm, I used to love driving when I was young and supple.

I would gladly sit on a bus for 30mins extra just to not have to deal with the sustained adrenaline-pumping stress of urban driving; hell even taking a cab/car can be terrifying

i have a hooptie right now so that probably has something to do with it but i swear more people drive like maniacs now than ever. feels like constantly dodging bullets out there!

what we absolutely need is dark tunnels full of computer controlled cars with nothing to anchor perspective, definitely the way forward

working from home has been such an unexpected joy, and a big part of that is no longer wasting 30 minutes a day on a highway, and saving $80 a month (at least) in gas.

save on wear n tear too

NB I still read Jalopnik and can’t wait for The Grand Tour to come out with more episodes. I hate cars too but I’m drawn to single-minded enthusiasts of all stripes (also see: me still reading The Ringer despite having stopped following any sports)

Lagoon I thought you liked cars these days?

i like cars... in some ways

map just described the shitty climax of the shitty fourth Fast & Furious movie, maybe we just need to get Musk to watch some of the other ones and we can look forward to new Teslas tuned up for "drifting"

it's called Fast & Fourious, you're welcome

i also hate cars and cannot drive. but i've spent lockdown watching literally hindreds of episodes of Wheeler Dealers, Fantomworks, Fast and Loud, Misfit Garage etc.

Left lagoon, right me

added a couple updates in response to feedback pic.twitter.com/YKMUqQpttC

— Michael Tae Sweeney (@mtsw) September 17, 2020

left caek right me

https://i.imgur.com/JTEx4x6.png