Is Elon Musk Nuts?

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, September 3, 2026 02:05
VIEWED: 37827
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SIGNYM

Tuesday, March 28, 2017 8:17 PM

Sure, the guy made a crap-ton of money with Pay Pal, which (IMHO was more about being in the right place at the right time) but everything else he founded turned to shit:

SpaceX- A tail-fin-landing rocket. I believe I laughed my ass off over that already.

Tesla- the self-immolating cars. If it wasn't for government subsidies, he would be losing money. His next generation of cars, which people have already deposited cold hard $1000 cash to reserve, is well behind schedule and needs another infusion of cash.

Solar City- Another government-funded money-loser.

Hmmm... flights to Mars. The Hyperloop. The Musk Electric Jet.

It seems his excessive wealth has caused him to believe that he can do anything. But he doesn't grasp large-energy projects, when a simple back-of-the envelope calculation would tell him where it will go wrong.

6STRINGJOKER

Tuesday, March 28, 2017 9:59 PM

I'm actually a fan of the Tesla and I think the negative press out there is generated by Big Oil and Big Auto. If they can address certain safety concerns and put a governor on the cars that would keep them from being able to accelerate so fast, I believe that the Tesla will be the answer to oil independence from the Middle East and will be a large step towards curbing the average carbon footprint.

I'm not really knowledgeable about the rest of that stuff so I don't have much of an opinion other than to say that up-front costs for new tech are huge and somebody has to do it. I think Elon's doing greater work for mankind with his money than most obscenely rich people could ever do with their charitable donations.

SIGNYM

Tuesday, March 28, 2017 10:04 PM

The problem is still the batteries. Its' very difficult (impossible so far) to get the same energy density into a battery as gasoline packs, and after about 5-7 years the batteries break down. Hybrids are kind of a problem- since they use both gasoline and electricity to turn the wheels they need a complex dual-transmission to power the wheels. The interim answer might be to pack a small generator into a vehicle, which can be tuned to run extremely efficiently. That way you don't need a huge battery to store a lot of energy. Then use the standard electric motor to turn the wheels.

I'm more positive about solar cells, which just recently broke the energy barrier (generating slightly more energy than it takes to make them) because they are stationary applications that don't need a lot of portable energy density.

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"Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor"- William Blake
THUGR IS A DEEP-STATE TROLL

SIGNYM

Tuesday, March 28, 2017 11:37 PM

Maybe you should buy some of his stocks?

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"Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor"- William Blake
THUGR IS A DEEP-STATE TROLL

6STRINGJOKER

Wednesday, March 29, 2017 1:43 AM

I'm looking forward to owning my first used Tesla 20 years from now.

DREAMTROVE

Wednesday, March 29, 2017 2:33 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6STRINGJOKER:
I'm actually a fan of the Tesla and I think the negative press out there is generated by Big Oil and Big Auto. If they can address certain safety concerns and put a governor on the cars that would keep them from being able to accelerate so fast, I believe that the Tesla will be the answer to oil independence from the Middle East and will be a large step towards curbing the average carbon footprint.

I'm not really knowledgeable about the rest of that stuff so I don't have much of an opinion other than to say that up-front costs for new tech are huge and somebody has to do it. I think Elon's doing greater work for mankind with his money than most obscenely rich people could ever do with their charitable donations.

All of this, what 6 said.

I'll only add that I disagree with Musk on politics because a lot of South Africans seem to have this liberal utopianism that was common here maybe 20s to the 60s. But other than that, I'm with Elon. I know he's working with Trump onthe Mars plan, which is a great plan, and I don't think there's really been the falling out that the media claims on that front. If it came down to a choice between two of them, Obviously I'll side with Musk.

SIGNYM

Sunday, April 23, 2017 8:34 PM

Now he wants to create a direct brain-computer link.

I think they guy has a bunch of great ideas (This is not one of them) but has a hard time getting them to meet reality. Most of his projects suck off the government teat.

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"Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor"- William Blake
THUGR, JONESING FOR WWIII
All those guns 1kiki, are pointed towards your beloved Russia. All those cyber capabilities, pointed right at Russia. Thanks Putin, and get ready to duck.

6STRINGJOKER

Monday, April 24, 2017 12:22 AM

When it comes to linking brains directly to computers I'll hope that is one of his ideas that never.... take off.

1KIKI

Monday, April 24, 2017 2:27 AM

Speaking of the Mars trip - I hope people realize it'll be the last trip of their lives. The cosmic rays will get them.

Originally posted by G:
"I coined the slogan "We Suck!"© many years ago."
G is an avowed Putin-loving, pro-Russian, anti-American troll.

1KIKI

Monday, April 24, 2017 2:58 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6stringJoker:
When it comes to linking brains directly to computers I'll hope that is one of his ideas that never.... take off.

Computers are funny things. And their role in our lives is a double-edged sword.

No matter how they try to build them, computers simply can't replicate the function and 'logical' structure of the human brain. Trying to mesh up a brain with a computer would be tenuous, and risky. There just aren't many places where they can compatibly link together (unless you're talking about very limited functions like moving a limb, in which case BOTH the brain AND the computer have to learn to translate the commands into a mutually understandable but non-native language).

In general, the human brain is not a logic processing structure. Its inputs include the vast subterranean biological functions below awareness, the automatic pathways that select for biological meaning in the environment, the effect of highly filtered memory and further imperfect information storage over time, evolutionary pointed behaviors, plus the shortcuts (heuristics) used to get to a good enough biologically-focused conclusion quickly.

Unless they're hit by cosmic rays, suffer thermal-driven diffusion over time, or get scrambled by a power glitch, computers are good at storing exact information, and repeating the exact same process an infinite number of times. They don't feel, or care, or focus, or put valuation on any one thing compared to a different thing. They don't deal with impressions or general milieu.

There are very few points of comparison between wetware and hardware, therefore, very few points of contact.

And speaking of computers and AI - while it might be a time and money saver to have computers reproduce what people already do - like calculations, traffic control, and the like (and assuming the whole hacking problem has been eliminated) - there's a reason to not expand AI into realms beyond human capability. And that's because we'll be incapable of comprehending what they'll be doing. Being unable to comprehend it means we are putting ourselves in the power of an alien system.

Care to try addressing the facts, again?

Or do you shoot nothing but blanks?

Originally posted by G:
"I coined the slogan "We Suck!"© many years ago."
G is an avowed Putin-loving, pro-Russian, anti-American troll.

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