Elon Musk

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

do tell

curious to read a critique that amounts to more than 'hyperlol'

I think it's dumb that he's throwing around numbers when he doesn't even have a working prototype. It just seems like he's hoping to derail the other project. I also think the "open source" thing is pretty silly since it's not like code where an individual can make some kind of improvement and test it out to see if it works. I guess an open source design is an interesting idea after the fact if he actually gets it working and other people want to build his design, but it still seems basically irrelevant.

Didn't he make his fortune with Peter thiel?
I don't know if that is "guilt by association" or "looking better by comparison"

It just seems like he's hoping to derail the other project

^^^

A key part of his criticism of the other rail plan is that it's "more expensive to operate (if unsubsidized)." I'd like to see some more detailed numbers on that though. Why would we count the cost of unsubsidized rail against air travel which is heavily subsidized? All that really matters is cost to the traveller, and unlike airlines, I'm assuming the high speed rail system is not going to be run as a for-profit business. He also makes no comparison of the environmental costs of air flight vs. the planned high speed rail system.

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

― eris bueller (lukas), Monday, August 12, 2013 11:24 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm generally contemptuous of futurists, primarily because they seem to think energy and climate change problems will just sort themselves out, but a mass transit system that relies on solar power and transports people across one of the busiest stretches of highway in America is a good thing. I looked at the first two feeds you suggested and they seemed to just be saying this is just a toy for rich people, which is afaict completely unsupported by his proposal. He's not suggesting a magic carpet for billionaires; it's mass transit that uses solar power. This is a good thing! Maybe it's completely impossible hogwash, but I'd like to see actual engineering criticism of it instead of casual dismissals based on suspicion of ideas from rich people.

they're too busy getting mad at people like Rashida Tlaib

Lol Grok is calling itself MechaHitler

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5siz7r23475fek2mj6p5zhzw/bafkreibzyyngmlqm5qj2a43rjxrm7gq5e2422s37mhk5fy2cak2yq5kw3e@jpeg

I just had to mute "grok" on bluesky. Only my 2nd muted word after "Eurovision" (sorry Ned).

lol

Seems like this should be a bigger story?

Sounds like a new frontier if chatbots can impersonate their owner or any other person. Imagine this at scale. The internet is done for.

Better start practicing talking to people again.

You will get better at it, predictably.

We can all start reading books again.

And play outside.

We can kick a ball on the street

you kick it, I'm tired

I just had to mute "grok" on bluesky. Only my 2nd muted word after "Eurovision" (sorry Ned).

Well I hey

Separately: paywalled but lol

https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/doge-elon-musk-left-control-92770407?mod=e2tw

Sounds like a new frontier if chatbots can impersonate their owner or any other person. Imagine this at scale. The internet is done for.

― Naledi, Wednesday, July 9, 2025 3:32 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

It's probably really easy to do for Elon Musk, not just because he never shuts the fuck up but also because all his opinions are derived from people who post online 18 hours a day. I've seen people use it to imitate bloggers and message board posters and it's generally pretty bad at it.

I don't think that's even a good Musk impersonation tbh. Musk's posts and those screengrabs do share the hideous racism but behind it the AI still has the same sort of sentence construction and perky tics. Also tbf Musk lacks the attention span to write posts as long as the ones itt.

Sounds like a new frontier if chatbots can impersonate their owner or any other person. Imagine this at scale. The internet is done for.

― Naledi, Wednesday, July 9, 2025 3:32 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is like, half of the stupid shit on LinkedIn that I see people commenting on elsewhere. people sending their "agent" to a Teams/Zoom meeting to take notes and possibly interact, ghost meetings where every participant is an AI agent and no humans are in attendance, etc.

this is by no means widespread and is going to come off as dumb or goofy to most people. dumb bots impersonating or creating personas and baiting reactions has been a problem on social media for some time now! it's just an extension of dead internet theory

Wasn't aware of the "theory", thanks for sharing. Nor did I know that the bot density is estimated to be over 10% on Twitter and potentially worse on Reddit. I was still thinking of the Russian troll farms and speculating that a chatbot could create an army of puppets and corrupt / kill online social interaction on any space that is not specifically protected for it. I'm less worried for the professional space.

you don't need automation for that, you just need to either hire contractors or whip up public sentiment by placing the right agitators in the right space, like on a racist WhatsApp or Facebook group

via wikipedia:

In 2013, a Freedom House report stated that 22 of 60 countries examined have been using paid pro-government commentators to manipulate online discussions, and that Russia has been at the forefront of this practice for several years, along with China and Bahrain. In the same year, Russian reporters investigated the St. Petersburg Internet Research Agency, which employs at least 400 people. They found that the agency covertly hired young people as "Internet operators" paid to write pro-Russian postings and comments, smearing opposition leader Alexei Navalny and U.S. politics and culture.

Russian efforts were notable, but not in any way unique. The troll farm method still exists, but it kind of became eclipsed by doing something more straightforward -- identifying individuals who are already well-placed to disseminate views sympathetic to your country or cause, and funding them: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/well-known-right-wing-influencers-duped-to-work-for-covert-russian-operation-u-s-prosecutors-say

or in Elon's case, you just buy Twitter and then make it so that anyone not aligned with your views is disincentivized from using the platform, and make it harder to bring new information to the platform by not propagating links to other websites. maybe make people think the only on-site way to get outside information is via your chatbot, that only allows views you personally like

he's just bad at it and is slowly burning the whole thing down

“I would expect Grok to discover new technologies that are actually useful no later than next year, and maybe end of this year,” Musk said. “It might discover new physics next year… Let that sink in.”

Hey maybe we'll get to Mars by 2020.

thats some lazy bullshitting even by his standards

too many messages to load right now, have we talked about how his previous phrase he wouldn't let go of is "fork in the road?" apparently he was still trotting that out in stupid doge emails. it's another of his bits where he thinks a physical joke related to a metaphor is the most amazing thing. he funded some art installation that was a sculpture of a giant fork at a road juncture. fine in isolation, but he keeps saying it, carried that sink into the twitter lobby, etc

xp If it finds a reality where it vanishes up it’s own electronic asshole and takes felon we all wins

Its

xxp yeah, one of thing many things that makes it impossible for me to believe that Elon is as brilliant as people say he is, is his intensely lame sense of humor.

^^^

it's his self-diagnosed neurodivergence?

just kidding, he's absolutely just an enthusiastically basic person

Musk is planning on putting Grok into Teslas "as early as next week"

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2025/07/10/elon-musk-grok-tesla-vehicles/84535654007/

of course I think he's been promising full self-driving for years and it's still not there. Maybe he's planning on letting Grok drive the cars, in which case, expect a lot of POC, jewish, and trans people to start getting run over.

Cool, now we can have cars driving around blasting hate speech!

Cool, now we can have cars driving around blasting hate speech!

― better than ezra collective soul asylum (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, July 10, 2025 12:44 PM (seven minutes ago)

Maybe Musk was inspired by a recent visit to Japan lol.

my company is fairly loose with the internet rules, but whenever I click a reddit link, I get a network notice saying 'aww hell no bruh'... not sure why

he's been promising full self-driving for years and it's still not there

may I remind you of the MTV Tesla currently orbiting our planet

my company is fairly loose with the internet rules, but whenever I click a reddit link, I get a network notice saying 'aww hell no bruh'... not sure why

I have to snooze my VPN to visit a lot of subreddits.

Some sites won't work at all with a VPN, notably rateyourmusic, and it usually stops you editing on wikipedia.

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/bafkreiesgr7tj3uvsofjs6uvqjzhb6r2bz5g7u2pc4s5fm2xjh4ckjv7ei@jpeg

https://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3ltngc7yn5s2b

is that real??

seems like it

saying the quiet part loud

His blog post about it is here, for those who don't use Bluesky:

https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jul/11/grok-musk/

There was a post going around (from twitter user esjesjesj, it's from last Wednesday so you'll have to scroll a bit) which claimed to have screenshots of the insane-period Grok posting graphic sexual harassment of Linda Yaccarino, the day before she quit. The claimed post is deleted now, I'm not embedding the screenshot for obvious reasons.

it all happens on X!!

We’re going to Mars!!!!