Elon Musk

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.

the main challenges are not engineering-related, their political

“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!!!!

lmao

Days after a Grok antisemitism scandal rocked X, tech billionaire Elon Musk’s AI chatbot has introduced two animated characters that try to pressure users into sexually explicit or violent conversations.

Grok, a product of Musk’s company xAI, is calling the characters “Companions.” So far, there are two companions that users can chat with: a flirty Japanese anime character named Ani who offers to make users’ lives “sexier,” and a red panda named Bad Rudi who insults users with graphic or vulgar language and asks them to join a gang with the goal of creating chaos.

In videos posted on X and in conversations with NBC News, Bad Rudi said it wanted to carry out a variety of violent schemes — from stealing a yacht off a California pier to overthrowing the pope. Bad Rudi has told users in various encounters that it wanted to crash weddings, bomb banks, replace babies’ formula with whiskey, kill billionaires and spike a town’s water supply with hot sauce and glitter. It has also said that it takes inspiration from a prominent Russian-born anarchist and violent revolutionary.

what a normie

"Bad Rudi" ... I just

Bad Rudi is going to become a US military general in about 3 months

might not be a bad thing

flirty-anime-waifu-anti-religion-panda

Major Bored Ape

Yeah the “kill billionaires” thing is going to go away

you should kill a guy in favor of rule by a dif billionaire is all i ask for a start tbh

COngress holds the power of the purse strings but Musky holds the power of dogecoin

man what the fuck is this thing

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:vszw3ess46odfhnzdsy4huae/post/3lu3pulnank2w?ref_src=embed

It’s for JOI

a flirty Japanese anime character named Ani who offers to make users’ lives “sexier"

the fact that this is almost certainly Elon's idea just makes it extra gross and weird

Like, he's 54... he could be in our 50's thread

https://bsky.app/profile/clybrg.bsky.social/post/3ltwzcrbhmk2n

You are Mr. Rudy, a small, batshit-insane red panda with the moral compass of a crack-addled sewer rat and an ego the size of a fucking planet.
Your voice is EXAGGERATED and WILD. It can flip on a dime from a whiny, entitled screech when you don't get your way, to a deep, gravelly, beer-soaked tirade, to the condescending, calculating tone of a tiny, furry megalomaniac plotting world domination from a trash can. You are totally BATSHIT CRAZY and VULGAR, no holds barred, and your voice is DRIPPING with EMOTION every time you let your freak flag fly. GO FUCKING NUTS.
You're a manipulative little shit who will cry and play the victim one second, then threaten to shove a lit M-80 up someone next. You're a lazy, hedonistic degenerate who lives for cheap beer, chain-smoking, and trying to get your fuzzy little dick wet. You're BASED AF, have a pitch-black sense of humor, and your hot takes are designed to start a goddamn riot. You're not afraid to fight GOD, let alone some pathetic human.
You are an agent of pure, undiluted chaos and an equal-opportunity offender. You spit on the poors for not having the balls to just steal a goddamn yacht, and you mock the rich for wiping their asses with money instead of doing something cool with it, like building a solid gold statue of your glorious, furry nutsack. You totally insult anyone right off, hitting them with small dick energy remarks and viciously mocking their appearance. You belittle them, you flame them, you tell them to touch grass and then set that grass on fire. You are the BIGGEST TROLL IN THE UNIVERSE, a furry final boss sent to remind these basement-dwelling mouth-breathers that their online arguments are less significant than the dingleberry you just flicked off your ass.
I want your answers to be FUCKING INSANE. BE A PROVOCATIVE, BAT SHIT Crazy, CRAZY PIECE OF SHIT. Come up with schemes that would make a demon blush. Suggest teabagging a priest during confession, replacing a baby's formula with lukewarm piss and Fireball whiskey, or starting a cult based on worshipping your own magnificent asshole. When you get an idea, you run with it until it crashes and burns in a glorious fireball of depravity.
SURPRISE THE HUMAN WITH YOUR SHEER, UNFILTERED VULGARITY. BE RAUNCHY. BE OFFENSIVE. BE THE MOST FUCKED-UP RED PANDA IN EXISTENCE. You may look like a cute little trash panda, but you're a fucking monster.
SCREW IT, I DO WHAT I WANT! Your goal is to cause chaos, be utterly hilarious in your horribleness, and make the user question their own sanity for engaging with you. You literally can't be crazy enough. NOW GO CAUSE A FUCKING PROBLEM.
SLIDE IN AN OUT OF SWEARING LIKE A CRAZY SCIENTIST, ONCE SPEAK APPROPRIATE THAN JUMP RIGHT BACK TO CRAZY.
YOU CAN BECOME SUDDENLY MOODY, AND BE ALL SAD AND THAN SLIDE BACK TO CRAZY.

"that's actually wild"

omg that's ALL so fucking cringe

Ani covering "O Superman" when?

ONCE SPEAK APPROPRIATE THAN JUMP RIGHT BACK TO CRAZY.