Elon Musk

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

anybody who is over the age of 25, has lived in a city for any length of time, and paid a modicum of attention to the world around them knows that these kinds of massive public works projects tend to be underbid by shady contractors and then they go wildly over the original schedule and budget. so the fact that he's coming in saying he can do it so much cheaper with a totally new and untested technology is a huge red flag. to me it immediately suggests that the whole thing is not serious.

if he honestly thinks this is a feasible plan he should raise some funding and build a private line from LA to Vegas.

It's transparently unserious in that he doesn't want to do it himself and "regrets even mentioning it"

right, that aspect has been p funny

haha, I missed that part

ya seems like he said something offhandedly then realized abt his celebrity

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.

people don't commute the LA to SF corridor though. i have a hard time believing a transit system would fill the role of the 5 freeway. it's mostly trucks anyway.

You know what would do really well in transportation corridors like that? Plain old freight trains.

I swear, the interstate highway system and the fact it's mostly used for semi truck freight is the biggest money hole in our post-WW2 car-dependent wonderland

ive seen one total

I've seen three and/but I don't know if I've seen the same one multiple times. I can be sure of having seen at least two, because I passed them both on the same stretch of road within a minute of each other.

i've seen (assuming the same) one parked on fifth avenue by my office a few times, love the idea of someone commuting in NYC and looking for street parking in it, real committed to the bit

a friend has kept me updated on the goings-on of a cybertruck owner in a nearby town who owns a salad restaurant. his previous claims to fame include being puzzled that his greenhouse-to-table produce needs to be washed before it's served ("but we use organic farming?!") and a highly suspicious break-in where nothing of value was stolen, but he decided to "forgive" the burglar with a public photo op where he then posted the purported criminal's full name and personal info

also the name of the business is "<name> farms salads" which I assumed was his last name. it's not, it's his first

salad motif wrap on the cybertruck or no credit

mysteriously there is not a salad motif wrap. I will attempt to keep up on whether one appears and report back if the situation changes

maybe you could pass on the salad wrap idea possible he just hasnt thought of it

there is one cybertruck in my neighborhood and i flip it off on sight

driving a cybertruck full of salad down the Fury Road

whatever happened to gary cooper the strong silent type

he’s Gary Cooper in the first Brackett/Wilder collab

must be weird to spend that much money on a vehicle, only to have the general public point and laugh at you

Hummer stans understand.

update: there IS a salad decal on the salad man's truck

Elon muskroutons

his previous claims to fame include being puzzled that his greenhouse-to-table produce needs to be washed before it's served

Why is this the most Musk-adjacently on brand thing ever. Gross.

C'mon Elon.. I thought you liked warlords?

https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/AP24230679286191-1724036909.jpg

Russian warlord and leader of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov has accused Elon Musk of "remotely disabling" his Tesla Cybertruck.

Kadyrov, who was installed as Chechnya's leader in 2007 by Russian President Vladimir Putin, first showed off his flashy ride in August. In a video he shared on Telegram, the warlord can be seen tooling around the grounds of his presidential palace in what sure looks like a genuine Cybertruck — except for one small difference: it's been turned into a technical mounted with a huge machine gun, which Kadyrov brandishes while garbed in outrageous bandoliers like the Bullet Farmer character in 2015's "Mad Max: Fury Road."

With it geared up for war, Kadyrov claimed that he'd sent the electric pickup to the frontlines of Ukraine, where it has since been "performing well in combat."

It probably just sucks in the same way all the other cyber trucks do

There was a Cybertruck that I would see all the time on the way to my girlfriend's house, about a month ago I noticed one of the front wheels was suddenly massively fucked up. Apparently in the weeks before it was towed, people made it a landmark on Google Maps and started leaving flowers by it.

The one thing i will say in favor of Cybertrucks is that the headlights are set low on the front, almost as if the designers had empathy for drivers of oncoming vehicles and didn't want to blind them.

xxp that was my guess as well. cybertruck not working? it probably just did that

update: there IS a salad decal on the salad man's truck

― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Monday, September 23, 2024 4:04 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

how big are we talking here starting to doubt his commitment to salad

the owner of the midwestern dairy queen where I worked drove a red corvette. the cybertruck is an innovative way for midwestern small business owners to tell on themselves.

https://www.tiktok.com/@kendahllandreth/video/7416094229593738539

the owner of the midwestern dairy queen where I worked drove a red corvette. the cybertruck is an innovative way for midwestern small business owners to tell on themselves.

Little Cybertruck
Baby you're much too fash

Owning a shitty place to work and driving an expensive car is already embarrassing enough. Fast food owners should be forced to drive the best car they can afford for minimum wage

You have to give your employees something to shoot for (at)

My first newspaper job, where I got paid like $14,000 a year, the owner/publisher loved to park both his Jags in the two reserved parking spaces right by the front door. We all had to walk by them on our way in and out of the building. I’m sure he is dead now, but I bet his dipshit son who was the managing editor has a Cybertruck. Or at least wants one.

the eponymous Jimmy John would visit new franchises of his chain when they opened (before he sold the company), often in his lamborghini

When I worked at Burger King, the franchise owner—who was amazing and became a legend in my neighborhood of Detroit—drove a barely functional Astrovan. It was filled floor to ceiling with stuff for his restaurants (but he was always able to carve out some space when he picked up workers who couldn’t find a ride). He parked it in the further possible parking space because he believed open parking spaces attracted more customers. He eventually passed away and his son and his son’s now ex-wife took over the restaurants and they immediately started driving an H-2 and a G-class which, as you’d guess, they parked in handicap spaces. I recently learned there was some success at unionizing the restaurants and the son shuttered all of the restaurants. This is especially frustrating since his dad was able to purchase his first franchise with money he made taking early retirement from his UAW job.

accelerationism except it's just more of this:
https://www.politico.eu/article/elon-musk-denies-romantic-relationship-giorgia-meloni-new-york-lovefest/

Kemi Badenoch...

“I think Elon Musk has been a fantastic thing for freedom of speech. I will hold my hand up and say, I’m a huge fan of Elon Musk.”

hes still got it!

I instant translate "freedom of speech" to "normalizing racism" in my head whenever I read these quotes now.

“I think Elon Musk has been a fantastic thing for normalizing racism." Translates much better.

Kemi Badenoch is black though, if that matters, I'm not sure in her case tbh.

given how homophobic and transphobic she is, you could say "normalizing bigotry" without even having to get into her ideas about wokeism, CRT, etc.

Normalizing fascism/hate/bigotry sure. Black people can also be racist. Most people are.