Elon Musk

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

there already are freight trains

people don't commute the LA to SF corridor though.

?! they most certainly do. there are these things called commuter flights, they are booked solid all the time.

there are a lot more trucks xp

what exactly are you proposing?

Yeah, Franklin keeps his skeets locked down.

it's a particularly american construction, my understanding is that "ulster scots" is the closest phrase used elsewhere, and that group was mainly northern english/scottish lowlands in origin and got bounced around

Well no-one likes admitting they're English, it's too boring.

this very scotch irish american says JD Vance and Elon are cunts and should be deported to the bottom of the atlantic.

the idea with scots-irish in racist circles is that scots-irish ancestors grew powerful genes because they did the field work for the english. no, it doesn't make sense.

What do they mean by field work?

Plantations

Ethnographic interviewing

The Irish might have done field work for the English, the "Scots-Irish" certainly didn't.

You sure?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantation_of_Ulster

Plantation has a different meaning in that case. The Scots and English who were brought over to Ulster as tenant farmers and given land confiscated from the local Catholic Irish to "plant". They weren't indentured servants.

... were given land

They did the same in the US. It was an opportunity to better yourself frankly.

my take is they were strivers and also conniving and by the time the limey anglicans punched em in the nose they had left or did leave and/or sold out any catholic alliances— which did exist for a minute in the 1790s. many fought and died for separation and a republic there. in the north they were labor or fought labor. in the south, they were slave owners or keepers. a lot of redemption needs done. afaict.

Americans obsessed with this stuff are often racists looking for something analogous in their own history to what Black Americans suffered so they can say "we got over it, so should you"

yeah there’s this whole “the Irish were slaves too” thing among racists

charlie kirk called it "the muscular class"

this man is so dumb

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hrkdu4d4xpt445eylzp3l6hf/bafkreicuxaowccwnrtydityx6j2kc3cryudbvhuaik4f5ficscgw2hpetq@jpeg

Good thing they knocked down all the Nazi buildings

At least one still exists!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus?wprov=sfti1

A building's a building for the most part. You just yank the swastikas off the wall and you're good to go

What if it’s built in the shape of a swastika.

I think the implication here is that Elon's an idiot but he's also accidentally defining the inertia that keeps him going at this point. Nobody's going to pull the functional Teslas off the road or ground his rockets that actually work. We can, however, nationalize Space X and throw him in moon jail.

xp yeah that one's probably got to go

The Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus in Berlin is going to have be refurbished (again) at a cost of €2,000,000,000, with work going on until 2033.

Part of the reason is that the Nazis built the complex so quickly that the building quality wasn't up to much.

two billion? they should just knock that mfr over

usually a fan of preserving historic buildings but i think in the case of nazi shit maybe take a few photos, flatten the fuckers and that'll be just fine

That’s 1700 euros/sq ft ffs

The high renovation costs for the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus are also due to alluvial sand affecting the statics of the building and the fact that there are strict preservation order regulations.

Berlin tried to renovate it on the cheap thirty years ago at a cost of about €250 million, but it clearly didn't solve (m)any of the problems.

also its’s important to GDR history

Everything seems to cost more and take longer in Berlin. It was announced last week that the Staatsbibliothek, which featured in Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire, is going to be renovated from 2030-2041 at a cost of €1.1 billion, with an additional €350 million being allocated for risks and construction cost increases.

yeah what with the BB airport and the sorry state of DB the myth of German efficiency has really taken a hit

Ironically, Musk's Tesla factory in Grünheide just outside Berlin is also proving to be hugely inefficient. A report this month revealed that the factory is only producing about half as many Teslas as it could, with a capacity utilisation in 2024 of 56.3%.

There were also heated arguments last week between the IG Metall union and the Tesla Grünheide works council at a meeting which ended up with criminal complaints being lodged with the local court in Frankfurt an der Oder. The local union boss complained that "all sense of proportion and, apparently, all democratic awareness has been lost. Using fabricated accusations to influence elections reminds us of the tactics employed by authoritarian regimes."

No surprises there, I guess.

if they produced them, would anyone actually be buying them? the europe sales numbers aren't so hot iirc