Look u dont need to like the guy to admit that spacex is possibly the most important advancement in human technology advancement in our generation. We must become a multiplanetary spiecies and i dont give a fuck who it takes to make that happen.
Agreed. SpaceX has and continues to do awesome shit. Elon simply bought the company. I donβt equate the two.
Sure. But it is his money and he is in change so he does deserve some credit. To what degree tho is debatable.
What do you care when itβs only the elite that will make it there? The rest of us will burn here on earth
I love this narrative that space colonization is about getting the βeliteβ off Earth after theyβve supposedly ruined it, leaving the rest of us behind. And then what? Are the elite going to sit inside a tiny capsule on Mars for the rest of their lives, eating potatoes and drinking recycled urine?
If an asteroid were about to impact Earth and I had to choose between the elite escaping to another planet or humanity going extinct, Iβd gladly let the elite survive to restart civilization elsewhere.
You think those selfish dicks, who would rather fuck off to another planet instead of try to curb their own behavior to fix this one, are gonna create some idea egalitarian society?
Fuck no, theyβre gonna have a slave class to do all the work for them.
I care cos the survival of our speicies is more important than any individual or their ideology. Plus i recon i got a real chance at being said elite.
Iβd argue that if we canβt protect the little guy from the billionaires, then the race has no business continuing on into space.
Honestly given current technology, it makes the most sense to care for the Earth than attempt to colonize other planets, which are fundamentally unlivable in a myriad of ways. Survival of our species doesnβt mean a whole lot if it is 8 guys in a Mars base dependent on regular supply missions from Earth.
Not to mention, if we do focus on our planet and how to best manage the environment, it teaches lessons on how to potentially manage other planetsβ one day.
ITER seems interesting to me. What gets you excited about ITER? Seems to me that their operational timeline is so far in the future, and the outcomes are unknown. As an engineering artifact, I understand its boner factor. From a broader human achievement standpoint, I canβt really see what all the buzz is about. I want to learn and try to understand.
Itβs a fusion reactor (same mechanism that powers the Sun) powered by basically water (the main isotope of βfusion fuelβ is deuterium, which is found in ocean water). Itβll produce extremely clean energy, and the science behind it is just mezmerizing. It isnβt just buzz neither, as fussion-product plasma has been achivements in some labs around the world.
Like, seeing this image and feeling we created a mini-Sun (not an accurate representation, but bear with me) in that small space isβ¦ I donβt know, just wow. The Sun, an absurdily giant object fuels itself with complex mechanism and a balance between gravity and fussion, and we will have same object there.
One part of my bias is also because things like ITER really animated me to become a physicist. I do concede that while LHC is the no doubts the winner for me, ITER vs SpaceX is a closer match.
As a bonus, from a broader humanity perspective, it also comes from an international cooperation of countries, including rivaling nations, that came together to fund a project that will symbolize a huge advance in the nuclear field, intead of a single person trying to get richer.
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