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0 pointsteachrdan6d ago0 comments

Musk could spend 10 or even 100 billion on more down to Earth efforts without affecting his quality of life in the slightest. Instead he's promoting a self-serving idea, one that relies entirely on his own rocket-company infrastructure.

Putting data centers in space is also a dumb idea due to the difficulty of dissipating heat, solar radiation, maintenance challenges and more.

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Robotbeat5d ago

I don’t understand this. Elon thought of a way to virtually eliminate the land, heat, water, and energy impacts of datacenters, and because it makes his companies money instead of being non-profit, this is bad?

Maybe I do get it. It’s not about the actual impact. It’s entirely about performing. Profit (which is literally just a measure of whether the return on something is greater than the inputs) is somehow evil, but losing money on something (ie it costs more in inputs than its outputs) is good.

brendoelfrendo5d ago

> Elon thought of a way to virtually eliminate the land, heat, water, and energy impacts of datacenters

He has yet to do any of this. He had an idea that plenty of others have had, and have mostly dismissed due to concerns with feasibility. Granted, orbital DCs could one day be feasible with enough investment; I will not pretend that it is impossible. But for him to pretend that it is a solution for today's problems is at best the folly of a wealthy idiot and at worst a cynical attempt to juice the value of SpaceX before its IPO.

WalterBright5d ago

Elon has been called an idiot for every single one of his ventures. Again and again and again.

Maybe he'll fail this time. Maybe he'll figure it out.

But I like the fact that he is trying rather than spending his money on mansions and yachts.

WalterBright5d ago

I wish I was as "dumb" as Musk is. Long before Musk, I fantasized that if I was a billionaire, I would blow it all on a mission to Mars. Musk is living the dream. I bought shares in his companies just to share in the dream a bit!

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Robotbeat5d ago

brendoelfrendo5d ago

> Elon thought of a way to virtually eliminate the land, heat, water, and energy impacts of datacenters

WalterBright5d ago

Elon has been called an idiot for every single one of his ventures. Again and again and again.

Maybe he'll fail this time. Maybe he'll figure it out.

But I like the fact that he is trying rather than spending his money on mansions and yachts.

WalterBright5d ago

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse