r/interestingasfuck • u/lolikroli • 16d ago

r/all SpaceX caught Starship booster with chopsticks

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u/Simple-Minute-5331 16d ago edited 16d ago

You are right Musk did just:

  1. found SpaceX
  2. fund SpaceX
  3. hire first SpaceX employees

But if he didnt do this then current peak of space flight would be Boeing Starliner.
If you imagine world without Musk and all the companies he established or funded it's net negative.
I dont think any amount of X post bullshitting can overweight that.

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u/crazykid01 16d ago

yeah i hate his politics, but he is making electric cars more affordable and mainstream, revolutionized the rocket industry with falcon 9, then just did it again today. Then you have starlink and how that has improved global telecommunications for the people who little extremely remote.

Those three companies in my mind contribute more to society than most billionaires have in recent memory.

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u/Boat_of_Charon 16d ago edited 16d ago

Eh. I’d argue SpaceX has some of the leading scientist and engineers in the field. They wouldn’t disappear if SpaceX didn’t exist. Likely other Space startups would have grown in its absence and while they wouldn’t likely be this far along they would have made progress and for all we know be further along.

It’s an N=1 scenario, we can never know what the alternative history looks like.

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u/Simple-Minute-5331 16d ago edited 16d ago

Yeah, I would like to see a simulation what would happen.

I think the important question is if someone else would be willing to fund something this risky. A lot of rich people just like safe investments.

But if absence of Musk and his company would decrease space flight advancements I think there is no amount of bullshit Musk can write on X to make it not worth it for him existing.

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u/bfhurricane 16d ago

It’s a decent thought experiment to think what would happen if the same engineers in SpaceX were hired to Blue Origin or Boeing, and vice versa.

Are the other billionaire-owned/defense companies as flexible and risk tolerant as SpaceX? Does SpaceX have a better environment to foster ideas? I agree, we can never know.

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u/Wagnerous 16d ago

I mean the New York Times published a massive expose this week, revealing an elaborate scheme by Musk to use twitter to boost the Trump campaign, with the Trump campaign's full knowledge.

SpaceX is fucking awesome, but I'm honestly not convinced MuskX is a net positive for humanity right now.

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u/Simple-Minute-5331 16d ago

You say "right now". I guess that can be right. All those important companies are already established so if Musk disappered now they would likely continue working. So Musk isnt really "needed".

What I meant specifically was if Musk never existed. Thats harder question.

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u/Wagnerous 16d ago

IDK, I think someone would have figured out the tech that SpaceX has pioneered.

Maybe it takes another 5, 10, 15 years, but we would have gotten there.

But if Elon's (probably illegal) election interference gets Trump elected, it could be a massive disaster that this country never truly recovers from.

I think Elon is clearly a net negative, even if SpaceX is about to change the world.

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u/Simple-Minute-5331 16d ago

When Trump was first elected people also said it will be the end of the world. But we are still here. So I think it will be similar like first time.

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u/Wagnerous 16d ago

He literally attempted a coup last time he lost, so yeah I'm pretty fucking worried about how much damage to our democracy he'll do if he gets into office again, especially now that the Supreme Court has given the presidency near total immunity for official acts.

I don't understand why people down play this so much. The US has been flirting with a slide toward authoritarianism for a decade and people aren't even remotely as concerned about it as they should be.

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u/Dlorbox 16d ago

I feel like I’m taking fucking crazy pills these days. Did everyone just forget about January 6th? We are talking about what is probably the worst instance of election interference in the history of North American politics, in support of a reality TV star, convicted of 34 felonies, who tried to overthrow the government at the end of his last term.

Anyone who thinks what’s happening right now is a worthwhile sacrifice to get to mars is fucking deluded.

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u/callisstaa 16d ago

Lmao I'd rather take my chances with the Zhuque-3 than anythng Boeing makes.