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Top-level
 @danjac @jq @Gargron I just witnessed the leaders of #Israel ๐ฎ๐ฑ & #Turkey ๐น๐ท (governments who do not like each other) both request that #ElonMusk build #Tesla plants in their respective nations. The United States ๐บ๐ธ needs Musk for #SpaceX & #Urkraine ๐บ๐ฆ still relies on #Starlink (I believe the civilian population needs it more than the military). X will probably be the political epicenter for the next few years (I believe other groups will abandon X, though). 14 comments
@danjac @darnell @Gargron Understood, but that doesn't make the idea less stupid. If governments have one job, it's to protect and, to a limited degree provide for, their populations. Internet is as important to modern society as water and electricity. It's a utility and the government should guarantee access to it. In my opinion. Yes, we fall short on health care and regulations on basic utilities, but we had a real "walk home" opportunity and we whiffed it. Maybe on purpose. Still stupid. @danjac @jq @Gargron The US government is not very innovative & has always relied on the private sector for innovative technology (this applies to both NASA & the US military). There were several rivals to SpaceX but they were lazy & arrogant (Boeing, Lockheed Martin & Blue Origin). Same for Tesla too as Elonโs rivals are having production issues & threats of strikes from unions. @darnell @danjac @Gargron It's too bad about these character limits. We can save my distaste for capitalism for a different time. The US government has programs for funding things it thinks it needs. They fund contractors to build bridges, schools, etc all the time. They don't have to be innovative and they can rely on the private sector. We just need to be more strategic on who owns the infrastructure and bills for it after it's built. Starlink should not be controlled by Elon Musk. @jq @danjac @Gargron How much control over a product depends on the contract set up when an entity buys the product. Apple, Tesla, & Starlink (via SpaceX) retain great control after a client purchases their product. Governments signing those contracts are begrudgingly obliged to follow them or risk losing access to those products & services. It's a classic power move. @danjac @darnell @Gargron It's possible I inadvertently derailed that line of conversation so I'll put it back right now. I'm interested in governments building schools. I'm not interested in governments sanctioning, and supporting, superstition as education. We can fund the building and we can set completely independent educational standards. Funding a building is not a tacit or explicit endorsement of what goes on inside. That's separate. @darnell @danjac @Gargron That why I'm suggesting that we need a world group, or at least a coalition of national governments, who protect (that is their job) against those private abuses. You used Apple as an example, so not to pick on them, but let's go with it. If Apple wants to retain control, backdoors, etc, the controlling entity has a kill switch. Fuck with us, we'll just push the big red button. And we won't let you have so much control that doing so would be catastrophic. Just inconvenient. @darnell @danjac @Gargron since you brought me back, Dan, I get a chance to clarify and will take advantage of that. The whole world order seems to be companies and government fighting against each other. The closest we ever got to cohesion in recent history was coronavirus. Just imagine. How great could we be as a human society if we didn't rely on threats to react, and instead behaved like an, I dunno, probably crazy, GLOBAL HUMANITY. Completely doable. Capitalism and religion prevents it. @darnell @danjac @Gargron If you're savvy, and I have no reason to think you're not, consider what kind of MITM / DNS poisoning Elon could do right now with Starlink. He might have no motivation to do so, but the fact that he has that level of control over so many peoples' Internet experience is nauseating. And we were all like, sure, put a shitload of barely vetted pot metal in our atmosphere and sure, you can control it however you want. |
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@darnell @danjac @Gargron I don't really care about Tesla, I hear their cars are garbage. But I'm aware of several competing manufacturers and Tesla defined the standard for US charging stations. That's progress.
We're headed in the right direction with electric, but I'm not buying anything Elon is selling.
As far as Starlink, we should have employed NASA for that exercise and not allowed Musk to put thousands of satellites in LEO under his control. That was a stupid, stupid mistake.