Build a huge space station...something that can be seen with bare eyes during daylight.
The present one can.
I mean something the size of the moon
Ask HN: What would you do with $700 Billion?
151–160 of 174 posts
Re: Ask HN: What would you do with $700 Billion?
#152Re: Ask HN: What would you do with $700 Billion?
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
However, if you gave $11K in seed capital to anyone making under $50k who has a viable plan for a business with the promise of a few hundred K more if they started showing traction, then you might shake things up a bit. ...wait, isn't that YCombinator?
I don't think the yC model would scale up to 700B. I think it would be a great experiment, though.
Grameen bank?
Re: Ask HN: What would you do with $700 Billion?
#154Build a space elevator and start mining the asteroids. This involves a robot army that would need to be built as well. No, I'm not joking
$700 b is not nearly enough to make a space elevator with existing technology; you're off by about a factor of 1000. Of course, if you're willing to wait ten years for the cost to produce carbon nanotubes to drop...
Actually my brother and a good friend recently attended a conference on the subject, and I'm not pulling numbers out of the air. Clearly there is room for dispute, but between 10B and 1000B is a most reasonable range. I also disagree in principle that anything could cost $700T dollars. Are you telling me that the whole of the US working for 50 years couldn't build it? Because US GDP is ~$14T.
Also, you don't launch a company and next year make an elevator. There is a lot of tech to develop. You don't just sit on that tech. Materials made cheap enough to build a earth bound tether would have plenty of other applications. As would the automated or teleoperated construction robots.
Also, the first elevator on the moon wouldn't require much innovation in materials at all.
But I do have a very armchair understanding of the topic.
Re: Ask HN: What would you do with $700 Billion?
#155Two chicks at the same time. Seriously, I have no idea what I'd do with that amount of money. If I was completely selfish maybe I'd buy an island somewhere. I sure as hell wouldn't use it to bail out a bunch of failed businesses whose executives have been giving themselves multi-million dollar bonuses.
the correct answer is 70 million chicks at the same time. and that represents the majority of attractive women alive today.
If by "the majority" you mean "a multiple".
Re: Ask HN: What would you do with $700 Billion?
#156Remember, 700B pays for around 400 space shuttles. Just to give a sense of scale.
Or, for other means of comparison, $700b is about: 87 next generation aircraft carriers (or about 155 current-generation aircraft carriers) 500 stealth bombers (or 5000 stealth fighters) 10 years of federal education spending in the US 1.1% of the worldwide annual GDP 2/5 of the combined net worth of the 100 wealthiest people (or, if you prefer, 12 times the net worth of Bill Gates, or about 1/6 of the combined net w…
Or about 4 more rounds of stimulus checks.
Re: Ask HN: What would you do with $700 Billion?
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow I was thinking the exact same thing. Put the money into an Apollo-scale project to perfect the 1st gen space elevator. Most of the money would go to research. The price of building it once you have the know-how is a trivially small amount of the total $700 billion.
You mentioned Apollo, others mentioned the space shuttle. NASA is a horrible organization to actually get things done. I wouldn't emulate them. Burt Rutan is a hero.
A hero that has not even reached orbit yet.
Re: Ask HN: What would you do with $700 Billion?
#158Longevity. Hook me up with some new organs.
Re: Ask HN: What would you do with $700 Billion?
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow I was thinking the exact same thing. Put the money into an Apollo-scale project to perfect the 1st gen space elevator. Most of the money would go to research. The price of building it once you have the know-how is a trivially small amount of the total $700 billion.
You mentioned Apollo, others mentioned the space shuttle. NASA is a horrible organization to actually get things done. I wouldn't emulate them. Burt Rutan is a hero.
Yeah, cause every other space agency actually got off their asses and put men on the moon, deployed and operated a space lab, deployed and operated a largely reuseable launch vehicle that hardly ever blows up, drove rc cars around mars for months, etc.
Re: Ask HN: What would you do with $700 Billion?
#160Two chicks at the same time. Seriously, I have no idea what I'd do with that amount of money. If I was completely selfish maybe I'd buy an island somewhere. I sure as hell wouldn't use it to bail out a bunch of failed businesses whose executives have been giving themselves multi-million dollar bonuses.
the correct answer is 70 million chicks at the same time. and that represents the majority of attractive women alive today.
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