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Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

ycombinator.com

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Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

#41

Post by chc »

astazangasta wrote: post #24
JoshTriplett wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The delta from "people die" to "people no longer die" is a massive technological problem. By comparison, once we have that technology, making it available to everyone is many orders of magnitude easier, and much easier to get funding for. Do you really believe, given a cure for mortality, that we couldn't get it to the rest of the world in much less time than it took to develop in the first place? And with that in pl…

> Do you really believe, given a cure for mortality, that we couldn't get it to the rest of the world in much less time than it took to develop in the first place? Why doesn't everyone have potable drinking water or electricity yet?

How is that relevant? Are you trying to say that potable water and electricity are mistakes because we haven't gotten them to everybody yet?

Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

#42

Post by muninn_ »

LordHumungous wrote: post #28

>I think a lot of people think I must spend a lot of time with media or on businessy things. But actually almost all my time, like 80% of it, is spent on engineering and design. Uh... that's not really a CEO's job though.

Seems like it's working though? Why not redefine what a CEO's role is? Just a though here no arguing intended. :)

Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

#43

Post by clydethefrog »

idlewords wrote: post #12
sandslash wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi there. That certainly is inconvenient! Here's a link to the transcript in RTF, and we will definitely note it for future posts: https://goo.gl/kaMMwv

Heh, now it's asking me to sign up to Dropbox. Thanks for noting my request, and consider just including the text in the body of the page. It will blow people's minds.

And it's a shorted goo.gl url, that also could expire or be removed in the future.

What's indeed against plain text in the body? It's more easy, it will always be readable. And what about accessibility? Or archiving the content?

Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

#44

Post by drakonandor »

astazangasta wrote: post #24
JoshTriplett wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The delta from "people die" to "people no longer die" is a massive technological problem. By comparison, once we have that technology, making it available to everyone is many orders of magnitude easier, and much easier to get funding for. Do you really believe, given a cure for mortality, that we couldn't get it to the rest of the world in much less time than it took to develop in the first place? And with that in pl…

> Do you really believe, given a cure for mortality, that we couldn't get it to the rest of the world in much less time than it took to develop in the first place? Why doesn't everyone have potable drinking water or electricity yet?

Because their own leaders/people don't want them to.

Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

#45

Post by kcorbitt »

firasd wrote: post #4
idlewords wrote: post #3

I am very happy that there's a transcript. But I just spent two minutes trying to figure out how to cut and paste it into a textfile (Scribd won't let me download it without signing up). My request to YC is to publish transcripts like this as text.

While we're at it, these are great interviews and I'm glad they're being created and published, and I'd appreciate if the series was available as a podcast... I only noticed this new interview because I happened to be on HN right now.

Podcasts are also great because they let you save something now and listen to it later (in the car, doing chores, etc.). I'm really interested in listening to this, but by tomorrow when I'm doing something that is amenable to listening in the background I'll probably have forgotten it exists. If I could add "How to Build the Future" to a listening queue I'd certainly be more likely to get around to it!

Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

#46

Post by emmett »

idlewords wrote: post #20
JoshTriplett wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The delta from "people die" to "people no longer die" is a massive technological problem. By comparison, once we have that technology, making it available to everyone is many orders of magnitude easier, and much easier to get funding for. Do you really believe, given a cure for mortality, that we couldn't get it to the rest of the world in much less time than it took to develop in the first place? And with that in pl…

Much more likely than a hotfix for death is a world where there are very, very expensive treatments that allow wealthy people to extend their lives by some significant amount. That's not going to be a fun world to live in, especially if the treatments requires biological raw materials that the destitute can sell.

Historically, expensive treatments for the rich have become universal treatments for everyone over time.

What makes you believe that life extension will be any different? Or, if you disagree that expensive treatments generally stay expensive, what are your examples?

I agree we could have a temporary awkward period in the middle, say 20 years, where it's not cheap yet. But on the scale of history that's a short period of time...I'll admit that's cold comfort to those who die in the meantime.

(See: antibiotics, insulin, appendectomies, lasik, ...)

Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

#47

Post by bbctol »

etendue wrote: post #7

How would one go about meaningfully contributing to solving problems in genetics without having done the work leading to a MD or PhD (or both)?

This is why Theranos was such an effective scam: the current culture of "innovation" is so heavily based in software, an unconstrained space where a creative wunderkind can make great advances, it thinks all problems can be solved through sheer thinking outside the box, "disruption," and dreaming big. Those are all good things to try, but I don't think it's a coincidence Silicon Valley-based big-dreaming startups aren't doing nearly as well as big, boring research labs with heavy understanding of the science and measured goals.

Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

#48

Post by rantanplan »

LordHumungous wrote: post #28

>I think a lot of people think I must spend a lot of time with media or on businessy things. But actually almost all my time, like 80% of it, is spent on engineering and design. Uh... that's not really a CEO's job though.

We're just used to CEOs having only a decorative role, who can be replaced in an instant. So much so that when we see a CEO actually working/engaging with the actual product/service, they seem like a peculiar and rare specimen.

Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

#49

Post by cfreeman »

muninn_ wrote: post #42
LordHumungous wrote: post #28

>I think a lot of people think I must spend a lot of time with media or on businessy things. But actually almost all my time, like 80% of it, is spent on engineering and design. Uh... that's not really a CEO's job though.

Seems like it's working though? Why not redefine what a CEO's role is? Just a though here no arguing intended. :)

Well he is technically the CTO of SpaceX.

Re: Elon Musk on How to Build the Future

#50

Post by tehchromic »

What's interesting about a savant is how they can end up defined by what they don't see. I have nothing but respect for Elon, however I think he is working on the wrong problems. That's not his fault and he is most definitely making his best effort. However he's the paragon of a paradigm of a European culture which is as unsustainable as it is powerful.
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