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Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

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Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#371

Post by Florin_Andrei »

wmccullough wrote: post #184
mikeash wrote: post #148

Some of the comments here make me think of crabs in a pot pulling down the ones who try to climb out. Nobody's making you participate in this venture. If you don't like it, then you're free to go do whatever it is you do like. You might think Musk could better direct his efforts and resources elsewhere, but most other billionaires don't do anything all that interesting, they just invest their money in mundane stuff,…

You're my hero! This attitude is why I quit regularly contributing to this site. Any time any single person does something positive, some armchair "expert" comes out the woodworks to tell you how it won't work or can't work.

> Any time any single person does something positive, some armchair "expert" comes out the woodworks to tell you how it won't work or can't work.

All public forums go bad once they reach a certain size. Since everything is on a gaussian curve (fat mediocre middle, and two asymptotes, one for greatness, the other for the opposite end), it's just pure statistics that junk comments will start creeping in once the population grows beyond a certain threshold.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#372

Post by mikeash »

ElComradio wrote: post #311
cscurmudgeon wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simple. They are jealous they are on the sidelines.

In the same way nerds got beat up because the jocks are just jealous of their brains? There can be criticisms of a plan to send a few people to die in a metal box millions of miles away at incredible cost that do not require jealousy as a motivator.

And if someone would like to post those criticisms in an intelligent fashion, I would welcome them. I have nothing against contrary views, I only dislike contrary views presented purely for the sake of being contrary and with nothing interesting presented.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#373

Post by yolesaber »

hmate9 wrote: post #284
40acres wrote: post #267

Elon mentioned that there is no physical frontier left to explore on Earth, what about deep water exploration?

I think he meant places that are potentially habitable.

Underwater colonies are more viable and habitable than mars.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#374

Post by HeavyStorm »

dudus wrote: post #277

Watching live the announcement and presentation by Elon on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1YxNYiyALg Where the hell did they get this audience from? Is this hosted on a frat house with some academic invites? There's a dude jokingly saying that burning man felt like mars with a lot of shit and no water, there's a guy plugging his comic book, there's a guy making a joke on how we should send Michael Cera to Mars, a g…

Bike shedding.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#375

Post by fsloth »

pharrington wrote: post #216
mikeash wrote: post #148

Some of the comments here make me think of crabs in a pot pulling down the ones who try to climb out. Nobody's making you participate in this venture. If you don't like it, then you're free to go do whatever it is you do like. You might think Musk could better direct his efforts and resources elsewhere, but most other billionaires don't do anything all that interesting, they just invest their money in mundane stuff,…

Alot of people react negatively to overt emotional manipulation. Musk's live stream is called "Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species." The only actual information in his talk was about the new line of rockets he's building. Transportation is certainly Musk's specialty, but with the information given combined with what we already know about the man's companies, he cannot even begin to address the scope of the opening…

Having a sustainable transport scheme is a necessity in moving to Mars. I don't think anyone is naive enough to think that in practice transport is the hardest problem. But it's psychologically important - without transport there is nowhere to go. Either we become multiplanetary or not - I don't know - but if we become multiplanetary then transport is a necessary step. Building the transport scheme from economically self sustaining processes is only for the better for the robustness of it.

The fact that something is marketed does not diminish the utility of a thing.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#376

Post by oldmanjay »

ghurtado wrote: post #337
oldmanjay wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you see a hive mind on HN that says more about your thought process than this site.

I hope one day you can see the irony of your comment.

Feel free to explain it to me, as I consider people to be individual actors who are not subject to mental control

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#377

Post by martindevans »

dcposch wrote: post #301
grecy wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nobody's making you participate in this venture. If you don't like it, then you're free to go do whatever it is you do like. I can't agree more. I've seen HN degrade into that kind of discussion over the last 2 years and it really disappoints me. Part of me wishes HN had a really strong moderator that slapped down nay-sayers. If you're not contributing something valuable, comment deleted.

Just an idea: sentiment analysis has gotten pretty accurate. What if HN included sentiment in the sort algorithm? The post score you see would stay the same (upvotes minus downvotes). You'd just multiply the sort score by, for example, 1.25 for posts positive in tone and 0.8 for posts with negative tone. So if two comments have about the same number of upvotes, the nicer one appears higher up. Criticism or disapprova…

That presumes that the negative comments are always the ones derailing the discussion. For example:

"I think these questions at IAC are great, it's good that people get a chance to at a technical conference"

"Wtf is with these stupid questions at IAC? They should be asking about "

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#378

Post by goatlover »

cfreeman wrote: post #357
nk1tz wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Developers are a cynical bunch. It comes with the chops.

I think it just comes with the type of person who fits the programmer stereotype. I don't think being cynical makes one a better programmer.

Being cynical comes with experience. You get exposed to tons of ideas and hype over time. Some of it is warranted, and some of it isn't. You realize that marketing and lowest common denominator play a big role.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#379

Post by bwindels »

dudus wrote: post #277

Watching live the announcement and presentation by Elon on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1YxNYiyALg Where the hell did they get this audience from? Is this hosted on a frat house with some academic invites? There's a dude jokingly saying that burning man felt like mars with a lot of shit and no water, there's a guy plugging his comic book, there's a guy making a joke on how we should send Michael Cera to Mars, a g…

I agree, if this turns out to be a historic announcement, this Q&A will definitely not make humanity look very intelligent to future viewers.

I guess the reason for inviting non-technical press (and being so patient with their silly questions) is to get access to a non-technical audience. Like he said, part of the challenge is to get more people to want to go to Mars (maybe not personally, but as a species), so appealing to people of all sorts, not just people to who read science & engineering reporting, would contribute to that. My best guess, but still, wow, at those questions.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#380

Post by lucb1e »

freehunter wrote: post #279
lucb1e wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> CST sigh Central standard time I'm guessing, so mid-US I guess "central" and "standard" mean here, so I'm guesstimating GMT-7. That would put it around 8:30 GMT.

You're too lazy to look up the start time so you ask some one to tell you, then when they tell you, you're too lazy to convert the time zone they used. You're acting like a child. Use Google if it's so damn inconvenient for you. You're an adult with the Internet right in front of you, act like it.

> Use Google if it's so damn inconvenient for you.

Having to look it up is the inconvenience.

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