I know there are a lot of Musk fans on this site, so can someone explain to me the benefits of this style of hyperloop over a train?
The Hyperloop’s Only Destination Is a Capitalist Hellscape
31–40 of 87 posts
Re: The Hyperloop’s Only Destination Is a Capitalist Hellscape
#32I still think that Elon's dream goal is to put a boring machine into a rocket and build subsurface habitations connected by hyperloops on mars.
Re: The Hyperloop’s Only Destination Is a Capitalist Hellscape
#33Is public money going toward this? If not, why do you care how a private individual uses their money?
[deleted]
Re: The Hyperloop’s Only Destination Is a Capitalist Hellscape
#34Absolutely on point. One thing I find particularly interesting about technologies of this kind is that they're often sold as 'the future of X', in this case transport. Just like Zoom is the 'future of doing conferences and work'.
Has anyone noticed in recent times that this is almost always the American future, rather than everyone else's future, in response to essentially rot of public infrastructure and state capacity?
Go to China, or Singapore, Or Taiwan or South Korea and ask them if their future is work from home because of Covid, or hyperloops because apparently nobody in the US can built a train any more. You'll be surprised.
Re: The Hyperloop’s Only Destination Is a Capitalist Hellscape
#35Is public money going toward this? If not, why do you care how a private individual uses their money?
> Is public money going toward this? Pretty much all the private investment in hyperloops is to get to the point of selling it for public infrastructure projects (it was originally proposed as an alternative specifically to California High Speed Rail), so, while the answer is mostly “no” in the strict present sense of “is”, it's also “yes” in the sense of the intended goal of the projects.
That just sounds like risk-free R&D, where the people's money only goes there once the idea has been proven by someone else, with no loss for the state if it goes nowhere near our interests.
Re: The Hyperloop’s Only Destination Is a Capitalist Hellscape
#36I disagree. I think there is a profoundly bright future to be had with hyperloops, powered by a mix of solar and fusion energy. That being said, I do believe that there are a lot of challenges to resolve along the way. * how do we halt the release of methane from the arctic and prevent the death of the North Atlantic Current (NAC)? * how do we make online education even better and as close to free of cost as possible…
you mean profoundly bright future for fusion energy... i mean if we had that, we can probably have things 10x nicer than hyperloops
Four links, all about MIT's Dennis Whyte and Commonwealth Fusion Systems:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/29/climate/nuclear-fusion-re...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkpqA8yG9T4
Re: The Hyperloop’s Only Destination Is a Capitalist Hellscape
#37> The company celebrated the achievement by releasing a modest video comparing it to, among other things, the moment the Wright Brothers flew the first planes. Just so everyone knows, the Wright Brothers became well-known in the aviation community based on their work developing and flying gliders and inventing the 3-axis control system. Once they actually started flying powered airplanes, they became secretive and ev…
Not only that, if I recall correctly the Wright brothers actually died penniless. They tried patenting and protecting their flight controls idea which is to rotate the wings. It was impractical and inefficient so never really got anywhere. It wasn't until Germany creating a mature aileron system which really pushed flight technology forward (the pressure of War and military helps a lot too).
I think that's correct. However, the concept of banking the plane to turn was their idea and is still used. Before that, everyone thought you'd turn a plane like you turn a car. It was their bicycle experience that led them in the right direction.
Re: The Hyperloop’s Only Destination Is a Capitalist Hellscape
#38I read the entire article just to find its underlying foundation rearing its ugly head near its end: > Maybe we’ll even have a line in the U.S. that Wall Street execs and DC lobbyists will use to blast up and down the Eastern Seaboard for business lunches. But you and me? We’ll be stuck on dilapidated Amtrak lines[...] > our only consolation the fact that the hyperloop’s vacuum-sealed tubes don’t have windows, so its…
That line of thought existed for a long time. It's the same line of thought that says that gentrification is a bad result - rich people concentrating in one suburb and never having to look 2 blocks away where people are forced to sleep on the street makes them not think about people sleeping on the street. That then influences public spending where the same rich people have stronger voices about what problems to solve.
See comments from British MP recently that people who can't afford food should sell their assets like pearls. That's a complete disconnect with normal people's lives.
I'm not sure how popular/acceptable those views are, but I'm all for some form of "if you have power over X you should experience the lowest class of X". For example elected officials should not be allowed security fast track at the airports.
Re: The Hyperloop’s Only Destination Is a Capitalist Hellscape
#39This article is completely lacking in historical perspective. There was a time when commercial aviation was a luxury reserved for the rich; one need only look at the configurations of aircraft like the DC-2 and the Boeing 317 to understand that. Between 1935 and 2020, flight became a tool to help enrich the lives of masses of middle-class people. The hyperloop has a relatively small chance of positively impacting man…
I don't follow your analogy. How is this to the train what the plane was to an oceanic voyage?
Re: The Hyperloop’s Only Destination Is a Capitalist Hellscape
#40The fact that one high-caliber bullet can shut down a multi-billion dollar transport system is all that needs to be said.
It's a silly idea and is best made on the Moon or Mars where atmospheric pressure is already low enough to not cause catastrophic failure.