Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, I may want to go to a refuge without any electronics.
There was a guy on Better Call Saul like that.
There are many guys like you on other shows and so what?
SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
191–200 of 270 posts
Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
My recent employer was one of the ISP providing rural telecom service. These subsidies accounted for a hefty percentage of our income and the company was still perpetually on the edge of failure. Most of our competitors were in similar situations, loaded down with breathtakingly large amounts of debt and expensive to maintain decaying infrastructure, much of it purchased from the Baby Bells when they got out of the m…
I'd love to get 25Mb DSL but you can't get that in the US where you're lucky to have anything above 4Mb. Not all of us need 100Mb+ internet access.
I live in the midwestern US and I can get 80/20 Mbps VDSL from CenturyLink. Obviously results will vary depending on your exact location, but to say "you can't get [25Mb DSL] in the US" simply isn't true.
Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
#193If there is any corporate entity I'd happy giving public funding, it would be SpaceX. Their end goal is to settle Mars and potentially other bodies in the solar system. Compared with the absurd amounts of money wasted on defense contractors, I am perfectly happy with funding SpaceX in every way possible.
While I absolutely agree that defense contractor spending is an abhorrent waste of public funds, this is a bad take. Literally every company in this space (ISP's, and more so ISP's that utilize satellites) have used it as a platform to grift public funds. Examples include Lightsquared, Iridium, Globalstar, and the worst of all, DISH) SpaceX has significantly reduced the cost of building a satellite ISP but you need t…
> Literally every company in this space have used it as a platform to grift public funds.
> they are doing this to keep on the government, the public's tit
$1B is a fraction of what SpaceX, and Morgan Stanley among others, believe they can make from Starlink: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/10/22/mor...
I think this time it really is different. SpaceX has already reduced launch cost by an order of magnitude, and if Starship is successful another 1-2 orders of magnitude. This gives them a huge advantage over other LEO constellation attempts.
I don’t think this money is necessary for their success but if the money is there for the taking why wouldn’t they take it?
Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
#194Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
#195If there is any corporate entity I'd happy giving public funding, it would be SpaceX. Their end goal is to settle Mars and potentially other bodies in the solar system. Compared with the absurd amounts of money wasted on defense contractors, I am perfectly happy with funding SpaceX in every way possible.
Imagine what we could do if it was possible to identify and fund a thousand Elon Musks with hundreds of millions each? He's eliminating gas vehicles, improving solar adoption, fixing rural internet, improving space science, making life interplanetary, etc. It may be that Elon Musk types are extremely rare but I doubt they're as nearly as rare as most people think and we only need a thousand out of billions. The thing…
Well, there's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiel_Fellowship but there aren't many of them and the funding is a few orders of magnitude less. Perhaps somewhat made up for in social network/connections.
I've wanted to read about what happened if anyone ever decided to apply Asimov's filter at earlier ages. His filter was simply having interest in particular science fiction. https://www.gwern.net/docs/culture/1963-asimov
Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
#196If there is any corporate entity I'd happy giving public funding, it would be SpaceX. Their end goal is to settle Mars and potentially other bodies in the solar system. Compared with the absurd amounts of money wasted on defense contractors, I am perfectly happy with funding SpaceX in every way possible.
> Mars .... Compared with the absurd amounts of money wasted on defense contractors
Couldn't we spend absurd amounts of money on fixing Earth instead? Surely it's easier than starting from even less resources and livable environment than Mars.
There is a cultural myth in New Age communities that humans decimated Mars and came to Earth after, or something like that. We should fix Earth first
Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know if those who would argue against funding SpaceX take the "either traditional defense contractors or SpaceX" bait. I think a major argument is that there are better ways to spend the money here on Earth. I.e., it's nobler and more feasible to protect and improve this planet than settle another one. As a former space industry worker, I don't know if I subscribe to that, but that's the best steelmanning I c…
This money is being spent to improve things here on Earth. This is about providing internet to underserved communities on Earth. Now you could argue that SpaceX has made it clear that they created Starlink to increase their funding for settling Mars (developing Starship etc) but at the same time StarLink stands to be a huge boon for people in communities that don't have access to high speed internet currently and tha…
Indeed, this is a great example of space exploration benefiting life on earth. If Elon didn’t want to colonize Mars he wouldn’t have started SpaceX which then wouldn’t have developed reusable rockets that make a LEO broadband constellation economically feasible.
And that’s just the beginning of the technology needed to fully achieve his ambitions.
Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
#198If there is any corporate entity I'd happy giving public funding, it would be SpaceX. Their end goal is to settle Mars and potentially other bodies in the solar system. Compared with the absurd amounts of money wasted on defense contractors, I am perfectly happy with funding SpaceX in every way possible.
> Mars .... Compared with the absurd amounts of money wasted on defense contractors Couldn't we spend absurd amounts of money on fixing Earth instead? Surely it's easier than starting from even less resources and livable environment than Mars. There is a cultural myth in New Age communities that humans decimated Mars and came to Earth after, or something like that. We should fix Earth first
> Couldn't we spend absurd amounts of money on fixing Earth instead?
We're already spending more than 99.99% of our money on Earth. Are you advocating for a strict 100%?
Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think colonizing Mars is pretty small sink compared to climate change and many others. With how SpaceX going, I think for the first stage it's comparable to something like one modern Olympic games event cost.
> first stage it's comparable to something like one modern Olympic games event cost. To continue on with the steelmanning, the first stage is probably a drop in a bucket compared to the entire effort. How much freight do you think it would take to colonize a planet with a population large enough to be relatively self-sufficient? Just the payload cost would be huge and that's just to park it (not to assemble, maintain…
So if SpaceX shuts down their entire operations (and lets include all rocket companies), then that would completely fix health care and the climate crises? I'm not following the logic of how that would work.
It is basically a larger version of the argument "Well, if you are so poor, why did you drink that cup of coffee this morning?"
Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good. They seem to be the first defense contractor in a long time, maybe ever, with a specific eye on controlling costs. It may not be this way forever, but for now the taxpayers should get the savings where they can.
Maybe they can relax the work/life balance now
> Maybe they can relax the work/life balance now
Surely SpaceX employees are there by choice. How many of their employees have no better work/life balance employment choices? I would guess a rare few.