An Elon / Jeff space willy-waving contest about who gets to be Space Bro Alpha seems like a net win for humanity
Just watch for any purchases of remote volcano islands and large quantities of orange jumpsuits.
Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July
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Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July
#182I am somewhat uneducated on the topic but is space tourism a good idea? It is a flight to nowhere which surely has a hefty carbon cost. Doesn't it also add pollutants high up in the atmosphere? As exciting as it is to experience space I could imagine the environment cost is far from ideal.
A SpaceX launch outputs 336,552KG of CO2. I imagine Blue Origin's first passenger flight will be a bit less because it's not going as high. The environmental cost of doing anything is far from ideal, but in the case of space tourism the impact is minimal. A 777-300 flight from New York to London outputs about 1,261KG of CO2 per passenger.[1] In British Airways configuration there are 299 seats on a plane like that, w…
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Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July
#183I am somewhat uneducated on the topic but is space tourism a good idea? It is a flight to nowhere which surely has a hefty carbon cost. Doesn't it also add pollutants high up in the atmosphere? As exciting as it is to experience space I could imagine the environment cost is far from ideal.
If the overview effect [1] is real, even just a few world leaders and ultra-wealthy appreciating the fragility of earth could easily outweigh any pollution from space tourism. In terms of carbon it's not even that bad, a spaceflight is roughly comparable to an airliner crossing the Atlantic. Of course it puts other pollutants in more layers of the atmosphere, something we definitely have to study as spaceflight becom…
Why wouldn't the overview effect be real?
Anyway the question is if 2-3 minutes are enough to have it kick in.
Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
“Willy waving contest” is long over and, ironically, SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell is the winner. She’s a super hero in my book. Musk had the dream but she’s turning it into reality which is the hard part.
I am sorry but some of the stuff she has said is quite nuts. Point to point travel with Starship is never going to happen the way she describes it. A rocket that big makes so much noise you can not launch it at half to ports they listed. If you would launch a Starship on Zürich lake you will blow out every window in the city.
Doesn't matter. That would be a good incentive to have their windows blast proofed. Which is good for the special glasses industry. And all the workers! And makes turning houses into bunkers so much more easy. The swiss like their bunkers.
Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s a ridiculous stereotype. Regardless, how long do you think one can stay obese without food?
It ain't that ridiculous. Poor people can't afford high quality raw ingredients and so more rely on highly processed, high-calorie foods (especially HFCS) that leave them obese.
Food stamp payments might be more than you think. For example, for a household of two people in California, the minimum payment is $430/month [0]. That's not going to be putting fancy food on the table, but its more than beans and rice (or soda and chips).
Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you suggesting $1.8M for expansion of Starlink to deliver broadband to rural America is not a net win? As someone in the midwest US, Starlink is the first realistic opportunity for many people I know to access broadband internet. My mother-in-law has had to teach from home all year using her cellphone as a hotspot because that's the best internet she could get no matter how much she payed.
We already paid companies to roll out copper to your area in the 90s, and they just didn't do it.
StarLink has already rolled out.
Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July
#187Well you how know even something simple like an app is buggy and has issues the developer didn't anticipate for the first few releases?
Imagine something as serious as a spacecraft.
But this is about as much as a journey into "space" is as a high altitude plane flight.
I still remember the months of watching "go for throttle up" explosion footage in 1986 (it was the 9/11 before 9/11) the few tv stations at the time would not stop playing it. I think we all became numb to it.
Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We are machines that work to attract mates, reproduce, and rear young. How would this be distinguished from people simply having the desire to orgasm which unintentionally causes reproduction? At least for males, I can see a case for the machine’s goal to spread the seed as far and wide as possible, so there need not be any biological imperative to stop at one mate.
> How would this be distinguished from people simply having the desire to orgasm which unintentionally causes reproduction? That's reverse causality. Evolutionary fitness is a strong driver of human behavior. There's plenty of incidental behaviour, but in terms of baby making it's clear cut. > so there need not be any biological imperative to stop at one mate. It's more efficient when you consider humans have a long…
> That's reverse causality. Evolutionary fitness is a strong driver of human behavior. There's plenty of incidental behaviour, but in terms of baby making it's clear cut.
That does not seem to be consistent with declining birthrates in developed countries. By and large, the more freedom and self sufficiency women have, the lower the birth rate (not a scientific conclusion, but what I see so take it with a boulder of salt).
I often wonder if we went back in time and asked all the women who had 3, 4, 5+ children, how many of those were wanted pregnancies versus how many of those were due to “pressure” of some kind from the father or society.
> It's more efficient when you consider humans have a long maturation time. Reproductive success is also greater when grandparents are involved with child rearing, implying that a strong family unit leads to better outcomes.
I would also guess tribes that prioritize monogamous relationships with multiple generations cooperating with each other outlast tribes that do not. But I would also guess that the biological (or “machine” aspect of it) is for males to be promiscuous. The tribes that fight this biological urge by whatever means (even just keeping it hush hush so it allows for peace) would be more successful long term than those that do not?
> There's a lot more to it, and much of what I've learnt is from an old Stanford lecture series by Robert Sapolsky called human behavioural biology. Worth a watch if you're interested
I’ll check it out. Here’s a link for anyone else interested:
Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Hungry starving sick people make the least effective revolutionaries. They’re also not very good at spending money on consumer goods when they don’t have any, which Amazon absolutely needs. (Tesla needs a lot of people above average income, given their cheapest offering). And these two giants aren’t the only places people can work. (Not enough by itself, but still a massive improvement compared to the situation leadi…
> Hungry starving sick people make the least effective revolutionaries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_food_riots
https://www.history.com/news/bread-french-revolution-marie-a...
https://slate.com/technology/2014/04/food-riots-and-revoluti...
History. Read it.
> but there is a reason we let them exist
Please, do tell.
Re: Jeff Bezos will fly on the first passenger spaceflight of Blue Origin in July
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Hungry starving sick people make the least effective revolutionaries. They’re also not very good at spending money on consumer goods when they don’t have any, which Amazon absolutely needs. (Tesla needs a lot of people above average income, given their cheapest offering). And these two giants aren’t the only places people can work. (Not enough by itself, but still a massive improvement compared to the situation leadi…
> Hungry starving sick people make the least effective revolutionaries.
This is true, but their visible presence and the risk of joining them often motivates the people in slightly better circumstances to become the most effective ones; the starving masses usually aren't the effective revolutionaries, but their presence often accompanies revolution for that reason.