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The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

newyorker.com

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Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#21

Post by HPsquared »

aaroninsf wrote: post #5
bigtones wrote: post #2

Brilliant well written article. Not without bias, but you can see through the words on the page and into the immense pressure that team at Virgin Galactic must have been under to get their boss into space and to beat Bezos, all for the inflated ego of one man. Branson did put his life on the line to achieve that accolade though, which was a gutsy move.

I would unpack "gutsy" with its overtones of grudging admiration, into a lot harsher terms related to toxic narcissism and what amounts to a pissing contest between competitive men. I suspect there is a natural evolutionary curb on the somewhat sociopathic qualities at work, whereby bravado is kept in some check by self-culling being commonplace.

If something has positive side-effects, can it be called toxic?

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#22

Post by mft_ »

s5300 wrote: post #10

Wow. Despite his ever growing amount of haters, Musk & Co. do really seem to be placing safety fairly high up on their priority list, if not at the top where Musk says it is. Branson... does not particularly seem to be doing so. I'm unaware if he's ever repeatedly claimed safety is Virgins top priority though. Wonder how things go down in Bezos land.

I don’t think anyone who seriously follows the space sector hates SoaceX (perhaps except those with vested interests elsewhere who are being embarrassed) - they’re doing incredible things.

People may hate Musk’s public profile, or some of his Twitter mistakes, or dislike his approach to ‘Full Self Driving’ at Tesla… but let’s not confuse this with antipathy to SpaceX.

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#24

Post by paganel »

bambax wrote: post #8

In short, we are now using billionaires instead of dogs to test spaceships. I would argue that's progress.

Hope those billionaires won't dare to force for their faces to be put on future postal stamps, I grew up as a kid having Laika [1] on them, I wouldn't want for future postal-stamp collector kids to have to look at the faces of Branson or, God forbid, Bezos.

[1] https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/postage-stamp-mongolia-circa...

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#26

Post by timmytokyo »

bigtones wrote: post #2

Brilliant well written article. Not without bias, but you can see through the words on the page and into the immense pressure that team at Virgin Galactic must have been under to get their boss into space and to beat Bezos, all for the inflated ego of one man. Branson did put his life on the line to achieve that accolade though, which was a gutsy move.

Violating airspace regulations isn't gutsy. It's irresponsible and selfish. It puts others at risk.

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#27

Post by amatecha »

dboreham wrote: post #13
mc32 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are other flaws too. Like pretending to bike to the spaceport on the day of, but it was actually filmed the week before and when called out, they said, oops, you're right, sorry! It's like when Guy Fiery in his hot rod. He pretends he rolls up to the place in his 70s hot rod, but actually it's just rolled out of the truck that lugs it around from location to location and he opens the door, sits, gets filmed get…

Also those shows where they view three houses, then buy one, all in the same week : in reality the producers find someone who has just bought a house, then they make the show using that house and two other random houses, and lo and behold they find a house they like!

Oh dang, for real? That's super weak if true! Also, no wonder they have hundreds of episodes... I'd be curious if you have any links/etc. on the subject to share!

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#28

Post by mongol »

jedberg wrote: post #23
bambax wrote: post #8

In short, we are now using billionaires instead of dogs to test spaceships. I would argue that's progress.

Credit to Musk here for being smart enough not to get in one of his own rockets (yet).

Is that really to his credit though? Should he not be prepared to risk his own life, just like those of his employees?

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#29

Post by Invictus0 »

mc32 wrote: post #11
bigtones wrote: post #2

Brilliant well written article. Not without bias, but you can see through the words on the page and into the immense pressure that team at Virgin Galactic must have been under to get their boss into space and to beat Bezos, all for the inflated ego of one man. Branson did put his life on the line to achieve that accolade though, which was a gutsy move.

There are other flaws too. Like pretending to bike to the spaceport on the day of, but it was actually filmed the week before and when called out, they said, oops, you're right, sorry! It's like when Guy Fiery in his hot rod. He pretends he rolls up to the place in his 70s hot rod, but actually it's just rolled out of the truck that lugs it around from location to location and he opens the door, sits, gets filmed get…

> It's like when Guy Fiery in his hot rod.

Better than driving on a real road whilst talking to a camera off to the side, no? Every car scene in every movie and TV show is "fake" too, just so you know.

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#30

Post by krapp »

HPsquared wrote: post #15
krapp wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The egos of the rich fuel the engine of civilization, and the blood of the poor grease its wheels.

I think it's a bigger category: the egos of the powerful. The rich are a subset.

I can't think of anyone powerful enough who isn't also rich. Although "rich" is a vaguely defined term. There still to me seems to be a direct relationship between money and power - billionaires can push the world further than millionaires, than the upper class, etc.
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