131–140 of 175 posts
I'm always surprised that more billionaires don't try interesting off the wall projects when they have so much money. What's the fun of having it, if you can't have the occasional mad scientist moment.
Anyone have a list of billionaire futurists?
I'm always surprised that more billionaires don't try interesting off the wall projects when they have so much money. What's the fun of having it, if you can't have the occasional mad scientist moment.
It's rare that the creative types end up being billionaires. Note that even Steve Jobs was kicked out of his own company, and then later only barely squeaked into the CEO slot, and only because the company was about dead anyway. He'd never have gotten the job if Skulley hadn't screwed things up quite so bad.
Here's a description of the closest guess Elon has seen so far. https://twitter.com/John_Gardi/status/356798172842049536
Is it an enclosed tube or just a special road that cars float on?
This is essentially a vac-train, except instead of a vacuum, the air in the tube is propelled along with the pod.
There will be friction, but only between the air and the inside of the tube. I imagine there'll need to be some kind of "repeaters" to counter-act energy loss, but with so little loss, they could probably be solar-powered; which I think Elon alluded to.
I'm always surprised that more billionaires don't try interesting off the wall projects when they have so much money. What's the fun of having it, if you can't have the occasional mad scientist moment.
I'm more surprised that more billionaires don't build crazy monuments of themselves or just some crazy ones with their name on it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There was that recent PR article that made the rounds here last week from some company allegedly developing an evacuated tube based system that was written in a way to imply they were working on Musk's idea. I would not at all be surprised if he's a little miffed about that and has decided to just get everything out there. Given that they may not actually be working on what he specifically has in mind, there is a ris…
is this the company you are referring to? http://www.et3.com/
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's rare that the creative types end up being billionaires. Note that even Steve Jobs was kicked out of his own company, and then later only barely squeaked into the CEO slot, and only because the company was about dead anyway. He'd never have gotten the job if Skulley hadn't screwed things up quite so bad.
Yes, although I feel the need to point out Jobs wasn't the genius behind Apple in the early years, it was Wozniak. Different time, different man.
“I was so close to Steve Jobs I could never really see the transition,” Wozniak said. “I just wanted to be in engineering only – I never wanted to run a company, never wanted to run things, step on other people – Steve very clearly did, and wanted to be a top executive and a really important thinker in the world.”[1]
[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8956282/Steve-Woz...
Classy! https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/356779314043305985 "I really hate patents unless critical to company survival. Will publish Hyperloop as open source."
Of course, I'm sure he's well aware of these issues.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
European attitudes to public transport are certainly more receptive than those in the US. However, European attitudes to big infrastructure projects are a lot more NIMBYish. Asia could be good but then they are quite advanced with high-speed public transport anyways. Plus, Elon doesn't live in Europe or Asia, so why would he?
Europeans have problems with NIMBY, but not nearly to the extent that the US does. It takes about 1/5 as much money to construct a mile of track in France as in the US, and 1/10 in Spain. My guess is that part of the point of the Hyperloop is to get around land use restrictions by going over them, and the largest payoff for that would be in the US where conventional land-based transport is hardest.
Here's a description of the closest guess Elon has seen so far. https://twitter.com/John_Gardi/status/356798172842049536
To save someone else digging through 4 layers of Twitter/Twitpic attribution and "full size" buttons: http://twitpic.com/cw4pqb/full
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You would be surprised at how many medicines on the market compare effectivity to placebo. It's mostly done in instances where there is a chance that the drug may not even work. By comparing it to a placebo, you're as close to as you can be to leveling the playing field to show it is more effective than doing nothing.
ofcourse this claim also included the wonderful phrase: "Up-to " implying that several trials were not so effetive