Alan Blake

I like games, science, the wilderness, history, and architecture.

I dislike bigots, idiots, and superstition.

Ceterum censeo, Moscoviam esse delendam.

[Alan Blake @AlanDBlake]

@EricTheEpic0403 @DonaldMills142 @nickmmark Yeah, I got the wrong number on that. But even if the launches were free, the satellites would still be more expensive than Earth-based centers, and have other problems besides that.

And it's assuming that Starship will even work as intended. Which I hope it will.

[Alan Blake @AlanDBlake]

@ShitpostRock2 @ProbablyNice Lær deg norsk, eller flytt tilbake til der du stammer fra.

Det er en skam at mennesker som ikke en gang kan lese og skrive ordentlig likevel kan stemme.

Vi burde kanskje ha obligatoriske IQ-tester for å ekskludere "folk" som deg, med særlig lav IQ, fra å stemme.

[Alan Blake @AlanDBlake]

@PMBY89 @JosephKBennett @keewa He can still be deeply miserable.

When nothing is ever enough, people are miserable despite having so much more than they need.

[Alan Blake @AlanDBlake]

@JosephKBennett @keewa He probably wants to select the sex of his kids so he can have boys, since they in turn can impregnate a lot of women to maximally disperse his genes.

He probably believes his genes are superior, or he just wants to be the father of humanity after the next calamity or something.

[Alan Blake @AlanDBlake]

@Nguyen_anime3 Here's a fun fact about Elon's Mars project: His name is from a book by Wernher von Braun, where "the Elon" is the title of the ruler of Mars.

That probably tells you everything you need to know about Elon's Mars dreams.

[Alan Blake @AlanDBlake]

@DonaldMills142 @AE30001Line @nickmmark Nah, that's wrong. Those numbers are speculative at best, Elon promises at worst. The sources the AI cited for those numbers was speculation in Reddit threads. They are also hoped-for marginal costs, not full costs.

We'll see when Starship stops exploding all the time.

[Alan Blake @AlanDBlake]

@AE30001Line @DonaldMills142 @nickmmark I just asked Google. The AI-generated answer was $10m to $12m per MW, with medium-sized data center power at 5-10 MW. Other queries provided the cost ($5-8m) per SpaceX AI mini satellite, the capacity (100KW), the number per launch (~38), and the Starship launch cost ($90m).

[Alan Blake @AlanDBlake]

@DonaldMills142 @nickmmark So in conclusion, there's no economic case for these satellites being useful in the near term, except for possibly some space-based niche applications, like using them for a Mars base.

Reality simply bars this dreamy nonsense at the moment.

It's just a scam to bait morons.

[Alan Blake @AlanDBlake]

@DonaldMills142 @nickmmark So that's ~$430-1,070m for space-based data center capacity that takes ~$50-120m to build on Earth.

It could be argued that solar power is free, but then, those satellites won't be repairable or upgradeable.

And would probably potentially cause other issues as well.

[Alan Blake @AlanDBlake]

@DonaldMills142 @nickmmark You probably failed physics in school. Besides lacking common sense.

To put a single medium-sized data center in space would require multiple times more launches than all Starlink satellites up there combined.

[Alan Blake @AlanDBlake]

@gailcweiner Common mistake borne out of hubris.

They think they are very smart, so they assume most people are very stupid.

Most people *are* very stupid, it's just that the tech oligarchs themselves are also most people, not a special breed of geniuses.

[Alan Blake @AlanDBlake]

@WASWEJEFF @JayHightmanJr The cannons, guns, and rockets would all be gold-trimmed, though.

At least one of then cars too, like in The Dictator.

[Alan Blake @AlanDBlake]

@cigar_mild @JayHightmanJr Yeah, he has a long history of building tawdry third-world dictator chic stuff and cheap casinos.

Like, his White House interior decorations are hideous, with garish gold trim everywhere. Like he's trying to cosplay as Saddam Hussein without the horrible mustache.

[Alan Blake @AlanDBlake]

@tje1008 @JayHightmanJr Since you seem to care so much about it, but won't publicly express your secret desire, yes, her cock is huge. Now you can think about that all day, like you normally do.

[Alan Blake @AlanDBlake]

@KMiksovsky @AddictedtoArg @AthletesInSpace @degenutz That's just the most high-profile stuff. AI and unproven "future" stuff or the latest con, like Theranos or FTX.

The majority of stocks are boring and generally valued around reasonably predictable P/E ratios. Bonds produce predictable, steady returns.

[Alan Blake @AlanDBlake]

@HeraldOfRome I guess the logic is that the ethnic/cultural composition of the area had already changed before, with older peoples becoming assimilated Greek-speakers, so the Turks coming was just one more change in a series of changes.

[Alan Blake @AlanDBlake]

@KMiksovsky @AddictedtoArg @AthletesInSpace @degenutz That's because there's no expiration clause on a cult-like belief. I wouldn't put money on Scientology collapsing soon either, but that is probably on a sounder footing.

Either way, there's no sane way to short the stocks, as long as they are valued on widespread irrationality.

[Alan Blake @AlanDBlake]

@KMiksovsky @AddictedtoArg @AthletesInSpace @degenutz Oh, he's accomplished a lot. He just isn't nearly as smart as he likes to pretend. He had a whole PR campaign to present himself as a genius, and that's the basis of his cult now.

His companies do have real value. They just aren't actually as valuable as their stock price.

[Alan Blake @AlanDBlake]

@KMiksovsky @AddictedtoArg @AthletesInSpace @degenutz Yes, this is true. The problem is that at some point, reality has a way of reasserting itself. A stock built on belief will meet reality once that belief falters. The question is when it will happen.

That goes for Elon's stocks and AI stocks more in general.