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Branson, Bezos take a hop but NOT Musk

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by bwilson4web, Jul 12, 2021.

  1. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    Trouble is....people have this crazy idea that they get to spend their money on stuff that THEY want to spend it on.
    Branson especially, already gets shaken down especially thoroughly by tax mongers - which is why he is merely a 'single-digit' billionaire instead of the three-digit kind we grow here in America.
    Perhaps in addition to a UBI we also need to force people into a MAW - or Maximum Allowable Wealth.

    Virgin Galactic reportedly has 600 potential paying passengers, one of which is Elon.
    Under 50-miles they're regulated by the FAA, and since that's sorta where the "space-flight" starts, then we already have dot.gov oversight.
    If somebody "special" gets turned into raspberry jam, then it will probably impact the launch schedule - for VG.
    There's still Blue Origin...and Elon's various enterprises.
    Failing all of that, we still have dot.gov.

    Simply put - I don't think that ANOTHER crew-loss accident will do anything more than the last one did.....or the one before that.....or.....

    Yeah.
    His fanboyz are a little rough, but that's the 2020's for you.
    Say something off-putting about Fauchi, vaccines, any political figure, girl's locker rooms, voter-ID, or the American Civil War and you'll get basically the same reaction.

    If you think MUSK is a prickly pear with a lot of side hustles, you ought to see some of the stuff Edison did 100 years ago....including home movies featuring air-fried pachyderms in New York's Coney Island.
    Now?
    We have hotdog eating contests there that kill dozens, maybe HUNDREDS of pigs instead of just one "special" animal, and other than PITA....and maybe the same bored "world hunger" activists, nobody really cares.

    Yes.
    We're THAT species.....
     
    #21 ETC(SS), Jul 14, 2021
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2021
  2. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    When the head of a publicly traded company indulges in space travel, what happens to their stock value? Not much?
     
  3. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    Pends on how the flight goes.
     
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  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i was concerned about apple...
     
  5. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Which part?
     
  6. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    finding somewhere else in the universe to live. when earth is no longer inhabitable, we will become another part of history
     
  7. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    I don't give up that easily. Just because we lack the technology and economic resources to do it now, doesn't mean that we will always be lacking.
     
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  8. John Dadmun

    John Dadmun Junior Member

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    Branson's rocket plane has pilots that literally 'fly' it into space, and then 'fly' it back into the atmosphere, it is not an autonomous vehicle where people are merely passengers - serious coolness factor there. As with reading sci-f, it is fun imagining being at the controls of a craft exiting our atmosphere and SpaceShipTwo has those controls. As for 'going to space' in general though - we're already there. How can people can get so worked up about going somewhere that they already are...
     
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  9. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    who is worked up?
     
  10. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    if we can figure out how to escape the coming doom, we might be able to figure out how to prevent it
     
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  11. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    Not if we stay locked in the bedroom.....
     
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  12. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    Leaving the Earth is a lot easier than keeping the Sun from going red giant.
     
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  13. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    The earth will have rid itself of its primate infestation long before that furnace runs low on fuel, and statistically speaking it's not going to happen because people didn't buy enough Priuses or solar panels.

    Any of a number of things that have already happened a number of times will probably do it - that or the bus we don't see coming. ;)
     
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  14. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    leaving earth is the easy part
     
  15. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    ... All the more reason to be working towards this now, before those things have excessive opportunity to creep up and blindside us.

    And with evolution continuing, I don't necessarily expect we'd recognize our descendants by the time the colonial missions and exodus get going.

    We may have to build some destinations from scratch.
     
  16. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    Thoughts:
    • Crisper - modify species to extend our biological environment range
    • Education - figure out how to make other places habitable
    Let’s call it a species IQ test.

    Bob Wilson
     
  17. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Birth control?
     
  18. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    Adaptability - something we were specifically designed with......
     
  19. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    WALL-E
     
  20. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    Won't help against a gamma ray burst, massive solar flare, asteroid, super volcano, etc.. The things we can mitigate, we should, but there is plenty that we can't. Spreading out is the only solution to those.
     
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