Elon Musk now owns 9.2% of twitter...update.. will soon be the sole owner as Board of Directors accepts his purchase offer

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Pens1566

Lifer
Oct 11, 2005
11,480
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To be fair what have Musk/SpaceX invented that improves lives of common folk?
The going through flippable rockets and a new engine design, best case I can think of is starlink… and satellite connectivity is not really “new” is it?
Ill argue the SpaceX’s eureka moment is still in the future.

This is where I'm at. To date, they've produced nothing that is anywhere near the level of advancement, scientifically speaking, as things the early space program did.
 

Heartbreaker

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2006
4,222
5,224
136
I like science fiction, indeed used to be a huge fan of the genre as an adolescent geek, but I'm starting to think that maybe as a genre it has problematic elements to it, encouraging a kind of irresponsible blind optimism, of both a left and right-wing form.

I find most popular Science Fiction, is really Fantasy with Space Ships, Robots, and/or Time Travel.

There is very little hard Science Fiction that has a basis in reality.
 

fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
83,717
47,403
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I find most popular Science Fiction, is really Fantasy with Space Ships, Robots, and/or Time Travel.

There is very little hard Science Fiction that has a basis in reality.
I agree - like I love how Star Trek gets around the idea that all their maneuvering would instantly turn the crew to paste inside the ship by having 'inertial dampers'. Great idea, let's just get rid of inertia!

The only series I can think of that attempts to engage with real physics in any way is The Expanse, which is both a good show and a good book series!
 
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Heartbreaker

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2006
4,222
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I agree - like I love how Star Trek gets around the idea that all their maneuvering would instantly turn the crew to paste inside the ship by having 'inertial dampers'. Great idea, let's just get rid of inertia!

The only series I can think of that attempts to engage with real physics in any way is The Expanse, which is both a good show and a good book series!

Yeah, Star Trek has too many magic tropes that bogs it down. It was fun when I was a kid, but now I wish it would go away and make room for more grounded SciFi.

The Expanse was refreshing. Physics based space travel, including inertia, projectile and missile weapons. No Teleporters, No replicators, No Time Travel (pet peeve), No parallel dimensions with the same people, but everyone has a goatee, and is evil.
 

Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
14,452
9,837
136
This is where I'm at. To date, they've produced nothing that is anywhere near the level of advancement, scientifically speaking, as things the early space program did.
This is generally how technology works... But true reusability is a very big deal.
 

uclaLabrat

Diamond Member
Aug 2, 2007
5,537
2,834
136
Honestly this gets me more than any of the decisions themselves, although I largely abhor those as well.

The intellectual dishonesty and inconsistency (feature not a bug) is infuriating and frankly disgusting.
I mean it has to be dishonest, illogical and disingenuous; theyre torturing logic becuase the pre-determined result they're trying to get to doesnt follow logically from the premises of freedom and privacy that theyre using as their framework. Their strategy seems to be using a lot of small, bad arguments instead of a few glaringly obviously wrong ones.

Guess it makes it easier to sell to the rubes.
 
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cytg111

Lifer
Mar 17, 2008
23,047
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I agree - like I love how Star Trek gets around the idea that all their maneuvering would instantly turn the crew to paste inside the ship by having 'inertial dampers'. Great idea, let's just get rid of inertia!

The only series I can think of that attempts to engage with real physics in any way is The Expanse, which is both a good show and a good book series!

That is not really fair, Star Trek is from back when TV sets were like ... black'n white and the idea of special effects is dangling a cotton ball from a fishing line. I mean, it hurts mey eyes too, say, take the newest of the Star Wars franchise, they're still maneuvering space like they're gliding on air.

The Expanse is by far my favorite modern take on science fiction... I mean, well, minus the whole proto molecule thing, how "science fiction" is The Expanse really?
 

pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
12,972
7,891
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I find most popular Science Fiction, is really Fantasy with Space Ships, Robots, and/or Time Travel.

There is very little hard Science Fiction that has a basis in reality.


I think that's a slightly different point - though it's also a valid one. The poor 'science' in a lot of what passes for science fiction (really, space opera) is sometimes irritating in itself, and maybe shades into the wider point as well - issues that get handwaved over via fantasy Unobtanium-based tech are quite likely to turn out to be deal-breakers in reality.

But I was thinking more about the poor sociology and politics in a lot of SF, i.e. that it encourages the idea that technological fixes will overcome what are are really social problems, while neglecting the new such problems technology could create.

It's just a state-of-mind as much as anything, that is the problem, a kind of excessive optimism that some of these techno-evangelists seem to have. Of course some SF does the exact opposite, emphasising those new problems to a extreme degree, but usually that involves being quite explicit about the political or satirical intent. The blind optimism seems to get smuggled-in, in a more insidious way.
 

MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
21,004
19,442
136
Yeah, Star Trek has too many magic tropes that bogs it down. It was fun when I was a kid, but now I wish it would go away and make room for more grounded SciFi.

The Expanse was refreshing. Physics based space travel, including inertia, projectile and missile weapons. No Teleporters, No replicators, No Time Travel (pet peeve), No parallel dimensions with the same people, but everyone has a goatee, and is evil.

The point of all sci-fi is not to be realistic, but to also be able to create an explorative canvas upon which the entireties of the human condition can be examined and parsed and enjoyed and laughed at or cried at or whatever - whether it is a mix of phantasmagorical or realistic or both.
 

cytg111

Lifer
Mar 17, 2008
23,047
12,715
136
I find most popular Science Fiction, is really Fantasy with Space Ships, Robots, and/or Time Travel.

There is very little hard Science Fiction that has a basis in reality.

Science fiction is just extrapolating the evolution of science applied to tomorrow. To deny a basis in reality of science fiction would thus be to deny the reality of today. Makes no sense.
 

Heartbreaker

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2006
4,222
5,224
136
Science fiction is just extrapolating the evolution of science applied to tomorrow. To deny a basis in reality of science fiction would thus be to deny the reality of today. Makes no sense.

Hard Science Fiction is based on reality, and plausible extrapolation of current science and engineering.

Adding space ships, and robots to Fantasy, doesn't mean it's an evolution of Science.

See every Marvel Superhero Movie. It's pretty much all Magic, with SciFi dressing, as is Star Trek.
 

Paratus

Lifer
Jun 4, 2004
16,613
13,296
146
I agree - like I love how Star Trek gets around the idea that all their maneuvering would instantly turn the crew to paste inside the ship by having 'inertial dampers'. Great idea, let's just get rid of inertia!

The only series I can think of that attempts to engage with real physics in any way is The Expanse, which is both a good show and a good book series!
Now technically speaking an Alcubierre Warp Drive which does conform to General Relativity wouldn’t impart any acceleration on the crew as it maintains a bubble of flat space-time where the ship sits. No time dilation either.

Now where to find that exotic matter or negative pressure that makes the whole thing possible.
 

Heartbreaker

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2006
4,222
5,224
136
The point of all sci-fi is not to be realistic, but to also be able to create an explorative canvas upon which the entireties of the human condition can be examined and parsed and enjoyed and laughed at or cried at or whatever - whether it is a mix of phantasmagorical or realistic or both.

I lean toward the Ray Bradbury Definition.

"Science fiction as the art of the possible. Fantasy is the art of the impossible."

So when you have sword fighting wizards, with telekinesis, mind control, and the power to shoot lighting out their hands, that's Fantasy, even if they fly around in space ships and have laser swords, and ray guns.

Trappings don't make it Science Fiction, it's absurdities make it Fantasy.
 

fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
83,717
47,403
136
Now technically speaking an Alcubierre Warp Drive which does conform to General Relativity wouldn’t impart any acceleration on the crew as it maintains a bubble of flat space-time where the ship sits. No time dilation either.

Now where to find that exotic matter or negative pressure that makes the whole thing possible.
I was thinking more impulse power as that level of acceleration is more than enough to turn the crew into chunky salsa.
 
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kt

Diamond Member
Apr 1, 2000
6,015
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So. Maybe his intellect caught up with his 14yo emotions...


(also, this reuters is 10 days old, so not like it suddenly popped up... someone looking for an xcuse...)
What's next? Musk will insist the acquisition payment will be paid out with Dogecoin only.
 
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alien42

Lifer
Nov 28, 2004
12,627
3,014
136
Twitter's market cap is now $12 billion below Musk's $44 billion purchase price. He really should stick to electric cars and rockets.
 

Heartbreaker

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2006
4,222
5,224
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He should stick to shit-posting on platforms he doesn't own.

Some speculation is that he is planning to renegotiate a lower price, so the shit posting might help with that.

cCVqHor.png
 
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Pens1566

Lifer
Oct 11, 2005
11,480
7,883
136
Some speculation is that he is planning to renegotiate a lower price, so the shit posting might help with that.

cCVqHor.png

Oh, I think it's all part of a manipulation scheme to both raise TSLA and devalue Twitter at the same time.
 

cytg111

Lifer
Mar 17, 2008
23,047
12,715
136
Hard Science Fiction is based on reality, and plausible extrapolation of current science and engineering.

Adding space ships, and robots to Fantasy, doesn't mean it's an evolution of Science.

See every Marvel Superhero Movie. It's pretty much all Magic, with SciFi dressing, as is Star Trek.
I dont know dude, I think you're saying it out loud yourself, the magic stuff aint scifi.
Only Marvel thing that comes to mind as science fiction-ISH is Guardians of the Galaxy.