Elon Musk is a twat

[SerendipityJane]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/07/elon-musk-women-testosterone

He is academically bright but he's not as clever as he thinks he is, narcissists never are. The fact that he hasn't worked out what's socially acceptable in 53 years is proof of that! We shouldn't give him a free pass just because he has autism.

Can you explain how those particular ventures alone have changed the world for a better by incredible margins?

The biggest effect most average people have from him is how X now functions.

I often wonder what humanity would be like if all of us had access to the wealth of the likes of Musk. Endless money to invest makes inventing things much easier.

Yes.

electric cars have become a thing g. Without them ford and VW would never have made electrics. Reducing co2 emissions by a staggering amount

starlknk has brought high speed communication to anyone anywhere in the planet for about £50 a month meaning humanity can stay connected wherever they are reducing pressure on cities and enabling better democratic engagement

soaceX has reduced the cost to orbit by more than 90% enabling space communication, the moon base and human boots on the ground on Mars

Absolute nonsense.
The prius already existed. There was a consumer segment interested and actively buying electric cars. Musk spotted the trend and used his wealth to invest early.

If he was so interested in humanity he'd be channelling his super brain power to tackling climate change and pollution on a global scale, not earning £££ and planning his space escape when we finally end up in the age of Wall-E

Rewriting history is annoying.

Electric cars are shit unless you have the infrastructure to make them not shit.

So they are shit.

Elon Musk did not invent the electric car. HTH.

In cities and the like, great. Outside of that? eeeeek.

(i say this as someone who doesn't drive at all so no carbon emissions from me before i get accused of hating the planet or whatever)

Humanity would be better serviced if he invested in helping education, food poverty etc.

But no, it's not about 'helping humanity' it's about vanity projects.

Humanity would be better serviced if he invested in helping education, food poverty etc.

So a logical conclusion is he has no interest in helping humanity ... 😀

(Compare and contrast and draw conclusions from how much Bill Gates is spending on trying to eliminate malaria)

exactly.

the children are the future and all that, no point going to Mars if no kids can grow up to do it.

I think his Muskiness intends for the right kids to go to Mars. With right thinking views.

No he did not. What he did was make them commercially viable, cool, good and competition so the other forms took notice. That alone changed the world

This is not absolute nonsense is objective fact. Bad electric cars existed. Nobody bought them they weren’t cool they weren’t fast. Then the model s arrived and changed the car industry permanently forever. This isn’t disputed anywhere.

I'm not sure how much obvious these men need to be than Bezos and his rocket

https://www.washingtonian.com/2021/07/19/jeff-bezos-rocket-launch-what-you-need-to-know/

The "strong man" stereotype is antithetical to feminism

You do know Tesla basically cannibalised an existing electric car (not in production) and a lotus chassis to make the first Tesla don't you?

They are a success story of market capture, not some sort of genius vision.

Most great discoveries are a cleverer and richer than average human being in the right place at the right time, rather than some sort of innate genius.

These dudes are nothing (that) special. They are rich and lucky.

I know an awful lot about Tesla, electric cars, Toyota and agile technology yes. Clearly more than you.

Tesla changed the world, significantly and pushed electric car development forward by at least 25 years. this is not a disputed fact. Everybody stands on the shoulders of others, that's how it works.

It's putting all the elements together into a thing that works on every aspect, performance, price, accessibility, usability, marketing, infrastructure.

Tesla got all of that right, and changed the world.

SpaceX did it as well.

So did StarLink.

You can not like the guy, up to you - but he has changed the world, a lot for the better.

No it would not.

for one - those things are already being dealt with - and shock, they don't change.

However humanity not being a multi planetary species is an existential threat to us.

You can not like it, but that is another, objective fact.

Weird how building out the infrastructure for electric cars, at staggering charging rates (still generally unbeaten by anyone else), and FOR FREE is EXACTLY how Tesla took over and changed the world.

It probably depends what your criteria of "better" means.
I personally don't think ever more tech for affluent countries while global warming/disease increasingly harms less affluent ones, while we are in the middle of a mass extinction, while we are seeing more wars etc is a good thing.

I personally think tech dudebros are in a bit of a circle jerk at the moment.

Bill Gates is much more of an icon to me than Musk

By the "world" do you mean LA?

We need visionaries like Gates, and Musk and Jobs to change the world - some things they do are great, others are less so. They all changed the world for the better.

Cheaper flights to space is objectively good
More, better, safer, less environmentally damaging cars is objectively better
Internet access in the middle of the Sahara for a village school is objectively better

No. the world. Tesla built out an incredibly high speed charging network, for free, across the whole planet. in 2014 a Tesla Model S charged at 120KW, for free. Today they charge at 350KW.

The lamp post charger outside my house, in 2024, charges at 3.6 KW.

How many people in the Democratic Republic of Congo have a Tesla? Or in Tajikistan? Etc etc.

This is a very privileged, tech heavy view of life.