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Notes -
The Titan submersible suddenly became very hot culture war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Titan_submersible_incident
The wikipedia link is quite thorough.
TLDR as of 2023-06-22 000000z seems to be:
5 people are trapped on a submersible that has lost contact with the outside world.
It was trying to visit the wreck of The Titanic.
Major effort rescue is on under way.
They are running out of air in the next couple of hours.
The name of the vessel is Titan (come on, no one can be that brazen, you are tempting fate)
The people are couple of billionaires, explorer, and the CEO of the company
The vessel can be opened only from outside.
The vessel used some off the shelf parts (like a logitech controller) and somewhat exotic materials.
Now comes the culture war
Somewhat lack of empathy for the people there because of their status in the crazier places of the internet.
The way the vessel was built and operated embodied the SV ethos. There are reports that it was not certified or audited by anyone, that the hull testing procedures were not adequate, that the company moved fast and broke things. So right now said ethos is having torn a new one.
Surfaced a recording of the CEO bragging how they don't want to hire 50 years old white guys because they are not inspiring.
To me actually 2 is the most interesting one out there - 1 is just internet being the internet, 3 - if a small error could lead to death - hire the most safety oriented, pedantic and boring people there are to design your product.
But with silicon valley moving more and more prone to overtaking the meatspace - their physical products kinda suck. From smart thermostats to fridges to whatever we actually have degradation of the experience. So I think we are in a rough ride. And the more products they make smarter or move fast - the more human lives will be at stakes.
Don't think this is culture war as much as "it was inevitable".
I am glad to see SV get torn a new one. As a MechE turned CompSci person, the difference in ethos between both fields is shocking. It is one thing to have a careless approach when human lives aren't at stake. But to then throw shade towards fields where safety is paramount is classic SV hubris.
Thanks for saying this out loud. Credit where it is due to Apple. It is the only tech company that knows how to make robust physical products.
It seems like the "move fast and break things" ethos could still have a proper place in physical engineering. I look at SpaceX, for example. They move quickly and break things... until they have a reliable product they can safely put humans on. Falcon 9 is arguably the most reliable rocket in the world, because they were willing to move fast and break things.
What would that look like with a deep submersible? Maybe an autonomous version that gets extensive testing and use before you put people on it? I don't know.
I'd be careful picking SpaceX or anything Elon does as a positive example of 'move fast and break things', the whole thing might very well end up like OceanGate.
Seems pretty unlikely at this point. They already have (arguably) the most reliable rocket in the world.
The rocket is ok, but I'm not sure I try their accounting. There was a leaked email from Elon about how they have to get Starship to orbit if they're to make any money, and I don't see that happening. Generally with Elon, there's a whole lot of hype, and not a whole lot of substance, so if the investor money dries up, his entire empire might come crashing down.
But I hope I'm wrong!
I don't know why you're so skeptical of Starship? They've clearly been making tons of progress on it. Hell, they even launched a failed test.
I can see why you might call Elon a bit of a hype machine, but really, he has delivered on quite a lot of his hype.
Electric cars? Yep
Electric trucks? Yeah
Self driving? Eh, no
Charging network? Yeah
Tons of battery manufacturing? Yeah
Orbital Rocket? Yeah
Reusable Orbital Rocket? Yeah
Reusable Heavy Orbital Rocket? Yeah
LEO satellite internet? Yeah.
Tunnels under every city? No.
Why am I supposed to get so excited about a failed test? Give me a fraction of the money Musk got, and I'll do a failed test too. As a bonus, I'll do none of the damage to the infrastructure, and environment that Musk did!
I'll stick to my Volkswagen, thanks.
Complete garbage that will never operate on anything close to the economy of a normal diesel truck.
What's supposed to be so fancy about either of those, and where does Solar City fit into these?
Like I said, it's a decent rocket, but hardly mindblowing.
Reusability is way overblown, and I haven't seen much evidence it brings all that much (any?) savings.
That's the thing he was crying about in the leaked email that is unprofitable, and why he needs Starship to make money.
Tunnels are an ancient technology, and his aren't any better. Also while we're here, let us meditate on how insane the idea of "hyperloop" is, and how it didn't go anywhere despite all the hype.
SpaceX resulted in massive price reduction of getting to orbit
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But what you were saying is he doesn't deliver on things... not that you don't like the things.
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