Since it was short I allowed myself to watch Musk's speech at Trump's inauguration, partially to assess his Nazi salute, which did look suspiciously Aryan. His only defense is that he didn't hold it for a second or so, like Nazis were wont to do. But still, there were a wide range of things he could have done with his hands to express enthusiasm, most of them would have offended nobody. For a guy so smart in many ways, he is often a fucking idiot.
A more substantive beef with what he says came at the end, when he exhorts us all to join him in his excitement about going to Mars, to "have some ambition." OK, sure, ambition. But I am far from convinced we should share this ambition with him. I am reminded of William Shatner's comments on actually going into space after being identified for his whole life as the space adventurer Captain Kirk. He spoke of feeling profound grief upon realizing that the Earth represented life and space death.
Musk's idea of going to Mars revolves not just around the romance of it but is based on the assumption that we trash Earth. So isn't it a far nobler and much tougher goal to save the Earth? There is the environmental component to that, yes, and Musk has made huge contributions with Tesla's cars and battery tech. But there's also the diplomatic and political side of helping humans find ways to coexist. It is a much tougher challenge, to my way of thinking, then building a bunch of rockets. It is not the type of ambition prized by the imperial mind of the Tech Male, but it is in fact what we need.
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