[ExI] [Extropolis] Crosspost

[Keith Henson]

On Sat, Apr 12, 2025 at 12:28 PM John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Sat, Apr 12, 2025 at 12:22 PM Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> > I am not quite as much of a Musk fan as Howard (Bloom) because I think
>> space mining and O'Neill cylinders are a better idea than Mars.
>
> I strongly agree, although the exponential improvement in AI may render both Mars and O'Neill cylinders irrelevant,

True.  Not long ago I projected humans taking an upload and speed up
future.  If what we are seeing is the shadows of data centers, they
did not take a "sink in the ocean for cooling" and "make small for
short communication delay" approach.
http://hplusmagazine.com/2012/04/12/transhumanism-and-the-human-expansion-into-space-a-conflict-with-physics/

The structures (if they are structures) are 1.5 light seconds across.
That implies that their subjective perception of time is about the
same as we use (again if there are any aliens).

> and may do so before the end of the Trump administration.

Maybe.  But as fast as things are moving up the exponential curve, I
don't think it will happen that fast.

> And Musk loves Bitcoin, I thought it was a pretty neat idea too when it first came out in 2009, but now it's pretty clear it was a failed experiment; the only thing you can actually do with a bitcoin is to use it to buy illegal drugs, pay off blackmailers and kidnappers, and sell it so you can get real money.

I think the biggest "market" for bitcoin is people trying to hide
assets from the government.

> And even the simplest transaction with bitcoin needs to use an obscene amount of electricity and state of the art computer chips that could be put to a much better use in AI. So my admiration of Elon musk has decreased about two orders of magnitude over the last two years.
>
>>
>> > Unfortunately, Musk's venture into politics has done enormous damage to his EV business
>
>
> It's ironic that a year ago the most enthusiastic buyers of Teslas tended to be on the liberal side, but now they hate Musk's guts and feel embarrassed to drive one of his cars. Trump's ridiculously high tariffs will enormously harm his EV business but it will harm his competitors even more, so he may be OK with that.

Hard to say, the policy is not fixed yet.  On the other hand, the
uncertainty has frozen business planning.

Keith

>> > and I worry about it making such a mess of the US that it wrecks SpaceX.
>
>
> It's almost a law of nature that anybody who gets close to Trump gets burned, they seem to end up impoverished, disgraced or jailed.
>
>   John K Clark    See what's on my new list at  Extropolis
> jid
>
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