[ExI] Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> 
Subject: Re: [ExI] Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley

 

On Sat, Oct 25, 2025 at 8:33 AM <spike at rainier66.com <mailto:spike at rainier66.com> > wrote:

 

>>… The wind turbines become the secure source [Of rare earths]

 

>…I think that would be a very bad idea. The one huge advantage that China has over the US in the AI race is that their electrical generating capacity is over twice as large as that of the US. And China has been increasing its electrical capacity by nearly 15% a year, and it's been increasing its wind generating capacity by nearly 18% a year. But the US electrical generating capacity has been virtually static for the last decade, zero growth.  

 

John K Clark

 

 

 

Sure but for tax advantages, wind turbines have been placed in locations which are sub-optimal and don’t really generate enough power to break even.  A cross country plane flight reveals apparently bankrupt wind farms, with wind turbines which are out of service, perhaps from a lighting strike.  If we really need rare earth metals, those would be an excellent source.  

 

Telsa uses REEs in their electric motors, so they must have a reserve somewhere.  So have Nvidia buy Elon’s REEs, make all the chips and F18s we need with just the REEs from a few defunct turbines and Telsa electric cars (which are in an unexpectedly flat market anyway.)  We really don’t need much of the REEs to make either the chips or the fighter planes, and there were good EVs before the slight improvement REEs gave to electric motors.  

 

F18s?  Do we really need more of those?  I think not: we are in the age of drones and AI warfare.  Fighter planes are already obsolete.

 

spike

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com <mailto:hkeithhenson at gmail.com> > 
...
>
> If anything super important is being held up, we can mine the permanent magnets in wind turbines.

>...I could not say.  I don't have a bill of materials for either an F35 or a windmill.  However, magnets are not the only use of REs in high-tech defense hardware.  The engineers should never have been permitted to design in materials that did not have a secure source... Keith

The wind turbines become the secure source.  Once one flies across the USA and realizes how damn many of those things have been planted over the years, you realize there is no real shortage of material, regardless of what China does.  There are pleeeeeenty of idle turbines, plenty.  Most of them are not generating enough power to bother keeping them.  Peak power happened during the most active turbine building phase.

spike







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