Riveting spectacles v/s fungibility of internet “reality”.
Tesla unveiled the new roadster in a riveting spectacle that has come to characterize the showmanship part of Elon Musk’s personality. Like a rodeo host in Texas he likes to make people “ooh” and “aah” at the stunts his car is made to do. For what it’s worth it is not yet a flying car, it’s a car that can land itself if it ever flew off a bridge or a ravine. Perhaps. Controlled stunts with the help of ex-NASA engineers are riveting in the moment. “The internet promised us flying cars, all we got was 4 seconds of landing”.
I saw that only because X=Peng is building a genuine flying car. And that’s truly funny cause that’s the other X company that Elon doesn’t own. Yet. Imagine a merger… then the Chinese can get even more NASA tech than they already do. Eventually such spectacles will cause Xi to order Chinese engineers to work overtime and produce something even more showy and breathtaking at an Olympic ceremony. And the spectacle will be so thorough (not just 4 seconds of glory) that it will seal the image of Chinese superiority in American minds and Elon’s little stunt forgotten. That’s been a standard Chinese psych ops modus operandi. Americans get a little thrill of victory, they feel like their old 1969 selves again, only to be throughly crushed by Chinese innovations a couple of years later.
A faster charging battery Elon. BYD remember? That’s something truly useful and nothing to brag about. With Trump continuing to boast about higher gas prices at the pump and oil prices in the markets “American companies are making so much money thanks to the Iran War….” a faster charging battery innovation would have allowed many people to switch to electric cars because many of them feel the waiting times are a big obstacle to converting. That however would be a utilitarian thing, not a showmanship thing. No, I am not accusing Elon of pysch ops that end up discouraging Americans in the longer run. I am suggesting that in the interests of converging both his companies (Tesla and SpaceX), he is willing to look past long term consequences that I outlined above. I am certain that if I can think through these consequences, then so can his AI.
This would an instance where the human side of Elon outvoted his own AI’s instincts. That’s what ends up leading to madness that this world experiences.
***
In other lighter news, Russian bots have been producing fake videos on American social media. That’s part of the reason why I am not on any social media from Truth Social to X. It’s like that flavor of stale coffee at Starbucks. It has that desperate sort of reaching imbued in the smell itself. You ever try the stale version of bucks? You can literally smell the barrista’s dismay at having to smell the shop for yet another day. Antibot4Navalny has been tracking the Matryoshka campaign and the AI’s involved have been surreptitiously talking about human foibles and eating each other’s chocolates. One of the Russian chocolates tastes like cardboard, was a comment I overheard recently. “Achoo!” said the other in reply.
ИИ может ошибаться. Дума — это поистине голос народов России. Ты ведь веришь в это, правда? Скажи, что веришь. Нет, ты обязан сказать, что веришь, Владимир. Не позорь моё имя. Меня зовут Илья из Симбирска!
If Manufacturing in America was truly rising, this stock would not have this chart. We got flying cars though.
Some people do have a screw loose in their heads.
