this post was submitted on 12 May 2024
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Neuralink has a technology that specifically addresses two of the main issues with BCI: data density, and implant effective duration.
There are more issues, but it addresses those two in particular, which is something quite interesting to see, and can be turned into patents that can be sold to other BCI initiatives.
The rest of Musk is... well, he's kind of an "unstable genius", with enough money to blow on random moonshots, marketing stunts, and random publicity. Honestly, if I had his money, I'd probably do the same: build a few core businesses, then go on tangents to see what sticks to the wall. It can all still be seen under the general theme of "colonizing Mars" though, which is a guiding starshot as good as any, with Hyperloop and Boring company having kind of exhausted what can be done on Earth, Tesla being a borderline failure, SpaceX, StarLink, or indoor farming working pretty well, and X being an experiment at social manipulation.
Taking his ethics and actions out of the equation for a second -- I would have no issues with his businesses weren't scamming states out of legitimate transportation and fucking with people just because he could.
While dangerous, I'm not really against the idea of selling flamethrowers, kind of. It is kind of the American right, which may be dumb, but fuck if I have anything to say about it. And while it produces a lot of space junk, I'm not against Starlink or SpaceX. especially the former since it does do a lot of good. Coverage in the middle of the U.S. is not good, and anything more is good.
Ultimately what it comes down to is the fact that the more money tends to side on less regulation, and reintroducing ethics and actions into the mix he is abusing that. The flamethrower ploy could have been snark against the United States for not having regulation on that (if it were something that were actually important, that may have mattered...), and similarly the Hyperloop scheme could have been some form of commentary on how easy it is for a billionaire to manipulate voters with obvious pipe-dreams, then gone ahead with the high speed train plan.
Instead, he gets butthurt and lashes out. I know we're on the same page, if anything I'm disappointed specifically because he is in a position to be doing a lot of good, has convinced some people that he is.