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Notes -
No, no one here wrote how totally and completely deranged Elon Musk is.
What Elon wants? What are his goals?
According what he says, it is to get mankind to Mars and then onward to stars. Nothing else matters, either we make the universe our own or we all die on this dirty mud ball.
He had a good start on his goal, but it is all just first step on journey of ten thousand light years. There is so much to be done.
And what Elon does? He insists on sabotaging himself in the stupidest way possible - by going against all current things, by alienating all powerful and influential people, by messing with things (both culture war and world politics) no one, not even a centi billionaire shouldn't mess with.
Does he sees himself as invincible? Does he think he is irreplaceable part of MIC? Does he thinks he is uncancellable?
If I were Elon? I would paint all my rockets with rainbow and trans colors (+ Ukraine colors after Feb 2022), named them after murdered trans women of color, stood hard against racism and transphobia and followed (and lead) all current things. To preemptively silence all criticism, I would announce my transition at the most opportune time.
All hail Elonia, Queen of Mars!
edit: blue bird links just for illustration
Wouldn't 'supporting the current thing's go against his long term goal?
If he gave an inch by painting the rockets, wouldn't they ask for the mile?
Wouldn't they ask for affirmative action in his rocket engineering teams?
The 'current year' people are apparently debating the ethics of who to put on a rocket.
It seems to me that giving in to these people is a sure way to fail.
If you want to argue that he should do at least the minimum X amount of signaling, then how do we know that this is not dooming the future either?
How many generations of rocket engineers do we hope to breed if we're signaling to this generation that rocket engineering is GAY?
How can we expect honest engineering if the only competent people we want to hire have to spend a non-negligible amount of time and effort navigating dishonest mission statements, hiring practices, etc?
Every long term goal is composed of short term steps.
Easy. Rocket engineering teams announce their transition and discover their POC identity, helped by generous benefits offered to BIPOC LGBTQ+ employees.
This is thought experiment unconnected to anything real, such "lifeboat" scenarios were debated by science fiction nerds before our parents were born.
If we take this scenario literally, human race is doomed anyway (no way you can get viable population out of eight people).
The minimum he could do would be do not alienate both woke people and deep state simultaneously. Just shut up, about both culture wars and Ukraine.
Breeding? You can as well ask what model of ox driven wagon is best for trip to Mars. If organic humans ever get to space, they will be designed, not bred.
This is work for lawyers and PR people, not engineers.
In past times the only possibility go towards stars was through creating (useless, but cool) vengeance weapons for Greatest Leader of Aryan Race or (even more useless, but way cooler) cold war propaganda stunts for Freedom and Democracy.
Wernher von Braun understood it, and was willing to wear both Nazi uniform and American business suit to get closer to his dream. And he achieved it.
Surely Musk can wear dress and wig.
Face it: space is deeply hostile, if humanity wants to spread there it must transform. Transhumanism is the only way to the stars, and transgenderism is the only way to transhumanism in current conditions.
"Yes, I assembled world's top scientific talent and I am spending billions on researching human cloning and creating artificial wombs. Why? This is the only way to help trans people to fulfill their dreams to affirm their gender identity by having children of their own. Do you want to say they are not valid?"
"Yes, I am spending tens of billions on researching human brain, on genetic engineering, on growing organs and body parts of cell cultures. Why? Hundreds of millions of trans people all over the world are waiting for their gender affirming treatments. Do you want to deny them their rights?"
"You dare to call me Nazi? You dare to call me eugenicist? You dare to call me Frankenstein? Are you against trans health care? Are you a TRANSPHOBE?"
Would they still be humans then?
If they transform from human, are they still human?
Why? Maybe that's not his plan. Maybe he doesn't value 'space' above everything else.
Or he could just start working for China instead. That'd be less alienating.
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