Because a LOT of people are missing the point:
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@woozle @jb Tough luck: all we've got in orbit today is capitalism, plus a couple of government-funded puppet shows showcasing "space science" while paying huge back-handers to corporations.
This is the reason we can't have nice things. (I prefer the term "crapitalism" to "enshittification", but you get the picture either way.)
@cstross Indeed, I know -- it's where we are now.
Perhaps not too late to stop it from metastasizing, but it's going to be a hard battle.
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Capitalism is a self-limiting problem.
(Whether it limits *us* at the same time is an open question for the time being.)
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@raymaccarthy @oldgeek @lucien The point of starlink is low latency, which means low orbit. Which in turn requires lots of them to ensure there are no gaps in coverage. (And now they're working on satellite-to-satellite high bandwidth laser mesh networking to increase capacity.)
I think you underestimate the scale of aviation and shipping, not to mention railway transport.
@cstross @oldgeek @lucien
No, I don't because I was RF R&D in an ISP with fibre, mobile, Fixed Wireless and Satellite. They also had datacentres.Railway is better served by Cellular.
Obviously in LEO you need a load to have continuous coverage, but to do the equivalent of rural fibre or cellular for trains you need orders of magnitude more.
Even cellular is being done badly due to too big cells and regulatory capture. I've dealt with the Irish regulator, Comreg.
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Because a LOT of people are missing the point:
No, Elon Musk is NOT serious about putting a million data centres into orbit. It can't work: laws of physics say "nope".
But SpaceX is expected to go public this year.
Elon is talking up his company's future prospects in front of gullible investors because he needs a growth narrative beyond Starlink, which is already priced in. Something to justify the Starship proram beyond NASA's lunar ambitions.
So it's salesman's bullshit, lies for fools.
Elon Musk very rarely actually builds what he promotes.
He is a traitorous money laundering conduit for petrostate despots.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/oct/25/elon-musk-has-been-in-regular-contact-with-putin-for-two-years-say-reportshttps://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-jared-kushner-world-cup-2022-12
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/05/13/trump-tech-execs-riyadh/
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/19/tech/saudi-arabia-us-chips-ai-raceEven his investors like Larry Ellison, Putin, & Alwaleed bin Talal recognize his utility in corrupting elections for the richest fascists on the planet.
Musk facilitates mass financial frauds.
That's it, that's all he does, defraud.
1/
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Elon Musk very rarely actually builds what he promotes.
He is a traitorous money laundering conduit for petrostate despots.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/oct/25/elon-musk-has-been-in-regular-contact-with-putin-for-two-years-say-reportshttps://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-jared-kushner-world-cup-2022-12
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/05/13/trump-tech-execs-riyadh/
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/19/tech/saudi-arabia-us-chips-ai-raceEven his investors like Larry Ellison, Putin, & Alwaleed bin Talal recognize his utility in corrupting elections for the richest fascists on the planet.
Musk facilitates mass financial frauds.
That's it, that's all he does, defraud.
1/
2/
Musk's List of "Failure to Deliver" frauds:
1. Man on Mars
2. Hyperloop train
3. Robotics
4. xAI achieving AGI
5. Flying cars
6. DOGE 'efficiencies'
7. Lunar tourism
8. No covid
9. Candyhttps://qz.com/elon-musks-worst-predictions-promises-1851410720
https://mashable.com/article/elon-musk-failed-to-deliver-on-2025-promises
Musk's actually delivered:
1. The largest data breaches in US history
2. Joined the military industrial complex
3. A fossil fuel funded fascist alliance
4. Kleptocracy
5. Can foment far right riots with a single tweet
6. Mass hate campaigns for Nazis -
Because a LOT of people are missing the point:
No, Elon Musk is NOT serious about putting a million data centres into orbit. It can't work: laws of physics say "nope".
But SpaceX is expected to go public this year.
Elon is talking up his company's future prospects in front of gullible investors because he needs a growth narrative beyond Starlink, which is already priced in. Something to justify the Starship proram beyond NASA's lunar ambitions.
So it's salesman's bullshit, lies for fools.
About as brilliant idea as the Cybertruck was.
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2/
Musk's List of "Failure to Deliver" frauds:
1. Man on Mars
2. Hyperloop train
3. Robotics
4. xAI achieving AGI
5. Flying cars
6. DOGE 'efficiencies'
7. Lunar tourism
8. No covid
9. Candyhttps://qz.com/elon-musks-worst-predictions-promises-1851410720
https://mashable.com/article/elon-musk-failed-to-deliver-on-2025-promises
Musk's actually delivered:
1. The largest data breaches in US history
2. Joined the military industrial complex
3. A fossil fuel funded fascist alliance
4. Kleptocracy
5. Can foment far right riots with a single tweet
6. Mass hate campaigns for Nazis@Npars01 You forgot the traffic-less tunnels in your "failure to deliver" list 🤭
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Elon Musk very rarely actually builds what he promotes.
He is a traitorous money laundering conduit for petrostate despots.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/oct/25/elon-musk-has-been-in-regular-contact-with-putin-for-two-years-say-reportshttps://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-jared-kushner-world-cup-2022-12
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/05/13/trump-tech-execs-riyadh/
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/19/tech/saudi-arabia-us-chips-ai-raceEven his investors like Larry Ellison, Putin, & Alwaleed bin Talal recognize his utility in corrupting elections for the richest fascists on the planet.
Musk facilitates mass financial frauds.
That's it, that's all he does, defraud.
1/
-
2/
Musk's List of "Failure to Deliver" frauds:
1. Man on Mars
2. Hyperloop train
3. Robotics
4. xAI achieving AGI
5. Flying cars
6. DOGE 'efficiencies'
7. Lunar tourism
8. No covid
9. Candyhttps://qz.com/elon-musks-worst-predictions-promises-1851410720
https://mashable.com/article/elon-musk-failed-to-deliver-on-2025-promises
Musk's actually delivered:
1. The largest data breaches in US history
2. Joined the military industrial complex
3. A fossil fuel funded fascist alliance
4. Kleptocracy
5. Can foment far right riots with a single tweet
6. Mass hate campaigns for Nazis -
@bornach @bellegraylane @cstross just waiting for The Boring Company to pivot to AI…
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@cstross It was obvious bollocks (just like hyperloop, the boring company etc…), just I didn’t know why he was boosting it as I didn’t realise he was planning an IPO this year. Tosser.
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(Some) lawyers can (and will, if paid enough) argue against physics, but their chance of winning (other than the money you're paying them) is less than infinitesimal. (They're hoping they will be paid more than they get sanctioned for.)
@Cadbury_Moose
In my experience, those lawyers are called politicians
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Because a LOT of people are missing the point:
No, Elon Musk is NOT serious about putting a million data centres into orbit. It can't work: laws of physics say "nope".
But SpaceX is expected to go public this year.
Elon is talking up his company's future prospects in front of gullible investors because he needs a growth narrative beyond Starlink, which is already priced in. Something to justify the Starship proram beyond NASA's lunar ambitions.
So it's salesman's bullshit, lies for fools.
@cstross this applies to every company that mentions data centres in space.
Most tech "journalists" seem hesitant to ask basic questions about this shit because what if they start having to ask basic questions about everything. Sounds like a lot of work!
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Because a LOT of people are missing the point:
No, Elon Musk is NOT serious about putting a million data centres into orbit. It can't work: laws of physics say "nope".
But SpaceX is expected to go public this year.
Elon is talking up his company's future prospects in front of gullible investors because he needs a growth narrative beyond Starlink, which is already priced in. Something to justify the Starship proram beyond NASA's lunar ambitions.
So it's salesman's bullshit, lies for fools.
@cstross The most compelling argument I've heard for putting datacenters in space (in the "didn't immediately discount it as a stupid idea but took some time to engage with it" sense) was from Scott Manley, notorious fan of everything space-related, and even he concluded that it only makes sense as an end-run around terrestrial regulation (i.e. it's a stupid and expensive idea but in the grand scheme of markets it may be cheaper than "buying enough politicians to steal a community's water rights out from under them so you can get the permits to build on land").
Which... Yeah, when that's the forcing function, maybe we tech folk should sit and have a think about the entire project.
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@cstross The most compelling argument I've heard for putting datacenters in space (in the "didn't immediately discount it as a stupid idea but took some time to engage with it" sense) was from Scott Manley, notorious fan of everything space-related, and even he concluded that it only makes sense as an end-run around terrestrial regulation (i.e. it's a stupid and expensive idea but in the grand scheme of markets it may be cheaper than "buying enough politicians to steal a community's water rights out from under them so you can get the permits to build on land").
Which... Yeah, when that's the forcing function, maybe we tech folk should sit and have a think about the entire project.
Like, we already have trouble keeping things cool in space and there’s also the whole “space is a deadly laser” radiation thing. I really can’t imagine how there’d be any benefit to putting a data center in space. Like, at all.
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@rk @cstross Exactly. It's literally a "This is a stupid idea and the only reason we do it is we were forbidden from putting it on Earth" kinda thing.
As I said at one point or other, to paraphrase myself, "Sure, there's no convenient cooling and radiation will scramble your data, but just think how much CSAM you can store out of reach of any terrestrial law... Until you try and download it and they bust your ass the moment it hits a radio dish!"
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Because a LOT of people are missing the point:
No, Elon Musk is NOT serious about putting a million data centres into orbit. It can't work: laws of physics say "nope".
But SpaceX is expected to go public this year.
Elon is talking up his company's future prospects in front of gullible investors because he needs a growth narrative beyond Starlink, which is already priced in. Something to justify the Starship proram beyond NASA's lunar ambitions.
So it's salesman's bullshit, lies for fools.
@cstross I'm going to start a betting squares pool on the looming Kessler event. We've already got enough shit in orbit, it's time to bet on it crashing.
Side Note:
Do you remember when McDonald's and some start up company planned on putting a LEO 1 sq mile billboard up? It was an unfolding mylar advert that would degrade and burnup within 3 months. But during that time, everyone in the Northern Hemisphere would get the sun blotted out at least 1x day.
Batshit crazy, space, and billionaires just seem to gravitate together like blackholes.
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@cstross The most compelling argument I've heard for putting datacenters in space (in the "didn't immediately discount it as a stupid idea but took some time to engage with it" sense) was from Scott Manley, notorious fan of everything space-related, and even he concluded that it only makes sense as an end-run around terrestrial regulation (i.e. it's a stupid and expensive idea but in the grand scheme of markets it may be cheaper than "buying enough politicians to steal a community's water rights out from under them so you can get the permits to build on land").
Which... Yeah, when that's the forcing function, maybe we tech folk should sit and have a think about the entire project.
-
Because a LOT of people are missing the point:
No, Elon Musk is NOT serious about putting a million data centres into orbit. It can't work: laws of physics say "nope".
But SpaceX is expected to go public this year.
Elon is talking up his company's future prospects in front of gullible investors because he needs a growth narrative beyond Starlink, which is already priced in. Something to justify the Starship proram beyond NASA's lunar ambitions.
So it's salesman's bullshit, lies for fools.
@cstross Markets eat all his sf shit without hesitation. No checking of facts or realism. They are driven by one thought, and one thought only: what if he knows more than we and he actually pull it off - and we have not invested!!
