• LemmyLefty@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    There’s gonna be a floating graveyard of billionaires whizzing around the Earth and taking out satellites soon enough.

    Bonus points whenever they hit a Starlink.

  • dudebro@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Rejoice, subsistence farmers of Africa.

    This is what your overlords are spending their money on.

  • eggshappedegg@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    They have upgraded the controller and now use a wired xbox version so that it will never run out of batteries. It’s safer than ever

    • hardypart@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Just today I learned in a YT vid how much more dangerous the deep sea is compared to space. In the ISS there’s around 1 bar of pressure, in space it’s zero. 1 bar difference. In the deep sea it’s more like 1000 bar vs 1 bar.

    • dudebro@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Those were the days, but nah.

      How are you going to show off to your peers by helping others? That’s not sexy right now. It’s sexy to exploit others for… checks notes… SPACE!!!

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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    1 year ago

    Now I wouldn’t spend that much money on a short trip to the edge of space even if I had it. If I’m going to blow that much money at once, I’ll blow it on charity.

    • NewEnglandRedshirt@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s the whole “edge of space” thing that really pisses me off. When the billionaires started talking about creating their own space program, I was expecting corporate settlements on the moon or Mars–dystopian, to be sure, but at least humanity would be making progress to the stars. But no, let’s be content with charging people to get to the edge of space so they can go home and tell themselves they’re astronauts.

      • ivanafterall@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        It’s like driving to the Disney World sign, taking a photo, then going home and telling everyone you went to Disney World.

      • Ghostc1212@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        Rich people used to pay the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars to ride short distances on triplanes just so they could see the ground from above. That’s what this is. Soon, rich people will be going on trips to the Moon, and then middle class people will be able to afford it later. New technologies are always expensive at first but then get cheaper, case in point, the computer you’re using right now.

        Also, I doubt a corporate settlement is gonna be any worse than any other settlement considering almost everything the colony actually needs will be produced in the colony itself after the first few years and the corporation can’t do much from all the way over on Earth if the colony decides to do something they don’t like. Colonization schemes have usually been private endeavors that get subsumed by the state anyway, been like that since the Americas. I support anyone who brings us to the stars, including rich people.

        • Aboyandhistrains@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          I also like the implications of this technology when it does become affordable. Flights at the edge of space can go faster and have the potential to be more efficient for long distances.

      • dudebro@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Pretty much.

        It’s important people are left barely alive so parasites can talk all they can.

    • Zlatil@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      If I had the money to blow I wouldn’t give it all to charity… Some, sure, I can think of a few I like.

      That being said, after getting my luxury bones fixed and getting out of pain, I’d just buy a house and pay off my car.

      Then retire. Probably move somewhere tropical… Or isolated, haven’t decided. Maybe both is possible. All I know is a fiber (or future equivalent) would be mandatory.

      Because if I have 450k to just blow, I’ve got way more in reserve.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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        1 year ago

        My thought is if I can afford to blow 450k on a space trip, I can afford to give it to some needy cause instead and still live a good life.

    • starlinguk@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Branson is more of an old brand billionaire, though. He doesn’t think money can override science and health and safety.