It felt a bit cringe to me, the whole vibe of it just seemed off. The presenter's adoration/reaction was very cringe/over the top for me.. even the engineer guy's face kept falling.. watch it again.. imagine you put your efforts into something, building the rocket, then not being the one to fly it. And when they landed and all the camera men gathering around.. I thought "Is this it? Some guy just go to space for a few minutes and then have his pictures taken like it's some epic moment?" Meanwhile, we are in the middle of a pandemic, people suffering around the world, never mind amazon employee's issues, climate changing slowly starting to wreak havoc.. but hey, lets celebrate that guy going to space. Felt hollow in my stomach and not in a good way. When SpaceX landed those two rockets at the same time next to each other, I shed a tear of how insignificant my own career is, where with this event I felt nothing but hollowness.
I couldn’t care any less about watching rich people launch them selves to the edge of space.
I would much rather spend my time watching rich people launch things into space that will end up benefiting everyone like SpaceX using a Tesla as the dummy payload for the Falcon Heavy test flight.
I understand the whole 'space tourism' thing, but the reality is that it's only going to be the Jeff Bezos and Richard Bransons of the world who will be able to afford this stuff for a long time to come.
The scientific return from space tourism from companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin seems far less important than the work that companies like SpaceX are doing.
I'm not sure what point I'm trying to make here, But i just feel that rich folk launching them self to the edge of space is more entertainment/marketing vs actual scientific progress.
Theres something different in my head between Branson and Bezos, it's likely just much better personal branding from the Brandon camp.
One thing, though, is that Virgin never ran a monopoly, but a series of successful (and many failed) ventures which often displaced an incumbent in an industry where consumers were genuinely being screwed (mobile, airlines, to some extent health care).
Bezos is an unrepentant monopolist. Sure, he played the game well, but ultimately built what is now a sticky, foul smelling heap with strong lock-in effects.
Strangely I was much more accepting to see Branson in space. Bezos comment about Amazon shoppers paying for his little joy ride was unadulterated tone-deafness.
I wouldn't put Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin in the same category. I think Blue Origin is actually closer to SpaceX.
Blue Origin has demonstrated a very sophisticated rocket, fully automated, with re-useable booster able to land vertically. They are the second in the world to have this after SpaceX, as far as I know. Next year they plan to fly their new rocket (New Glenn) that will have orbital capabilities (about 13t of payload to GTO).
SpaceX launching a Tesla into space for a test flight is firstly benefiting SpaceX and then Tesla. It is first and foremost a commercial entity working for profit and not scientific progress. That might be a side-effect, but I wouldn't frame it like that.
“Perhaps someday Bezos might reveal that he was, as former astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield dared to hope on his CNN panel, brought back down to Earth metaphorically as well as physically by experiencing the planet he’s so thoroughly conquered from so many miles away. For now, though, the visual of the richest man in the world fist-pumping his way out of a rocket and into a giddy champagne toast says more than either he or the gushing pundits ever could.”
I think if this happened an Bezos has such a revelation, then this whole thing might have been worth it. However, given that his ex-wife seems to be spreading her wealth around and he hasn't caught the "bug" yet, I think this seems like a very remote possibility.
I don't understand why people dedicate so much of their daily energy hating on billionaires' hobbies. The real waste of resource, in my mind, isn't in billionaires spending their pocket money in space exploration. It's in the millions of average persons dedicating 2 or 3h of their 16h/day budget on negative thoughts about other people's lives, poisoning their mood and ruining the 13 to 14 other hours they have left awake in those days. Whereas a positive outlook on things would probably provide them with a state of mind more fertile for ideas and improvements.
I think a lot more human ingenuity-capacity is wasted in jealousy and resentment of others, than what these billionaires may be spending on their hobbies.
* * *
I think the Blue Origin/Virgin Galactic "buy a tourist flight to space" is not my cup of tea, and I'd rather they were doing actually useful industrious space exploration stuff. But I think their puerile vanity hobbies are also not bad for technological advancements. The engineers working on this are going to develop more skills and knowledge, and that will not be lost. It'd be better if it was to do science or some industry, but it's not a net negative either.
That's fine and all if you're talking about people in your immediate social circle. Why waste time worrying about what someone else has?
But then there's this overall trend of stagnating wages for everyone except owners of capital. Industries become more and more concentrated. Billionaires get richer. We have trillion dollar companies, while inflation is increasing.
We're told "Don't be a hater, let billionaires do their thing!" But then they don't pay taxes and they spend their money on space bullshit. The world they are trying to create is not a better one. They are a hog on resources and the human race is right to be sick of it.
Fuck them, they should pay taxes and everyone should stop worshipping them like some kind of golden calf. It's not about being a hater, it's about stopping an economic tumor from getting any bigger.
I believe it's a result of social media that has (falsely) taught us that anger and resentment are valuable contributions to society.
Anger and resentment are highly charged emotions, and so they make people click, like, retweet and subscribe. So it's unsurprising that those takes are highlighted and encouraged by the social networks.
Not to say that we shouldn't fight for a better world, but we lost our way when we started attempting to do so through anger.
I've started to think the most dangerous parts of social media are the things which we agree with the most, whatever side of politics you're on.
In the case of Bezos, Musk and Branson, I think it's a case of hate the game, not the player. There are plenty more low-profile billionaires exploiting workers and using their gains for worse things than going to space (like lobbying), but we rarely talk about them because they're not in the news. Instead of hating on specific people as if their disappearance would solve the problem, we could be channeling that energy into changing the system to be fairer for all.
The billionaire class are destroying our planet and exploiting us. If people spent as much time hating them as others do brown-nosing them we’d live in a better world.
> average persons dedicating 2 or 3h of their 16h/day budget on negative thoughts about other people's lives, poisoning their mood and ruining the 13 to 14 other hours they have left awake in those days
Does that happen? I think most people that criticize a billionaire don't dwell on it and are onto something else five minutes later. Voicing your opinion is quick and easy, and even if it changes nothing, it's too little to ruin your day.
Only a psychopath would devote that much brainpower to issues out of their control.
Billionaires became billionaires by collecting economic rent from the actual wealth-producers - their employees, i.e., the rest of us. When they turn around and spend it on what's basically the tech equivalent of bling, the resentment is fully justified.
I'm sure negative thoughts about Jeff Bezos are the sole reason why a tired Amazon warehouse worker with no other employment opportunities in their decaying town might be unhappy.
Also, there's a lot of context missing from your analysis. Many people find Elon Musk annoying, even a dick, but his space company has done genuinely innovative stuff and is reliably doing commercial deliveries. Bezos is an even more successful businessman, but he's also almost cartoonishly self-absorbed and increasingly looks like a guy with more money than sense. You could see everyone around him cringing today when he was 'thanking' Amazon customers and employees for paying for his Very Big Adventure.
millions of average persons dedicating 2 or 3h of their 16h/day budget on negative thoughts about other people's lives
Calling bullshit on bullshit isn't dedicating hours to negative thoughts. People dislike Jeff Bezos because his company does things like putting anti-union posters on the insides of employee toilet stalls so people can't have even a moment of privacy at work.
> But I think their puerile vanity hobbies are also not bad for technological advancements. The engineers working on this are going to develop more skills and knowledge, and that will not be lost.
Maybe they made some useful advancements (any examples?), but overall this feels like saying a complicated tax code shouldn't be hated on, because it keeps accountants sharp and full of new knowledge.
I would guess that people "waste this time" because the riches gained by the greed and immorality of these obscenely rich folk is directly proportional to the misery that people experience in their daily lives from the impact of the income inequality. The Bozos of this world are the most visible targets in a cruel system that is not functional, that is destroying people and this planet.
Compared to what SpaceX is doing I find this type of space tourism boring. I think it makes a difference to me that they're not in orbit, no matter what the actual definitions are to me it doesn't feel like they're actually in space.
And the interesting part about SpaceX are all the technical details, especially as they are more public with this stuff.
SpaceX is a bad replacement for a well funded NASA, but they're at least interested in doing similar sorts of things whereas Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are purely for tourists in barely-space.
I mean, the entire Blue Origin stream was an extremely annoying fake-hype sales pitch for the less than 1% of viewers who could actually afford it.
I don't claim to be representative of the general opinion of HN, but my opinion is that a dick measuring contest between billionaires is slightly less worse than a dick measuring contest between parochial and aggressive nation-states.
Unfortunately, space exploration is so expensive and useless* that these are the only two known ways to fund it.
* it appears useless to the people who are funding it, but of course we on HN know better than that
It's just a penis measurement contest amongst billionaires. Couldn't care less. If anything, it showcases how the media keeps lifting up these figureheads as entertainment while completely ignoring the mass protests against vaccine passes.
Their own quality of life is probably not very high for various reasons, billionaires are more a symptom of this trend rather than a direct cause imo. It just makes them an easy scapegoat.
I found the Blue Origin live stream pretty awful, not only the extremely over the top female moderator paired with the almost silent Gary Lai, but also the constant cheering from the capsule seemed pretty fake somehow. This took away a lot from the technical feat and made it into a pretty cheesy ad for the company, which I guess it was. Also calling the passengers astronauts all the time, we get it, they sat in a chair for 10 minutes that technically went to space, yeez...
I'm conflicted. On the one hand, he did fund a spaceship company. On the other, I'm not sure how much input he had into the actual construction of a spaceship.
It's kind of like how a person that builds a hot-rod car gets much more respect from me than a person that buys a Bugatti supercar. WooHoo, you can whip out your checkbook and write a $1MM check. Big deal. That other guy worked on the suspension and knows how the fuel system works. That's much more impressive.
I think if he had managed this 5 years ago people would be excited. Now though, it just seems kinda meh? They hyped it up too much, like it was a huge accomplishment on par with the moon landing. It just fell flat to me. Like the bad acting you get in the lines before the Terminator ride at Six Flags.
It bothers me that the article makes no reference to Wally Funk, the pilot - she's now the oldest person to have gone to space. Maybe it's cheesy of me to get a kick out of 'records' like that, but I enjoy that a lot more than caring about who commissioned the flight.
By all means be happy for someone nice getting to do a cool thing, but it’s quite naive to be bothered by someone not mentioning this token gesture born of pure PR.
The world has 2,755 billionaires yet only 3 have had the vision and execution to create private companies that can launch into space. Only 3 countries in the world have ever launched humans into space - and now we can add 3 private companies to that list. This is an incredible achievement!
From my personal experience the Apollo missions had a profound impression on me and my decision to go into a engineering/math/science career. Imagine the impacts these events can have on today's kids and what they decide to do with their lives? Bezos is talking about manufacturing in space, creating moon colonies - that's exciting stuff! I don't understand the apathetic meh reaction, especially from the tech crowd.
It's depressing to watch as the unaccountable ruling class wastes all of our money on pipe-dreams and vanity projects. Meanwhile, the world is on fire.
And what do I mean by "our money"? This is what I mean:
'Included in the many people that Bezos thanked Tuesday was “every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer. Because you guys paid for all this.” Bezos has said he finances the rocket company by selling $1 billion in Amazon stock each year.'
The fact that Blue Origin exists in the first place is evidence of the insane levels of wealth inequality that now exist in our society. At this point, everything that Bezos does is an affront to our sensibilities. The King is riding on roller coasters while his serfs are peeing in bottles.
It's a sign of the growing inequality and desperation of the 99%. I think space tourism is a nice milestone for mankind. But people are feeling hopeless about their own future - they are not able to see any opportunity in this for themselves. Anti-rich sentiment is exploding along with general hopelessness with climate change and covid.
I’m starting to become doubtful that the world is better today than 50 years ago and I wonder if we’re on a path of decline. That’s my impression and it might be downvoted but it should be expressed. Every generation has countless events that mimic some rich guy burning money for something best described as a short joy ride. Yet, in the past it wasn’t so in the face of the misfortunate. I think that’s why suicide is increasing among the young. Sure, access to healthcare is better nowadays but I question if today’s environment is healthy or in fact unhealthy for not well off people. They’re kind of stuck in a system that forces them to stay alive as slaves to capitalism while the rich dance in their face. I even think the tide is turning on belief in free will and meaning the ones born into the worst circumstances will find current today even more absurd than their past generations.
[+] [-] BatteryMountain|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unclekev|4 years ago|reply
I would much rather spend my time watching rich people launch things into space that will end up benefiting everyone like SpaceX using a Tesla as the dummy payload for the Falcon Heavy test flight.
I understand the whole 'space tourism' thing, but the reality is that it's only going to be the Jeff Bezos and Richard Bransons of the world who will be able to afford this stuff for a long time to come.
The scientific return from space tourism from companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin seems far less important than the work that companies like SpaceX are doing.
I'm not sure what point I'm trying to make here, But i just feel that rich folk launching them self to the edge of space is more entertainment/marketing vs actual scientific progress.
[+] [-] 0xfaded|4 years ago|reply
One thing, though, is that Virgin never ran a monopoly, but a series of successful (and many failed) ventures which often displaced an incumbent in an industry where consumers were genuinely being screwed (mobile, airlines, to some extent health care).
Bezos is an unrepentant monopolist. Sure, he played the game well, but ultimately built what is now a sticky, foul smelling heap with strong lock-in effects.
Strangely I was much more accepting to see Branson in space. Bezos comment about Amazon shoppers paying for his little joy ride was unadulterated tone-deafness.
[+] [-] mytailorisrich|4 years ago|reply
Blue Origin has demonstrated a very sophisticated rocket, fully automated, with re-useable booster able to land vertically. They are the second in the world to have this after SpaceX, as far as I know. Next year they plan to fly their new rocket (New Glenn) that will have orbital capabilities (about 13t of payload to GTO).
[+] [-] andi999|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pvitz|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] amznbyebyebye|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Corrado|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AYBABTME|4 years ago|reply
I think a lot more human ingenuity-capacity is wasted in jealousy and resentment of others, than what these billionaires may be spending on their hobbies.
* * *
I think the Blue Origin/Virgin Galactic "buy a tourist flight to space" is not my cup of tea, and I'd rather they were doing actually useful industrious space exploration stuff. But I think their puerile vanity hobbies are also not bad for technological advancements. The engineers working on this are going to develop more skills and knowledge, and that will not be lost. It'd be better if it was to do science or some industry, but it's not a net negative either.
[+] [-] dave_sullivan|4 years ago|reply
But then there's this overall trend of stagnating wages for everyone except owners of capital. Industries become more and more concentrated. Billionaires get richer. We have trillion dollar companies, while inflation is increasing.
We're told "Don't be a hater, let billionaires do their thing!" But then they don't pay taxes and they spend their money on space bullshit. The world they are trying to create is not a better one. They are a hog on resources and the human race is right to be sick of it.
Fuck them, they should pay taxes and everyone should stop worshipping them like some kind of golden calf. It's not about being a hater, it's about stopping an economic tumor from getting any bigger.
[+] [-] jordwest|4 years ago|reply
Anger and resentment are highly charged emotions, and so they make people click, like, retweet and subscribe. So it's unsurprising that those takes are highlighted and encouraged by the social networks.
Not to say that we shouldn't fight for a better world, but we lost our way when we started attempting to do so through anger.
I've started to think the most dangerous parts of social media are the things which we agree with the most, whatever side of politics you're on.
In the case of Bezos, Musk and Branson, I think it's a case of hate the game, not the player. There are plenty more low-profile billionaires exploiting workers and using their gains for worse things than going to space (like lobbying), but we rarely talk about them because they're not in the news. Instead of hating on specific people as if their disappearance would solve the problem, we could be channeling that energy into changing the system to be fairer for all.
[+] [-] ElvisTrout|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] raxxorrax|4 years ago|reply
Castigating people for negative thoughts and how they "ruin" ingenuity is ultimately a self-defeating argument.
[+] [-] ASalazarMX|4 years ago|reply
Does that happen? I think most people that criticize a billionaire don't dwell on it and are onto something else five minutes later. Voicing your opinion is quick and easy, and even if it changes nothing, it's too little to ruin your day.
Only a psychopath would devote that much brainpower to issues out of their control.
[+] [-] benhurmarcel|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] int_19h|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] emptyparadise|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anigbrowl|4 years ago|reply
Also, there's a lot of context missing from your analysis. Many people find Elon Musk annoying, even a dick, but his space company has done genuinely innovative stuff and is reliably doing commercial deliveries. Bezos is an even more successful businessman, but he's also almost cartoonishly self-absorbed and increasingly looks like a guy with more money than sense. You could see everyone around him cringing today when he was 'thanking' Amazon customers and employees for paying for his Very Big Adventure.
millions of average persons dedicating 2 or 3h of their 16h/day budget on negative thoughts about other people's lives
Calling bullshit on bullshit isn't dedicating hours to negative thoughts. People dislike Jeff Bezos because his company does things like putting anti-union posters on the insides of employee toilet stalls so people can't have even a moment of privacy at work.
[+] [-] cma|4 years ago|reply
Maybe they made some useful advancements (any examples?), but overall this feels like saying a complicated tax code shouldn't be hated on, because it keeps accountants sharp and full of new knowledge.
[+] [-] pablooliva|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sidcool|4 years ago|reply
My opinion: There is definitely a billionaire brag race on the space frontier, but I do think it's going to benefit space exploration overall.
[+] [-] fabian2k|4 years ago|reply
And the interesting part about SpaceX are all the technical details, especially as they are more public with this stuff.
[+] [-] sascha_sl|4 years ago|reply
I mean, the entire Blue Origin stream was an extremely annoying fake-hype sales pitch for the less than 1% of viewers who could actually afford it.
[+] [-] quicklime|4 years ago|reply
Unfortunately, space exploration is so expensive and useless* that these are the only two known ways to fund it.
* it appears useless to the people who are funding it, but of course we on HN know better than that
[+] [-] cblconfederate|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] peakaboo|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pope_meat|4 years ago|reply
Everyone on HN: how can so many people be wrong?
the self awareness, it's lacking.
[+] [-] emptyparadise|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cinntaile|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shellfishgene|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] johnwheeler|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Corrado|4 years ago|reply
It's kind of like how a person that builds a hot-rod car gets much more respect from me than a person that buys a Bugatti supercar. WooHoo, you can whip out your checkbook and write a $1MM check. Big deal. That other guy worked on the suspension and knows how the fuel system works. That's much more impressive.
[+] [-] galkk|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] IntelMiner|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] foxyv|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] taylodl|4 years ago|reply
From my personal experience the Apollo missions had a profound impression on me and my decision to go into a engineering/math/science career. Imagine the impacts these events can have on today's kids and what they decide to do with their lives? Bezos is talking about manufacturing in space, creating moon colonies - that's exciting stuff! I don't understand the apathetic meh reaction, especially from the tech crowd.
[+] [-] triggercut|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] biasedbrain|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nyghtly|4 years ago|reply
And what do I mean by "our money"? This is what I mean:
'Included in the many people that Bezos thanked Tuesday was “every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer. Because you guys paid for all this.” Bezos has said he finances the rocket company by selling $1 billion in Amazon stock each year.'
The fact that Blue Origin exists in the first place is evidence of the insane levels of wealth inequality that now exist in our society. At this point, everything that Bezos does is an affront to our sensibilities. The King is riding on roller coasters while his serfs are peeing in bottles.
https://apnews.com/article/jeff-bezos-space-e0afeaa813ff0bdf...
[+] [-] edem|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] bitwize|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] brodo|4 years ago|reply