Elon Musk: Tech Genius! Green Warrior! Biz King! Good Oligarch?

[angelburst29]

July 24, 2018 - Rescued Thai Boys To Be Ordained As Novice Buddhist Monks (Video)
Rescued Thai Boys To Be Ordained As Novice Buddhist Monks | HuffPost

Two weeks after their dramatic rescue from a cave in northern Thailand, young members of a Thai soccer team are preparing to be ordained as novice Buddhist monks.

Eleven players on the Wild Boars soccer team had their heads shaved, donned simple white robes and offered prayers on Tuesday at Wat Pha That Doi Wao, a temple in Chiang Rai province, the Associated Press reports.

The boys plan to join local temples as novices for nine days starting on Wednesday, to give thanks for their safety and to honor a volunteer diver who died during the long rescue effort. Their time in the temples will include meditating, praying, and performing charitable deeds.

The main ordination ceremony will take place on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.

The boys’ 25-year-old coach, Ekapol Chanthawong, will be ordained as a monk since he has already lived as a Buddhist novice for a decade.

On Tuesday, the Wild Boars team members lit candles and placed sweet drinks and fruit in front of Buddhist statues. Hundreds of well-wishers attended the ceremonies, which were broadcast live on Facebook by local authorities.

“They should spend time in a monastery. It’s for their protection,” Seewad Sompiangjai, grandfather of one of the boys, told the BBC. “It’s like they died but now have been reborn.”

One of the 12 members of the team, 14-year-old Adul Sam-on, is not participating in the ordination activities because he is Christian. The teen is reportedly attending a church to perform a separate thanksgiving ceremony.

The team became trapped by floods inside the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in northern Thailand on June 23. Chanthawong and his players, ranging in age from 11 to 16, remained in the cave for over two weeks while an international team of experts planned their rescue.

The complex operation, which captivated many around the world, ended on July 10. Team members were taken to a local hospital and released to their homes last Wednesday.

Chanthawong reportedly tried to keep his team calm during the long ordeal by teaching them meditation techniques.

Chiang Rai Gov. Parchon Pratsakul told the AP that the players’ mental and physical health is slowly improving. The government has imposed a temporary ban on media speaking to the boys. Violators of the ban could face prosecution under Thailand’s child protection laws, The New York Times reported.

It’s common for males in Thailand, where the dominant religion is Theravada Buddhism, to join a local monastery at some point in their lives. Buddhist families believe the practice helps them accumulate merit and generate good karma, which helps people on the road to enlightenment.

The rescued boys plan to dedicate the merit they achieve by temporarily entering monkhood to Samarn Gunan, the 38-year-old former Thai navy SEAL who died on July 5 while trying to deliver oxygen tanks to the cave. In Thai culture, getting ordained in honor of a loved one is of the biggest tributes a Buddhist can offer.

“Ordinations are supposed to give us peace of mind,” Sangiemjit Wongsukchan, mother of one of the boys, told the AP. “We can only do this for nine days because then he will have to go back to study and prepare for exams. Back to his normal life.”

 

[Woodsman]

Joe Rogan interviews Elon Musk:

This was fascinating to me; seeing him speak and the way he responded indicates that something very different is going on in his head than might be expected. He's clearly not a normal person, but he does have a kind of earnestness and innocence about him; (When Joe handed him drugs, his reaction was telling. And, boy, I don't know about Rogan. There are certain recurring qualities about his show which seem a little off. Materialism, pushing drugs, aliens-are-bunk. That kind of thing.

Anyway, when Elon described how he was to be unable to turn off his creative mind, that it was like an endless explosion and that at the age of five, he thought he was going to be taken away for being insane. That was interesting.

 

[mrtn]

Joe Rogan interviews Elon Musk:

Thanks, that was very interesting for me too! I like that guy, he seems sincere to me. He got some tears when he was talking about his fascination for this human civilized space future thing, right? (approx. at 2:28:00)
Also the talk about AI was interesting (start at min 12 or something).

 

[luc]

I just saw a few bits and pieces of the interview, and I must say I find the guy pretty creepy. It's not even that interesting what he has to say, except in the sense of "ah, this is Elon Musk and what he thinks", but what bothers me most is that he seems to revel in this "autistic engineer" personality. This seems really convenient: you don't need to listen to others really, you can just say and do weird stuff whenever you want, you can be totally unpredictable and not bother with what others feel and think etc. In short, he seems like the kind of guy I would NOT want to have as a boss! I imagine that behind all this "nice, weird, hip-nerdy" personality there's a lot of walking on eggshells, craziness and no-straight-answer randomness going on. Yikes!

I don't know the guy, so maybe that's unfair, but this was just my gut feeling listening to him for 15 minutes or so.

 

[Eulenspiegel]

I find a lot what he said in that podcast rather disturbing.

"Merging with AI would be best for humans. If you can't beat them, join them"

"Humans are just the biological boot loader for AI"

It reminds me of the session where the C's said that AI would be our downfall, just like the crystals were for Atlantis.

 

[T.C.]

I watched the whole thing over the last couple of days. I agree that the main thing to take from it was actually getting to see an intimate, extended interview with him.

Yeah, it would be a disappointment for anyone with any clue about the way reality works. I guess he's like a personification of the extreme end of IQ/nuts and bolts/3rd D stuff, and a good example of the difference between intelligence and wisdom?

Personally, I think that because of his personality traits and the way his mind operates, he's actually done a good job of not being a completely inaccessible nut-bar. I imagine he's probably lived quite a lonely existence and felt isolated from... 'humans', really. And that's lead to him seeking connection and solace and hope (love and attachment?) in tech, sci fi, fantasies, etc.

Difficult for someone with his singular personality, intelligence and way of looking at things to be 'checked' by peers, colleagues, a network.

The idea of his gifts being a curse sums it up I think, and with such a 'curse' I don't think he's done a particularly bad job of getting through life as close to normal as possible. But to be totally fatalistic, when all's said and done, all of that just probably adds up to him being a perfect puppet for forces unseen.

 

[Hi_Henry]

I had a look at that Musk interview with Rogen. In the first 3 min. he is basically saying "People are so stupid that I can pull off anything I wish and they will be no wiser of it." This is an empty shell of a man. He is trying hard in this interview to convince us how exceptional he is. I suspect he thinks he has God like Powers and he can fool everyone. To a great extent he is right as was proven by this puppet,

Gene

This piece of BS I don't buy for a second as stated.

The first 1,000 flamethrowers being sold by Elon Musk's Boring Company have been picked up by their owners.
The Boring Company is a tunnel construction business founded in 2016 to provide the infrastructure for an underground Hyperloop.
Musk suggested selling flamethrowers for $500 each as a method of raising funds for the new business venture.

Starting a tunneling business by selling flamethrowers ???????? If Musk thinks I will swallow that he can buy the bridge of his choice for a $1 after I make the necessary arrangements. The guy is a conman of a special kind because in all he does something just doesn't compute in the normal way.

 

[mrtn]

I think he is sincere in the way that he doesn't try to play somebody he is not. I also think his fascination for certain things is real and honest, he does not just try to sell something for an audience, he really likes to play with ideas and possibilities and make them real. I don't think he too interested in being seen as a genius either, that just comes from outside from other people and he goes along with it if people want to perceive him as such. He is certainly capable of hard work and withstanding a lot of pressure, something i find remarkable in general, but that also might come close to pathology, like for workaholics. It's true though, there is this nuts-and-bolts thing and the sci-fi fantasies and a lot of wishing and wanting. And when he says he wants people to be nicer to each other and when he says he wants to be of help and service to others it's like he just doesn't have anything better to say in this regard, while in his mind he's already playing with a another tech-toy. He is a great achiever but definitely not somebody I would want people to follow or ask for direction. But insights like about AI for example are interesting for me because such people might just have seen a bit more of it, at the same time they might be blinded by it already in favor for it.

 

[Hi_Henry]

So the Musk tunnels will have no problem with vertical displacements of earthquakes ???? Hahahahah ...

displacement

The guy reminds me of Howard Hughes and this project,
Studing the oceans

Rogan knew how to push the button (@4:20) and when he did an answer came out that was struggled (not genuine) ,sophomoric and not to the point. You would think that that question would be dead easy to answer, "We put together a presentation and met with .......". Nope, evades it and instead tells us that paper work in CA is the most difficult part !!!!! Earthquakes are "not the problem because they are just like "waves" on the surface of the ocean". Here he is blowing smoke which facts easily blow away.

But Joe does not let oily Musk off the hook, at 6:50 he comes back to the main question and what answer do we hear ? "There were some engineers from SpaceX ..... So we started by digging a hole in the ground." ... latidatida. But Muskiiiii, WHO gave you PERMISSION is the question !!!!! A form is not the answer.

 

[Persej]

This show was very interesting to watch for me. They mostly talked about Tesla, but they also touched upon general things in auto-industry and industry as a whole in today's world.

 

[axj]

I find a lot what he said in that podcast rather disturbing.

"Merging with AI would be best for humans. If you can't beat them, join them"

"Humans are just the biological boot loader for AI"

It reminds me of the session where the C's said that AI would be our downfall, just like the crystals were for Atlantis.

I think this misrepresents his actual views on AI. He is one of the biggest critics of the dangers of AI and the whole "connecting with AI"-idea is basically what he came up with after realizing that the development of AI cannot be stopped. The other idea being to have many decentralized personal AI's that can be used together for specific tasks - as opposed to just large corporations controlling the only powerful AI's.

In short, he seems like the kind of guy I would NOT want to have as a boss! I imagine that behind all this "nice, weird, hip-nerdy" personality there's a lot of walking on eggshells, craziness and no-straight-answer randomness going on. Yikes!

What former employees report seems to indicate that it is indeed the case that people try to avoid him whenever they can due to these reasons.

Yeah, it would be a disappointment for anyone with any clue about the way reality works. I guess he's like a personification of the extreme end of IQ/nuts and bolts/3rd D stuff, and a good example of the difference between intelligence and wisdom?

I don't really see anything wrong with the idea of exploring space or building colonies somewhere. He is right that it is exciting and inspiring and that this in itself is something valueable. Reducing the cost of space travel by landing the rockets used to be seen as impossible, yet SpaceX achieved it with a fraction of the money of the space agencies.

The problem might be that we may not be "allowed" to leave the planet for extended periods of time - the Moon may be off-limits, etc. And we may already have anti-gravity propulsion which makes the whole landing of rockets a rather moot point. Whether that technology will come out of secrecy any time soon is another question though.

It seems that his plans for a first trip to Mars will fall pretty much into the economic crisis time-frame (2020 -2030). His companies were already close to bankruptcy during the 2008 crisis, so another crisis may prevent his plans from happening.

They do already build and test parts of the large spaceship though:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1081576707365064704

 

[T.C.]

I don't really see anything wrong with the idea of exploring space or building colonies somewhere. He is right that it is exciting and inspiring and that this in itself is something valueable.

I think this is a useful topic of conversation, actually.

I think the more you understand about the reality we inhabit, our role on Earth, the way things are politically, the way our bodies work, the sickness/disorder of materialism, the less you'd see a need to explore space and the less you'd want to.

Just the fact that our bodies just aren't capable of handling being up there in the big black. Our bodies have taken a massive hit just from what we've done to our environment on Earth. Imagine being in a metal capsule, full of the EM toxicity that was powering it and keeping it running, under permanent artificial light with no sunlight. The long-term effects of adjusted levels of gravity. It's bad enough trying to maintain physical health here on Earth; I don't see any way that a space ship could be a viable environment for human health.

Not the way scientist think about things at the moment, anyway.

One reason people talk about going off into space to colonise other moons and planets is because of over-population/resource issues here on Earth. That's a result of pathocracy, greed, and mass agriculture. There was just no need to leave here and go some place else. We could have had it good here.

So that's that side of it. I do think that it could be useful scientifically to go out there to gather data about how the 3D reality works. But then, I think that's just part of my programming and belief system, which is founded on a purely nuts-and-bolts, materialistic science which doesn't factor in other stuff. In that priestly science-cult, interpretation of information is always skewed anyway. Scientists can't and won't allow and account for so much stuff already, down here on Earth. What chance do they have of interpreting the cosmos?

Exploration is a natural trait for humans, and most particularly men, whose symbolic relationship with nature is one of outward extension and penetration into the unknown. But looking at our situation on the whole spectrum, from the ancient past, to what's left of our future, I just don't see that space colonisation was ever meant to be a part of 'our story'; not in the Star Trek-esque way that it has been peddled to us for so long.

 

[Tuatha de Danaan]

I think this is a useful topic of conversation, actually.

I think the more you understand about the reality we inhabit, our role on Earth, the way things are politically, the way our bodies work, the sickness/disorder of materialism, the less you'd see a need to explore space and the less you'd want to.

Just the fact that our bodies just aren't capable of handling being up there in the big black. Our bodies have taken a massive hit just from what we've done to our environment on Earth. Imagine being in a metal capsule, full of the EM toxicity that was powering it and keeping it running, under permanent artificial light with no sunlight. The long-term effects of adjusted levels of gravity. It's bad enough trying to maintain physical health here on Earth; I don't see any way that a space ship could be a viable environment for human health.

Not the way scientist think about things at the moment, anyway.

One reason people talk about going off into space to colonise other moons and planets is because of over-population/resource issues here on Earth. That's a result of pathocracy, greed, and mass agriculture. There was just no need to leave here and go some place else. We could have had it good here.

So that's that side of it. I do think that it could be useful scientifically to go out there to gather data about how the 3D reality works. But then, I think that's just part of my programming and belief system, which is founded on a purely nuts-and-bolts, materialistic science which doesn't factor in other stuff. In that priestly science-cult, interpretation of information is always skewed anyway. Scientists can't and won't allow and account for so much stuff already, down here on Earth. What chance do they have of interpreting the cosmos?

Exploration is a natural trait for humans, and most particularly men, whose symbolic relationship with nature is one of outward extension and penetration into the unknown. But looking at our situation on the whole spectrum, from the ancient past, to what's left of our future, I just don't see that space colonisation was ever meant to be a part of 'our story'; not in the Star Trek-esque way that it has been peddled to us for so long.

T.C. I just love the way you have explained what you have. Rightly or wrongly I agree that we are struggling to understand our lives here on earth.. Going to space seems like an attempt to run away from getting to grips with life here.

 

[axj]

Just the fact that our bodies just aren't capable of handling being up there in the big black. Our bodies have taken a massive hit just from what we've done to our environment on Earth. Imagine being in a metal capsule, full of the EM toxicity that was powering it and keeping it running, under permanent artificial light with no sunlight. The long-term effects of adjusted levels of gravity. It's bad enough trying to maintain physical health here on Earth; I don't see any way that a space ship could be a viable environment for human health.

I don't think that anyone is planning on living in spaceships long-term. They want to build colonies on Mars, which does have similar gravity, soil for plants, etc. The sunlight could probably also be used if the harmful frequencies are filtered out (almost no atmosphere or magnetic field there). EM toxicity can be shielded and would actually be less because there are no cell phone towers there all around you.

One reason people talk about going off into space to colonise other moons and planets is because of over-population/resource issues here on Earth. That's a result of pathocracy, greed, and mass agriculture. There was just no need to leave here and go some place else. We could have had it good here.

Well, that is the asteroid mining idea, which in itself is also not bad. If you can have access to many more resources, why would you be against that? And many of those would be brought back to Earth, of course.

It sounds almost like because things aren't perfect here on Earth (to put it mildly), we should just give up on inspiring and exciting ventures that can benefit the well-being humanity in general, and not just in the material sense. Going to space can expand your horizons, shift your perception, etc.

Exploration is a natural trait for humans, and most particularly men, whose symbolic relationship with nature is one of outward extension and penetration into the unknown. But looking at our situation on the whole spectrum, from the ancient past, to what's left of our future, I just don't see that space colonisation was ever meant to be a part of 'our story'; not in the Star Trek-esque way that it has been peddled to us for so long.

Why not? How is space exploration fundamentally different from exploring Earth hundreds of years ago? There were also people who said that people are not supposed to fly, that the body is not built for such speeds and heights, yet here we are doing that.

 

[T.C.]

I don't think that anyone is planning on living in spaceships long-term. They want to build colonies on Mars, which does have similar gravity, soil for plants, etc. The sunlight could probably also be used if the harmful frequencies are filtered out (almost no atmosphere or magnetic field there). EM toxicity can be shielded and would actually be less because there are no cell phone towers there all around you.

EM toxicity isn't just from cell phone towers. It's from any electrical device anywhere near you. Whether you're in a capsule floating through space, or in a base on Mars, they're effectively the same thing.

We evolved specifically for Earth's conditions. Alter those conditions or take us out of them all together, and the result is sickness. Just like if you never left the house, never went outside.

Well, that is the asteroid mining idea, which in itself is also not bad. If you can have access to many more resources, why would you be against that? And many of those would be brought back to Earth, of course.

We've got enough resources on Earth. We're not short of resources. It's the pathocracies who manage those resources and spin yarns in order to start wars over them.

Again, this all just goes back to the terminal shift to materialistic living. Just for starters, marketing companies using psychological methods in order to convince people that they need things that they really don't need, because that's how they will get fulfillment and meaning from life.

It sounds almost like because things aren't perfect here on Earth (to put it mildly), we should just give up on inspiring and exciting ventures that can benefit the well-being humanity in general, and not just in the material sense. Going to space can expand your horizons, shift your perception, etc.

Sitting on the edge of your bed and going back over the day you just had can expand your horizons and shift your perception. Anything can: watching a movie; reading a book; meeting up with friends; going to the coast and walking along the beach.

I don't see how how colonising Mars can benefit the well-being of humanity in general.

I think you're conflating subjects. I never said that we should give up on inspiring new ventures. But our race going into space is, for me, the equivalent of an 18 year old university student going out to wall street to protest against capitalism, when they haven't even established control and ownership of the dirty clothes piled up on their bedroom floor.

As I said in my last post, I have no problem whatsoever with scientific ventures and exploration - if it wasn't for people with that inclination, we'd all still be living in caves.

But..

How is space exploration fundamentally different from exploring Earth hundreds of years ago?

...the fact that you can ask that question in a serious manner suggests to me that you have an identification with the idea of space travel that prevents you from taking a step back and just trying on different thinking. I'm not suggesting that you're absolutely wrong, or that I'm seeing things clearly and you're not. I'm just highlighting what looks to me like a rigidity to your thinking, and I'm trying to present you with counter-ideas and highlight potential problems.

There were also people who said that people are not supposed to fly, that the body is not built for such speeds and heights, yet here we are doing that.

But we're not talking about flying in planes for a few hours. We're talking about living for extended periods of time in space, in a hermetically sealed Faraday cage, with no day and night, surrounded by and trapped with electronic systems that are giving off constant EMFs.

It would be no different if we built some sort of underwater base and tried living in that for extended periods. I'm not saying that the problems these ideas throw up are insurmountable, I'm saying that present day humanity has taken a specific road of technology that is hazardous to human health, and has done its best to sweep that fact under the rug and bury its head in the sand. And I think the main reason its been able to do that is because 1) the technology is still relatively new and we're only just finding out its long-term effects, and 2) because we still have the ability to get away from it, going outside etc. But any space travel or colonisation would be done using this technology and there'd be no getting away from the harmful effects of it for even a second.

There's lots of other arguments against the idea of colonising other planets and moons. We haven't even touched on the simple idea that the billions of dollars it would cost could be put to infinitely better uses down here on Earth.