5 Comments
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John Quiggin's avatar

Humanoid robots are a dumb idea, but the appeal is pure Musk. Because the robot looks human-ish, people are will to attribute intelligence, that they would not believe of a robot dog

https://johnquigginblog.substack.com/p/elons-last-grift

DrBDH's avatar

This leaves unanswered the question, Which underpaid flunky is remotely piloting Musk?

Isaac Segal's avatar

Musk: "How about we bring Juicero back as a robot?"

Geoff Anderson's avatar

My suspicion is that Musk read the Robot stories by Isaac Asimov, and just assumed that the natural evolution would be an R-Daneel Olivaw with the positronic brain, and the firmly enmeshed three laws of robotics, and he just decided that his wealth would be just the ticket to make that happen.

I read that series in high school and through college (and I have re-read it a few times), and my belief is that Asimov was providing meta-societal commentary, not predicting a future state.

Like the libertarians who glom on to Ayn Rand's writings as a blueprint for their optimal society, this is of a piece with the uber wealthy Silicon Valley bro that feel they have no boundaries.

Great post Will!

Donald Duncan's avatar

You're not watching the market. Just before Christmas Tesla, at a P/E of 360, was valued at over 30 times a reasonable value. My big question is: What's holding up the Tesla stock price? It's clearly ridiculous.

I understand about the Musk cult, but it's hard for me to imagine that it's rich enough to support a $1.6 trillion market cap. With the repeated exposure of Musk's megalomania and incompetence, why aren;'t people getting out?