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Alan Boyle writes that over the years, Elon Musk's showmanship, straight-ahead smarts and far-out ideas have earned him a following that spans the geek spectrum — to the point that some observers see glimmers of the aura that once surrounded Apple's Steve Jobs. "To me, it feels like he's the most obvious inheritor of Steve Jobs' mantle," says Ashlee Vance who's writing a biography of Musk that at one time had the working title "The Iron Man." "Obviously, Steve Jobs' products changed the world ... [But] if Elon's right about all these things that he's after, his products should ultimately be more meaningful than what Jobs came up with. He's the guy doing the most concrete stuff about global warming."
So what is Musk's vision? What motivates Musk at the deepest level? "It's his Mars thing," says Vance. Inspired in part by the novels of Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein, Musk has come around to the view that humanity's long-term future depends on extending its reach beyond Earth, starting with colonies on Mars. Other notables like physicist Stephen Hawking have laid out similar scenarios — but Musk is actually doing something to turn those interplanetary dreams into a reality. Vance thinks that Musk is on the verge of breaking out from geek guru status to a level of mass-market recognition that's truly on a par with the late Steve Jobs. Additions to the Tesla automotive line, plus the multibillion-dollar promise of Tesla's battery-producing "gigafactory" in Nevada, could push Musk over the edge. "Tesla, as a brand, really does seem to have captured the public's imagination. ... All of a sudden he's got a hip product that looks great, and it's creating jobs. The next level feels like it's got to be that third-generation, blockbuster mainstream product. The story is not done."
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday October 14 2014, @04:32PM
Make more power generators and boost the grid so that it handles the load. Problem fixed.
Those generators are driven by something. Usually, coal, oil, gas, nuclear, etc. Dams have their own problems concerning drowned soil and fish. Wind and solar farms occupy significant surface space. Solar is quite expensive too. One also need to buffer between day and night using dams or batteries.
It's the power source driving those generators that is the problem. Especially the externalities of them. The second problem is that developing countries requires more power in the future. Because there will be simple more people using more electricity.
Who's even in a position to do that? Actual climate research doesn't indicate that as even a remote possibility.
Poisons? wrecked global weather? BSL-4 pathogens? nuclear war?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday October 14 2014, @10:01PM
Those generators are driven by something. Usually, coal, oil, gas, nuclear, etc. Dams have their own problems concerning drowned soil and fish. Wind and solar farms occupy significant surface space. Solar is quite expensive too. One also need to buffer between day and night using dams or batteries.
Every has drawbacks and costs.
Poisons? wrecked global weather? BSL-4 pathogens? nuclear war?
Exactly. None of those would "wreck" the Earth for human habitation. It takes something considerably bigger and maybe a bit more exotic, say like the grey goo thing or black holes.