> humanity has lost the Lee Iacocca of Space
Perhaps you could explain the comparison to a somewhat famous car company executive ...
Perhaps you could explain the comparison to a somewhat famous car company executive ...
After leaving Ford, I guess he needed a challenge and took on the ordeal of turning around Chrysler, which was about to go out of business in the late '70's. He personally secured cash from Congress for a bailout (Yeah I know, this sounds familiar). In the 80's after turning Chrysler around, he would appear in commercials saying something like "You can't find a better car. If you do, buy it." Since he saved my Dad's job and livelihood, he kinda worshipped him and that reverence trickled down a bit to me.
EDIT: I do find it a bit sad that fewer of us work for CEO's that we personally look up to. This is probably one major factor in what inspires the entrepreneurial spirit in many of us. The main reason that I want to work for an Elon Musk company is that I'm tired of being a cynic in a post-modern world and want to be a part of a vision greater than 140 characters or self-driving cars.
Unexpected personal reflection: As I'm writing this, I'm beginning to empathize with the coal miners and manufacturing workers who believe in Trump. I know people aren't fans of bailouts and as a student of Economics I'm generally opposed to them as well. However, The automotive industry was and is still so deeply intertwined with the fabric of Detroit and Southeast Michigan in general that losing those companies, once the shining example of American manufacturing exceptionalism, would be a crippling blow to the collective consciousness of all the residents there.You don't simply see it as some efficient restructuring and reallocation of capital if they go out of business. Those automotive roots run deep and when Chrysler faced bankruptcy again after the financial crisis, even though he was retired at the time, we both felt like an extension of ourselves was on life support. If it had cratered, it would've been a massive blow to our psyche similar I guess to how one would feel if an army had razed your city. When an industry is so closely related to your community, it becomes a part of your identity. Chrysler basically allowed for me to attend an elite private high school and university. In principle, I still disagree with trying to revive the coal industry (that American manufacturing strength is dead is complete fiction. I would argue that the USA is still the leader in global manufacturing because it's done without polluting the shit out of the environment), but I guess now I'm willing to listen to their side with an open ear and am open to some sort of environmentally responsible compromise.
That's the thing about heroes, even in death they can inspire change. Godspeed, John Glenn.
Inspirational things are usually illogical and are more rooted in emotion and ideas formed during childhood and the myths we internalize at that age. It will save a great number of lives, decrease commute times and be beneficial for the environment for sure. But it will mostly be of benefit to people with the highest standard of living on the globe.
Honestly, I was looking forward to a world in which technology enabled a world to become more classically liberal, a world that encouraged the free flow of goods, services, capital, culture, people, and ideas where a person's identity isn't so wrapped up in the idea of the nation-state and the stupid games they play. So yeah, this year has been kind of dissapointing. If you can't tell, I'm a huge Star Trek.
For example, John Glenn's effort towards nuclear non-proliferation leading to global disarmament (save for a few emergency nukes...never know when an asteroid could be headed this why and we need to send the world's best fracking crew...Hollywood should totally do a sequel with frackers and it'd get the thumbs up from Trump)
I digress. Society in general don't find automonous cars inspirational. there was no ticker tape parade when Uber completed its first ride in PA. And if there were a live stream, not many people were interested. Although fundamentally it is a human accomplishment, it's not that exciting to see a machine run code.
I think self driving cars are a MAJOR leap forward for man kind, and something we all SHOULD be having parades for. If it reaches the market, it will be the most widespread, and profound application of artificial intelligence that mankind has developed yet. Without argument, it will be the first time a machine learning application has saved lives on a grand scale. It may well mark the dawn of the Machine Learning age, welcoming in a new era where software transcends the trivial 'app' in a big, practical way. Think about that.
We can argue all day about why people aren't inspired by self driving cars. In truth, there are probably hundreds of reasons. But, if you ask me they are extremely exciting and invigorating. Uber's PA event was one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
I agree completely with this line of thought, but humans aren't wired that way. The rise in ubiquity of machine-learning powered software will improve our lives greatly....and do so mostly behind the scenes while the average person isn't giving it much thought. In fact, unfortunately, eventually and inevitably, even with self-driving cars, people will still find new reason for road rage.
> We can argue all day about why people aren't inspired by self driving cars. In truth, there are probably hundreds of reasons.
There's really just one. People aren't interested in watching machines execute code. For example, would you really want to watch two AI's play LoL, DotA2, or chess against each other. Many kids aren't going to watch. Similarly, I've learned this the hard way. Perhaps 95-98% of users will not care about how you implemented an app even if you revolutionize the field of Algo's and Data Structures. They will just look at it and say, I guess it's pretty fast, but I really like this parallax when you scroll down.
Even though I found it hugely inspirational that we made an object that has now left the solar system (and it was created 40 years ago with all the processing power a modern, ChiFi pedometer), most people are only going to find it inspirational if a human leaves the solar system.
For better or worse, that's what we prioritize.
Lee Iacocca was an engineer.
Elon Musk is not an engineer.
No profession has a monopoly on competence.
https://youtu.be/UKT2tKmVk6g?t=16m52s
I at one time thought Elon Musk was monstrously good engineer, but I found out he was a physicist recently.
The horror.
maybe not, but pretty technical.
A better example of a non-tech CEO of a tech company is Jack Ma, who was an English teacher.
Saw that we humanity needed to transition from fossil fuels if we are to combat global warming, targets the transportation sector and bam, Tesla, is born produces the first highway legal serial production all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells, and the first production all-electric car to travel more than 200 miles (320 km) per charge. Basically, the first practical all electric vehicle. Problem solved.
Saw that humanity needed to switch from fossil fuels for home energy. Devised the original idea for Solar City, which his cousins implemented ( and he eventually took over). Certainly, there may not even be a main player in this story as this problem is evident. However, was instrumental in this effort. Solar is now on par with domestic natural gas production for cost efficiency and will likely supplant it moving forward (Natural gas companies operate on very thin margins)(I'd say it's more efficient if one factors in the negative externality of fossil fuel into the efficiency comparison). Problem solved.
Saw that if humanity is to survive, we need to be multi-planetary. No one else is seriously doing it. He forms SpaceX and likely in the next 10 years will put the first human on another planet and has also devised an economical interplanetary travel network Problem solved (To be continued).
An engineer at its core is one who solves problems. He seems to have a good track record of solving some of the biggest problems facing all of humanity today. That's a pretty kick ass engineer in my book. Perhaps you don't regard him as such because you think of engineeers at the product or component level. Looking at the trees, you get lost in the forest. He's engineering at a higher level than most.
Also, I called Elon Musk the rockstar of the automotive world.