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[–] 10 points 3 years ago (5 children)

You can be passionate about technological advancement and also be concerned about rent prices, funding for schools, and climate change. Let people solve the problems they're able to solve.

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  • [–] 82 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    They aren't solving any actual issues. They are just hogging resources and wasting them on their dream projects. They are taking away resources that others need to survive.

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  • [–] 39 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Yeah, I agree. I don't think absolutely any value came from Jeff and Elon going to space in penis shaped rockets.

    Dreams are great, but we need those with means to give back more to society. We don't need mars colonies, we need common sense solutions to corporate greed, stagnating wages, and the growing threat of unchecked, privately-owned AI.

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  • [+] -9 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Physicist here. Thermodynamics always wins.

    It really doesn't matter what we do on the earth -- as long as people and industry exists, we will heat the planet. Either faster (greenhouse gasses), or slower (increasing albedo to capture more sunlight, adding energy with nuclear reactors, etc.).

    There are effectively three very long term solutions: (1) kill all humans, and let nature recover -- at least until the output of the sun crosses some threshold in about 250 million years where the Earth fries. (2) Large scale geoengineering, like solar shades between the earth and the sun, or similar means of reducing incoming sunlight. (3) Move all industry off the earth.

    Now, these are all very long term scenarios. The problem is, if we don't work towards the technology required to do one of three, all of humanity is doomed eventually. Space tech may seem like a vanity project by the rich, and honestly it often is, but it is also advancing civilization in the direction required to turn Earth into Eden in the far future.

    If you look at the planet from far enough away, you stop seeing individuals, their triumphs or their suffering. You just see "solar energy capture cross section".

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  • [–] 14 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    Bullshit answer (troy). Of course there are thermo limits. We can live within them. Change is required. The current industrial system is ruinous. Stop apologizing for it as if it were natural.

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  • [–] 33 points 3 years ago

    Sure, but the point of the comic is that while technological advances for "cool" things get all kinds of attention and development, actual social problems that continue to impact billions of people hardly get any focus.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I can't wait for some billionaire to do both...

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  • [–] -2 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    In response to climate change:

    https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/12/business/bill-gates-infrastructure-bill-climate/index.html

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/business/jeff-bezos-earth-fund.html

    For rent control and public school funding, that seems like more of a policy issue than a problem for individuals.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Yes but when you have billions at your disposal you have a much greater moral responsability than a fresh out of uni geek. He could greatly contribute to our urgent problems.

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