trumpeting the message that space operations can make life better on Earth
Is anybody here who's life has been made better by Musk?
this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2026
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No because the guy is a narcissistic serial liar, always has been. Everything he claims is a lie and it annoys the fuck out of me that so many people don't see that
I would argue everybody has benefited from the electric car revolution.
Air quality is better with more EVs. Before Tesla, EVs we're actively being suppressed by big oil companies, auto companies were being discouraged and disincentivised to make them.
But that's a different company from SpaceX, if the question is how has SpaceX made life better? It's probably a lot harder to find positives there. But there are some things that were definitely good. If not for the crew dragon we wouldn't have had a way to continue supplying the ISS, we almost certainly would have had to deorbit it years ago if the falcon 9 never flew (And in fact there were official plans to do exactly that).
Certainly some people have broadband through starlink in places where it was never an option before. I remember when I first went from dialup to cable Internet, it made my life better.
I'm not saying musk is a good guy, just that his companies have had a lot of effects, some of them positive.
Musk has built some EVs.
Musk has also built many data centers.
Many more than he needs, by the way, because that's the current business model of the xAI branch in SpaceX: to build data centers for rent.
I recently read somewhere that the total new pollution caused by data centers (more specifically, by the generation of the electricity they require) is now already significantly higher than the total pollution that has been avoided by all EVs.
So SpaceX has absolutely made the life of everybody worse who lives in such a country where these data centers are (mostly Usa, I assume).
I recently read somewhere that the total new pollution caused by data centers (more specifically, by the generation of the electricity they require) is now already significantly higher than the total pollution that has been avoided by all EVs.
Well I'd love to see that source. I do care about actually understanding the relative carbon footprints of these industries. You can't make informed decisions without being informed, so that matters to me.
But that said, the EV industry desperately needed a kickstart, and it wasn't happening prior to Tesla. You can actually attribute that move to electric to Tesla, as other car companies felt they needed to compete with them or be left behind.
On the other hand, you can't attribute all AI data centers to Elon musk, he's not responsible for AI in general. It only really makes sense to blame them for the percentage of carbon emissions generated by xAI. I'm having trouble finding any source to pinpoint what percentage that might be, but it's very likely that xAI makes up for less than 10% of the global AI data center power consumption, probably much less.
Australia and NZ have country wide coverage for SMS via starlink.
Australia is a huge landmass , and being able to send/receive messages just by having a view of the sky is quite significant for emergency situations.
Here is a map showing phone coverage in Australia from all providers. There's about 5 million square kilometres with no service at all, that now has basic communications via starlink.
Are you there? Has it made your life better?
Australia makes up 1.7% of the English speaking world, so you can assume it directly affects that percentage of Lemmy users (when posting in English).
I see that my question wasn't clear enough to some, not quite many, readers. When I ask "are you" then I haven't asked about assuming, I haven't asked about statistics. If you aren't such a person, I haven't asked about you.
Ah, rather than meaningful data, you want anecdotal data points.
I understand now.
I think without him and tesla (especially the supercharger network), the EV market would be significantly behind where it is now. Granted that isn't anything to do with space, just answering your question as written.
And I do really, really, hate to give it to him, but starlink is genuinely impressive.
The biggest problem with Starlink is that most people who have it should really have access to fiber. Starlink just really exposes the shortcomings of our terribly handled infrastructure. Of course satellite internet servers other purposes too but it really annoys me how otherwise fairly developed places have so shitty internet that they need freaking satellite to get a more reliable connection. It would be far cheaper for everyone to just massively expand fiber like everywhere in the European Union for example.
Of course there are also the SpaceX launch sites that devastate communities and environments in ways that are absolutely unacceptable but I digress.
The population density of the majority of the European Union is multiple orders of magnitude higher than it is in most of the places that Starlink is especially popular, like Australia.
The cost per customer of installing fiber in those places is extraordinarily high.
Oh absolutely, I completely agree that it shouldn't be needed, but until alternatives are built, it serves a purpose.
He has inarguably been a net benefit to the world. However that net benefit is decreasing rapidly every second his head remains attached to his shoulders.
He has inarguably been a net benefit to the world.
Never heard such bs.
One person who has grabbed that much money for himself alone is obviously a giant net loss to everybody else!
There’s more to life than money.