Category Archives: Futurism

During the early days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced that the company would be sending thousands of Starlink satellite internet terminals to the embattled country.

Around 20,000 terminals, according to Musk, have already been donated to Ukraine so far.

Now, though, Musk has seemingly had a change of heart, and is asking the Pentagon to foot the bill instead. It's just become too expensive, he says although the real reason may have more to do with Musk's growing sympathy toward Russia.

"SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely *and* send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households," Musk tweeted. "This is unreasonable."

The news comes following reports of Starlink outages plaguing Ukraine's attempts to retake ground previously occupied by Russia. According to officials, these outages led to a "catastrophic" loss of communication, as The Financial Times reports.

The terminals allowed troops and civilians alike to stay connected and ended up "saving lives," as vice prime minister Mykhailo Federov argued back in March.

Despite considerable goodwill, Musk suddenly changed his tune. Earlier this month, the billionaire suggested that Ukraine should give up parts of its territories to reach a peace agreement with Russia or else risk starting a nuclear war a shocking Twitter outburstthat had even his own diehard fans appalled.

Ukrainian officials were also unsurprisingly taken aback by Musk's comments, with Ukrainian diplomat Andriy Melnyk literally telling the richest man in the world to "f*** off."

Meanwhile, the Kremlin lauded Musk for his new tack, with Russian presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov saying that it was "actually quite positive" that Musk was, "unlike professional diplomats," seeking "a path towards peacefully resolving the situation."

In yet another tweet, Musk seemed to confirm that he's indeed ending the free service at least in part because Ukrainian officials were mean to him.

"Were just following his recommendation," Musk replied with a shrug emoji, after political strategist Jason Jay Smart pointed out the fact that Musk announced his change of heart just days after Melnyk told him to "f*** off."

At the same time, CNN points out that SpaceX did send a letter to the Pentagon asking for funding before Melnyk's comments.So money may well be a factor as well.

It's an unfortunate new development as the terminals are clearly proving to be a huge help for the people of Ukraine and this kind of vindictive mudslinging isn't going to help anybody.

More on the situation: Elon Musk Fans Horrified as He Suggests Ukraine Give in to Putin's Demands

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Elon Musk Says He Can't Give Free Starlink to Ukraine Anymore After Officials There Were Mean to Him - Futurism

New scam just dropped!Phony Cosmonaut

Earlier this year, a phony astronaut scammed a woman into sending him a ton of money in a phishing con that left an elderly woman heartbroken and, presumably, broke.

As Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbum reported last week, the scammer, who claimed he was a Russian cosmonaut, ended up taking 4.4 million yen the equivalent of about $30,000 from a 65-year-old Japanese woman after claiming he was on board the International Space Station and needed the money to hitch a ride back to Earth.

The grifter went as far as to claim he was in love with her and wanted to start a life with her in Japan provided, of course, that she pay for his ride home.

It's a heart-breaking tale that has left us wondering how anybody could possibly fall for such a ruse. You'd think it's common knowledge that astronauts usually pay for a return ticket up front.

The fake cosmonaut, whose name remains unknown, convinced the womanby name-dropping space agencies like NASA and JAXA, Japan's space agency.

The scammer also told the woman when he was out of contact for days at a time that the cellular service on board the ISS was spotty though, as Gizmodo notes,there is no cell service in space, and astronauts rely on an internet-connected IP phone.

Needless to say, astronauts also don't need to raise funds to get back to Earth, because that's usually included in the ticket price, which can easily reach tens of millions of dollars.

Eventually, after sending a total of five payments, the woman wised up and reported the scammer to the police, though it's unclear if the con artist was arrested or if the woman's money was recovered.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time this kind of thing has happened: in 2016, a man, who claimed to be Nigeria's first astronaut, said he was stuck on board a Soviet craft and needed $3 million to return home.

The lesson seems rather obvious: if someone tells you they're an astronaut and that they need your money, don't believe them there is no way anyone who's on board the space station is hurting for money that badly.

More on the ISS: Saudi Arabia Just Bought Two SpaceX Tickets to the International Space Station

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Scammer Fools Woman Into Thinking They're an Astronaut Who Needs a Ticket Home - Futurism

When Elon Musk attempted to impulse-buy Twitter back in April, he didn't have the money to do it himself; the only way he could or still would be able to put up the cash for the deal is with the backing promised by a group of equity firms and wealthy individuals.

Unfortunately for the Technoking, Insider reports, it sounds like some of those investors may be getting some serious cold feet now that Musk has resuscitated the deal after desperately fighting to get out of it.

"We're all trying to get out of it, to be honest," Andrea Walne, a general partner at Manhattan Venture Partners (MVP) and apparently regretful Twitter buyer, told Insider.

"We talked to the other investors, everyone's trying to get out of it," she continued, claiming that it's unclear whether investors will be held to their financial agreements or not, adding that "no one thinks the company should be valued at $44 billion."

First thing's first: this is an absolutely wild remark to say out loud to the press. Musk and Twitter are still very much in court, battling out the maybe-failed deal amid a sea of bot claims and stupid texts; to be this candid either seems calculated, or Walne simply moves through the world with a next-level IDGAF attitude.

Walne's firm says it handles over $1 billion in assets, which is a minuscule fraction of the $44 billion deal. And to that point, Walne told Insider that she actually thinks Twitter, in this economy, should be valued at something closer to $10 to $12 billion a much easier bill to foot.

But no matter how much Twitter (maybe) sells for in the end, it's not exactly in Musks's best interest to let his backers out of the deal.

"Given how unfavorable the deal now is for the buy-side, I'm sure Musk's buddies are all begging him to let them out," Robert Miller, an attorney who specializes in mergers and acquisitions, told Insider. "The less they put in, however, the more Musk himself must put in."

Everyone's in a bad spot, it seems. But you know what they say: don't hop on a $44 billion bandwagon that may have been launched by a midlife crisis. And unfortunately for Walne, she says she's having a tough time getting in touch with the banking folks on Wall Street who might have some answers.

"They're being very very hush hush about everything," she told Insider.

Which, well, makes sense, because again: court.

READ MORE: One of the investors that agreed to back Elon Musk's Twitter bid says they want out of the deal[Insider]

Original post:
Investors in Elon Musk's Twitter Deal Horrified It Might Actually Go Through - Futurism

Image by Getty Images/Futurism

It's no secret that Tesla CEO Elon Musk likes to let loose sometimes,in a respite between extremely long work days and an infamously packed schedule.

From lavish weekend-long parties to attending Burning Man, Musk has long been known to attend social gatherings of all kinds, as detailed in a recent New York Times feature.

And, perhaps unsurprisingly, recreational drug use is a topic that seems to come up a lot in his company.

According to the NYT, Musk likes to pass around a chartpurporting to explain why 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and psilocybin mushrooms are healthier choices than alcohol.

As for taking these drugs himself, the richest man in the world seems to prefer playing it safe whatever that means in this context.

"I have been with him on mild exploratory journeys," David Marglin, a longtime friend of Musk's met him at Burning Man, told the NYT. "And he appreciates the value of those journeys."

"Nothing out of control or wild," he added, "but its all night, and theres dancing and revelry."

Then there was the time when musician Azealia Banks accused Musk of being on Twitter "while on acid" back in 2018, which Musk disputed.

However, Musk has long maintained that we should seriously consider the health benefits of these kinds of drugs.

"I think, generally, people should be open to psychedelics," Musk said during a 2021 interview. "A lot of people making laws are kind of from a different era, so I think, as the new generation gets into political power, I think we will see greater receptivity to the benefits of psychedelics."

Musk maintains that psychedelics may actually be better than commonly used drugs, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which are often prescribed to treat depression.

In April, Musk tweeted that "Ive talked to many more people who were helped by psychedelicsand ketamine than SSRIsand amphetamines."

But that doesn't mean we should take him by his word after all, he's a business magnate, not a neuroscientist.

And it's worth noting that while psilocybin is generally seen as fairly safe by doctors, the same isn't necessarily true of MDMA, known for causing intense euphoria and sometimes brutal hangovers. It might not be a disaster to take it every once in a while, but it's widely established that abusing it frequently can lead to a wide range of neurological issues.

There certainly has been plenty of recent interest and a significant number of small studies by the scientific community to study the potential therapeutic use cases of psychedelic and other recreational drugs.

For instance, some studies have found that the psilocybin can improve the symptoms of depression. Scientists have also found that LSD-based drugs could also help with anxiety and depression.

The evidence, however, is still preliminary and many of these studies are still too small to draw any definitive conclusions.Methodologically, it's also impossible to establish a meaningful control group, because if someone starts tripping, it becomes pretty clear to them that they didn't take the placebo.

But Musk, for one, is a firm believer in their potential and he's willing to go out of his way to prove it to you.

READ MORE: Elon Musk Has the Worlds Strangest Social Calendar [The New York Times]

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Elon Musk Has Reportedly Been Telling Friends About Benefits of Shrooms and MDMA - Futurism

A large percentage of people who use Tesla's Autopilot driving assist system seem to think that the tech makes their car fully self-driving even though the software is far from capable of it.

Per a new survey from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), a whopping 42 percent of Tesla Autopilot drivers said that they feel "comfortable treating their vehicles as fully self-driving."That's so bizarre that we can barely believe it Autopilot can keep your car in a lane with simple braking and acceleration, but it's nowhere near a full self-driving system. In fact, even Tesla's somewhat more advanced Full Self-Driving (FSD) package, which drivers weren't polled on in the IIHS study, is still very much in beta testing.

"The big-picture message here," IIHS President David Harkey said in the organization's press release, "is that the early adopters of these systems still have a poor understanding of the technologys limits."

Those limits, to be blunt, include the fact that Autopilot moderequires drivers to be paying attention and driving albeit with assistance from the vehicle's software.

"Its possible that system design and marketing are adding to these misconceptions,"Harkey said, alluding to widespread criticism that Tesla has overstated the capabilities of its Autopilot and FSD tech.

The IIHS survey also found that 53 percent of people who use Cadillac's Super Cruise assisted driving software are chill with treating their vehicles as self-driving, while only 12 percent of those who use Nissan/Infiniti's ProPILOT Assist software feel the same.

As Harkey noted, there appear to be "clear differences among the three owner populations" as to what their cars are capable of and the survey's findings seem to back that up, too.

Notably, 40 percent of the Tesla and Cadillac assisted driving users said that they had been "locked out" of their vehicles, both types of which have lockout features that switch off or otherwise suspend the vehicles if drivers don't meet failsafe criteria.

While the survey notes that "some of those drivers confused a temporary suspension of the feature with the lockout procedure," that high percentage "nevertheless suggest[s] that many drivers failed to respond to warnings intended to ensure they were paying attention to the road or that they repeatedly violated the operating parameters often enough to trigger the lockout."

Nissan/Infiniti assisted driving users, on the other hand, don't have lockout failsafes to contend with but they do, per the survey, have attention reminders, and a high percentage of the users questions "reported that they had never even received an attention reminder."

There's clearly something going on with Tesla and Cadillac owners, in other words and we have a bad feeling that this could be a sign of things to come.

More on FSD:Tesla Fires Employee Who Posted Shocking YouTube Videos About Its Full Self-Driving Beta

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Survey: 42% of Tesla Autopilot Drivers Think Their Cars Can Entirely Drive Themselves - Futurism

"NASA has proven we are serious as a defender of the planet."Planetary Defenders

Last month, NASA smashed its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft into an asteroid's moonlet known as Dimorphos at 14,000 mph.

Now, NASA is declaring the demonstration triumphant, saying it successfully changed the space rock's trajectory in an historic demonstration that humanity could indeed save itself from a catastrophic asteroid collision.

"All of us have a responsibility to protect our home planet," NASA boss Bill Nelsonsaid during a Tuesday briefing. "After all, its the only one we have."

"This mission shows that NASA is trying to be ready for whatever the universe throws at us," he added. "NASA has proven we are serious as a defender of the planet."

The data is rolling in, NASA says, and the numbers look promising. Case in point, the impact appears to have changed the time it takes for Dimorphos to circle its larger asteroid parent Didymos by a full 32 minutes.

That's more than three times the initial goal of changing its trajectory by ten minutes.

"For the first time ever, humanity has changed the orbit of a planetary object," NASA Planetary Science Division director Lori Glaze told reporters.

A number of ground- and space-based observatories, including NASA's Hubble and James Webb telescopes, were able to capture the event, confirming the new trajectory.

Despite the resounding success, we still much to learn about deflecting any future asteroidthreats to Earth, cautioned NASA spokespeople other than Nelson.

"We should not be too eager to say that one test on one asteroid tells us exactly how every other asteroid would behave in a similar situation," said Tom Statler, DART program scientist at NASA, during the briefing.

"But what we can do is use this test as an anchor point for our physics calculations in our simulations that tell us how different kinds of impacts in different situations should behave," he added.

READ MORE: The DART mission successfully changed the motion of an asteroid [CNN]

More on DART: The Devastation From NASA's Asteroid Collision Looks Unbelievable

Original post:
NASA Says Its Test of Asteroid Deflection Tech Was Wildly Successful - Futurism