Originally published at: Jeff Bezos is going to space next month | Boing Boing
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especialy the don’t come back part.
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Said Bezos, “I would have gone sooner, but I was waiting for a more explicit rocket.”
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Spam in a can then.
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I remember so many enthusiasts being excited about commercial space flight, because that meant opening it up to everyone. It felt the opposite to me. Not that NASA actually was so egalitarian in who it let in, but there was always the sense that being an astronaut was something you worked for, and that they were at least supposed to be paving the way for humanity in general.
Whereas this has always been the promise of privatization, one more playground for the rich. Congratulations, Bezos, your exploitation of workers has really worked out for you. Everyone else, you will not go to space today.
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Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to space.
How many kids can’t afford their dreams because Bezos is treating his employees like shit?
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Gives a new meaning to the concept of an elevator pitch for whoever buys the spare seat.
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His company board should be livid about this and the way he’s putting himself in danger. Then again… maybe they’re being hopeful?
I can’t say if I wasn’t a mega-billionaire with my own rocket company I wouldn’t want to do the same. But I’d also be the rare mega-billionaire trying to end my own status as mega-billionaire by pouring hundreds of millions into progressive political movements. Oh well… I’m none of those things.
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The current space race is interesting. These guys clearly see themselvs as equivalent to the East India Trading Company or railroad barons. At least there aren’t any obviously sentient current inhabitants to exploit up there. I wonder how long it will be before they are selling passage for indentured servitude and I wonder if they won’t be motivated to make conditions on bad a la enclosures acts etc. Is this what the long term plan for the warehouse employees is all about - duplicating the conditions of early industrial England?
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That’s one hell of a mid-life crisis vehicle.
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No, of course not!
…They’d rather use robots and not bother with people at all.
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Dude has nothing to lose.
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That isn’t new. IIRC the first Vostok missions were all automatic, as they weren’t sure how well a human would function in space. There was the ability to manual override, but I don’t believe for Gargarin’s fight it was used.
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Flesh Gordon was startlingly precient.
Bezos is spending his vast fortune on space travel because he can’t think of another project deserving of his dollars; I mean, tackling social problems just doesn’t seem to have quite the narcissistic oligarch cache as space flight.
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Ah, eleven minutes. That’s one small step for a man, one giant flaunt of wealth for an asshole.
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If you want to explore weightlessness for 11 minutes, you could scuba dive to 130 feet. It’s a helluva lot cheaper, and 11 minutes stays within no-decompression limitations.
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I guess there is an element of boredom to his life. I mean… 200 billion dollars. I remember feeling pretty successful when I could first go into the grocery store and buy ANYTHING. I. WANTED.
He’s kinda like that, only with, well, the entire planet, so maybe that’s why these goofballs are so interested in stuff outside the planet now. Earth probably feels like Walmart to them.
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Oh yeah. Family sized Captain Crunch, here I come! And the real stuff in the box, not the knock off in a bag!
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With Crunchberries.
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Adios MoFo, and don’t let the Earth hit you in the ass.
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