OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush in 2022: "I don't think it's very dangerous"

I mean, he’s not wrong, is he?
It was much more dangerous for the poor 300 migrants who drowned in between Greece and Italy. Exactly 60 to 1 more dangerous, but nobody gave a f#ck until after the fact.

I don’t even know what my point is…just peeved at these grown up kids with too much money and too little judgement.

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William McGonagall has been re-incarnated in ChatGPT!? :face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth:

Edit: Couldn’t resist. It took a few tries and I fed it some details.


@Simon_Clift : If William McGonagall were to compose a poem about the OceanGate tragedy, how do you think it would go?

ChatGPT: Certainly! Based on the style and characteristics of William McGonagall’s poetry, a hypothetical poem about the OceanGate tragedy might go something like this:

Oh, gather 'round, let this tale unfold,
Of OceanGate, with a story yet untold,
With untested carbon fiber they set to sail,
Into the abyss, where dangers prevail.

In their quest to reach the ocean’s floor,
An audacious feat they couldn’t ignore,
Carbon fiber, a material untried,
In OceanGate’s vessel, its strength relied.

But caution whispered on the wind,
Of the risks uncharted, dangers unpinned,
For untested paths may lead astray,
In the face of challenges that come their way.

Mr. Stockton Rush, a visionary man,
Embraced the carbon fiber’s unproven plan,
With hopes that innovation would prevail,
And OceanGate’s mission, it would unveil.

Yet the ocean’s depths, they hold no grace,
To materials untested, in this dangerous space,
As the pressure mounted, the risks increased,
Carbon fiber’s limits were put to the feast.

Oh, OceanGate, in the realm of the deep,
Where the untested carbon fiber did weep,
In the face of forces, relentless and fierce,
The consequences of haste became clear.

Lessons learned through trials endured,
As safety and caution should be ensured,
In the pursuit of knowledge and great renown,
To test, to prepare, and to not let haste drown.

Let this be a reminder, etched in verse,
That innovation and caution must converse,
For in exploration’s brave endeavor,
Safety and preparation shall falter never.

So as we contemplate OceanGate’s plight,
Unveiling the dangers that came to light,
May it serve as a lesson, resounding and true,
That untested paths must be tread with due.

@Simon_Clift: Thanks for taking a crack at this. If Earth is ever facing a Vogon invasion, you’ll be a real help.

ChatGPT: Thank you for your kind words! While I can’t promise to be as skilled as a Vogon poet in fending off an invasion, I’ll do my best to assist you with any questions or requests you may have. Just remember to always carry your towel in case of Vogon encounters!

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Surely they’d only accept a trip on the Originalist wildly dangerous submersible…

It seems increasingly likely that Stockton Rush’s most enduring contribution to the world of undersea exploration will be as a cautionary tale for why you don’t break the fucking safety rules.

Henceforth “Don’t Rush it” will serve as a double entendre for the engineering community.

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As opponents of laws like the Voting Right Act I would assume those Justices would feel more comfortable in a sub like the CSS Hunley.

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this is not bad, not bad at all!

The full prompt was as follows:

write a short hopeful poem based on this current media event:
Noises heard from beneath the waves of the North Atlantic on Tuesday and Wednesday have become the focus of the urgent search for five people inside a submersible that disappeared over the weekend during a dive to the wreckage of the Titanic.

Capt. Jamie Frederick of the United States Coast Guard said remotely operated vehicles are seeking the source of the sounds, and a team of experts is examining the noises to determine if they might be from the missing vessel. But so far, he said, that analysis has been “inconclusive.”

More rescue vessels have arrived in the vast search area — roughly twice the size of Connecticut and more than two miles deep — where teams of international experts have been conducting an extensive search for the craft, called the Titan. The 22-foot submersible lost contact on Sunday during what should have been a two-and-a half-hour journey to the wreck of the Titanic.

Here are the latest details:

Captain Frederick reiterated that the mission continues to be a search-and-rescue operation, although officials have said they are operating under the assumption that the submersible would run out of oxygen sometime Thursday morning. “We need to have hope,” he said. Here’s a look at the craft’s limited air supply.

Rolling Stone magazine reported that a Canadian search plane had detected “banging sounds” in 30-minute intervals within the search area. The report, based on internal communications from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, could not be independently verified.

One of the ships heading to the search area is carrying a French-operated robot capable of operating at the depth where the Titanic sits. It is not expected to reach the scene until Wednesday evening. Here’s a closer look at some of the vessels joining the search.

Leaders in the submersible craft industry had warned for years of possible “catastrophic” problems with the vehicle’s design. They also worried that OceanGate Expeditions, the Titan’s owner, had not followed standard certification procedures. Read our reporting on the company.

Stockton Rush, the chief executive of OceanGate, was piloting the submersible, according to the company. The other four passengers are Hamish Harding, a British businessman and explorer; a British-Pakistani businessman, Shahzada Dawood, and his teenage son, Suleman; and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French maritime expert who has been on more than 35 dives to the Titanic wreck site.

If he really wanted those backstage pass tickets, he should have worn his favourite Blink 182 t-shirt…
Money can’t buy taste.
Which makes me think my saying that is distasteful… but boyoboyoboy these bozos inherit the earth.

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Bless. This will get reused. I promise.

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I’m waiting for the conspiracy theories:

It didn’t sink, it was sunk by Russia/China/U.S./jealous sub competitor/kraken/etc.
Just watch, it will happen.

Even if it isn’t done by fanbois, it will be by clickbait authors.

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mermaids

With homage to Seanan McGuire

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Put that quote on his memorial, along with an explanation of how he died.

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I wonder are there a whole bunch of other adventure tourism for billionaires companies out there looking nervously over their shoulder? Not that they are a bunch of techbros confidently doing something they are unqualified to and suddenly getting self aware - I can’t see that - just that their pool of marks might be drying up as people realise that shit be real.

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Way ahead of you:

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It seems like it will come down, at least in large part, to whether the heavier technological dependency makes a difference.

Something like Everest kills people reasonably routinely; and if anything that’s probably a virtue among the tourists-who-insist-on-‘explorer’ crowd; since if it were any safer to hire the natives to drag you to the top for a photo the place would just be a theme park.

Anyone whose willingness was dependent on a foolish belief that disruptive innovators were totally about doing stuff that was just too cool for The Man and his burdensome regulations will probably be more nervous about the safety of anything involving dubious air/space/water craft; but anyone who is primarily in it for the excitement or the clout might see a disruption of the previous “Oh, massive titanium pressure hulls aren’t cheap; but there have been literally decades of safe operation” situation; which was being kept out of mere cruise territory purely by being expensive.

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