Of course - no guillotines down there.
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Oh god, it’s getting crowded? What ever will the world’s unfathomably wealthy do?
Oh, just continue owning everything, running everything, and making the world work against the vast majority of the people on it? Okay then, that sounds about normal. 
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So this guy is James Cameron’s nemesis, right?
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Yes.
Things that are also not fair include the fact that individuals have this much personal wealth which they’ve amassed through relatively little labor while huge swaths of the world scrounge for food and clean drinking water.
Damn shame that he didn’t get to actually touch it though. Just tearing up over there…
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Until the next extinction level event, anyway.
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Praise asteroid!
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If we’re lucky.
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You know, I totally understand being in general against super-rich people. But when we have super-rich people about, it seems weird and even petty to be complaining so much when they spend their money on something like this. There are any number of ways Vescovo could use his wealth for that would be both much worse and much more boring. This way, his vanity project will advance science.
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Something like what? Accidentally funding a little science with the primary goal of gaining some adventurer’s prize? Think about all of the other useful things that they could have done with that money. The cost of the submarine alone would have been more than half of the expected cost to fix the water in Flint Michigan.
This person could have used their money to put an immense amount of good into the world while still living a life lavish beyond the dreams of over 99% of the population, but instead used it to put a boot print on the bottom of the ocean.
Any actual science that this stunt produced could have been been accomplished more easily and cheaply with an ROV. All of these dives are being filmed for the discovery channel. The amount of useful scientific data we’re going to get out of this is probably very small compared to the capital put into it.
Ton of money. Very little science. Apologize for them all you want, but at the end of the day, it’s a pretty terrible science:investment ratio.
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OK, I’m going to insist on being pedantic here. A wealthy adventurer did not touch the bottom of the Atlantic. Even his submarine probably did not touch the bottom of the Atlantic. His submarine “floated near the bottom” of the Atlantic.
When I first saw the article title I immediately started trying to imagine hardsuit / protective ways he could scrape his fingers on the bottom without his flesh instantly imploding do to the pressure differential. That to me was the cool part of this story. Having some millionaire visit the bottom of the ocean in a tricked out submarine? Meh.
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When I first saw the article title I immediately started trying to imagine hardsuit / protective ways he could scrape his fingers on the bottom without his flesh instantly imploding do to the pressure differential. That to me was the cool part of this story.
That and 500 lawyers would be a good start…
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Wealthy adventurer just became the first person to touch the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean
The first live person.
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On the plus side, he’s taking an actual marine biologist with him, as well as sampling equipment. If this is what it takes to fund pure science, well, there are worse ways for the wealthy to spend their money. It beats tiger hunting.
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I was assuming something like a diving bell with some exotic atmosphere and a year or two to decompress so he could actually touch bottom.
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[Citation_needed]
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fair enough. according to the internets;
| Occupation | Private equity investor and undersea explorer |
|---|---|
| Title | Co-Founder, Insight Equity Holdings |
yeah not sure anyone in “Private equity” earns money. I highly doubt “undersea explorer” is the sort of occupation that garners one the sort of income necessary.
So part of me would rather see someone spending Daddy’s money doing this rather than cornering the market on soybeans or silver or whatever else rich prats do.
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Cameron recently released a film based on his Mariana Trench dive a few years back.(The imaginatively named ‘Deepsea Challenge’). Spoilers - there’s nothing down there but ooze.
I have reservations about the movie - namely how some of the exterior shots of the sub were obtained at depth, and also it’s in general jazzed up somewhat, but you have to be impressed by the balls on the guy. The bottom of the ocean is definitely not somewhere I’d wish to visit.
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Noticed that, have you?
And in comparison to which system of economics?
I mean, we’re talking about humans, here. The only rational thing we do on a regular basis is… Um… Help me out, here…
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Erm. I may be thinking of ambergris, but doesn’t whale poop float?
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