this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2025
54 points (100.0% liked)

SneerClub

1048 readers
8 users here now

Hurling ordure at the TREACLES, especially those closely related to LessWrong.

AI-Industrial-Complex grift is fine as long as it sufficiently relates to the AI doom from the TREACLES. (Though TechTakes may be more suitable.)

This is sneer club, not debate club. Unless it's amusing debate.

[Especially don't debate the race scientists, if any sneak in - we ban and delete them as unsuitable for the server.]

See our twin at Reddit

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

so i stumbled upon a thing on reddit

the thing is that there's an obscure early scifi book by none other than wernher von braun, that is about mars colonization, where they find already existing civilization, leader of which is called elon. apparently this is why megaracist elon's father named him that:

Interest in this novel increased in 2021 when people connected the Martian leader, called the Elon, to SpaceX founder Elon Musk, suggesting that von Braun may have somehow foreseen Musk's space exploration ventures.[15] However, Errol Musk, Elon's father, asserted in 2022 that he was fully aware of the von Braun connection in naming his son.[16]

also in that book: tunnels used for high-speed travel; nation-states became obsolete because of some magic tech; highly technocratic planetary government as a result. that stimulant habit seems historically accurate then, even if it's cut with ketamine sometimes. some more red string on corkboard https://www.mind-war.com/p/the-elon-how-a-nazi-rocket-scientist this tracks as one of his grandparents moved from canada to south africa because canada in 40s wasn't racist enough for them, and with all the technocracy inc things.

so yeah, motherfucker might be believing - or even groomed into - that he's destined to be a planetary overlord, all based on nazi scifi, and he's playing it out irl with all the fuck you money he has

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] smiletolerantly@awful.systems 27 points 1 month ago (32 children)

Wait wait wait, so you are telling me, not even his bad ideas are his?

[–] smiletolerantly@awful.systems 15 points 1 month ago (29 children)

The fact that Iain M. Banks is name-dropped in the poster in the article is a travesty... I have no doubt "the Elon" thinks himself some badass Special Circumstances operative, and OpenAI/Grok/... as laying the foundations for Culture Minds. It's not. He's not. Goddamnit I wish Banks was still alive.

[–] cstross@wandering.shop 29 points 1 month ago (11 children)

@smiletolerantly Listen, I knew Iain—went drinking with him semi-regularly—and he despised Musk. One of his best villains, Joliet Veppers in "Surface Detail", is based on Musk.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 8 points 1 month ago

I am delighted to hear that Veppers was literally based on Musk

load more comments (10 replies)
load more comments (27 replies)
load more comments (29 replies)