• just_another_person@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    6 months ago

    He’s already selling to both side with Starlink. Who is to say Musk won’t be doing the same with this? He’s really playing up the Bond Villain stereotype.

      • darkpanda@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        6 months ago

        In the recent Musk biography it was said that at some point after a meeting with NASA he changed his laptop password to “ilovenasa” so you’re not far off in terms of terrible password security if the story is accurate.

    • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      6 months ago

      You’re (probably knowingly) spreading disinformation if you’re implying SpaceX is selling Starlink terminals to Russia. You have no moral standing to criticize them if you yourself are spreading lies.

      • just_another_person@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        6 months ago

        It’s not disinformation at all. Russians are using Starlink on the battlefield. SpaceX knew, and didn’t report it. Russians continue to use it without any remediation from SpaceX yet. That sure as shit meets the bare minimum in my book as complicity.

        Why are you on here being a fence or fact checker for Russia and SpaceX anyway? Fuck Russia, and Fuck Elon Musk.

        • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          6 months ago

          The accusation being made here is not about Russia using Starlink but about SpaceX selling them to both sides for which I haven’t seen any evidence for. You can not like Musk all you want but making statements like that as if it’s an established fact is dishonest. It implies malice when the most likely explanation is that these terminals simply just were obtained via 3rd parties. Starlink doesn’t work in Russia or in the occupied territories but it does work near the front lines because Ukraine is using them there so if Russians are able to obtain an active terminal somehow then there’s a good chance it will work.

          You also seem to be implying that SpaceX isn’t doing anything about it. What are you basing this on? How could you know? They’ve said that they’re going to disable all terminals found out to be used by sanctioned parties and I don’t see any reason to assume they’re not doing this. For all we know they could have disabled hundreds if not thousands terminals by now. Ofcourse if you have evidence to the contrary then I’m interested in seeing it.

          Why are you on here being a fence or fact checker for Russia and SpaceX anyway?

          Because I have no dog in the fight and I only care about the truth. I have zero interest in the anti-Elon circlejerk - I’m just trying to figure out what’s actually going on.

    • vvv@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      6 months ago

      Would you rather he, as a non-government affiliated citizen, pick a side? War is stupid. Communication is great. Maybe this is naive of me, but I think the world would be better, and maybe require less war, if everyone had equal access to communication.

      • db2@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        6 months ago

        Maybe this is naive of me

        It really is. We’re not discussing the philosophy of free and open communication, we’re talking about a single narcissist who has been given money and power and how that’s a problem.

        • vvv@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          edit-2
          6 months ago

          Science fiction of the 90s was the time to discuss philosophy. We didn’t come to a conclusion then. The future is now. A global low latency, highly available communications network is technologically inevitable. In our timeline, a rich narcissist has gathered enough support and competence around himself to start building that network. So now we have a real, concrete questions that needs an answer: who should have access to that network, and who should decide?

          The way I see it, the options are (besides opening the network for everyone globally):

          • limit access to non-military purposes: practically impossible
          • limit access to the country of which Elon calls himself a citizen: what happens if he moves?
          • destroy the network: everyone is worse off
          • have the government take over control of the network: I don’t think we want this precedence

          Do you have another suggestion?

      • ShunkW@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        6 months ago

        The fuck are you talking about? These are surveillance satellites, not some unity communications empowering satellites or something.

        • vvv@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          6 months ago

          Surveillance is a usecase for communication. I can’t think of a communications technology that hasn’t been (ab)used for surveillance… Books even! Historically people have been prosecuted due to the books they possess! Should our target of ire be the entity building the network? Or the entity wanting to use it for surveillance? The vibe I’m getting from this thread is that folks would prefer the US government, via NASA or otherwise, have control of the whole thing instead.

          • Zron@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            6 months ago

            You have no idea how a spy satellite works, do you?

            They take pictures.

            With really, really fancy cameras.

            Cameras that are very carefully, and secretly, designed to be very good at their jobs.

            No, you can’t just let some third party decide to use your fancy spy satellite, that means they now know what your satellite can and can’t do, which means they can hide things from it, which means it’s now just a very expensive lump in orbit.

            And need I remind you that SpaceX is not some magical self funded space ferry service. They’re a US Government contractor, that’s where most of their money comes from. The satellites are made by other contractors. There’s not a government satellite factory somewhere in the desert, they pay companies like Boeing and Honeywell to make them the parts for the satellite, and then SpaceX gets money to launch it.

            When the government pays for something, the contractor is legally required to keep their mouth shut about it, hand over the keys, and be available if it breaks. The contractor cannot just decide to let someone else play with the government’s toys, that’s called espionage.

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        edit-2
        6 months ago

        Communications are important, which is why they’re one of the number one things an invader disrupts upon invasion: communications systems. Disrupting your enemies communications is incredibly common and to act like simply because Musk is “offering communications” means he’s a good guy is such a simplistic fucking take I want to blow my brains out.

        Maybe you should read some McLuhan or some Debord.

        • vvv@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          6 months ago

          Do you have any particular pieces of theirs you can recommend I read?

          I don’t consider Musk, by any means, to be “a good guy”. Ideally, I’d just rather let SpaceX keep building out starlink for the good of the world and have it be a medium for communication that is difficult to disable.

          Why do we need to kill our enemies at this point in our civilization even? it’s barbaric and ridiculous. The state of the art of weaponry right now is trending towards remote operations. How long until it just becomes BattleBots but with collateral damage? When do we get to world leaders settling disputes in a game of Worms?

      • Pat12@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        6 months ago

        Would you rather he, as a non-government affiliated citizen, pick a side? War is stupid. Communication is great. Maybe this is naive of me, but I think the world would be better, and maybe require less war, if everyone had equal access to communication.

        I recently read about Ted Hall who shared nuclear secrets with the Soviet Union because he thought everyone should have equal access to nuclear weapons and this would prevent another world war.

        Your logic is similar and it’s not a good thing.

    • llamacoffee@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      6 months ago

      A lot wrong here, I’m sorry to say, and I’m really not a fan of Musk. He is absolutely not selling Starlink to be used by Russia. That would be shut down real quick. (They may be using black-market terminals, but that’s a different question.) And this new constellation will, as I understand it, be owned and operated by the US govt. Think like every single spy satellite ever: govt finds a contractor and asks them to do a thing.

        • Syn_Attck@lemmy.today
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          edit-2
          6 months ago

          Making boatloads of money

          or

          Making far less money along with loss of freedom for decades, or fleeing and sanctions while having your every shart logged…