this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
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My opinion on that is that someone would've done what musk have money for at some point as well. All of those companies were mostly rehashed concepts that became viable due to faster computers, better materials, and better battery technology. I usually don't say this about actual inventions made by scientists and engineers, but most of the time billionaires just provide a concept and daddy's money and that really doesn't take a lot of skills that I think are worth anything.
That is the thing though, everyone knew someone should be doing what Musk did but no one with real money actually was. Even if he is just the money and the direction and doesn't help figure a single thing out, he is still the driving force.
Should he be necessary in a perfect society? Of course not. In the society we have though, he was instrumental in pointing Space Travel, EV, and to a lesser degree self-driving in the direction many people were hoping it would go.
The reality is that after he became wealthy enough for most people to want to retire he risked it all to do a couple of good things at an important time. Even if he only did it for the chance to make more money, I am still glad he did it.