this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2024

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Has SpaceX Done Anything NASA Hasn't? (www.youtube.com)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/technology

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 4 weeks ago (9 children)

Who died and made this goofball the official spokesperson for science and astronomy? It's getting annoying seeing his face on my YouTube feed all the time. Along with that other dude, Michio Kaku.

In case y'all got the wrong idea, they're still cool guys, and fuck Elon. It's just that I'm past the teenage stoner documentaries of people being "deep" when explaining the science. That's who Dr. Tyson seems to appeal to.

For some no-nonsense, no fluff science content, I'd recommend Sabine Hossenfelder and the PBS Spacetime series.

[–] [email protected] 53 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Carl Sagan. Carl Sagan died.

[–] FauxPseudo 6 points 4 weeks ago

Literally true.

Socrates -> Plato -> Aristotle -> Alexander

Sagan -> NDT -> ?

Fortunately we are alive to see the original and the successor. Unfortunately NDT has become a greatest hits jukebox and hasn't produced anything new and noteworthy in a long time. I'm looking forward to the next generation. I'm definitely cautious of what the generation after that does.

[–] random_character_a 32 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

PBS Spacetime is one of those golden nuggets of a shitpile thats youtube.

Youtube keeps pushing Sabine, but I don't agree with her on many things relating to quantium stuff. But yeah, you definitely won't find any new age quantium mystic crap on her channel.

[–] CookieOfFortune 25 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Scott Manley is good on factual space stuff.

[–] astropenguin5 6 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Yep, for literally anything in space or aerospace he is my go-to. I also like Angela Collier for physics, she makes great content.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

Oh yes, how could I forget. I followed him getting his whole pilot's license and everything.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

PBS spacetime is great, but fuck Sabine Hossenfelder, she loves to pretend to be an expert about things she isn't qualified to talk about. Like how trans people don't exist. Or getting basically everything wrong about neurodivergence. She can fuck all the way off

[–] febra 11 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah she's very opinionated and extremely obnoxious.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

Don't forget about the sucking up to Musk

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I feel like the quality of her videos is way down but I am ND and found that video pretty neutral.

I skimmed a transcript just now because I wanted to understand why people are so disproportionately mad about it. She mentions Autism Speaks and does not immediately condemn it. Is that it? I wouldn't say that counts as being wrong on everything.

I'm tired of (especially internet) discourse where shouting which camp you belong to is most important. One good example is when people accused Amnesty of siding with Russia because they reported on Ukrainian warcrimes. Nothing is truly neutral but I much prefer information or thought experiments over the virtue signaling that has taken over the internet.

You will not convince people to change their mind by shouting in their faces that your point of view is correct. Granted, you usually wont change people's mind online anyway, except entrenching them deeper into their existing beliefs. I don't think that is a good thing regardless of the side they take. It leads to seeing fellow humans as monsters just because they are wrong about something.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

https://youtu.be/URpE-xZnQnk?si=fFR3jP5t9rjB3pbw

[–] EtherWhack 11 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Honestly, Neil D. Tyson comes off as an arrogant douchebag, same with Bill Nye.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

I was in my university's Society of Physics Students, and some of the members got to have dinner with NDT after a talk he gave at the school. Reports confirm he is a self-centered, arrogant douchebag

[–] EtherWhack 5 points 4 weeks ago

Just him talking about why he doesn't use a phone case, you can just feel the arrogant better than you additude.

https://youtu.be/vvFeqL86JBk

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Sabine Hossenfelder can fuck ALL the way off. She sucks man.

[–] SpacetimeMachine 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Care to explain why?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Well there's the stuff I personally dislike. Like the Elon cringe skits she does, or the super weird uncanny valley face filter.

But the biggest issue is she didn't stay in her realm of expertise. She might know a lot about certain things, but then also talks about other stuff with the same level of authority. No caveats, no this is my opinion, she present it as fact. But the fact is she is really really wrong about a lot of shit. And just mixing and matching shit you know and shit you don't know is a big no-no in science communication.

One of the most egregious thins she did was make a video about trans folk and talked about it like it's a fad or even a disorder. She was not only factually wrong, she was spouting anti-trans propaganda. When called out she kept the video up and didn't do anything like a follow up, correction or apology. She has some really boomer views about a lot of things and then presents it like it's fact. Another panned video was the one about neurodivergence (autism) and there are more like that. There are multiple hour+ video essays about how she is wrong in these cases and they are worth a watch imho.

The annoying thing is, I don't really know what she actually does know. Because she mixes everything and doesn't stay within her knowledge base, now everything is suspect. So even the videos about physics where I think she does know what she's talking about, I can't trust. And even in physics it seems like she's very hit or miss, I spoke to somebody at a party once that did his PhD on one of the physics topics she covered in a video. He said she was like 10 years behind the times and was wrong about several key facts. Some of these were just wrong because of simplification, which might be excused given the format, but others were plain wrong. Now I don't know enough about the subject to make a judgement, but the dude I spoke to seemed to know what he was talking about.

Science communication is really really hard and it's a skill not a lot of people have. Look at how big the teams of researchers at for example Kurzgesagt are and even they mess up once in a while. But when they get called out, they go back and delete the video or better yet post a follow up or recently even a replacement video. And they qualify things with sources and caveats, mentioning which parts are fact, consensus, speculation and opinion. They also make it very clear at the beginning of the video what a viewer can expect. That way we can qualify the information and know what in what light to put the information presented. Now I realize Kurzgesagt may be one of the best channels when it comes to short form YouTube video science communication out there and it isn't fair to hold everyone to that standard. But there needs to be at least some level of due diligence involved imho.

I'm sure I left out some other stuff, there is a lot to find if you look for honest critique. I'm sure there's also a lot of unwarranted hate out there, but also a lot of stuff that's warranted.

[–] SpacetimeMachine 9 points 4 weeks ago

That all sounds pretty fair. I haven't watched many of those videos you've mentioned but I certainly have noticed times where it feels like she is stepping outside of her expertise. And totally agree on Kurzgesagt. I feel like they are one of the more reliable science channels on the platform.

[–] vitriolix 7 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Re Sabine, there are so many non transphobe people to watch

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

That's unfortunate and I didn't know that about her if true, I admit I only watch her videos every so often and didn't see anything like that when I watched her channel.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

I've been through the same. I was so sad to learn this. This is what personal growth looks like, you learned a thing today. Be proud of yourself

[–] accideath 4 points 4 weeks ago

I really love our German equivalents: Harald Lesch and the show TerraX. Had the privilege of seeing him live in a guest lecture in my uni about the anthropocene. He feels so much more genuine and less arrogant than Neil DeGrasse Tyson. If you know German and don’t know him, check him out. Both on TerraX and his YouTube presence. There are even some full lectures on there, similar to the one I saw life.

[–] tehn00bi 2 points 3 weeks ago

I prefer thunderf00t

[–] [email protected] 40 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

All that money that went to Boeing and Space X should have went to NASA. Fuck private space cunts getting our money. Those engineers should be OURS, not fuckwit Leon.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 weeks ago

As much as I hate Elton, SpaceX and StarLink have developed genuinely very great technologies. I feel like NASA could have done the same years ago already, but apparently it needed a space cunt to do it. Sure it sucks that StarLink for example is owned by Elmo, but honestly… better than not having it at all.

[–] ZaphodWilde42 8 points 4 weeks ago

Tbf tho, NASA wanted private companies to deal with Moon and earth space so they could focus on their SLS rocket. Obvs fuck that guy, but i think NASA came up with this plan.

[–] Diplomjodler3 27 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I won't be taking sides in this particular battle of grossly overinflated egos.

[–] fluxion 61 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I'll pick the side that's not trying to overthrow the foundations of democracy

[–] Diplomjodler3 20 points 4 weeks ago

You have a point there. Still can't stand the guy.

[+] [email protected] -11 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

Has NASA achieved reusable rockets? Has they achieved landing rockets?

[–] Buffalox 23 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

That was not the claim, the claim was on the actual space frontier. And in that regard Elon Musk and SpaceX has not achieved anything.
At 4:10 he even praise that SpaceX works on reusability, and call landing the rocket a tremendous achievement.

You are arguing a strawman, the exact problem this video was made to address.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

they have managed to set a trend for filling the night sky with shitty little low orbit satellites chewing up the ozone layer

[–] orrk 3 points 4 weeks ago

and of course oversaturating LEO, because while they will come down eventually, those dead satellites will stay up there for a decade or more in some cases

[–] RememberTheApollo_ 21 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Yes. The shuttle was both rocket and spacecraft, obviously controllable for landing. The Shuttle SRBs were reusable. They were not controllable for landing, but nonetheless they did land in a state that allowed reuse.

Musk achieved powered flight for landing his rockets, but even NASA had a long history of research with VTOL powered rockets that were not used for spaceflight.

He can certainly claim to have perfected it, but he certainly didn’t invent it.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

He can certainly claim to have perfected it, but he certainly didn’t invent it.

He did jack all, SpaceX engineering teams did everything.

[–] RememberTheApollo_ 5 points 4 weeks ago

Well, yes. That is true.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago

Have you actually watched the video?

[+] [email protected] -18 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I'd put building cathedrals and pyramids more on slaves than worship of deity... other than that, spot on.

And he singles out recovering rockets as a feat of engineering, not space exploration, which would've been my second quip.

[–] TheGrandNagus 24 points 4 weeks ago

Pyramids being built by slaves was debunked long ago. Cathedrals also weren't lol.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

I’d put building cathedrals and pyramids more on slaves than worship of deity

Neither where build by slaves.

[–] FauxPseudo 13 points 4 weeks ago

Egypt didn't use slaves to build the pyramids. They used paid skilled workers. We have their living areas and pay receipts. You are working with outdated information. Cathedrals cover a 1700 year period and multiple labor strategies. I'm sure some were built with slaves but the majority weren't and slavery was all but absent for the majority of the period unless you count serfdom, but serfs didn't have the skills to build them so they don't count.