# Now that Elon Musk has bought Twitter - now the Pit edition (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** elon-musk\ **Created:** [August 13, 2024, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634 "2024-08-13T00:48:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 155
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3102 "2026-02-11T09:25:08Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > there’s no way you’re raising livestock on the Moon, and lab-grown meat isn’t practical yet. [Well…](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVmK9eAgDZ4) > [@Smapti](#): > > I doubt Elon’s outer space fantasies involve living off of beans. Living in an enclosed biodome with no outside air and everyone living off beans…no thank you. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3103 "2026-02-11T12:00:10Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > We don’t even have self-sustaining colonies in Antarctica, and Antarctica is a _lot_ less hostile to human life than the Moon is. It’s going to take a major technological leap for interplanetary colonization to be feasible, and I unfortunately don’t see it happening in my lifetime. Agree overall. Well said. I’ll point out that the reason to develop self-sustaining capability in a colony anywhere is that it’d be cheaper to be self-sustaining than to be resupplied from home. For Mars that really makes sense. For the Moon that probably makes sense. For Antarctica it surely doesn’t. So the absence there is explained without resorting to technological infeasibility. But … I do think if anyone was seriously approaching the idea of building a self-sustaining colony on Mars or the Moon they ought to start with building a self-sustaining colony in Antarctica that’s also a version of Biosphere, so walled off from Earth’s water and air. That’d be a decent dress rehearsal. It’d probably be against Antarctic treaties, so that’s an issue. Novaya Zemlya would be another decent location, or maybe aways east or west of Point Barrow AK. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3104 "2026-02-11T13:36:06Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > they ought to start with building a self-sustaining colony in Antarctica that’s also a version of Biosphere With or without Pauly Shore? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3105 "2026-02-11T17:17:20Z")
Never mind an enclosed biosphere, let’s see someone establish a settlement in the high Arctic where all their food has to be grown in greenhouses, without imported fossil fuels. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3106 "2026-02-11T17:19:33Z")
> [@Dissonance](#): > > > [@JRDelirious](#): > > > > I wonder which Heinlein character he fancies himself. > > Manuel “Mannie” Garcia O’Kelly-Davis. Only insofar as he gets to dominate the Earth by flinging rocks down on it from his Moon colony. To bad that he actually qualifies for Senator Mortimer Hobart…Mort the Wart ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3107 "2026-02-11T17:24:40Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > With or without Pauly Shore? And no Jeff Goldblum, thank you very much. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3108 "2026-02-11T17:49:37Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Living at one-sixth of Earth’s gravity for extended periods of time is going to have a major impact on people’s health. In the anime _Planetes_ [one of the characters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Planetes_characters#Nono) is a twelve-year old girl, one of three children born and raised on the moon. She is over six-feet tall and longs to swim on Earth – there are no bodies of water large enough on Luna – but cannot because the gravity would kill her. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3109 "2026-02-11T18:39:15Z")
That’s actually one of the major unknowns we have now. We know prolonged exposure to micro-gravity causes all sorts of health issues at micro- and macro-scopic scales, but we don’t really know to what extent that’s also true at merely lower gravity, at least for people born and raised on Earth. I’d be more worried about radiation. They’re going to have to construct habitats reasonably deep underground whether on the Moon or Mars and limit surface exposure (a significant issue if they want to develop a self-supporting colony) or else accept they’ll all die of one form of cancer or another in relatively short order. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3110 "2026-02-11T18:49:07Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > I’d be more worried about radiation. Maybe this is one of those cases where giant magnets are actually the solution. No magnetic field? Elon will create his own! ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3111 "2026-02-11T18:53:19Z")
Giant Magnets are always the solution, if the problem has not been fixed you need bigger magnets! ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3112 "2026-02-11T18:53:38Z")
If he could crank it up to 1 Tesla for the lols, I’d be genuinely impressed ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3113 "2026-02-11T19:01:13Z")
> [@duality72](#): > > > [@LSLGuy](#): > > > > musk probably has read Heinlein. > > Not that he seemed to understand much of it, judging by his use of grok and, well, everything else about him. I’ve never realized the misuse of “grok” until now, but that’s because I just didn’t think about it too much (and I’ve also not read Heinlein). But yeah, come to think of it, to the degree that “grok” can be differentiated from “know”, AI is about the farthest from grokking things as you can get. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3114 "2026-02-11T19:23:42Z")
That tracks. It is a reflection of its master. Elon clearly groks little, possibly none, of the SF he’s read, whether Heinlein or the Culture novels or anything else. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3115 "2026-02-11T19:56:46Z")
Grok groks about as well as musk’s cars’ FSD aka “full-self-driving” feature fully self drives. Or “autopilot” automatically pilots his cars. musk is all about wildly exaggerated naming. The first couple of times it sounds both aspirational and inspirational. Pretty quickly it just sounds delusional. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3116 "2026-02-11T20:22:17Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > musk is all about wildly exaggerated naming. Just ask his children. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2026, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3117 "2026-02-12T01:09:34Z")
Elon says the Moon city will have a factory with a railgun catapult to launch “AI satellites” into orbit. > **[Elon Musk's latest scheme is a satellite catapult on the Moon](https://www.engadget.com/science/space/elon-musks-latest-scheme-is-a-satellite-catapult-on-the-moon-113403143.html)** > > With his newfound focus on the Moon, Elon musk is making some wild new plans. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2026, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3118 "2026-02-12T01:16:09Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > a factory with a railgun catapult to launch “AI satellites” into orbit. I’ve read that book, but it was launching grain silos until it was launching rocks. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2026, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3119 "2026-02-12T01:30:10Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > > [@LSLGuy](#): > > > > To me “self-growing” is pretty obvious. > > > > He’s referring to a place where they are making the essentials for increasing the size of the colony _in situ_, not relying on shipments of prefab habitat modules or food or … from Earth. > > Yeah, I’m fairly sure he meant to say “self-sustaining”. Why would you give Elmo credit to mean “self-sustaining” when he said “self-growing?” Him thinking that a colony on the moon will be able to not only sustain itself without any outside help, but to continually grow in size while relying only on its own resources is not only exactly what he said, but is fully in line with his other delusional thinking, like the idea that SpaceX’s impossibly ambitious plans to put a million satellites to power AI datacenters into orbit is actually a step towards harnessing 100% of the suns energy output. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2026, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3120 "2026-02-12T01:37:13Z")
Self-sustaining _is_ self-growing. You’re splitting a hari that doesn’t need to be split. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2026, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3121 "2026-02-12T01:50:56Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > You’re splitting a hari that doesn’t need to be split. Poor Hari. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634.md?page=154) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634.md?page=156)