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| ▲ | consumer451 7 hours ago | parent [-] | | Ha, I figured that might be the video prior to clicking it. I am a long time fan. Agreed, when I wrote "just unplug it," this counterargument was present in my mind, but nobody likes a wall of text. However, my original point was that a distributed solar powered orbital inference platform is even worse! Think about how hard it would be to practically take out Starlink... it's really hard. Now.. >1M nodes of a neural net in the sky? Why would someone who lives as a god, the richest man in the world, the only person capable of doing this thanks to his control of SpaceX... do the literal worst thing possible? | | |
| ▲ | defrost 7 hours ago | parent [-] | | That'd easily take a few LEO detonated fragmentation bombs to trigger a cascading LEO shrapnel field. | | |
| ▲ | consumer451 7 hours ago | parent [-] | | It's a lot harder than taking out some terrestrial power lines. | | |
| ▲ | defrost 7 hours ago | parent [-] | | Sure, it'd take obital launch capabilities to lift ... how many bags of metal scrap and explosives? | | |
| ▲ | consumer451 7 hours ago | parent [-] | | tone: I don't really understand orbital mechanics, but I do understand geopolitics a bit. 1. China is very concerned about Starlink-like constellations. They want their own, but mostly they want to be able to destroy competitors. That is really hard. 2. Many countries have single ASAT capabilities. Where one projectile can hit one satellite. However, this is basically shoot a bullet, with a bullet, on different trajectories. 3. > Sure, it'd take orbital launch capabilities to lift ... how many bags of metal scrap and explosives? If I understand orbital mechanics... those clouds of chaff would need to oppose the same orbit, otherwise it is a gentle approach. In the non-aligned orbit, it's another bullet hitting a bullet scenarios as in 2, but with a birdshot shotgun. My entire point is that constellations in LEO take hundreds of Falcon 9's worth of mass to orbit and delta-v to destroy them, as in-orbit grenades which approach gently. This IS REALLY HARD, as far as mass to orbit, all at once! If you blow up some group of Starlink, that chaff cloud will just keep in orbit on the same axis. It will not keep blowing up other Starlinks. The gentle grenade approach was possibly tested by the CCP here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46820992 | | |
| ▲ | defrost 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | > tone: I don't really understand orbital mechanics, but I do understand geopolitics a bit. Thanks for the clarification, I guess that explains this (from you): > Think about how hard it would be to practically take out Starlink. and this: > My entire point is that constellations in GEO which you've now corrected. Moving on: > My entire point is that constellations in LEO take hundreds of Falcon 9's worth of mass to orbit and delta-v to destroy them, as in-orbit grenades which approach gently. This IS REALLY HARD So let's not do that .. how hard is it to render the entire LEO zone a shit show with contra wise clouds of frag that cause cascading failures? Forget the geopolitics of China et al. .. LEO launch capabilities are spreading about the globe, it's not just major world powers that pose a threat here. | | |
| ▲ | consumer451 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | Ok... so, let's reset, please. I bet that we have very similar intentions, and yet on internet forums, we have perfected the art of users speaking past each other. Just to get on the same page here. My arugument is that prior to Elon Musk, the only human capable of launching >1M distributed solar powered inference nodes, if one accepts runaway AGI/ASI as a threat... prior to that we had a few hundred terrestrial AI inference mega-data centers. Most of them had easily disrupted power supplies by one dude with a Sawzall. Now, we are moving to a paradigm where the power supply is the sun, the orbital plane gives the nodes power 24/7, and the dude with the Sawzall needs to buy >10,000x (not sure of the the multiple here) the Sawzalls, and also give them escape velocity. Can we not agree that this is a much more difficult problem to "just unplug it," than it was when the potentially troublesome inference was terrestrial? | | |
| ▲ | defrost 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | There are many people in this world who, if asked, would regard taking out a LEO constellation as an interesting challenge. | | |
| ▲ | consumer451 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | My up thread commentary was not meant as real snark at all. I was attempting to be genuine. However, I think it did accomplish my goal. I bet that we could now have a beer/tea, and laugh together. If you are ever near Wroclaw, Prague, Leipzig/Dresden, or Seattle, please email my username at the the big G. I would happily meet you at the nearest lovely hotel bar. HN mini meetup. I can only imagine the stories that we might exchange. | | |
| ▲ | defrost 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | :-) Look, I'm Australian, I enjoy a bit of banter. I stripped the personal info from my comment above; I was happy to share with you, reluctant to leave it as was. I was a frequent Toronto visitor, for the TSX, back when we ran a minerals intelligence service before passing that onto Standard&Poor. You're on the list, however my movements are constrained for now, my father's a feriously active nonagenarian which is keeping me with one foot nailed to the ground here for now. | | |
| ▲ | consumer451 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | Cheers to you and your father. Also, thank you for the reminder that I need to get my ass back to Seattle to be with remaining parent, while I still can. I have been a jackass about that. |
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