So between the giant radiator per GPU and the diminished compute capacity, how much mass are we shooting up exactly? This just seems utterly infeasible.

You're missing C) SpaceX engineers know it's a bad idea, but can't say anything because it's the tyrant manchild's latest obsession, technology constraints be damned.

Remember the vision-only FSD? How's that coming along?

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ethbr1 18 hours ago | parent [-]

> because it's the tyrant manchild's latest obsession, technology constraints be damned.

Imho, there's only one reason that justifies Musk's space-based compute obsession: sovereignty.

Specifically, avoiding terrestrial country's.

This isn't about AI in space (though I'm sure dumb investors love that), it's about uncensorable Twitter in space, beamed down to Starlink terminals.

Which would be one of the few things you'd care about, if you were one of the richest people on the planet... but still subject to those damned nations and their meddling laws.

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jacquesm 17 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That's exactly it. Musk sees space as extraterritorial, which in the true sense of the word of course it absolutely is. But all those bits have to go to ground somewhere. As long as that somewhere is friendly no problem. That can change.

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grim_io 17 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If Elon wants to offer space-twitter, he still needs to abide by the rules of the country he is offering the service to.

Unless he's offering it to the aliens orbiting his magical lawless space data centers.

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ethbr1 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Does he?

Short of countrywide ku-band jamming and/or drone-based RDF at scale, what's the country going to do?

It was one thing when you needed a C-band dish to receive, but much harder to deal with a 1-2 ft dish.

	▲	vrganj 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		They could shoot down those data centers for example.

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solid_fuel 17 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yeah, I think Musk loves the idea of sticking his CSAM generators in space, where he thinks they will be beyond the reach of terrestrial laws and morals.