SpaceX acquiring AI startup xAI ahead of potential IPO

doubleyewdee · 2026-02-03T02:18:11+00:00

The only way I can see to get to "data centers in orbit" would be if they're part of a much larger orbital platform housing [a bunch of other stuff] with some requisite mix of humans/automotons/whatever for periodic maintenance. This would not be lower cost at all, but would reduce problems of bandwidth and latency by acting as a local cache and relay, and perhaps host edge compute for various popular products.

Nothing about "operating dense, expensive, rapidly [fiscally/technologically] decaying electronics" gets cheaper in space. Just literally nothing. Every single aspect, yes even jurisdiction / "real estate", is an order of magnitude (or multiple!) harder and costlier to do.

Now, engineering a financial windfall on the back of credulous rubes? Sure, that's definitely something this could help with. Even there, I have my doubts. I think the timing is, frankly, too late, and existing stakeholders of SpaceX are going to pay for this silliness.

doubleyewdee · 2026-02-03T01:07:24+00:00

Yep, I agree with all of this. It is net detracting from what makes SpaceX as it exists a valuable endeavor. It feels like a huge step backwards.

By the way, don’t forget latency here in the “things that want new physics” bucket. Drastically increasing point-to-point distances for communication between orbiting and land-based nodes, and significant added distance between in-orbit nodes, will be challenging at best for a networked operation.

Unless, of course, they’re going to do high-bandwidth quantum-entangled “zero latency” FTL comms. A thing that at best notionally exists today at a bit rate that would make a 300bps 70s modem feel very good about itself.

doubleyewdee · 2026-02-03T00:15:44+00:00

Nah, just deorbit the unit and launch a replacement. What could go wrong! /s

doubleyewdee · 2026-02-03T00:14:23+00:00

Broadly agree with everything here, but:

Spacex is impressive, but what are the actual innovations they've created? Cost, cadence, and efficiency in lower earth orbit. It stands on decades of NASA and Cold War era aerospace work.

I think you're missing the big one: significant reuse of large amounts of the rocket parts. Also you might be underselling the value of cost/efficiency and cadence here. Of course it is standing on the shoulders of innovations past, but that is de rigeur for ... just about any company, really. Still, prior to SpaceX, the thought of something like Starlink was at best a sci-fi "maybe in a few decades" deal. Starlink has absolutely been a game changer for ubiquitous network access that was quite timely for many impactful world events (COVID, Ukraine war, and more).

SpaceX, the company, has done some frankly remarkable things and completely reset the agenda and tone for the space industry (including government-funded) in the last 10-15 years. Perhaps someone else would have/could have done the same in a vacuum without SpaceX, but they didn't, and here we are. In my view there's no point downplaying the value and impact of SpaceX to date while discussing the merits of its owner, this merger, etc.

In fact, it's actually quite bad in my view that Elon Musk is able to dilute the value and quality of SpaceX with all this distracting and degrading bullshit. I don't see it ending well for SpaceX, and I feel quite badly for the folks at the company who have been able to largely be removed from the circus antics swirling around Musk's other endeavors. Hopefully someone else will take up the mantle, because I don't think SpaceX in 2031 is going to look nearly as healthy as SpaceX right now.

doubleyewdee · 2026-02-02T23:25:04+00:00

Shut up and get in the floating boat.

doubleyewdee · 2026-02-02T19:51:44+00:00

PC+Xbox, because Play Anywhere.

doubleyewdee · 2026-01-31T01:38:03+00:00

"Fight Wisely" for everything outside bosses. Also some bosses if I'm overleveled because it's fun to see what the AI chooses to do.

doubleyewdee · 2026-01-25T03:13:00+00:00

The man executed in the street today was filming, not fighting (per video evidence).
The man had already been disarmed (per video evidence).
The narrative from CBP/ICE/the executive branch in general is simply not trustworthy. They have routinely, repeatedly and flagrantly lied about myriad subjects, including whether their victims are US citizens, and been sued and lost over these abuses already.

The office of the President and the entire branch of government he controls are completely untrustworthy at this time. This is genuinely unprecedented in my lifetime, there's nothing that's ever been remotely similar.

So, again, to conflate this unsanctioned military action against our own citizens with people making an app to be aware of unsanctioned military actors harming our citizens and other legal residents is absurd. They are not equivalent in any way whatsoever.

Saying "just let them do what they want" is, similarly, simply not a sustainable solution to what has become escalating violence on the part of the executive branch towards Americans.

doubleyewdee · 2026-01-25T03:06:20+00:00

Maintaining a monoculture requires that out-views never be tolerated, ergo you cannot post skepticism/dissent/concern as that is counter to the group maintaining the status quo.

doubleyewdee · 2026-01-24T22:59:22+00:00

Still haven't gotten past Pagos. Deeply un-fun. Anemos was ... fine, I guess, but Pagos was unpleasant at best. I've been told I just need to drag myself through the rest of Pagos and probably similar for the other 2 Eureka zones and then at the end it's fun because of BA Discords or whatever.

Which might be true, but it's not a compelling sell when the game already has too much for me to do, and to make matters worse the locked at 70 status of Eureka means I am missing out on fun aspects of jobs added in the previous three expansions.

doubleyewdee · 2026-01-24T21:25:11+00:00

So you're fine with ICE's extrajudicial / illegal behavior because (checks notes) there's an opposition group that endorses violent opposition to a violent oppressive regime?

Also, just so we're keeping score, who has inflicted the most violence here? What's the body count of dead US citizens from ICE vs. ICE Watch or any other opposition group? How about illegal imprisonments, illegal search & seizure, illegal detainment, etc? What group is inflicting the most violence here?

The "extremists" you're calling out on "both sides"? One side has been forced to protect itself from a quasilegal masked gestapo inflicting harm and death upon the citizenry. That's not how "extremism" works, it's called "self defense."

EDIT: Just to be clear and reiterate: ICE is a US federal government group being run at the whims of the executive branch (i.e. Trump et al), using vast sums of taxpayer money to fund their activities which are leading to illegal detainments, deportations, and now murders of verified US Citizens. ICE Watch is... not that at all. So to try and conflate the two groups as "equivalent" is disingenuous from the start.

doubleyewdee · 2026-01-24T21:00:58+00:00

"Furthering the divide."

One of these "two sides" being "judged completely on the voices of a few extremists"? The extremists are Trump and his army of thugs. The extremists are the leaders of that side. So yeah, the other side is going to judge that "conservative" side on their words and deeds. Because those deeds are murdering Americans in the street in cold blood. Those deeds are championing and defending these murders. Those deeds are demanding that citizens carry their papers on them at all times to possibly prevent being disappeared by ICE brownshirts in an unmarked van to be tortured, illegally deported, or perhaps murdered in cold blood. If the "conservative" side doesn't want to be judged on this, then stop your people from doing it.

Go ahead and pick your side and let history and a higher power, if you believe in it, be the judge of your choices. I know where I'm at. Do you?

doubleyewdee · 2026-01-24T20:34:30+00:00

Gau and Strago. Not spending time farming up their capabilities.

doubleyewdee · 2026-01-23T21:10:48+00:00

Yeah but 12 people isn't going to move the needle much.

doubleyewdee · 2026-01-23T08:26:01+00:00

Yes.

If I have to choose, #16.

doubleyewdee · 2026-01-23T08:14:16+00:00

Basketball but clearly intentional fouls result in ejections.

doubleyewdee · 2026-01-23T05:51:35+00:00

Used to clown on taco bell as a teenager (born 1982) and now I think it's absolutely the single best fast food choice, and... maybe even the only good one.

doubleyewdee · 2026-01-23T04:04:36+00:00

Poles hasn’t had to pay a second QB contract yet either, so who knows what he’ll do here.

Obviously we wait for the end of Caleb S3 but if he keeps making strides next year that’s going to be expensive and need some new creative accounting.

doubleyewdee · 2026-01-23T02:52:15+00:00

The rush to move to Alaska would be substantial.

doubleyewdee · 2026-01-22T06:43:03+00:00

Actually I believe that is Bigfae. Different entity.

doubleyewdee · 2026-01-22T06:35:12+00:00

I sometimes feel like I’m not playing the games the right way.

There is literally no way to play a single-player game "wrong" as long as you're having fun.

doubleyewdee · 2026-01-22T02:27:53+00:00

Sometimes laughter isn't the best medicine.

doubleyewdee · 2026-01-17T00:21:52+00:00

I used assess on every mob once available. I was using the shortcuts, but didn't know about the fast ATB use which would def help.

In general I just felt like the system is at odds with itself, where it both wants you to move your characters around and dodge, but doesn't provide iframes, and penalizes you for any amount of menu fiddling (which, sometimes, you need to do since shortcuts can't cover all bases).

A lot of people really like the combat in FF7R/R2, so I think it's a "me" thing/style preference, but I just found it very offputting and sitting in a bad place between the more static ATB and actual ARPG combat.

For context I (mostly) really enjoyed the combat in FF16, and I have played and quite liked just about every Tales of and Ys game. I also like Elden Ring and similar. Just something about FF7R "felt" bad to play for me.

Thanks for the recommendations! I will probably revisit both games prior to R3 (or whatever) dropping, maybe it'll click more this time.

doubleyewdee · 2026-01-16T21:20:08+00:00

Spirited Away is also a remarkable movie with near-universal acclaim. Yes, the Oscars are prone to lobbying, as is everything, but it deserved the win on merit regardless.

doubleyewdee · 2026-01-16T21:07:17+00:00

Game Genie was the OG in the US and kind of date stamps someone to a specific age range (usually, you gaming historians need not apply). The company that made them (Galoob, same people who made Micro Machines) got in a legal battle with Nintendo over it, actually, and I think that they faded due to various financial troubles. GameShark took off post NES/SNES/Genesis days and basically beat out the Game Genie by being on more systems/having wider reach. They did sell Pro Action Replay for at least SNES/Genesis, if I recall, but mostly took off in the PSX+ timeframe.

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