Had to post this somewhere.
Iâve been thinking about Elon Muskâs Tesla.
The guy shot a car into space. A freaking car. With a fake astronaut in the seat and the words âDonât Panic.â
And people are seeing this as this bizarre conspicuous consumption or a weird Tesla publicity stunt. As a one percenterâŠ
âŠbut the more I think about it, the more I realize something quite simple.
This guy had to launch a test load. He had to put something on that rocket. Given the power of the rocket, whatever they launched as a test load had to be heavy enough to properly test the biggest rocket weâve launched since the Apollo program.
It had to be well built and solid enough to survive the launch. Now, because of the size of the load, it had to be put into a stable orbit not, as happens with smaller test loads, set to burn up in the Earthâs atmosphere.
So, assuming everything went well, whatever they put on that rocket? Itâs going to be in space for a long time. Assuming itâs not hit by a bit of debris, or an asteroid, or whatever, it could be up there for millions of years. Itâs in space, so itâs not going to rust or corrode. It will eventually develop pitting from micro meteor strikes, itâs not going to last forever.
So, what does the guy send up.
A freaking car with an astronaut in the seat and the words âDonât Panicâ printed on it.
Itâs corny. Itâs tacky. But what else is it?
Itâs something thatâs going to still be recognizable as art in a few thousand years. After weâre all dead. Heck, it may still be recognizable as art after our species is dead - extinct or evolved into something else.
Given the fact that he had to put some kind of object into a stable orbit in the solar system, Musk picked not just art, but ridiculous art. The kind of thing that hangs from diner ceilings, the kind of thing a kid would put together.
He put something out there that screams to the void âThis is us. This is humanity. This is how utterly silly we are, how completely frivolous.â
And you know what, if the first..or the onlyâŠthing an alien civilization sees of us is Elon Muskâs stupid car, Iâm quite happy with that.
They might not be able to decipher the message, but theyâll know somebody was here who, given the power to fly into space used it to play.
Iâm quite happy with that.
theartofmadeline
titsay
andulkaphoto
amandla
origamiaround
turnnoffyourmind
