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Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by codecamper on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @05:39PM (#13709933)
It's technology. Once it exists, it will continue existing. Every generation must use it wisely and ethically.
Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by hwillis on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @05:56PM (#13710052)
Proof increases investor confidence, but that's hardly everything. Tesla contributes somewhat to open source, but ITAR and shrewdness means a ton of their tech is classified. If they folded, a great deal of that would be bureaucratically inaccessible, gone, or irrelevant. If we wanted to go to the moon again, we would basically have to start over from scratch. The Saturn V plans exist but the infrastructure, manufacturing techniques, and hardware are all gone.

Plans are 10% of actually building something, at that level. Materials aren't legos, each product needs to be qualified and have its idiosyncrasies addressed. Even at the consumer level, when you change manufacturers you often have to retool your process because while the specs are the same, you're delivered something different.

Keeping technology at the same level requires ongoing engineering. When that engineering is removed, the technology decays. It very quickly becomes a matter of reinvention rather than rebuilding.

Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by stcredzero on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @07:21PM (#13710550)
Plans are 10% of actually building something, at that level. Materials aren't legos, each product needs to be qualified and have its idiosyncrasies addressed

Something often forgotten when companies offshore production.

Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by marchenko on Thursday February 23, 2017 @02:06AM (#13712205)
Andy Grove wrote some great pieces about the loss of engineering muscle memory.
Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by joss82 on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @05:47PM (#13709995)
Not so sure about it. Look at Concorde.

Musk actually said that technology does not move forward if there is nobody (or no company or no government) to push it forward.

Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by mikeash on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @07:33PM (#13710614)
The technology for Concorde is still around. What disappeared is the economic case for it. (One might argue that the economic case never existed, or disappeared before it even started flying.) If aliens showed up tomorrow and said they would enslave the human race unless we built a Concorde-level airliner, we'd have no major trouble getting it done.
Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by dragonwriter on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @07:37PM (#13710638)
> Not so sure about it. Look at Concorde.

The absence of a business case is not the same as the absence of technology.

Technology for supersonic aircraft has moved forward since the Concorde. Economically viable applications for that technology for commercial passenger transport have not, however, appeared. (Or, if they have, they haven't been recognized.)

Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by Reason077 on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @08:38PM (#13710913)
Even if there is an economic case for supersonic civil aviation, considerable environmental problems must first be overcome.

Given their extreme noise, pollution, and ozone layer disruption it's certainly a good thing there aren't hundreds or thousands of Concorde-equivalents plying the skies today.

Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by bb611 on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @06:20PM (#13710213)
Concorde may have failed but jet travel is far more common and affordable today than when it was rolled out.
Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by ghaff on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @07:07PM (#13710469)
Because technology is in service of individual and consumer needs. If there isn't a sustainable business model for supersonic passenger flight then it doesn't exist. And, frankly, it's not up to government to provide that.

Technology is both economics and engineering. Just because something can be done, doesn't mean it should be done if no one is willing to cover the costs.

Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by stcredzero on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @07:38PM (#13710650)
There is another thesis that technology no longer disappears anymore. It will remain in some dormant form. Some crazy hobbyist group in the US, Europe, or Japan will lovingly curate it. Even now, I think you can charter the operation of a restored supersonic aircraft, if you have enough cash. Not sure if any have an extra seat for a passenger, though.
Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by soperj on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @05:44PM (#13709970)
How were the pyramids built?
Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by jfoutz on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @06:12PM (#13710162)
I think i get your point, but tech losses seem to be associated with cultural collapse or exhaustion of a special resource. Roman concrete, Greek fire, and vanadium steel might be more illustrative choices.

I don't think the Egyptians used magic, perhaps they knew a trick or two we don't know about, i don't think there's any writing left about the construction techniques.

Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by adwn on Thursday February 23, 2017 @06:07AM (#13713004)
> I don't think the Egyptians used magic, perhaps they knew a trick or two we don't know about, i don't think there's any writing left about the construction techniques.

The Egyptians' "trick" was massive amounts of human labor over a long timespan. Nothing you couldn't do a lot faster today if you were willing to spend the money (and manage to get the permits).

The construction of the pyramids is not impressive from a technological point of view, but perhaps from a logistical point of view.

Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by edw on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @06:20PM (#13710214)
Or, more recently: I've read that we have collectively lost the knowledge and skill necessary to build a piano with a quality comparable to the best ever made. (Wish I had a citation…)
Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by Retric on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @06:02PM (#13710089)
It really does not matter as we could build them today with a lot less effort.

It would cost something like $5 billion today and would take ~2,000 people ~5 years. Which is relatively speaking a lot less expensive. Put another way, Bill G could build ~17 of them in his lifetime and not be broke.

Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by stcredzero on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @07:26PM (#13710574)
It would cost something like $5 billion today and would take ~2,000 people ~5 years. Which is relatively speaking a lot less expensive. Put another way, Bill G could build ~17 of them in his lifetime and not be broke.

Awesome! What's at one time only the province of the greatest empire on the planet could become just one of many of a billionaire's projects. Let's scale this out from the present day with something of seemingly unattainable current value: How about The United States of America? Maybe several decades hence, a billionaire will have made himself the equivalent? Colonization of Mars, anyone?

Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by __jal on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @08:20PM (#13710831)
There's a certain (supposed) billionaire who wants a big wall. Not quite as inspiring to me personally, but, well, tastes vary, I guess.

Also, he's planning to spend your money on it, not his.

Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by dingo_bat on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @09:49PM (#13711233)
Mexico's money, to be accurate.
Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by Retric on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @09:52PM (#13711246)
I always took that as coded language for 'I don't actually want a wall' I just want to talk about it.
Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by mabbo on Thursday February 23, 2017 @07:55AM (#13713463)
Putting taxes/tariffs on goods that Americans buy coming from Mexico is not Mexico paying for anything.
Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by dingo_bat on Thursday February 23, 2017 @10:47PM (#13720778)
I think it is.
Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by kbenson on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @06:28PM (#13710260)
But that's besides the point. We are thousands of years in the future from that point, with thousands of years of technological advancements. What would a civilization relatively recently after the loss of that knowledge do? Could they even do it?

The point is that technology can be lost. Sure, we may have re-learned the technology in the intervening millennia, but we wouldn't have to re-learn it if it wasn't lost in the first place.

Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by Retric on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @11:42PM (#13711701)
You are assuming it was lost in the same time period. Instead, there was ever refined stone construction techniques through medieval Cathedral's. So, sure 4500 years ago making a giant stone hill was hard, but the 1311 Lincoln Cathedral @ 524 ft was actually significantly taller structure and far more difficult.
Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by soperj on Thursday February 23, 2017 @01:38PM (#13716444)
It's not a stone hill. It was completely smooth before the limestone casing was removed. Also I don't know how 524ft is _significantly_ taller than 481 feet.
Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by Retric on Friday February 24, 2017 @12:55PM (#13725886)
If the pyramid was 524ft tall it would have taken at 29+% more stone which is kind of a large difference assuming they did not need to change the slope. Anyway, scaling buildings is a lot more complex as every extra foot get's harder than the last. In design you don't really build up, you keep adding layers under your existing structure that need to hold it up.
Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by soperj on Thursday February 23, 2017 @01:48PM (#13716544)
It was estimated they took 14 years to build.
Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by true_religion on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @05:59PM (#13710066)
Lots of technology is non obvious, even simple tech. The wheel wasn't widely known in the Americas. Large wheel wagons like you see in rickshaws were not widely known in the West.
Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by hobofan on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @06:03PM (#13710092)
Are you looking for the answer "slave labor"?
Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by edw on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @06:58PM (#13710424)
Sorry, the Egyptian pyramids were build with tax labor, not slave labor.
Re:Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estim... by ericd on Wednesday February 22, 2017 @06:08PM (#13710136)
By default, technology decays over time as knowledge is lost. It takes active effort to keep things where they are, let alone keep pushing them forward.