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A comment on Tesla Says Model 3 on Track as Quarterly Loss Beats Estimates. Parent comment

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.

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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?

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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.

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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