See that's exactly the thing. We can point to excess today and say "How could that be sustainable" but it seems like the novelty would wear off, no? Like in some hypothetical future where resources are 1000x more available, would people launch 1000 cars into space? It seems unlikely. Somehow I feel like there is some inelasticity to consumption that we just haven't reached yet. I'm not quite sure why I feel like that though.

Ever watch someone burn $500 in gas running a boat for an afternoon?

Yes. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the feeling of self-righteous rage that comes with it.

I don't think launching sports cars into orbit is inherently any more wasteful than say the development of the Deep Blue chess computer. It may have been a vanity project, but the ultimate goal was to test a proof of concept.

I didn't say it was wasteful or make any judgments about it. It's just a fact that a level of lifestyle that allows a person to launch his personal sports car into space has been achieved.

It's a level of lifestyle that allows a person to donate his personal sports car to replace an inert mass, because he'll buy another car.

While he and many others could buy personal space launches, that launch is not a demonstration of such. He wasn't paying for it, and it wasn't for him.

I could afford to donate a $100k sports car to be launched into space if I really wanted to. Lots of people here could. How many billions of dollars short of being able to set off a chain of events that actually make that happen do you think I am?

That's the thing, being at an influential and part-marketing position at a space company isn't inherently a lifestyle thing. It's a rare opportunity but I could easily see a world where some engineer's car went up instead.

> being at an influential and part-marketing position at a space company isn't inherently a lifestyle thing

I think it's more "vying for the 'richest person on earth' title" that's important here.

I mean I don't think that quite qualifies as lifestyle inflation. A Roadster in Space just costs Elon $100,000 since his business planned to launch the rocket anyways. That's nothing compared to the price of a megayacht.

Except getting a $100k car shot into space also probably requires personally building the company that is "launching the rocket anyways." The SpaceX waiting list to launch junk into space for laughs is a very exclusive club.

I would say the Dear Moon project is more of an example than launching the car. The car was just for an initial test flight. It took the place of a block of aluminum like in one of the Falcon 1 launches.