...is past. Now well on the way to jumping the shark.

Well on the way? That guy started the jump over ten years ago and is still in mid-air.

“ The reason for doing this, Musk said, is to ensure humans find a home among the stars and a future that will be “like the best science fiction you have ever read. Like Star Trek, Iain Banks, Asimov, or Heinlein.”

Seems fine to me Asimov/Foundation where Robots and AI are banned. Star Trek where Robot/Sentient life was banned.

AI will lead to the Downfall of Mankind, and I don’t believe we will ever escape this Solar System - even with Musk’s ‘New Physics’.. Akin to The Expanse.

My Protected Philosophical Beliefs.

It would actually turn out like Blake's 7: the boot of the Terran Federation forever stamping on your face.

As long as we get Servelan...

Sorry, more like Red Dwarf. If you want Talkie Toaster in this universe .... ahhhhhhh!

Like Star Trek, Iain Banks, Asimov, or Heinlein

More likely, Frank Herbert's [1]Butlerian Jihad : Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind .

P.S., is the phrase "a rack packed full of high-end AI fear" an apposite typo?

[1] https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Butlerian_Jihad

"a future that will be “like the best science fiction you have ever read. Like .... Heinlein.”

-He wants the Moon to become a privately run penal colony.

-He wants the united states to fall apart into a bunch of facist and populist dictatorships where genetically enhanced humans are used as slaves.

1984 was a warning, not a set of instructions!

Since when was Star Trek "the best science fiction you have ever read"? It's always been moderately entertaining sci-fi drivel.

And it was Iain M Banks writing science fiction. He was quite particular about the distinction between Iain Banks and Iain M Banks, so perhaps the mush-brained fascist needs to pay more attention.

Iain Banks just writes novels. The science fiction author is Iain M. Banks, and his 'Culture' space operas are full of violence, vicious intrigue and horrendous cruelty. No thanks, Elon, lay off the ketamine, and I hope you're not the one being decapitated by a knife missile disguised as a dildo (see 'Matter'.)

Probably, but it he tries and fails it doesn't matter that much to me. If however he does manage to jump the shark, then things might get interesting.

One Million Megawatts. That's a million satellites with solar arrays a square kilometer each.

If he is allowed to try (and inevitably fail) this flagrantly infeasible idea, then yes it matters. This is a very resource-intensive, pollution-intensive, and obviously capital-intensive folly. In order to try (and fail) he would have to borrow from the same banks that I would rather like to be able to borrow a house from, or invest my pension with.

Frankly, it is time that " [1]The PayPal Mafia " and the other tech twats were put in the stocks for the people to throw rotten eggs at

Otherwise, we are looking at a financial crash to make the Great Depression look like a blip

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002lw62/panorama-trump-and-the-tech-titans

I always wonder if he is smoking some weird shit, or if he does this to boost share prices, or likes the media attention.

"New physics". Right. And what kind of physics? 2nm on a large scale, without any prior experience? Terrawatt computing in space without a way to vent off all that heat?

This is just another bloody stupid idea, and I guess by writing that comment I give him the attention he wants. Look at the Hyperloop, full self driving "this year for realz", Cybertruck (at least this one does indeed exist), the stupid submarine thingy, ...

I always wonder if he is smoking some weird shit

Ketamine.

“confident will work. It's just a question of when.”

Finally, the words he has never once uttered in all his bullshit bingo talks over the years - "Just a question of when." This is why there are no monorails hyperloops in existence, because although technically feasible, our current level of power generation and the materials science needed are not at a large enough scale to build them. He wasn't lying about it, we just can't do it yet. But by the time we do have that level of technology available to do it, we will already have built the next generation of high-speed trains and supersonic aircraft so the hyperloop will not be needed.

And 135 Starship launches a day? Well at least a couple of them might finally get to orbit instead of having a dip in the Indian Ocean, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

No, as with anything with this guy, if he's 'confident' it can be done, you can guarantee it will always be in about two years possibly before the heat death of the universe. Probably.

Monorails is an anagram of "I no morals".

Which opioid inspired this Musk idea.

Perhaps the DEA need to raid his house ?

I'll have what he's having ...

“The most outrageous lies that can be invented will find believers if a person only tells them with all his might.”

- Mark Twain

[1]Pataphysics I should think from this Ubu·esque fool.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27Pataphysics

The problem with new physics is that old physics keep getting in the way.

He mentioned “some very interesting new physics” that he is “confident will work. It's just a question of when.”

It isn't April's fools day, is it?

The new physics may be on their way, but as far as I know, they do not revolve around chip manufacturing.

Edit: On second thought, the new physics musk Hallucinates about may first have been hallucinated by his AI (Grok? X-AI?) after he removed all guardrails.

Shares in Musk companies rose by a gazilion jiliion, as investors creamed themselves when their one shared brain cell fired in ecstasy.

Not XFab? He's slipping.

Shouldn't it be "GigaFab" given his historical liking of 'Giga'...

Mines the one with a pocket full of 74LS74's.

"Ye canna change the laws of physics"

Montgomery Scott [StarTrek The Naked Time] 1960-something

And I have a couple of bridges to sell. One has unbeatable harbour views in Sydney.... get in quick!

Become a member of the Sydney Harbour Bridge Club. It's all jokers.

Products transported back to Earth using interstellar hyperloops.

Icon: Musk's passport photo.

Has he really built one or is it a pipe dream?

Modern Fabs (the sort that can make 2nm wafers) take years to build and start operating. Ask Intel or TSMC about that. For his lordship Elon the 1st of Texas, to have built a fab in Austin very much off the radar is slightly suspicious. Could this as alluded to by some respondents be a [cough][cough] bit of pure Fabrication on his part that may or may not have been helped by possibly illegal substances?

Presumably the "play" to draw investors in is to suggest that lithography and etching are the problem and that it can all be done with 3-D printing – this might be possible at some scales, and then you start looking at the accuracy you can achieve using mechanical processes, versus those using lasers… I can sort of imagine using lasers in some way "dropping" atoms onto a substrate in a way that is already done when doping…

I've no doubt improvements are possible – and we may see that the Chinese manufacturers come up with some process improvements to compensate the resolution at which they operate – but the chip industry hasn't got to the concentration it has because TSMC and ASML are using anti-competitive practices to prevent all competition, but because the physics (and chemistry) at this resolution is bloody difficult. This has lead to specialisation at every step of the supply chain, but competition remains fierce.

Straw poll of Register commentariat seems to suggest no-one's buying what Musk is selling.

It took too long to get here, but at least we're beginning to see the end of the acceptance of outright lies coming from him and his cohorts.

Maybe he should invent new physics to detach his neck from Putin's boot. Or something about releasing Epstein files.

I've written off Mush as a delusional nutter many times (the first being back in the early 2010s when he was burning parts of Texas, trying to get a rocket landing tail-first: doesn't this idiot realise how much delta-v he's wasting on a no-glide boost-back burn?, trying to make a desirable electric car, Twitter debacle, etc.), but he has an annoying habit of being right, if never to the extent he advertises.

As an aside, I do hope he's referring to the Iain M. Banks novels, not the ones for which the author dropped the 'M'.

(edit: didn't mean to type "Mush", but it can stay)

And the Iain M Banks, with the M novels were mostly about a galaxy spanning, egalitarian, anarcho-communist society. Not something you'd think a techno feudalist overlord would approve of. Silicon Valley tech bros never seem to properly read their scifi inspiration beyond the kapow space battles.

There was also a complete acceptance of gender and sexual fluidity in the Culture... something to which Musk has shown to be extremely adverse.

He should be given credit for what he, or more accurately, his engineers have achieved. His main inputs have been to secure the funding for ventures that others didn't see any opportunity in, and his energy and determination. But he's also been proved wrong on several occasions.

New physics? There is precious little of that beyond small insights at the moment. Better engineering maybe.

Maybe the ketamine is having an effect on the loony?