flâneur

Justin Wang

59 followers · 35 following · 5620 views

on the atlas — 245

highlights — 350

  • Operation Sea-Spray was a 1950 U.S. Navy secret biological warfare experiment in which Serratia marcescens and Bacillus globigii bacteria were sprayed over the San Francisco Bay Area in California in order to determine how vulnerable a city like San Francisco would be to a bioweapon attack. There has been speculation that the experiment may have contributed to one death and at least ten illnesses.
    Operation Sea-Spray
  • But I try to think about it this way: humiliation is the beginning of freedom. If you can admit that you haven’t made very much progress, you can maybe admit that you should try something different.
    sometimes you get stuck in a sinkhole for a few years
  • There is no possible way I could have avoided getting stuck. Some drives are deeper than your self-concept, primal and irresistible. And yet: getting unstuck means fighting against your deepest drives, and winning.
    sometimes you get stuck in a sinkhole for a few years
  • First let us postulate that the computer scientists succeed in developing intelligent machines that can do all things better than human beings can do them. In that case presumably all work will be done by vast, highly organized systems of machines and no human effort will be necessary. Either of two cases might occur. The machines might be permitted to make all of their own decisions without human oversight, or else human control over the machines might be retained.
    washingtonpost.com: Unabomber Special Report
  • But threats to the modern individual tend to be MAN-MADE.
    washingtonpost.com: Unabomber Special Report
  • In modern industrial society natural human drives tend to be pushed into the first and third groups, and the second group tends to consist increasingly of artificially created drives.
    washingtonpost.com: Unabomber Special Report
  • you can’t make rapid, drastic changes in the technology and the economy of a society without causing rapid changes in all other aspects of the society as well, and that such rapid changes inevitably break down traditional values.
    washingtonpost.com: Unabomber Special Report
  • Mr. Nosek also served as a board member of DeepMind prior to its acquisition by Google.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • Palo Alto, California
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • X enables freshness, relevance, and contextual awareness for Grok that we believe is a competitive differentiator.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • AI not as a substitute for human minds, but as an amplifier for human ingenuity, curiosity and purpose that unlocks new frontiers of what humans can accomplish together.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • We also monetize user activity through high-impact advertising inventory on X. We believe X’s scale, real-time engagement, and integration with Grok provide a differentiated foundation for building a unified user experience across communication, content discovery, commerce, and financial services, among others. For enterprises that advertise on X, we offer large-scale user engagement, real-time content, and advanced AI-driven performance marketing tools.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • behind-the-meter power generation
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • Apply “The Algorithm” (make less dumb, delete, optimize, accelerate, automate). We operate under a set of core execution principles that we refer to as “The Algorithm,” a five-step iterative process that we use as our guiding principles day-to-day. We make the requirements less dumb, delete unnecessary processes or parts (embracing the principle that the best part is no part), only then optimize the necessary processes or parts, and then accelerate cycle time (many entities have launched once; no one other than us has ever launched over 100 times per year), and automate only proven processes a…
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • harness the Sun to power a truth-seeking artificial intelligence that advances scientific discovery, and ultimately to build a base on the Moon and
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • We, Mr. Musk, and other companies Mr. Musk is affiliated with frequently receive an immense amount of media attention. The actions and statements of Mr. Musk and his affiliated ventures, whether or not directly relating to us, may draw significant public attention and scrutiny to us and could potentially have a positive or negative impact on our business, relationships with customers and regulators, or stock price.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • The loss of Mr. Musk, whether due to death, disability, or otherwise, or his inability or unwillingness to continue in his current roles, could significantly disrupt our management structure, adversely affect our ability to execute our strategic plans, and negatively impact our reputation and relationships with customers, partners, and other stakeholders.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • Certain of our directors and key employees may have conflicts of interest because they are also employees or directors of affiliates of Mr. Musk or other large shareholders. The resolution of these conflicts of interest may not be in our or your best interests
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • We have a history of net losses and may not achieve profitability in the future.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • We are or may become subject to environmental lawsuits and proceedings, and various parties have threatened or brought lawsuits that allege we are unlawfully operating natural gas-fired turbines without required permits at facilities in Southaven, Mississippi.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • new potential cyberattack methods for third parties or an increase in the frequency, sophistication or intensity of cyberattacks. Moreover, if AI technologies are perceived to be significantly disruptive to society, it could lead to governmental or regulatory restrictions or prohibitions on their use, societal concerns or unrest, or both, any of which could materially and adversely affect our ability to develop, deploy, or commercialize AI technologies and execute our business strategy.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • Starlink received an order from Brazil’s Supreme Court that froze Starlink’s Brazilian financial assets and prevented Starlink from conducting financial transactions in Brazil (the “Brazil Asset Seizure”). The action taken by the Brazilian Supreme Court arose out of purported violations of Brazilian law by X, which at the time was not owned by us and was only affiliated with Mr. Musk. It is possible that we may be subject to actions like the Brazil Asset Seizure in the future (whether in Brazil or another country) and, regardless of whether any such
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • From time to time, we are involved in litigation, investigations, and other regulatory proceedings which could be costly, time-consuming, and divert management attention, materially adversely affecting our business.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • Continued turnover may impact employee morale and create other challenges as we attempt to scale our AI business.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • The current tight labor market has adversely impacted our ability to recruit qualified personnel, including engineers, particularly with respect to our AI segment.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • We depend on our ability to recruit and retain employees who have advanced engineering and technical skills, and intense competition for such employees may increase costs and affect our ability to meet development and production timelines.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • Any disruption to our upstream supply chain, including fab capacity constraints, manufacturing issues, shortages of raw materials such as silicon wafers or rare earth elements, geopolitical tensions affecting fab operations, or natural disasters impacting key fabrication regions, could limit our chip suppliers’ ability to fulfill our orders, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • For example, in May 2026, we entered into Cloud Services Agreements with Anthropic PBC (“Anthropic”), an AI research and development public benefit corporation, with respect to access to compute capacity across COLOSSUS and COLOSSUS II. Pursuant to these agreements, the customer has agreed to pay us $1.25 billion per month through May 2029, with capacity ramping in May and June 2026 at a reduced fee.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • We expect that access to this data will enhance our model training and inference, including with respect to Grok. Meanwhile, by providing access to our large-scale compute infrastructure, we believe we can help Cursor deliver faster and higher quality user experiences. The collaboration with Cursor may also accelerate our AI strategy by integrating our AI models more directly into developer workflows and expanding the distribution of our AI capabilities through high-engagement software interfaces.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • We estimate that our quantifiable TAM is $28.5 trillion, consisting of $370 billion in Space from space-enabled solutions; $1.6 trillion in Connectivity across $870 billion in Starlink Broadband and $740 billion in Starlink Mobile as well as additional opportunities in enterprise and government; $26.5 trillion in AI across $2.4 trillion in AI infrastructure, $760 billion in consumer subscriptions, $600 billion in digital advertising, and $22.7 trillion in enterprise applications.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • We believe we have identified the largest actionable total addressable market (“TAM”) in human history.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • We can manufacture our AI compute constellations at scale with rapid upgrade cycles.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • We will use our proven Starlink in-orbit technology to optimize our orbital AI compute.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • The Sun contains approximately 99.8% of the solar system’s energy and offers what we believe is the only truly scalable solution to the challenge of accelerating demand for compute relative to terrestrial energy constraints. The logical path forward is to move power-intensive AI workloads into orbit, where solar energy is near-constant and uninterrupted. With such accessibility to energy, we believe that our launch business will enable us to consistently activate the highest performing hardware before our competitors without such access, shrinking the timeline to useful tokens on bleeding-edge…
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • Apply “The Algorithm” (make less dumb, delete, optimize, accelerate, automate);
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • Together with Tesla, we are also developing Macrohard, an agentic AI platform designed to be capable of fully emulating digital workflows and augmenting human operation of computers using sophisticated autonomous agents.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • We do not want humans to have the same fate as dinosaurs.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • The current paradigm, in which human civilization is confined to one planet, exposes humanity to existential threats that are unpredictable and uncontrollable on a planetary scale.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • We are truly building the infrastructure of the future.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • Within two years of its initial model release, Grok achieved frontier-level performance in scientific reasoning, as measured by its GPQA Diamond score
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • With the potential to improve both space exploration and life on Earth, AI accelerates SpaceX’s mission to make life multiplanetary, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars. xAI, which was founded in 2023 and acquired by SpaceX in early 2026, is now an integral pillar of our vertically integrated company.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • At our core, we are builders
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • “SuperGrok Heavy” refers to our subscription-based Grok service tier that provides users with expanded access to Grok models and related tools, including higher usage limits relative to SuperGrok.
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • “orbital AI compute” refers to artificial intelligence computing infrastructure contemplated to be deployed in space, consisting of satellite constellations that act as orbital data centers, harnessing solar energy for power and leveraging the space environment for cooling. We expect to begin deploying our orbital AI compute satellites as early as 2028
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • “Kardashev Type II” refers to a civilization that harnesses the full energy output of its local star, like our Sun, to power unprecedented growth and sustain the civilization’s existence
    Space Exploration Technologies - S-1
  • It goes without saying that, in the event things go wrong, the best security is having the peace of mind that comes with knowing your digital life’s exposure will, at worst, incur only minor embarrassment or financial setback. The next breach is coming—make it a boring one.
    Practical Advice to Avoid Getting Pwned by AI
  • It hurts to see that sentence written down. I squirm to avoid it. But if there weren't something real there, why would I squirm? The fact is, once you have kids, you're probably going to care more about them than you do about yourself. And attention is a zero-sum game.
    Having Kids
  • It does not believe that I do not want it.
    The Old Poets Of China — Mary Oliver – Suiseki
  • "In our dream, we have limitless resources and the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hand. The present educational conventions fade from their minds; and, unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive rural folk. We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning, or men of science. We have not to raise up from among them authors, editors, poets or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians nor lawyers, doctors, preachers, politicians, statesmen…
    General Education Board
  • I feel like I’m coming to a point where I don’t do nearly as much as I did, and yet I feel more satisfied, stable and happy than I’ve ever been by an order of magnitude.
    Forethought? I've never even had 1 thought - by Aadil