by WalterBright 4 hours ago
When the first transcontinental railroad was proposed and being built, it was beset with controversy and skepticism.
But when it opened, it exceeded the wildest expectations of its most optimistic boosters. It transformed the country overnight.
A similar thing happened with the first transatlantic cable.
Transcontinental railroads weren't fighting against physics.
There's a reason people are pretty sure it won't work and it's not the difficulty of getting them into space or maintening them space or generally protecting them from space. Of course, those are all considerations as well. No, it's the cooling.
https://taranis.ie/datacenters-in-space-are-a-terrible-horri...
> cooling
I've seen many confident assertions about that issue. Do you think Musk doesn't know about it? People thought you couldn't reuse rockets, either. Or land them on their tails. Or pluck them out of the air with chopsticks.
I'm a different guy... But I think he doesn't care and doesn't need to care. His main product is personal branding and hype -- caring about how it works is hardly relevant.
The Union Pacific Railroad (the eastern half of the transcontinental railroad) also caused the financial crisis of 1873 (due to construction costs and various corruption and bribery around financing them). It then went bankrupt in 1893.
So, yes, it transformed the country. That didn't necessarily benefit the stockholders and bondholders.
1. It finished the railroad in 1869. 1873 was four years later. 1893 was 24 years later - a generation.
2. Check out "Nothing Like It in the World" by Ambrose.