Comment by buvanshak | Hacker News Reader

Comment by buvanshak | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

> it hits that sweet spot requiring specialist knowledge to see through the hype

Couldn't have said it better. Another real life manifestation of this is the vertical rocket landing thing. People are flabbergasted when they see one landing, despite the fact that we regularly employ control systems that are as sophisticated (or more) than required to land a rocket vertically.

When they see them landing. they "feel" like they are witnessing sci fi, for real, and they worship the man behind it as their new (false?) prophet.

And then there is the mars thing, and space tourism. But the most blatent display of this I have yet seen is the 'bio weapon defense mode' [1] in Tesla cars.

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2015/9/30/9421719/tesla-model-x-bio...

I have to take issue with your example. I don't buy into the Musk hype and I even have a big short position in Tesla, but that landing was one of the coolest tech demos I've seen.

Do you have examples of equally sci-fi looking control systems?

His point was that control theory is a mature field and that we field very sophisticated control systems in daily life that may be far beyond what's needed to land a rocket vertically. However, the vast majority of those systems are embedded in industrial machinery that doesn't seem particularly exciting from the outside.

Engineering students build inverted pendulum control systems all the time for fun and for class projects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWJHcI7UcuE

If it helps, bear in mind that John Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace was landing rockets vertically about 17 years ago. And that was a garage operation of about 5 people.

I get the point but presentation is just as important as technical details. You have to show the people.

How about the vertical landings that happened in the early '90s?

The point of the landing is to drastically reduce the cost of space launch, not to impress people with a snazzy demo. With disposable rockets, 80% of the launch cost is the throwaway first stage.

> not to impress people with a snazzy demo.

Never said it was their intention.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com