this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
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Technology
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The interesting thing is he really seemed to believe he knows better than all the experts.
There are reasons why ships and planes are all highly regulated. Its called physics.
I'm so conflicted on this. On the one hand he seems like a giant asshole that saves on safety to make a few more bucks but on the other hand he trusted his system completely and died with it. So not really greedy asshole but stupid entrepreneur who didn't realize how wrong he was?
It's one thing if he died alone and another when he took other 4 people with him. I would still chalk it up to greedy asshole, because he cheap out things that would've saved the four people.
A greedy asshole who thought himself a genius?
The word is arrogant.
Both. The drive to be a cheap pos caused him to believe he knew more than he did.
I guess society needs people like him that make crazy things. Science itself is pretty much like this, trying out stuff and be creative. People often made inventions while other people were telling them that it would be impossible to do so.
However, I think where he actually behaved really like an asshole was taking people with him who he made believe to be in a safe vessel. He could have made a disclaimer saying something like "this is an experimental vessel, I'm not sure if it will hold up and people have warned me. I still want to take the risk and you can come, too, if you are willing to take the same risk."
Taking risks for the sake of innovation, fine, I guess it has to be done to move forward. However, building a submersible that can go to these depths is nothing new. Been there, done that, basically. To throw all lessons learnt with previous vehicles out with the garbage is just monumentally stupid.
Engineers and scientists do try to do and make crazy things but they try to do it safely, and doing it safely costs money which he didn't want to spend.
I guess the most positive spin is that he risked and gave his life to try new things which can progress things more quickly, but he didn't just risk his own life, he risked the passengers which is unforgivable. If he were doing it solo to not endanger others then I could respect that.
Thing is, as James Cameron pointed out in his interviews, this is not a cutting-edge field. The science of submersibles is well explored and the technologies are mature. Engineers know exactly how to construct a safe submersible to go as deep as you want. There are companies like this that make and sell these submersibles.
This guy was not doing research or experimentation. He was trying to cut costs because he probably couldn't afford a proper submersible under his business model and still make a profit. The only reason for using unconventional materials - materials that are well known to be unsuitable for this purpose - was that he thought he could do it more cheaply if he didn't go through safety certification or buy a sub that had already been certified. The point was to spend less money by taking more risks and make a profit. He was not innovating, and he was arrogantly overconfident, to the point of overriding all the experts who had warned him this would get people killed.