Some problems only get solved by people with irrational amounts of capital and nothing to lose. Governments canceled reusable rockets as too risky, incumbent aerospace laughed, and one billionaire funded the attempt anyway until it worked. Now launch costs are a tenth of what they were and my weather satellite data comes from constellations that wouldn't exist. This is the pattern with fusion, AI labs, private space stations. Committees don't fund ten year moonshots with 90% failure odds. Eccentric rich people do. A world without billionaires is a world where nobody can afford to be gloriously, stupidly ambitious.
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