‘Narcissist’ Musk berated for pushing ‘impractical’ mini-sub on Thai cave rescuers
Elon Musk is being ridiculed online for his highly-publicized attempts to help rescue the trapped Thai boys in a music-playing mini-submarine – which local authorities deemed “impractical.”
Thai Navy SEALs have just completed the monumental three-day rescue mission to guide 12 boys and their 25-year-old coach to safety from deep inside a water-filled, winding cave. However, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk appears to be getting a chunk of the praise for the rescue mission – without actually contributing to the efforts.
Got more great feedback from Thailand. Primary path is basically a tiny, kid-size submarine using the liquid oxygen transfer tube of Falcon rocket as hull. Light enough to be carried by 2 divers, small enough to get through narrow gaps. Extremely robust.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 7, 2018
Musk and his SpaceX engineers began construction plans for a “tiny, kid-size submarine” soon after the stranded group were discovered by British divers on Monday last week.
Just returned from Cave 3. Mini-sub is ready if needed. It is made of rocket parts & named Wild Boar after kids’ soccer team. Leaving here in case it may be useful in the future. Thailand is so beautiful. pic.twitter.com/EHNh8ydaTT
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 9, 2018
live footage of elon musk leaving thailand pic.twitter.com/h30PDLeodt
— sarah m (@sazza_jay) July 10, 2018
ELON: Here's a submarineRESCUERS: We don't need thisELON: I'll just leave this hereRESCUERS: We won't use thisELON: Thailand is so beautiful https://t.co/Kp4Ll3Ep4H
— Alex Fitzpatrick (@AlexJamesFitz) July 10, 2018
The billionaire kept the internet constantly updated on the submarine’s progress, posting videos from its testing site at a California high school and sharing his feedback from Thai authorities.
Got more great feedback from Thailand. Primary path is basically a tiny, kid-size submarine using the liquid oxygen transfer tube of Falcon rocket as hull. Light enough to be carried by 2 divers, small enough to get through narrow gaps. Extremely robust.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 7, 2018
SpaceX & Boring Co engineers headed to Thailand tomorrow to see if we can be helpful to govt. There are probably many complexities that are hard to appreciate without being there in person.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2018
Simulating maneuvering through a narrow passage pic.twitter.com/2z01Ut3vxJ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 9, 2018
Unfortunately for Musk, the mini-sub wasn’t going to work for several reasons. One, water levels were rising, the group were running out of oxygen and so the rescue mission didn’t have time to wait for the submarine. Secondly, maneuvering a cylinder through the cave’s narrow twists and turns for hours on end, multiple times a day, didn’t appear to be the most economical use of time and fading energy.
“Although his technology is good and sophisticated, it’s not practical for this mission,” said Narongsak Osatanakorn, chief of the command center overseeing the rescue, to reporters.
Not a horrible idea to throw an iphone/ipod with a bluetooth speaker into the tube to keep the kids calm while they are being banged around. You can keep the kids busy while they are waiting by asking them to write down their favorite song.
— Pranay Pathole (@PPathole) July 8, 2018
Yeah, that sounds cool. Music makes things better. Calms the mind. Adding padded wall pockets for a hand radio & phone/music player.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 8, 2018
Despite the rescue mission already being successfully underway for two days, the CEO continued to post mini-sub updates, even revealing that his team were building a second, slightly smaller version. On Monday, Musk even travelled to Thailand to personally deliver the sub, knowing its window of opportunity for the rescue had passed but hoping it “might be useful in future.”
Musk was mocked heavily, and at times flat-out berated, for pushing his seemingly-unwanted help on Thailand. Some deemed him to be “narcissistic” while others lavished him in praise for taking the time from his busy schedule.
Gosh, feel like you need to leverage every public situation for your own aggrandizement much? You do know there are hundreds of experts already working this across multiple counties, no? #narcissism
— Dr. John Grohol (@DocJohnG) July 8, 2018
As some of his supporters, and Musk himself, pointed out, narcissist or not, he’s an engineer who took some initiative and did more to try to help the rescue op than the vast majority of Earth’s population.
If I am a narcissist (which might be true), at least I am a useful one
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 8, 2018
Elon Musk is the real life Tony Stark. Dude seriously just scrapped his Space-X rocket to build a child size submarine to get these kids out of a cave in Thailand. Who else can be like hey just use my rocket
— Chris Curtis (@Actionman513) July 9, 2018
Musk is an easy punching bag for people to complain about, and all the more attractive to lazy armchair critics who just want to hate on someone. Plenty of valid criticisms of him available, which makes the Thailand rescue story all the dumber to focus on.
— Chris Maytag (@cpm5280) July 9, 2018
Thanks, but we’ve not done anything useful yet. It is all other people.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 8, 2018
