Hamartia Antidote
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I wasn't talking about shutting it down which is an irrelevant point.
Oh ok…I guess we can just forget that ever happened
Shutting something down isn't special.
Ok…interesting
The discussion was on whether Elon could with the "snap of his fingers" and without speaking or calling anyone, or getting permission, have Starlink participate in the Ukrainian military operation without US government approval of it or control of whether he does
So Starlink is a consumer product just like DJI drones or some Iridium satellite phone. The only issue is getting permission from the Ukraine government to sell it there just like any other company when offering something for sale.
In terms of getting US approval. Sure companies like Nvidia have to deal with regulations on what they can sell and it can apply to Starlink too obviously. But the US Government can’t force you to sell it to a country. Maybe Nvidia gets pissed off at the UK and decides not to sell any of their product to the UK. The US Government can’t force them…but they can make Nvidia suffer in other ways like restricting their sales to an entire continent.
In terms of Starlink the Ukranian government gave SpaceX the green light to sell Starlink within it borders. But SpaceX doesn’t have to. They could decide tomorrow to make it not work. Just like GPS has a button to scramble the signal in a given area so does Starlink.
A few months ago there was a blurb about how Ukraine wanted Starlink enabled in Crimea so the Ukranians could use it to launch some sea drone attack. Elon Musk said no. The US Government got mad but could not do anything since Elon Musk is the only one with the finger on the scramble button. He can scramble the entire planet on a whim.
, by interpreting whether the snap of his fingers sounded like "allow the ukrainian military to use starlink satellites and send them all this equipment" all in one *snap* sound. US military wouldn't stand for it without being given control.
Ukraine could go into an electronics store in a neighboring country and buy the Starlink dishes for $600 each. Is the Pentagon going to rush into every electronics store on the planet and clear the shelves?? What is this "wouldn't stand for it" sh*t?? Is the US military going to buy up all the world's DJI drones too while they are at it? You are still being nonsensical.
The problem was back in early 2022 SpaceX wasn't making the dishes in a volume large enough that you could order like 20,000 from Amazon. So for Ukraine to get them in volume they basically had to ask Elon Musk if they could cut in line before all the other people who already ordered it.
Elon Musk did send a big batch to them but it’s not like they couldn’t get it elsewhere. They were just happy they got thousands immediately.
My point is that, Elon got permission and wouldn't do it without permission because the US government would stop him.
Oh brother. Maybe you think Ukranians are too lazy to go to a store and pick it up themselves. The only permission Starlink got was to unscramble the signal over Ukraine. They didn't want to unscramble it over Crimea. But just as with the Nvidia example with the UK SpaceX doesn’t need permission to turn around and scramble it again.
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