Martian Immigration Nightmare
February 2, 2017 9:05 PM   Subscribe

Martian Immigration Nightmare [via mefi projects] An online game specifically made to call out Elon Musk on his collaborationism with the Trump regime. Will you manage to board the Mars rocket, or will you be crushed by an unsympathetic bureaucracy?
posted by Apoch (30 comments total) 25 users marked this as a favorite
 
You will not go to Mars today.
posted by Going To Maine at 9:15 PM on February 2, 2017 [4 favorites]


Well that was dispiriting.
posted by congen at 9:22 PM on February 2, 2017


I approve of this sort of thing. Well done.
posted by RolandOfEld at 9:23 PM on February 2, 2017 [5 favorites]


I feel like we should figure out how to make it safe to drink the tap water in Flint before we figure out how to make it safe to drink the tap water on Mars.
posted by mhoye at 9:31 PM on February 2, 2017 [6 favorites]


"I feel like we should figure out how to make it safe to drink the tap water in Flint before we figure out how to make it safe to drink the tap water on Mars."

1. The Apollo program ran through a very turbulent time in America. We can do more than 1 thing at a time.

2. We KNOW how to make safe tap water in Flint, but don't 'cause politics. Same can't be said of Mars
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:37 PM on February 2, 2017 [22 favorites]


From the game's source code:

Dear Mr. Musk,

I'm putting this in here because I know you're the kind of person who might actually look at the source code.

First off, I know I'm singling you out with this game. I'm doing this because I believe you want to do the right thing. I have no such hopes about people like Trump and Bannon, which is why they're not getting a game made for them.

You want to go to Mars. This is an amazing and noble goal, and I support you in it.

The people currently in limbo or detained at US airports want to get home, to their family, their job, their car, their cat. Trump's order is causing vast suffering. I know the order's text is not as bad as it seems, but the text hardly matters when government officials are zealously interpreting its intent in the most cruel fashion.

You were very critical of Trump initially, and I assume you joined his advisory council hoping to keep the worst in check. That is not working. Officials are ignoring court rulings, Trump is re-shuffling the national security council, the checks and balances of US democracy are straining and breaking.

I also assume that, like most people, you believe that you would do the right thing in a moment of crisis. Well, here is that moment.

You have to break with Trump, denounce him, and call on your peers to do the same. Otherwise, years down the line, you will look back at this time and think: "This was my moment, this was when it really came down to me, and I missed it."

Regards,

David Stark
posted by Zarkonnen at 10:35 PM on February 2, 2017 [45 favorites]


Brandon Blatcher: ""I feel like we should figure out how to make it safe to drink the tap water in Flint before we figure out how to make it safe to drink the tap water on Mars."

1. The Apollo program ran through a very turbulent time in America. We can do more than 1 thing at a time.

2. We KNOW how to make safe tap water in Flint, but don't 'cause politics. Same can't be said of Mars
"

I kind of think a breathable atmosphere of some sort should come first, but, you know, that's just me. We can always use the ship's water recyclers.
posted by Samizdata at 10:37 PM on February 2, 2017


I feel like we should figure out how to make it safe to drink the tap water in Flint before we figure out how to make it safe to drink the tap water on Mars.

Can I politely point out that I think you may have missed the point here?
posted by Literaryhero at 11:56 PM on February 2, 2017 [3 favorites]


Literaryhero: "I feel like we should figure out how to make it safe to drink the tap water in Flint before we figure out how to make it safe to drink the tap water on Mars.

Can I politely point out that I think you may have missed the point here?
"

Nope. Stay on track with the KNOWN alternative facts, not opinions.
posted by Samizdata at 12:28 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]


Suspiciously convenient timing for the release of this week's new movie, The Space Between Us, about a teenage boy born on Mars immigrating to Earth.
posted by fairmettle at 2:13 AM on February 3, 2017


Huh, I hadn't even seen about The Space Between Us, so I can guarantee you that it's not some kind of stealth promo. :)
posted by Zarkonnen at 2:38 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]


I kind of think a breathable atmosphere of some sort should come first, but, you know, that's just me.

So tired of your demands for a high quality life on a foreign planet!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:14 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]


Suspicious only to those with adversarial mindsets averse to basic research: zark already has out one awesome indie game (airships), is a regular on Mefi, and is tremendously active over with the MeFighters. If you're gonna throw shade on someone's endeavors, you at least owe it to them to, like, click on posting history or do just a little bit of legwork. Just out of a sense of good faith community, if nothing else.

We win no prize for being the first to call someone a shill, and often end up with egg on our face, yet it's a game we seem to always want to play.

Just go play Airships, it's a lot more fun than "Shill!"
posted by absalom at 4:54 AM on February 3, 2017


Zarkonnen, who did the graphics? They're really quite cool.
posted by jaduncan at 5:06 AM on February 3, 2017


absalom - I don't think fairmettle was seriously accusing me of anything, they were just linking in a related thing. :)

jaduncan - A local Zurich design agency who want to stay anonymous did the graphics.
posted by Zarkonnen at 5:35 AM on February 3, 2017 [5 favorites]


jaduncan - A local Zurich design agency who want to stay anonymous did the graphics.

Fair enough. A hearty broscht to them, and both of you too.
posted by jaduncan at 5:50 AM on February 3, 2017


You were very critical of Trump initially, and I assume you joined his advisory council hoping to keep the worst in check. That is not working....You have to break with Trump, denounce him, and call on your peers to do the same. Otherwise, years down the line, you will look back at this time and think: "This was my moment, this was when it really came down to me, and I missed it."

I see that Mattis is against torture and Trump has deferred to him on that subject. Jury still out on the meeting with King Abdullah and moving the embassy to Jerusalem, but at least it was discussed.

Which suggests that if changing Trump's mind is what you really want, then leaving Musk alone might be a good idea. The Uber guy who caved because of the boycott will have zero influence on this administration. Musk still may. Why would you want him to toss the opportunity away?
posted by IndigoJones at 6:10 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]


Trump's mind is not going to be changed. He simply does not care enough about torture in general to work on that. When he does want to torture someone in particular, he will, much in the same way that if he feels like running a raid, he'll do it, regardless of what people on the ground say is dangerous. No captain of industry is going to dissuade him from something he's going to do. No Democrat voting for his cabinet nominations will be repaid with favors.

However, powerful entities seen as "non-political" on his side strengthen his legitimacy and make it harder for us to get him out.
posted by ignignokt at 6:36 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]


I don't want to change Trump's mind, though. I want him gone. This "advisory council" lets him co-opt popular technologists like Musk and use their reputation to shore up his own. And I very much doubt that he's interested in listening to them over Bannon.
posted by Zarkonnen at 6:37 AM on February 3, 2017 [7 favorites]


Back to the game: Very powerful, Zarkonnen. I refused to sign the papers and was stuck in a broad loop trying to call my lawyer and complaining about the broken phone and trying to get my red card back. Incredibly real.
posted by ignignokt at 6:37 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]


This was superb. And yeah, great graphics.
posted by mrdaneri at 7:18 AM on February 3, 2017


Werner Von Musk is apparently in the WH right now.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:06 AM on February 3, 2017


Werner Von Musk is apparently in the WH right now.

That's unfair. Von Brown did his best to leave his Nazi past behind (or at least deny it heavily and pretend it never happened) when he got to the US. Musk is palling around with Nazis as we speak (well, maybe not as we speak, I don't know his day to day schedule).
posted by Hactar at 8:16 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]


Now that Kalanick has quit being a Trump collaborator, Elon Musk is the only one left from my tech industry. Here's the Dec 2016 membership of the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum. I'm focussed on the tech industry because they're my colleagues. I suppose I should include Ginni Rometty from IBM in my list but IBM is like a different world, closer to General Electric. And then there's Peter Thiel but he's a singularly reprehensible case, and not on this forum.

There's an excellent NYTimes article about how Kalanick was encouraged to quit: Uber C.E.O. to Leave Trump Advisory Council After Criticism. Long story short, his employees called him out repeatedly in company meetings, and started circulating a 25 page "Letters to Travis" internally to express their opinion.

One wonders if Musk is having the same conversation with SpaceX employees. Or Tesla. Or SolarCity. Perhaps this game will help inspire them.
posted by Nelson at 8:19 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]


Trump will use his collaborators for political cover and then ditch them the second they fail to agree with him on something he actually cares about. This was his pattern through the entire campaign and there's zero reason to think that he's changed. Why people persist in thinking that Trump is interested in following traditional political norms (like deferring to advisors) or can be permanently swayed by appeasement is completely beyond me. The game has changed, people. We are lucky that he is being so goddamned blatant about it.

Musk is terrified of losing the tax credits/other gov't benefits that prop up Tesla and Solar City (now one company, but both business models depend on same). As a tech bro, he has zero foundation of respect for our political system to deter him from turning into a pure-and-simple crony capitalist/aspiring oligarch. It's that simple. It's all so disappointing and yet, looking back, so predictable.
posted by praemunire at 8:53 AM on February 3, 2017 [3 favorites]


Brandon Blatcher: "I kind of think a breathable atmosphere of some sort should come first, but, you know, that's just me.

So tired of your demands for a high quality life on a foreign planet!
"

You know, you can't have hot air without air. Just saying...
posted by Samizdata at 9:57 AM on February 3, 2017


Nelson: "Now that Kalanick has quit being a Trump collaborator, Elon Musk is the only one left from my tech industry. Here's the Dec 2016 membership of the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum. I'm focussed on the tech industry because they're my colleagues. I suppose I should include Ginni Rometty from IBM in my list but IBM is like a different world, closer to General Electric. And then there's Peter Thiel but he's a singularly reprehensible case, and not on this forum.

There's an excellent NYTimes article about how Kalanick was encouraged to quit: Uber C.E.O. to Leave Trump Advisory Council After Criticism. Long story short, his employees called him out repeatedly in company meetings, and started circulating a 25 page "Letters to Travis" internally to express their opinion.

One wonders if Musk is having the same conversation with SpaceX employees. Or Tesla. Or SolarCity. Perhaps this game will help inspire them.
"

Agreed on Thiel, especially since I read he swapped his American citizenship for New Zealand, whilst bypassing the residency requirement. I promise you this - I ever meet him in in person, I will give him such a punt in the wedding tackle, Hulk Hogan will feel it, and all his anagathic transfusions won't heal it.
posted by Samizdata at 10:02 AM on February 3, 2017 [2 favorites]


There are some folks, you just want to hire a plane to follow them around with a banner reading: "THUS, AS IT MUST TO ALL MEN, DEATH CAME TO CHARLES FOSTER KANE."
posted by praemunire at 11:19 AM on February 3, 2017 [4 favorites]


Trump has a worrying amount of leverage over Musk; SpaceX's whole business relies upon continued permission to use launch pads at Canaveral and Vandenberg, and the company is, if I understand correctly, heavily dependant upon the CRS resupply contract for the Space Station.
posted by Major Clanger at 1:57 PM on February 3, 2017


Since the game was created, Musk has made it clear on Twitter that he is very much against the ban, and that he's clearly trying his hardest to make things better from the inside.

I still very much doubt that this will accomplish anything, but he's the one in possession of the facts on the ground. So I wish him good luck.

The game remains dedicated to Musk, but now as a reminder rather than a challenge.
posted by Zarkonnen at 1:29 AM on February 5, 2017 [3 favorites]


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