[yetanotheracc]

It makes me wonder how much does the society suck, or what else could be achieved if more of the humanity's resources were managed the way they are at SpaceX. If Musk had decided to do fusion energy instead of rockets, would it be commercially viable by now? How about curing cancer?

[dogma1138]

While not to diminish what SpaceX has achieved it's really a far cry from "curing cancer". While what they've done too allot of engineering it's not nearly as complex as identifying all of the biological pathways for even a single form of cancer and finding a reliable cure.

That said we do have good treatments for the vast majority of forms of cancer, the problem is that your survivability is directly tied to how early it's detected, surgical removal, radiation and more notably modern chemo regiments are very effective in early stages of detection.

Many type of cancer today have 90%+ survivability rates if they are detected early enough, detection isn't always easy allot of them can not turn symptomatic till later stages, and many of them won't show up in blood work / body scans clearly either.

[vkou]

Curing cancer? Which one?

Let's not assume that nobody else knows what they are doing.

[yetanotheracc]

Does not matter which one, does it? Pick any.

They know what they are doing all right. For instance, ITER's managerial staff surely enjoys the jet-setting between Barcelona and the French Riviera. But their goals are not aligned with making progress.

[Tharkun]

That's a load of cynical and simplistic crock. Yes ITER is super expensive, and maybe it's not the best use of research money, and maybe it'll never get anywhere. But the project's aims are very ambitious, and potential payoff is huge. Saying the ITER management doesn't deserve the same perks as other management is just wrong.

[grondilu]

Musk is doing several things apart from launching rockets. For instance he's trying to make electric cars more common and he has quite some success. His solar ventures is less convincing, though.