[mike_hearn]

Truly magical thinking, you say? OK, let's rewind the clock to 2008. In that year two things happened:

- SpaceX launched its first rocket successfully.

- California voted to build high speed rail.

Eighteen years later:

- SpaceX has taken over the space industry with reusable rockets and a global satcom network, which by itself contains more than half of all satellites in orbit.

- Californian HSR has spent over thirteen billion dollars and laid zero miles of track. That's more than 2x the cost of the Starship programme so far.

Building stuff on Earth can be difficult. People live there, they have opinions and power. Their governments can be dysfunctional. Trains are 19th century technology, it should be easier to build a railway than a global satellite network. It may seem truly magical but putting things into orbit can, apparently, be easier.

[oivey]

That’s a strange comparison to make. Those are entirely different sectors and sorts of engineering projects. In this example, also, SpaceX built all of that on Earth.

Why not do the obvious comparison with terrestrial data centers?

[msie]

it should be easier to build a railway

No, because of the costs of acquiring land that the railway goes through.

[ericd]

Now how about procuring half a gigawatt when nearby residents are annoyed about their heating bills doubling, and are highly motivated to block you? This is already happening in some areas.