Image: Navy Knew Titan Submarine Imploded Days Ago – Military Acoustic Detection System Picked Up Implosion Hours After Vessel Began Its Exploration
Related: The Titanic tragedy, recapitulated
By Glenn Reynolds – The Wentworth Report
Take One: It’s good when a bunch of rich people die.
My Take: Really? Envy is a deadly sin and when you hate people so much that you want them dead, just for the crime of existing, that’s not admirable. …
This lack of empathy is increasingly common — and, I would argue, encouraged — by many segments of our society, particularly those that exist in what you might call the “Cultural Marxist” space. Well, anytime you find yourself in any kind of Cultural Marxist space, you’re probably at least adjacent to psychopathy.
Now there are variations on this that don’t rise to the “good, they’re dead” level. For example, “they knew it was risky and they took the risk anyway.” This is clearly true, and doesn’t necessarily indicate a lack of empathy. It might even indicate an understanding of people’s willingness to take risks to advance personal or societal horizons, which is actually a kind of empathy. …
Take Two: This was criminally dangerous. It was an uncertified craft!
My take: Meh. It’s possible that they cut some corners. We’ll find out. The fact that the craft was uncertified means nothing in itself. Things that are certified crash and explode all the time. Things that are not often do fine. The certification isn’t worthless, but it’s generally some third party’s opinion that certain specified standards have been met. This might seem more compelling to those who have not been involved in the development of such standards, which is often an arbitrary, and sometimes corrupt or self-interested, process. I’m not saying that’s the case here, but it often is.
At any rate, although I saw James Cameron saying that the deep-submersible biz is a mature industry, I’m not so sure. The number of operating craft is tiny worldwide, and the total number of hours of experience probably puts us about where aviation was in 1912. …
Take Three: This stuff is wasteful, a rich man’s toy, and shouldn’t be allowed.
My take: Most cutting edge technology starts out as a rich man’s toy. Automobiles, passenger airplanes, VCRs, etc. all started out that way. Letting rich people buy the tech drives the technology and pushes prices down over time so that ordinary people can afford it. I don’t think ordinary people will ever be interested in doing miles-deep dives, but improved subsea technology is a very big deal. We often hear about how unexplored the deep ocean depths are, and there’s a reason for that — we aren’t very good at it yet. We get better at it by doing it. We can do it more if people are willing and able to pay for it.
The same is true with the various space tourism efforts. …
Take Four: We need more government regulation!!!
My take: This field has done fine without it. It’s not as if there’s been a raft of submersible-sinkings this year. In fact, disasters like this one have been vanishingly rare.
Government regulation is most useful when incentives don’t match — for example, where a company’s desire to make a profit from its factory runs counter to desires that it not pollute its neighbors. But here everyone’s goals are aligned: The companies don’t want to lose a sub, and neither do the passengers. (The same alignment exists in the space tourism industry, obviously.)
He then notices a distinct gender divide:
I was struck, at least among my circle of online and real-world acquaintances, at the gender divide.
Most of the women seemed to find the story compelling, and were gripped by the thought of people trapped helplessly in a crippled vessel, hopefully awaiting rescue.
The men, on the other hand, were almost universally of the opinion (which turned out to be correct) that the Titan had imploded about the time the ship lost contact and it was all over but the shouting. Maybe it’s just because the men had read a submarine novel or two, and had a firmer grip on what happens under pressure, or maybe it was some deeper difference. (The press, of course, went breathlessly with the former narrative, because otherwise there wasn’t much of a story.)
Regardless, I really noticed. Even some pretty hard-boiled women I know were sucked into the story.
