I think there's something of a cultural divide here. To me it seems like a lot of HN users have taken PG's oft quoted statement:
"At this point, when someone comes to us with something that users like but that we could envision forum trolls dismissing as a toy, it makes us especially likely to invest."
And turned it into:
"Most things dismissed as toys are worth investing in."
Here's the thing, from where I'm sitting this is Light Pen Redux 2.0, as other commentators have pointed out, the system looks like a great way to induce the gorilla arm effect. Maybe there are aspects of this that SpaceX has a real use for, I'm not a rocket engineer. But I don't think it's out of line to call this what it appears to be, a PR piece.
"At this point, when someone comes to us with something that users like but that we could envision forum trolls dismissing as a toy, it makes us especially likely to invest."
And turned it into:
"Most things dismissed as toys are worth investing in."
Here's the thing, from where I'm sitting this is Light Pen Redux 2.0, as other commentators have pointed out, the system looks like a great way to induce the gorilla arm effect. Maybe there are aspects of this that SpaceX has a real use for, I'm not a rocket engineer. But I don't think it's out of line to call this what it appears to be, a PR piece.