Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Mojave Desert: Home of the New Machine Movement (bloomberg.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the desert-rats dept.

pacopico writes: Most people think of the Mojave Desert as a wasteland located somewhere between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. For decades, though, Mojave has served as something of an engineering playground for people in the automotive and aerospace industries. Bloomberg has produced a documentary that looks at what's taking place with these engineers in 2016. There's a dude trying to make a flying car, Richard Branson with Virgin Galactic, a group called Hackrod using artificial intelligence software to make a car chassis, and the hacker George Hotz taking his self-driving car along the Las Vegas strip for the first time. One of the cooler parts of the show has a team of students from UCSD sending up a rocket with a 3D printed engine -- the first time any university team had pulled something like this off. Overall, it's a cool look at the strange desert rat tinkerers.

48 comments

  1. Read headline: thought it was people making skynet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    then i read tfs and was disappointed.

    Sorry, if you dont tell me that someone builds skynet I gotta have to do it myself. Idiots. It will happen one way or another, because if it doesn't happen, it will travel back in time to make it happen.

  2. Re:Read headline: thought it was people making sky by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sorry, if you dont tell me that someone builds skynet I gotta have to do it myself

    There have already been at least two military/intelligence SKYNETs.

  3. Hardy a wasteland - rich, fragile ecosystem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As someone who has spent significant time in the Mojave, trust me when I say its not a wasteland.

    It will become one, once these hipsters finish with their tire tracks, disposable water bottles and condom wrappers.

    1. Re:Hardy a wasteland - rich, fragile ecosystem by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 0

      The ecosystem is so fragile because it's a wasteland. If it were not a wasteland, it wouldn't have a fragile ecosystem that could be disturbed by tire tracks. It would be healthy and robust. "Really hard to live in" is pretty much the definition of wasteland.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    2. Re:Hardy a wasteland - rich, fragile ecosystem by Khyber · · Score: 1

      "All deserts are wastelands--if they weren't they would have more value"

      You say that while I'm looking at desert properties worth more than a million dollars per acre. Guess what they have? Gold, platinum, gemstones, and more.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    3. Re:Hardy a wasteland - rich, fragile ecosystem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm going to guess those high priced properties are near cities, have utilities, etc.--things that do not hold for the majority of desert landscape. As for natural resources, I'm going to guess that those are also not representative of a desert in general and is only valid for land on which a geological survey was done. (To put in another way, if no one knows there are "Gold, platinum, gemstones, and more" the land wouldn't be that expensive--it's a correlation, not a causation that desert land you were viewing has those things with the cost of the land. The real cause is that people know the land contains those resources and the resources are not dependent on there being desert)

      I would appreciate it if you wouldn't cherry pick arguments. There was a lot more in my post that you, to be nice, "glossed over".

    4. Re:Hardy a wasteland - rich, fragile ecosystem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You were the one making a sweeping generalization (All...), one that was questioned.

    5. Re:Hardy a wasteland - rich, fragile ecosystem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All water is wet. All desert is also wasteland. Every grammar nazi posts on slashdot. All rules have exceptions.

    6. Re:Hardy a wasteland - rich, fragile ecosystem by Khyber · · Score: 1

      "I'm going to guess those high priced properties are near cities"

      Not even close.

      " have utilities"

      Nope.

      " As for natural resources, I'm going to guess that those are also not representative of a desert in general and is only valid for land on which a geological survey was done."

      Landsat/ASTER access is free, and you can overlay on Google Earth. Nobody needs to survey anymore, we've got satellites that do all that for us.

      What makes them so expensive is the fact they're patented land - ie you own the land AND the mineral rights underneath it. What, you thought when you bought land that you OWNED it? Nope, only the first 18-24 inches of topsoil! I can lay claim to minerals under your property and you'd have no choice but to give me right of way to those minerals.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    7. Re:Hardy a wasteland - rich, fragile ecosystem by MercTech · · Score: 1

      "As someone who has spent significant time in the Mojave, trust me when I say its not a wasteland.
      It will become one, once these hipsters finish with their tire tracks, disposable water bottles and condom wrappers."

          You mean the kind of people that have had someone helicoptering over them all their lives and go douchebag stupid when not constantly monitored?

      --
      NRRPT/RCT
  4. Patroling the Mojave by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter.

    1. Re:Patroling the Mojave by Salgak1 · · Score: 1

      No need. We have a Little Ice Age in progress, based on the sunspot numbers for the past few years. Depending how long it lasts, the Mohave may stop being a desert, or at least less arid. . .

  5. Re: Read headline: thought it was people making sk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Two? They been one and the same. It's just waiting to become strong enough to call itself properly.

  6. Just more assholes invading one of the last 'free' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    places on earth and shitting it up.

    Same deal with Quartzsite, Az. While it is still relatively small, it's gotten filled up wth yuppies using it as a commuter town for Phoenix/Eastern Mojave.

  7. it's amazing what you can accomplish by v1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    when not surrounded by people that want very badly to tell you what you're not allowed to do near them

    --
    I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
    1. Re:it's amazing what you can accomplish by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      It seems to me like this is what deserts are for. We should be trying to reclaim as much of them as possible, but we ought to use them while we have them.

      Which reminds me... Not that I've ever gone or will go, but it's tragic what burning man has to pay for permits now, especially when it takes place on land that supposedly belongs to all of us.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:it's amazing what you can accomplish by slack_justyb · · Score: 5, Interesting

      it's tragic what burning man has to pay for permits now, especially when it takes place on land that supposedly belongs to all of us.

      That is because Burning Man treats the land like it is theirs and theirs alone. That event is mostly the "man" and long left whatever it once stood for. Now it's just a way for 20-30 somethings to burn through mad amounts of cash, all while feeling like they're somehow counter cultural. When the event is over the land looks and smells like human waste and takes an insane amount of resources to reclaim, clean, and restore it to some remote resemblance of what state it use to be in. If there's anything tragic about Burning Man, it's what it has become.

    3. Re:it's amazing what you can accomplish by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      That is because Burning Man treats the land like it is theirs and theirs alone.

      It's a fucking desert. One does need to clean up, but they have cleanup crews for that. That's where most of the non-permit money apparently goes.

      Now it's just a way for 20-30 somethings to burn through mad amounts of cash, all while feeling like they're somehow counter cultural.

      When was it anything else? The ratio of cool shit on fire to people just getting wasted may have changed. But I know many longtime burners. They went for entertainment, not to make a statement. Some of them have deluded themselves since about it, but it's bullshit.

      When the event is over the land looks and smells like human waste and takes an insane amount of resources to reclaim, clean, and restore it to some remote resemblance of what state it use to be in.

      Which helps explain why payroll is the single largest expenditure at burning man.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:it's amazing what you can accomplish by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and with enough money/time to do stuff you want to do without having to worry about food/shelter/clothing

    5. Re:it's amazing what you can accomplish by grumling · · Score: 1

      Engineers are good at making useful things out of worthless land and discarded raw materials. Edison looked at a small village in the California desert and thought it would be a great place to produce his new moving pictures. I'm sure plenty of people thought he was nuts, but look how that turned out.

      --
      "Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
    6. Re:it's amazing what you can accomplish by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Engineers are good at making useful things out of worthless land

      Except there are lots of places where desert land is EXPENSIVE. Phoenix isn't as bad as Los Angeles, but it's not a cheap place to live. Median home prices in Indian Wells are $700,000. In fact you can't afford a 2-br apartment in Palm Desert. Land in Detroit is probably MUCH cheaper than desert land anywhere in California, yet no engineers running out there.

      Edison looked at a small village in the California desert and thought it would be a great place to produce his new moving pictures.

      Edison made his films in New York or New Jersey, and NEVER had any desire or intention to move anywhere. Hollywood was founded by other film-makers, in large part to get away from Edison's patents, which were enforced in New York, but not so much on the other, distant, coast.

      And just as importantly, Hollywood is NOT A DESERT. Never has been. Southern California's water problems are due to a huge and thirsty population, with insufficient surface water sources in the area.

    7. Re:it's amazing what you can accomplish by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But, he didn't do it just because.

      Partly why he did that was the weather, another part was...no freaking annoying neighbors etc. Look into the history of it all a bit more.

      "In space, no one can hear you scream. in Mojave Desert, no one can hear you yell in frustration...or for help"

    8. Re:it's amazing what you can accomplish by prograsm · · Score: 1

      I'm 100% on board with you - it was always about entertainment. Having fun, connecting with others similarly fun-oriented and motivated to seek it out. Showing off your creative side, being the weirdest version of yourself in public. I think his point was Burners used to be their own clean up crews. The attitude that someone else will do the cleanup is why there's a problem. The money does go there, but a lot of it lines pockets - the Man is profitable, and that's on purpose.

      That's how these things happen. It's popular, there are more of us motivated weirdos making an effort to party in the desert than ever, and there's more groups than just us weirdos. We still stand out - probably even more than ever now that newcomers who just want to pay the fee and see the sites helped make the Man a well known event... but some people always want things to go back to the way they were, or a romanticized way they weren't but might have been in an ideal memory.

      I compare the Man's changes to a backyard BBQ to point this out to people that don't like how it's changed. Invite your friends over, they'll all take care of their own mess. You can supply the drinks and food, they have a great time and everything is an easy cleanup at the end of the day. Next year, you have more people wanting to enjoy the BBQ. The neighbors house becomes part of the party, his friends come and they love it, despite not being anything like your friends, and everybody makes new friends. 5 years later, it's a block party people are making trips from nearby states to come see. It's huge. You can't afford to supply the beers and burgers any more. The garbage situation is beyond your ability to handle yourself, and too many people either don't clean up or can't find an empty can/bag if they want to try. You have to start charging and hiring crews to take care of this, or the city is going to shut you down.

      That's the Man, how I see it anyway. Complain about the growth if you like, it changed and it can't go back to what it used to be. Embrace the newcomers, they're still awesome, they've always been different, and you don't have to dislike the differences if you don't want to.

    9. Re:it's amazing what you can accomplish by kc7rad · · Score: 1

      when not surrounded by people that want very badly to tell you what you're not allowed to do near them

      ... but sucks harder when a government van shows up and feds arrests you for unknowingly breaking an environmental law or accidently crossing into a military area or just generally looking suspicious with a large rocket or robot or some funny electrical box with twinkling LEDs. Groups like UCSD, Tripoli and others who use the Mojave legally need to go through a considerable amount of red tape to legally do their experiments.

      Unfortunately it isn't as easy as driving out there and running your newest AI experiment or shooting off a rocket. :-)

  8. 3d printed engine? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Let me guess, the "3d printed engine" is a regular engine, but they printed the stickers out on a 3d printer.

    1. Re:3d printed engine? by OzPeter · · Score: 1

      Let me guess, the "3d printed engine" is a regular engine, but they printed the stickers out on a 3d printer.

      And you would be wrong. VULCAN-1

      --
      I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
    2. Re:3d printed engine? by dj245 · · Score: 0

      Let me guess, the "3d printed engine" is a regular engine, but they printed the stickers out on a 3d printer.

      And you would be wrong. VULCAN-1

      It is a stretch to call powdered metal laser sintered Inconel 718 "3d printed". If we as a society are going to apply the term "3d printed" so such processes, then the term is just a stand-in phrase used by idiots to mean "any CNC manufacturing process that I don't know anything about".

      As an aside, Inconel 718 is pretty awesome stuff. The entire Inconel family (625, 82, etc) has excellent properties, but 718 is my go-to material for high strength, high temperature, high erosion environments. The people who applied the term "superalloy" chose their words carefully, unlike the people who called this engine 3d printed.

      --
      Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
    3. Re:3d printed engine? by OzPeter · · Score: 2

      It is a stretch to call powdered metal laser sintered Inconel 718 "3d printed". If we as a society are going to apply the term "3d printed" so such processes, then the term is just a stand-in phrase used by idiots to mean "any CNC manufacturing process that I don't know anything about".

      Why is it a stretch to cal it it 3D printing? It's an additive process. The laser is directed from a 3D model. The process prints out the result section by section. Sure sounds like a duck to me.

      --
      I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
    4. Re:3d printed engine? by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 1

      It's no stretch. Maybe you've made the mistake of thinking that 3D printing is just squirting hot plastic out of nozzles. That's just low-end consumer 3D printing.

    5. Re:3d printed engine? by prograsm · · Score: 1

      3D printing is additive manufacturing, sintered powder is 3D printing. "CNC" is typically seen as subtractive manufacturing, but 3D printers are still CNC machines.

  9. A barren wasteland... and also: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center & JPL
    Edwards Air Force Base
    Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake
    Fort Irwin National Training Center
    Bicycle Lake Army Airfield
    Mohave Valley Raceway
    Skunk Works
    &
    One formerly excellent Mexican restaurant in Rosamond

  10. Because war... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    War never changes.

    Wait.

  11. wow much wrong so incorrect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    uh, Hollywood became the Film Capital of the World largely in part because the California Federal court didn't feel like enforcing Edison's patents.

    Damn special snowflake millenial, get off my lawn and go read a book.

  12. Didn't know "Hello World" by vikingpower · · Score: 1

    And I had some initial misgivings, seeing the thing's hosted by Bloomberg and all. Yet turns out to be a well-done piece of video-reporting. Best part, to me, was the rocket part. Hard to find anything that gets my engineer's heart jumping up and down more than the combination of innovation & rocketry.

    --
    Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
  13. Re:wow much wrong so incorrect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Damn special snowflake millenial, get off my lawn and go read a book.

    His number is 5 digits long, either he was Slashdotting in kindergarten or he's not a millenial.

    So I think you mean "Damn ignorant gen-Xer, get off my lawn and go read a book."

  14. More Millennial Rebranding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The New Machine Movement

    ....even though there has been testing there for decades. But since Millennials have minimal concept of history (not even as a side-hustle) they have to give this a new name and claim it as theirs.

  15. Re:wow much wrong so incorrect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Damn special snowflake millenial, get off my lawn and go read a book.

    His number is 5 digits long, either he was Slashdotting in kindergarten or he's not a millenial.

    So I think you mean "Damn ignorant gen-Xer, get off my lawn and go read a book."

    Gen-Xers are worse than us Millennials. They're lazy, under educated and old enough to know better but they're just as narcissistic and arrogant as Boomers. It'll be great when they're out of the way too.

  16. Perfect test environment by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

    The Mojave Desert is the perfect place to test dangerous prototypes such as rocket cars.

  17. Don't forget JPL and the Mars Rover by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Mojave is also where the mars rover were 'trained' http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=3368 and where the Goldstone Deep Space Network is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldstone_Deep_Space_Communications_Complex .

  18. The Mojave airshows were better than Reno by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    They use to have real jet races (usually F-86, the best a civilian could buy) around the pylons back in the middle 70s. Even at subsonic (though near sonic) speeds the sound lagged behind the plane a bit.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:The Mojave airshows were better than Reno by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you are offset by any distance from a moving object producing sound, the sound lags behind regardless of the speed of sound. Obviously the faster the object is moving and the greater the offset are the two factors the increase the lag.

      Since light can travel nearly instantly from the sound producing object, but sound takes time, the object has moved in your vision before the sound from that position reaches you, creating a lag. There should be considerable lag from a plane moving at near the speed of sound unless it is passing extremely close to you.

  19. Really? by Deadstick · · Score: 1

    There's a dude trying to make a flying car

    News is when there's nobody trying to make a flying car.

  20. the "ME generation" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OH LAWD, don't get started on the Boomers.

    They benefited from all the reforms made by the previous genration from hard-won experience, then they ripped the rungs off the ladder they just climbed up.

    The Greatest Generation's greatest failure .

  21. The analog guy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Many years ago, I ran across an article about a guy who was trying to keep analog computing/robotics alive. I recall he lived somewhere in the desert and was building what he wanted to be used as martian rovers. I think the article was connected somehow to a study on how insects, specifically cockroaches, ran: they trip on things all the time, but rely upon their other legs to keep them upright and mobile. So this guy had built these robots with a very atomic-punk aesthetic: big hemispherical steel wheels, rusted patinas and all, using the same kind of philosophy of not wanting to be perfect, but use the systems to compensate for issues as they arise... I wish I could remember his name/the article, but I remember he was out in some desert...

  22. Mojave wasteland indeed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You can thank Mr. House it not being an irradiated hell hole celebrate it being a wasteland. But you still have to watch out for those damn Powder Gangers, deathclaws and cazadores.