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This is what will matter 1000 years from now. Not your politics. Not your stupid tantrums about who platformed who on some website. Not your incomprehensible desire to send NASA's entire budget to the third world. This guy reignited the Space Age. He spent his own money, hired a bunch of dudes, and reignited the Space Age. And together, they underbid and outdid NASA and its pet dinosaur corporations on every conceivable level. This is history happening before you. If you are a puddlefish, if you think this is a wasteful showpiece or science project, then you don't understand physics, economics, astronomy, or in fact the basic layout of the universe you live in. We live in a tiny puddle at the bottom of a well. Out there is an entire universe, full not only of stuff to explore, but full of stuff to build things out of. Big things. Wonderful things. Things that are going to make all of the cool stuff you have today, all of human civilization to date look like early Assyrians writing stuff down on wet clay with a reed. Infinite resources. Infinite energy. Infinite space. Instead of fighting over little patches of land, we will have an infinite 3d volume. Enclose it in steel, pump it full of air, spin it, and it's a habitat. Instead of scratching tiny scraps of metal out of the crust of one planet, we will break down entire asteroids and smelt them. Instead of drilling for hydrocarbons and turning water wheels, we will harness entire suns, split the atom, and eventually draw our fuel from the substance that makes up 99% of the entire universe. None of your local, temporal Earth politics matter compared to this. This is more important than pride parades and abortions, more important than tribal conflicts in eastern Europe and southwest Asia, more important than tensions with Russia and China. More important, in the long run, than the United States of America. America's most important function, its one most vital purpose, is to serve as an incubator for this. Because this changes everything. All of our arguments about conditions on this planet become obsolete, because the whole planet becomes just one suburban neighborhood. All of our wars over resources and territory become obsolete, because no one has time to brawl when we're all sitting on top of a dragon horde with sacks and shovels. Everyone who was alive at the time remembers where they were when Kennedy died in Dallas. When the towers fell. When the Eagle landed. When the Wall came down. But this... this is the real moment, one of the first of many. They are what every child will know about a thousand years from now, even if they have four arms and are genetically engineered for zero-g, or are sentient blocks of code running on a sphere of computronium enclosing an entire star. You may not live to see that, depending on what we do or don't invent, and when. But it will happen, and you will live to see wonderful things. If the puddlefish don't get in the way. Don't be a puddlefish.

Germany is about to make yet another irreversible energy decision at Hambach that goes far beyond land restoration. It cuts directly into the country’s long term energy security. The Hambach open pit mine in North Rhine Westphalia is one of the largest lignite reserves in Europe. Beneath it sits well over 1 billion tonnes of extractable lignite, part of a broader basin that has powered German industry for decades. At peak operation, Hambach and the surrounding Rhineland mines supplied a significant share of Germany’s baseload electricity, with lignite alone historically contributing 20 to 25% of national power generation. From 2030, the plan is to flood the mine using water diverted from the Rhine, gradually creating an artificial lake reaching depths of 300 to 360 meters. This is not a surface level transformation. It will submerge the entire excavation zone, including remaining coal seams that extend deep into the basin. Once filled, the hydrostatic pressure, water infiltration, and structural destabilization of the mine walls will make any future extraction technically unviable and economically irrational. In practical terms, this means that hundreds of millions to over a billion tonnes of lignite will be permanently locked away. Even if future governments wanted to reverse course, draining a lake of this scale, stabilizing the geology, and rebuilding mining infrastructure would take decades and tens of billions in cost. It is, for all intents and purposes, a one way decision. This is what makes Hambach different. It is not a transition. It is a deliberate removal of optionality. And it comes after a series of compounding policy choices that have already weakened Germany’s energy system. Over the past decade, the country has:- • Shut down the majority of its nuclear power plants, removing stable, zero carbon baseload capacity • Decommissioned modern coal facilities, including plants that were operating at high efficiency • Increased dependence on imported energy while reducing domestic production buffers The consequences of this are no longer theoretical. They have already played out twice in rapid succession. In 2022, the Russia Ukraine conflict exposed Germany’s dependence on external gas supplies, triggering the most severe energy crisis in decades. Now, just a few years later, the ongoing Middle East conflict has pushed fuel prices up by 30% and natural gas prices up by 25 to 30% in a matter of weeks. What these shocks reveal is not just vulnerability, but the absence of fallback capacity. This is where Hambach becomes critical. Instead of preserving a strategic domestic reserve exceeding 1 billion tonnes, Germany is choosing to eliminate it at a time when global energy markets are becoming more volatile and politically constrained. The contrast with other major economies is stark. China and India continue to expand their energy systems by layering renewables on top of existing fossil capacity. Together, they consume over 3 billion tonnes of coal annually, ensuring that their grids remain stable even under extreme demand or supply disruptions. Their approach is additive. Germany’s has been subtractive. A sure shot losing bet. And the economic impact is now visible across multiple dimensions:- • Electricity prices for households are 2× higher than France • Industrial power costs reached €0.14 per kWh, forcing €4.5 billion in subsidies • Germany increasingly imports nuclear power from France and coal generated electricity from Poland • Domestic baseload capacity continues to shrink while demand remains industrially high What Hambach represents is not just an environmental project. It is the final step in removing one of the last large scale domestic energy buffers Germany still possesses. Because once flooded:- • 1 billion tonnes of lignite becomes inaccessible • Recovery would require decades and tens of billions in reinvestment • Germany loses a critical emergency energy reserve permanently • Future policy flexibility is eliminated At the same time:- • Global energy demand continues to rise • Geopolitical risks around supply chains are increasing • Competing economies are expanding, not reducing, their energy base Energy systems are not built for ideal conditions. They are built for stress scenarios. Germany has now faced two major shocks in under five years. In both cases, reduced domestic capacity translated directly into higher prices, subsidies, and economic strain. Hambach removes the ability to respond differently the next time. And that is the core issue. There is no precedent for a major industrial economy maintaining competitiveness with constrained, expensive, and externally dependent energy. Every historical and modern example points in the opposite direction. Flooding Hambach is not just about a lake. It is about permanently giving up a billion tonne energy reserve in an increasingly uncertain world.