True, but its not far off. I ran the math on minimum wage, the machine costs $2000 a month for maintance, whereas full time at minimum wage is 1200 a month. If the employee makes more than $12/h the machine would cost less for maintance. That is ignoring the upfront cost of $20,000-$30,000, but the nature of fast food with its low employee retention and high burnout rate means the upfront costs would likely be worthwhile for companies like mcdonalds. Not having to go through the hiring process would save a fair bit of money id imagine, though i have no clue how much.

Its also worth noting that these machines are way more expensive than they need to be, because they are kept artificially high because the payoff for buying one is so large. Companies REALLY want automation, and theyre willing to pay top dollar to get it because it means they dont need slaves anymore. Same with the maintance, there is about a zero percent chance it legitimately costs the maintance company anywhere in the astronomical ballpark of $2000 a month to maintain the machines.

Cool, in a not super cool way. Nvidia is kinda scummy but the work they do is valuable. I appreciate you dropping the facts on me, but im not sure how to feel about them.

The first issue is definitely solvable, thats just a material science issue. The second one is also definitely possible, but depending on the payload it might be very difficult. Seems easier to just accelerate a tungsten sphere to mach 4 than to bother with a warhead.

For the intense heat, thats a waste product. Get rid of it by not producing it in the first place. Which means your rails are now cryocooled superconductors.

For the immense forces, i might need to look into railguns again. Afaik the only force that isnt being counteracted is the force on the projectile. I might be wrong at those power levels, while the net force should be zero the force on the arms could be opposite, ripping the railgun apart or crushing it. The solution i would think is coiling your rails around the barrel, now the rails effectively act as their own support with a minor bracing.

For the record, i didnt put it together that he was referring specifically to the large models. I just knew i made a rail gun back in high school and its wasnt difficult, so the idea that the US govt cant copy my project struck me as absurd.

Finally, im a hobby electrician with my passions lying more in technology and futurism, so i have looked into railguns in passing but I do not work for the military nor have i looked into the specifics of the large scale models, so corrections are more than welcome.

Yeah, but dont they also have the largest promisory debt? Havent they loaned the most most money that they dont actually have?

Uh, what? Railguns are a tech as old as time, i highly doubt the US was the first to create one. I could throw a railgun together in about 30 minutes with the stuff i have laying around the house. They are INCREDIBLY simple, literally 1 moving part and no circutry whatsoever. Just hook your positive to one rail, negative to the other. Right hand rule tells you which direction your projectile will fire.

Itll be nvidia and openai primarily, id have to imagine