Part of the reason we are rather screwed with all this is that simple lies spread better than complex truths.
Reposted from
Don Moynihan
One of Musk's defining qualities is that he is a conspiracy theorist when it comes to government. He will see some ambiguous information or be presented with an easily debunked tale and he immediately believes the worst.
Comments
SSN as a field in a DB for example can show any number of duplications, but a SSN can only be assigned to one human being at a time. Like a primary key.
What may have happened is one >
Which is something you'd expect from this crew, frankly.
Musk not understanding what he was told or seeing/understanding their error is also consistent.
Think of someone suddenly claiming with great alarm that all US cars could explode at any time because there is no sensor in the gas tank to keep someone from filling it with flammable jet fuel.
You might hear >
"yes, while this is true, there are no gas stations out there with flammable jet fuel right next to 87 octane."
It's a 'fix' that's fixed elsewhere, many multiple places in the supply chain. It doesn't need to be fixed in your car's engine tank.
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DOGE: If you can see the SSN field in a table in a database that supposedly contains all US SSNS, then answer this - it's basic, basic data processing my 17 yr old could do:
> Name every living American who has a duplicate SSN right now. <
Certain tech bros who might think Musk is a genius or at least 'pretty smart' will see this, and be very confused momentarily why someone so genius would say something they know is dumb
“The social security administration has numerous checks to ensure that one individual has one social security number. None of Musk’s staffers are trained database analysts. They’re trying to understand something huge & complicated without necessary training or skills.”
2/
Segue immediately to the importance & privacy of the data, & that a court has ordered them to destroy their copy. Express horror that they may have have changed code in a live environment which ANY coder knows not to do from Day One.
2/2