I took a look at the Wikipedia page for this submarine, and wow. It made 4 of the 7 manned visits to Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth. It visited the deepest point in all 5 oceans. It's not just any submarine, this is the submarine.
A billionaire fucked around showing off and found out. One less billionaire bent on acquisition and greed at humanity's expense. So sad...
How many homeless could we house/treat/feed for the cost of rescuing this billionaire and his cadre who didn't risk their lives for scientific data or anything noble, but for wasteful luxury tourism? Why take interest when one of the world's oppressors takes his own life while ignoring the innumerable victims of the world's oligarch class who didn't capitalism well enough and got thrown away like garbage?
The international community when a boat packed with refugees sinks: This is so sad, but our hands are tied. If only they had thought about this before being born in a poor nation.
The international community when three rich people go missing on vacation: DEPLOY EARTH'S ENTIRE NAVY TO RESCUE THESE INTREPID HEROES
EDIT: To be clear, I think we should try our best to rescue everyone who is in a shipwreck, including the people in this submarine.
A bit of trivia for folks, GabeN's sub is named after a ship called the Limiting Factor from Iain M. Bank's absolutely wonderful book, The Player of Games. All of the subs that Triton Submersibles make are named after ships in the Culture series of books. I'd highly recommend checking them out, although don't start with Consider Phlebas, I consider The Player of Games to be a better entry point into the series.
Off topic, but I figured I'd share anyways.
EDIT: the SpaceX landing barges are also named after Culture ships.
I love the Culture series, Iain Banks was a great author and taken from us too soon. His vision of the future is one that feels utopian and achievable. To me it feels like what could happen in a post-scarcity society. And his stories are just fantastic.
Some folks say something like that, others say to save book 1 for later. It's not 1 long arc, each book is an independent story with new characters in the same universe.
@tangelo I thought this had to be a joke, but wow. I wonder if they are anywhere near where they could respond and help (though they might need at least a general it should be around here first given the constraints on going further around or going further down).