Yeah that was pretty jarring. Even Bezos's responses were weirdly hollow. It's sad to see that Bezos's own talking-points-filled spiel after going to space (others have compared his statements before and after to show he kinda already had an angle planned for how he'd "react" to the overview effect) really reflects how pragmatic and matter-of-fact he feels about space. He couldn't even manage to sympathize with one of his childhood heroes speaking so poetically about how the trip affected him, despite being a man who dedicated most of his life to achieving the spacefaring future he saw on TV. Giving him a bit more credit, there could be some benign reason like maybe he's antsy/jealous about wanting to go to space again, or was nervous or relieved the flight didn't go wrong or something. I'm not even trying to make an "OMG Bezos is so evil" post or anything, it's just really sad to see him seem so uninspired, like he's become disillusioned after all the success he's had.
I agree one shouldn't be too hard on Bezos in contrast to Shatner. Shatner is an actor, an artist, clearly in touch with his emotions and open to the experience in ways that an engineer/industrialist is not. If anything, I think Bezos should get extra credit for having the good sense to invite Shatner up there.
It's like what Jodie Foster said in Contact - "they should have sent a poet." And now, they did.
While Bezos certainly has a different mindset as an engineer/industrialist, space is obviously a pretty big deal to him.
Reading more about his background (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/11/what-je... is a really great read IMO) and contrasting that with how he acts around Shatner in the video really shows how uninspired his portrayal today seems by comparison.
