Listening to Elon Musk can be depressing at times. In his mind, human civilization is a tiny flickering candle surrounded by a vast expanse of darkness that hasn’t even built a colony on Mars yet. He constantly ruminates about plummeting birth rates—he’s even warned that the odds of World War III erupting between East and West are increasing. Now, we might know why.
In a discussion with Michael Milken on Monday, the SpaceX founder and Tesla chief executive spoke extensively about humanity’s unique existence in a universe 13.8 billion years old that otherwise lacks any evidence of life on other worlds.
When asked what kept him up at night, Musk feared all would be lost should a cataclysm occur before mankind could spread to the neighboring star systems.
“I listen to podcasts about the fall of civilizations to go to sleep, that might be part of the problem here,” reflected the self-described history buff, right after urging everyone in the audience to go forth and procreate at least three times.
‘At some point we want to make science fiction not fiction forever’
When you’re one of the world’s three wealthiest men—someone who has completely redefined the auto industry, built the largest commercial space business from scratch, and now owns one of the world’s most influential social media companies, few will fault you for thinking about humanity’s future.
Indeed, Milken’s interview strategy wasn’t to ask whether it was legitimate to lay off potentially tens of thousands of Tesla staff to save costs only to ask shareholders then to restore his voided $55 billion pay package—more than the company ever generated for them in profits.
Rather, the former white-collar criminal turned philanthropist pardoned by Trump just let Elon talk about Elon so everyone present could bear witness.
With the entrepreneur in his element, the talk revolved around all his favorite topics, like the importance of meritocracy and how stifling and repressive California’s government bureaucracy had become (the free speech advocate recently posted how “honored” he was to meet China’s second-highest-ranking official on a platform banned in the country).
However, beneath that, Musk said he was concerned that people didn’t have enough of a reason to get up in the morning.
While for many that might be religion, his is dying on Mars one day—and not on impact, as he jokes.
“Becoming a space-faring…
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