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Elon Musk said that he won "verbal" approval from the United States government for boring the world’s longest tunnel for an ultra-high-speed train line between Washington and New York City, reports Bloomberg.
For the maverick innovator, this materializes one of the many brainwaves he has often spoken about in the past. Last Thursday, he said that building a base on the moon could spur people to think more about space travel.
Some call his views outlandish, some unrealistic. But no doubt he has staked a claim to being a visionary of our times.Here is a list of his core beliefs:
He believes that humans must colonise Mars: Tesla has repeatedly pointed out that humanity’s survival in future rests on it inhabiting other planets. A multi-planetary existence is the only way that humans can remain “extinction-proof”. In reply to the need to go to such lengths to save humanity, he said, "I think we have a duty to maintain the light of consciousness, to make sure it continues into the future."
In a talk with Stephen Colbert, when asked about how to make sure Mars can have a habitable climate, Musk says that the quickest way to go about it is to detonate thermo-nuclear missiles at its poles.
Musk believes we’re living in a simulation: This is Musk's answer to the Fermi Paradox. It is a paradox which explains how we haven't made contact with life despite there being galaxies playing host to numerous planets which reportedly support life.
He has even spoken of superior extraterrestrial beings having conjured a virtual world which we, humans, are mistaking for the real one. This, Musk believes, could be one of the reasons why humans have been unsuccessful at discovering alien life forms - we are in a simulated world created by a far more technologically advanced civilisation.
He’s wary of artificial intelligence: Musk believes that robots and other machines running on aritificial intelligence (AI) will soon outmatch our abilities to learn and grow, putting us at their mercy anytime in the near future.
A Vanity Fair article stated that Musk believes that his close friends, who include Google co-founder Larry Page, could have good intentions in tinkering with A.I. However, this might still “produce something evil by accident”—including, possibly, “a fleet of artificial intelligence-enhanced robots capable of destroying mankind.”
He has even gone to the extent of warning US government officials about the need for putting up regulations on artificial intelligence before it gets out of our hands.
He’s all for the universal basic income: According to Musk and big names such as Mark Zuckerberg, Universal Basic Income (UBI) is the future of our society. CNBC news reports Musk saying that UBI is the solution for when robots take over jobs and humans are left with no other alternatives. In a very romantic sense, people see the UBI as the solution for people to have more time for self-improvement. According to a Quartz article, however, people are wary of the idea for many reasons.
He is not in it for the money : The Verge has noted Musk saying that he has driven his other ventures' capital toward one ultimate goal: to colonise other planets. Aeon notes that Musk’s ventures are all geared towards fundamental human concerns and Musk feels that this is the one meta-step that humanity has to take to ensure its continued survival in the centuries to come.
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