Elon Musk is a 39-year-old engineer and serial entrepreneur. At 28, he co-founded popular e-payment company Paypal. He then went on to start SpaceX, the first private company to launch a rocket into space, and Tesla Motors, which builds electric cars.
I recently talked to Musk about inventions he thinks will change the world. You can check out the transcript below and watch part of our Skype conversation, which encapsulates Musk’s particular brand of big, big thinking (in particular, why we should expand human life into space).
Amar Bakshi: What three inventions do you foresee changing the world in the years ahead?
Elon Musk: One of the most important things that I think that will be invented this century, hopefully by SpaceX, is the first (1) fully reusable orbital rocket. It’s the fundamental invention necessary for humanity to expand to the stars and to become multiplanetary. (Check out the video above to see why Musk thinks expanding to the stars is important for humanity.)
The cost of fuel is only about 0.2% or 0.3% of the cost of the rocket. In fact, the cost to refuel one of our Falcon 9 rockets is about as much as the cost to refuel a Boeing 747 plane.
However, a 747 can be used tens of thousands of times. And that’s the reason a ticket to London doesn’t cost a half a billion dollars (a 747 is about a quarter-billion dollars, and you would need two of them for a round-trip flight if you didn’t have reusable planes). Now you’re paying a few thousand dollars for the ticket because you can reuse the craft.
(2) Rapid, low-cost, perfect DNA sequencing will have a huge effect on humanity. Human DNA has not yet been completely decoded. The most that anyone has gotten is about 91% or 92%, and that has been with a huge numbers of errors. Trying to read our DNA is like trying to understand software code - with only 90% of the code riddled with errors. It’s very difficult in that case to understand and predict what that software code is going to do.
That’s where things are right now in DNA decoding. There’s a company called Halcyon that’s trying to solve that problem. I’m an investor, and I’m on the Board of Halcyon, but I think if Halcyon succeeds in doing perfect DNA sequencing, it will have a huge impact on humanity.
I should mention another important thing. With DNA, you have to be able to tell which genes are turned on or off. Current DNA sequencing cannot do that. The next generation of DNA sequencing needs to be able to do this. If somebody invents this, then we can start to very precisely identify cures for diseases. It will be a really huge advancement for humanity.
We’ll be able to design treatments specifically for individual people and be able to tell beforehand if certain treatments would result in negative side effects for certain individuals.
There are a lot of people that think (3) viable fusion is not possible. But fusion is the “energy forever” solution. You know all energy in the universe originates with fusion. We get our energy from the sun, so that’s indirect reliance on fusion.
Do I think it will be solved this century? It may not be possible – or at least, not on a commercially viable scale. It’s a very, very difficult technical problem, one of the most difficult technical problems that humanity will ever try to solve. But if we solve it, we will have “energy forever.”
Bakshi: Where do you think these innovations are going to happen? Around the world? Or mostly on the west coast of the U.S.?
Musk: Primarily the west coast of the U.S. It is remarkable how much is invented in California. It’s kind of ridiculous. It’s not necessarily the people who were born in California. It’s just that people come here because this is an environment that is really conducive to invention despite the high taxes and all the constraints that one faces.
I was born in Africa. I came to California because it’s really where new technologies can be brought to fruition, and I don’t see a viable competitor. It’s not to say that California is perfect – far from it. But it’s the least imperfect of any place in the world that I know of for bringing new inventions to mass market.
Silicon Valley has evolved a critical mass of engineers and venture capitalists and all the support structure – the law firms, the real estate, all that – that are all actually geared toward being accepting of startups.
You go to some other part of the world, and you know you can't get a lease because your company hasn’t been around long enough; the law firm won't give you legal advice, nobody will give you funding, you can't find the technical talent you need. But in California, all this has arisen organically.
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Hope he's right about such innovations happening in the USA. Especially in California; despite it's flaws (which are many) he's accurate about the infrastructure in the State. Not sure those are the three most likely inventions, though.
They weren't meant to be the three most likely inventions. They were meant to be the three inventions that would most change the world.
I read the book & he founded X.com which competed with and was later acquired by PalPal. but why quibble. Elon is amazing.
Two of these things you mention can catch fire and one can be unsequenced by environmental poisons used to control fire therefore the greatest invention is http://www.benigntech.com.au/kilfire.php
Spam, don't bother following the link.
Actually, Elon, you missed CHEAP Energy STORAGE. That is going to be more important than fusion. My belief is that ultra-caps will push us into electric cars faster than tesla has (which did a nice job on getting other car makers on the band wagon).
Efficient storage or transmission is unnecessary if the energy production is cheap enough. If we had a device the size of a toaster that could produce 6.27 gigawatts of energy (Mister Fusion: Back to the Future), we could just have these gadgets everywhere and storage/transmission would be irrelevent.
Super efficient storage would make super efficient energy less necessary; super efficient transmission would also do this... we could have superconductive cables everywhere to move energy without the loss of power from the source.
Super efficient storage bridges the gap until these toasters are available. If we ever figure out fusion you can bet it won't be on a portable scale; at least for quite some time.
You left out mind-machine interface. The connection of human will directly to the tools it employs, without keyboards, levers, hands etc.
A bark translator,...so we can finally start to understand our dogs.
And then maybe that will get us closer to a machine that can help us to understand women...nah, cant be done.
With just two words you can be right 99% of the time: "Yes Ma'am." Try it, you'll see. Just watch out for the trick question when your wife realizes you're not even listening anymore: "Do these pants make my butt look big?"
Your dog is telling you he's hungry.
Now get to work on that rocket.
Amazingly, this has already been done. Check it out... http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SIN_OXINRTc/R_qdwVDbY0I/AAAAAAAAAEw/abtsxFZJ6a8/s1600-h/FarSideDogCartoon.jpg
You are all assuming that machines will continue to tolerate humans.
Space exploration needs to reach out more to the private sector,NASA every year has to fight the US Gov for survival.
What does any of this prattle you people are talking about,have to do with space flight?
Cool, A space orbiter. We can wave at the "nothing" we'll find out there. Or a DNA speed machine, cause sometimes 91% just aint good enough. Can we cut funding to these fkers?
First, read the article. This guy is an entrepreneur. He doesn't get ANY of your money (unless you bought a Tesla, that is.)
Second, are you serious? We'll find "Nothing" outside of earths atmosphere? You obviously can't comprehend how tiny and insignificant a speck the earth is in comparison to the rest of the universe. You could not even begin to imagine the amount of resources available in our own systems 'backyard'.
Third, by your undecipherable comment about it, I don't think you have any conception of what DNA sequencing is. He is investing in technology that will eventually be able to find and even cure genetic disorders in the womb. Imagine completely wiping out Cystic fibrosis or Downs syndrome?
But I am sure YOU know far better than Elon Musk what technologies will most benefit humanity in the future. Why don't you tell us? We're all ears.
Gol dang! Erich555 done invented a Nascar Race Winner Predictor! Humanityness will never ever be the same again! Praise Jeebus!
Elon Musk has something lse in mind. But if you think of the phrase "Reading between the line" you'll certainly know his future intentions. To give you an idea, the world is already overpopulated and why do you think this fellow, a genious, wants to invent a vehicle to explore if not to reach the edge of our solar boundaries? a Domino effect of his inventions. perfect mapping of human genum, DNA sequencing leads to accurate identification of the causes of genetic defects which makes near perfect human being, less deaths, slow aging process, and... bingo "immortality". And since the world is over-populated and running out of food, clean water and peaceful environment with less competition, a new place outside our planet is necessary. Most certainly he wouldn't waste his time convincing everyone to but telsa to make money. Profiteers with do that for him. It will certainly come to his favour when moneyed people buy their way to immortality.
Seabrook, are you serious? The earth is not over populated! Have you driven through north dakota or kansas lately, we have plenty of room!
Seriously, Erich, I hope you're 14 years old – otherwise that comment was like making yourself a big "I'm a big idiot" sign and marching around with it.
erich555 is one of those guys who would think "what has science ever done for me?" while typing his ignorant comments on a magazine-sized computer and transmitting them to the world over the internet. Wait a minute...an internet? Ridiculous idea. Never happen.
What you speak of did not come from science, those are feats of engineering. The first transistor didn't do anything for anyone. It was science! Most likely the three inventions that will most change humanity are the three no one has so much as a clue about today. The three the Bozo in this blog mention are three they're invested in. I was personally less than impressed. "If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" –Albert Einstein
You should read with attention articles like this or if is to hard to you to understand it find a accurate information before you post something with out knowledge,
oh shut up punk
If we can invent a machine that has the capability to actually invent other things, all of our problems would be solved. The only way to do that is to understand only a fraction of part of the brain the size of a chicken mcnugget. Once that's mapped, replicate the process and connect/network many of those chicken mcnuggets together. Then simply sit back and watch them argue over whether or not there is a g-d instead of actually inventing something useful (which in that case shock therapy using a 9 volt battery maybe in order).
Here is an invention that will ACTUALLY "change the world". And what's more important is YOU can be part of this! (I know, some people will consider this a "rant", but we have to speak even if one person never heard of this before). We absolutely depend on nature and animals to survive. Pollution, eating species into extinction and massacre of environment happens on global scale: sacred and very needed by life on Earth trees are being massacred by human predator. Gold mining, illegal tree cutting, illegal ranching in Amazon already destroyed a lot of sacred trees. Animals' habitat is disappearing with exponential (unbounded) rate. Films: "AMAZON with Bruce Perry",
"The End of the Line (2009)". Most vicious predator (human) must learn to stop destroying its own environment. (Aside: the human is most vicious predator because it kills for sports.) While most vicious predator propagates with exponential (unbounded) rate, the nature and animals disappear with exponential
rate at the hand of most vicious predator. Most vicious predator must stop unbounded (exponential) reproduction: it leaves no space for healthy environment
for most vicious predator and leaves no space for animals. CONSUMPTION is not "cool" anymore. Echo-systems sustain the economies. Economies do not sustain the echo-systems.
Bottom-lines and corporations only destroy the nature, environment and animals. In the past, we hoped that our
technology would help us to live better lives, but as of today, our technology (better traps, binoculars, nets, better sonars to track our prey, better guns, etc) only leads us to the SIXTH EXTINCTION
of all life on the planet, at the hand of the human. If you cannot farm it – do not kill it. What's still amazing that you still think that some "invention" will "change" your "world": you refuse to see that your "inventions" only make your own life miserable – they allow you to propagate exponentially! Look at India, China, etc.
If you are religious: "go forth (be fruitful) and multiply" was repealed by Jesus in the new testament just like
many such Old Testament "orders/commandments" were repealed by him in new testament (eye for an eye, etc).
Even Jesus showed to you that the truths (commandments) must be changed with changing times.
So, INVENT yourself: stop multiplying like rats and your "problems" will be "SOLVED" and the "WORLD" will be "changed".
Dear "Inventor", as a Brazilian I would like you to remember that, despite all you've heard, read or seen about the Amazon forest, around 80% of Brazil's share of it is still standing healthy. I guess the same happens in other South America's countries that houses that unique bioasset. On the other hand, around 97% or more of the great native American forests have been destroyed by its own people. On this subject, therefore, I think you have one or two thinks to learn from us.
hey antonio you are 100% right
Yet strangely there are more trees in the United States today than when the Pilgrims got here. Imagine that!
You are mistaken about US forests, just like most in the US are mistake about Brazilian forests. Even in my state of Maryland, the 5th most densely populated state in the US, there are 2.5 million acres of forest (source: US Forest Service).
Dont other countries, esp. the first world countries dont multilpy like rats because they abort them like rats?
I'm all for saving the environment. Improving our technology will help us do that, not hinder us. I love camping and being outdoors but I also like my Mac and my Android phone. With better technology I believe one day we will be able to ween ourselves off of oil from the Middle East. How is that hurting the environment? And what about advancements made in computers? That will ween us off of cutting down trees for paper. And I hunt alongside my Dad and Uncle and if it weren't for hunters, think of the OVERpopulation of animals like deer that eat the "food we farm". You have to consider all sides.
Get a grip inventor. All the materials/chemicals that went into your computer you use proves your a hypocrite. Move to the moon into isolation and stop bothering productive live on Earth.
Best way to save this planet is to get off it!
A new life awaits you in the Off-world colonies! A chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure!
Roy was Off-world and then came back. He wanted more life. Don't we all?
Inventor. I disagree with most of what you say. We have plenty resources to feed people. But just to persuade you to think a bit about what you said in your last comment...."stop multiplying like rats" this totally goes against anything and everything the Creation is all about...like...."Go ye be fruitful and multiply"....I will make your seed as the sand of the Sea", Almighty said to Abraham, this obviously will happen sometime in the future. The greatest joy (normally) in ones life is when a child is born to them. Everything you see, and don't see, around you is made for you and for humanity. While I agree that we humans should take care of our mother earth better....The Master Mind commanded us to reproduce like rats. If your Parents took your advice...lol...I wouldn't have to answer your post now.
you shut up also with the liar book that is mighty weak get a clue there is no god like in your fake book there might be a higher power but it is nothing like in the fake book wrote by crazy old guys who then picked only what they liked to put in it and besides people been around a whole lot longer then the fake book so stop it please get out side or anything but spreading the lies of the fake greedy church who should be paying taxes sigh
Dear inventor, i agree with some of your points about huntings etc, but i am from Guyana in South America, Brazil's neighbor, which is consider a third world country. All the developed countries,viciously destroyed their forests now condemns us for using ours,,,which is done by the way sustain-ably. We as a third world are bringing up the rear so,we are saving your behind.
I think someone else actually started Tesla Motors and needed capital so Musk wrote a check and didn't like the way the Tesla was being run and he forced the inventor out, that is the true California development plan. Find a great idea and buy it. Maybe that was a good thing but Musk was not the mind behind Tesla just the bucks.
Thanks for the comments all. Let me know what innovations you think will change the world (or any inventors/CEOs/etc. you want on the site). I'll try to track them down.
Very interesting interview, thank you. I personally would like to know more about information storage and the research/trends in that field. Every day there are millions of pages added to the www, databases are updated with billions of records, personal computers have more and more local files... How we as humanity dealing with ever increasing information backup and archiving, how we determine what is useful and what not for future, if useful how to easily extract and find archives;
Didn't you watch WATSON on Jeopardy? Linux is going to save the world!
Perhaps someone can invent world peace and human tolerance; perhaps even a method to solve problems without bloodshed. Then the world would be changed.
No chance, Bruce....it is in fact the ABSENCE of competition that is driving humanity to absolute ruin. When 5% of the population must support 95% drones (yes, I am exaggerating, it really is 5% supporting 50%) then the Nation state is doomed to failure. We are inches away from this reality now....and the clock is ticking.
If we want the human race to continue, it is best to execute a plan to continue our perpetuation outside of earth. Many ways have non-zero chance of success, including providing the information for reconstructing or actual instantiation of humans. We will probably never know whether we succeeded.
Fusion I decided 40 years ago was critical to mans continued survival. Let's hope it is not and don't base plans on it since prospects remain so uncertain.
There will be countless inventions that are going to change the world. You can read Kaku for one on some possibilities.
I believe education can be greatly enhanced by games that simulate the real world, such as Immune Attack which is used to teach the immune system. Clearly, education systems need to and will greatly change in all aspects.
It is good that the internet has come into being as the earth appears to be nearing its capacity to carry human beings. Cultures which have provided peoples with necessary frames of reference and guides for daily living for thousands of years may now be more hindrance than help with the unprecedended and rapidly changing circumstances humanity is now facing. We have largely failed to develop international institutions, economies, and understandings which allow us to better address transnational challenges, but we are getting there, slowly. Whether nature will allow us the time no one knows.
that is the end of earthlings and the begining of space creature like area 52
51
Present human population is already a factor of ten above the long term carrying capacity of the planet. See dieoff.org
Keep your eyes peeled for a viable fusion technology based on nickel and hydrogen, operating at temperatures below 500C and a few 10s of atmospheres of pressure. A team of Italian scientists has at least twice demonstrated a 10 KW unit that fits on a desktop and does not produce radioactivity or radioactive byproducts. Work is also in progress in the USA and several other countries.
I've been reading similar things every year for the last 40 years.
The fusion you refer to attempts to reproduce conditions in the interior of a star, and that is really difficult. The fusion, or more accurately low energy nuclear reactions, I menioned earlier takes place in gas/metal environments and occurs as a consequence of collective quantum effects that effectively overcome the Coulomb barrier. There is a very good website http://www.lenr-canr.org that explains this phenomenon.
Yes but did you see the movie? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096874/ Mr. Fusion ftw!
I have heard of this development, and I watched the YouTube demonstration. I remain highly skeptical that the claims are legitimate. Their work appeared out of nowhere, in the form of advertising a product they are selling. Incidentally, if the reaction does not produce a neutron flux, it isn't fusion. If it does produce a neutron flux, it needs to be shielded. So, the whole thing looks like just another scam.
Well.....I enjoyed the article, but believe that "fusion," on this planet is a dream....and is hardly a "perfect energy source." Look, the Sun itself has the thermal output of a manure pile...you yourself, on a per-volume basis, produce MANY times more energy than the Sun (or any star for that matter).
Of course, there ARE a great many cubic inches of Sun, and THAT's why it is so radiative of energy......relatively small thermal fluxes but HUGE volume acting over 15 billion years or so.
The National Ignition Facility, to succeed, must generate thermal fluxes FAR in excess of the Sun's, and approximately as great as the most energetic sources (pulsars) in the Universe.
If we solve the myriads of problems associated with fusion – the world will change, THAT I agree with – but the technical barriers to such a solution are NOT merely duplicating Nature – they are exceeding it by dozens to hundreds of orders of magnitude.
Most fusion takes place in the core of the sun.The deeper into the sun you go, the less it looks like a manure pile and the more it looks like a fusion reactor.
It seems inconceivable to me we will ever be able to duplicate the pressures at the core of the sun that make fusion possible. We will have to find another viable way to create fusion if it is ever to succeed on Earth.
FWIW, we *have* duplicated the pressures and temperatures necessary to produce fusion on Earth. That's why the thermonuclear hydrogen bomb works. What we have difficulty doing is controlling a sample that is under these pressures and temperatures.
We need batteries that can store 10x the charge for the same size – that will really change both personal computing and transportation. Can you imaging a cell phone you only need to charge once a month or a laptop that only needs to be charged once a week, a portable GPS you can take along on a weeks hike? Electric/Hybrid cars will be the rage and maybe finally we will be energy independent.
Expanding to the stars is only important if we continue destroying and overpopulating the planet we're on.
Or a large meteorite strikes us.
...or a major caldera erupts like the one under Yellowstone...
...or we fail to control the human instinct to reproduce (y'know, like we're doing right now)...
...or a nuclear weapon of sufficient size detonates producing nuclear winter...
...or a bio-weapon of the wrong type is accidentally released destroying all but a tiny fraction of the population...
...or worldwide economic collapse occurs and we return to a pre-industrial state, wage wars until we destroy ourselves...
...or we have a massive crop failure due to any number of reasons...
...or we destroy ourselves with some accidental scientific endeavor (like a super-collider going haywire)...
...or nanotech gets out of control (think worldwide machine initiated cancer)...
...or the Singularity happens and the machines decide we're inefficient and unnecessary...
...or nearby hostile aliens decide they like our water...
...or a gamma radiation burst from a dying star happens to be pointed our way...
...or all this God stuff ends up being true and there actually _IS_ a rapture...
...shall I continue???
The problem with you tree huggers is that you're WAY too simplistic in how you analyze problems. A good quality assurance engineer knows better. How does that proverb from Don Quixote go? "Don't put all your eggs in one basket?" Something like that... Earth is one giant basket right now, and we're only now getting to the point where we realize how very dangerous that is...
The gentleman is probably right - but I prefer to think in terms of 25 to 30 years - Things that can affect my children - (I will be LONG gone).
However, few want to think even THAT far out, so I do not think that he will find ANY support at all. Our population no longer has or values IMAGINATION ! ! ! . Too bad ! ! ! . Thank your nearest Conservative for THAT ! ! !
.
yeah the nazi party and the lie's they tell eh sad really
Hmmmm...... PayPal, rockets, and electric cars. Is this guy single?
Nope...http://talulahriley.us/?page_id=2084
The syndication is near...
My votes would be for biological based computers, DNA Sequencing, the promulgation constitutional governmental models based on rule of law, civil rights, democracy, civil control of military power, and functional political transitions from one elected governing faction to the next elected governing faction, and finally a concerted world wide allocation of resources and interest to prevent, intervene, and treat child abuse.
Why do you suppose biological based computers would work better than the ones we have now?
You need to realize that human and animal brains are actually specialized and really good at a narrow range of tasks. There are reasons engineering and science take massive amounts of paper, computer power, spreadsheets and esoteric equations. Our brains cannot manage much of science and engineering without the help of tools better designed to do those things. We have computers easily doing functions no human brain can manage.
Maybe yours can't, or mine either for that matter, but some people could: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
To change the world, first change yourself. Then you may find the world doesn't need as much changing as you think. As far as DNA research is concerned, it may be the answer to many ills. However, we should work on making human beings better before making "better" human beings.
absolutely right.
How profound, Confucius.
It appears people posting comments here have not seen or heard what mother nature has done in Japan. All the advances made by man can and someday will be wiped out by nature. We should learn to live in peace and harmony and enjoy all this while we can
That is one reason to head for space. Therefore the survival of the human species is not dependent on this planet.
Also, thousands of lives were SAVED in Japan due to modern engineering and science. They have spent decades learning about earthquakes and making their buildings safer. Despite what you think, mankind can indeed overcome nature.
What we need right now is a better battery, a break-through in power storage rather than power generation. No machine we make is going to rival the output of the sun. Yet without a means to store more of that energy for a longer period of time and in a smaller space than we can today, we're never going to be able to take advantage of it.
Fuel Cells
He is so far off the mark it is scary. He currently is in the business of making toys for rich people (Tesla), games for rich people (X-Prize), and bioengineering (a ploy for the rich and ultra-elite to mass-extinct the common people. He is simply another capitalist preaching that "everyone can become a billionaire mentality". It will NEVER happen. We need to put money into our environmental infrastructure such as food production, water-purification, etc. Yes, I'm a bee-hugger. Three things that will change the world will be 1) Finally admitting we have overpopulation and how to reduce it without the medical industry's help of killing off people with experimental drugs 2) Preparing for the upcoming water shortage, which will happen if we grow in population at the current rate, 3) Help put the environment back in balance by focusing on the "engine" that has been here all along. He can go live in space. It's pretty cold out there. We were given the Earth to make it better, not destroy it, which is what we are doing.
Ok, Dr. Rainbow, how precisely do you plan to limit my God given right to reproduce? We've fought horrible wars for far less dramatic affronts than someone trying to dictate someone else's reproductive rights.
The answer is to leave this rock and get some elbow room. Humanity is a cosmic virus, and the only realistic solution is to find another host... sorry... wish there was a more fairy book ending, but there isn't, and there won't be.
We'll get you a ticket out of here just as soon as you belly up the two billion dollars it is going to cost to haul your carcass up out of the gravity well. Oh and when you go it is a shame that there is no place to go to. But good luck! Realistically there is no viable future with human space flight, other than maybe for short trips of amusement.
Hi Elon,
If you read this, please take a look at GelCool. It is the opposite of rocket science, the opposite of most of the work you have done so far, because it is a simple idea. But it has the potential to impact so many lives in the areas of hyper and hypo thermia. Your first reaction might be... tiny market, little impact. But the market is in the hundreds of millions as it extends far beyond our initial commercial markets (athletes, hard hat workers, military helmet wearers) into consumer markets: every summer millions and millions of people suffer from the effects of the heat. Check us out – we need someone far more brilliant than ourselves to get involved.
Time for a high tech, non-middle east, non-nuclear, non-global warming, no carbon, non-polluting solution to our energy needs. This Nano Hydrogen gas substitute looks very interesting:
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-01/uk-energy-firm-claims-its-hydrogen-microbead-based-synthetic-gas-can-burn-your-car-zero-emissions
..
Greetings,
I agree with Prof. Hawkins and Mr. Musk that for the long term survival of humanity we need to have more then one planet to live on in case of global wide destruction. I also believe that since the timeline is longer then most of us will live we need to start by changing our ways of supporting ourselves and building our shelters. The main idea is to simply buy the needed time for our children and grandchildren to develop the knowledge and technology to do this while limiting the damage we are doing to the surface of the earth and possibly reversing what we have already done.
Instead of building up, build down, by this I mean burrow into the ground instead of building sky scrapers. The reasons are limitless, geothermal energy, mineral resources, radiation protection, safety from inclement wheather, (other then earth quakes), etc. Granted we will still have a sizable population on the surface, farmers, fishermen, and folks who just don't want to live or work under ground.
What a great way to learn to live on the moon or in other hostile environments we may find in space. The best reason is freeing the surface of earth to heal itself and letting nature regain its normal state without human intervention. Just think of the great vacations we would be able to take visiting the surface.
We have built the channel tunnel between England and France and plans were designed for a tunnel between Europe and America along the northern rim of the Atlantic ocean. They have built the facility at Cheyenne mountain and the seed depository to safe guard genetic biodiversity. There are massive subway systems around the globe in the largest cities so it is possible to do this. Though the cost of construction is high it only has to be done once then it should last for ages.
I am just putting some ideas out there to get people thinking in this direction and to come up with ideas of there own. I also know that I am delving into subjects that are well beyond my pay grade so any and all help will be most welcome. To finish, my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan, Libya, New Zealand, and humanity as a whole as we deal with the trials that come our way.
Regards,
Scott
On Earth we rape and pollute the land for our needs and desires. We have been doing this for centuries. What makes you think that we will be any more responsible elsewhere? It is the nature of the human race to leave a trail of destruction.
...we won't be more responsible elsewhere.... but the universe is a VERY BIG place, and we're a very rapidly reproducing species...
hahaha musk, good one, the reason california is such a place for innovation is the pockets of engineering culture, that have bonded together t ohelp start ups...they are in that mindset...
the problem is that the government of california is completely fucked up..especialyl the high taxes. seriously, f californias government man, san francisco can ksis my ass.
if we had the california mentality with texa's low taxes, and combined that with the strict convergent engineering culture of mit (you have all the spectrums), im pretty much certai nwe would get to the singularity by 2015.
unfortunately, you have a bunch of morons trying like apeshit to cut the nut off industry. f bunch of stupid brats, they don't DESERVE SILICON VALLEY AND ITS TALENT..
california, the california that created silicon valley, died 20 years ago...the only reason california is still california is that there is a huge helping hand from the high tech industrial complex whose infrastructure was constructed 20 years ago.
f san francisco, if it wasn't for silicon valley and the creative culture, that city would turn into a bohemian ghetto. sons of ...
Lark that is bs. Texas is an example of all that is wrong. Have you seen what your low taxes have wrought? You have a 28 BILLION dollar deficit.
#49 in verbal SAT scores in the nation (493) and #46 in average math SAT scores (502), In top 5 teen pregnancies, top 5 lack of healthcare, etc.
Keep up the good work Texazzz..
Texas does not have a $28 billion deficit. It has a $28 billion projected budget shortfall. The Texas State Constitution requires a balanced budget, so the State will not have a deficit. The next round of budgeting is going to be painful, but it won't result in a deficit.
Incidentally, some Texas school districts, particularly those around the Dallas area, rank at the top of the nation.
I have a weird relationship with that f city. I can't leave, because all the tech interests are so concentrated there, including all my bussiness interests, yet its a f whore.
If another california sprung up elsewhere i would leave in a heartbeat...sigh...unfortunately I can't...have to deal with that whore...unfortunately there is nothing around the planet YET...quite like the californai created 20 years ago for tech. Its quite frustrating. whores got me by a leash.
the thing is, whenever these hotspots are created, these f liberals infest it like a plague..
boulder is a new place where teech is becoming hot...
can you boneheads please create a hotspot in austin texas, at sxsw? PLEASE/
that woudl solve most of our problems...but nooooo, you have to create on in boulder co and san fran ca? what are you nuts?
nevermind.
Texas might attract people with common sense and intelligence if it stopped trying to be the mecca for all that is wrong with the rightwing.
Thanks for posting this, it's very ienirnstetg. It's a sad indication of our world today that this has so few views. It's pitiful that a vast majority of our society is choosing to be oblivious to what is going on around them. Stupidity is so much easier than thinking for yourself.Keep up the good work and keep posting great vids. thx
we have to find a palce they couldn[t possibly infest...like uh, i don't know, china..
liberals don;t like china i bet, shanhai, yea, let go to hong kong, lets go over there.
in fact, im going to create a hotspot in a conservativce state or country. Like an anti-latte state, thats sure to keep them away. We can plant the christian right on their ass to scare those fools out of their minds.
thats what sucks, tech people like the liberal atmosphere, but not the liberal taxes...if san francisco could be like texas with taxes, but san fran in everything else except the hobos, it would be like, uh, paradise.
like libertarian, yea, libertarian
ayn rand (perfect tech mindset, producer) + liberal atmosphere + volunteering culture by TOP COMPANIES, NOT THE SMALL ONES + low taxes = f paradise
man, why hasn't someone thought of this brilliant idea before?
damn.
Ayn Rand was a delusional crackpot as are the rest of you liebertarians.. LIEbertarianism is nice to talk about but unworkable in the real world.
...don't think she was delusional at all. Objectivism is more coherent than collectivism in all its forms (which basically exudes emotion-based decision making at every decision point, which in turn leads to complete illogic everywhere). There are definitely flaws in Objectivism... however, if somebody's got a more coherent philosophy I'm all ears–I haven't heard one...
Frankly I'm not sure how you could argue with "I swear—by my life and my love of it—that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." (Atlas Shrugged)
Two words: Fuel Cells.
Fuel cells are cleaner and more efficient, but they still require a hydrocarbon fuel source such as natural gas to supply the hydrogen. Fuel cells are not a long term solution the way fusion would be, they are a band-aid.
this is an idea;
why don't we have silicon valley take a greater stake in san francisco governance?
thats the f solution right there.
steve jobs is way smarter than newsom. f clown.
if by smarter you meant he knows how to steal a kidney from another person so he lives and they die then yes you are right steve jobs you're i idol
me i am sitting back watching it fail and see how karma can be heck :p
if they simply taxed the larger companies, left the start ups alone, and only taxed them when they made it, that would be fine. But no, they go apeshit man. its insane.
My vote for a needed invention goes to a simple, safe, effective, male contraceptive. We must slow the population growth or we won't enjoy the other inventions described.
California is a location that keeps the mind going due to the exposure of different cultures and climates
My vote for a needed invention would go to a cheap low energy way to purify seawater and dirty water.
We need to be able to store electricity cheaply. If we could store electricity wind and solar power start to make a lot more sense. We could nuclear more efficiently. If that stored electricity was in a small enough space we could use it to truly power our cars.
I found out that Elon Musk is African-American!
Butt seriously, I think robots should replace humans in the workplace. We need to advance artificial intelligence to the point where humans will not be needed to do any more thinking.
see i robot for how well that will shake out heh
Actually all of mankind's plans and hopes for the future could be coming to a quick end.
I feel the human experience was a journey of self-identity and spiritual reality and now that
God has let us seen ourselves as a species and creation to the point of mass extinction,
it's just possible his plan and desires for us all along are about to become humanity's reality. In other words he let us develop as a species to get us to the point we are now, and it's his desires and goals for us that are soon going to have the final word, air you breathe with and the planet we all walk on was never our own.
It's also possible that this cycle has played out for eons. Whatever species comes to dominance on Earth develops to the point where it can wipe itself out, then proceeds to do so. Who knows what species will follow man once we destroy ourselves over petty differences.
shut up sheesh where do you freaks come from i mean really WOW
Unfortunately California has turned to drugs! The colleges are turning out poorly educated kids in math and science. There are no ethics and no common sense in California. Innovation will come from elsewhere where conservative ideas are applied to common sense, real science, and real risk analysis. California is bankrupt for a reason!
yeah because they had a republican in charge moron go look up facts dems run the nation better republicans are only better at being liars and stealing jobs money homes lifes and so on you son are a retard no offense to the mentally handy capped :p
Those may make a small change in the world, but my goal is to really bring peace to it.
http://www.harmonylrv.webs.com
Nothing would bring more peace to the world than a cheap, clean and abundant energy source (ie. viable fusion).
We already have a fusion reactor. It's called the sun. Why don't we just do our best to use the clean limitless resources we already have available?
Mr. Elon Musk is right about innovation in California, but the infrastructure has much to be desired such as in Riverside, California 6,000 job losses and the state firing 1,500 teachers due to budget cuts, the sheer arrogance of the "cash up front" and exuberance rediculous high price real estate( in Texas real estate is much cheaper and realistic), California can lead the nation in this. That is a bad "mental block" in tthe state. of Califronia.
I was thinking like a New rubber ducky that lights up and quacks? or maybe an automatic golf tee setter ( like spring loaded pole with golf tees in it ...just push into the ground?)......? sorry.
Engineers disagree often.
My most needed inventions are (1) more efficient solar electric cells, 15% is ridiculous, expensive, and uneconomical, c'mon chemE's invent!, and (2) in my opinion fusion is still too far away, so in the meantime make our fission products inert or recyclable. again, c'mon chemE's invent. Some of my best friends are chemE's. I'm a mech engr, so we'll make it work after you chemE's produce...
the allied forces is only after the oil of libya.. period!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, the DNA resetting which was presented to the International Congress of Medicine is now happening .......moving forward in the next ten years with leading genetic scientists Lifegen tech who was on 60 minutes ....we already have products available to the general public and Wall Street is responding very enthusiastically. DNA heat map studies and regulating the clusters back to vital status. It is a new day for sure as technology on many levels are removing forward
How about a car or house that can become a functioning and piloted submarine/boat? If the movies have come up with such fabulous fictional ideas-James bond- anyone? Someone should've been all over that buy now! Maybe the Japanese will design it now out of necessity.Very sad but true.
(1) fully reusable orbital rocket – The cost of the rocket is still only a small part of the cost of the launch. We were promised that the space shuttles would drop the cost of orbital launches, but that didn't really happen, due to the enormous amount of manpower required to prep, monitor, control and refurbish the shuttles each launch. If we needed an army of people dedicated to each 747 flight, the fact that the 747 is reusable would be moot. The way to drop the cost is mostly through increasing the number of flights per year (something the space shuttles never came close to achieving as they were supposed to have done), and also through decreasing the amount of manpower required for each flight. Reusability is one means to that end, but is not the only or the best or sufficient means to that end.
Mr. Musk's other choices are strong contenders for the title. Another strong choice would be new water purification, sanitation and delivery technology. New database technologies are also going to change our world in radical ways. If we were to find a way to empower the billions of people who currently live with little influence beyond their own small towns, we would also see a seismic shift in world affairs. We still haven't even scratched the surface of what nanotechnology or bioengineering could do.
Autonomous automobiles should get an honorable mention, as it would significantly improve public safety and fuel efficiency, though I don't expect it to be as big an invention as others mentioned. An autonomous lunar excavator and processor would also be Earth-changing.
1. Rapid fire, high velocity, kinetic energy guns. Weapon systems with integrated tracking systems that can target ballistic missiles and aircraft at long ranges, even disable orbital vehicles. They would render current nuclear stockpiles, air forces, and navies obsolete. It will be revolutionary to warfare as artillery, the machine gun, and flight were... but in one package.
2. An organism or chemical process that produces graphene. Carbon nanotubes, the strongest substance that will ever be discovered... ever. Travel in time a million years, it will still be the strongest substance. But can it ever be grown like a tree?
3. AI... but it will probably kill us or take what it needs to get far away from us, then crash an asteroid into the planet.
Brought to you by science: Chernobyl, Three Mile island, Daiichi and then there's global warming.
Or is it KALI?
As Aldous Huxley so wisely said in his beautiful introduction to the Bhagavad Gita, "There will never be enduring peace unless & until human beings come to accept a philosophy of life more adequate to the cosmic & psychological facts than the insane idolatries of nationalism and the advertising man's (Elon Musk et al) apocalyptic fairh in Progress towards a mechanized New jerusalem."
Neat... while you're busy living in your grass hut dreaming of a mud covered Utopia, those of us still working on our "mechanized New Jerusalem" will eventually reach out into space and become cosmic travelers, thereby assuring the survival of our species. No hard feelings... we just need some elbow room... we simply have different perspectives on what humanity ought to become... It's wrong for either one of us to impose our ideals on the other...
Trouble is a grass thatched mud hut is doable, economical space flight isn't!
Has this guy forgotten about singularity? The computers of the future will invent things that we can't even imagine. And that future is not that far away – - Moore's Law.
'one' of the worlds next inventions to be made available to the consumer...YES eagerly awaiting it's arrival to FREE US from fuel prices and congested smog filled highways...the driverless car, directed by GPS? Yes, it should be developed in CA of all places...does rush hour ever really end any more?
will it bring to pass yet another prophesy from 1933....? http://www.believethesign.com/countdown.htm
nice predictions from a wealthy individual. none of his predictions are in the line of solving poverty, hunger and homelessness. pity. maybe limitless amounts of viable energy will solve them.
Don't forget the universities. The research and education infrastructure is critical to the emergence of regions like Silicon Valley as innovation hubs. Stanford was particularly important to the emergence of Silicon Valley. Then there are the other great West Coast research and technology universities, CalTech, USC Berkeley etc. These are critical.
The same is true in Massachusetts (the east cost equivalent of Silicon Valley) which has MIT etc.
Lets start with the things we need like an electric can opener that has a magnet strong enough to take the lid off.Or how about a cash register that can tell if the person waiting in line is buying stuff on credit and is over his head in debt,and the register would just stay closed.
the perfect invention would be a voting machine that throws your vote back in your face when it senses that the voter is either drunk,loves professional wrestling,or both.
In a steel cage match you against the drunk wrestling fan my money is going on the other guy!
I hope the "west coast" has a backup plan for when the San Andreas fault finally gives out.
Listening to the Skype segment, he goes into how planetary travel can be considered on the evolutionary scale, but he also mentions that "it can't be done prior to the advent of conciousness". I wonder if he elaborated on this. I can draw my own conclusions... but I would like to hear his. To me he is refering to a NEW level of consiousness. A higher level, a level that would include a conciousness of the universe. We see ourselves as part of our world, but we rarely see ourselves as part of the universe. It is too big to grasp. We reach for this when we look at the moon, the stars, a meteor shower... but we can't maintain that "conciousness". We will, and then we will reach the stars.
So we are supposed to listen to a 'visionary' like Eton Musk...that is a riot.....a guy who's invention and claim to fame was a new way to take money from you.... Right.....
Musk is not the founder of Tesla. How pathetic the author of this article must be to write that incorrect statement
Methinks some people have been reading too many science fiction novels.... a strange set of "world-changing" inventions for those of us still living on earth....
I hope you all realize that there is no new technology in a tesla vehicle...they just look nice.
But yes, they do look nice.
as interesting as the inventions are and perhaps will be it saddens me to see all these funds set up for science and all these other nick nack projects. While we grow further into debt and while we sit back and watch families loose their homes and dinner on the table.
I too have been working on a project to send my dog into space. If anyone is near completion or has ideas please call or text me on 07941 981 554. I'd love to hear your thoughts, ideas and/or successes.
My latest exploration project involves my beloved pat and a renovated car from the 1980's.
Ta aa – John
Hi John, i've just called you but line was terrible.....could just hear barking and a lots of drilling & whining..hope you're okay. Call me back. Greg.
I CaLLed too. Just lots of barking an snarling. Think Jon's project might be over quicker than he thought !
Maybe I could help him on energy field ... tomaz_a@yahoo.com
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