When he's not building electric cars or helping to create the idea for a high-speed transit system, Elon Musk really wants citizens of Earth to go to Mars.
During a wide-ranging interview at The Code Conference, the CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX discussed everything from life to Mars to the possibility that life is just an elaborate computer simulation.
This wouldn't be the first time Musk has shared some wildly ambitious ideas and thoughts. Among some of his other choice comments: his interest in building roller coasters inside SpaceX and Tesla factories for workers, and his dismissal of any connections between ancient Egyptians and aliens.
Let's break down the three most interesting things Musk shared during his Code talk:
1. Humans will arrive on Mars by 2025
Musk predicts the first humans will travel to Mars eight years from now, arriving on the red planet by 2025.
Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, with a goal of "enabling people to live on other planets," according to a description on the space tech company's website. In April, SpaceX announced the first unmanned mission to Mars would launch in two yearsusing the company's Falcon Heavy rocket.
Musk has even given thought to how laws would work on Mars once it's colonized. "Most likely the form of government on Mars would be direct democracy, not representative," said Musk, as reported by Vox. "So it would be people voting directly on issues. And I think that's probably better because the potential for corruption is substantially diminished in a direct versus a representative democracy."
Musk says he hopes to eventually die on Mars. "If you had to choose a place to die, Mars is probably not a bad choice."
Not every tech entrepreneur is as excited about life on Mars. During a talk in Washington D.C. last month, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos -- who also founded the aerospace company Blue Origin -- says he's just fine staying on Earth.
"No bacon no whiskey," jokes Bezos. "People haven’t really thought this through."
2. Is life a video game played by a more advanced civilization?
Apparently this is something Musk thinks about often. "I've had so many simulation discussions, it's crazy," he says. "My brother and I finally agreed we would ban such conversations if we were ever in a hot tub."
When asked if he's considered the philosophical debate on whether advancements in video games were so great our existence actually takes place within a simulation created by a future civilization, Musk was quick to answer. "A lot. Even in hot tubs, so much so I had to be banned from a hot tub. It's not the sexiest conversation in the world."
Musk references the evolution of video games from Pong more than 40 years ago to nearly lifelike graphics and the rise of virtual reality. "If you assume any rate of improvement at all, then games will become indistinguishable from reality," he says.
So does he really think we're all just Sims? "There's a one in billions chance we're in base reality."
3. AI could turn us into house cats. But he has a solution.
Artificial intelligence like what we see with Amazon's Alexa or Google assistant sound useful, but what happens when they get smarter than humans? Musk says advancements in AI could progress to the point where humans would be nothing more than a house pet. "I don't love the idea of being a house cat," he says.
His solution: Neural lace. It's a mesh that fits on your brain to gives it digital computing capabilities. It also can be injected by syringe, which means a person wouldn't need surgery to implant a neural lace. According to Gizmodo, a prototype was revealed last year.
And Musk thinks this will be key to avoiding a future as domesticated "cats." He sees neural lace as an "AI layer" working symbiotically with your brain that would allow humans to stay on pace with AI. "It will be some sort of direct cortical interface."
Contributing: Jefferson Graham
source : http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/06/02/3-most-interesting-things-elon-musk-said-code-conference/85285470/
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