I’m often asked, ‘Are there aliens among us?’ And I’ll say that I am one. They don’t believe me,” Musk said, unclear if he was joking or what particular point he was trying to make by asserting his alienness.
“The bottom line is, I think we need to assume that life and consciousness is extremely rare and it might only be us,” Musk added. “And if that’s the case, then we need to do everything possible to ensure that the light of consciousness is not extinguished.”
“With robotics and AI, this is really the path to abundance for all,” Musk said. “People often talk about solving global poverty, or essentially, how do we make everyone have a very high standard of living? I think the only way to do this is AI and robotics.”
The billionaire describes a world with billions of robots—which would outnumber humans—and would serve to complete tasks including caring for children and elderly parents. He predicted that there would be functional humanoid robot technology by the end of the year, and said he expected those robots to be retail available in the next couple of years.
“I’ve been asked a few times like, ‘Do I want to die on Mars?’” Musk said on Thursday. “And I’m like, ‘Yes, but just not on impact.’”
“The scariest answer to the Fermi Paradox is that there are no aliens at all,” he said.
Roots in vestiges of Cold War anxieties (the same time period in which the Fermi Paradox emerged), tech leaders often saw a false binary of either limitless prosperity or complete societal collapse, Charbonneau argued. As a result, many in the field, including Musk, are willing to go to extreme measures in the name of avoiding what they perceive as humanity’s demise.
“Proponents of this survivalist mindset see it as justifying particular programs of technological escalation at any cost, framing the future as a desperate race against catastrophe rather than a space for multiple thriving possibilities,” Charbonneau wrote.
Charbonneau argued Musk’s philosophy eliminates opportunities for nuance, making institutions—and humanity—vulnerable to often extreme responses to delicate situations.
“By framing humanity’s challenges as simple engineering problems rather than complex systemic ones, technologists position themselves as decisive architects of our future, crafting grand visions that sidestep the messier, necessary work of social, political and collaborative change,” she said.
