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Nimish sawantDecember 03, 2020 1:23:33 PM
“I feel pretty safe, about six years from now,” responded SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk when asked to give a realistic timeline of when humans might travel to Mars. “If we are lucky, maybe four years. We want to try and send an unmanned rover to Mars in two years. ”Musk reiterated that he wanted to develop technologies that would make it possible for humans to make life multi-planetary.
Musk was in Berlin, Germany, to receive the Axel Springer award on December 1. Named after one of Germany’s largest media companies, the Axel Springer Award is in its fifth year. Previous award winners include American scientist and ‘Surveillance Capitalism’ author Shoshana Zuboff (2019), Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (2018), World Wide Web founder Tim Berners-Lee (2017), and founder by Facebook Mark Zuckerberg (2016). Looking at the relatively short list of winners, it almost seems that the award recognizes not only Big Tech icons, but also those who are critical of the policies adopted by these same Big Tech companies.
Elon Musk receives the Axel Springer Award in Berlin, Germany. Image Credit: tech2 / NImish Sawant
As part of the awards ceremony, Musk was in conversation with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Doepfner and spoke at length about his ambitions to bring humans to Mars.
“I am optimistic about the future of Earth, but it is important to have life insurance for humanity,” Musk said, calling his Mars ambition not a Plan B for humanity, but simply exciting and inspiring for the society. Musk’s SpaceX has proven its excellence when it comes to its space ambitions. After sent two astronauts to the International Space Station, earlier this year, NASA has certified Falcon 9 and SpaceX Crew Dragon manned space flight system for crew missions to and from the ISS.
Musk seemed to be in the mood to give deadlines to some of his projects. Travel to Mars – in six years; Fully autonomous cars: in ten years; Electric vehicles: 70-80 percent of all cars would be electrified in ten years, and so on.
I am not interested in a hostile takeover
Tesla’s market capitalization (over $ 500 billion) is far greater than that of German automakers like Volkswagen, BMW, Audi, and others, despite selling a fraction of the number of cars that incumbents sell. . When asked if he would consider buying a German automaker, Musk did not answer with a resounding “no.” While he stressed the fact that they would not want to indulge in any hostile takeovers from any automaker, Tesla would be open to discussion if any of the automakers approached them with the right proposal.
Talking about car brand acquisitions aside, Musk definitely wants a bigger share of the European market. Since announcing the opening of Gigafactory 4 near Berlin, it has received rock star-level receptions in the country not only from Tesla fans, but also from state authorities. Gigafactory 4, also called Giga Berlin, is expected to go live in July 2021, manufacturing batteries, battery packs and powertrains, as well as assembling the Tesla Model Y. In a land that boasts of big car names like BMW , Volkswagen, Audi, Mercedes and more, Musk claims that Giga Berlin will have a capacity of 500,000 cars by the end of 2022.
But Giga Berlin, despite its fast pace of construction, has its fair share of opponents. The land on which the factory is being built has yet to receive environmental clearances and more than 400 objections have been filed with the state environmental agency.
Elo Musk in conversation with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner in Berlin, Germany. Image Credit: tech2 / Nimish Sawant
Micro RNA and Neuralink factories
On his last visit to the Gigafactory under construction in October, Musk even standing at CureVac, the southern German-based biopharmaceutical company that is working on a COVID-19 vaccine. This is the same company as former US President Donald Trump I wanted to buy to be able to manufacture vaccines exclusively for the United States.
A Tesla subsidiary is in the process of manufacturing RNA micro-factories, also known as portable molecular RNA printers, for Curevac, to aid in the production of vaccines. According to Musk, synthetic RNA and DNA can turn the quest to cure disease into a “software problem.” Musk even went so far as to say that synthetic RNA and DNA might even help slow aging down the road.
In September, Musk demonstrated what he called “A Fitbit for your skull” – basically an experimental prototype of a neural implant in the brain of three pigs to control their brain activity. This was the first demo from a company that Musk co-founded in 2016, Neuralink.
Speaking about Neuralink’s short-term goals, Musk said: “In the short to medium term, Neuralink will only help heal brain and spinal injuries. In fact, our first implanted products would be for quadriplegics, allowing them to control a computer or a phone just by using their mind. ”Musk did not provide a timeline for this innovation.
Digital superintelligence is more dangerous than a nuclear bomb
Musk also raised concerns about general artificial intelligence, calling for government oversight on artificial intelligence developments to ensure human safety is taken care of. “Digital superintelligence has the potential to be more dangerous than a nuclear bomb.”
One noted a sense of caution when Musk was asked about artificial intelligence and how China views it. Musk pointed out that it was not fair to claim that China would set aside caution, saying that from the conversations he had with Chinese authorities, they also seemed concerned about AI. “I think they are more likely to have stronger oversight than other countries,” Musk said. Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 is located in Shanghai, China.
When asked about the biggest problems facing the world, Musk mentioned AGI and the ‘population collapse’. According to Musk, lower birth rates would lead to a situation where average ages are higher and “the young are de facto enslaved, caring for the elderly population.”
Speaking about how he would evaluate the success of Tesla and SpaceX, Musk said: “If you look back from the future and say what is the fundamental good of Tesla, I would say that you should probably evaluate us by understanding how many years Tesla accelerated the advent of sustainable energy. For SpaceX, it would be, to what extent do we improve the likelihood that humanity is a space civilization. “
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