Elon Musk is known for the high sales of Tesla, his overtake of Twitter, and his cuts in the American government. But behind his seemingly unpredictable behaviour is a Messianic mission. And his universe has only one god.> Stay up to date with Christian news in Europe? Sign up for CNE's newsletter.Why would you want to create a civilisation on Mars? What is the use of building a supercomputer with Artificial Intelligence? Or why would you push for a higher birthrate in a world where children are oftentimes seen as a burden? For Elon Musk, this is more than impulsiveness. Instead, his ideas belong to an almost divine mission he wants to undertake. Humanity plays a crucial role in this plan and must be preserved at all costs. At the same time, it needs to be better, greater and smarter than ever before to take on the quest. Ultimately, Musk aims for omniscience. Can Elon Musk make the human spirit immortal with a robot? Let's have a look at some strategies Musk employs to achieve his goal. **Birthrate** The falling birthrates in Western countries are a thorn in Musk's side. If people do not quickly start getting more babies, civilisation is headed for a collapse, he fears. On X he wrote: “Population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming”. >”If we increase the scope and scale of civilization, then we have a much better chance of understanding the meaning of life and why we're here or even what are the right questions to ask.” In an interview in 2014, Musk expressed the fear that civilisation will die, if people do not “revive the idea of having children as a kind of social duty”. The tech entrepreneur himself is a living example of someone who takes this duty very seriously. By now, he has fathered 14 children by four different women.
For Musk, it is not sufficient that the birthrates in Africa are high. Instead, he is part of the pronatalism movement, which encourages especially white people in Western countries to have more children. And ideally, these are also the people with high intelligence. “He really wants smart people to have kids”, one of his previous partners says in Musk's biography by Walter Isaacson. Three women, ten children; how Elon Musk tries to save the world According to Musk, someone's personal success is closely linked to his or her IQ. Therefore, he encourages especially smart people to have as many children as possible. His goal: “Instead of teaching fear of pregnancy, we should teach fear of childlessness.”Population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 26, 2022
**Artificial intelligence** Demography is not the only thing Elon Musk worries about. One of his biggest headaches, his biography says, is the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). “I don't love the idea of being a house cat”, he once said, referring to what would happen if AI surpasses human intelligence. According to him, it could pose an existential risk. As a solution, Musk presented the option of coupling AI closely to human beings, so that it would not turn against people. His company Neuralink fits perfectly into this view. It is working on chips that improve the abilities humans have. People, for example, would be able to operate computers with their brains. Biographer Walter Isaacson writes: “One way to ensure AI alignment with humanity, ed., he denies being a Christian. Debate about The Great Reset needs some nuance Questions So, what is it then that makes humanity so important for Musk? Once, he told someone at his birthday party that he saw human consciousness as “a precious flicker of light in the universe” and added that “we should not let it be extinguished.” According to Musk, human consciousness and intelligence is the only one that exists as far as he knows. Therefore, he argues in an interview with CNBC that the human consciousness is crucial for the survival of any consciousness in the universe at all. “We've got this delicate candle of consciousness flickering here, and it may be the only instance of consciousness, so it's essential we preserve it”, he says at another event. Ultimately, Musk's goal is to have a complete understanding of the universe and of human consciousness itself, in other words to discover the meaning of life. “If we increase the scope and scale of civilisation, then we have a much better chance of understanding the meaning of life and why we're here or even what are the right questions to ask.”Instead of teaching fear of pregnancy, we should teach fear of childlessness https://t.co/0wUUADibcl
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 17, 2024
| ronatalism Elon Musk is said to be part of the Pronatalist movement, which encourages people to have as many children as possible. The Collins family stood at the cradle of the movement. Malcolm and Simone Collins see the demographic crisis as a cultural problem in societies that do not value children. Simone Collins finds it understandable that especially billionaires in Silicon Valley appreciate the pronatalist ideas, she says in an interview. “They look into the long term. That is where you will see the consequences of the demographic rate.” However, there are ethical questions that come with the pronatalism movement. Oftentimes, members of the movement use IVF or other technology to select the most intelligent embryo or the embryo that has other desired traits. |
