Metaphysical Milkshake (Rainn Wilson)
Questions on ElonsFAQ asked in this interview (2)
Transcript
0:14Elon MuskWell, well, well.
0:16Rainn WilsonWelcome to my talk show.
0:21Elon MuskTake a sip from your soul on a metaphysical milkshake.
0:35Elon MuskTasty chicken bogo.
0:44Rainn WilsonSure. You may be a billionaire.
0:47Elon MuskYeah.
0:47Rainn WilsonEntrepreneur, inventor, man extraordinaire. You're not getting any of my chicken burger.
0:54Elon MuskAll right, no problem. I can give without the chicken burger. It's so good.
1:02Rainn WilsonMr. Musk. Can I call you Mr. Musk?
1:04Elon MuskYeah, sure.
1:05Rainn WilsonMr. Musk invented, helped co create PayPal and then Tesla Motors and then if that's not enough, SpaceX. And now you're in solar, what's it called?
1:18Elon MuskSolar City. Yeah.
1:19Rainn WilsonYou may be the first billionaire that has ever been in the back of a van before. So as you know, this van has some very special peculiar qualities where you want to go anywhere.
1:32Rainn WilsonAnywhere in the universe.
1:33Elon MuskMars.
1:40Elon MuskWow. We're there.
1:41Rainn WilsonWhy did you want to go to Mars?
1:43Elon MuskBecause I think that's the best place where humanity can become a multi planet species. And the space bearing civilization. Because I think that's one of the most important things that we could accomplish.
1:52Elon MuskIn fact, I think it's important enough that we'd actually fit on the scale of evolution itself. I think it's perhaps at least as important as life going from the oceans to land.
1:59Elon MuskThe probability of consciousness existing for a long time would be much greater if we were on two planets.
2:05Rainn WilsonWhy would consciousness exist for a long time if we were on two planets?
2:08Elon MuskBecause if something catastrophic were to happen to Earth, then it would, life would still exist on another planet.
2:14Rainn WilsonYou are much smarter than I am, so I just want to say that for the record. How would that work for people to go to Mars? Like what would happen?
2:23Elon MuskWell, you need to have a big spaceship that takes you to Mars and then you have to land on Mars.
2:27Rainn WilsonAnd then what do the humans do when they're there?
2:30Elon MuskWell, I think initially, initially people would work on creating a Mars base. People would have to live in pressurized domes. But over time you can, you could terraform the planet and make it like Earth.
2:40Rainn WilsonBut it's cold over there on Mars, isn't it?
2:42Elon MuskRight. So you have to warm it up.
2:43Rainn WilsonYou'd need a lot of down comforters over there.
2:45Elon MuskYou'd actually heat the planet up by emitting greenhouse gases. Kind of what we're doing on Earth. We're learning a lot about that here on Earth. So we just do that on Mars.
2:56Elon MuskAnd that would warm the planet up, it would thicken the atmosphere. And then the atmosphere on Mars is carbon dioxide. So as you grow plants, the plants would convert the carbon into oxygen.
3:06Rainn WilsonYou can grow Earth plants in Mars soil.
3:09Elon MuskThat's correct.
3:10Rainn WilsonNow, does the ship come back? When you go to Mars, are you gonna go like, I'm gonna die on Mars. So you take healthy people that are just gonna plan on living the rest of their 30 or 40 years on Mars or something like that.
3:21Elon MuskI think most people would go to Mars to move to Mars, but the spaceships would come back because otherwise it would be way too expensive to travel to Mars.
3:28Rainn WilsonCould you imagine the first baby born on Mars?
3:30Elon MuskRight. That'd be huge.
3:31Rainn WilsonThat would be freaky.
3:32Elon MuskRight?
3:33Rainn WilsonA lot of pressure for that poor kid.
3:35Elon MuskRight?
3:37Rainn WilsonThe first Martian.
3:38Elon MuskThat's right.
3:38Rainn WilsonWhat is it like to be named after the scent of an animal?
3:44Elon MuskIt certainly led to a lot of mocking in junior high.
3:49Rainn WilsonI know what that feels like. Many years.
3:51Elon MuskRight, right, right.
3:53Rainn WilsonSo I totally believe in science. I mean, science isn't something you believe in, it's something that just is. But it just. You had referenced kind of the reverse climate change.
4:04Rainn WilsonBut what drives me crazy is the climate change deniers and what is up with that? Has it just become so politicized that they just have stopped believing scientists?
4:14Elon MuskI think often this debate is phrased in the wrong way because they'll often say, well, how do we know for certain that CO2 emissions cause global warming? And if you ask a scientist, do you know anything for certain?
4:26Elon MuskThey will generally say, well, no, we don't know for certain, we don't know. We know hardly anything for certain. But the overwhelming opinion among the scientific community is that CO2 is causing global warming.
4:38Elon MuskAnd given that we will run out of oil anyway, it doesn't make any sense to put trillions of tons of CO2 in the atmosphere and see what happens, which could be catastrophic when we have to find a non hydrocarbon based way of generating and consuming energy anyway.
4:53Elon MuskSo it's just a dumb experiment.
4:55Rainn WilsonCan I borrow $1.3 billion just for a month? I'll pay back. You got started as an entrepreneur when you were really young. What would you say to young people that want to change the world, that have big ideas?
5:10Rainn WilsonWhat advice could you give?
5:11Elon MuskI mean, the biggest thing I think people fail to do is that they're too afraid to try things. They shouldn't be afraid of failing and they should just go and do it.
5:22Rainn WilsonLightning, round, boom. What do you worship?
5:24Elon MuskWell, I don't really worship anything, but I do devote myself to the advancement of humanity using technology.
5:31Rainn WilsonWhat can technology never replace?
5:33Elon MuskI think human feeling.
5:34Rainn WilsonWhat fuels your creativity?
5:36Elon MuskPressure. Necessity.
5:38Rainn WilsonWhat do you do to unplug and relax.
5:40Elon MuskI go to Burning Man. That's pretty fun.
5:42Rainn WilsonYou go to Burning Man?
5:43Elon MuskSure.
5:43Rainn WilsonWhat do you do there?
5:45Elon MuskIt's just like a crazy sort of Mad Max meets Vegas meets Oz in Wonderland.
5:50Rainn WilsonDo you put on a hippie wig?
5:51Elon MuskNo, I usually have some kind of costume. I wear a softball.
5:54Rainn WilsonDo you believe there's life on other planets?
5:56Elon MuskI think there's a good chance that there's simple life on other planets. It's much more of a question as to whether there's complex life like consciousness,
6:02Rainn Wilsonwith all the trillions of stars and all those trillions of planets. You don't think that. Isn't that an arrogant statement to say we're probably the most evolved in all of the universe?
6:11Elon MuskWell, no, I'm not saying that we probably are. Just I think that the chances of consciousness are much, much lower, particularly in our galaxy.
6:19Rainn WilsonCan science and religion coexist?
6:21Elon MuskProbably not. Okay.
6:25Rainn WilsonDo you pray?
6:26Elon MuskI didn't even pray when I. When I almost died of malaria.
6:29Rainn WilsonWow. That's really not praying.
6:30Elon MuskRight?
6:31Rainn WilsonWhat's your life's big question? What's the big question? You personally wrestle with the question of
6:38Elon Muskwhat is the question? You know, like from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? The answer is the universe. What's the question?
6:45Rainn WilsonOne of the world's greatest entrepreneurs is here in the back of my van, talking about how he had these dreams. Space travel, new energy sources, building cars, being a real life Tony Stark.
6:58Rainn WilsonWhat's your big ideas? How do you want to be an entrepreneur? What kind of passion or dream do you want to pursue to make the world a better place to take humanity to the next level?
7:10Rainn WilsonCan you upload it on a video or write it down in the comments below? Elon, would you look at the videos in the comments?
7:15Elon MuskSure, absolutely.
7:16Rainn WilsonGreat. I'll tell you what.
7:18Elon MuskI'll give you a bite.
7:20Rainn WilsonYou gave me a Tesla.
7:22Elon MuskSounds like a good deal. Deal. Deal. Shit, yes.