Elon Musk joined the Good Time
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Elon Musk, SpaceX and Tesla head honcho appeared the super-exclusive Clubhouse audio only app Sunday night, joining the Good Time Show to talk all about Mars, become a multi-planet species and memes. The app, which allows people to create chat rooms, didn’t fare very well. The limit for participants is set at 5,000 – and it quickly became overwhelmed as Musk fans clamored to hear the world’s richest man to speak.
Still, entrepreneurial YouTubers and Discord servers popped up, and for those interested in Musk’s waxing and philosophizing, there were some surprising claims about Mars and apes. In typical Musk fashion, he made some bold claims about when humans could reach the red planet, discussed his Twitter memes and shared some the progress his team has made at Neuralink. It was a meandering and at times bizarre, but a few interesting details about Musk projects were revealed.
Let’s start with Mars. If you’re wondering what Musk’s timeline for getting humans onto Mars, well … you might be surprised.
“Five and a half years,” Musk told hosts Sriram Krishnan and Aarthi Ramamurthy at the start of the show.
Musk is known set overly ambitious deadlines for his projects, from Tesla to SpaceX, only five and a half years to get Starship off the ground and take people to another planet? That a completely different level of ambition. But that is not a difficult deadline. Musk listed a few caveats – there’s a whole host of technological advancements to be made in the intervening years.
“Most importantly, we establish Mars as a self-perpetuating civilization,” he said.
Monkey brain
After Mars, Musk was applauded for his meme abilities, which he attributed in part to “ meme dealers, ” before turning to something more serious: Neuralink, the brain implant startup he founded in 2016.
The latest update, which came in August 2020, showed a “Fitbit-like” implant “working” in pigs, but we haven’t heard much since – and no scientific papers have been published in the meantime. Musk said new videos would be released showing the progress in a month or so.
“We have a monkey with a wireless implant in their skull that can play video games with its mind,” said Musk. There is of course no evidence for this and it is the second time we have heard Musk talk about it. “Can we let the monkeys play mind pong with each other?” he thought.
One more caveat: Musk immediately pulled it back, making it clear that these were long-term goals for the brain implantation device. The first research focuses on how it can help people who have suffered brain and spinal injuries.
“I want to be clear.” Musk said, “The first applications are really only for people with severe brain injuries, like true, it’s like the value of the implant is just huge.”
Doge is gone
One of the greatest stories of the past week has been there the stock market, Reddit and GameStop’s massive rally. But it was Bitcoin that Musk drew his attention to. “I’m late for the party, but I’m a bit of a Bitcoin advocate,” he noted before turning his attention to Dogecoin, which had its own increase over the past week.
That cryptocurrency shot more than 300% and hit an all-time high last Thursdayalthough Musk didn’t seem particularly attached to it, beyond its comedic nature.
“Perhaps the most entertaining outcome, the most ironic outcome would be that Dogecoin becomes the Earth’s currency of the future,” he joked. Crypto tracker CoinDesk showed a small drop in the price of Dogecoin immediately following Musk’s comments.
What else?
By the end of the discussion, Musk was able to shake up a few things he’s currently viewing. We’ve thrown in some of the quotes below.
- Cobra Kai: “It’s such a sick burn, that show”
- The expanse: “Maybe I should look at that.”
- Mythical Quest: “That’s a good one.”
- Rack: “It’s pretty good. I think if you think too hard about Tenet, it might not make any sense, but I enjoyed the movie.”
- Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: “Basically a book on philosophy, disguised as a silly human book.”
Towards the end of the discussion, Robinhood Chief Executive Officer Vlad Tenev joined the interview to talk about the GameStop and Reddit saga, and Musk pushed him. “People demand the truth,” said Musk.
“Did something shady go down here?” Musk asked Tenev.
“I wouldn’t impute a shadow or anything on behalf of the NSCC (The National Securities Clearing Corporation),” Tenev replied.
It was a typical Musk stream of awareness affair, lasting about 90 minutes. Clubhouse couldn’t keep up with the demand and the conversation went at a fierce, confusing pace, but strangely … was it entertaining? When Elon speaks, people seem willing to listen and you never know where things will end.