Trump controls the most powerful country on Earth. The poles are melting. Machines are taking over. Turn on any news channel and it’s doomsday everyday.
But not all is lost. We have Elon Musk on our side. And because of that I have hope for humanity. Within 10 years he has managed to turn the tides and revolutionize multiple industries, and is set to blow our brains into the next millennium. So we all know about Tesla, the company that has finally made electric cars cool. You have probably also heard about SpaceX, the company that is making interplanetary travel feasible. You may have heard of Solar city, which made solar energy cheaper than its fossilized cousin. It’s possible you’ve heard of the Boring company, which is set to make traffic congestion a relic of history. But you probably haven’t heard of Neuralink, the technology that is going to make humans superhuman.
If that sounds like science fiction, it’s because it is. But at one time, so were electric cars, re-usable rockets and the hyperloop. You see, each of Musk’s companies each solve a problem facing humanity, and Neuralink is set to help us survive the singularity. And it’s the only feasible method that I have seen so far. The singularity, short for the technological singularity, is the point at which technology becomes smarter than we are, and we lose control of our future. So how can we avoid that? Well we can’t, it’s inevitable, and is going to happen at some point this century. Extreme estimates say it may arrive in the next 15 years and conservative ones that it will be here by the end of the century, but most experts would agree it’s likely to happen somewhere near the middle of this century.
Enter Elon Musk, our potential savior. So if we can’t avoid the singularity, what should we do? We join it. We become a part of the singularity. This is where the awesome, hard to believe or understand, superhuman/science-fiction stuff comes in. But before that, let’s have closer look at what Musk has done to understand why we should listen when he says this is the most important problem for our generation to solve.
Tesla
The first electric cars that everyone wants. Turns out they can drive themselves too.
What makes Musk not just a visionary, but a revolutionary is that he finds a way to make his vision work despite the monumental challenges he faces. Here’s an example of how he has brought electric cars to the masses.
Solar City
Originally an independent company Musk set up but has since been integrated into Tesla. It was based on the premise that the only way that people will start using solar energy is when it is cheaper to do so than fossil fuels. How about roof tiles that are more durable and cheaper than regular roof tiles, but also can supply your hour with all the energy you need. No brainer.
The Boring Company
This started as what seemed like a joke on Twitter. Musk was pissed off in traffic. He decided to do something about it.
So he came up with a concept that is actually happening. Multiple layers of tunnels under the city that will transport your car at up to 200km/h.
Starting today, he has already started boring tunnels under LA. These tunnels will set the stage for the next development which will revolutionise the speed of travel on earth.
The Hyperloop
Imagine a maglev train in a vacuum. Originally Musk’s brainchild, he has made the concept open-source to let anyone else take a crack at building it. He’s created a competition to let teams from around the world attempt to create a prototype.
SpaceX
But let’s not stop with changing transport on earth, how about we become an interplanetary species. For one thing it would help us set up a colony on Mars so that humanity has another base to reduce the existential risk of humanity getting wiped out by a nuclear war or biological virus or asteroid…
So Musk has reduced the cost of going into space by building his own rockets that can land back on earth. And then re-using them for the first time in history. By sending stuff into space for other companies once again he has set up a sustainable business model to fuel his vision for a better future.
Neuralink
As revolutionary as all of the previous projects seem, they all pale in comparison to the potential impact of Neuralink. It is developing a technology that doesn’t just change how we consume energy or how we travel or which planet we travel on, it changes what it means to be human. For thousands of years, we have communicated in much the same way, through language. With the advent of new technologies like video calling and video streaming, we can reach more people anywhere on earth, but we are still using the same form of communication. What Neuralink is creating is a device to connect our brains directly to the cloud, so that we have all the knowledge on the internet and all the power of super intelligent Artificial Intelligence, not at the touch of a button, but at the speed of a thought. It also means we can share thoughts with other people directly, giving rise to a whole new form of communication. Smart man that he is, Musk is starting with people with disabilities in order to get regulatory approval, and prove that it works before it can be adopted by the masses.
While this technology seems slightly outrageous in our modern world, the same could be said of the internet or smartphones just a few decades ago, which are now an integral part of daily human life. The question is not if this will happen, but rather when? Remember, we need to be ready for the singularity coming in the next few decades and this is the best way we know to prepare. Becoming super-intellingent also sounds like a lot of fun, doesn’t it?