Posted on 01/02/2022 12:26:02 PM PST by poconopundit
Elon Musk is a pleasure to listen to for a number of reasons: he's down to earth, witty, often funny, and as the CEO & Chief Engineer of Space/X he can delve into the challenges of rocketing to Mars and make it somewhat understandable and interesting for the layman.
I'm pretty impatient when it comes to podcasts, but I listened to the first 45 minutes of this 2.5 hour recording -- it was that interesting. Scan the subjects in the index below, then click to your subject of interest.
Here's an excerpt from the podcast where he discusses what he hopes Martian -- and also American -- government should look like in the future:
Lex Friedman: Let me ask a slight philosophical fun question. Gotta ask. I know you’re focused on getting to Mars, but once we’re there on Mars, what form of government, economic system, political system do you think would work best for an early civilization of humans? I know you’re focused on the short-term engineering side of getting to Mars. But there’s something about imagining an actual civilization on Mars that gives people hope.
Elon Musk: It would be a new frontier and an opportunity to rethink the whole nature of government, just like what was done with the creation of the United States.
I suggest they have a direct democracy where people vote directly on things as opposed to representative democracy. Representative democracy is too subject to special interests and coercion of the politicians. So I recommend a direct democracy. And the laws should be short enough that people understand them.
Lex: Yeah, and then keeping a well-informed populace, and really being transparent.
Musk: Yes. . . There’s a fundamental problem because we’ve not really had a major world war in a while, or something like that. And obviously we would like to not have world wars. So there’s not been a cleansing function for rules and regulations. Wars did have some silver lining in that there would be a reset on rules and regulations after a war. So after War War I & II there were huge resets on rules and regulations.
Now if society does not have a war and there is no cleansing function or garbage collection for rules and regulations then rules and regulations will accumulate every year because they’re immortal.
Humans die, but the laws don’t. So we need a garbage collection function for rules and regulations that should just be immortal.
Because some of the rules and regulations put in place will be counterproductive – done with good intentions, but counterproductive.
And sometime not done with good intentions. So if rules and regulations accumulate year after year, and you get more and more of them, then eventually you won’t be able to do anything.
You’re just like Gulliver – tied down by thousands of little strings. And we see that in the U.S. and LA, basically all economies that have been around a while, and regulators and legislators create new rules every year, but they don’t put an effort into removing them.
And I think that’s very important. But it get tough because you get special interests that are then dependent on — or have a vested interest in a certain rule or regulation. And they fight to NOT get it removed.
Lex: I guess the problem with the Constitution is it’s kind of like C vs. Java (computer programs) because C doesn’t have any garbage collection built in. When you first said the metaphor of garbage collection, I loved it from a coding standpoint. It would be interesting if the laws themselves had a kind of built-in thing where they die after a while, unless somebody explicitly publicly defends them.
Musk: Yeah, something needs to happen because civilizations’ arteries just harden over time. And you just get less and less done because there’s a rule against everything.
So on Mars, or whatever, I say — or even here on Earth as well — there should be an active process of removing rules and regulations – questioning their existence.
If we’ve got a function for creating rules and regulations – they’re like software or lines of code for operating a civilization. We still need rules and regulations, but your code accumulation with no code removal. And so it just gets to become basically archaic bloatware – after a while. And it makes it hard for things to progress.
So maybe on Mars, any given law must have a sunset – and require active voting to keep it up there. Ultimately it will be up to the people on Mars to decide. But I think it should be easier to remove a law than to add one, just to overcome the inertia of laws.
So maybe it’s like, for argument’s say you need 60% vote to have a law take effect, but only 40% to remove it.
0:00 - Introduction 0:07 - Elon singing 0:55 - SpaceX human spaceflight 7:40 - Starship 16:16 - Quitting is not in my nature 17:51 - Thinking process 27:25 - Humans on Mars 32:55 - Colonizing Mars 36:41 - Wormholes 41:19 - Forms of government on Mars 48:22 - Smart contracts 49:52 - Dogecoin 51:24 - Cryptocurrency and Money 57:33 - Bitcoin vs Dogecoin 1:00:16 - Satoshi Nakamoto | 1:02:38 - Tesla Autopilot 1:05:44 - Tesla Self-Driving 1:17:48 - Neural networks 1:26:44 - When will Tesla solve self-driving? 1:28:48 - Tesla FSD v11 1:36:21 - Tesla Bot 1:47:01 - History 1:54:52 - Putin 2:00:32 - Meme Review 2:14:58 - Stand-up comedy 2:16:31 - Rick and Morty 2:18:10 - Advice for young people 2:26:08 - Love 2:29:01 - Meaning of life |
Lex Fridman, who's made a name for himself as an podcast interviewer does a splendid job of asking great questions. I've heard him do other interviews and they all appeal to intellectual and technical folks. Lex was born in Russia and grew up in the US. He's an AI-expert and technologist himself. Lex also deliver his podcasts in a low-key style. The guy seems like a genuinely humble, but hard-working guy.
Has there ever been a point in history when the world’s wealthiest person — and a foremost scientist/engineer — could sit down in front of the world and give thoughtful answers to questions on a wide range of topics?
No Fortune 500 executive or technologist has the gonads or smarts to ramble on for 2.5 hours and fill that space of time with great insights and opinions remarkable for their honesty.
I also love the way in this interview he sometimes pauses for a long time to think about what he will say to a deep question.
Hope you enjoy some of his remarks.
I think he carefully measures his responses, which of course is not his reputation all the time, due to his crack shots he’s sometimes made on Twitter.
> The guy seems like a genuinely humble, ...
Now he does. He’s loosened up immensely, but before doing the podcast he was kind of a d***chenoozle.
A different type of wise guy.
Head and shoulders above others who have money, fame,
and are ready to do anything necessary in order to get
more; even eliminate most of their competition “the old
fashioned way”, if necessary.
Like the guy, he is no imbecile and expresses but few
off the wall comments/ideas.
A far cry from Gates and Zuckerwhat’s his name (the little
punk).
Twitter, not being my ‘thing’, unable to compare anything
there; however, have seen interviews, read articles, etc.
One thing going for him: having the sense to move from Commie Cal to the plains of Texas. A man with that kind
of judgement will go far and come out nicely.
Elon is fun, rich and not shy of microphones. Few would speak from the top of their head without fear of getting picked apart down the road.
His courage does open up conversations that need to be had.
Just from his Mars gov comments I’d have a few questions ...
Does he think we would have had better presidents here on earf getting rid of the electoral college? I don’t.
Half the people are definitely below average intelligence but gullibility doesn’t seem to have a boundary.
Re: garbage collection of rules and regs ... wouldn’t just being a simple conservative Republican who works to limit gov accomplish this ?
Even a squishy Libertarian might work?
While he gets to have a microphone some of the best minds we should be listening to are dead. Does he want to throw out the gradual refinement of Western thought thru the centuries ?
I do appreciate him trying to smack people awake so they might start thinking again.
People accustomed to success and who live advantaged lives, probably need way more input from a wider sphere.
Direct democracy is terrible, not all rules should have sunset clauses.
Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX
But before it became one of the most powerful players in the aerospace industry, SpaceX was a fledgling startup, scrambling to develop a single workable rocket before the money ran dry. The engineering challenge was immense; numerous other private companies had failed similar attempts. And even if SpaceX succeeded, they would then have to compete for government contracts with titans such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing, who had tens of thousands of employees and tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue. SpaceX had fewer than 200 employees and the relative pittance of $100 million in the bank.
In Liftoff, Eric Berger, senior space editor at Ars Technica, takes readers inside the wild early days that made SpaceX. Focusing on the company’s first four launches of the Falcon 1 rocket, he charts the bumpy journey from scrappy underdog to aerospace pioneer. We travel from company headquarters in El Segundo, to the isolated Texas ranchland where they performed engine tests, to Kwajalein, the tiny atoll in the Pacific where SpaceX launched the Falcon 1. Berger has reported on SpaceX for more than a decade, enjoying unparalleled journalistic access to the company’s inner workings. Liftoff is the culmination of these efforts, drawing upon exclusive interviews with dozens of former and current engineers, designers, mechanics, and executives, including Elon Musk. The enigmatic Musk, who founded the company with the dream of one day settling Mars, is the fuel that propels the book, with his daring vision for the future of space.
Filled with never-before-told stories of SpaceX’s turbulent beginning, Liftoff is a saga of cosmic proportions.
Musk is a hands on CEO. hires people who want to work not just people with lots of degrees..and lets them get the job done
I agree. Direct democracy could work if the Martian community is small enough and there’s a Constitution limiting its powers of taxation and so forth.
In some of his comments, I suspect there’s an agenda behind his positioning.
Good, I glad he didn’t go down the Joe Rogan path and he’s gotten better.
Elon Musk is interesting pundit... thanks for the ping.
Agree, moving part of his operation to Austin, TX was a good move. He felt that bump in the dark night to that Unsinkable ship the HMS California and had his helicopter dispatched post haste.
.....and yet, despite all of the technological advancements we've witnessed, no one can make a string of Christmas lights that stay lit.
LOL you brought back some childhood memories.
Dad, finding the string dark, attempting to find the
burned out bulb. In those days, one defective bulb and the
entire string went dark. Like Darren McGavin, he’d fumble
around attempting to remedy the situation. *sigh* we never
had such an important grand prize for our front window. Not even the fishnet stocking. :-) The Victorians, all
things considered, were innovative but brave when considering candles for ornaments. Taking the time and
effort for a project enjoyed for only two weeks at most. The things a parent does to show his love for his children.
The thoughts stir strong emotions.
no one can make a string of Christmas lights that stay lit.
* * *
True, Hornet. And one possible reason is the manufacturer wants to make Christmas lights expendable so you need to buy a new set each winter.
My complaint is nobody can make a pair of reasonably priced socks. The department store will sell you Chinese-made socks that are so tight at the top that they stop blood flow to your feet.
* * *
Hey jcon40. Good points. Here I agree with SunkenCiv's point that Musking is measuring his response.
Musk must be deliberately hedging to be able to influence a broader swathe of listeners. He's pointing out a problem, but suggesting an unworkable solution because he won't say that Trump did a spectacular job of cutting regulations.
Mencken had a lot to say about how the intelligent "aristocracy" needs to use the tools of the demagogue in order to stop the mob-masters (Bidung, Boobamba, Nanzi Pelosi).
Here's my 2016 vanity where I created an abridged version of Mencken's Vox Populi essay of 1922.
H. L. Mencken Predicted Donald Trump, the Enlightened Rabble-Rouser
Observation. Musk mentions how the giant in Gulliver's Travels is stringed to the earth. A suggested book title for America's ills:
Gullible's Travels: How to Stop the Idiots From Strangling America with Their Regulatory Strings.
Cheers, FRiends.
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