Elon Musk: Beyond Earth—Why Humanity Must Reach for the Stars

Elon Musk: There are grander things we should be considering than the pettiness of everyday life.

“I'd say life on Mars is difficult, dangerous, so many people might die. It's just fundamentally, are we going to become a multiplanet species or not? Even if we're sure Earth would be fine forever, do you want to be here forever? I think we want to be a spacefaring civilization.

It's not like let's escape to Mars. Do we have a spirit of adventure? Do we want to go out there and see the rest of the universe? Who do we want to find out what's out there? Maybe meet some alien civilizations? Do we want science fiction to not be fiction forever? And if so, we need to be a multiplanet species. That's the next step. And then we can go from there to being a multistellar species and get to other star systems.

I disagree with the notion of rationalizing becoming a multiplanet species with advancements on Earth. It is good in and of itself. It is important that we do this because eventually there's something that will do us in. It might be in 100 years, it might be in a million years, but something will do us in. What it comes down to is do we want civilization to survive on Earth until eventually it is extinguished and all life is extinguished? Or do we want to get out there and understand the nature of reality.

There are grander things that we should be considering than the pettiness of everyday life.”

Jay Leno's Garage, September 21, 2022