Elon Musk: Two Reasons Why Life Must Become Multiplanetary

Elon Musk: There are two reasons for life to become multiplanetary.

“One is the defensive reason, where I think we want the light of consciousness to not be extinguished if something were to happen to Earth. And you know, in the case of the dinosaurs, they only had to worry about meteors and super volcanoes and other things. But for us humans, we actually have the power to destroy ourselves with nuclear weapons or some sort of crazy bio-terrorism thing. So there's some danger that is not zero that could cause the end of life on Earth as we know it. That's the defensive reason to ensure that life and consciousness is not only on Earth. That's the defensive reason to protect the future of consciousness.

Then the other big reason, I think, is that it's exciting and it's adventurous and it's inspiring. It makes you think positively about the future. And life can't just be about solving one problem or another. There need to be reasons to be inspired, reasons that move your heart and say yes, the future is going to be great. When you get out, when you wake up in the morning, I can't wait to see what happens next.

And I think, humanity going to Mars, even if you don't yourself want to go to Mars—and most people don't, just watch it, it's a tough gig, frankly. This would not be a luxury expedition, but you'd be able to watch it happen. And I think it would just be incredibly inspiring to the world in the same way that the Apollo program was inspiring to the world.

And like I said, there's got to be, life can't just be about solving one problem or another. We need things that make us excited and inspired about the future. And that would be one of them.”

Interview with Ron Baron, November 4, 2022