(Note The Wait but Why article is a super-long read, so store it up for a travel day.)
Summary: Elon Musk works to a simple if audacious formula. Nudge the whole world to be better placed to survive the future by finding a sector with a business model to drive innovation now that will help us migrate to the best bet in that sector.
Energy: use sustainable energy. Business model: make cars that are so good that in a decade all major manufacturers have electric cars in production or development.
Space: we need an exit from our plant. Business model: work out a way of sending stuff into space that makes it cost-effective to colonise Mars.
AI: we need to merge with it rather than let it run amok. Business model: improve the brain machine interface quality and bandwidth so that we can merge with AI.
Read the Wait but Why article for all your geek needs. It is (as always) wonderful.
The only piece that didn’t quite gel for me was the discussion of transmitting our thinking brain-to-brain. I can see that allowing someone else to ride my inputs would be amazing (e.g. experiencing sky-diving without doing it). I am not sure that I think with the same clarity / quality / bandwidth / structure as I receive from my inputs. I don’t think of a bunch of roses and see a full-optical-input bunch of roses. It’s something else. Doesn’t stop it being interesting to transmit, but it will be different than anything we’ve experienced (mainly because thinking is so opaque to each of us individuals to begin with).
You can also read some thoughts about what Neuralink would mean for the current crop of tech titans.
