Advertisement

Elon Musk says humans must leave Earth 'because Sun will engulf our planet'

Private Spacecraft Module Launch Above The Clouds. 3D Illustration.
Elon Musk has said that humans have to become a "multi-planet species". (Getty)

When Elon Musk launched a Tesla into space, it carried a sign saying “Don’t panic" on the dashboard – but the billionaire was in a more doom-laden form this week.

The SpaceX and Tesla pioneer warned, in an interview with The New York Times podcast Sway, that travel to other planets was necessary as Earth would be engulfed by the Sun.

Speaking to host Kara Swisher, Musk said: “I think this is fundamentally important for ensuring the long-term survival of life as we know it, to be a multi-planet species.

“Eventually the Sun is going to expand and engulf Earth. It will expand and incinerate Earth. It is for sure going to happen – but not any time soon.”

Read More: Starlink, everything you need to know about the satellite network

This is something of an understatement, as the Sun’s expansion is not predicted to happen for at least seven billion years.

Musk said that becoming a multi-planet species would allow human civilisation to dodge extinction events that had affected other species.

He said: “The fossil record does show many extinction events over the millennia, from meteors, from super-volcanos, from natural climate variation.”

Watch: Elon Musk says Tesla will offer an affordable driverless car within 3 years

The billionaire also touched on one of his favourite topics when he warned of the threat of artificial intelligence (AI).

He said: “AI does not need to hate us to destroy us. If it decides that it needs to go in a particular direction, no hard feelings it would roll over us, like we would do with an anthill if we were building a road.

Read more: Elon Musk dismisses astronomy concerns over Starlink network

“We need to think of intelligence as not being uniquely confined to humans.”

Musk also addressed Tesla’s stock price.

03 September 2020, Brandenburg, Grünheide: Elon Musk, head of Tesla, stands on the construction site of the Tesla Gigafactory. In Grünheide near Berlin, a maximum of 500,000 vehicles per year are to roll off the assembly line starting in July 2021. According to the plans of the car manufacturer, the maximum is to be reached as quickly as possible. Photo: Patrick Pleul/dpa-Zentralbild/ZB (Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Musk spoke to Kara Swisher this week (Patrick Pleul/Picture Alliance via Getty)

“Do I think Tesla will be worth more than this in five years? I think the answer is ‘yes’.”

Earlier this summer, Musk predicted that threads embedded in your head would soon allow you to stream music directly into your brain – bypassing your ears altogether.

Read more: Silicon Valley hubris… or The Matrix in real life?

The key could lie with his pioneering brain interface company Neuralink.

Launched in 2016, Neuralink is centred on creating devices which can be implanted in the human brain, and Musk made the comments while recruiting tech talent for the startup.

The startup is working on flexible threads, thinner than human hair, designed to be implanted into the brain to "“read” brain activity.

The “ultra high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces” are built to transmit brain impulses to machines, with an end goal of allowing humans to “merge” with artificial intelligence.

Watch: SpaceX launch captured by passenger on board plane