One of his companies is trying to turn the automotive industry. Another company trying to get people to Mars. Another intends to provide electricity to all in need. Elon Musk wants to transform the world beyond recognition in just one lifetime. Ready to the future Elon musk? In December, GQ magazine took an interview with the “billionaire, playboy, philanthropist” in a suit and without, and we gladly bring it to you.
Paying tribute to fashion trends portray prominent technological geniuses of the three important moments of their life, with Elon Musk did the same. Only in his case they all happened in one day — Monday, 12 October 2015.
1. To send mankind to Mars (when it will be possible)
Weekdays Mask for the most part start in his rocket building company SpaceX, in the industrial suburb of Los Angeles, and every Monday, he says, starts with a brainstorming on the theme of architecture of the Mars colonial transport (Mars Colonial Transport). People look at your work schedule on Monday and find something in common.
Actually, SpaceX is remarkable in many details: for example, the company challenged the established rocket industry, promising repeatedly to cut the cost of the missiles; or became the first private entity — not the country! — successfully delivered the spacecraft into orbit with subsequent return; or how it has grown from the idea of the Mask in a company that supplies the International space station with supplies and plans to soon provide also astronauts. But the most interesting in the history of SpaceX that from the very beginning, even before the first rocket off the ground, she was intended for something more grandiose and utopian: the colonization of Mars.
Musk said that this problem had two causes. First — it will be an inspiring journey, and we need some inspiration. Second — the survival of humanity in the long run. If the accident, our fault or not, will destroy life on Earth before we will acquire colonies everywhere, our species would be doomed. According to Mask, the ambition to become mnogoplanetnyh view as natural as the desire to make a backup of the hard disk. “You do backups of the hard disk? Why not do the same with life?”.
SpaceX is working on this problem on several fronts: developing a reusable rocket, which will be necessary to transport large numbers of people and large cargoes to Mars; looking for money to Finance their work; figuring out how we can get to Mars and back, in accordance with the order Mask. It lies beneath the internal “architecture of the Mars colonial transport”, work in SpaceX.
Musk and his colleagues quite clearly imagine what will engage people in the near future — he believes that the first manned mission to Mars will be possible when he turns fifty. He is now forty-four. The rocket, on which work in the company, hiding under the code name BFR. Under these three letters is hiding (literally) “a bloody great rocket” (Big Fucking Rocket).
Chris Hit with GQ was asked if Musk says the rocket; his answer was both Yes and no.
“Well, it has two parts — the launch vehicle and the spacecraft. Booster needs to leave the gravity of Earth, because the Earth has a deep gravity well and thick atmosphere, but from Mars to the Earth the spacecraft can be reached without any missile, because the weaker gravity of Mars, and the atmosphere is thinner, so it will be able to travel back independently. So technically it will be BFR and BFS. “A bloody big ship” (Big Fucking Spaceship)”.
[Approx. Ilya Hel — actually, translate BFR and BFS can and so, and syak, and how “Big Fucking Rocket/Ship”. In the game Doom BFG translated as “big Fucking gun”, and as “the Big Finishing Suppressed” based on the principles of “BFG”. But actually the name BFG stands for “Big Friendly Giant” (Big Kind Giant) and refers to the work of Roald Dahl “The BFG”. This interpretation I like more, but you have the right to choose for you].
Musk himself came up with these names. “This is a very dumb allusion to a video game, he said. — In the original Doom was a crazy gun-type BFG 9000 or something. So I named the rocket in honor of the cannon of Doom. But, of course, this is not an official name”. (All project Mask appears something defiant, boyhood, inherent in him, even if at first glance it seems that it is not).
Previously, Musk said, will make public details of their plans for the colonization of Mars last year, but decided to postpone to next year, 2016. “Before we announce them, I want to make sure that we don’t have to make big changes, he says. — However, to many this will sound insane, no matter what”.
Simply because outside of the fact that people give you?
He laughs. “It’s very big”. And again laughs. “Sooooo much. There was not a single architecture, with which to compare this venture”.
However, now the more practical and everyday task SpaceX remains the vehicle that will deliver astronauts to the International space station. Musk talked a bit about the design of manned spacecraft discussed with NASA in the beginning of the year. “Had a little disagreement here and there… like the fact that the amount reserved for poop, too big. And we’re like: hmm, they’re really going to poop so much?”.
How often does Musk really thinks about the colonization of Mars. Every day? Each week?
“I think about it enough,” he says, adding that part of his slowness is due to the lack of necessary technologies. Most of us instinctively assumes that technology is constantly moving forward, but in the history of mankind there have been many instances when the Egyptians built the pyramids, for example, or after the many achievements of the Roman Empire — when civilization is no longer doing what was done before, and it would be arrogance and conceit to believe that this will never happen again.
“There is a window that appears briefly or for a long time, when we will have the opportunity to establish self-sustaining base on Mars, “he says,” before anything happens and will lower the level of technology on the Earth below its potential. Will this self-sustaining base before spacecraft from Earth will cease to go? I mean, we should not discount the possibility of a third world war. In 1912 proclaimed a new age of peace and brotherhood, said that there will come a Golden age, and the war will die. And then there was the First world war, followed by world war II, and after the cold war. So I think we must allow for the possibility of a third world war, and that if she does, it will be worse than the previous all. You may use a nuclear weapon. You may experience a powerful social movement directed against the technology. Maybe the rise of extremism on religious grounds. For example, ISIL will grow…”.
Ironically, Musk himself has recently advocated the use of nuclear weapons, on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last fall. One possible strategy to make Mars habitable for long time to terraform it, i.e. change the environment, to heat the planet, the ice is turned to water, include plants that will recycle carbon dioxide into oxygen, and eventually create a breathable atmosphere. He told Colbert that there are fast and slow ways to do this, and suggested a quick: “to Dump a nuclear bomb on a pole”.
Since then, Musk several times clarified his words, explaining that his idea (currently not possible) is to use a small repeatedly detonating nuclear bombs at each pole. “It’s not quite a nuclear weapon, he says. — I think many people are unaware that the sun is a giant nuclear explosion. We are talking only about the repetition of such in a small form on Mars, the creation of a tiny pulsating sun. There will be no radiation or mushroom cloud, no radioactive fallout and the like.”
However, the plan is too invasive, given the fact that the unmanned NASA missions to Mars are currently forbidden even to land next to possible zones of liquid water to biological organisms from the Earth do not contaminate Mars. Musk, however, is slightly dismissive of these concerns. “As far as we see now, on the surface of Mars there is no sign of life — in the best case there will be an underground microbial life. And it’s at best”.
Is there life or no, I think it is a moral issue: do our Mars, to bother him?
According to the Mask, it’s not worth discussing. “The moral problem, if there is no life, — he insists. — As for me, far more immoral it would be not to try to save life on Earth”.
In any case, when it comes to making important decisions terraforming, it perfectly represents how and by whom they are taken: “It will be a case of the Martians”.
Martians. Which will hide and Musk speaks of it as quite self-evident and obvious — those of us who decided to be interplanetary pioneers.
2. To invent driverless cars (by Thursday)
Musk manages another multi-billion dollar company, intentional to turn over our lives: Tesla, whose main task is the dissemination of electric cars. Typically, the Mask begins and ends his week in southern California; on Tuesdays and Wednesdays he is in Northern California in a Tesla. Although usually on this day, Musk on SpaceX, busy Martian missiles, specifically this week has been busy with Tesla.
In three days there will be the last update of the Tesla car. The Telsa electric cars, however, differ from most others — for example, upgrades are downloaded remotely on them, as on phones and laptops. Tesla owners are notified about the update, then offer to schedule and automatically download the update at night. Some updates are big, some are not. This new update (the tenth largest since the launch of the car) was special; Telsa called it “autopilot”. Tesla Model S sedan allows you to set the cruise control, the car sped up and slowed down in accordance with the flow of traffic, the traffic around him. However, this update was a huge step towards self-driving cars. Starting Thursday (when it was still December), the updated Tesla cars will be able to choose lanes on the highway without the aid of the driver. The car can change lanes automatically — you just have to click on the indicator, and he will do it, when it will be safe.
Oddly enough, Musk says about these achievements if they were not so grandiose. It seems to us that this is the future, but for him it is a trivial iteration of what people from his circle have long known and practiced. (He quotes William Gibson: “the Future is already here, just unevenly distributed”).
All will be if the update will work, of course. Now Monday night, and, says Musk, until Thursday is a lot to catch. “The difficulty is that there are many special problems [corner case problems or situations that occur when exceeding the maximum allowable parameters. — approx. ed.] in the steering”. Dialogue with Elon Musk, even when he is talking to ordinary people, studded with such terms.
“Corner case” when it comes to steering a car is a serious health problem. “It’s easy to make the wheel worked 99% of the time, he explains. But 99% is not good enough. One percent and the wheel will take you in a wall… badly. To make it work, you have to trust him 99.99% of the time. And even when the system loses confidence, it must inform the driver to take control before something terrible happens”.
And by Thursday will it work?
“Well, Thursday must be some tricks. Major issues, but there are minor issues that it would be cool to solve it by Thursday”.
Two days later, when he will hold a press conference, he will casually mention this conversation in the best traditions of Elon musk: “I Hope it [the system] will not knock down pedestrians”.
Tesla cars can change lanes; Musk said that in five years they will go completely Autonomous.
Everything goes to the fact that soon we will find ourselves in the world, about the proximity of people don’t know: when the transport self-haul drivers. These cars can self-Park in the garage at the end of the road. The Tesla cars also can be called remotely before you travel, while you are on private land. “It’s obvious” — says Musk.
However, although everything will be so from the point of view of technology, most people have no idea what is coming. “It is, says Musk. — I think people will like. And yet the reality is that Autonomous systems will drive much better than humans. In respect of accidents per kilometre will be less. Technically, I think we’re three years away from full autonomy”.
Musk also acknowledges that we could reach the point where “society decides that driving a car is illegal”. He recently announced publicly, provoking ing rotten tomatoes from avid fanatics of cars. (And this is the type of people, of course, which drove a Tesla would. They want to be the first and sole owners of cars that can drive themselves, but terribly angry when they are told that they cannot hold the steering wheel). So now Musk is more cautious, insisting on no such development of Affairs. “I want you to know,” he says, ” I’m not trying anyone to take the wheel.”
To Mask the plan is to shift paradigms — the shift to electric vehicles that are of interest to the Mask in the first place so, at what energy work: available everywhere and inexpensive, even if the electricity is generated from fossil fuels. (If electricity will be generated consistently, he notes, the benefits will only grow). And as soon as the historical shortcomings of electric vehicles (low range, slow and hard charging, high cost) are eradicated, they will become the obvious choice. Goal mask in a Tesla is to accelerate this transition to happen for years sooner than he could; he built a company that started with high-end sports car Roadster, then Model S sedan, recently revealed the Model X SUV, but the salt of her plan in the next generation Tesla Model 3, which needs to capture the mass market with cars for 35 000 dollars. “It’s difficult, he says. — But achievable”. What will happen after? Most likely, the new Roadster, SUV and smaller truck. “I think it’s obvious passages,” says Musk.
A week after the meeting, which was taken this interview, Consumer Reports downgraded its previous recommendation of ecstatic Model S because of reports of unreliability. (Musk appeared on Twitter and was told that the problem resolved — say, they suffered from the first produced cars, but also noted that “CR said that 97% of owners plan to buy the next car Tesla”). However, with Model 3 Mask is waiting for the success or failure of his main mission Tesla.
Everything goes according to plan, by the way. In August 2006, before was finished the first car Tesla, Musk has issued a note on the Tesla website at the end of which was the following: “so, in summary, the General plan is: build sports car. Use that money to build affordable car. Use this money to build an even more affordable car… don’t tell Anyone”.
But we say — because in the fuss over high-tech cars, this point of view is often forgotten — even now it is far from clear that people in the big world know or accept the transition to electric vehicles as the inevitable, slow or fast. Musk compares this transition with the economy, which he first encountered when they arrived in Silicon valley in the mid-90s, when opened the Internet company Zip2.
“I remember that in’ 95 he was trying to get venture funding for the first company, and most venture capitalists whom I met in Silicon valley, have never used the Internet. Never and for no other purpose”. He laughs, remembering. “They didn’t know what it was. They heard about it, but didn’t know. If you asked them anything about the Internet, they wouldn’t be told anything. They would be like, “It’s like AOL or CompuServe?”. No. I was amazed at their ignorance”. Again laughs. But then the culture started to change. “At the end of’ 95 was a big change when Netscape went public. Venture capitalists looked up and said, “well, if this is a browser-based company took the high market standards, so others will be able too.” So when my brother and I repeatedly tried to obtain funding at the beginning of ‘ 96, everything was different. Have been interested in this literally everyone we met.
Zip2, which was the first online guide to the Newspapers, brought the Mask to its initial state. This story Elon Musk retold many times. He grew up in South Africa, read a lot, at 17 he moved to Canada, met with the land of opportunity USA. The College has identified three areas that affect the future of humanity is stronger than anything: the Internet, renewable energy and human life beyond Earth. His first two companies were on the topic of the Internet: thanks to Zip2, PayPal and through money. Then he launched a rocket company SpaceX from scratch and started to develop Tesla. In both companies he’s not just CEO, but also a leading developer of products. “People don’t know that most of my life I have dedicated engineering”, and as expressed by the Musk, it is because of this skill has the opportunity to do something even better.
And yet the riddle of Elon musk and his incredible success is not so easy to explain. Although he really managed to bring these two companies, SpaceX and Tesla, from nowhere to a multi-billion dollar industries, making things, it is important to remember that the first success he has achieved in the companies that did not produce anything physical at all. So his secret additive will be much more difficult than it seems.
Genius technology with unprecedented foresight (visions, as it is called) occupies a strange place in contemporary culture, as shown by the debate on the topic of Steve jobs who he was and what he had done. Now you can call two people who occupy a similar place in the minds of the people: mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. When the interviewer first addressed this topic in conversation with Musk, mentioning a new film with Danny Boyle on the Steve Jobs, Musk it straightened, not because I didn’t see him — and not intended — but because: “I already saw the one with Ashton Kutcher and I think it is quite good — I think Ashton did a good job”.
Did the Mask on the legacy of Steve jobs? Was there anything in his thoughts or aspirations?
“I think the important things,” he says, ” and not what people will think of me in the future. I’ll be dead. But my actions, will they be useful?”.
I guess you can’t be completely indifferent to what people think of you.
“However, I don’t like when people hate me. But someone like that, you don’t know?”.
A common stereotype about figures like jobs and the Mask, the result is that, on the one hand, they are geniuses-visionaries, on the other — is deeply mired in their own personalities.
“Of course, he says. I mean, when I met Steve jobs, he was a jerk. And everyone I knew who met him…”. He paused in mid-sentence and asked him to forget his answer. “I’m sorry. Nevermind. The last thing I need is extra…”.
There are, no doubt, very specific reason for this sudden confusion, if you remember the hype involving Musk and Apple. But before the journalist asked the Mask, he decided to push it even more uncomfortable to the point of contact with the jobs. Musk explained that the jobs he was introduced to Larry page of Google at a party and that jobs did not know who he is, so nothing personal about it at all. “I mean, the only experience that I had with jobs, not beyond the scope of a personal meeting. The last thing I need is to generate unnecessary hostility, so you know. This is not good”.
According to the materials of GQ, to be continued