Karim Jebari on Elon Musk, longtermism, cyberpunk, and the future.
Elon Musk is known to be one of the wealthiest people in the world. His company SpaceX aims to one day colonize Mars, his other company Tesla makes electric cars, including the retro-futuristic Cybertruck, and he has been appointed the head of the “Department of Government Efficiency” by newly elected president Donald Trump. But where do his ideas come from? What inspires him? And why should we care? Karim Jebari joined the panel on Kulturnyheterna special on Swedish television channel SVT to discuss the ideas behind one of the most powerful men of our time. Among these ideas, longtermism has become prominent in recent years.
“Longtermism is the belief that what is most important is to promote the long-term future, and the long-term survival of humanity – sometimes at the expense of the present”, says Jebari. “I definitely believe that Musk has been highly influenced by this philosophy, and it becomes apparent through his aspiration to colonize Mars. The problem is that it is not evident that colonizing Mars would reduce existential risk. If we were to do such a thing, we would need to build space rockets that could take us there. And if you can do that, then you can also use them as weapons here on Earth. A Mars colony would also be very, very vulnerable to attacks for a very long time, so the extent to which it would make us safer is not so clear”.
Elon Musk is a fan of the video game Cyberpunk 2077, something that has affected both his business ventures and his vision of the future.
“You can see how the video game aesthetic has influenced the design of the Cybertruck, which is a very explicit reference to the game and the cyberpunk aesthetic. I think it’s interesting that if you go to the authors of the cyberpunk genre of the 80’s and 90’s, they were clearly describing a dystopia. They wrote stories to warn us about societies dominated by hypercapitalism, commercialism, heightened inequality, and different forms of de-humanization. But the way Musk describes it and draws inspiration from it, it seems as though he views it as a utopia, not a dystopia. He thinks it’s cool, and that makes it utopian for him.”
Karim Jebari thinks it is important to analyze the visions of the future that inspire Musk and other tech billionaires.
“There are many different utopian visions of the future, especially among sci-fi authors. The reason we’re talking specifically about Elon Musk is that he has a great deal of power. It’s reasonable to discuss and scrutinize him and his visions. A vision can be very interesting, but when it comes from someone with so much power, there are reasons to be skeptical, worried, or critical.”
“I think it’s interesting to analyze how different groups at different times have defined western narratives. During the 13th century, it was the Vatican, and before that other groups were considered authorized to articulate the future. Today, it’s Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley isn’t only a place where some of the most highly valued companies are located, but also where many individuals regarded as prophets of our time can be found. This is not just Elon Musk, there are several other people whose words carry significant weight in today’s world. I believe their perspectives, backgrounds, and education will shape, and have already shaped, many of the narratives and stories we tell.”