I just rewatched the Piers Morgan interview of Neil deGrasse Tyson about Elon’s Mars endeavor, and it is just infuriating to me how dismissive and arrogant this guy was about the idea. With all due respect, this attitude comes across as quite ignorant to me.
I’m going to take a shot at explaining Elon’s point and reasoning as I understood it. I dare say that, because he is not the world’s No. 1 speaker (he’s No. 1 at a lot of stuff, but not this), I think he wasn’t successful in presenting the level of clarity needed to make his intent and motivation understood. Therefore, even the brightest minds seem to not grasp the full purpose of Elon’s endeavor and take it quite literally.
I think this is actually so much more than just getting to Mars! I dare to say that, from all my comprehension of Elon, I’ve managed to tap into his thinking process—not just about this Mars venture, but life, problems, and the big picture—and I think I understand the motor driving his Mars vision.
Let’s begin! If and when we (as humans) get to safely go to Mars, then master technologies and practical abilities that can transform the existing conditions into ones suitable for human life—with all that it implies—that would be the moment when we would have a strong understanding and capability to manipulate science and technology to expand the human species and consciousness.
Only then we can push the limits and apply all this knowledge to go even farther and, in time, develop a proficiency in progressing and moving forward when any risks arise, escaping extinction, while also gaining great knowledge about the universe and about ourselves in the process. But this is the final goal and in order to be achieved millions of other small steps need to be taken.
Getting back to the beginning of Elon’s assertions about this, he said, “We need to make human consciousness MULTIplanetary,” which does not, by any means, translate into literally just taking people from Earth and moving them to Mars. That’s ridiculous! Living on Mars could potentially present many of the same extinction risks as living on Earth, so getting to Mars doesn’t definitively solve the problem of preserving human consciousness. But once you’ve done that, you’ve made a huge leap toward succeeding!
The point is that this is a long-term effort, and we need to start taking steps in this direction if we ever hope to preserve this precious human wonder. Also, it’s strikingly clear that even the Mars endeavor alone is something that wouldn’t be entirely solvable or “finalizable” during one person’s life, in this case, Elon’s. Maybe and hopefully AI will help much with this and I think Elon is betting a lot on it.
So, basically, the main problem is that there are very—and I mean very—few people (to the point that, obviously, right now we only have this single unique human) who have this vision that extends beyond the immediate problems of humanity. And if people generally can’t at least try to broaden their thinking, these steps will never be taken.
Also, I think Elon has a clear and deep understanding of all these aspects and challenges and, beyond singlehandedly trying to make some progress in this direction—while attempting to convince everybody else why this isn’t a whim but a necessity for the good of humanity—he also struggles with the reality of his practical inability to see this through over the entire process, as it clearly extends beyond any human lifespan. Furthermore, I think he also struggles with the burden or at least thinking about finding that one person who matches his vision and intelligence, to whom he could pass this on to be continued and eventually achieved.
So... after wrapping our heads around all that, we shouldn't so superficially dismiss the idea, but instead appreciate having this amazing man with this amazing mind, who’s core driver for all his endeavours is the good of humanity and who can understand so much more than we can and strives to shelter and preserve this fragile essence of humanity.
by Ariana Jordan