Elon Musk talks Neuralink plans, electric airplanes, smokes weed

Elon Musk, the multibillionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, makes a ruckus with 280-character tweets, so is it smart to let him rant for two and a half hours on video?

Well, we’ve just found out. 

Musk was a guest on Joe Rogan’s podcast Thursday evening, and boy did they have a lot of topics to go through. 

In contrast to a recent interview with The New York Times, in which Musk opened up on the emotional, psychological, and physical toll of working as CEO of several high-profile companies, he’s been closer to his Twitter persona on Rogan’s show (and no, I don’t mean the one that seemingly baselessly accuses divers of being pedophiles). 

Inside the mind of Elon Musk

The show — all two-and-a-half hours of it — is a fascinating look into the mind of Musk, and we’re sure many interested parties — including Tesla shareholders — will be dissecting it to see if he’s still fit for leadership. Because, in the first ten minutes of the podcast, Musk utters the following sentences:

“The flamethrower was a terrible idea.” (answering Rogan’s questions about the Not-A-Flamethrower, a joke-turned-real that’s been sold through Musk’s Boring Company.)

“I’m not saying the Boring Company will succeed.” 

“I might have some mutation, or something like that.” (answering Rogan’s question whether he’s different from most humans.)

“I think I will not be able to hold a candle to AI.”

And that’s just the beginning; much later in the interview, around the 2:10:00 mark, Musk appears to be smoking weed. 

AI, the limits of human intelligence, and electric airplanes

Rogan, who besides being a commentator for UFC and host of a paranormal TV show called Joe Rogan Questions Everything, is great at getting Musk to talk about topics that are on the verge of science — or are at least very futuristic. A good portion of the conversation revolves around AI and the future of humanity: 

“The percentage of intelligence that’s not human is increasing, and eventually, we will represent a very small percentage of intelligence,” Musk says at one point. Moments later, he says, “All the things that we like and hate and fear, they’re all there, on the internet, they’re a projection of our limbic system,” and even Rogan starts laughing at that one. 

It’s not just idle talk; according to Musk, his brain-computer interface company Neuralink will have “something interesting to announce in a few months, that’s at least an order of magnitude better than anything else; probably better than anyone thinks is possible.”

The two also dive into the possibility of our reality being a computer simulation, a topic Musk has been quite vocal about in the past. The best moment of that conversation happens when, for a moment, Musk gets strangely poetic.

“The universe as we know it will dissipate into a cold mist of nothingness,” he says, slowly. 

Besides being a cool listen for anyone interested in futuristic concepts like AI singularity (an idea popularized by futurists including Ray Kurzweil, in which artificial intelligence massively surpasses human intelligence at some point in the [near] future), the podcast has Musk actually revealing some new ideas, including plans for an electric, VTOL (vertical take-off and landing), supersonic airplane (around the 1:15:00 mark). It doesn’t sound like something Musk’s planning to build very soon, though. 

“The electric airplane isn’t necessary right now. Electric cars are important, solar energy is important, stationary storage of energy is important. These things are much more important than creating electric supersonic VTOL,” he says, likely to the collective relief of all Tesla shareholders. 

“How the f*** do you have the time to make a car dance ballet?”

A fairly small portion of the show is about Tesla cars, which is interesting given that company has been in the headlines more than any other Musk company recently. You have to feel for Musk, who at times appears to channel his inner child who just wants to make cars that are fun. 

“I think a Tesla is the most fun thing you can buy, ever … It’s not exactly a car, it’s actually a thing to maximize enjoyment,” he says. 

Indirectly, though, Musk touches on Tesla’s importance by talking about sustainable energy and the hazardous consequences of humanity being too reliant on fossil fuels. 

“The momentum towards sustainable energy is too slow,” he says. “The scientific consensus is overwhelming. I don’t know of any serious scientist — it’s literally zero — that doesn’t think there’s a serious climate risk that we’re facing.” 

A recurring question from Rogan is “How the hell do you have time to do all of the stuff that you do,” and Musk never really give a solid answer to that. It’s a pity, cause I’d really like to know, too. 

Weed is legal in California, luckily

And then there’s the weed smoking. To be honest, after the conversation the two have had until that point, it’s not even that surprising. 

It appears Rogan has had this planned from the get go, as he mentions smoking a joint earlier in the show, but it’s still cool to see the two share a spliff.

“Is that a joint,” Musk asks as Rogan lights it. “I think I’ve tried it once before…It’s legal, right?” He then takes a puff, and makes that face every marijuana newbie does after they first light up — the face that says “this thing isn’t working on me.”

By the way, recreational weed is legal in California, so don’t worry about Musk getting into legal trouble for this. 

It’s not the only weird moment on the show. At the 54:10 mark, Rogan tells Musk he’s got a real samurai sword from the 1500s, and that’s how we got the photo, below. 

Judging by the way he’s holding that sword, Musk’s not Iron Man, but who knows, he may be deceiving us on purpose. 

Fans of Musk, haters of Musk, everyone else: Watch the video. It’s interesting, covers an amazing range of topics, and gives you an unprecedented insight into the mind of one of most powerful billionaires on the planet. And also, you get to see the CEO of Tesla smoke a joint.