Erik Nordeus - The Engineer

The big question is why we should begin living on other planets when we still have problems here on Earth. We tend to be negative to the world. It’s easy since the Earth is in a mess with never ending civil wars, dictators with nuclear weapons, and people who can’t find clean water. But remember that Elon is a big fan of facts and they say that the world is becoming a better and better place to live in. We are just not seeing it. “If anyone thinks they’d rather be in a different part of history, they’re probably not a very good student of history,” Elon said. “Life sucked in the old days. People knew very little, and you were likely to die at a young age of some horrible disease. You’d probably have no teeth by now.” 117

In an interview, Elon referred to the article A History of Violence by Steven Pinker. The article reveals that the world has become a better place to live in. According to Pinker’s research, the murder rate has declined from 24 homicides per 100 000 Englishmen in the 14th century to 0.6 by the early 1960s. The number of battle deaths in interstate wars has declined from more than 65 000 per year in the 1950s to less than 2000 per year. 303

Hans Rosling, who is a Swedish medical doctor and public speaker, has shown that we have preconceived conceptions about the global health. In a survey, he asked several questions about our world’s health. One of the questions was, “What do you think is the life expectancy in the world as a whole today?” 24 percent answered 50 years, 54 percent answered 60 years, and 22 percent answered 70 years. What do you think? The correct answer is 70 years. Another question was, “What percentage of adults in the world today can read and write?” The correct answer is 80 percent, but only 22 percent of the polled chose that answer. 444

The reason why we are more negative to the world than we should be is simple: We read newspapers both offline and online and watch the news on television. “The daily news media tends to focus on the worst thing occurring in the world at any given point,” Elon said. “It should be called ‘What is the worst thing on Earth today?’ There is something in the human psyche that tends to place a weight on negative stuff, more than positive.” 357

Rolf Dobelli released the report Avoid News – Towards a Healthy News Diet . The idea behind the report is that human beings are still cavemen. Our brains are optimized for our original hunter-gatherer environment where we lived in small groups with limited sources of information. We now live in a world where news is available in abundance, and we can’t handle it. Dobelli argued that news media focus on the visible. While they display whatever information that include dramatic stories and pictures, they ignore the less dramatic stories, even if that material is more important. They show when an airplane has crashed, but we don’t hear anything about our bodies increased resistance to antibiotics, which is much more dangerous but doesn’t feature any dramatic pictures. 304It’s not strange that journalists have a saying: “If it bleeds, it leads.”

What’s often forgotten is what we may discover when we begin living on other planets. The cure for cancer? The solution to the food crises around the world? “We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man. I realize that this is in some measure an act of faith and vision, for we do not now know what benefits await us,” the former US President, John F Kennedy, explained in a famous speech from 1962. 19

Elon has similar ideas as Kennedy. “If we are able to establish life on another planet, it requires us to learn a lot about climate and maintaining a climate equilibrium,” he said. “So there’s a huge amount we would have to learn in trying to establish life in a hostile environment and that we then could translate back to Earth.” 358

Several new ideas are the result from unexpectedness. While Alexander Graham Bell tried to invent a hearing aid when he invented the telephone, Christopher Columbus discovered America when he tried to find the shortest passage to India. Alexander Fleming discovered the medical virtues of penicillin when the mold infiltrated a sample he had left by an open window.

Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple, argued that technology always moves us forward. “I realize that when engineers create something there is often an argument that the creation could be used for bad or good. Like the atomic bomb,” he said. “Inside my head – and this is what has really stayed with me – I came to the view that basically, yes, technology is good and not bad. People argue about this all the time, but I have no doubts about it at all. I believe technology moves us forward. Always.” 17

There are several examples where new technologies have improved the world. During the Cold War, Vice President George Bush encouraged Apple to get computers into Russia to “foment revolution from below.” 3Several of the world’s 70 space endeavors aim to improve communications, mapping, and weather observations with the help of satellites. India is a poor country, but India has a space program. In 1999, a cyclone hit India’s east coast and killed more than 10 000 people. But because of satellites, a recent cyclone killed only a few people. Indian weather satellites had helped to predict where and when the storm would hit. 414

Yet another reason why we need a space program is less visible. Before NASA launched a Saturn V rocket, Ralph Abernathy arrived to the launch site. After the assassination of Martin Luther King, Abernathy became the new leader of the Poor People’s Campaign, which was an effort to gain economic justice for poor people in the US. Together with hundreds of people, he protested against what they thought was a waste of money. “We are protesting America’s inability to choose the proper priorities,” Abernathy said. “It’s really not about the capability to do this, it’s this money that’s going to the Moon, this money’s going to be on the Moon, and it should be being spent on these people down here on Earth.” 15

Before the countdown to launch hit zero, NASA invited Abernathy to watch the launch from the VIP area. “If it were possible for us not to push the button tomorrow and solve the problems with which you are concerned, we would not push the button,” a NASA employee told the group when they entered the area. 15

Miles away from the launch platform, everyone in the VIP area could feel the vibrations as the Saturn V launched and roared away from Earth. “I succumbed to the awe-inspiring launch. I was one of the proudest Americans as I stood on this soil,” Abernathy said after the launch. “This is really holy ground. And it will be more holy once we feed the hungry, care for the sick, and provide for those who do not have houses.” 28What had happened was that the vision of the space program had inspired Abernathy. For just two minutes, he had forgotten there were citizens too poor to afford food.

Inspiration is often a forgotten result of an endeavor. Elon thought a new space program could inspire people. “I think we’re at the dawn of a new era and I think it’s going to be very exciting,” he said. “What we’re hoping to do is to push the envelope and provide a reason for people to be excited and inspired to be human. Literally over a billion people saw that mission [the Moon landing]. People walked hundreds of miles to the only television set available in one village.” 308,365

Elon Musk wasn’t sure if he could work within the three areas that in the future will most affect the future of humanity. No matter what Elon is working with, he believes he can affect the world in a positive way by working with it, and he believes that’s the most important factor when founding a new company. But he added that it wouldn’t hurt if he also could make money from his endeavors.