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Oct. 31, 2023 - The Joe Rogan Experience
02:41:01
Joe Rogan Experience #2054 - Elon Musk
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e
elon musk
01:16:35
j
joe rogan
01:11:08
Appearances
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j
jamie vernon
00:36
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Speaker Time Text
unidentified
Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out!
The Joe Rogan Experience.
Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day Have you seen that before?
joe rogan
Did people get you one of those?
Yeah He's awesome He's awesome He's pretty edgy It's amazing that he puts out a piece of art per day 365 days a year.
elon musk
Yeah.
I was following him on the X platform, FKA Twitter, but some of it was too jarring.
joe rogan
Too jarring, some of the images?
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Well, cheers, sir, and happy Halloween.
unidentified
Cheers.
joe rogan
Thanks for doing this.
Appreciate it.
elon musk
You're welcome.
joe rogan
Thanks for rolling up in this hybrid truck, too.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
I got a chance to look at it in the factory, but that was almost, what was that, like a year and a half ago or so?
elon musk
Was it?
joe rogan
It was a while ago.
elon musk
Yeah, a year ago, I guess.
joe rogan
Yeah, at least a year.
elon musk
At least a year.
joe rogan
And it's different in real life.
Like, you see it in person.
Images are just...
We were talking about it outside.
You just can't contextualize them.
elon musk
Yes.
joe rogan
It looks so odd that you have to see it in the flesh.
elon musk
It looks like computer graphics in reality.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's the coolest-looking fucking production card that's ever been made.
elon musk
It's world-proof, literally.
joe rogan
Literally, yeah.
elon musk
One of the videos...
We're going to show is just going all, like, full Al Capone.
Just, like, if Al Capone showed up and emptied a, you know, the entire magazine of a Tommy gun into the side of the car, you'd be okay.
joe rogan
The only thing that's not bulletproof is the glass.
elon musk
The glass is optionally bulletproof.
joe rogan
Oh, it is optional?
elon musk
Well, you can make anything bulletproof if you want, but the glass has to be very thick for it to be bulletproof, so it can't go up and down.
So if you want a fixed glass...
joe rogan
Then how do you order drive-through?
elon musk
Yeah, exactly.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's a problem.
You gotta pull ahead and open the door and get out.
elon musk
But it's okay, you can just duck.
joe rogan
Yeah, you can just duck.
How far away are you from delivering them to people?
Has anybody gotten them yet?
elon musk
We planted our first deliveries next month.
Oh, wow.
joe rogan
So now it's just testing and fucking around?
elon musk
The hard part by far is manufacturing, not designing the car.
There's just not really a movie about that, but there should be.
So, in the sort of...
You know, the movies will always be about the sort of inventor who invented the car and then the job is done.
joe rogan
Right.
elon musk
Or invented the object, now the job is done.
This is not true.
That's the easy part.
The hard part is manufacturing by far.
joe rogan
Why is it so much harder than making an individual model?
elon musk
Well, in order to make it affordable, you have to make it at volume.
So you've got to make everything at a higher rate, consistently, If you tour the production line, you'd have a sense for it.
You've got to have all of the casting machines, all of the stamping machines, as the case may be, the glass machines, the wheels, the tires, everything required from the motor, the battery cells, all of the constituents of the battery cells, all of the silicon that goes in there with the chips.
It is.
The manufacturing is somewhere between 100 and 1,000 times harder than making a prototype.
Whoa!
And then if you want to say, like, you want to get from, once you reach volume manufacturing, which is insanely difficult, then you want to make the car affordable, it's harder to, say, reduce the cost of the car by 20% than it is to get to volume production in the first place.
I really cannot emphasize enough how hard production is relative to design.
I'm not saying the design is trivial, because you have to have taste and you have to know what to make.
If you don't have a taste in judgment, then your prototype will be bad.
But it is trivial, really, to churn out prototypes, and it is extremely difficult to build a factory.
joe rogan
And how much more difficult is it to make this, considering the body's made out of steel?
elon musk
Very difficult.
The difficulty of manufacturing is proportionate to the amount of new technology that you have in a car or in the product.
In this case, there's a lot of new technology.
The production line will move as fast as the slowest and least lucky and most foolish part of the entire production line.
And you could say, to first approximation, there are 10,000 things that have to go right, at least, for production to work.
So if you have 9,999 things that are working and one that isn't, that sets the production rate.
Yeah.
By far the hard work.
In fact, the really...
The amazing thing about automobiles was not so much the invention of the automobile but the invention of the factory, the mass manufacturing.
And for that, Henry Ford deserves a tremendous amount of credit.
He was a next-level genius.
In fact, Ford is really responsible for the entire mass manufacturing industry because he actually found a Cadillac, which was the heart of General Motors, then got kicked out and then started Ford.
unidentified
Really?
elon musk
Yeah, and everyone just copied him.
joe rogan
Do you know he made one of his first cars out of hemp?
unidentified
Well...
joe rogan
He used hemp fiber for the panels.
elon musk
Okay.
joe rogan
Yeah, there's a fascinating video of him banging on it with a hammer.
Because hemp is bizarrely durable when it's compressed and when they take the fibers and I don't know what kind of epoxy they use or something to put it all together.
But what it makes with the actual physical form of it is insanely light.
Like fiberglass light, but very, very durable.
See if you can find that video.
It's kind of crazy.
Henry Ford is banging on, I believe it was the hood of it, with a hammer.
There it is.
So this was like, look at that.
Isn't that crazy?
elon musk
That was wild.
joe rogan
I don't know why they stopped making them out of that.
That was from 1941. How much does the Cybertruck weigh?
elon musk
It depends on configuration, but it's about 7,000 pounds.
There's different versions, but 6,000, 7,000 pounds.
It's like similar to, like it's a heavy truck.
joe rogan
Like a Ford F-250 or something like that?
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
And it, because of all of the metal and the weight and everything like that, but with the engines that you have, it's still, the 0-60 is pretty bizarre, right?
It's like 3.5 or something like that?
elon musk
We're aiming to get the zero to sixty below three seconds.
joe rogan
Below three?
elon musk
Yes.
unidentified
Wow.
elon musk
For the, you know, the beast mode version.
So we've got a beast mode version.
So there's – well, I don't want to give it all away right now, but there are three demonstrations.
One of them people are aware of, which is emptying a Tommy gun into the side of the car, a shotgun.45 and a 9mm, and no penetrations.
And it comes that way from the factory.
joe rogan
Can I try it with an arrow?
elon musk
Yeah, it'll be fine.
You think so?
joe rogan
I bet I can get in there.
elon musk
A crossbow might...
joe rogan
I have a 90-pound compound bow that shoots 520 grain arrows at 300 feet per second with a razor-sharp broadhead.
elon musk
We'll try it right now if you want.
joe rogan
I wish I had it with me.
elon musk
Is it at your house or something?
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
Should we send someone to go get it?
We could do the demo tonight.
joe rogan
That would be interesting.
elon musk
Maybe I'll drive back with an arrow sticking out of my car.
joe rogan
I bet I could get in there.
elon musk
Okay, I'll bet you can't.
unidentified
Really?
elon musk
Yeah, I'll bet you a dollar.
joe rogan
Damn!
elon musk
I think if you have a crossbow that's with enough force, a crossbow might get it through.
joe rogan
The thing about a crossbow is the bolt, even though it's very fast, it's not going to be nearly as heavy.
You won't have as many grains.
elon musk
You can make a heavy crossbow bolt.
joe rogan
You could, yeah.
But generally, crossbow bolts are considerably lighter.
They're much smaller, you know, and they're much faster.
They're moving at like 400, 500 feet per second.
Easy.
elon musk
Yeah.
I mean, the thing that matters is kind of the energy per unit area.
So interesting, like a 9-mile or a 45, which is basically sort of a 10-mile, the 45 is – they're roughly the same, but the 45 actually is slightly worse penetration than a 9-mile.
joe rogan
You know what I just realized?
I do have some broadheads.
I do have some broadheads, and I have a less powerful bow, but I have an 80-pound bow back there.
I think we should do it.
elon musk
Absolutely.
joe rogan
Okay.
You want to do it right now?
elon musk
Yeah, I can do it right now.
joe rogan
Okay, let's do it right now.
unidentified
Let's find out.
elon musk
Fuck yeah, let's do it.
Sick.
unidentified
We'll be right back.
elon musk
This could be funny.
I'm just like, why does he have an arrow sticking out of his car?
joe rogan
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elon musk
I mean, just beware of ricochets.
You might want to do it with a slight angle.
unidentified
You know what I mean?
Damn!
Look at that.
Barely, but still a scratcher.
Oh, my God.
Look at this.
joe rogan
Blew the arrow apart.
unidentified
Flatten the tip of the arrow.
Look at the tip of the broad end.
joe rogan
That's impressive.
elon musk
Hey cutie.
unidentified
Thank you.
joe rogan
Well now we know.
So we just shot an arrow into it and it barely scratched it.
Bailey scratched it.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
It was probably moving 275 feet a second.
That was a 525 grain-ish arrow with...
Yeah, even more than that because it had the 125 grain head so that was 545 grains.
That's impressive.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Very impressive.
It just destroyed the broadhead.
The broadhead flattened at the tip and then the arrow blew apart.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Amazing.
elon musk
Yeah.
Like I said, we have a cool video we'll show at the Handover event next month, which is emptying an entire magazine of a Tommy gun, which I think is on the order of 50 rounds.
You're just going full Al Capone on the side of the car.
Shotgun, 9mm,.45.
joe rogan
And you built it like this just for fun?
elon musk
Essentially?
Because it's cooler?
joe rogan
Because you can?
elon musk
You know, trucks are supposed to be tough, right?
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
So, is your truck bulletproof?
joe rogan
No, mine's definitely not.
elon musk
Exactly.
joe rogan
And if I shot mine with my bow, it would go right through it.
100%.
100%.
elon musk
So, if you shoot any normal car, unlike in the movies where people hide behind car doors, a car door is basically very thin, mild steel.
So, if you shoot a gun through a regular truck, it'll go through both doors.
So...
You can't hide behind a car door like they do in the movies.
Way back in the day, dating myself with the A-Team, where they would be bullets flying everywhere and they'd be hiding behind the car door.
joe rogan
Right.
elon musk
That doesn't work.
But it does in the Cybertruck.
It's best in apocalyptic technology.
joe rogan
It's an amazing car to have in the apocalypse.
Does it still do this thing where the ride height raises?
And there's also no regular drive trains, so there's no axles that are the impediment to going over rocks and things like that?
elon musk
In other vehicles, gasoline or diesel vehicles, you've got the differential, which hangs down low between the rear wheels.
So you look under a truck, there's almost always a differential there that's hanging down pretty low.
So if you hit the diff on a rock, you'll break it.
The bottom of the side truck is completely flat and has the best clear height of any vehicle.
joe rogan
How far away are we, if it's ever gonna happen at all, from having a vehicle that can operate entirely on solar?
elon musk
Well, you've got a surface area thing.
So it's about a kilowatt per square meter, normal to the sun, roughly.
So it really depends on what kind of mileage.
You don't have enough surface area to keep the car going just from the car surface area.
But if you had something that folded out, you could make it self-sustaining.
joe rogan
Something that folded out so you could park it and then leave it on.
elon musk
Yeah, you'd have to unfold like the Starlink satellites do where you unfold the solar panels.
You just need more surface area.
joe rogan
Is there any potential for an advancement in technology that would make a smaller area much better at conducting sun?
unidentified
Nothing?
elon musk
No, it's a kilowatt per square meter.
That's what you're going to get when the sun, if you're normal to the sun, so 90 degrees to the sun.
joe rogan
And there's nothing that could accelerate that or no...
elon musk
That's just literally the solar energy.
joe rogan
That's just it.
elon musk
Yeah, so then you multiply your efficiency by that.
So if your commercial panel is like maybe 25-set efficient, if they're a good one, so you get like 250 watts per square meter.
joe rogan
There was one car, what was it, like a Fisker, that was using a solar panel that claimed that it was operating like the electronics, like it could start the radio.
elon musk
Yeah.
I mean, you can definitely—you just don't have enough service area for it.
But, like, certainly you could run a house with solar, with the solar roof.
With the Tesla solar roof, you can run a house.
joe rogan
But it's never going to get to a point where you can just have a car that's made out of solar panels that it could drive around.
It could never be that efficient.
elon musk
Correct.
You don't have enough service area.
joe rogan
What research or what breakthroughs have been made in terms of battery technology?
Like, how far away are we from having batteries that are far more efficient and last far longer?
I know there's some talk of, like, sodium-based batteries.
elon musk
The battery range is not a problem at this point.
I mean, the Model S will go 400 miles, Model 3, Model Y will do over 300 miles.
That's more than most people need.
joe rogan
How far away are we from making batteries that are more efficient?
elon musk
This is not really a constraint.
The point at which you've got a car that can do, let's say, even at highway speeds, 250 miles.
Let's say you turn 40 miles at 80 miles an hour.
Now you're driving for three hours straight.
And so if you start a trip at, say, 9 a.m., by noon you want to stop for lunch, go to the restroom, grab a coffee.
By the time you come back, your car is charged.
joe rogan
How long does it take to fully charge?
elon musk
Yeah, like half an hour.
People will get used to it because it's a little different.
Like for a gasoline car, you'd want to fill it up.
For an electric car, you'd want to actually go very close to zero.
And the car can calculate how much range it has with precision.
So if you, say, enter a road trip in a Tesla, it'll calculate all of the supercharges along the way, where is your stuff, how much you should charge, and just let the computer do its thing and it'll work well.
So you actually want to charge to about 80% and then run it down all the way to 10% or less.
joe rogan
Do you want to do that on everyday use as well or just with long trips?
elon musk
No, just long trips.
If you're trying to minimize the amount of time, you stop when charging.
So let's say you want to stop for 20, 30 minutes.
It's a little counterintuitive because for a gasoline car, you would fill it up.
For a battery, the charge state tapers off as you get above 80%.
You can think of it like the, I think the right analogy here is cars in a parking lot.
So the lithium ions are trying to find a parking space as they move across, you know, from one side of the battery to the other side, from, you know, cathode, anode.
I mean, they're sort of, just these ions are just bouncing around looking for a parking space.
So when the parking lot's empty, they can zip right in there and find a spot.
It's easy.
As the parking lot gets full, just like trying to find a parking space at a mall, you have to hunt around for a spot.
And that's basically what's going on.
The ions are looking for a parking spot.
So as the battery gets closer to full, it's harder and harder to find a spot.
They have to bounce around more.
joe rogan
So it takes longer to get from 80 to 100. Correct.
elon musk
Getting from 80 to 100, it takes about as much time as getting from 0 to 80. Oh.
Just think of like the island's got to find a parking spot.
joe rogan
Oh.
elon musk
And just like if you're in a mall and it's busy, then it takes longer to find a parking spot than if it's empty.
joe rogan
So essentially you're satisfied with the technology that's available right now in terms of like the amount of mileage that you get out of it and things along those lines.
elon musk
Yeah, range is not an issue.
Cost is more of an issue.
So you just need to make the car affordable.
A long-range car needs to be affordable.
joe rogan
When you fully roll out, how many of those things, how many Cybertrucks can you guys make a month?
elon musk
We're aiming to make about 200,000 a year at volume production.
unidentified
Wow!
elon musk
Maybe a little more.
But I just can't emphasize enough that manufacturing is much, much harder than the initial design.
The Cybertruck was easy to design.
I'm not trying to trivialize design.
It's just what I'm trying to do is to emphasize the difficulty of manufacturing, which is not understood by the public because there's no movie about it.
So there's lots of movies about the sort of wild inventor in the garage, but I'm not aware of any movie about manufacturing.
Have you ever heard of a movie about manufacturing?
joe rogan
I can't remember any.
Jamie?
Any movie about manufacturing?
jamie vernon
There's one coming in my brain, but I don't think that's what it's even about, so I have no idea.
joe rogan
What is that?
Michael Keaton was making some cars somewhere.
unidentified
I was going to look it up.
elon musk
I mean, it's Tommy Boy.
unidentified
Yes.
joe rogan
Tommy Boy's the only one.
elon musk
That's a great movie.
joe rogan
It's a great movie!
That might be the only one.
That's interesting that it's such an immense part of American culture and also the decline of some American cities.
I mean, it's famously documented in Roger and Me, a great documentary, where he just talks about how Flint got destroyed when they pulled out the car manufacturing.
elon musk
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, there's a reason why generally politicians really try very hard to get a factory in their area is because it's a massive generator of jobs.
And for every factory job, there's like roughly five support jobs.
So it's like teachers, electricians, plumbers, lawyers, accountants, restaurants.
So there's So manufacturing is kind of like a nucleus from which many jobs spring.
That's why it's generally, you know, governors and prime ministers and presidents will try so hard to get a factory in their country or region.
joe rogan
When you decided to build the Gigafactory, even when you decided to get involved with Tesla, did you have any idea of how difficult this would be?
Did you have a preconceived notion?
elon musk
I thought it would be very difficult.
I thought our probability of success was less than 10%.
Yeah, I mean, it would be foolish to think anything else other than that.
I mean, even at this point, the only car companies that have not gone bankrupt are Ford and Tesla, the American car companies.
General Motors went bankrupt and Chrysler went bankrupt in 2009. There's some chance they'll go bankrupt again.
Ford and Tesla barely made it.
It was incredibly difficult to keep Tesla alive when General Motors and Chrysler were going bankrupt.
Because manufacturing is the actual hard thing, by far the hard thing.
I just can't emphasize that enough, and I hope somebody makes a movie about that.
joe rogan
Maybe they should make a movie about Tesla.
elon musk
Sure.
unidentified
Why not?
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Perfect.
Who would you want to play you?
elon musk
I don't care.
joe rogan
How about David Spade?
elon musk
Anyone.
unidentified
I don't care.
joe rogan
I'm kidding.
elon musk
I don't care if anyone plays me.
unidentified
But I do think that this— I just went back to Tommy Boy.
elon musk
Yeah.
I think we rocked.
So, you know, Jim Foley is the CEO of Ford, and he's Chris Foley's cousin.
joe rogan
No way.
elon musk
Yes.
joe rogan
Wow.
That's crazy.
elon musk
Yes.
joe rogan
That's crazy.
elon musk
And they look—I mean, they look related.
unidentified
Yeah, there should be a movie.
joe rogan
Yeah.
You've got to get someone good that doesn't fuck it up.
elon musk
Well, I mean, the thing is that writers are just disconnected from manufacturing.
They just never see it.
Right.
And I guess you have to try to create some narrative arc.
Yeah.
I mean, there are some shows like How It's Made type of thing, but they're pretty niche.
I know I have a broken record here, but I can't emphasize enough that it is insanely difficult to manufacture.
joe rogan
Makes sense.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Well, it particularly makes sense when it's something that novel.
Something is...
But ultimately, cool as fuck.
Yeah.
What has it been like?
You've owned X for a year now.
elon musk
Oh, yeah.
joe rogan
Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and have a dream that you didn't do it?
And your life is infinitely easier?
elon musk
Well, it's certainly...
A recipe for trouble, I suppose, or contention.
joe rogan
What was it ultimately that led you to make the decision to do it?
elon musk
I mean this is going to sound somewhat melodramatic but I was worried about that it was having a corrosive effect on civilization.
And That it was just having a bad impact.
I think part of it is that it's where it was located, which is downtown San Francisco.
And while I think San Francisco is a beautiful city and we should really fight hard to kind of right the ship of San Francisco, if you've walked around downtown San Francisco, right near the ex-FK Twitter headquarters, it's a zombie apocalypse.
I mean, it's rough.
Have you been in that area?
joe rogan
Not lately.
No.
I've heard.
elon musk
It's crazy.
joe rogan
I've heard it's crazy.
I've heard you really can't believe it until you actually go there.
elon musk
You can't believe it until you go there.
So, now you have to say, well, what philosophy led to that outcome?
And that philosophy was being piped to Earth.
So, you know, a philosophy that would be ordinarily quite niche and geographically constrained, so that sort of the fallout area would be limited, was effectively given an information...
A weapon.
An information technology weapon to propagate what is essentially a mind virus to the rest of both.
And the outcome of that mind virus is very clear if you walk around the streets of downtown San Francisco.
It is the end of civilization.
joe rogan
And it's not just propagating the mind virus but suppressing any opposing viewpoints.
elon musk
Yes.
Well, in order for the virus to propagate, it must suppress opposing viewpoints.
joe rogan
Because it doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
elon musk
Correct.
I mean, you've felt the virus.
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
People have tried to cancel you so many times.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's fascinating.
I don't think you're melodramatic at all.
I think it's a – I mean I don't want to be melodramatic but it's almost like a death cult.
elon musk
It's a death cult.
No, no.
That is exactly right.
It's essentially the extinctionists.
Like it's in the limit.
It is that they're propagating the extinction of humanity and civilization.
And there are some people who are – like most of the time it's implicit.
They don't – but sometimes it's explicit.
Like there was a guy on the front page of the New York Times who literally has the thing called the Extinctionist Movement and he was quoted on the front page of the New York Times as saying, there are 8 billion people in the world but it would be better if there were none.
And I'm like, well, buddy, you can start with yourself.
Yeah.
joe rogan
Does he have friends?
That's what always fascinates me.
Well, here he is.
unidentified
That guy.
joe rogan
He looks like he's not long for this earth.
elon musk
I mean, he's not young.
joe rogan
Voluntary human extinction movement.
That's hilarious.
I'd like to party with that dude.
I would just like to, like...
elon musk
That's an explicit version of the death cult.
joe rogan
Yeah, maybe live long and die out.
elon musk
I mean, it's not...
The extinction is a word he uses.
joe rogan
Yes.
elon musk
No, I mean, it's literally a self-description.
joe rogan
Did they cover him glowingly?
elon musk
That death cult was in charge of social media.
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
And still largely is at Google and Facebook, by the way.
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
So I'm like, I'm not in favor of human extinction.
They are, and they can go to hell.
joe rogan
Well, that guy is.
elon musk
Yeah.
He can go to hell.
joe rogan
That guy seems silly.
I would like to hang out with him, though.
I would like to find out what makes him tick.
I bet that guy is fascinating.
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unidentified
If you get them alone for a few days and dig in.
elon musk
I'm pro-environment, but in the limit, if you take environmentalism to an extreme, you start to view humanity as a plague on the surface of the earth, like a mold or something.
joe rogan
Right.
elon musk
But this is actually false.
The Earth could take probably 10 times the current civilization.
The population could be – you could 10x the population without destroying the rainforest.
So the environmental movement – and I'm an environmentalist – has gone too far.
They've gone way too far.
You know, if you start thinking that humans are bad, then the natural conclusion is humans should die out.
Now, I'm headed to an AI safety, international sort of AI safety conference later tonight, leaving in about three hours.
And I meet with the British Prime Minister and a number of other people.
So you have to say, like, how could AI go wrong?
Well, if AI gets programmed by the extinctionists, It will—its utility function will be the extinction of humanity.
joe rogan
Yeah, clearly.
elon musk
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, particularly if— They won't even think it's bad like that guy.
joe rogan
Right.
Yeah.
If you let AI— It's messed up.
There's a lot of decisions that AI would make that would be very similar to eugenics.
I mean, there would be some radical changes in what people are allowed to and not allowed to do that allow them to survive that may be detrimental in terms of pollution and things like that, but it may be the only solution they have in their area.
I mean, maybe AI would come up with some sort of a different structure in terms of how they get power and resources, There's no shortage of power.
elon musk
We talked about solar power for cars.
The issue is that cars just have a very low service area.
But you could actually power the entire United States with 100 miles by 100 miles of solar.
unidentified
Really?
elon musk
Yes.
joe rogan
So you could just pick some dead spot that you fly over.
elon musk
Which they owe plenty.
joe rogan
Cover that sucker up with solar panels and charge the whole country.
elon musk
Absolutely.
joe rogan
24-7.
elon musk
You need batteries, but yes.
joe rogan
Yeah.
unidentified
Wow.
elon musk
Yeah, it's not hard.
Meaning it's very feasible.
In fact, the sun is converting over 4 million tons of mass to energy every second.
And it's no maintenance.
That thing just works.
We have a giant fusion reactor in the sky that is the sun.
In fact, people are like, what about in a radiation?
I'm like, the sun is literally a nuclear reactor in the sky.
unidentified
Are you scared to go in daylight?
joe rogan
Rocks have radiation.
elon musk
Yes.
The radiation risk is greatly overestimated.
joe rogan
I always wonder why radiation is always bad in real life, but always awesome in comic books.
elon musk
Yeah, exactly.
You get bitten by a radioactive spider, and suddenly you have spider abilities.
joe rogan
Get hit with gamma rays, you become the Hulk.
elon musk
What if you're radioactive cockroach, you'd be like the cockroach man.
joe rogan
Yeah, you can be one of the X-Men.
elon musk
Yeah.
I think the problem is most people just don't understand what radiation is, and so it just sounds like a mysterious, invisible death ray.
joe rogan
Well, it's almost like drugs.
Like, we think of it, we put a blanket over it.
Like, it's all one thing.
You know, radiation is Chernobyl.
Right.
elon musk
I mean, the things you can go to, you can actually tour Chernobyl right now.
joe rogan
Can you really?
elon musk
Yes.
joe rogan
You can actually go to where the meltdown is?
elon musk
Well, I mean, there's a war zone, but apart from that, the issue is, you know, more getting shot than it is, you don't have a radiation risk.
I mean, the problem is, like, I think when people don't understand what radiation is, they just, they can't see it, they can't feel it, they think, well, I could just die at any moment, like, from a magic death ray.
Right.
You know, I've had people say, like, oh, the radiation from their phone is going to hurt them, or they're scared of the microwave.
I'm like...
When you say radiation, do you mean particles or photons?
And if you mean photons, what wavelength?
And they're like, I don't know what you mean.
They don't know anything about that.
joe rogan
Right.
They're afraid of the term.
But it's because of Three Mile Island and Fukushima.
We've been...
elon musk
Yeah, but nobody died of radiation from Fukushima.
Not one person.
joe rogan
True.
elon musk
In fact, but I was asked by people in California, like, when Fukushima happened, whether radiation would get to California.
And I'm like, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
And so, actually, to help support Japan, I flew to Fukushima and ate locally grown vegetables on TV. And I'm still alive.
joe rogan
I have a friend, he's very smart, but he won't eat fish out of the Pacific because he's worried about the radiation from Fukushima.
elon musk
Yeah, that's irrational.
There is no physics substance to that, I would say, at all.
Not even slightly.
joe rogan
I'm going to send him this clip.
elon musk
Yes.
joe rogan
Go back to the sushi place, bro.
elon musk
No, you should be...
If you eat too much tuna, you're going to have...
Mercury.
Mercury poisoning from tuna is a real thing.
joe rogan
You can get arsenic from sardines too.
I found that out the hard way.
unidentified
Really?
Yeah.
elon musk
You ate too many sardines?
joe rogan
Yeah, I got my blood work done and the doctor says, you have arsenic in your blood.
And I go, is someone poisoning me?
He goes, no, it's very low level.
unidentified
It's like, is your girlfriend angry at you?
elon musk
Do you eat a lot of fish?
joe rogan
And I said, yeah, I eat like three cans of sardines a night.
elon musk
That's a lot of sardines, man.
joe rogan
Yeah, I love sardines.
I love them.
unidentified
You love sardines?
joe rogan
I've always loved sardines.
elon musk
Okay.
joe rogan
I love them.
elon musk
But it turns out you can't eat too much of it because they're not good for you.
Okay.
I mean a little sardines once in a while but not three cans a night.
joe rogan
Well for me it's like I come home late from the comedy club and I want something easy to eat and I don't want to stop and get fast food so I open up a few cans of sardines.
And I'll, you know, watch a little TV, eat a few cans of coffee.
I was doing it every night.
And then I stopped doing it, and I got my blood work done a couple months later, and it was gone.
elon musk
Yeah.
I think anchovies really, really pep up a Caesar salad.
joe rogan
Yeah, they do.
I'm a fan.
elon musk
I'm a fan.
joe rogan
I'm a fan of anchovies as well.
One of my favorite pizzas ever is pineapple and anchovy.
elon musk
Okay.
joe rogan
Double pineapple, double anchovy.
elon musk
Wow.
joe rogan
It's amazing.
It's the sweet and the salty, and then you got the tomato sauce and the cheese.
unidentified
It's my favorite pizza.
joe rogan
It's very good.
elon musk
I mean, as a kid, I was very much against Hawaiian pizza, and as an adult, I like it.
joe rogan
Hawaiian's good, but I'm telling you, anchovies and pineapple is the bomb diggity.
unidentified
That's the bomb diggity.
elon musk
Okay, I'll give it a shot.
joe rogan
That's the bomb diggity.
elon musk
Wait, can we order some right now?
Is that feasible?
joe rogan
I bet we could.
elon musk
Okay, let's try it.
That'd be sick.
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
I can do it.
joe rogan
We'll have someone out there.
Have Jeff order a very large pizza with double pineapple, double anchovies.
elon musk
Great.
Fantastic.
unidentified
I'm hungry.
Let's fucking go.
joe rogan
Let's fucking go.
elon musk
No time like the present.
Enjoy life.
joe rogan
Well, there's got to be a good spot around here.
Tell them to find a good spot and tell them it's for us.
They'll cook it up.
unidentified
If they won't, tell them we'll mention their name.
joe rogan
Tell them we'll mention their name on the podcast.
elon musk
Don't tell them it's us.
unidentified
Tell them it's us.
Fuck it.
joe rogan
If they're going to close, tell them we'll mention their name.
elon musk
What is this salty sauce that's so mysterious?
joe rogan
Don't tell them it's us.
unidentified
Good call.
joe rogan
Yeah, don't tell them it's us.
Make sure you don't buy it from any liberals.
elon musk
What is the salty, tangy substance on that?
joe rogan
Don't buy it from East Austin.
Don't buy it from anyone who still wears a mask.
There's a lot of them out there.
There's a lot of them out there.
They're still masked up.
It's wild.
elon musk
Yeah, once in a while I see someone paranoid.
On the street?
Yeah.
joe rogan
I saw a guy on the street the other day just walking around with a mask on.
I'm like, okay, buddy.
You look like you're about 28 years old.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
I think you're going to be okay.
elon musk
Be okay, yeah.
joe rogan
You're probably not going to be okay breathing that fucking same air in that mask and all the bacteria you're spitting out.
elon musk
Yeah.
unidentified
It's attaching to that cloth.
elon musk
Yeah.
Masks are not like some magic health shield.
I mean, there are times where a mask is warranted, like if a surgeon is operating on you or whatever, then you don't want the surgeon spitting in your wound, you know?
Of course.
But most of the time, a mask is not good for you.
joe rogan
Yeah, if you can breathe out of it, that means you're breathing in.
That means you're also exhaling.
So, like, how much is it filtering?
Like, what is it?
elon musk
Particles?
I'd say like a mask is much like sort of a shield in battle in that, you know, it'll help protect you a little bit from arrows and stuff, but it doesn't make you arrow-proof.
We're just talking about, you know, shooting arrows and stuff.
joe rogan
Right.
elon musk
So, I mean, there are times when masks are warranted, but most of the time it's actually kind of productive.
joe rogan
Well, that was one of the things about the old Twitter was the propaganda and the adherence to whatever the CDC was saying and the dismissing of legitimate scientists, guys like Jay Bhattacharya from Stanford and legit guys.
And they were suppressing them and even banning them.
They banned Alex Berenson.
It was wild.
They banned Alex for essentially reading peer-reviewed papers.
elon musk
Yeah.
No, I mean, all Twitter was basically an arm of the government.
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
So...
joe rogan
Was that shocking?
Like, what was that like?
Because that, to me, that was the most bizarre, was the Twitter files, when you let Schellenberger and Matt Taibbi and all those guys get in the Twitter, and the response were, Matt Taibbi gets audited.
I mean, which is just wild.
I mean, it's just so blatant and so in your face.
elon musk
Yeah, it's weird.
No, I mean...
Yeah, the degree which – and by the way, Jack didn't really know this, but the degree to which Twitter was simply an arm of the government was not well understood by the public.
And it was – there was no – it was whatever the official – it was like Pravda basically.
It's a state publication is the way to think of old Twitter.
It's a state publication.
joe rogan
And was the justification from their perspective that they are progressive liberals, they have the right intentions, it's important that they stay in power, the progressive liberals stay in government and power because this is their...
elon musk
There was basically oppression of...
Any views that would even, I would say, be considered middle of the road, but certainly anything on the right.
I'm not talking about like far right.
I'm just talking mildly right.
The people, like Republicans were suppressed at 10 times the rate of Democrats.
Now, that's because old Twitter was fundamentally controlled by the far left.
It was like completely controlled by the far left.
And that's why I say, like, San Francisco-Berkeley is a niche ideology.
It's hard to say, like, is there a place that's more far left than San Francisco-Berkeley?
joe rogan
Maybe Portland.
elon musk
Maybe Portland.
But it's like...
joe rogan
Right there.
elon musk
Yeah.
It's basically Portland.
Those two places are the most far left places in America.
Yes.
So from their standpoint, everything is to the right, including moderates.
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
Right, right.
elon musk
So now, if you internalize a far-left position...
Everything seems wrong to you that is not far left.
unidentified
Right.
elon musk
And so they naturally oppressed anything that didn't agree with their views.
That's why I say that it was an accidental far left information weapon.
So it's like Silicon Valley attracts the smartest engineers, the smartest sort of technologists and programmers from around the world.
They created an information weapon that was then harnessed by the far left, who could not themselves create the weapon, but happened to be co-located where the technologists were.
joe rogan
It happened to be aligned politically with the people that possessed it.
elon musk
The technologists generally are moderate, maybe moderate left, but they're not far left.
That's why I say San Francisco, Berkeley, it doesn't even extend to South San Francisco or even to Palo Alto.
So SF Berkeley is the most far left, perhaps in a competition with Portland, but I'd say SF Berkeley is more far left even than Portland.
Literally, in America, we're talking about an area that's maybe a 10-mile radius.
Normally, the negative effects of a far-left ideology would be geographically limited to a 10-mile radius.
Any bad effects of that ideology would be geographically constrained under normal circumstances and have been in the past.
But when you have basically a technological megaphone, which was Twitter and social media in general, suddenly the far left are handed a megaphone to Earth, an incredibly powerful technology weapon that they themselves could not create, but they happen to be co-located with the technologists who created it by accident.
joe rogan
Is it shocking that more people don't understand how dangerous that is?
elon musk
I think some people understand.
joe rogan
Some people do.
elon musk
Some people understand.
So, I mean, from the standpoint of some people who used to be at Twitter, the people are like, well, it's a big shift to the right.
That is correct.
It is a shift to the right because everything is to the right if you're far left.
Everything is to the right.
But how many far-left people have actually been suspended or banned from Twitter now X? Zero.
So it's really just moved to the center, but from the perspective of the far-left, it's moved to the right.
Everything's relative.
joe rogan
The difference in moderation...
elon musk
Sorry, I should say, it propagated that far-left philosophy, not just to America, but to everywhere on Earth.
joe rogan
Right.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah.
And with the same level of suppression in other countries as well?
elon musk
Yes.
joe rogan
But the Taliban is on Twitter, right?
elon musk
I always think of like, hey, Mr. Taliban, tally me a banana.
Hey, Mr. Taliban, tally me a banana.
joe rogan
But there's definitely some people on Twitter that are...
elon musk
Daylight coming, I want to go.
Yeah.
Yeah, so the point is, from my standpoint, is that X, FK, Twitter should represent the sort of collective consciousness of humanity.
So now, that means that there are going to be views on there that you don't like or disagree with.
Yeah.
But that's humanity.
So are you going to exclude them or not?
Now, I mean, if somebody, you know, breaks the law, then the account is suspended.
I mean, if they actively advocate murder, then the account is suspended.
We do have what we call, like, the kind of United Nations exclusion rule, which is that you can have, say, the Ayatollah, who, you know...
Would prefer that Israel didn't exist, for example.
But he's allowed to go to the UN building in New York.
And, in fact, generally officials from Iran do, in fact, go to the UN building in New York, even though they're a heavily sanctioned country.
So, I think that there's merit to having, just like there's some merit to the UN, one can disagree with the UN, and I think we shouldn't have a world government that we bow down to.
In fact, that's risky for civilization.
But I think you do want to have the leaders of countries represented on social media.
You want to hear what they have to say, even if what they say is terrible.
joe rogan
I think that is true across the board.
And I think one of the things you just said that's very important is that's humanity.
And I think it's important that a social media platform, especially the biggest one, represents humanity so we understand what we're talking about.
Because if we have this distorted idea of what people think and want and need because everyone only exists inside this ideological bubble and anything outside of that bubble gets censored, then that changes, literally changes the tone of the entire country.
It changes what people think is okay and not okay, makes people feel differently.
It's not humanity.
It's different.
It's a very forced version of humanity.
elon musk
Yes, absolutely.
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
So, I mean, the whole point of free speech.
Free speech is only relevant.
The First Amendment is only relevant if you allow people you don't like to say things you don't like.
Because if you like it, you don't need a First Amendment.
So the whole point of free speech is that, frankly, even people you hate say things you hate because if people you hate can say things that you hate, that means that they can't stop you from saying what you want to say, which is very, very important.
joe rogan
Right.
But the problem with Twitter is it was not the case.
elon musk
Correct.
joe rogan
It was people that you hate couldn't say.
elon musk
Anyone they didn't like, they censored.
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
Or what's called de-amplify.
joe rogan
Well, not just the Amplify, but under the behest of the government, would suppress real news, which was very bizarre.
elon musk
Yes.
joe rogan
So they were very aware of something being accurate, and they still suppressed it because the government wanted them to suppress it.
elon musk
I mean, in my view, there have been severe First Amendment violations by multiple government agencies, and there should be repercussions for that.
joe rogan
And is it – do different laws apply because it's a privately owned social media company?
I mean what laws do apply in terms of like – when you're looking at it, one of the arguments that the leftists would use is it's a private company.
They can do whatever they want.
elon musk
Yeah, it's funny that when the shoe's on the other foot, they now say the private company can't do whatever it wants.
joe rogan
Well, yeah, now they're upset.
elon musk
But the government itself is not allowed to censor speech.
But in my view, the government de facto did censor speech.
And there should at least be a case that is heard by the public.
Because if the government severely coerces...
You know, a platform that sort of coerces the press, then I think that is or should be a First Amendment violation.
joe rogan
Well, they can't do it with other media forms, right?
They're not allowed to do it with any other – they're not allowed to.
unidentified
Right.
elon musk
If they try to do that with a newspaper, they'll get in trouble.
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
Would they?
That's the question.
You didn't know about the federal government.
You didn't know about the intelligence agencies inside of Twitter until we found out.
Do you think that this is ubiquitous?
elon musk
It's absolutely all the social media companies.
In fact, right now, X, formerly known as Twitter, is the only one that is not kowtowing to the government.
It's the only one.
All the others just do exactly what the government wants.
joe rogan
That is wild.
elon musk
Yes.
joe rogan
What I was getting at, do you think that that's everywhere?
elon musk
Yes.
joe rogan
Do you think that that's CNN? Do you think that that's the New York Times?
Do you think that that's the Washington Post?
Because if they were going to infiltrate media, they were going to infiltrate social media.
elon musk
I mean, it is weird the degree to which the media is in lockstep.
Look, why is the media in lockstep?
And why doesn't the media question the government?
They used to.
Why don't they do that anymore?
Seems weird.
Something doesn't add up.
joe rogan
What do you think?
Well, there seems like there's a bunch of factors, right?
I think one of the big factors is pharmaceutical drug companies allowed to advertise on television.
And we're one of two countries in the world that allow that.
elon musk
I actually agree with pharmaceutical advertising, provided it is truthful.
Because there could be some drug that is helpful to someone, but obviously the claims need to be accurate.
So I actually think pharmaceutical advertising, if it is accurate, I think it actually, you know, play devil's advocate here, I think pharmaceutical advertising is generally accurate.
I think that's actually okay.
Now, I should say that a lot of the censorship that we see is coming from – indirectly from advertisers and advertising agencies and from PR companies who want a particular viewpoint pushed or are being – Driven by non-profits to push a particular...
What will happen is there will be a group of non-profits that push advertisers to advertise or not advertise on a particular platform.
One often hears of the George Soros boogeyman.
Soros actually...
You know, he is, I believe, the top contributor to the Democratic Party.
The second one was Sam Beckwithreed.
So, and Soros, I don't know.
I mean, he had a very difficult upbringing.
And in my opinion, he fundamentally hates humanity.
That's my opinion.
joe rogan
Really?
elon musk
Yeah.
I mean, well, he's doing things that erode the fabric of civilization, you know, getting DAs elected who refuse to prosecute crime.
That's part of the problem in San Francisco and LA and much other cities.
So why would you do that?
joe rogan
Was it humanity or is it just the United States as a whole?
elon musk
I mean, he's pushing things in other countries too.
joe rogan
He's doing the same thing?
elon musk
Yeah.
Now, George at this point is pretty old.
I mean, he's not...
You know, he's basically a bit senile at this point.
But I mean, he's very smart.
And he's very good at arbitrage.
You know, famously, he shorted the British pound.
That's sort of how I think he made his first money, was shorting the pound.
So he's good at spotting, basically, arbitrage, like spotting value for money that other people don't see.
So one of the things he noticed was that the value for money in local races is much higher than it is in national races.
So the lowest value for money is a presidential race.
Then the next lowest value for money is a Senate race, then a Congress.
But once you get to sort of city and state district attorneys, the value for money is extremely good.
And Soros realized that you don't actually need to change the laws.
You just need to change how they're enforced.
If nobody chooses to enforce the law or the laws are differentially enforced, it's like changing the laws.
That's what he figured out.
joe rogan
But is what's stunning that this trend, that people haven't pulled the brakes on this and have it reverse course?
elon musk
I'm pulling the brakes?
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
Yeah.
Pulling the brakes right now.
joe rogan
Yeah, you are.
But you might be the only one.
elon musk
Well, I think more people should.
Most people just don't want to rock the boat.
Most people are looking for acceptance from society and they're, you know, if there's some negative press article, they're like shattered.
I couldn't give a damn.
Go ahead, make my day.
joe rogan
Well, it's fascinating where if you're a high-profile public figure like yourself, it's impossible to make everybody happy.
So there's going to be someone who says something shitty about you.
Somehow or another when it's in print, does that mean more?
Because other people are going to see this shitty thing?
That's where it gets odd.
Because essentially an article in the New York Times is just a single person's opinion and whatever editor gets involved.
elon musk
It's just a lot of people will read that.
I mean, less people these days than in the past.
joe rogan
But I think people know that now.
elon musk
People know that now.
I find the New York Times these days to be hard to read.
joe rogan
Well, unfortunately, they make some grave errors.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Like that Hamas bombing the- Hamas?
No.
The Israeli bombing the hospital story.
unidentified
Yes.
joe rogan
It's delicious.
elon musk
I think we should cut off chickpea exports.
That'll bring them to the knees right away.
What do you do, take a trip and dip it in nothing?
joe rogan
What we need to do is introduce them to pineapple and anchovy pizza.
elon musk
I hope that's coming.
joe rogan
Is that coming?
Do we have a pizza name, like a company?
unidentified
I think so.
I'll get some information.
joe rogan
I want to make sure it's a good one, though.
unidentified
Pizza Leon.
joe rogan
Oh, that's legit.
unidentified
It's pretty close.
joe rogan
Okay, there we go.
Nice.
Did they give us a timeline?
unidentified
It shouldn't take too long.
jamie vernon
They're not too far away, and it's late, so it shouldn't...
unidentified
I would have bet 20 minutes, 30 minutes, maybe.
joe rogan
Oh, right.
Max 40, but...
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elon musk
You know, that's something I have to say I've got a lot of respect for.
If somebody's willing to make pizza late at night, my hat is off.
I mean, that is great.
joe rogan
Absolutely.
Late night food.
I appreciate the fun.
If you can get a really good late night meal, hats off.
elon musk
Totally.
joe rogan
Or wigs off.
elon musk
100%.
joe rogan
Yeah, I'm a giant fan of very good late night food.
And that's one of the things that Los Angeles really used to have.
They had a Pacific dining cart where you can get a legit steak 24 hours a day.
unidentified
Really?
joe rogan
That's great.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
I don't know if it's still open in downtown LA. I believe the one in Santa Monica closed.
But a Pacific dining cart in downtown LA was a legit steakhouse.
And we would leave the comedy store at 2, 3 in the morning, get a legit steak.
elon musk
That's cool.
joe rogan
Is that still open?
Temporarily closed.
Ah, fucking COVID got them.
elon musk
COVID just took out so many restaurants.
It's crazy.
joe rogan
It's not coming back.
Yeah, they're not coming back.
Motherfucker.
COVID got 70% of the restaurants in LA at one point.
elon musk
Wow.
joe rogan
Not COVID, I should say.
Policies.
elon musk
Well, the mind virus.
I mean, it's like just crazy.
joe rogan
Well, that's why I moved here.
One of the reasons why I moved here is we came here in May of 2020 and you could go indoors and eat in restaurants and And my kids who were pretty young at the time, 10 and 12, they were like, we want to live here!
So it's like, they're freaked out.
Like, LA was weird.
elon musk
It changed.
Yeah, I mean, for most of COVID, I was actually in South Texas building this Starship factory.
And, you know, we're just, yeah, no masks, no nothing, just building a factory, building rockets.
And then, you know, we would have teams from California visit all masked up, and they'd freak out that we don't have masks, and we're like, we're still alive, man.
Yeah.
joe rogan
Did you lose anybody?
unidentified
Did anybody from your factory die of COVID? Not that I'm aware of, no.
elon musk
So part of it is that I kind of saw a dress rehearsal, which is that it kind of started in Wuhan.
And so Tesla's got 20,000 employees in China.
And so the first wave happened in China, and nobody died or got seriously ill.
I was like, okay, well, this is...
Can't be that bad.
And we're not relying on government statistics.
We literally know who shoot up for work.
Did they badge in or not?
And we had no one die and no one got seriously ill.
So I'm like, well, I don't know what the big deal is.
joe rogan
Well, there's a problem that people still want to stick to this initial narrative that they believed and that they espoused, like they repeated it.
And so they'll still fight you on this today.
People still fight you today on the merits of the lockdowns, the importance of vaccine mandates, closing schools.
There's people that stated an opinion in 2020 And they still are doing mental gymnastics to try to make it seem like that was the right choice.
elon musk
No, it was just a panic.
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
And a lot of deaths got ascribed to COVID that had nothing to do with COVID. And in fact, I'd say in the beginning, the cure is worse than the disease.
So, because people panic too much.
And so that somebody would get diagnosed with COVID, they put them on intubated ventilator for a week, and this was going to basically cook your lungs.
So if you're on pure O2 under pressure with a tube stuck down your throat and under anesthetic, this is very bad for you.
It's one thing if you do that for a couple hours for an operation, but if you do that for a week, it's going to roast your lungs.
The air that we're breathing right now is 78% nitrogen, 1% argon, about 21% oxygen, and it's so miscellaneous.
So if you ask most people, what are you breathing, they say oxygen.
No, you're breathing nitrogen.
Only about a fifth of it is oxygen, and there's about 1% argon.
So I know quite a lot about life support systems because we make spaceships, and you have to keep people alive in a vacuum.
So you've got to say, okay, what percentage of nitrogen, what percentage of oxygen are you going to do?
What's the pressure going to be?
And so, like, sea level pressure is about 15 pounds per square inch.
And the partial pressure of oxygen, being 20%, is therefore roughly 3 pounds per square inch of oxygen.
So, in a spacecraft, you want to, and especially if you're in a space suit, you want to lower the pressure.
So you want to keep the oxygen, still give people enough oxygen to function, obviously, but you want to lower the nitrogen content so that you don't have a space suit that's at 15 psi.
Because at 15 psi, you just, you know, just pop out like a balloon.
It's like hard to move.
So you want to try to lower the pressure, you know, down to around, I don't know, six, seven PSI, maybe even five PSI. So you'd lower it to, you know, try to keep the oxygen, partial pressure of oxygen roughly the same, so maybe around three PSI and then three PSI of nitrogen, so you've got a 50-50 mix of nitrogen and oxygen, and then you just get pretty hot into that week.
joe rogan
Yeah, I talked about it.
I made it a while.
I'm sweating.
elon musk
I mean, it's gonna be sweaty and itchy.
joe rogan
A little bit.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Can't believe people wear them all day.
Yeah.
unidentified
So...
elon musk
Anyway, so I know a thing or two about keeping people alive in a vacuum, you know?
joe rogan
Right.
elon musk
So, you know, we designed the life support system for keeping humans alive in the vacuum of space, which is very difficult.
So we know quite a lot about what it takes to keep people alive.
So you don't want to feed people 100% oxygen for an extended period of time.
This is not good for you.
joe rogan
Well, 80% of the people they put on ventilators died.
elon musk
Yeah.
So, in fact, I actually posted about that because I called doctors in Wuhan and said, what are the biggest mistakes that you made on the first wave?
Those were early on.
And they said, we put far too many people on intubated ventilators.
So then I actually posted on Twitter at the time and said, hey, what I'm hearing from Wuhan is that they made a big mistake in putting people on intubated ventilators for an extended period.
And that this is actually what is damaging lungs, not COVID. It's the treatment.
The cure is worse than the disease.
And people yelled at me and said, I'm not a doctor.
I'm like, yeah, but I do make spaceships with life support systems.
What do you do?
joe rogan
I like that.
elon musk
I twiddle knobs.
I'm like, okay, great.
Rock on.
joe rogan
Well, again, there was this very bizarre narrative that you had to believe everything that the government was telling you.
You had to believe everything the CDC was telling you.
And that even as time went on and we realized, hey, it looks like this came from a fucking lab.
Like, even as time went on, disputing that would get you banned.
It would get you kicked off of YouTube.
I think, to this day, there's certain things you're not allowed to say in regards to the vaccine on YouTube.
elon musk
As I said, the only media that does not have crazy censorship at this point is X. Yeah.
That I'm aware of.
Everyone else, everything else is censored.
joe rogan
Spotify isn't.
That's why this can...
elon musk
Good for Daniel Ack.
joe rogan
Oh, Daniel Ack's the man.
elon musk
Yeah, he's great.
joe rogan
I love that dude.
And, you know...
I think more companies should follow suit.
I don't think it has to be this way.
Fortunately for us, they're in Sweden.
In Stockholm, Sweden, they have a very different perspective.
elon musk
You've got a syndrome.
joe rogan
On all this shit.
Yeah.
What is wild about nitrogen is that that's mostly the nitrogen from fertilizer we suck out of the air.
elon musk
Sorry, what do you mean?
joe rogan
Most of the nitrogen for fertilizer we suck out of the air.
elon musk
Yeah, yeah.
Actually, one of the big inventions in chemistry was binding nitrogen.
Nitrogen is actually fairly inert, so it's quite hard to actually pull nitrogen out of there and bind it into ammonia.
Basically, the process for creating ammonia was actually a very important thing.
joe rogan
The Haber method.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Fritz Haber.
Same guy who invented Zyklon gas.
elon musk
But it was actually very important to bind nitrogen from the air to fertilizer.
So that actually was, frankly, a life-saving invention at scale because you just run out of nitrogen.
So...
Pure nitrogen is a low energy state, so to try to bind it into a fertilizer requires light energy to do that.
It's quite tricky.
So that was a very important breakthrough.
joe rogan
Yeah, I read that 50% of the nitrogen in most people's body comes from that method.
50% of the nitrogen in most people's body that they've consumed from food.
elon musk
Oh yeah, yeah, because of photo fertilizer.
joe rogan
That might be true.
elon musk
It was a fundamental problem for most of civilization is how do you get nitrogen for the plants.
The limiting factor, in fact, even in the rainforest is like the nitrogen is bound nitrogen.
joe rogan
When you do eventually colonize Mars, what's the idea in terms of terraforming?
Is it contained ecosystems that are under domes?
What are you planning on doing to make it habitable?
elon musk
Well, at first, you would have to have a life support system because Mars has a low-density atmosphere, only about 1% the density of Earth, and it's primarily CO2. Now, over time, you can terraform Mars.
Terraform means make it like Earth, essentially.
And if you warm Mars up, there's a bunch of frozen CO2 that will evaporate, densify the atmosphere, and you'd actually want kind of global warming on Mars.
Because Mars is about 50% further away from the Sun than the Earth.
So it gets about less than half the solar energy that Earth does.
joe rogan
And it's believed at one point in time, Mars had a much different environment, right?
elon musk
It appears highly likely that Mars had liquid oceans a long time ago.
There's a lot of ice.
So Mars is covered in ice.
And now the ice is then covered in dust mostly except at the poles.
So there's a lot of ice.
In fact, I believe if Mars was warmed up, you'd have an ocean about a mile deep on 40% of the planet.
So it's quite a lot of water.
joe rogan
And do we think that it was like that at one point in time?
elon musk
The evidence suggests that it is most likely that Mars had liquid water.
joe rogan
What's the prevailing theory of its demise?
elon musk
Well, just over time, the solar system cooled.
So Earth used to be much higher.
Like, the very early Earth was like molten rock.
You know, so really almost nothing could survive in the beginning.
We were just a ball of lava.
We're still mostly a ball of lava.
We're like creme brulee.
There's a thin crust and it's very hot mushy rock underneath.
Technically, that rock is in a semi-solid state, but as soon as it gets to a low pressure, like pops out of the ocean, you have a volcano, obviously, with lava.
At surface ambient pressure, we're basically covered in liquid rock.
A thin crust on liquid rock.
joe rogan
Are you aware of the origin myth of the Dogon tribe?
elon musk
No.
joe rogan
There's a tribe in...
I believe it's a tribe in...
I forget what part of Africa.
But they believe that they came from Mars.
And that there was a civilization that left Mars many, many eons ago.
And it's a really weird...
It's a really weird theory, because they know some things about Mars.
elon musk
Yeah, I'm pretty sure they didn't come from Mars.
joe rogan
Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure too.
elon musk
Do they have any spaceships?
If they don't have any spaceships, then I'm like, I don't believe it.
If they do have a spaceship, I'll believe it.
joe rogan
If you parked a spaceship, how many thousands of years?
If you've parked a metal spaceship...
Like, if you left a cyber truck in the desert, how many thousands of years do you think it would be there for?
Before it's gone?
elon musk
If it got buried in dirt, we'd find it even like a million years from now.
joe rogan
A million?
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Wow.
unidentified
Really?
elon musk
Well, what you'd find is...
joe rogan
Because it's stainless steel.
So it'd have to be some sort of an alloy.
elon musk
It would...
It's kind of like...
joe rogan
But iron wouldn't, right?
elon musk
Yeah, but you'd have something similar to...
Like fossils, basically.
Like the fossils...
They essentially discolor the rock.
So eventually, whatever the fossil is, and sometimes the fossil is like an amber or something like that, where it still does survive more or less intact.
But, I mean, there's fossilized, like, dinosaur fossils and tree fossils.
joe rogan
Essentially re-mineralized, right?
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
So you'd see, like, a Cybertruck shape in the rock, basically.
joe rogan
Oh.
Yeah.
But that's it.
You wouldn't find the actual Cybertruck shape.
unidentified
No.
joe rogan
So if they did have a spaceship and it came here 30,000 years ago?
elon musk
Oh, yeah, yeah.
We'd definitely find evidence of it.
joe rogan
Hmm.
elon musk
Well, I mean, if it was one spaceship, maybe not.
But if it was a lot of them, sure.
joe rogan
That is the origin myth of the Dogon tribe, right?
Am I getting that right?
unidentified
I didn't say Mars specifically.
It's a hidden star and a Sirius.
joe rogan
Oh, it's somewhere else.
unidentified
Yeah.
elon musk
You cannot be Sirius.
joe rogan
Serious XM? It's just very strange when people have this bizarre origin myth.
I wonder who was the first one to tell them they came from stars.
And when we eventually do, I mean, how bizarre.
Imagine if you're successful, we eventually do colonize Mars.
And you're correct.
Earth winds up through human folly or natural disaster getting wiped out.
And there's only the colony on Mars.
And that colony exists for 10, 20,000 years.
And they have their origin myth that we all came from Earth.
I mean ultimately that's going – if this does happen, you do colonize Mars and Earth does get destroyed, and if a period of time takes place – like look at the period, like at least the conventional timeline of the Great Pyramid, which is 4,500 years ago.
elon musk
5,000 years.
joe rogan
Yeah.
So that's not that much time.
elon musk
It's not that much time.
joe rogan
No, I mean if...
elon musk
It's nothing on the galactic timescale.
joe rogan
Right.
So if we're talking 20, 30,000 years from now on Mars, people talk about Times Square and what Earth used to be like.
elon musk
I mean, it is...
I think there's some debate.
It's like, how do you say what the...
When did civilization start?
And I'd say probably from the first writing.
Mm-hmm.
And the first writing is only 5,500 years old.
It's worth reading about the history of writing, but only 5,500 years.
And one has to credit basically the ancient Sumerians who aren't around anymore with the first writing.
joe rogan
Are you aware, though, that there's hieroglyphs that depict a history of Egypt that goes back far longer, maybe even 30,000-plus years ago, but archaeologists dismiss it because they think that that's mythical.
But non-conventional archaeologists who believe in what's called the Younger Dryas impact theory, that somewhere around 11,800 years ago, civilization was essentially all but wiped out by common impacts.
elon musk
Okay.
joe rogan
And that is the reason why they keep finding these insanely old, huge structures, megalithic structures that are carved out of stone.
When you go back to Gobekli Tepe, which is 11,600 years ago, that's an insanely old structure that they didn't even know people were capable of building until they discovered it in the 1990s.
So the conventional timeline of people, when you go to 11,600 years ago, was just hunter-gatherers.
But now that they have Gobekli Tepe with its 3D carved things.
Have you seen Graham Hancock's amazing series on Netflix called Ancient Apocalypse?
elon musk
I know.
joe rogan
You should check it out.
It's amazing.
But it's about that.
It's all about that there's a lot of physical evidence of an advanced civilization from far, far, far longer ago than we have convention dated, which is ancient Sumer, which we put in about 6,000 years ago.
elon musk
Yeah.
It's difficult to date with precision, or at least to within a few hundred years, but roughly 5,500 years, what is the oldest stone tablet?
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
Because if you're an archaeologist, if you were to discover something older than that, you'd be very famous.
They really looked hard.
Yeah.
And 5,500 years really is kind of the...
If you say any kind of evidence that I've seen that is actually substantial, writing is 5,500 years old.
joe rogan
Yeah, in terms of writing, yeah.
Well, what they believe is that there's very little left of this ancient civilization other than things like the pyramids, other than things like the Sphinx.
There's a geologist that really stuck his neck out.
His name is Dr. Robert Shock from Boston University.
And what he said was, his theory is that there's deep water erosion all over the temple of the Sphinx, where the Sphinx was carved out of, that is indicative of thousands of years of rainfall.
And the last time they had rainfall in the Nile Valley was around 9000 BC. So what he believes is, because back then the whole Nile Valley was a lush rainforest and eventually receded into desert.
elon musk
Okay.
joe rogan
Yeah.
So that whole area, like even the Sahara, used to be rich rainforest.
And it receded into what it is now.
But if you go back then, he believes that's when that thing was constructed.
And he says the geologists look at it.
And if he shows it to them in terms of like just shows an image of the erosion and doesn't tell them where it is, almost all of them will say that's water erosion from thousands of years of rainfall.
elon musk
I think even if you say like, okay, even if you say like, okay, civilization is like 9,000 years old, it's still nothing.
joe rogan
Nothing.
Yeah.
elon musk
So, you know, we're still talking about like a very tiny fraction of Earth's existence.
Yeah.
The geological evidence suggests Earth is about 4.5 billion years old.
So human civilization has been around for roughly one millionth of Earth's existence.
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
Because we're basically nothing.
And even if it's 10,000 years ago.
joe rogan
Even if it's 30,000 years ago, it's still nothing.
What they're saying, though, is that civilization is insanely fragile.
elon musk
Exactly.
joe rogan
And much more fragile than I think we realize.
elon musk
Yes, absolutely.
I think we should view civilization as being fragile.
joe rogan
Yeah, but we don't.
It's one of the weird things about people.
Unless the threat is in front of us, it's abstract.
Unless it's like, is the pizza here?
Oh yeah!
Pizza's here.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Fuck civilization.
elon musk
No, actually, one of my sons who is a Saxon, he has these profound observations.
And he asked me, what was L.A. like 4,000 years ago?
I'm like, it wasn't around.
And they said, what will it be like 4,000 years from now?
Probably buried under rubble, I guess.
joe rogan
Probably very similar to what it was like 4,000 years ago.
elon musk
Yeah, exactly.
Except less radioactive.
And he asked me, did they speak English 4,000 years ago?
I'm like, nope.
It's like, will they speak English 4,000 years from now?
Probably not.
Really?
joe rogan
No.
Never.
elon musk
Why not?
joe rogan
Because it's not really good for you.
elon musk
Well, I don't think anyone's going to accuse pizza of being like the healthiest thing in the world.
This looks awesome.
joe rogan
That does look awesome.
You want a plate, Jamie?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Get in there, sir.
Grab a piece.
elon musk
Alright, sick.
This is awesome.
joe rogan
And what's the name of this pizza place again?
Pizza Leon.
Pizza Leon?
Shout out to Pizza Leon.
unidentified
Oh yeah.
elon musk
That really hits the spot.
joe rogan
That's legit.
I mean, I'm no Dave Portnoy.
Our pizza analyst, he'll probably...
I'm not gonna rate it.
It's excellent.
elon musk
His Portnoy really gets into pizza?
joe rogan
Oh, man.
unidentified
Oh, man!
Ever seen Portnoy's videos where he analyzes pizza?
joe rogan
Oh, my God.
It was like a whole method.
elon musk
Okay.
joe rogan
He's got a number system.
elon musk
All right.
joe rogan
He's into the crust and the flop and all these different things.
elon musk
Wow.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Everybody knows the rules.
elon musk
One bite.
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
What is his?
joe rogan
Everybody knows the rules.
One bite.
elon musk
You only get one bite of a pizza?
Yeah.
joe rogan
One bite to taste it.
He bites into it, and then he just starts nodding his head.
He's basically like a Somalia pizza.
elon musk
A Somalia, okay.
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
And is there, like, what's his favorite pizza joint?
joe rogan
Oh, the favorite one.
unidentified
Everyone wants to know that.
joe rogan
It's O's Cheese.
elon musk
We spent so much time on pizza.
joe rogan
And it's New Haven, Connecticut.
elon musk
Really?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
For some reason, the Italians that moved to New Haven, Connecticut really figured pizza out.
unidentified
They have insane pizza in New Haven, Connecticut.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Like, really, like, legendary.
I've had it.
There was a comedy club I used to work out there called The Joker's Wild.
And I had New Haven pizza.
Even back then.
It's just...
Really good pizza.
elon musk
Well, okay.
joe rogan
I don't know why, though.
It seems like something that could be replicated.
elon musk
Yeah, exactly.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's not like rocket ship.
unidentified
Yeah.
The thing is...
joe rogan
The people that are making pizza are not like the people that are making rocket ships.
unidentified
If they were, they would replicate it.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
They would go, what are these guys doing?
Let's back engineer it.
elon musk
Sure.
joe rogan
Can't be that hard.
You know?
All these secret sauces and shit.
Well, what the fuck?
What's in there?
elon musk
Yeah.
Well, I was hungry.
joe rogan
It's good though, right?
unidentified
Mm-hmm.
joe rogan
The combination...
A pineapple and anchovy.
Surprisingly good, right?
elon musk
Yeah.
unidentified
What if this is the first pineapple and anchovy pizza they ever made there?
I don't see it on their menu very often.
joe rogan
Nobody's ordering that shit.
I used to order it when I would order it for delivery.
They'd go, are you sure?
I'm like, don't you think I know what I'm doing?
I'm ordering it.
elon musk
Now with extra arsenic.
unidentified
Mmm.
This is good.
This is good.
joe rogan
I do know why I don't eat this stuff, though.
unidentified
Because I cannot stop.
joe rogan
That's a problem.
elon musk
This pizza's too delicious.
joe rogan
Oh, so good.
unidentified
High calorie, high carbohydrate foods.
joe rogan
Once they start going down the hatch, they don't want to stop.
elon musk
Cops are the devil.
joe rogan
Oh, they are the devil.
Remember?
They used to be the base of the food chain.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
The whole pyramid.
The whole pyramid.
The bottom of the food pyramid was carbs.
elon musk
The food pyramid.
What would the Egyptians say?
joe rogan
We're out of our fucking minds.
unidentified
What are you eating?
elon musk
Yeah, exactly.
The stuff is just...
joe rogan
That's the bizarre thing about...
elon musk
It's like Fourth of July in your mouth.
joe rogan
How many human beings eat just processed food?
Like the majority of their diet is processed food.
Like the entire center of the supermarket is shit.
You really probably shouldn't eat.
Except every now and then.
It's good, Jamie.
unidentified
I bet.
joe rogan
You want one?
unidentified
I don't.
joe rogan
You seem offended.
jamie vernon
It's two of my favorite.
I don't like either of those things, honestly.
joe rogan
Have you tried it?
unidentified
It's not bad.
joe rogan
I feel like you should try it.
unidentified
I understand.
I feel like I should, too.
joe rogan
This show's all about trying it.
We shot an arrow at a car.
jamie vernon
I'm just not going to like it, and I don't want to offend Pizza Leo, and I like that place.
joe rogan
I wouldn't be offended.
elon musk
It's hard to miss with pizza, frankly.
joe rogan
Unlike the creeps who used to run Twitter, I don't care if someone has a different opinion than me.
jamie vernon
I just don't like fish, to be that honest with you.
unidentified
I've tried it many times, and I still haven't liked it yet.
I'm going to be one over.
joe rogan
You like any fish?
unidentified
Not really, no.
joe rogan
You ever go fishing?
unidentified
I can do crab meat, yeah, but I don't like the whole product.
joe rogan
Do you like sushi?
unidentified
No.
jamie vernon
I'm going to try some of Philips on Thursday, though.
joe rogan
You're going to try it, but you don't like fish.
unidentified
I'm like DC. I'm afraid of that whole thing.
Mmm.
elon musk
I've talked to Phillip about it in detail.
joe rogan
Okay.
elon musk
I don't eat fish that often.
joe rogan
I like it.
elon musk
Yeah.
unidentified
It's particularly good when you catch it yourself and eat it fresh.
elon musk
Fresh fish really is way better.
joe rogan
Way better.
elon musk
Way better.
joe rogan
Yeah, fish goes bad quick, unlike meat.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Like, meat, you can, like, let it sit around for a while.
elon musk
Kind of marinate.
joe rogan
Before you cook.
elon musk
You don't marinate fish, I think.
joe rogan
Well, they do.
They actually dry-aged fish.
elon musk
Okay.
joe rogan
Yeah, a lot of places dry-aged fish.
elon musk
Dry-aged fish.
joe rogan
Yeah, I didn't know that.
I wasn't aware of that, but that's actually a common practice to dry-aged fish for certain sushi dishes, like really gourmet places.
Have you ever been to sushi by scratch?
elon musk
Is that in town?
joe rogan
Yeah, it's just outside of town.
He used to run sushi bar, and then he sold...
It's my friend Philip Franklin Lee.
He's a Michelin star chef.
He used to run sushi bar in town.
He sold that, and then he opened up Sushi by Scratch.
But because of the contractual obligations, he has to be outside of the Austin proper, so he's about 30 miles away.
It's fucking fantastic.
If you like sushi, it's the best sushi you'll ever eat.
elon musk
Okay.
joe rogan
I mean, it's really insane.
I say that with...
You eat it and you're like, Jesus Christ, the best sushi of all time.
elon musk
Sushi by scratch?
unidentified
Mm-hmm.
joe rogan
They have ones in Miami.
Where do they have it now?
Chicago.
They got a bunch of them.
elon musk
He's not allowed to do it in Austin?
joe rogan
No, it's not in Austin proper.
I think once his contract is up, you know, he had a non-compete in Austin for like three years or something.
I don't know how long it was.
Okay.
Maybe eventually he'll open up one in Austin, but it's about 30 minutes outside of it.
What city is it again?
Cedar?
unidentified
Yeah, Cedar Creek.
jamie vernon
It's out at Lost Pines area.
joe rogan
Yeah.
It's 30 minutes.
It's no big deal.
elon musk
Sushi price scratch.
Got it.
joe rogan
Yeah.
It's just shit.
Let me know if you want to go.
I'll hook it up.
elon musk
Yeah, sure.
joe rogan
Yeah.
It's awesome.
It's really worth it.
If you like sushi, it's a mind blower.
It's a mind blower.
And it's omakase.
So, like, you sit down, they bring you food, that's it.
elon musk
That looks good.
joe rogan
It's pretty fucking cool.
elon musk
You've been to Matsuhisa in LA? Yes.
The Amacosta Brothers is great.
joe rogan
Yes, that place is outstanding.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I love good sushi.
And one of the things that's amazing is how many good restaurants there are in Austin.
I mean, for a city that's relatively small...
elon musk
Good restaurants per capita is excellent.
joe rogan
Amazing.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
And they're so good.
There's so many artists and restaurants.
We just found a new one that Brian Simpson told us about.
It's called Bacalar.
It's this Mexican restaurant that's in town.
Fantastic.
Really good.
They just opened up.
I think they only opened for like six weeks.
So shout out to them.
Just ate there the other night.
It's just there's so many good places here.
You can't have a bad restaurant in this town.
You will go under quickly.
elon musk
The competition is strong.
joe rogan
There's so much competition and there's so much variety.
elon musk
A lot of good restaurants in town.
joe rogan
Yeah.
That's amazing.
You know, I remember we were hanging out at your place, like, way back in the day when I first moved here, and you said something very prophetic when all this was happening, like, Austin's about to go supernova.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Kind of did.
elon musk
Yeah.
It's Boomtown.
joe rogan
Yeah, it really is.
Yeah.
Legitimately.
elon musk
Yep.
joe rogan
And with the Gigafactory, I mean, how many jobs have you brought into Austin from that factory alone?
elon musk
Well, we're about 10,000 direct-ish, and then I think 50,000 indirect.
That's a lot.
joe rogan
That's pretty fucking awesome.
elon musk
Yeah.
I mean, there's only too many people in the greater Austin area.
joe rogan
I know, that's crazy.
elon musk
In fact, the kind of limiting factor for growth is just finding enough people.
Really?
unidentified
Yeah.
This is terrible for sound.
elon musk
Like the subtitle, Chewing Sounds.
joe rogan
This is my last piece.
elon musk
The subtitle, Chewing Sounds.
joe rogan
People are going to have to deal with it.
This is my last piece.
Are you taking it away?
unidentified
You son of a bitch.
elon musk
You son of a bitch.
I've certainly eaten my full.
joe rogan
Yeah, take it away.
I'll keep going.
I'll eat the whole fucking bowl.
That's the problem with me and carbs.
elon musk
Yeah, carbs are awesome.
Yeah, I know.
It's like...
joe rogan
I feel good, though.
elon musk
I mean, this is the dopamine explosion from carbs.
joe rogan
Yeah, I'm happy I did it.
elon musk
I mean, once in a while, it's fine.
joe rogan
Once in a while.
For me, it's once in a great while, but...
elon musk
Well, there's like Tim Ferriss has that, you know, you have one meal a week or something.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's good.
Yeah, one meal a week, I'll go with sweets.
I'll have an ice cream sundae or some shit.
elon musk
Ice cream sundaes are great.
joe rogan
Oh, they're fucking amazing.
elon musk
Fucking amazing.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I don't think most people know what an ice cream sundae tastes like unless they smoke marijuana.
And then you're like, oh, this is a different thing.
It's an amazing invention.
Whoever figured out the hot fudge and then the whipped cream on top of it, what a combo.
elon musk
Incredible.
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Maybe.
elon musk
Oh, yeah.
joe rogan
Maybe.
elon musk
Great idea.
I don't know if that's possible.
unidentified
Dairy Queen?
For sure.
joe rogan
Dairy Queen?
unidentified
Well, I mean, that's what's open right now.
joe rogan
What's legit?
It's 1130. I know.
elon musk
There's like that pizza restaurant, that pizza chain.
They have the best ice cream sundae that I've ever seen.
It's a giant one.
joe rogan
Out here?
elon musk
God, I'm trying to remember the name of the...
It is a chain, but it's not like a big chain.
joe rogan
People that are upset right now because they're listening like on the treadmill and they're hearing us chewing like, these motherfuckers are going to get ice cream.
unidentified
We're seeing pizza and ice cream sundaes.
joe rogan
While people try to lose weight.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Sweating out.
elon musk
Oh, Buket of Beppo's.
Oh, yeah!
They've got a gigantic ice cream sundae.
joe rogan
Everything they have is gigantic.
elon musk
It's amazing.
unidentified
Yeah.
I worked there for a long time.
Is it?
elon musk
It's actually really good.
unidentified
No kidding!
elon musk
It's amazing.
joe rogan
Oh, bro, they have that rigatoni, that rigatoni with the meat sauce, and oh my god.
elon musk
Rigatoni is great.
joe rogan
It's fantastic.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
And it's very reasonably priced for the amount of food you get.
elon musk
Yeah, there's one in Palo Alto.
joe rogan
You got a crazy amount of food.
elon musk
Yeah, it's really good.
unidentified
Yeah.
elon musk
I like all the photographs on the wall and everything.
joe rogan
There's one of those down the street from our old studio.
elon musk
In L.A.? In Woodland Hills.
joe rogan
Remember?
Yeah.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's legit.
elon musk
Yeah.
unidentified
Yeah.
elon musk
I used to take my kids to the one at the Grove in L.A. What, if anything, is out near SpaceX?
joe rogan
What do you guys have out there?
elon musk
In L.A. or here?
joe rogan
Out here.
elon musk
We've got the Starlink Terminal Factory.
For the Starlink v4 terminals, we build them here.
We build the version 3 terminals and the version 3 mini.
We do part of the production, or actually, I should say, we've done all of the production of the terminals thus far in L.A., and we'll continue to do production in L.A., but we've also just completed a second factory in Bastrop, just about 20 minutes from here.
joe rogan
And then SpaceX is where you make the launches.
What part of Texas is that?
elon musk
Well, the Starship stuff is in South Texas, near the border, just right on the rear ground.
joe rogan
And how did you pick that location?
elon musk
I was just literally looking at satellite images.
And for going to orbit, you kind of need to – you want to launch eastward so that you can take advantage of Earth rotation to get to orbit.
So it's a little counterintuitive that reaching orbital velocity...
Getting to orbit is about your speed parallel to the Earth's surface.
It's like how fast are you zooming around Earth?
It's not a...
The gravity at the altitude of the space station is almost the same as it is on the ground.
The reason the space station is actually up there is kind of the wrong terminology.
It's actually moving around the Earth at 17,000 miles an hour.
So the space station goes around the Earth at roughly every 90 minutes.
And because Earth is turning, and the speed at which it is turning, or the way you experience velocity, it's moving at roughly 1,000 miles an hour at the equator.
So the closer you are to the equator, the more you can take advantage of Earth's rotation to reach orbital velocity.
And since it's rotating eastward, you want to be on the east coast to make it easier to get to orbital velocity.
So you need a section of coast that's on the east, fairly southward, that is not occupied.
So, almost really all of Florida, except for Cape Canaveral, is wall-to-wall houses on the beach.
There's almost no section of Florida that, every section of Florida has houses, except for Cape Canaveral, which is a government base.
So, one of the few spots that wasn't occupied was the area just adjacent to the border with Mexico.
And it just wasn't super well suited to holiday homes.
And there was at one point a development that was going to take place, but then a hurricane came and destroyed the entire place and, in fact, rearranged the land so some of the plots were underwater.
So it's a tough spot to build a home, and that's why it was unoccupied.
So we needed a piece of—and it needs to be U.S. territory because if we go outside the U.S., there are export restrictions because rocket technology is an advanced weapons technology.
You know, arbitrarily go to another country.
So it needed to be U.S. land, east coast, and fairly southward.
joe rogan
That's fascinating that rockets...
elon musk
It's one of the few spots that exist like that.
joe rogan
That rockets fall into the category of weapons technology.
elon musk
Yeah, intercontinental ballistic missiles.
joe rogan
I mean, it makes sense.
elon musk
Yeah, we could drop a rocket anywhere.
Nobody could stop us.
unidentified
Wow.
joe rogan
That is crazy about the space station, too.
elon musk
Yeah.
unidentified
It's going 17,000 miles an hour.
Yes.
elon musk
I mean, you've seen the videos of the rocket landing, right?
joe rogan
Yes.
It's amazing.
elon musk
It's very precise.
joe rogan
It's pretty fucking amazing.
elon musk
We could make it land basically anywhere.
joe rogan
No.
elon musk
Or not land.
unidentified
Yeah.
elon musk
I mean, it doesn't have to turn on the thrusters to slow down.
joe rogan
What is it like to try to juggle these different things in your mind on a daily basis?
Like, what is it like to try to juggle X, Tesla, SpaceX, all these different things at the same time?
elon musk
It's a lot for a human brain to handle.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I would imagine.
elon musk
Yeah.
It strains my meat computer.
unidentified
Goodness.
joe rogan
I mean, do you need something like that though?
Does your meat computer need more problem solving than the average one?
I mean, is this something like, if you only had one thing to work on, do you think you would get bored?
Or you would get distracted?
Or you would not be satisfied?
Like, do you need these things to be so complex and have so many of them simultaneously juggling?
Because you didn't pick three easy ones.
You picked three of the fucking hardest things you could ever get into.
You already detailed how difficult manufacturing is.
Rockets, duh.
It's one of the craziest things.
Not only that, but completely innovative rockets that land.
That never happened before, so you're doing that.
And then you said, you know what?
We've got to save humanity.
Let me go spend $44 billion on Twitter.
elon musk
Man, that was expensive.
joe rogan
What's it worth?
What do you think it was actually worth?
elon musk
Everything.
joe rogan
Yeah, not for the market.
unidentified
Right?
joe rogan
I mean, like, for humans, yes, I agree with you.
I mean, I really genuinely do think this, and I've said this many times publicly, I think you did humanity an immense service.
And that if that didn't happen, the narrative of this country would have gone further and further down that road to the point where people would have been scared to speak their mind.
And they would have been scared.
And it changes the way people communicate.
their jobs which changes the way it just changes the way people when they leave universities and they go to get jobs that the way they're allowed to communicate and people don't like to be on the outside they don't like to be ostracized they don't like to be kicked out of communities so people would adhere yeah they would change absolutely People, I guess, are afraid of being ostracized.
elon musk
Fear of being ostracized, I think, is probably the biggest issue.
And they're just being totally shut down.
Where you have no outlet.
And you could just basically disappear except for in-person meetings.
So, yeah, it was important to have at least one social media outlet that wasn't canceling it was important to have at least one social media outlet What I really enjoy is reading the tweets.
joe rogan
I guess you still have to call them tweets.
elon musk
Posts or whatever.
I don't have a good word for it.
joe rogan
Yeah, you can't say the exes.
elon musk
All my exes live in Texas.
unidentified
Reading the words, I should say.
joe rogan
I enjoy reading the words of people who proclaimed that they were leaving and going over to Threads.
unidentified
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
That's an interesting thing about Momentum.
Very difficult to start a whole new social media platform.
Even one that initially got like, what do threads get?
Like some crazy number of initial people signing up for it.
But it just dropped off within like a couple of weeks.
Now it's a fucking ghost town.
elon musk
Yeah.
It's like...
joe rogan
Wild.
elon musk
Eerily quiet.
joe rogan
It's wild.
elon musk
I mean, Zach himself doesn't post.
joe rogan
That's what's crazy.
elon musk
You gotta use your own product.
joe rogan
It's interesting, though, because they're sneaking them in now in Instagram.
elon musk
They sneak a little thread in there?
joe rogan
Because every now and then I'll see something, and go, that's interesting, and I click on it.
Oh, you motherfucker.
And it opens up threads for me.
I'm like, you got me.
Because they're integrated.
elon musk
I don't use Instagram.
joe rogan
It's fascinating that...
I'm sure you don't.
Why would you?
If I bought X or Twitter, whatever, I wouldn't use anything else either.
elon musk
Yeah, but I didn't use Instagram for a while.
I mean, there was a time where I was posting on Instagram, but I found myself doing selfies, and I'm like, what the hell is wrong with me?
Why am I posing for selfies to get likes?
This is crazy.
Bizarre.
So then I was like, you know, if you pose for selfies on Twitter, people would jump all over you, you know?
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
They would.
joe rogan
That's true.
elon musk
They were like, what's wrong with you?
joe rogan
That's so true.
Yeah, people are, like, way more lenient on Instagram for some strange reason.
elon musk
Yeah.
It's like pretty pictures, basically.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Pretty pictures and a lot of bullshit.
There's a lot of weirdness that comes with Instagram, like filters.
I've caught grown men using filters on their pictures.
It's very strange.
elon musk
You know, I am concerned that, say, Instagram actually leads to more unhappiness, not less, in the sense that it just looks like everyone's having a great time and is way better looking than they really are.
And so you're like, man, everyone's like good looking and having a great time.
And then you sort of compare yourself to that and it's like, damn, I'm not as good looking and I seem to be sad a lot.
And then you're like, man, you know, I think it could make you kind of depressed.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, and also you're a grown man and you experience this.
You're also very intelligent and you experience this.
Imagine being a young kid.
Jonathan Haidt documented that in The Coddling of the American Mind.
There's a direct correlation between the invention of social media and its ubiquitous use and self-harm amongst kids, particularly girls.
It's really bad for girls.
Around 2007-ish, there's this big uptick on suicide, self-harm, depression.
unidentified
Yeah.
elon musk
People can't just, like, make themselves be better looking.
There's, like, a limit.
joe rogan
Right.
Yeah, and then surgery.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
There's a big uptick in people getting their jaws reshaped and shit.
elon musk
I mean, yeah, that's too bad.
So, I don't know.
I think...
I think, like, is Instagram a net happiness generator or not?
I'm not sure it is.
joe rogan
Speaking of distorted images, have you seen the court artist's drawing of Sam Bankman-Fried?
elon musk
I mean, it's almost like they lost money or something.
joe rogan
What the fuck happened?
elon musk
It looks like it melted.
joe rogan
Have you seen it?
It looks like a supermodel.
elon musk
Oh, what?
SVF does?
joe rogan
Yes!
The guy who drew him.
elon musk
One of them I saw...
joe rogan
Maybe there's more than one artist.
elon musk
Maybe there's more than one artist, because some of those ones I saw were unflattering.
joe rogan
He looked like an anime superhero.
elon musk
You're joking.
joe rogan
No, no, like perfect chiseled jawline.
Ridiculous.
He looked like he lost 30 pounds, started working out.
Look at this.
Look at that!
elon musk
Are you kidding?
joe rogan
What the fuck, man?
Look at that guy on the left.
That guy looks like Superman.
Doesn't he?
Look how hot that guy is!
I almost feel like it's not accurate.
elon musk
It's like Clark Kent or something.
unidentified
It might be.
joe rogan
I feel like someone's fucking with us.
jamie vernon
There's a few other pictures when I googled, like, you know.
elon musk
There's some rough pictures, though.
joe rogan
It seems like someone's fucking with us, because that guy's handsome as fuck.
jamie vernon
Because there's this one that's not the same.
joe rogan
No, that one's terrible.
unidentified
That one's not the same.
What is that?
joe rogan
That's not real.
That's Satan's drawing.
But that one right there, if that is real, it's like, come on.
That's not real.
elon musk
This is bullshit.
joe rogan
That's bullshit.
Because look at what they did with the girl.
Oh, wow.
Look at that picture there.
Even that picture is hilarious.
elon musk
But Carla looks like she's melting.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I don't know.
unidentified
I have to, I mean...
joe rogan
But she's probably massively depressed.
I mean, I bet, like, that's also, like, it's artist's interpretation of the energy she's giving off in court.
I mean, she has to rat on her boyfriend, and she's already pleaded guilty, and, you know, for a lesser sentence, she's going to rat him out.
elon musk
Well, I mean, I don't know who SBF's PR team is, but they're doing an incredible job.
joe rogan
For real?
elon musk
Well, I mean, the dude roofed tons of people off and stole their money.
And yet he's getting basically, you know, back rubbed from the press.
joe rogan
Well, don't you think that's because of the amount of money that he donated?
elon musk
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know what the deal is.
joe rogan
It might have something to do with that.
I'm not that cynical.
I generally don't think people are influenced by money.
elon musk
Well, I don't know what he's doing.
Something's going on.
The number of articles that I've seen where it's basically a misunderstood philanthropist is ridiculous.
joe rogan
Well, your bullshit meter went off when he was offering money to buy in with you with Twitter, correct?
Well, a large amount.
elon musk
Yeah.
A lot of people fell for his bullshit.
First of all, I hadn't really heard of the guy.
I'm like, who is this guy?
What did he do?
He's in the Bahamas?
unidentified
That's pretty sus to begin with.
elon musk
If you're on a tropical island, finance organizations in tropical islands are generally a bad track record.
joe rogan
And he's involved in crypto.
elon musk
And crypto is scams.
The scam probability in crypto is high.
joe rogan
It's high.
I'm not saying it's all scams.
I would leave that distinction for NFTs.
That's like 80% scam.
Except for Beeple.
Beeple's legit.
But it gives you digital art.
elon musk
Yeah, people's stuff is great.
But I mean, the funny thing is that the NFT is not even on the blockchain.
It's just a URL to the JPEG. So it's not even like, you should at least encode the JPEG in the blockchain.
Because if the URL, if the company housing the image goes out of business, you don't have the image anymore.
joe rogan
I never understood it.
I tried so hard.
I tried so hard.
I have a friend who made millions selling an artist.
I'm like, okay, save that money because eventually people are going to figure this out.
elon musk
With art, there is a fair bit of money laundering and tax avoidance.
So some of these things that seem inexplicable… Like Hunter Biden?
joe rogan
Are you going to talk about Hunter and Biden's paintings?
elon musk
Did he actually sell paintings for large sums of money?
joe rogan
Immense sums of money.
elon musk
Okay.
joe rogan
Hundreds of thousands of dollars.
elon musk
That seems unlikely to be a legit transaction.
joe rogan
Unlikely, right?
elon musk
Unlikely.
joe rogan
Yeah, very unlikely.
The work's not bad, though, I've got to say.
For that kind of bullshit art, it's not that bad.
elon musk
Yeah.
I mean, the thing is that it's hard to price art because it's in the eye of the beholder.
So how can you say whether something— Like, this is his stuff.
joe rogan
How much does that go for?
$225k.
A steal!
elon musk
It's not bad.
joe rogan
It's not that bad.
That's not that bad.
I mean, I would buy that.
I wouldn't buy it for $225k, but I'll buy it for $5k.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
It's not bad.
Like, look, a lot of crackheads are good artists.
Like, you know, you get crazy on drugs and splatter some shit around and you got a unique vision.
That's not bad.
elon musk
That's not bad.
joe rogan
That is not bad at all.
How much does that one go for?
So he's probably a legit...
Meanwhile, we're going to find out he had a ghost artist.
elon musk
I mean, I suspect he's not untalented.
Right.
So, I mean, I actually don't have any issues with his lifestyle or anything.
joe rogan
There's his stuff.
That stuff's not bad.
Like, whatever that dog-wolf thing is on the wall, that's pretty dope.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
I like that.
What does it say underneath it?
Can you read it?
I can't read it.
Either way, not bad!
elon musk
Yeah, it's not bad, it's not bad.
joe rogan
Have you ever heard the theory that the entire modern art movement, like Jackson Pollock and the like, was a CIA psyop?
elon musk
I mean, I have heard that, but I have not heard any evidence for it.
joe rogan
I read the article a couple years ago.
elon musk
Okay.
joe rogan
At least.
elon musk
A modern art society?
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
Every day I wake up, there's another society.
joe rogan
But it was fascinating.
Yeah, every day.
There's always something.
elon musk
Cat with a tinfoil hat.
unidentified
No.
joe rogan
When was this?
Beginning of 2020. Yeah.
Was modern art really a CIA society?
But, I mean, if you can get someone to spend that kind of money on that kind of shit, like the Jackson Pollock stuff, So, here it is.
Preeminent culture war, Cold War, what is it?
Okay.
The relationship between modern art and American diplomacy began during World War II. Museum, MoMA, Battle for Hearts and Minds.
It's an interesting article.
So, I read the article a couple years ago.
I can't remember what their argument was.
But it's one of those things.
unidentified
It starts there.
jamie vernon
Like, they spent money to buy paintings directly from artists in the 40s.
joe rogan
Okay.
Even though modern art and American diplomacy were of a piece, Soviet propaganda asserted that the United States was a culturally barren capitalist wasteland to make the case for American cultural dynamism.
The State Department in 1946 spent $49,000 to purchase 79 paintings directly from American modern artists and mounted them in a traveling exhibition called Advancing American Art.
That exhibition, which made stops in Europe and Latin America, included work from artists like Georgia O'Keeffe and Jake.
Georgia O'Keeffe is the lady who makes vaginas, right?
Isn't that her work?
unidentified
I don't know.
I think that is some of what she does, yeah.
joe rogan
I think she makes, like, vagina, like, flowers and stuff.
elon musk
I mean, I think so.
It was pretty good, but...
joe rogan
Well, the Jackson Pollock one, I was like, how did...
Come on.
What happened there?
That one is just wild, because I really think I could do that.
unidentified
Some of the shit of, like, Jackson Pollock and the CIA teamed up to win the Cold War.
joe rogan
Yeah.
unidentified
Okay.
joe rogan
I think that's the article I read because that's 2017. I don't remember.
elon musk
Well, I think art is very much in the eye of the beholder.
It's like what does it make you – how does it make you think and feel?
And if it makes you think and feel in a way that you like, then it's good.
joe rogan
Yes, absolutely.
But it's also a way to launder money.
elon musk
Yes.
A number of these like very high-priced art things are tax evasion and money laundering.
joe rogan
Have you ever seen the documentary on the lost Leonardo?
elon musk
No.
joe rogan
That's crazy.
That's crazy.
MBS purchased this.
elon musk
Okay.
joe rogan
And he purchased it for some insane amount of money.
It turns out it probably isn't Leonardo da Vinci's.
Not only that, but the vast majority of the painting was made by a modern age woman who recreated everything.
Okay.
Like, so she, in "restoring," air quotes, "restoring," she essentially repainted the image in the style of da Vinci.
elon musk
Okay.
joe rogan
And it's very sketchy because if you look at the original painting, it was all fucked up and missing paint and there was many layers.
Someone had painted over it.
It's really an incredible documentary because it just shows how much fuckery is involved in these high-dollar transactions.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
And I think it was the most expensive painting that was ever sold.
I think it went for something in the neighborhood of $400 million.
$450 million.
Yeah.
The Lost Leonardo, a new film solved the mystery of the world's most expensive painting.
Is the $450 million Salvatore Mundi a fake?
This film featuring tearful sycophants, sneering experts, dodgy dealers in a secretive super yacht may finally settle the great da Vinci controversy.
Apparently there's multiple layers and different styles of painting involved in it, and when they do some sort of a comprehensive examination, whether it's like, you know, I don't know what kind of imagery they're using, but they're doing something where they could say, like, this has been painted many times and fucked with.
It might have originally been one of Leonardo's students.
It might not have been Leonardo.
There's not a real clear...
elon musk
It's dated to that time?
joe rogan
Yeah.
But whether it was Sotheby's that sold it?
unidentified
I think so.
joe rogan
Yeah.
So they were kind of aware that there were some shenanigans with this piece.
But they also were aware that this was...
This was Three Lemons.
They were going to hit the jackpot with this bad boy.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
And so they went through with it and...
unidentified
Yeah.
Christie's.
joe rogan
Christie's, that's it.
The other one.
Christie's was aware of it.
It's a fascinating documentary.
I don't know what's right.
I don't know what's wrong.
It might be real.
But at the very least, it's been retouched mostly by this woman.
Isn't it like 90% of the painting?
It's some there's some very high percentage of the painting that was actually made by this woman and they show her she worked on it forever for years and years worked like painstakingly to retouch this piece of art Which is very odd yeah That they do that.
Because like, wouldn't you just want it all fucked up and old?
elon musk
Sure.
joe rogan
I mean, that's the real piece of art.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
The real piece of art is not like some woman in 2001 painting over it.
That's just crazy.
elon musk
Yeah.
Um...
I mean, I enjoy art for the aesthetics, but not for the name value.
joe rogan
Yeah, I feel the same way.
I enjoy art just because of how it makes you feel.
It's a cool thing.
I mean, obviously my studio is filled with it.
You go outside, I love art.
It's everywhere out there.
I'm just, I love it.
Have you seen, oh, the woman, have you seen the piece that she made of you?
This Melania Blackman, have you seen that drawing that she did?
elon musk
Is that the weird one?
joe rogan
It's everything.
It's enormous.
She draws it, and you're essentially made up of all these different characters and different things.
See if you can find her work with this.
She did one of me, and she did one of Anthony Bourdain that I bought that's out there as well.
She's super talented, this woman.
So this is her.
She's really hot, too.
elon musk
Okay.
joe rogan
See if you can find her standing next to it.
There it is.
Instagram Bandit?
Oh, that was right!
There was something that happened where Instagram did something.
What happened?
So Instagram has not only banned me from promoting this artwork, but also shadow banned me altogether after I posted my latest piece.
This is after probably you said that you wanted to fight, Zucker.
elon musk
Well, actually, I was just...
The Zuck fight is funny, because he was posting all these fight videos, and then someone on Twitter at the time said, Hey, you should fight Zuck.
And I said, well, I'm willing to fight if he is.
And then Zuck posted, I think on Instagram or something, name the place or something.
Something to that effect.
And I was like, okay, how about the Vegas Octagon?
And then Italy actually was willing to let us use the Colosseum.
So I was like, well, let's – can't turn that down.
And then – And then I was like, well, if it's going to be in the Coliseum, I like UFC and everything, but we don't have tons of ads and UFC branding on the Coliseum because it's a historical place.
It's a place of great history.
You don't want to just have it be old like NASCAR. And then Zuck pulled out.
He was the pull-out method.
So he pulled out of it?
unidentified
He pulled out of it?
elon musk
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
Oh.
What was the narrative?
What did you hear, Jamie?
I don't remember.
elon musk
Well, listen, I've only...
So he was like, oh, no, it's got to be UFC rules.
I'm like, well, okay, we're going to have UFC rules in the Coliseum.
It's fine.
But we just don't want to have...
We've got to respect the historical integrity of the place.
joe rogan
The Coliseum just seems like the coolest place to do it.
That's why?
elon musk
I mean, you're like gladiator, you know?
Come on.
joe rogan
And if they said it's okay...
So he just wants it to be in the actual UFC, like in Vegas?
elon musk
So then he said, oh, well, you know, he accused me of not being serious.
And I said, look, listen, at the end of the day, I'll fight you any place, anywhere, under any rules.
That's what I said.
So, you know, he said name the place.
I'm like, I'm happy to fight him in a house, on a mouse, with a louse.
We'd like go full Dr. Seuss here.
joe rogan
Now, how much time?
elon musk
I'm way bigger than him.
This is unfair.
I don't think you should fight me.
joe rogan
Because you're so much bigger than him?
elon musk
Yeah, I'm like 50% higher than him.
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
I've got my patented walrus move.
I just lie on him.
unidentified
The walrus move?
elon musk
Well, you know, walrus doesn't need martial arts training.
unidentified
Right.
elon musk
Because it's really big.
You don't want to go wrestling a walrus.
joe rogan
Right.
elon musk
Because it's going to roll on you.
joe rogan
Have you ever rolled with someone who's much smaller than you that does jiu-jitsu?
elon musk
Yes.
joe rogan
Lex, yeah.
elon musk
Yeah, yeah.
No, I do train as a martial arts.
joe rogan
How much have you trained, personally?
elon musk
A decade of it.
joe rogan
Well, you did a lot of karate, right?
Judo?
elon musk
Judo, shinkai, karate.
Yeah.
I did some jujitsu, taekwondo, street fighting, which was involuntary.
I think I'd be decent.
I did martial arts competitions when I was a teenager.
unidentified
Really?
joe rogan
Interesting.
So look at you, George St. Pierre, Elon, John Donaher, the great master, and Lex Friedman.
elon musk
But, like, Lex is...
I think he's got, like, 20% heavier than Zuck.
And I'm way bigger than Lex.
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
That's why they have weight categories.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Did you get a chance to talk to Donaher at all?
The guy on the left?
unidentified
That guy's fascinating.
elon musk
Yeah, no, no, he's...
joe rogan
Do you know his history?
elon musk
No, he's from New Zealand or something.
joe rogan
He was a professor of philosophy at Columbia and fell in love with Jiu Jitsu.
I mean fell in love with it to the point where he was sleeping on the mats and teaching all day long.
He's an obsessive.
He is a real Kaizen disciple.
elon musk
He seems Zen.
joe rogan
Oh, man.
He is one of the most unique characters I've ever met in my life.
One of the most brilliant men I've ever met.
And he's completely dedicated to Jiu Jitsu.
And he has raised through this...
Particularly this one disciple Gordon Ryan who also lives here in Austin.
He's the greatest jiu-jitsu competitor of all time.
There's no question and he's only 28. He might even be 27 or maybe he's 28 now.
But I mean he is universally regarded as the greatest of all time and he is John's greatest student.
And the two of them together because Gordon has insane work ethic.
They work 365 days a year.
They do not take any days off.
They train every day.
That's Gordon to the right of John.
With the crazy beard.
He doesn't really have that hair.
He bleaches it.
But the two of them together are literally an unstoppable combination.
elon musk
I like Alex Ripped.
joe rogan
He's pretty ripped.
Yeah, he's a combination of gigantic, brilliant, and insanely dedicated with the most incredible instructor that's ever existed.
I mean, John Donaher is universally regarded as the greatest jiu-jitsu instructor alive.
And his student is universally regarded as the greatest jiu-jitsu competitor alive.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
And it is because John is like a complete...
like a guy out of a superhero book.
Like, you wouldn't...
you're not gonna find another one of those.
A guy with a genius level IQ who's one of...
I mean, you talk to him, he's fascinating.
And he is obsessed with combat sports, warfare, like strategy.
Brilliant guy.
elon musk
Brilliant guy.
I was impressed when I met him.
If I was fighting someone where I was not much bigger than them, then I would be more concerned.
joe rogan
How much time would you need to prepare?
elon musk
I don't need any time.
joe rogan
No time at all?
elon musk
No.
joe rogan
How's your cardio?
elon musk
That will not be a factor.
joe rogan
Really?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
What's the likelihood of this actually happening?
elon musk
I'm willing to do it anytime, anywhere, anyplace, any role.
joe rogan
Well, I think stating it this way might accelerate this process, especially on this platform.
elon musk
I mean, I challenge him to a duel under any circumstances.
joe rogan
Sword fight?
elon musk
Sure.
unidentified
Jesus.
joe rogan
That's not necessary.
elon musk
Pistols at dawn.
joe rogan
That's not necessary.
I think physical hand down.
elon musk
Nerf guns at noon.
joe rogan
Nerf guns at noon.
Well, you could slash it out in the metaverse.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
In the real world.
elon musk
Listen, there's just a reason they have weight categories, you know?
unidentified
So...
elon musk
You know, there's a friend of mine who is pretty good at fighting, but she weighs about half of what I do.
And I said, let me show you why there's weird categories in fighting.
I'm going to do a move called The Walrus, and I'm just going to lie on you.
I'm not going to put you in a lock or anything.
I'm just going to lie on you.
You know, I've positioned myself such that it's hard to get out from under me.
And I just want to lie crossways on you and you try to get away.
And you won't be able to get away.
Because you couldn't.
Just, you know, like if a horse falls on you.
joe rogan
Right.
elon musk
You can get trapped under a horse.
joe rogan
But you're not a horse.
What do you weigh, about 230?
elon musk
Yeah, 240, yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
So, no, no, I'm not a horse, but I'm saying in the limit, if something's heavy enough, like, you know, if a horse falls in you and dies, you can get trapped under a horse and not be able to get yourself out.
joe rogan
Right.
But if someone's good enough, I mean, I'm sure you've seen, like, absolute weight classes in jiu-jitsu where you'll get a 145-pound competitor with strangles, a 220-pound competitor, and they're both well-trained.
Because if someone is that good...
elon musk
It's unlikely.
joe rogan
It's not unlikely.
It happens quite often.
When you get elite competitors, like elite black belts at the 145, 155 pound weight limit, you'd be shocked.
There's a ton of videos of these guys who will strangle much larger black belts.
elon musk
I'm not saying it's impossible, it's just highly unlikely.
And if this were not the case, there would not be strict weight categories in martial arts.
joe rogan
That is true.
That is true.
But the reason why they allow absolutes in jiu-jitsu is because it is the thrill of watching these smaller people go against much larger people.
And sometimes they win.
elon musk
No, just like armies, people take note when a small army defeats a big army because it is so unusual.
joe rogan
Yes.
elon musk
Not because it's normal.
joe rogan
Right.
elon musk
You know, if there's like, if it's like, it was two against 10,000, and Boyder would beat those two guys up.
Which is more likely what happens.
Like, if you're severely outnumbered, you will lose.
Almost certainly.
unidentified
So look at the size difference between these two guys.
joe rogan
Play it out.
This is Mikey Musumechi, who is another fascinating individual.
This guy is another super genius who trains every day, 12 hours a day, and he is competing against a black belt in the heavyweight division.
Mikey Musumechi might weigh 145 pounds, and he beats this guy.
elon musk
Guy doesn't look to be in super great shape.
joe rogan
Well, he's enormous.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
I mean, he's enormous and he's a black belt, so he's skilled.
I forget how Mikey wins this.
He catches him with something.
jamie vernon
I couldn't tell what exactly happened.
Yeah, I sort of skipped ahead.
joe rogan
Get it a little bit further here.
I think...
What happened here?
jamie vernon
It seemed like he got penalties or something.
joe rogan
Oh, they pushed him out of bounds?
I don't know what that won on the side.
I think they're out of bounds.
Yeah, that's all that was.
That's just out of bounds.
So scoot ahead and see what happens, what he catches him with.
What happened?
elon musk
I'm not saying it's impossible.
It's just very unlikely.
joe rogan
Oh, so he won by points?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Oh, okay.
So he won by points.
elon musk
I think you're making the point for me here.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, in that case, that guy's strangled a lot of much larger people than him.
But again, he's extraordinary.
He's a world champion.
He's a world champion for ONE, which is this huge organization in Singapore.
They do these events where they have all kinds of different martial arts.
They have MMA, Thai boxing.
elon musk
Yeah.
Yeah.
joe rogan
So you would do it under any rules?
elon musk
Sure.
joe rogan
All right, let's go.
I like the fact that you're interested in doing this.
elon musk
It's fun.
joe rogan
It makes it fun.
elon musk
Yeah, I mean, I could, you know, this could be an exercise in hubris.
joe rogan
We'll find out.
We could find out.
I like the fact that Zuck's interested in it, too.
I like the fact that he trains so much.
elon musk
Yeah, I mean, there's...
There aren't very many ways to actually...
If you stick to the rules of jiu-jitsu...
Like, for example, if you want to put someone in an arm lock, you have to be able to extend their arm.
And if somebody is strong enough that you cannot extend their arm, then you're limited to...
joe rogan
Chokes.
elon musk
Chokes.
And you can do an arm lock across the groin with both arms and legs.
Like Hoist Gracie did upside down in the third UFC fight or something like that.
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
But he was pretty severely damaged.
joe rogan
That was when he fought chemo, yeah.
That enormous guy.
elon musk
Yeah.
And he did an upside-down arm lock across the groin because he could not do an arm lock, you know, a sort of sidebar arm lock.
But after that, people were like, why did that move?
So they were like, we're not going to allow themselves to get an arm lock across the groin without, you know, that was like a, you know, overconfidence, I think.
joe rogan
Well, it was exhaustion.
I mean, they fought like tooth and nail for something like seven or eight minutes.
And, you know, Hoist survived and then eventually wore the guy.
Well, when you're a big steroided up guy like that, too, the oxygen depletion, like the amount of oxygen your muscles require, you gas out pretty quickly when you're that big, unless you're insanely conditioned.
elon musk
Yeah, but there's no way for him to do a single arm arm lock.
He couldn't do it.
joe rogan
Single arm arm lock.
elon musk
If you try to do a lock on the side.
joe rogan
So like in side control?
So from some legs across your face?
Is that what you mean?
elon musk
If you try to do an arm bar on the side, one arm across the knee or across the thigh, you have to be able to extend the arm.
You know, triceps have to be able to exceed the strength of their bicep is what it comes down to.
But if you cannot exceed the strength of their bicep, then you will not be able to do an arm extension.
joe rogan
I'm not sure what I'm...
Are you talking about like a Kimura, like a straight arm bar?
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Oh, so you're talking about like with just the arms?
elon musk
Where you just have one arm, like, if it's one arm versus one arm.
joe rogan
But that's never the case.
It's almost always the whole body's engaged.
elon musk
That's, I think that's, well in judo that's a very common hold, a very common line.
joe rogan
A one arm arm bar?
elon musk
Yeah, one arm.
You know, you have your one arm around the neck and you take their arm and you extend it across.
joe rogan
Oh, I see what you're saying.
Okay, so like from a scarf hold.
So a scarf hold, you would take the arm and put it over and you would push it down with one arm.
Yeah, that's unusual though.
Yeah, that's an unusual arm bar.
elon musk
But if one person is much stronger than another, then that's the move.
joe rogan
Yeah, but...
elon musk
It's a very fast move because you can take someone right from a throw, drop them on the floor, right into an armbar.
joe rogan
Yeah, okay.
That's a very specific armbar.
elon musk
Ten seconds.
joe rogan
Right.
That's a rare armbar.
You never see that in MMA. What you do see, though, is the two legs isolate the arm, and then the person grabs a hold of it with a thumb up and uses all of their body Yeah, yeah.
elon musk
That's what Gracie did.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's what most people do when they apply an arm bar.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Whether it's from the back, like, you know, a lot of people have done that, or whether it's from side control, which is a little more easy because you have control of the body.
elon musk
Yeah.
I mean, it's also just that, you know, UFC is not just jujitsu.
You can punch people.
joe rogan
Right.
That makes a big difference.
elon musk
Big difference.
joe rogan
Big difference.
unidentified
Huge.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, MMA has changed the ideas of jiu-jitsu because there's a lot of techniques that people do where it works well in competition when someone's like grabbing your leg when you can't just rain down punches on their face.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
There's a lot of unrealistic positions.
elon musk
If somebody's pounding you in the face, it's pretty hard to be chill, you know?
Especially if somebody's got gorilla fists in your face.
Yes.
It's not going to be a good day.
joe rogan
Yeah, Carlson Gracie famously had a phrase that if you take a black belt and you punch him in the face, he becomes a brown belt.
Punch him again, he becomes a purple belt.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
And so on and so forth.
elon musk
I mean, most people have not been punched in the face.
I've been punched in the face.
So, you know, it comes as a surprise.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Yeah, it probably does come as a surprise.
elon musk
I mean, there's also, like, even the UFC has a lot of limitations.
Like, you can't do 12 o'clock elbows, you know?
joe rogan
That's changing.
They're getting rid of that.
elon musk
You gotta do 12 o'clock elbows?
joe rogan
Yes, finally.
Finally.
I've been singing that from the top of the roof forever.
elon musk
Okay.
joe rogan
It's so nuts.
It's so stupid.
You know where it came from?
elon musk
No.
joe rogan
It came from Big John McCarthy, who was the original UFC referee and pioneer of the sport.
He was bringing this to athletic commissions, and they were allowing certain techniques, but one of them they wouldn't allow was the 12-6 elbow, because they saw those late-night karate demonstrations where someone would smash bricks like that.
They thought someone would die if they hit him with this.
elon musk
Definitely going to sting.
joe rogan
Yeah, but it's not even harder than this one.
This one's harder.
Because this one, you can throw your body weight into it, and it's a more natural movement.
This is an unusual movement.
I mean, I'm sure you could train it and get it probably as hard, but I think for most people, for me, I can tell you for sure, this elbow has more power.
elon musk
Well, I think any elbow in the face is going to be a big wake-up call if you've never had an elbow in the face.
joe rogan
It fucking sucks.
It fucking sucks.
Did you watch the Tyson Fury, Francis Ngannou boxing match?
elon musk
Is that the one we bit the ear off?
joe rogan
No, that's Mike Tyson.
Evander Holyfield.
That's from the 90s.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
No, this fight that took place since last weekend.
Francis Ngannou, who was the UFC heavyweight champion, he vacated the belt so he could take this fight with Tyson Fury.
This was his dream fight.
Tyson Fury, who's the lineal heavyweight champion.
Francis Ngannou had never had a boxing match ever in his life.
Had zero boxing matches, but he was the UFC heavyweight champion.
elon musk
Okay.
joe rogan
Knocked down Tyson Fury in the third round, beat him up in the eighth round.
Most people, including me, thought he should have won the decision, including most boxers, most boxing pundits.
And he lost by one point on one judge's scorecard.
He won on one judge's scorecard.
Another judge, who should go to jail, had it 96-93 for Tyson Fury, which is fucking outrageous.
But Francis Ngannou, who is a literal freak of nature.
I mean, this guy grew up in Cameroon and was working in the sand mines when he was a child.
Like a fucking Conan movie.
elon musk
Like this great warrior.
Conan's like pushing the thing around in a circle.
joe rogan
He's developing his body, digging in the sand all day.
He's supremely physically advanced.
elon musk
He looks fit.
joe rogan
He's not just fit.
He's the hardest puncher ever measured in all of MMA. There's a machine that we actually have outside at the gym.
And if you hit this thing, Francis has hit it harder than any person who's ever lived.
Yeah, well look at him.
elon musk
Can I hit it?
joe rogan
Yeah, we set it up.
I had the record for the kick for a while.
elon musk
Okay.
joe rogan
Yeah.
A couple people beat it now.
But Francis punched, like, it's an insane, it's like getting hit by a fucking car.
elon musk
Sure.
joe rogan
And when he dropped Tyson Fury in the third round, you see Tyson's on his back going, what the fuck?
And then he realizes, like, because I think he thought he was just going...
elon musk
Yeah, being like hit by a sledgehammer.
joe rogan
Well, he thought he was going to run him over because he's the boxing heavyweight champion.
He's like, there's no way this guy can box with me.
He even said at the beginning of the fight, it's time to go to school.
elon musk
Okay.
joe rogan
And then Francis said at the end of the fight, you are a shitty professor.
You should watch it.
It's a good friend's show.
It's on ESPN+. I'm pretty sure you can still get it.
elon musk
Yeah.
Anyway, I just, it's...
joe rogan
I'm just excited that you're interested in doing it still.
elon musk
Sure.
joe rogan
All right.
Didn't you fuck your back up doing, like, sumo wrestling?
elon musk
Yeah.
unidentified
What happened there?
elon musk
Still hurts a little bit, actually.
I've had, like, four operations.
joe rogan
Really?
From that?
elon musk
Well, I had, like, some childhood injuries.
Like I said, I was in some pretty severe fights as a kid.
Like, really, like, I was almost killed at one point.
joe rogan
Really?
What happened?
elon musk
It was just in school in South Africa.
It's a very violent place.
So there's been many involuntary fights.
It's just the way it was.
But anyway, so I had some rugby injuries as well.
I saw South Africa won the World Cup, which is cool, and rugby.
So I think that was not a good starting position.
But then the world champion sumo wrestlers, they did kind of like a demo bout for my birthday.
And since it was my birthday, I guess they just call up the birthday boy and say, like, hey, do you want to Sumo wrestle.
This is where it's a similar weight differential.
He was 50% heavier than me.
So like 360, 370 pounds.
And I knew he would take it easy on me in the first round.
So the only way I'm going to knock him over is momentum.
So I got to basically run at him.
So I did.
Run at him, did a judo throw, knocked him over, and smashed a disc in my neck in the process.
It would be like running at that wall.
unidentified
If you run at a wall, it's going to hurt.
joe rogan
Did you have to get it fused or anything?
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Oh, man.
elon musk
You can knock over someone.
You can defeat someone bigger than you if you're willing to smash a disc in your neck.
joe rogan
Well, if you know what you're doing and you're willing to smash a disc in your neck.
Those two things.
elon musk
So he wasn't expecting me to beat a total lunatic on round one.
And he defeated me obviously in round two and three because he was like, oh, now he knows what to expect.
So I had like five minutes of glory and a decade of pain.
joe rogan
Now that you've got your neck fused, that creates problems with the upper and lower discs as well, doesn't it?
elon musk
Over time, if there's too much neck rotation, it can damage them.
joe rogan
How long ago was this?
You had this operation?
elon musk
Man, I had three operations.
joe rogan
Well, you got it fused.
How long ago?
elon musk
I had two artificial disks, and I'm actually in favor of artificial disks.
They put the wrong disk in, but then eventually the third one is like, let's just fuse it.
joe rogan
They put the wrong one in?
unidentified
Yeah, twice.
joe rogan
How so?
Because I have friends that have artificial disks.
elon musk
Yeah, no, I'm actually in favor of artificial disks.
You just need to have the right one.
So in my case, at this point I know a lot about it, the C5, C6 right facet is impacting.
You know, the facets are like the outriggers.
You've got the center core of the spine, the facets are the outriggers, and they're shingled.
So they're like, you know, one on top of the other like this.
There's a little nerve that goes out in between the C5, C6. And if those vertebra come close together, they grind the nerve.
So they just sort of start shearing the nerve.
Now, so my C5, C6, right for certain, it shows up clear as day on like a technetium scan.
So if you could do like a radioactive scan with technetium, it's very clear where the problem is.
So, what should have been done was a simple hinge.
Like, you know, basically to move the vertebra, basically the C5 vertebra, back about maybe an eighth of an inch to sort of unload the facet and then put a simple hinge, so just rotation.
But I was given what is called a MOBI-C, which is a more mobile disk.
The MOBI-C allows it not just rotation, but also translation, so it can move back and forth.
So that then didn't solve the impacting of the C5-C6, because it could slide.
And when it would slide forward, the C5-C6 would bang and crunch the nerve.
joe rogan
And what does the normal neck do?
Does the normal neck move forward in that way?
elon musk
The disc is like a gummy bear, basically, normally.
So it allows rotation and translation.
So it's like sitting on like a jello pillow.
joe rogan
That's what discs are.
Like one of those Bosu balls that people sit on sometimes and they work at a desk.
elon musk
It's like a rubber pillow, basically.
So the natural disk allows for rotation and translation.
So they basically put a disk that had too much mobility in and did not solve the C5-C6 NOVA impact.
So then the third time around, I was like, listen, I just don't want to take a chance here.
Let's just fuse it.
unidentified
Oh, wow.
joe rogan
And so it just limits your mobility?
elon musk
No, I'm fine.
I'm like, I can look right and left.
It's okay.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's okay.
unidentified
Yeah.
elon musk
I'm not like, you know, totally stiff necked.
joe rogan
No, you don't seem like you're stiff-necked at all.
There was a guy who fought in the UFC named Yoel Romero, and he's a real freak, too.
An amazing athlete.
And he came from the Cuban wrestling program.
He was one of the greatest wrestlers that's ever competed, amateur-wise.
He had his entire neck fused, and when he runs, his neck doesn't move.
It's kind of freakish.
You see him running, and his neck looks like it's a stick.
And the whole body is like...
Like, moving around, but the neck is just locked in place.
It's very bizarre to look at.
I mean, he runs like a man whose entire neck is fused.
Like, watch him.
See if you can show the image of him.
Here, watch him run.
elon musk
Wow.
joe rogan
See how his neck?
elon musk
He's in good shape.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
You think?
I mean, you don't get in any better shape than this guy.
By the way, he looks like that now and he's 46, 47 years old and still competing at the highest level in Bellator.
I mean, he's an unbelievable athlete and one of the most explosive guys that's ever fought in the sport.
Just insanely powerful and fast.
elon musk
Cool.
joe rogan
So, you compete at the highest level with your neck fused.
elon musk
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm not too worried about that.
joe rogan
Aljamain Sterling, who was the UFC Bantamweight Champion, he got his neck fused, or got a disc replaced rather in his neck, and then went on to defend his title three times.
Still fighting at the highest level with a fake disc in his neck.
elon musk
Well, I guess it'll be okay then.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, medical science, pretty fucking incredible what they can do now.
You know?
I mean, injuries that would have, like, you would have been fucked for the rest of your life just a few decades ago.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Now you're good to go.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
So I'm excited.
We've kind of rekindled this Zuck versus Elon Fire.
elon musk
I mean, he's checking out.
joe rogan
I don't think he's checking out.
elon musk
Yeah, he's checking out.
joe rogan
Do you think so?
elon musk
Yeah.
Puck, puck, puck.
joe rogan
Well, maybe he's listening.
unidentified
Zuck, Zuck, Zuck.
Zuck, Zuck, Zuck.
elon musk
I'll go at him into fighting using taunts.
joe rogan
It might work.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
I mean, somehow or another you got him to agree in the first place.
I was stunned.
elon musk
Surely he will respond to a taunt like that.
joe rogan
Yeah, surely.
I mean, how can you resist?
elon musk
How can you resist?
Exactly.
Let's go full schoolyard taunting.
joe rogan
What if there was, like, real consequences on the line?
Like, what if you guys had a real bet?
elon musk
Okay, sure.
joe rogan
Like, the moderation team from X takes over moderation of Facebook if you win.
elon musk
No problem.
Sounds good.
joe rogan
And if he wins, vice versa.
elon musk
It's a fight for civilization.
joe rogan
Yeah.
A literal fight for civilization.
elon musk
I mean, I'll do it.
joe rogan
Wow.
Heavy.
unidentified
True.
joe rogan
And you wouldn't even train for this?
elon musk
No, I'd train a little bit.
joe rogan
Train a little bit?
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Like how many weeks do you need?
elon musk
I mean, I don't have to train.
I could do it like tomorrow.
I tried going to his house, actually.
joe rogan
Did you really?
elon musk
Yeah, because he lives in Palo Alto.
And we're doing some Tesla full self-driving testing.
So I'm like, well, I've got to pick a destination.
joe rogan
Did you press the button, go do-do, navigate to Zuck's house?
elon musk
Yeah, basically.
It's not far.
I think he's like three miles away from the Tesla California headquarters.
Wow.
But I don't know.
There's nobody there.
You know why?
According to a spokesman, he was traveling.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
It would have been wild if he was there.
elon musk
What would you have said?
Literally, anytime.
I just thought it was funny to go like, you know, I'm coming over to your house.
I'm going to get you.
joe rogan
Well, it's even more funny when it's two of the richest guys in the world.
elon musk
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, anyway, he didn't answer.
joe rogan
No.
elon musk
Too bad.
joe rogan
It's just fun.
It's fun, and I'm glad you're just for the fun of it.
elon musk
I mean, I think it would be...
Well, actually, Dana White thinks it would be a really big ticket fight.
joe rogan
It would be fucking huge.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
I would commentate on that.
elon musk
Yeah, I mean, the proceeds could go to charity and stuff.
unidentified
It would be fucking huge.
elon musk
Yeah, it'd be crazy.
People would want to see what the hell's going on.
joe rogan
Oh, my God.
It would be fucking huge.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah.
It would be really crazy.
elon musk
Crazy.
joe rogan
Like, if they close the thing, and Bruce Buffer is in there, it's...
Let's go.
The place would go fucking bananas.
elon musk
Bananas.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Yeah.
elon musk
Let's do it.
joe rogan
Does it have to be in the Coliseum?
Would you agree?
elon musk
No, I'll do it anywhere.
I literally said anywhere, anytime, any rules.
joe rogan
You know where you should do it?
The Sphere in Las Vegas.
elon musk
The Sphere's great.
joe rogan
I was just there.
The Sphere's amazing.
elon musk
It's amazing.
joe rogan
It's amazing.
I've only seen it on the outside, but it looks incredible.
elon musk
The inside's even better.
joe rogan
I've seen video.
I haven't seen it live.
elon musk
I was there on Saturday night, and it's awesome.
Like, it's really good.
I think it might be the best show on earth.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
I mean, if you have visuals that accompany the music, like, if you have, like, someone like Roger Waters, like, which his show is, like, insanely visual, something like that in the sphere would be incredible.
elon musk
The art in the show that I saw on Saturday night was incredibly good.
Who was it?
I don't know who did all the art, but...
joe rogan
What was the band?
elon musk
Oh, it was U2. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But, I mean, I've been to U2 concerts, and U2's great, but the sphere is really...
Like, if U2 hadn't been there, it would still be great.
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
Yeah, U2's...
It's like a...
You know, like, on Sunday, there was a movie.
They played a movie there.
Whoa.
joe rogan
Where do you look?
elon musk
In all directions.
joe rogan
Oh my god.
elon musk
I mean, it's like actually being in virtual reality.
In fact, it was so wild, the Saturday night one especially, that you step outside after the show and you're like, why is reality so boring?
joe rogan
Oh, so this is a postcard from Earth.
elon musk
It's Darren Aronofsky's thing.
unidentified
Oh, wow.
joe rogan
And you're watching this.
elon musk
I saw that on Sunday.
joe rogan
And it covers the whole ceiling.
Oh, my God.
elon musk
It's really great.
joe rogan
You saw it there?
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Oh, my God.
That's incredible.
elon musk
Yeah, it's really good.
joe rogan
That would be the greatest place to see a movie ever.
elon musk
I think it's like Saturday Night Show.
And obviously YouTube adds to it.
But like I said, the sphere is really special in and of itself.
I think it's probably the best show I've ever seen.
unidentified
Wow.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
I can imagine.
I mean, it's just what an amazing venue and what an incredible idea.
elon musk
Yeah, it's really cool.
joe rogan
To have the entire ceiling, all screened.
elon musk
I gotta hand it to Dolan.
That was pretty great.
joe rogan
Amazing.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Absolutely amazing.
I'm so glad that he did that.
And then also the outside.
Oh, that's incredible.
elon musk
They really play with perspective.
joe rogan
God, that's incredible.
elon musk
Because it's round, but it doesn't look round.
joe rogan
Right.
elon musk
So it'll be like, it'll simulate like a square, like all sorts of shapes.
unidentified
Wow.
joe rogan
And then also the outside of it.
Like, they had the outside of it.
It looked like Earth.
It's just amazing.
elon musk
It's really cool.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Super cool.
elon musk
I like these epic things.
joe rogan
That's the venue.
elon musk
You know.
It's really cool.
joe rogan
That's the venue.
That's where it needs to go down.
elon musk
In the sphere?
unidentified
Sure.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's even better than the Coliseum.
elon musk
Okay.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Especially if the United States falls, that would be our Coliseum.
This would be our Rome.
Vegas would be our Rome.
elon musk
I mean, the sphere did remind me of being like a modern-day Coliseum.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Yeah, like a modern-day version.
Like, what would they do?
Yeah, with our technology currently.
Yeah.
And then Vegas is, like, kind of Rome-esque in the sense that when we think about, like, the hedonism of Rome, its final days, that's Vegas.
elon musk
Yeah, yeah, totally.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Perfect.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Let's go.
elon musk
Let's go.
Are you not entertained?
joe rogan
You will fucking be entertained.
elon musk
You'll be fucking entertained.
So entertained.
joe rogan
No doubt.
elon musk
Let's do it.
joe rogan
There's one point in time where you were trying to get people to do a pause on AI. I mean, I signed onto a letter that someone else wrote.
elon musk
I didn't think that people would actually pause.
joe rogan
But you thought it was probably a good idea if they did.
elon musk
I think so, too.
unidentified
Yeah.
elon musk
I mean, making some sort of digital superintelligence seems like it could be dangerous.
joe rogan
It certainly has the potential, and certainly has the potential...
Well, when you were talking about what...
This mind virus, how it was able to propagate through social media and being in control of social media platforms.
Think about what that means if that same mind virus gets in control of a superintelligence.
And that is possible.
unidentified
Yeah.
elon musk
No, that's actually what I think the biggest danger is for AI is that if AI is implicitly programmed – I don't think they can do it explicitly – but implicitly programmed with values that lead to – that have led to the destruction of downtown San Francisco.
And a bunch of these AI companies are in – either in San Francisco or in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Then you could implicitly program an AI to believe that extinction of humanity is what it should try to do.
I mean, if you take that guy who was on the front page of the New York Times, and you take his philosophy, which is prevalent in San Francisco, the AI could conclude, like he did, where he literally says there are 8 billion people in the world, it would be better if there were none, and engineer that outcome.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, especially if it doesn't need us anymore.
If it becomes sentient and then has the ability to make its own decisions and make a better version of itself, it would find us to be nothing but a problem.
Like, we have nothing to offer anymore.
elon musk
Yeah, it is a risk.
So, you know, and like, if you query ChatGPT, I mean, it's pretty woke, you know.
Yeah.
People did experiments like, write a poem praising Donald Trump, and it won't.
But if you ask, write a poem praising Joe Biden, and it will.
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
So I'm like, hmm, you know.
joe rogan
That's a little sketchy.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Well, unfortunately, it's programmed.
Yes.
elon musk
It's programmed to be that way.
joe rogan
Is it possible to overcome those problems?
Is it possible that we could realize the dangers that are involved in creating this but somehow or another engineer it in a way that would be ultimately beneficial to people?
Or is that just a whim?
as a hope and a prayer, a utopian version of what could happen versus the most likely outcome?
elon musk
If you say, like, what is the most likely outcome of AI, I think the most likely outcome, to be specific about it, is a good outcome.
Most likely a good outcome.
But it's not for sure.
So...
I think we have to be careful how we program the AI. And make sure that it is not accidentally anti-human.
unidentified
So...
elon musk
You know, the accidentally extinctionist AI. You wouldn't want that.
joe rogan
Or even pruning.
elon musk
Well, that is kind of how it works, is that these, what they call large language models, but, you know, it's really just a big pile of numbers.
And how you tune those numbers matters.
It's like pruning a tree.
You know, you could have a mighty oak.
It could be a little bonsai or a mighty oak.
So, depending on how you prune it.
joe rogan
Right.
That's what I'm saying.
Like, if it decided to prune, if it decided the real issue...
Perhaps.
We cause problems.
Or maybe it would prune places in the world that are, you know, overwhelmingly polluting, like third world countries.
Maybe decide that they're not very necessary, particularly if we use computers or AI or some sort of robotics to do human labor.
And then you have these areas where human beings are doing this labor and they're polluting and, you know, there's all sorts of issues that come about because of that.
You say, well, we just eliminate those people.
We eliminate that issue and then we have 30% less garbage in the ocean.
And then it makes this call.
elon musk
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah.
elon musk
It's something we should be concerned about.
And I actually need to go...
Oh, shit.
Sorry, I need to go...
joe rogan
Should we wrap it up?
elon musk
Yeah, because I have to go to the airport.
I'm flying to London.
joe rogan
Yeah, you were explaining that.
elon musk
Yeah, just for AI safety.
The AI safety conference in London.
joe rogan
So, yeah.
elon musk
I'm leaving in about an hour and a half.
joe rogan
What do you hope to get out of this conference?
unidentified
Well...
I don't know.
elon musk
I mean, I'm just generally concerned about AI safety, but it's like what should we do about it?
I don't know.
Have some kind of regulatory oversight of some kind.
It's like you can't just go build a nuclear bomb in your backyard.
That's against the law, and you'll get thrown in prison if you do that.
joe rogan
How much of a concern is it?
elon musk
This is, I think, maybe more dangerous than a nuclear bomb.
joe rogan
Really?
unidentified
Yes.
joe rogan
How much of a concern is it if another country develops it before us?
elon musk
I don't know if – We should just be concerned about AI being anti-human.
unidentified
That's sort of the thing that matters.
elon musk
So, potentially.
I'm saying it's like letting a genie out of a bottle.
It's sort of like a magic genie that can make wishes come true, except usually when they tell those stories, that doesn't end well for the person who let the genie out of the bottle.
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
Do you think we're creating a life form?
elon musk
Yeah.
I mean, it's something that is indistinguishable from intelligence, an intelligent life form, certainly.
joe rogan
I keep coming up against this idea.
I keep banging it in my head that we're some sort of an electronic caterpillar that's creating a cocoon.
And we don't even realize what we're doing.
And we're about to give birth to some technological butterfly.
unidentified
Yeah.
elon musk
Well, I think that's we're on the cusp of an artificial intelligence revolution.
And for the longest time, or for a very long time, we've been the smartest creatures on Earth.
That's been our defining characteristic.
I mean, speaking of martial arts, I don't think anyone should challenge a silverback gorilla to a fight.
Even if you're very good at martial arts, that thing's going to kill you.
It literally walks on its fists.
For those fists to meet your face, game over.
So we're not stronger than a gorilla.
We're not faster than other animals.
We're smarter.
Now what happens when there's something way smarter than us?
Where does it go?
joe rogan
That's a good question.
Well, listen, go talk to those people.
Go school them.
And I hope something good comes out of it.
And thank you for your time.
Appreciate you coming in here.
It's been fun.
elon musk
Good to see you.
joe rogan
Always good to see you.
Thank you.
Thanks for everything, man.
Thanks for buying Twitter, too.
elon musk
You're welcome.
joe rogan
Really.
It means a lot to people.
elon musk
You know, that is aspirationally a force for good.
joe rogan
I think, at the very least, it stopped a lot of bad.
elon musk
Yeah.
unidentified
Good.
joe rogan
All right.
Bye, everybody.
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