Tesla CEO Elon Musk is not as interested in living an eternal life as some of his fellow billionaires. He's been pretty vocal about why he doesn't think immortality would be such a great idea.
In December 2021, during the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit, Elon Musk made an unexpected statement: “It is important for us to die because most of the time people don’t change their mind. They just die.” He explained, “If you live forever, we might become a very ossified society where new ideas cannot succeed.”
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Musk believes that death moves society forward. According to him, there has to be death and rebirth in order to maintain fresh thoughts that can foster innovations.
Many other billionaires are spending a fortune on longevity research just to discover how to attain a longer and healthier life. Jeff Bezos, for example, has invested in Altos Labs, a startup that specializes in cellular rejuvenation programming. The firm's goal is to apply cutting-edge science to elongate human life.
Additionally, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have joined others in looking for ways to slow down aging through Calico Labs. They want to understand why people age biologically and invent some methods that may increase their life span.
On the other hand, PayPal's Peter Thiel, who appears obsessed with the meaning of life, signed up for a cryonic preservation service at Alcor Life Extension Foundation, thereby inserting himself into future hopes of medical revivalism. This means freezing a person's dead body or brain until later, when scientific advancements can be used to revive them. This enthusiasm from Thiel shows how some tech moguls believe that living much longer than normal is not only an aspiration but something possible within this century.
While these billionaires pour resources into extending human life, Musk seems content with the natural order of things.
In a January 2024 podcast interview with Peter Diamandis, Musk was asked if he was striving to live to 100. Musk clarified his stance: “I don’t think I want to be a burden to society or have dementia and not know what’s going on. I’d prefer to be dead.”
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He believes that extending one’s life span or health span is a promising area for progress. "My opinion on the subject is that I think it's not that hard to solve," Musk told Diamandis.
Musk isn’t opposed to maintaining good health for a longer period. He balances embracing life and accepting its natural conclusion: “I certainly would like to maintain health for a longer period of time. But I am not afraid of dying. I think it would come as a relief.”
This perspective reflects Musk’s pragmatic approach to life and death. While he values health and vitality, he also recognizes mortality’s role in societal renewal and progress. This stance challenges the prevailing Silicon Valley ethos of conquering death through technology. It prompts us to consider the broader implications of radically extended lifespans for innovation, culture, and the natural evolution of ideas.
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