Elon. And resilience.
April 2017

TED’s Head Curator Chris Anderson chats with Elon discussing his idiosyncratic ideas about Space Tech. Chris asks,

“Why, Elon? Why do we need to build a city on Mars with a million people on it… ?”.

The crowd breaks into a playful chuckle. To which Elon answers in a rather grave tone.

“…I just think there have to be reasons that you get up in the morning and you want to live. Like,”

“Why do you want to live? …What inspires you?”

…If the future does not include being out there among the stars and being a multi planetary species, I find that it’s incredibly depressing if that’s not the future that we’re going to have.”

Applause follows.

Chris iterates that amidst issues ranging from poverty to climate change, sustainability has been Elon’s stronghold. So

“…..Why not just do that ?”

Elon introspects and solemnly replies, “…If there was no Tesla, if Tesla never existed, it would have to happen out of necessity…. Then there’s becoming a multi planetary species and space-faring civilization. This is not inevitable…”
['Siddhesh Misale']
['NASA', 'Spacex', 'Space', 'Space Exploration', 'Elon Musk']