Has Elon Musk become an existential threat to humanity?

[thaibeachlovers]

3 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

They didn't survive though did they and the all powerful destroyer Robespierre was killed himself, forcing through change with power and violence doesn't work out well, dictators don't usually die of old age.

LOL. Loads of the aristocracy survived. Where on earth do you get the idea they were all killed?

Plenty of articles out there to learn the reality if interested. Try this one for starters. 8.5% is nowhere near "all".

 

https://theconversation.com/the-french-revolution-executed-royals-and-nobles-yes-but-most-people-killed-were-commoners-200455

Overall, Greer estimates 8.5% of the Terror’s victims belonged to the nobility, 6.5% to the clergy, and 85% to the Third Estate (meaning non-clerics and non-nobles). Women represented 9% of the total (but 20% and 14% of the noble and clerical categories, respectively).

 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

12 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

forcing through change with power and violence doesn't work out well, dictators don't usually die of old age.

???????

Stalin and Mao died of old age in their beds. Worked out for them, and IMO they were probably responsible for more death of own citizens than anyone before or since.

Idi survived very nicely in Saudi after being kicked out.

 

Even Genghis Khan apparently died of disease, rather than of violence.

[CygnusX1]

21 hours ago, connda said:

Harris is just another Leftie who hates to see the end of the liberal status-quo.

I don’t think Sam Harris is a typical leftist. When I quoted his statement that “Islam is the mother lode of bad ideas” in an argument with my severely Woke sister, she was outraged, and called him the most evil man alive. She was then confused when I pointed out that Harris was also the harshest critic of Trump I had ever heard, and I’m sure she’d also thoroughly approve of this article on Musk. I disagree with lots that Harris says, including his over-the-top attacks on Trump and Musk, but recognise that unlike the typical Woke leftist, he doesn’t follow an ideology, and looks at each issue on its merits.

Although he might not be as famous as a Musk, he’s very well known as one of the 4 most prominent of the “‘new atheists”.

 

[thaibeachlovers]

On 1/19/2025 at 7:51 AM, timendres said:

There are much scarier characters out there, in my opinion.

Quite right and we will never know who they are. Literally the man ( men ) behind the curtain making humanity jump to their desires while making themselves richer with every calmity.

IMO.

[suzannegoh]

On 1/18/2025 at 5:27 PM, RSD1 said:

I also wonder how Elon Musk will be remembered 50 years from now. Innovator or destructor? And will all of his developments with technology, knowing that he never actually invented anything himself, be viewed as substantial or pedestrian?

That talking point has become very popular since his politics became known, even to the extent of denying his success as an entrepreneur.

[soalbundy]

Just now, thaibeachlovers said:

???????

Stalin and Mao died of old age in their beds. Worked out for them, and IMO they were probably responsible for more death of own citizens than anyone before or since.

Idi survived very nicely in Saudi after being kicked out.

 

Even Genghis Khan apparently died of disease, rather than of violence.

Outliers, I don't think Trump or Musk have the absolute power that the people you mentioned had. Trump is already mentally compromised and Musk will run himself into the ground, he is, I believe, autistic and his behaviour is getting weirder by the day.

[thaibeachlovers]

1 minute ago, CygnusX1 said:

When I quoted his statement that “Islam is the mother lode of bad ideas” in an argument with my severely Woke sister, she was outraged, and called him the most evil man alive.

Just another person that knows little to nothing about Islam, and confuses Islam with what evil men have done with it as cover.

Christianity in the Middle Ages was probably responsible for more evil than Islam ever was or is. Ever heard of the Inquisition?

 

Blame men for the evil done in the name of religion and not religion  itself.

 

I personally think Islam is on the wrong path, but so was Christianity 600 years ago.

[SiSePuede419]

54 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Hater’s hate, especially the commies.

Don't worry!

 

Trump will throw a lifeline to Tick Toke.

Donnie loves the CCP.

 

They own him. ✅

 

Remember his secret Chinese bank account?

 

Suckers. 😂

 

Trump tax returns show China bank account as six years of records released

 

[thaibeachlovers]

1 minute ago, soalbundy said:

Outliers, I don't think Trump or Musk have the absolute power that the people you mentioned had. Trump is already mentally compromised and Musk will run himself into the ground, he is, I believe, autistic and his behaviour is getting weirder by the day.

Oh dear, can't any of you Trump haters ever stop saying silly things about him? He's no more mentally compromised than any man of his age, and there has never been a proper psychiatric report that claims he is.

You guys might say something interesting and then spoil it by making stupid claims about him.

[CygnusX1]

11 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Just another person that knows little to nothing about Islam, and confuses Islam with what evil men have done with it as cover.

Christianity in the Middle Ages was probably responsible for more evil than Islam ever was or is. Ever heard of the Inquisition?

 

Blame men for the evil done in the name of religion and not religion  itself.

 

I personally think Islam is on the wrong path, but so was Christianity 600 years ago.

I think Harris knows a great deal more about Islam than the great majority of people.

I’m sure he’d thoroughly agree with your statement on the evils perpetrated by Christianity in the Middle Ages but your last sentence is the salient point - Christianity was on the wrong path 600 years ago, but Islam is on the wrong path NOW.

[Chosenfew]

Love Him:

[ChaiyaTH]

So long story short, a whiner is whining about Musk who was right about covid since day 1. To then now zoom in on other small nonsense items instead, as of knowing that argument against him is destroyed already.

Hmm.. where do I know this from? Years long of bashing of Tesla, Trump, Bitcoin etc etc. but all keep winning...

 

It's like Pearson who now came out to say, yeah i'm so sorry i was saying these things during covid but they mislead me, i am a victim too. If I only knew covid was a hoax I would not have done that.

[Nabbiex]

On 1/18/2025 at 5:36 PM, OneMoreFarang said:

We can't predict the future.

One big problem is that as far as I know no private person was ever as rich as Musk. 

How can we or anybody else guess what is on that guy's mind. I read somewhere that if 1 meter would be 1 dollar then he would have enough money for the distance to Mars and back. That is soooooooo much money that nobody can really understand it.

So, what will Musk do? What is on his mind? There is nobody who we can ask who might know.

He just believes his own fantasy...

 

[ChaiyaTH]

1 minute ago, Nabbiex said:

He just believes his own fantasy...

 

Must be amazing that being someone high on fantasy enables you to do what he does, achieve what he does etc. Even more strange that normally never happens, if things are actually fantasy or if a person is actually wrong.

[thaibeachlovers]

8 minutes ago, CygnusX1 said:

I think Harris knows a great deal more about Islam than the great majority of people.

I’m sure he’d thoroughly agree with your statement on the evils perpetrated by Christianity in the Middle Ages but your last sentence is the salient point - Christianity was on the wrong path 600 years ago, but Islam is on the wrong path NOW.

My point which I obviously didn't make clear is that Islam is 600 years behind Christianity. In 600 years from now, if we are still here, hardly any will go to mosques either. Just have to be patient.

[CygnusX1]

Well, you may be correct, but a reformed Islam 600 years in the future isn’t much consolation for its current victims, is it?

[thaibeachlovers]

12 minutes ago, CygnusX1 said:

I think Harris knows a great deal more about Islam than the great majority of people.

I’m sure he’d thoroughly agree with your statement on the evils perpetrated by Christianity in the Middle Ages but your last sentence is the salient point - Christianity was on the wrong path 600 years ago, but Islam is on the wrong path NOW.

Unless he actually lived in an Islamic country he only knows what he read and sees on tv. I lived in Saudi, the heartland of Islam, and I was interested in it, so investigated a lot, plus I was with Saudis every working day, unlike westerners that live in isolated enclaves. Can't get experience like that out of a book.

 

When Muslims that don't live in an Islamic country get it wrong ( which I see all the time ), what hope does someone never lived in an Islamic country have of getting it right?

[CygnusX1]

I’m sure you met many kind and generous Saudis, but for another perspective of a woman who’s lived in an Islamic country check out Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

[thaibeachlovers]

2 minutes ago, CygnusX1 said:

Well, you may be correct, but a reformed Islam 600 years in the future isn’t much consolation for its current victims, is it?

Well that is the human condition- we are programmed genetically as we are to live in a hunter gatherer society where outside the cave was danger. The way we live has changed, but we are the same.

Consider that there are a lot more of them than us, and then consider how you would change things, if you could. I don't think anything will change. We'll still be muddling along doing a bad job when the next comet arrives, or the real virus is unleashed, or the nukes fly.

[thaibeachlovers]

7 minutes ago, CygnusX1 said:

I’m sure you met many kind and generous Saudis, but for another perspective of a woman who’s lived in an Islamic country check out Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

I did meet many ( the majority ) of Saudis that were as nice as any human being ever was, but they have just as many rotten ones as we do, and like with us, they are in a position of power. Don't believe that the KIng has the power- the religious have the real power in Saudi.

 

What many westerners don't realise is that many Saudis don't like the ultra religious any more than we do Christian ones.

[WDSmart]

Elon Musk may indeed be a threat to humanity, but because of his efforts to colonize other planets, he certainly is a threat to the universe. 

[ronster]

Seems to think he is some bond villain the way he goes around spouting off at everyone.

Be very afraid when he starts appearing with a cat on his lap .

[soalbundy]

38 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Oh dear, can't any of you Trump haters ever stop saying silly things about him? He's no more mentally compromised than any man of his age, and there has never been a proper psychiatric report that claims he is.

You guys might say something interesting and then spoil it by making stupid claims about him.

Hater is an exaggeration, I don't actually hate anyone. Trump is only as dangerous as his supporters allow him to be and there are still legal checks and balances in place to hold the pitch fork brigade in check. I don't think presidents are as powerful as people seem to believe, they are restrained by reality. Leaders can only really sway people with oratory skills, Kennedy and Churchill come to mind, if you listen to Trump speak it is apparent that he doesn't have such skills apart from rabble raising but such speeches don't have a lasting effect nor are they note worthy

 

Trumps 2nd term will descend into chaos but to be fair he has inherited a situation where the can can no longer be kicked down the road, every major country in the world faces the same problem, a debt that can no longer be plastered over, inflation, central banks flailing in all directions, falling production and low demand, falling standards of living and in some cases downright poverty, defaults on mortgages and credit cards, failing banks and a disillusioned and angry populace expecting solutions where there are none. A steady hand on the tiller is needed and Trump is anything but steady.

[spidermike007]

2 hours ago, SiSePuede419 said:

Has Elon Musk become an existential threat to humanity?

 

No.

 

He's just a loudmouth African hustler.

 

Full Self Driving is "just around the corner".

😀😃😄😆😅🤣😭

He is an African American. 

[OneMoreFarang]

6 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

He is an African American. 

That should allow his to apply for a DEI job. 😉 

[newbee2022]

On 1/18/2025 at 4:56 PM, RSD1 said:

The following is from a recent post by Sam Harris about the reckless and irresponsible behavior of Elon Musk during the pandemic. With his newly gained political influence and power, has Elon become an existential threat to humanity?
 

https://samharris.substack.com/p/the-trouble-with-elon
 

The Trouble with Elon

 

Sam Harris

JAN 16, 2025
 

I didn’t set out to become an enemy of the world’s richest man, but I seem to have managed it all the same. Until this moment, I’ve resisted describing my falling out with Elon Musk in much detail, but as the man’s cultural influence has metastasized—and he continues to spread lies about me on the social media platform that he owns (Twitter/X)—it seems only appropriate to set the record straight. I know that it annoys many in my audience to see me defend myself against attacks that they recognize to be spurious, but they might, nevertheless, find the details of what happened with Elon interesting.

 

Of all the remarkable people I’ve met, Elon is probably the most likely to remain a world-historical figure—despite his best efforts to become a clown. He is also the most likely to squander his ample opportunities to live a happy life, ruin his reputation and most important relationships, and produce lasting harm across the globe. None of this was obvious to me when we first met, and I have been quite amazed at Elon’s evolution, both as a man and as an avatar of chaos. The friend I remember did not seem to hunger for public attention. But his engagement with Twitter/X transformed him—to a degree seldom seen outside of Marvel movies or Greek mythology. If Elon is still the man I knew, I can only conclude that I never really knew him.

 

When we first met, Elon wasn’t especially rich or famous. In fact, I recall him teetering on the brink of bankruptcy around 2008, while risking the last of his previous fortune to make payroll at Tesla. At the time, he was living off loans from his friends Larry and Sergey. Once Elon became truly famous, and his personal wealth achieved escape velocity, I was among the first friends he called to discuss his growing security concerns. I put him in touch with Gavin de Becker, who provided his first bodyguards, and recommended other changes to his life. We also went shooting on at least two occasions with Scott Reitz, the finest firearms instructor I’ve ever met. It is an ugly irony that Elon’s repeated targeting of me on Twitter/X has increased my own security concerns. He understands this, of course, but does not seem to care.

 

So how did we fall out? Let this be a cautionary tale for any of Elon’s friends who might be tempted to tell the great man something he doesn’t want to hear:

 

1. When the SARS-CoV-2 virus first invaded our lives in March of 2020, Elon began tweeting in ways that I feared would harm his reputation. I also worried that his tweets might exacerbate the coming public-health emergency. Italy had already fallen off a cliff, and Elon shared the following opinion with his tens of millions of fans :

 

the coronavirus panic is dumb

 

As a concerned friend, I sent him a private text:

 

Hey, brother— I really think you need to walk back your coronavirus tweet. I know there’s a way to parse it that makes sense (“panic” is always dumb), but I fear that’s not the way most people are reading it. You have an enormous platform, and much of the world looks to you as an authority on all things technical. Coronavirus is a very big deal, and if we don’t get our act together, we’re going to look just like Italy very soon. If you want to turn some engineers loose on the problem, now would be a good time for a breakthrough in the production of ventilators...

 

2. Elon’s response was, I believe, the first discordant note ever struck in our friendship:

 

Sam, you of all people should not be concerned about this.

 

He included a link to a page on the CDC website, indicating that Covid was not even among the top 100 causes of death in the United States. This was a patently silly point to make in the first days of a pandemic.

 

We continued exchanging texts for at least two hours. If I hadn’t known that I was communicating with Elon Musk, I would have thought I was debating someone who lacked any understanding of basic scientific and mathematical concepts, like exponential curves.

 

3. Elon and I didn’t converge on a common view of epidemiology over the course of those two hours, but we hit upon a fun compromise: A wager. Elon bet me $1 million dollars (to be given to charity) against a bottle of fancy tequila ($1000) that we wouldn’t see as many as 35,000 cases of Covid in the United States (cases, not deaths). The terms of the bet reflected what was, in his estimation, the near certainty (1000 to 1) that he was right. Having already heard credible estimates that there could be 1 million deaths from Covid in the U.S. over the next 12-18 months (these estimates proved fairly accurate), I thought the terms of the bet ridiculous—and quite unfair to Elon. I offered to spot him two orders of magnitude: I was confident that we’d soon have 3.5 million cases of Covid in the U.S. Elon accused me of having lost my mind and insisted that we stick with a ceiling of 35,000.

 

4. We communicated sporadically by text over the next couple of weeks, while the number of reported cases grew. Ominously, Elon dismissed the next batch of data reported by the CDC as merely presumptive—while confirmed cases of Covid, on his account, remained elusive.

 

5. A few weeks later, when the CDC website finally reported 35,000 deaths from Covid in the U.S. and 600,000 cases, I sent Elon the following text:

 

Is (35,000 deaths + 600,000 cases) > 35,000 cases?

 

6. This text appears to have ended our friendship. Elon never responded, and it was not long before he began maligning me on Twitter for a variety of imaginary offenses. For my part, I eventually started complaining about the startling erosion of his integrity on my podcast, without providing any detail about what had transpired between us.

 

7. At the end of 2022, I abandoned Twitter/X altogether, having recognized the poisonous effect that it had on my life—but also, in large part, because of what I saw it doing to Elon. I’ve been away from the platform for over two years, and yet Elon still attacks me. Occasionally a friend will tell me that I’m trending there, and the reasons for this are never good. As recently as this week, Elon repeated a defamatory charge about my being a “hypocrite” for writing a book in defense of honesty and then encouraging people to lie to keep Donald Trump out of the White House. Not only have I never advocated lying to defeat Trump (despite what that misleading clip from the Triggernometry podcast might suggest to naive viewers), I’ve taken great pains to defend Trump from the most damaging lie ever told about him. Elon knows this, because we communicated about the offending clip when it first appeared on Twitter/X. However, he simply does not care that he is defaming a former friend to hundreds of millions of people—many of whom are mentally unstable. On this occasion, he even tagged the incoming president of the United States.

 

All of this remains socially and professionally awkward, because Elon and I still have many friends in common. Which suggests the terms of another wager that I would happily make, if such a thing were possible—and I would accept 1000 to 1 odds in Elon’s favor:

 

I bet that anyone who knows us both knows that I am telling the truth.

 

Everyone close to Elon must recognize how unethical he has become, and yet they remain silent. Their complicity is understandable, but it is depressing all the same. These otherwise serious and compassionate people know that when Elon attacks private citizens on Twitter/X—falsely accusing them of crimes or corruption, celebrating their misfortunes—he is often causing tangible harm in their lives. It’s probably still true to say that social media “isn’t real life,” until thousands of lunatics learn your home address.

 

A final absurdity in my case, is that several of the controversial issues that Elon has hurled himself at of late—and even attacked me over—are ones we agree about. We seem to be in near total alignment on immigration and the problems at the southern border of the U.S. We also share the same concerns about what he calls “the woke mind virus.” And we fully agree about the manifest evil of the so-called “grooming-gangs scandal” in the U.K. The problem with Elon, is that he makes no effort to get his facts straight when discussing any of these topics, and he regularly promotes lies and conspiracy theories manufactured by known bad actors, at scale. (And if grooming were really one of his concerns, it’s strange that he couldn’t find anything wrong with Matt Gaetz.)

 

Elon and I even agree about the foundational importance of free speech. It’s just that his approach to safeguarding it—amplifying the influence of psychopaths and psychotics, while deplatforming real journalists and his own critics; or savaging the reputations of democratic leaders, while never saying a harsh word about the Chinese Communist Party—is not something I can support. The man claims to have principles, but he appears to have only moods and impulses.

 

Any dispassionate observer of Elon’s behavior on Twitter/X can see that there is something seriously wrong with his moral compass, if not his perception of reality. There is simply no excuse for a person with his talents, resources, and opportunities to create so much pointless noise. The callousness and narcissism conveyed by his antics should be impossible for his real friends to ignore—but they appear to keep silent, perhaps for fear of losing access to his orbit of influence.

 

Of course, none of this is to deny that the tens of thousands of brilliant engineers Elon employs are accomplishing extraordinary things. He really is the greatest entrepreneur of our generation. And because of the businesses he’s built, he will likely become the world’s first trillionaire—perhaps very soon. Since the election of Donald Trump in November, Elon’s wealth has grown by around $200 billion. That’s nearly $3 billion a day (and over $100 million an hour). Such astonishing access to resources gives Elon the chance—and many would argue the responsibility—to solve enormous problems in our world.

 

So why spend time spreading lies on X?

If you're the richest man in the world you wouldn't care about "friends" or "facts'. With your money and subsequently influence you are able to create your own and by being the owner of the most influential media your own reality and facts and buy friends. Eventually you buy the mainstream or even create the mainstream everybody has to follow or fail.

But he can't buy character, honesty or honor or being a philanthropist. He leaves behind him a trail of slime by bootlickers. 

[scorecard]

On 1/18/2025 at 5:03 PM, OneMoreFarang said:

Yes

 

QUESTION: Does the USA now suddenly allow non elected folks to be appointed to such high positions, seemingly with enormous authority?

[OneMoreFarang]

Just now, scorecard said:

QUESTION: Does the USA now suddenly allow non elected folks to be appointed to such high positions, seemingly with enormous authority?

What do you mean with "now"? As far as I know have US presidents the right to hire any advisor they like. As far as I know those people are not elected. 

[scorecard]

On 1/18/2025 at 5:36 PM, OneMoreFarang said:

We can't predict the future.

One big problem is that as far as I know no private person was ever as rich as Musk. 

How can we or anybody else guess what is on that guy's mind. I read somewhere that if 1 meter would be 1 dollar then he would have enough money for the distance to Mars and back. That is soooooooo much money that nobody can really understand it.

So, what will Musk do? What is on his mind? There is nobody who we can ask who might know.

I wonder how many people, Americans and others, realize that all of these incredible technologies he has announced were NOT invented by musk. He's an entrepreneur, he finances things so he takes the liberty of saying that these items are his inventions when thy are not.

He also has a reputation for being very unpleasant / insulting to his staff and to staff of contractors, at all levels, so much so that many companies he's working with forbid him from talking direct to their staff, and will only allow such discourse when 2 senior executives of the contracting company being used are personally on the spot and musk must talk to them rather than to an employee he wants to berate. 

[thaibeachlovers]

42 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

Hater is an exaggeration, I don't actually hate anyone. Trump is only as dangerous as his supporters allow him to be and there are still legal checks and balances in place to hold the pitch fork brigade in check. I don't think presidents are as powerful as people seem to believe, they are restrained by reality. Leaders can only really sway people with oratory skills, Kennedy and Churchill come to mind, if you listen to Trump speak it is apparent that he doesn't have such skills apart from rabble raising but such speeches don't have a lasting effect nor are they note worthy

 

Trumps 2nd term will descend into chaos but to be fair he has inherited a situation where the can can no longer be kicked down the road, every major country in the world faces the same problem, a debt that can no longer be plastered over, inflation, central banks flailing in all directions, falling production and low demand, falling standards of living and in some cases downright poverty, defaults on mortgages and credit cards, failing banks and a disillusioned and angry populace expecting solutions where there are none. A steady hand on the tiller is needed and Trump is anything but steady.

I've never claimed Trump to be a great orator, and I blame the Dems for him even being there by putting Harris in instead of a candidate that was "normal".

 

I've said it before, but IMO the Dems wanted to lose this one as they knew how bad the situation is going to be. By letting Trump win, they get to enjoy him having a collapsing economy and after it is sorted they get to put a decent candidate up and take back the W H.

However, IMO the economic situation for the west is so bad that we are in for a worse depression than the 1930s and only the same solution as the Great Depression had will sort it, which in a world with nukes is not a happy prospect.

 

I hope I'm wrong on that.