ELON CLIPS@ElonClipsX
Elon Musk: Extending life to multiple planets would be one of the most important milestones, not only in the history of humanity, but in the history of life itself.
"I think space is extremely important.
But first, you have to go to the definition of importance and say, why is anything important?
And if you use the lens of history, and you zoom out far, I think you can distinguish the less important from the more important.
If you zoom out really far and look at the 4-billion-year history of Earth and the evolution of life itself and say, what are the major milestones in the evolution of life itself?
Obviously, there's single-celled life, multicellular life, there's differentiation of plants and animals, there's life going from the oceans to land, there's mammals and consciousness.
There's maybe a half-dozen or so really big milestones in the history of life.
And I think on that scale, would also fit the expansion of life to multiple planets.
It would be at least as important as life going from the oceans to land, and arguably more important because if you're going from oceans to land and got a lot uncomfortable on the land, you could jump back in the water.
But that's not something you could do with going to another planet.
In fact, I think extending life to multiple planets really requires consciousness as a precursor.
So, if we've got something that's so important that it'd be one of the half dozen or so most important milestones in the history of life itself, that's pretty darn important.
And it goes beyond the parochial concerns of humanity.
It's something that is of importance to life in general.
So, that's why I think it's important to do and this is the first time in the 4-billion-year history of Earth that it's been possible.
How long will it remain possible?
I mean, if things go well, obviously it will be possible for a long time, but if something unfortunate were to happen, that tiny window that just opened for the first time in 4 billion years could close.
I'm actually an optimist, so I actually think that things will go fairly well on Earth.
And this is not to suggest complacency, because there are very important issues, the climate being probably number one in terms of earthly issues.
But I think if this is the first time in 4 billion years that life has had the possibility of doing that, we should take advantage of that, of that little window.
And just in case it does close.
Because extending to multiple planets gives us the surest chance of life lasting for a very long time.
Because there's always the possibility, of some either natural disaster or potentially man-made disaster, that extinguishes life.
And that would be bad."
From: Interview with John Doerr, 2008