There’s a lot to worry about in this day and age. There was the global pandemic that shut down the world for two years and took many lives. Not to mention climate change, increased cost of living, more and more people are developing mental health issues… the list goes on.
But there’s one more thing to add to your list of growing concerns in 2022. Elon Musk wants everyone to die… someday.
Okay, perhaps we’re being a tad melodramatic. But Musk does think that people shouldn’t aim to live for a super long time. Why? Because society would go stale.
Though this might seem surprising from the world’s most famous tech bro, it’s quite refreshing to hear (you’d normally think boffins like Musk would be the ones researching creepy life-extending technology, so it’s nice to hear him say he doesn’t think it’s the greatest idea).
The billionaire owner of Tesla and now Twitter said in an interview with WELT, that he believes that most people are incapable of changing their minds and so, in their old age are just prolonging stale ideas that don’t help society progress.
“I don’t think we should try to have people live for [a] very long time; for a really long time. That would cause ossification of society because the truth is, most people don’t change their mind. They just die. And so, if they don’t die, we’ll be stuck with old ideas and society won’t advance.”
As an example, Musk pointed out that in the United States, the president Joe Biden – currently aged 79 years old – and most of its past leaders have been much older than the majority of people that make up America’s population and therefore haven’t been able to truly connect with “the people.”
“The leaders of so many countries are extremely old. Look, I mean the US; it’s you know, very, very ancient leadership and it’s just impossible to stay in touch with the people if you are like, many generations older than them.
The founders in the US put minimum ages for political office but they did not put maximum ages because they did not expect that people will be living so long…”
Musk is ultimately saying that because technology and medicine have come so far, which has led to people living longer and age expectancies to increase, we are now stuck with old people in power who don’t know what the people want.
“In order for a democracy to function well, the leaders must be reasonably in touch with the bulk of the population and if you’re too young or too old, you can’t say you’ll be in touch.”
Elon Musk
No matter your opinion on Musk, you have to admit he’s got a point.
Read Next