The billionaire is urging “civilizational diversity” as a hedge against total global collapse
FILE PHOTO. Elon Musk © Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Any attempt to create a single world government is a cause for concern, since it could strip humanity of diversity and precipitate the end of civilization, billionaire Elon Musk has told a summit of government officials in Dubai.
The SpaceX CEO made a virtual appearance at the 2023 World Government Summit in the UAE on Wednesday. The event is aimed at fostering cooperation between nations, but Musk warned against taking it too far.
“We want to avoid creating a civilizational risk by having – and this may seem odd – too much cooperation between governments,” Musk said.
Historically, different civilizations were separated by distance, so when one went into decline, others could rise, Musk reasoned. When Ancient Rome fell, Islam rose and managed to preserve much of the Roman knowledge and build upon it, Musk said. But in a globalized world this may no longer be a viable scenario.
We want to have some amount of civilizational diversity, such that if something goes wrong with one civilization, that the whole thing doesn’t collapse, and humanity keeps moving forward.
The imperative for humanity’s survival may be of universal importance, Musk believes, considering that as far as we know, there may be no other species anywhere that has developed consciousness.
“I have seen no evidence of alien technology or any alien life whatsoever. I think I’d know,” he mused. “SpaceX – we do a lot. I don’t think anyone knows more about space than me, at least about space technology.”
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The thought that there are no aliens is “troubling,” he added, because it means that human civilization “is like a tiny candle in a vast darkness, and a very vulnerable tiny candle that could easily be blown out.”
Musk urged his audience to take great care to avoid humanity being wiped out by some cataclysm.
