Elon Musk wants to preserve humanity in space – CNET

Elon Musk wants to save humanity.

That is, in part, what his quest to establish bases on the moon and Mars is about.

“There’s likely to be another dark age,” he told the crowd Sunday at the South By Southwest festival. Particularly if there’s another World War in our future, we need to make sure “there’s enough of a seed of human civilization to bring human civilization back.”

While Musk was quick to say he’s not exactly making a prediction, he does feel we need to get going before World War III rolls around.

This was just some of the ground Musk covered with moderator Jonathan Nolan, co-creator of HBO’s “Westworld.” Musk, who is the founder of multiple companies, including SpaceX, Tesla and the Boring Company, is tackling some of the biggest challenges and technological advances of the modern age, like space travel and autonomous vehicles. He made a two-day stop at SXSW to talk about his work. He also appeared on Saturday at the end of a panel with the cast and show creators of the HBO series “Westworld.”

But Musk’s not just thinking about doom and gloom. He’s also thinking about the night life on Mars.

“Mars will need everything from iron foundries to pizza joints to nightclubs. Mars should really have great bars,” he said.

Getting to that point hasn’t been easy — he said early on that SpaceX almost didn’t survive. He had to borrow money from friends to keep going.

“For SpaceX, the first three launches failed. If the fourth launch had failed, we would have been dead,” he said.

The big focus right now, thought, is just building the spaceship — code named the BFR. (Read into that what you will, he said.) Musk wants to see the rocket take short flights up and down in the first half of next year.

There’s also the topic of artificial intelligence. Musk’s been known to express concerns that AI could bring about the next World War and Sunday’s Q&A was no different.

“AI scares the hell out of me,” he said, telling Nolan that while he’s not typically a fan of regulation, he feels AI is more dangerous than nuclear weapons and it’s not like we let just anyone build nukes.

It’s important to make sure the dawn of AI is one that’s symbiotic with humanity.

Whether an AI-induced third World War is what drives us off the planet, he didn’t say.

But hey, the salvation of humanity might just come with Martian pizza joints.

Blockchain Decoded: CNET looks at the tech powering bitcoin — and soon, too, a myriad services that will change your life.

‘Alexa, be more human’: Inside Amazon’s effort to make its voice assistant smarter, chattier and more like you.