SpaceX’s Elon Musk Explains Why Humans Should Leave Earth

SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk recently revealed why he’s pushing for scientific programs that are focused on establishing human colonies on other planets. Musk believes humans would eventually get wiped out if they fail to leave Earth.

Musk made his statement during a guest appearance in the “Artificial Intelligence Podcast” hosted by Lex Fridman. As the title of the podcast suggests, Fridman and Musk began their discussion by talking about artificial intelligence and its impact on modern society.

While on the subject of this new type of technology, Musk discussed the importance of expanding human consciousness and how it relates to traveling to an alien planet. For the tech mogul, becoming a space-faring civilization is vital in order to prevent total extinction.

As noted by Musk, Earth is in constant danger due to various cosmic threats. Although asteroids are probably the most apparent cosmic threat out there, Musk believes that the death of the Sun will have a bigger effect on Earth.

According to scientists, the Sun is expected to run out of fuel in about four to five billion years. Once this happens, the massive star will collapse under the weight of its own gravity. This will cause it to expand into a massive nebula that could devour nearby planets including Earth.

Musk said that the Sun’s death would trigger a series of extreme environmental conditions on Earth that would eventually make the planet inhospitable.

“It's funny, the universe appears to be 13.8 billion years old. Earth, like four-and-a-half billions years old,” he said in the podcast. “In another half billion years or so, the Sun will expand and probably evaporate the oceans and make life impossible on Earth.”

“Which means that if it had taken consciousness 10 percent longer to evolve, it would never have evoked at all, 10 percent longer,” he added.

In order to avoid this life-ending event, Musk stressed that it is important to start exploring technologies that will allow humans to live on a different planet. By doing so, the human race will be able to survive in case an Earth-destroying event occurs.

If humans fail to colonize another planet, Musk warned that the entire race could end up like theoretical alien civilizations that only remained on one planet.

“I wonder how many dead one-planet civilizations out there in the cosmos, that never made it to the other planet and ultimately extinguished themselves or were destroyed by external factors?” Musk said. “Probably a few.”