Taking Elon Musk Seriously

CYBER

VICE

Tech News, News & Politics, Technology, News

4 • 645 Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2022

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We have to talk about Elon Musk. It’s fun to make fun of him, and whatever he’s doing at Twitter certainly looks like the weird flailing of a man who doesn’t know how to run a company. But let’s take Musk seriously for an hour or so. He is the richest man in the world. He has big dreams and some of the resources to achieve them. The Pentagon is paying him for rocket launches. Starlink works and has been instrumental in the war in Ukraine.

So who is Elon Musk and why do we care so much? His detractors see only a shitposter who made some great business bets. His fans see him as a messianic figure, a superhero who will lead us into a new golden age of technology.

But what’s the truth? Is it somewhere in between? The answer isn’t that simple.

On this episode of Cyber, Motherboard managing editor Jordan Pearson sits down to help us think through the bizarre geopolitical importance of Twitter’s new CEO.

Stories discussed in this episode:

Twitter Employees Call Elon Musk’s Bluff

Twitter Employees on Visas Can’t Just Quit

Elon Musk Is Creating His Own Reality

SpaceX Was Born Because Elon Musk Wanted to Grow Plants on Mars

Elon Musk's Tech Has Geopolitical Clout. Things Are Going to Get Weird

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Tadden, it's got the code it's going to launch.
0:10.3	It's a unit system.
0:12.7	I know this.
0:14.7	It's all the files of the whole park.
0:16.9	It tells her everything.
0:18.6	Sir, he's uploading the virus.
0:21.4	Eagle one. The package is being delivered.
0:24.5	Hello out there on the internet.
0:26.4	I am Matthew Galt, and this is Cyber.
0:29.3	All right, I'm sorry, we have to talk about Elon Musk.
0:32.0	We have a lot of fun on the show and on motherboard at Musk's expense,
0:35.3	and whatever he's doing on Twitter certainly looks like the weird flailing of a man who
0:39.2	doesn't know how to run a company.
0:41.0	But just for the next hour, let's set all that aside and take Musk seriously.
0:47.2	He is the richest man in the world.
0:49.1	He has big dreams and some of the resources to achieve them.
0:54.2	The Pentagon is paying him for rocket launches.
0:56.8	Starlink works and has been instrumental in the war in Ukraine.
1:01.1	So let's go back to basics.
1:04.0	Who is Musk?
1:04.9	Why do we care about him so much?
1:06.7	His detractors see him only as a shit poster who's, you know, made some great business bets.
	...

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