Elon Musk appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast Thursday, taking part in a two-and-a-half-hour deep dive into technology while drinking whiskey and, at one point, smoking weed.
The drag of marijuana mixed with tobacco—legal in California where the podcast was filmed and streamed—came after more than two hours of chatting about the impact of artificial intelligence, the theory that humanity could be living in a simulation and Musk's future product ideas.
During the interview, Musk picked up a marijuana-filled joint from Rogan. "You probably can't because of stockholders, right?" the host said. "I mean, it's legal right?" Musk responded, taking a puff. "I am not a regular smoker of weed," he later added. "I don't actually notice any effect."
The billionaire Tesla founder—dressed in a black "Occupy Mars" t-shirt—told Rogan that he had considered making "some sort of electric, vertical take-off and landing, supersonic jet." Musk added: "The trick is you have to transition to level flight. I have thought about this quite a lot."
After an explanation on how to overcome gravitational potential energy, Rogan jokingly replied: "I'm too stupid for this conversation." But Musk said it was "probably" better than current plane designs. "The higher you go, the fast you will go for the same amount of energy," he said. "At a certain altitude you can go supersonic with less energy per mile than a craft at 35,000 feet."
Musk conceded that futuristic planes were not going to be worked on any time soon, noting that his current companies were more than enough. In an emotional appeal, he warned about the dangers of not investing in sustainable energy. "I have a lot on my plate," Musk added.
He said: "Electric cars are important, solar energy is important, stationary storage of energy is important, these things are much more important than creating electric supersonic [planes]."
"It's important that we accelerate the transition to sustainable energy—that's why electric cars matter, whether they happen sooner or later. We are really playing a crazy game here with the atmosphere and the oceans. We are taking vast amounts of carbon from deep underground and putting it in the atmosphere. This is crazy. We should not do this. It's very dangerous."
It hasn't been an easy year for Musk, who was recently criticized for prematurely announcing that Tesla was planning to become a private company. And he courted controversy this week after doubling down on claims that a British cave rescue diver was a "pedo" and "child rapist."
He appeared to be much more chilled on Rogan, however.
"I think people should be nice to each other and give more credit to others and don't assume they are mean until you know they are actually mean," Musk said." It's easy to demonize people, you are usually wrong about it. People are nicer than you think, give people more credit."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Jason Murdock is a staff reporter for Newsweek.
Based in London, Murdock previously covered cybersecurity for the International Business Times UK ... Read more
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