Elon Musk expresses concern over potential global population decline.
Elon Musk frequently alerts mankind about the impending doom of population decrease. He doesn't just bark about it, but also walks the walk as a father to a dozen kids and a financier for a research group dedicated to this topic. The controversy surrounding it is palpable.
Early this year, Musk welcomed his twelfth child into the world, as the public recently learned. For most folks, such a largefamily should be admirable. But for those who truly know Musk, the news is far from shocking. On one hand, it's all about the ego that Musk desires numerous offspring, said Musk biographer Walter Isaacson in a 2020 interview. On the other hand, Musk, like everything he does, has an "odd fixation."
According to Musk himself, the mission of his space company, SpaceX, is to transform humanity into an "extra-terrestrial species" and ensure long-term survival. The goal of Tesla is to promote carbon-neutral mobility to avert climate catastrophe. However, Musk has repeatedly warned in recent years that the gravest peril to humanity is not the Earth becoming uninhabitable due to climate change or that, as Musk also cautions, computers with artificial intelligence enslave humanity. The most significant danger for human civilization, Musk reiterates, is the imminent collapse of the population.
A crisis-laden decline in the world's population, according to the theory, is unavoidable if global birth rates continue to decrease, especially if birth rates in developed countries do not drastically increase. Advocates of the population collapse theory estimate that most people already live in countries where fewer children are born than needed to sustain the population. The world population is projected to reach its peak within a few decades. If the currently observable trend continues and the worldwide birth rate drops to approximately 1.5 to 1.7 children per woman, as it already is in industrialized countries, then the world population will shrink to a fraction of its current size within about ten generations. The economic and societal implications would be catastrophic.
Even if the mathematical calculations of the theory are correct, population researchers emphasize that predictions for several centuries are extremely uncertain. In the past, warnings of civilization collapse due to global overpopulation had to be revised numerous times. For Musk, neither he nor his children or grandchildren experiencing the supposed dramatic phase of population collapse justifies ignoring the problem. On the contrary: Focusing on far-future developments is a characteristic of "Longtermism," the ideology behind Musk's obsession. As such, Musk prefers to invest billions in SpaceX to enable humanity to inhabit Mars in case Earth becomes uninhabitable in centuries, rather than hunger crises that threaten today's children but not the survival of the human species as a whole. In "Longtermism," human lives in distant future are considered just as valuable, and the number alone determines which issues are prioritized.
A point of criticism against the population collapse theory is its connection to right-wing extremist narratives. In the US, for instance, Musk's posts on X about this topic are embraced by racists concerned about the future of the "white race." Radical abortion opponents also frequently bring up the threat of population decline as an argument against any form of abortion in the hotly contested debate in the US.
According to a Bloomberg report, Musk, in his fight against population collapse, is not only active through his platform X and his numerous offspring. With $10 million, he funded the establishment of a research group at the University of Texas through his foundation, focusing specifically on this topic. Compared to the investments of his companies like SpaceX, this is a relatively small sum. However, according to Bloomberg, it is the largest donation Musk has ever made to a university, underscoring the importance of the issue for him.
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Elon Musk's concern over potential global population decline stems from the theory that a crisis-laden decline is unavoidable if global birth rates continue to decrease, especially in developed countries. Despite facing criticism for his large family and connections to some controversial figures, Musk has funded a research group at the University of Texas to focus on this topic with a $10 million donation, viewing it as a pressing issue for humanity's future.
