Elon Musk and Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson discussed having sex, and it’s time to log off.
The interview, which broadcast over two evenings, covered a wide range of subjects. They discussed Musk’s move to terminate 80% of Twitter staff after taking over as CEO and purchasing the social media network on Monday. Carlson thought the firings were funny.
The topic of reproduction came up on Tuesday. According to reports, Musk has ten children with three different women in an effort to become the Antonio Cromartie of Silicon Valley.
“Throughout the world, there have been the rise and fall of many civilizations,” Musk told Carlson. “So there’s an arc. It’s sort of a life cycle arc to civilizations, just as there is to individual humans.”
The Tesla CEO added that civilization should “go onward and upward.”
“That’s, for example, why I’m concerned about decreasing birth rates and the fact that, for example, Japan had twice as many deaths last year as births,” he said.
That led to this exchange:
CARLSON: You’ve talked a lot about this, and can I just ask you to pause for a parenthetical note? Why is that? I mean, the urge to have sex and to procreate is – after breathing and eating – the most basic urge. How has it been subverted?
MUSK: Well, it’s just, in the past we could rely upon, you know, simple limbic system rewards in order to procreate. But once you have birth control and abortions and whatnot, now you can still satisfy limbic instinct, but not procreate.
So we haven’t yet evolved to deal with that because this is all fairly recent, the last 50 years or so for birth control. I’m sort of worried that hey, civilization, if we don’t make enough people to at least sustain our numbers, perhaps increase a little bit, then civilization’s going to crumble. The old question of like, will civilization end with a bang or a whimper? Well, it’s currently trying to end with a whimper in adult diapers, which is depressing as hell.
CARLSON: The most depressing.
MUSK: I mean, seriously, yeah.
CARLSON: War is less depressing.
MUSK: Yeah, I’d rather go out with a bang. [Get it?]
CARLSON: With your shoes on, not with your diaper on.
That’s enough television for the day.
