Connect with us

News

Elon Musk suggests we might be characters in a computer game

Elon Musk told the Code Conference on June 2 that we may all be just computer simulations in some alien’s computer game.

Published

on

Elon Musk at Code Conference

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told an audience at Wednesday’s Recode conference that there is a “one in billions” chance that humanity is not living within a computer simulation, given the rate of technological advancement we have seen over the last 40 years.

Does that sound far out? Not if you are a fan of philosopher Nick Bostrom and his paper entitled, “Are You in a Computer Simulation?” In response to a question from journalist Josh Topolski, Musk offered this rationale:

“The strongest argument for us being in a simulation probably is the following. Forty years ago we had pong. Like, two rectangles and a dot. That was what games were. Now, 40 years later, we have photorealistic, 3D simulations with millions of people playing simultaneously, and it’s getting better every year. Soon we’ll have virtual reality, augmented reality.

If you assume any rate of improvement at all, then the games will become indistinguishable from reality, even if that rate of advancement drops by a thousand from what it is now. Then you just say, okay, let’s imagine it’s 10,000 years in the future, which is nothing on the evolutionary scale.

So given that we’re clearly on a trajectory to have games that are indistinguishable from reality, and those games could be played on any set-top box or on a PC or whatever, and there would probably be billions of such computers or set-top boxes, it would seem to follow that the odds that we’re in base reality is one in billions.”

Advertisement

Then Elon turned the question back on Topolski. “Tell me what’s wrong with that argument. Is there a flaw in that argument?” Topolski replied, “The argument makes sense.” Then he asked Musk, “But what do you think?

“There’s a one in billions chance we’re in base reality,” he replied. Then he continued, “Arguably we should hope that that’s true, because if civilization stops advancing, that may be due to some calamitous event that erases civilization. So maybe we should be hopeful this is a simulation, because otherwise we are going to create simulations indistinguishable from reality or civilization ceases to exist. We’re unlikely to go into some multimillion-year stasis.”

Did you follow that? Personally, such abstractions make my head hurt. For more on this subject, head on over to The Simulation Argument website, where you can spend weeks working through all the permutations and possibilities.

Among other things Musk mentioned during the sit-down at Recode was that final designs for the Tesla Model 3 would be complete in about 6 weeks.

Advertisement

 

Elon Musk

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says this common issue is ‘major area of focus’

Tesla, like any other company, goes through hardware issues with its vehicles, but some are more publicized than others.

Published

on

Credit: Tesla

Elon Musk said this afternoon on X that a commonly reported issue with the Tesla vehicles is a “major area of focus” for the company.

Tesla, like any other company, goes through hardware issues with its vehicles, but some are more publicized than others.

However, the simple yet annoying issues that owners encounter through thousands of miles of driving do not receive as much attention, even though they are likely more pertinent and frequently encountered by owners.

One of those problems is with the central windshield Full Self-Driving camera, which sits inside a housing at the top of the glass, enabling Tesla Vision to have an uninterrupted view of the traffic and surroundings ahead of the vehicle.

Many owners have reported that their vehicles alert them when Full Self-Driving is unavailable due to an obstruction with this camera. Commonly, it is caused by a buildup of condensation, which creates a haze on the camera and obstructs its view.

Advertisement

Tesla suggests a quick cleaning of the housing and cameras, which resolves the problem. Still, owners are not necessarily ecstatic about having to do this themselves.

Tesla developing more comprehensive Cybertruck camera cleaning system

Musk says that Tesla is attempting to fix the issue, and said in response to one owner who performed the maintenance that it was a “major area of focus” for the company:

Advertisement

While many were enthusiastic about the potential fix, but some complained that their cars had been in for service many times for the issue, inhibiting their ability to utilize FSD and truly enjoy the full experience of owning a Tesla.

It will likely be a hardware fix that will be implemented through a service appointment, but knowing Tesla, they could have something up their sleeve through a software update to resolve the issue.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

News

Tesla’s Lead of Optimus AI departs and people are confused about it

Kumar, who has been with Tesla for just over two years, made his announcement on X, revealing he was taking a role at Meta as a Research Scientist.

Published

on

Credit: @heydave7/X

Tesla’s Lead of Optimus AI, Ashish Kumar, is departing the company, and people sure are confused about it.

Kumar, who has been with Tesla for just over two years, made his announcement on X, revealing he was taking a role at Meta as a Research Scientist.

He said:

“Decided to leave Tesla. It’s been an incredible ride leading the Optimus AI team. We went all-in on scalable methods — swapping the classical stack with reinforcement learning & scaling dexterity by learning from videos. AI is the most significant bit to unlock humanoids.”

Tesla fans were baffled by Kumar’s decision, immediately questioning his choice, with many wondering why he’d leave Elon Musk for Mark Zuckerberg.

Some said the choice had to be financially motivated, but Kumar said it was not, and if money were the driving factor, he would have stayed at Tesla:

Advertisement

Others were grateful for Kumar’s contributions to the company and were very respectful regarding his decision:

It’s possible that Kumar chose to leave Tesla for more reasons than one, and financial reasons do not appear to be the issue, as he admitted. However, it could be a better work-life balance at Meta, or perhaps there is an internal project that simply interests him more.

Tesla will be okay, and Optimus will continue to improve with a new Lead in that position. We wish Ashish the best of luck in his new role, and we are thankful for what he contributed to the Optimus program.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Elon Musk

Elon Musk: Tesla shareholder vote results could “affect the future of the world”

“This shareholder vote decides the future of Tesla and may affect the future of the world,” Musk posted on X.

Published

on

MINISTÉRIO DAS COMUNICAÇÕES, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Elon Musk is urging Tesla shareholders to take part in the company’s upcoming annual meeting, calling the vote critical not just for the automaker but potentially for the world. 

“This shareholder vote decides the future of Tesla and may affect the future of the world,” Musk posted on X, emphasizing the importance of proposals that will be voted on in the upcoming meeting on November 6, 2025.

A pivotal inflection point

In a message from its official account, Tesla described itself as being at “a critical inflection point” as it prepares for its annual meeting. Shareholders will soon receive voting instructions, with the company asking investors to back the Board’s recommendations on all proposals. The post also referenced Tesla’s Master Plan Part IV, which outlines ambitious growth targets across vehicles, energy, and artificial intelligence.

“Tesla is at a critical inflection point. We need your vote ahead of our 2025 Annual Meeting on November 6. Tesla shareholders, the owners of our company, will soon receive their control numbers and voting instructions from their brokers. This will enable you to vote. We are asking you to vote with the Board’s recommendations on *all* proposals,” Tesla wrote in its post.

The company also highlighted that it is currently on the brink of a “massive wave of transformational growth.” Tesla stressed that confidence in Musk’s leadership is central to this trajectory, as he is the CEO who could lead Tesla into its new, ambitious era.

Advertisement

Some Key proposals

Two proposals stand out in Tesla’s recommendations, as per the company’s VoteTesla.com website. The first seeks to amend and restate Elon Musk’s 2019 Equity Incentive Plan, creating a special reserve of nearly 208 million shares to give the board flexibility amid ongoing litigation surrounding Musk’s 2018 CEO Performance Award. It also calls for replenishing the general share reserve with 60 million additional shares, ensuring capacity for employee equity grants.

“Equity is the cornerstone of Tesla’s compensation philosophy. We believe we need a framework that allows us to honor the deal we made with Elon and the extraordinary value he created for Tesla shareholders under the 2018 CEO Performance Award. In addition, it is essential that we maintain sufficient equity reserves and maximum flexibility to attract, retain and motivate talent at Tesla,” Tesla wrote.

The second proposal is a new 2025 CEO Performance Award, a pay-for-performance framework that links Musk’s compensation to reaching ambitious market cap and operational milestones. Under the plan, Musk would earn nothing unless Tesla achieves extraordinary results, potentially creating more than $7 trillion in shareholder value and pushing the company’s valuation to as high as $8.5 trillion. The company also asked shareholders to vote in favor of re-electing three directors: Ira Ehrenpreis, Joe Gebbia, and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson.

Continue Reading

Trending