Elon Musk:

When I was young, I didn't really know what I was going to do when I got older. People kept asking me, and eventually, I thought that the idea of inventing things would be really cool. The reason I thought that was because I read a quote from Arthur C. Clark: "A sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

And that's really true. If you go back, say, 300 years, the things that we take for granted today, you'd be burned at the stake for. Being able to fly- that's crazy. In fact, I think it actually goes beyond that, because there are many things that we take for granted today that weren't even imagined in times past. So that it actually goes beyond that. So I thought if I can do some of those things--basically, if I can advance technology--that's like magic and that would be really cool.

I always had sort of a slight existential crisis, 'cause I was trying to figure out, “What does it all mean?" I came to the conclusion that if we can advance the knowledge of the world, if we can do things that expand the scope and- and scale of consciousness, then we’re better able to ask the right questions and become more enlightened. And that's really the only way forward.

Elon Musk:

When I was young, I didn't really know what I was going to do when I got older. People kept asking me, and eventually, I thought that the idea of inventing things would be really cool. The reason I thought that was because I read a quote from Arthur C. Clark: "A sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

And that's really true. If you go back, say, 300 years, the things that we take for granted today, you'd be burned at the stake for. Being able to fly- that's crazy. In fact, I think it actually goes beyond that, because there are many things that we take for granted today that weren't even imagined in times past. So that it actually goes beyond that. So I thought if I can do some of those things--basically, if I can advance technology--that's like magic and that would be really cool.

I always had sort of a slight existential crisis, 'cause I was trying to figure out, “What does it all mean?" I came to the conclusion that if we can advance the knowledge of the world, if we can do things that expand the scope and- and scale of consciousness, then we’re better able to ask the right questions and become more enlightened. And that's really the only way forward.