Elon Musk’s Philosophical Musings On Space (And Other Observations From Code Conference)

Musk on space and taxes, Satya Nadella on TikTok, Marc Benioff on the workplace, and more.

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After so many months of isolation, there was Elon Musk. The brilliant, mercurial technology founder helped kick off the tech industry’s unofficial exit from quarantine this week as he strode on stage at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. Wearing a black bandana around his neck, Musk took his seat beside Kara Swisher as the headliner for her annual Code Conference. The two gazed out at the crowd of 600 tech executives, investors, and media filling the traditional home of the Golden Globes, and, just like that, it was almost as if we were back in 2019.

From a few feet away, I spent the week listening to Musk and other tech leaders as they spoke with Swisher about the tech industry's future. Here are my observations:

Musk gets philosophical on space travel. Musk has articulated his motivations for building SpaceX. First, he believes space travel is good business (SpaceX is valued at $74 billion). Second, Musk thinks we’ll have a better chance of surviving the next extinction event by making our species interplanetary. But this week, he went a level deeper, offering a perspective I found fascinating. “If we want to understand what the universe is about, and what’s the meaning of life, we need to get there and find out,” he said. “And the more that we can expand the scope and scale of consciousness, the more we’ll be able to understand what questions we need to ask about the answer that is the universe.”

Musk finally addresses his taxes. ProPublica reported in June that Musk paid no federal income tax in 2018. Musk this week finally addressed the situation, explaining that he's compensated mainly in stock options that will eventually be taxed. Musk complained that he kept his stock options while his companies struggled and felt targeted now that his bet on himself proved wise. Asked why he didn’t speak with ProPublica, Musk said they weren’t interested in the truth. That’s a shame, since his comments were worth considering. He didn’t answer all questions, but it would’ve benefited readers to hear his perspective when ProPublica published its stories.

TikTok ghosted Microsoft. It was fun to watch Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recall Donald Trump’s attempt to force TikTok to sell itself. Nadella said TikTok first approached Microsoft about a deal. And after the company engaged, “It just disappeared.” Acquiring TikTok would’ve been a win for Microsoft, which could’ve supported it with security, cloud hosting, and artificial intelligence. But instead, TikTok left Nadella sitting in the cold like a spurned teenage lover. “It’s the strangest thing I've ever sort of worked on,” Nadella said.

Maybe we won’t go back to the office? Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff made a scene speaking about the future of the workplace. “We're not all going back,” Benioff said. Benioff has good reason to root for a “hybrid” workplace: He bought Slack for $27 billion last year.

Netflix the uninspiring Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos didn’t seem to be in the mood to discuss competition even though every company in the world has a streaming service with a “+” at the end. “It's great for everyone to talk about competition, it’s great for everyone to think about competition. We really don't,” Sarandos said. For a company lacking a distinct technological advantage over its competition, it was a strange position.

Where’s the inventiveness? This question is somewhat dumb since today’s email led with a space company. But attendees wondered where the new and surprising technology was. Crypto has promise but substantial drawbacks. Otherwise, the same few companies played Freebird: Salesforce, Microsoft, Netflix, Alphabet, etc.

The SEC seems ready to crack down. Speaking of crypto, SEC chair Gary Gensler appeared via video and had stern words for the portion of the industry flaunting the rules. “This is not going to end well if it stays outside the regulatory space,” Gensler said at one point.

Facebook discussion falls flat. People may be starting to get tired of Facebook criticism. Not because it’s unmerited, but because it feels a bit repetitive given how little has changed. Benioff went off comparing the company to tobacco (it’s complicated), MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle compared Facebook to crack cocaine, and other speakers took their swings. The crowd applauded each time, but there was little Facebook talk off stage.

The people like drugs Psychedelic drugs were an unexpected theme of the week. Musk praised them. So did Chelsea Handler. Psychedelics were the main topic of discussion on the conference’s final day. You know, after all this time in isolation, a few mushrooms might not be the worst idea.

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News Briefs

Why The U.S. Badly Needs A Summer Holiday (Marker)

It’s the first full week of fall. The air is crisp and, after a long-awaited summer, we’re supposed to be feeling refreshed. But in the U.S. right now, people are absolutely fried. Four million people have quit their jobs for four months running, and labor shortages continue even as federal unemployment benefits dry up. The Solution? I suggest an entire month off in summer. You can check it out in Marker this week.

CNN will no longer publish content on Facebook in Australia (CNN)

Remember all that talk about revoking Section 230? We’re starting to get a taste of what that might look like. In Australia, the courts ruled that media companies could be liable for what users post on their Facebook pages. CNN’s response: Goodbye to Facebook in Australia.

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Troll Farms Reached 140 Million Americans A Month on Facebook Before 2020 Election, Internal Report Shows (MIT Technology Review, via Important, Not Important #248)

According to an internal report, popular pages for Christian and Black American content reaching 140 million users per month were being run by Eastern European troll farms - “75% of whom had never followed any of the pages” but were recommended by Facebook’s content-recommendation system. Facebook has been called out before for burying bad news and evading watchdogs, but when their scale is the entire world and they have the ability to contribute to hate crimes and genocides- there’s just too much at stake to stand idly by. One solution might lie in pre-emptive explainers.

To stay up to date on matters of AI, science, and environmental news (and to have it curated and decoded) subscribe to Important, Not Important. You can check it out here.

Further Reading

Facebook’s Effort to Attract Preteens Goes Beyond Instagram Kids, Documents Show (WSJ)

Amazon’s Astro Is a Robot Without a Cause (Wired)

Facebook Grilled by Senators Over Its Effect on Children (New York Times)

YouTube to Remove Videos Containing Vaccine Misinformation (WSJ)

Pitch for Purpose: a startup competition celebrating social entrepreneurs (TCS)

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This week on Big Technology Podcast: Amazon Builds a Robot and Threatens Apple — With Wired's Lauren Goode

This week, Wired senior writer Lauren Goode was on hand as Amazon introduced Astro, a home robot, and a Ring home-monitoring drone. Goode joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss her reaction to the products. And in the second half, stay tuned for a discussion of how Apple and Amazon are on a collision course even though they build products very differently.

You can listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Thanks again for reading, and see you next Thursday!

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