Inside Elon Musk’s Reddit AMA 10 years on as he admits ‘I just about made that up’

Elon Musk’s views on most things are well known – he posts about them all on Twitter/X, the social media site he owns. But 10 years ago the man with the biggest ego in technology cut a very different, potentially more humble figure when taking part in a Reddit AMA (ask me anything Q&A), even admitting he had previously made up some of his more bold claims.

The AMA, posted on the Reddit subreddit IamA using his ElonMuskOfficial account, was headlined “I am Elon Musk, CEO/CTO of a rocket company, AMA!” and took place just before a Falcon 9 rocket launch as Musk claimed he was sitting at Cape Canaveral while answering questions.

It started with a now-removed question that a mod claimed “amounted to little more than empty flattery,” but saw the billionaire tech bro offer some advice to the world.

He said: “It is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree – make sure you understand the fundamental principles, ie the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to.”

And with that out of the way, users began asking questions on everything from life on other planets to the future of his rocket businesses. One user wrote: “Previously, you’ve stated that you estimate a 50% probability of success with the attempted landing on the automated spaceport drone ship tomorrow. Can you discuss the factors that were considered to make that estimation?”

But Musk replied: “I pretty much made that up. I have no idea :)” And in one of his most telling answers, especially 10 years on, he was asked if he’d ever become a politician to which he replied “unlikely”. Another question about him dealing with “tremendous amount of adversity” saw him come back with a quote from an ex-British Prime Minister. He replied: “There is a great quote by Churchill: ‘If you’re going through hell, keep going’.”

Musk also told how his goal was to send “100 metric tons of useful payload to the surface of Mars” but that it would “obviously require a very big spaceship and booster system”. And later he would issue an ominous warning about the future of artificial intelligence when he claimed we should “be concerned” and that “there needs to be a lot more work on AI safety”.

In a brief moment of levity, he said his favourite video games were Bioshock, Fallout and Mass Effect, and was also a “big fan” of Warcraft, while stating his favourite food is French and BBQ, and that he loves Whiskey.

And lastly, he was asked about landing on Europa – one of Jupiter’s moon. He said: “We’ve learned that at a certain point in Europa’s orbit about Jupiter, it spits out a giant geyser of water ~ 40x the height of Mt. Everest. Some of this water makes it into orbit of the moon.

“Instead of landing on Europa, drilling through 10-40 miles of ice, and then test the water for signs of life, we can just do a fly-by and scoop some water [ice] out of orbit. As you can imagine, a fly-by is wayyyy cheaper and much easier than the landing mission.”

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