I just happened to see the transcript of the Q4 earnings call for Tesla, and once Elon started speaking I was astounded by his semi-coherence, and this passage, in particular, stood out:
Amazing era of of abundance and and I think with the with the advent with with the continued growth of AI and robotics. I think we actually are headed to a future of universal high income, not universal basic income, but universal high income. I mean, there’s going to be a lot of change along the way, but but that is that is that is what I see as the most likely outcome.
This is interesting from two perspectives:
The first is that the whole “abundance” thing is something the Technocracy movement of the 1930’s was talking about (I wrote about this some time ago, and Elon’s grandfather was a leader in that movement. Of course it turned out later that he was such a rabid racist that he had to move to South Africa. I am reminded of the sticker you see on some Teslas stating that they bought the car before “Elon went crazy”. Both Elon and his grandfather seemed to, initially, promote a utopian vision, but ended up pushing for racism, authoritarianism, and conspiracy theories. Whether either actually changed is up for debate.
The second is that I cannot figure out if he is trying to delude us, or if he is deluding himself. Anybody with an ounce of awareness understands that there is no road from where we are to any sort of universal income, whether high or basic. The current regime is actively working against any sort of “safety net” for non-billionaires. Even in good times we couldn’t agree that nobody deserves to be homeless, starving, and without healthcare.
It is quite possible that his drug-addled brain is so filled with misinterpreted science fiction he somehow thinks that once he replaces all workers with AI, some magic will happen to give everything away to everybody. A sort of missing step plan like:
On the other hand, maybe he is lying with all his might to keep us from noticing how he and his billionaire friends are working hard to establish a techo-feudalist police state.
Or most likely both.