Elon Musk is a man that needs no introduction.

Having cofounded PayPal and Tesla and founded SpaceX, Musk is a revolutionary innovator, to say the least.

No one can say that he’s afraid to think way outside the box.

He’s crazy.

But some of his ideas border on the brink of pure madness.

One of his outlandish ideas being that we, the human race, are all living inside some kind of virtual reality-type illusion like in The Matrix.

“Is life just a video game played by a more advanced civilization?”

Apparently, this is something Musk thinks about often.

“I’ve had so many simulation discussions, it’s crazy,” he says. “If you assume any rate of improvement at all, then games will become indistinguishable from reality.”

But aside from all of the insanity, some of his ideas aren’t that irrational.

If these ideas are successfully executed, their implementation into modern everyday life has the potential to change the course of existence for generations to come.

How to NOT Become a House Cat

The notion of binding the human brain with computer software was first brought to light at Code Conference back in 2016.

In April of this year, Musk confirmed that he has agreed to serve as CEO of a brain-computer interface venture named Neuralink.

This company has been tasked with designing a “neural lace” technology that will enable humans to communicate directly with machines by implanting a type of electrode within the brain.

Neuralink is still in its early stages of its existence and has no public presence whatsoever, but Musk goes on to say that his newest endeavor is only four years away from introducing its first product to market.

The initial version of the Neuralink prototype would focus on those who suffer from severe brain injuries.

“The first use of the technology will be to repair brain injuries as a result of stroke or cutting out a cancer lesion, where somebody’s fundamentally lost a certain cognitive element,” said Musk. “It could help with people who are quadriplegics or paraplegics by providing a neural shunt from the motor cortex down to where the muscles are activated.”

The eventual goal is to enhance the human brain’s memory capabilities while also keeping pace with advancements in artificial intelligence.

Musk has said this “neural lace” technology is the key to keeping humans from turning into proverbial house cats, compared to futuristic advancements in artificial intelligence.

While speaking in Dubai, Musk stated: “Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence.”

In order to keep up, humans will need to improve themselves.

But these types of brain-computer interfaces only exist today in science fiction.

However, Musk is not alone in wanting to bring this idea to life.

Kernel, a startup company created by Braintree cofounder Bryan Johnson, is also trying to enhance human cognition.

Kernel is building its team of neuroscientists and software engineers and is working toward reversing the effects of neurodegenerative diseases.

The ultimate goal for them is the same as Neuralink’s — making the human brain faster, smarter, and better wired.

The Verge writes that Neuralink plans to join Kernel in its ambitious quest to hack the human brain, tackling the many immense hurdles together.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Space Edition

Last month, SpaceX achieved an unprecedented milestone.

The company successfully launched a rocket using recycled portions of its Falcon 9 rocket and has reclaimed it for future use.

Musk plans to develop consistently reusable rockets to overall reduce the cost of space travel.

These rockets will be sent into space and brought back down to Earth safely and intact for reuse, making space travel, according to Musk’s vision, not too unlike air travel.

The rocket using reclaimed technology from Falcon 9 carried a satellite for communications provider SES into geosynchronous orbit before landing on a drop ship called “Of Course I Love You.”

SES is reported to have received a discount on the launch for being the first client to ever launch a reused and recycled rocket.

“This launch shows that you can fly and re-fly an orbit-class booster, which is the most expensive part of the rocket,” Musk stated on a SpaceX webcast. “This is ultimately a huge revolution in spaceflight.”

After Musk congratulated his team via Twitter, he immediately turned around and issued another challenge: Reduce the turnaround time between future launches to 24 hours.

Reusing rockets could lower the $62 million starting-launch costs by 30%, which in turn saves the time needed to manufacture new parts, shortening turnaround time.

SpaceX still has a backlog of launches it has to get through and if costs fall further, there could very well be more private and public sector clients knocking at its door or seeking out its competitors, writes CNBC.

Such advancements in space travel lead to another idea of a much higher caliber to the realm of Musk’s possibilities — eventually introducing space tourism and colonizing Mars.

Transforming California Into a Scene From The Jetsons

Transportation is a prime example of how innovation hasn’t drastically changed over the course of history.

We still have cars, we still have airplanes, we still have ships, and we still have trains.

Thanks to Marty McFly, we were all hoping for hoverboards and flying cars by now.

However, a new concept of futuristic transportation is alive and well in Musk’s plan for the Hyperloop.

It would be unlike anything the human race has ever experienced before, regarding long-distance transportation.

The Hyperloop would completely revolutionize mass transit while also reducing environmental damage in the process, compared to its prehistoric counterparts.

Musk has pitched this idea in response to California’s High-Speed Rail system, which is currently under development.

He feels like this system is lackluster, extremely expensive, and slow moving.

The estimated cost of Musk’s innovative mass-transit system is said to be kept under $6 billion, whereas the California high-speed rail project will set the state and tax payers back a whopping $68 billion.

The Hyperloop would consist of two massive tubes that stretch from Los Angeles to San Francisco, the same route the California project is expected to cover.

Pods that carry passengers would travel through the tubes at speeds of around 700 miles per hour.

It seems almost reminiscent of the tubes the Jetsons used to travel from building to building, only on a much larger scale.

Unfortunately, the possibility of the Hyperloop being miniaturized to a building-to-building scale is impossible.

The time and distance needed to accelerate to such high speeds cannot be adapted in this way.

Digital Trends reports that at distances of fewer than 900 miles, supersonic travel is unfeasible as most of the journey would be spent ascending and descending, which are the slowest parts of the flight.

As for means of acceleration, magnetic accelerators will be implanted along the length of the tube, propelling the pods forward.

For means of fuel, the Hyperloop tubes would have solar panels installed on the roof of each pod, allowing for a clean and self-powering system.

The tubes would house a low-pressure environment, surrounding each pod with a cushion of air that ensures safe movement at such supersonic velocities — much like a puck gliding across an air hockey table.

A one-way trip on the Hyperloop is projected to take only 35 minutes.

Traveling that same distance, from Los Angeles to San Francisco or vice versa, with light traffic by car takes roughly six agonizing hours.

If Musk gets the green light on the project, Hyperloop could modernize long-distance transportation, bringing it into the big leagues of the future.

That’s all for now.

Until next time,

John Peterson
Pro Trader Today