The Future, According to Elon

Elon Musk doesn’t think small.

He’s not here to tweak things around the edges.

He’s here to tear the edges off.

Take government regulation.

It’s not just a hurdle to Musk; it’s a straitjacket.

“Each rule is like a little string,” he says.

“A million little strings holding us down, like Gulliver.”

So what’s his solution?

Burn the strings.

He’s not anti-rules. He’s anti-pointless rules.

Right now, Musk says, if you want to build something big—like a rocket, or even a high-speed railway—you need permission.

Lots of it.

From lots of people.

But Musk’s got a different idea:

Flip the system.

Instead of asking for permission upfront, just build.

If something goes wrong, you pay the price.

Call it “pay to play.”

It’s quicker, simpler, and better for progress.

Environmental disasters? Same deal.

Right now, you’ve got to jump through years of hoops to prove you won’t harm the planet.

Musk says: scrap that.

Start the project. Do your best to do it right.

If you screw up, then you pay a penalty.

But don’t let red tape choke the life out of innovation.

Because Musk thinks we’re running out of time.

Not just for fixing Earth, but for escaping it.

Big Rockets, Bigger Vision

Why does Musk want fewer rules?

Because he’s not just thinking about rockets. He’s thinking about humanity.

Right now, we’re stuck on Earth.

And that’s risky.

“If humans go extinct or civilization collapses, whatever policies we have are irrelevant,” he says.

That’s why he built SpaceX.

Not to make money.

To make sure humanity survives.

The big rocket he’s building?

It’s not for satellites.

It’s for Mars.

Musk wants a self-sustaining city on the red planet.

Because if Earth goes down, at least we’ve got a backup.

It’s the ultimate insurance policy.

Feedback Loops and the ‘DOGE’ Plan

Musk’s real issue with governments is this:

They don’t listen.

He calls them monopolies.

And monopolies don’t need to compete.

Think of your local Department of Motor Vehicles.

You’ve got no choice but to deal with them.

If they’re slow, tough luck.

That’s why Musk wants more feedback loops.

In business, if you make a bad product, you fail.

In government, you don’t.

So what’s Musk’s plan?

He’s got a term for it:

“DOGE.”

DOGE isn’t just a cryptocurrency.

It’s also Musk’s idea for governance:

The “Department of Garbage Elimination.”

Every year, DOGE would review regulations.

Bad ones? Gone.

It’s like spring cleaning for the law books.

Birth Rates, Bedwetting, and the Bigger Picture

Here’s the thing about Musk:

He’s not just worried about space.

He’s worried about people.

Take birth rates.

They’re falling fast.

And Musk says that’s a bigger threat than climate change.

“If there are no humans,” he says, “there’s no civilization.”

But why aren’t people having kids?

Maybe they’ve lost hope.

Hope that the future will be better.

Musk thinks we need to flip that narrative.

We need optimism.

Not the kind that pretends everything’s fine.

The kind that rolls up its sleeves and builds a better future.

Expansion vs. Extinction

For Musk, life is a choice between two paths:

Expand or collapse.

And right now, too many people are picking the wrong one.

Some even think humanity’s a plague on the planet.

Musk calls that “extinctionist thinking.”

Instead, he wants an “expansionist” mindset.

One where we solve problems.

Grow populations.

And yes, build rockets.

Because in the end, Musk isn’t just betting on tech.

He’s betting on us.

Humans.

And that’s the ultimate feedback loop.

The more we build, the better we get.

And the better we get, the more we build.

Musk’s job?

To snap the strings.

So the rest of us can fly.