Every once in a while, there comes onto the world stage, a person who changes everything for the entirely of humanity. He or she is often identified as a visionary and rightly so, because they work for the future.
Throughout our human history, we have had many visionaries who single handedly propelled the world forward much further than it would have been without them and we owe our modern lives today to those men and women.
There are many visionaries who are doing the same, trying to create a better world for everyone by introducing revolutionary new ways of doing things and inspiring to get rid of the old, obsolete ones.
One such visionary is Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, CEO of Tesla, Chairman of SolarCity, Co-chairman of OpenAI and someone who is referred to as the real life Iron Man by the popular media. Let’s take a look at how he is changing the world.
1. Autonomous Cars
If you had told me just 5 years ago that in 2016, we will see a self-driving car that will take you to any location you tell it to, I would probably have disagreed with you and yet that has already become a reality.
The autonomous car revolution has been led largely by Elon Musk and his company, Tesla. While other companies were still testing their technology, Tesla cars had already got this ability which left people in a delightful shock.
Of course, he didn’t do it alone and of course the majority of the work was probably done by engineers and software developers but a visionary like Musk is very much necessary at the helm to get things moving and moving fast.
Today, Tesla self-driving cars have driven well over 200 million miles and have in some cases saved lives where a human behind the wheel might not have been able to. Musk also claims that he will deliver fully autonomous cars by the end of 2017. One day, driving will have been a thing of the past.
2. Mass Adoption of Solar Power
There is no denying the damage we have done to the environment through our unchecked use of fossil fuels. It has resulted in global warming, climate change and everyone’s worried about the polar ice caps melting.
This has largely been the result of not using clean energy sources though we have had the technology for quite some time. The major oil and energy corporations are to blame of course, but now, things might be changing.
Elon Musk, as chairman of SolarCity, is helping to bring affordable solar power to the masses. Till now, solar power used to cost a lot but thanks to technological advancements in the field and mass production of solar systems, solar power is now cheaper than fossil fuels.
SolarCity offers solar roof (in the photo above), Powerwall (to collect the solar power and help you live off the grid), and affordable solar panels, so that we can utilise the biggest energy source of the Earth i.e. the Sun.
3. Hyperloop
Ever saw people in sci-fi movies and got jealous of their super high speed transportation system? Not anymore! If Elon Musk’s concept becomes reality, which by the looks of it, surely will, we are in for super high speed travel.
The Hyperloop concept consists of a network of partial-vacuum tubes inside which, pods, carrying passengers will move at almost supersonic speeds, which means you would be travelling faster than an airplane but on the ground level.
The pods in the tubes would be accelerated by magnets along the length of the tubes and they will also be cushioned by air from every direction, so you won’t even feel like you are moving at such a high speed. Comfort and speed!
So, the distance you can travel in 6 hours in your car would be covered by the Hyperloop in just 30 minutes. What is more exciting is that Elon Musk has open sourced this concept and people from all over the world are working to be the first to bring it to reality. In fact Dubai is eyeing a 2020 launch of the world’s first Hyperloop.
4. Space Endeavours
This one is really huge. Musk believes that humanity should build a second home as soon as possible. This is because we might never know when the next extinction phase is going to happen. We miss asteroids all the time which just miss the Earth.
He has chosen Mars as our next home and is spearheading an effort to colonise it and establish a self sustaining human population on it within the 21st century. The first manned missions are planned in the 2020s. This goal in itself is beyond visionary. It’s simply something else.
He is also involved in efforts to reduce the cost to travel to space from 30-75%, which will be an impressive feat in itself. This will help with one more of his “space” related plans which is to make space tourism a reality.
He truly believes that it is time we start the process of expansion into the cosmos and it should be something that is accessible to all humans just like how travel is on Earth.
5. There's More!
Apart from all this, he is also involved with OpenAI which is a non-profit company established to create a friendly AI which will help mankind in unimaginable ways. Since Musk is concerned that we may end up creating a malevolent AI, he is making sure that nothing as such happens with his involvement in the company.
A more revolutionary thing that Elon Musk has just recently revealed is Neuralink which is a venture to merge the human brain with AI which I have written about here.
All this led by one man and his several dedicated teams. That’s what a visionary can do. I hope we get many more visionaries like him and I also hope that we can all strive to be a visionary and play our part in moving the world forward and leaving a legacy behind.
Image Credits 1, 3 (The rest are from the public domain).