I tend to approach things from a physics framework. And physics teaches you to reason from first principles rather than by analogy.
Elon MuskRead
If you go back back a few hundred years, what we take for granted today would seem like magic - being able to talk to people over long distances, to transmit images, flying, accessing vast amounts of data like an oracle. These are all things that would have been considered magic a few hundred years ago.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Modern advancements may seem magical compared to historical capabilities.
This quote by Elon Musk highlights the incredible progress humanity has made in technology over the last few centuries. What we now consider ordinary functions, such as instant communication, aerial travel, and vast information access, would have been perceived as extraordinary or even magical in the past, illustrating the transformative power of innovation and how it reshapes our understanding of the world.
Themes
TechnologyMagicProgressInnovationCommunication
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about innovation, this quote can demonstrate how far we've come as a society.
More from Elon Musk
All quotes →The United States is definitely ahead in culture of innovation. If someone wants to accomplish great things, there is no better place than the U.S.
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The space shuttle was often used as an example of why you shouldn't even attempt to make something reusable. But one failed experiment does not invalidate the greater goal. If that was the case, we'd never have had the light bulb.
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The reality is gas prices should be much more expensive then they are because we're not incorporating the true damage to the environment and the hidden costs of mining oil and transporting it to the U.S. Whenever you have an unpriced externality, you have a bit of a market failure, to the degree that eternality remains unpriced.
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Man has the power to act as his own destroyer - and that is the way he has acted through most of his history.
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I've actually made a prediction that within 30 years a majority of new cars made in the United States will be electric. And I don't mean hybrid, I mean fully electric.
Elon MuskRead
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