** Wali Villager.
Basic Principles of Education:
Critical thinking.
ModeratorA.S. for education, you have your own philosophy. With artificial intelligence, education could change dramatically. Can you tell us a little bit about your educational philosophy?
Second, do we need 12 years of schooling and 4 years of college?
Elon Musk: In terms of education, I think in general, we can do things to make it more engaging, like explaining to children why we want to teach a particular subject.
Musk once opened a school for children at his home in California and taught it himself.
The human brain has evolved to forget anything it thinks is unimportant. In fact, human memory is really bad relative to your phone's memory. Your phone can remember the entire contents of an encyclopedia, from start to finish, while human memory is terrible in comparison.
In fact, our brains are constantly trying to forget something. However, if you explain why you want to teach a subject, then this will build relevance, which is more likely to boost children's motivation.
In addition, it would be more effective if knowledge, especially scientific knowledge, was taught as a solution to a problem. Let's say you're trying to understand the internal combustion engine, so it's actually better to take it apart and say, "What tools do we need to use to take it apart?"
We need a wrench, a screwdriver, and all sorts of other things to take it apart. Then you will understand the reason for using these tools.
For mathematics, they are like tools in physics and engineering. But if you're teaching on a problem, then you'll understand, then you'll be able to determine the relevance of these tools, and then it's much easier to remember math and physics. Because they help explain how the world works, rather than purely teaching content without explaining why.
At the moment, people are not teaching about problems, but about tools. It's like having a course on screwdrivers or wrenches and not understanding why you should have a course on screwdrivers and wrenches. I think this is really a fairly basic principle that should be applied in education.
And I think sometimes we do teach lessons that kids don't think are useful, and the question of "why" doesn't provide a good answer. I don't think most people find advanced mathematics useful, and are unlikely to encounter useful situations in their lives, or that what they find useful, can be taught quickly as general principles.
I also believe that children should be taught critical thinking at a relatively young age. It's like a spiritual firewall, and when somebody tells you something, you have to really think about whether it's convincing, whether it's true, or how likely is it to be true?
You can learn to reject those things that are not true, or are more likely to be untrue, and seek those things that are more likely to be true. I think critical thinking is very helpful for people's learning.
ModeratorA.S., then, do you support 12 years of schooling, or not?
Elon Musk: 12 years is a long time, I think.
I mean, it does take a long time for humans to mature. As education progresses, there will be emotional maturity, physical maturity, and psychological maturity. I think this can be done in 10 years, maybe not 12 years.
However, if someone matures by the age of 16, then they are more likely to be able to become mature by the age of 18. I think 12 years might not be bad.
We probably don't need to spend another four or five or six years in college, which may seem a bit too much. I think we might be able to reduce it by a few years, no problem.
The scene of the 2023 World ** Summit.
ModeratorA.S.: But, we spend so much time socializing. In some countries, the average time spent on social** is:
Three or four hours. Sometimes, when we go to our children, we see that they spend a lot of time socializing.
Do you have any rules for your children and how much time they can spend socializing?
Elon Musk: In general, I don't make an effort to limit my children's use of social**, although this may be a mistake.
Depending on which kid it is, I would say, they've really been affected by reddit and YouTube. Reddit and YouTube have a much bigger impact than anything else.
I think I'll probably be limiting the use of social ** and keeping an eye on what they're looking at more than in the past. Because I think that at the moment, they're already heavily influenced by social algorithms, and you don't necessarily agree with that.
I think it may be necessary to supervise children's use of social networking and be wary of them being influenced by some of the algorithms written in Silicon Valley, which may not be the outcome you want.
Do aliens really exist?
Moderator: There were three UFOs shot down, one over Alaska, Lake Huron and one over Canada, is this alien, or is it not?
Elon MuskNo, I don't think it's aliens.
I do find interesting of all the questions about extraterrestrials that is commonly referred to as the "Fermi paradox". That is, if the universe is really as old as the scientific community thinks, then what about aliens?
Have we really been around for 13.8 billion years? If so, shouldn't there be aliens everywhere? And the crazy thing is that I haven't seen any evidence of extraterrestrial technology or the existence of any extraterrestrial life at all.
And, at SpaceX, we do a lot of a lot of work. In my opinion, no one knows more about space, or at least space technology, than I do.
But I think it's actually a disturbing thing if there are no aliens, because it's the equivalent of saying that civilization and consciousness are like a little candle in the vast darkness, and a very fragile little candle that can be easily extinguished.
I think we should take good care of this little candle in the darkness and make sure it doesn't go out. And, we want to extend the light of consciousness beyond the earth and do everything we can to ensure that the light of consciousness is not extinguished.