This meme review is an excerpt from a podcast with Elon Musk and Lex Fridman. Watch the full episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxREm3s1scA

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Elon Musk is CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, and Boring Company.

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And now for something completely different.

Do you mind doing a bit of a meme review in the spirit of the great, the powerful PewDiePie?

Let's say 1 to 11, just go over a few documents printed out.

So, you get it, because he likes compelling things?

This is ground in some engineering, some history.

I think it's, in a place that is not subject to extreme natural disasters, I think it's, nuclear power is a great way to generate electricity.

I don't think we should be shutting down nuclear power stations.

So, I think people, There's a lot of fear of radiation and stuff.

And I guess the problem is a lot of people just don't, they didn't study engineering or physics, so just the word radiation just sounds scary.

So they can't calibrate what radiation means.

But radiation is much less dangerous than you'd think.

So Like for example, Fukushima, you know, when the Fukushima problem happened, due to the tsunami, I got people in California asking me if they should worry about radiation from Fukushima.

And I'm like, definitely not, not even slightly, not at all, that is crazy.

And just to show, like, look, this is how, like, the dangers is so much overplayed compared to what it really is that I actually flew to Fukushima and I donated a solar power system for a water treatment plant.

And I made a point of eating locally grown vegetables on TV in Fukushima.

So it's not even that the risk of these events is low, but the impact of them is.

It's people don't know what radiation is.

Like I've had people ask me, like what about radiation from cell phones causing brain cancer?

I'm like, when you say radiation, do you mean photons or particles?

Then like, then I don't know what, what do you mean photons, particles?

Do you mean, let's say photons, what frequency or wavelength?

Like, do you know that everything's radiating all the time?

Like, yeah, everything's radiating all the time.

Photons are being emitted by all objects all the time, basically.

And if you wanna know what it means to stand in front of nuclear fire, go outside.

The sun is a gigantic thermonuclear reactor that you're staring right at it.

Yeah, I guess radiation is 1 of the words that can be used as a tool to fear monger by certain people, that's it.

I mean, that's the way to fight that fear, I suppose, is to understand, is to learn.

Yeah, just say like, okay, how many people have actually died from nuclear accidents?

And say how many people have died from coal plants, and it's a very big number.

So, like obviously we should not be starting up coal plants and shutting down nuclear plants.

Coal plants, like, I don't know, 100 to 1,000 times worse for health than nuclear power plants.

So that 90, 180, and 360 degrees, everybody loves the math, nobody gives a shit about 270.

The United States oscillating between establishing and destroying dictatorships.

Or it's like referring to Laika or something?

This is dog Your wife was launched into space and then the last 1 is him with his eyes closed in a bottle of vodka Yeah,

They don't tell you the full story of, you know, what the impact they had on the loved ones.

Oh yeah, this keeps going on the Russian theme.

First man in space, nobody cares, first man on the moon.

Yuri Gagarin's names will be forever in history, I think.

There is something special about placing, like stepping foot onto another totally foreign land It's it's not the journey like people that explore the oceans It's not as important to explore the oceans as to land in a whole new continent Yeah This is about you.

Oh yeah, I'd love to get your comment on this.

Elon Musk, after sending $6.6 billion to the UN to end world hunger, you have 3 hours.

Yeah, well, I mean, obviously $6 billion is not gonna end world hunger.

So, so, I mean, the reality is at this point, the world is producing far more food than it can really consume.

Like we don't have a caloric constraint at this point.

So where there is hunger, it is almost always due to it's like civil war or strife or some like, it's not a thing that is, extremely rare for it to be just a matter of like lack of money.

It's like, you know, it's like some, the Civil War in some country and like 1 part of the country is literally trying to starve the other part of the country.

So it's much more complex than something that money could solve.

It's human nature, it's governments, it's money, monetary systems, all that kind of stuff.

Yeah, food is extremely cheap these days.

It's like, I mean, the US at this point, you know, among low income families, obesity is actually another problem.

It's not, like, obesity, it's not hunger.

It's like too much, you know, too many calories.

So it's not that nobody's hungry anywhere, it's just this is not a simple matter of adding money and solving it.

I was just going after Empires World, where did you get those artifacts?

Shout out to Monty Python, we found them.

Yeah, the British Museum is pretty great.

I mean, admittedly Britain did take these historical artifacts from all around the world and put them in London, but it's not like people can't go see them.

So it is a convenient place to see these ancient artifacts is London for a large segment of the world.

So I think on balance, the British Museum is a net good.

Although I'm sure that a lot of countries would argue about that.

It's like you wanna make these historical artifacts accessible to as many people as possible.

Even if there's a darker aspect to like the history of empire in general, whatever the empire is, however things were done, it is the history that happened.

You can't sort of erase that history, unfortunately.

You could just become better in the future.

Yeah, I mean, It's like, well, how are we gonna pass moral judgment on these things?

Like, it's like, if 1 is gonna judge, say, the British Empire, you gotta judge what everyone was doing at the time and how were the British relative to everyone.

And I think that British would actually get like a relatively good grade, relatively good grade, not in absolute terms, but compared to what everyone else was doing, they were not the worst.

Like I said, you gotta look at these things in the context of the history at the time and say, what were the alternatives and what are you comparing it against?

And I do not think it would be the case that Britain would get a bad grade when looking at history at the time.

Now, if you judge history from, you know, from what is morally acceptable today, you're basically gonna give everyone a failing grade.

I'm not clear, I don't think anyone would get a passing grade in their morality of, like, you go back 300 years ago, like, who's getting a passing grade?

And we might not get a passing grade from generations that come after us.

I always love Monty Python, they're great.

The Life of Brian and the Quest for the Holy Grail are incredible.

How important do you think is facial hair to great leadership?

I like this like Shakespeare analysis of memes.

That's the best thing since ripped up bread.

Am I just explaining memes at this point?

I'm a meme, like a scribe that runs around with the kings and just writes down memes.

I mean, when was the cheeseburger invented?

Or a burger, I guess a burger in general.

Then there's like what is a burger, what's a sandwich, and then you start getting, what's a pizza sandwich and what is the original?

Yeah, but everybody knows if you order a burger or cheeseburger or whatever and you get tomato and some lettuce and onions and whatever and mayo and ketchup and mustard, it's epic.

Yeah, but I'm sure they've had bread and meat separately for a long time and it was kind of a burger on the same plate, but somebody who actually combined them into the same thing and bite it and hold it makes it convenient, it's a materials problem.

Like Your hands don't get dirty and whatever.

Well, that is not what I would have guessed.

But everyone knows, like, if you order a cheeseburger, you know what you're getting, you know?

It's not like some obtuse, like, I wonder what I'll get, you know?

Fries are, I mean, great, I mean, they're the devil, but fries are awesome.

What about the Matthew McConaughey Austinite here?

President Kennedy, do you know how to put men on the moon yet and ask them no, President Kennedy, it'd be a lot cooler if you did.

Someone drew a bunch of dicks all over the walls, Sistine Chapel, boys bathroom.

All right, this is our highest ranking meme for today.

I mean, it's true, like how did they get away with that?

Dick pics are, I mean, just something throughout history.

As long as people can draw things, there's been a dick pic.


Speaker 0: And now for something completely different. Do you mind doing a bit of a meme review in the spirit of the great, the powerful PewDiePie? Let's say 1 to 11, just go over a few documents printed out.

Speaker 1: We can try.

Speaker 2: Let's try this. I present to you document numero uno. Vlad the Impaler discovers marshmallows.

Speaker 1: That's not bad.

Speaker 2: So, you get it, because he likes compelling things?

Speaker 1: Yes, I get it. I don't know, 3, whatever.

Speaker 2: That's not very good. This is ground in some engineering, some history.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I give this an 8 out of 10.

Speaker 0: What do you think about nuclear power?

Speaker 1: I'm in favor of nuclear power. I think it's, in a place that is not subject to extreme natural disasters, I think it's, nuclear power is a great way to generate electricity. I don't think we should be shutting down nuclear power stations.

Speaker 2: Yeah, but what about Chernobyl? Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1: So, I think people, There's a lot of fear of radiation and stuff. And I guess the problem is a lot of people just don't, they didn't study engineering or physics, so just the word radiation just sounds scary. So they can't calibrate what radiation means. But radiation is much less dangerous than you'd think. So Like for example, Fukushima, you know, when the Fukushima problem happened, due to the tsunami, I got people in California asking me if they should worry about radiation from Fukushima.

And I'm like, definitely not, not even slightly, not at all, that is crazy. And just to show, like, look, this is how, like, the dangers is so much overplayed compared to what it really is that I actually flew to Fukushima and I donated a solar power system for a water treatment plant. And I made a point of eating locally grown vegetables on TV in Fukushima. Like, I'm still alive, okay.

Speaker 2: So it's not even that the risk of these events is low, but the impact of them is.

Speaker 1: The impact is greatly exaggerated. It's just great.

Speaker 2: It's human nature.

Speaker 1: It's people don't know what radiation is. Like I've had people ask me, like what about radiation from cell phones causing brain cancer? I'm like, when you say radiation, do you mean photons or particles? Then like, then I don't know what, what do you mean photons, particles? Do you mean, let's say photons, what frequency or wavelength?

And they're Like, no, I have no idea. Like, do you know that everything's radiating all the time? Like, what do you mean? Like, yeah, everything's radiating all the time. Photons are being emitted by all objects all the time, basically.

And if you wanna know what it means to stand in front of nuclear fire, go outside. The sun is a gigantic thermonuclear reactor that you're staring right at it. Are you still alive? Yes, okay, amazing.

Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess radiation is 1 of the words that can be used as a tool to fear monger by certain people, that's it.

Speaker 1: I think people just don't understand.

Speaker 2: I mean, that's the way to fight that fear, I suppose, is to understand, is to learn.

Speaker 1: Yeah, just say like, okay, how many people have actually died from nuclear accidents? It's like practically nothing. And say how many people have died from coal plants, and it's a very big number. So, like obviously we should not be starting up coal plants and shutting down nuclear plants. Just doesn't make any sense at all.

Coal plants, like, I don't know, 100 to 1,000 times worse for health than nuclear power plants.

Speaker 2: You wanna go to the next 1? It's really bad. So that 90, 180, and 360 degrees, everybody loves the math, nobody gives a shit about 270.

Speaker 1: It's not super funny. I don't like 203. This is not a LOL situation. Yeah. I don't like 203.

Yeah. This is not a, you know, LOL situation.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker 1: That was pretty good.

Speaker 2: The United States oscillating between establishing and destroying dictatorships. It's like a metric. Is that a metric?

Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a 7 out of 10. It's kind of true.

Speaker 2: Oh yeah. This is this is kind of personal for me. Next 1.

Speaker 1: 0 man. This is Laika?

Speaker 2: Yeah. Well no. Or it's like referring to Laika or something? As Laika's like husband. Husband.

Yeah. Yeah. Hello. Yes. This is dog Your wife was launched into space and then the last 1 is him with his eyes closed in a bottle of vodka Yeah,

Speaker 1: like it didn't come back.

Speaker 2: No. They don't tell you the full story of, you know, what the impact they had on the loved ones. True. That 1 gets an 11 for me. Sure.

The Soviet shadow. Oh yeah, this keeps going on the Russian theme. First man in space, nobody cares, first man on the moon.

Speaker 1: Well, I think people do care.

Speaker 2: No, I know, but.

Speaker 1: Yuri Gagarin's names will be forever in history, I think.

Speaker 2: There is something special about placing, like stepping foot onto another totally foreign land It's it's not the journey like people that explore the oceans It's not as important to explore the oceans as to land in a whole new continent Yeah This is about you. Oh yeah, I'd love to get your comment on this. Elon Musk, after sending $6.6 billion to the UN to end world hunger, you have 3 hours.

Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean, obviously $6 billion is not gonna end world hunger. So, so, I mean, the reality is at this point, the world is producing far more food than it can really consume. Like we don't have a caloric constraint at this point. So where there is hunger, it is almost always due to it's like civil war or strife or some like, it's not a thing that is, extremely rare for it to be just a matter of like lack of money. It's like, you know, it's like some, the Civil War in some country and like 1 part of the country is literally trying to starve the other part of the country.

Speaker 2: So it's much more complex than something that money could solve. It's geopolitics, it's a lot of things. It's human nature, it's governments, it's money, monetary systems, all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1: Yeah, food is extremely cheap these days. It's like, I mean, the US at this point, you know, among low income families, obesity is actually another problem. It's not, like, obesity, it's not hunger. It's like too much, you know, too many calories. So it's not that nobody's hungry anywhere, it's just this is not a simple matter of adding money and solving it.

Speaker 2: What do you think that 1 gets? Just kidding. 2. I was just going after Empires World, where did you get those artifacts? The British Museum.

Shout out to Monty Python, we found them.

Speaker 1: Yeah, the British Museum is pretty great. I mean, admittedly Britain did take these historical artifacts from all around the world and put them in London, but it's not like people can't go see them. So it is a convenient place to see these ancient artifacts is London for a large segment of the world. So I think on balance, the British Museum is a net good. Although I'm sure that a lot of countries would argue about that.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker 1: It's like you wanna make these historical artifacts accessible to as many people as possible. And the British Museum,

Speaker 2: I think does a good job of that. Even if there's a darker aspect to like the history of empire in general, whatever the empire is, however things were done, it is the history that happened. You can't sort of erase that history, unfortunately. You could just become better in the future. That's the point.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, It's like, well, how are we gonna pass moral judgment on these things? Like, it's like, if 1 is gonna judge, say, the British Empire, you gotta judge what everyone was doing at the time and how were the British relative to everyone. And I think that British would actually get like a relatively good grade, relatively good grade, not in absolute terms, but compared to what everyone else was doing, they were not the worst. Like I said, you gotta look at these things in the context of the history at the time and say, what were the alternatives and what are you comparing it against? And I do not think it would be the case that Britain would get a bad grade when looking at history at the time.

Now, if you judge history from, you know, from what is morally acceptable today, you're basically gonna give everyone a failing grade. I'm not clear, I don't think anyone would get a passing grade in their morality of, like, you go back 300 years ago, like, who's getting a passing grade? Basically no 1.

Speaker 2: And we might not get a passing grade from generations that come after us.

Speaker 0: What does that 1 get?

Speaker 2: Sure, 6, 7. For the Monty Python, maybe.

Speaker 1: I always love Monty Python, they're great. The Life of Brian and the Quest for the Holy Grail are incredible.

Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: Damn, those serious eyebrows.

Speaker 2: Brashin' them. How important do you think is facial hair to great leadership? Well... You got a new haircut. How does that affect your leadership?

Speaker 1: I don't know. Hopefully not. It doesn't. Is that the second no 1?

Speaker 2: Yeah, the second is no 1.

Speaker 1: First, first 1. There is no 1 competing with Brejna. Those are like epic eyebrows. So sure.

Speaker 2: That's ridiculous. Give it

Speaker 1: a 6 or 7.

Speaker 2: I like this like Shakespeare analysis of memes.

Speaker 1: Brejna he had a flair for drama as well. Like, you know, showmanship.

Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. It must come from the eyebrows. All right, invention, great engineering. Look what I invented. Yeah.

That's the best thing since ripped up bread. Yeah. Cause they invented sliced bread. Am I just explaining memes at this point? This is what my life has become.

Speaker 1: He's a meme lord, he's a meme explainer.

Speaker 2: I'm a meme, like a scribe that runs around with the kings and just writes down memes.

Speaker 1: I mean, when was the cheeseburger invented? That's like an epic invention. Like wow.

Speaker 2: That was. Versus just like a burger?

Speaker 1: Or a burger, I guess a burger in general.

Speaker 2: Then there's like what is a burger, what's a sandwich, and then you start getting, what's a pizza sandwich and what is the original? It gets into an ontology argument.

Speaker 1: Yeah, but everybody knows if you order a burger or cheeseburger or whatever and you get tomato and some lettuce and onions and whatever and mayo and ketchup and mustard, it's epic.

Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm sure they've had bread and meat separately for a long time and it was kind of a burger on the same plate, but somebody who actually combined them into the same thing and bite it and hold it makes it convenient, it's a materials problem. Like Your hands don't get dirty and whatever. Yeah, it's brilliant. That's not

Speaker 1: the way to talk it. And it's in between 1870s and 1970s.

Speaker 2: Well, that is not what I would have guessed.

Speaker 1: But everyone knows, like, if you order a cheeseburger, you know what you're getting, you know? It's not like some obtuse, like, I wonder what I'll get, you know? Fries are, I mean, great, I mean, they're the devil, but fries are awesome. And yeah, pizza is incredible.

Speaker 2: Food innovation doesn't get enough love. Yeah. I guess is what we're getting at. Great. What about the Matthew McConaughey Austinite here?

President Kennedy, do you know how to put men on the moon yet and ask them no, President Kennedy, it'd be a lot cooler if you did.

Speaker 1: Pretty much, sure, 6, 6 or 7, I suppose.

Speaker 2: And this is the last 1.

Speaker 1: That's funny.

Speaker 2: Someone drew a bunch of dicks all over the walls, Sistine Chapel, boys bathroom.

Speaker 1: Sure, I'll give it a 9.

Speaker 2: It's really true. All right, this is our highest ranking meme for today.

Speaker 1: I mean, it's true, like how did they get away with that?

Speaker 2: Lots of nakedness.

Speaker 1: Dick pics are, I mean, just something throughout history. As long as people can draw things, there's been a dick pic.

Speaker 2: It's a staple of human history.

Speaker 1: It's a staple. Consistent throughout human history. You

See all Lex Fridman transcripts on Youtube

Elon Musk Meme Review