Lex Fridman interviews Elon Musk (12/28/2021)

[Sirfun]

Sorry Joe you have to have those worries.
Yes, I would think a Teslabot could possible be a very comforting support and protector. I would not say a "male nurse", I would say "a human nurse". Just think of what could be happening on Mars if we attempted to "Occupy Mars" with a mixed bunch of humans of all sorts. There are so many ethical issues to think about in a new space colony. You would hope that the Teslabot would be there to help all human lives from the day-to-day living, the hostile environment and from each other. I am not saying as directly policing, but perhaps as being witnesses and alarms and a lot more. Starting here on earth with ethical nursing behavior (the ethics of caring) would be very useful if we plan to go elsewhere.

Thanks Richard,
I don't currently have to worry about my daughter too much at all. I was trying to show that Teslabots could have a meaningful place in our society. Your reply also raises good understanding of how they could be useful. They could serve a meaningful purpose, not just do the dishes.

 

[Richard V.]

Thanks Richard,
I don't currently have to worry about my daughter too much at all. I was trying to show that Teslabots could have a meaningful place in our society. Your reply also raises good understanding of how they could be useful. They could serve a meaningful purpose, not just do the dishes.

Yes, I agree Joe. All the best!
I hope some technologies will be of help to us all. It has been this way for so long! Are we living in a "technological determinism" or will we be able to exercise "free will" as a human species for our own future? I think we must be watching for that closely.

 

[John K]

They could serve a meaningful purpose, not just do the dishes.

But, they could still do the dishes?

 

[FutureBoy]

I really liked the portion about producing things. I find this really insightful. And certainly not easy to do.

I mean, I think if you are really good at manufacturing, you can basically make, at high volume, you can basically make anything for a cost that asymptotically approaches the raw material value of the constituents, plus any intellectual property that you need to license. Anything.
But it's hard.
It's not like, that's a very hard thing to do, but it is possible for anything.
Anything in volume can be made of, like I said, for a cost that asymptotically approaches its raw material constituents plus intellectual property license rights.
So what will often happen in trying to design a product is people will start with the tools and parts and methods that they are familiar with, and try to create a product using their existing tools and methods.
The other way to think about it is actually imagine the, try to imagine the platonic ideal of the perfect product or technology, whatever it might be, and say, "What is this? What is the perfect arrangement of atoms that would be the best possible product? And now let us try to figure out how to get the atoms in that shape."
Just as a function of inertia, people will want to use the same tools and methods that they are familiar with. That's what they will do by default. That will lead to an outcome of things that can be made with those tools and methods, but it is unlikely to be the platonic ideal of the perfect product.
So that's why it's good to think of things in both directions. So like what can we build with the tools that we have, but also what is the perfect, the theoretical perfect product look like? And that theoretical perfect product is gonna be a moving target, 'cause as you learn more the definition of that perfect product will change 'cause you don't actually know what the perfect product is, but you can successfully approximate a more perfect product.
So, thinking about it like that, and then saying, "Okay, now what tools, methods, materials, whatever, do we need to create in order to get the atoms in that shape?"
But people very rarely think about it that way. But its a powerful tool.

 

[Sirfun]

But, they could still do the dishes?

Better the Bot then me.

 

[Ogre]

I really liked the portion about producing things. I find this really insightful. And certainly not easy to do.

That was a very fascinating look into Musks thinking on making stuff. Particularly relevant to the Cybertruck. Particularly this paragraph:

Just as a function of inertia, people will want to use the same tools and methods that they are familiar with. That's what they will do by default. That will lead to an outcome of things that can be made with those tools and methods, but it is unlikely to be the platonic ideal of the perfect product.

I almost thought he was going to mention the Cybertruck by name here.

 

[FutureBoy]

That was a very fascinating look into Musks thinking on making stuff. Particularly relevant to the Cybertruck. Particularly this paragraph:

I almost thought he was going to mention the Cybertruck by name here.

One thing I got out of this talk was that since Elon is designing the CT as his own passion project, there is a good chance that we are going to get closer than any vehicle before it to "the platonic ideal of the perfect product".

I can't wait to get my platonic ideal. I'm willing to give a little extra time for that platonic ideal too.

 

[Ogre]

One thing I got out of this talk was that since Elon is designing the CT as his own passion project, there is a good chance that we are going to get closer than any vehicle before it to "the platonic ideal of the perfect product".

I can't wait to get my platonic ideal. I'm willing to give a little extra time for that platonic ideal too.

We’ll keep in mind… Musk’s idea of the platonic ideal of a pickup is a little different than a lot of people’s.

 

[FutureBoy]

Another quote from Elon from the interview. This time about the FSD cameras and image processing.

What happens for cameras is that, well almost all cameras is that they, there's a lot of post-processing done in order to make pictures look pretty. And so we don't care about pictures looking pretty. We just want the data. So we're moving to just raw photon counts. So the system will, like the image that the computer sees is actually much more than what you'd see if you represent it on a camera, it's got much more data. And even in very low light conditions, you can see that there's a small photon count difference between this spot here and that spot there, which means that, so it can see in the dark incredibly well because it can detect these tiny differences in photon counts. Like much better than you could possibly imagine.

And this is with the current cameras. Just wait till the upgraded cameras come for the CT! Hopefully, it will be able to see better than an owl in the middle of the night. But hopefully it will also be able to see through the glare of a sunset as you are driving across a lake with the sunset coming from both direct sunlight and reflected off the water. If it can do that, I will be very impressed.

 

[Ogre]

Another quote from Elon from the interview. This time about the FSD cameras and image processing.



And this is with the current cameras. Just wait till the upgraded cameras come for the CT! Hopefully, it will be able to see better than an owl in the middle of the night. But hopefully it will also be able to see through the glare of a sunset as you are driving across a lake with the sunset coming from both direct sunlight and reflected off the water. If it can do that, I will be very impressed.

We got hit by a bunch of snow over the past week or so and Eugene is poorly equipped for it. The result was a bunch of poorly plowed roads with difficult to discern lines. I was struggling to keep track of whether I was in the lane or not, but through much of it, Autopilot was available and worked quite well.

Super impressed by what’s in my current car, very hopeful for what comes next in the Cybertruck.

The interview is so rich I listened to it twice (though somewhat distracted) and was able to pull out interesting bits each time. One of the best… and hardest to absorb Musk interviews in a long time.

One mannerism which I noticed in this interview is Musk sometimes stops and thinks for quite a bit before answering. You don’t usually see people pause that long in a conversation. I certainly got the impression he was really trying to fully connect the dots on those answers.

 

[FutureBoy]

We got hit by a bunch of snow over the past week or so and Eugene is poorly equipped for it. The result was a bunch of poorly plowed roads with difficult to discern lines. I was struggling to keep track of whether I was in the lane or not, but through much of it, Autopilot was available and worked quite well.

Super impressed by what’s in my current car, very hopeful for what comes next in the Cybertruck.

The interview is so rich I listened to it twice (though somewhat distracted) and was able to pull out interesting bits each time. One of the best… and hardest to absorb Musk interviews in a long time.

One mannerism which I noticed in this interview is Musk sometimes stops and thinks for quite a bit before answering. You don’t usually see people pause that long in a conversation. I certainly got the impression he was really trying to fully connect the dots on those answers.

Yes. I actually like where he goes after the long pauses. Some seem to be to consider what he wants to reveal but some really seem to be to actually think through the question and possible implications to answers to find what he thinks he actually believes at the moment.

I'm still on my first listen but I am reading the CC as I watch to keep my brain on task. And for the areas that I think are important to remember, I am going back and transcribing what is said. Taking me a mite longer than the 2:31:47 of the actual interview.

 

[Ogre]

Yes. I actually like where he goes after the long pauses. Some seem to be to consider what he wants to reveal but some really seem to be to actually think through the question and possible implications to answers to find what he thinks he actually believes at the moment.

I'm still on my first listen but I am reading the CC as I watch to keep my brain on task. And for the areas that I think are important to remember, I am going back and transcribing what is said. Taking me a mite longer than the 2:31:47 of the actual interview.

I was wondering where you got the transcript.

I tend to listen to things like this a couple times while going to sleep… can result in some weird dreams for sure.

 

[Ogre]

 

[Crissa]

Long pauses are super-common among both engineers and autism spectrum behaviors.

It's frustrating at times because words are so imprecise and take so long to build and say. It's why I 'speak' much better in text than in voice.

To be given those pauses and respect for them is pretty awesome.

-Crissa

 

[HaulingAss]

And this is with the current cameras. Just wait till the upgraded cameras come for the CT! Hopefully, it will be able to see better than an owl in the middle of the night. But hopefully it will also be able to see through the glare of a sunset as you are driving across a lake with the sunset coming from both direct sunlight and reflected off the water. If it can do that, I will be very impressed.

I'm driving the latest version of FSD and was recently in some super-high glare situations due to the road having been treated with an anti-icer and it being wet with brilliant white snow on either side of the lanes. It's about the most glare I've ever experienced as a driver - almost completely blinding. Anyway, I did not have to exit FSD even though FSD did slow down a couple of times briefly. But it kept going and even caught up with traffic ahead that had slowed down to deal with the extreme glare caused by the sun being low behind the wet road and fresh snow. The cameras are amazing.

I've also seen it drive in a whiteout blizzard with the only thing to go by were tire tracks in the snow that were barely visible due to flat light and whiteout conditions.