'Alien civilization, Elon Musk of East': What went down at new Twitter chief's G20 address

The August gathering at the G20 Summit which is being organised in Bali, Indonesia witnessed a virtual address from a man sitting in the dark, with a dim light and pondering on what the future looks like. The man was none other than the Tesla CEO and Twitter chief Elon Musk. After it was reported that Musk will not be able to take part in the G20 summit, he made his appearance virtually and answered some thought-provoking questions. 

The new Twitter owner and billionaire addressed Indonesian business tycoon Anindya Bakrie in Bali on Monday. This came on the sidelines of the G20 summit which is all set to begin in the tropical Indonesian city. When asked about his surroundings, Musk claimed that he had a “power outage three minutes before the call.” 

On being asked when he will visit Indonesia, Musk said, "Workload has recently increased quite a lot". With only his face and hands visible, Musk talked about what the future looks like and what a potential “Elon Musk of the East should keep in mind.” 

What future do you want?: Musk

The chat started with Bakrie asking Musk, “What is a great question to ask?” Giving it a thought for a while, Musk said, “A great question will be what is a good future? What future do you want?” Musk then went on to explain the future he envisioned and said that it was a future where we work more with sustainable energy contrary to unsustainable energy. 

Emphasising his confidence towards this endeavour, Musk said, “We will transition to a sustainable economy, just the matter of how long it will take.” 

Speaking more about space exploration, Musk said that it is important to gather human knowledge so that we can understand the nature of the universe. On the potential of finding an “alien civilization”, Musk said, “I think that it would be incredibly interesting to go and explore the galaxy,” adding, “how we got here, learning and exploring star systems and maybe finding alien civilizations or discovering civilisations that existed millions of years ago.”  

Bakrie, who was also the moderator of the session, called Musk a “global citizen” since he was born and raised in South Africa and became a “global entrepreneurial hero”. Bakrie then went on to ask the Twitter chief what should the next Elon Musk of the East should focus on in the next 10 years.

Before answering the question Musk joked saying, “What people imagine being me is not the same as what it is actually being me, so be careful what you wish for.” Musk then went on to add, “Anyone who does something useful, builds products and services that are of use to fellow human beings is doing a good thing.” On this positive note, the discussion came to an end with a negligible mention of Musk’s recent acquisition of the online social media platform Twitter.