Opinion – Nelson de Sá: Believe that technology creates a better future, says Elon Musk to the Chinese

Titled above, Tesla CEO Elon Musk published a three-page article in the China Wangxin monthly magazine of the Cyberspace Administration, the watchdog or, as highlighted in the US by Bloomberg and others, censor of the Chinese internet.

It appeared in the July edition, but it was only reflected in the Western press this weekend, with its publication by the Substack of journalist Yang Liu, Beijing Channel, both in Chinese and translated into English.

Saying he’s grateful to be able to “share some of my thoughts on technology and human vision with my Chinese friends,” Musk makes a case for progress and then describes what he intends to do with his companies. Opening the article:

“As technology accelerates, it may one day surpass human understanding and control. Some people are optimistic, some are pessimistic. But I believe that as long as we are not complacent and maintain a sense of urgency, the future of humanity, driven by the power of technology, it will be brilliant. It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy: if humans want to make the future good, they must act to make it good.

“I hope to do our best to maximize the contribution to realizing a better future for humanity through science and technology. For this reason, any field that helps to achieve sustainable development in the future is worth our investment. Be it Tesla, Neuralink or SpaceX, the ultimate goal is to improve the quality of human life in the future and create as much practical value for the world as possible—Tesla aims to accelerate the transformation to sustainable energy, Neuralink to medical rehabilitation, SpaceX, to make interstellar connection possible.”

It then develops the topics “Clean energy: the future of sustainable development”, “Humanoid robots: doing what humans do”, “Neuralink: empowering people with disabilities” and “Space exploration: the possibility of interplanetary habitats”. And it ends with an invitation to business:

“I hope that more people will join us in the fight to accelerate the world’s transformation to sustainable energy. I also welcome more like-minded Chinese partners to join us in clean energy exploration, artificial intelligence, cooperation man-machine and space exploration, and together we create a promising future.”

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Musk was not the only or perhaps, from China’s point of view, the most important tech entrepreneur to write in the new issue of the magazine. Ant fintech group CEO Xiandong Jing or Eric Jing published “Bringing small but beautiful changes to the world”.

According to the South China Morning Post, Xiandong writes that Ant “has provided digital tools for small and micro businesses that are both useful and inexpensive” and in the future, “will better serve the nation’s overall economic and social development and contribute to its inclusive digital development.” and sustainable”.

The publication of the article, the paper notes, coincides with a time when “Beijing eased its regulatory scrutiny of the internet industry, which began in 2020, when regulators abruptly shelved Ant’s $34.5 billion dual IPOs in Shanghai and Hong Kong”. Both Ant and SCMP are linked to the giant Alibaba.