Dressed in a traditional Indonesian batik shirt, the billionaire Twitter owner appeared on video Monday to address business leaders gathered in Bali on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
In the picture, only his face and his hands were visible on a black screen.
“We had a power outage three minutes before this call. That’s why I’m completely in the dark”he explained to Indonesian magnate Anindya Bakrie, who moderated the discussion.
When asked why he hadn’t traveled to the tropical Indonesian island, the new Twitter boss joked that his “the workload has increased a lot lately” after the takeover of the social media giant.
He said little more about its controversial acquisition, which included laying off thousands of employees and introducing a subscription version.
He said he advocated the development of video on Twitter and the monetization of content for creators.
Aside from Twitter, the conversation instead revolved around tunnels dug deep to combat traffic jams, rocket flights across the world in less than an hour, and the discovery of extraterrestrial life in space.
“Perhaps we will find extraterrestrial civilizations or discover civilizations that existed millions of years ago”he declared.
The head of the electric car manufacturer Tesla continued to rave about the advantages of tunnels over flying cars to tackle traffic jams.
“Electric vehicles and tunnels are absolutely an answer to the worst possible congestion in any city because you can add as many deep layers as you want until the congestion is cleared.”he declared.
Except for his point of view “optimistic” on Indonesia’s future as a developing country, the conversation focused on its original and courageous perspectives for the future of the Earth.
Jakarta has invited Mr. Musk to use Indonesia as a launch site for his SpaceX rocket, pointing to the advantages of a location close to the equator.
Elon Musk, who is the richest man in the world, said he wants to see rocket launch bases developed around the world that will allow people to travel “to the other side of the world” at 20 times the speed of sound.
“I think it would really open up the world if you could travel anywhere in less than an hour”he declared.
But despite all his bold dreams about the future, the entrepreneur couldn’t help but joke that he himself is at the mercy of the planet’s energy whims.
“I’m just watching this video and it’s so weird. I’m sitting here in the dark, surrounded by candles”he amused himself.
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