Elon Musk explains his life philosophy

April 25, 2025

Elon is asked why he cares so much about transitioning Earth to sustainable energy and making humans multi-planetary.

He responds: “At a foundational level, [you’re asking] what is my philosophy and why does it lead to this conclusion?”

Elon explains that he had an existential crisis as a teenager, and after reading various religious texts and philosophers—none of which provided a convincing explanation of the meaning of life—he came across The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

“Basically what Douglas Adams was saying is that we don’t really know what the right questions are to ask… The universe is the answer, but what are the questions?”

He continues:

“The more we can expand the scope and scale of consciousness, the better we can understand what questions to ask about the answer that is the universe.”

He summarizes his philosophy as follows:

“If you accept as a proposition that we don’t really understand the meaning of life and we wish to understand the meaning of life, then in order to understand the meaning of life, we should expand consciousness such that we can ask better questions, learn more, expand beyond the solar system, ensure that life on earth is good collectively for civilization. And then we can be less dumb about the nature of the universe and maybe we can answer some questions about where this all came from and where it’s going.”