When your name is Elon Musk and your companies promise to revolutionize space flight and renewable energy, people listen to what you have to say — even when they maybe shouldn’t. The CEO and founder of Tesla and SpaceX recently expressed a worrying idea: that we may all be living in a giant simulation. Some physicists were stirred and started contradicting him or discussing the idea, but by far, the most interesting back and forth was with Rick.
Rick Sanchez is the smartest man in the Universe — in the animated series Rick and Morty, that is. Musk has said he’s a big fan of the series, though he also said it disgusts him at points (which truth be told, is a good description of Rick and Morty). It’s not just Musk who loves the series, his boys are also fans of the alcoholic genius and his awkward nephew.
"Kinda" disgusting? Just wait. We'll have the whole Musk family fully disgusted by the end of the season.
— Rick and Morty (@RickandMorty) August 23, 2017
Last week, Rick and Morty featured the last episode of the third season, and as Musk himself put it, it was disgustingly good.
Thanks, E. Just riding this out until the singularity hits, you know?
— Rick and Morty (@RickandMorty) October 5, 2017
Rick referenced the singularity of the simulation Musk says we are living in, and things quickly turned hilarious, with Musk putting his new 280-character Twitter limit to good use.
I hope they don’t change developers for the next one- I’m used to the physics in this reality.
— Rick and Morty (@RickandMorty) October 5, 2017
As you’d expect from a funny conversation between the world’s smartest fictional man and one of the world’s smartest real men, the joke levels were off the charts.
I’ll get you a key for next life’s beta so you can get a head start like last time.
— Rick and Morty (@RickandMorty) October 5, 2017
It all ended — as it should — with plans for a party. Oh boy, and what a party…
I’ll call Kurzweil, you call Frey – we can plan the next couple hundred years and get fucked up. Hawking might be down too.
— Rick and Morty (@RickandMorty) October 5, 2017
But perhaps, just perhaps, there’s also a lesson to be learned from this. If Musk can be so self-deprecating about his ideas, then maybe we shouldn’t discuss the quantum physics aspects of everything he says, right?