Tesla Inc. founder and CEO Elon Musk has recently issued a warning about the threat posed to civilisation by declining birth rates.
Musk shared his thoughts on the subject as he addressed The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit via a video call on Monday, replying to a question about Tesla Bot, a conceptual humanoid robot planned by Tesla, which Musk said “has the potential to be a generalised substitute for human labour”.
Having noted that “the foundation of economy is labour”, the tycoon declared: "I can't emphasise this enough: There are not enough people.”
“And I think one of the biggest risks to civilisation is the low birth rate and the rapidly declining birth rate,” he added.
Musk also remarked that “so many people, including smart people, think that there are too many people in the world, and think that the population is growing out of control”, while in his opinion, it is “completely the opposite.”
"If people don't have more children, civilisation is going to crumble. Mark my words," he surmised.
When the interviewer asked him if this is why he has so many children, Musk, a father of six, replied that he is trying to “set a good example”, adding: “Gotta practice what I preach.”
As The Hill points out, this isn’t the first time Musk has brought up the subject in question, as in July he shared a WSJ article titled “U.S. Population Growth, an Economic Driver, Grinds to a Halt”, with Elon writing in his tweet: “Population collapse is potentially the greatest risk to the future of civilisation.”