Elon Musk is considered a technological renaissance man who proudly wears several futuristic hats. But he’s shying away from genetic engineering. Why? “The Hitler Problem,” he says.
Tim Urban of Wait But Why writes:
In college, he thought about what he wanted to do with his life, using as his starting point the question, “What will most affect the future of humanity?” The answer he came up with was a list of five things: “the internet; sustainable energy; space exploration, in particular the permanent extension of life beyond Earth; artificial intelligence; and reprogramming the human genetic code.”
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He projects AI could be the downfall of humanity – that it could represent “summoning the demon.” But the reticence toward genetic engineering? In an interview with Urban, he said that genetic engineering wasn’t a “technical battle,” but a moral one.
“You know, I call it the Hitler Problem. Hitler was all about creating the Übermensch and genetic purity, and it’s like— how do you avoid the Hitler Problem? I don’t know,” he told Urban.
However, as Business Insider points out:
It’s not that Musk thinks editing humans is impossible though. When Urban pushed him on the question of solving aging, Musk said “I mean I do think there’s … in order to fundamentally solve a lot of these issues, we are going to have to reprogram our DNA. That’s the only way to do it.”
