Noam Galai/Getty Images for Heidi Klum
- Elon Musk spoke at the World Government Summit via video link on Wednesday.
- He warned that a "single world government" could lead to the collapse of civilization.
- "If we are too much of a single civilization, the whole thing may collapse," he said.
In an appearance at the World Government Summit on Wednesday, Elon Musk warned against the dangers of a singular global government.
"Seemed like the right venue," Musk later tweeted in reply to a video of his comments.
The CEO of Twitter, SpaceX, and Tesla spoke at the Dubai-based conference via video link, beginning at 9:00 p.m. PT. The annual event says it is "dedicated to shaping the future of governments," and focuses on using technology to solve problems facing humanity.
Musk used his appearance at the conference to criticize the idea of a singular political authority.
"I know this is called the World Government Summit, but I think we should be maybe a little bit concerned about actually becoming too much of a single world government," he said.
"We want to avoid creating a civilizational risk by having, frankly — this may sound a little odd — too much cooperation between governments."
The world's second-richest person explained how the historical rise and fall of separate civilizations "hasn't meant the doom of humanity as a whole" because they were not completely interlinked.
"While Rome was falling, Islam was rising," Musk said, pointing to advancements in technology and science at the time.
Musk suggested that the world needs "some amount of civilizational diversity such that if something does go wrong with some part of civilization, the whole thing doesn't collapse and humanity keeps moving forward."
In short, Musk said, if the world is too interlinked then a single catastrophic event could have global consequences.
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 15, 2023
The Roman Empire is widely considered to have collapsed in the fifth century, though there is some dispute around this, while the Islamic Golden Age began around the eighth century.
CNN reports that technological advancements during the period include the world's first university – founded in Morocco in 859 – while algebra also finds its roots in the period. The number system currently used in much of the world is also Arabic, being introduced to Europe in the 12th century, per the Encylopedia Britannica.
"If we are too much of a single civilization, the whole thing may collapse," Musk said. "I'm obviously not suggesting war or anything like that, but I think we want to be a little bit wary of actually cooperating too much."
Musk has also previously cautioned that civilization will collapse if people don't start having more children. "Look at the numbers — if people don't have more children, civilization is going to crumble," he said at the Wall Street Journal's annual CEO Council in 2021.
According to data from the National Center for Health Statistics, birth rates declined by 4% from 2019 to 2020. In July 2022, the father-of-nine tweeted: "A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far."
At Wednesday's conference, Musk also encouraged politicians to "speak authentically" on social media, and said he plans to find a new Twitter CEO by the end of the year.