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\t\t\tIllustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins \/ Futurism. Source: Tristar Media \/ WireImage ; Getty Images<\/p>\n
Despite his fixation on \u201cmaking life multiplanetary<\/a>\u201d and \u201cexpanding consciousness to the stars<\/a>,\u201d Elon Musk still occasionally expresses concern about humans on planet Earth.\u00a0<\/p>\n Which is why he wants to block out the Sun, of course.<\/p>\n On Monday, Musk took to his site X (n\u00e9e Twitter) to explain his masterplan for delivering humanity from the jaws of climate doom, which will involve a little help from what sounds an awful lot like the plot to \u201cThe Matrix.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA large solar-powered AI satellite constellation would be able to prevent global warming by making tiny adjustments in how much solar energy reached Earth,\u201d Musk tweeted<\/a>, apropos of seemingly nothing.<\/p>\n The SpaceX CEO currently maintains a vast constellation of nearly 9,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, which aren\u2019t currently blocking out the Sun but are doing a tremendous job of blocking astronomers<\/a> from getting clear observations of the farthest reaches of the cosmos.<\/p>\n Asked by a fan about how these satellites could possibly carry out the precise adjustments to the amount of solar energy hitting our planet without destabilizing the climate, not to mention the potential conflicts that would unfold for control over such a powerful global mechanism, Musk responded: \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt would only take tiny adjustments to prevent global warming or global cooling for that matter,\u201d he added<\/a>. \u201cEarth has been a snowball many times in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n Blocking out the Sun to mitigate climate change, a concept known as solar geoengineering \u2014 or solar radiation modification, to be particularly technical \u2014 is a matter of serious debate and controversy<\/a> in the scientific community. Most agree that it\u2019s possible, but also incredibly risky. The climate of an entire planet is an enormous and intricate system, and it\u2019s almost certain that blocking sunlight, whatever the method, would have some unintended consequences. And once implemented, there\u2019d be no putting the genie back in the bottle.<\/p>\n In other words, it\u2019s considered a desperate measure \u2014 though that it\u2019s under consideration at all is a sign of the times, with experiments planned<\/a>, some facing legal hurdles<\/a>. One method, called marine cloud brightening<\/a>, would involve seeding clouds with aerosols that increase their reflectivity, enabling them to bounce more sunlight back into space. But generally, the most widely considered method is called stratospheric aerosol injection<\/a>, in which we\u2019d release particles of chemicals like sulfur dioxide high into the atmosphere to reflect solar radiation.<\/p>\n Notably, none of these involve a global constellation of omnipresent AI satellites that dictate our allotted worth of the Sun. Then again, Musk may simply be thinking on a temporal scale too vast for our feeble minds chained to the eternal present. In his post laying out his satellite scheme, he agreed with a fan\u2019s assessment that it would be a \u201clogical feature\u201d for a Kardashev Type II civilization to build, referring to a hypothetical type of advanced civilization capable of directly harnessing the power of the entire Sun by building a megastructure around it \u2014 something that humankind is obviously nowhere close to achieving, and would likely take thousands of years for us to get there if it\u2019s even possible. (He has previously stated<\/a> that his newest Starlink satellites are the \u201cpath\u201d to being a Kardashev Type II.)<\/p>\n \u201cYeah,\u201d Musk remarked. \u201cComes with the territory.\u201d<\/p>\n