Recently, the US "Time" magazine announced that Tesla CEO Elon Musk was elected as the "2021 Person of the Year".
Edward Felsenthal, editor-in-chief of Time magazine, said, "The Man of the Year is a sign of influence, and almost no one can match Musk's impact on life on Earth, which he may have had a greater impact on life outside of Earth." ”
Last year, U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were jointly awarded the title of "Person of the Year." Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have also earned the title in the past.
This year, Musk became the world's first billionaire to be worth more than $300 billion.
Tesla, the electric car company he leads, has now grown to become the world's most valuable automaker, with its market capitalization rising to more than $1 trillion in 2021, even surpassing the combined ford and General Motors.
Every year, Tesla produces hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles. Compared with other automakers, it has not only not created bottlenecks in the supply chain, but even promoted traditional automakers to start to shift their business focus to electric vehicles, led by Tesla, many young consumers are gradually turning their attention to electric vehicles.
Musk is also the founder and CEO of SpaceX.
In September, SpaceX flew a manned space mission called Inspiration 4, launching the first all-civilian, non-astronaut crew in history, opening the door to space travel for ordinary people.
In November, SpaceX once again flew the manned space mission Crew-3, sending four astronauts to the International Space Station. In this mission, astronauts will conduct more than 200 scientific experiments such as microgravity tests and robotics.
Figure | Crew-3 crew (Source: SpaceX)
It is worth mentioning that these space exploration missions launched by Musk are also directly related to Charles Lindbergh, the first person of Time magazine's "Person of the Year".
In 1927, Time magazine selected Charles Lindbergh as his "Man of the Year" for his first solo flight across the Atlantic.
In addition, Musk has also made achievements in brain-computer interface technology. He founded Neuralink with the goal of developing a whole-brain interface that combines biology and artificial intelligence and applying it to short-term treatments for patients with brain injury, hoping to reduce the risk of AI controlling humans.
On April 9, 2021, Neuralink posted an interesting video of macaques playing video games on YouTube, which is a successful example of Neuralink's brain-computer interface research. The macaque's brain is implanted with a brain-computer chip and is able to autonomously control cursor movement after implantation.
In addition to the above achievements, Musk has also worked to solve the problem of traffic congestion in big cities. He believes that "the tedious task of upgrading old systems is not a long-term solution, on the contrary, innovative underground transportation systems will subvert traditional technological choices." ”
In June, The Boring Company, a musk company, officially opened an underground tunnel in Las Vegas at a cost of $52 million and took 18 months.
It is worth mentioning that Musk's popularity on social media platforms has also continued. From hosting Saturday Night Live to posting a flood of cryptocurrency and meme stock tweets that have caused big market volatility, Musk has amassed more than 66 million followers on Twitter.
Based on Musk's accomplishments, Time magazine described Musk as "a crazy mix of 'clowns, geniuses, leaders, visionaries, industrialists, performers, scoundrels, Edison, Barnum, Carnegie, and Dr. Manhattan who aspires to save the planet and give humanity a new home." ”
Earlier, David Beasley, director general of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), had issued an appeal that Musk and other billionaires could take some action to solve the global famine problem.
Today, Musk's net worth could rise by $36 billion in a single day, And he could save 42 million people struggling with hunger, Beasley said.
Musk responded on Twitter, "If WFP can use transparent and open accounting methods to accurately describe how $6 billion will solve the problem of world hunger on Twitter, I will immediately sell my shares and put it into action." ”
It is understood that Time magazine will also name the four scientists who developed the mRNA new crown vaccine as "Heroes of the Year 2021" to commend their major achievements: in the new crown pandemic, protecting millions of people around the world from the new coronavirus.
"In order to create solutions to existential crises, to embody the possibilities and dangers of the age of tech giants, and to drive the boldest and most disruptive changes in society, Elon Musk is Time magazine's 2021 Person of the Year," Said. "
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reference:
https://www.reuters.com/business/elon-musk-named-times-2021-person-year-2021-12-13/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-time-person-year-2021/