War may be hell, but it can sure cut through a lot of red tape.
Just ask Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk.
Musk, the world's richest man, spoke with the former "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno on Sept. 21 during an episode of "Jay Leno's Garage." The comedian and the entrepreneur spoke during a tour of Musk's SpaceX facility in Brownsville, Texas.
"I think we have an incredible team," Musk said. "We're making great progress here. We're trying to achieve the Holy Grail of rocketry, which is a fully and rapidly reusable rocket. No one has ever made a fully reusable rocket and never one that can be rapidly reflown like an aircraft."
The reusable rocket, Musk added, is "the essential sort of invention, if you will, that is necessary to make humanity a multiplanet species."
Musk, sporting an "Occupy Mars" T-shirt, told Leno about his vision of colonizing the Red Planet, since nothing lasts forever -- including the Earth.
"Even if we're sure Earth will be fine forever, do you want to be here forever?" he asked. "It's not like 'let's escape to Mars.' It's, 'do we have a spirit of adventure?' There are grander things that we should be considering than the pettiness of everyday life."
Musk Does Not Believe in Patents
Leno then steered the conversation to the subject to rules.
"So tell me about regulations and red tape and all that kind of nonsense?" he asked. "How big a part of the problem is all that?"
"Something that we should be worried about is that the rules and regulations get more and more every year, right," Musk said.
"In the past war has wiped away bad rules and regulation, but also we would prefer not to have war as the means of getting rid of rules and regulations."
He warned that with more and more regulations every single year, "eventually we won't be able to do anything."
"We do need to be cautious about overregulating and having too many rules and regulations and basically stopping innovation and actually ultimately limiting the advancement of civilization," he said.
Of course, Musk has had his own problems with rules, having butted heads with the likes of such regulatory agencies as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Musk also cut loose on patents during the interview as he discussed the 300 series stainless steel used to build the SpaceX rocket.
"Is that something you patent?" Leno asked.
"I don't care about patents," he said. "Patents are for the weak. Patents are generally used as a blocking technique. They're like using landmines in warfare. They just stop others from following you. Most patents are BS."
