Celebrating a Tuesday with Elon Musk and his 3 year old son

NEW YORK — The future looked bright despite the rain Tuesday night at the Museum of Modern Art, where guests were also in attendance Elon Musk AND Seth Meyersgathered for the screening of a new PBS documentary series, “A brief history of the future”.

Musk, flanked by security, was accompanied by a preschooler, his 3-year-old son, XÆ A-12better known simply as X. (Same as Musk’s social media platform.)

X’s mother, music Grimesappears in the documentary series, which follows innovators trying to tackle some of the world’s most pressing problems, such as climate change and pollution.

The documentary, as the title suggests, focuses on futurism.

His followers face these obstacles and challenges with a clear sense of optimism.

(Musk is also friends with Kathryn Murdoch, executive producer of the program. Murdoch is married to James Murdoch, who sits on the board of directors of Tesla).

While waiting for the screening to begin in the museum’s Celeste Bartos Theater, guests discussed the “F-word of the night.”

Would you live until the end of time if science made it possible?

Yes, Meyers said, but only as a vampire:

“I wouldn’t want it to be just medicine. I would like to be a not dead”.

Speaking about the more immediate horizon, Meyers said November was something that kept him up at night thinking about the future.

“We are organizing the Thanksgiving Day” he joked when asked to specify what worried him about that particular month.

Musk, wearing a black T-shirt and motorcycle jacket, also spoke on the topic of the future.

“I think we’re currently teaching kids in school to hate America or to question whether America is good,” Musk said, reflecting on something he believes society is doing right now. will affect negatively the years to come.

“A lot of attention is paid to everything the United States does wrong, but not enough to what it has done, both currently and historically,” he continued.

“Which then causes people to lose faith in America. And then, I don’t know, we might fracture as a society and stop being the United States of America.”

Musk also estimated that in just five years, in 2029, “AI will be smarter than all humans combined.”

But he added: “I have a habit of being one too optimistic on projections.

Inside the screening room, Meyers interviewed some of the team behind the show, including the host, Ari Wallach.

“Ari, you are a futurist,” Meyers began. X, as if he had received a signal, began to laugh out loud, provoking the small crowd, including the actor Peter Gallagher and the businessman Indré Rockefeller, he did the same.

after the party

After the second episode was shown, guests wandered away (some on foot, huddled under umbrellas) a few blocks to the Lobster Club, a Japanese brasserie in the center of town, where they sipped drinks and nibbled on sushi and filet mignon.

The younger Musk wandered around the restaurant wearing a Tesla T-shirt while his father chatted with Wallach.

Will Cotton, the painter, sat down with Gagosian’s Rose Dergan; Alina Cho, journalist, and Celine Rattray, film producer, to discuss ocean cleanup efforts and a mushroom-based leather alternative, two topics of the evening’s presentation.

In another part of the room, the director Darren AronofskyWearing a purple tie-dyed sweater, she chatted with artist Dustin Yellin, who also wore a printed shirt.

As she spoke, Aronofsky sported a wonky matte silver manicure.

The nail polish, he said, ties him to his mother. (She is a regular customer of her neighborhood beauty salon.)

He was optimistic about the years ahead.

“Five years ago, when we were talking about climate, no one was really listening, and now the brightest minds on the planet are really working on it,” he said.

On the way to the wardrobe, Fern Mallis, former executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and a friend stopped to chat with Musk.

The reason? They told him they knew her mother, model Maye Musk.

c.2024 The New York Times Company