Musk launches a rocket, and gives a seal headphones? Isn't this a joke?

Recently, a clip of Elon Musk's interview with Lex Fridman went viral online. In the podcast, Musk complained about the "exaggerated regulation" of the US Environmental Protection Agency when launching rockets, and that launching rockets actually required a "fish license" and some bizarre certifications, such as -

Give the baby seal headphones to measure pressure !

Kidnapped baby seal. Seal: What are you doing? ? | Elon Musk

Putting headphones on a seal, seriously?

In the podcast, Musk said: "At the Vanderburgh launch site in California, they (the environmental protection department) were worried that seals would be scared away by the sonic boom of the rocket. We had to kidnap a seal, tie it to a board, put headphones on it, and play the sonic boom to see if it would be painful ."

As a result, the seal behaved very calmly. Musk also joked that if the seal went back and told his friends what happened to him, no one would believe it!

The earliest documented evidence of the seal experiment was published in April 2013. Musk's ex-wife Talulah Riley shared an email in which Musk said: "I'm sure if the seal is stressed it's because it's been kidnapped and tied to a board... "

Talulah Riley/X

Based on limited information, this experiment may be an auditory brainstem response . Auditory brainstem response measures brain waves to assess an individual's perception of sound and is commonly used in infants and experimental animals. The stress level of animals can also be objectively assessed by measuring relevant physiological indicators .

However, seals have better hearing underwater and can perceive a much wider range of sounds, so the simulation experiment conducted on land may have limited effect. Judging from the experimental process described by Musk, the experimental design seems a bit perfunctory, and it is absurd and funny. I don’t know how this experiment was finally accepted...

In the email released by his ex-wife, Musk also said: "The local seal population has grown significantly over the past decade, during which time many rocket launches have occurred." The implication is that these seals do not appear to be rare or affected.

However, the reality is more likely to be this:

It is because of the unremitting efforts of all parties that Vanderbilt has become a habitat suitable for seals; precisely because there are a large number of seals living here, this area needs to be developed and utilized with more caution .

Animals have more to worry about than just being hit by rockets

From Musk's perspective, the pursuit of technological progress is the primary goal of mankind. From autonomous driving, to the large rocket "Starship" planned to colonize Mars, to brain-computer interfaces, he has indeed refreshed everyone's cognition with technology time and time again.

However, under the glare of technological progress, some of Musk's projects have caused a lot of concern - SpaceX's "Starship" project has a "black history" of negative impacts on the environment; Neuralink, which studies brain-computer interfaces, is even more plagued by scandals in animal experiments.

The "Starship" that fell down like an onion｜NASASpaceflight

In this podcast, Musk also talked about some organizations' concerns about rocket fragments hitting sharks or whales; he believes that the Pacific Ocean is so large and the density of whales is so low, it would be bad luck for the sharks to be killed.

Yes, the probability of marine animals being killed by rockets is extremely small. But rocket launches may cause other problems, such as equipment noise that may interfere with the normal activities of marine mammals, and falling debris that may pollute the seawater . In addition, the flora and fauna on land around the launch site may also be affected. The "Starship" project already has some shameful records in this regard .

On April 20 this year, the Starship conducted its first test flight in Boca Chica, Texas, and exploded shortly after takeoff. The launch site was destroyed, and a large amount of sand, gravel, and cement fell into the nearby sea. The rocket debris fell 10 kilometers away and caused a small forest fire. Not far from this launch site are two national wildlife refuges .

The smoke and dust raised by the launch of the "Starship" | SpaceX

In September this year, SpaceX's heavy rocket "Starship" was delayed in its launch, which may be the reason for Musk's complaints in his blog. The US Fish and Wildlife Service needs to take some time to evaluate the upgrade of the launch system, especially the drainage system of the "Starship" launch site .

This drainage system is used to absorb the strong recoil and heat generated during the rocket launch and discharge it into the sea. The residual heat and pollutants carried by the wastewater, as well as possible water pressure shock, will have an impact on the environment . The Environmental Protection Department requires SpaceX to comply with the Clean Water Act and meet the corresponding industrial wastewater discharge standards.

What happened to the monkey who played games with his mind?

Some environmental issues will take time to surface, but Musk's Neuralink has already caused harm to some experimental animals.

Friends who have paid attention to brain-computer interfaces in the past two years may have some impression of the pigs and monkeys that Musk used for experiments.

In August 2020, the company made a brain-computer interface chip N1, which is only the size of a coin and implanted into the surface of the brain of a living pig. The pig's brain activity can be wirelessly transmitted to a computer screen .

In April 2021, an experimental monkey with a chip implanted in its brain was able to play table tennis with its mind while slurping a milkshake.

In December 2022, the experimental monkeys also typed two complete sentences .

But despite these amazing performances, Neuralink was investigated by the US government last year for violating animal welfare regulations, and was recently exposed again for having experimental ethics issues , such as not truthfully disclosing the cause of death of experimental monkeys.

Former employees, collaborators and document records all point to the same problem: in order to meet Musk's unreasonable demand for speed, many experimental animals endured unnecessary trial and error .

According to an exclusive report by Reuters, due to time constraints, Neuralink employees implanted the device in the wrong part of the experimental pig's spine in two independent operations. In another experiment, employees and project managers clashed. Employees believed that the anesthesia time required for the experiment was too long, which was not conducive to the subsequent recovery of the pigs. They could spend more time to improve the technology and try to reduce the anesthesia time.

Wired magazine also reported that in Neuralink's experiments, several monkeys had severe side effects such as bloody diarrhea, hemiplegia, and cerebral edema after having devices implanted in their brains . Veterinary records showed that it was Neuralink's devices that caused complications and death in these monkeys - a claim Musk denied.

Neuralink has not stopped. In May of this year, Neuralink received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for human clinical trials. In September of this year, Neuralink announced the first human experiment on brain-computer interface.

Technology Development and Animal Experimentation

Long before the advent of big rockets and brain-computer interfaces, human medical development has been inseparable from animal experiments. The history of human medicine is a long list of deaths for experimental animals.

With the improvement of laws and regulations and people's increasing attention to animal welfare, animal experiments in most countries today are subject to layers of review .

Different countries have slightly different regulations on animal experiments, but the "3R" principle is recognized worldwide. These are the three most basic principles to be followed in the use of experimental animals:

1. Replacement: Using other methods to replace the use of animals in research, such as using cells, tissues or organoids to replace live animals, and using invertebrates such as fruit flies and nematodes to replace vertebrates.

2. Reduction: Minimize the number of live animals used in each experiment while ensuring that the experimental results are reliable and reproducible.

3. Refinement: Minimize pain, stress, and lasting harm to experimental animals and improve their welfare.

We will certainly applaud every technological advancement, but the sacrifices behind the progress should not be ignored. A more cautious attitude towards the possible negative impacts on animals and the environment cannot be regarded as an obstacle to the development of technology.

References

[1]Talulah Riley.

[2]Morgan Ball. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/73564082@N08/8959308418/in/photostream/. 2013-06-05/2023-12-07.

[3]Jeff Foust. Fish and Wildlife Service documents damage from Starship launch. SpaceNews. https://spacenews.com/fish-and-wildlife-service-documents-damage-from-starship-launch/. 2023-04-26/2023-12-07.

[4]Why has SpaceX's Starship sparked an environmental controversy? The Planetary Society. https://www.planetary.org/articles/why-has-spacexs-starship-sparked-an-environmental-controversy. 2023-05-23-2023-12-07.

[5]Andrea Guzmán. Starship's second launch held up as US Fish and Wildlife assess rocket. Chron. https://www.chron.com/culture/article/spacex-starship-boca-chica-18378307.php. 2023-09-20/2023-12-07.

[6] George Dvorsky. Review of SpaceX Starship's Water Deluge System Critical to Next Launch. Gizmodo. https://gizmodo.com/spacex-starship-environmental-review-water-deluge-1850966405. 2023-10-27/2023-12-07.

[7]Rachael Levy. Exclusive: Musk's Neuralink faces federal probe, employee backlash over animal tests. Reuters.

[8]Dhruv Mehrotra & Dell Cameron. The Gruesome Story of How Neuralink's Monkeys Actually Died. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-pcrm-neuralink-monkey-deaths/. 2023-09-28/2023-10-16.

Author: Maya Blue

Editor: Little Towel, Mai Mai

Image credit: Elon Musk