The 16 most bizarre things Elon Musk has said he believes (TSLA)

AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool

• Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has an interesting way of looking at both the world and the universe.
• In August, he repeated his belief that humans should drop thermonuclear weapons on Mars to warm the planet.
• Musk has also expressed interesting ideas about autonomous-driving technology and the nature of human existence.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has an interesting way of looking at both the world and the universe.

In August, Musk tweeted, "Nuke Mars," repeating a sentiment he expressed on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" in 2015. At the time, Musk said hitting Mars with thermonuclear weapons could warm the planet.

Below are 16 of Musk's craziest views on everything from Mars to artificial intelligence.

Danielle Muoio contributed to an earlier version of this story.

Are you a current or former Tesla employee? Do you have an opinion about what it's like to work there? Contact this reporter at mmatousek@businessinsider.com. You can ask for more secure methods of communication, like Signal or ProtonMail, by email or Twitter direct message.

Musk has said he wants to begin sending humans to Mars by 2024.

"We're establishing cargo flights to Mars that people can count on," he said in June 2016. "The Earth-Mars orbital rendezvous is only every 26 months, so there'll be one in 2018; there will be another one in 2020. And I think if things go according to plan, we should be able to launch people probably in 2024 with the arrival in 2025."

Musk reiterated this timeline in 2017, though he did not meet his timeline to send a cargo flight to Mars in 2018.

He has even shared his vision for a Martian government.

"I think most likely the form of government of Mars would be a direct democracy, not representative," he said during the Code conference in 2016. "So it would be people voting directly on issues. And I think that's probably better because the potential for democracy is substantially diminished."

And he isn't merely interested in people surviving on Mars. He wants a thriving city to exist.

Musk said in a 2016 Reddit AMA that he wanted the red planet to include everything from "iron foundries to pizza joints."

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