Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, likes to talk about saving the world.
When he pitched the Tesla solar battery to the world, he laid out how much solar energy is needed to obviate the burning of fossil fuels. When discussing SpaceX, he mentions how humanity needs to find a way to escape the solar system if it wants to survive.
But sometimes, you need sound plus vision to bring a message to life, and a new un-official ad for Tesla perfectly encapsulates what that message is all about, in a blunt but effective cinematic allegory.
Produced by the Freise Brothers, “Tesla ‘Not A Dream,’” depicts a post-apocalyptic landscape, filmed in black and white, where a white Tesla vehicle is passing by, with a narrator reading quotes attributed to Nikola Tesla. They’re not exactly his words, but they’re in the same spirit as a real speech Tesla made in 1905 on electrical energy.
“It is not a dream. It is a simple feat of scientific electrical engineering. Electric power can drive the worlds machinery without the need of coal, oil, or gas,” a strident voice is heard speaking.
Near the end of the video, the white Tesla makes its way out of the black-and-white land of oil rigs into the vibrant world with wind turbines as far as the eyes can see.
The full Tesla'esque quote read in the video is provided below.
It is not a dream
It is a simple feat of scientific electrical engineering
Electric power can drive the worlds machinery without the need of coal, oil, or gas
Although perhaps humanity is not yet sufficiently advanced to be willingly led by the inventors keen searching sense
Perhaps it is better in this present world of ours that a revolutionary idea be hampered in its adolescence
All that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combatted, suppressed, only to emerge all the more triumphantly from the struggle.
…
Our duty is to lay the foundation for those that are to come, and to point the way
Yes, humanity will advance with giant strides
We are whirling through endless space at an inconceivable speed
All around everything is spinning; everything is moving;
Everywhere, there is energy!
