Elon Musk brilliantly shut down after awkward tweet resurfaces

Elon Musk just opened up a can of worms when he tweeted one simple question on Friday.

The Tesla CEO took to Twitter to ask his 38 million followers:

What can’t we predict?

And reporter Ken Klippenstein had the simplest but best response, featuring a screenshot from Musk trying to predict the spread of coronavirus cases in the US:

https://t.co/aQdtOniVKj pic.twitter.com/cS4oYXpZFK

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein)
September 25, 2020
At the time of writing, the tweet has racked up over 26,000 retweets and over 175,000 likes.

For context, Musk tweeted an article in March about no new domestic coronavirus cases in China on that particular day in March.

At the time, he was asked if he believed that the stats were real, he responded:

Yes.

Adding in a follow-up tweet, he (wrongly) predicted:

Based on current trends, probably close to zero new cases in US too by end of April.

Based on current trends, probably close to zero new cases in US too by end of April

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
March 19, 2020
This has, of course, not been the case.
In fact, daily coronavirus cases peaked at the start of April and very slowly declined, until June when cases again climbed and reached record highs by July.

At the time of writing, there have been a total of over 7 million cases across the country and more than 204,000 deaths.

These numbers mean the US has recorded the highest cases and deaths in the world.

Some other responses to Elon Musk’s tweet about predictions include:
Your tweets https://t.co/ueBjdAW2JI

— Idzi i hlyadzi (@MiDisgurpe1)
September 25, 2020
The name of your next child 🤔 https://t.co/jgz0EBaRed

— Harsh Shah (@Life_On_High)
September 25, 2020
How many Prime Ministers Malaysia will have in 2020 🤷‍♂️ https://t.co/LFwukJXTVK

— Jalil Rasheed (@TheManajemen)
September 25, 2020
How bright a satellite will appear once in orbit, apparently

— Patrick Vallely 🛰️🌌🔭 (@AstronomerPat)
September 25, 2020
My mood swings😑😑 https://t.co/yyGJc1kHPI

— Janhavi (@JanhaviD2002)
September 25, 2020
The behavior of nonlinear dynamical systems with large Lyapunov exponents.

And the depths to which the Republican party is willing to sink in their enabling of Donald Trump... https://t.co/cTieT3nYOy

— Michael E. Mann (@MichaelEMann)
September 25, 2020

It sounds like one thing Elon Musk probably didn't predict was the huge response to his tweet...

Reference: Indy 100: 12 hrs ago: 26/09/2020