Culture

Listen to What Happens if You Call Elon Musk’s Leaked Phone Number

He has a surprise for you.

Flickr / jdlasica

Oops. Elon Musk appeared to accidentally share his phone number with his 16 million Twitter followers Tuesday night, leading to a number of eager fans trying to give him a call. Musk, ever one for slipping pop culture references into technology, seemed to have diverted the line to a recording associated with God of War, the 2005 hack-and-slash game for PlayStation 2.

Musk appeared to be trying to contact John Carmack, Oculus’ chief technology officer and the lead programmer of legendary games like Doom and Quake. With that in mind, it’s rather fitting that Musk slipped in a video game reference into the fiasco.

A screen cap of the now-deleted Tweet.

Twitter

“By the gods, you’ve done it!” says the game’s protagonist, Kratos. “Somehow you found your way here to me. I offer you my congratulations and respect.”

The recording played when gamers completed certain tasks at the end of the game, at which point they were presented with a phone number to call that would play one of two messages. In the message Musk chose, game designer David Jaffe interrupts Kratos mid-message, only to be promptly killed.

Those that want to experience the sensation of hearing the message for themselves can call this CNBC-provided freephone number: 1-800-613-8840.

Or listen to the message here:

Carmack may have more in common with Musk than it seems. Musk’s SpaceX venture plans to send two private citizens on a private trip in orbit around the moon in late 2018, going deeper into space than any previous manned mission. A private spaceflight is something Carmack tried to achieve himself, founding Armadillo Aerospace in 2000, only to put the company into hibernation in 2013. Since then, Carmack has shown interest in Musk’s space work, praising the SpaceX blooper reel on his Twitter page:

It’s possible Musk won’t clarify what he wanted to speak to Carmack about. One thing’s for sure: it probably wasn’t about God of War.

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