My newest Quillette piece on why Elon Musk's plan for Mars is logistically ludicrous, strategically ill advised, and scientifically and politically divisive and dangerous.
I recently read Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk and was surprised by how much admiration I gained for him. His family wasn’t wealthy, but they weren’t destitute either. As a child, his father bought him a Commodore computer, and Elon taught himself multiple programming languages. He wrote code for a video game and sold it to a magazine while still young.
When he left South Africa for Canada, he had only a couple thousand dollars. His mother worked to help put him through college. After graduating, Elon developed a digital yellow pages program and started a company he later sold for several million dollars. One of his first acts was to buy his mother a home and set her up financially.
Some of what he’s done is admirable—such as pushing the U.S. government to end “cost-plus” contracts with companies like Boeing. But there are also moments when I find myself thinking, Elon, what are you doing? For example, when he acquired Twitter, he decided to move its servers himself by unplugging them and loading them into U-Haul trucks—rather than letting the technicians handle it professionally.
As Dr. Krauss points out, Musk’s ideas about colonizing Mars are scientifically unsound. I also doubt history will look kindly on his attempts to influence the U.S. government through DOGE. His response to Dr. Krauss’ criticism was, to say the least, uncalled for.
Elon is both admirable and flawed. Nobody is as good as the best thing they’ve done, nor as bad as the worst. In other words, Elon is a human being. He’s entitled to a bit of hubris—but he’d do well to remember Icarus. Fly too close to the sun, and your wings will melt just as fast.
I recently read Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk and was surprised by how much admiration I gained for him. His family wasn’t wealthy, but they weren’t destitute either. As a child, his father bought him a Commodore computer, and Elon taught himself multiple programming languages. He wrote code for a video game and sold it to a magazine while still young.
When he left South Africa for Canada, he had only a couple thousand dollars. His mother worked to help put him through college. After graduating, Elon developed a digital yellow pages program and started a company he later sold for several million dollars. One of his first acts was to buy his mother a home and set her up financially.
Some of what he’s done is admirable—such as pushing the U.S. government to end “cost-plus” contracts with companies like Boeing. But there are also moments when I find myself thinking, Elon, what are you doing? For example, when he acquired Twitter, he decided to move its servers himself by unplugging them and loading them into U-Haul trucks—rather than letting the technicians handle it professionally.
As Dr. Krauss points out, Musk’s ideas about colonizing Mars are scientifically unsound. I also doubt history will look kindly on his attempts to influence the U.S. government through DOGE. His response to Dr. Krauss’ criticism was, to say the least, uncalled for.
Elon is both admirable and flawed. Nobody is as good as the best thing they’ve done, nor as bad as the worst. In other words, Elon is a human being. He’s entitled to a bit of hubris—but he’d do well to remember Icarus. Fly too close to the sun, and your wings will melt just as fast.
What did you expect? The new rich only like sycophants😀
I really don't want to subscribe to another news group. Is that the only way I can read the rest of the article?