So, after a long week and a quiet August, time for a light-hearted article.
I’ve been listening to “Elon Musk: The Evening Rocket”, a five-episode series of programmes on BBC Radio 4. Narrated by Jill Lepore, the programme “untangles the strange sci-fi roots of Silicon Valley’s extreme capitalism – with its extravagant, existential and extra-terrestrial plans to save humanity”. The protagonist, of course, being Elon Musk.
It is difficult to avoid Elon Musk – founder of Space-X and The Boring Company, CEO of Tesla, and a proponent of cryptocurrencies bitcoin and dogecoin. With close to 60 million followers on Twitter, he is a character built in Trump-era America, both in terms of his outspoken public profile, attitude, wealth, and approach to capitalism. He has a mantra that every problem can be solved with technology, enjoys comparisons to Ironman’s Tony Stark, even cameoing in the movie, and plays with references to sci-fi such as The Hitchhikers’ Guide.
Anyway, onto the real article.
Elon Musk wants to be a sci-fi superhero, but so do I!
Thanks to the BBC, I now know his master plan and I’m already ahead of the game.
Elon’s master plan was mapped out for him in a series of sci-fi books, first published in 1910, that follow the adventures of a fictional inventor genius “Tom Swift” ( and also his son Tom Jr). Swift by name and swift by nature (let’s not go there!). Book by book they lay out Musk’s inventions, passions, and directions!
In book 5, “Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout“, published 1910, Tom creates an electric sports car, with revolutionary new battery technology, a top speed of 100 mph, and a range of 400 miles (on a single charge!). The inspiration for Tesla?
In book 7, “Tom Swift Among the Diamond Makers, published 1911, Tom, doesn’t invent but, discovers a machine that turns energy into wealth. In this case, lightning into diamonds, but parallels to wealth creation through energy-consuming bitcoin mining are not lost! A fascination for cryptocurrency?
In book 19, “Tom Swift and His Big Tunnel“, published 1916, Tom helps contractors blast a tunnel through a mountain and connect two isolated rail lines. The Boring Company?
And of course “Tom Swift in the Race to the Moon“, “Tom Swift and His Outpost in Space“, “Tom Swift and His Space Solartron“, and “Tom Swift and the Cosmic Astronauts” all provide inspiration for SpaceX!
So the great news is that there are still some inventions that we have yet to see from Musk. His Air Glider, Wizard Camera, Great Searchlight, and many others must be in the pipeline or ready to be announced.
And then there are the ones that got away. Someone getting to the Taser first. “Tom Swift and His Sky Racer” as the inspiration for the Ansari X Prize (although Musk now supports the X Prize Foundation). And why Musk hates Skype and Zoom as he failed to get in early enough on “Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone“.
Stepping carefully away from the idea that “Tom Swift and the Visitor from Planet X” has anything to do with Grimes (I love those early albums), I think it’s obvious that Musk’s master plan is deep-rooted in these books.
So finally, how do I get ahead? Well, it’s easy, I just need to read ahead! Telejector done! Now I just need to dodge the Alien Probe, and then onto the Microrobots, the Robot Olympics, and build that Space Hotel!
Elon Musk you have met your match!