Elon Musk: by Walter Isaacson

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But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue and charismatic fantasist. Haldeman’s beliefs are characterized by Isaacson as “quirky conservative populist views,” which… led him to immigrate to Pretoria, South Africa, which was ruled by the racist apartheid regime. However, Musk denied the allegation, saying satellites in the region were not turned on, and that he chose not to activate them. Unless the woke-mind virus, which is fundamentally anti-science, anti-merit and anti-human in general, is stopped,” he declares, “civilization will never become multiplanetary. Walter Isaacson charts Elon Musk’s journey from humble beginnings to one of the wealthiest people on the planet – but is Musk a genius or a jerk?

Then there’s this description of Neuralink, Musk’s brain implant company: “The idea for Neuralink was inspired by science fiction, most notably the Culture space-travel novels by Iain Banks.Some of his lieutenants insist that he will eventually listen to reason, but Isaacson sees firsthand Musk’s habit of deriding as a saboteur or an idiot anyone who resists him.

The fantasy of the conservative movement is small and sad, a limited world with nothing new to explore. The biography teems with mentions of Musk firing people on the spot, demanding to have things his own way even when it is stupid and expensive, and being unable to tolerate even the slightest dissent. The problem is the man is Elon Musk, a guy who in 2011 promised to get us to space in just three years. And of course, the last sentence — “Musk did not enable it because he thought, probably correctly, that would cause a major war” — is simple boot-licking.

Musk’s dependence on taxpayer largess plays a role here; skipping how dependent Musk is on Texas is a howler. We also know that five women at SpaceX have said that harassment was regular at the company and that women workers at Tesla say they have been subjected to “nightmarish” sexual harassment. Within the first three paragraphs of the book, Isaacson describes a wilderness survival camp Musk attended, where “every few years, one of the kids would die. Presumably one or more of the Musks — Elon is quoted directly as saying the counselors told him not to die like another kid in a previous year.