The Trial of Elon Musk

1519. Spain. An expedition sails from Seville. Its goal: Circumnavigate the globe. Commanded by Ferdinand Magellan, and after his untimely death, finished by Juan Sebastian Elcano in 1522—the mission is a success. Man’s boundaries greatly expanded. The impossible achieved.

July 20, 1969. American astronaut Neil Armstrong walks on the moon—a first for humankind. Man’s boundaries greatly expanded. The impossible achieved.

August, 2012. Voyager I, traveling over 10 miles per second, becomes the first spacecraft to escape our solar system into the unexplored realm of interstellar space. Man’s boundaries greatly expanded. The impossible achieved.

Next: Mars colonized. Man’s boundaries will be greatly expanded. The impossible will be achieved. 

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Meet Elon Musk. Born in South Africa, Musk is a technology engineer and entrepreneur with many active projects:

SolarCity. Clean energy panels powering residential and commercial buildings, reducing the cost of traditional roofing through energy savings and longevity. Sustainable and economical.

Hyperloop One. Proposed by Musk in 2013; under strategic development with Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. The hyperloop concept: ultra-fast transportation at twice the speed of the world’s fastest bullet train (Los Angeles to San Francisco in 35 minutes at 760 mph). Departures anticipated every thirty seconds.

The Boring Company. Tunnel construction company transporting vehicles below ground at 130 mph, reducing travel time and relieving congestion on city streets. Potential to eliminate congestion entirely; unlike the limited space of surface roads, tunnels can be dug in multiple layers.

Tesla. Automotive and energy company pioneering electric vehicle transportation. Vehicles with clean, renewable energy and autonomous navigation: A Tesla Model 3, with no user control, navigates from Los Angeles, CA to Manhattan, NY in 50 hours, 16 minutes, and 32 seconds with a $100 cost in total energy. The owner can share the vehicle with others; a single, autonomous solution managing an entire family’s transportation needs. Your car will do the job for you.

SpaceX. Reusable, self-landing rockets achieving dramatic reductions in per-ton space travel and launch-ready turnaround times. Also developing Starship; a massive reusable rocket so large it can transport the maximum capacity fuel, passengers, and cargo of a Boeing 747—and the weight of the plane itself—as its payload.

Musk has other business interests in neurotechnology, artificial intelligence, and potentially, journalism. He also has many detractors.

The critics are many. The concerns are fair.

Critics say his companies expand too fast to remain stable; like so many historical empires, his will overextend, fail to consolidate gains, and ultimately collapse under its own weight. That Musk is eliminating job security through automation. He is too involved with his organizations—his micromanagement of each a barrier to their ultimate success. His impact is diluted by being too active on too many projects; spread too thin in too many directions. He is overinvolved in his responses to critics, often tangling himself in public feuds. He has concerning behavior as well: touting the benefits of Ambien and alcohol for sleep (a dangerous combination) on social media, and smoking marijuana during a live interview. Tesla stock dipped immediately.

Most egregious of all was a social media post from Musk: “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420”—stating funding was secure to do so. This caused an uproar with investors; it was a shocking revelation, and it egregiously misrepresented Tesla’s fair market value. It was also a reference to cannabis. The episode ended with a $20 million dollar fine by the SEC.

Musk should have never done it. Once he did, he should have apologized. His brazen response: The fine was “total bs” and “worth it.”

For the face of a publicly traded company, such actions are perceived as indicators of instability. Shareholders have every right to be concerned; their investment is jeopardized every time Musk oversteps.

Musk’s vision:

Change the world for all humanity. Clean power. Sustainable energy. Faster, more affordable transportation. Space travel. And, most boldly of all, a plan to preserve our species through Mars colonization.

Consider this: Colonizing Mars requires renewable energy. Connecting colonies requires ultra-fast travel. Colonization requires underground infrastructure. Clean, cost-efficient transportation is necessary. Leaving Earth—and returning—requires efficient space travel. Transporting people and machinery demands an enormous payload.

Let’s look closer.

Colonizing Mars requires renewable energy. SolarCity. Connecting colonies requires ultra-fast travel. Hyperloop. Colonization requires underground infrastructure. The Boring Company. Clean, cost-efficient transportation is necessary. Tesla. Leaving Earth—and returning—requires efficient space travel. SpaceX. Transporting people and machinery demands an enormous payload. Starship.

This is not science fiction. Mars—the next great human achievement—is on the horizon. Elon Musk is the reason.

VERDICT.

Change is necessary.

Play the track forward—humanity’s non-renewable resource consumption is unsustainable. Musk sees this inevitability. His goal: reduction by degrees of magnitude in the timetable required to save us from ourselves. Much of Musk’s technology is open source—a daring challenge to his competitors to do better. The book is open. Do your best. We’ll change the world together.

The efficiencies of automation will indeed eliminate jobs. New technology always disrupts an established order upon which many livelihoods depend. Modern-day Luddites fight the need for change—and the insecurity it brings. Socioeconomic adjustments will have to unfold. The world Musk envisions is needed. It is necessary.

History will judge Musk as one of our generation’s most important figures. The detractors, and their arguments, will fade away. Many visionaries are underappreciated, or misunderstood entirely, in their time. Future generations will herald Musk’s work. He will be in the pantheon of history’s greats.

Anaximander. Posidonius. Gilberd. Galileo. Cassini. Huygens. Newton. Halley. Messier. Herschel. Leavitt. Einstein. Hubble. Shapley. Drake. Hartmann. Hawking. Musk.

We will colonize Mars. Elon Musk is the reason.

Consider the full scope of Musk’s contributions. Each is grounded in the boldness to think big: In every project he takes on, Musk dares to envision himself at the center of humanity’s next giant leap forward. For all his faults, we can confidently state this man has never questioned whether he is capable of transforming the world. Neither should you or I.

Think big. Think bold. Understand that you are capable of being a visionary. Let this ignite your untapped potential: How much more can you and I accomplish?

In one word: legacy.

What will yours be?

Mark Joseph Huckabee