So I'm watching Iron Man 2, and who pops up on the screen? Elon Musk

[highplainsdem]

18. I don't see any reason to doubt Mark Fergus's explanation of how

Elon Musk figured into his screenplay version of Iron Man. Fergus obviously wasn't trying to take credit for the original, comic book character.

But he sure has spent most of his life talking a good science story. Almost like he's read SF classics like Azimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Amazing Stories magazines - and remembered them really well.

Considering Musk having been born in 1971, his main early influence from science fiction and science fact was likely to have been Omni magazine

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omni_(magazine)

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/visionary-iomni-magazinei/

Which had a circulation of about a million then, and claimed a readership a few times that. The digest-size science fiction magazines had circulations only a tiny fraction of Omni's.

I've mentioned a couple of science fiction influences on Musk here

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217460608#post8

because of Twitter posts alluding to novels by Frank Herbert and Gordon R. Dickson. Gordy's most well-known works, the novels in the Dorsai series, with heroes who are superhuman in ways, were published before Musk was born. But the first Dune film was released in late 1984, when Musk was at a very impressionable age. A young teen, seeing a film about a teenaged messiah.

A lot of people have pointed out that Musk apparently has a messiah complex.

Musk has said that his favorite philosopher is Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/extended-transcript-spacex-ceo-elon-musk-on-putting-boots-on-the-moon-and-mars/

MUSK: I would like to go to the moon and Mars. I think that'd be quite fun. But I need to make sure, like, the overarching goal here is help make life multi-planetary. This is not some sort of personal quest to go to the moon or go to Mars. My sort of philosophical foundation is in line with Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Everyone has their sort of favorite philosopher, but my favorite philosopher is Douglas Adams.

KLUGER: That's a good one to have.

MUSK: Well, he's dead now, but he's got a (LAUGHS) great attitude, and he's fun guy and a good sense of humor. And what he was essentially saying is, "The universe is the answer; what are the questions?"

KLUGER: Lovely.

MUSK: And if we expand the scope and scale of consciousness, then we are better able to understand what questions to ask. We'll learn more, we'll become more enlightened. And so we should try to do the things that expand the scope and scale of consciousness. And becoming a multi-planet species and ensuring that we have a sustainable climate on Earth, these are very important to that overarching philosophy. So that's the philosophy I buy into.

What Musk was reading before that, though, included Nietzsche:

https://www.freshdialogues.com/2013/02/07/transcript-of-elon-musk-interview-with-alison-van-diggelen-iron-man-growing-up-in-south-africa/

Elon Musk: I guess when I was around 12 or 15…I had an existential crisis, and I was reading various books on trying to figure out the meaning of life and what does it all mean? It all seemed quite meaningless and then we happened to have some books by Nietzsche and Schopenhauer in the house, which you should not read at age 14 (laughter). It is bad, it’s really negative. So then I read Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy which is quite positive I think and it highlighted an important point which is that a lot of times the question is harder than the answer. And if you can properly phrase the question, then the answer is the easy part. So, to the degree that we can better understand the universe, then we can better know what questions to ask. Then whatever the question is that most approximates: what’s the meaning of life? That’s the question we can ultimately get closer to understanding. And so I thought to the degree that we can expand the scope and scale of consciousness and knowledge, then that would be a good thing.”

Alison van Diggelen: So you were having these deep thoughts at what age? 10…14?

Elon Musk: Yeah. In the…puberty, I guess….13 through 15. Probably the most traumatic years.

Nietsche and Schopenhauer were heavy reading.for a kid. But a simplification of Nietzsche's idea of a superman can be very appealing to immature, insecure minds.

Just before that section of that interview Musk admitted that as a kid, he was "reading all the time. So I was either reading, working on my computer, reading comics, playing Dungeons & Dragons…that kind of thing." He also admitted to liking the Iron Man comics then. Though he said he'd never imagined he might become the inspiration for the movie version.