Elon Musk’s Plan to Save Humanity

Trickster, hypester, bullshit artist, Elon Musk is a profoundly ambiguous figure. A libertarian, an exponent of slashing the state, he built a business empire on subsidies and government contracts. Committed to truth, his platforms spread deepfakes and lies. Committed to freedom, he interferes in European politics, and supports the far right. Driven by a desire to save humanity, he builds the tools and technologies that may come to supersede us. What accounts for such a man, the burning energy, the chaotic contradiction? The figure, perhaps, of the hero — a creature of psychoanalysis, and one too of History.