#Space

September 9, 2015 10:01 AM

America's Mad Scientist: 24 hours with Elon Musk (Clickhole)
posted by michaelh (23 comments total)

Sign me up for one of those hamster balls for the whole family. Nothing like a little time together smashing into things... oh and cheese.
posted by Nanukthedog at 10:15 AM on September 9, 2015

He sends another email to every single American that says “just a reminder about space.”

I sincerely thought I was the only one who received that. :(
posted by shakespeherian at 10:16 AM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

The main room at SpaceX is extremely large and resembles an airplane hangar. Engineers in lab coats scuttle this way and that, tinkering with rockets and testing equipment. Almost immediately, one of them approaches Musk and asks him for some advice regarding a new project.

I was disappointed that the answer wasn't "more struts".
posted by bonehead at 10:34 AM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

That wasn't 24 hours! It might have extended beyond 7 AM to 7 PM, but probably not much more. I, too, wish to fling that writer into space.

Besides this glaring flaw in the piece, I was amused by the absurdities contained within.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:53 AM on September 9, 2015

I feel like this is a lazy parody of Elon Musk. The thing about Elon Musk is not that he barks crazy space-ideas and flits all over to a million places all day, it's more that he comes up with crazy ideas and applies excessive diligence to bringing them to fruition even though they're still... kind of... nuts.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fanboy - I think he's amenable to parody. A good parody of him, though, would be something like: he has an idea about how to irrigate all of California's golf courses with just the recycled urine of cattle in the Central Valley, and not only that, he's secured 10 million dollars in seed funding and is 90% of the way to implementing it, and in fact he has a proof of concept where really rich people can go to play on a recycled-urine-sustained luxury golf course for $9000 a round.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 10:59 AM on September 9, 2015 [16 favorites]

alas, poor Notebook
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 11:19 AM on September 9, 2015

They left off the part where his real goal is to save humanity from global warming, and make money doing it... by blocking out the sun. His control of SpaceX allows him to launch a sunlight blocking plate. His control of SolarCity means he's able to connect the sunlight he's blocking, and Tesla, well Telsa is really about battery technology. Since he'll have monopoly over the sun's energy, he can't possibly fail, and that's why I've bought all the TSLA that I can afford.
posted by fragmede at 11:27 AM on September 9, 2015

Notebook = Woodhouse
Musk = Archer
Mary Beth Brown = Cheryl Tunt??
posted by beepbeepboopboop at 11:50 AM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Theory: Elon Musk is a space alien who crash-landed on Earth and needs our help to get home.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:53 AM on September 9, 2015 [12 favorites]

Since he'll have monopoly over the sun's energy, he can't possibly fail, and that's why I've bought all the TSLA that I can afford.

Elon Musk is a Type I civilization, all by himself.
posted by thecaddy at 12:38 PM on September 9, 2015

Nearly indistinguishable from Ashlee Vance's hagiography of Musk that was published earlier this year. In tone, anyway.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 12:47 PM on September 9, 2015

Theory: Elon Musk is a space alien who crash-landed on Earth and needs our help to get home.

This does not end well, if David Bowie is to be believed.
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:17 PM on September 9, 2015 [4 favorites]

It's weird, my initial feeling about anything with his name is yuck.
posted by discopolo at 1:34 PM on September 9, 2015

I feel like this is a direct parody of this. Well done!
posted by slackdog at 1:53 PM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

I prefer Bored Elon Musk.
posted by underflow at 5:13 PM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

It's weird, my initial feeling about anything with his name is yuck.

He's rich and eccentric in a manner that I find it very easy to dislike. And there are limitations to his vision of the world that I find deeply abrasive. On the other hand, he's actively putting time, energy and money in trying to solve large-scale problems, so you know what? I don't have to like him to like what he's doing.
posted by AdamCSnider at 5:40 PM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]

Well, we should get to see the REAL Elon Musk when he is a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert tonight... less sure if we'll see the REAL Stephen Colbert...
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:54 PM on September 9, 2015

Now every time I read about Musk, I think of this article: Tech’s Enduring Great-Man Myth
posted by sneebler at 7:11 PM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

This reads exactly like that one author from the 80s or 90s whose name I can't remember now but who consciously adopted Keith Richards' solo in "Sympathy for the Devil" as his model of literary technique, just lightning bolts out of the blue every sentence, and then his second novel was about how his first one had made him so famous that he was America's richest man, he surfed on lava, etc. etc, Who was that guy?
posted by No-sword at 2:12 AM on September 10, 2015

Mark Leyner?
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 3:55 AM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yes! That's him! Thanks, Lentrohamsanin, you saved me an AskMe.
posted by No-sword at 6:02 AM on September 10, 2015

Musk: "We must nuke Mars to ensure the future of the Human Race."
posted by bonehead at 10:57 AM on September 10, 2015

"We’re trying to be a leader in apocalyptic defense scenarios," Musk continued.
posted by rdr at 3:32 AM on October 1, 2015