Musk Taps Public Hunger for Future to Sell Armored Tech to Elites

Tom Nicholas

While Elon Musk’s grand rhetoric succeeds by satisfying a generational yearning to escape political and cultural stagnation, his transit loops and Mars ventures function in practice as privatized survival mechanisms designed exclusively for wealthy elites.

AI-assisted summary of The Fake Futurism of Elon Musk — original source. Check the original for full context.

Source published: 2020-08-09

Key ideas

Elon Musk's cultural resonance stems from answering a profound societal yearning to believe in the future again, cutting through decades of cultural and political exhaustion termed 'the slow cancellation of the future.' (17:53)
Much like Henry Ford, Musk did not invent the core technology he is famous for, but radically transformed the cultural perception and status of electric vehicles from sluggish eco-appliances to sleek luxury symbols. (5:35)
Musk's appeal is starkly generational: UK polling indicates 46 percent of millennials view him favorably, compared to just 22 percent of Gen X and 15 percent of baby boomers. (17:53)
Despite utopian framing, projects like the Las Vegas Loop and Mars colonization function logistically as exclusionary, privatized bypasses and 'apocalypse technology' for wealthy elites rather than scalable public infrastructure. (21:31)

Detailed notes

## Background Published by cultural commentator Tom Nicholas on YouTube on August 9, 2020, this video essay analyzes the cultural resonance and ideological implications of Elon Musk's techno-futurism. Drawing on theorists like Mark Fisher and Franco "Bifo" Berardi, Nicholas examines how public enthusiasm for Musk's projects reflects a reaction to the neoliberal "slow cancellation of the future."

## TL;DR The video investigates why Elon Musk's ambitious rhetoric resonates so deeply, comparing his brand repositioning of electric vehicles to Henry Ford's industrialization of the automobile. Nicholas contrasts early 20th-century futurism with the subsequent cultural stagnation and loss of political alternatives under late-20th-century neoliberalism. While figures across politics and tech have tapped into a modern desire to believe in the future again, Nicholas scrutinizes Musk's actual engineering projects—such as the Las Vegas Loop and the Cybertruck. He argues that rather than providing egalitarian public infrastructure, Muskian futurism offers survivalist "apocalypse technology" and exclusive escape hatches designed primarily for wealthy elites.

## Atmosphere & style The presentation balances sharp academic cultural theory with biting, deadpan satire, opening with an absurd theatrical dispatch from an elite Martian colony. Nicholas maintains an articulate, measured, and conversational delivery that treats the audience's hunger for optimism with genuine empathy while systematically picking apart corporate hype. The video essay feels intellectually rigorous yet accessible, blending cinematic pop culture analysis and political critique into a compelling call to imagine an equitable collective tomorrow.

## Bulletin - [17:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=1073s) Elon Musk's cultural resonance stems from answering a profound societal yearning to believe in the future again, cutting through decades of cultural and political exhaustion termed 'the slow cancellation of the future.' - [05:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=335s) Much like Henry Ford, Musk did not invent the core technology he is famous for, but radically transformed the cultural perception and status of electric vehicles from sluggish eco-appliances to sleek luxury symbols. - [17:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=1073s) Musk's appeal is starkly generational: UK polling indicates 46 percent of millennials view him favorably, compared to just 22 percent of Gen X and 15 percent of baby boomers. - [21:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=1291s) Despite utopian framing, projects like the Las Vegas Loop and Mars colonization function logistically as exclusionary, privatized bypasses and 'apocalypse technology' for wealthy elites rather than scalable public infrastructure.

## Key takeaways - [01:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=109s) Musk distinguishes himself from typical Silicon Valley startup founders whose disruptive rhetoric yields mundane consumer gadgets, instead proposing grand civilizational concepts like interplanetary colonization and underground transit loops. - [05:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=335s) Paralleling Henry Ford's deployment of the assembly line to democratize existing automobile technology, Musk succeeded by reimagining battery-powered cars as high-performance, culturally desirable status symbols. - [08:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=533s) The early 20th century was defined by a secular teleological faith in the future, celebrated in Marinetti's 1909 Futurist Manifesto and pursued across opposing political ideologies. - [12:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=743s) The rise of neoliberalism under Thatcher and Reagan, followed by Francis Fukuyama's 'End of History,' inaugurated what Franco 'Bifo' Berardi termed 'the slow cancellation of the future.' - [12:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=743s) Mark Fisher argued that political stagnation infected modern culture, stripping music of disruptive 'future shock' and replacing optimistic imagination with dystopian dread and climate paralysis. - [17:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=1073s) Musk's techno-optimism shares cultural space with left-wing political figures like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Jeremy Corbyn, who also gained youth followings by rejecting incremental status-quo management. - [17:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=1073s) Generational polling highlights that millennials support Musk at more than double the rate of Gen Xers and triple that of baby boomers, reflecting a desire to escape post-2008 economic stagnation. - [21:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=1291s) The Las Vegas Convention Center Loop demonstrates logistical inefficiency by relying on low-capacity cars carrying 5 to 12 passengers, contrasting sharply with municipal subways designed for over 1,000 riders. - [21:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=1291s) Popular media erroneously projects post-scarcity, egalitarian ideals onto Musk—such as in Star Trek: Discovery—disguising private, exclusionary transit corridors as universal civic goods. - [24:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=1464s) Rather than preventing ecological breakdown, projects like the Cybertruck and Mars colonies serve as survivalist escape hatches designed for a wealthy elite navigating climate catastrophe. - [24:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=1464s) Musk explicitly confirmed this survivalist framing on Jay Leno's Garage, stating his objective to be a 'leader in apocalypse technology.' - [25:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=1527s) Nicholas concludes that critiquing Muskian futurism should not mean accepting a stagnant present, but rather articulating bold, democratic futures shared by all of humanity.

## Detailed walkthrough ### [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=0s) Dispatch from SpaceX Mars Colony One: Codename "3d3!"

The video opens with a satirical sketch in which Tom Nicholas portrays "Captain Tom Nicholas," broadcasting live from SpaceX Mars Colony One, Codename: Eden—specifically stylized with "3"s instead of "e"s and an exclamation mark replacing the "n" (`3d3!`). It has been exactly 365 Earth-days since the spacecraft Dragon V touched down at the Eden Interplanetary Spaceport. According to the captain's deadpan report, life on the red planet is proceeding smoothly: automated water mines continue extracting ample moisture from the martian regolith, livestock and crops flourish inside climate-controlled agricultural biomes, and the initial wave of arrivals who landed as refugees are steadily transitioning into formal citizens.

Nicholas leans heavily into grandiose utopian marketing rhetoric, observing that whatever material creature comforts the colonists surrendered back on Earth are vastly outweighed by their newfound capacity to dream. In place of rising sea levels, ecological breakdown, and terrestrial despair, Mars offers a blank canvas for human aspiration and renewal. Yet the inspirational monologue builds directly toward an ironic punchline about the class reality underpinning this corporate frontier. As Tom Nicholas warmly invites everyone watching back home to participate in building humanity’s collective destiny, he reveals the steep admission barrier: “For the low, low price of just two million dollars.”

- **Colony Codename**: Eden (styled as `3d3!`, utilizing leetspeak "3"s for vowels and an exclamation mark for the terminal consonant). - **Milestone Date**: Exactly 365 Earth-days since the touchdown of the spacecraft Dragon V at Eden Interplanetary Spaceport. - **Colony Infrastructure**: Sub-surface water mines harvesting soil moisture alongside enclosed agricultural biomes sustaining crops and livestock. - **Ticket Price**: An upfront cost of two million dollars to secure passage and citizenship.

---

[01:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=109s) The Polarizing Persona of Elon Musk and the Allure of Ambition

Online, Elon Musk serves as a relentless lightning rod for cultural debate. To his dedicated fanbase, he represents a modern incarnation of Tony Stark—an audacious industrial visionary possessing the swagger and technical drive required to pull technologies straight out of science fiction and manifest them in the physical world. Conversely, his detractors view him as a charlatan and a figure of mockery: a wealthy promoter who takes credit for the labor of his engineers while continually peddling inferior, half-baked solutions to problems that existing public infrastructure has already solved. Tom Nicholas notes that while commentators like Abigail Thorn (Philosophy Tube) have effectively dissected how Musk crafts a rebellious, counter-cultural persona while acting as an archetypical capitalist boss, this video aims to explore why his public pitch continues to hold such powerful resonance.

```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Silicon Valley Incrementalism vs Muskian Futurism accDescr: A comparison contrasting typical tech startup disruption with Elon Musk's grand proposals.

subgraph SV["Standard Tech Disruption"] direction TB A["Grand Disruptive Rhetoric"] --> B["Mundane Consumer Gadgets"] B --> C["e.g., Internet-Connected Microwaves"] end

subgraph MF["Muskian Futurism"] direction TB D["Audacious Speculative Scale"] --> E["Planetary & Civilizational Ambition"] E --> F["Subterranean Boring, Neural Links & Mars Colonies"] end ```

Musk distinguishes himself from his Silicon Valley contemporaries through his unapologetic, full-throated belief in the future. Typical modern tech entrepreneurs constantly invoke buzzwords like "disruption," claiming their newly launched ventures will fundamentally revolutionize the human experience, only to unveil trivial consumer commodities such as an internet-connected microwave. Musk, by contrast, tenders proposals that are visibly ambitious in scope. Critics may point out that boring an underground highway loop beneath a city does far less to ease traffic congestion and reduce carbon emissions than simply running extra municipal buses or subway cars each hour, yet the sheer scale of the concept captures the collective imagination. Nicholas introduces the concept of "Muskian Futurism" to examine the societal hunger his visions satisfy:

> “Whatever questions we might raise about Elon Musk's specific proposals for the future (and I will raise a few towards the end of this video), they're at least genuinely pretty bold.”

- **The Fan Archetype**: Celebrated as an eccentric industrial innovator and real-world Tony Stark bridging sci-fi into reality. - **The Detractor Stance**: Criticized for expropriating engineering labor and inventing overly complex private workarounds for solved civic problems. - **The Modern Disruption Paradox**: The sharp disconnect between high-minded Silicon Valley rhetoric and mundane market goods (e.g., smart home kitchen appliances). - **Central Premise**: To understand Musk’s cultural dominance, one must trace the historical evolution of how societies have conceptualized the idea of the future itself.

---

[05:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=335s) Tesla, Henry Ford, and the Popularization of the Motorcar

While many of Musk’s speculative projects remain stalled at the concept phase, Nicholas highlights one tangible achievement that deserves genuine credit: the mainstream popularization of the electric vehicle (EV). Prior to Tesla's market dominance, battery-powered automobiles carried a distinct stigma. They were widely viewed as sluggish, visually unattractive, and profoundly uncool—the exact antithesis of the high-octane, combustion-engine machines glamorized in the *Fast & Furious* cinematic franchise or popular racing video games like *Gran Turismo*, *Forza*, and *Grand Theft Auto*. Tesla radically inverted that brand identity, making electric drivetrains synonymous with speed, sleek luxury, and cultural status.

Citing a 2019 academic paper on consumer adoption by Zoe Long et al., Nicholas emphasizes that Tesla succeeded primarily by transforming the cultural meaning of an existing mechanical concept:

> “Several participants explained that Tesla changed their perceptions that electric cars are slow, ugly, have limited range, and not fun to drive. Several participants noted that Tesla is 'cool' and that owning one communicates a symbolic message to others.”

This achievement places Musk in direct lineage with Henry Ford. Neither man invented the vehicle they became famous for; automobiles had already been manufactured and sold commercially for more than a decade before the Ford Motor Company was founded in 1903. Early cars were hand-crafted, temperamental, mechanically fragile playthings reserved strictly for the ultra-wealthy. With the introduction of the Model T in 1908, Ford turned the automobile into the default transportation mode of the burgeoning middle class.

Ford achieved this transition through organizational breakthroughs rather than pure engine mechanics, establishing standardized machine parts and the moving assembly line—a system later dubbed the "Fordist model of production." By deconstructing complex craftsmanship into discrete, repetitive tasks executed by specialized workers, Ford dramatically accelerated assembly times and reduced unit costs. In an identical fashion, Musk has relentlessly sought to maximize automated robotics in Tesla factories to lower production expenses and scale output. However, Nicholas argues that the most revealing parallel between Ford and Musk lies in the broader cultural spirit of the eras in which they operated.

---

[08:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=533s) Marinetti, Futurism, and the Century That Trusted in the Future

Two years after Ford rolled out the Model T in Detroit, Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti published *The Foundation and Manifesto of Futurism* on the front page of the French daily *Le Figaro* in 1909. Marinetti's tract attacked traditionalism, decrying society's "futile veneration for the past" while worshipping mechanical velocity, synthetic light, industrial machinery, creative destruction, and the uncharted potential of tomorrow. In doing so, Marinetti crystallized the emerging *Zeitgeist* of the early 20th century. Nicholas points out that human history has not always looked forward with eager expectation; traditional Christianity, for example, long interpreted the passage of chronological time as a tragic downward descent—a steady spiritual decline leading humanity away from the pristine grace of the Garden of Eden.

The dawn of the 20th century violently shattered that theological conservatism. Across culture, economics, and statecraft, societies developed an intense fascination with what lay ahead. Industrialists like Ford optimized factories to churn out cheaper, higher-quality commodities; avant-garde artistic movements released endless waves of manifestos demanding the destruction of classical rules; and ideological mass movements—including Communism, Fascism, and free-market liberal capitalism—each drafted blueprints to remake human existence from the ground up.

Nicholas draws upon Italian theorist Franco "Bifo" Berardi’s 2011 work *After the Future* to explain how the entire era operated under an unprecedented secular teleology:

> “He writes that 'the 20th century is pervaded by a religious belief in the future'.”

Even after European Fascism and Soviet Stalinism demonstrated the catastrophic horrors of mechanistic dogma, this faith in the future persisted throughout the post-war decades. It fueled the geopolitical Space Race, which envisioned humanity as an interplanetary species destined to colonize the cosmos, and prompted British Prime Minister Harold Wilson to proclaim that the nation would be forged anew in the "white heat" of a scientific revolution. This historical backdrop raises the central question of the essay: if bold, sweeping appeals to the future were the foundational currency of the entire 20th century, why does Elon Musk’s brand of techno-optimism feel like such an anomaly in our contemporary world?

- **The Futurist Manifesto (1909)**: Penned by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and printed on the front page of *Le Figaro*, casting aside historical memory in favor of speed, technology, and violent forward momentum. - **The Christian Temporal Model**: Viewed time not as progress, but as a continuing metaphysical regression away from divine innocence and Edenic harmony. - **The Ideological Landscape**: Early 20th-century movements (capitalist industrialism, state socialism, and fascism) were all predicated on radical, structural visions of an engineered tomorrow. - **Post-War Technocracy**: Kept the futuristic flame alive via the Cold War Space Race and social-democratic modernization projects, such as Harold Wilson's 1963 "white heat" of technological revolution.

[12:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=743s) The Slow Cancellation of the Future

Musk's readiness to dream up a world visibly different from our own stands out sharply against the broader backdrop of contemporary culture. To understand why his futurism feels so singular today, it is necessary to examine what Franco "Bifo" Berardi termed "the slow cancellation of the future." Beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the unshakeable 20th-century belief in the future as a realm of boundless possibilities began to steadily decay, worn down by economic crises and cultural exhaustion.

This shift was felt most acutely in politics. Following her 1979 election as British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher popularized the slogan "There Is No Alternative." Together with Ronald Reagan in the United States, she pushed the idea that their neoliberal vision was not merely one political ideology among many, but the only rational way to organize society. This consensus solidified in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union, removing the primary existing geopolitical counterweight to global capitalism. Francis Fukuyama captured the spirit of this era when he famously declared "The End of History," pointing to:

> “the total exhaustion of viable systematic alternatives to Western liberalism”

as evidence of:

> “the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalisation of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.”

With the end of history came the effective end of the future. Mainstream politics degenerated into mere technocratic administration: parties abandoned radical transformative projects and competed simply to appear as the least offensive, most capable managers of the existing order.

```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: The Slow Cancellation of the Future accDescr: Timeline tracing the decline of future-oriented thinking from the late 1970s through the 2010s.

subgraph NeoliberalConsensus["Late 1970s–1980s: Neoliberal Turn"] direction TB A["Economic crises & social exhaustion"] --> B["Thatcher: 'There Is No Alternative'"] B --> C["Reagan & Thatcher install neoliberalism as singular logic"] end

subgraph EndOfHistory["1989–1990s: Post-Soviet Consensus"] direction TB D["Fall of Berlin Wall & USSR collapse"] --> E["Loss of real alternative to capitalism"] E --> F["Fukuyama: 'The End of History' & triumph of liberal democracy"] end

subgraph CulturalStagnation["2000s–2010s: Managerial Politics & Cultural Dread"] direction TB G["Managerial politics: Administrating the present status quo"] H["Cultural stagnation: Fisher's lost 'future shock' in music"] I["Dystopian media (Black Mirror, The Hunger Games)"] J["Climate emergency and planetary dread"] G ~~~ H ~~~ I ~~~ J end

NeoliberalConsensus --> EndOfHistory EndOfHistory --> CulturalStagnation ```

- In his 2014 book *Ghosts of My Life*, cultural theorist Mark Fisher traced how this political stagnation infected creative arts, noting that popular music lost the disruptive "future shock" that had marked the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. - Popular media in the late 2000s and 2010s shifted toward an active distrust of the future: anthology series like *Black Mirror* treated technological innovation as an inherently corrupting force. - Young adult fiction was swept by grim dystopias like *The Hunger Games* and *Divergent*, asking children to imagine futures where survival required brutal conflict among themselves. - Looming awareness of the climate crisis and systemic political inaction deepened this sense of paralysis: dreaming of tomorrow felt hollow when the planet itself appeared to have a terminal diagnosis.

[17:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=1073s) Back to the Future

Despite the predictions of Berardi and Fisher that this generational despair would persist indefinitely, the future has recently staged a notable comeback. Fisher argued that the notion of youth automatically driving cultural reinvention had become outdated, assuming younger cohorts would absorb the ambient pessimism. Yet polling demonstrates that younger demographics are precisely those most receptive to forward-looking visions: a YouGov survey in the UK found that 46 percent of millennials held a positive opinion of Elon Musk, compared to just 22 percent of Gen Xers and only 15 percent of baby boomers.

Musk's appeal among millennials is not an isolated quirk, but part of a wider cultural appetite to break out of the post-1980s stupor. In politics, figures such as Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and "The Squad" in the United States, alongside Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, have attracted fervent youth followings by rejecting incremental status-quo adjustments and daring to project transformative social visions. Similar energy has surfaced through mass movements like Black Lives Matter, while the political right has presented its own reactionary visions through Donald Trump and post-Brexit British conservatism. In this landscape, Musk functions less as an eccentric outlier and more as a vessel for a generation eager to escape stagnation:

> “I think, in many regards, his appeal lies less in his specific proposals than in the more fundamental fact that he answers a contemporary desire to believe in the future again.”

- Generational support for Musk sharply inverts his own age bracket (49 at the time): millennials back him at more than double the rate of Gen X (22%) and triple that of baby boomers (15%). - The 2008 global financial crisis decisively shattered the neoliberal myth that the economic order was stable and self-regulating, opening space for renewed structural critique. - The shared ground between Muskian futurism and left-wing political revivals lies in their core premise: an insistence that the future can be fundamentally different from, and superior to, the present.

[21:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=1291s) Muskian Futurism for Whom?

While Musk harnesses genuine utopian impulses, the material reality of his initiatives tells a very different story. A case in point arrived with the public rendering Musk shared of the Central Hall Station for the Las Vegas Convention Center "Loop." Mike Brown reported in *Inverse* that the underground tunnel was planned to transport 4,400 attendees per hour in one of two directions over a distance of nearly a mile. Critics immediately highlighted the profound geometric and logistical deficiencies of the design: individual passenger cars hold only five people, and even proposed higher-capacity pods hold around twelve, whereas standard metro trains easily transport well over 1,000 riders at a time.

This apparent inefficiency is frequently excused or misunderstood because the public assumes Musk shares a collective, egalitarian ideal. Popular culture reinforces this: a 2018 episode of *Star Trek: Discovery* casually grouped Musk with historical innovators. In *Four Futures*, Peter Frase analyzed the world of *Star Trek* as a post-scarcity communist society where hierarchy has been dissolved according to Karl Marx's maxim:

> “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need”

While Musk once cheekily labeled himself a socialist, his technological systems bear no resemblance to egalitarian public infrastructure. The extreme capacity limits of projects like the Loop are not technical oversights, but intentional design parameters:

> “This is not a mass public transportation system, this is a proposal for a series of gilded corridors which enable elites such as Musk to get to their destinations quicker”

- The Las Vegas Convention Center Loop design promises a throughput of 4,400 passengers per hour across roughly one mile. - Standard cars in the Loop convey just 5 passengers at a time, while proposed minivan-style pods seat 12—infinitesimal compared to standard municipal subways carrying 1,000+ passengers per train. - Public observers consistently err by viewing Musk's underground road tunnels and Martian colonization plans as universal goods, rather than infrastructure engineered exclusively for wealthy private elites.

[24:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=1464s) Apocalypse Technology and the Cybertruck

The narrative shifts to the exclusionary nature of these futuristic visions. Rather than offering a democratic, utopian future for the masses, projects like Mars colonization serve as an escape hatch for a wealthy elite looking to avoid the catastrophic fallout of the climate crisis on Earth. This exclusionary, survivalist undercurrent is most visible in the design and marketing of the Tesla Cybertruck. While electric vehicles are traditionally framed as tools to mitigate environmental collapse, the Cybertruck—a supposedly bulletproof, solar-powered pickup—is built for a very different scenario. It is not designed to prevent the end of the world, but rather to navigate it.

During an appearance on *Jay Leno's Garage*, Musk explicitly embraced this dystopian framing. When discussing the vehicle's rugged, armored design, Musk stated, “we want to be a leader in apocalypse technology.” This admission reveals the true target demographic for Muskian futurism: an elite class equipped to traverse an ecologically devastated landscape while defending themselves against the inevitable hostility of those left behind.

```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: The Shift in Muskian Technology accDescr: A flowchart showing the transition of Musk's projects from climate crisis prevention to elite survival.

A["Standard Electric Vehicles"] -->|"Goal"| B["Stave off climate crisis"] C["Muskian Futurism Projects"] -->|"Real Goal"| D["Escape / Survive the crisis"]

subgraph Escape ["Elite Survival Mechanisms"] E["Mars Colonies"] -->|"Purpose"| F["Escape Earth's climate devastation"] G["Tesla Cybertruck"] -->|"Purpose"| H["Traverse a hostile, ruined world"] end

D --> Escape ```

- **Mars Colonies:** Framed not as a grand leap for humanity, but as an escape pod for the wealthy to flee climate change. - **The Cybertruck:** A solar-powered, bulletproof electric pickup truck designed for post-apocalyptic survival. - **Apocalypse Technology:** Musk's self-proclaimed goal to lead in armored, survivalist consumer tech.

[25:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=1527s) Who is the Future For?

In concluding his analysis, Nicholas acknowledges the powerful appeal of Muskian futurism. In an era marked by a "slow cancellation of the future," Musk's grand promises satisfy a deep, collective yearning to believe in progress and human ingenuity once again. However, the critical question we must ask of these projects is not whether they are technologically or logistically viable, but rather whom they are designed to serve.

Critiquing these corporate visions should not force us into a false binary where we must choose between a flawed future and a stagnant present. Nicholas argues that a genuinely better, democratic future is entirely possible if we can reclaim the narrative. As Nicholas puts it, “The challenge lies in trying to articulate one that is as bold as that offered by Elon Musk but is one in which we can all share.”

[26:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=1579s) Outro and Acknowledgments

Nicholas wraps up the video essay by thanking his audience for tuning in to the broadcast. He encourages viewers who found the essay valuable or thought-provoking to share it with friends or anyone else who might appreciate the analysis.

He expresses deep gratitude to his top-tier Patreon supporters, whose financial contributions are essential for funding the research and production time required for these deep-dive videos. He invites others to join the community to gain early access to videos and scripts.

- **Top-Tier Patreon Supporters Named:** Michael V. Brown, J. Fraser Cartwright, Richard, Kaya Lau, LaLomi, David Brothers, and Chris Brown. - **Patreon Benefits:** Early access to videos, behind-the-scenes scripts, and direct support for independent video essays. - **Patreon URL:** patreon.com/tomnicholas

## Notable quotes > [08:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y&t=533s) the 20th century is pervaded by a religious belief in the future — Franco "Bifo" Berardi

## Mentioned Tom Nicholas, Elon Musk, SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, The Boring Company, Hyperloop, Tesla Cybertruck, Abigail Thorn, Philosophy Tube, Henry Ford, Ford Motor Company, Model T, Zoe Long, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, The Foundation and Manifesto of Futurism, Franco "Bifo" Berardi, After the Future, Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Francis Fukuyama, Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life, Black Mirror, The Hunger Games, Divergent, YouGov, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, The Squad, Jeremy Corbyn, Black Lives Matter, Donald Trump, Mike Brown, Inverse, Star Trek: Discovery, Peter Frase, Four Futures, Karl Marx, Jay Leno's Garage

## Video description Watch this video ad-free on Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/tom-nicholas-the-fake-futurism-of-elon-musk

A video about Elon Musk and the future.

Timestamps:

0:00 SpaceX Mars 01:49 Introduction 05:35 Tesla, Ford and A Tale of Two Cars 08:53 Futurism 13:00 The Slow Cancellation of the Future 17:53 Back to the Future 21:31 Muskian Futurism for Whom?

There's perhaps already a distinct "Elon Musk Video Essay" genre here on YouTube. Hopefully, though, this takes a different approach to those which are already out there.

Rather than focussing on I take a look at why Elon Musk has become such a revered figure in recent years and why so many people have embraced Elon Musk's Loop, Tesla, Hyperloop, Spacex, Mars Mission, Neuralink and other projects.

Drawing partly on the work of Mark Fisher and Franco "Bifo" Birardi, I consider how human perceptions of the future (at least in the advanced capitalist nations) have changed over time. In particular, I'm interested in how Elon Musk's rise might be read as a response to what Birardi and Fisher refer to as the "Slow Cancellation of the Future" during the ascendency of neoliberalism (or neoliberal capitalism) in the 1970s, 80s, 90s and 2000s.

I also argue that Elon Musk might have more than a little in common with figures in the political sphere such as Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC) and "The Squad", Jeremy Corbyn etc. who have also recently sought to break from the status quo and invited us to imagine bold new futures.

Support the channel on Patreon at http://patreon.com/tomnicholas

If you've enjoyed this video and would like to see more including my What The Theory? series in which I provide some snappy introductions to key theories in the humanities as well as video essays and more then do consider subscribing.

Thanks for watching!

Twitter: http://twitter.com/tom_nicholas Instagram: http://instagram.com/tomnicholaswtf Patreon: http://patreon.com/tomnicholas Website: http://www.tomnicholas.com/

#ElonMusk #SpaceX #Neuralink

[Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OtKEetGy2Y)

中文简报

马斯克利用大众对未来的渴望向精英阶层兜售装甲科技尽管埃隆·马斯克的宏大叙事通过满足摆脱政治与文化停滞的代际渴望而取得成功，但他打造的地下环线和火星探索项目在实践中实质上是专门为富裕精英设计的私有化生存机制。该视频探讨了埃隆·马斯克的宏大说辞为何能引发如此强烈的共鸣，并将其对电动汽车的品牌重塑与亨利·福特对汽车的工业化推广相提并论。Nicholas将20世纪初的未来主义与20世纪末新自由主义下的文化停滞及政治替代方案的丧失进行了对比。尽管政界和科技界人士都曾迎合过现代人重新渴望相信未来的心理，但Nicholas对马斯克实际落地的工程项目（如拉斯维加斯地下隧道Loop和Cybertruck）进行了审视。他认为，马斯克式的未来主义并未提供平等的公共基础设施，而是提供了主要为富裕精英量身定制的生存主义“末日科技”和专属逃生舱。埃隆·马斯克引发的文化共鸣，源于他回应了社会对重新相信未来的深层渴望，打破了数十年来被称为“未来的缓慢取消”的文化与政治倦怠。 (17:53) 与亨利·福特非常相似，马斯克并未发明让他声名大噪的核心技术，但他从根本上重塑了电动汽车的文化认知与地位，将其从笨拙的环保工具转变为时尚的奢华象征。 (5:35) 马斯克的吸引力具有鲜明的代际差异：英国民调显示，46%的千禧一代对他持好感，而X世代的这一比例仅为22%，婴儿潮一代更是只有15%。 (17:53) 尽管有乌托邦式的叙事包装，拉斯维加斯地下隧道Loop和火星殖民等项目在后勤实践中并非可扩展的公共基础设施，而是属于排他性的私有化分流通路以及面向富裕精英的“末日科技”。 (21:31)

Reading summary

Tom Nicholas argues that while Elon Musk commands widespread appeal by offering bold visions of the future amid decades of cultural stagnation, his proposals ultimately function as exclusionary, survivalist infrastructure for wealthy elites rather than universal human advancement. The Cultural Engine of Muskian Ambition (1:49) Unlike typical Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs who promote trivial commodities like internet-connected microwaves under the banner of 'disruption,' Musk captures the public imagination with proposals scaled to civilizational ambition. Nicholas places Musk in direct lineage with Henry Ford: neither invented their signature vehicle, but both transformed niche technologies into mass cultural forces. Ford utilized standardized parts and the moving assembly line to turn fragile luxury toys into middle-class transit, while Musk deployed automated robotics, sleek styling, and high-performance drivetrains to rebrand electric vehicles from sluggish, unappealing appliances into high-status consumer symbols, as documented in a 2019 adoption study by Zoe Long et al. Filling the Void of Canceled Futures (12:23) To explain Musk's cultural resonance, Nicholas traces the twentieth century's secular 'religious belief in the future,' spanning Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's 1909 Futurist Manifesto, Fordist mass production, and the post-war Space Race. This forward momentum decayed in the late 1970s into what theorist Franco 'Bifo' Berardi termed 'the slow cancellation of the future.' Following the neoliberal turn led by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, alongside Francis Fukuyama's proclamation of the 'End of History,' mainstream politics retreated into technocratic management of the status quo while popular culture turned toward dystopian fiction like Black Mirror and The Hunger Games. Musk's unapologetic techno-optimism breaks this cultural paralysis. A UK YouGov survey cited by Nicholas reveals that 46 percent of millennials held a favorable view of Musk, compared to 22 percent of Gen X and 15 percent of baby boomers. Nicholas connects this generational appeal to the post-2008 financial crisis political appetite for systemic change, arguing that Musk satisfies a broader social hunger to believe that the future can look fundamentally different from the present. Gilded Corridors Over Mass Transit (21:31) Despite popular assumptions that Musk's projects advance an egalitarian, post-scarcity future reminiscent of Star Trek, Nicholas argues that their physical configurations reveal a strictly private utility. Projects such as the Las Vegas Convention Center Loop—planned to move 4,400 passengers per hour over nearly a mile using five-passenger cars and proposed twelve-passenger pods—deliver transport capacities vastly inferior to standard municipal subways that routinely carry over 1,000 riders per train. Nicholas maintains that these capacity bottlenecks are not engineering mistakes, but the intended design parameters of privatized transit. Rather than addressing collective public transport needs or traffic decarbonization, subterranean tunnel loops are framed as 'gilded corridors' engineered to let affluent riders bypass civic congestion. Apocalypse Technology and Elite Escape (24:24) Nicholas contends that Muskian futurism fundamentally shifts from preventing environmental breakdown to navigating its aftermath. During an appearance on Jay Leno's Garage, Musk explicitly stated that Tesla aims to be a 'leader in apocalypse technology,' framing the bulletproof, solar-powered Cybertruck as a vehicle built for survival in hostile conditions. This survivalist ethos extends to Mars colonization proposals, which Nicholas characterizes not as collective civilizational leaps, but as private lifeboats for affluent individuals seeking an exit from terrestrial ecological collapse. This dynamic is underscored in Nicholas's opening satire of an Eden Mars colony, where prospective colonists are welcomed only if they can afford an upfront ticket price of two million dollars. Nicholas concludes that the primary issue with Muskian futurism is not technological feasibility, but distribution: asking who the future is built to serve. He cautions against accepting a false binary between stagnant managerial politics and exclusionary corporate survivalism, urging society to articulate an ambitious, democratic alternative that can be shared collectively.

精炼阅读摘要

视频作者 Tom Nicholas 指出，埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）之所以能在当代社会引发强烈共鸣，是因为他填补了数十年来因政治与文化停滞而丧失的对未来的宏大想象；然而，这种“马斯克式未来主义”并非普遍惠及大众的技术乌托邦，其实质是为少数富有精英量身定制的排他性通道与末日生存保障。概念重塑：福特制与特斯拉的文化跃迁 (5:35) Nicholas 强调，在互联网舆论中，马斯克被支持者视为将科幻带入现实的现代托尼·斯塔克（Tony Stark），同时也被批评者指责掠夺工程师劳动成果、并用低效私有产物取代已成熟的公共设施。但不同于仅推出智能微波炉等琐碎商品却空谈颠覆的当代硅谷创业者，马斯克提出了真正具有宏观规模的构想。他在商业上最显著的成就——推动电动汽车普及，正是这种愿景重构能力的集中体现。正如亨利·福特（Henry Ford）并未发明汽车，而是通过标准化零件与流水线装配作业（福特制生产模型）将昂贵脆弱的富人玩具改造为中产阶级的交通标准一样，马斯克并未发明电池动力系统，却重塑了该技术的文化意涵。根据学者 Zoe Long 等人 2019 年的研究，特斯拉彻底扭转了过去电动车笨重、丑陋、续航有限且毫无驾驶乐趣的“环保家电”刻板印象，将其打造为兼具极致速度、豪华美感与高度自动化的科技符号与身份象征。时代的转向：从未来崇拜到未来的消逝 (8:53) 为了解释为何马斯克的技术乐观主义在今天显得如此独特，Nicholas 梳理了人类未来观的历史演进。在传统基督教观念中，时间流逝长期被视为偏离伊甸园完美的精神堕落；然而，随着 1909 年菲利波·托马索·马里内蒂（Filippo Tommaso Marinetti）发表《未来主义宣言》，20 世纪社会转向了对机械速度与工业潜力的极度崇拜。理论家弗朗哥·“比弗”·贝拉尔迪（Franco "Bifo" Berardi）指出，整个 20 世纪都弥漫着对未来的“宗教式信仰”，这种信念不仅贯穿于战后冷战太空竞赛，也体现在英国首相哈罗德·威尔逊（Harold Wilson）以科学革命“白炽热浪”重塑国家的构想中。然而，自 1970 年代末起，这种对无限可能性的确信遭遇了贝拉尔迪所称的“未来的缓慢消逝”。伴随玛格丽特·撒切尔（Margaret Thatcher）的“别无选择”论调以及弗朗西斯·福山（Francis Fukuyama）在冷战终结后提出的“历史终结论”，主流政治退化为缺乏长远构想的技术官僚式管理。文化理论家马克·费舍（Mark Fisher）在其 2014 年著作《我生命的幽灵》中指出，当代流行艺术逐渐丧失了打破常规的未来震荡感；同时，《黑镜》与《饥饿游戏》等影视作品的大行其道，以及全球气候危机的临近，进一步让公众陷入了对科技异化和未来的深重恐惧与停滞感。代际渴望：打破现状沉寂的未来回潮 (17:53) 尽管贝拉尔迪与费舍曾悲观认为代际绝望将无限蔓延，但数据表明年轻群体正在强烈渴望打破 1980 年代以来的沉闷现状。英国 YouGov 的一项民意调查显示，千禧一代对马斯克持有好感的比例高达 46%，不仅是 X 世代（22%）的两倍以上，更是婴儿潮一代（15%）的三倍。Nicholas 分析认为，马斯克的强大吸引力主要不在于其特定项目的可行性，而在于他回应了公众在漫长停滞之后重新渴望相信未来的社会心理。这种对未来的渴求同样体现在当代政治版图的震荡中。2008 年全球金融危机打破了新自由主义自我调节的神话，伯尼·桑德斯（Bernie Sanders）、亚历山德里亚·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯（Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez）与杰里米·科尔宾（Jeremy Corbyn）等左翼政治人物均凭借拒绝微调现状、提出结构性愿景赢得了青年世代的拥护，而右翼民粹阵营同样在构建自身的激进前景。马斯克在此扮演的角色，正是一个承载代际突围诉求的容器——他们共同坚信未来能够且必须超越当下。技术实质：排他性走廊与精英末日科技 (21:31) 然而，Nicholas 揭示了马斯克式未来主义的物质现实与其宣称的乌托邦修辞之间的巨大鸿沟。以拉斯维加斯会议中心地下“Loop”隧道为例，Mike Brown 在《Inverse》上的报道显示其设计单向运力仅为每小时 4,400 人，普通乘用车仅载 5 人，即便是拟议的小客车也仅容纳 12 人，这与单列便能承载 1,000 人以上的市政地铁相比几何效率极其低下。公众常受《星际迷航》（Star Trek）式后匮乏社会的幻想影响，将马斯克设想为全民福祉的推进者，但这些极端受限的设计表明其并非普惠公交系统，而是专供富裕精英避开地面拥堵的“镀金走廊”。这种排他性在生存主义与灾难叙事中体现得更为露骨。耗费两百万美元入场券的火星殖民地，本质上是富人逃离地球生态恶化的逃生舱；而在汽车节目《Jay Leno's Garage》中，马斯克更是直言希望将坚固防弹的 Cybertruck 皮卡打造为“末日科技的领导者”。这些构想并非用于阻止全球环境崩溃，而是专为特权阶级在废土中巡航、并防御被遗弃大众的敌意而设计的生存堡垒。 Nicholas 总结指出，批判马斯克的企业叙事并不意味着公众必须在停滞的现状与排他性的技术幻想之间做出妥协。社会的真正出路在于打破由资本精英垄断的未来定义权，去构想并实践一种既拥有马斯克式宏大野心、同时又能让全体大众平等共享与民主参与的真实未来。

Source quotes

[8:53] Franco "Bifo" Berardi: the 20th century is pervaded by a religious belief in the future

Original transcript

[0:00] Hello Earth! This is Captain Tom Nicholas speaking to you live from SpaceX [0:04] Mars Colony One, Codename: Eden (but both the "e"s are spelt with "3"s [0:10] and the "n" is inexplicably an exclamation mark. [0:15] Today marks 365 Earth-days since the spacecraft Dragon V touched [0:21] down safely at Eden Interplanetary Spaceport. [0:25] And I'm happy to report that everything has gone according to plan. The water [0:32] mines continue to draw ample moisture from the soil. [0:36] Food grows and grazes in the agricultural [0:39] biomes. And, more importantly than anything, [0:44] those who arrived here as refugees have begun to become citizens. [0:51] What they left behind on Earth in terms of creature comforts [0:55] is more than made up for in their ability to dream, [0:59] their newfound capacity to imagine a future beyond [1:03] rising sea levels and ecological collapse. [1:08] If this colony represents anything, it is hope. [1:13] And the ability to once again imagine a future for humanity. [1:21] And, wherever you're watching this on Earth, [1:24] know that you too can join us. To live and to dream and to build on [1:31] that future. For the low, low price of just two [1:37] million dollars. [1:51] Elon Musk is something of a lightning rod for popular opinion; [1:54] at least online anyway. To his supporters, he's a continual source of inspiration, [2:00] a real-life Tony Stark; not only is he a successful entrepreneur but an innovator [2:06] whose swagger is matched only by his unending ambition [2:09] to make-real technologies which previously were the reserve of science [2:14] fiction. To his detractors, he's a point of [2:17] ridicule; someone who seeks to take credit for the [2:19] work of his engineers and who often proposes solutions to [2:23] problems for which better, more workable solutions [2:27] already exist. A great deal has thus been written and [2:31] said about Elon Musk. On this website, for instance, Oliver Thorne of Philosophy [2:35] Tube has provided a great examination of how Musk tries to present himself as a [2:40] kind of counter-cultural figure, whilst in truth being pretty much the [2:45] archetypical capitalist in how he runs his companies. [2:49] In this video, I want to take a different approach. [2:52] For, I don't think that those who hang on Musk's every word [2:55] have simply been duped; I think that there are ways in which Musk is fairly [2:59] distinct from the other entrepreneurial figures which surround him. [3:04] And this distinction lies in his unashamed belief [3:07] in the future. Tech entrepreneurs in particular [3:10] often talk about disruption. They regularly try to position the various [3:14] products that they're bringing to the market [3:16] as having the potential to completely change the way we live. [3:20] This lofty rhetoric, however, is soon undercut when it turns out that what [3:25] they're actually trying to sell us is a microwave that connects to the [3:28] internet, or something similarly mundane. Whatever questions we might raise about [3:34] Elon Musk's specific proposals for the future (and I will [3:37] raise a few towards the end of this video), [3:40] they're at least genuinely pretty bold. One might argue, for instance, that the [3:45] underground roads that he wants to build as part of his loop project [3:48] would likely have less impact on congestion [3:52] and on efforts to combat the climate crisis than simply [3:55] laying on a few extra buses or metro trains each hour. [3:59] Nevertheless, the idea of boring a web of roads under a city [4:03] is at the very least genuinely ambitious. While I'll talk a little bit about what I [4:08] think some of the potential social, economic and political [4:12] ramifications of the individual projects which [4:15] comprise what I'm going to refer to as Muskian Futurism are towards the end [4:20] of this video, what I want to focus on for the most [4:23] part is why Musk's vision resonates with so many [4:27] people. If you're a Musk fan yourself, then [4:30] you'll likely have your own specific reasons for admiring the man, [4:33] and I don't want to take those away from you. But I do want to ask [4:37] more broadly what it is about our contemporary moment [4:41] (and the recent past) that makes Musk feel, to many, like such a breath of fresh air. [4:47] I want to ask what societal desires Musk's invitations to imagine bold [4:52] futures respond to. Frequent viewers of my [4:55] channel will not be surprised to learn that doing so is going to involve a bit [4:59] of a history lesson and a ramble through changing [5:02] perceptions of the future from the early 20th century to the [5:06] present day. I hope you'll stick with it though, [5:09] because understanding how we got to where we are now, and how [5:13] people's relationship to the idea of the future [5:16] has evolved over time, is, I think, essential for gaining a fully [5:22] contextualized understanding of exactly what Elon Musk is offering [5:26] us and why our culture has, for the most part, [5:30] so enthusiastically embraced his futuristic [5:33] dreams. [5:39] While many of Elon Musk's ambitious visions for the future remain at concept [5:44] stage, there's one thing for which we have to [5:46] give him some credit: the popularization of the electric car. [5:50] In a 2019 paper summarizing a study into consumer perceptions of electric [5:54] vehicles, Zoe Long et al. wrote that 'several [5:58] participants explained that Tesla changed their perceptions that electric [6:02] cars are slow, ugly, have limited range, [6:06] and not fun to drive. Several participants noted that Tesla is [6:10] "cool" and that owning one communicates a symbolic message to others'. [6:15] As recently as a decade ago, electric cars were seen as pretty lame. [6:20] Their quietness and eco-credentials were the antithesis of the kind of vehicles [6:25] that were fetishized in the Fast & Furious franchise [6:28] or in games such as Gran Turismo, Forza and Grand Theft Auto. [6:33] Tesla's interventions in the market, however, have changed [6:36] all of this. Electric cars are now not only more widely available, [6:40] they're also seen as pretty cool. Of course, neither Elon Musk nor Tesla [6:45] invented the electric vehicle; their success lies in having changed the [6:49] popular perception of an already existing technology. And, [6:54] in this, Musk has more than a little in common with the original [6:57] automobile entrepreneur: Henry Ford. Similarly to Musk, Henry Ford did not [7:04] invent the car; cars had been sold commercially for more [7:07] than a decade prior to the founding of the Ford Motor Company [7:10] in 1903. Early automobiles, however, were expensive, hard to come by and often [7:17] highly unreliable. It was only with the launch of the Ford [7:20] Model T in 1908 that the motorcar became the middle [7:24] class's preferred means of transportation. [7:27] The Model T was not only more reliable but quicker and cheaper to produce, [7:32] thus meaning that there were more of them available and that they were [7:34] cheaper to buy. While innovations in the internal [7:38] engineering of the car likely also played a role, most of this was made [7:42] possible by the Ford company's innovations in the process of [7:46] manufacture. Ford used machines to ensure consistency [7:50] across parts and, rather than having one highly- [7:53] skilled technician assemble all the pieces together, broke the [7:57] assembly process down into individual tasks which could each be performed by a [8:02] worker who only needed to be trained in that [8:05] specific task. This method of manufacture would come to [8:09] be known as the 'Fordist model of production', and would [8:13] fundamentally alter how goods were produced to the world [8:17] over. There are further parallels with Musk and Tesla in the present day here, [8:21] too. Although it's not been entirely without [8:24] its problems, Musk has sought to automate as much of the car manufacturing process [8:29] as possible in order to similarly 'increase [8:32] manufacturing speed and drive down costs'. What's more instructive in our attempt [8:39] to understand the appeal of Muskian Futurism in the present [8:42] day than Ford's technical innovations, however, is [8:46] the broader cultural atmosphere of the time in which he was [8:51] working. [8:58] Two years after the Ford Motor Company began production of the Model T [9:02] in Detroit, the Italian poet Filippo Marinetti [9:06] wrote a short document called The Foundation [9:09] and Manifesto of Futurism. This manifesto, which was shortly [9:14] published on the front page of the french newspaper Le Figaro, [9:18] decried 'futile veneration for the past' and exhorted the reader to embrace [9:24] speed, light, creative destruction and, above all else, the possibilities of [9:30] the future yet to come. Marinetti's document set the stage for [9:34] an artistic and social movement known, as the title of the manifesto would [9:38] suggest, as Futurism. In his desire to break with the past and [9:43] look excitedly towards the future, however, [9:46] Marinetti also ably summed up what we might call the "spirit of the age". [9:51] For, human beings haven't always believed in the future. [9:55] Certainly, people have always known that each day, week, year and decade would be [10:00] followed by another. Nevertheless, the future hasn't always [10:03] been viewed as a realm of possibilities, and our journey towards it has not [10:08] always been viewed as a positive. The Christian faith, for instance, has [10:12] often seen the passage of time as a negative, [10:15] as a progressive journey away from the innocence of the garden of Eden [10:20] and the word of God. Across art, industry and politics, however, during the [10:26] early 20th century, the future came to be celebrated, [10:30] fetishized even. We can see this in the economic sphere, with industrialists such [10:35] as Ford racing to find ways of making goods [10:38] cheaper and of higher quality. We see it in the [10:41] cultural sphere, too. Following Marinetti, artists of all forms [10:46] and disciplines constantly published manifestos [10:49] detailing how they would tear up previous expectations of what art could [10:54] and should be. We see it in the political sphere, [10:57] in which followers of ideologies including communism, [11:00] fascism and even the dominant creeds of liberalism and capitalism [11:04] dreamt up new ways of structuring society. [11:08] Across each of these spheres, we see attempts to imagine [11:12] bold futures in which society is almost unrecognizable [11:17] from the present. All of this is detailed in Franco Birardi's 2011 book [11:22] After The Future, in which he christens the 20th century [11:26] 'the century that trusted in the future'. He writes that 'the 20th century is [11:31] pervaded by a religious belief in the future'. [11:35] This belief was perhaps put under some strain by the horrific consequences of [11:39] Fascism in Europe and of Stalinism in the Soviet Union. [11:43] Nevertheless, after the Second World War, it continued [11:46] on relatively unabated. One only has to think of the "space race", [11:50] at the heart of which was a utopian, futuristic vision of humanity conquering [11:55] the stars. Or, in the UK, Harold Wilson's [11:58] declaration that the country would embrace the 'white heat' of technology [12:02] and undergo a 'scientific revolution'. If such bold appeals to the future [12:08] existed throughout the 20th century, then, why is it that Elon Musk's proposals [12:13] often feel so unique in the present day? For, again, whatever we think of his [12:18] specific proposals, the unashamed manner in which Musk dares [12:23] to dream of a future which is on some level [12:26] different to the present day certainly stands out. And this clearly [12:31] says something about the way in which the future is [12:33] viewed elsewhere in our culture (or at least has been viewed until [12:38] recently). In order to understand why Muskian Futurism often seem so [12:43] unusual in the present, we therefore need to understand what [12:46] happened in the interim between the bold dreaming of the 20th [12:50] century and our present situation: what Birardi [12:55] refers to as 'the slow cancellation of the future'. [13:05] Starting in the late 1970s and early 1980s, [13:09] the undying belief in the future which dominated the 20th century [13:13] began to steadily decline. Perhaps this was the result of sheer exhaustion, [13:18] perhaps this was a result of the economic crises which dominated the [13:21] period. Either way, we can identify this fading [13:25] belief in the future as a realm of possibilities [13:28] most clearly in the political sphere. After her election as Prime Minister of [13:32] the United Kingdom in 1979, Margaret Thatcher soon became associated [13:36] with the slogan "There Is No Alternative". As [13:40] she, along with Ronald Reagan in the US, set about transforming society in line [13:46] with their neoliberal vision, they pushed hard on the idea that their [13:50] politics was not just one of many possible ways of governing [13:54] and organizing society, but that this was the [13:58] only logical way of doing so. This kind of [14:01] rhetorical flourish is certainly not unique to Thatcher, Reagan and other [14:05] supporters of neoliberal capitalism. Nevertheless, in this case, it gained [14:10] significant traction throughout society. This was compounded [14:14] in 1989, when the fall of the Berlin Wall led to [14:17] the dissolution of the Soviet Union and, with it, the most prominent [14:22] example of an alternative to capitalism. Whatever your views on capitalism, [14:27] Soviet-style communism or any ideological formation for that [14:30] matter, it should be possible to see that the absence of any actually- [14:35] existing alternative to the dominant ideology of a period [14:39] makes it far harder to imagine society being structured differently [14:43] in the future. Francis Fukuyama famously declared that the collapse of the Soviet [14:48] Union signaled "The End of History". He cited 'the total [14:52] exhaustion of viable systematic alternatives to Western [14:56] liberalism' as proof that the world had reached 'the [15:00] end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the [15:04] universalisation of Western liberal democracy [15:07] as the final form of human government'. In many ways, then, the end of history [15:14] also meant the end of the future. In contrast to the bold visions of the [15:18] early 20th century, the politics of the subsequent decades [15:23] thus became increasingly managerial. In the UK, US and [15:27] elsewhere, political parties rarely pitched radical [15:30] proposals for the future but, instead, merely sought to present [15:34] themselves as the least offensive candidates, as reliable [15:38] administrators of the present. In his 2014 book Ghosts of My Life, Mark [15:43] Fisher explores how this was mirrored in the cultural output of the era. [15:47] He points, for example, to a lack of innovation in popular music, [15:51] writing that 'it was through the mutations of popular music [15:54] that many of those of us who grew up in the 1960s, [15:58] 70s and 80s learned to measure the passage of cultural [16:02] time. But faced with 21st-century music, it is this very sense of future shock [16:08] which has disappeared'. Where the Futurists and other 20th- [16:12] century artists had constantly sought to tear up the perceived rules of their [16:17] various art forms, Fisher posits that the 21st-century [16:21] music scene was absent of any seismic event in which a [16:25] band or artist suddenly produced a new sound which [16:28] shook up expectations. In fact, in the late 2000s and early [16:32] 2010s, an active distrust in the future became [16:36] a central theme in english-language storytelling. [16:39] Black Mirror, for instance, works directly on the premise that [16:42] technologies which we might be tempted to view as enabling a more hopeful [16:46] future will actually be a corrupting force. More [16:50] concerningly, until very recently, young adult fiction [16:54] was dominated by dystopian futures in properties such as The Hunger Games [16:58] and Divergent. What does it say about a culture when [17:02] its most popular tales for children envisage a future in which young people [17:07] have to fight each other for their very survival? [17:10] If the 20th century was "the century that trusted in the future", [17:15] both Birardi and Fisher posit that the early 21st century [17:19] saw the future viewed either with skepticism or dread. [17:23] The world's coming to terms with the climate emergency and increasing [17:26] awareness that politicians were doing a little to combat [17:29] it likely also played a role here. What point was there in dreaming of the [17:34] future when the very planet on which we live [17:37] has a terminal diagnosis? In the past few years, however, this [17:41] bleakness and pessimism towards the future [17:44] has begun to come up against some opposition. [17:48] And, up there among its chief opponents has been [17:51] one Elon Musk. So, after more than a brief detour [18:03] through the history of perceptions of the future, [18:06] we find ourselves back in the present where I want to argue that the future [18:11] is making a bit of a comeback. And, this is interesting in relation to Birardi [18:16] and Fisher's work. For, both authors display some skepticism about the [18:20] younger generation (primarily millennials), with Fisher [18:24] writing that 'the assumption that the young are [18:27] automatically at the leading edge of cultural [18:30] change is now out of date'. Both predicted the pessimism of the 80s [18:35] 90s and 2000s continuing for some time and being [18:39] largely accepted by the generations growing up [18:42] within it. This, however, has not been the case, [18:46] with Musk being a prime example. Polling of UK residents by YouGov in the past [18:52] year found that 46 percent of millennials have a positive opinion of [18:56] Musk, in comparison to only 22 percent of gen [18:59] xers and 15 percent of baby boomers. Despite Musk himself [19:03] being 49, then, it seems to be millennials who are most [19:06] responsive to his futuristic vision. And, while I remain of the opinion [19:12] that Musk is relatively unique among other entrepreneurs [19:15] in his consistent articulation of genuinely bold visions of the future, [19:20] I think, in his gaining popularity primarily amongst millennials, [19:24] there are similarities between Musk and figures in other spheres [19:28] which hint at him being not so much a lone wolf than a symptom of a broader [19:32] cultural shift in popular perceptions of the future. In [19:37] particular, I think we can identify several parallels between Muskian [19:40] Futurism and a recent expansion of the political [19:44] imagination. On the left, figures such as Bernie [19:47] Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and "The Squad" [19:50] in the US and Jeremy Corbyn in the UK have also, [19:54] when not being millennials themselves, found support primarily among younger [19:58] generations and have also set about imagining bold [20:02] new visions for the future. Where the politics of the previous decade [20:06] accepted much of the existing dominant order and contented itself with [20:10] proposing minuscule changes to the status quo, [20:14] we've seen a resurgence of both politicians [20:16] and grassroots movements such as Black Lives Matter advocating for [20:20] comprehensive reform, guided by the belief that the future can [20:25] be better than, and fundamentally different to, the [20:28] present. I think that this context (and that of [20:31] the darker visions of the future offered by the contemporary political right [20:35] in the form of Donald Trump and the post-Brexit Conservative Party [20:39] is essential to understanding why Elon Musk has become such a revered figure [20:46] in the contemporary moment. I think, in many regards, his appeal lies less in his [20:51] specific proposals than in the more fundamental [20:54] fact that he answers a contemporary desire [20:57] to believe in the future again. We can propose countless reasons why this [21:01] desire might have re-emerged. I would place the financial crisis of [21:05] 2008's revelation that neoliberalism was not the perfect system that it had [21:10] presented itself as high up on that list. Whatever reason one [21:14] lands upon, however, what is evident is that people [21:18] (young people in particular) seem to want to trust in the future again. [21:22] And Elon Musk answers that call. What remains is to consider what the [21:28] ramifications of his vision might be. [21:36] For the most part, in this video, I've attempted to contextualize Muskian [21:40] Futurism to ask what its appeal is and what other [21:44] social, political, economic and cultural [21:47] movements it might have something in common with. I [21:50] want to end by making some observations about Musk's projects [21:54] themselves. A few weeks back, Musk posted a rendering of the plans for Central [21:59] Hall Station, one of the stops in the Las [22:02] Vegas Convention Center "Loop" tunnel system which, [22:06] according to an article by Mike Brown for Inverse, is [22:09] 'designed to take 4,400 attendees per hour in one of two directions over a distance [22:16] of nearly a mile'. The responses to Musk's tweet [22:20] were filled with people comparing it to other [22:23] forms of transportation. Many pointed out, for instance, that each [22:27] car can only take five passengers, with the proposed [22:31] minivan-type pods only being able to take twelve. When we [22:35] take into account the fact that most metro trains can carry more than [22:38] 1,000 people at any one time, the Loop system thus seems to be [22:43] a little bit lacking. Yet, I don't think this is a bug [22:48] but a feature. In a 2018 episode of Star Trek: Discovery, [22:52] Musk was mentioned as an example of an innovative pioneer. [22:56] Now, I've never actually watched an episode of Star Trek, [23:00] but the world of the show is, I'm told, relatively utopian. [23:04] In his book Four Futures, Peter Frase uses it as an example of a potential future [23:09] in which both scarcity and social hierarchy have been eliminated. [23:14] He writes that 'we could indeed call it a communist society, [23:19] in the sense that Marx used the term, a world run according to the principle [23:24] "from each according to their ability, to each according to their need"'. [23:28] I mean, I don't think anyone's under the impression that Musk is any form of [23:32] communist; although he did once claim to be a socialist and [23:36] he evidently has a deep understanding of Marx's work. [23:40] Nevertheless, I do think we can often fall into the trap [23:44] of assuming that Elon Musk's various projects [23:47] are about building a future in which, as in Star Trek, [23:51] we'll all share. When we see mock-ups of the Loop system or [23:55] hear of colonies on mars, we assume them to be intended to serve [23:59] everyone and appraise them on that basis. [24:02] I think this is a mistake. For, I don't think Muskian Futurism [24:06] is intended to serve everyone. I think the limited capacity of the Loop system [24:11] is a central feature. This is not a mass public transportation system, [24:17] this is a proposal for a series of gilded corridors [24:20] which enable elites such as Musk to get to their destinations quicker [24:24] and without having to mix with the rest of us. The colonies on mars, too, [24:29] are not a futuristic vision of new life for the many, [24:32] but a means for the few to escape the effects of the climate crisis. [24:37] Where the egalitarian mask of Muskian Futurism [24:40] slipped most obviously was in the announcement of the Cybertruck, [24:45] a bulletproof (supposedly) solar-powered electric pickup truck. [24:50] We often think of electric vehicles as being intended to stave off the climate [24:54] crisis (although whether they're the best means [24:56] of doing so is itself debatable). This vehicle, however, is not a vehicle [25:01] for stopping the coming of the end times, this is an early concept of a vehicle [25:07] for the end times. Speaking to Jay Leno about the [25:10] Cybertruck, Musk himself stated that 'we want to be a leader in apocalypse [25:15] technology'. This, then, is a vehicle for the elite to [25:18] traverse a world which is both ecologically devastated and in which [25:23] there is likely to be increasing hostility towards them. [25:27] So, to conclude, Musk's vision of the future [25:31] may be bold. Muskian Futurism may, on the surface, [25:34] fulfill a present desire to believe in the future again, [25:38] to imagine how human ingenuity might be harnessed in order to overcome the [25:42] problems of the present and to fundamentally reshape society. [25:47] The pressing question to ask of these projects, however, is, [25:50] to my mind, not what their logistical viability might be, [25:54] but who they're for. To argue that Musk's proposals do not solve the problems they [25:59] are intended to solve often leads down a path of forcing [26:02] people to make a choice between the future [26:04] and the present. And, things are not so binary. [26:08] A better future is possible. The challenge [26:12] lies in trying to articulate one that is as bold as that [26:16] offered by Elon Musk but is one in which we can [26:19] all share. [26:19] Thank you so much for watching this little broadcast that I put [26:25] together. If you've enjoyed it or found it [26:27] interesting in some way, then I would be super grateful if you'd consider sharing [26:31] with a friend or someone else you might think might get [26:33] something out of it. A massive thanks as always to Michael V [26:38] Brown, to J Fraser Cartwright, to Richard, to [26:41] Kaya Lau, to LaLomi, to David Brothers and [26:45] to Chris Brown for being signed up to the top tier of my Patreon. [26:49] Patreon support is massively useful in helping me [26:53] put together bits like this and to set aside the time to make these videos. [26:57] So, if you enjoy them and would like to help me make more, [27:01] as well as getting Early Access to my videos and to scripts and stuff, [27:05] then you can find out all about how to do so at patreon.com/tomnicholas. [27:08] Thank you so much for watching once again though, [27:12] and have a great week!