Barnabas File

In his book a bout billionaire business man Elon Musk, author Ashlee Vance often compares Musk to Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) from the Marvel Comics universe.   To me, he seems much more like Delos D. Harriman, the protagonist of Robert Heinlein’s The Man Who Sold the Moon (1949).   Like Harriman, Musk is driven to take humanity into space and establish a permanent colony--not on the moon but on Mars.   Growing up in South Africa, Musk was not only a computer nerd but a voracious reader of science fiction.  During a difficult childhood, this literature was formative for Musk, shaping his worldview and his values. More of a physicist than a business man, Musk is a polymath who learns things quickly and has a vivid imagination.  He has used these skills to launch not only internet businesses like PayPal, but industrial companies such as SpaceX, a rocket builder; Tesla, an electric automobile manufacturer; and SolarCity, th...