by cdrummbks
There has been a meme going around comparing Elon Musk to Tony Stark. But the comparison is only superficial, in my opinion.
Elon Musk is the embodiment of a classic science fiction trope – the capitalist who moves us into space. But he seems to be following one in particular.
Robert Heinlein wrote about one such capitalist who was the first to create private exploration of space. This man – Delos Harriman – is discussed in in several classic Heinlein works, in particular The Man Who Sold the Moon and Requiem.
The former describes how Harriman put together the first private explanation exploration of the Moon and the latter describes subsequent events.
But there is more of a resemblance than just an entrepreneur trying to become the first successful private user of space. There is also the dreams each man has.
Harriman wanted to die and be buried on the Moon. Elon Musk has said the same thing, only with regard to Mars.
I hope he qets his wish. And, I think it would be amazing if he had the same epitaph that Harriman had – Robert Louis Stevenson’s great work, Requiem:
UNDER the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie:
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.This be the verse you ‘grave for me:
Here he lies where he long’d to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
I get tears in my eyes everytime I read that, mainly because of Heinlein’s wonderful works.
A Man With A Ph.D. 