The most realistic approach to terraforming mars I have ever read was a scientific paper in Analog suggesting that about a thousand times the peak Cold War arsenal of the US and USSR could be dropped on the caps, and hopefully within the thousand-year window of extremely marginally atmospheric atmosphere, someone might figure out how to retain it before it wafts away on the solar wind.

I'm something dumb like 150 hours into Surviving Mars. It's my kind of anthill. But there's a lot of hand-wavey tech.

I still hunt up Mars One swag from time to time.

Anyway, I know you already know all of that. It's a pity to see what's happening to Musk.

You know what? I had this conversation just today. SpaceX exists because Musk went to Roscosmos to find out what it would cost to hitch a ride to LEO and they gave him the fuck-you price. So he spent ten years and hundreds of millions of dollars reverse-engineering the Korolev Design Bureau. I think it's fuckin' hilarious that I was the only kid in a four-state radius who knew what grid fins were because I grokked Soviet nukes. I think it's more fuckin' hilarious that the only outfits to use grid fins are Soviet ballistic missiles and SpaceX.

I want you to imagine it's 1998. You're the CIA. And you just found out that an eccentric South African millionaire is trying to buy ICBMs from the former Soviet Union. How many case officers do you think were up Elon Musk's ass from the jump?

Edwin Land effectively disappeared from the public eye right about the time of Sputnik because Eisenhower said "Ed, we need you." Muthafucka went deep black for the rest of his life, designing the most gonzo batshit cameras ever seen by nobody. Howard Hughes was mentally ill, addicted to painkillers and on a downward paranoid spiral and still managed to steal a wrecked Soviet submarine.

SpaceX has never added up. Tesla has never added up. SolarCity has never added up. Musk is, by all accounts, a truly mediocre man whose principle life advantage is getting lucky. What has the United States government gained through the success of Elon Musk?

- massive investment and adoption of electric vehicles

- a viable alternative to the United Launch Alliance

- Global, undisruptable internet

- A jump start in renewable energy

The thing is? Elon Musk is a phony, and has never really given a shit about being a phony. He just wants the world to think he's a genius. And I think the more vital the various arms of Musk Inc. have become, the less actual control he has, and I think that fucking bugs him. And I think the fact that his luck has been extremely fortuitous to the interests of American foreign policy explains a lot as to how we got here.