I love what Elon Musk just did! He launched the world’s largest rocket into space and returned two of the three boosters to land vertical so they can be reused. Unfortunately the third missed its landing platform, but no one has been able to return and reuse boosters before except the SpaceX team.

But this is not what I love the most.

In the capsule, on top of the rocket, he launched his personal red Tesla convertible with “Spaceman” at the wheel. Elon is a fan of David Bowie’s music and dressed a mannequin in a space suit and placed it in the driver’s seat, with its right hand on the wheel and its left arm resting on the window ledge. During the launch and for 6 hours, Bowie’s music played through the Tesla’s audio system until the battery went dead.

This man is not only a visionary entrepreneur, but one with a sense of humor. Fortunately he has been blessed with the ability and foresight to not only amass a fortune but to use it to finance his visions to advance technology, and hopefully the human condition for the future. I love it!

Throughout human history, a few people either by accident or by design, through thought and scientific discovery, have allowed the human race to advance our living experience to what we have today.

Someone somewhere thousands of years ago discovered how to use and reproduce fire for a better survival. Ancient civilizations in North Africa envisioned great cities, buildings, and giant burial tombs, and their engineers and builders figured out how to actualize them. A few dreamers and wise persons envisioned a better life and ethics for their citizens. They then designed and built wonderful structures to house their advancements throughout the Mediterranean Sea region.

Then there were a few of what I would call geniuses throughout the Middle Ages that advanced art and science despite the ignorance of current religious beliefs. Think Michelangelo and Galileo, to mention a couple. And in the past few hundred years or so there have been Darwin, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Tesla, Edison, Henry Ford, the Wright Brothers, Madame Currie, Einstein, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates, and thousands of others that arguably have advanced our definition of civilization and our use of science and technology for the common good.

I have to have the faith the many brilliant minds, dreamers, and those with a vision of the future needs of civilization will muddle through to produce a better world despite the road blocks placed by the ignorant officials in power in the United States today.

But for the time being, hurrah for Elon Musk and the advances he is actualizing with vision, brilliance, and humor.

Ken Kaiyala
2-8-2018