The Meaning of Life 62
is to strive for greater collective enlightenment. That’s the
meaning of life.^51 This strive began in college. “When I was
at Penn, I started thinking about what would most affect
the future of humanity,” Elon said.^57
But why began Elon to think about these questions?
Maybe it was because he read science fiction books. Isaac
Asimov, one of Elon’s favorite authors, thought science
fiction will help you adjust to an ever changing world.
“Very few people realize that change is inevitable and that
it will occur more and more rapidly as time goes on,”
Asimov said. “So it’s absolutely essential to consider the
future in making our decisions... and to face that future
with daring and guts. I believe no amount of reading in
any field but science fiction is going to convince anyone of
the inevitability of change.”^455
We will see that many of Elon’s ideas can be traced
back to Asimov, but Elon also used his engineering skills
to dismiss several of Asimov’s ideas. For example, Asimov
was enthusiastic about the Space Shuttle, but Elon discov-
ered that the Space Shuttle was considerable worse than
the traditional rocket. Asimov thought that solar panels in
space could solve our energy problems, but Elon discovered
that it’s way better to have solar panels on the ground back
on Earth.
So the ideas began to form when the young Elon read
books. “I read a lot of science fiction as a kid and tried to
think about the future and the problems that needed to be
solved to make it a bright future,” he said.^66 Elon also talked
about his ideas with friends and dates. “Do you ever think