There is no shortage of books about Elon Musk. Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff focus on Musk as a symptom.

Just over a century ago, Henry Ford published his autobiography, My Life and Work. Shortly afterwards, the term ‘Fordism’ was coined. It referred to much more than simply the principle developed by the American industrialist of rolling standardised car models off the production line in endless streams. Fordism stood for industrialisation in general, mass production, mass consumption and, in a broader sense, for the capitalism that would come to characterise the twentieth century. One man had brought forth a new form of common sense.

Muskism

Just as Fordism was the ‘operating system’ of the last century, so‘Muskism’could become the operating system of the twenty-first century. That is the provocative premise of the recently published Muskism. In their introduction, authors Quinn Slobodian, professor of international history at Boston University, and Ben Tarnoff, a journalist who writes for publications including The New York Times and The Guardian, make it clear from the outset that they do not wish to focus on Elon Musk the man. They want to explore what the tech pioneer is a symptom of: Musk as the embodiment of a worldview.

Sovereignty

Whereas Fordism promised a rising standard of living (a car on every doorstep and a fridge in every kitchen!), ‘Muskism’ is all about sovereignty. The means to achieve that tantalising prospect is technology. For with the rockets, cars and satellites that Musk sells, he also peddles the idea that countries and individuals in this increasingly unstable world can strengthen their independence with the help of his infrastructure. ‘The paradox is that you become dependent on him as soon as you do that,’ write the authors. ‘What is sold as “technosovereignty” is access to Musk’s walled garden, to which he holds the key.’

A factory without people

In that walled garden, the authors argue, the role of humans is becoming increasingly marginalised. Musk has already spoken openly of an ‘alien dreadnought’ – a factory without people. Lithium and other raw materials extracted autonomously are transported to factories by a fleet of robots. There, they are unloaded automatically, after which robots turn them into batteries, which are then used to power the autonomous vehicles and robots. In this vision, the factory is no longer a means of production, but the world itself. ‘This was electric autonomy in a fully automated form,’ the authors argue, ‘but it raised a bigger question: autonomy for whom?’

In this worldview, humanity is relegated to the sidelines. That is the ultimate consequence of ‘Musksism’: that humanity is no longer the subject of history, but its discarded foundation. The product is no longer a car or a robot, but a fully autonomous infrastructure.

Debugging governments

Although the authors claim that their focus is not on the man himself, they cannot avoid discussing Musk’s words and deeds. They do so largely in chronological order: from his early years in South Africa, through his first steps as an entrepreneur, to the successful years of Tesla and SpaceX, and the controversial months as President Donald Trump’s close aide, when, as the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), he set about overhauling the civil service. Governments are ‘just computers’, Musk said at the time, ‘big dumb machines’ that were poorly configured and needed to be debugged.

A Guide for the Bewildered

To understand the world Musk wants to build, we must understand the worlds that have shaped him, the authors explain. It is impressive that they manage to do this in such a way that the reader never feels they are holding yet another biography. Translator Inge Pieters also deserves great praise for this.

A guide ‘for the bewildered’, reads the subtitle the authors gave the book. Anyone who was not yet bewildered by the Musk phenomenon will certainly be so after reading this compelling argument.

Muskism. A guide for the bewildered

Quinn Slobodian & Ben Tarnoff | 270 pages | €22.99 | e-book €12.99