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I’m going to interrogate four objectives I have seen either mentioned more than once from Elon Musk or indicated by his action as desirable outcomes for America’s future and ponder what sort of future do they together create. Now, this is not either a praising of Musk and his action nor is it a condemnation of this. That is a large and volatile subject in a landscape filled with landmines of unquestioned admiration and devotion and an equal number of outright hatred that is ill-suited for this exploration. This is not about Elon the man but simply these four concepts and what they might produce if fully implemented. So, I am not interested at this time in either how great the man is for his advances in space exploration nor how terrible he is for his personal beliefs and political powers.

1. Natalism: Musk has and continues to expound on the idea that the falling birthrate in the USA is an existential crisis, one that should not be ‘corrected’ by immigration but by more people having larger families.
2. No Welfare State: His action as the head of ‘DOGE’ as well as his continuing comments and support for those restricting the size and scope of government make it clear that he envisions a government that acts very little in the way of spending money on social support for people either domestically or abroad.
3. A Market and Economy with very little government action or oversight: He also clearly believes that companies and the people that run them know best for economic growth, with little to no regulation from the government both in terms of what companies can do and the accumulation of wealth by individuals.
4. Robotics and Artificial Intelligence: Musk is firm in his belief that artificial intelligence, A.I., will soon create machine minds that exceed human capabilities in logic and creative problem solving leading to exponential growth in knowledge and capability. He is equally convinced that humanoid and non-humanoid robots will soon be cheap and plentiful freeing humanity from menial labors.

Looking at these 4 ideas and advancements, what sort of science-fiction world-building can we engage in. The world I see is not a very pleasant one save for the very rich.

There is a large and growing population as families expand in an economy where labor has been displaced by robots. Without something like a Universal Basic Income, which by many is seen as merely stealing from the rich to give to the poor, these families are left with little to no economic chances for growth, trapped in poverty. They will live in poverty and in a likely ecological ruin, a weak and emasculated government will not have the power to prevent corporations, ever seeking to expand, from polluting and spoiling the environment.

There will be little chance for peaceful change to the system as unlimited accumulation of wealth by the few creates unlimited political power by the few. Those with wealth and power will be the ones with the ability to steer the course of public discourse and the direction of governmental powers, a feedback loop of self-reinforcing wealth and political power creation that excludes the growing, starving, and sick masses. This looks pretty dystopic to me. I am sure that there are those out there who will feel that this is nothing more than doomsaying and a thinly disguised hatred for Musk. They may point out that in 1890, 90 percent of Americans were engaged in agriculture and by the late 20th century it was a mere 2 percent, so the fears of robotic displaced labor is overblown. However, in 1890 one could, and many did, see that the factories of the day would be the engines that drove the economy of tomorrow. What is the equivalent of the ‘factories’ in that economy where AI and robots can do nearly any job that humans can? What is that sliver of capability that humanity possesses which robots do not that can be employed by masses of people for economic gain? An ‘I don’t know’ but it will be there is magical thinking and not world-building.