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Elon Musk wants to shape the future. How did science fiction shape him?

Jill Lepore continues untangling the strange sci-fi roots of Elon Musk and Silicon Valley's extreme capitalism, with its extravagant, existential and extra-terrestrial techno-libertarianism. Many of the origins of those seemingly futuristic ideas lie in science fiction, some of it a century old.

Musk is reinventing himself as a kingmaker for the United States and the world. He wants to shape the future. But in this episode, Lepore goes back to his past - to his childhood and family history. As a boy growing up in apartheid South Africa, Musk developed a fascination with science fiction - especially Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. One of Musk’s grandfathers was the leader of a strange sci-fi inspired movement known as Technocracy. Technocrats found democracy in adequate to modernity, and wanted engineers and scientists to run governments. Lepore argues Technocracy bears an uncanny resemblance to some things going on today in Silicon Valley and Washington today: from de-regulation of the economy to the rise of crypto-currency.

Jill Lepore is the Kemper Professor of American History at Harvard University and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She’s also a staff writer at The New Yorker and an acclaimed author.

Series Producer: Viv Jones
Researchers: Simon Leek, Oliver Riskin-Kutz, Thomas Farmer
Editors: Richard Vadon, Hugh Levinson
Sound design and mix: James Beard, Graham Puddifoot
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
Original music by Corntuth
Production Coordinators: Jack Young, Maria Ogundele