Elon Musk , the CEO ofSpaceX , Tesla , and otherlarger - than - sprightliness tech ship’s company , somehow also seems to find sentence toread .
Musk has enunciate that study a variety of books — from epic body of work of phantasy like the " Lord of the Rings " trilogy to complex how - to script on building rockets — is crucial to his success .
We looked through Musk ’s past interview and social mass medium history to come up with a tilt of 12 Quran the billionaire entrepreneur thinks everyone should read .
Take a expression below .
" The Lord of the Rings " by J.R.R. Tolkien
Musk had a cognomen when he was a shrimpy , saucy - mouthed kid growing up in South Africa : Muskrat .
The New Yorkerreported in 2009that " in his forlornness , he read a lot of fantasy and scientific discipline fable . "
Those books — notably " The Lord of the Rings " by J.R.R. Tolkien — mould Musk ’s vision of his future self .
" The heroes of the books I read … always feel a duty to save the world,“he told The New Yorker .
For those who ’ve already study the books and insure the movies but are still hurting for more Middle Earth , Amazon recently declare a " Lord of the Rings " TV series .
" The Hitchhiker ’s Guide to the Galaxy " by Douglas Adams
In this comedic sci - fi book , a supercomputer finds the " answer " to a meaningful life : the number 42 .
To Musk , who record this as a young stripling in South Africa , the book was implemental to his thought process . He was so in love with it , in fact , that when helaunched his Tesla Roadster into outer space in February , he put the Scripture " Do n’t Panic ! " — which embellish the covering fire of some early version of the record — on the car ’s snapper screen .
When askedin a 2015 interviewabout his favorite spaceship from science fable , he say , " I ’d have to say that would be the one in ' The Hitchhiker ’s Guide to the Galaxy ' that ’s powered by the improbability private road . "
" Benjamin Franklin : An American Life " by Walter Isaacson
Musk has repeatedly described Benjamin Franklin , one of the US ' found Fathers and an accomplished discoverer , as one of his heroes .
Franklin was one of the first to prove that lightning is electricity in his famous kite experiment , which direct to the invention of the lightning rod . He ’s also credit with contrive bifocals : drinking glass with two discrete optic lens .
In this life history of Franklin , " you’re able to see how he was an entrepreneur,“Musk said in an interview with Foundation , a platform for nonprofits ferment on climate - change issue . " He was an enterpriser . He begin from nothing . He was just a runaway kid . "
Musk added : " Franklin ’s pretty awing . "
" social structure : Or Why Things Do n’t settle Down " by J.E. Gordon
When Musk embark on SpaceX , he was coming from a tantalize background knowledge . But he took it upon himself to check the bedrock of rocket science .
One of the Bible that helped him was " Structures : Or Why thing Do n’t Fall Down , " a popular take on geomorphologic engineering by J.E. Gordon , a British material scientist .
" It is really , really good if you desire a fuze on structural designing , " Musksaid in an audience with KCRW , a southerly California radio place .
Because of his interest in rocket mechanics , Musk make intimately involved with the planning and design of SpaceX ’s Falcon Heavy skyrocket . He has attend to as the main designer at SpaceX as well as CEO .
" The reason I end up being the chief technologist or foreman room decorator was not because I wanted to — it ’s because I could n’t hire anyone ; nobody good would fall in , " Musk say during a talk last year about howhe planstocolonize Mars .
" Ignition : An loose History of Liquid Rocket Propellants " by John D. Clark
In Musk ’s seeking to learn and master complicated subjects , " inflammation " was crucial in helping him get a hold on rocket , he said .
John D. Clark was an American pill pusher who was active in the ontogeny of rocket salad fuels in the 1960s and 70s . The Scripture is an accounting of the growth of the field and an explanation of how the science work .
Musk took the Bible ’s deterrent example to heart when he was wreak on SpaceX ’s Falcon Heavy rocket system . SpaceX usedcryogenically cool off RP-1 , a character of kerosene used in jets , and liquid O to combust the fuel used to launch the rocket .
" Superintelligence : Paths , Dangers , Strategies " by Nick Bostrom
Musk has repeatedly warned against the danger of unchecked hokey intelligence .
" We need to be super careful with AI,“he twirp in 2014 , adding that it ’s " potentially more dangerous than nukes . "
In a documentary about artificial intelligence foretell " Do You Trust This data processor ? " Musk saidAI could be used to createan " immortal authoritarian from which we could never escape . "
He added : " We are rapidly heading towards digital superintelligence that far outmatch any human being . I think it ’s very obvious . "
To find out why these risks are so scary , Musk says it ’s deserving reading Nick Bostrom ’s " Superintelligence , " which makes the daring inquiry into what would happen if computational intelligence surpassed human intelligence .
" Our Final Invention " by James Barrat
" Our Final Invention " yield still more warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence . Musk called the account book " desirable read " in a 2014 tweet .
Barrat takes a close face at the possible future of AI , weigh the advantages and disadvantages .
Barratsays on his websitethat the book is at least partially " about AI ’s catastrophic downside , one you ’ll never hear about from Google , Apple , IBM , and DARPA . "
Musk agrees .
" AI does n’t have to be malign to destroy humanity — if AI has a end and human beings just happens in the agency , it will destroy manhood as a thing of course without even think about it , no gruelling feelings , " he saidin a documentary about contrived intelligence .
The " Foundation " trilogy by Isaac Asimov
In addition to the " Lord of the Rings " books , Isaac Asimov ’s " Foundation " series made up part of Musk ’s early interest in science fable and fantasy .
The book center on the fall of the fictitious Galactic Empire , which consists of trillion of planets settle by humanity across the Milky Way galaxy .
The stories may have had a huge influence on Musk ’s calling trajectory . Here ’s what he state about the serial in a2013 consultation with The Guardian :
" The lessons of history would suggest that civilizations move in cycles . you could track that back quite far — the Babylonians , the Sumerians , follow by the Egyptians , the Romans , China .
" We ’re evidently in a very up cycle right now , and hopefully that remains the shell . But it may not . There could be some serial of upshot that make that applied science level to decline .
" Given that this is the first time in 4.5 billion eld where it ’s been possible for humanity to extend life story beyond Earth , it seems like we ’d be wise to roleplay while the window was unresolved and not count on the fact it will be subject a prospicient sentence . "
" The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress " by Robert Heinlein
This honor - winning scientific discipline - fable novel , put out in 1966 , paints a picture of a dystopia not too far in the future . It ’s precisely the kind of vivid phantasy creation that would satisfy an active imagination like Musk ’s .
In the book , several people have been exiled from Earth to the lunar month , where they have created a libertarian society .
In the year 2076 , a mathematical group of rebels — including a supercomputer named Mike and a one - arm computer technician — leads the lunar colony ’s revolution against its worldly concern - bind rulers .
In aninterview at an MIT symposiumin 2014 , Musk said the book was Heinlein ’s beneficial body of work .
" sprightliness 3.0 : Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence " by Max Tegmark
If you ’re feel a theme among the Quran on this leaning , it ’s that Musk is really into exploring the hereafter of artificial intelligence .
In " sprightliness 3.0 , " the MIT professor Max Tegmark write about how to keep unreal intelligence beneficial for human life-time and assure that technological progress remains align with human race ’s goals for the future .
It ’s one of the few Quran Musk recommends that deal with the possible action of AI as a force-out for expert rather than evil .
" merchant of Doubt " by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway
" Merchants of doubtfulness " — now also a documentary film — was written by two historians of science .
They make the case that scientists with political and manufacture connection have blot out the facts surrounding a serial of public - wellness issues , including tobacco , pesticide use , and hole in the ozone layer .
Musk recommended the Quran at a conference in 2013 and laterpointed to the book ’s cardinal takeout in a tweet , say that the same forces that deny that smoking caused cancer were denying the risk of climate modification .
' Einstein : His Life and Universe ' by Walter Isaacson
Musk is a big lover of Walter Isaacson ’s life history .
In a2012 interview , Musk recommended Isaacson ’s biography of Albert Einstein , a humankind who left a profound mark on skill and human history .
The Word is establish on Einstein ’s personal letters and explores how he locomote from a young , frustrated patent policeman to a Nobel Prize winner .
It ’s a story that likely inspired Musk .
scan next on Business Insider : This veteran NASA astronaut wore SpaceX and Boeing ’s new spacesuit — here ’s what she thinks of them
