“I want to die on Mars; just not on impact.”–Elon Musk

Mr. Musk

No. Really.  This is The Future This Week.  It only seems like Elon Musk This Week.  Indeed, there is at least one twitter account dedicated exclusively to Elon Musk news.   If forced to make a prediction, I’d say there will be enough material for a 24/7 Elon Musk cable news channel by next year.  When it comes to inventing the future, nobody tops Elon.   Tesla, SpaceX, Solar City, Neuralink, Hyperloop One (OK, that last one isn’t his company, but hyperloop is his idea).  You get the idea.   He’s all over the place;  with some of this stuff he might actually be successful.  Like Babe Ruth, he may set a home run record but strike out a lot in the process.

Tesla/SpaceX/Musk news–

• According to an article in Next Big Future, Elon Musk’s projected net worth would make him the richest man in the world by 2025.  That assumes more home runs than strikeouts.
• SpaceX announced it’s hiring for hundreds of new positions.   Sorry, Mr. Trump, “unskilled factory worker previously displaced by China or Mexico” is not among them.
  

  Tesla’s peak of inflated expectations

• Tesla’s has made only one measly quarter of profit in its history, but its market cap passed Ford last week.   Forbes Magazine was not impressed.       UPDATE: Just minutes after this episode of The Future This Week posted, several sources reported that Tesla has now also passed GM to become the biggest US auto maker by market capitalization.     There’s not much mystery as to where that lands it on the Gartner Hype Cycle.   Can you say “peak of inflated expectations?”

Robotics–

• Disney filed a patent for “soft” robots which apparently are designed to interact with visitors to their theme parks.  Yes, that does sound a creepy bit like Westworld.
• Dozens of robots–along with their student creators–descended on Las Vegas for a first annual regional robotics competition.   When do you think the robots will attend these events by themselves?  Or maybe come with the students that they created?

Biometrics–

• Several sources reported that the U.S. border patrol is trying to build face-reading drones.   And you thought web browser history was your only government snooping privacy concern.
• Samsung’s new Galaxy S8 unveiled a variety of biometric security options, including iris and facial recognition.   Almost immediately, reports of hacking the face recognition using a simple picture of the user, hit the net.  Does it have sneer recognition?

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