Last week, Elon Musk and the beginnings of a goatee appeared at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, to announce SpaceX’s plan to colonize Mars. It was a surreal event, in part because a billionaire genius outlined his strategy to build an alternative civilization on another planet within the next 100 years, but also because many members of the audience seemed wholly prepared to die on the project’s first mission (a requirement of applying to participate, according to Musk).
Things got weirder during the Q&A session after the presentation. "Everybody give it up for Elon, please! This guy inspires the shit out of us!" an audience member who’d approached the microphone yelled, as if he were a superfan at a Comic-Con panel. (He had brought a comic book titled The Future of Fusion for Musk as a gift.) "On behalf of all the ladies, can I go upstairs and give you a kiss — a good luck kiss?" another person asked, earning a wave of howls. After an audience member started rambling about how there was no efficient way to dispose of human shit at Burning Man, which he pointed out is kind of like Mars, Musk attempted to discourage the crowd’s thirst: "No essays, only questions," he said sternly.
Not since Steve Jobs has a tech entrepreneur ignited such unabashed fandom. Musk hasn’t just interested the public, he’s created a following. Rather than appealing to a sliver of tech-savvy Bay Area residents and early adopters, his pursuits in renewable energy and space travel have earned him a reputation that spans across continents and generations. And as his SpaceX projects have gained more publicity, his admirers have begun to organize online.
Over the past couple of years, a number of unofficial fan clubs honoring the world’s premier futurist have surfaced on the internet. Followers often discuss Musk-related news on Tesla Motors’ website forums, and there’s a 6,600-member Google Plus group that’s dedicated to "getting the REAL Elon Musk more active on Google Plus." But, by far the most dedicated "Musketeer" (as they call themselves) community is on LinkedIn. The 13,300-member forum was started just under two years ago by Atul Veer, CEO of an India-based startup called Humanize Labs. It almost immediately became a spot for admirers to post updates on Musk’s businesses, share their favorite interviews, and display the occasional piece of fan art. Often, Musk fans will brainstorm ways they can help contribute to the entrepreneur’s vision, whether individually or as a group. And the base is still growing, attracting anywhere from 20 to 30 requests to join a day from locations as varied as Australia, New Zealand, Poland, and Spain, according to Ray Suchow, a 50-year-old educator and writer who helps moderate the group.
"I’ve never in my 47 years of living experience … come across someone that captivates our humanity the way Elon Musk does," Paula Mellon, a government-relations renewable energy consultant, told me. Mellon comoderates the forum alongside Veer and Suchow. She spends most of her work breaks on her phone, checking for Musk news. She follows his Twitter feed closely, has Google alerts set for his companies — Tesla Motors, Tesla Energy, OpenAI, SpaceX, and SolarCity — and occasionally Googles his name just to be thorough.
Whenever Musk makes an announcement like last week’s SpaceX announcement, Mellon tends to remind the LinkedIn group, then switches over to Facebook Messenger or Viber to geek out with her fellow fan club members while watching the event in real time. "You cannot be a friend of mine unless you like Elon Musk," said Mellon.
Equally enthralled by Musk, Suchow counts himself among Mellon’s friends. He fondly recalls a time when a group of members spent about three hours discussing the ideal location for a South American space port. After consulting geography, economy, and latitude, they determined that a small island off the coast of Brazil would be best.
"It was a beautiful thread," he said.
Perhaps most telling of Musk fans’ dedication, however, is that many of them would willingly risk their lives to be part of SpaceX’s first trip to Mars. "There’s a long line of us," said Hector Bordas, a 58-year-old engineer at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works who posts at least once a week on the forum. His reasoning, he said, can be summed up by a poster at his desk that features a quote by gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson: "Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow! What a Ride!’"
Though not everyone in the group is as psyched about being part of Musk’s interplanetary mission, Mellon admits that a good portion of its members are delighted by the prospect of dedicating themselves to a higher purpose, whether that translates into purchasing a Tesla or attempting to start a community of 1 million on Mars.
"Those who religiously follow Elon Musk have to have a certain element of madness and craziness in [their] personality," she said. "Sometimes I’ve even said, ‘I don’t even care even if I die on impact!’ The things that he aspires to, his core values, and his missions make you want to do these crazy things. Fear never comes into us. You feel so alive. It’s like a dopamine effect."
