Featured Image Credit: Chip Somodevilla / Staff / Getty
Does anyone remember when Elon Musk referred to himself as a 3,000-year-old time-traveling vampire alien?
Well, the truth might not be far away from it, as some seemingly spooky coincidences surrounding the tech mogul are slowly becoming true.
Has he gone full Biff Tannen Back to the Future and amassed his wealth with knowledge of the future?
After all, his prediction that the internet and social media will mark the end of traditional media is becoming truer by the day.
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He's also predicted all transport will be autonomous in the next 50 years, which is slowly becoming a reality as he pushes his full Full Self-Driving Tesla vehicles.
Now, a resurfaced excerpt from a 1953 German manuscript has raised a few eyebrows, especially due to the mention of 'Elon' as a potential savior of the human race. Over on X, the account @SpaceSudoer pointed to 1952's Das Marsprojekt, which was released in English as The Mars Project in 1953.
The original author was rocket physicist, astronautics engineer, and space architect Wernher von Braun, with Henry J. White translating the original text. The manuscript has been dug out of the archives to prove that Wernher von Braun had written the future leader of Mars would be called Elon.
Das Marsprojekt is considered "the most influential book on planning human missions to Mars", with Mark Wade writing for Encyclopedia Astronautica in 2016: "What is astonishing is that von Braun's scenario is still valid today."
There are several shortcomings in von Braun's work, namely because we'd never visited Mars when he wrote Das Marsprojekt. Discoveries like the density of the Martian atmosphere and the Van Allen radiation belts require some tweaking, although a lot of his theories still stack up. As for the mysterious Elon, the resurfaced manuscript has grabbed the attention of the man himself.
Musk has grand plans to get a million people to Mars in hopes of colonizing it as an alternative to Earth, and although critics have speculated there will be 'catastrophic' mass death, the SpaceX CEO remains undeterred.
Posting the excerpt on X, Musk wrote: "How can this be real?"
He went on to joke: "No matter how often I tell people that I’m a 5000-year-old alien time traveler, they don’t believe me 😂."
Others were equally spooked at why the obscure name 'Elon' is popping up in a 1952 book. Someone else mused: "The simulation reveals itself in hilarious ways."
Another added, "This isn't your first run through the Matrix," and a third said, "That settles it. Elon is from Mars and is just trying to get home. 'Elon Phone Home'.
Others were drawn to von Braun's past, and with his links to helping develop rocket technology in Nazi Germany, now might not be the best time to go posting about him. Musk has recently found himself embroiled in accusations that he performed a 'Nazi salute' at President Trump's inauguration, with political groups even projecting 'Heil Tesla' on the side of a Tesla factory in Berlin.
In reality, Elon's father, Errol, has previously admitted that he named his son after von Braun's book. There we go, mystery solved.
