Elon Musk and Civil Defense
His First Principles Methodology can be Applied to Civil Defense
NOTE: Kiko Dontchev, VP of Launch at Space X (full name: Space Exploration Technologies) explains Elon Musk’s First Principles methodology here.
An event in outer space greater than the first moon landing by the astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins on July 20, 1969 on the Apollo 11 mission just took place as humans for the first time exited the SpaceX space craft Dragon on the Polaris Dawn mission about 870 miles above the earth, but the world barely noticed this history changing event. Maybe the thermonuclear World War III threats between the U.S./NATO and Russia taking place at the same time are to blame.
Regardless, the first commercial spacewalk ever was completed by SpaceX and the Polaris Dawn crew on 9/12/2024. This fact changes everything, including civil defense. Like a fetus being born from its mothers womb, Jared Isaacson emerged from the Dragon spacecraft and took humanity to a new future.
He was followed by Sarah “Cooper” Gillis, Mission Specialist on the SpaceX Polaris Dawn Dragon spacecraft and the Lead Space Operations Engineer at SpaceX. She made the worlds second commercial space walk on 9/12/2024 and you can see it here.
Elon Musk as the Godfather of Interplanetary Travel
As an intellectual framework, I will be borrowing from the most accomplished father of 10 children, inventor, engineer, investor, businessman, space visionary, auto manufacturer, tunnel builder, Neuralink healing, AI Grok, high-speed Internet satellite manufacturer and launcher, philanthropist, and good human I have ever known from afar…Elon Musk.
Benjamin Franklin, Entrepreneur, Innovator, Businessman, and Humanitarian
I grew up in Philadelphia, used to visit the Franklin Institute and the Franklin Museum as a child, and like Elon Musk, attended the University of Pennsylvania, founded by him. Most know Ben Franklin helped draft the Declaration of Independence, was an inventor, philosopher. diplomat, scientist, politician, printer and publisher, founder of the University of Pennsylvania, delegate to the Constitutional Convention, patriot, philanthropist, naturalist, engineer, etc. but many forget he was also a businessman, like Elon Musk. What Benjamin Franklin was to the founding of the United States in the 1700’s, Elon Must is to the continuation of the United States in the 2000’s.
Like Elon Musk, Benjamin Franklin was an entrepreneur, innovator, businessman, and humanitarian who revolutionized the United States of America and the world. When I asked Grok AI to name the businesses Ben Franklin created, it replied:
Benjamin Franklin was a prolific entrepreneur and innovator, and he was involved in the creation or establishment of several businesses and institutions. Here are some of the notable ones:
Printing Business - Franklin started his career in printing. He bought the Pennsylvania Gazette and turned it into one of the colonies' most successful newspapers.
Poor Richard's Almanack - Although not a business in the traditional sense, Franklin published this almanac which became very popular and profitable, containing weather predictions, puzzles, and his famous aphorisms.
Library Company of Philadelphia - Franklin founded this in 1731, which was America's first successful lending library, effectively creating a business model for public libraries.
Fire Department - He helped establish the Union Fire Company, one of the first volunteer fire companies in America, which could be seen as a precursor to modern fire departments.
Insurance - Franklin helped start the Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire, which was the first property insurance company in America.
University of Pennsylvania - Although not a business, Franklin was instrumental in its founding, which was initially known as the Academy of Philadelphia. This could be considered an educational enterprise.
Post Office - Franklin was appointed as the first Postmaster General of the United States and was instrumental in developing the postal system, which could be seen as a public service but also had business aspects.
Stove Design - Franklin invented the Franklin stove, which was more efficient than existing stoves. While he didn't patent it, he certainly could have profited from its manufacture and sale had he chosen to.
Glass armonica - He invented this musical instrument, which, although not a business venture directly, could have been commercialized.
Junto - While more of a club, the Junto (or "Leather Apron Club") was a group Franklin formed for mutual improvement, which led to many business and civic improvements in Philadelphia.
These endeavors show Franklin's diverse interests and his entrepreneurial spirit, blending business acumen with community service and scientific curiosity. Remember, Franklin often pursued these projects not just for profit but to improve society, though many had clear business implications or could have been commercialized further.
The same could be said about Elon Musk and his businesses. And it is that creative methodology, mastered by Benjamin Franklin and Elon Musk, I intend to use to make American tactical civil defense relevant now, and in the next century.
The Long-Term Future of American Tactical Civil Defense
Here I will present the case that rather than looking back to the civil defense most are familiar with, that of the 1950’s and 1960’s, we need to redefine it, recreate it, rework it, to make it relevant to the 2030’s, 2040’s, and 2050’s.
This delusion is because most people buy the Hollywood lie in all its nuclear war movies that in a thermonuclear war only 10% will survive. In truth, 90% of humans will survive a full thermonuclear war. If you love your family, you need to get the skill stack that protects you from all threat vectors that are under the broad categories of manmade and natural disasters, not just nuclear war.
For the majority of Americans, civil defense is something in the past. If they think of civil defense at all, they laugh knowingly, mock videos from the 1960’s of children diving below school desks or basement civil defense shelter in preparation of nuclear war. They dismiss civil defense as a misguided program to prepare for a nuclear war that will never happen. They believe that even if it does happen, what is the use of preparing as you will die.
But civil defense is a much broader discipline than merely preparing for nuclear war. It is the study of all manmade and natural disasters and how to train up to be able to protect yourself and your family before, during, and after they occur. I have been thinking about this for years. Here is an interview I did in 2020 that hit these themes.
Elon Musk’s First Principles Applied to Civil Defense
According to Grok AI: Elon Musk's approach to problem-solving and innovation is often described through the concept of First Principles Thinking. Here's a breakdown of what this means.
First Principles Thinking: This method involves breaking down complex problems into their most basic elements, or "first principles," to understand them at their fundamental level rather than relying on analogies or assumptions.
The Elon Musk First Principles Thinking process can be broken down as follows:
Identify and Define the Problem: Clearly articulate what you're trying to solve or understand.
Break It Down: Deconstruct the problem into its fundamental principles. What are the basic truths or laws that govern this area?
Challenge Assumptions: Instead of accepting conventional wisdom or industry norms, question everything. What are others assuming that might not be true?
Reassemble with New Insights: Using these fundamental truths, build up from scratch to create new solutions or innovations.
Example: When Elon Musk was developing SpaceX, he didn't just look at the cost of existing rockets and scale that down. Instead, he broke down the cost of a rocket to its raw materials (like aluminum, carbon fiber, and electronics) and then calculated how much it would cost to buy those materials on the open market. This approach led him to conclude that rockets could be made much cheaper than they were, challenging the established pricing in the aerospace industry.
Application: Musk applies this method across all his ventures, from Tesla's battery technology to Neuralink's brain-computer interfaces, always starting with the basics and reimagining what's possible without the constraints of current paradigms.
This method enables innovation by stripping away layers of accepted but unexamined knowledge, leading to breakthroughs that might be overlooked by those who think within the confines of existing frameworks.
Now, how does Elon Musk’s first principles thinking apply to American tactical civil defense? Bigly! Let’s break it down.
Identify and Define the Problem: Clearly articulate what you're trying to solve or understand.
Natural (floods, fires, snowstorms, thunderstorms, etc.) and manmade disasters (high fructose corn syrup and sugar rather than fresh nutritious food in most “foods” in groceries, horrific covid experimental death and long-term illnesses due to that injection, “lockdowns” that prevent you from making a living and providing for and feeding our family, etc.) happen. These events threaten the life and safety of you and your family. They are many, but can you can identify and define them as they relate to you and your family.
Break It Down: Deconstruct the problem into its fundamental principles. What are the basic truths or laws that govern this area? Figure out the natural and manmade threats that threaten you and your family’s survival. Continuing to consume unhealthy food and drink such as soda, cakes, frozen foods, etc. that are loaded with high fructose corn syrup, sugar, harmful chemicals and other poisons that keep us from being healthy, what are those foods and why are they so unhealthy for me? What alternative healthy and nutritious foods are available to avoid this manmade disaster? One fundamental principal could be: Any food from the farm is good for me. Any food manufactured at a factory not good for me.
Challenge Assumptions: Instead of accepting conventional wisdom or industry norms, question everything. What are others assuming that might not be true? Everyday, the vast majority of Americans shop for groceries in stores where 85% of the products contain high fructose corn syrup, sugar, harmful chemicals, and do not provide enough nutrition to maintain their bodies in a healthy condition. Yet, billions in advertising enables them to accept the conventional wisdom or industry norms to indulge in unhealthy eating habits. This is a catastrophic assumption that results in 42% of Americans being obese and 10% being medically obese.
Reassemble with New Insights: Using these fundamental truths, build up from scratch to create new solutions or innovations. Awake and aware now to the life-threatening dangers of eating unhealthy foods to daily health and happiness, change your diet to rely on more healthy foods that are good for your health and immune system. Substitute meat, fruits, and vegetables for snacks, candy, cake, soda, frozen foods, and fast foods. Only shop at farm markets and meat markets for healthy, nutritious foods right from the farm, daily, orchard, or ranch.
In the 1960’s, only 13% of Americans were considered obese. But there has been a steady increase since then until now it is 42%. Biologically, we have not changed. What has changed is our diet.
If we apply the Elon Musk first principles methodology to our obesity crisis in the U.S., we have a chance of survival. If we do not change our eating habits dramatically, we have no chance of survival. As the first principle of American tactical civil defense is survival. then healthy, athletic, fit, lean, muscular Americans will be necessary if we are to continue as a viable nation.
Fitness, vigor, athleticism, health, and American tactical civil defense are interdependent. Let’s get it done in a back to the future way.
We are returning humans to outer space. Why not work on our interior space and motivate ourselves to be fit enough we rely on ourselves to stay healthy and can ignore a health and food systems that have turned on us?
NOTE: Civil defense is as old as recorded history, and certainly found throughout the Old and New Testament. The Bible has so many lessons for developing a spiritual, practical, and real skill stack to learn civil defense. I cannot go into here as it is to large a topic. But I encourage you to explore the Bible and read it for all the skills it recommends to successfully prepare your family for natural and manmade disasters.
P.S. I want to personally thank Elon Musk for showing wisdom and courage under enormous pressure to prevent World War III. In September 2023, Ukraine asked for the activation of Starlink satellites over Crimea to attack Russian naval vessels located at the port of Sevastopol. He denied the request, citing concerns that Russia would respond with a nuclear attack. If only our political “leaders” who are actively trying to start WWIII had such wisdom and courage.
P.S.S. As RFK Jr. says, Make America Healthy Again.
