Musk is ruthless. He really is. He is also extremely logical, well beyond what normal people are used to. He does not shy away from his analyses, no matter where that takes him.
Its an optimization problem in fact. Musk wants children, a legacy, presumably of exceptional people who can carry on what I think is a very science-fictional big-picture of human species strategy - see Hermann Oberth, Willy Ley, Freeman Dyson, Gerard O’Neill. This really is what he’s about, he thinks big. Imagine a “Civilization” player dealing in real life.
Child rearing outcomes are a random dice throw. One can improve the outcomes somewhat through mate selection and child-rearing investment, but that is extremely costly if the investment is the time of a unique genius.
So a better strategy is to simply throw more dice, keep the mate selection to the extent that it doesn’t take too much time, and only invest such time in personal child rearing as happens to occur. Increasing his birthrate is much less work. Its interesting that he’s carrying little X around to meetings actually. Maybe he’s trying to make his limited time serve double duty.
Just trying to explain a possibly rational, outcome-maximizing mindset. A science fiction writer could write such a character, easy-peasy.
“ Musk wants children, a legacy, presumably of exceptional people who can carry on what I think is a very science-fictional big-picture of human species strategy -”
That’s pretty creepy.
As a long-time sci-fi fan, I agree with your assessment. It would make a good premise for a fascinating story.
But it's scary to imagine someone putting those Heinleinesque concepts into actual practice.
Regards,