Summary

In Chapter 5, entitled “Off-world Colony,” O’Connell discusses ideas related to space travel. O’Connell begins by discussing Elon Musk, a billionaire and the founder of a private aerospace company called SpaceX. O’Connell despises Musk in part because his business practices are often exploitative of workers. O’Connell also fears that companies like SpaceX may ensure that space travel is restricted to use by a small group of wealthy individuals. Similar to Thiel’s plans of making a large apocalypse plan in New Zealand, O’Connell points out how wealthy people’s plans to ‘colonize’ other planets—most immediately, Mars—are inherently selfish and shortsighted. O’Connell points out that Mars’ environment is completely inhospitable to human life, and that it would be much easier to simply find ways of living sustainably on Earth.

Moreover, O’Connell points out that the rhetoric surrounding...