When Isaacson asked Musk later that day whether he thought he’d been too harsh with Hughes, Musk replied, “I give people hardcore feedback, mostly accurate, and I try not to do it in a way that’s ad hominem … Physics does not care about hurt feelings. It cares about whether you got the rocket right.”

Physics does not care about hurt feelings, and it also does not care about DEI standards. Musk’s hiring policy is as simple as it is effective: “I believe in a strict meritocracy. Whoever is doing great work, they get more responsibility. And that’s that.”

He worries that unchecked, “the woke-mind virus, which is fundamentally antiscience, antimerit, and antihuman in general,” could lead to civilizational decay and AI domination of the human race. In his words, which apply to the regulators and the critics, “Every year there are more referees and fewer doers.”

Musk is not perfect, and there are plenty of decisions to criticize, whether his bizarre family life, his Starlink refusal, or his sophomoric tokes and jokes. But perhaps, as Elon deadpanned on “Saturday Night Live,” it might be too much to expect that a man single-handedly transforming society would also be a “chill, normal dude.” If we end up on Mars, we’ll know who to thank.