Does Elon Musk Deserve A Nobel Prize? Some Think So
Originally published on EV Obsession.
Should Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk be given a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences? He has been having quite an impact on a number of important industries as of late, has he not?
And some of the Nobel Prize categories have become seemingly rather easy to win, haven’t they? After all, Barack Obama managed to win a Nobel Peace Prize after becoming president of the US after having done precisely nothing, other than be elected president. (Yes, I’m aware that different processes and institutions are involved in the selection of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences and the Peace Prize.)
Despite the somewhat caustic humor above, though, I actually do think a good case could be made that awarding Elon Musk with a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences would be justified. A fair number of people seem to be in agreement, as a Change.org petition is now making the rounds calling for exactly that.
The petition was apparently started by an Edward Tanas, of Calgary, Canada. Without further ado, here’s the text of the petition to the Swedish Nobel Prize Committee:
We, the signed, would like you, the Swedish Nobel Committee, to award Mr Elon Musk a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Mr Musk has spent most of his life helping not only to help the economics of transportation flourish with technological breakthroughs but has done so in a manner that addresses climate change.
His ventures into the production of electric cars. most recently the more affordable Tesla Model 3, which at the time of writing this petition has over 253,000 orders, has helped to reduce the impact on the environment by replacing internal combustion engine vehicles.
Biography
Elon Reeve Musk is an American entrepreneur, inventor and investor. He is best known for his role as CEO of electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors, and as co-founder of online money transfer system PayPal, and of commercial space program SpaceX.
Elon was born in South Africa, where he spent his childhood and adolescence. He was raised primarily by his father, who was an engineer. Elon became interested in computers at a young age and began programming in his teens. After high school, Elon emigrated to Canada, where he attended college, and later transferred to the University of Pennsylvania in the United States.
In 1995, Musk started a PhD in applied physics at Stanford University in California, but quickly dropped out to start his own company. He would go on to sell that company, called Zip2, to Compaq, for more than $300 million in 1999, of which he received $22 million. With that capital, Musk started X.com in 1999. It was an online banking site that later changed its name to PayPal. EBay purchased the company in 2002 for $1.5 billion in stock, of which $165 million went to Musk. That same year, he became an American citizen.
Flush from the PayPal sale, Musk looked to the heavens, and began SpaceX, a private, for profit space program. After a few false starts, the company began developing its own rockets. The company launched a landmark commercial spacecraft in 2009 and again in 2012.
While planning his assault upon the heavens, Musk took an interest in more terrestrial matters, specifically the way people get across the surface of the earth. After a major investment in 2004, Musk joined the board of Tesla Motors as its chairman. Also contributing as a product architect, he played a role in the designs of the cars Tesla was building. Following the 2008 financial crisis, Musk assumed the mantle of Tesla Motors CEO, a position he still holds today.
Beyond Tesla and SpaceX, Musk remains involved in a number of futuristic projects. He is connected with a high-speed transportation system called the Hyperloop. He has also been a proponent of a VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) supersonic jet aircraft.
We thank you for your patience in reading about his past accomplishments and various ventures which have benefited society and will continue to do so.
If you agree with the argument, you can head on over to the Change.org petition page.
Reprinted with permission.
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If he can pull off the objectives he’s publicly set himself with Tesla and SpaceX in his lifetime I’m not sure a nobel prize would be enough.
What is the name of the prize you get if you save mankind from extinction?
Nobel prizes for Economic Sciences go to theorists not tycoons. You could argue a case for Musk getting the Peace Prize. Obama did very little to win that in his first year as POTUS.
Right level, wrong award. You could make a stronger case for the Peace Prize: oil has helped many a war, up to and including the ISIS rebellion.
Nobels aren’t everything. The great Russian chemist Mendeleev, dicoverer of the periodic table, was denied the chemistry prize by Arrhenius, the founder of climate science but a petty man. But history puts them both in their rightful places in the pantheon.
Fully agree, the Nobel should be for peace, like in the case of the Nobel for Al Gore and the IPCC.
In terms of economy, AFAIK he didn’t find new economic theories, he just made a lot of money.
Musk figured out several vital things about the economy. They’re details — they don’t have general applicability — but if he hadn’t figured out these details, he would never have been so successful.
Two examples (there are more):
(1) Space rockets were using out-of-date electromechanical controls. Replacing these with electronic controls could cut the price massively while increasing the flexbility of the flight paths. For some reason the incumbent companies simply would not do it.
(2) Automobiles were using out-of-date internal combustion engines. Batteries and electric motors could make much more stable cars which drove much more smoothly with better acceleration, deceleration, and handling, as well as lower fuel costs. For some reason, the incumbent companies simply would not do it.
Identifying these ways in which incumbent firms were failing to optimize their profits, and failing to meet an *identified demand* — these were important economic discoveries. Specific economic discoveries. In microeconomics this sort of stuff is a big deal.
“Classical” microeconomics claims that this would never happen; “classical” microeconomics is bunk, of course. But non-classical microeconomics still doesn’t have great theories for this sort of stuff.
Watched that first stage rocket land on the barge yesterday – blows my mind that it’s possible, even with electronic controls – so much ocean, so little barge.
‘For some reason’… I imagine you have a list, but here’s mine:
Mustn’t shatter the illusion that twin shiny exhaust pipes are cool.
A low maintenance car is a disaster for their genuine spare parts business.
Department heads were in control – departments such as engine manufacture.
Friends in oil.
I’ll tell you in 4years
I think he should get peace Nobel prize because he helped in climate change issue from his pocket as he invest in 2008 and plan to get profit only in 2020.
Elon is in a fantastically productive phase now. Don’t risk destabilizing him! Prizes can wait.
Haha 🙂 He is extremely product at the moment. Launching rockets one minute, unveiling new cars the next…it’s quite a beautiful thing to behold.
Signed and shared on FB.
Although he gets my vote, I don’t see that a prize helps Musk achieve his goals faster. It would only stir up more controversy from those who cannot accept that the way we currently live is putting future generations at risk. Let sleeping dragons lie.
Musk did not make any thing that is new technology nor new discovery. What he did achieved is an implementation of EV that the world has admired and accepted. This doesn’t deserve any kind of STEM based Nobel Prize, however, what he has done, he has triggered the mass adoption of EV which can significantly help mitigate the global problem which is climate change and excessive emissions. For this, he should get a Nobel Prize for peace or other categories, but not with Science, Technology, Engineering nor Mathematics. It is too premature to give him such award, we should still have to experience the reality of mass EV adoption and see the global impacts of his trigger towards mass EV adoption. There is still a chance that EV’s may not be mass adopted, or other technologies taking over such as the hydrogen powered unicorn… Unless the global mass adoption of EV’s has been realized, Nobel Prize is premature!
When he ”has triggered the mass adoption of EV” by the time the biggest ever car makers companies didn’t want to do( check Toyota, Mercedes, GM, BMW, VW CEO’s press releases in 2008), i think he deserve Nobel prize.
It’s like saying Steve Jobs invented the Internet, the smart phone,
or the computer. This is indicative of a cult of personality.
Distinguish. Nobody has SFIK claimed that Jobs invented the computer and the Internet. He was the driving force behind the smartphone. Earlier on, the Apple was a significant part of the move to the personal computer, but the open IBM PC standard, the Intel microprocessor and the operating systems of Kildall and Gates were probably more important.
“He was the driving force behind the smartphone. ”
You see you are even doing it. You forgot about BlackBerry.
How about Alan Kay or Timothy John Berners-Lee?
I would give more credit to the nerdy engineers who developed the 3G and 4G standards. Without a packet switching network, no true smartphones.
Ironically Apple rarely supports international standards.
Thanks for reminding me of the days when you saw gangs of kids on every street corner mailing each other selfies from their Blackberries.
do you remember Apple’s Netwon, I though it had great potential.
Everybody laughed at it.
I don’t know about gang of kids, but Obama loves his BlackBerry.
Steve Jobs was a psychopath, he enjoyed seeing ordinary people in pain.
The complete opposite of a peaceful person.
“There is still a chance that EV’s may not be mass adopted”
Nope, economic advantage is there, still coming.
“hydrogen powered unicorn”
Well that says it all. Much higher cost of vehicle. Twice the fuel cost if electrolyzed H2 and same FF problems if not. Very expensive pumps and pipes, limited distribution network for H2.
And lack of unicorns!
A hydrogen fuel cell car is an electric car!
A very costly one, compared to BEVs.
Right, FCEVs are too expensive compared to BEVs. No real advantage.
The E in STEM is not for economics.
Elon Musk is more important than any president. Imo he should have his own secret service team to protect him, i think he is that important to this world. The model 3 is the most important car in recent times. This guy is a genius. I hope more people like him exist. the world needs more people like him. he is a great role model for students. just my opinion. he showed the world you can make electric cars fast, efficient and appealing.
There had been many worthwhile people attached to the EV industry well before Tesla helping pave its way. Most of the technology was already invented so, with just a few design changes and lots of money the Tesla got catapulted mostly through investment. Everything that has transpired in Tesla’s evolution had been discussed in office meeting fifteen years earlier when the rest of the World thought EV’s are foolish and would never work. So, due to Musk’s fortune the business got the proper send off! As for a Nobel prize frankly it just wouldn’t be appropriate. Anyway, Musk is off to a good start and now we can wait and see how the business actually sustains itself over time and fierce competition.
Yeh, he hasn’t done anything to push the tech edge out to market for EVs, home solar, or space travel. No risk to his fortune. Just some guy who got lucky. Right.
Oddly enough Elon Musk seems to have chased popular goals based on can do financially rather than well researched methods and alternatives. His quest for Solar power looked like more of a knee jerk reaction to a popular subject driven by sales and marketing rather than other means to a similar end. Example, Mini Wind Power is available also, with wind turbines outpacing solar Worldwide shows many he didn’t fully investigate other synergistic renewable energy products available.
“rather than well researched methods and alternatives”
Excuse me?! The guy is a second-to-none genius at picking the right technological solution, accounting for level of technological readiness and economic viability. Why do you think those companies are fielding such viable products?
“Knee jerk reaction” my foot. Mini Wind Power? Smaller turbines are much less economical. They don’t get high enough where the wind is faster (more power available). Power output is proportional to square or cube of wind speed. Think it’s the latter.
Larger turbine rotors allow harvest from greater cross-section of wind. More energy output at lower cost is result. Why do you think wind farms keep using ever larger wind turbine, instead of just building lots more small ones? Far better energy economics!
Also, smaller turbines kill more birds. Large turbines are not perfect that way, but kill a fraction of the birds small ones do. (Note: cats, cars, and building windows kill far more birds than wind turbines ever thought about.)
Musk has talked about going in and doing those renewable energy and interplanetary things that were not being done. Wind was already being done well.
Wind power definitely goes up with the cube of the velocity of the wind. It also goes up by the square of the diamater of the turbine, but think of the blades as levers. The longer the blades, the higher the forces, and the easier to destroy the turbine. The new big turbines have lots of sensors, and are computer controlled. The average size has grown to 2MW. Hub hights up to 155m
https://renewables.gepower.com/wind-energy/turbines/32-34.html
There is another factor. Scale. Solar farms install hundreds of thousands, or millions of solar pannels just like the ones you would put on your house, and wind fams install giant turbines nothing like one you could afford. Their market is small. They don’t have mass manufacturing, so their prices didn’t fall like solar.
Cube of velocity and square of diameter, got it. Thanks!
I’m a huge fan of Solar PV and think it will be more wide spread than wind, but my view on that has been tempered by others. Wind is now easily below 4c/kWh at good sites. It is cheaper than utility scale Solar PV, now going below 6c/kWh at good sites.
I agree with you that Solar PV is the cell phone of the power industry. It’s a mass produced item that can compete with retail electricity prices at the point of use: home or business. Same for battery storage coming now and that will obviously be linked to greater Solar PV use at homes/businesses.
I think we’ll have both Wind and Solar PV in large quantity. More of one in some areas, more of the other in other areas, depending on available resource. The market, effected by resource available which effects cost, will figure out which dominates where. imo
Having both is better than just one or the other. You get more wind in the winter, and more sun in the summer. No doubt some areas will have better solar or wind resources, so the mix will vary. Of course the cost of storage matters too. The cheaper it is, the more the price of production will matter, vs balance. I’ve read about solar farms which have more expensive concentrated solar with storage for use at night, combined with less expensive solar PV during the day.
I just don’t think small wind turbines will ever be important to the grid, but rooftop solar will. Commercial wind farms are a whole different story.
A mere trinket, I suspect he has his eye on much bigger fish. Is he allowed to lay claim to Mars if he is physically the first to arrive?
If we keep going the way we are (over-population, CO2, and other pollution) will there be anybody on Earth left to contest it?
What are these higher life form humans doing to plan for mega-volcanoes, major asteroid impacts, or global nuclear war? Poof!
Sure, he can claim it and nations can ignore his claim.
If he’s the only one with the spacecraft, he controls access to Mars, period. “Nations” have no say in the matter.
I don’t see that it makes any point that someone in the Swedish Academy decides that this work is noble enough to receive a prize. I’ve already got the prize. The prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out, the kick in the discovery, the observation that other people use it. Those are the real things. The honors are unreal to me. I don’t believe in honors.
– Richard Feynman
The biographys on Feynman are so amazing. What a character, and what a mind!
I loved all his biographies. I just found a BBC special from 1981 that I don’t think I’ve seen before. Going to check it out tonight: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x24gwgc_richard-feynman-the-pleasure-of-finding-things-out_news
People still believe in that oligarch-controlled Nobel Peace Prize publicity generation machine? After warmonger overspender Obummer got one, it was obviously revealed as a joke. Just let it go. Elon will deserve a LEGITIMATE award for his successful humanitarian enterprises. But first I think we should wait for electrification of vehicles or reliable stage 1 rocket landings…cutting down the cost of rockets with in-house development is one thing, but reliably re-using stage 1 rockets is a whole other level of industrial-age improvement.
Reliably of landing and re-using stage 1, 2, and 3 is what SpaceX is going for. They seem to be able to reliably land stage 1 on land already. Landing on their floating barge hasn’t been done yet. Level of re-use remains a large experimental question. Amazing stuff.
Elon Musk AND his companies teams of amazing people already deserve huge recognition for phenomenal contributions to the advance of technological capability in all three areas: Residential Solar PV deployment, EV deployment, and lower cost space launch.
The 1st stage landed nicely today on the barge. A bit off-center. I watched from three videos at once. And replayed one of the recordings. A significant moment in the history of homo sapiens.
If they gave out a Nobel Prize for marketing, give it to Elon. He is brilliant, he got 200,000+ people to pre-order a car which may take 2-3 years to get!
All while Tesla has spend $0.00 on advertising. Brilliant indeed.
Ferrari do not advertise either.
They just make brilliant cars.
Does Uber advertise?
We should just skip the whole Nobel thing and go straight to Sainthood! Of course there are a few little details like being Catholic and dead but I’m sure we can work that out. Anybody have the Pope’s email address? 🙂
I’m sure the Vatican accepts all credit cards.
Maybe.
First, let’s just help him find a wife…
He is too busy saving the world to have a wife.
Yep. That’s actually why his first wife divorced him, pretty much.
He made a choice of priorities, and his wife wasn’t a priority for him.
Why do you hate Musk so much you’d push a wife on him?
How silly, with so many worthy and courageous people the Green Religious would propose such a minor saint for canonization, without government give a ways paid for by taxpayers you could not sell a Tesla to any but the True Green Religious. They certainly are not economically viable. On second though I suppose if they gave a Nobel to the likes of Obama maybe Musk is really relatively deserving. It certainly would not be more silly.
Are you serious? I’m glad you ended up here as that increases the possibility that some of the wisdom and insights stick with you when you leave (you were planning to leave, right?).
However…I am at the same time, a bit distressed that you were so offended by the article above that you felt it warranted a piece of your time to step down from your mighty perch to grace us with your deep insights into the Lie (for it must be a lie!) that we have all bought into.
Any set of beliefs that does not admit empirical evidence is a religion. “Green at any cost is a religion”, not a modern or rational or measurable; just throw resources at a problem without any empirical measurement or consideration of cost or resources used. It is sure evidence of the silly when we recognize the left has brought us Obama as a Noble Laurent and now wants to anoint Musk.
So much of the Green Revolution is like a Cargo Cult in which we will have peace, work at a living wage, and prosperity when the big boat returns with the solar panels.
FACT – CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere are increasing as are other greenhouse gases.
FACT – Increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere cause the planet to warm
FACT – When the planet warms, ice on the surface melts
FACT – When ice on the surface melts and runs into the ocean, the ocean levels rise
FACT – When ocean levels rise, low lying lands are flooded, storms hit coasts harder, flood farther in.
FACT – Electric Vehicles emit less CO2 and other greenhouse gases than Internal combustion engine vehicles.
FACT – Electric cars can drive around using electricity generated from solar photovoltaic panels.
See nasa.gov for the details, facts, percentages, research, etc. You do trust NASA, don’t you? There is no value in generalizing…why are you talking about Obama? There is no anointing…we are talking about an award, not a canonization or sainthood. We are not talking about the entire “green revolution” here, just Musk getting an award. Solar panels are a cost savings…screw the planet, screw the big boat (not sure where you pulled that from) and all that…just do it because you like money.
FACT – Wind and Solar PV are the lowest cost electricity optoins.
FACT – BEVs are now becoming the lowest cost light transport vehicles.
Green is LOWEST COST OPTION!
Except green doesn’t make the koch brothers money.
” “Green at any cost is a religion” ”
“just throw resources at a problem without any empirical measurement or consideration of cost or resources used”
Sorry, you have this backwards. Wind is the lowest cost new source of electricity on the grid. Residential Solar PV electricity is now lower than end-of-grid (retail) electricity costs in many areas. EVs have always been cheaper to operate and maintain than ICEVs. Now vehicles like Tesla’s model 3 are beginning to beat ICEVs at the dealer door.
Wind, Solar PV, and EVs are all still dropping in cost. Clearly green is no longer “at any cost”. Green is the LOWER COST option for light truck and car transport …and this will be more and more true going forward.
The old way is dying. We can cook our meat with fire now. Now …who were you saying has a cult? Maybe it is you who have a fossil fuel cult?
What follows is some more proof of your Green ideas being a religion. From Newsweek not wind industry (religion) association.
“Over the past 35 years, wind energy – which supplied just 4.4% of US electricity in 2014 – has received US$30 billion in federal subsidies and grants. These subsidies shield people from the uncomfortable truth of just how much wind power actually costs and transfer money from average taxpayers to wealthy wind farm owners, many of which are units of foreign companies.
Financial advisory firm Lazard puts the cost of generating a megawatt-hour of electricity from wind at a range of $37 to $81. In reality, the true price tag is significantly higher.
This represents a waste of resources that could be better spent by taxpayers themselves. Even the supposed environmental gains of relying more on wind power are dubious because of its unreliability – it doesn’t always blow – meaning a stable backup power source must always be online to take over during periods of calm.”
Mr. Leitold, you’re such a fantasist that you don’t believe the hard, cold financial-analysis numbers from Lazard? Your religious beliefs cause you to reject the solid financial data and fantasize that the “true price tag is significantly higher”? You sound like the people who think the government is hiding evidence of space aliens.
Lazard is preparing reports for investors who care only about the almighty dollar. Their numbers are very trustworthy.
You are funny in an ironic sad sort of way.
Sure they should have never ever in a million years have given anything to Obama. Apparently they have publicly expressed regrets on doing so. Musk is no Obama though. Musk actually does things for humanity and in my opinion deserves sainthood and a nobel prize or three.
As for not being economically viable. Perhaps. If so then all luxury cars are not economically viable then. The tax credits merely help a few more people buy the vehicle. And since the car is so much better for our economy and health it more than makes up for the credit.
The credit may well be more expensive than its value to the economy; this point is central to my point. That is the value of the benefits if measured is less then their cost and only government subsidies and fervent hope and belief allow the product to be sold in significant numbers in the marketplace. A sort of government support of a religious like belief that the cars are “worth it” because they are “saving” the planet. —Maybe not, maybe they are on the margin a waste of resources.
It is hard to put a price on the value to the economy. However it is obviously a step in the right direction. Like renewable energy in general. It is becoming the next great “arms race” and most countries that are not backwards are trying their best to get off fossil fuels. Hence we have countries like China, India, and many countries in Europe doing what they can so they can be even more economically viable.
I agree we should not have tax credits but unfortunately it’s the world we live in. Politicians make more money talking to lobbyists than they do to the little people. Hence the reason we’ve had uneconomical fossil fuels and nuclear power around so long instead of wind and solar.
We have reached the point where holding back renewable energy is like holding back the pc revolution. BEVs are replacing ICE vehicles in much the same way as PCs replaced mainframes or ICE vehicles replaced horses 100 years ago. Would you have wanted to hobble our automotive industry and kept us with only horses? BEVs will become arguably cheaper than ICE vehicles like cars became arguably cheaper than horses.
Now if you think of a way of getting lobbyists out of our political system I’d like to know about it!
“The tax credits may well be more expensive than its value to the economy; this point is central to my points. ”
Well, bring the data.
1) How much do we pay each year for the health damage caused by vehicular fossil fuel emissions?
2) What is the likely cost of the EV subsidy program? (IIRC PHEVs don’t get as much subsidy as EVS but count against the 200k limit so don’t just multiply by $7k.)
Wow us with numbers and facts. The religious stuff is not interesting….
How about leaving your religious ranting out of your comments?
As for whether Tesla’s fate depends on the $7,000 federal subsidy, how do you explain that people are paying tens of thousands of dollar more for the upscale versions rather than everyone buying the least expensive version?
Do you really think $7k is a huge issue to people paying $100k for a car?
Use some common sense, man.
Most of us have been caught up swooning over sports cars while regarding EV makers as the vanguard of the environmentalists. Tesla is leading a crank to make people feel good driving their glam while telling us they’re virtuous. We also need EV’s for transport, farming and tradies.
There is a talented team at Tesla.
Musk is not even present 5 days per week at Tesla.
Some people are credit-hogs. Not saying Musk is, but there is JB Straubel, Mr Dalhousie, etc.
Maybe a joint award to the COO, CTO, CEO, and Dalhousie.
Musk has demonstrated that he’s the genius regarding marketing and economic decisions at Tesla. He may consider himself an engineer, but they have a lot of great engineers. Do they have a lot of great marketers? No, they’ve got Musk.
I think what Musk has done at PayPal, Tesla and SpaceX is to come to banking, car manufacturing and rocketry as an outsider and started not with “How do we fix the existing system” but with “In a perfect world how would this system operate”.
Take cars, with which we are most familiar. Cars would be run with electricity, not oil. Buyers wouldn’t get screwed around by dealerships. Manufacturers would fix their mistakes rapidly while minimizing the impact on the buyer. Battery manufacturing wouldn’t involve shipping materials and partially completed battery packs back and forth around the world.
The smartest thing that Musk has done is intentionally avoided the mistakes of those who have gone before him.
Nobel Prize, Sure! I was thinking of sainthood
I think they should make a documentary about Elon called “Who sold the electric car – to humanity” right after Tesla sells it’s millionth car.
I think he should go the route of Mr Burns from the Simpsons and make an award named after himself- The Annual Elon Musk Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence ….or, The Muskie for short. The actual award is a gold plated mini-Elon Musk sitting in a Tesla that is strapped to a rocket, all covered in solar panels.
What’s the status about this? If you know any Qualified Nominator please get in contact with them. Elon must have a Nobel Prize NOW!
Qualified Nominators
According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, a nomination is considered valid if it is submitted by a person who falls within one of the following categories:
• Members of national assemblies and governments of states
• Members of international courts
• University rectors; professors of social sciences, history, philosophy, law and theology; directors of peace research institutes and foreign policy institutes
• Persons who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
• Board members of organizations that have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
• Active and former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee; (proposals by members of the Committee to be submitted no later than at the first meeting of the Committee after February 1)
• Former advisers to the Norwegian Nobel Committee