Well, here it is (from Elon Musk: The World's Raddest Man | Wait But Why [ http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html ]):

%3E — I talked to him for a while about genetic reprogramming. He doesn’t buy the efficacy of typical anti-aging technology efforts, because he believes humans have general expiration dates, and no one fix can help that. He explained: “The whole system is collapsing. You don’t see someone who’s 90 years old and it’s like, they can run super fast but their eyesight is bad. The whole system is shutting down. In order to change that in a serious way, you need to reprogram the genetics or replace every cell in the body.” Now with anyone else—literally anyone else—I would shrug and agree, since he made a good point. But this was Elon Musk, and Elon Musk fixes shit for humanity. So what did I do? Me: Well…but isn’t this important enough to try? Is this something you’d ever turn your attention to? Elon: The thing is that all the geneticists have agreed not to reprogram human DNA. So you have to fight not a technical battle but a moral battle.

Elon Musk's view on reprogramming the genetics of every cell in the body is well-rooted in Jan Vijg's book "Aging in the Genome". Ultimately, Jan Vijg argues that the adverse effects associated with genetic drift may ultimately be the limiting factor to human lifespan, as mutations that lead to "genetic mosaicism" from cell to cell ultimately result in increased stochasticity in gene expression that cannot be targeted in the way that, say, distinct patterns of protein damage can be targeted. This view is quoted below:

%3E Unlike cancer, aging is not a clonal phenomenon, but reflects a divergence from a common differentiated lineage towards a mosaic of cells, differing from each other in the frequency and location of the scars of aging. The assumption of SENS is that the types of damage are very similar in all cells of a given tissue and can be specifically targeted

%3E If a significant part of the adverse effects associated with aging is the consequence of random alterations in the information content of the genome, corrective intervention would be impossible, or at the very least subject to enormous complications. In contrast to chemical or cellular damage, which share the basic features suitable for therapeutic targeting, random genome alteration creates (epi)genetically different cells, a situation that cannot be easily reversed. In the absence of turnover from an immutable template, altered genomes can also not be liquidated as in protein repair. Hence, every individual cell would now be genetically different and would need individual ‘treatment’ to correct its mutation load. In principle, such correction would be very similar to current attempts at gene therapy: through the use of vectors transferring the correct piece of DNA sequence into the sick cell to replace the mutated fragment. Editing genes to correct defects has made great strides, but it is unlikely that we will ever be able to correct the collection of random mutations in our genome that result from natural wear and tear. Indeed, it is entirely reasonable to assume that stochastic alterations in the information content of the genome are essentially irreversible. If this proves to be the main underlying cause of aging SENS would have a problem because its strategy ignores the need to correct genomic errors as a potential source of cellular malfunction.

Ultimately, Elon Musk doesn't seem to want to live forever. See Why Elon Musk doesn't want to live forever [ http://www.businessinsider.com/why-elon-musk-doesnt-want-to-live-forever-2015-10 ]

%3E "I’m not actually a huge proponent of longevity," Musk replied. "I do think that having a good life for longer is better — we want to address things that can happen to you when you're old, like dementia, that's important — but I don't know, I definitely don't want to live forever."

Musk’s plastic surgery and hair transplant therapy would suggest his support for anti-ageing technologies.

Anti- Aging research, backed by Peter Thiel (Paypal co-founder, + funded or created unaccountable innovative start-ups) & "friend" of Elon Musk.

Following text copy-pasted from wikipedia:

* When asked ”What is the biggest achievement that you haven’t achieved yet?” by the moderator of a discussion panel at the Venture Alpha West 2014 conference, Thiel replied, “Certainly, the area that I’m very passionate about is trying to do something to really get some progress on the anti-aging [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-aging ] and longevity front,” describing it as ”a massively under-studied, under-invested phenomena.”[38] [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel#cite_note-Reilly2014-38 ]

* In September 2006, Thiel announced that he would donate $3.5 million to foster anti-aging research through the Methuselah Mouse Prize [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah_Mouse_Prize ] foundation.[39] [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel#cite_note-39 ] He gave the following reasons for his pledge: "Rapid advances in biological science foretell of a treasure trove of discoveries this century, including dramatically improved health and longevity for all. I’m backing Dr. [Aubrey] de Grey [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_de_Grey ], because I believe that his revolutionary approach to aging research will accelerate this process, allowing many people alive today to enjoy radically longer and healthier lives for themselves and their loved ones." The Thiel Foundation supports the research of the SENS Research Foundation [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SENS_Foundation ], headed by Dr. de Grey, that is working to achieve the reversal of biological aging [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senescence ]. The Thiel Foundation also supports the work of anti-aging researcher Cynthia Kenyon [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynthia_Kenyon ]. The SENS Research Foundation was invited as a participant in Thiel's Breakthrough Philanthropy conference (November 2010) and the Fast Forward conference (December 2011). * The SENS Research Foundation (The foundation's stated goal is to "transform the way the world researches and treats age-related disease.”)

From https://futurism.com/elon-musk-immortality-tech-dangerous:

“It is important for us to die because most of the time people don’t change their mind, they just die,” Musk said at the event. “If you live forever, we might become a very ossified society where new ideas cannot succeed.”

Musk also added that he’s “not aware of any secret technology to combat aging.”

1995 — Applied to Netscape for a job and got rejected

1996 — Was forced out of his CEO position from his own company Zip2

1998 — Struggled to make PayPal succeed

1999 — Almost died when he crashed his $1M Mclaren F1

2000 — Was kicked out of Paypal while on his honeymoon

2000 — Got sick with malaria

2001 — Russia refused to sell him a rocket

2006 — First SpaceX rocket launched failed

2007 — Second SpaceX rocket failed

2008 — Third SpaceX rocket failed with NASA satellites onboard!

2009 — Tesla almost went bankrupt.

2013 — First rocket landing failed

2014 — Several Tesla Model S caught on fire

2015 — Four rocket landings failed

2016 — Model X deliveries delayed over a year

2016 — 300M Facebook satellite rocket launch exploded

2018 — Broke the internet when he took a puff of cannabis on a live show.

2018 — The SEC filed a lawsuit against Musk

2019 — Model 3 deliveries were delayed

2020 — TESLA stock became the most shorted stock in history

To answer your question, what do I like about Elon Musk?

I admire this man’s courage and relentless character.

While most of his critics would shrink before small obstacles in life, we can't deny that this man has proven to be an unstoppable genius of our era!

I only spent the one afternoon with him, at a Model S launch event, but was struck by a few things:

* He’s a much more imposing presence than TV appearances suggest - I was surprised at just how tall and portly (yes, I mean he looked quite fat) he was. He’s a seriously big guy, and I must admit I was a pretty intimidated by him. * He has a real nervous energy about him - He has a fast walking pace, wanted to get things done quickly, and you could see he was always thinking ahead, not wanting even idle time to go to waste (eg. while being introduced to go on stage, he was simultaneously listening to the speaker while answering emails on his phone) * He comes across quite cold - not unpleasant, just direct, polite and with no airs or pretences. While speaking with a small team of us, he answered our questions sincerely, but when someone asked what he obviously considered a dumb question, he didn’t hide the fact that he thought so. What was most striking was how these personal qualities are mirrored by the overall Tesla Motors corporate culture. He has a very no-nonsense, direct, “get shit done” persona, and that’s exactly what the vibe is at the company.

Ill have to disagree with everyone here and say yes, he is overrated.

Why?

Well let’s start in the beginning, Zip2, his first company. This company was started with US$28,000 from Errol Musk, Elon’s father, soooo…to start he was born in a pretty rich family, in his biography it is said that his family had the biggest house in the neighborhood where they lived in Pretoria so…yeah.

This doesn’t prove Elon doesn’t have value, just because you where born in a rich family doesn’t mean you’re rich-trash…but I rant, let me get back to the point.

Zip2, this company had a prety good premise, they got maps of the city of Palo Alto from Navteq, Elon convinced them to give him the maps for free, adn then they added the adresses of various companies to this said map, so imagine a primitive version of google maps.

Elon was 28 at the time, so he made a fortune at a very young age, awesome, but he didn’t stop there.

He then created X.com, which sounds like a porn site but was actually an online banking company, pay attention to the word banking, it wasn’t an online payment system, just to be clear.

To make a long story short, there was another company that was doing something of the sort,Confinity which later became Paypal, after some competition the two companies merged and formed Paypal, so technically Paypal wasn’t even his idea.

Most people have the tendency, like Yugal Jain here, to say Elon created Paypal, let me just say that the biggest force behind Paypal’s sucess was probably the CTO at the time, Max Levchin, not Elon.

Actually Elon was constantly trowing tantrums because he wanted to be CEO but investors didn’t want him to, he doesn’t really know how to play along if he’s not the one calling the shots…

So Paypal had it’s IPO in 2002 and it generated US$61 million.

Sometime after it’s IPO Elon left Paypal.

He then started Tesla…wait…no he didn’t.

Martin Eberhard started Tesla, Elon just led the investment rounds and was part of the board of directors but Eberhard remained the CEO of the company.

In 2008 Musk became the CEO and laid off 25% of the company.This guy loves to be the CEO!

Moving forward, Elon then start’s SpaceX, his most ambitious venture yet.

SpaceX is set to revolutionize space travel has we know it! Because it can build it’s rockets with 320 times less money than NASA!! OMG!! Amazing!!

Yeah well…kinda.

Altough this is an amazing achievment it’s not really revolutionizing space travels by means of engineering, there’s no huge improvement in motors or technology really…you know why??

Because SpaceX doesn’t take care of R&D, they just use NASA’s patents, that why they can build cheaper spacecraft’s, all the costy work is done.

If you read carefully through is biography you can see that Elon is focused,determined, good willed ( but he can be the biggest jackass in the face of the planet), and smart, but he’s not even close to a genius, he’s more of a businessman than engineer.

He uses the same materials everyone does, he just get’s them cheaper, he doesn’t bring any technical advancements to the table, he get’s really smart people to do the hard brainy work, so he doesn’t have to.

So yeah, the guy’s smart, but most of it is just what the media wants to portray, and some people just eat it up.

Yes he is . And I am not just talking about how smart he is like the rest of the answers . I'm very basic so I usually stick to looks when looking at a guy, when I first saw him boy did I get hot. After I found out who he was it was even better. Hot plus a billionaire genius. It's a real life tony Stark.

Just look at him and tell me he isn't pretty.

Elon,if you're reading this you should totally DM me.

I find it mind-boggling that anyone is questioning this, particularly those implying that because he has hired women as figureheads, that makes him a feminist. The man has been repeatedly confronted, in court, for not correcting a hostile work environment at his company where there’s pervasive sexual harassment and a huge gender pay gap, as well as a lot of examples of homophobic and racist bullying. His first wife spoke out out extensively and articulately about what she endured in that marriage. He cracks childish jokes about sex and refers to himself unabashedly as an “alpha male”. He made a belittling “sexbot” comment about another accomplished and successful ex on Twitter, and didn’t follow a single woman there until he was criticized for it. He attended a well-known (and mercilessly mocked among queer and feminist BDSM circles) heteronormative Silicon Valley sex party, thrown by a known serial abuser, where women were being treated as party favors. Yes, in my informed opinion, this man is a brilliant, flawed, empathy-challenged individual who regularly does, and says, dehumanizing things concerning women.

We learn that:

* When you see a problem, you don’t complain about it, instead you try to find a way and solve it. * You don’t just dream big, but you wake up and work hard (really hard) to achieve it. * You don’t just think about yourself, you care for the causes which affects the nature and the future of human beings. * You do what needs to be done, not what is easy, nor what is normal. * You don’t give up when you fail, you try to find out what went wrong, you learn from your mistakes and come back stronger. * You don’t lose confidence when things are not going your way and you stay humble while you are on the peak of success. * You learn that it is possible to teach yourself rocket science. * And you never forget to be cool…