Whoa! I just had a moment of daydreaming and feeling into a rather disturbingly dystopian vision of a possible future.
Yeah, lots of vagueness in that sentence above. But plenty of visceral sensations.
What I saw just now was our nation some time in the not too distant future — say, a decade or two from now, in which, Elon, in his machinations of machinations and ability to trillionize his wealth in the shortest of times and at increasing rates of speed, had started a frenzy of women being not just a surrogate mother to his children — his DNA — but a surrogate parent as well.
And in so doing he created at first a ripple, then a boom and then an AI-political-cultural-economic machine of creating white Elon-DNA babies in the thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions. (And, of course, enough to more-than-populate Mars, even if the first handful of missions fail miserably.)
Of course, first within the US and, of course, to white mothers, and then to more and in other regions with mostly white ancestry, such as Europea and much of Russia.
There would be contracts, of course. Give and take. Do and receive. Receive and do. Agreements. Like in any contract.
This would be no pretense of love, no expectations of direct fatherhood responsibilities in the child’s life. No engagement, other than attending The annual Brothers & Sisters Musk conventions, regional clubs of his offspring and whatever other privileges would grow as they grew.
The surrogate mothers would need to be married for the duration of the child-raising years, of course, to men of acceptable DNA and ancestral lineage, intelligence, and whatever else Elon sought for the surrogate daddies of his children.
There would be agreements on how many children, if ANY other, the couple could have.
There would be compensation, of course: not the “I’m taking you to court” kind of money X-wives sometimes seek but no court-ordered child support — not because there wouldn’t be a need for it — I mean, Elon would have ample reasons and ample resources to ensure the best conditions for his legions of offspring, which would include financial comfort and support to the surrogate family — but because by then no court would have influence over him.
A more-than-reasonable-middle-class income would be provided to the parents: not just enough to “get by,” but enough to live well. And with all the new communities built for Elon baby-raising families, they’d have the best of the best housing, all at a favorable cost.
They would be able to relax about their Elon-child’s college funds, knowing plentiful college funds set aside and The Child would have priority status with any admissions department.
Later in life, the surrogate mother and contractual father, having given much–or all–of their “parent energy and time” to the Elon-babies, would not have more children to help them, as needed, in their elderhood; and thus would be compensated for life with more-than-comfortable retirement funds, and, as needed, the best-quality older-age assistance and environment in which to live.
Along with this life-long, you-got-things-covered compensation, there would be privilege and status, a privilege that would grow each year, with increasing benefit and status to the parents and child, to the (likely gated) communities where the parents moved, to the teachers who taught in school districts with higher numbers of Elon babies.
Status would grow as those not within the circle of the chosen — those with ancestry, DNA, AI-based screening for the traits and capacities He-lon The Great wanted, and didn’t want.
And the parents would gloat with the most sinful of glees: the belief that their life, their DNA, their essence, was more important than another’s. More privileged. More desired.
The Elon-child would know as well, for it would be in every cultural message he or she would see: I and my kind are apex, rulers, superior by dint of our DNA, our ancestry, our birth.
All other are not Us. Are less. They serve. They are worthy only in their ability to be of value to Us.
Thousands. A million. Legions. More.
Onward to Mars we go.
Update: The Wall Street Journal published this story today. (Gift article.)
Update
