Not for Sale
3 years, 3 months, 19 days
3 April 2026
The world’s super-rich may be able to buy almost anything, but they cannot buy their own immortality.
‘Whoever wins the Moon unlocks helium-3 energy, orbital compute infrastructure, and the economic foundation for Mars. The race isn’t to plant a flag… It’s to own the infrastructure that makes everything else possible.’
The quote is taken from this article, ‘The Moon Had It Coming’ published by Peter Diamandis three days ago on Substack, which was brought to my attention by a good friend who was understandably appalled to read it.
The title is distasteful enough, but consistent with the substance of the article which appears to celebrate the idea of technology-driven exploitation of the moon as if it was just another bit of real estate. But maybe no surprise given on his website Peter prominently displays a testimonial from Elon Musk.
It is quite beyond me why having done a good job of wrecking the most beautiful, and probably only habitable planet, anyone might now advocate heading out to impose humankind’s destruction on other parts of the solar system.
‘For billions of years it’s just been sitting there. No atmosphere. No life. No purpose beyond tugging on our tides and inspiring poets. Now it’s about to become the foundation for off-world civilization. Its soil will grow our food. Its mass will build our compute. Its orbit will be our highway.’ Says Peter.
No purpose, eh? I guess the dodo had no purpose for humanity either. So it was okay to make it extinct.
Fortunately the future that Peter suggests is as devoid of reality as it is of morality. Elon Musk and the world’s other super-rich may be able to buy almost anything, but they cannot buy their own immortality, and for that the Moon will be truly grateful.