If we look at history from the twentieth century, we learned that Fordism was more than just Henry Ford: he defined capitalism. Ford came and went, but the system stayed. According to ‘Muskism: A guide for the perplexed’, the new book by Ben Tarnoff and Quinn Slobodian, we are now going through a similar shift. Muskism captures a transformation in how power is exercised in the twenty-first century. A world in which public systems quietly give way to private ones. Tarnoff and Slobodian examine Elon Musk not as an individual, but as a system – one that promises sovereignty through technology.

This edition of Techdenkers explores Musk’s way of thinking and our growing dependency on his technologies. How does Musk’s faith in technology reshape politics and everyday life? What happens when communication, transport, and even space is organised by one single person? And how much democratic control remains when private systems begin to function like public ones?