12 EPILOGUE

12 后记

ELON MUSK IS A BODY THAT REMAINS VERY MUCH IN MOTION.

埃隆·马斯克依旧马不停蹄。

By the time this book reaches your hands, it's quite possible that Musk and SpaceX will have managed to land a rocket on a barge at sea or back on a launchpad in Florida. Tesla Motors may have unveiled some of the special features of the Model X. Musk could have formally declared war on the artificial intelligence machines coming to life inside of Google's data centers. Who knows?

当你看到这本书时，马斯克和SpaceX很可能已经成功地使一枚火箭降落在海上平台，或是佛罗里达的发射台；特斯拉可能又发布了Model X的一些特殊功能；马斯克也许已经正式向Google资料中心研发的人工智能机器人宣战。谁知道呢？

What's clear is that Musk's desire to take on more keeps growing. Just as I was putting the finishing touches on this book, Musk unfurled a number of major initiatives. The most dramatic of which is a plan to surround the Earth with thousands of small communications satellites. Musk wants, in effect, to build a space-based Internet in which the satellites would be close enough to the planet to beam down bandwidth at high speeds. Such a system would be useful for a couple of reasons: In areas too poor or too remote to have fiber-optic connections, it would provide people with high-speed Internet for the first time. It could also function as an efficient backhaul network for businesses and consumers.

可以确定的是，马斯克不断地想要做更多事。就在本书即将定稿时，马斯克公布了一些重大举措，其中备受瞩目的一项计划是，发射数千枚围绕地球运行的小型通信卫星。实际上，马斯克想要做的是，在太空中打造高速卫星网络。在这个网络中，卫星会在足够接近地球的位置，高速投射频带宽度，人们将可以接入高速网络，可望使数十亿从未使用过网络的人有机会接入互联网；此外，这个系统还可以作为有效的回程网络，为企业和消费者提供服务。

Musk, of course, also sees this space Internet as key to his long-term ambitions around Mars. “It will be important for Mars to have a global communications network,” he said. “I think this needs to be done, and I don't see anyone else doing it.” SpaceX will build these satellites at a new factory and will also look to sell more satellites to commercial customers as it perfects the technology. To fund part of this unbelievably ambitious project, SpaceX secured $1 billion from Google and Fidelity.

当然，马斯克也将这个太空网络视作长期发展火星愿景的重中之重。“全球通信网络对火星而言是很重要的，”他说，“我认为必须做这件事，而且我没发现其他人在做。”SpaceX计划在一座新工厂制造这些卫星，随着技术的进步与完善，也会面向商业用户销售卫星。SpaceX从Google和富达投资公司^(Fidelity)获得了10亿美元融资，为这个雄心勃勃的宏伟计划提供资金支持。

In a rare moment of restraint, Musk declined to provide an exact delivery date for his space Internet, which he forecasts will cost more than $10 billion to build. “People should not expect this to be active sooner than five years,” he said. “But we see it as a long-term revenue source for SpaceX to be able to fund a city on Mars.”

马斯克难得没有给出太空网络项目确切的完工日期，他预估建造成本将超过100亿美元。“人们不应该指望这项计划能在5年内启用，”他表示，“但我们把它当作长期的营收来源，可以让SpaceX有足够的资金在火星上建一座城市。”

Meanwhile, SolarCity has purchased a new research and development facility near the Tesla factory in Silicon Valley that's intended to aid its manufacturing work. The building it acquired was the old Solyndra manufacturing plant—another symbol of Musk's ability to thrive in the green technology industry that has destroyed so many other entrepreneurs.

与此同时，太阳城已经在硅谷的特斯拉工厂附近买下一个新的研发基地，目的是为其制造业务提供支援。这栋建筑原本是索林佐能源设备公司的制造工厂，也是马斯克有能力在哀鸿遍野的绿色科技产业中带领企业蓬勃发展的一个证明。

And Tesla continues to build its Gigafactory in Nevada at pace, while its network of charging stations has saved upward of four million gallons of gas. During a quarterly earnings announcement, J. B. Straubel promised that Tesla would start producing battery systems for home use in 2015 that would let people hop off the grid for periods of time.

特斯拉则继续在内华达州建造超级工厂，而其充电站网络已省下了超过400万加仑的汽油。斯特劳贝尔在公司季度财报中承诺，特斯拉将于2015年开始生产家用电池系统，这将使得个人用户可以摆脱对普通电力网络的依赖。

Musk then one-upped Straubel, bragging that he thinks Tesla could eventually be more valuable than Apple and could challenge it in the race to be the first $1 trillion company. A handful of groups have also set to work building prototype Hyperloop systems in and around California. Oh, and Musk starred in an episode of The Simpsons titled “The Musk Who Fell to Earth,” in which Homer became his inventive muse.

马斯克更进一步宣称，他认为特斯拉的价值最终可能超过苹果，而且可能向苹果发起挑战，成为首家突破市值1兆美元的公司。有几个团队已经着手在加州及邻近地区建造超级高铁的原型系统。哦，对了！马斯克还客串了一集动画系列剧《辛普森一家》，剧名为“马斯克回归地球”，剧中的河马成了马斯克创造力的灵感来源。

The heady expansion plans and triumphant rhetoric from Musk were still not quite enough to hide all of Musk Co.'s flaws. Early 2015 marked the vociferous return of Musk's detractors on Wall Street. Tesla's sales in China were lackluster by any measure, and some analysts renewed their doubts about how much long-term demand there would be for the Model S. Tesla's shares slumped and, for the first time in a while, Musk sounded flustered trying to defend the company's position.

尽管马斯克拥有宏伟的扩张计划和豪言壮语，但却难以掩饰冒险事业存在的诸多缺陷。2015年年初，华尔街贬低马斯克的声浪再起。特斯拉在中国的销售业绩乏善可陈，一些分析师再度质疑市场对Model S的长期需求。特斯拉股价遭受重挫，马斯克已有一段时间没有这么慌乱了，他再度亲自上阵捍卫公司的利益。

The personal costs of Musk's lifestyle were more severe. Musk announced that, once again, he would be divorcing Talulah Riley. According to Musk, Riley wanted a simpler, smaller life in England and had come to despise Los Angeles. “Tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted,” Musk told me. “It is possible that she will change her mind at some point, but not anytime soon.”

马斯克的私人生活也面临着严重问题，他宣布与莱莉再度离婚。根据马斯克的说法，莱莉不喜欢洛杉矶，想要在英国过着相对简单的生活。“我试图挽回我们的婚姻，但她一意孤行，”马斯克告诉我，“也许将来她会改变主意，但近期肯定不会。”

After finishing my reporting and writing for this book, I had a chance to speak with some of Musk's confidantes and employees in a more relaxed manner and bounce various ideas off of them. I'm more convinced than ever that Musk is, and has always been, a man on a quest, and that his brand of quest is far more fantastic and consuming than anything most of us will ever experience. It seems that he's become almost addicted to expanding his ambitions and can't quite stop himself from announcing things like the Hyperloop and the space Internet. I'm also more convinced than ever that Musk is a deeply emotional person who suffers and rejoices in an epic fashion. This side of him is likely obscured by the fact that he feels most deeply about his own humanity-altering quest and so has trouble recognizing the strong emotions of those around him. This tends to make Musk come off as aloof and hard. I would argue, however, that his brand of empathy is unique. He seems to feel for the human species as a whole without always wanting to consider the wants and needs of individuals. And it may well be the case that this is exactly the type of person it takes to make a freaking space Internet real.

写完这本书后，我有机会和马斯克的一些亲信及员工以比较轻松的方式聊天，了解他们的不同想法。我非常确信，马斯克是个肩负使命的人，而且始终如一。马斯克具有强烈的使命感，远远超乎我们多数人所能承受的。在外人看来，他总是野心勃勃，似乎是扩张上了瘾，才对外公布超级高铁、太空网络等新计划。但我更加确信，马斯克是有情有义之人，他以一种史诗般的方式呈现喜怒哀乐，他感受最深刻的是自己改变人类命运的使命，因而难以意识到他人的强烈情绪，以致他富有人情味的一面被掩盖，令他显得冷酷无情，没有顾及个体的想法和需求。而很可能正是这种人，才能将太空网络的奇思妙想变成现实。