Elon Musk, the mastermind behind many cutting-edge technological companies likes SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, The Boring Company, and OpenAI, is also an avid book reader.
From an early age, Elon would read almost anything he can get his hands on. He mentioned in one of the interviews how as a child he would spend hours and hours reading books. And apparently, many of those books shaped his passion for science, technology, and futuristic thinking. Like the books series Foundation by Isaac Asimov would inspire him to create SpaceX, a company for space exploration, with the main goal to establish a human colony on Mars by the year 2050, and make the human race an interplanetary species.
But getting inspired is one thing, doing it, is another thing. Elon famously became the chief design engineer for SpaceX after failing to find someone willing to take on this duty. You see, becoming a chief designer for a space company is not something you can just start doing without proper knowledge in propulsion engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, just to name a few. So, where did Elon got that knowledge from? Again, books.
Multiple times Elon would mention some book titles on his Twitter or in the interviews, that he recommends to everybody to read. Since Dev & Gear is a website devoted to technology, we created a list of 12 books that Elon recommends on technology, engineering, and science.
Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
If you want to build a better future, you must believe in secrets.
Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
How will AI affect crime, war, justice, jobs, society and our very sense of being human? The rise of AI has the potential to transform our future more than any other technology.
Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning series
An introduction to a broad range of topics in deep learning, covering mathematical and conceptual background, deep learning techniques used in industry, and research perspectives.
Paths, Dangers, Strategies
Superintelligence asks the questions: What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us? Nick Bostrom lays the foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life.
An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants
The resulting volume is as much a memoir as a work of history, sharing a behind-the-scenes view of an enterprise which eventually took men to the moon, missiles to the planets, and satellites to outer space.
Seventy-Five Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life
Given the fact that there are perhaps 400 billion stars in our Galaxy alone, and perhaps 400 billion galaxies in the Universe, it stands to reason that somewhere out there, in the 14-billion-year-old cosmos, there is or once was a civilization at least as advanced as our own.
From the component design, to the subsystem design, to the engine systems design, engine development and flight-vehicle application, this how-to text bridges the gap between basic physical and design principles and actual rocket-engine design as it's done in industry.
Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era
Can we coexist with beings whose intelligence dwarfs our own? And will they allow us to?
Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control
A leading artificial intelligence researcher lays out a new approach to AI that will enable us to coexist successfully with increasingly intelligent machines
How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Climate Change
Merchants of Doubt has been praised―and attacked―around the world, for reasons easy to understand.
His Life and Universe
How did his mind work? What made him a genius? Isaacson's biography shows how the imagination that distinguished his science sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality.
Or Why Things Don't Fall Down
Or Why Things Don't Fall Down is an informal explanation of the basic forces that hold together the ordinary and essential things of this world--from buildings and bodies to flying aircraft and eggshells.
Zero to One
Life 3.0
Deep Learning
Superintelligence
Ignition
If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens... Where Is Everybody?
Modern Engineering for Design of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines
Our Final Invention
Human Compatible
Merchants of Doubt
Einstein
Structures
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