Top 5 Books Recommended By Elon Musk - You Must Read

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life' by Walter Isaacsonn

Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us, the one who seems made of flesh rather than marble. In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklin’s life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and back, 

Walter Isaacson chronicles the adventures of the runaway apprentice who became, throughout his eighty-four-year life, America’s best writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist, as well as one of its most practical and ingenious political 

leaders. 

Musk has called Benjamin Franklin "one of his heroes. Elon said in an interview that

He was an entrepreneur. He started from nothing. He was just a runaway kid." 

 

Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall' by J.E. Gordon

Here we have the conversation in an unbuttoned mood of a learned engineer with wide sympathies about his art, its history, its range, and the silly things which happen. It reads easily and has immense charm. Elon musk said, “It is good if you want a primer on the structural design."

 

Ignition: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants

the story of the search for a Rocket propellant which could be trusted to take the man into space. Acclaimed scientist and sci-fi author 

John D Clark writes with irreverent and eyewitness immediacy about the development of explosive fuels strong enough to negate the relentless restraints of gravity. Musk took the book's lesson to heart when he was working on SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket system.

 

Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom

book injects the topic of superintelligence into the academic and popular mainstream. What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us? 

In a tour de force of analytic thinking, Bostrom lays a foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life. Musk has repeatedly warned against the dangers of unchecked artificial intelligence.

 

Our Final Invention by James Barrat

Artificial Intelligence helps choose what books you buy, what movies you see and even who you date. It puts the "smart" in your smartphone and soon it will drive your car. 

It makes most of the trades on Wall Street and controls vital energy, water and transportation infrastructure. But Artificial Intelligence can also threaten our existence. Musk called the book a "worthy read" in a 2014 tweet.