The Royal Society is one of the oldest, most respected, and most exclusive scientific societies in the world. Imagine my surprise to learn that Elon Musk is a member.
This brings us, then, to the case of Elon Musk, who was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2018 on the basis of his technological achievements, notably in space travel and electrical vehicle development. Unfortunately, since that time, his interests have extended to using social media for political propaganda, while at the same time battling what he sees as “woke mind virus” and attacks on free speech. Whereas previously he seemed to agree with mainstream scientific opinion on issues such as climate change and medicine, over the past year or two, he’s started promoting alternative ideas.
They thought Elon Musk was inventing new technology with his mighty brain, rather than simply buying large teams of engineers with his mighty bank account? Tsk.
That account comes from a former FRS who has resigned at this tainting of the society. She is asking that he be stricken from the rolls, and lists multiple reasons why he brings shame on a distinguished scientific organization.
Scientific misconduct
Ethics & management of Neuralink
Promoting vaccine hesitation
Downplaying the climate emergency
Spreading deep fakes and misinformation on X
The Royal Society has done nothing; I guess once enrolled, forever enrolled, and no amount of anti-science ignorance or the promotion of atrocities will change that (that’s to be expected, given the history of the British Empire.) The society did contact a lawyer to make sure it was OK to keep a known professional troll in their ranks.
I gather that at this point the Royal Society Council opted to consult a top lawyer to determine whether Musk’s behaviour breached their Code of Conduct. The problem with this course of action is that if you are uncertain about doing something that seems morally right but may have consequences, then it is easy to find a lawyer who will advise against doing it. That’s just how lawyers work. They’re paid to rescue people from ethical impulses that may get them into trouble. And, sure enough, the lawyer determined that Musk hadn’t breached the Code of Conduct. If you want to see if you agree, you can find the Code of Conduct here.
The Society has promised to look more deeply at the Musk case, but don’t expect much.
I’ve been told that in the light of the evolving situation, the Royal Society Council will look again at the case of Elon Musk. In conversations I have had with them, they emphasise that they must adhere to their own procedures, which are specified in the Statutes, and which involve a whole series of stages of legal scrutiny, committee evaluation, discussion with the Fellow in question, and ultimately a vote from the Fellowship, before a Fellow or Foreign Member could be expelled. While I agree that if you have a set of rules you should stick to them, I find the fact that nobody has been expelled for over 150 years telling. It does suggest that the Statutes are worded so that it is virtually impossible to do anything about Fellows who breach the Code of Conduct. In effect the Statutes serve a purpose of protecting the Royal Society from ever having to take action against one of its Fellows.
Sounds like most other human cliques.
I wouldn’t join a club that’d have Elon Musk as a member.
Even his own platform’s AI acknowledges that he spreads mis- and disinformation.
When the priest raping kids scandal was hitting the RCC hard, one of the responses was that removing the priest from the priesthood was extremely difficult. This was only partly true. Kicking a man out of the priesthood is easy for the crime of disobedience and very difficult for other offenses. The only conclusion is that raping children is not disobedient.
You are assuming that lot of the people in the Royal Society disagree with Elon Musk.
That isn’t a good assumption.
I’m sure many or most of them in fact, do agree with Elon Musk!!!
It’s 93% white and 91% male.
Just guessing based on the place, UK with its class system, and the composition of the Royal Society at 93% white and 91% male, that most of them can’t even imagine why anyone would have a problem with Elon Musk and his increasingly erratic mental state.
Next up.
Ask the GOP what they think of Elon Musk.
Don’t be surprised.
My bet is that the Royal Society is also afraid to kick Elon Musk out. Musk has so much money that he could financially ruin them, no matter the right or wrong of the issue.
They could at least ask him to resign.
That’s a very poor guess. Sure, the membership is likely to be somewhat small-c conservative and don’t-rock-the-boat in outlook, but also generally pro-science, and therefore disgusted at Musk’s plunge to the anti-science far right.
What technological achievements, exactly? None of that can be credited to Musk.
Elon Musk Muses About Buying MSNBC: “How Much Does It Cost?”
Elon’s societal acceptance was in May of ’18. A month later he would be thinking a submarine in a cave would be a good idea.
This brings me back to The Young Ones in the 1980s.
They need money and go to the the British police recruiting office where they are met by a sign saying “We take absolutely anyone”.
Scientific societies were perhaps once useful due to lack of communication technologies nowadays they are completely redundant. There is nothing more pointless than joining one. It’s the scientific equivalent of “look at my car”.
@10
I’ll allow Musk suggesting a specialized submarine as a well-intentioned if ill-informed desire to help. For me at least, his replying to good-faith criticism with accusations of pedophilia was the point where I started to realize that he was a slimeball.
This just proves that almost any organization will prostitute themselves for the obscenely rich and clueless. OOOHHH, the elongated muskrat is so sciency. But, his words and actions both prove he is a wealthy imbecile. He couldn’t invent anything technical if his life depended on it. He buys the innovations and work of others, shows it off as if he created it and the sheople drool at what a genius he is. All Hat No Cattle blog posted a sign that said: ‘elon musk sounds like a cheap after shave you would buy at walgreens as a teenager’
And, the correct interpretation of that is that his stench contaminates everything he touches.
@ 10, 14 Muskrat should be encouraged to build a deep sea submersible to explore the Marianna Trench. Tell him it’s for data for space exploration, because he will not understand the difference btwn “crushing pressure outside” vs. “no pressure outside”.
Then let ego & crap engineering take its course as per the Titan submersible.
I wonder how much he paid to join?
Not “one of the oldest” but THE oldest.
The Royal Society of NSW also had standards. In the early days monthly meetings were held over dinner and attendance was compulsory. The records show one member missed a meeting because he had to attend a relatives funeral. He was not penalised. When he failed to attend the following month his excuse that he was dining with the state governor was not accepted and he was fined.
The Society met hard times in the 1980’s when it could no longer maintain its premises. Although it meets at a new venue it could no longer house its valuable research library built up over more than 160 years. It was rehoused at the University of Armidale Library and the State Library of NSW. Part of the collection ended up at the University of Sydney. Although it was supposed to be maintained separately and not disposed of the Library regularly purges its collections and holds a massive book sale with other sellers and donated used books. No points for guessing what happened at one sale.
In recent years University libraries have been purging their collections of entire runs of journals as faculties close or subscriptions are not renewed and space becomes limited. They have this strange idea that the purged items will be somehow available in perpetuity online via the publishers. Yep pay to view. Thats a great way to shut down the growth and transmission of knowledge.
Considering that it’s an upper-class British institution over 350 years old, is it any surprise it doesn’t have rules about members being openly in favor of right-wing ideologies and practices, like fascism, colonialism, slavery, genocide, patriarchy, monarchy, imperialism, or white supremacy? Such views were extremely normalized amongst their target demographic for the majority of their existence. They’d probably have either severely limited their incoming membership, or have had to purge 90% of their members every couple of decades or so, if any such rules were in place!
Recursive Rabbit @1
I would not join a club that had people like me as members.
It was not a huge number but Dorthey states “There was no formal consultation of the Fellowship but via informal email contacts, a group of 74 Fellows formulated a letter of concern that was sent in early August to the President of the Royal Society”.
I’d say an adhoc group 74 fellows wlling to sign the letter is not all that bad. Given that there are “There was no formal consultation of the Fellowship but via informal email contacts, a group of 74 Fellows formulated a letter of concern that was sent in early August to the President of the Royal Society” is not good but not all that bad.
It is quite likely a lot of Fellows and Foreign Members have, at best, a hazy idea of who Musk is. British Fellows may or may not pay attention to US politics. UK politics may have taken all their attention if they are even interested in politics, at all..
As for Foreign Members, Musk is a big name in the USA but in Italy or India? Maybe. Maybe not.
jkrideau@21,
I’d be surprised if there are many UK FRSs who are unaware of Musk. If they are interested in UK politics, they will probably know of his breathtakingly stupid claim that civil war in the UK is “inevitable”, his support for the fascist convict Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”) and his pushing of a petition for a new UK election. If they are interested in space technology, AI, neuroscience, electric vehicles, or social media they will be aware of his involvement in whichever of those areas interests them. More likely, most of them didn’t know he was a member.
@22 KG
<iI’d be surprised if there are many UK FRSs who are unaware of Musk.>
Why? He is of no immediate relevance to UK politics. The new leader of the Conservative Party is important. Some US oligarch with some vague mandate in the USA? May mean something sometime .
they will probably know of his breathtakingly stupid claim that civil war in the UK is “inevitable”, his support for the fascist convict Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”) and his pushing of a petition for a new UK election.
I am Canadian so I may not be up to date on Musk news in the UK but I have not seen anything in British news that even noticed Musk’s rants. Lots of people, foreigners included make stupid statements.
I actually know who “Tommy Robinson” is but I doubt most people in the UK know or care that Musk supports him.
The Royal Society could have had a Black man as a member shortly after its founding. Some of the younger fellows proposed him for election in 1716, but sadly and unsurprisingly, racism won out.
This is a really fascinating essay about that man:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n22/fara-dabhoiwala/a-man-of-parts-and-learning
Oh, and I may have read it elsewhere and forgotten, but the essay emphasizes that the philosopher David Hume was a pretty nasty racist. Sigh.
No heroes.