The cult of Elon Musk: The demi-god protected by an army of trolls

Elon Musk does not have a Nobel but he has already become one such institution

Jean-Paul Sartre famously refused a Nobel Prize for literature (in 1964) because, he said, he didn’t want to be “institutionalised”. His eagerness to prevent this transformation wasn’t misguided. Perhaps more famously, at least among science journalists, many Nobel laureates in the sciences have turned into institutions after winning the coveted prize. Their presence in a room is typically interpreted as the presence of a Nobel laureate more than anything else.

By this measure, they bring along the weight of their awards and other honours as well as that of the research bodies with which they are affiliated. As a result, they’re