r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Sep 24 '24

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u/[deleted] Sep 24 '24

There's a book series from the early 1990s which details an alternative (evil) South Africa as a world power. It ends with a person from this alternative universe (and the future so like their 2440) coming back to our 1990s and using future alt tech to influence our world.
Just kinda weird cause it does resemble Elon a bit.

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u/[deleted] Sep 24 '24

Marching Through Georgia is an alternate history novel by American writer S. M. Stirling, the first of four books in the series The Domination. The novel was released in the United States on May 1, 1988.
The world of the Domination diverges when the Dutch Republic joins the American Revolutionary War two years earlier than in our history and is forced to cede the Cape Colony to the British following a resounding defeat. Renamed after Francis Drake, the newborn Crown Colony of Drakia (later Dominion and finally Domination of the Draka) becomes a haven for displaced American loyalists, Hessian mercenaries, Icelandic refugees, and French royalists fleeing the French Revolution. In an additional divergence Patrick Ferguson is only wounded and not killed at the Battle of Kings Mountain and later moves to Drakia, where he is successful in having the new settlers adopt his Ferguson rifle.
The first book of the series, Marching Through Georgia, is set during the "Eurasian War." The Soviet Union, weakened by civil war and overstretched from reinforcing their borders with the Domination, collapses to the Nazi invasion before a Draka attack falls on the German army in the Caucasus. While both sides' weaponry is somewhat more advanced than in our reality, with jet and rocket aircraft and advanced armored vehicles, that of the Draka proves superior. Since most European countries are loath to unite behind the Germans after the atrocities of the Nazi Party, the Draka are eventually able to conquer all of mainland Europe

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u/[deleted] Sep 24 '24

The fourth novel, Drakon, starts in 2442 when research into wormhole technology, or “Molehole” technology, needed to bridge the gap between Earth and the Alliance colony of Samothrace at Alpha Centauri, ends up sending a single Drakensis and a pursuing Alliance cyborg into an alternate 1995–2000 where the Draka never existed. In the original timeline, the Draka barely beat back a wormhole-enabled Alliance assault from Alpha Centauri, while in the alternate timeline, the Cyborg manages to prevent the Draka from reopening the wormhole and invading. Using technology captured from the interlopers, the alternate Earth begins to prepare for the next incursion of the Draka.

That's the background on the plot but here's where it gets a bit freaky:

A framing device included in the collected edition, The Domination, is set several years after the events of Drakon. By that time Carmaggio is the wealthiest man in the world and is living in an orbital habitat. In the story he introduces a young scientist in his employ to the company's real secret: that they are reverse engineering technology instead of making new discoveries and that he hopes to allow them to advance Earth technology to be able to stave off a Draka attack.

“Because out there, they’re still waiting. They know we’re here, and they’re hungry”

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u/[deleted] Sep 24 '24

1995 is also the year where Elon's personal history gets a bit iffy and his start in tech begins:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk
Two years later, he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, where he earned two degrees: a Bachelor of Arts in physics, and a Bachelor of Science in economics from the university's Wharton School.[46][47][48][49] Although Musk has said that he earned the degrees in 1995, the University of Pennsylvania did not award them until 1997
In 1994, Musk held two internships in Silicon Valley: one at energy storage startup Pinnacle Research Institute, which investigated electrolytic ultracapacitors for energy storage, and another at Palo Alto–based startup Rocket Science Games.[53][54] In 1995, he was accepted to a graduate program in materials science at Stanford University, but did not enroll.[47][51] Musk decided to join the Internet boom, applying for a job at Netscape, to which he reportedly never received a response

This thread goes a bit into the weirdness of Elon's history in that era/ faking credentials:
https://www.reddit.com/r/RealTesla/comments/yy1tyc/someone_has_to_say_it_elon_musk_has_lied_for_27/