What Musk doesn’t often address is why humanity should do this in the first place. His most commonly articulated reason is that it’s a hedge against existential risks on Earth, but the lack of a more affirmative case (aside from “we want Starfleet to be real,” as he added Saturday) reflects the core of his and some tech-world brethren’s increasing mind-meld with the former president: their belief that a kind of restless change, absent any inherent quality, goal or direction, is a virtue in its own right.

But you don’t have to take Postman’s dark view of technology to acknowledge that Musk and his foes have a radically different view of its role in society. Musk believes that technological advancements are the catalyst to lead humanity into a glorious future, while their critics, including Democrats and many tech nonprofits (as well as some of the biggest tech firms), believe that without strong democratic control, they might create a self-justifying doom loop that serves only the interest of tech developers and their business partners.