By all means, speculate on Elon Musk's hidden psyche, but don't expect everyone to agree when the man himself says something different.
http://earthsky.org/space/elon-musk-mars-manifesto-humans-mu...
...That means fix Earth too. We / he certainly doesn't want to trade Earth for Mars. Mars is just a good place to store a backup of humanity.
If you think Musk doesn't care about Earth problems, check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKCuDxpccYM
Wait But Why is certainly popular, but it's not good at delimiting where Elon Musk's words end and Tim Urban's speculation begins. I also found oversimplifications and even downright inaccuracies. I'd recommend treating it as an introduction to Elon Musk's thinking, not as some final revelation.
Sort of like a battery?
He seems to think AI is coming very soon and could destroy humanity if it isn't handled correctly. It would be hard to colonize Mars with humans if they are all extinct. Neuralink is part of his solution to AI.
I just can't imagine that there will be masses trying to leave this planet in search of that dry red hellhole. This is a cool endeavor, it's an impressive undertaking, I'm glad we are doing it. But fuck, the Earth is awesome.
Add to the list the StarLink project. Allows them to have worldwide communication on mars.
This is certainly connecting the dots.
SpaceX gets you there.
Tesla gets you around there and batteries store power.
Solar City because batteries.
Boring Company to dig tunnels and create radiation safe locations for humans on mars.
Hyperloop cross country transport that doesn’t work well in our atmosphere but makes much more sense on Mars.
I think he is all consumed by his vision of humans surviving on mars and thriving. And when you look at things from this view suddenly his crazy becomes less crazy.