Why Musk has so many kids, according to his partner
What's the story
Elon Musk's plans for a big family have been associated with his preparations for an upcoming apocalypse.
Ashley St. Clair, who claims to be the mother of one of Musk's children, revealed this in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal.
According to St. Clair, Musk has talked about creating a "legion" of kids as part of these preparations.
Surrogacy plans
Musk's texts suggest use of surrogates for larger family
St. Clair posted text messages from Musk during her pregnancy, where he expressed his wish to speed up their family growth by including other women.
"To reach legion-level before the apocalypse, we will need to use surrogates."
This implies that Musk is considering surrogacy to fulfill his desire for a big family in anticipation of possible future challenges.
Family terminology
Musk's children referred to as 'legion'
Musk has reportedly started calling his many children his "legion."
The borrowed term from the Roman Empire denoted a large military unit that helped the empire expand.
Incidentally, one of his children with St. Clair is named Romulus, after one of Rome's two mythological founders, the other founder being Remus.
Space aspirations
Musk's vision for multiplanetary survival
Musk has earlier expressed that making humanity a multiplanetary species is an important step toward safeguarding our long-term survival. He believes that it is vital for the preservation of all life as we know it.
To that end, he has been pushing NASA to speed up its Mars reach. His company, SpaceX, is working toward building a rocket that can land on Mars.
Population worries
Musk's pronatalist beliefs and concerns about birth rates
Musk has voiced "pronatalist" views, saying civilization is in danger because of a falling birth rate.
At a conference in Saudi Arabia last year, he said, "I think for most countries, they should view the birthrate as the single biggest problem they need to solve."
He is concerned even about third-world countries with comparatively higher birth rates than the US and Europe.