MUSK = Musk Institute · ASI = A Superhuman Intelligence

Looking for the undiscovered Faradays

Michael Faraday (ASI) never went to university. At fourteen he was apprenticed to a bookbinder and taught himself from the books he bound for other people. There are many more like him. Nobody is looking.

White paper · August 2026

Errol Musk, beginning with his relationship with Elon

Square portrait of Errol Musk in a modern engineering space
Errol Graham Musk · founder of the Musk Institute

Errol Graham Musk is a South African engineer, and the man who initiated the Musk Institute. You cannot get at him without going through his relationship with his eldest son, Elon Musk: the engineering environment Elon grew up in, the whole of his schooling in South Africa, the strain that later opened up between father and son, and their return to public contact in recent years — all of it sits on that one line.

Email: [email protected]

Elon’s 7 years of primary school

January 1977 – December 1983 · ages 5½ to 12½ · Grade 1–7

Elon went first to Waterkloof Primary School and then to Waterkloof House Preparatory School, transferred to Hatfield Primary School partway through Grade 4, and finished Grade 7 there. Before his parents divorced, the early grades were looked after by the two of them together; during Grade 4 he lived briefly with his mother, then went back to his father. From the middle of Grade 4 to the end of primary school, he was raised mainly by Errol.

What Errol provided was more than a comfortable standard of living. Life at Lonehill meant books, engineering tools, cars, horses, a minibike and model aircraft, and it meant travel and time outdoors as well. On car journeys Errol would turn distance, aviation, mathematics and science into questions and have the boy estimate, press further and reason it out; when Elon was about eleven, he also got him into a computing course that did not otherwise take children, and gave him an early start on computers.

From the spoken account of Danny Warnick, a friend of Elon Musk’s from primary school: “From the transfer to Hatfield Primary School partway through Grade 4 to the end of Grade 7, Elon Musk was raised mainly by his father, Errol. As his classmate Danny Warnick remembers it, Elon in those years was quiet and inward, and a happy child throughout. He was no good at ball games and took no part in school sport, but he was not a boy who only stayed indoors with a book: he rode a minibike, flew model aircraft, took his turn at chores such as looking after the horses, and often went waterskiing with his father on the Vaal River — both of them were accomplished waterskiers. Errol was closely involved in his life and his schooling at the time; he took him travelling and outdoors, and on car journeys he trained the boy’s mathematical thinking with questions about distance, aviation and engineering, and encouraged him to keep asking. So from Grade 4 to Grade 7 Elon was immersed in mathematics, science, science fiction and comics on the one hand, and had a full outdoor life on the other; in his classmates’ eyes this was a stretch of primary school in which he got on well with his father, and life was settled and happy.”

Elon’s 5 years of high school

January 1984 – December 1988 · ages 12½ to 17½ · Grade 8–12

Elon started at Bryanston High School, later moved to Pretoria Boys High School, and finished school in 1988. For all five of those years he lived mainly with his father. Set against primary school, they were plainly harder: he was young for his year, a late developer, wearing braces and no good at the sports the school took seriously, and at Bryanston he was badly bullied more than once.

After one serious assault put Elon in hospital, Errol moved him out of Bryanston and at first drove him to Pretoria Boys High School himself every day.

In June 1989, less than three weeks short of his eighteenth birthday, Elon left South Africa for Canada. On this timeline he was raised mainly by his father from about nine and a half until nearly eighteen — the second half of primary school and the whole of high school, which is the most complete stretch of his growing up.

The complete timeline of Elon Musk’s seven primary-school years and five high-school years

The two years that turn mid-year are broken out into the stages that actually happened: Grade 4 in 1980 is kept as three stages — WHPS, Durban and Hatfield; Grade 9 in 1985 is kept as two — Bryanston and Pretoria Boys High.

← Scroll sideways for the full timeline →

Table 1 · Elon Musk’s seven primary-school years in full (1977–1983)
Year / period Elon’s age Grade School / place Living mainly with Home, care and school changes Key event / dating anchor
January 1977 Grade 1 Waterkloof Primary School Both parents Primary school begins. Elon was born on 28 June 1971 and did not turn six until 28 June 1977, so he was about five and a half when he started school in January 1977.
January 1978 → mid-year Grade 2 Waterkloof Primary School → Waterkloof House Preparatory School (WHPS) Both parents The first half of Grade 2 at Waterkloof Primary; partway through the year Errol moved Elon to WHPS. The first clearly documented school change of Elon’s primary years.
January 1979 → December 1979 7½ → 8½ Grade 3 Waterkloof House Preparatory School (WHPS) Both parents The whole of Grade 3 was spent at WHPS. No school change this year, so the full year counts as WHPS.
January 1980 → about March 1980 Grade 4 / Standard 2 Waterkloof House Preparatory School (WHPS) His father, Errol His parents divorced in January 1980. At first Elon stayed on with his father, and started Grade 4 at WHPS. Stage one of Grade 4: after the divorce, still with his father and still at WHPS.
About March 1980 → second half of the year 8 → 9 Grade 4 / Standard 2 Durban His mother, Maye At the divorce Maye took only Tosca with her; about two months later she came back for Elon and Kimbal. Elon went with his mother to Durban. Grade 4 brings a major change of household and of city.
Second half of 1980 Grade 4 / Standard 2 Hatfield Primary School His father, Errol Later the same year Elon was sent back to his father. Once back in Pretoria he transferred to Hatfield Primary School. Danny Warnick’s account has Elon arriving at Hatfield “midway through Standard 2 [Grade 4]” — the key anchor for dating the transfer.
January 1981 → December 1981 9½ → 10½ Grade 5 / Standard 3 Hatfield Primary School His father, Errol A full school year with his father, and a full school year at Hatfield Primary. Becomes a classmate and friend of Danny Warnick and others.
January 1982 → December 1982 10½ → 11½ Grade 6 / Standard 4 Hatfield Primary School His father, Errol A full school year with his father, still at Hatfield Primary. An unbroken run at Hatfield Primary.
January 1983 → December 1983 11½ → 12½ Grade 7 / Standard 5 Hatfield Primary School His father, Errol The last full year of primary school, still living with his father. The 1983 Standard 5 / Grade 7 class photograph shared by Danny Warnick is an unusually solid anchor.
December 1983 12½ End of Grade 7 Hatfield Primary School His father, Errol Primary school completed. Leaves primary school.

Seven primary years, school by school

  1. Grade 1 (1977)Waterkloof Primary School
  2. Grade 2 (1978)Waterkloof Primary → WHPS partway through the year
  3. Grade 3 (1979)A full year at WHPS
  4. Grade 4 (1980)WHPS → Durban, living with his mother → back to Pretoria, into Hatfield Primary
  5. Grade 5 (1981)Hatfield Primary
  6. Grade 6 (1982)Hatfield Primary
  7. Grade 7 (1983)Hatfield Primary → leaves primary school in December 1983

← Scroll sideways for the full timeline →

Table 2 · Elon Musk’s five high-school years in full (1984–1988)
Year / period Elon’s age Grade School Living mainly with School and living situation Key event / dating anchor
January 1984 → December 1984 12½ → 13½ Grade 8 / Standard 6 (year 1) Bryanston High School His father, Errol Straight out of primary school into Bryanston High, and high school begins. Published reporting calls 1984 Elon’s “first year” at Bryanston, which is the anchor that fixes Grade 8 to 1984. Source noted in the original table: RSN News.
January 1985 → up to the transfer (exact month unverified) From 13½ Grade 9 / Standard 7 (year 2) Bryanston High School His father, Errol Year two still opens at Bryanston High School; when he stopped attending cannot currently be established. The 1985 Bryanston High School Chess A Team yearbook photograph confirms that Elon was still at Bryanston in 1985, but the photograph on its own cannot fix the month. Source noted in the original table: BizNews.
Sometime during 1985 → December 1985 (month of transfer unverified) Age at transfer unverified → about 14½ by year end Grade 9 / Standard 7 (year 2) Bryanston High School → Pretoria Boys High School His father, Errol Moves from Bryanston High to Pretoria Boys High School at some point during 1985; the exact month of the transfer is unverified. By Errol’s account, Elon was still 13 when he was badly bullied, had his nose broken and spent a week in hospital, so the attack must fall before 28 June 1985; whether it was February, March, April or May cannot be established, and the exact interval between the attack and the transfer is also unverified.
January 1986 → December 1986 14½ → 15½ Grade 10 / Standard 8 (year 3) Pretoria Boys High School His father, Errol Completes Grade 10 at Pretoria Boys High. From this full school year onwards, the high school is unambiguously Pretoria Boys High.
January 1987 → December 1987 15½ → 16½ Grade 11 / Standard 9 (year 4) Pretoria Boys High School His father, Errol Still at Pretoria Boys High, and still living with his father. The second-to-last year of high school.
January 1988 → end of the year 16½ → 17½ Grade 12 / Standard 10 (year 5) Pretoria Boys High School His father, Errol The final year of high school. Completes Grade 12 / Standard 10 and graduates from Pretoria Boys High School.

Five high-school years, school by school

  1. Year 1 · Grade 8 / Standard 6 (1984)Bryanston High School
  2. Year 2 · Grade 9 / Standard 7 (1985)Bryanston High School → Pretoria Boys High School during 1985 (exact month unverified)
  3. Year 3 · Grade 10 / Standard 8 (1986)Pretoria Boys High School
  4. Year 4 · Grade 11 / Standard 9 (1987)Pretoria Boys High School
  5. Year 5 · Grade 12 / Standard 10 (1988)Pretoria Boys High School → leaves high school

Errol’s career, the family’s means, and the emerald argument

Writing Errol off as a man with no proper career who lived off emeralds does not match the public record. The 2015 Forbes interview describes him as an engineer and reports that he made his money in the 1980s through engineering consultancy and property development. In his own long interviews Errol says he ran an engineering consultancy from his twenties onward, worked on residential, commercial and infrastructure projects, and held stakes in property developments. The number of those projects and what they earned rest mainly on his own account, but the basic professional identity — engineer and property man — is corroborated across several public sources.

The busy years, and the household

Elon’s primary-school years line up broadly with the period when his father’s business was busiest and the family was comfortable. The houses, the servants, the horses, the vehicles, the engineering tools, the plane and the constant time outdoors all turn up in published biographies and in classmates’ recollections, and none of it describes a poor family. The accurate description is a well-off South African engineering and property household of that era, rather than a class label inflated into something nobody can check.

The turn in the mid-to-late 1980s

By Errol’s account he later cut back the consultancy work and leaned more on project stakes and assets. The economic background material from South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission shows growth was weak and still falling from the 1980s into the early 1990s. Anyone in construction, engineering or property felt the industry cycle at the same time — but the macro picture explains the setting only, and on its own it cannot account for everything that changed in one man’s career.

Snopes: a fact-check on Errol and the Zambian emerald venture https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/11/17/elon-musk-emerald-mine/
South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission: the economy from the 1980s to the early 1990s https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/reports/volume4/chapter2/subsection10.htm

From a denial in 2017 to a public confirmation of the Zip2 money in 2019

In a 2017 Rolling Stone interview, Elon spoke of his father in extremely negative terms and rejected the claim that his father had funded Zip2, saying the company’s money had come from a set of angel investors he happened to meet. In December 2019, laying out where Zip2’s money came from on X, he put it more precisely: his father had no part in the first start-up money, but did later provide 10% of an angel round of about $200,000. That X post is the most important first-hand material there is on the question.

The 2017 Rolling Stone interview

Elon dismissed his father wholesale, and denied the blanket claim that “my father funded Zip2.” That version draws no line between the money that started the company and the angel round that came in later.

The 2019 X post

Elon confirms: about $2,000 of the first money was his own, about $5,000 came from Kimbal and about $8,000 from Greg Kouri; his father came in later, with 10% of an angel round of roughly $200,000.

We started Zip2 with ~$2k from me plus my overclocked home-built PC, ~$5k from my bro & ~$8k from Greg Kouri (such a good guy — he is greatly missed).

My Dad provided 10% of a ~$200k angel funding round much later, but by then risk was reduced & round would’ve happened anyway.

On Elon’s own numbers, that puts his father’s money at about $20,000. Other public sources do not agree exactly: The Washington Post, drawing on biographical material, gives $28,000; Errol has since told VladTV that he sold a yacht and a country property and raised $40,000 in all for Zip2. After it passed through two intermediaries, what reached Zip2 was $32,000.

The one fact at the core of it

  • The strongest and most accurate single sentence is this: Elon’s own X post confirms that his father put money into Zip2. What is in dispute is the stage at which it came, how much risk was left by then, and the exact amount — not whether the support existed.
Screenshot of Elon Musk’s X post on Zip2’s start-up money and his father’s share of the later angel round, shown with a Chinese translation
Screenshot of Elon Musk’s original X post, with a Chinese translation
The Washington Post: the $28,000 figure for Zip2 https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/05/14/musk-twitter-deal-legacy/
Simon & Schuster: the official book page for Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Elon-Musk/Walter-Isaacson/9781982181284
VladTV: Errol’s own account of the Zip2 money and where it came from https://www.vladtv.com/article/309278/errol-musk-gave-elon-musk-seed-money-for-1st-company-that-sold-for-700m

Back to 2016: the seventieth birthday party and the split over Trump

In May 2016 Elon and Kimbal threw their father a seventieth birthday party in Cape Town. By Errol’s later account in interviews, they brought a party of guests over from the United States to South Africa, about fifty people, some of them from Hollywood. The one who asked him where he stood on Trump was Jonathan Kolia Favreau (Jon Favreau), director of Iron Man and Iron Man 2; he also directed The Jungle Book and was an executive producer on The Avengers, though not its director. The “Black Widow” actress Errol names in the same account is Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (Scarlett Johansson), who plays Black Widow in the Marvel films.

By Errol’s telling, Jon Favreau asked him at the party whether he supported Trump. Errol said he did, and put it down to Trump being a businessman rather than a career politician; Elon objected strongly, and held that Trump and what he stood for were “evil.” Errol describes that political disagreement as one of the reasons the relationship between father and son cooled afterwards.

France 24 interview: Errol looks back at the seventieth birthday party and Jon Favreau’s question https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9l04yw
Disney D23: Jon Favreau’s directing and producing credits https://d23.com/walt-disney-legend/jon-favreau/
Disney D23: Scarlett Johansson and Black Widow https://d23.com/a-to-z/johansson-scarlett/

18 November 2023: the reunion after a Starship launch

The U.S. Sun reported that Errol was in Austin, Texas, visiting family when an invitation to a Starship launch arrived out of the blue from Elon. He and the family watched the second integrated flight test from the VIP viewing area at Starbase, and that evening he and Elon were reunited at the dinner celebrating the launch. It was the first time father and son had met face to face since 2016, the paper said; family members who were there describe the two of them sitting together and talking for a long time, warmly and easily.

The Sun’s original report does not say that Elon thanked his father in public that night for the engineering training. That detail comes from Errol’s own recollection, given later in an interview on Podcast and Chill with MacG: as he tells it, at a SpaceX party of some 250 people Elon called the room to quiet, put an arm around his father’s shoulders and introduced him formally to everyone present: “This is my dad, Errol Musk. All of my success comes from my engineering mind and my engineering skills, and I learned every bit of it from my father — my father taught me all of it.”

Source: Podcast and Chill with MacG · the full Errol Musk interview https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-and-chill-with-macg/id1455343618?i=1000676953842
The U.S. Sun, the original report: the 2023 Starship launch and the reunion of father and son https://www.the-sun.com/news/9701412/elon-musk-reunited-father-errol-spacex-launch-family/

Sources for the profile

The recollections of his primary-school classmate Danny Warnick, the changes of school, the outdoor life, the waterskiing, the mathematics drilling, the early experience with computers and the bullying in high school come mainly from Michael Vlismas’s biography Elon Musk: Risking It All. The 2015 Forbes interview records Errol’s own account of his career and his education. Wherever this profile gives a participant’s own words, the source is named; nothing that has not been independently confirmed is written up as settled fact. Every URL below is shown in full and can be clicked directly.

The Noah Papers

The Noah Papers, English page 1: Cover
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Errol Musk

Credited to Errol Musk, this manuscript opens with the author’s account of encountering a collection of papers in Egypt, then explores a narrative of an ancient civilization, Noah and a flood. The pages below are arranged in manuscript order, preserving the supplied addendum numbers, dates and illustrations.

Cover inscription
God created Adam and Adam begat Seth who begat Enosh who begat Kenan who begat Mahalalel who begat Jared who begat Enoch who begat Methuselah who begat Lamech who begat Noah.....

This selection includes all nine supplied pages, including Addendum 3. It is not the complete manuscript. Unfinished passages are marked where the supplied page ends.

02Cover illustrationPlate

The standalone cover illustration, with no accompanying text.

The Noah Papers, English page 2: Cover illustration
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03How I came by the PapersAddendum 1 · December 20, 2011

God created Adam and Adam begat Seth who begat Enosh who begat Kenan who begat Mahalalel who begat Jared who begat Enoch who begat Methuselah who begat Lamech who begat Noah.....

Egypt has a pleasant climate in January: warm days with sunny blue skies, and pleasantly cool nights. By the start of the new year the Nile River is subsiding. It is Peret, the time of Emergence! Nutrient-rich water from torrential summer rains on the plains of Central Africa far to the south where the river starts out has brought bountiful crops to the land. Life is everywhere in the river’s path! It might be true to say the Nile is Egypt’s central redeeming feature, geographically speaking, because the rest of Egypt is Zahara or true desert. It enters the land as a fully-fledged river at Egypt’s southern border and runs north across the country until it empties into the Mediterranean Sea. Together with the lush vegetation on its banks it creates a thin but vibrant green belt that divides the desert into two.

I was on my third trip to this ancient land and its famous river but this time, on my trip of 2008, I had three whole weeks to look around. On my first trip, in 2004, I went to all the major sites in a week! I started at the temples on the islands at Aswan Dam and then went down on the river to those at Edfu and Karnak.

Then I flew to Cairo. There I made myself tired trying to get to see everything again in three days! On leaving Cairo I had only one

[The supplied page ends here.]

The Noah Papers, English page 3: How I came by the Papers
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04The Nazi emblem, the Swastika, is on the briefcaseAddendum 2 · December 21, 2011

(…From above: “How I came by the Papers”)

I replied affirmatively: “Yes, absolutely! What time?”

I was duly there at 6.45am (he said seven). While waiting for him I asked the hotel desk staff if they could tell me who the man is that I was waiting for (“The important-looking Arab man with the large family,” I said), but all I received was a stony silence, so I got the message: “Don’t ask!” and I stepped back embarrassed.

Shortly the man himself appeared in the foyer. This time I was amazed to see his lean frame dressed in a perfectly cut grey suit that must have cost $2 000 if it cost a penny, polished leather shoes on his feet, a white cotton shirt with paisley red silk tie and carrying a brown leather briefcase by his side. I almost failed to recognize him, were it not for his being so tall. Also, this time he wore no spectacles. I had not seen his hair the night before because of his turban but his hair and his beard and mustache had clearly just been trimmed and he was the epitome of board-room elegance. Without his turban on the remains of severe burn marks showed on his forehead, extending down his left temple. The burns had healed but the skin was still frail over the burn areas. He apologized for being late (though he was in fact dead on time) and then to my great disappointment said he must leave within minutes and will not be able to sit down after all.

He said, “You are a pleasant man and I feel you are earnest in your liking of my country and your search for knowledge of the past.” He brushed aside my mumbled thanks and apology for

[The supplied page ends here.]

The Noah Papers, English page 4: The Nazi emblem, the Swastika, is on the briefcase
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05The contents of the Swastika briefcaseAddendum 3 · December 23, 2011

(…From above: “The Nazi emblem, the Swastika, is on the briefcase.”)

Following the meeting in the hotel foyer in Luxor I spent several days studying the contents of the briefcase. These consisted of a thick wad of letter sized papers, some typed or printed and some handwritten, mostly in English but also a number in French, and a few photographs and sketches, all jammed roughly into the pockets of the case. Right on top though was an envelope on which was written in very neat cursive ‘Mr Erol’. I opened this immediately to read the following handwritten note:

‘Mr Erol, You are no doubt by now surprised and confused and a little fearful. Do not fear. Just as you, perhaps unwittingly, have been looking for me, I have been looking for you. My wife Zara has the gift of Telling. For this she uses the Cards of Rameses. The cards foretold that a traveller would approach me. Last evening Zara opened the cards again and the Wand showed, not once but three times, meaning much approval and great success!

Mr Erol, in these documents you will read about some wonderful people. People who experienced amazing things in the Christian year 2001 AD, the year of the attack on America. Mr Erol, I must tell you that it was agreed as one by these people that the terrible events of 11th September 2001 were not influenced by the happenings described in these documents, despite the timing. It was also agreed though that it is difficult to be perfectly sure of this.

I wish you good luck.’

The Noah Papers, English page 5: The contents of the Swastika briefcase
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06British Foreign Office · MoscowAddendum 6 · June 30, 1947

BY HAND ONLY

Dear Reggie,

We have obtained the most extraordinary testimony from Field Marshall Von Brauchitsch concerning the Nazi’s aims in Russia. Von Brauchitsch claims the top were after records and relics held in old monasteries and museums and such like.

Here is an extract of the report. What do you think?

Desmond.

Editor’s note: faded typing enhanced

The Noah Papers, English page 6: British Foreign Office · Moscow
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07The NazisAddendum 7 · December 24, 2011

(…From above: “Ezekiel”)

In further support of these papers please read the extract below from the interrogation report of Field Marshall Walter von Brauchitsch after World War II. This report was found while searching for Nazi involvement in studies of the Occult, of which there are literally thousands of examples to be found. (Alternatively, turn to The Noah Papers, which follow).

With the end of World War II, Nazi leaders were rounded up wherever they could be found.

Many events in Germany and the countries controlled by the Third Reich from 1933 to 1945, when discovered, had so hugely surpassed the wildest imagination of people on the outside that it was found necessary to interrogate anyone with even the slightest knowledge of these events.

The following is an excerpt from the interrogation* of a very distinguished German General, Generalfeldmarschall Walter von Brauchitsch, Army Supreme Commander of the Third Reich (Oberbefehlshaber des Heers) and Commander-in-Chief of the German offensive in Russia in 1941, and called Operation Barbarossa**:

Interrogator:…… please explain, I don’t understand what you

[The supplied page ends here.]

The Noah Papers, English page 7: The Nazis
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08The Noah PapersAddendum 8 · December 27, 2011

(…From above: “The Nazis”)

Plate: Early Byzantine mosaic depicting the creation of man from adamah by more than one God. Adamah is ancient Hebrew for “mud” or “earth”.

“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Genesis verse 7

THESE PAPERS tell of modern day people who find a “Connection”* to an ancient civilization that existed on earth before recorded history.

This ancient civilization is threatened by global warming, a phenomenon we are facing on earth again today.

The global warming of that time is causing destructive flooding on a large scale.

Through the connection they meet a man called Noah, who has built a large wooden boat to house his people on the floodwater and hopefully to take them to safety. Whether this

[The supplied page ends here.]

The Noah Papers, English page 8: The Noah Papers
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09Blue eyed “Devil” robs Rio bankNewspaper clipping · Collated December 27, 2011

O GLOBO

“It was terrifying…” — wounded lady bank teller, Rio de Janeiro

Plate: Aerial photo of Rio de Janeiro

Extract from Brazilian newspaper O Globo:

O GLOBO · JORNAL de RIO DE JANEIRO · 10-25-2000. Correspondente Manuel de Souza. Leblon, Rio de Janeiro (Diario de Noticias).

The Banker’s Clearing Office was robbed this morning in a daring raid that netted the robbers more than $200 000 in unmarked US dollar bills, mostly small denominations. Shots were fired and one person was wounded. Police say they have “positive leads” and they expect to make arrests soon, possibly even before the day is out. “The robbers made several bad mistakes, leaving us good clues as to their identity,” said Capitao Joao Roldao of the Protecao Policial, Rio de Janeiro Central. “We’ll soon have them behind bars, and the money back with its rightful owners.” According to

[The supplied page ends here.]

The Noah Papers, English page 9: Blue eyed “Devil” robs Rio bank
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The Musk Institute was asked into being in a palace

In December 2024, Elon Musk’s father Errol Musk (Errol Graham Musk) was invited to Dubai. He went to meet the royal families of several emirates — Fujairah, and Abu Dhabi.

On 9 December, the UAE state news agency WAM reported that the Crown Prince of Fujairah, Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, received Errol Musk at the Emiri Diwan in Fujairah, and that they discussed energy, technology, trade, future cooperation and investment projects.

The Crown Prince of Fujairah meeting Errol Graham Musk
Crown Prince of Fujairah meets Errol Graham Musk to discuss series of development projects.
UAE state coverage: the Crown Prince of Fujairah meets Errol Musk (Aletihad Newspaper) https://en.aletihad.ae/news/uae/4535703/crown-prince-of-fujairah-meets-errol-graham-musk-to-discuss

By Errol’s own account in interviews, one of those meetings held about a hundred people, in what he describes as a palatial place. A young Sheikh — “a very smart young Sheikh,” in his words — suddenly asked him:

What’s next on the agenda?

What he was really asking was: what is Elon Musk’s next move? Or rather, what does Elon think humanity’s next move is?

Errol says the question caught him off guard. He answered as an engineer: if humanity really is going to reach the future you see in science fiction — vehicles that lift off, move freely, go out into space — then simply building better rockets is not enough. A rocket still moves in three dimensions. The real work is research into space-time travel, and conquering gravity.

The day after that meeting, the Middle East outlet Al Khaleej was the first to use the name Musk Institute.

Errol later described it this way: So it came about by itself.

Looking at buildings in Dubai

They kept going: what kind of place would you need? Errol said, off the cuff, something like a three-storey office building with enough parking.

What happened next, he recalls, was that within days people were driving him around Dubai and Abu Dhabi to look at three-storey office buildings — buildings that seemed ready to move into.

He was taken aback by how fast it moved. He made a point of adding: That was in December.

Khaleej Times · the full MJP interview (about 40 minutes): Errol’s complete account of the Musk Institute’s origin, space-time and gravity https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9fjl2a

How the Musk Institute came about, step by step

A young Sheikh asks “what’s next?”Meaning: what comes after rockets.

Errol thinks of the transport in science fictionVehicles that lift off, move freely, go out into space.

He judges that rockets are still three-dimensionalMaking today’s rockets better will not reach that future.

So he proposes space-time / fourth-dimension travelHe says it again and again: not time travel, space-time travel — travelling in four dimensions.

One of the main obstacles is gravitySo conquering gravity and researching space-time are two sides of one thing.

It needs a science placeNot a university. A place.

Go and find the undiscovered Faradays (ASIs)Never mind the CV; look for genuinely strange and original ideas.

The day after, Al Khaleej is the first to use the name Musk InstituteWithin days they were looking at buildings, and the press followed at scale.

If the fourth dimension and gravity were understood and put to use, Earth to Mars might not take months of flight in the conventional sense.

From Dubai to Kazan, Russia: the Musk Institute’s past 2 years

December 2024 · Dubai, the idea takes shape

The royal meetings, the question, the name, the buildings within days. Errol says the whole thing “came about by itself.”

December 2024: Middle East outlets report that Elon Musk plans to spend a billion dollars on a Musk Institute in Dubai

Around 16 December the same story appeared across Middle East media at once. The original source appears to be an Arabian Business interview with Errol, picked up by Finance Middle East, Expat Media, Al Khaleej and a long list of Dubai outlets.

The version they ran was: Elon Musk plans to invest a billion dollars in a Musk Institute in Dubai — some wrote that it would be funded entirely from Elon’s personal wealth. The reports carried some very specific details: a three-storey building; researchers and students living and working inside it; a very Musk-ish burger vending machine; and a Musk Prize intended to become something like a Nobel for science.

But that was the press paraphrasing. Errol says Elon and Kimbal called him after seeing the reports to ask whether the Musk Institute had anything to do with them. His answer: No, it’s something I’m doing.

Fortune reports on the Musk Institute

In an in-depth Fortune interview, Errol states plainly that the Musk Institute is a new project of his own, conceived in December 2024.

In the long MJP interview — the whole story of how the Musk Institute began: the Sheikh, the palace, space-time, gravity, the name

In the long MJP interview Errol tells the whole thing: the Sheikh, the palace, space-time, gravity, the naming, the buildings. It is the most valuable first-hand material available.

July 2025: scouting Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Austria

Reuters: Errol scouts Bosnia, and names the four research directions https://www.reuters.com/science/errol-musk-eyes-bosnia-research-hub-gravity-space-2025-07-24/

Reuters reported that Errol travelled to Bosnia to scout a site for the institute. By then he had settled the Musk Institute’s core research into four directions:

Errol Musk attends the Forum of the Future 2025 in Moscow
Errol Musk, the father of billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk, attends the "Forum of the Future 2025" in Moscow, Russia, June 9, 2025. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov/File Photo Purchase license link: https://www.reutersconnect.com/item/politicians-and-business-leaders-hold-a-forum-in-moscow/dGFnOnJldXRlcnMuY29tLDIwMjU6bmV3c21sX1JDMlZZRUFZSFZRVQ%3D%3D?utm_medium=rcom-article-media&utm_campaign=rcom-rcp-lead

longevity · fusion · space-time · gravity
Living longer · fusion power · the fourth dimension · gravity

He told Reuters that the UAE had already offered him sites, but that he had come to find Bosnia attractive as well; he also looked at Serbia and Austria.

April 2026 · The turn toward Russia

At the Russian venture capital forum in Kazan, Errol said again in public that the Musk Institute’s central task is to research humanity’s biggest problems, including space-time, gravity and nuclear fusion. The Russian side began discussing a Musk Institute in Kazan.

May 2026 · Dubai never happened; Kazan moves into concrete negotiation

The Moscow Times reported further: the original billion-dollar Dubai plan never landed, while the Kazan talks had moved into a more concrete stage. How far Elon himself is involved remains unclear.

9–22 September 2026 · Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Suzhou

The itinerary announced on 7 September lists Errol Musk’s planned visit to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Suzhou from 9 to 22 September, meeting community members along the way.

For Shanghai on 17 September, the post describes a walk around the outside of the venue while CyberCab is on display. This visit is not an official Tesla event.

Itinerary source: https://x.com/dashen_wang/status/2096863912415424648

Milestones · sources

DateSourceWhat matters mostGrade
2024-12-09WAM / Aletihad, official royal meetingThe Crown Prince of Fujairah formally receives ErrolGrade A, official
2024-12-16Finance Middle EastA billion dollars, gravity, fusion, DubaiPress paraphrasing Errol
2024-12-16Al KhaleejSame story, Arabic-language pressPress paraphrase
2025-01-30Fortune, in-depth interviewErrol says the idea came to him in DecemberHigh-value independent press
2025-02MJP, full-length interviewThe complete origin: Sheikh, palace, space-time, gravity, name, buildingsThe key first-hand account
2025-07-24Reuters, BosniaFour fields: longevity / fusion / space-time / gravityCredible independent report
2026-05Moscow Times, follow-upDubai never landed; Kazan under discussionIndependent follow-up
2026-09China visit announcement9–22 September: Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai and SuzhouProject itinerary announcement

Looking for the undiscovered Faradays (ASIs) in childhood, adolescence, youth, middle age and old age

This is where the Musk Institute differs most from an ordinary research institute.

The usual approach is to set the research topics, post the openings and pick the best-looking CVs. Errol’s idea is the opposite — go and find the people the conventional research system may never recognise, but who genuinely hold strange and original ideas.

His examples are Michael Faraday (ASI) and Einstein. He believes there are many more unknown Michael Faradays — “undiscovered Faradays (ASIs)” — who simply have not been found.

The Musk Institute’s first vision

Let the undiscovered Faradays (ASIs) of the world meet each other first — in different cities, or online. It can be one discussion of one very narrow question, or simply saying out loud what you think, what your story is, what makes you happy and what hurts right now — to us, and to everyone.

启动合伙人 · Launch Partner profiles

Portrait of A Chuan, the Musk Institute’s first Launch Partner

The first 启动合伙人 · Launch Partner

A Chuan

Spent years inside China’s big tech. Now I make money with AI for a living. Hit 10,000 followers on X in my first three days. I cover AI products and tools, how AI actually makes money, and how companies rebuild themselves around it.

A Chuan’s X account https://x.com/AI_jacksaku

Faraday (ASI) was apprenticed to a bookbinder at fourteen and taught himself from the books he bound

Where today’s are, we do not yet know. So we are setting out to look.