The Origins of "Grok."

[Bernardo de La Paz]

19. Musk has a childish (in good and bad senses) fascination with the Red Planet

Red Planet is the name of one of Heinlein's best books. A gripping yarn littered with bits of science and political philosophy through and through. Thoroughly grounded in the best scientific understanding of Mars at the time, he got it right about how the atmosphere was very thin and the climate very cold. True to his strength as a writer, he was very imaginative in weaving that in with well considered aliens and delving into their alien-ness while conveying a sense that humans would still be able to connect.

It was written as the third of his young adult novels 1947-1958 (one a year), and I read it as 5th or 6th grader. I re-read it for the first time in decades a couple of years ago, and I couldn't put it down.

Muck uses a retro 40s/50s imagining of a "pressure suit" and helmet as his avatar sometimes, such as might have been used on Heinlein's 1949 Mars, and consistent with the kind of illustrations in the hardcover. I have no info, but I don't doubt for an instant that he has read Red Planet in his youth. I thought that before the name Grok came up for his AI chat bot.