If Silicon Valley were to ever break away and form its own nation, its citizens would want Tesla founder Elon Musk to lead them. This news comes from The Atlantic's second annual Silicon Valley Insider's Poll; which surveys some of the tech industry's biggest names.
The South-African born electric car magnate was picked by 16% of the respondents to be the fictional country's head of state. Mike Olson, CEO of Cloudera, had this to say of a possible Musk presidency,
"Based just on the money he made at PayPal, he's thought-fully attacking huge problems for humanity, including pollution and the survival of the species. It's hard to imagine what he could do with the full faith and credit of the United States at his disposal."
Trailing Musk were Facebook COO and Feminist spokeswoman Sheryl Sandberg with 10% and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen with 9% of the vote.
Musk's exploits also topped other categories on the survey. On the question of 'Which start-up will change the world?' the top answer was 'Tesla, or anything else Elon Musk attempts.'
On the topic of actual elections, 43% of the panel said they would vote for Hillary Clinton as the next President of the United States. 28% were undecided; while 11% would go for Hillary's democratic rival, Bernie Sanders.
Other interesting responses include the industry's thoughts on Virtual Reality.
36% of respondents believe the Oculus Rift will live up to the hype.
"Virtual reality will start replacing monitors within five years. That'll mean that a considerable portion of the time that you currently spend at a computer screen (which is often more than50% of your waking hours) will be replaced by life in the Matrix." Said CEO Balaji S. Srinivasan.
On the other hand, 29% said that Google Glass did not live up to expectations.
