'TECH PHARAOHS'. Like ancient Egypt’s super-rich 'technological' pharaohs, the tech billionaires of today like Musk and Bezos have ambitions of immortality and life among the stars

At the top of the pyramid of super-wealth in ancient Egypt sat the pharaohs. Think of the wealth and technology they relied on. At the top of the pyramid of wealth today are tech billionaires. Their dreams are not dissimilar. Like Musk and Bezos, Ancient Egypt’s “tech” pharaohs also had ambitions of immortality and of a life among the stars. The “hi-tech” burial and launch into the afterlife of a pharaoh was the equivalent of a space expedition.

A vast pyramid was a launch pad and the pharaoh's burial was no less than a super-rich man’s space shot to put the pharaoh among the eternal stars. Little wonder that ancient Egypt is so intertwined in today's science and science fiction... Think of the canonical use of sarcophagus-like sleep capsules used by distant travellers in science fiction movies, with 'Interstellar' being just one example. Like astronauts, mummies are bound up in elaborate white suits with masks for their journey through eternity. Consider the Great Pyramid as the largest ever gantry for a space shot to put the pharaoh's soul into space and orbit among the imperishable circumpolar stars. In fact, you might say that ancient Egypt devised the first ‘space ship’ – a pharaoh’s barque that travelled through the heavens like the sun in a journey of millions of year.