cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/46219073
Lecture attendees started trickling out around 8:30 p.m., carrying mousses, cookies, and various other desserts to their awaiting Ubers. Most of the audience members were hesitant to provide their thoughts on the record, for fear of being disinvited from future events, but a few shared their opinions on condition of anonymity.
The consensus was that the talk largely repeated the points Thiel had made in previous interviews on the subject — namely, that the Antichrist would use the threat of Armageddon, or some looming crisis, in order to consolidate control and create a “one-world government.”
One attendee recalled Thiel specifying that this figure could not be a state figurehead like Chinese President Xi Jinping, because it needs to be more global. He couldn’t recall if Thiel suggested Thunberg would make the cut.
One attendee recalled that Thiel’s discussion of the Antichrist was more about a scenario than an individual. Thiel’s Antichrist scenario is one in which a unified government suppresses technology to impose order, or armageddon, wherein AI takes over and ushers in the end of the world.
"We’ll either have the one government that destroys technology and takes over, or you have the AI that destroys everything,” he said.
Another guest, when asked about the talk, shot back a single word: “Mid.”
A group of three French men, all living in SF and working in tech, gave the talk a 7 out of 10 because of its repetitiveness. But they did appreciate some of Thiel’s jokes — including, apparently, saying it would be a travesty for Elon Musk to go to therapy because it would make him less productive.
"He was really anti-introspection,” one recalled. “[He said] we are very selfish and we care a lot about ourselves as individuals, and that therapy and yoga and stuff like that is not good for the world. We should not care so much about ourselves and care more about the world.”
Another attendee said the talk revealed a less well-known, more scholarly side of Thiel. He noted that Thiel is different from his expectations of a tech investor, pointing to the billionaire’s “cynical” view of technology’s impact on the world.
“I’m personally ready for horns to grow out of his head in the middle of talking,” said one attendee, who identified himself as Dick Gay. “That would be great.”
Mr. Gay, who had flown in for the event from Los Angeles and said he was one of the investors of Sperm Racing (which is an actual thing wherein men compete to see whose sperm is “fastest” under a microscope), said he attended the University of Austin, or UATX, an “anti-woke” college reportedly partially funded by Thiel, and built his career around the principles outlined in Thiel’s book “Zero to One.”
I don’t think “Dick Gay” is this man’s real name.
[He said] we are very selfish and we care a lot about ourselves as individuals, and that therapy and yoga and stuff like that is not good for the world. We should not care so much about ourselves and care more about the world.”
This guy has such a massive ego that he fears introspection. So much of his shit is projection that he’ll never realise.
That reads like an Onion article
Thiel’s so high on his own supply that his brain is failing him. Any of the more recent videos of his public speaking show a many who is less and less cognizant of the world around him and more up his own asshole than any human has a right to be.
The guy was always a libertarian-flavored fascist, going back to his early Paypal days. But now that he’s fully enmeshed in the national security state with his Palantir project, he’s getting the weapon’s grade Reagan Era anti-communism directly from the firehose. That, plus the drugs and the orgies and the crazy sleepless jet-setting schedule all topped off with his flirtations in digital immortality. Dude’s brain is cooked like hamburger.
I mean a lot of old people are like this. They slowly lose their minds are start believing in all sorts of crazy shit. My grandmother kept telling us how people were plotting to break into her home and steal her precious china. (It was worthless shit).
The issue is that this guy is super rich and people want to listen to his crazy old person nonsense.
Unpopular opinion: he is onto something…
However, he is also projecting (and yes, both can be true simultaneously). This leaves me with another question: since Thiel is not a genius AND is a son of a bitch, there must be others that have a very similar idea; creating chaos to bring “order”. Who are they?
The thing is, he seems to be setting up a future where technology and progress becomes his ultimate scapegoat.
The future he describes is where we’re headed if we continue down the path he’s leading us.
Once he becomes the centralized figure controlling all the nodes of authoritarian easy buttons he created across the globe, he will just claim that he tried to prevent it, but ultimately it’s just the inevitable result of progress. Like it was going to happen one way or another.
I wrote a very long comment about this, but essentially, dystopia is not an inevitable result of progress. That is why regulations exist. Look at the fears of dystopia following mapping of the human genome and the regulations that were created that have kept modern society from becoming Gattaca (although I know Thiel actually believes this too has led to “stagnation”).
Basically, there is the reality of what can and will happen when you cut the brake lines in a speeding car, and the fantasy of people like Thiel who believe that cutting the brakes will allow you to go much faster, and as long as he’s steering, his fantasy where the car suddenly flies instead of crashing might come true.
When it inevitably crashes he can claim it would have happened one way or the other, but at least he tried.
These people are insane, and Thiel is either fully pilled or a cynical grifter (or both). And going to therapy, taking time to better one’s self, those are things that allow an individual to then think about things other than themselves. Ugh, so much bullshit, and some of those in attendance I’m sure lapped it up eagerly. Despicable.
We should not care so much about ourselves and care more about the world
Jackass has a private bunker in New Zealand for when shit hits the fan
He cares about the world.
Recreating it in his image.
Another attendee said the talk revealed a less well-known, more scholarly side of Thiel.
I call bullshit. How can it be that we went from people like Currie and Einstein to fucktards like this, and people actually nearly worship them?
Billionaires own the world. Of course we should care about their investment. I believe that’s what good serfs would do.
I’m curious, has anybody ever just asked Thiel why it would make a difference if the globe was ruled by one corporation instead of one government?
the Antichrist would use the threat of Armageddon, or some looming crisis, in order to consolidate control and create a “one-world government.”
So to avoid this, we need one corporation to rule them all instead? You literally have a single corporation building global access to everyone’s data. It’s like you’re creating little nodes of authoritarian easy buttons, but ultimately it will be you with consolidated control of all these nodes. So consolidated control of all the authoritarian easy buttons.
Thiel’s Antichrist scenario is one in which a unified government suppresses technology to impose order, or armageddon, wherein AI takes over and ushers in the end of the world.
So as long as you, Peter Thiel, are the only one controlling it, we should believe that this won’t happen?
I wonder if Thiel’s ultimate scapegoat is progress/technology itself? He builds these fears while also making these claims about regulations and stagnation, so that he is allowed to build and control the technology that he knows will result in this scenario.
When everything goes to shit because he was allowed to knock down so many regulations and speed bumps, he will claim it’s not his fault, it’s just the inevitable progress of technology. As though this is the only way it ever could have been.
Because in his mind, this is the only possible outcome if technology progresses. So even though he’s the one that builds it, it’s not really his fault if it goes off the rails because it was going to happen one way or another. Oh well, at least he tried to save humanity.
This has all been making me think about mapping the human genome, and how people feared all the potential for a society like Gattaca where genetic discrimination determines your entire future.
It definitely wasn’t an unfounded fear, and that was why we created laws and regulations. Most (ethical) scientists would agree that genetics as a field did not stagnate as result of these regulations.
If anything, we thankfully learned a lot about unintentional side effects of cloning, and the impact of epigenetics and telomeres on longevity via Dolly the sheep. But what if we had said, we figured it out, no need for regulations and stagnation let’s make some human copies!
There was a doctor in China that ignored the rules and regulations, and jumped ahead and created a set of human twins with CRISPR technology. I think he is in prison now, and I don’t think there has been any updates about the twins due to privacy concerns.
What that guy did wasn’t just unethical bc it ignored the agreement about not wanting to live in a real life Gattaca. It was extremely dangerous bc even with CRISPR there is the possibility of off target effects, which can emerge immediately or even decades later in development.
Once again, digging a new hole to fill an old one. You fixed one problem, but you may have inadvertently caused an exponential number of new problems. That is straight up Nazi human experimentation, and the humans you created had zero consent.
Imagine what the world would look like today if somebody like Thiel had taken control of human genome research. Imagine Peter Thiel being allowed to just go full speed ahead with cloning and CRISPR technology in humans without any kind of knowledge or consideration of off target effects or downstream consequences. Where every educated or knowledgeable individual that tried to slow him down or warn him is completely ignored and dismissed.
Maybe the world would look like his fantasy where only a race with superior genetics exists. Everybody thrives and everybody is immortal, happy, and healthy as can be.
More likely it would be a world full of horrific genetic mutations and diseases with no treatment or cure. A world where everyone with money keeps cloning humans to bring them back to life, unable to understand or explain why they all seem to be falling apart more rapidly with each additional clone.
This guy has no fucking chill. His ego does not allow for the time to stop and think about all the unforeseen consequences that develop with progress. In his mind it’s just inevitable, and the way he fantasizes about it working out is the only possible outcome.
