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Without knowing what they actually do, Palantir is a terrifying name.
by 0xTJ 6y ago
Without knowing what they actually do, Palantir is a terrifying name.
- Analemma_ 6y agoThe company lives up to its name, I promise.
- krick 6y agoDo you say that as somebody who doesn't actually know what they do? Because it's exactly what they do. You can only admire the honesty.
- whymauri 6y agoAll the Lord of the Rings inspired startups give me the heebie jeebies. Anduril literally translates to "Flame of the West."
- bigiain 6y agoKnowing a little bit, but undoubtedly barely the tip of the iceberg of what they actually do, Palantir is a terrifying name.
- castratikron 6y agoIt's what they call crystal balls in Lord of the Rings
- three_seagrass 6y agoJFC it just hit me that it's named after the seeing-stones in LOTR.
- manfredo 6y agoThiel actually explained this in a talk when I worked there. It comes from Lord of the Rings which Peter Thiel is very fond of. Apparently the Palantiri aren't inherently good or bad, it's just that power's impact reflects the people who use it. The ancient elves or wizards or whatever used them for good. But Sauron got his hands on one and used it for bad. The sinister potential was a deliberate choice, to remind people to be sure that power isn't abused. Actually kind of a good message for the tool Palantir builds, but probably not good for PR. Also Thiel is very consistent on using Tolkien's pronunciation. It's not PA-lan-tir. Or Pa-LAN-tir. It's pa-lan-TIR with emphasis on the last syllable. There's actually a written accent in the books: http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Palant%C3%ADri http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Palant%C3%ADri Regardless everybody at the company sad PA-lan-tir.
- st1ck 6y agoI find it hilarious that Thiel is a fan of Tolkien, yet he seems to embody Saruman's ideology (if not worse), while Tolkien's philosophy is more of Gandalf's. Tolkien was generally against technology, but especially against something so easily abusable (if not abused already) by malevolent power.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- manfredo 6y agoIs Thiel seeking to build an army of ressurected elves to destroy all life in the planet? And what did you have in mind for "if not worse"?
- st1ck 6y agoNote that I meant Saruman, not Sauron. Unlike most of LOTR characters, Saruman is a very modern and enlightened kind of person striving for "Knowledge, Rule, Order", but using Machiavellian means to achieve this purpose. Maybe Sauron was also initially led by good intentions, one would have to look it up in Silmarillion.
- lvs 6y agoIt only gets worse when you actually find out what they do.