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Thank you. This is exactly the sort of comment I was hoping for. I agree with most of what you say re: pragmatism, but I do think Palantir is a bit much. Unless
by ceilingcorner 6y ago
Thank you. This is exactly the sort of comment I was hoping for. I agree with most of what you say re: pragmatism, but I do think Palantir is a bit much. Unless he’s playing a meta-game and assuming that surveillance will be inevitable and it’s preferable to be in the driver’s seat than locked in the back.
- dnissley 6y agoThis is a big stretch, but I do wonder with Thiel's Christian background and his interest in Girard's mimetic theory that he sees himself as acting in a Christ-like manner -- strategically sacrificing himself again and again in order to save that which he loves, even if it doesn't love him back. The problem with that of course is the "strategically". He's made what seem to be deals with the devil on many occasions -- Trump being the obvious example, and having a hand in pardoning Levandowski being the most recent one. I'm not so sure that he's crossed the line into "evil villain" territory as many think, but is he headed that way? Maybe.
- ibn-python 6y agoI actually thought he was playing the meta game with palantir. His rhetoric of democracy is incompatible with freedom became famous around the time of the founding of Palantir. I viewed it as him attempting to reign as a philosopher-king-ceo steering the surveillance apparatus the US gov is contracting out as safely as he thought is possible.