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> This is what Thiel’s apocalyptic geopolitics looks like in practice: a twisted military-industrial eschatology where an AI-powered genocide is understood to b

by tech_ken 10mo ago

> This is what Thiel’s apocalyptic geopolitics looks like in practice: a twisted military-industrial eschatology where an AI-powered genocide is understood to be “restraining” rather than enacting the end of the world. I could have used some more explication on the connection between Thiel's ideology and Palantir's project portfolio. I felt like this article was structured like "Part 1: Thiel is Crazy, Part 2: Palantir is Awful, Conclusion: They are Related", without really making clear what the relationship between them was. It seems pretty contradictory that someone concerned about "The New One World Order" would create a global police technology apparatus, so deep-diving into the cognitive dissonance there (and how it is soothed by the ideology) would have been interesting (to me).

relaxing 10mo ago
I think the author assumes a basic familiarity with the subject. FYI Thiel is chairman and co-founder of Palantir.
- tech_ken 10mo ago
  Okay :) I actually do have a pretty deep familiarity with all of this and that's why I'm criticizing the article. It felt like a rehash of known facts (Thiel is a christian fascist, his company Palantir does innovatively horrible stuff), rather than drawing new connections between those known facts. At a fine-grain I want to know how his ideology underpins the business decisions of his company, I don't need someone to gesture at the two together and mumble something about eschatology.
  - drcongo 10mo ago
    I think we (and probably HN in general) aren't the target audience here. Last time I met up with some non-tech friends, Peter Thiel came up a lot in the pub chat - a year ago I'm not sure they would have known who he is. The more people outside of tech who understand what a deranged loon he really is, the better.
  - red-iron-pine 10mo ago
    > At a fine-grain I want to know how his ideology underpins the business decisions of his company, I don't need someone to gesture at the two together and mumble something about eschatology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment

relaxing 10mo ago

I think the author assumes a basic familiarity with the subject. FYI Thiel is chairman and co-founder of Palantir.

tech_ken 10mo ago
Okay :) I actually do have a pretty deep familiarity with all of this and that's why I'm criticizing the article. It felt like a rehash of known facts (Thiel is a christian fascist, his company Palantir does innovatively horrible stuff), rather than drawing new connections between those known facts. At a fine-grain I want to know how his ideology underpins the business decisions of his company, I don't need someone to gesture at the two together and mumble something about eschatology.
- drcongo 10mo ago
  I think we (and probably HN in general) aren't the target audience here. Last time I met up with some non-tech friends, Peter Thiel came up a lot in the pub chat - a year ago I'm not sure they would have known who he is. The more people outside of tech who understand what a deranged loon he really is, the better.
- red-iron-pine 10mo ago
  > At a fine-grain I want to know how his ideology underpins the business decisions of his company, I don't need someone to gesture at the two together and mumble something about eschatology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment