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Anyone who has read The Lord of The Rings has exactly zero reasons to trust Palantir.
by holistio 4mo ago
Anyone who has read The Lord of The Rings has exactly zero reasons to trust Palantir.
- DoktorDelta 4mo agoCrazy that there's a weapons company called Anduril as well
- nickff 4mo agoWhy? Naming a weapons company after Aragorn's sword makes sense. "The Daily Beast" on the other hand is a rather cynical name...
- aldebaran1 4mo agoAnduril as a 'tech' weapons company is ironic. In the books, it is Saruman, with his "mind of metal and gears" who is the scientist and engineer. The sword Anduril powerful not because of technology but because of the craftsmanship of its make and the valor of its wielder.
- psd1 4mo ago"Techne", I've read, had a meaning of "craft". It referred to ceramics and weaving before, say, the antikythera device. If attic greek had the word "technologist", then a sword maker would be one
- scns 4mo agoCreative people seem to be rather pacifistic. Warmongers seem less so, they have to "borrow" from the creative ones.
- goldenarm 4mo agoAnduril is quite a positive name, it is a broken sword reforged later to save humankind. Quite a metaphor about western reindustrialization.
- Barrin92 4mo agoexcept of course that Tolkien, as a Catholic was quite adamant that he didn't write a story of Western chauvinism. The sword is not a metaphor for industrialization, which is quite literally the villain of the story, it's a symbol for restored kingship and hope.
- cmrdporcupine 4mo agoRight, and his concept of nobility and just kingship was about mercy love justice and a love of nature, good food, merriment, harmony, and treating others with respect. His works are full of cautionary tales of people who reached for immortality, power, self-aggrandizement, and control over others and fell as a result. (Though he was obsessed with lineage and blood quotients and pale skin)
- holistio 4mo agoIt's very difficult to judge the attitudes and held values of people who lived in the past - I mean the parentheses. We don't know how much of it is real flaw or corruption and how much is just the zeitgeist they lived in. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Musk's capital T today would end up becoming the beginning or turning point of a cautionary tale in the future. And, for better or worse, I know a lot of otherwise great and talented people who are still his fans.
- DaedalusII 4mo agotolkien largely copied the nibelungsenlied and accidentally inherited western chauvinism and many other ideas from that lore, including especially a great amount of racism
- lava_pidgeon 4mo agoNibelungenlied (not Nibelungsenlied) was racist? That needs a citation
- goldenarm 4mo ago
- alterom 4mo agoCrazy? It's backed by Thiel as well IIRC.
- inigyou 4mo agoI'd call my company Sauron's Eye (we'll figure out what the company does later), but sadly that's trademarked to the LOTR franchise.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- z3c0 4mo ago[dead]
- emptybits 4mo agoIndeed. The corporation name is literally (in literature!) an example of all-seeing surveillance tools causing harm when (not if) they fall into evil hands.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- setr 4mo agoIf my understanding is correct, the use of palantir by creatures leads to their own downfall, both for evil and good characters. So following through, it's very useful for it to be in evil hands
- za3faran 4mo agoIt's enough to hear what their genocidal maniac of a CEO says.
- gmerc 4mo agoWell it’s kind of the same with Rand. That’s their thing, they read these books as preteens and the nuance is lost on them
- jahnu 4mo agoI thought RAND was just a contraction of Research And Development?
- gpvos 4mo agoI suppose this is about Ayn Rand. I haven't read her books, but from what I hear they aren't very nuanced though.
- icantevenhold 4mo agoHer books are mostly about genius caring people being held back from their plan of helping humanity into a golden age by more stupid evil people and regulation and so on.
- pyrale 4mo ago> Well it’s kind of the same with Rand. That’s their thing, they read these books as preteens and the nuance is lost on them In the case of Ayn Rand, it is questionable whether there's nuance to be found.