>I can't speak for any of the three but I don't think any of them are utopians; Well, in the context of media awareness and public perception, it's not if they

>I can't speak for any of the three but I don't think any of them are utopians; Well, in the context of media awareness and public perception, it's not if they truly __are__ utopians insomuch as other journalists and pundits call them that. Yes, RK, KK, MA, and others like Tim O'Reilly and Dean Kamen may prefer to call themselves the blander title of "techno-optimists" or "tech-progressives". If the outsiders like journalists choose to exaggerate "optimists" to "utopians" for dramatic effect, it sort of goes with the territory of being in the public eye. (Like Michael Jackson the "king of pop", or 1970s babies the "X Generation". The subjects of those labels didn't give journalists permission to call them that.) The other side of techno-utopians would be tech-cautious writers like Tom Standage (Economist editor) and Evgeny Morozov. In terms of how public figures are viewed, I still don't think Peter Thiel is in the same category as the other people I mentioned.