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Posted

Dunno.  Seems kinda weird and dangerous.

Peter Thiel, the billionaire venture capitalist and early supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump, has urged long-time associate Elon Musk to quit the Giving Pledge under which signatories leave the majority of their wealth to charity.

In particular, Thiel says he has grown wary that an Antichrist will emerge who will create a one-world government on the promise of something like stopping nuclear, AI or climate-induced disaster.
That figure, who Thiel says is augured by the Christian bible, would curtail individual freedoms and halt humanity's shot at a future innovation that would avoid Armageddon, Thiel believes.


https://www.reuters.com/world/us/peter-thiel-talk-antichrist-says-he-told-elon-musk-not-give-wealth-charity-2025-10-09/

Posted
12 minutes ago, Parliament said:

Dunno.  Seems kinda weird and dangerous.

Peter Thiel, the billionaire venture capitalist and early supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump, has urged long-time associate Elon Musk to quit the Giving Pledge under which signatories leave the majority of their wealth to charity.

In particular, Thiel says he has grown wary that an Antichrist will emerge who will create a one-world government on the promise of something like stopping nuclear, AI or climate-induced disaster.
That figure, who Thiel says is augured by the Christian bible, would curtail individual freedoms and halt humanity's shot at a future innovation that would avoid Armageddon, Thiel believes.


https://www.reuters.com/world/us/peter-thiel-talk-antichrist-says-he-told-elon-musk-not-give-wealth-charity-2025-10-09/

Trump is curtailing individual freedoms and considers half of America domestic terrorists while also assaulting science and research. Maybe Pete doesn’t have to look to far for that Antichrist he fears. 

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Posted (edited)
38 minutes ago, Parliament said:

Dunno.  Seems kinda weird and dangerous.

Huh. You think so?

I am being sarcastic; I apologize. The warning light was flashing red over Thiel years ago, as his relationship with Curtis Yarwin became public information, and his vast wealth became dedicated to installing a monarch as executive of the USA. (The Vanity Fair article is from 2022). This Antichrist stuff seeks to harness the Payday Christians in an existential fight against such evils as environmentalists and other regulatory impediments. Greta Thunberg is the Devil!

image.jpeg.43d9e63bedce10372770ba058a3de141.jpeg
 

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/inside-the-new-right-where-peter-thiel-is-placing-his-biggest-bets?srsltid=AfmBOops9xLP9Jn3qU4u0UroG2JGtUYWAuzThXvki-4kFb7lnP2l1L7T

 

Edited by Willfully Horn
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Posted (edited)
4 hours ago, Shaddie said:

So I guess the question is

Was he batshit crazy while he made his money or did the money make him crazy? 
 

Some of my best friends (at the time) got baked in PR with him quite a bit during covid lockdowns and said he was already a head case before that.  I think that started his journey into the abyss.  One of those guys that was in that circle died last week OD’ing in Colombia.  
 

edit: I haven’t spoken to many of those people since but I have no reason to believe anything would have changed his / or their trajectory.  Had to cut off a lot of people from that covid era when the descent into lunacy began for many in this country.  

Edited by ChiTownDoc
Not decent at all...
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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Parliament said:


… the promise of something like stopping nuclear, AI or climate-induced disaster.
That figure, who Thiel says is augured by the Christian bible, would curtail individual freedoms and halt humanity's shot at a future innovation that would avoid Armageddon……


spacer.png
 

Edited by Dnaguy
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Posted
1 hour ago, Willfully Horn said:

This Antichrist stuff seeks to harness the Payday Christians in an existential fight against such evils as environmentalists and other regulatory impediments

This WSJ article spells out all this stuff. Nothing like a “devout Christian” who chafes at how hard it is to hide money from the government and openly admits he want to whip up the rabid knuckle draggers to stave off AI regulation.

Spoiler

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel recently warned that Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and critics of technology or artificial intelligence are “legionnaires of the Antichrist” in private lectures on Christianity that connected government oversight of Silicon Valley to an apocalyptic future, according to recordings reviewed by The Washington Post.

In the four, roughly two-hour lectures, which began last month and culminated Monday at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Thiel laid out his religious views to a sold-out audience told to keep the contents “off-the-record,” according to an event listing. He argued that those who propose limits on technology development not only hinder business but also threaten to usher in the destruction of the United States and an era of global totalitarian rule, according to the recordings.

“In the 17th, 18th century, the Antichrist would have been a Dr. Strangelove, a scientist who did all this sort of evil crazy science,” Thiel said in his Sept. 15 opening talk, according to the recordings. “In the 21st century, the Antichrist is a Luddite who wants to stop all science. It’s someone like Greta or Eliezer,” he said, referring to Thunberg and Eliezer Yudkowsky, a prominent critic of the tech industry’s approach to AI.

Thunberg has criticized global capitalism as a driver of environmental degradation while Yudkowsky advocates for limiting AI research to prevent the technology from surpassing human intelligence. Thiel previously funded Yudkowsky’s work but said in his Sept. 15 lecture that he is now embarrassed by the association and that the AI critic and others like him have become “deranged,” according to the recordings.

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Thiel’s lectures come at a time of rising Christian nationalism in the United States. Christians have varying interpretations of the biblical Antichrist, but the figure is often understood to be an opponent of God who appears during the end-times.

The Post sent Thiel, through a spokesperson, a detailed list of questions about his remarks in the lectures, but Thiel declined to comment.

Yudkowsky said in a statement “my understanding is that authorities from multiple Christian denominations have stated that Thiel’s views, identifying the Antichrist with proposals to regulate the AI industry, are not deemed by them to be compatible with conventional Christian belief.” Spokespeople for Thunberg did not respond to a request for comment.

The Post reviewed audio recordings of all four of Thiel’s lectures, titled “The Antichrist: A Four-Part Lecture Series.” A review of a sample of the audio by Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert and professor at the University of California at Berkeley, indicated they were probably authentic and not manipulated by AI. Reuters previously reported some passages from Thiel’s lectures.

Thiel, an early investor in Facebook and co-founder of data analytics firm Palantir, has long espoused libertarian views, arguing that politics, bureaucracy and regulations have led to economic stagnation in the U.S. and Europe.

But the recent lectures appear to mark an intensification of this ideology and attempt to pitch it on a grander scale. The recordings offer new detail about how the billionaire seems to place those who would critique or regulate tech developers into a religious good-vs.-evil worldview, where the future of all creation depends on giving innovators free rein.

Silicon Valley leaders have escalated their fight against regulating AI since President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Thiel has close ties to administration officials including Vice President JD Vance, White House science adviser Michael Kratsios and David Sacks, White House AI and crypto czar. As one of the industry’s most influential leaders, his effort to cast resisting oversight of technology development as a religious battle could intensify the industry’s crusade.

Thiel said in his third lecture, on Sept. 29, that only a religious argument could inspire the proper response to the threat of a growing web of global rules, according to the recording.

“There are a lot of rational reasons I can give why the one-world state’s a bad idea: Turn the planet into a prison; I think the tax rates would be very high,” he said, according to the recording. “But I think if you strip it from the biblical context, you will never find it scary enough. You will never really resist.”

The billionaire’s lectures were also notable as a forceful display of religiosity in an industry that has historically been secular. Christianity has recently become a significant presence in some influential tech circles, in part because of ACTS 17 Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to spreading Christian principles inside the tech industry that organized the Thiel lectures.

Those with tickets were required to attend the full series of four talks in addition to respecting the off-the-record policy, the event listing said. Thiel hinted in his third lecture on Sept. 29 that the restriction was intended to draw more attention to his ideas, according to the recording. “It’s a pretty good marketing shtick if you want everyone to hear about something, not to let anyone into the room,” he said. “I’m not bragging, but I’m not totally incompetent.”

The billionaire spoke for nearly eight hours across the four private lectures about his theories of the role of technology in society and the world, according to the recordings, citing sources ranging from the Bible and theological and philosophical texts to Japanese anime.

He acknowledged that technology could have negative effects on people and society but argued that constraining its development would be more harmful.

“Maybe these things are good or bad — stopping them seems far, far worse,” he said, according to the recordings. “If the internet or the AI deranges some people but we have to shut it down altogether, that feels like out of the frying pan into the fire — a cure that’s far worse than the disease.”

A threadbare patchwork of state laws imposes limits on AI development, requiring California companies to safety-test products and preventing Texas companies from discriminating against protected classes. Despite a flurry of activity in Washington in recent years, no federal law has passed.

Thiel argued that critiques of technology and calls for stricter regulation by Thunberg and others appear to echo biblical interpretations of an Antichrist who will win power by offering the world “peace and safety” from apocalyptic destruction, according to the recordings. He previously cited Thunberg in a June interview with the New York Times

Thiel also accused Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom, who is known for popularizing the idea that humanity will eventually invent a potentially dangerous “superintelligence,” of advocating for restrictions on technology that will hold society back, according to the recordings.

In an interview, Bostrom said his views are “complex” and have evolved to focus more on the positive potential of AI. “Maybe he needs a new casting agency for his demonology,” Bostrom said of Thiel.

Thiel, whose net worth is around $27 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, also used his private talks to criticize financial regulations. He said such rules were a sign that a singular world government has begun to emerge that could be taken over by an Antichrist figure who could then use it to exert control over people.

“It’s become quite difficult to hide one’s money,” Thiel said, according to the recordings. “An incredible machinery of tax treaties, financial surveillance and sanctions architecture has been constructed.” Wealth gives the “illusion of power and autonomy,” Thiel added, according to the recordings, “but you have this sense it could be taken away at any moment.”

Thiel has deep ties to the Trump administration and was early among tech figures to endorse the president’s first run for office in 2016. He did not donate to any Republican politicians in 2024 but was part of a network of tech elites who helped install Vance, a mentee, as vice president.

Thiel has donated to GOP candidates this year, giving $850,000 to the joint fundraising committee of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), according to federal election filings.

In his lectures and the Q&As that followed each one, Thiel offered views on whether figures including President Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping, former president Joe Biden and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates were Antichrist-like figures, according to the recordings.

Biden and Xi were not charismatic enough, Thiel said, according to the recordings, and while he declared Gates a “very, very awful person,” the investor said he was not “remotely able to be the Antichrist.”

Thiel’s comments about Trump were more complex, according to the recordings. “If you, in a sincere, rational, well-reasoned way are willing to make the argument that Trump is the Antichrist, I will give you a hearing,” he said. “If you’re not willing to make that argument, maybe you have to be open to possibility that he’s at least relatively good.”

A spokesman for Thiel, Jeremiah Hall, said: “Peter doesn’t believe Trump is the Antichrist. His challenge was for Trump’s liberal critics to make that case if they want Peter to hear them out, and he knows that in practice they can’t and won’t do so.” The White House did not return a request for comment.

Thiel also talked about other powerful figures in technology. He accused fellow tech investor Marc Andreessen of “pure Silicon Valley gobbledygook propaganda,” according to the recordings, in Andreessen’s 2023 essay titled “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto” that predicted AI would rapidly transform society in many positive ways.

Thiel had kinder words about Tesla CEO Elon Musk, according to the recordings, calling the entrepreneur, who has recently praised Christianity, one of the “smarter, more thoughtful people” he knows.

The investor said he recently encouraged Musk to renege on his 2012 commitment to the Giving Pledge movement co-founded by Gates, which asks wealthy people to commit the majority of their fortune to charitable causes, according to the recordings.

“$200 billion — if you’re not going to be careful — is going to left-wing nonprofits that are going to be chosen by Bill Gates,” Thiel said he warned Musk, according to the recording, painting the philanthropist as among the malevolent forces besetting technologists.

Musk did not respond to a request for comment. Spokespeople for Andreessen and Gates did not respond to requests for comment. Reuters previously reported some of Thiel’s comments on Trump and Musk.

Thiel has long been a devout Christian, but in recent times he and other prominent Silicon Valley figures have been more vocal about their faith. The movement has gained momentum since Trump’s reelection and has become entangled with the rapid development of artificial intelligence, which some see as a potentially all-powerful technology raising deep questions about humanity.

ACTS 17, the Christian nonprofit that organized Thiel’s talks, is an acronym for Acknowledging Christ within Technology and Society. Its name also refers to the New Testament book of Acts, in which the apostle Paul travels to Athens, where he debates the Christian Gospel with philosophers.

The group’s founder, Michelle Stephens, is married to Trae Stephens, an investor at Thiel’s venture capital firm, Founders Fund, and a co-founder of military tech company Anduril.

Stephens has said that she got the idea for ACTS 17 at a 40th birthday party for her husband in 2023. At the celebration, she has said in interviews, Thiel gave a speech about Christ and miracles, prompting her to realize that ministering to elites is just as important as Christian teachings about ministering to the poor.

Stephens introduced Thiel at his first lecture on Sept. 15 as “one of the great capitalists” and also “great Christians of our time,” according to the recording. Protesters gathered outside the event, according to local news reports, with some dressed as devils or holding signs that accused Thiel himself of being the Antichrist.

When asked for comment, Stephens asked The Post to “respect” the event’s off-the-record policy and did not comment further.

Garry Tan, chief executive of the start-up incubator Y Combinator and a member of ACTS 17, has hosted events in his San Francisco home — a converted church — about the intersection of Christian faith, science and technology over the past year.

One gathering hosted by Tan in June featured Pat Gelsinger, former CEO of chipmaker Intel, and was organized by ACTS 17, according to a social post by Gelsinger. “Such a deep discussion on the ‘Holy Shift’ across life, AI, leadership and faith,” he wrote.

A spokesperson for Playground, a venture capital firm where Gelsinger is a general partner, declined to comment.

Tan said he thought Thiel’s comparison of potential overregulation of AI to the Antichrist was “thought-provoking” and a “somewhat tongue-in-cheek” use of the concept. “These are useful mental frameworks for how technology interacts with society,” he said.

Overregulation of nuclear power has worsened the climate crisis, he added. “What if we do that to the age of intelligence? The future won’t repeat, but it will rhyme.”

 

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Posted

Thiel is real life version of a comic book villain.  Full of faux intellectualism and banal half-baked ideas combined with batshit lunacy. 

 

Also Ross Douthat is a worthless piece of shit. Can't stand him. 

 

 

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Posted
38 minutes ago, ChiTownDoc said:

Some of my best friends (at the time) got baked in PR with him quite a bit during covid lockdowns and said he was already a head case before that.  I think that started his journey into the abyss.  One of those guys that was in that circle died last week OD’ing in Colombia.  
 

edit: I haven’t spoken to many of those people since but I have no reason to believe anything would have changed his / or their trajectory.  Had to cut off a lot of people from that covid era when the decent into lunacy began for many in this country.  

 

Thiel has been looney for a loooong time. My armchair analysis is autism plus self hating homosexuality that he can't reconcile with his weird christian beliefs = nutbar.

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Posted
37 minutes ago, ChiTownDoc said:

Some of my best friends (at the time) got baked in PR with him quite a bit during covid lockdowns and said he was already a head case before that.  I think that started his journey into the abyss.  One of those guys that was in that circle died last week OD’ing in Colombia.  
 

edit: I haven’t spoken to many of those people since but I have no reason to believe anything would have changed his / or their trajectory.  Had to cut off a lot of people from that covid era when the decent into lunacy began for many in this country.  

Peter Theil's parents owned the uranium mine that Apartheid South Africa used to build their Bomb. I would imagine that growing up in that environment and moving from West Germany to Ohio to Apartheid during his formative years really REALLY fucked with his head.

As bad as Elon is, his parents were only mining gemstones in apartheid

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Posted
32 minutes ago, G650 said:

Thiel has been looney for a loooong time. My armchair analysis is autism plus self hating homosexuality that he can't reconcile with his weird christian beliefs = nutbar.

Gawker exposed him as gay and he sued them out of existence.  

Posted

We have so many completely insane and deranged unaccountable people running this country right now and no electing another party will change that. They have all the money.

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Posted
8 minutes ago, Valmy77 said:

We have so many completely insane and deranged unaccountable people running this country right now and no electing another party will change that. They have all the money.

And the peasantry keeps making them more. 

Work, work, work!

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Posted
2 hours ago, Captainant said:

Peter Theil's parents owned the uranium mine that Apartheid South Africa used to build their Bomb. I would imagine that growing up in that environment and moving from West Germany to Ohio to Apartheid during his formative years really REALLY fucked with his head.

As bad as Elon is, his parents were only mining gemstones in apartheid

Totally forgot he’s openly gay.  The issues you have to have being openly gay and far right are too much for me to comprehend.  Need to find more powerful mushrooms.  

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Posted
1 hour ago, austingirl said:

I posted this Wired article in a different thread a few weeks ago, but it's well worth the read.

The Real Stakes, and Real Story, of Peter Thiel’s Antichrist Obsession
Thirty years ago, a peace-loving Austrian theologian spoke to Peter Thiel about the apocalyptic theories of Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt. They’ve been a road map for the billionaire ever since.

Thanks for posting.  I read that when you posted it earlier.  There’s some bullshit in there but overall it’s a pretty clear picture of why Thiel is evil and crazy.

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Posted
4 minutes ago, Hookah Horns said:

It really depresses me that crazy assholes can make so much money.

It's the reason they make so much money

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Posted
2 hours ago, G650 said:

 

Thiel has been looney for a loooong time. My armchair analysis is autism plus self hating homosexuality that he can't reconcile with his weird christian beliefs = nutbar.

This.

Example #1,124,546 and counting of the AI hallucination that is everything past 2015…

 

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Posted
4 hours ago, Willfully Horn said:

Huh. You think so?

I am being sarcastic; I apologize. The warning light was flashing red over Thiel years ago, as his relationship with Curtis Yarwin became public information, and his vast wealth became dedicated to installing a monarch as executive of the USA. (The Vanity Fair article is from 2022). This Antichrist stuff seeks to harness the Payday Christians in an existential fight against such evils as environmentalists and other regulatory impediments. Greta Thunberg is the Devil!

image.jpeg.43d9e63bedce10372770ba058a3de141.jpeg
 

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/inside-the-new-right-where-peter-thiel-is-placing-his-biggest-bets?srsltid=AfmBOops9xLP9Jn3qU4u0UroG2JGtUYWAuzThXvki-4kFb7lnP2l1L7T

 

Disgracefully under-reported by other prominent news outlets. The Christian danger is the worst force working against freedom and rationality. They are jihadists. Like jihadists, it's hard to persuade someone who thinks God through some random human is telling what must be done in His name.

I think the doom of the republic lies in the argument-proof entities of the racists, idiots, and psuedo-Christians. The Democratic Party messaging strategy won't do the trick here. They know they are in a holy war. We mostly think it's politics and elections and discourse as it should be and generally was. Those days are over.

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Posted
3 hours ago, ChiTownDoc said:

decent into lunacy

I've never encountered such a profound misspelling. You've encapsulated this moment in Western history using three words.

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Posted

I've said it before, but all these internet billionaires commenced their commercial life believing the rules of "bricks and mortar" business didn't apply to them.

That belief was somewhat ratified by the insane valuations that made them rich.

But that wasn't just some benign little self-deception, these fuckers have completely internalized the notion that the rules, not just business rules, don't apply, shouldn't apply, and they're going to make sure of that.

It's insidious and malevolent as hell.

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Posted
5 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

Disgracefully under-reported by other prominent news outlets. The Christian danger is the worst force working against freedom and rationality. They are jihadists. Like jihadists, it's hard to persuade someone who thinks God through some random human is telling what must be done in His name.

I think the doom of the republic lies in the argument-proof entities of the racists, idiots, and psuedo-Christians. The Democratic Party messaging strategy won't do the trick here. They know they are in a holy war. We mostly think it's politics and elections and discourse as it should be and generally was. Those days are over.

And maybe this is my ignorance of jihadi movements, but I think it’s WAYYYYYYY worse.

1.) Because a lot of people running the play don’t actually believe this shit and are just craven as all get out

2.) They’re dismantling the oldest continuous democracy built on liberal thinking / the enlightenment for something that’s not even really built on the religion they attest to follow

3.) Jihadist go after weak states that generally have little power or influence. The Christo nationalist are taking down the most powerful and richest nation that ever existed from within. That’s umpteenth level diabolical and dangerous.

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Posted
10 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

I've never encountered such a profound misspelling. You've encapsulated this moment in Western history using three words.

Definitely some very decent folks, mea culpa.  

Posted
28 minutes ago, Hookah Horns said:

It really depresses me that crazy assholes can make so much money.

 

23 minutes ago, G650 said:

It's the reason they make so much money

The most powerful and remembered men in history tend to be those who are not burdened by empathy, doubt, or shame.

We bestow virtue later in the retelling. 

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Posted
3 hours ago, ChiTownDoc said:

Some of my best friends (at the time) got baked in PR with him quite a bit during covid lockdowns and said he was already a head case before that.  I think that started his journey into the abyss.  One of those guys that was in that circle died last week OD’ing in Colombia.  
 

edit: I haven’t spoken to many of those people since but I have no reason to believe anything would have changed his / or their trajectory.  Had to cut off a lot of people from that covid era when the decent into lunacy began for many in this country.  

image.gif.ab527cd8667439d06d97b36a5f8a0bd9.gif

 

i saw an interview clip with this guy a while back. it was hard to follow what he was saying, but it seemed like he was advocating or predicting, like, AI was so awesome as it would meld with humanity and we'd eventually evolve into some sort of higher consciousness beings. or something. 

ok-okay.gif.068c711dec26815d4185ead103eac12b.gif

 

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Posted

In that Douthat interview, when Thiel was asked if he preferred that humans endured in an AI world, he hesitated and never answered the question. I think he eventually said he was ok if humans survived. Peter - don't go too far out on a limb there to express your humanity.

you can't tell me for a second that Thiel isn't uploading his thoughts in an AI LLM. Not in a physical sense from Tron or some other procedure, but via interviews and consuming other content that he's created. Then not only could this allow Thiel AI to endure past his natural life, but legally pursue a method to allow his AI to control his wealth from beyond the grave. 

 

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Posted
3 hours ago, ChiTownDoc said:

Totally forgot he’s openly gay.  The issues you have to have being openly gay and far right are too much for me to comprehend.  Need to find more powerful mushrooms.  

Same with Tim Cook and Sam Altman, the gays who support evil AI Trump supporting opportunistic Mt. Rushmore?

Posted
9 minutes ago, Vegas64 said:

Same with Tim Cook and Sam Altman, the gays who support evil AI Trump supporting opportunistic Mt. Rushmore?

I don't think Tim likes Trump, but as an employee... it has been grossly disappointing (but also grateful to have a job) to see him kowtow so easily. 

Posted
2 hours ago, Dnaguy said:

And maybe this is my ignorance of jihadi movements, but I think it’s WAYYYYYYY worse.

1.) Because a lot of people running the play don’t actually believe this shit and are just craven as all get out

2.) They’re dismantling the oldest continuous democracy built on liberal thinking / the enlightenment for something that’s not even really built on the religion they attest to follow

3.) Jihadist go after weak states that generally have little power or influence. The Christo nationalist are taking down the most powerful and richest nation that ever existed from within. That’s umpteenth level diabolical and dangerous.

I think they are far more dangerous to the US than Muslims mujahadeen will ever be. My point concerns the level a fanaticism rather than relative threat. Jihadists are totally committed and proof against any attempt at reasoning.

They're both holy warriors. I apply the Muslim term generally as it has the correct connotation of blind fanaticism. I agree with your assessment of the threat.

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Posted
18 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

I think they are far more dangerous to the US than Muslims mujahadeen will ever be. My point concerns the level a fanaticism rather than relative threat. Jihadists are totally committed and proof against any attempt at reasoning.

They're both holy warriors. I apply the Muslim term generally as it has the correct connotation of blind fanaticism. I agree with your assessment of the threat.

Well, add in fundamentalist Christians.  It's not the Christian or Muslim part, it's the fundamentalist and the fact that all of them are under the control of at least minor demagogues.  In the case of the technocrats, the demagogues are themselves.

Another thing these groups do, generally, is eschew or denigrate education to insure that their followers' worldview is as constrained as possible.  Yeah, you may not need a degree in CS to be a total code freak, but that degree comes with probably 12 hours of humanities (it did and I think still does at UT), plus some history, English lit, and government, and that goes a long way to keeping you from being a dangerous incel.

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Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, Hookah Horns said:

It really depresses me that crazy assholes can make so much money.

 

3 hours ago, G650 said:

It's the reason they make so much money

 

2 hours ago, Dnaguy said:

 

The most powerful and remembered men in history tend to be those who are not burdened by empathy, doubt, or shame.

We bestow virtue later in the retelling. 

This.

Imagine that you are what most would call "on the spectrum."  It is NOT a bad thing - or at least, not an inherently bad thing.  It bestows upon you the ability to think about the world, problems, and solutions in a very non-traditional, often non-linear way.  That can lead to some lightning-bolt type innovations, changes and disruptions to existing structures, etc....which CAN be good.

Now imagine that you are like that....and you are a sociopath.  That is, you have no sense of empathy -- whether learned or innate, it doesn't much matter.  Empathy is the foundation beneath most moral and ethical structures; if the structure depends solely on "well, you wouldn't like that if it happened to you" (appeals to self interest only), then the structure is doomed to fail.  If you don't have empathy, you don't have what the ethical and moral would call "humanity."

Our system rewards such a thing: innovation, gaming the system, playing OUTSIDE the system, unbound by any ethics or morality.

In short, these men ARE Skynet.  Not "they're creating Skynet," they ARE Skynet.  They have some unique computing power in their heads.  They see "problems," and they come up with "solutions," unimpeded by moral boundaries.  They absolutely can -- and will -- reach a conclusion like "(1) higher-form humans are the best representatives of humanity (and they of course see themselves as members of that select group) (2) resource competition is dragging us all - including "higher-form humans" -- down, (3) therefore, eliminating competition is best for humanity, because it helps higher-form humans succeed.  Shit like that.  Their kind of thinking is how you end up with cold, calculating elimination of millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, billions, of human beings.  It's the "trolley problem," except they play the game with 9 to 10-figure numbers of humans.  And they do so with no remorse, empathy, sympathy, or sadness.  "2 billion dead to make life better for the 6 billion left?  Well, that's just a price to be paid.  Did y'all see my sick meme?"

These men are the most dangerous, evil humans to ever live.  Not just because of how they think, but because they have to means to turn their evil into reality.

Edited by Brisketexan
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Posted
2 hours ago, Dnaguy said:

 

The most powerful and remembered men in history tend to be those who are not burdened by empathy, doubt, or shame.

We bestow virtue later in the retelling. 

I was watching the Gilded Age on PBS, highly recommended, and it noted that Andrew Carnegie, the most self-made of the robber barons, was initially quite sympathetic and empathetic to the working man.

But he had a heel turn later in life.

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Posted
7 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

 

 

This.

Imagine that you are what most would call "on the spectrum."  It is NOT a bad thing - or at least, not an inherently bad thing.  It bestows upon you the ability to think about the world, problems, and solutions in a very non-traditional, often non-linear way.  That can lead to some lightning-bolt type innovations, changes and disruptions to existing structures, etc....which CAN be good.

Now imagine that you are like that....and you are a sociopath.  That is, you have no sense of empathy -- whether learned or innate, it doesn't much matter.  Empathy is the foundation beneath most moral and ethical structures; if the structure depends solely on "well, you wouldn't like that if it happened to you" (appeals to self interest only), then the structure is doomed to fail.  If you don't have empathy, you don't have what the ethical and moral would call "humanity."

Our system rewards such a thing: innovation, gaming the system, playing OUTSIDE the system, unbound by any ethics or morality.

In short, these men ARE Skynet.  Not "they're creating Skynet," they ARE Skynet.  They have some unique computing power in their heads.  They see "problems," and they come up with "solutions," unimpeded by moral boundaries.  They absolutely can -- and will -- reach a conclusion like "(1) higher-form humans are the best representatives of humanity (and they of course see themselves as members of that select group) (2) resource competition is dragging us all - including "higher-form humans" -- down, (3) therefore, eliminating competition is best for humanity, because it helps higher-form humans succeed.  Shit like that.  Their kind of thinking is how you end up with cold, calculating elimination of millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, billions, of human beings.  It's the "trolley problem," except they play the game with 9 to 10-figure numbers of humans.  And they do so with no remorse, empathy, sympathy, or sadness.  "2 billion dead to make life better for the 6 billion left?  Well, that's just a price to be paid.  Did y'all see my sick meme?"

These men are the most dangerous, evil humans to ever live.  Not just because of how they think, but because they have to means to turn their evil into reality.

Like Thanos, but more of an asshole ...

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Gap03 said:

Like Thanos, but more of an asshole ...

Kinda yeah.  I mean, at least Thanos grasped, and had some remorse for, the cost of his insane plan (even if it was only because it touched him personally).

3fd.jpg

Thiel, Musk, Ellison, etc., would answer that question with "just half of all human population.  Not bad."  And then they'd move on to their next piece of bullshit without giving it a second thought.

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Posted
14 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

I was watching the Gilded Age on PBS, highly recommended, and it noted that Andrew Carnegie, the most self-made of the robber barons, was initially quite sympathetic and empathetic to the working man.

But he had a heel turn later in life.

I believe this is called a Reverse Scrooge.

Posted
Just now, David Dennison said:

It really depresses me that we allow it to happen.

Indubitably. We are way overdue for an overhaul of the rules of the game known as money.

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Posted
3 minutes ago, Hookah Horns said:

Indubitably. We are way overdue for an overhaul of the rules of the game known as money.

As long as we have football, beer, and pizza, amiright?

Posted

A quote I first heard back in the '90s that's stuck with me since: "Remember your humanity, and forget all the rest. "



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