Thiel is absolutely concerned about data mining and big picture and perceptions
he doesn't believe the QAnon, he is the QAnon and is pushing stuff that he knows the base will eat up
like if anyone is wearing the Mark of the Beast on their forehead it's MAGA, so get out in front of them and make sure it's pointed at the right place (e.g. Greta, et al)
I’m not sure that he will succeed with this move, but his article on Greta is absolute spot on, and I’m saying this as a guy who do not really like Peter
See, Peter Thiel is smart. There are enough idiots who will buy his shtick - it's not just maga who get pointed in the direction he wants society to go (serfdom).
That watched, imho Thiel is interested in the post-Straussian tension between "thinking in the open" (ideal science) and "focussed value creation" (which is best done behind closed doors)
AI as driven by premium mediocre Millennials combines the worst of both: lazy group-think promoted by stochastic parrots, expensive hardware weaponized by people who didn't earn that privilege
Capitalism or communism is a false dichotomy. You'd want any given pre-Jedi to access the Force, build their own lightsabers (in a cave), but not turn to the dark side.
GitHub serves Midichlorians. NVDA serves the Federation (and is one of the deadly sins to boot)
> "focussed value creation" (which is best done behind closed doors)
And yet, it is the most open societies that do best at value creation. It's almost as if the degree of cooperation and coordination between the individuals is more important to success than the insights of any one individual, even if they are as smart as Mr Theil believes himself to be.
Also the openly supporting AfD didn't sit very well.
It's not like it's in the past either, only a couple of weeks ago he publicly claimed that Trump is a child rapist, but notably seemed to have zero qualms cosying up to him anyway as long as he got to play DOGE saviour.
As a happy daily FSD user, I know a few happy Tesla owners who don't use FSD. Cost is a major factor, but risk aversion follows hard upon it.
They're all in tech somehow, for most it's skepticism about software quality for a complicated and critical system. For at least one, he thinks he's a better driver and likes driving anyways.
- Is deeply unscientific, coming across as a highfalutin paranoid QAnon; and
- Has zero self-awareness
That said, he has plenty of money and connections, so moves like these are likely well justified.