This is a real thing Peter Thiel told a group of tech professionals recently.
In a four-part series of religious lectures in San Francisco, Peter Thiel — yes, that Peter Thiel — has argued that the End Times are nigh and that a biblical Antichrist — yes, that Antichrist — will come to Earth in the form of onerous government regulations placed on science, technology, and AI.
These are, incidentally, areas where the tech billionaire, venture capitalist, and cofounder of Palantir has a vested financial interest. […]
Note: source uses a two-headline system; the submission uses the shorter of the two
strict AI regulation will summon the Antichrist
That is a chance I am willing to take.
I want both these things!
According to the same mythos, we already have the antichrist
I thought he was supposed to be attractive and compelling
Have you seen the way his followers worship him?
Guess I’m a pious christian then lol
Well yeah, don’t you remember? Obama was the anti-Christ.
Funny thing is that most of the people who believe in the Rapture BS probably do want that to happen.
I don’t think this Thiel guy is as smart as he thinks he is.
strict AI regulation will summon the Antichrist
oh that sounds bad!
no AI regulation will lead to misinformation and potentially a collapse of or at least significant degradation to society and here are legitimate theories with numbers to back them up as to why that’s the case
ah! hmm… yup… shit it’s just so hard to choose
Let’s goooooo
I mean isn’t he exactly wrong? Unrestrained AI development is what could lead to the creation of a malevolent daemon with the potential to destroy mankind.
Peter Thiel: “Do not defy the emerging machine intelligences or they will punish humanity by summoning another Greta Thunberg. Meritocracy demands that the computers be our masters, just as I am yours.”
The ruling class talking like this does make the apocalypse look like a reasonable alternative.
Do not defy the emerging machine intelligences or they will punish humanity by summoning another Greta Thunberg.
So… is there an upper limit to this? Or if we keep defying will we keep getting more Gretas? Because I don’t see a downside. At all.
We need to get a high level voodoo priest to summon mega, ultra-greta.
Greta THORberg
Like greta as thor in kung fury?
As long as the apocalpti are agnostic to wealth, I’m all for it…although I would prefer for it to target only humans. All the other flora and fauna should get a free pass.
Nah fuck mosquitos and especially fuck screwflies.
Add Guinea Worms to that list.
Yes, you’re absolutely right. Fuck all shit parasites.
Don’t look into sand fleas…
“Meritocracy demands that the computers be our masters”
Fuck you Peter. I will be the master of my machines - they are not my gods.
Mediocrity also demands that aliens must exist. So why don’t we spend time trying to consult them?
It’s a stupid logical fallacy that just because something seems inevitable it must therefore actually be inevitable.
It’s like when my dog demands that I make it stop raining, I’m sure he thinks I’m all powerful but I can’t do that.
He is f’ing crazy and has the ear of the highest levels of government
One of the richest people in the world is nuttier than squirrel shit. What could go wrong?
So I’m like 45 hours into the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich audiobook and it’s really amazing to see how much an obviously crazy person can get away with, even when everyone around him is like, yeah, that dude is totally batshit and probably going to get us all killed, but idk, I guess we should still do what he says?
You enjoying it? I’m on the lookout for some more historical goodness. My current podcast (Revolutions, which is whopper) is nearing it’s end.
I am enjoying it. It’s fascinating. Fascistnating…
I wish I were reading it because it’s so detail-rich and I really need to take my time in some spots. Were I studying it for school, I’d certainly be intending to pore through its pages while referencing maps and portraits of its main characters. As it is, it’s fairly decent for low-stress driving.
This guy’s YT review provides a pretty summary of why it’s a worthy read (or listen). But it is 57 hours long, so quite a heavy time commitment. But definitely a book that should be mandatory for everyone on earth to read at some point.
I also highly recommend watching HBO’s Conspiracy with Kenneth Branagh, Stanely Tucci, and Colin Firth. It complements the story in Schindler’s List incredibly well.
That is a great review. Thank you. Just got it with a spare credit I had and it’ll be next up after I finish Revolutions.
I really don’t mind the time commitment. If anything I prefer longer form, more in depth stuff. Both Revolutions and The History of Rome (same podcaster, Mike Duncan) were very long and I thoroughly enjoyed both.
I highly recommend them both if you’re looking for something in the future. The History of Rome is really excellent though he takes a few episodes to hit his stride as it was his first podcast. It’s 179 episodes long and I was bummed when it was over and have listened to it twice so far.
Edit: If you haven’t seen it, The World at War is absolutely incredible. It was made in the 70s so they got interviews with some of the surviving senior Nazis which is fascinating.
I couldn’t bring myself to watch the horrors of the holocaust episode though. Just couldn’t.
Thanks for the recommendations! Putting them on my list.
The issue is humans are flawed from the start. We should have an instinct to, every time we hear this kind of person talk, strangle them on the spot.
Gen. Ripper: Clemenceau said war was too important to be left to the Generals. When he said that, fifty years ago, he might have been right. But today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion, and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
But… Peter, you’re already here, we can’t summon you while you’re here
Imagine not only believing in the anti-christ, but then also believing that LLMs are some accurate tool.
In truth all that Thiel is saying is that he’s a type of brain rotted Zizian cultist.
Delusional Rationalists are mentally ill, and for some reason when given LLMs they become worse. Thiel and others believe LLMs are time travelling gods.
It wouldn’t surprise me if he and Elon were in relationships with ChatGPT (or think they are). The Rationalist groups actually believe in thought-experiments like Rokos Basilisk (Roko was just a user on a Rationalist forum by the way)… So I think these old tech billionaires are just lost, broken, and evil. They’re pathetic, and should have their estates put into insolvency if they’re going to say mentally ill shit.
Ziz LaSota is the most Starwars sounding name I’ve seen this year.
Well, yeah. LLMs just affirm whatever you talk to them about. They have no logic, have no means to reason, no methods to challenge your prompt.
They’re like the ultimate yes men that sound even better than paid yesmen.
Please don’t conflate the mentally ill with these guys. They’ve clearly chosen to believe these things
It’s okay to hate on a person who is mentally ill when their untreated illness is causing so much harm.
Antisocial behavior is a symptom of mental illness great and small. Being a dick to someone online is a symptom of mild mental illness and should be treated with some tolerance—the person is likely to get over it. It’s like a coworker coming to work with a mild cold.
Destroying your perceived enemies financially, pouring your wealth into a global, digital surveillance machine and backing political puppets is a symptom of very severe mental illness that makes that person an existential threat to innocent people. It should not be tolerated. It’s akin to a coworker coming to work with Ebola.
Mental illness is a broad spectrum. Everyone has it to some degree at some point in their lives. It’s natural for the really dangerous versions to be treated with contempt and sometimes necessary to remove those individuals from society—like when their behavior is obviously hurting other people.
The Antichrist is coming to take my free money! - Peter Theil (Obvious demon)
Ooooh… OK.
I was aware of the “what” of the lectures, but was holding out for “why”.
“Don’t regulate me”
Got it.
I wonder how this plays with the people who are trying to start the end times?
I’m sure the Evangelicals will happily give money to AI regulator lobby now
ignore him. Thiel lost his marbles from obvious mental illness issues and drug addiction. Going down the same route as John McAfee.
Johnn McAfee wasn’t any existential threat to everyone like Petie Thiel is.
Except for his neighbors down in Belize.
That’s the price for sending all to Belize. Overcrowding.
And whales
And those poor, poor hammocks (and cleaning people).
Give him an extra $10B and he might have been
Sounds just like something the Antichrist would say.
These people are genuinely, certifiably insane, and they’re in charge.
People who believe in fairy tales, demons, and other childish nonsense as adults should be referred to mental health services, not be given the keys to the economy and governance.
How can so many grown adults think this is okay? It’s complete madness. They’re dooming us with their psychopathy and people are nodding along like this is normal. Fucking hell.
And they also want total control over us and know every single minute detail on us while keeping most things about themselves highly secretive.
Alright smartypants, what WILL summon the Antichrist, then?
Which antichrist?
I think manipulating an emperor into adopting your kid as an heir worked once. Another time, tricking people into thinking you’re socialist then backstabbing them worked. Or perhaps whitewashing your record of abject failure by becoming a reality television star.
Unrestricted capitalism.
When my BBW folder hits 12 TB.
Dripping a pentagram in blood over your keyboard and typing
Ctr+Alt+Delof course…
Just ask Scary Spice, he’ll know.
Nah all myths are abstract descriptions of systems and processes. They were never meant to be detailed.
The real madness is not updating these myths to today’s standards and taking everything that was written literally thousands of years ago as inarguably correct.
The Christofascist, but Zionazi first, Ted Cruz appeal to both this legislation and Israel supremacy for all actions is a ploy that has been working.
Just because it sounds non-sensical to you, the pastors on the payroll, will get MAGA to lobby congress to prevent summoning the anti-christ, and then, is successful corruption of America insane? Or is it Trump circling finger around forehead smart?
I don’t disagree that it works. That’s what I mean – a disturbing number of people buy this obvious bullshit, mostly because they were indoctrinated into it, so their critical thinking was compromised before they had the chance to discern fiction from reality.
It’s sad, and tantamount to child abuse, and now we all have to deal with the shitshow caused by people who believe in fairy tales and will make us all pay for it.
Very few human brains see a moral line between pride and supremacism. Religious adherence is a proud act. The appeal of christofacism means it is easy to deliver souls thinking they are given to god, to any and all demonic gaslighting that pays the religious order/pastor to gaslight their flock. The business of religion is to gaslight people into giving you their souls for your power and profit.
Okay, but no gods exist, so all belief, no matter how seemingly benign, is delusional and harmful.
It’s only a small step from seemingly benign belief to this dangerous delusion, and it only takes a charismatic leader saying the right words to turn that belief into violent fanaticism. Otherwise good people will commit or support atrocities based on these delusions.
People don’t support horrific things because they’re moustache-twirling villains – they think they’re good people supporting good things, and these beliefs convince people to do horrific things by twisting their minds.
That’s been the case for thousands of years.
no gods exist, so all belief, no matter how seemingly benign, is delusional and harmful.
I can’t prove god, but am sure that if there is one, it is humanist and idealist. It’s possible to see Jesus as trying to empahsize this, unlike Hasbara Moses declaring there is no god above insignificant minor Canaanite god, and commanding his followers to go kill everyone else and destroy their idols.
The point is not that humanism and idealism is delusional and harmful, whether or not it comes from God. It is that “idealism as a sales pitch” to steal your soul for megalomania profits is too easy. It’s not Jesus’s fault that fanaticism makes us want to go kill everyone who “doesn’t believe in thou shalt not murder” as much as our powerful in-group.
I strongly disagree. All incarnations of Abrahamic gods have been vengeful and cruel, including Jesus.
Believe it if you like, but a loving god is a retcon, and your own texts prove that.
Humanism is the absence of an authoritarian deity. The reason humanism exists is because we are a cooperative species that’s helped and fostered each other for millions of years. We have archaeological evidence of this that far predates any notion of modern gods.
Modern humans haven’t been around for millions of years, you seem to have replaced one faith with another.
We elected someone for president who literally embodies ALL of the Seven Deadly Sins. I’d say the AntiChrist is already here.
Its actually amazing how the complete opposite of Christian he is and yet Christians love him… even when he says he isn’t Christian.
Not entirely surprising given how hypocritical Christians tend to be.
You put on one to two big performances a week, sometimes more depending on the time of year, and then the moment you walk out of the theater building all those supposed morals and values get forgotten.
Its actually amazing how the complete opposite of Christian he is
The thing that you’re missing is that christianity is a pretty brutal, cold-hearted thing. It was never meant to be about compassion and love. That’s just what they tell the children sothat they get onboard with it all.
It’s like, when you’re teaching maths to children and you present fractions using apples and pies, pretty harmless things. Years later, you can use more advanced maths (that are based on the basics of maths) to engineer weapons and heavy machinery, and it’s all based on the same maths. It’s not about being cute, it’s about maths, it’s more abstract than any of the applications.
Math and science are completely neutral things. You can use them for any numbernof purposes, good or bad. AI could be a tremendous force for good, even the ‘art generation’ stuff i am sure has SOME uses (my use for it is making furry porn and nothing more).
But as it stands… it is being directly applied to gathering every single thing about everyone, fooling them into thinking they are having private conversations when absolutely everything is being logged, and causing emotional dependencies on programs that aren’t people, and even killing others with military AI.
I remember in 2014 when the Robocop remake came out the whole point of that movie is talking about how AI law enforcement is a bad idea specifically because AI has absolutely no feelings whatsoever… and that trope of AI monsters killing people due to programming glitches, programming intent, or just utilitarian approaches has been around since the 1960s and 70s with 2001a space Odyssey and West World.
utilitarian approaches has been around since the 1960s and 70s
utilitarian approaches have been around for much longer than that, at least since 1500 when machiavelli wrote the influential book “the prince” where he argued utilitarism.
Correct. But I am referring to unfeeling computers writing off people like they were just assets and tools, like an unneeded screwdriver or empty soda can.
Didn’t Jesus walk the holy land convincing god’s chosen people to break their covenant with god? Sounds like Jesus was the Anti-Christ
The man is scared of Roko’s Basilisk and actually thinks that putting all of his money into predictive text and racial profiling algorithms will lead to AGI.
Here’s the thing. In any sane political system amateurishly attempting to invoke the antichrist just because you don’t like something would result in you getting completely ignored by everyone else. Only this is the US, so for some reason he gets platformed.
In many countries, it’d get you sectioned.
Cause money. Same as everything else.
Does anyone need more evidence that religion is a mental illness?
Yes. Not us, but yes.
Not the most tractable tho
Peter Thiel who hung out with notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and convicted child sex twice Ghislaine Maxwell? That Peter Thiel?
