It's in Thiel's nature to make moves counter to Altman's. Certainly, he does not share Masa's (or PG's) weakness for the genii of the day. (Secretly despises, actually?) They are kinda nontechnical in the same way (chess or SaaS are equally relevant to the future), but what Thiel has passion for are flexible moral abstractions, not politics (the whys rather than the whats of winning)
> It's in Thiel's nature to distance himself from Altman
This is way off base. Altman is basically a mentee of his, like Zuckerberg. They go way back, and they've both publicly praised each other quite recently. They're very close friends.
I've already edited to say "make moves counter to Altman's". You are right, but Thiel thinks about progress in a fundamentally different, I'd argue opposite, way from Zuck or Altman. More aligned with Elon or Karp. Or even some of the Chinese.
To be concrete, he'd never consciously engage in the kind of circular financing or rentseeking that Altman/Zuck would be open to.
(also he has enough social aptitude not to take Altman on in public.)
I don’t know, the biggest difference I see is Thiel and Elon are all about government/tax payer money (through contracts like Palantir or SpaceX, subsidies like Tesla, lobbying, influencing elections, or worst). In that way they align with China, as an autocracy directly financing their companies is their ideal business model. Altman and Zuck OTOH are more typical SV entrepreneurs.
There's also a difference in Thiel: an intensely heretic view of Christianity, he touts himself as a Christian while trying to make it his work of stopping the Anti-Christ (which in Christian theology is impossible since you'd be stopping the Apocalypse).
Peter Thiel is an interesting character mostly due to how bizarre he can be, a billionaire who is entranced in Christian mythology, afraid of death, using his power in capital to try to mold the world to his fractured mind. In a parallel world where he isn't rich he would be the town crazy spouting about the Anti-Christ at main square in some German village.
The CEO of ycombinator is also part of the same church thing that Thiel is, acts 17, where he gave a talk about the anti christ. Looks like many of the tech billionares are just insane christians that believe in Curtis Yarvin.
Yes making things people want is not really in their book of values. If they're about things that almost nobody wants (transhumanism, triggering the Apocalypse) it makes sense that governments might have to step in.
Counterpoint-- Thiel and Musk, if you believe them, brought the "Open" to OpenAI
>Because of AI’s surprising history, it’s hard to predict when human-level AI might come within reach. When it does, it’ll be important to have a leading research institution which can prioritize a good outcome for all over its own self-interest.
We’re hoping to grow OpenAI into such an institution.
What I find highly ironic with Thiel’s silly line of thought is that as someone with a Catholic background the far better candidate is Trump. That is, as a total inversion on values of Jesus, that deceive Christians into following him. On top of my head:
- Extreme pride instead of humility
- Extol strength and warrior attitude instead of kindness
- War on empathy instead of love
- Attachment to material things, money, success, again complete inversion of Jesus teachings on how to get closer to God
- On top of the personality cult, literally posts himself as the Pope
- Sell his own blasphemous bible to make a personal gain
- Leader of the most powerful country, so fitting with the idea of most mankind having been deceived into glorifying himself
Don’t take this seriously of course, my point is just that if someone wants to go with this route picking Greta instead of him is absurd.
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.
(1) ac.. I approx Foucault as a centrist, but 'fess that shit could be undecidable ( without reviewing the inputs ) Conservatives are self-destructive :)
(2) Countersignalling is older than your parlance makes it sound. See Fussell Class, hipsters, etc
I've seen others argue for schizotypy using the same biographical examples rotfl.
My working slogan now is "Schizotypes transmute ("magic") Coffee to Coin ("value").
The flip side: (functioning) Schizotypes (adjoining academia) have lost their obsession with magic, AND self-diagnosed this loss with depression/anxiety/senescence etc. it's more subtle imho, but CS is a confounding factor (muddling the pipeline between "dopamine" and "coin", as exemplified by TFA)
I've seen others argue for schizotypy using the same biographical examples rotfl.
My working slogan now is "Schizotypes transmute coffee to coin (value)."
The flip side: (functioning) Schizotypes (adjoining academia) have lost their obsession with magic, AND self-diagnosed this loss with depression/anxiety/senescence etc. it's more subtle imho, but CS is a confounding factor* (muddling the pipeline between "dopamine" and "coin")
As to the below.. it's why I try to keep my credibility inscrutable on this site :)
*Used to be Math if you follow the Erdos quip and understand theorems as a long-now stand-in for "Coin"
The main thing the Swiss have that Americans don't are referendums that can seriously challenge federal action. And then there are the state versions of that. And they don't have to wait for "the cycle". Or have results made null by arbitrary veto powers.
