(2025/06/26) Peter Thiel : A.I., Mars and Immortality: Are We Dreaming Big Enough?
The Big Questions with Peter Thiel
- A.I., Mars and Immortality: Are We Dreaming Big Enough?
Where are we heading — and what motivates us? Is it Believe in the Future due to AI and other technologies, Reason, or Faith (inherited from religious scriptures)? If it's a combination of the three, what does that look like?
Two specific threats we should probably worry about:
1) Superpower CCP expansion of combined surveillance and suppression AI. It’s very hard to keep oppositional political perspectives out of the nationwide information sphere while at the same time growing in global trade and influence. CCP’s only solution to this problem is to engage even stronger in global discourses and suppress or spread distrust in critique and warnings about CCP ideology. Geopolitically, the fight over Taiwan is the place where the quest to stop Chinese expansion will play out first — and hopefully will succeed.
2) Europe is locked in a Green Vision for the future. The futility of this project is obvious to everyone familiar with Risk Management. To secure against catastrophe rationally, the focus should be much more on Space Tech. The ability to deal with Meteoroids and to move life from Earth in case of Disaster, Nuclear War, or what might come prescribes a much more Tech-Optimistic and less regulative approach than what we currently see.
Sapere Aude, the Latin motto meaning “Have Courage to use your own Reason” promoted by the Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant to encourage individuals to break free from self-imposed immaturity, has been replaced by a kind of “Be safe, Don’t think too much, and Don’t disturb any of the current Natural Balances” attitude...
- and this is welcomed and even encouraged by the political elites, who are happy to play the role of protectors and having more subservient citizens."
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7345017781056102400/
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The billionaire Peter Thiel is unimpressed with our pace of innovation. In this episode, he critiques artificial intelligence, longevity science and space travel — and warns that our lack of progress could lead to catastrophic outcomes, including the emergence of the Antichrist.
01:02 What does stagnation mean in 2025?
06:44 Peter Thiel's case for more progress and innovation
12:06 Does taking more scientific risk include life extension?
16:05 Peter Thiel's political history
19:47 Did Trump live up to Thiel's expectations?
26:58 Does Elon Musk even want to go to Mars?
29:32 How Thiel defines A.I.
35:09 Is A.I. too modest an ambition?
37:14 How will the human race evolve? Should it?
44:10 Thiel's critique of Silicon Valley
45:37 Who is the real Antichrist?
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