I think people like Peter Thiel has the insider view of the whole sector, so I would not discount this just because I don’t align with him on political stuffs.

But again we never know his real positions.

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mightyham 14 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I agree that it's very difficult to fully understand what his real positions are, and interestingly I think he clearly wants that to be the case. Peter Thiel is interested in and has actually written extensively about Straussianism which is an intellectual movement obsessed with analyzing esoteric meanings in philosophical literature.

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kibibu 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Reading his recent "Greta Thunberg Is The Antichrist" stuff leads me to believe the Peter Thiel:

- 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.

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gsf_emergency_4 9 hours ago | parent [-]

Detailed perspective from someone with insight into Thiel's thinking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6LakOrqDL4&t=1s

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)

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rstuart4133 5 hours ago | parent [-]

> "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.

	▲	gsf_emergency_5 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		This suggests that things might not be as simple as that (it's a strong correlation, I admit) https://old.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/iab8r7/social_trus... (By the scale used here US is exceptionally mid)

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9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[deleted]

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seanmcdirmid 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

He could be selling NVIDIA to buy OpenAI like SoftBank just did. It might not be a bubble exist but a re-positioning.

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gsf_emergency_4 8 hours ago | parent [-]

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)

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hnhn34 7 hours ago | parent [-]

> 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.

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gsf_emergency_4 7 hours ago | parent [-]

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.)

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tarsinge 6 hours ago | parent [-]

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.

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piva00 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

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.

	▲	gsf_emergency_5 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		There was an Orthodox ascetic that argued for physical immortality (and space colonialism): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Fyodorov_(philosopher) 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 https://archive.ph/KFxhI >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. --Musk, 2015

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4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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