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Anduril, a startup from Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, now valued at $1B

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Re: Anduril, a startup from Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, now valued at $1B

#61

Post by Rebelgecko »

For various reasons, I'm slightly sketched out by pretty much every company I've heard of that is named after something from Lord of the Rings. Even when I don't think they're contributing to a dystopian surveillance state (à la Palantir and this one), you have the other HN front-page story about Mithril Capital being accused of mismanaging investor funds.

Is there some weird self-selection that causes only certain types of people to name their companies that way?

Edit: I was looking for a list of companies named after LOTR and apparently the link that connects all of them is that they're owned or heavily invested in by Peter Thiel.

Re: Anduril, a startup from Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, now valued at $1B

#62

Post by akhilcacharya »

1024core wrote: post #49
commandlinefan wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how is the US/Mexico border a "defense" issue? Well, whether you agree with it or not, part of the justification is that if anybody can cross easily, terrorist groups will, too. IIRC, the 9/11 hijackers didn’t fly into the US since we were looking for them, they flew into Canada and crossed the border (although Canada’s not Mexico, of course…)

> didn’t fly into the US since we were looking for them They were all (most?) students in various flight schools here, with valid visas.

This is correct. There were attempts to cross over from Canada, like the Millennium plot, but they were stopped despite a notoriously porous border [0].

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_millennium_attack_plots#L...

Re: Anduril, a startup from Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, now valued at $1B

#63

Post by atonse »

Yuck. It's like the perfect marriage of taking any remaining humanity out of law enforcement and add tons of bottomless greed to it. It's so very Peter Thiel-ish.

I'd love to say I wish them well, but I hope this company goes out of business due to a public outrage. But they'll always find someone to sell to, like authoritarian governments, and make money hand-over-fist.

Re: Anduril, a startup from Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, now valued at $1B

#64

Post by akhilcacharya »

80386 wrote: post #36
pstuart wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everything, but to deny its role in shaping the world is unreasonable. The War on Drugs is behind this mess. The cartel was born out of this, and MS-13 was a result of that, our "justice" system. This doesn't make cartel or MS-13 members innocents, but it's not like they came from a vacuum.

Does that mean Americans deserve to be subject to the cartels and MS-13?

Absolutely not! But MS-13 was literally founded in the US.

Re: Anduril, a startup from Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, now valued at $1B

#65

Post by pfisch »

ganitarashid wrote: post #56

What is wrong with enforcing border security laws? Curious why you think less of him for supporting those efforts.

It is pretty easy to foresee monitoring technologies like this being used for awful purposes.

I'm not a big fan of creating newer and better technological solutions to suppress poor people.

Re: Anduril, a startup from Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, now valued at $1B

#66

Post by lacker »

Rebelgecko wrote: post #61

For various reasons, I'm slightly sketched out by pretty much every company I've heard of that is named after something from Lord of the Rings. Even when I don't think they're contributing to a dystopian surveillance state (à la Palantir and this one), you have the other HN front-page story about Mithril Capital being accused of mismanaging investor funds. Is there some weird self-selection that causes only certain t…

Five of them are related to Peter Thiel who I guess just likes to name companies that way.

https://qz.com/1346926/the-hidden-logic-of-peter-thiels-lord...

Founders Fund invested in Anduril but it wasn't Thiel directly, so this one is kind of one hop away. Maybe it's related.

Re: Anduril, a startup from Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, now valued at $1B

#67

Post by caconym_ »

_iyig wrote: post #46
cr0sh wrote: post #39

It's hearing things like this that make me regret having supported Luckey on his Kickstarter. I had followed him for a few years on the MTBS3D forum when he was experimenting with various HMD prototypes (usually modding the heck out of the Forte VFX-1). He just seemed like a kid with a dream, and the will and ability to make it happen - and potentially revive VR for "Round 2". I suppose he did do that, and while I di…

>So - while I would prefer a "monitored solution" to border control over physical imposing measures, my real preference would be for us to all work toward eliminating these national-level borders completely. You sound like someone with the ability to live anywhere, who consequently has little stake in their current "somewhere." Lots of Americans (and people in other countries) don't have this flexibility. They are di…

If we want to stop undocumented workers from fueling a race to the bottom in unskilled labor markets, we should make more than a token effort to go after the business owners who employ them, and impose meaningful punishments to deter others. This is just another example of the gross hypocrisy of the GOP: it's well documented at this point that businesses owned by their top man make a habit of employing undocumented workers.

We won't fix anything without accountability, and there are two sides to supply and demand. What we're doing now is theater.

Re: Anduril, a startup from Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, now valued at $1B

#68

Post by rufus_3 »

jobigoud wrote: post #45
gotoeleven wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe this is too off topic for HN, but I'm genuinely curious what is the best argument for why it is bad/racist to enforce immigration laws? I've heard people argue that a wall won't be effective. But some people seem to have the view that immigration laws shouldn't be enforced at all and we should allow people to use whatever loopholes (refugee status, traveling w/ children) there are to get in and then not show up…

I'll bite because I'm ambivalent about immigration laws. Why should people that just happen to be born in a third world country live a shitty life with no way out? You can't just say they have to do a revolution in their own country, not everyone is interested in activism, why should this be the fight of their life instead of stuff they actually want to do? You were born in a nice place by sheer luck. It's unfair. I…

> sheer luck

Not really. Your ancestors worked hard to improve the environment you were born in. It wasn't luck that created western civilization, it was the hard work and ingenuity of the generations that came before us.

Re: Anduril, a startup from Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, now valued at $1B

#69

Post by Rebelgecko »

lacker wrote: post #66
Rebelgecko wrote: post #61

For various reasons, I'm slightly sketched out by pretty much every company I've heard of that is named after something from Lord of the Rings. Even when I don't think they're contributing to a dystopian surveillance state (à la Palantir and this one), you have the other HN front-page story about Mithril Capital being accused of mismanaging investor funds. Is there some weird self-selection that causes only certain t…

Five of them are related to Peter Thiel who I guess just likes to name companies that way. https://qz.com/1346926/the-hidden-logic-of-peter-thiels-lord... Founders Fund invested in Anduril but it wasn't Thiel directly, so this one is kind of one hop away. Maybe it's related.

I think I independently found that article right as you were replying. It's definitely a plausible connection.

Re: Anduril, a startup from Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, now valued at $1B

#70

Post by akhilcacharya »

gotoeleven wrote: post #19
notus wrote: post #2

Did we create a super-villain by ostracizing him for supporting Trump?

Maybe this is too off topic for HN, but I'm genuinely curious what is the best argument for why it is bad/racist to enforce immigration laws? I've heard people argue that a wall won't be effective. But some people seem to have the view that immigration laws shouldn't be enforced at all and we should allow people to use whatever loopholes (refugee status, traveling w/ children) there are to get in and then not show up…

I'll bite.

It's not bad or racist to enforce immigration laws. Very few people in America support legitimately open borders and I do not either; the only ones that do are purist libertarians. Faux concern for these issues however is a hammer used by bad and, yes, racist people in order to batter people who are overwhelmingly poorer and non-white.

There is no evidence that a physical wall is a necessary investment and there are zero lives improved by separating children from their families as a "deterrent" during a massive humanitarian crisis.

A decade ago, I used to think that the Republican concern over illegal immigration (which is absolutely a legitimate concern), was truly out of concern for those exploited by the system and out of concern for the American worker. I thought that those calling this concern as "anti immigrant" were being disingenuous. Of course, that was before I realized people like Stephen Miller are really saying the quiet part loud these days.

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