Peter Thiel Is Wrong About the Future

Wow! That far? I feel sad. Kurzweil had me hopeful that I'd be able to use it in next 30 years.

I really appreciate many points in this article, especially showing that people in the 60s thought that they were in just as much of a decline as we do now.

But there's also a weird anti-environmentalism threaded through the article. Toward the end, the author lists things that we now think are bad, as an example of how we've become pessimistic. Including: "New subdivisions represented a threat to the landscape rather than the promise of the good life. [...] Insecticides harmed eagles’ eggs." Those are and were legitimate concerns!

Just because we are correctly critical of some aspects of technological process doesn't mean we have become a bunch of petty pessimists who are just trying to make everyone feel bad.

> I want to know why they think a particular date. What analysis have they done to reach their conclusion?

Kurzweil is terrified of his own mortality and counting on "The Singularity" to allow him to upload his immortal ~soul~ consciousness into a computer.

That's why he's predicting a date within his lifespan.

Why is Virginia Postrel writing an article to posture with no substance? Author of "The Substance of Style", she writes an article representing the over-inflation of stupidly half-aggressive titles filled with not much at all, and to top it all off she threw in commercials at the end.

Yes, half an article to refute not a real point Thiel has made so that "Peter Thiel Is Wrong About the Future". Does Virginia Postrel think that 'countering' points that have not been made with

"People are justifiably wary of grandiose plans that impose major costs on those who won’t directly reap their benefits. " should validate such a title?

MetaMed & MIRI do not have a chance to improve people's lives? Contracts that are not completely recursive to violence based on the blockchain(Ethereum) cannot change peoples lives?

Palantir to improve law-enforcement while having personal liberties hard-coded in do not count? In an age where surveillance has become industrial? When before the greatest protection was being locked in file cabinets?

but do not forget that all of Thiel's relatively nuanced views are countered by....

"Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the series depicts decidedly flawed characters living in an exciting but brutal period and improving surgery through clever, risky and -- by today’s standards -- often-high-handed medical procedures." OhMyGod.

Ah yes. Now I can see the point that was being made. Not really. When you are going to write articles with sleight posturing, it would be good to have direct quotes about statements that were actually made and then getting to it.

-Just because we are correctly critical of some aspects of technological process doesn't mean we have become a bunch of petty pessimists who are just trying to make everyone feel bad.

maybe you stop at those things, i doubt thats the case but lets assume you do. you think these ideas are a tree with the wind of truth and reason blowing through your leaves. however its a tree in a forest of never ending complaining, negativity, and loathing on every step of progress. things like zoos are torturing animals into slavery, panning for gold is made illegal because it might disturb the fish - and they cant take it, companies like monsanato dont produce science and research into better crops to stop famine, they are an evil empire destroying the ecology and sapping humanity for all its worth. space program? forget it, why spend on wasteful things like that when we can spend more money on health and education.

the spit and the acid that people around me say towards those who choose to live in rural or suburban areas astounds me.

although i do find it amusing, they live in their concrete cities that destroyed all the ecology around them, but somehow believe they have special knowledge to tell people (who did not destroy the ecology around them) how they should live with regards to environmentalism.