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Re: undefined

#31

Post by labrador »

F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said in The Great Gatsby “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me."

However Peter Thiel was not born rich, which makes it safe for me to say he's just like several of my friends who've lost their minds on psychedelics. I've enjoyed them but the the trick is to know when to stop. As Ram Dass said "When you get the message, hang up the phone."

Peter Thiel-Backed Psychedelics Company Gets FDA Approval To Study Ketamine Therapy

https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2022/01/12/peter-t...

Re: undefined

#32

Post by YZF »

davidw wrote: post #8

The current iteration of Silicon Valley is just sad to see. I remember the sort of techno-libertarianism from the 90ies, and... while I didn't always agree, it seemed at least kind of idealistic. Also unrealistic, but it didn't seem to come from a place of cruelty or a thirst for power. Quite the contrary, they didn't seem very good at getting the government on their side back then. Now they have money and power and…

Wasn't the US giving money it doesn't have though?

I also read the headlines that say millions of deaths in Africa due to starvation and HIV... Do we have some support for that in e.g. excess deaths statistics since the funding was cancelled?

When searching I see one headline say 74k excess deaths in Africa by 2030 and another headline say 500k deaths in South Africa alone in the next 10 years. Which one is right?

If giving more money to Africa helped saves more lives, should the USA do it? I.e. should it have tripled the aid instead of cancelling it. Should it raise taxes to give Africa more aid? What is a non-emotional/rational way to think about foreign aid? What part of the aid is getting to where it's really needed? How efficient are the organizations delivering it?

One way to think about foreign aid is that it buys influence. I think this is why the US does this. But countries like South Africa are openly confrontational with the USA despite the aid they receive and work against US interests. If South Africa e.g. prefers to align with China and Russia (e.g. in BRICS) shouldn't China and Russia take on this aid?

What about the rest of the world?

I think the observation that "Silicon Valley" is starving children in Africa is at least inaccurate. I'm sure there are rich people in SV who are trying to do more. It's not one uniform group. It's also not clear what is actually the best thing to do.

Re: undefined

#33

Post by some_furry »

davidw wrote: post #8

The current iteration of Silicon Valley is just sad to see. I remember the sort of techno-libertarianism from the 90ies, and... while I didn't always agree, it seemed at least kind of idealistic. Also unrealistic, but it didn't seem to come from a place of cruelty or a thirst for power. Quite the contrary, they didn't seem very good at getting the government on their side back then. Now they have money and power and…

> I want my nerdy hacker people back, working on stuff that makes the world better through the use of technology.

There are still people like that out there. They just haven't been captured by venture capital.

It's a shame that the Money has decided that authoritarianism is the way to go, but hopefully the pendulum swings back in our lifetime.

Re: undefined

#34

Post by jay_kyburz »

PaulHoule wrote: post #3
ta9000 wrote: post #2

Or people are just seeing the real person. Before the filter was needed but now that views tangential to his are more mainstream it’s easier for him to let the full nut-job out. Same with the CEO of Salesforce.

One morning early this year there was a black sign stuck on the front door with some edgelord crap from Palantir: https://mastodon.social/@UP8/114356523256174674 I feel like a real dope because Thiel’s minions got me to buy a Rene Gerard book.

The sentiment is OK, we _should_ think more about what we build and why. It's the nationalism at the end I find kind of yuck.

What do you call it when you want to improve the lives of all humans equally, not just they corner you were born into. That's what I am.

Re: undefined

#35

Post by vjvjvjvjghv »

lacker wrote: post #6

Personally, I'm not religious. But 20% of Americans believe that the Bible is the literal word of God. Is it really so crazy for one venture capitalist to believe that the Antichrist is real? Part of the freedom of religion is accepting that other Americans really do have religious beliefs that differ from your own sometimes, and that's okay. It doesn't mean you need to support the policies that he supports. But we d…

"But we do need to share this country peacefully with people who don't have the same religious beliefs that we do."

That is something the hardcore Bible believers don't want to do. They want to "take back the country"

Re: undefined

#37

Post by noir_lord »

egypturnash wrote: post #19
lacker wrote: post #6

Personally, I'm not religious. But 20% of Americans believe that the Bible is the literal word of God. Is it really so crazy for one venture capitalist to believe that the Antichrist is real? Part of the freedom of religion is accepting that other Americans really do have religious beliefs that differ from your own sometimes, and that's okay. It doesn't mean you need to support the policies that he supports. But we d…

It's kind of hilarious when he gets asked about the whole "mark of the beast" thing and the fact that his entire fortune is based on implementing massive surveillance, and has absolutely no rebuttal . A man with this much power is incapable of anticipating a simple question like that.

I mean he named it Palantir.

It’s just shy of calling it the SuckingVoidOfEvil Inc.

Re: undefined

#38

Post by lordnacho »

eximius wrote: post #25
lordnacho wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still can't decide which mechanism is at work: Person is a nutter -> nutters more likely to be at the extremes of achievement (success and failure) -> you see the successes -> there's a bunch of insane people who became billionaires versus: Some people win at the success game -> they start to think they are special -> environment encourages them towards extremes of thought -> bunch of crazy billionaires One way the…

Por que no los dos? They are not mutually exclusive, really. Perhaps the first skews the initial population and the second exacerbates it.

Sure, but is one more relevant?

Re: undefined

#39

Post by stevenwoo »

nchmy wrote: post #27
egypturnash wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's kind of hilarious when he gets asked about the whole "mark of the beast" thing and the fact that his entire fortune is based on implementing massive surveillance, and has absolutely no rebuttal . A man with this much power is incapable of anticipating a simple question like that.

sauce?

It’s the end paragraph of the interview quoted in the article.

Re: undefined

#40

Post by walkabout »

hobs wrote: post #21
walkabout wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is a misinterpretation of the Bible any crazier than a non-misinterpretation?

Because the other people care about what you will do, not what you believe. Most recently the rapture folks stopped paying their bills, sold their belongings, and generally opted out of society in a mass hysteria event - and that's a small ripple in the overall system from mostly people not in power of the military industrial complex.

Oh, some ideas can be crazier than others—I just didn’t get why a misinterpretation is necessarily evidence that a belief based on the Bible is crazier than one that’s not a misinterpretation. I can easily imagine misreadings or misinterpretations being a lot less crazy than a more-correct interpretation of something like that.
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