I seem to be liking Peter Thiel's ideas more and more. I found this conversation quite fascinating. It feels like he is focused, intentional, clearheaded, well-read. I disagree with a lot of his premises, but if we want to take technological progress seriously, I find Peter Thiel amongst the few sensible voices in Silicon Valley.
For example, it's quite common in a discussion for people to not really listen but just jump from one topic to another just so they can have more space to speak. I like this part where Peter subtly calls out Ross on this:
> Thiel: We’re jumping around a lot of things. So, again, the critique I was saying is: They’re not ambitious enough.
I loved the Antichrist-Armageddon analogy too:
> But I think we have an answer to this plot hole. The way the Antichrist would take over the world is you talk about Armageddon nonstop. You talk about existential risk nonstop, and this is what you need to regulate.
This conversation reads (and sounds) like a two-hand touch play on Firing Line.
I wonder what we'd learn if both men spoke exactly how they felt about the issues that were raised, and treated each other in a way that reflected these feelings.
But I know that would preclude the ironic hand-holding bow at the waist that the exchange ends with.
It was nonetheless interesting.
Unpaywalled link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/opinion/peter-thiel-antic...
Entertaining discussion.
So Peter Thiel, famed for various things but among them helping build better systems for authoritarian (or wannabe authoritarian) regimes to monitor their populations, is afraid of an authoritarian regime brought on by...environmentalists. And somehow those environmentalists, who have relatively little power or authority in our world, are going to bring us under the control of the Antichrist.