Peter Thiel on Trump, Seasteading and making futures more like the Jetsons or Star Trek
by noreply@blogger.com (brian wang) from NextBigFuture.com on (#28TVF)
Peter Thiel has given strong support to Donald Trump.
One could have predicted Mr. Thiel's affinity for Mr. Trump by reading his 2014 book, "Zero to One," in which he offers three prongs of his philosophy:
1) It is better to risk boldness than triviality.
2) A bad plan is better than no plan.
3) Sales matter just as much as product.
How could a gay man back someone who will probably nominate Supreme Court justices inclined to limit rights for gays and women? How could a futurist support a cave man who champions fossil fuels, puts profits over environmental protection and insists that we can turn back the clock on the effects of globalization on American workers?
"There are reduced expectations for the younger generation, and this is the first time this has happened in American history," Mr. Thiel says. "Even if there are aspects of Trump that are retro and that seem to be going back to the past, I think a lot of people want to go back to a past that was futuristic - 'The Jetsons,' 'Star Trek.' They're dated but futuristic."
It is a theme he has struck before, that Silicon Valley has not fulfilled the old dreams for bigger things. "Cellphones distract us from the fact that the subways are 100 years old," he says.
So he doesn't worry about Mr. Trump sending an intemperate tweet and spurring a war with North Korea?
"A Twitter war is not a real war," Mr. Thiel says.
If the worst fears of annihilation seem plausible, Mr. Thiel can always invest more in his libertarian fantasy of a new society of Seasteads: islands at sea with their own rules, starting with a French Polynesian lagoon. "They're not quite feasible from an engineering perspective," he says. "That's still very far in the future.
Thiel invested $1.7 million in The Seasteading Institute.
On January 13th, 2017, President Fritch came to San Francisco from Tahiti to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Seastead Institute to solidifying the agreement to collaborate on developing the first seastead in a lagoon in French Polynesia.
The pilot will consist of two or three floating platforms linked together and is projected to cost $30 million to $50 Million. Tey anticipate adding many more modules to the pilot in the following years, organically growing into a city, while also spreading the technology for seasteads across French Polynesia, the Pacific, and the world. When launched, our project will bring new technologies, new research, and new economic activity to French Polynesia.
Read more
One could have predicted Mr. Thiel's affinity for Mr. Trump by reading his 2014 book, "Zero to One," in which he offers three prongs of his philosophy:
1) It is better to risk boldness than triviality.
2) A bad plan is better than no plan.
3) Sales matter just as much as product.
How could a gay man back someone who will probably nominate Supreme Court justices inclined to limit rights for gays and women? How could a futurist support a cave man who champions fossil fuels, puts profits over environmental protection and insists that we can turn back the clock on the effects of globalization on American workers?
"There are reduced expectations for the younger generation, and this is the first time this has happened in American history," Mr. Thiel says. "Even if there are aspects of Trump that are retro and that seem to be going back to the past, I think a lot of people want to go back to a past that was futuristic - 'The Jetsons,' 'Star Trek.' They're dated but futuristic."
It is a theme he has struck before, that Silicon Valley has not fulfilled the old dreams for bigger things. "Cellphones distract us from the fact that the subways are 100 years old," he says.
So he doesn't worry about Mr. Trump sending an intemperate tweet and spurring a war with North Korea?
"A Twitter war is not a real war," Mr. Thiel says.
If the worst fears of annihilation seem plausible, Mr. Thiel can always invest more in his libertarian fantasy of a new society of Seasteads: islands at sea with their own rules, starting with a French Polynesian lagoon. "They're not quite feasible from an engineering perspective," he says. "That's still very far in the future.
Thiel invested $1.7 million in The Seasteading Institute.
On January 13th, 2017, President Fritch came to San Francisco from Tahiti to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Seastead Institute to solidifying the agreement to collaborate on developing the first seastead in a lagoon in French Polynesia.
The pilot will consist of two or three floating platforms linked together and is projected to cost $30 million to $50 Million. Tey anticipate adding many more modules to the pilot in the following years, organically growing into a city, while also spreading the technology for seasteads across French Polynesia, the Pacific, and the world. When launched, our project will bring new technologies, new research, and new economic activity to French Polynesia.
Read more