Peter Who? | Spirit Daily Blog

Peter Thiel.

A founder of PayPal, an initial investor in Facebook (helping propel it), and now raking in billions with his A.I.-surveillance-data company called Palantir Technologies.

It’s named after the “seeing stones” from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. It received early funding tied to intelligence-community venture groups.

And a “seeing stone”? A magical globe allowing two people to look into different stones at the same time and speak mentally and see images of each other. (Sounds like Facetime!)

Supposedly, a powerful user can look into a stone to see things happening anywhere in the world, or even peer into the past.

That seems innocently fairy-taleish (if a bit occult), but in the novel it was created by the elves in the ancient past and placed in key towers to help govern the kingdoms.

Hmmm. When it comes to Palantir, isn’t that what a lot of people are worried about?

And so as not to allay fears, for the past year Thiel has been traipsing around the world giving exclusive lectures on the Anti-Christ.

Why he thinks he knows so much about that is anyone’s guess, but his certainly has an imaginative if convluted theory.

The Anti-Christ can only be stopped—says this man who detractors call sort of an anti-christ himself—by Artificial Intelligence.

In other words, the system of computer intelligence many are concerned will enable The Anti-Christ actually turns out to be the Savior.

Most recently he said, “In theory, you could slow it down if you had genuine, deep cooperation across the whole world. But I think that would require like a one world government with real teeth, real force. And the sort of classical liberal part of me thinks that’s almost frying pan into fire. It’s a cure that’s worse than the disease.”

In writing an encyclical against unregulated A.I,m the Pope, said Thiel, was “acting as a useful idiot for the Communist Party.”

In other words, Communist (see China) would be only too happy if A.I. was slowed down in the West while their own developoment went unfettered.

An “idiot”?

Not nice. Also, quite inaccurate. If one wants to get intellectual, the Pope’s encyclical soars over anything Thiel has ever written or spoken.

(Notes Associated Press: “Pope Leo XIV warned Friday that a ‘paradise of machines’ risked undermining humanity as he opened a trip to France by posing fundamental questions about what it means to be human in the age of artificial intelligence, a nuclear arms race and other threats to life itself.

“Leo raised existential concerns about scientific progress, life and human rights during his opening speech to President Emmanuel Macron and authorities at the Élysée Palace and then to diplomats and United Nations employees at the headquarters of UNESCO, the U.N. culture and education organization.

“’To see him, praying with us, it comforts us in our faith and on our path,” said Senegalese Sister Antonia Faye, who was glowing after her first-ever event with a pope, an evening prayer service at Notre Dame that featured angelic choirs and the cathedral’s booming organ.

“’Being with the Pope is different to being alone or praying alone. We felt the benediction that came down on us,’ she said.””)