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

Hmmm: When it comes to Palantir, and similar companies like Flock, isn’t that what a lot of people are worried about (global governance)?

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

Why he thinks he knows so much about this is anyone’s guess, but he certainly has a novel if convoluted theory: The Anti-Christ can only be stopped, says this multi-billionaire (who detractors fairly or unfairly view as sort of an anti-christ himself), by Artificial Intelligence.

In other words, the system of computer intelligence, the “superintelligence” many are concerned with will enable The Anti-Christ, actually turns out, in Thiel’s stone, to be the Savior.

Most recently, the high-tech guru 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.”

That’s at odds with Rome. Pope Leo’s first encyclical warned against unregulated A.I,  which last week led Thiel to say the Supreme Pontiff was “acting as a useful idiot for the Communist Party.”

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

Perhaps there is a kernel of truth in that. But an “idiot”? And weren’t you, Mr. Thiel, at a White House dinner the other night with other tech moguls in honor of Xi Jinping, the leader of China?

“Idiot”? Not nice. Words in a whirl, Mr. Thiel, are words that cause wars.

Also, quite inaccurate. If one wants to get intellectual, the Pope’s encyclical, that we can see, 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.”]