It was very nice of you to use that photo of Douthat. I had no idea he used to look like a normal person.
Thanks for stating clearly exactly the philosophy that most of us peasants indeed find objectionable. I'm trying to keep a tally of all the things that are bad/meaningless/contemptuous: pets, hobbies, farming, wanting to remain alive past 33. And what remains of the good: being on a ship and going somewhere new, I think?
He provokes a similar reaction on me, though I still like to engage and read his articles. Intellectualy stimulating, if sometimes repulsive to my ingrained morals, I must admit...
I like to read Deep Left AND Douthat AND I even have Thiel's book lol. Even though their philosophies are all sometimes or often objectionable or strike me as an almost evil inversion, in different ways, and I remain fairly committed to Hobbitism myself. Hobbits do sometimes make friends and hang out with wizards, of course. ☺️
By the way -and I know this kind of a late reply-, but is DLA literally against living past 33 years old, or is it more of an hyperbole statement of his? (I hope is the latter, but still...)
I really like this response. I think its flawed from the start because it fails to address thiels main problem, which is belief in absolutely nothing at all. This is actually what makes him dangerous. Its not his urge to usher in some new epoch with technology, but the fact that he is weak and stands for nothing - meaning the ushering in of this technology will be influenced by no solid methodological structure. You can’t build a new epoch on bits and pieces of disparate philosophy sampled and tasted prudishly from different thinkers. A little kant here, a little girard there, and so on. You need a complete system. A failure to achieve this will result in failure and result in senseless suffering.
However your points are valid and very McKennan in the sense that they propose a very spiritual courage. These are things I have been thinking about for a while. They offend because they highlight true weakness in most people. Not weakness of a physical or even mental variety, but of a spiritual weakness that is rotting our society. Yes, in many ways if we betray God and waste our lives he has the right to nuke us all for being spiritually weak. I can find myself agreeing with that. Some people can’t, and I don’t really care. Thats how I see it.
Interesting take. Still, one the things that have always catch my attention about you is your conviction that Biotech and not AI/Robotics will dominate the future, something that is kind of opposite of what Thiel, Musk, Silicon Valley and the mainstream thought seems to expect. Just wanted to remark that.
AI is already showing signs of degrading the internet. It is corrupting research with false results, student studies, even journalism. Thanks to Trump and Musk, EVs have already become an obsolete technology. Unless they can get a grip of battery technology that is and make EVs properly affordable and accessible for all - including wheelchair users (who cannot currently have EVs as the batteries are stored in the floor of the vehicles) - the tech will start to revert. Robots are a sci-fi dream outside of manufacturing, and even then are likely becoming too expensive to implement (thanks to Trump's steel and aluminium tarriffs) when there are so many willing unemployed to do the same job for less with the new exploitative working conditions Trump is ushering in with his new Big Beautiful Bill. So I believe DeepLeftAnalysis is right - the future lies in biotech, particularly when the next pandemic rolls around that RFK Jr seems determined to usher in, Gabriel.
My impression of Thiel from that interview is that, like so many other Valley creatures I have known over the years, he is very smart and willing to be heterodox but feels no compulsion whatsoever to critically examine his own beliefs. A lot of what he said falls apart in the face of evidence and/or is philosophically incoherent, but that hasn’t stopped him from placing the full power of his belief behind his ideas. Which is weird since he has a philosophy degree from Stanford, but nevertheless. As for Douthat…Ross became a catholic because it fit his conservatism, not the other way around. I rather like him because I think his intentions are genuine, but it’s easy to know what he’s going to think about any issue just by imagining what the most doctrinaire religious Reaganite would say.
More humans for the sake of having a larger number of humans makes sense if there is an overclass taxing them for the resources to play a Great Game with some competing overlord with his own set of peasants (c.f. https://amzn.eu/d/eWJNPrK).
I think we can agree that this is not ideal.
Pointing out does not automatically graduate one into the category of people who think that Mennonites are human cattle; that’s a thing we can safely disagree with.
The lack of depth and meaning, of knowledge and wisdom, partly because living is too easy, is also real. This aligns with Jonathan Haidt et alia.
I love your writing. No matter what we may disagree upon - and life is more fun with fair disagreements anyway - know that I think you are a good writer.
That said, I’m not sure there’s an inherent dignity in mankind, but I think there is a learned dignity in the Low People of the Pennsylvania Dutch.
The Matrix was a movie.
Curtis Yarvin is mostly wrong; Elieazer Yudkowski isn’t very bright; Roko’s Basilisk is just Pascal’s Wager; there is no Nash equilibrium in real life interactions; and I highly recommend the plum wine after the meal if you’re ever at Roka in Canary Wharf.
There have been 600 unlicensed puppy mills discovered - a worrying number (and I only knew of a couple of cases before just searching now) - and 2.1 million Mennonites.
This is a rate of 30 per 100,000 people, roughly the same rate that kidnapping occurs in Britain or corruption in Germany.
So you’d also have to hold that the British are notorious kidnappers and the Germans famously corrupt. I suppose that’s within your gift, should you wish to make that statement, but you’re then tarring 3,000 people for a predator who lives amongst them, and that is slanderous.
If I wanted someone who believes in MMT so hard they have fully internalised it…
Substack delivers.
Liz Truss did put a bit of a damper on MMT Praxis, though, as has <checks notes> every debt crisis ever.
Unfortunately, taxes don’t do soak inflation because CIGX isn’t just a good idea: it’s the law. Taxes get spent on G which increases nominal GDP even if it’s spent badly, crowding out private investment and causing inefficiency. Real GDP may or may not increase.
If nominal GDP increase outpaces real GDP growth as a result of tax and spend, then inflation occurs.
This is a testable hypothesis that never fails a test: an iron law.
This is so true ai is like having a child. Its the dream to give birth to a child who can do all the things you cant like go to space. Someone needs to write a good piece on the similarities between scientific invention and motherhood its just not gonna be me.
I hope you elaborate in a future article/post how the superior trans human/AI kind would look like according to your vision, if only to have a more clear idea of what you aspire for the future "mankind" and see if we are capable of embracing it, so to speak....
How you gonna live in the material world and not be a materialist? Seems like a tall order.
Could be, only a special kind of psyche can even conceive of existence at 2–or 10–levels.
Anyway, why not shoot higher than the spiritual realm? Go for legendary or archetypal at least. The Christ and Buddha transcend even these. Thiel can put Christ on my headset. Buddha can live in my ear.
My only criticism is you made an allusion to Biblicism? Bibleosity? Biblology? …And Marxism, and didn’t quite tie it up.
It was very nice of you to use that photo of Douthat. I had no idea he used to look like a normal person.
Thanks for stating clearly exactly the philosophy that most of us peasants indeed find objectionable. I'm trying to keep a tally of all the things that are bad/meaningless/contemptuous: pets, hobbies, farming, wanting to remain alive past 33. And what remains of the good: being on a ship and going somewhere new, I think?
He provokes a similar reaction on me, though I still like to engage and read his articles. Intellectualy stimulating, if sometimes repulsive to my ingrained morals, I must admit...
I like to read Deep Left AND Douthat AND I even have Thiel's book lol. Even though their philosophies are all sometimes or often objectionable or strike me as an almost evil inversion, in different ways, and I remain fairly committed to Hobbitism myself. Hobbits do sometimes make friends and hang out with wizards, of course. ☺️
By the way -and I know this kind of a late reply-, but is DLA literally against living past 33 years old, or is it more of an hyperbole statement of his? (I hope is the latter, but still...)
Brilliant
What are the chances that there are two people or more running Deep left analysis Substack account?
it’s called having work ethic
I really like this response. I think its flawed from the start because it fails to address thiels main problem, which is belief in absolutely nothing at all. This is actually what makes him dangerous. Its not his urge to usher in some new epoch with technology, but the fact that he is weak and stands for nothing - meaning the ushering in of this technology will be influenced by no solid methodological structure. You can’t build a new epoch on bits and pieces of disparate philosophy sampled and tasted prudishly from different thinkers. A little kant here, a little girard there, and so on. You need a complete system. A failure to achieve this will result in failure and result in senseless suffering.
However your points are valid and very McKennan in the sense that they propose a very spiritual courage. These are things I have been thinking about for a while. They offend because they highlight true weakness in most people. Not weakness of a physical or even mental variety, but of a spiritual weakness that is rotting our society. Yes, in many ways if we betray God and waste our lives he has the right to nuke us all for being spiritually weak. I can find myself agreeing with that. Some people can’t, and I don’t really care. Thats how I see it.
Amazing article. One of your best
Interesting take. Still, one the things that have always catch my attention about you is your conviction that Biotech and not AI/Robotics will dominate the future, something that is kind of opposite of what Thiel, Musk, Silicon Valley and the mainstream thought seems to expect. Just wanted to remark that.
AI is already showing signs of degrading the internet. It is corrupting research with false results, student studies, even journalism. Thanks to Trump and Musk, EVs have already become an obsolete technology. Unless they can get a grip of battery technology that is and make EVs properly affordable and accessible for all - including wheelchair users (who cannot currently have EVs as the batteries are stored in the floor of the vehicles) - the tech will start to revert. Robots are a sci-fi dream outside of manufacturing, and even then are likely becoming too expensive to implement (thanks to Trump's steel and aluminium tarriffs) when there are so many willing unemployed to do the same job for less with the new exploitative working conditions Trump is ushering in with his new Big Beautiful Bill. So I believe DeepLeftAnalysis is right - the future lies in biotech, particularly when the next pandemic rolls around that RFK Jr seems determined to usher in, Gabriel.
Besides that, I kind of wonder what a superior Human/Trans-human/AI kind would look or be like according to you. This Midwit can barely grasp it....
Favorite books about the Bible, already read some rene girard, great article
Believing humanity is divine means you must be willing to let AI destroy it is one of the most Galaxy brained ideas I have ever seen.
My impression of Thiel from that interview is that, like so many other Valley creatures I have known over the years, he is very smart and willing to be heterodox but feels no compulsion whatsoever to critically examine his own beliefs. A lot of what he said falls apart in the face of evidence and/or is philosophically incoherent, but that hasn’t stopped him from placing the full power of his belief behind his ideas. Which is weird since he has a philosophy degree from Stanford, but nevertheless. As for Douthat…Ross became a catholic because it fit his conservatism, not the other way around. I rather like him because I think his intentions are genuine, but it’s easy to know what he’s going to think about any issue just by imagining what the most doctrinaire religious Reaganite would say.
More humans for the sake of having a larger number of humans makes sense if there is an overclass taxing them for the resources to play a Great Game with some competing overlord with his own set of peasants (c.f. https://amzn.eu/d/eWJNPrK).
I think we can agree that this is not ideal.
Pointing out does not automatically graduate one into the category of people who think that Mennonites are human cattle; that’s a thing we can safely disagree with.
The lack of depth and meaning, of knowledge and wisdom, partly because living is too easy, is also real. This aligns with Jonathan Haidt et alia.
What would human cattle be? Is such a thing possible? Or is the inherent dignity of man too powerful? What about the Matrix?
I love your writing. No matter what we may disagree upon - and life is more fun with fair disagreements anyway - know that I think you are a good writer.
That said, I’m not sure there’s an inherent dignity in mankind, but I think there is a learned dignity in the Low People of the Pennsylvania Dutch.
The Matrix was a movie.
Curtis Yarvin is mostly wrong; Elieazer Yudkowski isn’t very bright; Roko’s Basilisk is just Pascal’s Wager; there is no Nash equilibrium in real life interactions; and I highly recommend the plum wine after the meal if you’re ever at Roka in Canary Wharf.
I think there is dignity in horses! I respect animals very much! Unfortunately the Amish are notoriously cruel to their animals.
Vicious slander. How disappointing.
Amish puppy mills aren't slander; I hope you're ignorant and not willfully deceptive.
There have been 600 unlicensed puppy mills discovered - a worrying number (and I only knew of a couple of cases before just searching now) - and 2.1 million Mennonites.
This is a rate of 30 per 100,000 people, roughly the same rate that kidnapping occurs in Britain or corruption in Germany.
So you’d also have to hold that the British are notorious kidnappers and the Germans famously corrupt. I suppose that’s within your gift, should you wish to make that statement, but you’re then tarring 3,000 people for a predator who lives amongst them, and that is slanderous.
I’m flattered to have gotten a comment from yoy.
If I wanted someone who believes in MMT so hard they have fully internalised it…
Substack delivers.
Liz Truss did put a bit of a damper on MMT Praxis, though, as has <checks notes> every debt crisis ever.
Unfortunately, taxes don’t do soak inflation because CIGX isn’t just a good idea: it’s the law. Taxes get spent on G which increases nominal GDP even if it’s spent badly, crowding out private investment and causing inefficiency. Real GDP may or may not increase.
If nominal GDP increase outpaces real GDP growth as a result of tax and spend, then inflation occurs.
This is a testable hypothesis that never fails a test: an iron law.
This is so true ai is like having a child. Its the dream to give birth to a child who can do all the things you cant like go to space. Someone needs to write a good piece on the similarities between scientific invention and motherhood its just not gonna be me.
“I do not care if AI eliminates the human species”… wow, a perfect example of my latest piece on “transhumanist schizoids” https://open.substack.com/pub/backcountrypsych/p/transhumanist-schizoids?r=1kxn90&utm_medium=ios
No wonder he gives me such bad vibes... Never trust a fallen twink
Maybe, Thiel's skin is so bad because he took Bezos too seriously? I mean, when you are that rich, there's a potion or a lotion for everything, right?
From 2016:
Jeff Bezos Tells Peter Thiel to 'Develop a Thick Skin' About Being 'Outed.' He's 100 Percent Right.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jeff-bezos-peter-thiel_b_10258804
Joking aside, an ugly soul shows on the surface eventually.
I hope you elaborate in a future article/post how the superior trans human/AI kind would look like according to your vision, if only to have a more clear idea of what you aspire for the future "mankind" and see if we are capable of embracing it, so to speak....
How you gonna live in the material world and not be a materialist? Seems like a tall order.
Could be, only a special kind of psyche can even conceive of existence at 2–or 10–levels.
Anyway, why not shoot higher than the spiritual realm? Go for legendary or archetypal at least. The Christ and Buddha transcend even these. Thiel can put Christ on my headset. Buddha can live in my ear.
My only criticism is you made an allusion to Biblicism? Bibleosity? Biblology? …And Marxism, and didn’t quite tie it up.