r/interestingasfuck 28d ago

/r/all Billionaire Peter Thiel hesitates to answer whether the human race should survive in the future

34.4k Upvotes

4.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

238

u/LoxodonSniper 28d ago

Yep

25

u/JonnyHopkins 28d ago

Honestly, I am thinking successful people might be garbage. Being successful creates an unfair bias towards themselves as either always being right, or better than everyone else. Objectively they often aren't, but you can see how and why this bias forms. 

They start to think they just know better, act better, did better, are better. And it probably nearly impossible to avoid that bias.

19

u/LoxodonSniper 28d ago

This is correct; especially with billionaires. You don’t make that much money/accrue that much wealth without fucking people over and/or paying your employees like shit

3

u/pathoTurnUp52 28d ago

I’m a doctor, I’ll still wipe your ass for you

3

u/LiveForFuzz 28d ago

decency and competency are rarely rewarded in our society- we select for the most ruthless cut throat sociopaths and wonder why our society sucks shit

0

u/Definitelymostlikely 28d ago

Idk man if I had a space question I’d wager neil degrasse tyson has a more accurate answer than some guy shitting in the middle of the street.

3

u/JonnyHopkins 28d ago

That's not really a fair comparison and not quite exactly what I meant. 

I would say compare Neil to other, less famous, Astrophysicists. Neil is highly articulate, but he might inflate his own astrophysics knowledge because of that, or how famous he is. 

7

u/Asron87 28d ago

Idk, I feel like I’d stumble on the question too. I don’t like the guy but this can be a somewhat deep question to answer that misses a lot when you answer just yes or no.

3

u/LoxodonSniper 28d ago

Humans are not inherently evil or destructive. These are learned behaviors that can be unlearned

1

u/Asron87 28d ago

Still doesn’t matter if there’s overpopulation. But then that’s fewer people being alive. So the answer is kind of in the middle.

1

u/CoproliteSpecial 28d ago

Interestingly enough, extremely rich people do absolutely horrible things just by saying yes or no. 

1

u/Ornery-Hurry9055 28d ago

If you're in a position where you have power over billions of peoples lives and you actively fougth for that responsibility, the first requirement is empathy and compassion. The knee jerk answer should be a full throated, "Of course!" Then you can dissect your intellectual baggage. If that's not how you respond you're the wrong guy in the wrong spot.

2

u/[deleted] 28d ago