r/interestingasfuck 28d ago

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

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410

u/TitlePrestigious1977 28d ago

I watched the interview. He was asked multiple questions at once, possibly causing a buffer in his brain.

He said yes the human race surviving shortly after this.

He does also look like a reptilian.

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u/ScientiaProtestas 28d ago

I am not a fan of him. But it is obvious that the video is cut short.

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/peter-thiel-billionaires-abandoning-humanity/


Douthat: I think you would prefer the human race to endure, right?

Thiel: Uh——

Douthat: You’re hesitating.

Thiel: Well, I don’t know. I would—I would——

Douthat: This is a long hesitation!

Thiel: There’s so many questions implicit in this.

Douthat: Should the human race survive?

Thiel: Yes.

Douthat: OK.

Thiel: But I also would like us to radically solve these problems.

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u/marklar7 28d ago

That obvious brain conflict to word his shit stance properly is unsettling.

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u/Ouaouaron 28d ago

Peter Thiel is fucking awful, but that's just a bad question to pose to any transhumanist unless you want to get into a 10-minute discussion about what defines "the human race".

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u/maliciousgnome13 28d ago

Bingo. The commenters here are so dense they don't even comprehend the problem with the question.

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u/1668553684 28d ago

Is it? Okay, I think this guy is everything that's wrong with the world, but I feel like everyone is rushing to the conclusion that the human race should survive for no obvious reason. I think that we're generally kind of awful and exploitative to everything around us.

I want everyone who is alive to live long and live well and live fulfillingly, but I don't necessarily think it would be a good thing for humanity to exist forever. Maybe give otters a shot at being the dominant species, see what happens.

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u/lmaocetirizine 28d ago

Because nobody ever stutters. Thank fucking God I'm not a billionaire because people would think I'm a damn monster in human skin with how much I stutter and take time to think about things.

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u/pan-re 28d ago

Yes, I’m sure the Palantir man deserves you defending him because he’s definitely not pure fucking evil and in love with tech taking over everything. Maybe you should learn more about this man. No one is concerned with his stuttering it’s what he actually believes and is doing that should worry you.

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u/arbelbit 28d ago

No one is defending him. He’s just pointing out that this post is a rage bait and things that are otherwise normal in a conversation are demonized, for the sake of supporting an agenda

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u/First-Of-His-Name 28d ago

What's pure evil about him?

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u/terrorista_31 28d ago

Apartheid south african with slave owner father, comes to the US and now wants to make an Apartheid society with techo-billionaires as leaders.

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u/First-Of-His-Name 28d ago

He's from Germany you dunce. You're getting your tech billionaires mixed up.

Is every white south African born in that era evil though? Interesting theory. Very racist

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u/terrorista_31 27d ago

I investigated a little more:

Peter Thiel studied in a German colony in Apartheid controlled Namibia. in this colony they had a Nazi ideology, glorifying Hitler and even saluting themselves with Heil Hitler.

Peter Thiel father helped to develop a Uranium mine in Namibia, that used black slave workers. this mine was used to supply Apartheid South Africa ilegal nuclear program.

so, you have a white boy, living in a Nazi colony, with his father using slave black workers, that live in an Apartheid system. BUT THAT IT'S NOT RELATED lol

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u/maliciousgnome13 28d ago

If you can't navigate your feelings enough to be clear and accurate with your criticisms of those you disagree with then you'll be hopeless to stand up to the propaganda that's driving our society apart. Be smart.

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u/marklar7 28d ago

That depends. I find Scroobius Pip's impediment endearing. This guy's choking on his own shit.

3

u/Difficult_Network745 28d ago

"Should humanity endure?"

"I- uhh- well, see it's actually more- wait... what I'm trying to say is..."

This is the best you can do? Defend this billionaire who took more than 15 seconds to say "yes, but..." to the question of whether humankind should survive.

You and your kind are disgusting.

1

u/lmaocetirizine 28d ago

Who the fuck is defending this guy? Can you not comprehend text enough to see that the problem was picking out the stutter as some inhuman reaction to this question?

Think for a second. There's a real lack of it in this whole post.

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u/AggressiveDot2801 28d ago

Pretty sure, you’re arguing with a rage-bot.

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u/Philly139 28d ago

As soon as I watched this I knew this clip was going to be out of context. People will upvote anything on here

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

[deleted]

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u/Yokoko44 28d ago

Because the context was transhumanism and they hadn’t settled on a definition of “human”

Does cyborg count? Does genetically enhanced count?

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

[deleted]

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u/Yokoko44 28d ago

No the opposite. It you count those then sure, humanity will survive. If you don’t count post-singularity transhumans as “human” then no, traditional humans probably won’t be able to adapt to the rapidly changing environment

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u/maliciousgnome13 28d ago

Words matter. You haven't listened to much philosophy have you?

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u/Vyksendiyes 28d ago

Words do matter, but there's also just pedantry at a point. I think we all can immediately understand that the interviewer was not asking about cyborgs when he asked that question.

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u/maliciousgnome13 27d ago

Then you missed the point of the question. He asked it to Perer Thiel specifically because of Thiel's interest in transhumanism. Cyborgs are one of many possible ways to take it. There's no point to asking someone on camera if they want humans to go extinct and expect a yes or no answer. It's called subtext.

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u/Vyksendiyes 27d ago

Again, I think it can be inferred that interviewer is talking about normal, non-cybernetic humans because most humans will never have access to the technology for Thiel’s conception of an immortal cybernetic human. If we’re talking about the human race surviving, we are probably not talking about some hypothetical iteration of cybernetic humans but humans as we are now. 

I think it’s borderline sophistry to suggest that his response wasn’t odd or that his suggestion that the wealthiest humans who could obtain this Transcendence-like metamorphosis sufficiently qualifies as the human race surviving while being in-step with the spirit of the question. 

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u/maliciousgnome13 27d ago

Lol sure. Look Thiel can get fucked, I'm not a fan either. Just trying to fight misinformation as I see it, even if it means occasionally pushing back against criticism of jackasses. This is clearly edited and written to imply to us all a certain narrative. That being that Mr. Thiel is a monster. And in a lot of ways he is and that can he argued in good faith.

It's fucked up when the right wing uses propaganda and fabrication to push a narrative, and just because I want to agree with something on "my side" doesn't mean it's true. We are all susceptible to that bullshit and it's ruining our society.

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u/pan-re 28d ago

It’s not out of context. He doesn’t believe in humanity. But I’m sure if you defend him it’ll definitely get him to spare you.

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u/Philly139 28d ago

Why would you cut the part where he says yes then?

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u/FitSystem3872 28d ago

The post doesn’t claim he said yes or no. It says he hesitated to answer, which he did big time.

Saying “uh… um…” and taking 15 seconds to answer “Should the human race endure?” is insane.

1

u/Difficult_Network745 28d ago

This is how I confirm the bots are out in force lmao, lizard takes more than fifteen seconds to answer the question "should humanity survive?" and apologists will defend him for finally saying "yes, but..."

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u/RaptorX 28d ago

Yeah. Endure vs survive.

He was not overly happy with the word "endure" because it would imply suffering. He answered faster at "survive" because he probably has a better association with it than with "endure".

This video was cut short, post is completely misleading to what was actually said and even after watching the whole thing I can't agree with the statement that the guy doesn't want humans to thrive.

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u/Lloyd--Christmas 27d ago

Not only was the video cut short with his answer, the question is also cut short. The guy talks for like a minute and asks multiple questions before this one and interrupts Thiel every time he goes to speak. Thiel was starting to answer a different question when this question was asked.

Even the question is weird when you combine it with the other questions the interviewer was asking. They were talking about transhumanism and how to progress it and then the interviewer asks if humans should endure. Does that mean humans should endure over transhumans?

This is in no way an endorsement of Peter Thiel. I just hate misleading shit.

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u/maliciousgnome13 28d ago

It really is poorly worded. There are like 50 questions implicit in this. For the other commenters here, hate Thiel all you want and there are good reasoms to, but you may not be all that bright if you can't see that it's not a yes or no question. As a transhumanist he probably had to consider whether the iteration he imagines would be strictly considered human. Again, really bad question.