I think Thiel is frustrated that innovation in this country has shifted from science and technology to mobile phones and banner ads. The best and brightest are working in the wrong industry. Instead of researching alternative energy, space travel, health, etc, we're researching thinner smartphones with better battery life and more effective ways to sell ads.
Makes me wonder how far along we'd be, technologically, if YouTube and Facebook had never been invented... We're just too distracted now. Maybe Fermi's Paradox can be explained by alien civilisations becoming too busy posting cat videos on Twitter to invent inter-stellar travel.
The entire reason that SpaceX exists, along with Tesla Motors, is that Elon Musk worked hard to figure out new ways for people to send money over the internet. He made lots of money himself, and now he creates electric cars and builds spaceships. I wouldn't worry too much.
Edit: confused eBay and Paypal. Musk founded Paypal.
The reason that so many intelligent and driven entrepreneurs are innovating on "less difficult" technologies is precisely because this low-hanging fruit offers a very high impact leverage right now. More people take the plunge because it costs less to start a company. Consequently, more people are working on more niche problems. This is a good thing.
I'd be more concerned with improving the technical abilities of the people entering the entrepreneurial pipeline than about where they are applying themselves. Getting more technical immigrants into the USA would be a decent first step.
I think that's an overly reductive assessment to say 'mobile phones and banner ads.' Mobile computers are extremely sophisticated communication tools and platforms—stuff that used to be science fiction—the social, cultural, scientific benefits of which are immeasurable.
Ads aren't an end to themselves. Back in the day they made possible free TV and well funded newspapers. Now they make it possible for even better informational services to be free
In a sense I agree with you, but things are perhaps not quite so black and white.
YouTube (as a platform) may have given us Justin Bieber, but it also gave us the Khan Academy. And the latter has surely inspired this recent surge from the Stanford faculty.
Perhaps education needs disruption as a prerequisite for some of these bigger problems to be tackled.
the problems you listed aren't pressing at all. alternative energy? we have truly ridiculous thorium reactor designs that could supply power (and run desalination off the back end for free) for the next thousand years. Space travel? Canned primates is a blind alley and we're ignoring more efficient designs because people are afraid of the word nuclear. Health? We actively prevent the falling in cost that would make health care more widely affordable, and that's granting that health care is related to health outcomes, which isn't at all clear.
No one wants to hear that all of our problems are self imposed. It's too terrifying given the current state of affairs.
I find it reassuring to know that, for many of our most dire problems, there are solutions out there. The fact that we're not using them doesn't mean we won't if we get desperate enough.
“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”
This is a pretty well worn quote, but it really is a good thing to keep in mind anytime you hear people talking about how [whatever] is declining. If things were getting worse even 1% as often as people say they are, we would be extinct by now.
"Worse" is subjective and contextually dependent. Describing kids' manners as worse the previous generations' manners is entirely subjective. Bucking tradition, shaking things up - these are characteristics that create innovation and efficiency.
I would argue that a healthy contempt for authority keeps the world advancing positively. Why should I "respect" some supervisor that instructs me in methods that are inefficient at completing my work? That kind of contempt for authority is welcome.
Makes me wonder how far along we'd be, technologically, if YouTube and Facebook had never been invented... We're just too distracted now. Maybe Fermi's Paradox can be explained by alien civilisations becoming too busy posting cat videos on Twitter to invent inter-stellar travel.