> So who or what is the antichrist? Thiel is admirably and uncharacteristically specific on this matter in a scattershot sort of way. The antichrist wants to erect a one-world state, which largely seems to mean any kind of global regulatory regime. Longtime Thiel watchers will recall his preoccupation with sovereignty and seasteading. The antichrist appears to be any force opposing that. The antichrist also is people who are against AI, especially those who seek to regulate it.
Antichrist will need a monopoly on AI to fend off competitors. It's likely he'll also need a rather unusual brain that can be fused with AI in some way. Certainly, no man living today meets the bar.
I'm puzzled by Thiel's role in all this. If he supports this sort of technocratic tyranny, why he's talking about it at all? If he's against it, why is he trying to whitewash AI?
The biblical antichrist/world government thing has been linked to so many things. People were against the UN in the 1940/50s because they thought it was part of the apocalypse and anti-christ.
I quoth Common Sense 1952-04-01:
"The United Nations, which had its birth in the San Francisco conference—set up by a group of which Alger Hiss was secretary, is no doubt a forerunner of the coming “one world” dictatorship by “one man”—the anti-Christ The UN has ruled out Christ entirely and its headquarters are a convenient spy nest for the Reds."
This is just the same fanatical brainmelt that imagines wild conspiracies in every generation. Before the UN it was The League of Nations (Which the US didn't join) and before that "catholic imperialism".
Just because Theil has money doesn't mean we should take him seriously. The same nonsense just gets re-contextualized for every generation.
"Jesus' second-coming in your lifetime!" I mean true believers don't want to think they're going to miss out I guess...
The concept of the Antichrist and the cryptic symbolism in the Book of Revelations seem to be true cognitohazards. The Mark of the Beast has been attributed to everything from social security numbers to license plates to RFID chips. Republicans said Obama was the Antichrist because of his charisma. When I was younger, and a churchgoer, I was taught that the locusts in the Book of Revelations were really Apache helicopters, and this was evidence of the Bible's prophetic truth.
And chances are the whole thing was a coded rant about Nero Caesar meant to be read within a specific cultural context that no longer exists. But I guess that isn't as satisfying as numerology and cryptograms and Satanic supervillains and the promise that the future can be known if only you're clever enough.
There have been many attempts to create a one-world tyranny: Nero's empire, the Inquisition, Hitler's reich, Stalin's communism and so on. All of those tyrants were antichrist wannabes: they wanted to live and rule forever. However none of them understood that they were too small for the role, and that they didn't have the means to keep the entire planet under control, even if they conquered it once. Many of the dictators today want the role too, and they all believe it's almost within their reach: all it takes is to create AI first, use it to strengthen their body with technology so others cannot slay them, remove competitors and rule forever. This idea is certainly in the air, and once this idea captures the mind of some powerful man, we get another antichrist wannabe. Whether it will come true is another question. Hitler had elaborate plans too, but his empire fell apart in a few years.
Antichrist will need a monopoly on AI to fend off competitors. It's likely he'll also need a rather unusual brain that can be fused with AI in some way. Certainly, no man living today meets the bar.
I'm puzzled by Thiel's role in all this. If he supports this sort of technocratic tyranny, why he's talking about it at all? If he's against it, why is he trying to whitewash AI?