Peter Thiel: The Education of a Libertarian
The article itself is well written. But the person who wrote it is even more important IMO. How often do you get to hear the thoughts and views of a billionaire investor? I look at Peter Thiel as more of a philosopher than a tech investor. He is the only real one of his kind that has achieved some fame. Listen to a random speech of him:
If you want to go deeper, try this interview:
Some word porn for Libertarians and Anarcho-Capitalists:
But I must confess that over the last two decades, I have changed radically on the question of how to achieve these goals. Most importantly, I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible. By tracing out the development of my thinking, I hope to frame some of the challenges faced by all classical liberals today.
In the face of these realities, one would despair if one limited one’s horizon to the world of politics. I do not despair because I no longer believe that politics encompasses all possible futures of our world. In our time, the great task for libertarians is to find an escape from politics in all its forms — from the totalitarian and fundamentalist catastrophes to the unthinking demos that guides so-called “social democracy.”
Because the vast reaches of outer space represent a limitless frontier, they also represent a limitless possibility for escape from world politics. But the final frontier still has a barrier to entry: Rocket technologies have seen only modest advances since the 1960s, so that outer space still remains almost impossibly far away. We must redouble the efforts to commercialize space, but we also must be realistic about the time horizons involved. The libertarian future of classic science fiction, à la Heinlein, will not happen before the second half of the 21st century.
A better metaphor is that we are in a deadly race between politics and technology. The future will be much better or much worse, but the question of the future remains very open indeed. We do not know exactly how close this race is, but I suspect that it may be very close, even down to the wire. Unlike the world of politics, in the world of technology the choices of individuals may still be paramount. The fate of our world may depend on the effort of a single person who builds or propagates the machinery of freedom that makes the world safe for capitalism.
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The fact that somebody is a successful investor doesn't mean he/she is a good philosopher too. Or, politician or whatsoever. I hate politicians, they are only successful mostly in one thing: How to be successful politicians.
Some questions are 3000 years old.
There is a saying that "Those who can't do; teach"
When it comes to politicians and bureaucrats, "Those who can't do; regulate"
All we need to make sure is that Non-Aggression Principle is preserved and that everyone sticks to their end of contracts. I remember Peter Thiel once mentioning how atoms were regulated and bytes weren't. The result was that digital technology improved rapidly. In many ways modern computers are much more advanced that HAL or many other computer system imagined 60s, 70s or even 80s. But we are not sending anyone to Jupiter. We have a hard time landing on the Moon for another time.
The Defense Budget for USA is $716 Billions for 2019. For NASA its a mere $21.5 Billion. Yet they keep being Anti-Private Ventures into space. There should e some rules in place to hold very one accountable. But thanks to the regulations, we would be making photorealistic VR Moon Bases a lot before an actual Moon Base.
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Thiel is truly a great man, with more knowledge and understanding than I think many could ever hope for. Should it come as any surprise than Peter Thiel is an Objectivist? Or well, at least a Randian in nature?
The sad thing is that he seems to be mostly a lone man in the silicon valley. Zero to One is the only truly great book in its niche and virtually nobody is even talking about it. Sam Ovens is a great guy. But not even he is talking about it (maybe he doesn't even know the book exists)
Zero to One is truly an amazing book! It really show's Thiel's intelligence and the breadth of his knowledge!