I'm curious also: who would have enough will power to go to this place to be lectured by him on this subject ? What is the interest of both parties (Thiel and this place) in this event (besides obvious publicity) ?
He's probably interested in getting an angle on the whole thing since he knows Christians will get more nervous as tech develops, and they still have a lot of power in this world. Primitive takes on new tech developments can be detrimental to humankind at large. Talking in the abstract of course, I'm not sticking up for any of his points, I don't even really know them to be honest.
As for the other party, probably curious on what he has to say, considering he's up to speed with today's tech and future perspectives on it.
If tech really finds a way for humans to proceed further in a different form that will be a major headache with religious people. One simple argument for changing form is that the Sun will eventually scorch Earth so we do have an expiry date. And there's no way we're making it out of here in this current form, this is developed for the conditions of this planet, forcing it in other environments will eventually wipe us out. So logically we'll have to change form if we want to make it outside of this planet.
In this sense, religious people can condemn humanity to basically death if they block tech developments, thinking some god will "save" us, and by "save" I mean let wipe.
So not as clear cut. You might hate the guy but he's not dumb, I think he knows what he's doing, or at least trying to do. But I have no clue on the "how", so I cannot talk about what he wants to do, specifically, with humans.
> One simple argument for changing form is that the Sun will eventually scorch Earth so we do have an expiry date.
uhhhh this is utterly ridiculous
the sun will expire and make the Earth uninhabitable in ~1B years
humans have existed in their current form for 300K years
so that's about one three-millionth of that time
> You might hate the guy but he's not dumb
you really have to be a special kind of dumb to believe humanity will snuff it because of something that'll not happen until 3.33 MILLION times as long as humans have walked on this Earth
that just makes no sense however you turn it, there is not a single thing that this has been the case for in the (much much longer) history of Earth, let alone humanity
And I wasn't talking about Peter Thiel being a special kind of dumb. If he's so smart he probably also secretly laughs in the face of people who go along with this reasoning.
Someone with a primary objective of personal wealth enrichment might see him as a pathway to those riches. As he has 'grand' societal goals that require allies and terribly odious views, someone who either likes the 'smell' of them, can't 'smell' or is a master of holding his nose closed odious would see sitting through it a a small price to pay for future monetary gains.
I'd go, if there were an option to do so. I've seen him be interviewed live before and he has a lot of unique and thought provoking perspectives on things.
As for the other party, probably curious on what he has to say, considering he's up to speed with today's tech and future perspectives on it.
If tech really finds a way for humans to proceed further in a different form that will be a major headache with religious people. One simple argument for changing form is that the Sun will eventually scorch Earth so we do have an expiry date. And there's no way we're making it out of here in this current form, this is developed for the conditions of this planet, forcing it in other environments will eventually wipe us out. So logically we'll have to change form if we want to make it outside of this planet.
In this sense, religious people can condemn humanity to basically death if they block tech developments, thinking some god will "save" us, and by "save" I mean let wipe.
So not as clear cut. You might hate the guy but he's not dumb, I think he knows what he's doing, or at least trying to do. But I have no clue on the "how", so I cannot talk about what he wants to do, specifically, with humans.