Thiel made almost identical comments in a 2015 test arguing This technological progress should be accelerated. Science and technology, he wrote, are natural allies of “Judeo-Western optimism”, especially if “we remain open to an eschatological framework in which God works through us in the construction of the kingdom of heaven today, here on earth”.
But what do Thiel mean, Trae Stephens and other powerful personalities when they say that it is possible to build a Christian paradise on this planet? For Trae, the idea is practically literal and occurs through its concept of “good quests”, described first in an article Cowten with entrepreneur Markie Wagner in 2022.
In the article, Trae and Wagner argued that Silicon Valley was in a “nonsense crisis”. Hobs such as “getting out of your first startup only to enter venture capital”, “Philosophy of armchairs on Twitter” and “Yachting between de facto retirement emails at 35” are examples of bad quests. Good quests, on the other hand, tackle massively difficult and complex problems, and lead to progress in manufacturing, artificial intelligence and the extension of human life.
After leaving the test, Trae said that a man approached him and shared that he was trying to solve an important problem by building an NFT market. This is where Trae told the Acts 17 event to the public, is an example of bad quest. “The human brain can convince you that everything you do is a good quest,” he said.
Trae, who led the Defense Defense Team of President Donald Trump during his first mandate, used the same manager of the same good quest to explain why he recently refused the opportunity to serve as an American defense secretary. Very little in life should be able to move away from your “yes” or your good quest, said Trae. “I think the reason for my” no “was to understand what my” yes “was,” he said.
Alex Karp, managing director of Palantir, recently criticized what he Likewise described as a moral crisis In the technology industry, denounce the fact that the full capital and the “legions of talented engineers” were wasted “simply to build photo sharing applications and cat interfaces for modern consumer”. Karp continued by saying that “the agnosticism in force” of the modern era “paved the path to the market to fill the gap”.
The agnosticism to which Karp refers is cultural rather than spiritual. But as Trae Stephens, he thinks that the technology sector focused too much on solving trivial problems and ignorance of the most urgent problems in society. The problem argued Karp, could be resolved by rebuilding the United States from the field as a technological republic. (Presumably, this would include Palantant selling its technology to the government.)
The Bay region, where Silicon Valley is nested, has long been a paradise for progressive values and is often perceived as largely agnostic or atheist. His rich vibrations are well documented, the workers of technology turning to biohacking, psychedelic, man on fire and Esalen pensions as forms of introspection and self -discovery.
