Peter Thiel on "Back to the Future" at Singularity Summit 2011

The Singularity Summit 2011 was a TED-style two-day event at the historic 92nd Street Y in New York City. The next event will take place in San Francisco, on October 13 & 14, 2012. For more information, visit:
www.singularity...

[@ccerrato147]

Really good conference. You learn more with people like Peter Thiel that with your college profesors.

[@Robinfuk]

The amount of views on this is quite insulting.Thanks for uploading.

[@MrAdvancedAtheist]

Thiel has a point. I remember what we used to call stories, movies & TV shows set in years like 2012. We called them "science fiction." In the real 2012, by contrast, we still live like our parents or grandparents did in a of ways.

[@hyevoltage]

On the contrary, he champions communities of bottom-up, independent, self-reliant actors who are free to progress over the constricting pseudo-community of top-down, over-regulated, government monopolies that stagnate. He's a realist and pragmatist who sees the problems we are facing and wants to really improve our future. He could have taken his money and bought yachts and islands, but he puts all his money back to work on risky, far-facing projects, he puts his money where his mouth is.

[@Bucketses]

The interpretation you replied to does apply if you if the server that is censoring and forcing openness is private. Libertarianism and Socialism are not very different in their goals... they only dispute who calls the shots.

[@Fistuka1]

take a look at the new iPad video on the Apple site and the opening words are exactly what Thiel says about the phenomena

[@smb123211]

The low viewing numbers for quality videos is, alas, quite common. I recall the incredible "Seven Wonders" by Dawkins. Those (bat's radar, pianist's hands, parabolic lens, spider's web, DNA, embryo and David Attenborough) cover a good portion of the scientific world. A semester of science devoted to their explanation would be revolutionary, compelling & evocative. But educators & their unions are like You Tube viewers - stick with the old whether it works or not.

[@johncdavi]

You can see this video "Streamlined" for click-navigation (including links to the Neal Stephenson article) at tech.streamliner.co (Week of October 31)

[@deluks917]

I think Libertarians focus way too much on taxes. History has shown that taxes can be endured. Regulations however are just crippling. For example the FDA has almost totally stalled medical progress in the USA. Regulation doesn't just cost money it explicitly stops genuinely innovative ideas from ever being tried because the bureaucrats do not understand them. We would have healthier people with 50-70% top tax rates and no FDA than FDA + 15% top taxes imo.

[@bighands69]

The Z axis is quantum super intelligence. It is the expansion of intelligence into the universe.

[@libertarianjury]

Yeah, Pete, politics makes people angry: It makes the political parasites angry when you try to avoid being parasitized by them. It makes the hosts/victims angry when you are morally neutral in situations of injustice, by default, you've then chosen the side of the aggressor. TJ Rodgers is working on solar energy, because he can afford to make it cheaper. He also defends capitalism consistently. I'd like to see you work together with him towards social tolerance. Great remarks on that.

[@bighands69]

There are whole open source movements that are working on robotics research. You could learn your self and contribute if you desired. Have a look at coursera.org for free learning courses. It is run via a lot of top universities such as brown, stanford, caltec and many more. And this is all free like using youtube or google and it has over 2 million people using it. You can learn mathematics, computer science, robotics and many more. This is the revolution of the mind that is happening.

[@MrAdvancedAtheist]

The other day, while making my weekly shopping to trip, I chuckled at how banal life looks in our mysterious, far-future year 2012. I don't see flying cars, robotic servants, armies of clones, nuclear powered flashlights for sale or any of the other things that the last century's "futurists" and science fiction writers thought we might have by now. Oh, my iPad might have looked science-fictional to me in my childhood in Tulsa back in the 1960's and 1970's; but I drive a 1989 model car.

[@UnReal31337]

I think Peter Thiel totally forgot about the Z axis.

[@TheKibeer]

The same way we addressed the problem of horse buggies going out of business thanks to a car? :) People can do that. Similar happened in former Sov bloc where people were used to "work" for one company their whole life assembling tank parts and voila the next day they learned to assemble Toyotas or being night watchman.

[@dearheart2]

He make good points. And I wish the future would be brighter. However, as I see it, as long as human greed control things, things tend to go for the worse. You can have singularity, excellent green solutions, excellent technical solutions to make medical improvement - and it will likely all be controlled by greed. I know there are exception - yes.. only exceptions. Greed rules :(

[@libertarianjury]

Identifying unreason is not enough. Also, most rational people can easily do that. That's not the value of Peter Thiel. Peter is a pioneer, because he's a doer. I'd like to see him finance organized jury rights activism, such as that advocated by FIJA. If he wants to do that, he can call me at 312.730.4037. Toward enlightenment values. -Jake Witmer

[@TheKibeer]

This bothers me too. In Capitalist paradise where robots do most of the labour there's gonna be quite a lot of people virtually unemployable as you mentioned living of welfare, playing video games, socialising or creating art or do some other hobbies just for fun. Hopefully we will be able to afford to feed them (thanks to enormous productivity of robots making it really cheap). For more than stipend you'll need to make some awesome robot or painting or be a damn good astronaut :)

[@MrAdvancedAtheist]

More evidence of stagnation and diminishing returns: "I've spent all this money on Eliezer Yudkowsky, and instead of 'Friendly AI,' I got Harry Potter fan fiction."

[@bighands69]

3D printing and advance communication system will enable the peasants to build their own robots and create medical devices and super computers. All of this is out in the open already and will keep growing at an exponential rate. The fact that me and you can discuss such systems is evidence of the rate of growth of human communications. Over the next 15 years you will see advancement that is driven by the people for the people and used by the people.

[@Karmakaiser]

@MrAdvancedAtheist Well I feel strange. I'm a Tulsan Transhumanist who fears a Tyler Cowenesque stagnation too. (I'm 22 though, so not 1960s or 1970s) Whelp. Hi.

[@bighands69]

There will be no need for people to flip their belief to that of trans-humanism. It will be a slow process that will take place over the next 5-30 years and people will just adjust. When the opportunity arises for people to add 20 years to their life they will just do it with out question. At present people are scare by the idea but when it is a reality people will just accept it.

[@Karmakaiser]

@libertarianjury Do you mean deontoligical grounds on consequentialist grounds?

[@antar2008]

bricks to clicks to BRICs

[@TheKibeer]

I blame the predominantly female and metrosexual consumer/voter. No longer are cars advertised/bought for their engine parameters but mostly for estethic reasons. The same goes for other products as well. Geeks, stop giving your $ to your girlfriend to buy nice stuff :D

[@libertarianjury]

I'm really disappointed that Peter Thiel didn't defend capitalism and oppose socialism on moral grounds. If that's a defense of capitalism, and a denunciation of mindless counterproductive brutality, then we're 100% screwed.

[@RichardBoase]

so painful to watch. Get some public speaking lessons man, you can afford it.