Peter Thiel | Cambridge Union 

You will continue to get what you tolerate.

The more wealth you accumulate, the more you are owned.

“Do you want to be victimized by me?”

Watch what they do, not what they say.

So much wisdom in this talk, and things to think about.

"in a world with total incompetence, you are kind of good."🔥

Cambridge should be absolutely embarrassed and rightfully ridiculed for allowing the audio of this speech and conversation to be impeded by protesters outside. Protesting in one area and speaking in another should be independently uninhibited.

The Technocratic Ideal vs. Reality Thiel's rhetoric paints a picture of technology as a neutral force, capable of solving society's most pressing issues if only we embrace it fully. This technocratic ideal suggests that technological advancement should be considered in isolation, free from the messy context of politics, ethics, and social consequences. However, this perspective conveniently ignores the real-world implications of how this technology is developed and deployed. Palantir, the data analytics company Thiel co-founded, is a prime example of this disconnect. While Thiel waxes poetic about technological progress, he sidesteps the fact that Palantir is a major defense contractor, providing powerful surveillance and data analysis tools to military and intelligence agencies.

Theil: "If it's too complex to talk about then it's probably more corrupt." Also Theil: "I won't tell you what Palantir does."

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="67">1:07</a>:20 is where the question about lavender is, if you're here for that

I wonder about the real estate question. Land. Territory. Feudalism? Human rights? Peace? Violence? How can planning and development lead toward peace and prosperity for all people on Earth? What about biodiversity? Who determines merit? Who sets the bar?

These people have no sense of order. Shameful behavior.

I have great respect for Peter Thiel. He is a great intellect, as superb businessman, and he exudes common sense and fine values, quite the fellow!

You can see how nervous Peter Thiel is here, in comparison to his usual interviews. It influences his ability to formulate his ideas and express them. And I'll bet if you took any of these people filled with hatred yelling against him aside and asked them what it is they have against him, they wouldn't be able to cite a single one of his opinions or reference anything he has done with which they disagree. With enemies such as this, what can you do? If the message through the Woke grapevine was that "this guy Gandhi" is a real evil, white-supremacist and he was going to speak at their school, etc., these people would find themselves filled with righteous indignation, without ever feeling the need to ask "ehh, by the way, what has he done or said which makes him an evil, white-supremacist?". Why bother with that?! They don't need to know what makes him evil. Just the predicate "evil man" having been thrown onto him by the right people is enough to inspire a whole mob to assemble and scream threats and epithets and to try to prevent people from speaking and from hearing the people speak they would like to listen to.

I hope these hecklers don’t deter Peter from speaking in public, his ideas have had a huge impact on me.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="2557">42:37</a> "Everything should be about programming and deprogramming. You should learn how to program computers because that way you'll be employable, and you should be deprogrammed as humans. And if you're engaged in an activity where you're not doing one of those two, you're wasting your time."

Thank you, Peter, for this excellent talk. You belong to the most profound thinkers of our time.

Pack it up guys. The party’s over. It was fun! Thank you. 🙏 Enjoy the decline 🥂

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="67">1:07</a>:20 See Peter Thiel completely short-circuiting

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="2220">37:00</a> - QA starts

progress in education and healthcare are negative. these two sectors have gotten vastly more expensive despite technology advancing. you would think the cost of education would be close to 0 with internet. also healthcare many drugs are off parent now so should be cheaper. wherever you see the inflation happening you know grift is afoot or going backwards in innovation

He owns Palantir it’s not surprising he is heckled. He also doesn’t have that much to say, rather a collection of summaries.

Its easy to find out who the bad guys and good guys are by seeing who is being shouted down and who is doing the shouting.

Why was this video taken down at first and uploaded? anyone know?

Imho Peter Thiel is probably one of the smartest men alive. It is always a pleasure to listen to him giving a speech. 👍

listen first 🙏🏻

The world would be quite a horrible place in Thiels utopia.

I used to have so much respect for the British universities

You want to limit governments that are accountable, but how do we limit corporations who arent accountable. Which is the greater risk!?

So called green revolution was a disaster for top soil waterways and our health that's one thing I disagree with. Scalable warehouse greenhouses and regenerative style agriculture is much needed

Screw the haters, I have a lot of respect for Thiel. He's not our friend, but the world would be a better place with more of him and the people like him(of which there are few).

Equating DEI to CCP is also extreme thinking in the essence of that analogy

The minders say my comments will be monitored for decency and decorum. Too bad they can’t say that for these disrespectful disrupters. Some people are willfully ignorant. It’s painful to see them act out in public.

My 15th generation iPhone is marginally better than my first one

Why did you guys cut the ending? The part with Peter running out of the room like a prisoner in a straightjacket? It was probably the most important part of the video.....

peter thiel the most underated innovation king

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="67">1:07</a>:42 Brilliant communicator

Who is the moderator? She handled well

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="540">9:00</a> - <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="580">9:40</a> or so - to paraphrase PThiel "he's protesting Palantir because we're evil _and_ effective" I don't think that's the message he set out to convey in this talk, but that's the Freudian slip that he put _right after_ his thesis statement.

God bless Peter Thiel

palantir lavender and other defense contractors… should be no surprise he says israel is not fire bombing Palestine. he is profiting off it it doesn’t matter what he calls it

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="2570">42:50</a> the world would stop without the trades. Learning a trade instead of concentrating on just tech is not “a waste of time.”

Is there a big protest outside while he's speaking? I hear a background noise....

Never clicked on a video so fast.

What are the screams you can hear in the background?

Speech: <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="0">00:00</a>:17 The Diversity Myth (1996) <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="10">00:10</a>:15 Identity politics as distraction <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="21">00:21</a>:10 Scientific integrity <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="29">00:29</a>:00 Globalization <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="31">00:31</a>:00 Religion <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="34">00:34</a>:28 Politics Emcee questions: <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="36">00:36</a>:41 What is the solution to dogma instilled at university? <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="40">00:40</a>:03 What are alternatives to university education? <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="43">00:43</a>:00 What social responsibility do tech companies have? <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="46">00:46</a>:05 How do you navigate between government and tech? <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="50">00:50</a>:00 Where is the line for government overreach in tech? <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="53">00:53</a>:53 Should we have hope for the future? <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="56">00:56</a>:35 What do UK conservatives need to change? Audience questions: <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="60">01:00</a>:40 Will you support Trump if Vance is named VP? <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="64">01:04</a>:25 Do you have concerns about the war in Israel? <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="67">01:07</a>:20 What do you think about use of AI in IDF targeting? <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="68">01:08</a>:37 Is population decline a risk for humanity? <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="70">01:10</a>:10 Will AI acccelerate scientific progress? <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="77">01:17</a>:03 What does Palantir do? <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="77">01:17</a>:40 Which scientist do you most admire?

Things have changed since I was young

Good to know that Peter considers what he is doing is evil. 🤦‍♂Competent evil lol! 🥲

programming-deprogramming

I don't understand what Peter is trying to make the case for,or rather i think i do, but it doesn't make much sense. My synopsis for this talk is that the system of capitalism is breaking apart, becoming a corrupt parody of itself. The humanities have become neurotic analysis of the original concept of understanding the human condition - trying to find new and original ways to classify and solve that condition - in an undergrad-level or lower digestible book. He is equally or more skeptical of the sciences, which he feels are corrupt simply because they haven't figured out all the answers yet. He distrusts religion because it has been diluted into heuristics and biases. Well, Peter, this is what happens when knowledge is commodified. Universities are inefficient for the same reason manufacturers are producing lower quality goods - it isn't profitable to make the truly excellent. Weve seen it with planned obsolescence (light-bulbs, cars, computers) and we see it with educational institutions as well. This has a relatively simple solution: anti-trust crackdown. If technology companies are not innovating anymore, break them apart. If universities arent producing good enough results, break them back down into separate colleges. Get rid of these ideas of "too-big-to-fail". Having engineers as CEOs of companies again instead of equity managers. Everything has become a bank, accumulating money without it into actually productive capital. It seems absurd that he backed Trump of all people for so long, considering Trump's entire empire operated off of corrupt tax reporting and grifting. He's either an idiot, or the most deeply cynical man I've ever heard speak - and he's obviously not an idiot. For a man who kerps his life and companies as obscure as possible, he sure is oblivious of his own talking points - "the more opaque an institution is, the more corrupt." Seems to me Peter has a saviour complex, where he feels that he can save the world from itself, because when he accesses the wheels of power through corrupt practices and shadowy dealings, he is "aware" of what he is doing. "Everyone who does this is corrupt, but i know its corrupt si therefore i won't be corrupted.". It reads like a comic book.

Interesting

While I agree with this man on quite a bit. I will do whatever I can to not live in the world which they are trying to design. I can barely stomach it now. Some very good points, glad someone is addressing some of this foolishness.

Thiel's security guards look like ex-Secret service agents.

Isn't England supposed to be where they have manners and decorum? But then we have these people allowed to shout down a speaker. Has it always been this way and the reputation is a stereotype?

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="60">1:00</a>:52 - Thiel was probably already planning this. Guy in the audience saw it coming! <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="72">1:12</a>:14 - dude thinking 'wtf' as his female friend has a complete meltdown

"That and that is the problem, but don't question my actions" what a tool!

This has got to be the one of the most embarrassing events ever at Cambridge

I would really like if he gave more interviews like these! He is brilliant and even if I disagree with some of his viewpoints, it still remains interesting. And if I could attend one event that he speaks

Intriguing…

Peter handled the heckler really well. I would have loved to see a discussion between them after his remarks

JD Vance was Peter Thiel’s blood boy

This is the best a billion can do?

Why did they private and then unprivate this? So weird.

Thiel's a treasure

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="593">9:53</a> “Even if your evil, you’re not bad, you’re not incompetent. In a world that’s full of total incompetence - uh uh - you’re even kind of good.” WOW……. WOW……. And he gets the audience to clap. The irony is he probably has a loss of respect for the people clapping bc they’re either incompetent bc they aren’t grasping the evil of what he’s actually saying or they have terrible values themselves in agreeing that evil isn’t bad or even good by comparison to incompetence. This is the crux of his value system and it’s a danger to society at large. It’s why hes groomed Vance and back him with $15m. He wants to reshape the world bc he knows best. That’s what these tech ogliarths believe.

What did the interruption state?

I think this is the first time I have heard Peter Thiel cuss.

I so appreciate the moderator's no-nonsense attitude. She is polite but doesn't wait to shut down the losers that go off in the audience.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="410">6:50</a> It's all so tiresome...

Billionaire say the darndest things to protect their money😂 poor guy

he seems reasonable

So this is the guy designing the global military AI models and e-surveillance apparatus

Drink water god damn

broadly in the right ........ WTF

These days it appears to be a waste of money to send these juveniles to Cambridge judging by the amount of rude interrogations. Clearly money doesn’t buy manners! Nevertheless a good talk give by Thiel.

What the heck? This is not an acceptable answer!

Enemy of home owners and workers.

I think Cambridge dropped the ball on this one, not just with the protestors, which on some level they cant control, but the lack of direction and moderation is a little too obvious? Unclear what Theil was even asked to speak about, with no introduction or topic, starting part way into the speech. He just rambles on - a word salad rant against anything and everything. This upload is a bit of a fail

This man is living evil, and everything we should be fighting. Know your enemy. . .

Obnoxious those disrupting the speech

He looks very unwell, he was trying to hold in vomit at one stage. Is he taking drugs?

Is that JD Vance in the front row?

why tf does he look like he just leapt up from a coroner's table

These hecklers are allowed to speak for way too long

this is the first time I've seen thiel defend his politics and ideas about what our future world ought to be in a large public forum and I give him kudos for being brave enough to do it. For a concise description of his views and bio from a left perspective along with three other tech tycoons read the end of reality by jonathan taplin.⚛😀

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="67">1:07</a>:20 - I felt the collective sigh in the background.

The extreme left is getting extremely tedious

Should be in prison.

A delight to see the Gilet Jaunes being a stunning example to other protesters!

FREE GAZA

Peter thiel speeches are always a repeat about diversity and wokism

Happy to hear Thiel promote computer programming, especially given NVDA CEO just started discouraging people to learn how to code a few weeks ago!! If that was true, is he firing his engineers? Beware of subtle ladder pulls.

This is a message to the hecklers… You are in a fortunate position. Sitting in one of most prestigious universities in world. In a country that compared to rest of the world and rest of history has a very high standard of living. Did you actually earn that high standard of living? Have any of us living in Britain today? Our institutions, culture, values were forged long before us. Our cheap goods are imported from countries where people are willing to work harder and longer than we are. The technology we enjoy was designed in Silicon Valley. What exactly have we (people today in Britain, myself included ) done to deserve our standard of living? Nothing We do not build anything, we do not innovate, we haven’t fought for anything… we’re the spoilt children of history The least you could do is use this fortunate position you have to take the world’s problems upon your own shoulders rather than just blame billionaires…

These people can't even be respectful to have their turn to ask questions ! How on earth have we become so uncivilized?

Just like Elon, Thiel cares greatly about humanity but little about humans.

Star Wars cantina 🤣👍🏼

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="61">1:01</a>:00

For years, I feared you, Peter. Now, I realize, you just need unconditional love. I see you, and I just want to say I want you to know love.

Was Chesney Hawkes performing next door? What's with all the shouting?

why you funding JD Vance?