The Silicon Valley Christians Who Want to Build ‘Heaven on Earth’ | EUROtoday

Thiel made practically equivalent feedback in a 2015 essay arguing that technological progress needs to be accelerated. Science and expertise, he wrote, are pure allies of “Judeo-Western optimism,” particularly if “we remain open to an eschatological frame in which God works through us in building the kingdom of heaven today, here on Earth.”

But what do Thiel, Trae Stephens, and different highly effective tech figures really imply after they say it’s potential to construct a Christian heaven on this planet? For Trae, the concept is virtually literal, and occurs by way of his idea of “good quests,” first outlined in an article cowritten with entrepreneur Markie Wagner in 2022.

In the article, Trae and Wagner argued that Silicon Valley was in a “crisis of nonsense.” Pastimes resembling “exiting your first startup only to enter venture capital,” “armchair philosophizing on Twitter,” and “yachting between emails in de facto retirement at age 35” are examples of dangerous quests. Good quests, then again, sort out massively laborious and sophisticated issues, and end in developments in manufacturing, synthetic intelligence, and the extension of human lifespans.

After the essay got here out, Trae mentioned a person approached him and shared that he was making an attempt to unravel an vital drawback by constructing an NFT market. That proper there, Trae informed the viewers on the ACTS 17 occasion, is an instance of a nasty quest. “The human brain can convince you anything you’re doing is a good quest,” he mentioned.

Trae, who ran President Donald Trump’s protection transition staff throughout his first time period, used the identical good versus dangerous quests body to elucidate why he lately turned down the chance to function US protection secretary. Very few issues in life ought to be capable to take you away out of your “yes,” or your good quest, Trae defined. “I think the reason for my ‘no’ was understanding what my ‘yes’ was,” he mentioned.

Alex Karp, the chief government of Palantir, lately criticized what he equally described as an ethical disaster within the tech business, decrying the truth that ample capital and “legions of talented engineers” had been wasted “merely to build photo-­sharing apps and chat interfaces for the modern consumer.” Karp went on to say that the “prevailing agnosticism” of the fashionable period has “paved the way for the market to fill the gap.”

The agnosticism Karp refers to is cultural, slightly than non secular. But like Trae Stephens, he believes the tech sector has been too centered on fixing trivial issues and ignoring probably the most urgent problems with society. The drawback, Karp argued, might be solved by rebuilding the United States from the bottom up as a technological republic. (Presumably, that would come with Palantir promoting its expertise to the federal government.)

The Bay Area, the place Silicon Valley is nested, has lengthy been a haven for progressive values and is usually perceived to be largely agnostic or atheistic. Its prevailing rich-hippie vibes are properly documented, with tech employees turning to biohacking, psychedelics, Burning Man, and Esalen retreats as types of introspection and self-discovery.