Actually, "Palantir" is an apt name - the all-seeing crystal balls saved by Elendil from the fall of Numenor. Not intrinsically evil, but later corrupted by Sauron to only show users what Sauron wanted them to see, corrupting their minds.

Geez, sometimes the irony can be a little over the top.

Thiel named his company *palantir*(and also Erebor, the lonely mountain where Smaug dwelled is another of his ventures).
He’s literally aligning himself with Tolkien villains with barely room for ambiguity, so it’s not too big of a surprise he’s not actually aligned with Tolkien’s philosophy.

Oh thank you that’s a relief

I thought the monorail was private?

Here is some relevant text from the article.

"The popular stereotype of the researcher is that of a skeptic and a pessimist. Nothing could be further from the truth! Scientists must be optimists at heart, in order to block out the incessant chorus of those who say 'It cannot be done.'"
- Academician Prokhor Zakharov, University Commencement

Yeah he was my first nerd comic, love his work

Cool

I admire your fortitude

oh cool! Hey when it comes time to vote for PCOs, how am I supposed to figure out anything about the candidates?

Ferry cool

Tachikoma!

Woah I’m bigender

Ohhh
Yeah that’s no good

What's that?

Me neither!

🥺

This has probably happened more than once in geologic history and might happen again one day, as dramatized in the xkcd super comic “Time” (1190) www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.p...