September 16, 2025 • 22 mins
Peter Thiel is speaking this month in San Francisco about the antichrist. Nicole Shanahan, ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin and former vice-presidential running mate of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., called the annual Burning Man festival "demonic" last week. These are the most recent developments in the rise of techno-Christianity, a reaction in part to transhumanism and Effective Altruism.
Peter Thiel has also questioned the viability of democracy, which brings us to the "Dark Enlightenment" of Curtis Yarvin and Nick Land that advocates for anti-democratic CEO-kings. Although it was a fringe idea for many years, it has now gained traction with Silicon Valley billionaires like Balaji Srinivasan, who advocate for the "Exit," seasteading, and "network states."
It feels like we live in the strangest times, shaped by powerful people with the worst ideas. Because technology reflects the consciousness of the people creating it, I am deeply concerned about the people creating our technologies, especially artificial intelligence.
In my new podcast series, I begin trying to understand the philosophical and psychological underpinnings behind the strange ideologies coming out of Silicon Valley, ideologies very much shaping technology innovation today. Inspired by Nietzsche and Iain McGilchrist, I'm calling the imbalanced thinking behind all of this that emphasizes left hemisphere qualities “Apollonian Intelligence" or the "Apollonian Mind."
Peter Thiel on Ross Douthat’s New York Times podcast raving about the antichrist
Thiel’s four-part lecture series about the antichrist https://luma.com/antichrist
Nicole Shanahan’s rant about demonic Burning Man
New Yorker coverage of Curtis Yarvin’s “Dark Enlightenment”
Iain McGilchrist’s wonderful book The Matter with Things
Join Chad's newsletter to learn about all new offerings, courses, trainings, and retreats.
Finally, you can support the podcast here.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chad (00:00):
As I like to say on this channel, technology reflects the
consciousness of the peoplecreating it, and I am deeply
concerned about the peoplecreating our technology,
especially artificialintelligence. Let me explain
why.
Welcome to cosmic intelligence,a Podcast where we explore the
(00:25):
intersection of philosophy,cosmology, consciousness and
emerging technologies likeartificial intelligence. If
you're new here, I'm Chad, aphilosopher, technologist,
product manager, yoga teacherand attorney based in Los
Angeles. Chad, I,by the way, I'm sorry I've been
(00:47):
gone for so long. I was doing abunch of research. I was
thinking about things that waskind of I was contemplating what
I'm trying to say on thischannel, on this podcast, and
thinking about some recentevents, Peter Thiel, the
Antichrist, techno Christianity,and just trying to think about
how I can explain what I thinkare the root causes of the meta
(01:12):
crisis, or the poly crisis orwhatnot. And I was trying to
come up with a metaphor for it,and I think I landed on one. So
we'll see how it works. I'mgoing to talk about that in a
minute. But yeah, so basically,I want to talk today. I want to
talk this episode about, like,what is going on with Silicon
Valley, and why do the tech broshave the worst ideas? That's
(01:36):
kind of what we're talking abouttoday. So yeah, let's get into
it for a few years now,transhumanists like Sam Altman,
Elon Musk and Ray Kurzweil havebeen promising the imminent
arrival of artificial superintelligence, but open AI's GPT
five arrived a few weeks ago,and it doesn't seem any closer
to super intelligence than GPTfour. It still can't count the
(01:56):
number of bees in the wordblueberry. And industry experts
call GPT five overhyped andunderwhelming. Sam Altman's
breathless promises over thepast couple of years now seem
increasingly unfounded, as I'veexplained before, intelligence
is mysterious and hard.
Meanwhile, everywhere you lookin Silicon Valley today, people
(02:19):
seem to be losing their minds,grasping desperately for some
kind of meaning in the mostunexpected of places. For
example, right wing techbillionaire Peter Thiel, who has
been a Trump supporter and JDVance mentor, recently talked to
Christian New York Timescolumnist Ross Douthat about how
the Antichrist has arrived inthe form of Greta Thunberg the
(02:40):
FDA and the Nuclear RegulatoryCommission. I guess for Thiel,
the Antichrist is a forcepromising peace and safety while
creating a stagnant globalstate. More on that later. You
know Peter Thiel, this guy, youwould prefer the human race to
endure, right?
You're hesitant. Well, I Yes, Idon't know. I would, I would,
(03:04):
this is a long hesitation.
There's so many questions, andthe human race survive.
Yes, okay, but, but I alsowould, I also would like us to
to radically solve theseproblems and and so, you know,
(03:25):
it's always, I don't know, youknow, yeah, transhumanism
just, just incredible stuff. Imean, I just don't understand
why we give so much airtime andspace, like media space, to
these unhinged billionaires, isit just because they have all
(03:46):
the money like, why are theworst ideas being given airtime
on mainstream channels like theNew York Times? I just don't
understand. Anyways, this month,Peter Thiel is hosting a four
part lecture series in SanFrancisco, all about the
AntiChrist, and speaking ofdemonic last week, Nicole
Shanahan, the ex wife of Googleco founder Sergey Brin, and
(04:10):
former vice presidential runningmate of Robert F Kennedy Jr,
called the annual Burning Manfestival demonic, despite having
attended seven out of the last10 times, I think what we're
seeing here is the emergence ofthe Christian accelerationist
movement, the perhaps inevitableconvergence of techno
libertarianism and Christiannationalism. This techno
(04:33):
Christian movement is, in turn,a reaction to the rise of
transhumanism and the cult oftechnological salvation, the
stuff that I've been talkingabout on this podcast. But for
those unfamiliar, Transhumanismis the belief that we can merge
with or become machines throughtechno science, in other words,
nanotechnology, AGI and geneticengineering. But transhumanism
(04:56):
and techno Christianity arereally two sides of the same
coin. Coin. They both seektranscendence through technology
and see any slowing oftechnological progress as a sort
of evil or moral wrong. ForThiel, his creepy data analytics
company Palantir, is part of thesolution to the prevalence of
Satan's lies, because Palantirwill pinpoint the truth within
(05:20):
the massive troves of datacollected by business and
government, and thereby preventsocietal decay and the arrival
of the Antichrist Palantir,guided by Thiel and his unhinged
CEO and co founder, Alex Karp,will allow us to see the world
as it truly is through dataanalysis for Thiel, technology
(05:41):
is a weapon in a grand, cosmicbattle between good and evil.
Alongside all of this, there isthe dark enlightenment or Neo
reaction. NRX, a radically antidemocratic and anti egalitarian
political philosophy from Nickland and Curtis yarvin, who also
(06:02):
goes by Mencius mold bug. I feellike these are like fictional
characters in a sort of like fanfiction novel. It's It's so
ridiculous. Anyways, the darkenlightenment rejects democracy.
It sort of praisesauthoritarianism and even
monarchy. It leans into socalled genetic justification for
(06:25):
social hierarchy. It's just veryhyper rational but also
retrograde at the same time. Butthe problem is that, courtesy
Arvin, has the ear of peoplelike Marc Andreessen and Peter
Thiel. So these these ideas arepermeating Silicon Valley, and
as a result, they're permeatingWashington. You know, Silicon
Valley has a direct line toTrump, the Trump administration
(06:46):
now, so it's it's troubling,it's confusing, it's weird, and
I want to talk about it. I mean,we live in the strangest times,
shaped by powerful people withthe worst ideas. Where the hell
are the wise elders? That's whatI want to know. I mean, maybe
all this is bubbling up nowbecause the arrival of large
(07:07):
language models, coupled withthe overhyped claims that people
like Sam Altman and Elon Muskkeep making about super
intelligence, have cast ourlongstanding meaning crisis into
kind of a sharp relief, likesuddenly questions of
consciousness, metaphysics andphilosophy are urgently
relevant, but most people arenot steeped in philosophy or
(07:28):
spirituality. So instead, theygrasp for what's familiar, and I
think in America, that kind ofmeans Christianity, in a lot of
cases. I mean, despite its longstanding secular rhetoric, the
United States still is in largepart a Christian country. And I
think all this ideologicalderangement in Silicon Valley
(07:49):
and increasingly in the USgovernment is the result of what
philosopher Friedrich Nietzscheidentified as an imbalance in
Western culture and overemphasisand over reliance on what he
called the Apollonian, which isbasically reason abstraction,
this tendency to see partsrather than wholes, favoring
(08:09):
utility over value and meaningand black and white thinking.
This is the Apollonian kind ofmind, right? This is, these are
the properties of Apollo,basically. And so what we have
lost in this, in this process ofoveremphasizing the Apollonian
is the Dionysian, this kind ofembodied, intuitive, holistic
and contextual orientationtowards nature and the world.
(08:30):
When we lose facility with theDionysian, we flail about
reaching for frameworks thatserved us in the past, like
Christianity, or we double downon the denial of the existence
of the Dionysian and become newatheists. None of these radical
ideologues, whetheraccelerationists, transhumanists
(08:50):
or Neo reactionaries, areembodied or have any deep
connection with the non humannatural world. So I want to come
back to that in another episodeas well, but today, again, I
want to talk about the roots ofwhat I and others see as a
global pandemic of Apollonianthinking. Then in later
episodes, I will explore theways that this Apollonian
pandemic has led to the technocapital, machine of progress,
(09:14):
commoditized spirituality, andhow all of that makes this
intelligence age a metaphysicalcrossroads that I think requires
a radical, liberating spiritualintervention in order to usher
In a wisdom age. Instead,to illustrate our predicament,
(09:40):
I'd like to offer an embodiedparable. Imagine if three
centuries ago, enlightenmentEuropeans decided that the
senses of smell and tasteweren't real. Instead, these
loudly confident European mendeclared that. The sense of
smell and taste weresuperstitious remnants of an
(10:02):
irrational religious worldview,overly subjective and prone to
emotional manipulation,primitive, unreliable, a useless
vestige of our UN antiquatedanimalistic past. From a
scientific standpoint, theywould say food is merely fuel,
and any enjoyment of flavor isan indulgent illusion of
(10:24):
primitive peoples. In thisimagined world, public spaces
would be scrubbed by odorlessPurifiers, and natural odors are
considered a form of olfactorypollution, because this denial
of smell and taste becameaccepted as fact. It was taught
in schools and parroted bygovernments and the media for
(10:44):
centuries. And so now, food hasbecome odorless, flavorless.
Pastes and pills, perfumes andincense are now sort of passe,
something encountered only inindigenous tribes or among the
low and uneducated or spiritualsensitives, flowers are bred by
industry only for visualenjoyment, thereby losing their
(11:05):
natural fragrance. Smell andtaste have begun to atrophy,
although some people refuse tosuccumb. There are now renegade
Epicureans, aromancers,fermenters and perfume meals
still cooking with spice, agingcheeses and burning incense.
(11:27):
Yes, they are laughed at by themainstream, but they truly are
enjoying their life. Thesearchivists of lost sensation run
scent libraries full of oldbooks, essential oils and cedar
chests, the Epicureans preach agospel of pleasure, and they
host lavish feasts in foodiespeakeasies known as burpees,
where chefs smuggle real lemons,cardamom and black pepper
(11:49):
through underground networks.
Rebellious aromancers cultivatesacred rituals full of burning
incense and essential oils,operating hidden roof topped
greenhouses full of aromaticJasmine, lavender and Rose and
fermenter anarchists smugglesourdough starters, kombucha
mothers and various yeastcultures to create stink bombs
(12:12):
for the sanitized public sphere,planting durian fruit and
Limburger cheese in governmentbuildings and injecting spice
into the nutrient pastefactories. In this odorless,
flavorless world, those who wantto be accepted by the mainstream
and get good jobs ignore theirsense of smell and taste and
(12:34):
pretend it doesn't exist, peoplewho rant and rave about the
smell of a rose or the lifechanging taste of a juicy peach
or a fresh cup of coffee areridiculed as woo, woo or
superstitious. After all,everyone knows that sight, sound
and touch are the only realsenses. Only ancient primitives
believed all that smell andtaste nonsense, food is merely
(12:57):
fuel, not a source of pleasure.
Smells are odious andreminiscent of decaying flesh.
Sounds pretty awful, right?
Well, I think in some sense,this is what we have done by
living entirely in the lefthemisphere of the brain,
starting with the EuropeanRenaissance, or perhaps even
Socrates in ancient Greece, andaccelerating with the
(13:20):
enlightenment and the industrialrevolution, as Ian McGilchrist
explains so well in his books,the left hemisphere is abalone.
As I was saying before, it'slogic, it's abstraction,
control, it's literal, detachedmachine like and we moderns have
collectively denied theexistence of any right
hemisphere thinking, intuition,imagination, holistic thinking
(13:41):
and all that. The righthemisphere of the brain sees
nature and life in terms ofprocess and flow, rather than
purposeless utility, whereas theleft hemisphere, which only
thinks in terms of parts andutility, has kind of become the
master of our world, of our, ofourselves, of our, of our nature
(14:01):
of everything, and we've deniedthe existence of anything but
meaningless, purposeless,material reality as a result,
not because transcendent realitywas disproven scientifically. I
mean, it wasn't, but becausethose confident European men 300
years ago declared it to be so.
The machinery of reason is aninsatiable, formidable force
that can justify colonizing halfthe world, treating nature like
(14:29):
a mere resource to be pillaged,and reducing the sacred to a
mere commodity. And so as wecollectively moved as a society
into the left hemisphere,exclusively, the prevailing
worldview necessarily becamemore reductionist, draining
nature of all transcendentalmeaning, slicing nature up into
ever smaller pieces and usingher as a resource merely to be
exploited. In short, the wholereason we think that the cosmos
(14:52):
is made only of purposeless andmeaningless matter or energy,
despite a failure to explain theemergence of life. Life or
consciousness is because of ourmove into the left hemisphere
this Apollonian mind. For manypeople, the Apollonian worldview
is depressing and disenchanted,leaving them feeling isolated,
irrelevant, fearful and empty,yet overstimulated too. People
(15:15):
are so desperate for meaning,wisdom and guidance that they
now turn to AI chat bots astherapists, counselors, friends,
lovers and even gods, becausethis left hemisphere thinking
undergirds so much intellectualdiscourse and informs the ethos
driving both technologyinnovation and politics today, I
(15:40):
want to find a way to approachit that is simple and
illuminating without losing itsmultivalent properties. So
inspired by the work of IanMcGilchrist and drawing from pre
Socratic Greece and the work ofFrederick Nietzsche, I am
calling this left hemispheretendency the Apollonian mind.
After all, Apollo was the Greekgod of light, truth, reason,
form, structure, law and orderand individuality. Of course, he
(16:03):
was also associated with poetryand music. So it's not a perfect
metaphor, but it's good enoughfor our purposes. Now I'm not
saying that this kind of lefthemisphere, Apollonian
orientation is a bad thing, justthat it's out of balance that we
have forgotten the Dionysianwithin us, the wildness,
instinct, emotion and unity withnature that is such a core part
of our being, if we don't rejectit, as I mentioned briefly
(16:25):
above, one way the Apollonianmind manifests is the belief
that technology is the solutionto all of our problems as a
humanity, and even a path toimmortality and some kind of
divine salvation, in a way Don'tworry about large language
models voraciously devouringincreasing amounts of energy and
(16:47):
water and accelerating theclimate crisis. The apollonians
say AI will solve that. Don'tworry about increasing socio
economic inequality. AI willusher in a new utopia for all.
But the current approach tosimply scaling machine learning
is a shot in the dark, a gamble.
Nobody knows if it will lead toAGI or super intelligence. I
(17:09):
mean, nobody even understandsintelligence in the first place.
In Silicon Valley, technology isviewed as a panacea. It's a
panacea because of theApollonian mind, which sees the
Dionysian as long dead andforgotten. To the left
hemisphere, the right hemisphereand its antiquated, squishy
(17:30):
qualities are silly,superstitious, hippy dippy and
woo for the apollonians. Natureis a machine. So more machines
are the answer. We areadmonished to embrace the
algorithmic matrix flowing outof iPhones, Chad, GBT,
Instagram, Tiktok and the mouthsof supremely confident
Apollonian men. But remember,technology reflects the
(17:55):
consciousness of the peoplecreating it, and this thereby
shapes our own consciousness. Sothis is why it's so important
that we pay attention to thesemen who are creating our
technology. This is why I'm soconcerned that a majority of
technology leaders in SiliconValley are transhumanists in the
cult of technological salvation.
(18:17):
Elon Musk, Sam Altman, PeterThiel, Sergey Brin, Marc
Andreessen and these technoutopian billionaires, they have
their own sort of in housephilosophers, Nick Bostrom, Ray
Kurzweil, William McCaskill,Toby Orr, Max, Tegmark, Max
Moore and Yuval. Noah Harari, Iwant to talk about some of these
guys and some of their some oftheir ideas in future episodes
as well. For the transhumanists,accelerationists and technical
(18:38):
utopians, technology is thiskind of inexorable force, a
natural extension of biologicalevolution, one that will usher
in an age of prosperity,abundance, bliss, techno
divinity and immortality. Thisis how they talk. You know,
within this ideology,intelligence is primary, and the
(18:59):
well being of future humans,possibly living entirely in a
simulation is more importantthan the well being of present
day humans. So it's an ideologyfounded upon scientism,
physicalism, and the applicationof the machine metaphor to every
aspect of reality. In short,it's highly Apollonian.
Listen, this is a deeplypersonal series for me, because
(19:20):
my own journey kind of reflectsthe arc of what I want to talk
about. I went, I went fromliving entirely in the rational
in my Apollonian mind through aprocess, a long, a lengthy
process that I can talk aboutsometime, of discovering the
other parts of myself, includingthe intuitive, emotional and
embodied. I started off as acomputer engineering major, a
(19:40):
math minor and an AI researcherbefore becoming a lawyer and a
philosopher, not to mention ayoga teacher and all that. So I
understand this tendency tocling to the rational, to the
Apollonian left hemisphere,orientation toward the world,
and I understand why we thinkthat Apollonian intelligence is
going to become godly.
(20:02):
Essentially, again, I think theideologies driving Silicon
Valley Technology Innovationtoday, these techno utopian
cults of technologicalsalvation, the Neo reactionaries
and the techno Christians arefirmly within this western
Apollonian tradition of hyperrationality, transhumanists,
rationalists and effectivealtruists ignore an entire half
of the human and the world whilethey desperately attempt to find
(20:28):
some kind of transcendentmeaning and even salvation
through techno science and purerationality, because technology
reflects the consciousness ofits creator, these ideologies
are shaping Our technologies,not to mention government
policy, in ways that furtherperpetuate this imbalance. If we
as a society were to move to amore balanced orientation toward
(20:51):
the world, between the left andright hemispheres, between
Apollo and Dionysus, this wouldresult in a shift in values from
separation, control and mereutility, toward wisdom,
interconnectedness and a senseof community. Instead of an
information age focused onanalysis of data, we would shift
to a wisdom age where the worldwould become alive, once again,
with archetypal meaning and evenmystery. So next time, I want to
(21:18):
examine these New Atheists,people like Sam Harris and Yuval
Noah Harari, who have perfectedthe Apollonian mode. Harris's
and harare's worldview has anoutsized influence on the
zeitgeist today, with Harrisdominating the podcast charts
and Harare writing books thatconsistently become bestsellers
and then elevate him to the sortof ideological profit of Silicon
(21:42):
Valley. In addition, Harris andHarari are both Buddhists who
like Buddhism because it's soeasily stripped of its
metaphysics and its cosmology inorder to provide utilitarian
practices and benefits that aredevoid of anything deeper than a
negation of the self and adenial of free will. And then in
subsequent episodes, I want todive more deeply into this
techno capital machine, the riseof data, ism, techno,
(22:03):
Christianity and alternatives toall this stuff. Until next time,
I invite you to get in touchwith the Dionysus within you,
dance, play, write, poetry,wander through the forest under
the full moon and be wild. I'lltalk to you next time you.
As I like to say on this channel, technology reflects the
consciousness of the peoplecreating it, and I am deeply
concerned about the peoplecreating our technology,
especially artificialintelligence. Let me explain
why.
Welcome to cosmic intelligence,a Podcast where we explore the
(00:25):
intersection of philosophy,cosmology, consciousness and
emerging technologies likeartificial intelligence. If
you're new here, I'm Chad, aphilosopher, technologist,
product manager, yoga teacherand attorney based in Los
Angeles. Chad, I,by the way, I'm sorry I've been
(00:47):
gone for so long. I was doing abunch of research. I was
thinking about things that waskind of I was contemplating what
I'm trying to say on thischannel, on this podcast, and
thinking about some recentevents, Peter Thiel, the
Antichrist, techno Christianity,and just trying to think about
how I can explain what I thinkare the root causes of the meta
(01:12):
crisis, or the poly crisis orwhatnot. And I was trying to
come up with a metaphor for it,and I think I landed on one. So
we'll see how it works. I'mgoing to talk about that in a
minute. But yeah, so basically,I want to talk today. I want to
talk this episode about, like,what is going on with Silicon
Valley, and why do the tech broshave the worst ideas? That's
(01:36):
kind of what we're talking abouttoday. So yeah, let's get into
it for a few years now,transhumanists like Sam Altman,
Elon Musk and Ray Kurzweil havebeen promising the imminent
arrival of artificial superintelligence, but open AI's GPT
five arrived a few weeks ago,and it doesn't seem any closer
to super intelligence than GPTfour. It still can't count the
(01:56):
number of bees in the wordblueberry. And industry experts
call GPT five overhyped andunderwhelming. Sam Altman's
breathless promises over thepast couple of years now seem
increasingly unfounded, as I'veexplained before, intelligence
is mysterious and hard.
Meanwhile, everywhere you lookin Silicon Valley today, people
(02:19):
seem to be losing their minds,grasping desperately for some
kind of meaning in the mostunexpected of places. For
example, right wing techbillionaire Peter Thiel, who has
been a Trump supporter and JDVance mentor, recently talked to
Christian New York Timescolumnist Ross Douthat about how
the Antichrist has arrived inthe form of Greta Thunberg the
(02:40):
FDA and the Nuclear RegulatoryCommission. I guess for Thiel,
the Antichrist is a forcepromising peace and safety while
creating a stagnant globalstate. More on that later. You
know Peter Thiel, this guy, youwould prefer the human race to
endure, right?
You're hesitant. Well, I Yes, Idon't know. I would, I would,
(03:04):
this is a long hesitation.
There's so many questions, andthe human race survive.
Yes, okay, but, but I alsowould, I also would like us to
to radically solve theseproblems and and so, you know,
(03:25):
it's always, I don't know, youknow, yeah, transhumanism
just, just incredible stuff. Imean, I just don't understand
why we give so much airtime andspace, like media space, to
these unhinged billionaires, isit just because they have all
(03:46):
the money like, why are theworst ideas being given airtime
on mainstream channels like theNew York Times? I just don't
understand. Anyways, this month,Peter Thiel is hosting a four
part lecture series in SanFrancisco, all about the
AntiChrist, and speaking ofdemonic last week, Nicole
Shanahan, the ex wife of Googleco founder Sergey Brin, and
(04:10):
former vice presidential runningmate of Robert F Kennedy Jr,
called the annual Burning Manfestival demonic, despite having
attended seven out of the last10 times, I think what we're
seeing here is the emergence ofthe Christian accelerationist
movement, the perhaps inevitableconvergence of techno
libertarianism and Christiannationalism. This techno
(04:33):
Christian movement is, in turn,a reaction to the rise of
transhumanism and the cult oftechnological salvation, the
stuff that I've been talkingabout on this podcast. But for
those unfamiliar, Transhumanismis the belief that we can merge
with or become machines throughtechno science, in other words,
nanotechnology, AGI and geneticengineering. But transhumanism
(04:56):
and techno Christianity arereally two sides of the same
coin. Coin. They both seektranscendence through technology
and see any slowing oftechnological progress as a sort
of evil or moral wrong. ForThiel, his creepy data analytics
company Palantir, is part of thesolution to the prevalence of
Satan's lies, because Palantirwill pinpoint the truth within
(05:20):
the massive troves of datacollected by business and
government, and thereby preventsocietal decay and the arrival
of the Antichrist Palantir,guided by Thiel and his unhinged
CEO and co founder, Alex Karp,will allow us to see the world
as it truly is through dataanalysis for Thiel, technology
(05:41):
is a weapon in a grand, cosmicbattle between good and evil.
Alongside all of this, there isthe dark enlightenment or Neo
reaction. NRX, a radically antidemocratic and anti egalitarian
political philosophy from Nickland and Curtis yarvin, who also
(06:02):
goes by Mencius mold bug. I feellike these are like fictional
characters in a sort of like fanfiction novel. It's It's so
ridiculous. Anyways, the darkenlightenment rejects democracy.
It sort of praisesauthoritarianism and even
monarchy. It leans into socalled genetic justification for
(06:25):
social hierarchy. It's just veryhyper rational but also
retrograde at the same time. Butthe problem is that, courtesy
Arvin, has the ear of peoplelike Marc Andreessen and Peter
Thiel. So these these ideas arepermeating Silicon Valley, and
as a result, they're permeatingWashington. You know, Silicon
Valley has a direct line toTrump, the Trump administration
(06:46):
now, so it's it's troubling,it's confusing, it's weird, and
I want to talk about it. I mean,we live in the strangest times,
shaped by powerful people withthe worst ideas. Where the hell
are the wise elders? That's whatI want to know. I mean, maybe
all this is bubbling up nowbecause the arrival of large
(07:07):
language models, coupled withthe overhyped claims that people
like Sam Altman and Elon Muskkeep making about super
intelligence, have cast ourlongstanding meaning crisis into
kind of a sharp relief, likesuddenly questions of
consciousness, metaphysics andphilosophy are urgently
relevant, but most people arenot steeped in philosophy or
(07:28):
spirituality. So instead, theygrasp for what's familiar, and I
think in America, that kind ofmeans Christianity, in a lot of
cases. I mean, despite its longstanding secular rhetoric, the
United States still is in largepart a Christian country. And I
think all this ideologicalderangement in Silicon Valley
(07:49):
and increasingly in the USgovernment is the result of what
philosopher Friedrich Nietzscheidentified as an imbalance in
Western culture and overemphasisand over reliance on what he
called the Apollonian, which isbasically reason abstraction,
this tendency to see partsrather than wholes, favoring
(08:09):
utility over value and meaningand black and white thinking.
This is the Apollonian kind ofmind, right? This is, these are
the properties of Apollo,basically. And so what we have
lost in this, in this process ofoveremphasizing the Apollonian
is the Dionysian, this kind ofembodied, intuitive, holistic
and contextual orientationtowards nature and the world.
(08:30):
When we lose facility with theDionysian, we flail about
reaching for frameworks thatserved us in the past, like
Christianity, or we double downon the denial of the existence
of the Dionysian and become newatheists. None of these radical
ideologues, whetheraccelerationists, transhumanists
(08:50):
or Neo reactionaries, areembodied or have any deep
connection with the non humannatural world. So I want to come
back to that in another episodeas well, but today, again, I
want to talk about the roots ofwhat I and others see as a
global pandemic of Apollonianthinking. Then in later
episodes, I will explore theways that this Apollonian
pandemic has led to the technocapital, machine of progress,
(09:14):
commoditized spirituality, andhow all of that makes this
intelligence age a metaphysicalcrossroads that I think requires
a radical, liberating spiritualintervention in order to usher
In a wisdom age. Instead,to illustrate our predicament,
(09:40):
I'd like to offer an embodiedparable. Imagine if three
centuries ago, enlightenmentEuropeans decided that the
senses of smell and tasteweren't real. Instead, these
loudly confident European mendeclared that. The sense of
smell and taste weresuperstitious remnants of an
(10:02):
irrational religious worldview,overly subjective and prone to
emotional manipulation,primitive, unreliable, a useless
vestige of our UN antiquatedanimalistic past. From a
scientific standpoint, theywould say food is merely fuel,
and any enjoyment of flavor isan indulgent illusion of
(10:24):
primitive peoples. In thisimagined world, public spaces
would be scrubbed by odorlessPurifiers, and natural odors are
considered a form of olfactorypollution, because this denial
of smell and taste becameaccepted as fact. It was taught
in schools and parroted bygovernments and the media for
(10:44):
centuries. And so now, food hasbecome odorless, flavorless.
Pastes and pills, perfumes andincense are now sort of passe,
something encountered only inindigenous tribes or among the
low and uneducated or spiritualsensitives, flowers are bred by
industry only for visualenjoyment, thereby losing their
(11:05):
natural fragrance. Smell andtaste have begun to atrophy,
although some people refuse tosuccumb. There are now renegade
Epicureans, aromancers,fermenters and perfume meals
still cooking with spice, agingcheeses and burning incense.
(11:27):
Yes, they are laughed at by themainstream, but they truly are
enjoying their life. Thesearchivists of lost sensation run
scent libraries full of oldbooks, essential oils and cedar
chests, the Epicureans preach agospel of pleasure, and they
host lavish feasts in foodiespeakeasies known as burpees,
where chefs smuggle real lemons,cardamom and black pepper
(11:49):
through underground networks.
Rebellious aromancers cultivatesacred rituals full of burning
incense and essential oils,operating hidden roof topped
greenhouses full of aromaticJasmine, lavender and Rose and
fermenter anarchists smugglesourdough starters, kombucha
mothers and various yeastcultures to create stink bombs
(12:12):
for the sanitized public sphere,planting durian fruit and
Limburger cheese in governmentbuildings and injecting spice
into the nutrient pastefactories. In this odorless,
flavorless world, those who wantto be accepted by the mainstream
and get good jobs ignore theirsense of smell and taste and
(12:34):
pretend it doesn't exist, peoplewho rant and rave about the
smell of a rose or the lifechanging taste of a juicy peach
or a fresh cup of coffee areridiculed as woo, woo or
superstitious. After all,everyone knows that sight, sound
and touch are the only realsenses. Only ancient primitives
believed all that smell andtaste nonsense, food is merely
(12:57):
fuel, not a source of pleasure.
Smells are odious andreminiscent of decaying flesh.
Sounds pretty awful, right?
Well, I think in some sense,this is what we have done by
living entirely in the lefthemisphere of the brain,
starting with the EuropeanRenaissance, or perhaps even
Socrates in ancient Greece, andaccelerating with the
(13:20):
enlightenment and the industrialrevolution, as Ian McGilchrist
explains so well in his books,the left hemisphere is abalone.
As I was saying before, it'slogic, it's abstraction,
control, it's literal, detachedmachine like and we moderns have
collectively denied theexistence of any right
hemisphere thinking, intuition,imagination, holistic thinking
(13:41):
and all that. The righthemisphere of the brain sees
nature and life in terms ofprocess and flow, rather than
purposeless utility, whereas theleft hemisphere, which only
thinks in terms of parts andutility, has kind of become the
master of our world, of our, ofourselves, of our, of our nature
(14:01):
of everything, and we've deniedthe existence of anything but
meaningless, purposeless,material reality as a result,
not because transcendent realitywas disproven scientifically. I
mean, it wasn't, but becausethose confident European men 300
years ago declared it to be so.
The machinery of reason is aninsatiable, formidable force
that can justify colonizing halfthe world, treating nature like
(14:29):
a mere resource to be pillaged,and reducing the sacred to a
mere commodity. And so as wecollectively moved as a society
into the left hemisphere,exclusively, the prevailing
worldview necessarily becamemore reductionist, draining
nature of all transcendentalmeaning, slicing nature up into
ever smaller pieces and usingher as a resource merely to be
exploited. In short, the wholereason we think that the cosmos
(14:52):
is made only of purposeless andmeaningless matter or energy,
despite a failure to explain theemergence of life. Life or
consciousness is because of ourmove into the left hemisphere
this Apollonian mind. For manypeople, the Apollonian worldview
is depressing and disenchanted,leaving them feeling isolated,
irrelevant, fearful and empty,yet overstimulated too. People
(15:15):
are so desperate for meaning,wisdom and guidance that they
now turn to AI chat bots astherapists, counselors, friends,
lovers and even gods, becausethis left hemisphere thinking
undergirds so much intellectualdiscourse and informs the ethos
driving both technologyinnovation and politics today, I
(15:40):
want to find a way to approachit that is simple and
illuminating without losing itsmultivalent properties. So
inspired by the work of IanMcGilchrist and drawing from pre
Socratic Greece and the work ofFrederick Nietzsche, I am
calling this left hemispheretendency the Apollonian mind.
After all, Apollo was the Greekgod of light, truth, reason,
form, structure, law and orderand individuality. Of course, he
(16:03):
was also associated with poetryand music. So it's not a perfect
metaphor, but it's good enoughfor our purposes. Now I'm not
saying that this kind of lefthemisphere, Apollonian
orientation is a bad thing, justthat it's out of balance that we
have forgotten the Dionysianwithin us, the wildness,
instinct, emotion and unity withnature that is such a core part
of our being, if we don't rejectit, as I mentioned briefly
(16:25):
above, one way the Apollonianmind manifests is the belief
that technology is the solutionto all of our problems as a
humanity, and even a path toimmortality and some kind of
divine salvation, in a way Don'tworry about large language
models voraciously devouringincreasing amounts of energy and
(16:47):
water and accelerating theclimate crisis. The apollonians
say AI will solve that. Don'tworry about increasing socio
economic inequality. AI willusher in a new utopia for all.
But the current approach tosimply scaling machine learning
is a shot in the dark, a gamble.
Nobody knows if it will lead toAGI or super intelligence. I
(17:09):
mean, nobody even understandsintelligence in the first place.
In Silicon Valley, technology isviewed as a panacea. It's a
panacea because of theApollonian mind, which sees the
Dionysian as long dead andforgotten. To the left
hemisphere, the right hemisphereand its antiquated, squishy
(17:30):
qualities are silly,superstitious, hippy dippy and
woo for the apollonians. Natureis a machine. So more machines
are the answer. We areadmonished to embrace the
algorithmic matrix flowing outof iPhones, Chad, GBT,
Instagram, Tiktok and the mouthsof supremely confident
Apollonian men. But remember,technology reflects the
(17:55):
consciousness of the peoplecreating it, and this thereby
shapes our own consciousness. Sothis is why it's so important
that we pay attention to thesemen who are creating our
technology. This is why I'm soconcerned that a majority of
technology leaders in SiliconValley are transhumanists in the
cult of technological salvation.
(18:17):
Elon Musk, Sam Altman, PeterThiel, Sergey Brin, Marc
Andreessen and these technoutopian billionaires, they have
their own sort of in housephilosophers, Nick Bostrom, Ray
Kurzweil, William McCaskill,Toby Orr, Max, Tegmark, Max
Moore and Yuval. Noah Harari, Iwant to talk about some of these
guys and some of their some oftheir ideas in future episodes
as well. For the transhumanists,accelerationists and technical
(18:38):
utopians, technology is thiskind of inexorable force, a
natural extension of biologicalevolution, one that will usher
in an age of prosperity,abundance, bliss, techno
divinity and immortality. Thisis how they talk. You know,
within this ideology,intelligence is primary, and the
(18:59):
well being of future humans,possibly living entirely in a
simulation is more importantthan the well being of present
day humans. So it's an ideologyfounded upon scientism,
physicalism, and the applicationof the machine metaphor to every
aspect of reality. In short,it's highly Apollonian.
Listen, this is a deeplypersonal series for me, because
(19:20):
my own journey kind of reflectsthe arc of what I want to talk
about. I went, I went fromliving entirely in the rational
in my Apollonian mind through aprocess, a long, a lengthy
process that I can talk aboutsometime, of discovering the
other parts of myself, includingthe intuitive, emotional and
embodied. I started off as acomputer engineering major, a
(19:40):
math minor and an AI researcherbefore becoming a lawyer and a
philosopher, not to mention ayoga teacher and all that. So I
understand this tendency tocling to the rational, to the
Apollonian left hemisphere,orientation toward the world,
and I understand why we thinkthat Apollonian intelligence is
going to become godly.
(20:02):
Essentially, again, I think theideologies driving Silicon
Valley Technology Innovationtoday, these techno utopian
cults of technologicalsalvation, the Neo reactionaries
and the techno Christians arefirmly within this western
Apollonian tradition of hyperrationality, transhumanists,
rationalists and effectivealtruists ignore an entire half
of the human and the world whilethey desperately attempt to find
(20:28):
some kind of transcendentmeaning and even salvation
through techno science and purerationality, because technology
reflects the consciousness ofits creator, these ideologies
are shaping Our technologies,not to mention government
policy, in ways that furtherperpetuate this imbalance. If we
as a society were to move to amore balanced orientation toward
(20:51):
the world, between the left andright hemispheres, between
Apollo and Dionysus, this wouldresult in a shift in values from
separation, control and mereutility, toward wisdom,
interconnectedness and a senseof community. Instead of an
information age focused onanalysis of data, we would shift
to a wisdom age where the worldwould become alive, once again,
with archetypal meaning and evenmystery. So next time, I want to
(21:18):
examine these New Atheists,people like Sam Harris and Yuval
Noah Harari, who have perfectedthe Apollonian mode. Harris's
and harare's worldview has anoutsized influence on the
zeitgeist today, with Harrisdominating the podcast charts
and Harare writing books thatconsistently become bestsellers
and then elevate him to the sortof ideological profit of Silicon
(21:42):
Valley. In addition, Harris andHarari are both Buddhists who
like Buddhism because it's soeasily stripped of its
metaphysics and its cosmology inorder to provide utilitarian
practices and benefits that aredevoid of anything deeper than a
negation of the self and adenial of free will. And then in
subsequent episodes, I want todive more deeply into this
techno capital machine, the riseof data, ism, techno,
(22:03):
Christianity and alternatives toall this stuff. Until next time,
I invite you to get in touchwith the Dionysus within you,
dance, play, write, poetry,wander through the forest under
the full moon and be wild. I'lltalk to you next time you.
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