Poll for our Next Tech Guru
Added 2022-07-21 06:33:05 +0000 UTCWe are still in our tech season but need some help deciding on the next Tech guru.
Our current contenders are listed below, vote for who you would like to see next!
Comments
Though to be clear I agree with you most aren’t techies but they are associated with the world of tech (rightly or wrongly).
Christopher Kavanagh
2022-07-26 11:37:20 +0000 UTCHarari wrote a futurist book: Homo Deus. He’s also often cited as a neoliberal oracle of sorts by the anti-globalist set. Yarvin has his fingers in Silicon Valley and reactionary pies, most of the rationalists have some history with him and seem to take him as an important thinker if still wrong.
Christopher Kavanagh
2022-07-26 11:36:23 +0000 UTCYuval is not much of a guru, but I am interested in critical review of his grand narrative. [Note here: that when the ideas in his books are being criticised he's saying that he is only presenting a common worldview in the intellectual scientific sphere]
Donkey kong
2022-07-22 14:29:52 +0000 UTCThiel more have an evil financier, but doesn't have much of a charisma to be a guru. Elon definitely have some sort of charisma and a huge following, the only difficulty is that is messaging and his grift are so interwoven that they can not be judged separately. I think if he wasn't super-rich (on paper), nobody would be interested in him, he would be some weirdo rambling about colonizing mars. I suggested listening to trueAnon podcast three part series about Elon for an extensive coverage of his grift.
Donkey kong
2022-07-22 14:23:07 +0000 UTCAgree with the suggestion for Ray Kurzweil. Lots of the tech people I know have had/still have an obsession with him. Including my husband, who often brings "The Singularity is Near" to read on vacations. :(
Stephanie
2022-07-22 00:43:29 +0000 UTCConsider Ray Kurzweil: he did a (the?) Ted Talk that brought the Singularity concept into public consciousness, is into futurism, transhumanism, life extension technologies (runs a supplements shop and takes 100 of them per day), and is also a genuine tech genius. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Kurzweil
billw2011
2022-07-21 21:06:17 +0000 UTCAs a prissy retentive type, I'd challenge many of these guys as not really techies. Hariri is an historian, full stop - him I really don't see the connection with tech at all. Sam Harris, ditto? Many of the others are actually businessmen whose investments are in the tech industry (Thiel, Musk, etc), but have never wrote a line of code. Yarvin's just a fascist. In the end I voted for Yudkowsky because he's actually at the intersection of tech and full-blown cultishness (the so-called "rationalists"). But in fairness, any of these would good subjects, even if the most popular choices above are (mutter, grumble) not actually (cough) techies, in any meaningful sense
Paul Bowman
2022-07-21 17:09:18 +0000 UTCSam Harris would be my first choice if it weren't a tech series. Peter Thiel may be evil, but he doesn't tickle my guru sense - Elon Musk does, but I don't know that he's written or expounded that much. Yuval Harari is a good choice, but I'm inclined to take down "evil" gurus and Harari seems to be more on the side of light. It's a tough choice. I finally landed on Curtis Yarvin.
Kat
2022-07-21 15:17:18 +0000 UTCThis might be a little too America centric but Thiel would be great. He's in the process of backing a lot of fat right politician's here in the states so a decoding of him would be nice
Copy
2022-07-21 14:57:02 +0000 UTCI picked Peter Thiel because of his impact and relation to Eric Weinstein. Although Balaji had some epic tech-babble nonsense takes on the pandemic on both Eric Weinstein and Sam Harris podcast that are worth exploring.
Justin F
2022-07-21 14:32:29 +0000 UTCNaval Ravikant is probably a lesser known, but FASCINATING guru.. A lot of what he has to say is genuinely insightful, but he definitely has a lot of guru-esque tendencies, also.
Will
2022-07-21 12:56:13 +0000 UTCPeter Thiel, Sam Harris and Curtis Yarvin are my top 3 choices, but I voted for Thiel as the primary option. Thiel is a dangerous ideologue who has written stuff like "Freedom is not compatible with democracy". Especially alarming when you consider that he's pumping millions of dollars into the candidacies of far-right authoritarian political figures like Blake Masters and JD Vance. Seems to be the most popular option so far on the poll too hehe! Plus there is an Eric Weinstein connection there as our favourite galaxy brained genius Eric works directly for Thiel. Please cover him lads!
SHOUNAK SARKAR
2022-07-21 12:22:41 +0000 UTCI really think you need to cover Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Yuval Noah Harari. Yuval especially seems to be a polarising figure and it wasn't until I heard Andrew Rutherford refer to The Madness of Crowds as the worst book he's read since Sapiens that made me want to learn more about Yuval. I've been meaning to read Sapiens, but I presume it's a giant waste of time with a grand narrative trying to summarise history with a single thread.
Chris Spanos
2022-07-21 12:05:46 +0000 UTCPlease put Jay Dyer on your list.
Steven Cleghorn
2022-07-21 09:50:47 +0000 UTCSteve Jobs, Mark Andreesson
Kirsten Greed
2022-07-21 09:39:01 +0000 UTCThat is the list I was thinking of sending you. It is very hard to choose one, but I'm pretty sure you guys will be around long enough to shred the whole list. Yarvin and Thiel are connected; their thing, monopoly capitalism, and NRx are considerable subjects. I recently met Curtis Yarvin in Lisbon and experienced his Gish galloping a firehose of historical references primarily based on false assumptions for almost 12 hours. Yes, I know; I'm a sucker for it. (Yeah, yeah, I'm making a video. ***German accent***) You could put on blond wigs and cheerleader outfits and bully Elon. Are you good at role-playing? I am also fascinated by Balaji, so if you want a steep challenge, I'd say go with him. It won't be easy. Dive in, Gents.
Steven Cleghorn
2022-07-21 08:13:29 +0000 UTCPaul Graham!
Jørgen
2022-07-21 07:50:12 +0000 UTCBill Gates - has made a great transition from tech guru to 'everything' guru
Scott Stacey
2022-07-21 06:37:20 +0000 UTC
