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John Carlos Baez
@johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

Things are getting even stranger:

Peter Thiel is giving a series of lectures on the biblical Antichrist, organized by the Acts 17 Collective. “Acts” stands for “Acknowledging Christ in Technology and Society”.

In these talks, Thiel argues that the time is ripe for the Antichrist to rise to power, promising peace and safety by strangling technological progress with regulation.

He has previously suggested that Greta Thunberg could be the Antichrist. Now he's being more cagey about who's the lucky winner.

But okay: regulating big tech will bring on the Antichrist.

Meanwhile, NVIDIA announced that it intends to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI, who in turn promises to build 10 gigawatts worth of data centers using NVIDIA tech - but in undisclosed locations, working with partners who have not yet been named. It may not ever happen, but it looks like circular financing where NVIDIA pays to get Sam Altman to buy its stuff, and the investors actually funding this are supposed to go along with it.

The Antichrist is looking better every day....

https://archive.li/HcoiM

https://sfstandard.com/2025/09/23/spilled-peter-thiel-s-antichrist-secrets-now-s-banned-lectures/

https://openai.com/index/openai-nvidia-systems-partnership/

By the way, the Acts 17 Collective is run by Michelle Stephens, wife of a friend of Thiel's who runs a company specialized in AI-operated weapon systems: Anduril Industries.

Tweets where a reporter K Kulkarni announces that Peter Thiel is giving lectures on the Antichrist, and Michelle Stephens, head of the group that's running these lectures, says he won't be allowed to attend any future lectures.
Tweets where a reporter K Kulkarni announces that Peter Thiel is giving lectures on the Antichrist, and Michelle Stephens, head of the group that's running these lectures, says he won't be allowed to attend any future lectures.
Tweets where a reporter K Kulkarni announces that Peter Thiel is giving lectures on the Antichrist, and Michelle Stephens, head of the group that's running these lectures, says he won't be allowed to attend any future lectures.
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Eisbaer
@Eisbaer@chaos.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@johncarlosbaez
Peter Thiel talking about the Antichrist

So he is talking about himself?

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Greengordon
@Greengordon@spore.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@johncarlosbaez

Sociopath. He's trying to a) flip the reality of regulation versus tech (ie, $$) and b) get Greta murdered.

"Thiel argues that the time is ripe for the Antichrist to rise to power, promising peace and safety by strangling technological progress with regulation.

"He has previously suggested that Greta Thunberg could be the Antichrist."

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Jonathan Kamens
@jik@federate.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

I'm not a follower of Jesus, but Jesus was right that all forms of wealth and power inevitably corrupt religion.
Religion can be a force for good—I have seen it happen many times—but all forms of religion wielded by people with wealth or power are by definition corrupt and harmful.
No billionaire can be righteous: it's impossible to become a billionaire without being a terrible person, and if you were a good billionaire, you'd spend your money helping people.
Ref: https://mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosbaez/115275600282920754

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jbowles
@jbowles@infosec.exchange replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@johncarlosbaez despicable. I keep reminding people that if theil is worried by what the anti-christ is doing, he's gonna be even more worried when he hears what Jesus has to tell him

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contrasocial
@contrasocial@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@johncarlosbaez

Just another reminder that having a lot of money doesn't qualify a person to make decisions about policy and society that should be made by a democratically elected government with the council of experts.

People like Thiel and Gates aren't special visionary geniuses. They're in fact so intellectually and socially isolated that they don't even understand the material reality outside their own front door.

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Frans Super 🇺🇦🇵🇸🍋[FCKPVV]
@apenkop@mstdn.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@johncarlosbaez
They'll be disappointed when they find out the truth: There is no god and all that symbolism and signs are stupid bullshit. No god, no Christ, no antichrist. Just propaganda, attention seeking and misinformation. A scam.

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crimsonfall
@crimsonfall@mas.to replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@johncarlosbaez

given the batshit insane things I heard from him, especially from a billionaire who owns palantir and other unethical companies, I wouldn’t put it past him to think that he himself is the antichrist.

seriously listen to his recent nytimes interview. He sounds fucking nuts. Like Trevor Goodchild nuts.

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ma𝕏pool
@maxpool@mathstodon.xyz replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@johncarlosbaez

The NVIDIA-OpenAI deal smells like the end phase of Dot-Com bubble. When investments dry out, and profits are not materializing, companies start to buy revenue.

But how much NVIDIA buys revenue? Below is my estimate, but maybe someone knows better.

NVIDIA promises to invest ~$10k/kW, when roughly 50% of a data center energy goes to actual compute. Lets assume Nvidia invests $20k/kW in their own hardware.

Using NVIDIA DGX B200 as reference:
Cost: ~$500,000
Power: ~14 kW
Total power use: ~28 kW
price/power: $17,000/kW.

Maybe I'm off a lot but with quick and dirty math any many assumptions it looks like they are buying their own hardware.

ps. NVIDIA has 70% gross profit margin. It costs for them only $150,000 to make $500,000 revenue. In more real sense they would be investing only $30 billion.

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John Carlos Baez
@johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@maxpool - this guy has a very negative analysis of what's going on with NVIDIA and OpenAI. I read the first part but did not subscribe to read the rest:

https://www.wheresyoured.at/openai-onetrillion/

Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At

OpenAI Needs A Trillion Dollars In The Next Four Years

Shortly before publishing this newsletter, I spoke with Gil Luria, Managing Director and Analyst at D.A. Davidson, and asked him whether the capital was there to build the 17 Gigawatts of capacity that OpenAI has promised. He said the following: No of course there isn't enough capital for all
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ma𝕏pool
@maxpool@mathstodon.xyz replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@johncarlosbaez He seems to account all data center energy use to compute (just cooling can be 40% of energy use) otherwise our math seems to be similar.

And somehow there must be money left to invest in crypto 😀

Even with AI-related savings, investors are still $800 billion short in annual revenue required to profitably fund the data centers of 2030
https://www.bain.com/about/media-center/press-releases/20252/%242-trillion-in-new-revenue-needed-to-fund-ais-scaling-trend---bain--companys-6th-annual-global-technology-report/

McKinsey estimates between $3.9 to $7 trillion between 2025-2030.

The cost of compute: A $7 trillion race to scale data centers https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/the-cost-of-compute-a-7-trillion-dollar-race-to-scale-data-centers

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Greg Egan
@gregeganSF@mathstodon.xyz replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@johncarlosbaez

I was surprised to learn that Thiel was a Christian, because he’s also famously into cryonics. Why would you need to freeze your body if you’re genuinely expecting to be resurrected by a deity who can actually do the job properly, rather than just turn your brain to mush?

But this article’s quite interesting, and entertainingly snarky:

https://newrepublic.com/article/200471/peter-thiel-obsession-antichrist-religion

Thiel’s Antichrist fixation fits a long tradition in American politics. Since the nation’s founding, Americans have sought to name the Antichrist—usually by pointing the finger at their political enemies. “The symbol of the Antichrist has played a surprisingly significant role in shaping Americans’ self-understanding,” wrote historian Robert Fuller in 1995’s Naming the Antichrist: The History of an American Obsession. “Because they tend to view their nation as uniquely blessed by God, they have been especially prone to demonize their enemies.”

The New Republic

What’s Up With Peter Thiel’s Obsession With the Antichrist?

The tech mogul is amping up his apocalyptic rhetoric—and adding a dangerous dose of extremism into the already-fraught culture war.
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Joe
@not2b@sfba.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@gregeganSF @johncarlosbaez The simplest explanation is that he doesn't believe what he is saying, but he wants to recruit Christian right allies to stop regulation that could cut into his profits.

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lachlan slowly taming rust
@lachlan@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@johncarlosbaez I do read my Bible, regularly. I am a Christian. A faithful one. I occasionally look up the differences between the Greek or Hebrew and the modern English translations. In short - I understand my faith.

If you'll excuse my language, this is awful self serving bullshit theology - and to call it a corruption of the Revelation of John (which plays both in symbols and prophecy) is doing a disservice to corruption itself. And that's not even touching 1 John's take on antichrists.

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MugsysRapSheet 🔩🐑🐘
@MugsysRapSheet@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@johncarlosbaez
"#Thiel argues that the time is ripe for the #Antichrist to rise to power, PROMISING PEACE & SAFETY ("ended 7 wars") by strangling technological progress with regulation."

Uh... I think I found him: 🤔
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/climate/trump-climate-energy-united-nations-unga.html

https://www.nytimes.com

Trump to World: Green Energy Is a Scam and Climate Science Is From ‘Stupid People’

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DrBob 😎Mastodon for Harris 😎
@drrjv@vmst.io replied  ·  activity timestamp 4 days ago

@MugsysRapSheet @johncarlosbaez see my analysis of Thiel here https://vmst.io/@drrjv/115281098707662233

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TIM
@Nobodyknows789@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@johncarlosbaez I like math. 1 = 1, always! Crazy = Crazy. It works!!

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Gilgamesch
@Gilgamesch@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@johncarlosbaez

Mh, okay. Then... "Hail Satan!", I guess?

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Snark Week Global
@snarkweek@mstdn.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@johncarlosbaez Acts 17 is also the chapter in the Bible where Paul goes to the Jews in the synagogues to convince them about Jesus. There is a difference in the Thessalonians who were skeptical, whom he describes as 'jealous' Jews. Then he goes to Berea where he finds the Jews more accepting of Jesus, and he describes those Jews as more noble and not as jealous.

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Vassil Nikolov | Васил Николов
@vnikolov@ieji.de replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@johncarlosbaez wrote:
> In these talks, Thiel argues that the time is ripe for the Antichrist to rise to power, promising peace and safety by strangling technological progress with regulation.

This is textbook deceitful agitprop.
They teach it in Agitprop 101.

And the theme of the imminent coming of the Antichrist is so old, it's trite.
(If I recall correctly, the end of the world was expected in the year 1000, a little over a millennium ago.)
As long as there are people who fall for that...

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llanciawn
@llanciawn@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago

@johncarlosbaez Totally deranged.

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