This post was republished with permission from Zero Hedge
In a wide-ranging interview on the future and global existential risks, billionaire technology investor Peter Thiel raised alarms not only about familiar threats like nuclear war, climate change, and artificial intelligence but also about what he sees as a more insidious danger: the rise of a one-world totalitarian state.
Speaking to the New York Times’ Ross Douthat, Thiel argued that the default political response to global crises—centralized, supranational governance—could plunge humanity into authoritarianism.
Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, shared his worries using examples from dystopian sci-fi stories. “There’s a risk of nuclear war, environmental disaster, bioweapons, and certain types of risks with AI,” Thiel explained to Douthat, suggesting that the push for global governance as a solution to these threats could culminate in a “bad singularity” – a one-world state that stifles freedom under the guise of safety.
Thiel critiqued what he described as a reflexive call for centralized control in times of peril.
“The default political solution people have for all these existential risks is one-world governance,” Thiel observed, pointing to proposals for a strengthened United Nations to control nuclear arsenals or global compute governance to regulate AI development, including measures to “log every single keystroke” to prevent dangerous programming. Such solutions, the investor warned, risk creating a surveillance state that sacrifices individual liberty for security.
Drawing on historical and philosophical analogies, Thiel referenced a 1940s Federation of American Scientists film, One World or None, which argued that only global governance could prevent nuclear annihilation. Thiel juxtaposed this with a Christian theological framing: “Antichrist or Armageddon?” In both, the billionaire said he sees a binary choice between centralized control and catastrophic collapse. Yet, Thiel questioned the plausibility of a charismatic “Antichrist” figure seizing power through hypnotic rhetoric, as depicted in apocalyptic literature. Instead, he offered a modern twist: the path to global control lies in relentless fearmongering about existential risks.
“The way the Antichrist would take over the world is you talk about Armageddon nonstop,” Thiel explained. The billionaire contrasted this with earlier visions of scientific progress, like those of 17th- and 18th-century Baconian science, where the threat was an evil genius wielding technology. Presently, Thiel argued, the greater political resonance lies in halting scientific advancement altogether. “In our world, it’s far more likely to be Greta Thunberg than Dr. Strangelove,” he quipped, invoking the radical Swedish climate activist as a symbol of anti-progress sentiment.
On AI specifically, Thiel struck a balanced tone, tempering both utopian and apocalyptic predictions.
“One question we can frame is: Just how big a thing do I think AI is?” he asked himself. “My stupid answer is: It’s more than a nothing burger, and it’s less than the total transformation of our society.”
Thiel compared AI’s potential impact to the internet in the late 1990s, suggesting it could create “some great companies” and add “a few percentage points” to GDP, perhaps boosting growth by 1% annually for a decade or more. However, the billionaire expressed skepticism that AI alone could end economic stagnation, viewing it as a significant but not revolutionary force.
While Thiel expressed nuanced views on artificial intelligence, his venture capital firm, Founders Fund, is aggressively backing the technology. Namely, it recently led a $600 million investment in Crusoe, a vertically integrated AI infrastructure provider.
“The biggest risk with AI is that we don’t go big enough. Crusoe is here to liberate us from the island of limited ambition,” Thiel said at the time.
Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.
More news on our radar
As a beleaguered resident of California which has a defacto one-world government running every individual city as an all-powerful, supermajority leftist centralized Authoritarian State, I can confirm the real world dystopia of the Authoritarian model.
Cities can no longer enforce localized zoning controls as the State has mandated elimination of all single-family zoning regulations. The State has also calculated and mandated the minimum number “affordable” housing units each city must build (or face defunding) in order to prevent suburbia from becoming economic exclusion zones. Yes, we all need to take our fair share of the poor, indigent, and undesirables… whether we want it or not.
The State is attempting to socially engineer suburbia to become more … inclusive. Hint: when suburbia is no longer a refuge from the ugly streets of urban hell holes … suburbanites will simply move further away from city cores and suburban satellites. Many of us work remotely … so we will just flee the State’s Authoritarianism … and yes, many have completely fled the State altogether.
Human nature will find a way. Find a way to survive the Authoritarian overlords. It’s what we humans do.
I’m astonished by the arrogance of these people, believing that they could even manage a one world government.
Speaking from the UK, no governmental, local government, civil service, public bodies, police, military, and emergency services are connected or coordinated to any practical extent. I well recall the huge cluster f#ck when they tried, and mostly failed to unify the medical records system. I imagine it is likely to be the same, or at least similar, in most countries.
Parking to one side the monumental concerns for individual rights and freedoms, and where your money is going to disappear to, imagine the utter chaos which will ensue upon trying to impose a one size fits all government and bureaucratic system upon the entire world. None of those in charge can even run a bath, let alone a country, and yet they believe they can control things globally.
I do not see that the digital age with all its connections will help, save to a very small extent, in which regard I refer back to the UK’s inability properly to connect up its medical records system. Large parts of individual countries, and huge swathes of the world do not even have internet.
At the end of the day, an inevitable Carrington event will reduce their efforts to naught, while bringing with it further unimaginable worries for all of us.
The media can no longer hide what is really going on behind spin and platitudes.
We already have a one world government. Why ja think the digital dystopia is being implemented from china, russia, usa, uk, france, nigeria etc. Same policies in all countries. Trumpstein is now creating a path for illegals to enter illegally through farm work etc. Putin is controlled by oligarchs who are the small hats. AI is a result of a one world government that has already formed.
Agreed! That’s why they have global meetings like Bilderberg, G20 etc etc. I wonder if at those meetings they receive orders from an already present AI. It would make a whole lotta sense.
I believe they do, I personally think that AI is demonic and technology that was supplied by fallen angels to facilitate their means. The issue is people out there actually believe that we were cave men for 10m years and then all of a sudden in the last 300 we became technologically advance which is completely ludicrous. There is nothing new under the sun and man kind was definitely here before.
Or another possibility is that extra-terrestrial life forms do actually exist and have been visiting earth for millennia, but have become increasingly more active in the last 300 years or so.
Some might remember Bush senior with his famous “A thousand points of light” accepting the presidential nomination at the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans. We all assumed he was referring to unity at home on divisive issues but it seems they have thrown in a few extras over the years.
U.S. President Donald Trump mocked the phrase at a rally in Montana on July 5, 2018, asking “What does that mean? I know one thing: Make America Great Again we understand. Putting America first we understand. Thousand points of light, I never quite got that one. What the hell is that? Has anyone ever figured that one out? It was put out by a Republican wasn’t it?”
In 1990 Bush spearheaded the creation of the Points of Light Foundation, the goal of which was to promote private, non-governmental solutions to social issues. What we didn’t know was that the well funded NGO’s (USAID) were to become the main driver for the dilution of border and sovereignty in all western nations sweeping across Europe and now America. I guess they didn’t want to hurt our feelings.