Christians from the Silicon Valley who want to build “Heaven on Earth”

Thiel made almost identical comments in Essay from 2015 This technological progress should be accelerated. Science and technology, wrote, are the natural allies of “Judeo-West Optimism”, especially if “we remain open to the eschatological frame in which God works through us when building the kingdom of heaven, here on earth.”

But what Thiel, Trae Stephens and other powerful technological characters actually mean when they say that it is possible to build a Christian sky on this planet? For the trae, the idea is practically literal and happens thanks to his concept of “good tasks”, for the first time outlined article Corpse with the entrepreneur Markie Wagner in 2022.

In the article Trae and Wagner they argued that the Silicon Valley was in the “nonsense crisis”. Entertainment, such as “exit from the first startup just to enter the capital of increased venture”, “philosophizing seats on Twitter” and “saying goodbye between e -mails in a de facto -aged at the age of 35”, are examples of bad tasks. On the other hand, good tasks solve massively challenging and complicated problems and cause progress in production, artificial intelligence and extension of human life.

After the appearance of the Essey, Trae said that the man approached him and said that he was trying to solve an essential problem by building the NFT market. This is where the tray told the audience during the ACTS 17 event, he is an example of a bad task. “The human brain can convince you that everything you do is a good task,” he said.

Trae, who led the transition team of President Donald Trump during his first term, used the same framework of good and bad tasks to explain why he recently rejected the opportunity to perform as a US secretary. Trae explained that very few things in life should be able to take you from “yes” or a good mission. “I think that the reason for my” no “was to understand what my” yes “was – he said.

Alex Karp, general director of Palantira, recently criticized what he did Similarly described as a moral crisis In the technology industry, condemning the fact that the huge capital and “legions of talented engineers” were wasted “only for the construction of applications for sharing photos and chat interfaces for current consumer.” Carp continued that “the dominant agnosticism” of the modern era “paved the way to make the market fill the gap.”

Agnosticism, to which carp relates, is cultural, not spiritual. But like Trae Stephens, he believes that the technology sector was too focused on solving trivial problems and ignoring the most smoking problems of society. The problem, as carp argued, can be solved by rebuilding the United States from scratch as a technological republic. (Presumably this would include Palantir by selling its technology to the government).

Bay Area, in which the Silicon Valley is nested, has long been a paradise for progressive values ​​and is often seen as largely agnostic or atheistic. His dominant richly hippie vibrations are well documented, and technology workers turn to biohacking, psychedelics, burning man and Esalen retreats as a form of introspection and self -discovery.