Antichrist and Transhumanism: Peter Thiel's wild interview with the New York Times – and the reactions to it

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat featured Peter Thiel on his podcast "Interesting Times." Many listeners reacted online with dismay. Some called Thiel crazy, drastic, or paranoid.

For example, Douthat's colleague, American journalist and political commentator Ezra Klein, wrote on Reddit : "Peter Thiel is way crazier than I thought." Stephanie von Behr , vice president at ACE Alternatives, says: "He's completely off the rails... it's scary."

Guillerme Flor, investor at GoHub Ventures, doesn't know what to make of the interview. "Peter Thiel just gave the most mind-blowing and crazy interview I've ever heard. It's so drastic that I still don't know what to make of it, except that everyone should listen to it," he writes on LinkedIn .

We have summarized the seven key points from the conversation.

Peter Thiel continues to maintain his thesis that technological progress has lost massive momentum. Fourteen years ago, he published an essay entitled "The End of the Future" in the conservative magazine "National Review."

It states that while the world hasn't completely "stuck," the acceleration of past centuries is over. Between 1750 and 1970, there were enormous leaps in transportation, energy, and space travel.

Today, he says, progress is almost exclusively in the digital world, such as software, the internet, or AI. Cultural developments such as environmental concerns, institutions hostile to innovation, and, above all, a societal lack of ambition are to blame.

Thiel supported Donald Trump in the 2016 election campaign less out of substantive conviction, but rather because he hoped to spark a social discourse about the decline of the United States. For him, Trump represented one thing above all else: radical disruption.

Today, however, he seems disillusioned. "Looking back, that was an absurd fantasy," says Thiel. He describes political engagement as toxic and ineffective, vacillating between withdrawal and exerting influence.

Thiel calls for a much greater willingness to take risks in research and society. Especially in biotechnology, he says, old, failed theories must be left behind – for example, in Alzheimer's research, which has stagnated for decades.

He advocates for the legalization of experimental therapies. He argues that, in general, there needs to be less regulation and more willingness to experiment, as was commonplace in the early modern era.

For Thiel, artificial intelligence is not a panacea. It is greater than nothing, but smaller than a total transformation of society – comparable to the internet boom of the 1990s, which brought a few percent growth but no fundamental shift.

He criticizes Silicon Valley's fixation on IQ. He argues that progress fails not due to a lack of intelligence, but due to cultural and societal barriers. He also sees the risk that AI will only lead to a new form of stagnant, conformist intelligence.

“We don’t think about what AI means for geopolitics, we don’t think about what it means for macroeconomics,” criticizes Thiel.

Thiel believes today's transhumanists are not ambitious enough. Physical transformations such as gender reassignment are tiny compared to radical life extension or immortality.

Both Christianity and transhumanism strive to overcome nature and death—but so far, technological attempts have been ridiculously small. "The criticism isn't that it's strange or unnatural, but rather: Man, it's so pitifully small," he says.

Thiel warns of a global, stagnant "world government" as a modern-day Antichrist. Many would demand global regulations to ward off risks such as nuclear weapons, AI, or climate change, which could stifle progress and freedom in the long run.

He fears less the "evil tech genius" than authoritarian environmental and security movements that use fear to shape politics and prevent innovation. "The way the Antichrist would take over the world is by constantly talking about Armageddon. Constantly talking about existential risks," says the PayPal founder.

Thiel believes that people have freedom and scope for action. Not everything is predetermined by God. Progress requires human initiative, not merely divine intervention.

"It's always problematic to attribute too much causation to God. If you say God is the cause of everything, you're making God the scapegoat," Thiel says. Nevertheless, he clings to Christian hope that it won't end in a state of eternal stagnation.