Is Peter Thiel the target of Pope Leo Gandalf’s words? Research.

The angry conversation was Demis telling Elon: I am doing the most important work in the world. I am creating a superhuman AI

And Elon answers Demis: Well, I’m doing the most important job in the world. I’m turning us into a variety of colors.

And then Demis said: Well, you know my AI will be able to follow you to Mars.

Then Elon was silent…

Thiel himself sums up this meeting of minds: “It was a very stupid meeting with Elon that we parted with.”

Advertising in the shadows

I am not the only one who has asked this question about the Pope’s encyclical, of course.

The Catholic Herald asked“Does Magnifica Humanitas target Peter Thiel’s techno-political empire?”

Or, as a tech blogger Simon Willison wrote, “I can’t help but wonder if JRR Tolkien’s words are coming from The Return of the King it was the Pope throwing a little shade at Peter Thiel.”

But I don’t think this Pope works according to categories like “casting a shadow.” As we saw when Leo clashed with Donald Trump over his proposed war on Iran, Leo sees his job as evangelism and advocacy.

“The work of the Church is to proclaim the Gospel, to preach peace,” Leo he said at the time. “I just hope to be heard because of the value of God’s words.”

Gandalf’s words may be aimed at Thiel, or more broadly at those who think the same way. But it’s not arguing or cursing. It is a way of communicating differently using a line drawn from the shared culture between the two camps. It offers a different interpretation of Tolkien’s great work to those who see in it a license for war, technological disruption, great wars, and global action. These things are present in the story, and they are interesting, but they are dangerous and ultimately endure with the goal of protecting the community, the destination, and the home.

In the world of Tolkien, it is the “little people” – yes, it is the unfortunate Gollum who was banished – who will finally save the world from the war with the technologies of the “big one,” and thus it is in the small world of the hobbits that the work begins and ends.

It is for this reason, I think, that the Pope gives a different vision to today’s high officials. He bluntly asks them to abandon their dreams of transhumanism and “artificial” intelligence – and replace those dreams with something truly human.