The Antichrist or Infinite Games

Can we really convince each other of alternate political theories?
Author

Keith Stevens

Published

July 13, 2025

Peter Thiel on Interesting Times

For the first time I listened to Interesting Times which, being not a close listener, I thought was hosted by Andrew Ross Sorkin but is in fact hosted by Ross Douthat. Through this first episode I was presented with a rather surprising view into Peter Thiel’s political Philosophy. So much of it was designed for my disagreement, and I’m really glad someone like Ross Douthat was hosting to ask probing questions that forced Thiel to really contend with possible contradictions with his political world view and his every day actions.

But alas, what do I find interesting, really, about this podcast? The heart of it is towards the end where we finally get to Thiel’s definition of the Antichrist.

Peter Thiel’s backing theory of the world

So what is the Antichrist and why is he such a big deal? Well according to Thiel the Antichrist is basically a perfection of everything behind the environmentalist movement, the anti-nuclear movement, and maybe the feminist movement. Its the fundamental cause for why we’ve slowed down “progress” in all the things that could help Thiel live forever. The Antichrist, and his direct or indirect manifestations are why we really don’t have flying cars.

That matters because it explains away why society and technology feel stagnant to so many people. Its our desire for “safety” and “security” from nuclear weapons or climate change that has stalled out the world and prevented innovative people from seasteading. But really through his explanation of the Antichrist, I think he also quietly exposed his real primary moral prerogative, the precursor for why the Antichrist is bad.

His moral objective is to perfect humanity through technology such that we’re liberated from a dependency upon god. He wants to Übermensch humanities path to be free of god such that we don’t have to depend upon salvation from a second coming of Christ. Humanities future must be in our hands and that means we must live forever and be completely in control of our fate. Its a radical libertarian Christian form of transhumanism come physical.

And that’s why the Antichrist is bad, and any form of slowing down is bad. We must be liberated. We can’t assume God will intervene by delivering a second son to save us from a technocratic safe one world government that makes the future forever the same as now. And that’s why he supports political actors that smash the current taine system.

Sure science is important for progress but Science, the academic institution, is tainted by the Antichrist and his many influences and so its stuck in stagnant thinking and stagnant non-progress. So out it must go. And the current governing bodies are tainted too. They’re infected by DEI, safety, climate mitigation, and all forms of inclusion over progress. So smash it all and maybe we’ll be able to start over from better progress-oriented first principles.

LOL, really

I want to react to this. I want to debate all the particulars about this world view and why it seems….completely insane. And in a very polite way Ross Douthat probed inconsistencies, like why invest in technologies that empower the Antichrist?

But then I had a realization, its more informative to actually discuss with myself, and others who might listen, why I react. What is my underlying world philosophy, or moral philosophy, that backs all the disagreements I might have. If i were to debate this over brunch with someone that agreed with Thiel, would we be able to convince each other of anything or would we really just be exposing our “priors”?

So rather than go into all that granular nonsense, what’s the prior?

An Infinite Games critique of our stagnation

It sure feels like we’re stagnating. People aren’t getting richer. We don’t have flying cars. We’re not living on the moon. This isn’t what Back to the Future sold me, although it did promise a Biff Tannen president. But are we stagnating?

Even Thiel admits that we’re actively innovating rather violently in the field of Artificial Intelligence. So maybe there’s a much simpler theory: we are advancing and we always have been, but we only ever advance along dimensions of dominance. Both individuals and societies are stuck playing Finite rather than Infinite games where we aim to demonstrate clear competence, or dominance against our competitors.

This fits with critiques others have shared, like Tim Urban. Large groups want to show that they are better than others. Its geopolitical hegemony. Its the 1960’s space race where we want to prove that we (United States) have better rockets than the Soviets. Its the 1940’s where the United States has to ensure everyone knows they have the best bombs. Its right now where the United States gets the best AI systems first.

We progress, rather violently, along dimensions where the leading powers are insecure. Insecure about their position or ranking in the finite game of power. Other dimensions of society? Those come second and they just advance along the base rate of improvement because there’s no need to over-invest and dominate. There’s no grand vision to transubstantiate and be free of God, even if people promote progress as such. Its just a violent game of being the first past the finish line.

And we could be better, we could focusing on ensuring the game goes on

Why safety isn’t the Antichrist

What’s a steel man for the various forms of safety movements? Something to showcase how they aren’t the Antichrist but actually some form of moral goodness. Well, they’re simply trying to ensure that everyone gets to continue playing the Infinite game. If the world blows up because we set off all the nuclear weapons, then well…the game is kind of over for everyone and no transhumanism. If we create a bio-weapon that kills 90% of the human population…again…likely no transhumanism and no going to mars. If the environment goes backwards and kills huge swathes of humanity and triggers constant resource wars, investing in space travel is going to be rather challenging. If we create AI systems that distance humans from each other, there’s no room for moral kindness or sociological stimulation. Humanity ends in a dead end.

So maybe the safety movement is really an attempt to ensure the game goes on for as many people as possible. Its asserting that reality is not just a game oriented towards fulfilling Thiel’s ambition to liberate himself from the woes of death but is instead a game for us all to play. To be kind, to be fair, to go on and do something creative. Safety isn’t the Antichrist, its reminder that this is all the only game we have to play.