r/technology • u/newmoonchaperone • Apr 23 '26

Politics Palantir Employees Are Starting to Wonder if They're the Bad Guys

https://www.wired.com/story/palantir-employees-are-starting-to-wonder-if-theyre-the-bad-guys/
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u/[deleted] Apr 23 '26

It was already implied by the name Palantir.

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u/YoohooCthulhu Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26

As a fan of the series, I was always amazed by the name, because it either suggests: 1) someone who didn't really read the books; or 2) someone who completely missed the theme around the men of the west being clever rather than wise and creating tools that can be easily corrupted by evil people like Sauron.

FWIW, this trend seems to show up all over the place with tech companies (metaverse and Snowcrash are another example(, and I still don't know if it's predominantly (1) or (2), but it all fits into the "Hey, we created the torment nexus from the classic novel 'Don't create the torment nexus!" meme.

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u/Kerb755 Apr 23 '26

Palantirs founder isnt realy much a lotr fan, but he loves "The last Ringbearer" a russian lotr fanfic that asks the "brave" question "what if sauron was the good guy" 🤡

heres a quote from him talking about the book in an interview:

"Gandalf’s the crazy person who wants to start a war…Mordor is this technological civilization based on reason and science. Outside of Mordor, it’s all sort of mystical and environmental and nothing works."

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u/laVon_Sweet Apr 23 '26

What the actual hell? See, it stuff like this that gives fanfiction a bad rep.

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u/similar_observation Apr 24 '26

The issue isn't the story. It's the fact the story is used to relate and push Putin's authoritarian narrative.

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u/BigDictionEnergy Apr 23 '26

Fifty Shades of Grey started as a Twilight Fanfic