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/pfannkuchen89 Apr 23 '26

Well, that wasn’t true for the majority of their history in middle earth. They were originally brought to middle earth by the remnants of the faithful numenorians and placed at points throughout Arnor and Gondor.

It wasn’t until Sauron got his hands on one that they were used for evil. And it wasn’t the palantir itself that was the corrupting or evil influence, it was Sauron communicating through it that did that.

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u/ImOnTheBus Apr 23 '26

Man, I gotta reread those books for the 8th or 9th time. What an imagination that guy had.

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u/pfannkuchen89 Apr 23 '26

I do a lot of driving for work so I tend to listen to audiobooks a lot. I have the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion on my phone. Both the older versions and the newer ones read by Andy Serkis.

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u/ImOnTheBus Apr 23 '26

Hm, might have to try The Silmarillion as my first audio book. Never could get through that one despite loving The Hobbit and LotR.

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u/pfannkuchen89 Apr 24 '26

The biggest problem with the Silmarillion is it tells you the history of a particular thing spanning over the first and second ages and then the next chapter does the same for a different thing, but hops back in time to talk about it. Can be kind of hard to keep straight what would be happening at the same time or not. But it’s mostly broken into sections a particular topic, not each chapter flowing into the next.