Palantir and Bitcoin

If Neoliberal doctrine were true, there would be no need for Palantir but, somewhat counter-intuitively, Palantir’s sales pitch is that Palantir is proof that Neoliberalism is true and that ‘the market’ is the greatest information processing tool to ever have existed, and that ‘the market’ itself is embodied by Palantir: named after Tolkien’s magical orb of omniscience, crafted by the Elves of Valinor in the First Age. In this way it is aptly named: an orb that looks into itself and internally reflects back to the viewer looking into it whatever it wishes to see whether prophetic, telescopic or historic and much like The One Ring it’s allure is sinister yet yet overwhelming, no matter the warnings of the wise and the good. Those who created Palantir, heavily influenced by Curtis Yarvin, actually believe themselves to be elves, and believe in their right to rule via a complex and largely esoteric and occult theory of racial supremacy. This theory is far more nuanced than the overt and crass Zionism espoused by the likes of Palantir CEO Alex Karp and crosses over strongly with many of the early writings of Texas Arcane and Zero Philosophy (Nick Land) in numerous dark corners of the internet…