{"slug": "but-they-did-read-it", "title": "But they did read it", "summary": "Tech billionaires like Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Peter Thiel do read the science fiction works they reference, but they misinterpret them by identifying with the authoritarian or dystopian factions rather than the protagonists. It claims these figures find inspiration in the \"bad guys\" of stories like *Star Wars* and *1984*, viewing centralized power and surveillance as tools for order and control. The author concludes that this deliberate, power-aligned reading is more troubling than simple ignorance.", "body_md": "It’s fun to see tech bros naming thins after SciFi books, films or shows: “The Metaverse” was not a utopia but a reaction to a world where the political, economic and ecological systems have collapsed just to give one example among oh so many others.\nAnd we often keep making jokes about the tech bros and their lack of ability to read a book and understand it: “Her” is not a positive story about outsourcing your relationships to a Chatbot, “Palantir”s where not used by the good guys. How dumb are people like Elon Musk, Sam Altman or Peter Thiel.\nBut the mistake is made by us. They actually did read the book. But they are not on your side but the side in power or wanting to seize as much power as possible. The reading of Star Wars is different when you think that it’s good that a few people get to decide everything so they can create order and stability. The reading of 1984 is different when you associate with the inner party who gets to keep the middle class in check through surveillance.\nTech bros are reading those things. And find the bad guys inspiring. And that is even worse.\nThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/but-they-did-read-it", "canonical_source": "https://tante.cc/2026/02/12/but-they-did-read-it/", "published_at": "2026-02-12 16:14:58+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-05-22 08:48:01.815879+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "policy-regulation", "startups", "venture-capital"], "entities": ["Elon Musk", "Sam Altman", "Peter Thiel", "Palantir"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/but-they-did-read-it", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/but-they-did-read-it.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/but-they-did-read-it.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/but-they-did-read-it.jsonld"}}