Thiel made nearly identical comments in a 2015 essay arguing that technological progress should be accelerated. Science and technology, he wrote, are natural allies of “Judeo-Western optimism,” especially if “we remain open to an eschatological frame in which God works through us in building the kingdom of heaven today, here on Earth.”
But what do Thiel, Trae Stephens, and other powerful tech figures actually mean when they say it’s possible to build a Christian heaven on this planet? For Trae, the idea is practically literal, and happens through his concept of “good quests,” first outlined in an article cowritten with entrepreneur Markie Wagner in 2022.
In the article, Trae and Wagner argued that Silicon Valley was in a “crisis of nonsense.” Pastimes such as “exiting your first startup only to enter venture capital,” “armchair philosophizing on Twitter,” and “yachting between emails in de facto retirement at age 35” are examples of bad quests. Good quests, on the other hand, tackle massively hard and complex problems, and result in advancements in manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and the extension of human lifespans.
After the essay came out, Trae said a man approached him and shared that he was trying to solve an important problem by building an NFT marketplace. That right there, Trae told the audience at the ACTS 17 event, is an example of a bad quest. “The human brain can convince you anything you’re doing is a good quest,” he said.
Trae, who ran President Donald Trump’s defense transition team during his first term, used the same good versus bad quests frame to explain why he recently turned down the opportunity to serve as US defense secretary. Very few things in life should be able to take you away from your “yes,” or your good quest, Trae explained. “I think the reason for my ‘no’ was understanding what my ‘yes’ was,” he said.
Alex Karp, the chief executive of Palantir, recently criticized what he similarly described as a moral crisis in the tech industry, decrying the fact that ample capital and “legions of talented engineers” were wasted “merely to build photo-sharing apps and chat interfaces for the modern consumer.” Karp went on to say that the “prevailing agnosticism” of the modern era has “paved the way for the market to fill the gap.”
The agnosticism Karp refers to is cultural, rather than spiritual. But like Trae Stephens, he believes the tech sector has been too focused on solving trivial problems and ignoring the most pressing issues of society. The problem, Karp argued, could be solved by rebuilding the United States from the ground up as a technological republic. (Presumably, that would include Palantir selling its technology to the government.)
The Bay Area, where Silicon Valley is nested, has long been a haven for progressive values and is often perceived to be largely agnostic or atheistic. Its prevailing rich-hippie vibes are well documented, with tech workers turning to biohacking, psychedelics, Burning Man, and Esalen retreats as forms of introspection and self-discovery.
