Palantir is clearly a mind-boggling on-the-nose, but terrible name to those familiar with the book.
The Palantiri consistently provided their users technically accurate intelligence that lead to disastrous strategic decisions.
Denethor committed suicide out of despair, after a palantir showed him the black fleet approaching, but he did not know that it was actually Aragorn who had captured the fleet and was coming with reinforcements.
We don't know specifically how the palantir deceived Saruman, but it's pretty clear it was one of the key factors in his corruption and downfall.
And even Sauron himself was misled in this way! The palantir showed him, correctly, that a hobbit and Aragorn were at Helm's Deep, and he concluded that Aragorn had the ring. So he prematurely moved his armies out of Mordor and left the plains and Mt Doom unguarded, which permitted the destruction of the ring.
I honestly can't think of a worse name for a company that provides intel for strategic decision making.
I've pointed this out before, but there's an interview clip of Alex Karp saying that Trump won the election in a landslide[0].
If you look at the actual numbers, no one, with any idea of mathematics or statistics or even just basic analysis skills, would call Trump's election victory a landslide.
It calls into question the fundamental raisin d'etre of Palantir. It makes Palantir look like a pure propaganda tool.
Therefore, also entirely useless for strategic decision making.
Well you could just say ”purpose” rather than ”reason of existence” in French. Some expression of course only exist in French - about 70% of English language - but the purpose of this francoism I never quite understood.
Might be a hint that a lot of tech/SV signalling was just "woke capitalism" the whole time, and they dropped the pretense the moment it became politically advantageous.
It’s easy to explain once you realize the real ideology of these people is money. Even if they have other internal beliefs they’ll get buried under the desire to make more money.
Well, Aragorn used the information he got from the Palantir of Orthanc to make a correct and very important strategic decision, to take the Paths of the Dead so that he could stop the Corsairs in time to save Minas Tirith.
So the lesson is that you have to use the intel you get wisely, or else very bad things will happen. I'm not sure if that makes the name any better for the tool it's applied to, though.
The actual lesson was that you need to be the trueborn king who can claim the palantiri by birthright if you want to use them for good. Even then, it requires great effort. Bad things will happen if anyone else tries to use the palantiri, no matter how great and powerful they are.
Its cellphones ? They show the rulers accurate predictions of human behaviour after the the fall of the towers proofed that the left only had enbarassing cofabulations to explain behaviour at scale. Thats the most valuable thing you can gain out of social network sensor data.
>I honestly can't think of a worse name for a company that provides intel for strategic decision making.
Yet the choice is very effective at telling those with eyes to see that the one who chose the name possesses only a surface-level understanding of what appears to be his favorite piece of literature.
Or he's broadcasting his intention to destroy world governments and institute a new global order under technocratic control. He's banking on a US General not understanding the deeper lore behind of the name.
To all investigative Journalists: Thank you for your hard work, and for being an inspiration and beacon of hope in these dark techno-feudalistic times.
Indeed. The corporation name is literally (in literature!) an example of all-seeing surveillance tools causing harm when (not if) they fall into evil hands.
Her books are mostly about genius caring people being held back from their plan of helping humanity into a golden age by more stupid evil people and regulation and so on.
Anduril as a 'tech' weapons company is ironic. In the books, it is Saruman, with his "mind of metal and gears" who is the scientist and engineer. The sword Anduril powerful not because of technology but because of the craftsmanship of its make and the valor of its wielder.
except of course that Tolkien, as a Catholic was quite adamant that he didn't write a story of Western chauvinism. The sword is not a metaphor for industrialization, which is quite literally the villain of the story, it's a symbol for restored kingship and hope.
tolkien largely copied the nibelungsenlied and accidentally inherited western chauvinism and many other ideas from that lore, including especially a great amount of racism
Right, and his concept of nobility and just kingship was about mercy love justice and a love of nature, good food, merriment, harmony, and treating others with respect. His works are full of cautionary tales of people who reached for immortality, power, self-aggrandizement, and control over others and fell as a result.
(Though he was obsessed with lineage and blood quotients and pale skin)
It's very difficult to judge the attitudes and held values of people who lived in the past - I mean the parentheses.
We don't know how much of it is real flaw or corruption and how much is just the zeitgeist they lived in.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if Musk's capital T today would end up becoming the beginning or turning point of a cautionary tale in the future. And, for better or worse, I know a lot of otherwise great and talented people who are still his fans.
Then I'd have to ask of publishers please don't use subscription oriented paywalls. I'd be happy to pay for an article here and there. I do not want to understand your subscription model, compare benefits between "tiers" of subscriptions, or think about how to cancel when I eventually realize I'm not getting the value I hoped for.
This is the price of that dark pattern. These sites wouldn't exist if they acted like publishers instead of retailers.
Anecdote: When I was looking for a job in 2014, they were present at a student job fair in Zurich. Barely knowing that company, I started off the conversation with "hey, you are creating all these intelligence tools for governments, right?".
The representative somehow started rambling incoherently about what wonderful work they do for NGOs and non-profits. Without acknowledging that their main customers are the intelligence community and law enforcement. Or telling me anything concrete their software is supposed to achieve.
Color me not surprised. Needless to say, I applied for a supposedly much lower-paying job where I actually knew what the work was about.
> Palantir, whose software is widely used by US defence and intelligence agencies, has faced growing scrutiny in parts of Europe as governments reassess their dependence on American technology companies.
I think it's great. Europe and other regions will be building out their own tech stacks, decreasing global dependence on big US players like AWS and Palantir, creating lots more jobs for programmers and much broader ecosystems for doing things.
I wonder which Danish official they are talking about. Lots of voices against it, but not from officials. The danish state is going full steam ahead. Just yesterday the Greenlandic police was integrated with Grotham from Palantir.
"Protecting privacy and upholding liberal democratic values have been central to Palantir's identity and mission since our founding in 2003." - Palantir
Palantir is clearly a mind-boggling on-the-nose, but terrible name to those familiar with the book.
The Palantiri consistently provided their users technically accurate intelligence that lead to disastrous strategic decisions.
Denethor committed suicide out of despair, after a palantir showed him the black fleet approaching, but he did not know that it was actually Aragorn who had captured the fleet and was coming with reinforcements.
We don't know specifically how the palantir deceived Saruman, but it's pretty clear it was one of the key factors in his corruption and downfall.
And even Sauron himself was misled in this way! The palantir showed him, correctly, that a hobbit and Aragorn were at Helm's Deep, and he concluded that Aragorn had the ring. So he prematurely moved his armies out of Mordor and left the plains and Mt Doom unguarded, which permitted the destruction of the ring.
I honestly can't think of a worse name for a company that provides intel for strategic decision making.
Saruman was already rotted by lust for the ring when he began to use the Palantir and then came into the presence of a dominating and corrupting will.
So yeah... plenty of real world versions of that.
Do you have a citation for that? I read the books a long time ago, but I was sure that he was corrupted through the palantir
I've pointed this out before, but there's an interview clip of Alex Karp saying that Trump won the election in a landslide[0].
If you look at the actual numbers, no one, with any idea of mathematics or statistics or even just basic analysis skills, would call Trump's election victory a landslide.
It calls into question the fundamental raisin d'etre of Palantir. It makes Palantir look like a pure propaganda tool.
Therefore, also entirely useless for strategic decision making.
Interesting analysis of Palantir and Alex Karp:
Part 1, Palantir: https://youtu.be/PpEg0XIeFtA
Part 2, Alex Karp: https://youtu.be/6YWFDhOps6I
[0]https://youtu.be/6YWFDhOps6I&t=1119s
It's _raison_, but "raisin d'être" would make an excellent name for a haute cuisine dessert.
Well you could just say ”purpose” rather than ”reason of existence” in French. Some expression of course only exist in French - about 70% of English language - but the purpose of this francoism I never quite understood.
And yes, I’m fully aware I am annoying.
Thanks, damn.
I usually look up that phrase so I can copy and paste it with the proper accents (and, uh, spelling).
To quote a classic: "Knowledge is power, France is bacon."
(look it up if you're unfamiliar, it's something that makes me giggle every time I think of it)
I would argue that it just shows Karp understands that the US is transitioning to a hybrid regime.
Alex Karp's transformation from progressive to MAGA is fascinating; more so knowing that his father was jewish and his mother was black.
I can understand a zeal to "protect the country", but FFS, to be the brains of the secret police is a bit much.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/opinion/alex-karp-palanti...
Might be a hint that a lot of tech/SV signalling was just "woke capitalism" the whole time, and they dropped the pretense the moment it became politically advantageous.
It’s easy to explain once you realize the real ideology of these people is money. Even if they have other internal beliefs they’ll get buried under the desire to make more money.
Some Jews in Germany thought that the EK medal from WW1 would safe them from the Nazis.
Well, Aragorn used the information he got from the Palantir of Orthanc to make a correct and very important strategic decision, to take the Paths of the Dead so that he could stop the Corsairs in time to save Minas Tirith.
So the lesson is that you have to use the intel you get wisely, or else very bad things will happen. I'm not sure if that makes the name any better for the tool it's applied to, though.
The actual lesson was that you need to be the trueborn king who can claim the palantiri by birthright if you want to use them for good. Even then, it requires great effort. Bad things will happen if anyone else tries to use the palantiri, no matter how great and powerful they are.
So .. who is the trueborn king today?
I believe there is no shortage of aspirants.
Easy. Nobody. The extreme power this gives will corrupt anyone in the real world.
So fantasy novels aren't a great playbook for actual government? Too bad that too many people are still heavily influenced by this.
Its cellphones ? They show the rulers accurate predictions of human behaviour after the the fall of the towers proofed that the left only had enbarassing cofabulations to explain behaviour at scale. Thats the most valuable thing you can gain out of social network sensor data.
>I honestly can't think of a worse name for a company that provides intel for strategic decision making.
Yet the choice is very effective at telling those with eyes to see that the one who chose the name possesses only a surface-level understanding of what appears to be his favorite piece of literature.
The man seems to have severe difficulty interpreting fiction. See: his antichrist ramblings (sorry, "lectures").
Or he's broadcasting his intention to destroy world governments and institute a new global order under technocratic control. He's banking on a US General not understanding the deeper lore behind of the name.
He literally considers Saruman the good guy, Mordor the good place, and Gandalf the bad guy (holding back technological progress)
Discussed previously e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45901389
Wait seriously?
I'm pretty sure Tolkien would be furious at the mere idea. He could not have written more thoroughly black and white morality if he tried...
It’s based on a retelling of the story that isn’t as black and white and more based around the idea that technology and progress are good.
I haven’t read it but the premise is quite cool. Of course having Thiel as a fan kinda ruins it but I still wanted to read it sometime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Ringbearer
In folklore, supernatural monsters are often compelled to show their true selves in non-obvious ways.
someone will name their company Ashnazg, probably an AI company
Already happened. Ashnazg Enterprises LLC https://ashnazg.com
No AI though, just fully stacked...
As though the ego of Peter Thiel has any grounding in reality or ironic metaphor
I can think of a worse name: Peter Thiel. Oh wait I'm confused. That's a better name for this.
Here are the series of articles that the Swiss investigative magazine, Republik + WAV, published and Palantir looked to silence: https://www.republik.ch/dossier/die-republik-vs-palantir
> “We welcome that the Zurich Commercial Court confirmed our right to publish a counterstatement”
Well that certainly is one way to spin having 22 of your 23 counterstatement requests dismissed by the court.
Their right to publish multiple counterstatements is left unsettled by current law
To all investigative Journalists: Thank you for your hard work, and for being an inspiration and beacon of hope in these dark techno-feudalistic times.
Good point. Thank you.
Anyone who has read The Lord of The Rings has exactly zero reasons to trust Palantir.
Indeed. The corporation name is literally (in literature!) an example of all-seeing surveillance tools causing harm when (not if) they fall into evil hands.
Well it’s kind of the same with Rand. That’s their thing, they read these books as preteens and the nuance is lost on them
I thought RAND was just a contraction of Research And Development?
I suppose this is about Ayn Rand. I haven't read her books, but from what I hear they aren't very nuanced though.
Her books are mostly about genius caring people being held back from their plan of helping humanity into a golden age by more stupid evil people and regulation and so on.
> Well it’s kind of the same with Rand. That’s their thing, they read these books as preteens and the nuance is lost on them
In the case of Ayn Rand, it is questionable whether there's nuance to be found.
Crazy that there's a weapons company called Anduril as well
Creative people seem to be rather pacifistic. Warmongers seem less so, they have to "borrow" from the creative ones.
Why? Naming a weapons company after Aragorn's sword makes sense. "The Daily Beast" on the other hand is a rather cynical name...
Anduril as a 'tech' weapons company is ironic. In the books, it is Saruman, with his "mind of metal and gears" who is the scientist and engineer. The sword Anduril powerful not because of technology but because of the craftsmanship of its make and the valor of its wielder.
I'd call my company Sauron's Eye (we'll figure out what the company does later), but sadly that's trademarked to the LOTR franchise.
Anduril is quite a positive name, it is a broken sword reforged later to save humankind. Quite a metaphor about western reindustrialization.
except of course that Tolkien, as a Catholic was quite adamant that he didn't write a story of Western chauvinism. The sword is not a metaphor for industrialization, which is quite literally the villain of the story, it's a symbol for restored kingship and hope.
tolkien largely copied the nibelungsenlied and accidentally inherited western chauvinism and many other ideas from that lore, including especially a great amount of racism
Nibelungenlied (not Nibelungsenlied) was racist? That needs a citation
Right, and his concept of nobility and just kingship was about mercy love justice and a love of nature, good food, merriment, harmony, and treating others with respect. His works are full of cautionary tales of people who reached for immortality, power, self-aggrandizement, and control over others and fell as a result.
(Though he was obsessed with lineage and blood quotients and pale skin)
It's very difficult to judge the attitudes and held values of people who lived in the past - I mean the parentheses.
We don't know how much of it is real flaw or corruption and how much is just the zeitgeist they lived in.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if Musk's capital T today would end up becoming the beginning or turning point of a cautionary tale in the future. And, for better or worse, I know a lot of otherwise great and talented people who are still his fans.
Crazy? It's backed by Thiel as well IIRC.
It's enough to hear what their genocidal maniac of a CEO says.
https://archive.ph/lXw7j
If Cannot resolve archive.ph host
Access the .is domain https://archive.is/lXw7j
internet archive cannot resolve either
Find a better network service provider, you are being censored by yours.
What makes you say that?
Other way around. archiveis is the badly behaving one.
archive.ph works fine for me. Resolves to
Archive.ph returns different results to Cloudflare’s resolvers intentionally, preventing Cloudflare DNS users from resolving it correctly.
.ph has been down (for me) the last few weeks ... but is up today.
.md is a good alt (for me)
Please don’t use these sites, they alter archived content and use visitor browsers as a ddos botnet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Archive.today_guidan...
Then I'd have to ask of publishers please don't use subscription oriented paywalls. I'd be happy to pay for an article here and there. I do not want to understand your subscription model, compare benefits between "tiers" of subscriptions, or think about how to cancel when I eventually realize I'm not getting the value I hoped for.
This is the price of that dark pattern. These sites wouldn't exist if they acted like publishers instead of retailers.
Wait europe doesn't want to buy spy tech that spies on europe? Shocking.
Sadly german law enforcement is definitely on the Palantir train..
https://www.dw.com/en/german-police-expands-use-of-palantir-...
Switzerland is not part of the European union (nor a member of the European Economic Area) but your point still stands
OP did not say EU, he said europe. Switzerland is part of europe.
Some people in Europe don't want new sources of data coming in outside of their control.
Anecdote: When I was looking for a job in 2014, they were present at a student job fair in Zurich. Barely knowing that company, I started off the conversation with "hey, you are creating all these intelligence tools for governments, right?".
The representative somehow started rambling incoherently about what wonderful work they do for NGOs and non-profits. Without acknowledging that their main customers are the intelligence community and law enforcement. Or telling me anything concrete their software is supposed to achieve.
Color me not surprised. Needless to say, I applied for a supposedly much lower-paying job where I actually knew what the work was about.
Excellent.
Although, while I enjoy watching them lose. I don't appreciate the waste of time.
Fine. Thiel will just fund a Hulk Hogan lawsuit against the Swiss magazine, then.
> Palantir, whose software is widely used by US defence and intelligence agencies, has faced growing scrutiny in parts of Europe as governments reassess their dependence on American technology companies.
I think it's great. Europe and other regions will be building out their own tech stacks, decreasing global dependence on big US players like AWS and Palantir, creating lots more jobs for programmers and much broader ecosystems for doing things.
No evidence for this. Europe talks a big game and consistently fails to deliver.
Streisand effect?
> officials in Denmark and the Netherlands have similarly expressed a desire to uncouple from the US-based software group
oh that is clever writing
I wonder which Danish official they are talking about. Lots of voices against it, but not from officials. The danish state is going full steam ahead. Just yesterday the Greenlandic police was integrated with Grotham from Palantir.
Maybe being Danish they're cautious and want to test it on polar bears first, you know, before widespread adoption.
Is that for real? After all the Trump wanting to take over Greenland stint? I I should not be surprised if Iran would integrate with Palantir as well.
Get this cancer out of Europe.
We don't want this cancer in the US or anywhere else in the world either. Maybe they belong on some libertarian floating islands or Mars or something.
"Protecting privacy and upholding liberal democratic values have been central to Palantir's identity and mission since our founding in 2003." - Palantir
lol