David Streitfeld, The Long Shadow of Steve Jobs Looms Over the Turmoil at OpenAI, NYTimes, Nov. 21, 2023:
This superhero narrative is the secret engine of just about every book beloved by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Travis Kalanick, a founder of Uber, was a devotee of Ayn Rand, whose heroes are at war with society. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, was a childhood fan of “Star Trek,” where Captain Kirk made every decision and took charge of every landing party. Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist who backed Donald J. Trump in 2016, loves “The Lord of the Rings,” an epic tale where a handful of heroes save the world. Mr. Thiel’s corporate names (Palantir, Mithril, Valar) are taken from the story. [...]
A post on X by Eric Schmidt, the former chief executive of Google, captured some of the mood, and never mind that Google is in a fierce competition with OpenAI:
“Sam Altman is a hero of mine. He built a company from nothing to $90 Billion in value, and changed our collective world forever. I can’t wait to see what he does next. I, and billions of people, will benefit from his future work — it’s going to be simply incredible.”
This is Jobs-level praise.
Srsly now, the Disney clip deserves a close reading. Some materials to consider: Louis is king of the jungle. But he wants to be a man, just like other men, one of the boys, nothing special. At least that's what he says, initially, What he's really after, though, is fire. What is the Hindu fire deity? Agni. Seems awfully close to AGI. How's it end? Louis, Mowgli, and the other animals all dancing in a whirl of mimetic confusion and conflation. A combustible mix, no? Yep, old Uncle Walt gave us something to think about here. Prophesy? Divination?
Your turn. Work out the details. Does it pan out?
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