I. That Antichrist Nonsense, Explained Twenty-second-century historians tracing the ascent of American technocracy from quirky garage tinkerers grooving on the Whole Earth Catalog to sinister oligarchs enacting Philip K. Dick prophesies may locate its apogee in four lectures that Peter Thiel (net worth: $29 billion ), chairman of the data-mining giant Palantir and a co-founder of PayPal, delivered at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club in September and October 2025. The subject was the Antichrist.