Upside Down

John Mitchinson explains why Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is the wrong role model for Big Tech

Sometimes the ironies of the modern world threaten to overwhelm me. Take the remarkable appropriation of names from JRR Tolkien’s fiction by Silicon Valley tech companies, many of them spun out of Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.

Chief among these is Palantir, co-founded by Thiel and Alex Karp in 2003, which uses pattern-spotting AI to integrate and analyse vast datasets. These include addresses, phone numbers, driving records, credit history, immigration history, health data, and social media presence.

The name comes from the ‘seeing stones’ that are used in The Lord of the Rings for long-distance communication and viewing remote events, and just as in the novel Sauron uses them to control and corrupt the minds of Saruman and Denethor, so critics of Palantir the business say the data is being used less for the common weal and more to plan Israeli military assaults in Gaza and Lebanon and ICE’s campaign to track and deport immigrants in America.

Elf-Washing

Andúril was the re-forged Elvish sword wielded by Aragorn in the book’s climactic battle. Anduril Technologies, established in 2017 and funded by Thiel, is a defence contractor at the cutting-edge of drone warfare and responsible for developing the autonomous sentry towers and AI surveillance used to police the United States border with Mexico.