The reason for these outlandish investments Thiel says is the way the economy had turned. Everyone is expecting a steady and big economic growth, but if that doesn’t happen, bankruptcy will hit people during retirement. Thiel is also concerned that if not enough growth is seen, there will be a huge shift away from capitalism, and who wants that? Thiel’s ideas stem from the science fiction novels of the 50’s and 60’s, saying that, “We should be looking at technologies that might lead to really big breakthroughs…We go bankrupt if radical progress doesn’t happen and we don’t realize it’s not happening.”

We have had remarkable growth in the past years, but there should be worry that this may not continue. The latest, greatest breakthrough was the internet, but Thiel brings up the point that in the past eight years there has only been 2 big new internet companies, Google and Facebook, compared to the abundance that came out in the 90’s. It just seems that the trend is beginning to plateau. Without looking for the next big thing, we could see ourselves in some serious problems. Thiel is convinced shooting above and beyond is the way to go, just think of the possibilities with a real “Atlantis” in the ocean. If that could be accomplished, I’m sure we could even find a way to walk on the sun.

Source: Utopian Pessimist Calls on Radical Tech to Save Economy, Wired Magazine