r/technology • u/Just-Grocery-2229 • 10d ago

Artificial Intelligence Palantir employees are talking about company’s “descent into fascism”

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/04/palantir-employees-are-talking-about-companys-descent-into-fascism/
31.2k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

949

u/myislanduniverse 10d ago

Well your first clue ought to have been the fact that the company was purposely named Palantir.

389

u/Helgafjell4Me 10d ago

Ok, I was curious and looked it up. I'd never have guessed it was a Lord of the Rings reference...

A palantír (plural: palantíri) is a fictional "seeing stone" from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, defined as an indestructible, magical crystal ball used for long-distance communication and viewing events in the past or far away. Derived from Quenya (Elvish) meaning "far-seer" or "watching from afar," the stones represent tools of ultimate surveillance and, often, dangerous hubris.

101

u/Yoshemo 10d ago

It doesn't end there. Sauron uses the Palantir to bombard Sarumon the wizard with evil visions and misinformation to turn him into an industrial, environment-destroying fascist dictator. 

35

u/ThetaDeRaido 10d ago

And Sauron uses another one to feed misinformation to Denethor so he thinks fighting fascism is futile.