Peter Thiel's venture fund just announced Hereticon, a conference for 'troublemakers' to discuss immortality, doomsday prepping, and UFOs
- On Tuesday, Founders Fund announced Hereticon, a conference in New Orleans for "dissenting thinkers." The conference will run for three days in May 2020, according to a blog post announcing the news.
- The conference will include discussions on topics that would be "banned from other conferences," such as immortality, doomsday preparation, biological modification, UFOs, and drag culture, according to the post.
- Founders Fund says that Hereticon will welcome speakers that have been banned from other tech conferences.
- As the founder of Founders Fund, Peter Thiel is one of the most controversial venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, and one of the industry's most vocal Trump supporters.
- Founders Fund vice president Michael Solana told Business Insider that "We believe dissent is essential to human progress and hope Hereticon will spark important conversations within our community and beyond - that's really the only goal."
Ever wanted to learn about immortality or UFOs from Facebook board member Peter Thiel? You may just be in luck.
On Tuesday, Thiel's venture firm Founders Fund announced Hereticon, a conference for "ideological outcasts." The conference will run for three days in May 2020 in New Orleans at an undetermined location, according to a blog post announcing the news.
"We believe dissent is essential to human progress and hope Hereticon will spark important conversations within our community and beyond - that's really the only goal," Founders Fund vice president Michael Solana told Business Insider over email.
The post lists a range of topics up for discussion, including immortality, doomsday preparation, biological modification, UFOs, and drag culture, among others. The form linked at the bottom of the post allows those interested to submit any topics or ideas they would also like to discuss if outside the already lengthy list outlined in the post.
"After dark, on the top floor of our hotel, in a hidden room plastered in newspaper clippings of sightings and secret bases, there may be a talk or two on UFOs and literally a séance. Let's get weird," Solana wrote in the post.
Worth noting is Thiel's reputation in Silicon Valley, where he's known as a contrarian and an iconoclast. Thiel is one of the most vocal supporters of President Trump in Silicon Valley, historically a liberal enclave. He's also been known to use controversial blood transfusion therapies in pursuit of his dream of living forever.
Hereticon will welcome intellectuals from all walks of life that have been banned from other conferences, the post says. The announcement invokes thinkers like Galileo and Jesus Christ, saying that without dissent, growth is all but impossible.
"But while our culture is fascinated by the righteousness of our historical heretics, it is obsessed with the destruction of the heretics among us today," Solana writes in the blog post.
Founders Fund is reportedly an investor in some of the controversial industries that leave more traditional investors hesitant, including a cybersecurity startup and Palmer Luckey's secretive digital border wall startup Anduril.
"A world without heretics is a world in decline, and in a declining civilization everything we value, from science and technology to prosperity and freedom, is in jeopardy," the post concludes.