When Peter Thiel and Don Jr. Lose, It’s a Great Week for Humanity
By Virginia Heffernan,
The New Republic
| 05. 29. 2026
For us mere mortals, from the pope’s encyclical to the total failure of the Enhanced Games, it’s been a pretty good week.
Here and there, it’s been a good month for humanity—or “magnificas humanitas,” as Pope Leo XIV calls us poor featherless bipeds.
On May 25, the pope published his encyclical letter “on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence.” It made a stern but loving case against AI fatalism, reminding humans of our intrinsic worth and cautioning against seeking transcendence in tech rather than grace.
But the human person got another boost in late May. It came from a less holy figure too: Peter Thiel, net worth $28 billion.
As the founder of omnipresent MAGA AI surveillance machine Palantirand longtime student of the Antichrist, Thiel didn’t mean to help out humanity. Benevolence is not his strong suit. He’s out to live forever and build a master race. But by failing to make the case for transhumanism with his much-hyped Enhanced Games, a pro-doping sports event, Thiel accidentally showcased what’s magnificent about humanity.
What makes Thiel’s Enhanced Games different from other competitions is that at his games, which wrapped May 24 in (where else?)...
Related Articles
By Carl Zimmer, The New York Times | 06.04.2026
Scientists at Columbia University have edited the DNA of early human embryos with unprecedented accuracy, an achievement that could open the way to babies engineered with particular characteristics.
The prospect has fueled controversy for years. On the one hand, the...
By Alexandre Piquard, Le Monde [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.22.2026
"If proven to be safe, we believe preventive gene editing could be one of the most important health technologies of the century." This is how Lucas Harrington explained the goal of his company Preventive: to create genetically modified babies. Trying...
Faster, Higher, Stronger was the Olympic motto from 1874 until 2001, when “ – Together” was added, to stress the “moral and educational perspective” of the Games. The folks who paid for or participated in the Enhanced Games – the name itself a nod to the Olympics – held in Las Vegas on Sunday, May 24, apparently use a different edit:
Faster, Higher, Stronger with Chemistry
High-level sport draws huge crowds. Coming very soon, the soccer World Cup, featuring...
By Jenny Kleeman, The Guardian | 05.30.2026
On a Friday evening in late April, Cathy Tie, the Canadian serial entrepreneur and self-styled “Biotech Barbie”, is centre stage at New York City’s famous Carnegie Hall, performing Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No 2 on a gleaming Steinway grand piano, accompanied...
