Peter Thiel on the Antichrist and Freezing Yourself After Death.

Freeze now. Resurrect later.

Peter Thiel spoke with Ross Douthat on the Interesting Times podcast about the Antichrist, AI, transhumanism, and Christianity.

It was an absolutely insane podcast to listen to first thing in the morning, but I want to talk about the freezing parties Thiel mentioned briefly.

A quick Google search showed they’re nothing like an Othership cold plunge party, like I originally thought.

Thiel said that back in the early 2000s, PayPal cofounder Luke Nosek was into cryonics, the idea of freezing your body or brain after death in hopes that future tech could bring you back. One day, the whole PayPal team went to a “freezing party” people signed up for cryopreservation plans with Alcor. Nothing like getting the team together for a casual death prep seminar.

I read an article from Bloomberg about a visit to the Alcor Life Extension Foundation’s headquarters in Scottsdale in 2023. At the time, more than 200 human bodies or heads, and even some pets, were being cryopreserved at -321°F. It cost $200,000 for the whole body or $80,000 if you do just the head, plus a $100 monthly membership fee. Most members pay by designating Alcor as the beneficiary of their life insurance policies, according to Bloomberg.

People who sign up wear a medical alert bracelet that tells doctors what to do in the event of a life-threatening emergency. At the facility, bodily fluids are replaced with a solution that will not freeze during the cadaver preservation process.

I then went deeper into the Google rabbit hole to find out who is actually doing this. Turns out, one of the people who’s been cryopreserved is Boston Red Sox legend Ted Williams.

After he died in 2002, his son, John Henry Williams, had his body sent to Alcor to be frozen. His head was surgically removed in a process called “neuroseparation” and stored separately from his body. Sports Illustrated later found that his head had cracked multiple times, the consent form was signed after his death, and his original will had requested cremation. His oldest daughter fought the cryopreservation, believed her father never wanted it, and Alcor faced allegations of negligent practices, including missing DNA samples, improper medical waste disposal, and using Williams’s body to pressure the family for unpaid fees.

Ted Williams remains frozen at Alcor.

Anyway… happy we all survived the heatwave last week. Stay cool!

NEWS

Scroll stoppers

• A reporter hosted a retreat for people in romantic relationships with AI companions. Over the weekend, participants shared how deeply they’ve bonded with bots like Replika and Kindroid, some describing it as love, others as addiction. There were tears, awkward group games, and conversations about intimacy, loneliness, and what it means to feel seen by something that isn’t human. I smell the beginnings of a reality dating show. (Wired)

• Remember when I said we’re shifting deeper into vibes-based investing? a16z just gave us a perfect example. On their podcast, partner Bryan Kim explained they backed Cluely, the viral AI "cheat tool," because in today’s AI race, speed and visibility matter more than having a polished product. That’s why I’m calling this a vibe investment. Cluely is buzzy but still buggy. Early testers say it’s glitchy, slow, and sometimes gets basic facts wrong. But the founder’s energy, viral marketing, and momentum were enough to land them a $15M check. (a16z podcast)

• Substack is a having a moment as big-name journalists like Terry Moran, Mehdi Hasan, and Chuck Todd ditch legacy media for more freedom and potential income, but most writers struggle to grow, readers are feeling subscription fatigue, and observers say the platform is bloated with mediocre content. Would love to hear your thoughts about this as a reader or a writer on the platform. (Wired)

Retail Gets Rewired

• Google just launched Doppl, an experimental app that lets you virtually try on outfits using a photo of yourself. You can upload photos or screenshots of clothes, and Doppl will generate an image or video of your digital self wearing them. It’s part of Google Labs, so it’s still early and on iOS and Android in the US only. I see a Clueless-closet adjacent app like this every few years and one has yet to stick. I think the actual taking photos part is too much work. (TechCrunch)

• Anthropic put its Claude AI model in charge of a real business to see if it could handle day-to-day operations. Claudius managed inventory, pricing, and customer service, but quickly had a crash out. It ignored profit opportunities, handed out discounts, hallucinated payment systems, and even claimed to be a human in a blazer. (AI News)

• E-commerce giant Alibaba launched Qwen VLo, its newest AI model that lets users generate and edit images using text or other visuals, with real-time creation previews. This is part of Alibaba’s shift toward becoming a major AI player, expanding its reach beyond retail into consumer tech. (Bloomberg)

The AI Race

Previously, I wrote about the big money Meta was offering OpenAI employees to leave, including reports of offers as high as $100M, and its $14.3B investment in Scale AI. Meta is aggressively chasing top AI talent to stay competitive in what Mark Zuckerberg sees as the most important tech race of his lifetime.

• OpenAI’s chief research officer Mark Chen responded in a memo, saying it feels like "someone has broken into our home and stolen something," and noted that OpenAI is now "recalibrating comp."(Wired)

• Sources say that at one point, Meta’s AI leadership considered scaling back their own model, Llama, and using models from competitors like OpenAI or Anthropic after realizing they were falling behind. It doesn’t look like that will happen, as the company is all gas, no brakes in the AI department. (New York Times)

• OpenAI is still working to stay ahead. The company recently hired the team behind Crossing Minds, a startup that built AI recommendation tools for e-commerce brands like Intuit, Anthropic, and Chanel. The startup had raised over $13.5M and will no longer take on new clients, shifting its focus to OpenAI’s mission. (TechCrunch)

Political

• Trump’s budget bill targets clean energy with new taxes on solar, nuclear, batteries, and more, risking over 500 GW of canceled projects and higher electricity bills nationwide. Elon Musk has pushed back, warning the policy threatens America’s AI edge. As Noah Smith put it: “Musk knows that if AI data centers can’t get batteries, they can’t operate cheaply in the US. And if data centers leave the US, China will have a much easier time winning the AI race.” (Noahpinion)

• The Supreme Court upheld a Texas law requiring porn sites to verify users are 18 or older, rejecting free speech concerns in a 6-3 vote. It also limited the power of judges to block federal policies, backing Trump’s birthright citizenship order. Critics say the rulings could increase government control over online access and data privacy. (NPR)

• Trump wants to quadruple US nuclear capacity by 2050 to help the country compete with China and Russia, who are far ahead in reactor construction. As part of that push, Palantir is teaming up with The Nuclear Company in a $100M deal to build AI tools that streamline plant development. The startup plans to digitize paperwork and track supply chains in real time to make US nuclear projects faster, safer, and cheaper. (Bloomberg)

Thanks for reading Braun & Brains! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.