Ask HN: Have the founders of Palentir and Anduril ever read Tolkien?

2 points by nativeit 3 days ago | 4 comments

The Lord of the Rings famously includes very strong thematic critiques of industrialization and technological encroachment into everyday life.[0] Tolkien portrays the titular relics, as well as many of the other magical artifacts in Middle Earth like the palentiri, as tools of evil, destruction, and environmental devastation. Tolkien cited his upbringing in the rapidly industrializing English Midlands and his experiences in World War I as major influences, and used the typical Arthurian framing of good versus evil to contrast natural, agrarian life with the soulless, mechanical efficiency of industrialization.

So my question is--have the founders of Palentir[1] and Anduril[2] ever actually read JRR Tolkien, and if so, did they comprehend its text? Assuming they do understand the symbolism behind their company names, are they just trolling us; Or are they simply engaging in a gimmicky, cynical effort to commoditize our nostalgia as a branding exercise for manufacturers of the literal tools for war? I'm not sure which would be worse, but the whole thing makes me feel nauseous.[3]

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0. [Themes of The Lord of the Rings - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Themes_of_The_Lord_of_the_Rings#)

1. The Palantíri (singular: palantír) are indestructible, magical crystal balls used for long-distance communication and scrying. Derived from the Elvish language Quenya, the name translates to "Far-seer". It also refers to a prominent provider of data mining and surveillance technology.

2. Andúril (elvish word meaning "Flame of the West") is Aragorn’s legendary sword that was forged by the Elves of Rivendell from the shards of Narsil, the iconic weapon broken when Elendil fell in the Second Age. It also refers to prominent defense contractor who develops military technology specialized in advanced autonomous systems.

3. This is only tangentially relevant (at best) but I'm gonna leave it here anyhow: https://therepublicofletters.substack.com/p/calvin-and-hobbes-and-the-price-of

arter45 3 days ago |

Well at least Anduril refers to a sword used by the “good guys” so, industrialization aside, it is a somewhat reasonable name for a US defense company.

Palantir really doesn’t make sense. It’s like developing a bulletproof vest and naming it Horcrux… sure, in the HP world a Horcrux does protect you from death, but it is very associated to evil, so no one who is really fan of the saga would choose that name, especially for a publicly known product.

Then again maybe they just asked an LLM “I have a surveillance solution. I want to name it after a fantasy concept. Any ideas?”

halperter 3 days ago |

Either they are

a) buffoons who have surface level comprehesion of LoTR,

b) impulsively decided on a famous fantasy name for their tech (surprisingly common), or

c) playing up the "morally ambiguous" trope. Palantir serves evil as a service to whoever is willing to pay (USFG).

My money is on c.

ben_w 3 days ago | |

Probably all three, at a minimum (c): there's a rumour going around (that I can't source) the people working there are very happy every time the press calls them "bond villains" because it correlates with the stock price going up.

Thiel's associate Musk has been accused of (a) with regard to Iain M Banks' Culture series.

stop50 3 days ago | |

my gues would be a+b+c