“Investor Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies Inc., said the U.S. government is ‘in the Middle Ages’ when it comes to technology and science, impeding progress in Silicon Valley,” Greg Bensinger reports for The Wall Street Journal. “‘There’s an enormous gulf between Silicon Valley and Washington,’ said Mr. Thiel, speaking at the WSJD Live Global Technology Conference. ‘D.C. is dominated by law, by process and Silicon Valley is dominated by engineering and substance.'”
“According to Mr. Thiel, fewer than 35 of 535 members of Congress have backgrounds in science or technology,” Bensinger reports. “‘It’s very hard to get reasonable science, reasonable technology policy,’ he said. ‘The rest don’t understand that windmills don’t work when the wind isn’t blowing or that solar panels don’t work at night–they’re sort of in the Middle Ages.'”
“In a wide-ranging interview, Mr. Thiel touched on companies’ use of cash, the potential presidential candidacy of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and the running feud between ride-sharing companies Lyft Inc., in which he’s an investor, and Uber Technologies Inc.,” Bensinger reports. “Mr. Thiel said he supports some of Mr. Paul’s policies, but hadn’t yet decided whether to support the Kentucky Republican… On the Lyft-Uber feud, Mr. Thiel called Uber ‘the most ethically challenged company in the Valley.’ The company has been accused of wooing Lyft drivers and sending Lyft cars on sham calls. He said Uber’s $18 billion valuation is too high and doesn’t account for the obstacles it will face down the road.”
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