Peter Thiel picks some books

In an earlier blog post, I remarked that Internet billionaire (and philanthopist) Peter Thiel is interested in many of the ideas that Robert Anton Wilson is interested in — immortality, space migration, the Internet, and more. And he's putting his money where his mouth is, trying to make these things happen.

So when I saw that Thiel was one of 50 people that the Wall Street Journal interviewed to ask about their favorite books of 2012, I was interested. Here is the first book Thiel mentioned:

"Sonia Arrison's 100 Plus was first published in 2011, but its message is evergreen: how scientists are directly attacking the problem of aging and death and why we should fight for life instead of accepting decay as inevitable. The goal of longer life doesn't just mean more years at the margin; it means a healthier old age. There is nothing to fear but our own complacency."

The rest of his picks are available here; you'll have to scroll down a bit, but the people quoted are in alphabetical order, so you can find Thiel pretty quickly.

The WSJ also did a weekend interview with Thiel a couple of years ago that I had missed; it's here.

Here's a bit from the piece that reminds me of RAW: "Innovation, he says, comes from a 'frontier' culture, a culture of 'exceptionalism,' where 'people expect to do exceptional things' ..."