Thiel actually lampshades this himself:

> Warp drive is in fact hard to take seriously because its basic physics are so far beyond the furthest reaches of our knowledge as to debilitate would-be researchers—not to mention reasonable doubts about the friendliness of faraway foreign species. (Some of them, I assume, are good aliens.)

Romanticized rubbish.

Humanities destiny is to blow itself up or fade with time.

Anything it does between now and then isn’t because of elite consensus it must be done but majority consensus not to kill the elites they outnumber mightily.

Why NOT build explosive rockets since nothing matters? It’s not because Thiel & elites think it’s a good idea. They’re ideologues about their own importance.

I didn't think much of it. It seemed like yet another take on on his usual "We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters."

Which he bemoans as bad government or something, but I suspect is a consequence of software eating the world.

I think Peter Thiel has too much time on his hands.