The New Dealers, whatever their faults, pushed science hard and scaled funding, whereas today an equivalent of Einstein's letter to the White House would get lost in the mailroom and the Manhattan Project would be unthinkable; the word 'moonshot' has degraded from meaning an achievable goal (going to the moon) to meaning something fictional that will never happen.
factualpending
Speaker
Peter ThielEvidence Quote
“if there was an equivalent of Einstein and he wrote a letter to the White House, it would get lost in the mail room, and the Manhattan Project is unthinkable.”
Source
A.I., Mars and Immortality: Are We Dreaming Big Enough? | Interesting Times with Ross Douthat— Interesting Times with Ross DouthatCreated: 6/18/2026, 2:32:27 PM
My Notes
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