October 2026

2.4 Kurzweil and the AI industry

Andreessen's "Techno-Optimist Manifesto" (16 Oct 2023) ends with "Patron Saints of Techno-Optimism," a list of 56 names. It includes Nick Land, Ray Kurzweil, F.T. Marinetti (who later co-wrote the Fascist Manifesto), Nietzsche and John Galt, plus @BasedBeffJezos (a16z) [V]. So Land and Kurzweil appear side by side as "saints" in a document by one of Trump-era tech's most influential investors.
Kurzweil: predicts AGI by 2029 and the Singularity by 2045 (The Singularity Is Nearer, 2024) [R].
Stargate: announced at the White House on 21 Jan 2025 by OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle and MGX, up to $500B (OpenAI, AP) [V-s].
Federal AI policy:
- "America's AI Action Plan" (July 2025) ties AI-related federal funds to states not having "burdensome" AI rules (PDF) [V].
- EO 14363 "Launching the Genesis Mission" (24 Nov 2025), a DOE-led AI-for-science platform (whitehouse.gov) [V].
- EO 14365 "Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence" (11 Dec 2025) creates an AG task force to challenge state AI laws and adds funding restrictions (whitehouse.gov, Federal Register) [V].
Musk: left DOGE and feuded with Trump in June 2025. He posted that Trump was "in the Epstein files," then deleted the post (CNN, Time) [V].
Doesn't show: a shared religious eschatology. The convergence is about capital (data-center capex, preemption of state regulation) and geopolitics (China).