Joe Rogan and Peter Thiel discuss how alien civilization that can travel faster than light would be either "demons or angels"

Ancient civilizations and aliens are often recurring topics in the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. In a recent appearance on the JRE, PayPal founder Peter Thiel and Rogan discussed what an alien civilization that has cracked the code of faster-than-light travel might mean for the universe.

As the billionaire businessman sees it, access to such technology will open unprecedented opportunities for the wielders and will have dire consequences for the rest of the universe.

Speaking on episode #2190 on the JRE, Thiel stated:

"I always wonder what the alien civilization could be like and if you have faster-than-light travel... which is probably what you really need to cover interstellar distances. What that means for military technology is that you can send weapons at warp speed and they will hit you before you see them coming."

The American entrepreneur suspects that there will never be a viable defense for faster-than-light weaponry, and those having access to such technology can effortlessly take over the whole universe.

As such, he believes a civilization possessing light-speed propulsion systems cannot entertain individual free will but will have to adhere to something akin to a hive mind to police how it's wielded.

In essence, Thiel maintains that only celestial beings should have access to a technology of such consequence:

"They have to be perfectly altruistic, non-self-interest [driven], they have to be angels... The aliens, it's not that they might be demons or angels, they must be demons or angels if you have faster-than-light travel."

Catch Joe Rogan and Peter Thiel's comments below (2:46:00):

---

When Peter Thiel told Joe Rogan his theory on why nuclear energy is frowned upon

Peter Thiel believes while the nuclear disasters in Chernobyl and Fukushima dissuaded the world from depending on nuclear power plants for their energy needs, it is not the primary reason why the technology is frowned upon.

During the podcast, the 56-year-old told Joe Rogan that the weaponization potential of the technology was the real reason why nuclear power plants are not being widely used for daily energy needs:

"My alternate theory on why nuclear energy really stopped is that it was sort of dystopian or even apocalyptic, because it turned out to be dual use. If you build nuclear power plants, it's only sort of one step away from building nuclear weapons and it turned out to be a lot trickier to separate those two things out than it looked."