"You would prefer the human race to endure, right?" Ross Douthat, columnist for The New York Times, asked.

The pause that followed stretched into eternity. Peter Thiel, one of Silicon Valley's most powerful minds, sat frozen. His mouth opened slightly, then closed. The seconds ticked by.

Finally, after what felt like geological time: "I don't know... I would..." He stammered, searching for words that wouldn't come. When Douthat asked again, Thiel eventually said yes. But then he said 'but.' This few seconds revelead what this guy is made of.

Here is a man with billions of dollars, unprecedented influence over the future of technology (and politics), and he can’t immediately answer whether humanity should survive.