French spy service drops Palantir
15h 50m ago by sh.itjust.works/u/FoxtrotDeltaTango in world from www.politico.eu
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/48244741
This spy ain't spy enough for the spy of us!
I don't really have any personal intrinsic issues with Palantir, but every time I see it, it still boggles my mind that they chose that name. Like, from a branding standpoint, just why?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBMiyEzOJmI&t=110
Gandalf: "You know this?"
Saruman: "I have seen it."
Gandalf: "A palantír is a dangerous tool, Saruman."
Saruman: "Why? Why should we fear to use it?"
Gandalf: "They are not all accounted for, the lost seeing stones. We do not know who else may be watching!" He throws a sheet over the palantír, catching a momentary glimpse of Sauron's eye and recoiling.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palant%C3%ADr
The stones were an unreliable guide to action, since what was not shown could be more important than what was selectively presented. A risk lay in the fact that users with sufficient power could choose what to show and what to conceal to other stones: in The Lord of the Rings, a palantír has fallen into the Enemy's hands, making the usefulness of all other existing stones questionable.

I mean, yes, I like Tolkien too, but for fuck's sake. Just pick some sort of suitably-bland name that, oh, alludes to "insight" or "data" or "analytics", like "Deepsight" or something like that.
You're over thinking it. These people are not Tolkien fans. They are fans of believing themselves "very smart" by claiming the bad guys are actually the good guys, because the bad guys tried to destroy the status quo. They want a world where they can do whatever they want with no consequence. Any law that binds them is seen as oppression.
Wouldn't be surprised to hear Palantir was scraping data from the French spy service while they worked for them.