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Re:Peter Thiel Explains Biotech Investing Rationale: Get Rid... by srunni on Monday September 14, 2015 @04:39AM (#10214134)
> technology is trying to overcome the randomness that is nature

This is a major reason why consumer electronics and information technology have enabled so many more rapidly scalable businesses in recent decades than other industries (hence "We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters").

The technology industry is uniquely founded on physical phenomena that are deterministic, even at high speed or recursive complexity (CPUs, storage, networking, displays, peripherals, etc). Therefore, if you can think of something in a mathematical fashion, you know that it can be built. This essentially eliminates technical feasibility risk - rather than worrying about whether a product can be built, you can focus on what should be built and why.

Re:Peter Thiel Explains Biotech Investing Rationale: Get Rid... by zorked on Monday September 14, 2015 @06:02AM (#10214353)
Well, CPUs don't grow on trees. We got to the point of predictability through the same rocky, unpredictable process of eliminating randomness (a.k.a. science).
Re:Peter Thiel Explains Biotech Investing Rationale: Get Rid... by srunni on Monday September 14, 2015 @11:00AM (#10215374)
I don't mean the fabrication of those components, I mean their operation.

In living organisms, eliminating randomness in their operation would change their intended behavior in several ways - randomness is a feature, not a bug, in living organisms.