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Notes -
Tolkien is pretty clear that the Palantir are not evil, were not created by evil, but merely perilous because evil had one of them.
That is some deep lore then. I mostly remember the movies, and in those the Palantir is used by Sauron to communicate with Saruman, and it seems like once someone looks inside it, Sauron can completely dominate their will/read their mind. That is what it looked like, and why I assumed Gandalf was so intent on getting the orb out of the Took's hands.
Given that, I think my association of "evil surveillance orb" fits quite well.
Quite. Naming your system after a fantasy tool that was once used for good and has been corrupted by evil and thus dangerous to use with skeptical returns should have everyone giving you a side-eye and going 'Bruh'.
People can be very superficial. I have to keep talking a friend out of making his technology startup Panopticon. Somehow I cannot get it through his head that yes it’s cool but you really really don’t want to name your project after a dystopian prison because I am not the only person who knows what that word means.
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