Call/Meeting Summary: First Connection After Stoa Testimony

Overview

First video call with Emily Slade, who cold DM'd Gary after his testimony presentation at The Stoa Worldviews class. Deep alignment discovered on faith journey, Christians-in-tech intersection, AI disruption, and spiritual warfare. Emily offered to nominate Gary for Reality Israel trip and discussed potential collaboration on building Christian community in tech.

Key Topics Discussed

Emily's Faith Background

Biracial Religious Upbringing:

• Father: Strict Southern Baptist from Chevron's Texas contingent in East Bay
• Mother: Liberal hippie who "dabbled in a lot of different belief systems" (Buddhism, Judaism)
• "Definitely the only blonde kids dancing in the Buddhist Moon Festival in Berkeley"

Recent Faith Renewal:

• Went to Israel with Reality in 2017, became curious about Judaism
• May 2024 trip (during active conflict) brought her back to Christianity
• "My faith in Jesus and my experience as a Christian really came back to me in a pretty powerful and profound way"
• Currently exploring churches in LA, looking for community

Reality Israel Opportunity

The Program:

• 50/50 Jew/non-Jew delegations for tech/VC professionals
• All expenses underwritten; runs since ~2009-2011
• Emily is on the board and facilitates tech/venture trips
• Visits include: Western Wall, Bethlehem (West Bank), Golan Heights, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Gaza envelope

Nomination Offer:

• Emily offered to nominate Gary for the program
• Deadline: February 2026
• She may facilitate the trip if she commits to doing tech/venture delegation again

Gary's Response:

• Already interested in going to Israel (was thinking about December)
• Wrote a letter to friend Isaiah about Israel/prophecy connection
• Referenced Derek Prince on biblical prophecy about Jewish persecution in end times
• "The thing that most people are uncomfortable bringing up... is it's actually in the Bible that the Jews would be persecuted increasingly towards the end times"

Christians in Tech: A Nascent Space

Gary's Assessment:

• "To make Christ the main part of your identity in tech... that is like nonexistent"
• Mentioned his tiny WhatsApp group "Christofuturism"
• Recent win: Friend got job at Hallow prayer app (only job he applied to)
• Big cities need fellowship groups for this intersection

The Trichotomy:

• Gary referenced his Stoa presentation framework
• Three camps: Brian Johnson/Peter Thiel (transhumanism), Nick Fuentes/Candace Owens (political Christianity), and genuine faith community
• "The eternal life that I care about... is through Jesus. It's not through a particular supplement."

Emily's Discovery:

• Found Act 17 Collective (Trey Stevens' wife's nonprofit)
• Gary Tan and Peter Thiel on homepage
• Emily fascinated by Peter Thiel's Antichrist research
• Suggested Gary explore Trey Stevens' Sean Ryan interview

Applied AI Society

Gary's Pitch:

• Launching community for "implementers of AI"
• Not everyone needs to build foundation models or SaaS
• "Applied AI Engineer" role is emerging for business process automation
• Target: Young graduates in tough job market, laid-off engineers

Emily's Framework:

• "There's going to be a need for a whole layer of humans to help us transition humans into this next thing"
• Called it a "Guild of people who are Sherpas" for disrupted industries
• Referenced Balaji's early blockchain education incentive program

Gary on Identity:

• "My identity is just evolution"
• "No one is an expert" in AI right now
• Sees Applied AI Society as his "tiny, tiny dent in the world"

Spiritual Warfare

Gary's Journey:

• Introduced through Steven Pressfield's "War of Art" (secular take on resistance)
• Now fully believes in supernatural spiritual warfare
• "The devil personalizes it depending on who you are"
• For Gary: "He just makes it a little harder to want to wake up in the morning"

Gary's Dark Past:

• Built largest police brutality awareness Facebook page (2017)
• "I led hordes of online strangers to downvote police stations"
• "I was so in a dark flow... I was just really enjoying going viral every time a police shooting happened"
• Ex-girlfriend confronted him: "You changed. You're way less fun to be around."
• Realization: "If your ideology is disconnecting you from your loved ones... it's probably not the ideology that can construct a civilization"

Political Polarization:

• Emily on the left's "moral inversion": "There must be a spiritual component here because they are too smart"
• Gary's friend runs huge left-wing social media accounts AND is best friends with Breitbart's CEO
• "They literally go to basketball games together and compare notes on how to make their respective audiences more insane"

Pastor and Miracles

How Gary Met His Pastor:

• Woman in San Antonio had Gary "come up in her spirit" during prayer
• Connected Gary to pastor 4 hours from Austin (outside Houston)
• Pastor: Had house church for years, prison ministry, not on Google Maps
• Raised people from the dead, performs signs and wonders

The Healing:

• Gary: "Pastor prayed for my eyes and they got better"
• Doesn't share widely because "sequencing of when the world is ready for certain things"
• Currently "a radical thing to be a Christian that believes in the supernatural"

Cessationism Context:

• Gary explained Baptists are typically "cessationists" (believe miracles ended in first century)
• Emily's response: "Oh, I don't like that. And it hasn't been my experience personally either."

AI and End Times

Gary's View:

• "AI is really such a unique alien animal"
• "Hard for me to not see it as we're getting closer to the end"
• Chaos will increase, but "outpouring of the spirit is going to increase as well"

Problem Awareness:

• People come to Christ when they need something
• "That's why it's rare for a super wealthy person to enter the kingdom"
• Job automation will create mass vulnerability
• "Whatever Nick Fuentes is saying sounds really good. Or radical Islam sounds really good" to desperate people

Emily's New Role

Inspired (Starting Jan 20):

• Head of Philanthropy for fundraising software platform
• Running foundation for "cultural reframing of philanthropy and giving for next gen wealth"
• Novel matching algorithm: donors pre-pledge, consumers get $25 gift to allocate

Personal Goals 2026:

• Finish building house
• Continue spiritual journey
• Find right church in LA
• Interested in Christians-in-tech community building

Key Quotes

Emily on Gary's Presentation:

"I've never experienced anyone young and in tech giving a testimonial, especially in an environment like that with such a rational kind of framework."

Gary on His Evolution:

"Those evolutions were 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4. And then this one's like a 2.0... I don't expect to be Buddhist in 20 years."

Gary on Spiritual Reality:

"As the general public, we've completely disenchanted ourselves from our spiritual reality. That's actually a problem... A lot of the mental health conversations are symptom conversations about spiritual things happening in the spiritual realm."

Emily on AI Transition:

"There's going to be this layer of people like us who are AI native... not afraid of it, embracing it. And we can communicate to everyone else who's going to be pretty freaked out."

Gary on Addiction Industry:

"We just keep inventing new addictions... What I want is to just continually hunger for the Holy Spirit."

Gary on Commitment:

"It's very basic but very few people consistently do it. Do what you say you're going to do. And trust that the fewer things you're doing are going to provide for you because it was part of your calling."

Action Items / Takeaways

• Gary: Apply for Reality Israel trip (Feb deadline)
• Emily: Send Reality Israel application link and nominate Gary
• Emily: Send Trey Stevens podcast episode
• Gary: Share Apostle Delmar book draft and password
• Gary: Add Emily to Daily Spirit (33 friends receiving daily encouragement)
• Both: Explore co-creating Christians-in-tech LA chapter
• Both: Stay connected on faith journey via text

Notable Dynamics

Mutual Recognition:

• Emily: "I just felt so called to your experience"
• Gary: "It's been very rare where I see someone whose calculus for where they dedicate their energy is clearly not just money... It's clearly like truth."

Shared Identity:

• Both identify as "peer Sherpas" for people in transition
• Both evolved from left-leaning to values-aligned perspectives
• Both struggle with over-commitment due to curiosity

Spiritual Warfare Alignment:

• Both see political polarization as having spiritual component
• Emily specifically asked about spiritual warfare unprompted
• Gary shared vulnerability about his past dark activism