I would not call it gradually rising. Pods would be moving at huge speeds and then hit viscuos fluid (compared with vacuum)
It would be like hitting a wall. Pod should be constructed like supersonic jet to avoid crash.
I read Thiel's argument more like a cultural criticism than the lack of talented inventors coming up with great things.
Being engineer myself, I believe it's impossible to be a good or sane one without being optimistic. However we always must be aware of the broader society and HN does not represent it.
There always was some societal resistance to technological change. Socrates hated books, for example. But take anti-vaccers. This is a group of people who reject an undeniably proven and extremely beneficial to society advancement, because they don't trust doctors and scientists.
Or take GMOs. In Europe some countries have banned growing of them and it seems to be because of popular pressure. So if you are a talented crop geneticist you are out of luck. And if you do work in the field of your interest, you probably do at the eviil Monsanto. Because they are the only ones that are big and rich enough to enable them to lobby politicians to stay in business.
We should be optimistic of future, but look at the broader culture. After all art does capture the zeitgeist and one of the most popular album of the year 2014 was titled - 1989...
(music's nice though)