• … the trail ahead will contain a reconciliation of a dedication to the free market, and its atomization and isolation of particular person desires and desires, with the insatiable human need for some type of collective expertise and endeavor… the atomization of every day life in America and the broader West left a lane open for expertise companies, together with ours, to recruit and retain a era of expertise that needed to do one thing apart from tinker with monetary markets or seek the advice of.

• —Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska, The Technological Republic: Exhausting Energy, Mushy Perception, and the Way forward for the West1, p. 217

Of their e book, The Technological Republic, the authors recount how in 2012 the American army used Palantir software program in Afghanistan to raised anticipate the situation of Improvised Explosive Units (IEDs).

• In Afghanistan, software program made by Palantir had discovered a dedicated band of supporters, significantly within the U.S. Particular Forces, with groups the place intelligence, and the flexibility to rapidly navigate throughout databases and sew collectively context prematurely of missions, had been important. p. 152

A part of the e book is a meditation on start-up tradition. However a lot of the e book reads like one thing a Professor of Classics may need written circa 1985, in the midst of the Decade of Greed, lamenting the scholars’ crass materialism and lack of curiosity in Western Civilization or the upper objectives in life.

In type, The Technological Republic additionally owes one thing to twentieth century tutorial mental writing. In only one six-page part, the authors consult with and/or quote Thomas Hart Benton, Jackson Pollock, Jack Kerouac, Rene Girard, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Isaiah Berlin, Herbert Hoover, and John Dewey.

The outline of start-up tradition emphasizes an organizational construction with minimal hierarchy. I personally have written, “The extra titles a company has, the extra it is going to choose for individuals who actually care about titles.”2 The authors write,

• … we’ve got, at Palantir, tried to foster a tradition by which standing is seen as an instrumental, not intrinsic good… Each human establishment, together with the expertise giants of Silicon Valley, has a method of organizing personnel, and such organizations will usually require the elevation of sure people over others. The distinction is the rigidity of these constructions, that’s, the velocity with which they are often dismantled or rearranged, and the proportion of the artistic power of a workforce that goes into sustaining such constructions and to self-promotion inside them. p. 125

They level out that the engineering mindset is pragmatic: the software program has to work. Workers should really feel accountable. As an alternative of a tradition of blame-shifting, unhealthy outcomes are studied when it comes to systemic causes and options.

Greater Motives

The authors complain that too many Silicon Valley corporations wish to make large income from fixing little issues. They would favor to see extra concentrate on what they see because the essential points, resembling nationwide safety and well being.

Whereas the authors take many alternatives to scorn finance, consulting, and particularly the event of functions for purchasing and leisure, they don’t seem to be social justice activists. They take delight within the software of Palantir software program to assist police.

• The view that superior expertise and software program haven’t any place in native legislation enforcement is an archetypical “luxurious perception,” to make use of the time period of the writer Rob Henderson. The chance is that we abandon an ethical or moral system oriented round outcomes—the outcomes that matter most to individuals (much less starvation, crime, and illness) in favor of a much more performative discourse…. p. 177-178

Whereas I got here away from The Technological Republic with some insights, I used to be additionally left with some essential questions that I wish to have seen addressed.

One query is how Palantir was capable of adapt to promote to governments and enormous firms. Giant organizations undertake thorough evaluations of main purchases, placing would-be sellers by a protracted and irritating course of. You possibly can spend months assembly with mid-level workers who aren’t even licensed to make a purchase order resolution. You must navigate the complicated inner politics and competing pursuits throughout the group. I’d have preferred to see some examples illustrating how Palantir was in a position to try this.

One other query considerations the federal government’s tradition. How involved are the authors that the federal government might not be capable to adapt to the tempo of change, particularly within the nascent discipline of synthetic intelligence? What suggestions would they’ve to supply to public officers?

The ultimate query that I’ve considerations the character of the “republic” that the authors take into account. Is a partnership between the engineering elites and the political management actually the answer? What function wouldn’t it depart for the remainder of us?

Footnotes

[1] Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska, The Technological Republic: Exhausting Energy, Mushy Perception, and the Way forward for the West. Crown Foreign money, 2025.

[2] “Social Media and different Standing Video games,” by Arnold Kling. In My Tribe, Might 8, 2024.