“I love the idea of getting a drone and having light fentanyl-laced urine spraying on analysts that tried to screw us,” is the reported comment of American chief executive Alex Karp. He is the co-founder of the software company Palintir Technologies.
His company supplies sophisticated technologies to the American defence and security sectors. Their advanced data analysis allows clients, according to Karp, “to scare our enemies and, on occasion, kill them”.
Palintir is one of a group of companies revolutionising the American defence industry. Named after a crystal ball in the The Lord of the Rings, they are leading the fusion of artificial intelligence with national security. This company now has a stock market valuation of more than $200 billion.
His first book, co-authored with Nicholas Zamiska, offers insights into the culture and mindset that have created this company. The broader value is a wider critique of Silicon Valley and a unique vision for the role of technology within democracies.
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The Technological Republic offers a glimpse into the new America and the restless and radical mood causing so much upheaval.
Karp is a strong advocate of the merits of markets and entrepreneurs disrupting the existing ways of doing business, arguing for the benefits of new and fast-moving technologies’ “creative destruction”. However, he appreciates the fundamental importance of the state and its role in enabling and directing scientific research.
The opening page makes this clear. It laments “the decline of government innovation” and the retreat of the state from scientific innovation. The mantle has not been taken up by the private sector. He bluntly states that “Silicon Valley has lost its way”.
The concept of the entrepreneurial state has been developed by the brilliant economist, Mariana Mazzucato. She challenges the suggestion that brilliant innovation and commercial success are the product of unfettered free markets. Mazzucato points to the essential role of the state in conducting and funding research that is used by the private sector.
This argument is punchily made by Karp and his co-author. The opening chapter points to many examples that demonstrate the “entanglement of the state and scientific research” and the “even longer history between innovation and politics”.
The authors are scathing about the lack of recognition by tech whizzkids of this essential role of governments. They argue that “The wunderkinder of Silicon Valley – their fortunes, business empires, and more fundamentally, entire sense of state – exist because of the nation that in many cases made their rise possible”.
The advent of the “software century” makes this collaboration essential. The couching of this argument through the framework of defence and weaponry will be uncomfortable for some readers.
But the need for Europe to look after its own security is now clear. Other examples could also be used to demonstrate the need for partnership between the state and private markets.
The most interesting section of this book is Part II, titled The Hollowing Out of the American Mind. This is a well-written critique of the decline of “shared purpose – the systematic dismantling of the West – that has left us unable to confront issues with moral clarity or true conviction”.
Technology, this work contends, has wondered into a cul-de-sac. Companies are more interested in the next home shopping app, not the creation of technologies that can change the world.
The authors attribute responsibility for this alleged atrophy to the excesses of liberalism and the remorseless scrutiny of public figures. This has led to a “self-editing” that corrodes public debate and the leadership of open societies.
The difficulty with this critique is that the political apostles of this creed seem hell-bent on worsening the harm. The fear of public debate is building not lessening. The West is weakened, for now, not strengthened. Institutions that are crucial to science and innovation are losing, not increasing, support.
These criticisms of Silicon Valley and the impact of technology are harsh. The impact of AI on life science, for example, is extraordinary.
The concluding chapters of the book make the case for a common democratic cause, for the embrace of a shared national vision. The authors argue for the value of “affirming shared cultural traditions, mythologies and values” while acknowledging the risks of “the cultivation of an overly muscular and unthoughtful nationalism”.
The bluntness of Karp would make Michael O’Leary blush. So, this is a surprising book. It is nuanced and provocative. Even the most ardent pacifist should consider the arguments in it. Whether the energies that this book summons can be directed towards the health of democracies and their alliances may yet be the crucial question of our era.
Paschal Donohoe is the Minister for Finance and president of the Eurogroup
