Citizens, Not Consumers
The West faces a crisis of confidence on a scale unseen for decades. Just as an axis of revisionist powers—China, Russia, and Iran—threatens the post-Cold War global order, the citizens of the United States and other countries that have benefited the most from those arrangements are beginning to question its very foundations. Will the rise of right-wing populism and left-wing identity politics knock the United States from her position of leadership? Will the people of the West have enough nerve to defend their freedom against the gathering storm?
In their new book, The Technological Republic, Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska argue that America still has the resources to win this fight—and that they can be found in Silicon Valley. Karp is the chief executive officer of Palantir Technologies, a software company that makes intelligence and defense tools for the US military, and Zamiska acts as head of corporate affairs and legal counsel at the same firm. They believe that Big Tech companies have been focused for too long on digitally serving individual consumers and instead must apply their technical know-how to national security problems for the sake of the common good. Their book is, in a sense, an attempt to articulate what engineers’ skills mean for their vocation as citizens.
There is something admirably earnest about this vision, especially in an era defined by bitter irony. The authors’ unabashed love for our civilization is bracing, and one hopes that it will help recruit patriotic young engineers for Palantir and similar firms working on national security issues. They are also refreshingly clear about the threats we face, externally and internally, from deeply anti-civilizational forces. The book is therefore an effective call to arms for technologists. At the same time, though, it somewhat lacks a narrative about the overarching meaning of the American Republic sufficiently powerful to move the whole people, something that, as its authors recognize, is absolutely necessary for the coming struggle.
As we prepare for these challenges, we cannot underestimate the radical change wrought by the Digital Revolution. The wonders coming out of Silicon Valley will upend nearly every aspect of our lives and completely remake our economy, both by automating significant parts of day-to-day work and possibly exposing us to new and terrifying risks from autocracies exploiting these new technologies. Karp and Zamiska argue, therefore, that “the legitimacy of the American government and democratic regimes around the world will require an increase in economic and technical output that can be achieved only through the more efficient adoption of technology and software.” Figuring out how to handle the great leap in innovation, according to our authors, is the great governance challenge of the twenty-first century.
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