The restless Prometheus: The Technological Republic by Karp and Zamiska.

Reading The Technological Republic by Alexander C. Karp and  Nicholas W. Zamiska left me deeply disturbed and uneasy. While I recognized the phenomena and symptoms described in the book to be certainly legit, I experienced a surge of restlessness of reason about the wider connotations, after reading the book with pleasure. 

The authors are spot on in identifying the consumerism behind the recent boom of AI. It may even be acknowledged that there is a certain element of free riding or free lunch, vouchsafed by the existence of the nation-state, with its political and military might, which the AI startup types typically stay away from. Palantir, founded by Karp, Pieter Tiel, and others, has filled that vacant space, an intersection of the free enterprise and the harsh reality of the world.

There remain enigma and scope for investigation in the present-day Leviathans that are the nation-states. Countries such as the United States, China, Russia, and others are constraints on human activities, and they would not disappear into the air no matter how your mindset might tell otherwise. Even in the free-for-all zeitgeist of TikTok and ChatGPT, you would ignore the Leviathans at your peril.

On the other hand, there is something deeply counterintuitive about the nation-states. The spirit of Prometheus that is bringing a new fire to humanity does not thrive at the center of the Leviathan. There are certain truths about the idea that a nation-state would be the punisher, rather than the promotor, of the free flight and dance of Prometheus. In an ideal world, Prometheus would afford to be blissfully unaware of the pressure of the Leviathan. But of course, we are not living in an ideal world. We never did, and perhaps never will be. 

It is genuinely interesting to consider the makeup of decision making platforms that Palantir and other companies are developing, whether or not they are related to military/security purposes, the muscle and bone of the nation-states. There would be much scope for extended agency beyond that of the individual humans, and Karp and his colleagues are in an interesting ballpark.

There is a clear undertone of The Technological Republic that leaves a strong aftertaste, suggesting the ultimate preferability of the Western ideology of democracy and free market, as an extension of the Francis Fukuyama vision at the end of the Cold War. Perhaps it is true that we have lost the polar star in the midst of academic fads and waves of political correctness. On the other hand, technologies such as AI do seem to tango with the authoritarian governments as well. Whether the technological republic to come will turn out to be benign or malicious is still an open historical question. Issues raised and hinted in this treatise would provide foods for thoughts for those concerned, in all walks of life, beyond that of the technophiles. The Technological Republic an important book that provokes new thoughts rather than settling to fixed ideas, which is always great in a time of transitions such as this.  

Reviewed by Ken Mogi