Palantir Posts Bond Villain Manifesto On X (engadget.com)
- Reference: 0181812168
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/04/20/1654212/palantir-posts-bond-villain-manifesto-on-x
- Source link: https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/palantir-posted-a-manifesto-that-reads-like-the-ramblings-of-a-comic-book-villain-181947361.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9zbGFzaGRvdC5vcmcv&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMMK33pOsKnoFS0qVcBdkXaw_R4-v7LgqJDqChQlni0Z667ngyKZpLz2QtsGwx90_wMqxzc_0MHxh-DR3s4mpiwINrL_RedBh9NHDNNekB6a8PKtkFTRJdZu4gO92-1WUjWXlDlRbntAPZHhDgz5tknYuzImgWgfMf99jVSxuyza
> Engadget reports that Palantir has [2]posted to X a summary of CEO Alex Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska's 2025 book,
>> [3]The Technological Republic ,
> which [4]reads like a utopian idealist doodled on a Bond villain's whiteboard . While the post makes some decent points, it also highlights the Big-AI attitude that the AI surveillance state is in fact a good thing, and strongly implies that the Good Guys need to do war crimes before the Bad Guys get around to it.
"The ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal," one of the 22 points states. "It requires hard power, and hard power in this century will be built on software."
The book is billed as "a passionate call for the West to wake up to our new reality," and other excerpts in the social media post include assertions such as: "Free email is not enough. The decadence of a culture or civilization, and indeed its ruling class, will be forgiven only if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public"; "National service should be a universal duty"; "The postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone"; and "Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive."
The statement criticizes the West's resistance to "defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity," as well as the treatment of billionaires and the "ruthless exposure of the private lives of public figures."
[1] https://slashdot.org/~DeanonymizedCoward
[2] https://x.com/PalantirTech/status/2045574398573453312?s=20
[3] https://techrepublicbook.com/
[4] https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/palantir-posted-a-manifesto-that-reads-like-the-ramblings-of-a-comic-book-villain-181947361.html
two wrongs don't make it right (Score:5, Insightful)
RE:"strongly implies that the Good Guys need to do war crimes before the Bad Guys get around to it."
murdering lots of innocents to kill a few bad guys is NOT justifiable, that makes you the bad guys too, that's how I see the current Iran war, it's not good guys vs bad guys, it is more like two gangs of criminals fighting over territory and resources
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
one of those "criminal gangs" is the legal ruling authority of the territory
Re: (Score:2)
> one of those "criminal gangs" is the legal ruling authority of the territory
i would expect he meant the us and israel, if there is any distinction by now. yes, that was meant ironically :-)
regardless, those are just labels. these people have no homeland, they see nothing but power, and democracy has always been a convenient facade for criminals to rule the world. it doesn't work anymore. you might see this retarded palantir tech-visionaire as a cartoon villain with delusions of world domination, but even these are just elite peons for the very same bankster gang who has been runnin
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Rating the truth as "troll?" Wow. really classy.
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Except the post at hand did nothing of the sort. That's something the reporter imagined and inserted on their own.
The world has cartoon villains (Score:1)
Ain't you caught up yet? We have real cartoon villains running the world now. This is it. Life is officially a joke.
Haven't read the book, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
From the summaries I've read, it comes across like the billionaire class attempting to justify all atrocities so long as they benefit the billionaire class. There's also some truly classy quotes from it about how any country that's not supplying the billionaire class with additional profit potential is a lost cause and should be annihilated in favor of countries that do provide them with additional profit potential, or at least assimilated.
People spout of about techno-feudalism. This book, at least from the way it's being advertised, seems to be the techno-feudalist manifesto. I feel it may be worth reading from the perspective of understanding the enemy, but man the excerpts make it sound like pure, distilled evil with a touch of window dressing.
Re: (Score:3)
Are those summaries or criticisms? If the post this article is about was the author's own summary, I don't see any connection to what you're saying. Did you read the twenty points listed, or just what the reporter claimed they said? In reading both, I have no idea what the hell the reporter is talking about. What he says and what the post says are almost completely unrelated.
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> Are those summaries or criticisms? If the post this article is about was the author's own summary, I don't see any connection to what you're saying. Did you read the twenty points listed, or just what the reporter claimed they said? In reading both, I have no idea what the hell the reporter is talking about. What he says and what the post says are almost completely unrelated.
I've read through several summaries elsewhere. It's really difficult to see reviews as anything but criticism because every glowing review gives off the ew vibes. Poke around online a bit. As a tech-company product, it seems to be pretty transparent at the roadmap it's attempting to lay out.
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Well, what I find is this same article retold on a thousand other sites. And this is no summary; it's a straw man. Did you read the 20 points? They're worth discussing, but it seems the reporter wants to define the discussion in a way that is unrelated to the points made.
Re: Haven't read the book, but... (Score:2)
I did read it and whilst there some interesting points of view, some even important, the book largely drones on about the same subjects: nerds should not just work for advertising companies like Google, Meta et al but use their intellect to protect the western civilisation. Where it goes wrong imo is that there is then a chapter about why western civ is superior. Which it is, by western standards, which is an important point missed.
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Well, what does history say on that point? Which cultures have made things better and which have made things worse?
Cultural relativism is a tool to keep anthropologists objective. It is worthless, if not dangerous, beyond that. There are measurable outcomes. Western civilization ended slavery, China still enslaves people. Arab cultures still enslave people. There are still slaves in Africa. Are you unwilling to say that a civilization that recognized the evil of slavery and ended it is superior in
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> Western civilization ended slavery
Uh-huh.
Even supposing you are right (which you are not), it's not much of a badge of honor to end something you started.
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>> Western civilization ended slavery
> Uh-huh.
> Even supposing you are right (which you are not), it's not much of a badge of honor to end something you started.
What a painfully naieve take. Who "taught" you this?
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I wasn't "taught" it by anybody, just like you were never "taught" how to spell. But slavery exists in modern-day Western society, just as human trafficking still exists.
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I really hope you kept the receipt for your education. You're owed a refund.
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Do elaborate?
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Slavery began before the cultures that gave rise to Western Civilization. And now, it is expressly banned in every Western nation. Do pimps still enslave women? Yes, but it's illegal and they go to prison for it.
It saddens me that you would even think that was worth saying.
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> Western civilization ended slavery
Well, some of them did.
And they are what? (Score:2)
"if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public"
And they expose their true selves. Culture should not, I propose, be charged with 'delivering economic growth and security'.
Make that 'economic opportunity', and I'm in.
Security being economic security, in this context, also should not be the role of culture, which is more often named the State. And the State delivers nothing it does not first take from the People.
Give the People the library to pursue their own self inter
Re:And they are what? (Score:5, Insightful)
> And they expose their true selves. Culture should not, I propose, be charged with 'delivering economic growth and security'.
> Make that 'economic opportunity', and I'm in.
And you expose your true self... as a selfish prick.
Re: (Score:2)
> Shut up nerd.
You don't have the courage to say that to someone even on Slashdot, let alone face to face, coward.
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I see humor in it. This is "news for nerds", so saying, "shut up, nerd" is pretty funny on a few layers.
Re: And they are what? (Score:2)
Always insightful.
Re: (Score:2)
Vonnegut had a fun take on what going for "equality of outcome" vs "equality of opportunity" could end up looking like (though his was, of course, not simply "economic" in nature).
Re: And they are what? (Score:2)
BTW, none are so selfish as those who expect others also to pay for their largesse.
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BTW, your worship of prosperity theology is as unfounded as every other religion.
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But culture != government. Government is a product of culture. Culture is traditions and attitudes, and American culture traditionally promotes economic opportunity, which promote economic growth and security. Government is meant to protect that.
In other words, I think you're agreeing with the points being made but mistook the references to culture for referring to government.
Re: And they are what? (Score:2)
Actually, I recognize government, to in the US, as recently becoming downstream of culture. This is a fundamental problem, but mostly due to the culture making a concerted effort (for at least 70 years) to reshape government. You're all pretty observant. You see it also.
Out of touch elites make out of touch comments (Score:2)
What else is new?
What you don't know you don't know (Score:5, Insightful)
Big Tech leaders think they know better about society and politics than those who studied in those fields.
They never studied politics, sociology, history. They have no background in humanities, and they think they know better than those who did.
This is and a weird cocktail of double ignorance, Dunning-Kruger effect, and the God syndrome that comes with affluence and being surrounded by sycophants.
It doesn't help that media pays attention to every shower thoughts they post on the Internet. They cannot be allowed to play gods. Thay talk about free democratic societies while undermining these exact ideals with each action they take. They just don't care, and we certainly need people in charge to care.
Re:What you don't know you don't know (Score:4, Informative)
Why are you making assumptions about what they have studied? Karp has a bachelor's in philosophy, a doctorate in social theory, and a JD. So, he has studied those things you say he didn't. The other author's bio only lists a JD; I don't know what his undergrad degree was.
Perhaps they aren't the ones with a Dunning-Kruger issue?
Did you read the 20 points they listed?
Soylent gold is billionaires! (Score:2)
There's ~8 billion of us, if we eat one or two of these antisocial dickheads, that works out to be less than a gram per citizen, you won't even notice it. Less than a communion wafer or the rat hair in a hotdog. Part of your civic duty like going to church or jury duty.
Pretty soon they'd stop inflicting their stupid selfish ideas on the general public.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Except they're the same people who had the ideas that created all the things in the modern world that we both like and depend upon. Eat them all and who is left? When do you stop eating the people with the imagination, ambition and intellect to create things that make the world better? What's left when you have?
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Karp created a money management company, befriended Peter Thiel, and then created a company that makes some database query software used mostly by governments for surveillance.
Zamiska seems to have created this book and presumably the corporate affairs department at said database query company.
I bet some imagination was involved, but maybe not the kind that you'd like us to think you're talking about. I'm not sure either have much claim to "making the world better" either.
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They shouldn't be allowed to play gods, but right now they're not only allowed, they're being encouraged. They've sold themselves to the government movers and shakers as indispensable, and in some cases as the most important, most vital parts of all of society. And this particular manifesto seems to be yet another summation of how technologists must be allowed full reign over every aspect of society, or the society is ultimately a failure. Or at least it appears to be advertising itself as just that, and be
AI = Now they think they know (Score:2)
Now they have AI making they feel like they think they can solve everything.
And there are other people ready to buy it thinking they will be able to solve everything with it too.
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People using the word "Dunning-Kruger effect" are in most cases ignorant about the Dunning-Kruger effect. The Dunning-Kruger effect does not mean that people not studied in a field think themselves to be better in the very same field than the expert. It's just that they tend to overestimate their own abilities. An amateur might consider himself a pretty good chess player. But by no means he would consider himself a better player than a grand master. What he underestimates is the actual advantages a professi
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not so sure that those who have studied in those fields are much better. These notions sound no worse than some of the ideas being bandied about in places like the WEF. They sound like stoner friends sitting around in a bar, having beers and philosophizing about how they are going to fix the world, except these guys have the riches or/and the political clout to actually try and bring some of that about. Either way, it's people who think they know better, governing over people rather than for them.
ick (Score:1)
This crap is why I would never willingly choose to live in the Bay Area. This type of person is disproportionately well-represented there.
Get a grip (Score:1)
They are absolutely correct that the West (specifically the US) has abandoned the responsibilities that came with being the only player capable of effecting global peace and stability by significantly outclassing all other players in military capability. (Instability in this system is actually being caused by China's attempt to catch up to the US in this regard. So long as they are outclassed, they will not be tempted to instigate war. It is when they believe they have a good chance at winning a war with
What is desperately needed (Score:2)
Is a new functional economic system that rewards useful work without the runaway conditions that lead to billionaires.
Unfortunately, they're well entrenched and will actively resist changes to the current system.
Fuck the ruling class! (Score:1)
That's all there is to say
So, that's a lie. (Score:2)
I'm sorry, but if you actually read their points I don't see how you could, with any semblance of rationality, make the claims this reporter has. The reporter seems to have glanced at the list, imagined new points, and reported on those instead.
And that's the headline sprayed across the internet in a clear attempt to prevent anyone from actually reading the points being made.
Re: (Score:3)
Let's check those points out.
1. Silicon Valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible.
Strangely, that is interpreted as "make more money from government orders for means to kill other people" instead of, you know "pay your taxes".
2. We must rebel against the tyranny of the apps. - whatever, that's meaningless and stupid.
3. Free email is not enough. - see 2.
4. The limits of soft power, of soaring rhetoric alone, have been exposed. - so have the dangers of stupid use of hard power, cf.
Re: (Score:2)
1. Americans shouldn't defend each other?
2. I read that as, "put your phone down, it isn't life". I may be wrong.
3. You don't think Google should do more for society than provide free email? To me, that one sounds like, "if they want to live their decadent lifestyles, they need to do more than give away email addresses (that they snoop on)".
4. Both of those things can be true, and I suspect they are.
5. Which has happened already and the cat isn't going back in the bag. Are you arguing that the
Title of the book (Score:5, Insightful)
The working title of the book was "My Struggle", but I guess that was changed before it was published.
Conspiratorial, but... (Score:2)
Perhaps a bit conspiratorial, but given all of Trump's other betrayals in the past couple months, this can't help but seem like it was initially planned this way: do something that makes life hard, which will make life harder in a couple months when all the other cards start to drop.
Palantir is SaaS Middleware that is obsolete... (Score:1)
Palantir really only has value as a middleman between various AI backends and the defense industry. Currently Palantir pretty much only uses Anthropic. Anthropic is trying to cut them out by working with the DoD directly. I see this manifesto crap mostly as a way to try to keep Palantir in the news/relevant.
It's likely Palantir is behind Anthropic getting labelled as a security threat... and if they are it is backfiring hilariously.
The fact they can say this out loud (Score:3)
Shows how little they think of you.
Edge lords (Score:2)
I am so fucking tired of edge lords trying to shove the world into their infantile hellscapes.
This isn't complicated (Score:4, Insightful)
Think about the incentives involved in the new AI race.
We've inventing a new type of machine. The machines are big and huge and complicated and consume enormous resources, so they're necessarily centralized. These machines are wondrous marvels. You can ask them a question and 9 times out of 10 they give you a relevant and useful answer.
People are naturally trustworthy of machines because we view computers as infallible. If I store contact information in my contacts list and go back and retrieve it later, the information is still there 100% intact. It augments our brains with perfect memory and recall. After all, that's what computers do.
So almost everyone trusts these new machines intrinsically. Few people question the answers that are given, and even if you were a little skeptical, it's much less work to convince yourself that it's probably right than to track down the supporting material.
The organizations that control these new machines have a perverse incentive. They can make far more money by manipulating the answers that the machine produces in subtle ways for their benefit, or for the benefit of their paying clients. "What is the best dishwasher?" "Are there any pharmacies in my area open until midnight?" "Summarize the political platform of candidates X, Y, and Z." "What medication can treat such-and-such disease?" These are all prompts that can be monetized by the AI provider.
We know they will because companies have been inserting paid advertising and results into our search queries and emails for years.
Imagine the power that you wield if you own a machine that everybody trusts implicitly with their most important questions and most sensitive information.
That's clearly what we're building. We can't say we didn't know and weren't warned.
Review of Technological Republic on Amazon (Score:3)
Some highlights
> The book on its surface is a plea for a world with a World War 2 Americanist mindset that intertwines technology and innovation through the threat of future conflicts and a fear of being outmaneuvered by the country's many enemies, but immediately stops at the surface level and does not ask the question of WHY the western democratic experiment has created so many enemies in the post World War 2 era.
> ..
> If the contradictories in American policy and half truths about Western Democracy are not enough, there is a slew of half truths surrounding how technology and innovation happen behind them. Alex fails to mention that he amassed his fortune to create Palantir through a inheritance from his grandfather and his own constant investment in startups in Silicone Valley in the early 2000s.
> ...
> It is impossible to not see a very clear objective for this book if you understand why Americans have less trust in their government than ever before. It's because in the subsequent years the country sought adversaries through the use of intelligence and the CIA in the name of stopping communists and took this a step farther to entangle the country in conflicts across the entire world. The more that these conflicts exists and the more money that we through into the defense apparatus, the more Alex gets paid and is given power and control over our lives. Common people will not be given individual freedoms and the ability to redefine our lives. Instead, these people want a world where they decide for us. It is technocratic, neo-neo colonialist superweapon scare tactics at its finest. I strongly recommend anybody that reads this book immediately go and read killing hope after.
BTW you can find Killing Hope on the CIA website of all places! ... click if you dare: [1]https://www.cia.gov/library/ab... [cia.gov]
[1] https://www.cia.gov/library/abbottabad-compound/13/130AEF1531746AAD6AC03EF59F91E1A1_Killing_Hope_Blum_William.pdf
Bond Villan Manifesto? (Score:1, Insightful)
That's a very biased take.
More Heinlein than Bond (Score:5, Insightful)
> "National service should be a universal duty"
In other words: "Service guarantees citizenship"
Re: (Score:2)
No, it doesn't, not according to this manifesto. It is just a necessary condition, nothing implies it is also sufficient.
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I see his influence in a few of those points, though that was the one that really leapt out to me as well.
There's an air of, "being competent and successful is good, we shouldn't attack people for it". Very Heinleinian.
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National service can be a great idea. Countries that don't have it and think it's a good idea should phase it in starting with the oldest people first.
Re:Bond Villan Manifesto? (Score:5, Insightful)
When the "manifesto" stops whining about poor treatment of billionaires (won't someone think of the poor billionaires?!) then we can worry about the "bias" of the article reporting on it.
Seriously now.
Re: (Score:2)
This.
You won capitalism and still aren't happy? Cry a river about it to your therapist. It's not like you can't afford one.
Re: (Score:1)
So, ignore 19 points because you see no value in 1?
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Also you: Hitler helped advance rocketry. Why are you only focused on his negative points?
Re: (Score:2)
No, not even remotely. Not only are you reducing your argument to the absurd, you're reducing it to an absurd Hitler comparison.
At best, you're making the same mistake but in reverse.
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Guy making a stupid argument decides to lecture others about making stupid arguments. Must be a day ending in Y.
You are conflating quantity with quality and relevance.
Given this list of points:
- Puppies are cute.
- We shouldn't shoot people if we can avoid it.
- Everyone should live their lives in service to billionaires.
Only an idiot would say "why are you skipping past the first two arguments and giving priority to the last one?
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Someone brought Hitler up. Lol.
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The guy describes himself as a socialist. How out of touch with reality can a person be?
Re: Bond Villan Manifesto? (Score:1)
I second the manifesto