Nostr Web Client

https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/the-technological-republic-hard-power-soft-belief/id1758471533

did you read it?

my assistant says:

...based on the book's premise, The Technological Republic appears to lean toward a more centralized, state-aligned perspective on technological development. Alexander Karp, as the CEO of Palantir—a company deeply embedded in government contracts, intelligence work, and military applications—has historically advocated for closer cooperation between Silicon Valley and the U.S. government. His stance often emphasizes national security, control, and state power over decentralized, permissionless innovation.

From this framing, the book seems to reflect a "fiat mindset" in the sense that it prioritizes strong governmental involvement, centralized decision-making, and a reliance on institutional authority to direct technological progress. The critique of Silicon Valley’s shift toward consumer tech suggests that the authors believe the tech industry should return to a more state-supportive role, rather than focusing on open-source, decentralized, or libertarian-aligned projects like Bitcoin, Nostr, and FOSS.

If you're looking at this through the lens of decentralized infrastructure, Bitcoin, and self-sovereign technology, this book likely represents the opposing viewpoint—one that aligns with a worldview where AI, software, and technology serve national security interests under a Western governmental framework rather than evolving through grassroots, open-source, decentralized means.

That said, it could still be a useful read to understand the perspective of those advocating for a controlled technological order, as their influence over AI, policy, and infrastructure will inevitably shape the broader landscape.

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Discussion

Erik Cason 10mo ago

These regurgitate AI prompts are part of what is being pointed at as being the very problem.

Imho the book is more nuanced in that it’s trying to point out that we don’t really understand ourselves, culture, history or background much anymore because we want to criticize so much without taking a real stance on anything. We cannot actually understand who we are without a deeper sense of introspection, reflection and questioning that is a messy, convoluted, and difficult process.

I think individuals like Karp, Thiel, Altman, and Musk all are easily made into characters of themselves when they tend to have deeper and more important messages they are trying to convey, but they usually need to be sought out and read in a detailed way that allow for what in between the lines to be well understood. Most forms of media outside of their own books and writings contort the ways that they are understood in shallow and misguided ways.

Diyana 10mo ago 💬 1

Well. Their actions and organizations structures, contracts, executions and alignments speak volumes. No?

Erik Cason 10mo ago

Sure, but it also doesn’t dehumanize them and just make them into monsters. They have their own narrative that paints them in a different regard that explains their perspective and allows for their appraisal in a more meaningful and understandable way, which is essentially if their power is to be meaningfully challenged.