Reading Notes: The Republic of Technology

Palantir’s CEO Alex Karp released a new book in 2025 titled “The Republic of Technology,” which was also published in mainland China by the end of the year. I bought it immediately and read it. The viewpoints in the book represent the right-wing ideology of Silicon Valley, and its influence can be seen throughout American politics today.

Post-Cold War Silicon Valley and the Hollowing of the American Spirit

The Decline of the Silicon Valley Spirit

The first two parts of the book describe a state of “decline.” The spirit of Silicon Valley, which once served the nation during the Cold War, has gradually faded, replaced by pursuits of consumerism and hedonism such as online advertising and social entertainment. Peter Thiel once famously said, “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.”

In the 1960s, America could achieve a manned moon landing within a decade, but in the following decades, technological progress in the “atomic world” such as aerospace, energy, and transportation fell far short of expectations. For example, flight speeds have stagnated, nuclear energy development has been hindered, and infrastructure updates have been slow. In contrast, the “bit world” of computers and the internet has continued to develop rapidly. Peter Thiel believes this is not because humanity has lost its capabilities, but because social, political, and capital structures favor low-risk, controllable incremental improvements, systematically suppressing high-risk, long-term, breakthrough technological projects like the Apollo program.

Meanwhile, Alex Karp notes that China is advancing rapidly, citing examples such as Guangzhou CloudWalk Technology’s facial recognition and Zhejiang University’s autonomous drone swarms, which are cutting-edge technologies applicable in military fields. In contrast, America is indulging in past victories, with many Silicon Valley elites protected by the nation but refusing to serve it, even openly opposing the use of their technologies in military applications. For instance, Google’s Maven project was canceled after being opposed by over 3,000 people, and Microsoft’s virtual headset project for the U.S. Army faced internal employee resistance.

The Hollowing of the American Spirit

As the pioneering spirit of Silicon Valley declines, the American spirit and Western culture are also becoming hollow. Society pursues freedom of speech, openness, and political correctness, while ruthlessly scrutinizing public figures. Leaders have become cautious, no longer daring to take responsibility, and are indifferent, cautious, and emotionless.

When asked whether calling for the genocide of Jews constitutes harassment, University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill used “chilling legal terms.” Magill responded, “It depends on the context.”

Tech workers also strive to maintain a neutral stance, clearly protected by the state machinery but selectively ignoring this fact, unwilling to engage in politics and public governance, and keeping their distance from administrative bureaucracy and politics.

The pursuit of openness and diversity has led to a fracture in American culture. The connection between America and Europe is like a balloon tied to the ground, but “The History of Western Civilization,” once a mandatory course in American universities, was abolished in the late 1970s. Some even advocate abandoning the concept of “Western Civilization.” With the disconnection between American and European history, it is like a balloon that has lost its tether, and people have lost their sense of community belonging. Silicon Valley elites are immersed in the consumer internet, and the nation has lost its sense of national identity.

Engineering Thinking and Organizational Forms

The book discusses two organizational forms: swarms and improvisational actors. In a swarm, scout bees explore when searching for a new home, then quickly convey information to the group through dance, and finally decide on the next home through a democratic voting-like mechanism, conducting large-scale organizational activities efficiently. Improvisational actors, on the other hand, have a dynamic status relationship, using small gestures like nods and eye contact to dynamically confirm status and effectively organize the next steps. Status relationships are essentially tools serving the goal, rather than rigid roles and selfish interest distribution. Silicon Valley is filled with “exiles” escaping traditional bureaucratic organizations.

In organizational relationships, people instinctively conform to the collective will, and the pursuit of conformity often overrides independent thinking. This is a self-preservation strategy evolved over time (and has indeed been useful for many years). Under collective pressure, people may even do clearly wrong things. This is especially common in China, where people are driven by the frenzy of social media, often acting in unison, buying houses, speculating in stocks, or pushing their children to excel, often for conformity rather than genuine personal needs. Silicon Valley’s engineering mindset is the opposite: resisting conformity and craving creation.

In complex systems, we need to acknowledge that mistakes are inevitable (complex systems are more like unpredictable clouds than precise clocks). What we need to do is find the fundamental structural causes rather than scapegoating individuals. Toyota has a “Five Whys” approach, drilling down five layers of “why?” until the root cause is found. In contrast, many organizations in China, when encountering problems, will scapegoat someone, pretend the issue is resolved, and continue moving forward without addressing the fundamental structural contradictions.

The book also discusses two ways of thinking: foxes and hedgehogs. Foxes are flexible, pursue different goals, know many small things, and see the world as complex and contradictory, possessing strong observational and adaptive abilities. Hedgehogs tend to explain all phenomena with one theory, oversimplifying and abstracting the world, with strong focus and resistance to interference.

Rebuilding the Republic of Technology

There is a “technological escapism” in Silicon Valley. The public is highly resistant to using technology to combat crime, unwilling for military systems to be applied in their cities for crime-fighting. The left labels a wide range of political views—from national security, immigration, and abortion to law enforcement—as vulgar and crude, causing Silicon Valley and progressives to lose their voice.

Currently, American officials have low salaries but significant power. For example, the Federal Reserve Chairman’s salary is $190,000 per year, encouraging them to accumulate enough wealth before working for the government or monetize their influence after retirement, which is an unreasonable incentive structure. People encourage officials to take low salaries but turn a blind eye to the wealthy dominating elections, which is self-deception. Lee Kuan Yew provided high salaries for Singapore’s government officials, and people worried this would make them work for money and lose their ideals. However, Lee Kuan Yew argued that officials are human and not everyone can be a devout priest.

Rickover, who led the development of the U.S. nuclear submarine, made outstanding contributions to the U.S.-Soviet Cold War victory but was criticized for accepting small gifts from General Dynamics, with few defending him. Overemphasis on rules has led to rigidity in problem-solving, with leaders no longer taking responsibility and risks, and no longer sharing the rewards of decision-making, hindering deep reforms. This incentive mechanism needs to be reshaped.

Reflections

I found many reflections of China in this book. National identity, technology empowering national security, and public governance are advancing without hesitation in China, without ideological obstruction from left-wing parties and with broad social consensus. China motivates government officials with generous retirement benefits, comprehensive life care, and long promotion channels at low cost, a creative and cost-effective incentive mechanism that avoids high administrative costs of high salaries and reduces the motivation for officials to seek personal gain.

However, China also faces similar issues: leadership’s reluctance to take responsibility and bureaucratic rigidity in organizations. Many leaders use ambiguous instructions to centralize power while passing responsibility downward, leaving the execution level to interpret “higher intentions,” which is an irresponsible approach. Organizational rigidity is also widespread in large companies and tech giants, where many middle management levels become compilers of weekly reports and PowerPoint presentations, passing problems downward, resulting in high workloads but poor overall output.

Recently, I also read another book comparing Chinese and American systems, “Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future,” which is also new and provides a detailed comparison of the differences and pros and cons of “engineering governance” and “lawyer governance” in China and the U.S. I’ll share more about it when I have time.