Palantir wants your kids drafted. The surveillance and defense contractor released a 22-point manifesto this month calling for universal national service and arguing that Silicon Valley should stop building consumer apps and start building AI weapons. The document's summarized from CEO Alexander C. Karp and legal affairs head Nicholas W. Zamiska's book 'The Technological Republic.' It claims tech companies owe a 'moral debt' to America that must be repaid through participation in national defense.
The manifesto drips with contempt for regular life. Building apps people enjoy is 'the tyranny of the apps' and cultural 'decadence.' What we really need, Palantir argues, is 'security,' which appears to mean robot weapons and expanded domestic surveillance. The document demands tolerance for religious beliefs while condemning 'shallow pluralism.' It asks for 'grace' toward public figures like Elon Musk while sneering at ordinary people who 'look to the political arena to nourish their soul.' It even suggests some cultures are 'dysfunctional and regressive' and we'd be freer in stereotyping them. As Reason's Elizabeth Nolan Brown wrote, the manifesto is 'bootlicking,' 'elitist,' and 'ultranationalistic.'
None of this exists in a vacuum. Palantir's business depends on government contracts requiring massive data integration. A military draft would need exactly the kind of digital infrastructure Palantir sells. Their Gotham and Foundry platforms specialize in fusing government data sources for logistics and personnel management. The company already holds a $178 million Army contract for the TITAN program and ongoing work with U.S. Special Operations Command. More soldiers mean more logistics software, more surveillance integration, more Palantir contracts.
The pitch is simple: Palantir tells America it needs a bigger military with compulsory service, and oh, by the way, Palantir happens to sell the software that would run it. While a California court previously blocked the designation, the D.C. Circuit panel ruled that national security interests during an active military conflict outweighed financial harm to the company. Competitors like Palantir stand to gain from the decision.