Silicon Valley Archives - Public Seminar

The Silicon Empire’s Interregnum

Nick Srnicek’s new book maps an emergent form of techno-nationalism

July 9, 2026 • by Nolan Young

Military and surveillance tech giant Palantir recently published an unsettling and dystopian manifesto penned by billionaire CEO Alex Karp. Karp’s 22-point document extolls American hegemony and claims that democracies need “hard power” to survive; it also treats one thing as a foregone conclusion—the militarization of artificial intelligence. “Our adversaries will ...

Economy

Sovereignty Through Technology

A conversation with Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff on Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed

June 1, 2026 • by Ben Tarnoff, Quinn Slobodian and L. Zhang

If Fordism named the operating system of the twentieth-century economy, what governs the twenty-first? Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff—a historian of global capitalism and a technology writer respectively—suggest that the answer lies in Muskism. Their new book, Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed (Harper, 2026) is not so much an ...

Capitalism

Peter Thiel and the Decline of the West

The last priest of a dead faith

September 24, 2025 • by Ahmed Bouzid

In the twilight of the secular Western project, as its elites scramble for a vision to forestall cultural entropy, Peter Thiel has emerged as one of its most articulate and celebrated prophets. In a remarkably candid interview with The New York Times, Thiel laments the stagnation of modern life—not just ...

Economy

How States Can Rein in Big Tech and Encourage Entrepreneurs

When it comes to the App store, Apple and Google need to be reined in

April 8, 2021 • by Pat Garofalo

_____ Apple and Google own pretty much 100 percent of the market when it comes to app distribution, and they use that control to take hefty fees — up to 30 percent — from dollars you spend on app downloads and in-app purchases through Apple’s App Store and Google’s Google Play. ...