The Philosopher in the Valley
Alex Karp, Palantir and the Rise of the Surveillance State
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The Philosopher in the Valley
Narrated by:
Jonathan Beville
Buy Now for £12.99
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Narrated by:
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Jonathan Beville
About this listen
Palantir Technologies is the most interesting company in the world – and the most controversial.
Palantir builds data integration software: its technology ingests vast quantities of information and quickly identifies patterns, trends and connections that might elude the human eye. Founded in 2003 to help the U.S. government in the war on terrorism – an early investor was the CIA – Palantir is now a $400 billion global colossus whose software is used by major intelligence services (including the Mossad), the U.S. military, the National Health Service in England, and corporate giants like Airbus and BP. From AI to counterterrorism to climate change to immigration to financial fraud to healthcare to the future of warfare, the company is at the nexus of the most critical issues of the twenty-first century.
Its billionaire CEO, Alex Karp, is a distinctive figure on the global business scene. A biracial Jew who is also severely dyslexic, Karp has built Palantir into a tech giant despite having no background in either business or computer science. Instead, he’s a trained philosopher who has become known for his strongly held views on a range of issues and for his willingness to grapple with the moral and ethical implications of Palantir’s work. Those questions have taken on added urgency during the Trump era, which has also brought attention to the political activism of Karp’s close friend and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel.
In The Philosopher in the Valley, journalist Michael Steinberger is the first to tell the story of Alex Karp and Palantir from the beginning. Steinberger offers new biographical details and a rich psychological portrait of the man leading one of the world’s most secretive companies. Full of revelations, this is an urgent and insightful book about technological power, the surveillance state and the future we all face.
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Critic reviews
‘Well written and researched’
‘Reveals what makes [Karp] tick . . . A new biography, The Philosopher in the Valley, reveals [Karp] to be a complex, thoughtful, often contradictory personality with a background that explains many of his insecurities’
‘The story follows Alex Karp, philosopher-turned-CEO, as he navigates the ethical complexities of technical surveillance and its implications for privacy . . . Provide[s] a bracing view of the modern-day CIA and the technical revolution that is forcing intelligence agencies to adapt their tradecraft and business models’ (David McCloskey )
‘As Big Tech’s reach grows, Michael Steinberger’s portrait of Palantir’s enigmatic boss offers a timely study of surveillance . . . an excellent look at what Palantir does, as well as a fascinating insight into the mind of its eccentric chief executive . . . an engrossing portrait of Karp, a 58-year-old billionaire . . . The Philosopher in the Valley will give readers an excellent insight into how Karp and his ilk operate at a time when their reach seems to be becoming inescapable’
'Engrossing . . . A chilling portrait of genius in the yoke of authoritarianism'
a brilliant mind
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