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Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

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Re: Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

#61

Post by schmidtleonard »

_Algernon_ wrote: post #37
bpt3 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These sound like the exact reasons we don't have a direct democracy. “A democracy will continue to exist up until the time voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.” - not Peter Thiel

That's exactly how it works already, albeit through the middlemen representatives figuring out what block of voters is cheapest to buy. The only meaningful difference in a representative democracy is that the representatives can choose not to deliver on their promises (in other words: lie), thereby consolidating real power in a smaller group of people.

The market already exponentially concentrates wealth, just piggy back on that. There will always be a market for promoting the self-serving politics of the rich.

Re: Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

#62

Post by XorNot »

A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #53
XorNot wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is like saying the American military couldn't defeat the Iraqis. The American military could not successfully build a stable Iraqi democracy or completely suppress sectarian violence. They absolutely destroyed the Iraqi conventional military and occupied the country for 8 years though.

Even if we grant that China is anything like Iraq (it sure ain't!), that was more than 20 years ago. Last year, and not for want of trying, the US Navy sure didn't do anything to destroy the Houthi's conventional military capabilities. They're still sinking ships left and right! So much for freedom of navigation and freedom of the seas. > https://edition.cnn.com/world/middleeast/eternity-c-houthi-r... Now imagine the…

What conventional military capabilities? The Houthi's aren't sinking military ships, they're sinking unarmed, unarmored freighters in a stretch of water so narrow you could use a towed artillery gun to bullseye a freighter moving through it.

The problem they're facing is they can't reduce that capability to zero without starting a half-dozen other wars to deal with a logistical supply chain.

Re: Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

#63

Post by prng2021 »

TrackerFF wrote: post #45

We received a presentation/demo of their products when I worked in the gov (not the US gov. though) a couple of years ago. They seemed, okay? I mean nothing seemed mind-blowing. I worked on surveillance in a specific sector, where interagency collaboration is important. Hence why Palantir pitched their tools. I'm not sure how they've managed to blow up like that. Do they have some extensive network with gov. official…

I’d like to hear from others, but my assumption has been that they’re the ones that 1) have staff with the required clearance to work on DoD projects and 2) the required security and compliance certifications in their product. On the latter, it’s not easy to provide a product that is DoD IL5 certified, so that is a differentiator for them.

Re: Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

#64

Post by miltonlost »

rayiner wrote: post #48
ants_everywhere wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Peter Thiel. He says "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible." The beginning of the essay > I remain committed to the faith of my teenage years: to authentic human freedom as a precondition for the highest good. I stand against confiscatory taxes, totalitarian collectives, and the ideology of the inevitability of the death of every individual. For all these reasons, I still call myself “liberta…

He's expressing more or less the same sentiment as the American founders themselves expressed.

More or less, "I don't believe in democracy" is the same as the people who founded the country? Ok, you have no idea of nuance.

Re: Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

#65

Post by TriangleEdge »

TrackerFF wrote: post #45

We received a presentation/demo of their products when I worked in the gov (not the US gov. though) a couple of years ago. They seemed, okay? I mean nothing seemed mind-blowing. I worked on surveillance in a specific sector, where interagency collaboration is important. Hence why Palantir pitched their tools. I'm not sure how they've managed to blow up like that. Do they have some extensive network with gov. official…

Ex FDE here. Part of Palantir's pitch for Foundry back in the day is connecting disparate databases from agencies that don't collaborate well. They're also really good at getting demos up and running in a few days. The tech was good back when I was employed.

They get hate because support war efforts / police / intelligence.

They do 5 year contracts with the govt then bump the prices once they're sticky, like a J curve, hence the valuation.

Re: Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

#67

Post by cess11 »

A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #30
untrust wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why 2027?

That's the meme. It's not going to happen IRL because it doesn't look like China is rising to the bait, because Russia is still advancing in Ukraine, because American industrial production capacity is by every estimation not equal to the task, and because the Middle East is as bad a mess as it has ever been and is sucking all of the oxygen out of the room. When your Navy literally can't defeat the Houthis, you know f…

They can blow up some dams and cause enormous civilian suffering. After having lost in Ukraine I expect certain states to be on the look-out for actions that will cause massive destruction that they can consider quick wins.

Re: Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

#68

Post by A_D_E_P_T »

XorNot wrote: post #52
grafmax wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only is China a peer with vast resources and numbers of people, it is also a nuclear power. A full scale conflict would be disastrous for us all.

So either the war goes immediately nuclear, in which case no one wins but the US has a significant missile advantage, or it doesn't in which case China will be facing down an adversary with a 11 aircraft carriers and their support flotillas, as well as deep magazines of long range antishipping missiles and the largest submarine fleet in the world and the largest airforce in the world. China has a lot of resources, bu…

> US has a significant missile advantage

Doubt.

> an adversary with a 11 aircraft carriers

Didn't a couple of them literally tuck tail and run from the Houthis? Besides, three of them are scheduled for maintenance between 2027 and 2030.

> the largest submarine fleet in the world

Those subs are at a severe disadvantage in the very shallow waters of the South China Sea, which are riddled with all manner of sensors.

> serious power-projection problem

Irrelevant. Wouldn't we be fighting them over there?

Re: Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

#69

Post by estearum »

gyanchawdhary wrote: post #50
estearum wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's on the tame end of Peter Thiel's rather demented belief system. Another tidbit: he believes Greta Thunberg is very possibly the actual antichrist. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ao_umPlSV6o

[flagged]

Sure. There's a big difference between believing a 20 year old climate activist is a clown versus a harbinger of the apocalypse as foretold in an ancient text 2000 years ago.

Re: Palantir is extending its reach even further into government

#70

Post by whilenot-dev »

TrackerFF wrote: post #45

We received a presentation/demo of their products when I worked in the gov (not the US gov. though) a couple of years ago. They seemed, okay? I mean nothing seemed mind-blowing. I worked on surveillance in a specific sector, where interagency collaboration is important. Hence why Palantir pitched their tools. I'm not sure how they've managed to blow up like that. Do they have some extensive network with gov. official…

> Do they have some extensive network with gov. officials, in the same way top management consulting firms operate?

Don't known about any other government officials, but Austrians ex-chancellor Sebastian Kurz has strong ties with his Tel Aviv-based cybersecurity startup Dream[0].

[0]: https://www.politico.eu/article/austria-former-chancellor-se...

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