Historian Jill Lepore Warns of Tech Takeover in New Book

According to Pulitzer prize-winning historian Jill Lepore, the extraordinary power of private tech companies is set to destroy civilisation as we know it.

Lepore's concept of the Artificial State is capacious, including both a fantasy desired by a select few and a reality that is already with us. The fantasy is of an atomised society in which an elite can transcend biological and planetary restrictions, abandoning constitutional democracy, the liberal nation-state, and even humanity itself for rule by automation, government by machine, and replacement by artificial intelligence.

The reality is that of public discourse having shifted to privately owned platforms on which monetised attention is valued above all else. Social media feeds are crafted to manipulate users' behaviour, whether to consume a product or to shift political position.

Lepore argues that the Artificial State is not just the dream, but "the actual plan of a very small number of staggeringly powerful 21st-century merchant princes, Silicon Valley billionaires". These "princes" - Lepore mentions Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, and Sam Altman - would rather focus on space travel or ramping up "compute" to beat China in the AI arms race.

Intriguing, jewel-like stories are Lepore's hallmark, and The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State sparkles with them. She presents numerous micro-histories that link the past to the present, including the roots of the apparently hyper-modern philosophy of techno-libertarianism in the paranoid science fiction of the cold war.

Lepore recounts the origins of the census in ancient Mesopotamia, making the point that counting people gives those in power "the ability to tally, torment, and tax a population". Her rich survey of science fiction tropes of the 20th century, many of which have infused the hopes and dreams of the Technorati, is revealing.

While Lepore interprets much classic sci-fi, such as Isaac Asimov, as cautionary, she observes that "the architects of the Artificial State seem to have read these stories, unironically, as instruction manuals, guides for how to build robots that would one day rule the world".

Lepore has written "a grumpy book". Almost every chapter ends with a deeply ominous line. However, she is not a true AI doomer at heart. She clarifies that it is not the technology itself that is the problem, but our lack of a coherent, democratically forged strategy about how to develop and use it.

Lepore's argument that humanity is in the process of ceding vast power to a tiny group of unelected businessmen - some of whom appear to be cartoon supervillains - is a sound one. She concludes the book with an exhortation to "unplug" and connect with nature and animals but prescribes nothing further.

### The Artificial State: A Fantasy and a Reality

Lepore's concept of the Artificial State is a complex one, encompassing both a fantasy desired by a select few and a reality that is already with us. The fantasy is of an atomised society in which an elite can transcend biological and planetary restrictions, abandoning constitutional democracy, the liberal nation-state, and even humanity itself for rule by automation, government by machine, and replacement by artificial intelligence.

### The Architects of the Artificial State

Lepore argues that the Artificial State is not just the dream, but "the actual plan of a very small number of staggeringly powerful 21st-century merchant princes, Silicon Valley billionaires". These "princes" - Lepore mentions Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, and Sam Altman - would rather focus on space travel or ramping up "compute" to beat China in the AI arms race.

### A Grumpy Book

Lepore has written "a grumpy book". Almost every chapter ends with a deeply ominous line. However, she is not a true AI doomer at heart. She clarifies that it is not the technology itself that is the problem, but our lack of a coherent, democratically forged strategy about how to develop and use it.

### Conclusion

Lepore's argument that humanity is in the process of ceding vast power to a tiny group of unelected businessmen - some of whom appear to be cartoon supervillains - is a sound one. She concludes the book with an exhortation to "unplug" and connect with nature and animals but prescribes nothing further.

### The Artificial State: A Table of Key Figures

| Figure | Description | | --- | --- | | Elon Musk | Silicon Valley billionaire and entrepreneur | | Mark Zuckerberg | Silicon Valley billionaire and entrepreneur | | Jeff Bezos | Silicon Valley billionaire and entrepreneur | | Peter Thiel | Silicon Valley billionaire and entrepreneur | | Sam Altman | Silicon Valley billionaire and entrepreneur |