Historian Jill Lepore: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction, undermines democracy
Harvard historian Jill Lepore's upcoming book argues that tech companies are increasingly assuming the functions of democratic government, a phenomenon she calls the 'artificial state.' In a podcast interview, she explains how Silicon Valley leaders, especially Elon Musk, draw on misread science fiction.
Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore, who recently won a Pulitzer Prize for her history of the U.S. Constitution, explores in her upcoming book "The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State" how private corporations have increasingly taken over roles traditionally held by democratic governments — a phenomenon she terms the "artificial state."
Speaking on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Lepore stressed she is not anti-technology — her husband is a computer scientist, and she finds many current intellectual developments exciting. Her concern, she said, lies with how private corporations have gradually assumed state functions without public consent, a shift that began with well-intentioned efficiency efforts but became deliberate and purposeful over the last 20 to 25 years.
Misreading science fiction
Lepore argues that many Silicon Valley leaders, particularly Elon Musk, are shaping a vision of the future drawn from misread pulp science fiction and comic books. She noted the irony that the fiction Musk favors actually contradicts his own political beliefs.
Historical touchstones
In the conversation, Lepore pointed to Apple's 1984 "1984" Super Bowl ad, which framed the personal computer as a liberator from totalitarian mainframe computing. She also dismantled the myth of the "Twitter revolution," noting that only one in five Americans had a Twitter account at its supposed political peak, with more than 90% of political tweets coming from fewer than 10% of active users — yet the platform was marketed as a digital town hall restoring democratic participation, a claim she called baseless.
She also cited more recent examples: Facebook's creation of a "Supreme Court" for content moderation after the 2016 election, Anthropic hiring a moral philosopher to draft a constitution, and Sam Altman suggesting on a podcast that "an AI president would be a great idea." The second half of her book traces a science-fiction tradition, dating back to the 1850s, that has long predicted machines gradually assuming control over human affairs, including government.
