Jill Lepore's 'The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State' Examines Silicon Valley's Science-Fiction Misreadings
In a review published in The Atlantic, Jill Lepore's book The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State contends that figures like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Sam Altman misread the science fiction of their youth as prescriptive guides instead of cautionary tales. Lepore, who won a Pulitzer Prize for We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution, juxtaposes the concept of the 'artificial state' with a critique of profit-oriented innovators. Musk, influenced by Asimov's Foundation series and Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide, derives an overly simplistic lesson. Thiel's 2009 venture capital emphasized 'science-fiction-type investing,' while Altman proposed an AI president to enhance human preferences. Lepore ties this perspective to mid-20th-century fears and highlights ignored warnings in Asimov's laws and HAL 9000, also referencing Bill Gates's apprehensions about AI.
Key facts
- Jill Lepore won this year's Pulitzer Prize in History for We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution.
- Elon Musk read Isaac Asimov's Foundation series at age 10 and Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy at 12 or 13.
- In 2009, Peter Thiel directed his venture-capital fund toward 'science-fiction-type investing,' citing space, robots, and AI.
- Jeff Bezos watched every episode of the original Star Trek series multiple times in fourth grade and later lobbied Paramount Pictures for a walk-on part as a coneheaded alien.
- Sam Altman told Joe Rogan in March that an AI president could 'optimize for the collective preferences of humanity or of citizens of the U.S.'
- Musk's grandfather, Joshua N. Haldeman, was a leader of the 1930s Technocracy movement and went by the number 10450-1.
- Musk placed a copy of Asimov's Foundation inside a Tesla Roadster launched on a 2018 SpaceX rocket.
- Bill Gates published a nearly 6,000-word essay on AI and gave a Radio Atlantic interview, calling himself an 'innovation lover' who is 'scared.'
Entities
Artists
- Jill Lepore
- Elon Musk
- Peter Thiel
- Sam Altman
- Isaac Asimov
- Arthur C. Clarke
- Robert Heinlein
- Douglas Adams
- Jeff Bezos
- Hannah Arendt
- Joshua N. Haldeman
- Bill Gates
- Joe Rogan
Institutions
- The Atlantic
- Paramount Pictures
- SpaceX
- Tesla
- Microsoft
- Radio Atlantic
- Pulitzer Prize
- Technocracy
Locations
- Silicon Valley
- United States
- Mars
- Earth